Paper, 'Family likeness in stature' by Francis Galton

Description

Galton writes: 'I propose to express by formulae the relation that subsists between the statures of specified men and those of their kinsmen in any given degree, and to explain the processes through which family peculiarities of stature gradually diminish, until in every remote degree of kinship the group of kinsmen becomes undistinguishable from a group selected out of the general population at random. I shall determine the constants in my formulae referring to kinship with a useful degree of precision. These constants may provisionally and with some reservation be held applicable to other human peculiarities than stature, while the formulae themselves are, I presume, applicable to every one-dimensioned faculty that all men possess in some degree, but that different men possess in different degrees.'

Annotations in pencil and ink. Includes six geometrical diagrams and graphs.

Subject: Genetics / Mathematics

Received 1 January 1886 [written as 1 January 1885 on paper]. Read 21 January 1886.

A version of this paper was published in volume 40 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Family likeness in stature'.

Reference number

PP/8/4

Earliest possible date

1884-1885

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil paper

Page extent

73 pages

Format

Manuscript
Diagram