October 6, 1904] 



NA TURE 



561 



AXTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 



ASSOCIATION. 



'T'HE address of the president, Mr. Henry Balfour, dealt 



with the subject of evolution in the material arts as 

 illustrated by the work of the late Lieut. -General Pitt 

 Rivers, and has been already printed in full in Nature 

 (September i). 



Evolution in the Material Arts, 

 The remainder of the programme on August i8 was appro- 

 priately reserved for rommunications which illustrated the 

 application of the theory of evolution to special problems of 

 art and technology, as follows : — 



Prof. Oscar Montelius gave a demonstration of the evolu- 

 tion of the lotus ornament, which, though it brought for- 

 ward no new points, gave a well illustrated survey of the 

 work of Goodyear and others, and analysed the complicated 

 results of the interaction of naturalistic and conventional 

 treatments of the same original motive. The discussion 

 which followed was mainly directed to secure recognition 

 for other plant-motives, such as the fleur-de-lys, iris, 

 papyrus, as "being partlv responsible for certain variations 

 of the " lotus-ornament," and the inevitable skirmish 

 followed the mention of the " Ionic capital." 



Prof. Flinders Petrie's note on the entomology of scarabs 

 distinguished five principal types of scarab-backs, designed 

 in imitation of five genera of beetles, Scarabaeus, 

 Catharsius, Copris, Gymnopleurus, and Hypselogenia, and 

 showed how the characteristic forms of the head, elytra, 

 and legs of these genera have given rise to a large number 

 of conventional variants. The use of other beetles besides 

 the true Scarabaeus, for magical purposes, is well attested 

 both by the medical papyri and by the modern folk-lore of 

 Eg.vpt- 



Prof. Flinders Petrie's description of his excavations 

 at Ehnasya (Herakleopolis .Magna), in Egypt, was chiefly 

 noteworthy for his comparative study of the forms of the 

 Roman lamps and terra-cotta figurines, which were obtained 

 in large enough numbers to afford an intelligible series. 

 Here, also, a very few principal types have degenerated 

 into numerous conventional and unintelligible variations, 

 which have often influenced each other .'»nd given rise to 

 fresh types based on misinterpretation of the blurred forms. 

 In this instance it is noteworthy that the older and purer 

 forms can be proved to have survived alongside even the 

 most corrupt ; as if the latter, though well established, pur- 

 sued a separate course, and failed to supplant their arche- 

 types. 



Another point of some interest in this connection is Prof. 

 Petrie's discovery, near Ehnasya, of a modern Coptic 

 cemetery which preserves, in its tomb-fa(;ades and enclosures, 

 many architectural features which are characteristic of 

 ancient Egyptian burial-places. 



Mr. R. T. Gunther read on .August 22 a study of the 

 cimaruta, a common Neapolitan charm representing in 

 silver a sprig of rue with magical symbols appended. He 

 brought together a large number of examples, and supplied 

 full details of the successive developments which the 

 originally naturalistic model has undergone, as well as of 

 the significance of the emblems which have been added to 

 the rue-plant to increase its prophylactic powers. 



Physical Deterioration and Anthropometric Surveys. 



The session of -August iq was devoted to a systematic dis- 

 cussion of the alleged physical deterioration of the people of 

 these islands, with special reference to the recent report of the 

 Privy Council Committef, and to the scheme proposed by 

 the association's commi'^ee on anthropometric investigation 

 for the organisation of an anthropometric bureau to collect 

 and analyse more adequate data than those which are at 

 present available 



The report of the committee on anthropometric investi- 

 gation <vas read by the secretary, Mr. J. Gray. Some 

 progress has been made in the determination of the 

 necessary standards of measurement, and the chairman and 

 secretary of the committee have given evidence before the 

 Privy Council's Committee as to the data which already 

 existed, and as to the best means of securing an 

 adequate, continuous, and homogeneous series in future. 

