Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry

M. G. Bulmer

JHU Press, Dec 24, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 357 pages

If not for the work of his half cousin Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory might have met a somewhat different fate. In particular, with no direct evidence of natural selection and no convincing theory of heredity to explain it, Darwin needed a mathematical explanation of variability and heredity. Galton's work in biometry—the application of statistical methods to the biological sciences—laid the foundations for precisely that. This book offers readers a compelling portrait of Galton as the "father of biometry," tracing the development of his ideas and his accomplishments, and placing them in their scientific context.

Though Michael Bulmer introduces readers to the curious facts of Galton's life—as an explorer, as a polymath and member of the Victorian intellectual aristocracy, and as a proponent of eugenics—his chief concern is with Galton's pioneering studies of heredity, in the course of which he invented the statistical tools of regression and correlation. Bulmer describes Galton's early ambitions and experiments—his investigations of problems of evolutionary importance (such as the evolution of gregariousness and the function of sex), and his movement from the development of a physiological theory to a purely statistical theory of heredity, based on the properties of the normal distribution. This work, culminating in the law of ancestral heredity, also put Galton at the heart of the bitter conflict between the "ancestrians" and the "Mendelians" after the rediscovery of Mendelism in 1900. A graceful writer and an expert biometrician, Bulmer details the eventual triumph of biometrical methods in the history of quantitative genetics based on Mendelian principles, which underpins our understanding of evolution today.

Contents

• A Victorian Life: xvii
• Travels: 4
• The Near East 184546: 5
• South West Africa 185052: 9
• Vacation Tours: 16
• Scientific Career: 19
• The Royal Geographical Society: 20
• Exploration in Central Africa: 21
• The British Association: 25
• Inventions: 26
• Meteorology: 28
• Heredity and Evolution: 30
• Photography: 32
• Fingerprints: 33
• Characterization: 34
• Hereditary Ability: 40
• Hereditary Talent and Character 1865: 42
• Hereditary Genius 1869: 44
• English Judges: 46
• Comparison of Results for All Professions: 48
• Transmission through Male and Female Lines: 52
• The Reception of Hereditary Genius: 55
• Nature and Nurture: 58
• The History of Twins 1875: 62
• Galtons Hereditarianism: 65
• Epilogue: 69
• Number of Kinsfolk: 72
• Eugenics: 77
• Later History of Eugenics: 82
• America: 85
• Germany: 90
• The Rationale of Eugenics: 96
• The Mechanism of Heredity: 100
• Galtons Knowledge of Heredity in 1865: 101
• The NonInheritance of Acquired Characters: 103
• The Law of Reversion: 105
• Darwins Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis: 106
• Reversion: 108
• The Inheritance of Acquired Characters: 110
• Xenia and Telegony: 111
• Galtons Reaction to Pangenesis: 112
• An Experimental Test of Pangenesis: 114
• Galtons Theory of Heredity in the 1870s: 117
• Similarities between Relatives: 121
• Galtons Ideas on Heredity in 1889: 125
• Discussion: 129
• Weismann and the Continuity of the GermPlasm: 130
• De Vriess Theory of Intracellular Pangenesis: 131
• Segregation: 134
• Blending Inheritance: 136
• Fleeming Jenkin and the Problem of Swamping: 139
• Four Evolutionary Problems: 145
• The Evolution of Gregariousness: 148
• The Fertility of Heiresses: 151
• The Extinction of Surnames: 154
• The Evolution of Sex: 158
• A Theory of Heredity 1875: 159
• Three Unpublished Essays: 161
• The Charms of Statistics: 166
• Quetelet and the Average Man: 167
• Galton and the Normal Distribution: 171
• Natural Inheritance 1889: 173
• The Importance of the Normal Distribution to Galton: 178
• Galtons Quincunx: 180
• Regression and the Bivariate Normal Distribution: 182
• Correlation: 189
• Two Concepts of Probability: 194
• The Development of Statistics: 200
• Regression Theory: 204
• Statistical Theory of Heredity: 207
• A Theory Based on Pangenesis: 208
• Typical Laws of Heredity 1877: 209
• An Experiment with Sweet Peas: 210
• Solution of the Problem: 213
• Johannsens Experiments with Beans: 216
• The Inheritance of Human Height: 222
• The Advantages of Height: 223
• The Regression of Offspring on MidParent: 227
• Kinship: 229
• Fraternal Regression: 231
• Variability in Fraternities and CoFraternities: 233
• The Law of Ancestral Heredity: 236
• Galtons Formulation of the Ancestral Law: 237
• Galtons Derivation of the Law in 1885: 239
• Derivation of the Law in 1897: 242
• Galtons Law As It Should Have Been: 245
• Karl Pearsons Interpretation of the Ancestral Law: 248
• The Ancestral Law and Mendelism: 255
• Weldon and Mendelism: 257
• Pearson and Mendelism: 259
• Yules Reconciliation of the Law with Mendelism: 264
• The Regression on MidAncestral Values: 270
• Discontinuity in Evolution: 273
• Galtons Theory of Discontinuous Evolution: 274
• Stability of Type: 275
• Perpetual Regression: 279
• Selection Experiments: 282
• The Fallacy of Perpetual Regression: 283
• Discontinuity in Evolution 1894: 286
• Speciation and Saltation: 290
• De Vries and The Mutation Theory: 292
• Punctuated Equilibria: 295
• Biometry: 297
• The Demonstration of Natural Selection: 298
• The Career of W F R Weldon: 299
• The Common Shrimp: 300
• The Shore Crab: 301
• Stabilizing Selection in Snails: 306
• Bumpuss Sparrows: 307
• Multivariate Selection: 310
• Quantitative Genetics: 313
• The Multiple Factor Hypothesis: 314
• The HardyWeinberg Law: 316
• Mendelian Theory of Quantitative Genetics: 319
• The Response to Selection: 322
• Coda: 325
• Multivariate Selection Theory: 327
• The Response to Selection: 329
• References: 331
• Index: 349

About the author

Michael Bulmer is Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry
• Author: M. G. Bulmer
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: JHU Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0801874033, 9780801874031
• Length: 357 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General; Biography & Autobiography / General; Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; Medical / History; Science / History; Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics