**, 





CHATTER XVII 



ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORIES 



Laboratory at the International Health Exhibition That in the Science 

 Gallery, South Kensington New instruments Finger-prints 

 adopted by the Home Office Letter from M. Alphonse Bertillon 



MY inquiries into hereditary genius, of which 

 I shall speak in a later chapter, were suffi- 

 ciently advanced before the year 1865 to show the 

 pressing necessity of obtaining a multitude of exact 

 measurements relating to every measurable faculty 

 of body or mind, for two generations at least, on 

 which to theorise. I therefore set myself to work 

 in many directions towards achieving this object, in 

 some cases for immediate use, in others to bear fruit 

 hereafter. 



The first attempt was to stimulate schools to weigh 

 and measure, which was successful at Marlborough 

 College, through the aid of the then Headmaster, 

 Dr. Farrar, afterwards Archdeacon of Westminster, 

 and later still Dean of Canterbury, who was enthusi- 

 astic about all improvements. Subsequently, I wrote 

 an article in the Fortnightly Review, March 1882, 

 beginning with, " When shall we have Anthropometric 

 Laboratories, where a man may from time to time 

 get himself and his children weighed, measured, and 



rightly photographed, and have each of their bodily 



244 



