486 



REPORT — 1902. 

 Medical Mepoj't. 



The most important and systematic collection of anthropometric 

 statistics in a school of which the Committee are aware is that made in 

 Marlborough College. The master has kindly furnished the Committee 

 with copies of the annual reports of the Marlborough College Natural 

 History Society from the year 1884 (except that of 1890, which is out of 

 print), which contains each year a return of the number, name, form, 

 age, height, weight, chest girth, circumference of head, leg, and arm, and 

 of the increase in each since the last measurement. In later years the 

 chest has been measured both expanded and contracted. Mr. Mayrick, 

 by whom this great work has been superintended for many years, 

 observed that the full expansion of the chest is easy to get, but the full 

 contraction is not so easy ; if, however, the chest be emptied by an audible 

 continued expiration, it is easy to tell by the sound when the limit is 

 reached. A column is given showing the difference between the expanded 

 and contracted chest. This is a measure of the capacity of the effective 

 respiration, and the greater the difference the higher is the efficiency of the 

 breathing apparatus, and probably the vital energy is greater in propor- 

 tion. This index by no means necessarily rises with the age, and is, in fact, 

 sometimes unexpectedly high in young boys. The age is recorded in years 

 and months, not in decimals of a year ; the height is given in inches and 

 decimals of an inch ; the weight in pounds to within half a pound only ; 

 the chest measurement in inches and decimals. The Report of the 

 Anthropometric Committee presented to the British Association in 1880 

 contains a series of tables founded on the observations taken in Marl- 

 borough College from 1874-1878 on height, weight, chest girth, head 



