26 



Mr. Vanderkindere has published the result of 608,698 observa- 

 tions on the colour of hair and eyes of children in the primary 

 and communal schools. In the North -Western provinces of 

 Russia, M. Snigerev has published a considerable body of statistics 

 of heiglit and chest measurements. In Italy, the Government 

 have published many important papers on anthropometric subjects. 

 In France, Dr. Topinard, M. Hamy, and others, have made 

 many valuable contributions to our knowledge of these questions. 

 In Germany, Prof. Virchow has completed observations on the 

 colour of the hair, eyes, and skin of 6,758,:^87 children in 

 schools. In Denmark, the Rev. R. Mailing Hansen has published 

 his observations on the deaf-mutes in an institution under his care, 

 and has deduced a number of coincidences between the variations 

 in their weight and those in the temperature of the atmosphere. 



These researches have not let us into any very deep secrets of 

 nature, but they have at least shown us that which we might 

 reasonably have expected to be the case — that health and well-being 

 of all kinds are promoted by the extension of information and the 

 advantageous circumstances that we have described under the head 

 of nurture ; from all which we may gather that the person who 

 plants in a densely-populated district a People's Palace with its 

 classes for learning, its gymnasia, and its grounds for recreation, is 

 doing much to develop and improve the physical characteristics of 

 the people, and may be able to give the Anthropometric Committee 

 of another generation the pleasant duty of measuring taller and 

 heavier and healthier men, M'ith fuller faculties and greater powers 

 and means of physical enjoyment. 



