The observation spurred further experiments. FRANCIS GALTON Darwin’s cousin invented the concept of standard deviation, a way of quantifying the variation in a set of numbers.

I know of scarcely anything so apt to impress the imagination as the wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the ‘Law of Frequency of Error’,” the British polymath Francis Galton wrote in 1889.

Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton, by Martin Brookes, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 298 pages, $24.95 Francis Galton (1822?1911) was a distinguished polymath ...

In the early 1900s, a resurgence in the study of genetics led many scientists to pursue development of the "perfect" human race. Although the resulting eugenics movement had good intentions, it ...