Galton on Human Growth and Form

Abstract

Francis Galton’s first study of growth and form (or anyway the latter) was made with a sextant and trigonometric tables on a beautiful but apparently unapproachable Hottentot lady who was standing under a tree at a mission station in South West Africa in 1850. She was the wife of one of the Hottentot interpreters. Galton records the incident thus:

I profess to be a scientific man, and was exceedingly anxious to obtain accurate measurements of her shape; but there was a difficulty in doing this. I did not know a word of Hottentot, and could never therefore have explained to the lady what the object of my footrule could be; and I really dared not ask my worthy missionary host to interpret for me. The object of my admiration stood under a tree, and was turning herself about to all points of the compass, as ladies who wish to be admired usually do. Of a sudden my eye fell upon my sextant; the bright thought struck me, and I took a series of observations upon her figure in every direction, up and down, crossways, diagonally, and so forth, and I registered them carefully upon an outline drawing for fear of any mistake: this being done, I boldly pulled out my measuring tape, and measured the distance from where I was to the place where she stood, and having thus obtained both base and angles, I worked out the results by trigonometry and logarithms (Galton, 1853).