202 report— 1879. 



By the kindness of the authorities, a circular from the Committee was 

 distributed with the annual official return forms to every industrial and 

 reformatory school in the Kingdom, and returns have been obtained 

 from several such schools ; some of the results of which are shown in the 

 foregoing tables. 



The Committee have also addressed insurance companies with the view 

 of inducing their medical officers to keep accurate records of the physical 

 measurements of persons whose lives are proposed for insurance, and 

 in some instances have been informed that attention will be given to the 

 matter. 



They have also addressed the following circular to the head-masters 

 of Public Schools : — 



' The Anthropometric Committee of the British Association have 

 directed me to forward you the enclosed papers, with the view of calling 

 your attention to the great service which the Public Schools might render 

 to Anthropometric Science by establishing a system of statistical record 

 of height, weight, strength, &c, for the purpose of ascertaining the laws 

 of growth and development in youth and adolescence. 



' Some schools have already furnished the Committee with valuable 

 information of the kind desired. Marlborough School, for example, has, 

 for the last seven years, published in the Reports of the School Natural 

 History Society details of height, weight, chest and other measurements of 

 the boys ; and these statistics have been abstracted under the direction 

 of the Committee. The "Warden of Christ's Hospital, Major Brackenbury, 

 has for several years recorded the same details. 



' The Committee hope that you may be induced to attempt a similar 

 record in your own school, and I am directed to say that they will gladly 

 render any assistance they can in setting it on foot. They are confident 

 that, when once established, you will find the materials collected so full of 

 interest and usefulness in many ways, that you will not regret any little 

 trouble it may give you at the outset, and they therefore do not refrain 

 from asking at your hands this service to Science, however unwilling 

 they may be to trespass upon time already fully occupied. 



' The Medical Officer and the Drill Master of the School would, no 

 doubt, do whatever may be necessary towards preparing a complete and 

 accurate record.' 



Several replies to this circular have already been received from public 

 schools ; among them, the Head-master of Eton (the Rev. J. J. Hornby, 

 D.D.), who writes that he will be happy to do what he can to establish a 

 system of statistical record of height, weight, strength, &c, at Eton, for 

 the purpose of the Committee, at the termination of the present vacation. 



Mr. Roberts, a member of the Committee, whose ' Manual of Anthro- 

 pometry ' is of the utmost value to inquirers, has furnished the Committee 

 with a series of observations, illustrated by diagrams, and accompanied 

 by the following remarks on the establishment of a standard of stature and 

 weight. These are given as a specimen of the manner in which the infor- 

 mation the Committee is collecting may be made available. 



' The accompanying tables and charts show that the average height 

 and weight varies with the social position and occupation of the people, 

 and to obtain the typical proportio us of the British race it would be neces- 

 sary to measure a proportionate number of individuals of each class, or a 

 community which comprised all the classes in the proportions in which 



