Abstract
The title of this chapter is perhaps unfortunate for innumeracy may appear to be a defect which could be remedied by application, as in illiteracy. However this is not the usage I intend. I know no suitable word to imply the misuse, rather than the disuse, of the application of numbers to the description of things when the use of words or diagrams – Galton’s supreme aptitude ’ would be more appropriate. The theme I wish to develop is that, firstly, Galton’s intellectual energy and restless curiosity were adequately contained within the framework of his mathematical knowledge, and secondly that many misunderstandings of both his work, and of the application of mathematics to biology which he did so much to initiate, can be attributed to this.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Bateson, William (1909) Mendel’s Principles of Heredity (Cambridge at the University Press) pp. 6–7.
Darwin, Charles (1859) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray).
Darwin, Erasmus (1789 and 1791) The Botanic Garden: a Poem, in Two Parts: Part I, The Economy of Vegetation (London: J. Johnson, 1791)
Part II, The Loves of the Plants (London: J. Johnson, 1789).
Darwin, Erasmus (1794 and 1796) Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life: Part I (London: J. Johnson, 1794); Parts I-III (London: J. Johnson, 1796) (2nd edn of Part I, corrected) 2 vols.
Darwin, Leonard (1913) ‘Heredity and Environment’, correspondence in Eugenics Review, vol. 5, pp. 153–4.
Fisher, R. A. (1918) ‘The correlation between relatives on the supposition of Mendelian Inheritance’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 52, pp. 399–433.
Forrest, D. W. (1974) Francis Galton: The Life and Work of a Victorian Genius (London: Paul Elek).
Galton, F. (1869) Hereditary Genius (London: Macmillan).
Galton, F. (1883) Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (London: Macmillan); second edition, 1892 (Macmillan); third edition, 1907 (Everyman’s Library, London: J. M. Dent & Sons), reprinted in 1911, 1919, 1928, and in 1951 for the Eugenics Society.
Galton, F. (1885) ‘Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature’, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. 15, pp. 246–63.
Galton, F. (1889) Natural Inheritance (London: Macmillan).
Galton, F. (1908) Memories of my Life (London: Methuen).
Hardy, G. H. (1908) ‘Mendelian proportions in a mixed population’, Science, vol. 28, pp. 49–50.
Hogben, L. (1933) Nature and Nurture; Being the William Withering Memorial Lectures on ‘The Methods of Clinical Genetics’ (London: Williams and Norgate).
Hogben, L. (1954) Statistical Theory (London: Allen and Unwin).
Karn, M. N. and Karl Pearson (1922) ‘Study of the data provided by a baby-clinic in a large manufacturing town’, in Drapers’ Company Research Memoirs: Studies in National Deterioration, vol. x (Cambridge University Press).
Pearson, Karl (1914, 1924 and 1930) Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton, 3 vols (Cambridge at the University Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1993 The Galton Institute
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Edwards, J.H. (1993). The Galton Lecture for 1991: Francis Galton — Numeracy and Innumeracy in Genetics. In: Keynes, M. (eds) Sir Francis Galton, FRS. Studies in Biology, Economy and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12206-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12206-6_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12208-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12206-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)