The development of Francis Galton's ideas on the mechanism of heredity

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 263-292

  Bulmer, Michael ^a  

^a Old Vicarage   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Continuity of the germplasm; Galton; Heredity; Pangenesis; Stirp; Twins; Weismann

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; GENETICS; HISTORY; UNITED KINGDOM;

GENETICS; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY;

ORYCTOLAGUS CUNICULUS;

EID: 0033380519     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004608217247     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Jean Gayon, Darwinism's Struggle for Survival: Heredity and the Hypothesis of Natural Selection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
2. See Gayon (above); Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism, 2nd edn. (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1985); William B. Provine, The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).
3. See Gayon (above); Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism, 2nd edn. (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1985); William B. Provine, The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).
4. Francis Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character," Macmillan's Mag., 12 (1865), 157-166, 318-327; Hereditary Genius (London: Macmillan, 1869), reprinted with an introduction by H. J. Eysenck (London: Friedmann, 1979); "The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 391-406.
5. Francis Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character," Macmillan's Mag., 12 (1865), 157-166, 318-327; Hereditary Genius (London: Macmillan, 1869), reprinted with an introduction by H. J. Eysenck (London: Friedmann, 1979); "The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 391-406.
6. Francis Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character," Macmillan's Mag., 12 (1865), 157-166, 318-327; Hereditary Genius (London: Macmillan, 1869), reprinted with an introduction by H. J. Eysenck (London: Friedmann, 1979); "The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 391-406.
7. Francis Galton, "Experiments in Pangenesis, by Breeding from Rabbits of a Pure Variety, into whose Circulation Blood Taken from other Varieties had Previously Been Largely Transfused," Proc. Roy. Soc., 19 (1871), 393-410; "On Blood Relationship," Proc. Roy. Soc., 20 (1872), 394-402; "A Theory of Heredity," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 329-348.
8. Francis Galton, "Experiments in Pangenesis, by Breeding from Rabbits of a Pure Variety, into whose Circulation Blood Taken from other Varieties had Previously Been Largely Transfused," Proc. Roy. Soc., 19 (1871), 393-410; "On Blood Relationship," Proc. Roy. Soc., 20 (1872), 394-402; "A Theory of Heredity," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 329-348.
9. Francis Galton, "Experiments in Pangenesis, by Breeding from Rabbits of a Pure Variety, into whose Circulation Blood Taken from other Varieties had Previously Been Largely Transfused," Proc. Roy. Soc., 19 (1871), 393-410; "On Blood Relationship," Proc. Roy. Soc., 20 (1872), 394-402; "A Theory of Heredity," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), 329-348.
10. Francis Galton, "Typical Laws of Heredity," Proc. Roy. Inst., 8 (1877), 282-301; "Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature," J. Anthropol. Inst., 15 (1885), 246-263; Natural Inheritance (London: Macmillan, 1889); "The Average Contribution of each Several Ancestor to the Total Heritage of the Offspring," Proc. Roy. Soc., 61 (1897), 401-413.
11. Francis Galton, "Typical Laws of Heredity," Proc. Roy. Inst., 8 (1877), 282-301; "Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature," J. Anthropol. Inst., 15 (1885), 246-263; Natural Inheritance (London: Macmillan, 1889); "The Average Contribution of each Several Ancestor to the Total Heritage of the Offspring," Proc. Roy. Soc., 61 (1897), 401-413.
12. Francis Galton, "Typical Laws of Heredity," Proc. Roy. Inst., 8 (1877), 282-301; "Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature," J. Anthropol. Inst., 15 (1885), 246-263; Natural Inheritance (London: Macmillan, 1889); "The Average Contribution of each Several Ancestor to the Total Heritage of the Offspring," Proc. Roy. Soc., 61 (1897), 401-413.
13. Francis Galton, "Typical Laws of Heredity," Proc. Roy. Inst., 8 (1877), 282-301; "Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature," J. Anthropol. Inst., 15 (1885), 246-263; Natural Inheritance (London: Macmillan, 1889); "The Average Contribution of each Several Ancestor to the Total Heritage of the Offspring," Proc. Roy. Soc., 61 (1897), 401-413.
14. As well as the references in note 2, see Stephen M. Stigler, The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), chap. 8; M. Eileen Magnello, "Karl Pearson's Mathematization of Inheritance: From Ancestral Heredity to Mendelian Genetics," Ann. Sci., 55 (1998), 35-94; Michael Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity," Heredity, 81 (1998), 579-585.
15. As well as the references in note 2, see Stephen M. Stigler, The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), chap. 8; M. Eileen Magnello, "Karl Pearson's Mathematization of Inheritance: From Ancestral Heredity to Mendelian Genetics," Ann. Sci., 55 (1998), 35-94; Michael Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity," Heredity, 81 (1998), 579-585.
