WHY WE MEASURE PEOPLE. 3 



toms ; 3. Food ; 4. Clothing ; 5. Dwellings ; 6. Transport. 

 IV. Folk-Lore. — 1. Customs and Beliefs ; 2. Legends and 

 Traditions. V. Archceology. — 1. Survivals; 2. Antiquities. 

 VI. History. VII. Ethnology. VIII. Bibliography. 



It will be evident that this is a somewhat ambitious 

 programme, and although in many instances the information 

 given on a particular subject is meagre, owing to the very 

 limited time available for work in the field, it was con- 

 sidered best to keep to the general scheme in order to 

 emphasise the fact that in all investigations of this kind the 

 widest possible outlook must be kept. 



The late Rev. Dr. Walter Gregor has accomplished 

 some very good work for the committee, especially in the 

 folk-lore and physical characters of the natives of Wigtown- 

 shire and Kircudbrightshire. This south-west corner of 

 Scotland is ethnologically important, as it was the strong- 

 hold of the Picts. a people about whom very contrary 

 opinions exist. A preliminary " Report on Folk-lore in 

 Galloway, Scotland," by the Rev. Walter Gregor, LL.D., 

 was published in the Report of the British Association for 

 1896 (p. 612), and an abstract of the measurements made 

 on the Galloway folk will be printed in the Report of the 

 Association for 1897. A little work has been done on the 

 physical features of the inhabitants of some of the villages 

 near Cambridge ; the main results will also be published in 

 the 1897 Report. Other investigations of a similar nature 

 are now being made under the auspices of the committee. 



It should never be forgotten that these researches owe 

 their inspiration to the laborious investigations of the 

 revered Dr. John Beddoe on the hair and eye-colour of 

 the inhabitants of the British Islands. His results were 

 published in 1885 in his Races of Britain, a book which is 

 a mine of information. Dr. Beddoe also made numerous 

 observations of a similar kind on the continent. 



In 1883 the Anthropometric Committee of the British 

 Association published their final report. The committee 

 was appointed for the purpose of collecting observations on 

 the systematic examination of the height, weight, span, 

 chest girth, breathing capacity, strength, colour-blindness, 



