Eugenics

... he germ plasm. It stated that there are two groups of cells, the soma (or body) and germ cells. Germ cells are undifferentiated cells that are transformed into reproductive cells. Weismann reasoned that acquired characters in the soma would not affect the germ cells, therefore acquired characteristics could not be transferred.12 Galton was no longer interested in the biology of heredity.

To prove his theories Galton decided to turn his attention concerning heredity, toward mathematics, more specifically statistics. The amalgamation of biology and statistics is called biometrics. During the mid 19th century statistics in Britain were gathered using a census, but no attempt at analysis was made. Analysing the information is exactly what Galton had planned on doing. From his background in meteorology, he used a different approach to statistics called Gaussian distribution. At the time this was known as the law of error. Carl Friedrich Gauss developed this form of statistics by the analysis of errors in measurement of true physical quantities. When Gaussian distribution is displayed on a graph, a bell curve is formed. The peak of the curve is termed the mean. The mean was the true physical quantity. Galton's interest lay in the deviations from the mean.13 Originally the distribution was used to determine right and wrong values, but Galton used it to measure variations in the population. Variations could be in height, weight, or intelligence. In 1860, Galton tried to use the law of error to estimate the number of geniuses and in his words, "men of exceptional stupidity". Galton found a method to dissect statistical data, but he had no data.

First he tried to gather information on plants in 1876. He decided to use the sweet pea for a variety of reasons. First of all sweet peas had differentiating characters that he could measure, easy artificial pollination, protection from foreign pollination, and they are natural to the area of northern Europe.14 He sent an unknown number of packets to friends in various parts of Europe with instructions on what to do. They were to return the plants after they had flowered. When he received the sweet peas, he found that the weights of the daughter seeds of the plants were evenly distributed in a Gaussian fashion. Because of this, he determined that heredity could be treated mathematically using units of deviation. A unit of deviation ...