16. As well as the references in note 2, see Stephen M. Stigler, The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), chap. 8; M. Eileen Magnello, "Karl Pearson's Mathematization of Inheritance: From Ancestral Heredity to Mendelian Genetics," Ann. Sci., 55 (1998), 35-94; Michael Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity," Heredity, 81 (1998), 579-585.
17. Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (London: John Murray, 1868). Quotations are from the second edition (1875), reprinted 1905.
18. Ruth Schwarz Cowan, "Nature and Nurture: the Interplay of Biology and Politics in the Work of Francis Galton," Stud. Hist. Biol., 1 (1977); Donald A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain, 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
19. Ruth Schwarz Cowan, "Nature and Nurture: the Interplay of Biology and Politics in the Work of Francis Galton," Stud. Hist. Biol., 1 (1977); Donald A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain, 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
20. Prosper Lucas, Traité philosophique et physiologique de l'hérédité naturelle dans les états de santé et de la maladie du système nerveux, 2 vols (Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1847-1850); G. H. Lewes, The Physiology of Common Life (Edinburgh, 1859); Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selction or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859).
21. Prosper Lucas, Traité philosophique et physiologique de l'hérédité naturelle dans les états de santé et de la maladie du système nerveux, 2 vols (Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1847-1850); G. H. Lewes, The Physiology of Common Life (Edinburgh, 1859); Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selction or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859).
22. Prosper Lucas, Traité philosophique et physiologique de l'hérédité naturelle dans les états de santé et de la maladie du système nerveux, 2 vols (Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1847-1850); G. H. Lewes, The Physiology of Common Life (Edinburgh, 1859); Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selction or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859).
23. Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character" (above, n. 3), p. 158.
24. For Lucas' Traité, see Frederick B. Churchill, "From heredity theory to Vererbung," Isis 78 (1987), 342; for Lewes' Physiology of Common Life, see Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism, 2nd edn. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 170-174.
25. For Lucas' Traité, see Frederick B. Churchill, "From heredity theory to Vererbung," Isis 78 (1987), 342; for Lewes' Physiology of Common Life, see Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism, 2nd edn. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 170-174.
26. Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character" (above, n. 3), pp. 318-319. The overwhelming majority of eminent persons in Galton's lists were men, presumably because it was very difficult in contemporary social conditions for women to demonstrate their ability by becoming eminent in the professions. For this reason, Galton was unable to determine the ability of women by his criterion of achieving professional eminence. For the same reason, heinvariably referred to eminent people as men ("sons of men distinguished in the open professions").
27. Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character" (above, n. 3), pp. 326-327.
28. August Weismann, "The Continuity of the Germ-Plasm as the Foundation of a Theory of Heredity"; English translation in Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland, and Arthur E. Shipley, Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems by Dr. August Weismann (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), p. 179.
29. August Weismann, "The Continuity of the Germ-Plasm as the Foundation of a Theory of Heredity"; English translation in Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland, and Arthur E. Shipley, Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems by Dr. August Weismann (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), p. 179.
30. Karl Pearson, The Life, Letters and Labours of Frands Galton (Cambridge University Press, 1924), V. II, 84. See Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity" (above, n. 6) for a fuller discussion.
31. Karl Pearson, The Life, Letters and Labours of Frands Galton (Cambridge University Press, 1924), V. II, 84. See Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity" (above, n. 6) for a fuller discussion.
32. Galton, "Hereditary Talent and Character" (above, n. 3), p. 319.
33. Ibid., pp. 321-322.
34. Conrad Zirkle, "The Early History of the Inheritance of Acquired Characters and of Pangenesis," Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., 35 (1951), 95-141.
35. Darwin, Origin of Species (above, n. 9), p. 214.
36. Cowan, "Nature and Nurture" (above, n. 8), p. 141.
37. Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants (above, n. 7), II, 456.
38. Ibid., p. 457.
39. Ibid., p. 462.
40. R. W. Burkhardt, "Closing the Door on Lord Morton's Mare: The Rise and Fall of Telegony," Stud. Hist. Biol., 3 (1979), 1-21.
41. Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants (above, n. 7), II, 28.
42. Olby, Origins of Mendelism (above, n. 2), pp. 47-54.
43. William Bateson, Mendel's Principles of Heredity (Cambridge University Press, 1909).
44. Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants (above, n. 7), II, 486-87.
45. Ibid., p. 471.
46. Ibid., pp. 56-57.
