“As these lines are being written, the circumstances under which I first clearly grasped the important generalisation that the laws of Heredity were solely concerned with deviations expressed in statistical units, are vividly recalled to my memory. It was in the grounds of Naworth Castle, where an invitation had been given to ramble freely. A temporary shower drove me to seek refuge in a reddish recess in the rock by the side of the pathway. There the idea flashed across me, and I forgot everything else for a moment in my great delight.”

Source: Memories of My Life (1908), Ch. XX Heredity ( 1909 ed. http://books.google.com/books?id=X9IIAQAAIAAJ)

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Francis Galton 14
British polymath: geographer, statistician, pioneer in euge… 1822–1911

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