ANTHROPOMETRY 33 



this work is lost to science and even tends to create prejudice against 

 anthropometry in general. 



Evidently enough it is imperative for those who have the interests 

 of physical anthropology in this country at heart to mend conditions as 

 rapidly as may be possible, and one of the first and most urgently desir- 

 able steps is to furnish legitimate, readily utilizable instructions in scien- 

 tific anthropometry. It was with this end in view that the American 

 Journal of Physical Anthropology published the International 

 Agreements on Anthropometry, the most binding of all of our instruc- 

 tions. But these alone are not sufficient. They are in certain respects 

 incomplete and somewhat too curt. Moreover, they do not deal with 

 descriptive characteristics and, while forming a necessary nucleus, are 

 not all that the student wants and needs. Some good instructions in 

 English for taking measurements and observations are to be found in 

 the "Notes and Queries on Anthropology " of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, but the subject there is not dealt with 

 as much in detail as desirable. The American student in anthro- 

 pology, and in growing measure also the American medical investi- 

 gator, asks for a readily available, as simple as possible and yet 

 sufficiently comprehensive, strictly modern, and thoroughly correct 

 treatise on anthropometry. 



The question is how and how far these demands may be met under 

 the present circumstances. Were American anthropologists more 

 numerous, the best way would doubtless be for them to undertake the 

 important task jointly and impersonally. As conditions are, however, 

 it appears that the first steps must be individual; and in taking the 

 same the author does so only because his extensive field as well as 

 laboratory experience in this line gives hope that something service- 

 able may be accomplished. His work has been based throughout 

 on the methods of the Ecole d'Anthropologie in Paris and on the so 

 far effected international agreements, with only such additions or 

 modifications as experience on different races, classes, and ages of 

 people and on their skeletal remains has shown to be necessary or 

 advisable. 



The procedures, instruments, etc., to be here described, are those 

 in regular use at the Division of Physical Anthropology, U. S. National 

 Museum and in field work for the same. They are also, in the main, 

 in use at Harvard and elsewhere, and form the basis of instruction 

 given to the students who apply for that purpose at the National 

 Museum. 



