Stathfiral Investigation* 337 



Galton confines his attention to the data for apo, hciplit and weitrht, and 

 remarks : 



"It KctMns to nip Ix'tter not to Hp<^k at pri'nent of llu! ati' •ins 



that iiii^ht 1)0 Nolv(>(i by a widor ranj;<' of in(|uiry; U'caui»<> if » ■•<>•>■ 



wo ask to ff>w and HJniple quest ions, wn art> far niorp likely to have ihciii WfU ami thoroughly 

 answ(<rp(l, than if we lia<l iKNui-d a nioro ainhitioun progrnniinc." (p. 310.) 



Anthropometric measurements were soon taken at a numl)er of schools 

 and in some schools anthroponu'tric hvboratories estahhshed. From the schools 

 they spread to the Universities (Camhridge, 1884; Oxford, 1908; London, 

 Galton Luhoratory, 1920). But on the whole there has been a tendency to 

 take in routine fa.shion a few .superficial measurements, and not use the 

 anthropometric laboratory as a means of solving detinit*^ problems, physical 

 or mental. They might still be of value if a little inspiration were thrown 

 into their work and psycliic or dynamic qualities me»isured rather than 

 superficial static characteristics. One result of the nroposjil was those returns 

 (ix)in the public schools, upon which Galton ba.sea his paper on the weight 

 and height of boys in town and country schools discus.sed on our p. 125. 



Another somewhat slender paper of this period is entitled: "Excess of 

 Females in the West Indian Islands from d(wuments communicjited to the 

 Anthropological Institute by the Colonial Office'." This paper gives statistics 

 sliuwing the excess of females in most of the West Indian colonies, although 

 tliere is an exce.ss of male l)irths. Tlie anomaly is partly due to mortality 

 following dissipation in the young of the male sex, but more extensively to 

 adult male emigration. The whole topic miglit now be redi.scus.sed with 

 fifty years ailditional statistics, and would not be without interest. As 

 Galton remarked in 1874 each of the West Indian Islands is an individual 

 .social experiment, and each therefore deserves the pains of a .separate and 

 tliorougii statistical investigation. 



The collection of statistical data was, however, not the only point that 

 Galton had in view ; he sought to make statistical theory simple and of ea.sy 

 application, and he risked tlie po.ssibility that loss of refinement might involve 

 decreased accuracy and a drawing of over hasty conclusioTis. His " Proposed 

 St.'itistical Scale" was first given at a Royal Institution Friday evening dis- 

 course on February 27, 1874. lie followed the lecture up by a letter to Mature 

 on March 5, 1874'. His communication embraced the idea of "ranks," and the 

 whole theoiy of ranks has been developed from this origin. It is easy to recog- 

 nise that it is oflen less difficult to place two persons in order as to the in- 

 tensities they possess of any physical or psychical character than actually to 

 mea.sure those intensities. A trained .schoolin.Lster can "rank" his chuss for 

 intelligence with veiy considerable accuracy. If a numlier of individuals be 

 |)laced in order of their intensity for any character, they are arranged accord- 

 ing to (Jalton on a "statistical .scale" (S.8.). The grade of any individual is then 

 determined by the percentage of the whole population who stand above that 

 individual on the statistical scale. The middle man — or the man who woirid 

 stand half-way between the two middle men if there were two — was later said 



' Jour. Anthrop. hist. Vol. iv, pp. 136-7, 1874. = Vol. ix, p. 342 (abstract of lecture, p. 344). 

 i> a II ' 43 



