Inquiries into human faculty and its developmentGalton, Francis
Science
Inquiries into human faculty and its development
Galton, Francis
Ability; Eugenics
The tests show the sensitivity at the time they are made, and give
an approximate measure of the discrimination with which the operatee
habitually employs his senses. It does not measure his capacity for
discrimination, because the discriminative faculty admits of much
education, and the test results always show increased delicacy after
a little practice. However, the requirements of everyday life
educate all our faculties in some degree, and I have not found the
performances with test weights to improve much after a little
familiarity with their use. The weights have, as it were, to be
played with at first, then they must be tried carefully on three or
four separate occasions.
I did not at first find it at all an easy matter to make test
weights so alike as to differ in no other appreciable respect than
in their specific gravity, and if they differ and become known apart,
the knowledge so acquired will vitiate future judgments in various
indirect ways. Similarity in outward shape and touch was ensured by
the use of mechanically-made cartridge cases; dissimilarity through
any external stain was rendered of no hindrance to the experiment by
making the operatee handle them in a bag or with his eyes shut. Two
bodies may, however, be alike in weight and outward appearance and
yet behave differently when otherwise mechanically tested, and,
consequently, when they are handled. For example, take two eggs, one
raw and the other hard boiled, and spin them on the table; press the
finger for a moment upon either of them whilst it is still spinning:
if it be the hard-boiled egg it will stop as dead as a stone: if it
be the raw egg, after a little apparent hesitation, it will begin
again to rotate. The motion of its shell had alone been stopped; the
internal part was still rotating and this compelled the shell to
follow it. Owing to this cause, when we handle the two eggs, the one
feels "quick" and the other does not. Similarly with the cartridges,
when one is rather more loosely packed than the others the
difference is perceived on handling them. Or it may have one end
heavier than the other, or else its weight may not be equally
distributed round its axis, causing it to rest on the table with the
same part always lowermost; differences due to these causes are also
easily perceived when handling the cartridges. Again, one of two
similar cartridges may balance perfectly in all directions, but the
weight of one of them may be disposed too much towards the ends, as
in a dumb-bell, or gathered too much towards the centre. The period
of oscillation will differ widely in the two cases, as may be shown
by suspending the cartridges by strings round their middle so that
they shall hang horizontally, and then by a slight tap making them
spin to and fro round the string as an axis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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