GALTON, garten, SIR Francis, English scientist: b. Birmingham, 16 Feb. 1822; d. 17 Tan. 1911. He was a grandson of Erasmus Darwin and a cousin of Charles Darwin, the scientist. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham; studied medicine at the Birmingham Hospital and King's College, London; and graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1844. Having in 1846 traveled in North Africa, he explored in 1850 lands hitherto unknown in. South Africa, publishing his experiences in his 'Narrative of an Ex plorer in Tropical South Africa' (1853), and in 'Art of Travel' (1855). His investigations in meteorology are recorded in 'Meteorographica' (1863). Later he specially devoted himself to the problem of heredity and anthropology. He is celebrated as the founder of the science of (q.v.), designed to improve the human family by discouraging and checking the propagation of the unfit and selective breeding among the fit, and he left his fortune to found a chair in that science in the University of Lon don. Another subject that attracted him was
identification by means of fingerprints; he de vised a directory for that purpose; and prac tical application of his theories is now being made by the criminal authorities. Among his works are 'Hereditary Genius: its Laws and Consequences' (1869); 'Experiments in Pan genesis' (1871); 'English Men of Science: their Nature and Nurture' (1874) ; 'Life-His tory Album' (1884) ; 'Natural Inheritance' (1889) ; 'Finger Prints> (1893); 'Fingerprint Directory' (1895); 'Noteworthy Families' (1906) ; 'Memories of My Life' (1908); 'Essays in Eugenics' (1909). He was knighted in 1909.