1206 REPORT—18&85. 
3. A Portable Scale of Proportions of the Human Body. 
By W. ¥. Srantey, £.G.8., F. RMS. 
This instrument is a small thin scale or rule of ivory, of about three inches in 
length and three-quarters of an inchin width, It is divided on each edge of the two 
faces by lines which represent the proportions of the human body ; the male on one 
side, and the female on the other. The lines are marked with the words, crown, eye, 
chin, shoulder, teat, navel, hand, &c. ‘The scales of proportions which the lines 
represent are taken from measurements of the diagrams of the assumed perfect 
human forms given by John Marshall, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., in his work,‘ A Rule of 
Proportion for the Human Figure.’ The opposite edge to that on which the pro- 
portions are shown is divided into 100 parts in the same space as the height of the 
body, the tens being indicated by figures. 
The object aimed at by the use of this proportional scale is to compare an 
person, or statue, or photograph, with the model of perfect form given by Marshall, 
ur to divide the parts of the body in proportional decimals of the whole for 
description. The method of using the scale is to hold it up before the eye, facing 
the object at such a distance that the subtended angle from the two extreme lines 
on the scale may coincide with the crown and sole of the human form observed. 
When held in this position any intermediate part of the body may be easily com- 
pared for its position with that of of the perfect form by looking over the edge of 
the scale, or be measured off in decimal parts of the total height by looking over 
the other edge. A very little practice is sufficient to do this with considerable 
accuracy from life, or from a statue or a photograph. It is suggested that this scale 
may be very useful in giving approximately exact descriptions of the proportions 
of people of various races from observation, or of comparing individuals of races 
among themselves; also for artists and designers for giving the best proportions 
of the human figure. 
The Preswwent delivered the following Address :— 
Tue object of the Anthropologist is plain. Te seeks to learn what mankind really 
are in body and mind, how they came to be what they are, and whither their races 
are tending ; but the methods by which this definite inquiry has to be pursued are 
extremely diverse. Those of the geologist, the antiquarian, the jurist, the historian, 
the philologist, the traveller, the artist, and the statistician are all employed, and the 
Science of Man progresses through the help of specialists. Under these circumstances, 
I think it best to follow an example occasionally set by presidents of sections, by 
giving a lecture rather than an address, selecting for my subject one that has long 
been my favourite pursuit, on which I have been working with fresh data during 
many recent months, and about which I have something new to say. 
My data were the Family Records entrusted to me by persons living in all parts 
of the country, and I am now glad to think that the publication of some first-fruits 
of their analysis will show to many careful and intelligent correspondents that 
their painstaking has not been thrown away. I shall refer to only a part of the 
work already completed, which in due time will be published,! and must be satisfied if, , 
when I have finished this address, some few ideas that lie at the root of heredity 
shall have been clearly apprehended, and their wide bearings more or less dis- 
tinctly perceived. I am the more desirous of speaking on heredity, because, judging 
from private conversations and inquiries-that are often put to me, the popular 
views of what may be expected from inheritance seem neither clear nor just. 
The subject of my remarks will be Types and their Inheritance. I shall discuss 
the conditions of the stability and instability of types, and hope in doing so to 
place beyond doubt the existence of a simple and far-reaching law that governs 
hereditary transmission, and to which I once before ventured to draw attention, 
on far more slender evidence than I now possess. 
1 The data upon which the remarks in this Address are based, together with — 
copies of the illustrated diagrams suspended at the meeting, are published in the 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, November 1885.—F. G. ; 
