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ABSTRACT OF A PAPER 



READ BY 



E. W. BRABROOK, Esq., F.S.A., 



ON 



RECENT INVESTIGATIONS 



INTO THE 



HEIGHT, WEIGHT, AND OTHER PHYSICAL 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MEN IN THE 



BRITISH ISLES. 



■iZth NOVEMBER, 1883. 



The British Association, at its Bristol Meeting in 1875, 

 appointed an Anthropometric Committee for the purpose of 

 collecting observations on the systematic examination of the 

 heights, weights, and other physical characters of the inha- 

 bitants of the British Isles. The committee, after eight 

 years' labour, presented at the Southport Meeting in the 

 present year its final report, prepared by Sir Rawson W. 

 Rawson and Mr. Charles Roberts. It had collected observa- 

 tions of about 53,000 individuals so distributed among the 

 various classes of society and over the surface of the country 

 as to afford a sufficient indication to warrant conclusions as 

 to the effect of nurture, race, locality, and occupation upon 

 the physical condition of the people. For example, in the 

 I2th year of age, the mean height of boys in country public 

 schools is 55 inches; town, 54^; in upper middle class 

 schools, 54 ; lower, 53^ ; in elementary schools among agri- 

 cultural labourers, 53 ; among town artizans, 52^ ; among 

 factory workshops in the country', 52 ; in towns, 51-^ ; in 

 military asylums, 51; pauper schools, 50-^; industrial schools, 

 50. At ages a little older, the statistics of the Committee 

 afford means of interesting comparison with some with which 

 Dr. Ord has favoured me, collected by himself several years 



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