REPORT OF THE ANTHROPOMETRIC COMMITTEE. 281. 
CHILDREN AND ADULTS OF BOTH SEXES. 
51. A large portion of the statistics collected by the Committee refer- 
to children, and these, together with those referring to the adults already 
considered in the early part of this Report, have been arranged in Tables 
XV. to XXV. to show the influence of age, sex, nurture, occupation, 
and sanitary surroundings on the physical development of the British 
population. The children are chiefly those of English parents, as few 
returns have been received from other parts of the kingdom. All classes. 
of the community are represented, from the upper and professional classes. 
whose children attend the Public Schools, ike Eton, Marlborough, and 
Radley, to the poorest town population, whose children are found in the 
public elementary (or Board) schools, charitable institutions, and 
industrial schools. The adults also include all classes, from the Univer- 
sities of Oxford and Cambridge, to town labourers and factory operatives. 
52. In deciding upon the arrangement for practical purposes of returns 
so varied in their origin, and yet consisting in so large a proportion of | 
information derived from special sources, the first consideration has been 
to establish a classification of the returns according to the media, or in- 
fluences which have been instrumental in differentiating one class from 
another. The Committee has adopted the subjoined scheme, prepared by 
Mr. Roberts, and first brought before the Association in a paper read in 
the Anthropological Section in 1878. It is based on the principle of' 
collecting into a standard class as large a number of cases as possible 
which imply the most favourable conditions of existence in respect to 
fresh air, exercise, and wholesome and sufficient food—in one word, nurture 
—and specialising into classes which may be compared with this standard 
_ those which depart more or less from the most favourable condition. By 
this means, in respect to social condition, the influence of mental and 
manual work; in respect to nurture, the influence of food, clothing, &c., 
on development; in respect to occupation, the influence of physical con- 
ditions; and in respect to climate and sanitary conditions, the influence of | 
_ town and country life may be determined. 
53. The classification has been constructed on the physiological and 
hygienic laws which are familiar to the students of sanitary science, and 
on a careful comparison of the measurements of different classes of the 
‘people, and especially of school children of the age of from eleven to- 
twelve years. This age has been selected as particularly suited to the 
study of the media, or conditions of life, which influence the development 
of the human body, as it is subject to all the wide and more powerful 
agencies which surround and divide class from class, but is yet free from 
the disturbing elements of puberty and the numerous minor modifying 
influences, such as occupation, personal habits, &c., which in a measure- 
shape the physique of older boys and adults. The data on which the 
classification has been based are given below. The most obvious facts 
which the figures disclose are the check which growth receives as we 
descend lower and lower in the social scale, und that a difference of five 
inches exists between the average statures of the best and the worst 
he classes of children of corresponding ages, and of 34 inches im. 
adults. 
