K. Pearson to F. Galton, 23rd July 1909.- External URL
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Sent From (Definite): Karl PearsonSent To (Definite): Sir Francis GaltonDate: 23 Jul 1909
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Holder (Definite): University College London: Special Collections
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Sent fromKarl Pearson
23 Jul 1909
Description:
[re: organization of first Eugenics Lecture at UCL]
‘...
... I gave my first lecture at the Royal Institution on albinism in man on Tuesday, my chief point being that the manlike ancestor of man was negroid in skin. The evidence showing that no whites are ever thrown from a black, but copper & white with yellow or red hair come from jet black negores as variants. I think I have got a real point, but the audience while ready to accept a monkey ancestry were not prepared for the negroes! My second lecture is on Tuesday.
Yesterday I heard Wallace on Darwinism, the Royal Institution was packed to the roof. Wallace was quite audible, but not very original and lacking in the vivacity needful to keep his audience alive. But it really was worth hearing him. He gave examples of 20 individuals to show variation & prove that two organs of the same individual were not correlated!! But he made a strong attack on progress by mutation, and used one very good argument, namely that from mimicry, which I had not heard before. He said that a beetle exactly like a wasp, could have reached the wasp’s condition by a gradual approximation to open wings & coloration, but it could by no conceivable suddenly become a wasp in all external appearance. I think the argument was valid & a strong one.
A white man married an albino negress, the offspring were two mulattoes. What can we make of that as far as Mendelism is concerned?! It seems to me a very curious state of affairs, and it means that the black colour was latent in the albino negress.
Ever yours affectionately,
Karl Pearson.
I thought the enclosed [not present] is going to be a real tool in astronomy.’
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Sent toSir Francis Galton
23 Jul 1909
Description:
[re: organization of first Eugenics Lecture at UCL]
‘...
... I gave my first lecture at the Royal Institution on albinism in man on Tuesday, my chief point being that the manlike ancestor of man was negroid in skin. The evidence showing that no whites are ever thrown from a black, but copper & white with yellow or red hair come from jet black negores as variants. I think I have got a real point, but the audience while ready to accept a monkey ancestry were not prepared for the negroes! My second lecture is on Tuesday.
Yesterday I heard Wallace on Darwinism, the Royal Institution was packed to the roof. Wallace was quite audible, but not very original and lacking in the vivacity needful to keep his audience alive. But it really was worth hearing him. He gave examples of 20 individuals to show variation & prove that two organs of the same individual were not correlated!! But he made a strong attack on progress by mutation, and used one very good argument, namely that from mimicry, which I had not heard before. He said that a beetle exactly like a wasp, could have reached the wasp’s condition by a gradual approximation to open wings & coloration, but it could by no conceivable suddenly become a wasp in all external appearance. I think the argument was valid & a strong one.
A white man married an albino negress, the offspring were two mulattoes. What can we make of that as far as Mendelism is concerned?! It seems to me a very curious state of affairs, and it means that the black colour was latent in the albino negress.
Ever yours affectionately,
Karl Pearson.
I thought the enclosed [not present] is going to be a real tool in astronomy.’
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