4 Anthropological Investigations. 



ii. Diameter bi-auricular of the head (the width of the head in 

 front and a little above the tragus of the ears). 



12. The smallest width of the forehead. 



In addition to these measurements, the average pressure and 

 traction force of each child in each of its hands was secured. j 



The child having been measured, was subjected to a thorough 

 inspection. The inspection in boys comprised every part of the 

 body. This was also the case in the very small girls. In girls 

 above eight, the private parts of the body remained carefully covered. 



In addition to the body, the structures in the mouth were exam- 

 ined, and finally the lungs and the heart were submitted to careful 

 percussion and auscultation. 



To all examination-records were appended the most essential 

 facts from the history of the child and its family. 



The Object of the Investigations. 



The principal aim of these investigations, briefly expressed, is to 

 learn as much as possible about the physical state of the children 

 who are being admitted and kept in juvenile asylums. 



In the second place, this study is a part of the general anthropo- 

 logical work of the author and thus expected to result in an addition 

 to our knowledge of the normal child, and of several classes of 

 children who are, morally or otherwise, abnormal. 



It is well known that many of the children admitted into the 

 juvenile asylums come from very poor classes of people. The 

 second large contingent of the inmates are children who have been 

 sent to the institution as incorrigible or even criminal. Both these 

 classes of children are from sociological point of view abnormal, 

 and it is important to learn how far their physical characteristics 

 correspond to their moral character. 



It is self-evident that if either or both of the two classes of children 

 were found to correspond physically to their social or moral state, 

 that is, if they were physically inferior to other children of the same 

 sex and similar age, then these subjects would have to be considered 

 as generally handicapped in the struggle of life. The only thing 

 which could be done for such children in an institution like the 

 Juvenile Asylum would be to more or less compensate for their 



