The death of his father, in 1844, left him financially independent but emotionally destitute, and he therefore terminated his medical studies entirely, turning to foreign travel, sport, and technical invention. He then briefly resumed his medical studies. Following the Cambridge custom, he was awarded an M.A. He elected, instead, to take a "poll" (pass) B.A. A severe nervous breakdown altered his original intention to attain academic honors. He followed his medical studies with mathematical studies at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, from 1840 to early 1844. His parents pressed him to enter the medical profession, and he studied for two years at Birmingham General Hospital and King's College Medical School in London. He attended numerous schools, but chafed at the narrow classical curriculum, which bored him. Likewise, both families boasted literary talent, with Erasmus Darwin notorious for composing lengthy technical treatises in verse, and Aunt Mary Anne Galton was known for her writing on aesthetics and religion, and her notable autobiography detailing the unique environment of her childhood populated by Lunar Society members.įrancis Galton, was by many accounts, a child prodigy-he was reading by the age of two, knew some Greek, Latin, and long division by age five, and by the age of six had moved on to adult books, including Shakespeare, which he read for pleasure, and poetry, which he quoted at length. Erasmus Darwin and Samuel Galton were founder members of the famous Lunar Society of Birmingham, whose members included Boulton, Watt, Wedgwood, Priestley, Edgeworth, and other distinguished scientists and industrialists. The Galtons were famous and highly successful Quaker gun-manufacturers and bankers, while the Darwins were distinguished in medicine and science.īoth families boasted Fellows of the Royal Society and members who loved to invent in their spare time. His father was Samuel Tertius Galton, son of Samuel "John" Galton. Unfortunately this proposal, based on incomplete scientific understanding, is not only morally questionable but has been abused by those such as the Nazis in justifying genocide.įrancis Galton was born on February 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England, and was a cousin of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, sharing the common grandparent Erasmus Darwin. His most controversial work was in eugenics, in which he proposed that humankind would benefit from encouraging those who exhibited "good" characteristics to marry and produce offspring, and conversely discouraging those exhibiting undesirable characteristics, which he expected to lead to an increase in the number of people manifesting the desirable qualities.
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