gall (hypertrophies) An abnormal swelling, growth,
or tumor found on certain meristematic (growing)
plant tissues caused by another organism such as para-
sites, insects, bacteria, fungi, viruses, injuries, or chemi-
cals. There are hundreds of types of galls, and insects
and mites are the most common organisms that cause
them. The plant interacts with the attacking organism
and provides raw materials to construct the gall via
abnormal tissue growth. Many galls provide food and
protective housing for various species of insects, and
the resulting larvae that hatch are used as food by
birds. Galls have been used for dyes, tannin for leather
processing, medicines, and even food. There are over
1,400 species of insects that produce galls, and these
insects collectively are called cecidozoa. Gallic acid was
first isolated from oak leaf galls by the Swedish chemist
Karl Scheele in 1786.
Galton, Sir Francis (1822–1911) BritishAnthropol-
ogist, Explorer Francis Galton has the distinction of
being the half cousin of another prominent scientist of
the 19th century, Charles Darwin. Galton is known as
the founder of biometry and eugenics.
He was born in 1822, the youngest of seven chil-
dren, into a wealthy Quaker family in Sparkbrook,
near Birmingham, to Samuel Tertius Galton, a banker,
and Frances Anne Violetta Darwin, the half sister of
the physician and poet Erasmus Darwin, father of
Charles Darwin, who would later influence greatly the
mind of Francis.
He was homeschooled by his invalid sister Adele
until he was five and was reading at an early age,
appearing to have close to instant recall. He later
attended King Edward’s School in Birmingham
between 1836 and 1838, and then became an assistant
to the major surgeon in the general hospital of that
city at age 16. He continued his medical education by
attending King’s College in London, and by 1840 he
was attending Trinity College in Cambridge, although
his attention was moving from medicine to mathemat-
ics. He never finished his studies due to a nervous
breakdown and the stress from taking care of a termi-
nally ill father.
By 1865 Galton had become keenly interested in
genetics and heredity and was influenced by his cousin
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Speciesin 1859. In
Galton’sHereditaryGenius(1869) he presented his evi-
dence that talent is an inherited characteristic. In 1872
he took on religion with Statistical Inquiries into the
Efficacy of Prayer.Dalton created the study of eugen-
ics, the scientific study of racial improvement, and a
term he coined, to increase the betterment of humanity
through the improvement of inherited characteristics,
or as he defined it: “the study of agencies, under social
control, that may improve or impair the racial qualities
of future generations, either physically or mentally.”
His thoughts on improving human society became
widely admired.
Galton contributed to other disciplines and
authored several books and many papers. In fact,
between 1852 and 1910, he published some 450 papers
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