STANDARDIZING MEASUREMENTS OF THE LIVING 



RICHARD H. POST 



Smith College 



During the summer of 1929 the undersigned visited 17 leading anthro- 

 pometrists in Europe and the United States to learn their techniques. The 

 conclusions drawn from these visits are that many of the common measure- 

 ments of the living are made from a variety of different anatomical points 

 and with a variety of different techniques; that data on the same measure- 

 ments gathered by different observers are therefore quite apt to be in- 

 comparable; consequently that there is great need for anthropometrists 

 selecting the best techniques for taking their measurements and abiding 

 by these at least in all work which might be useful in making comparisons 

 with other workers' data. 



Further differences were found in the choice of measurements, such as 

 whether to take chest girth or the transverse and anterior-posterior diame- 

 ters; whether to take sitting height directly or to compute it from stature 

 and iliospinal height; etc. Agreement as to such questions would increase 

 our total amount of comparative data. 



Examples of the most outstanding differences in technique and anatomi- 

 cal landmarks follow. 



Sitting height was found to be taken with the subject sitting on a table 

 with the feet hanging free, and sitting on stools 50 cm. high, 40 cm. and 

 30 cm. high. Some investigators require that the knees be bent at right 

 angles, others that they be extended straight. These differences are 

 enough to cause differences in the tilt of the pelvis which would affect the 

 total measurement. Some investigators make the subject lean his back 

 against a wall; others do not. Some require that the eye-ear plane be drawn 

 on the subject's skin so that the head may be kept horizontal. Some do not 

 require the subject to "sit up straight." 



Bicristal diameter is taken both from the lateral margins of the iliac 

 spines and from the most anterior points of the spines. 



Head height is measured by some as the distance above tragion and by 

 others as the distance above the center of the auditory meatus. This 

 distance may be at right angles to the eye-ear plane or it may be the 



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