Bauer, Irmgard (2021) Book review of "The Art of Travel, or Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries" by Sir Francis Galton. Phoenix Press, London, UK. ISBN: 1-84212-209-6. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 41. 102034.

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Abstract

[Extract] Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), a cousin of Charles Darwin, was a man of many talents and immense curiosity. As a statistician, he developed measures of tendency, normal distribution, standard devia-tion, correlation and other procedures. His interest in eugenics lead to work on fingerprint identification, twin-studies and blood transfusions. Meticulous research in many other fields included tropical exploration. The Art of Travel is a collection of travel advice based on personal experience after finding no valuable information for his journey to South-West Africa, as well as advice, hints and tips from other travellers of his time. Importantly, Galton verified most of the second-hand advice before entering it in his compendium, which became the standard guide for the serious English traveller to ‘uncivilized’ places, predominantly in Africa. Although there were further editions, this fifth edition (1872) is the most comprehensive. Several publishers have reprinted the book in recent years, including a free eBook, the latter, unfortunately, without the indispensable illustrative images, sketches, plans and tables.

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