ANTHROPOMETRIC INVESTIGATION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 331 
is not yet complete it is not considered desirable to make a special report 
upon it at the present time. 
The Committee recommended in their last report that steps should be 
taken to establish an Anthropometric Bureau with the view of organising 
continuous anthropometric work throughout the British Isles. This re- 
commendation has recently acquired new interest from the appointment 
during the past year of an Inter-departmental Committee to inquire into 
the question of alleged physical deterioration of the people. This Com- 
mittee, shortly after its appointment, put itself in communication with the 
Anthropometric Committee of this section, and the chairman and the 
secretary were asked to give evidence before it. 
As part of this evidence, the chairman and the secretary submitted 
a scheme for the establishment of an Anthropometric Bureau and the 
carrying out of a continuous Anthropometric Survey of the United 
Kingdom by the State. 
The following memorandum with reference to this scheme has been 
drawn up by the chairman (Professor Cunningham) : 
Scheme for the Establishment of a Central Anthropometrical Bureau. 
In the report upon the alleged physical deterioration of the people 
which was submitted by the Royal College of Physicians to the Home 
Office (July 27, 1903), the following opinion is expressed: ‘Could an 
inquiry be made into the present physical condition of the nation, it is 
self-evident that it would be of great value; but one dealing with a 
portion only of the population would be likely to lead to error.’ With 
this view I fully concur, but I would go further and insist that for the 
purpose of the present inquiry it would be necessary that this examination 
into the physical characters of the people should be continuous and 
carried out on a permanent basis. It is only by such a measure that 
statistics could be accumulated which would enable us to note the 
upward or downward tendency of the national physique. Valuable as the 
results of the British Association Committee of 1878-1883 are, it is 
no disparagement of its work to say that these results are admittedly 
incomplete. In its final report the Committee itself alludes to this, and 
expresses regret that the time and funds at its disposal are not sufficient 
to enable it to prosecute its inquiries to the end it had in view. Indeed, 
all the Committee claims to have done is to have laid a substantial 
foundation for a further and more exhaustive study of the physical 
condition of the people. 
That the time has come when this more extended inquiry is urgently 
called for is self-evident, and it is with this end in view that I would 
urge the importance of establishing a Central Anthropometrical Bureau 
supported by Government and commissioned to carry out this work. 
I would venture to suggest the framework upon which such a scheme 
could be constructed, and shall deal with this matter under the headings of : 
I. Hon. Consultative Committee. 
II. The Bureau. 
III. Surveyors or Measurers. 
I. Consultative Committee. 
To obtain absolute uniformity in the methods of procedure in each of 
the three countries, it would be advisable to appoint an Hon. Consultative 