47. Cowan, "Nature and Nurture" (above, n. 8), p. 167.
48. Galton, Hereditary Genius (above, n. 3), p. 364.
49. Ibid., pp. 367-386.
50. Ibid., p. 368. For Galton's use of analogies see Gerd Gigerenzer, et al. The Empire of Chance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 55-57; J. S. Wilkie, "Galton's Contribution to the Theory of Evolution with Special Reference to his Use of Models and Metaphors," Ann. Sci., 11, 194-205.
51. Ibid., p. 368. For Galton's use of analogies see Gerd Gigerenzer, et al. The Empire of Chance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 55-57; J. S. Wilkie, "Galton's Contribution to the Theory of Evolution with Special Reference to his Use of Models and Metaphors," Ann. Sci., 11, 194-205.
52. Ibid., p. 368. For Galton's use of analogies see Gerd Gigerenzer, et al. The Empire of Chance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 55-57; J. S. Wilkie, "Galton's Contribution to the Theory of Evolution with Special Reference to his Use of Models and Metaphors," Ann. Sci., 11, 194-205.
53. Galton, "Experiments in Pangenesis" (above, n. 4), p. 394.
54. Ibid., p. 395.
55. Ibid., p. 402.
56. Pearson, Life of Galton (above, n. 15), II, chap. 10.
57. Charles Darwin, "Pangenesis," Nature, 3 (1871), 502-503.
58. Francis Galton, "Pangenesis," Nature, 4 (1871), 5-6.
59. Galton, "On Blood Relationship" (above, n. 4), p. 394.
60. Galton, "A Theory of Heredity" (above, n. 4), p. 336.
61. Ibid., p. 340.
62. Darwin, Variation of Plants and Animals (above, n. 7), II, 457.
63. Galton, "On Blood Relationship" (above, n. 4), p. 400.
64. Galton, "A Theory of Heredity" (above, n. 4), p. 346.
65. Olby, Origins of Mendelism (above, n. 2), pp. 55-57.
66. Olby, Origins of Mendelism (above, n. 2), pp. 55-57.
67. Galton, "On Blood Relationship" (above, n. 4), p. 402.
68. Pearson quotes a letter from Galton to Darwin dated June 4, 1872, the week before Galton read the paper at the Royal Society: Your criticisms on my paper are very gratifying to me, the more so that the question you put is one to which I can at once reply. You ask, why hybrids of the first generation are nearly uniform in character while great diversity appears in the grandchildren and succeeding generations? I answer, that the diagram shows (see next page) that only 4 stages separate the children from the parents, but 20 from their grandparents and therefore, judging from these limited data alone (ignoring for the moment all considerations of unequal variability in the different stages and of pre-potence of particular qualities etc.), the increase of the mean deviation of the several grandchildren (from the average hybrid) over that of the several children is as √20:√4, or more than twice as great. The omitted considerations would make the deviation (as I am prepared to argue) still greater (Pearson, Life of Galton [above, n. 15], II, 169). Pearson omits the diagram because he has failed to interpret it. In the published paper, Galton replaces this view with the suggestion that variability arises at the stage of the second selection, a reconsideration that turned out to be correct.
69. Ibid., p. 399.
70. Galton, "A Theory of Heredity" (above, n. 4), p. 339.
71. Ibid., p. 336.
72. Francis Galton, "The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture," J. Anthropol. Inst., 5 (1875), p. 392.
73. Francis Galton, English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture (London: Macmillan, 1874; reprinted London: Frank Cass, 1970), pp. 12-16.
74. Galton, "The History of Twins" (above, n. 54).
75. Richard D. Rende, Robert Plomin, and Steven G. Vandenberg, "Who Discovered the Twin Method?" Behav. Genet., 20 (1990), 277-285.
76. Galton, "The History of Twins" (above, n. 54), p. 404.
77. Galton, "A Theory of Heredity" (above, n. 4), p. 337.
78. Ibid., p. 337.
79. Galton, Natural Inheritance (above, n. 5), p. 2.
80. See Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity" (above, n. 6), for a critique of the ancestral law.
81. Galton, Natural Inheritance (above, n. 5), pp. 187-189.
82. Ibid., pp. 19-20.
83. Ibid., pp. 7 and 193.
84. Ibid., p. 12.
85. Galton, "On Blood Relationship" (above, n. 4), p. 397.
86. 69
87. Galton, "A Theory of Heredity" (above, n. 4), pp. 333-334.
88. August Weismann, "On the Number of Polar Bodies and their Significance in Heredity," 1887, in Poulton, Schönl and and Shipley, Essays upon Heredity (above, n. 14), p. 379.
89. August Weismann, "On the Number of Polar Bodies and their Significance in Heredity," 1887, in Poulton, Schönl and and Shipley, Essays upon Heredity (above, n. 14), p. 379.
90. Ibid., pp. 379-381.
91. August Weismann, The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity, trans. W. Newton Parker and Harriet Ronnfeldt (London: Walter Scott, 1893), p. 9.
92. Galton, " Hereditary Talent and Character" (above, n. 3), p. 322.
93. Pearson, Life of Galton (above, n. 15), II, 81.
94. George John Romanes, An Examination of Weismannism (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1893), p. 59.
95. Weismann, The Germ-Plasm (above, n. 72), p. 200.
96. The irreversibility of translation from DNA into protein is today thought to be the real obstade to the inheritance of acquired characters, rather than the separation of germ cells from somatic cells, which does not hold in plants or lower animals; see Leo W. Buss, The Evolution of Individuality (Princeton University Press, 1987).
97. See Bulmer, "Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity" (above, n. 6).
98. See Gayon, Darwinism's Struggle for Survival (above, n. 1).