PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 543 
they may approximate, as nearly as possible, the ideal 
human type. As a first step towards this, it is necessary 
to determine a standard by which physical development 
may be tested. This can be done by taking measurements 
of a large number of children, and summarising the results 
according to approved methods. 
The first and immediate result of this systematic mea- 
surement is to render apparent the law of normal growth. 
This being known, deviations therefrom may then be recog- 
nised. All educators periodically examine their pupils 
to ascertain the mental progress produced by their instruc- 
tion, but it is no less necessary for the well-being of children 
that their physical growth and change be submitted to 
examination equally searching and intelligent. It is only 
by such examination that the evil effects of over-study, 
or insufficient nourishment, or lack of exercise, or even 
of unhappy temperament may be detected and _ intel- 
ligently combated. 
Few will venture to doubt that at the age when physical 
growth advances most rapidly in children there should 
be a corresponding diminution in the amount of school- 
work required of them, and that the greatest care should 
be taken that the mind is not cultivated at the expense of 
the body, nor the body unnecessarily cared for to the 
detriment of the mind. The natural inter-relation of the 
various physical powers and functions of an individual 
constitutes the health of that individual. From those in 
whom this condition of equilibrium is wanting, or dis- 
turbed, the ordinary amount of labour cannot be exacted 
without injury. It is of immense importance, therefore, 
that we should ascertain the effects upon boys and girls 
of their school life, so that if there be any hygienic faults 
connected therewith, they may be remedied. A deputation, 
considerable alike in numbers and in importance, is knock- 
ing at our doors, and the countless millions of posterity 
demand that we should safeguard their interests. It is 
our duty to heal and develop the stunted and deformed 
bodies, ill-balanced brains, and defective senses, which 
are to be found in all our schools, and, by discovering the 
causes of these defects, to remove them, so that the young 
of our race may have the full use and enjoyment of life. 
Comparative anthropometry will teach us how far exces- 
sive study is to be blamed for injuries to the eyesight, 
chest capacity, or muscular powers, and whether we may 
not oftener than is supposed trace the objectionable symp- 
toms to. preventible causes—to badly ventilated rooms, 
