English Victorian polymath who created the statistical concept of correlation and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on communities. He wrote over 340 books and papers and his 1869 book Hereditary Genius was the first social scientific attempt to study genius and greatness. He was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and in 1850 he joined the Royal Geographical Society, with whom he mounted a difficult expedition into then little-known South West Africa.
