TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 705 
line, the scheme for a survey of the British Isles submitted to the Privy Council 
Committee on Physical Deterioration, by Professor Cunningham and myself. 
According to this scheme the United Kingdom would be divided into 400 
districts, in each of which a representative sample of about 1,000 adults of each 
sex would be measured. The whole of the school children would be measured 
because a thousand of each sex for each age interval of one year would be required, 
and this would amount to about the whole of the school population. The survey 
would be completed once every ten years, and the total number measured in that 
time would be about 800,000 adults and 8,000,000 children. The work, it has been 
estimated, could be carried out by a staff of twenty to thirty surveyors constantly 
employed. The employment of part-time surveyors, such as school teachers, on 
account of the cost of training the large number required would be very much 
more expensive than the employment of a small number of whole-time surveyors. 
The following is the list of dimensions to be measured, drawn up by Professor 
Cunningham :—Stature, chest, weight, head (length, breadth, and height), breadth 
of shoulder, breadth of hips, vision, and degree of pigmentation. 
Environment or conditions of life would also be noted, and much information 
as to environment could be obtained from statistics collected by other agencies. 
A statistical department in connection with the survey would work out the 
averages for each district, the deviations from the average, draw frequency-curves, 
calculate correlations, and prepare maps. 
Utility to Science. 
The material thus collected and classified would add immensely to our know- 
ledge of the distribution and origin of the races of our own country. ' The 
correlations that would be discovered between the different physical characters and 
between physical and mental characters would be new and valuable scientific dis- 
coveries. ‘he correlations discovered between the physique of man and his 
environment would throw much light on the nature of evolution. It is impos- 
sible to anticipate all the developments that would result from so great an 
accession to our exact knowledge of man. 
Utility to the State. 
There has been much agitation recently in this country about physical deterio- 
ration. Whether this deterioration is really taking place or not cannot be settled 
by any anthropometric statistics at present in existence. A more or less probable 
guess can be made in a few cases. With an anthropometric survey in being 
the question could be answered in the positive or the negative with certainty. 
Moreover, by calculating correlations between physique and all probable influences 
the causes of the deterioration would be indicated. 
The importance of such information to the statesman, to the sociologist, 
and to the public themselves hardly needs to be pointed out. Civilisation has 
brought so many new influences to bear upon the more advanced races of man- 
kind that we are quite in the dark as to their ultimate effects. Influences may be 
at work which are steadily driving us by invisible steps on the road to national 
ruin. ‘The anthropometric instrument would detect these insidious changes before 
they were visible to the naked eye; statesmen and the public would be warned in 
time, and the degeneration might be arrested before it was too late. 
5. Discussion on Physical Deterioration and Anthropometric Survey. 
6. The Progress of the Ethnographic Survey of Madras. 
Sy Epear THurston. 
The author described the scope of the survey, and the method and cost of con- 
ducting it ; the nature of the anthropometric and ethnographic evidence which is 
collected ; the most important physical characters (stature, nasal, and cephalic 
1904. ZZ 
