June 15, 1905J 



NA TURE 



'53 



American Association for the Advancement of Physical 

 Education how important it was to make a study of 

 " fatifj^ue "' in its relation to training' and education, 

 to find out the conditions under which our work has 

 its maximum beneficial effect, and the limits to the 

 exercise of our muscles favouring the performance 

 of intellectual work. From data worthy of credence, 

 he was of opinion that brain work influenced favour- 

 ably bodily development, as well as vice verscL. 



The basis of these and similar observations requires 

 to be broad, and it was interesting to note at the 

 Cambridge meeting how the want of the proposed 

 survey was evident to nearly every speaker. Prof. 

 Cunningham has pointed out how changed conditions 

 of life are palpably attended by changes of physical 

 standard, but we have no clear knowledge of these 

 changes, the best facts concerning our country being 

 still those collected five-and-twenty years ago by the 

 anthropometric committee of the British Association. 

 The racial substitution of a dark element for a fair 

 in the population of I^ondon, noted by Dr. Shrubsall 

 as an outcome of his investigations on hospital 

 inmates and healthy individuals, demands a survey to 

 determine its extent and nature. 



In the remarks upon deterioration, made at the 

 Cambridge meeting by the president, Mr. Balfour, 

 this requirement stands out quite plainly again in his 

 expression of opinion that fresh air has so large an 

 influence upon the physique of the race. 



That a knowledge of the conditions of respiration 

 in towns is at the present day of eminent importance 

 is also patent to everyone who may read, in a recent 

 report of the Registrar General, that in the urb.in 

 districts of England the death rate from respiratory 

 system diseases is no less than double that of the 

 rural districts. 



Now while much attention has been paid to the air 

 of schools and buildings, we have no knowledge 

 whether the lung movement — the chest expansion — 

 of the town dweller is much less than the country- 

 man's, and the answer of a survey to this question 

 is highly desirable. It may be that want of exercise 

 of lung is a deteriorating influence like bad quality of 

 air. 



Now that a practical scheme of anthropometry with 

 a responsible recommendation of such a scheme lies 

 before our legislators, concerning a matter abso- 

 lutely bevond the reach of private effort, surely the 

 nation cannot afford to despise such knowledge, nor 

 is the day past when this country can give a lead in 

 the organisation of information to aid the public 

 health. 



Unlike Sweden, Germany, and Italy, we have no 

 conscripts to form a source of similar information. 

 The methods proposed are simple : — height, weight, 

 chest girth; head-length, breadth, and height; breadth 

 of shoulders and hips ; vision and degree of pigment- 

 ation are to be measured. Economy and efficiency 

 will be observed by the provision of whole time 

 surveyors instructed at a single centre, and 80,000 

 adults and 800,000 children should be measured 

 ■ innually, re-visiting each district every ten years. 



The eugenics oif Mr. Galton are not at present 

 practical politics, though, as an analogous subject, it 

 is interesting to note that the stud books of hunters, 

 shires, and hackneys have not only improved the 

 breed, but raised the standard of health and improved 

 the average of health in horses exhibited. 



.As to expense, the sum required is less than that 

 spent on stud books, and similar to that of the Geo- 

 logical Survey. Provision is made, though not too 

 liberally, for the survey of the land on which we live ; 

 surely it is not too much to ask that a scheme for the 

 survey of the people should be established upon a 

 national basis. 



NO. 1859, VOL. 72] 



PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY} 



DRY plate photography cannot be altogether re- 

 garded as an unmixed blessing. The facilities 

 which it affords to the amateur have brought down 

 upon us a veritable avalanche of books on natural 

 history subjects, some of which had better never have 

 been written. 



Mr. Snell's unpretentious little volume is, however, 

 not of this number. On the contrary, it is of its 

 kind excellent, and will prove a boon to those who 

 are fond of nature-photography but, by force of 

 circumstances, are unable to afford an expensive 

 camera or to spend time and money in search of 

 subjects far afield. 



Commencing with a most useful chapter on the 

 methods to be adopted in photographing living 

 animals, the author, in the following chapters, 

 demonstrates the practicability of the rules he has 



^■^^ - :---<rif^ 



mm. 



'^'M' -■~^^>^mm 





II [III 



/J - I i i 



-Spide 



iSnellh "The Ci 



laid down. Small mammals, birds, reptiles, 



.Amphibia, fishes, and insects are each, in turn, made 

 to furnish illustrations. Finally, some very valuable 

 hints are given on the photography of botanical 

 subjects. 



There are tricks, it is said, in every trade ! This 

 is notoriously true of photography. Some of the 

 more harmless sort are lucidly described in this 

 volume. The methods, for example, employed in the 

 photography of mice and rats, snakes, and young 

 birds will come as a surprise to many. Many of us, 

 probably, have been amazed at the apparent skill and 

 patience displayed by many " nature-jjhotographers " 

 in securing pictures of field-mice climbing wheat 

 stalks, or rows of nestlings sitting peacefully along 

 a bough. Such pictures, it now .appears, may be 

 1 "The Camera in the Fields." By F. C. Snell. Pp.256. (London: 

 T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.) Price 51. 



