Inquiries into human faculty and its developmentGalton, Francis
Science
Inquiries into human faculty and its development
Galton, Francis
Ability; Eugenics
I have tried experiments with all kinds of animals on their
powers of hearing shrill notes. I have gone through the whole
of the Zoological Gardens, using an apparatus arranged for the
purpose. It consists of one of my little whistles at the end of a
walking-stick--that is, in reality, a long tube; it has a bit of
india-rubber pipe under the handle, a sudden squeeze upon which
forces a little air into the whistle and causes it to sound. I hold
it as near as is safe to the ears of the animals, and when they are
quite accustomed to its presence and heedless of it, I make it sound;
then if they prick their ears it shows that they hear the whistle; if
they do not, it is probably inaudible to them. Still, it is very
possible that in some cases they hear but do not heed the sound. Of
all creatures, I have found none superior to cats in the power of
hearing shrill sounds; it is perfectly remarkable what a faculty
they have in this way. Cats, of course, have to deal in the dark
with mice, and to find them out by their squealing. Many people
cannot hear the shrill squeal of a mouse. Some time ago, singing
mice were exhibited in London, and of the people who went to hear
them, some could hear nothing, whilst others could hear a little, and
others again could hear much. Cats are differentiated by natural
selection until they have a power of hearing all the high notes made
by mice and other little creatures that they have to catch. A cat
that is at a very considerable distance, can be made to turn its ear
round by sounding a note that is too shrill to be audible by almost
any human ear. Small dogs also hear very shrill notes, but large
ones do not. I have walked through the streets of a town with an
instrument like that which I used in the Zoological Gardens, and
made nearly all the little dogs turn round, but not the large ones.
At Berne, where there appear to be more large dogs lying idly about
the streets than in any other town in Europe, I have tried the
whistle for hours together, on a great many large dogs, but could
not find one that heard it. Ponies are sometimes able to hear very
high notes. I once frightened a pony with one of these whistles in
the middle of a large field. My attempts on insect hearing have been
failures.
ANTHROPOMETRIC REGISTERS.
When shall we have anthropometric laboratories, where a man may,
when he pleases, get himself and his children weighed, measured, and
rightly photographed, and have their bodily faculties tested by the
best methods known to modern science? The records of growth of
numerous persons from childhood to age are required before it can be
possible to rightly appraise the effect of external conditions upon
development, and records of this kind are at present non-existent.
The various measurements should be accompanied by photographic
studies of the features in full face and in profile, and on the same
scale, for convenience of comparison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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