692 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



physiology and psychology have done, or found the same practical 

 issue. In the past an immense amount of material has been 

 amassed, but the value of it in adding to our knowledge of the 

 development of the child has not been commensurate with the 

 effort expended. For this there have been several reasons — 



(1) The inherent difficulties in deciding upon the kind and 

 quantity of the data to be collected and the method of collection. 



(2) Inadequate treatment of the data collected. 



(3) The quality of the work frequently suffered from the 

 observer having given the subject no preliminary study and bringing 

 pre-conceptions and biassed judgment to bear on his enquiry. 



Such preliminary groping has not been, in a sense, wasted effort, 

 since it has helped to reveal the deficiencies in the material and its 

 treatment judged according to modern anthropological and statis- 

 tical requirements. It has advanced us to a better understanding of 

 what are the essential requirements in determining the relative im- 

 portance of heredity and environment on the mental and physical fit- 

 ness of the child. Enviromnent has had for long an almost exclusive 

 following as the chief factor, and much of modern hygiene has been 

 developed in a firm behef in its potency. Quite recently, however, the 

 school of tliinkers, beginning with Galton and continued by Karl 

 Pearson and the rigid statistical methods of the Eugenics Laboratory, 

 have made strong claims for the investigation of heredity as aprimary 

 factor. 



The essentials of a profitable anthropometric enquiry would 

 seem to be — 



(1) Careful selection of data appropriate to the enquiry and 

 the needs of the statistician, i.e., of [a) physical facts, {b) environ- 

 mental factors, hygienic, economic, and social ; (c) racial origin of 

 at least parents and grandparents. 



(2) Accurate and uniform method of collection according to an 

 accredited standard. 



(3) Treatment accorded to modern statistical method. 



As showing the importance of the first essential, namely, careful 

 selection of data, one cannot do better than take the recent memoir 

 of the Eugenics Laboratory of London University, by David Heron 

 on "The Influence of Defective Physique and Unfavourable En- 

 vironment on the Intelligence of School Children." 



He approaches Ms problem by some observations on what is 

 essential for arriving at the truth. He says that enquiries as to 

 origin of parents, and observations on eye and hair colour, must 

 accompany the records of height, weight and chest measurements. 

 He points out that if a number of children attending a school in a 

 poor neighbourhood are found to be much under the average height 

 and weight it may be the result of environment, or it may equally be 

 a racial difference ; further enquiry may show different hair and 

 eye colours and a poor-class Irish or Italian community. He says 

 also that the environment itself may be racially selected, attracting 



