^62 



NATURE 



[October b, 1904 



upon the less efficient remainder the greater part of the 

 burden of continuing the race. Town life, however, does 

 not seem to be among the factors which it is possible to 

 eliminate by legislation, and it is permanently selective 

 agencies such as this which affect the actual quality of a 

 race. 



Sir John Gorst considered it proved that a large propor- 

 tion of the nation lives in conditions unfavourable to normal 

 development, and that the race is being propagated in 

 undue proportion by the lowest and least fit. The general 

 death-t'ate decreases, for instance, but not the death-rate 

 for infants. Legislation might fairly prohibit marriage 

 between the immature or the mentally unfit ; but the main 

 cause of the relative increase in the low-class birth-rate is, 

 as the Royal Commission in New South Wales has shown, 

 the luxurious reluctance of the well-to-do to take their share 

 in bringing up the next generation. Meanwhile, in so far 

 as it controls any part of a child's lifetime, as it does by 

 compulsory education, the State is so far responsible for 

 securing it sufficient air and food. There are many ways 

 of securing these and of coercing neglectful parents, and 

 local authorities might well be given permission to experi- 

 ment in the manner suggested by the medical faculty of 

 Scotland in regard to the Scottish Education Bill. 



Prof. Rudolfo Livi, director of the Italian Military Survey, 

 described its methods, and replied to Dr. Cunningham's 

 criticisms of military measurements. Conscript statistics, 

 however, yield more representative data than those of a 

 voluntary army, and the Italian survey establishes clearly 

 the correlation between prosperity and enlightenment and 

 immunity from disease. In England, probably the miti- 

 gation of extreme social conditions favoured a relatively 

 high physique. 



Mr. E. W. Brabrook, secretary of the British Association 

 Committee of 1878-83, urged the importance of uniformity 

 of measurements, and assured the anthropometric com- 

 mittee of the cooperation of existing surveys. 



Major McCulloch described the survey, recently ordered, 

 of children in army schools, and discussed practical difficul- 

 ties of uniform measurements. Prof. A. Macalister insisted 

 on the necessity for large numbers of observations. 

 Statistical conclusions from inadequate data are fallacious. 



Mrs. Watt Smyth recommended the inclusion of simple 

 anthropometric observations in the ordinary routine of 

 school registration as an aid to the teacher in following 

 the development of the child. In Boston, U.S.A., such dailv 

 observation greatly diminished the risk of infectious disease. 

 The valuable results thus attained would facilitate a full 

 national survey. 



Other papers on anthropological organisation occupied the 

 afternoon of August 19. Mr. Edgar Thurston described the 

 progress of the ethnographic survey in Madras, of which 

 he has been the principal organiser, going into details as 

 to method and cost, the nature of the evidence which it is 

 possible to collect, both in anthroponietrv and in ethno- 

 graphy, the photographic record of racial types, and the 

 difficulties of combined museum and field work such as 

 are unavoidable with an infinitesimal staff working among 

 ignorant and timid populations. He concluded with a 

 summary of the ethnography of the area covered by the 

 survey, and a criticism of the published measuremerits of 

 the Indian Coronation contingent. 



The report of the committee on anthropological teach- 

 ing described the method of inquiry, and gave details of 

 the position occupied by anthropology or its main sub- 

 divisions in some seventy-five universities and colleges in 

 Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, with many 

 interesting data as to the ways in which this comparatively 

 new study has won recognition as an offshoot of this or 

 that recognised subject, and as to the practical applications 

 which are found to emerge wherever a more enlightened 

 policy has permitted a museum or university to "provide 

 adequate teaching. 



Mr. J. F. Tocher described in detail the recent anthropo- 

 metric work in Scotland outlined in the morning's dis- 

 cussion, and also the distribution and variation of the 

 surnames in east Aberdeenshire in 1696 and 1896. Migra- 

 tion accounts for the disappearance of mahv names; but 

 the extinction calculated by Oalton and Watson is found 

 to be approximately correct, and likewise the rate of change 

 on Karl Pearson's theorv of contingency. 



NO. 1823, VOL. 70] 



ngency. 



AnXkrofiogra^hy. 



