ANTHKOPOMETRY 



ALE§ HRDLICKA 



INTRODUCTION 



Definition: Anthropometry may perhaps be most simply and com- 

 prehensively defined as the conventional art or system of measuring 

 the human body and its parts. The systems of measuring the skull 

 and the skeleton are known separately as craniometry and osteometry, 

 but these terms are frequently merged with that of anthropometry; 

 thus we speak only of anthropometric instruments, anthropometric 

 methods anthropometric laboratories. 



Object: The object of anthropometry is to supplement visual ob- 

 servation, which is always more or less limited and uncertain, by ac- 

 curate mechanical determinations. The ideal function of anthropom- 

 etry would be the complete elimination of personal bias, and the 

 furnishing of absolutely correct data on such dimensions of the body, 

 organs, or skeleton, as might be of importance to those who are to 

 use the measurements. This ideal is not attainable to a perfection, 

 but it is the highest duty for every worker to strive for as close ap- 

 proach to it as may be in his power. 



Diversity: Anthropometry in general is not and may never be one 

 uniform system. It is a handmaid to various classes of workers who 

 have different objects in view, and measurements that are indispens- 

 able to one may be of no concern to another. 



Measurements of the body were begun and are used by the artisan, 

 and by the artist, the object of the one being a proper "fit' and that 

 of the other a correct or artistically superior production. They were 

 and are employed in recruiting armies, with the aim of eliminating 

 the inferiors. They are used to some extent by medical men and 

 dentists, to assist them in reaching diagnosis or tracing improvement 

 in their patients. They enter largely into the modern systems of col- 

 lege and other gymnastics, and lately also into those of the popular 

 baby studies. Certain measurements play important role in crimino- 

 logical and medico-legal identification. Finally, we have measure- 

 ments that have become invaluable aids to scientific research in physi- 

 ology, anatomy and especially anthropology. 



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