—-_ Fo. le 
TT ae 
CORRESPONDING SOCIBTIRS. DOD 
and Scotland. The population of Ireland, on the contrary, has decreased 
by 33 per cent. Unless the mating, fertility, death-rate, and gains and 
losses by migration of the population have been very nicely adjusted a 
considerable change in the physique of the people may be expected from 
these great changes in the number and distribution of the population. 
Another great change that has taken place within the last fifty years 
is the great increase in the proportion of the urban population as compared 
with the rural population. Fifty years ago only one-half the population 
lived in towns; to-day 77 per cent. of the population do so. Now, this 
does not mean, as has often been supposed, that the country has been 
depopulated, for it will be seen by the diagram exhibited that the rural 
population is only four to five per cent. less than it was fifty years ago, 7.e., 
it has remained practically constant, while the whole increase of the popu- 
lation has accumulated in the towns. 
The conditions of life in town and in country are vastly different, and 
the relative rate of increase of different classes may be expected to be very 
different. Is this great change making for the improvement or the deteriora- 
tion of the people? That is a question which can only be settled by periodic 
national anthropometry. 
From the same Blue Book I exhibit a map showing the distribution of 
pauperism in England. Is this peculiar distribution due to race, or to 
the special conditions of the districts in which the people live ? 
The maximum pauperism appears to correspond very closely with the 
area occupied by the southern Saxons, the Jutes of Kent and the Angles of 
North England being free from the taint. This would suggest that 
pauperism was more affected by stock than by trophic environment, which 
cannot, as far as one can guess, be very different in these districts from 
that in the rest of England. If more exact observations were to prove that 
if was indeed associated with the Saxon race, then we should have to 
come to the conclusion that the race which, by its spirit of adventure and 
fine military qualities, once conquered England has now succumbed in the 
struggle for existence when the environment has been changed from the 
military to the industrial. 
This is another question that can only be settled by national 
anthropometry. 
National anthropometry will never be adequately carried out until it 
is established as a State institution. The Government have been asked to 
undertake this important work, which has been recommended as of primary 
importance by the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. 
They have taken one step in the right direction by directing the annual 
measurement of the weight and stature of the children in primary schools. 
But this is not enough to give a sufficient estimate of the physique of the 
nation. Japan, Denmark, and Germany have shown more alacrity than 
our own Government in adopting the suggestions of British scientists. 
No measurements of adults are made by the State, and this in the mean- 
time must be carried out, as far as possible, by private enterprise. 
The Corresponding Societies of the British Association appear to be 
specially fitted to take up, to some extent, the work neglected by the State. 
Each society might form an Anthropometric Committee, which would 
organise the work in its own district. 
Complete instructions for carrying out anthropometric work have been 
drawn up by the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association, and 
will be found in the Report published by the Royal Anthropological 
Institute at the price of one shilling. 
Local societies have done good work in the past by their observations on 
local botany, geology, zoology, &c. Why should they not perform equally 
good work in local anthropometry? This science is not more difficult to 
master than the other natural sciences in which they have already achieved 