 The committee recommends a small permanent anthropo- 



NO. 1823, VOL. 70] 



metric bureau, organised as a committee of the Privy 

 Council, with an honorary consultative body, a director and 

 deputy director (trained, one in anthropology, the other in 

 statistical method), and an adequate body of surveyors, 

 male and female, who would visit schools, factories, and 

 other institutions, and secure representative sets of measure- 

 ments. .An appendi.x to the report takes account of the 

 surveys already in progress in Scottish schools and lunatic 

 asylums, in London hospitals, in Dorsetshire, and among 

 the gipsies of the Scottish border. 



Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S., who is chairman of 

 the anthropometric committee, accepted the general con- 

 clusion of the " epoch making " report of the Privy Council 

 Committee, that there was no serious physical deterioration 

 in the nation at large, but held strongly that without proper 

 environment and nurture, and particularly without proper 

 air and food, it was impossible to maintain in the coming 

 generation the mean national standard of physique to which 

 a people tends naturally to approximate, so far as outward 

 circumstances permit. Slow evolutionary changes in this 

 phvsical standard are taking place, but except in regard to 

 the teeth, which are degenerating rapidly, they may be 

 neglected in practice. The recent improvement in the 

 physique of women of the upper and middle classes is due 

 to healthier conditions and habits, and illustrates their 

 effects. In spite, however, of the labours of the British 

 Association's .Anthropometric Committee in 1878-83, the 

 evidence on which all inferences have been based hitherto 

 is fragmentary, ill coordinated, and quite inadequate, and a 

 systematic survey such as is now proposed would put the 

 whole matter on a quite different footing. The cost would 

 be slight, and the national advantage incalculable. 



Dr. F. C. Shrubsall followed with a comparison of the 

 physical characters of hospital patients with those of healthy 

 individuals from the same areas, with suggestions as to the 

 influence of selection by disease on the constitution of city 

 populations. Blondes are found to suffer more than 

 brunettes from rheumatic disorders, and less from tuber- 

 culosis, nervous disorders, and cancer. Blondes also suffer 

 more from disease in childhood, and their numbers and 

 proportion consequently diminish until the age of twenty to 

 twenty-five, when the pulmonary tuberculosis of the 

 brunettes begins rapidly to redress the balance. In cities, 

 the most overcrowded and most unhealthy areas are con- 

 sequently the most brunette, and also have the highest 

 infant mortality through the extinction of blonde children 

 by disease. Dr. Shrubsall's paper was well illustrated with 

 original tables and maps, and was evidently followed with 

 close attention. 



Mr. J. Gray then explained in detail the working of an 

 anthropometric survey, and the valuable results which may 

 be e.xpected from it in anthropological science, and in 

 practical economy and hygiene. Civilisation has brought 

 so many new influences to bear on the more advanced races 

 of mankind that more accurate and copious observations are 

 required to detect in their inception deep-seated changes 

 in the relation of man to his environment, the effects of 

 which mav be controlled if recognised in time. 



The president of the association, who occupied the chair 

 in the section throughout the session, opened the discussion 

 by the inquiry, what is the precise nature and effect of the 

 set of circumstances which we describe as "town life"? 

 the most important of the temporary and obvious causes 

 of physical deterioration, as opposed to the permanent and 

 insidious causes indicated by Dr. Cunningham. Mere want 

 of indoor ventilation, for example, does not produce deterior- 

 ation, e.g. in the one-room cottages of the gigantic Low- 

 landers of Scotland ; and both sanitation and quality of 

 food ace, on the whole, better in the towns than in the 

 country. .Among the causes which might produce per- 

 manent changes in the national physique, three seemed 

 particularly noteworthy. Since marriage is later, and 

 families are smaller, in the middle classes than in the lower, 

 facilities for *' rising," such as are given by modern educa- 

 tion, cannot but diminish the proportion in the next 

 generation of the offspring of the more efficient in this. 

 Town life, too, by encouraging a brunette population. 

 Is altering the inherited characteristics of the nation at 

 the expense of the traits which we owe to our blonde 

 ancestry. Further, town life, by attracting the more 

 energetic elements in the rural population, is throwing 



