Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Visualised numerals / by Francis Galton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[Reprinted from the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, August, 1880.] 1M / \ V\ l f—jf r r* Visualised Numerals. By Francis Galton, F.B.S. I propose to describe a peculiar habit of mind which charac- terises, so far as I can judge, about one man in 30, and one woman in 15; but before doing so, I must say a word of warning against a too-frequent tendency to assume that the minds of every other sane and healthy person must be like one’s own. The psychologist should inquire into the minds of others as he should into those of animals of different races, and be prepared to find instances of much to which his own expe- rience can afford little, if any clue. This is especially the case with psychologists who are not imagiruative in the strict but unusual sense of that ambiguous word. I do not by imagination mean an uncontrolled fancy and inaccurate recollection. I apply the word imaginative to those who while they may be exceedingly matter-of-fact and precise, are apt to think in visual images ; not in fancied words, nor in a more abstract manner. The mental state of imaginative persons is amidst a series of pictures, vivid in colour, and well defined in form, and it happens in many cases that what they mentally see appears external to themselves. There is no doubt that abstract thought is best carried on without the aid of this concrete imagery, and that a natural tendency to indulge in it is liable to be repressed by vigorous brain-workers. It is consequently uncommon among those scientific men whose attention I chiefly desire to gain, Every one, however, recognises the fact that some men of the highest order of genius and artistic temperament have had the gift of vivid mental presentation in a remarkable degree; they also know that chess-players exist, who have no mean capacity in other respects, who can play 10 or more games blindfold, having all the time a perfectly vivid picture of each board in succession before them, and seeing the chessmen on each, as made of wood or ivory, as the case may be. I therefore ask you all to take for granted the existence of imaginative persons, in the sense of the word in which I have used it, although many of yourselves may never have had the tendency to think in visual forms, or if you once had it, may have long since abandoned it. Let me also remark, that if the existence of colour-blindness which affects about one man in 30 was unsuspected, or at all](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22462363_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
