et cetera, et cetera 英文人行道: sextant, eugenics. polymath

2009年3月19日星期四

sextant, eugenics. polymath

THIS is a thoroughly interesting and even exciting biography of Francis Galton, whose reputation is somewhat shadowed because of his enthusiasm for eugenics. This is a term he himself gave to the belief that human beings could be mentally and physically improved by genetic methods. The title of the book Extreme Measures refers to this idea as well as to Galton's passion for measuring whatever could be measured, the basis for his advances in the use of statistics.

For instance, he even measured the time it took for a sadistic headmaster of his school to beat 11 boys. It took 8 minutes. On one of his important explorations in Africa that led to his membership of the Royal Geographical Society, he measured the curves of a beautiful Hottentot woman by using a sextant. When she moved away he measured the distance to where she had been standing and worked out the complete figure by trigonometry.

Galton was a brilliant polymath, obsessive in his interests, even turning tea-making into a scientific drill. In 1905 the journal Nature carried his ideas on cutting a round cake on scientific principles. He had demonic energy and a ferocious curiosity that led him to the brink of mental illness. This biography does Galton's complex character and all of his achievements proud. It teems with anecdote as it progresses through his fascinating career while setting it firmly in the social developments and debates of the Victorian age. A triumph.