variety. Those who had it, praised it; and those who had it not, concurred in regretting it. There were none who had the old-fashioned high-and-dry education who were satisfied with it. Those who came from the greater schools usually did nothing there, and have abused the system heartily."
In 1877, as Vice President of the Anthropological Department of the British Association, Mr. Galton described a method of accurately measuring mental processes, such as sensation, volition, the formation of elementary judgments, and the estimation of numbers; suggested means, by the aid of photography, of studying the physiognomy of the criminal and other special classes of men; and discussed the subject of heredity in crime. In the address in which these thoughts were conveyed he suggested that there were no worthier professors of the branch of anthropology that relates to types of character "than the writers of the higher works of fiction, who are ever on the watch to discriminate varieties of character, and who have the art of describing them. It would, I think, be a valuable service to anthropology if some person well versed in literature were to compile a volume of extracts from novels and plays that should illustrate the prevalent types of human character and temperament." Carrying out the ideas of this address to a further extent, he discussed, in a paper read before the Anthropological Institute in 1878, the system of taking composite portraits, by combining the portraits of several individuals distinguished by possessing some common quality into a single portrait which might be considered as typical of that quality personified. As among the possible practical applications of this system, he suggested that "it might be used to give typical pictures of different races of men; to construct a really good likeness of a living person by the combination of several likenesses of the ordinary sort; to produce, from many independent portraits of an historical personage, the most probable likeness of him; and, lastly, an application of great interest in inquiries into the hereditary transmission of features."
Among the later investigations of Mr. Galton is an interesting one on "Visualized Numerals," regarding a faculty which very many persons have been proved to possess, of forming, when any number is mentioned or thought of, vivid conceptions of the figures constituting the number as projected before them or standing plainly out in the air.
Since 1875 Mr. Galton has been engaged in active investigations, with the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association, of the heights, weights, etc., of human beings in the British Empire, and in obtaining photographic representations of the typical races.
Mr. Galton was General Secretary of the British Association from 1863 to 1868; was President of its Geographical Section in 1862 and 1872, of the Anthropological Sub-section in 1877, and of the Anthropological Section in 1885; and he has been Vice-President of the Royal Geographical and Anthropological Societies, and a member of the councils of many other bodies.
