ID# 2064:
Record of Family Faculties, by Francis Galton (compiled with completed family pedigree forms), selected pages
Date:
1895
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|24|25|26|27|28|29|30)
Source:
University College London, FG, 126/2B

<i>Record of Family Faculties</i>, by Francis Galton (compiled with completed family pedigree forms), selected pages

Record of Family Faculties. accessible for testing it in different persons; there are no anthropometric laboratories as yet in existence to which any one may go, and on payment of a small fee have all his faculties measured and registered by the various ingenious appliances known to modern science. We must therefore be content for the present with such definite facts bearing on the keenness or imperfection of the various senses as may have been incidentally observed. (11) The mental powers, like the bodily ones, must be measured by achievement; relatively as in competition with others, or absolutely by the amount and quality of intellectual work actually accomplished. Facts bearing on precocity or on the slow development of the mental powers, deserve motion. (12) Character and temperament. Nearly every individual is notable for some peculiarity of mind or disposition, and in some few persons the sanguine, melancholy, nervous, or lymphatic temperament is well marked. All such peculiarities should be noted as they are strongly hereditary and may throw much light on the faculties of the family. Moreover the study of them is peculiarly attractive. (13) Favourite pursuits, and interests, and artistic capacities, are facts useful to record as being definite expressions of character and temperament. We now come to the medical data which rank as the most important of all in statistical investigations into the rise and fall of families. Medical men are in an excellent position to supply these in respect to their own families. They know precisely what is wanted and how to express it. They have less of that shrinking from putting maladies on record which most persons feel even against their better judgment, because they are habituated to read and write medical cases. Moreover, they can obtain medical facts concerning members of their own families more easily than other people, being on freer terms with their professional brethren. (14) Minor ailments. A knowledge of these gives considerable help towards the connection between the family tendency to minor and to graver maladies. The former may be outlets and safety valves to prevent the occurrence of the latter. Among c 9 [end]

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