1907

Inspired by Galton’s ideas, the Eugenics Education Society of UK was founded with the explicit aim of spreading the doctrine of genetic improvement throughout the land. Galton became its honorary president in 1908. Galton’s protge, Karl Pearson, a statistician of real originality, developed the founder’s ideas of human measurement and formed the Biometric Laboratory at University College, London in the 1890s. If Galton was an enthusiast, Pearson was a fanatic – a cold, calculating measurer of man who claimed to be a socialist, but loathed the working class. His journal Biometrika became influential, particularly in the United States. In 1911 he became the first Galton Professor of Eugenics at London University, a post created in accordance with Galton’s will. Galton’s movement never achieved legislative power in Britain. The story was different in the US.

Panic of 1907 results in a public outcry that the nation’s monetary system be stabilized.