Galton, << GAWL tuhn, >> Sir Francis (1822-1911), a British scientist and cousin of Charles Darwin, became known for his research in meteorology, heredity, and anthropology. He spent five years in Sudan and Namibia studying the people there. He suggested important theories in meteorology, published weather charts, and introduced the idea of anticyclones (see Weather (Synoptic-scale systems) ). His studies of fingerprints led to their use in identification (see Fingerprinting (History) ).
Galton argued that plants and animals vary according to patterns. He devised new statistical methods and applied them to the study of heredity. He was the first to call the science of human breeding eugenics. Galton urged the planned improvement of the human race by selection of superior parents. In his will, he left money to found the Chair of Eugenics at London University.
Galton was born on Feb. 16, 1822, near Birmingham. He was educated at Birmingham General Hospital and Cambridge University. He wrote Hereditary Genius (1869), English Men of Science (1874), and Inquiries into the Human Faculty and Its Development (1883). He died on Jan. 17, 1911.
