LXII INTRODUCTOKY 



An outline of the History of Antliropometry, or the attemjjts to ascertain the proportions of 



the human body. 



It is in tlie attempt to establish a standard of measure that is to be found the first 

 efibrt at regular measurement of parts of the human body. From the most remote 

 periods of Avhich any record remains, the cubit, the foot, the hand, &c., have been the 

 convenient standards, which, possessed by every man, enabled him to adjust his deal- 

 ings with his fellows, and served to guide him in the construction of his dwellings and 

 his temples. These primitive measures, though necessai'ily so variable, were found 

 sufficient during many ages, and, indeed, are to this day in use even by those nations 

 which have possessed themselves of a precise standard — the product of very complex 

 and delicate calculations. Toward the close of the last century, certain French math- 

 ematicians carried to completion, with admirable skill and perseverance, the bold con- 

 ception of measui-ing an arc of a meridian on the earth's surface, from the equator to 

 the pole. A ten-millionth part of this invariable line forms the standard from which are 

 derived all the weights and measures of the metric sj^stem, which seems destined with 

 the progress of knowledge to become the common property of all civilized nations. 

 The en'or which, it is admitted, mars the perfection of this splendid achievement does 

 not practically lessen its utility, since it only requires correction for extremely long 

 measurements. Notwithstanding the possession of these perfect measures, the old-fash- 

 ioned police, or inch, derived from the breadth of the thumb, is still persistently made 

 use of in many parts of France. 



Measurements of the foot, fore-arm, &c., for the purposes of trade, necessarily 

 brought about attempts to ascertain the average foot and the average cubit ; from these 

 admitted standards, artists and sculptors in the earliest days of art endeavored to deduce 

 the perfect human form so far as proportion could produce it. The earliest traces of 

 this, as of most other branches of knowledge, are to be found in the remote civiliza- 

 tion of India. In a Sanscrit manuscript, entitled "Silp)i Sastri," or Treatise on the Fine 

 Arts, the human figure is divided into four hundred and eighty parts, the head being 

 not far from a seventh part of the whole, thus nearly conforming to the best standard. 

 The table is of sufficient interest to be quoted entire : 



Proportions of the human hody, from the " SUpi Sastri. " 



Tarts. 



The hair 15 



The face _ : 55 



The neck 25 



The chest 55 



From the chest to the umbilicus 55 



Thence to the pubes > 53 



Thence to the knee - - 90 



The knee itself . . 30 



The lesr and foot 102 



Entire height . 480 



