PART I 



GENERAL 

 ARMY ANTHROPOMETRY 



URGENCY OF BETTER STANDARDS OF PHYSICAL 

 EXAMINATIONS 



The science of anthropometry or physical anthropology includes 

 primarily the systematic examination and precise ascertainment of the 

 physical characteristics of the human body. As a branch of anthro- 

 pology, or the science of man in general, anthropometry concerns itself 

 with the measurable aspects and proportions of the human body and 

 the divergence from the normal averages according to climate, race, 

 sex, social condition, etc. Physical anthropology has a literature of its 

 own and a vast field of eminently practical and increasing application 

 to social, industrial and military requirements. As observed by Seaver, 

 "A determination of the laws of physical growth for the human animal 

 has done more to correct educational methods than any other influence 

 in pedagogy." Within recent years the physical fitness of men, women 

 and young persons for highly specialized labor functions has become 

 clearly recognized by the industrial physician responsible for the main- 

 tenance of the highest degree of health and efficiency in the operation 

 of industrial plants. The term "anthropometry" was coined by Quetelet, 

 but in its broader significance the work of the anthropometrician and the 

 physical examiner represents rather the field of physical anthropology 

 than a highly specialized branch of human anatomy and the practice of 

 medicine as a healing art. Osteology constitutes the major portion of 

 the basic and measurable material in physical anthropology, chiefly, of 

 course, the skeleton, the size and relative proportions of which vary 

 widely according to age, sex, race, etc. * The correlation of skeletal 

 proportions to the physiological and pathological characteristics of the 

 human body has not as yet been ascertained to the degree of scientific 

 exactitude required to justify definite conclusions on many questions of 

 serious concern to both the physician and the physical anthropologist. 

 A successful adaptation of the human machine to the always more or 

 less highly complex requirements of modern social and economic life 



* The principal works on general anthropology utilized in connection with this investigation 

 are the following: Anthropology, by P. Topinard, translated by R. T. H. Hartley, London, 

 1878; Manual of Anthropometry, by C. Roberts, London, 1878; The Study of Man, by Alfred 

 C. Haddon, New York, 1898; The Races of "Europe, by William Z. Ripley, New York, 1899; 

 Skeletal Remains in North America, by Ales Hrdlicka, Washington, 1907; The Human Spe- 

 cies, by Ludwig Hopf, London, 1909; Pedagogical Anthropology, by Maria Montessori, New 

 York, 1913; The Races of Man, by J. Deniker, New York (n. d.). 



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