FRANCIS GALTON, one of the most noted scientific essayists of England, was born near Birmingham, in 1822. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1844, and spent a large part of the next six years in African exploration. One of his earliest works, published in 1853, was a book of African travel, but his reputation rests chiefly on his scientific essays, especially on his studies of the physiological laws of the human mind. Among his more important works are “Hereditary Genius; Its Laws and Consequences,” 1869; “Men of Science; Their Nature and Nurture,” 1874; “Natural Inheritance,” 1889; and “Finger Prints,” 1893. One of his scientific amusements resulted in the invention of “composite” photography. In connection with his own theories of hereditary genius, it is interesting to remember that he is a grandson of the celebrated Erasmus Darwin.