352 • REPORTS OX THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



of psycliolugical measurements. A considerablo amount of excellent 

 work has been done on this subject, and some tests made in schools 

 promise that the method will be of great value ; but the psychological 

 sub-committee considers that further investigation, extending over several 

 years, may be necessary before a thoroughly satisfactory method can be 

 arrived at. 



Under the circumstances it has been decided to recommend that the 

 present Committee should not be reappointed, but that a new Committee, 

 entitled ' A Committee to promote the installation of anthropometry in 

 schools and elsewhere, and to establish a system of measuring mental 

 characters,' be appointed. 



In Older to maintain continuity in the work it is recommended that 

 the Chairman and Secretary of the present Committee should be on the 

 new Committee, ai.d that Sir Edward Brabrook, Dr. A. C. Haddon, 

 Professor Arthur Thomson (Oxford), Dr. McDougall, Dr. Spearman 

 (University College, London), and Miss Cooper (Delegacy for Training 

 Secondary Teachers, St. John's, Oxford) should be appointed members. 

 It is recommended that a grant of 51. should be made to the new 

 Committee. 



THE OBJECTS OF ANTHROPOMETRY, 



The objects of anthropometry are in the first place to measure as 

 exactly as possible the structure and activities of the human body, and in 

 the second place to measure the factors of the environment with which 

 changes in man's structure and activities are associated. The structure 

 of man is ascertained by measuring a sufficient number of his anatomical 

 or bodily dimensions, and his activities or functions by measuring such 

 physiological characters as vision, hearing, smell and tactile sensibility, 

 and such mental characters as are considered to be of the greatest 

 importance in human life. 



As all these characters vary when subjected for a sufficiently long time 

 to a changed environment it is important and essential to measure the 

 principal factors of the environment of the men or groups of men we are 

 studying. From the data obtained from such complete observations cor- 

 relations between man and his environment can be ascertained, and we can 

 thus determine certain of the laws of human evolution, which is the 

 ultimate object of anthropometry. The knowledge of these laws is of the 

 highest importance to rulers, statesmen, and all authorities interested in 

 social reform. Such questions, for example, as that of physical deteriora- 

 tion, which hos recently been the subject of official inquiry in this country, 

 can only be satisfactorily dealt with by establishing periodic anthropo- 

 metrv as a national institution. In addition to these practical applications 

 the results of anthropometric investigation will be of the greatest value 

 to science by enabling us to obtain a clearer conception of many problems 

 of the greatest interest to the anthropologist. 



The general outline scheme of this Report is as follows : — 



Anatomical dimensions : — 



Introduction. 



Terms defined. 



Standard list. 



Instruments to be employed. 



