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Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 11:12:19 +1000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Galton's Beauty map of the British Isles?
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An article in today's Melbourne Age mentioned Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) and the fact that he produced a "Beauty Map of the British Isles".
According to his memoirs:
"I may here speak of some attempts by myself, made hitherto in too desultory a way, to obtain materials for a "Beauty-Map" of the British Isles. Whenever I have occasion to classify the persons I meet into three classes, "good, medium, bad," I use a needle mounted as a pricker, wherewith to prick holes, unseen, in a piece of paper, torn rudely into a cross With a long leg. I use its upper end for "good," the cross-arm for "medium," the lower end for "bad." The prick-holes keep distinct, and are easily read off at leisure. The object, place, and date are written On the paper. I used this plan for my beauty data, classifying the girls I passed in streets or elsewhere as attractive, indifferent, or repellent. Of course this was a purely individual estimate, bat it was consistent, judging from the conformity of different attempts in the same population. I found London to rank highest for beauty; Aberdeen lowest."

Was this map ever produced in published or unpublished form, or even as a table of raw data? There are a number of websites mentioning that he at least collected the data, but no reference to the actual data or map...

Brendan Whyte
Geography Department
University of Melbourne
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