The experiment was made on Monday morning (August 22) 

 of a separate subsection for the discussion of papers on 

 human anatomy and kindred subjects. The lecture room of 

 the zoological department was kindly lent for this, and 

 Prof. A. Macalister presided. 



Dr. G. Elliot Smith made a communication on the 

 persistence in the human brain of certain features usually 

 supposed to be distinctive of apes, based on a large series 

 of simple human brains, chiefly African. .Simian characters 

 are most conspicuous in the occipital region, because the 

 visual area is as well developed in apes as in man ; but 

 though the structure is identical, the shape of this area in 

 man is much distorted by increase of the cortical area in 

 front of it. Simian resemblance is more often retained in 

 the left occipital region than in the right, because in man 

 the visual centre retracts more towards the mesial surface 

 on the right side, and this asymmetry often influences the 

 cranial form. Large " Affenspalten " may occur in various 

 races, but are rarely symmetrical, except in Negro brains, 

 which are distinctly more pithecoid. In discussion, Mr. 

 Duckworth described similar simian features in Australian 

 brains, with frequency of 50 per cent. ; Prof. Griinbaum 

 brought physiological evidence to corroborate the anatomical 

 data ; Prof. Windle and Prof. Macalister fully accepted Dr. 

 Elliot Smith's conclusions. 



Mr. Duckworth showed photographs of the brain of a 

 foetal gorilla suggesting the artificial nature of the 

 cerebral fissures. Prof. Griinbaum suggested histological 

 examination, and Prof. Macalister summarised the history 

 of the recent study of these features. 



Mr. R. B. Seymour Sewell described some variations in 

 the astragalus observed in 1000 specimens, mainly Egyptian. 

 Their angle of coUum and corpus is intermediate between 

 the European and the anthropoid.; changes in the articular 

 surfaces are determined by the adoption of certain postures, 

 and by the progressive eversion of the foot. Accessory 

 facets are occasionally present, and facets are occasionally 

 fused or absent. The os trigonum is very variable. Prof. 

 Windle criticised Pfitzner's view of the os trigonum. 



Mr. P. P. Laidlaw described some varieties of the 

 OS calcis, based on the Cambridge collections, namely ; — 

 (i) variability of the processus trochlearis, which seems not 

 to develop from a separate ossicle ; (2) external plantar 

 tubercle; (3) calcaneus secundarius of Gruber ; (4) os 

 sustentaculi proprium ; (5) processus trochlearis of Kyrtl, 

 shown to be pathological ; (6) variation of facets due to 

 ossicles and other factors ; (7) European reduced projec- 

 tion of the heel due to backward extension of the fascia 

 articularis posterior. In discussion, he gave the length of 

 the Egyptian heel-bone as 3 per cent, mpre than that of the 

 European. 



Mr. F. G. Parsons's paper on facial expression discussed 

 the anatomy of the facial muscles, and illustrated their 

 effects from historic portraits. Prof. Windle attributed 

 alteration of expression to habitual action of certaiti 

 muscles, probably recorded in the subcutaneous tissues ; ort 

 this foetal evidence should be decisive. Mr. Parsons replied 

 that subcutaneous thickening is already perceptible at the 

 ninth month. .' 



Mr. J. Gray proposed a new system of classifying the 

 records in anthropometric identification. The Bertilloh 

 system with fixed subdivisions only identifies 61 per cent, 

 on the first search. The system proposed substitutes pro- 

 gressive subclassification of the data of one measurement 

 by the data of the next in order. Search is further simplified 

 by the use of charts on which dimensions used as coordinates 

 determine the position of a record-number. The discussion 

 only emphasised the need of accurate measurement. 



The committee on anthropometric investigations among 

 the native troops of the Egyptian Army reported progress in 

 coordinating Dr. Myers's data. The modern population of 

 Kena province shows less variability in head length and 

 breadth than the prehistoric population (at Nagada), but 

 more in cephalic index. The greater variability of Theban 

 mummies is explicable by racial admixture in a large city. 

 The objections raised to inferences from conscript data seem 

 to be invalid. The Coptic population is apparently more 

 variable than the Mohammedan, apparently because vari- 

 ability increases the chance of survival, and so multiplies 

 among the oppressed. 



