MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 55 



knowledge of the life-history of individuals, but for the most part 

 toward other theoretical investigations. In some cases elaborate in- 

 struments and methods of observation have been devised by which 

 certain faculties have been tested with extreme minuteness ; in other 

 cases no well-contrived and approved system of examination exists. 

 If everything should be stated by which anthropometry might profit, 

 the effect would be not unlike the map of some partially-settled coun- 

 try, drawn on a scale so large as to show the cadastral survey of its 

 principal town-lands. A fraction of the whole would thus be minutely 

 engraved, the wide adjacent regions would be represented by a few 

 lines of route, and the remainder would consist of blanks. In order 

 to convey in the best way an idea of what is known about such a coun- 

 try as this, the general map of it should be on a small scale, and then 

 uniformity of treatment becomes possible. Acting on this principle, 

 I shall avoid entering into details on those subjects where there exists 

 very much to speak of, and shall nowhere go further than is sufficient 

 to express the simpler requirements of anthropometry. 



Let us, then, consider how we should set to work to define and de- 

 scribe the various bodily faculties of a person whom we had ample 

 means of observing, say one of our own children. Some of the obser- 

 vations could hardly be made except at a properly equipped anthropo- 

 metric laboratory ; others, as it will be seen, could at present be car- 

 ried on best in the play-ground. I shall not care to distinguish these 

 in the description ; they will be obvious enough when they occur. The 

 tests would define the capacities of the person at the moment when he 

 was observed. They are expected to be renewed at intervals, so as to 

 serve as records of successive periods in his life-history. 



Photography was the subject of my last memoir. I showed that 

 the features should be taken in full face and in exact profile, and on 

 not too small a scale that of about one seventh of the natural size 

 being, perhaps, the most convenient. I also spoke of other photo- 

 graphs in less formal attitudes, to show the whole figure and gesture. 

 In some of these the limbs might be more or less bared to exhibit the 

 muscular development. 



I need not dwell upon the usual anthropometric measurements. 

 They should of course be made, and probably no better rules can be 

 followed in making them than those of the present Anthropometric 

 Committee of the British Association. These measurements refer to 

 height, to weight, to chest-girth (but only if taken by skilled observers 

 on a uniform plan), to capacity of lungs (also under those condi- 

 tions), and to color of hair and eyes. Other data are asked for in 

 the instructions issued by the committee which would also require 

 to be recorded, and which may as well be mentioned now such 

 as birthplace and residence, whether in town or country, both of the 

 person and of his parents ; also their race, whether English, Scotch, 

 or Irish, etc. 



