generation.? This went completely
against evolution, which is not what Galton wanted.? If the bell curve of the parents was the same as the bell curve
of the children, then how did anything ever change in civilisation.? Each generation would have the same number
of variations as the last one so no evolution would occur.? With all his analysis of heredity, Galton
could only conclude, that with eugenics very little could be changed.? Eugenics had to develop at the same rate of
the science.? Luckily for Galton, Karl
Pearson came to the aid of eugenics.? ??????????? Karl
Pearson was a much more established mathematician than Galton was.? Pearson focused on the eugenic point of
regression.? Galton?s law of ancestral
heredity stated that each generation would regress to the mean of the ancestral
population.? Pearson said that the
regression depended on the immediate ancestors, in other words, the
parents.? If this is true, then eugenics
could truly work in the way they wanted it to.?
Eugenics could point evolution in the direction it wanted to.? Pearson did have some mathematical backing
with his new theory.? He supported his
theory with detailed statistical analysis.?
He also reworked Galton?s theory so it predicted a population would
breed for the desired characteristic.?
He presented to Galton, his paper on the revision of his theory in 1898.18? Pearson continued to work on Galton?s theories and rework
them.? Eugenics now had an actual
scientific background made with the new scientific field known as biometrics.??????????? Eugenics
had Darwinian origins and evolved with the science of the time.? Darwin?s Origin
of the Species was the starting point for Galton.? Galton was influenced by the theories of Darwin and this fired
the science of eugenics.? The theories
of both Galton and Darwin were complementary.?
One of these theories is natural selection, which states that the most
fit live to procreate thereby ensuring enhanced selection.? Darwin also hypothesised on how traits were
transferred and he called it pangenesis. Gregor Mendel put forth another theory
that showed the inheritance of traits. Eugenics was evolving with new areas of
science.? One new area of science called
biometrics was created to deal with eugenics. The use of Gaussian distribution
and the bell curve was essential to analysing the collected data.? The discovery of the coefficient of
reversion was another example of using the best science of the time.? Galton did prove that intelligence was
inherited even if in a crude fashion.?
He developed new scientific methods of looking at statistics.? Eugenics has many failings though.? First Galton and others believed nature to
have complete dominance over nurture.?
They also believed that certain characteristics were controlled by one
hereditary factor only.? Now we know
that such factors are controlled by more than one characteristic.? The scientists of the 19th century
did not know what we know now.? The aims
of the scientists were in the right place but their science and methods were
just too crude to truly work.