Inquiries into human faculty and its developmentGalton, Francis
Science
Inquiries into human faculty and its development
Galton, Francis
Ability; Eugenics
Another instrument I have made consists of a piece of glass inclined
at a very acute angle to the line of sight, and of a mirror beyond it,
also inclined, but in the opposite direction to the line of sight.
Two rays of light will therefore reach the eye from each point of
the glass; the one has been reflected from its surface, and the
other has been first reflected from the mirror, and then transmitted
through the glass. The glass used should be extremely thin, to avoid
the blur due to double reflections; it may be a selected piece from
those made to cover microscopic specimens. The principle of the
instrument may be yet further developed by interposing additional
pieces of glass, successively less inclined to the line of sight,
and each reflecting a different portrait.
I have tried many other plans; indeed the possible methods of
optically superimposing two or more images are very numerous. Thus I
have used a sextant (with its telescope attached); also strips of
mirrors placed at different angles, their several reflections being
simultaneously viewed through a telescope. I have also used a
divided lens, like two stereoscopic lenses brought close together,
in front of the object glass of a telescope.
II. GENERIC IMAGES.
[_Extract from Proceedings Royal Institution, 25th April 1879_]
Our general impressions are founded upon blended memories, and these
latter will be the chief topic of the present discourse. An analogy
will be pointed out between these and the blended portraits first
described by myself a year ago under the name of "Composite Portraits,"
and specimens of the latter will be exhibited.
The physiological basis of memory is simple enough in its broad
outlines. Whenever any group of brain elements has been excited by a
sense impression, it becomes, so to speak, tender, and liable to be
easily thrown again into a similar state of excitement. If the new
cause of excitement differs from the original one, a memory is the
result. Whenever a single cause throws different groups of brain
elements simultaneously into excitement, the result must be a
blended memory.
We are familiar with the fact that faint memories are very apt to
become confused. Thus some picture of mountain and lake in a country
which we have never visited, often recalls a vague sense of identity
with much we have seen elsewhere. Our recollections cannot be
disentangled, though general resemblances are recognised. It is also
a fact that the memories of persons who have great powers of
visualising, that is, of seeing well-defined images in the mind's eye,
are no less capable of being blended together. Artists are, as a
class, possessed of the visualising power in a high degree, and they
are at the same time pre-eminently distinguished by their gifts of
generalisation. They are of all men the most capable of producing
forms that are not copies of any individual, but represent the
characteristic features of classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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