MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 59 



laboratories where certificates of observed facts should be furnished to 

 any applicant for stated fees. These would contain as exact and com- 

 plete a report of the physiological status of a person as is feasible in 

 the present state of science, by the help of the microscope, chemical 

 tests, and physiological apparatus. Laboratories of this description 

 ouo-ht to be welcome to practicing physicians, who, being unable to 

 keep the necessary apparatus in their consulting-rooms, could send 

 their patients to be examined in any way they wished, whenever they 

 though it desirable to do so. The laboratories would be of the same 

 convenience to them that the Kew Observatory is to physicists, who 

 can send their delicate instruments there to have their errors ascer- 

 tained. 



The data for the medical history of a man's life are the observa- 

 tions made by his physician in his successive illnesses, and I would 

 dwell on the importance of gradually establishing a custom that the 

 medical attendant of each patient should as a matter of course write 

 down such clinical notes of his case as are written at the bedsides of 

 public patients at hospitals. These papers would be for the private 

 and future use of the patient, and would be preserved by him, together 

 with the prescriptions. They would accumulate as the years went by, 

 and would form the materials for a medical life-history of very great 

 value to the patient himself in the illnesses of his later life. The 

 records might be epitomized by his physician from time to time, and 

 they would in that form be an heir-loom to the children of the patient, 

 warning their medical attendants in future years by throwing light on 

 hereditary peculiarities. 



The popular object of this and the previous memoir is to further 

 the accumulation of materials for life-histories in the form of adequate 

 photographs, anthropometric measurements, and medical facts. ~No 

 doubt it would be contrary to the inclinations of most people to take 

 much trouble of the kind about themselves, but I would urge them do 

 so for their children so far as they have opportunities, and to establish a 

 family register for the purpose, filling it up periodically as well as they 

 can. It will have been seen that much may be effected without special 

 apparatus, and on the other hand that much more could be effected, 

 and with increased ease and precision, if anthropometric laboratories 

 existed.' Should a demand arise for such establishments, it would not 

 be difficult to form them in connection with various existing scientific 

 institutions. A few shelves would hold the necessary apparatus. Some- 

 thing useful of the kind could be set on foot at a moment's notice, but 

 it would require much practice and consideration by capable men be- 

 fore a standard outfit could be decided on. 



The motives that might induce a person to take the trouble of get- 

 ting himself accurately measured and appraised from time to time, and 

 of recording the^ results, are briefly as follows : 1. Their biographical 

 interest to the person himself, to his family, and descendants. 2. 



