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Francis Galton's African Ethnography and its Role in the Development of his Psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Raymond E. Fancher
Raymond E. Fancher
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, York University Downsview, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3.
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Extract

In April of 1849, a disspirited and vocationless Francis Galton consulted Donovan, a London phrenologist, for a reading of his aptitudes and character. After a disappointing university career and a prematurely concluded try at medical training, the 27-year-old Galton had been drifting unhappily for several years in the life of the idle rich. Donovan shrewdly assessed Galton's mind as ‘not distinguished by much spontaneous activity in relation to scholastic affairs’, but still with ‘much enduring power’ and other positive capacities brought fully to light ‘only when rough work has to be done’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 67 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1983

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References

Research for this paper was supported by a small grant from the Faculty of Arts of York University. Thanks are also due to Michael Sokal, and to the editor and referee of this journal, for valuable suggestions on an earlier manuscript.

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