Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws And Consequences

A cousin of Charles Darwin, Francis Galton (1822-1911) was so impressed by Darwin's On the Origin of Species that he decided to investigate in detail the implications of inheritance and evolution for the development of outstanding human abilities. By "hereditary genius" Galton meant, "an ability that was exceptionally high and at the same time inborn," and he argued that in the debate over "nature versus nurture" (an expression that he coined) nature always prevails.In 1869, he published th...