A privately printed compilation on heredity and eminence
This work is a short, privately printed compilation assembled by Francis Galton, the English polymath best known as a pioneer of statistics, anthropometrics, and the study of heredity. It belongs to the same line of inquiry that produced his better-known books on hereditary genius and on the inheritance of human faculties, and it appeared in the early twentieth century, late in Galton’s long career.
The volume is essentially a genealogical and biographical index rather than a narrative or argumentative treatise. Galton compiled entries on the relatives of Fellows of the Royal Society, cataloguing the notable achievements, distinctions, and positions attained by their near kin. The underlying purpose was to gather systematic evidence bearing on the question of whether intellectual eminence and high attainment tend to run in families. By documenting the accomplishments of the close relatives of an already distinguished group, the compilation served as a body of supporting data for Galton’s broader conviction that talent and ability are strongly hereditary.
Its significance lies chiefly in its place within Galton’s lifelong programme of research into heredity and in the early development of what would become the study of human inheritance and, later, statistics applied to human traits. It is a reference work of interest mainly to historians of science and to those tracing the development of Galton’s ideas, rather than a work of general readership.
