Illustration explaining the statistical concept of correlation, used by Galton in his work on eugenics.
Courtesy of UCL Galton Collection
The Conflict
Humans vs Nature. This conflict is an ancient one, yet it has evolved to be almost unrecognisable to how it appeared in pre-historic times. What was once a battle to survive against the cruel reality of Nature, has developed into an obsession for perfection and a fight for control.
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There is a long tradition in creating the ideal human. The idea stems from the Ancient Greeks to the screening of genes in IV clinics; and it is this conception of eugenics that epitomises the human battle against Nature towards ‘perfection’. However, what do we mean by ‘perfection’? Is it those with higher reproductive fitness? Blonde hair and blue eyes? Red hair? The condemnation of those that are genetically inferior crosses a dangerous boundary, an incredibly blurry one in.
Eugenic practices are very controversial; eliminating genetic disorders may be seen as a positive advancement, but it is difficult to restrain the practice to just this. How long before Eugenic practices become parallel with Nazi ideologies?
The Object
The object pictured above is a visual device created by Francis Galton in order to illustrate his statistical concept of Correlation, which was a novel discovery. It shows one of his first experiments using cress seeds which illustrates the study of the dependence relationship between two sets of data. Galton used this object to introduce his new statistics method whilst giving a lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1875.
The Relevance
Inspired by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, based on natural selection and genetic variation, Galton established the idea of Eugenics, which he explored using a statistical approach. His illustration of cress seeds embodies the methods that pioneered Eugenics, reflecting the way in which humans are constantly battling against Nature in order to strive for the idealised race.
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Galton thought that human traits were hereditary, and therefore believed that in the future we would have the ability to artificially select those traits which are deemed to be advantageous, a similar method to the breeding of higher resistant crops. This object represents his earliest thoughts which have served as a basis for further manipulation of genes, an area of research that is not welcomed by everyone.
The potential progression of Eugenics is seen as dangerous by some, and there is great conflict within the subject, because the boundaries surrounding each topic are always blurred – take the debate around the screening for the gene responsible for Down's Syndrome as an example. Can the practice of Eugenic methods be preferable to Natural Selection? Is the interference of humans always disadvantageous?