19 



being 84 ; while all the other skulls were dolichocephalic or low 

 mesaticephalic, their mean index being 76. It is suggested that he 

 was the one tall Roman resident in a village occupied by short 

 Britons. 



Much difference of opinion exists on the question at what 

 period man attains his full stature. Some French writers maintain 

 that growth in height goes on until the 32nd or 35th year, and 

 Dr. Eaxter arrives at the same conclusion from the statistics of the 

 United States' army ; while most English writers regard the 2.5th 

 as the year of mature gi'owth, and Dr. Beddoe places it as early 

 as the 23rd year. It is not to the general results of the whole 

 population, which are modified by the fact that those who die out 

 of it may or may not differ from the average, and probably will do 

 so, but to statistics, if they can be obtained, of the same individuals 

 in successive years, that we must look for the answer to the 

 question. Mr. Charles Roberts concludes that, allowing for these 

 sources of error, and judging by the run of the curves formed by 

 the means and averages, it is probable that little actual growth 

 takes place after the age of 21, and that it entirely ceases by the 

 25th year. 



In order to obtain continuous observations of individuals, and 

 thus get rid of the difficulty arising from the elimination of the 

 weaker in successive averages derived from observations of the 

 general population, Mr. Francis Galton has published a work which 

 he calls "The Life History Album." He prepared it under the 

 direction of the Collective Investigation Committee of the British 

 Medical Association, of the Life History Sub-Committee of which 

 he was Chairman. Mr. Galton mentions a curious circumstance 

 that Messrs. Berry, wine and coffee merchants, of St. James' Street, 

 commenced in the year 1765 a plan of gratuitously registering the 

 weights of their customers, and that their registers have been 

 continued ever since, and contain many thousand entries. It does 

 not appear whether they have applied these records to any special 

 purpose, or formed any conclusions from them ; though one can 

 imagine a good many curious questions arising on such a record. 



Mr. Galton desires that anthropometric observations should 

 be made at the end of the fifth year of age, and in each sub- 



