704 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
I have sought to indicate some of the errors into which we may fall when 
we fail to apply to the consideration of the problem the same principles of 
inductive inquiry as are employed in all investigations for the attainment of 
Truth. 
I believe that this Section of the British Association has the opportunity of 
rendering a great service to the State. Numerous educational societies exist, in 
which questions of importance are discussed, and all, perhaps, do useful work. 
But none is so detached from separate and special interests; none stands so 
essentially apart from all political considerations; none is so competent to discuss 
educational problems from the purely scientific standpoint as are the members 
of this Association. If, in the remarks I have offered, somewhat hastily prepared 
under the pressure of many different kinds of work, I have contributed anything 
to the solution of a problem, the difficulty and national importance of which all 
will admit, I shall feel that I have not been altogether unworthy of the honour 
of occupying this Chair. 
The following Reports and Papers were then read :— 
Joint Discussion with Section H on Anthropometrics in Schools. 
1. (i) Report on Anthropometric Investigation in the British Isles. 
See Reports, p. 354. 
(ii) Anthropometrics in Schools, By J. Gray, B.Sc. 
Measurements and observations in all schools should be made in accordance 
with the scheme of the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association. 
The data obtained should be entered on the card schedules recommended by the 
said Committee. 
The front card contains data concerning the stock to which the subject belongs, 
including such information as insurance companies demand from their clients— 
namely, the age, orage at death, of parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, 
and first cousins, the size of family and position of subject in it, the nature and 
frequency of family complaints, such as gout and heart or lung disease. This 
information is most conveniently given by reference to the schedules of the rela- 
tives, where such exist. 
The following cards contain data as to the physical and mental characters, 
health and environment of the subject. In the case of a child, these data are 
entered on separate cards for each year of its school life. 
If data can be obtained after the subject leaves school, cards with these should 
be added to the subject’s dossier. 
All these data, for each individual, having been entered upon cards, which are 
kept together, as forming a more or less complete record of his structure, activities, 
defects or disease, and of the factors of his environment, we have the material for 
ascertaining with the greatest possible accuracy the nature of the human machine, 
and how it is controlled by changing the environment. 
This is done by calculating correlations between any pair of characters whose 
values are recorded. 
We have reason to believe that correlations of greater or less intensity exist 
between all the characters of man and the factors of his environment. Very few 
have as yet been calculated on account of the lack of data, and in many cases 
where they have been calculated the values obtained are untrustworthy, because 
the methods of observation have not been sufficiently precise. One of the great 
benefits to be derived from the general introduction of anthropometry in schools 
would be the supply of data for the calculation of a large number of useful corre- 
lations, which would point the way for legislative and other measures of reform, 
For example, the effect of free meals to school children on their physical and 
mental characters might be predicted; or the ultimate effect of the increasing 
