REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. IxXV 



of Hygiene and Demography. It is understood that this Report has been presented 

 to your Honourable Board by the British Medical Association. The British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, having regard to the importance of the question 

 from a physiological point of view, as bearing upon the health of the community, 

 passed a resolution requesting the Council of the Association to urge upon your 

 Honourable Board the importance of publishing the Report above referred to, and 

 the Association appointed a committee of their body to continue the further collection 

 of statistics on the subject. 



I am therefore instructed by the Council to submit this recommendation, and to 

 urge upon your Honourable Board the importance of the publication of this Report. 

 I have the honour to be. Sir, your most obedient servant, 



ARCH. GEIKIE, President. 



The following reply was received on January 29 : — 



Local Government Board, Whitehall, S.W., 



January 28, 1893. 

 Sir, — I am directed by the Local Government Board to acknowledge the receipt 

 of your letter of the 19th ultimo, in which, on behalf of the Council of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, you urge upon the Board the importance 

 of publishing the Report made on behalf of the British Medical Association by Dr. 

 F. Warner on the Physical and Mental condition of 50,000 school children ; and to 

 state that, while the Board fully recognise the value of the Report in question, they 

 do not consider that they can undertake its publication. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



WM. E. KNOLLTS, Assistant Secreta/ry. 

 Sir A. Geikie, 

 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



(J) That the Council be requested to draw the attention of Her Majesty's 

 Government to the Anthropometric method for the measurement of criminals, 

 which is successfully in operation in France, Austria, and other Continental 

 countries, and which has been found effective in the identification of 

 habitual criminals, and consequently in the prevention and repression of 

 crime. 



Council resolved that — 



Considering the recognised need of a better system of identification than is now 

 in use in the United Kingdom and its Dependencies, whether for detecting 

 deserters who apply for re-enlistment, or old offenders among those who are 

 accused of crime, or for the prevention of personation, more especially 

 among the illiterate, the Council of the British Association express their 

 opinion that the Anthropometric methods in use in France and elsewhere 

 deserves serious inquiry as to their efficiency, the cost of their maintenance, 

 their general utility, and the propriety of introducing them, or any modifi- 

 cation of them, into the Criminal Department of the Home Office, into the 

 Recruiting Departments of the Army and Navy, or into Indian and Colonial 

 Administration. 



Copies of this resolution and the following letter, signed by the President 

 of the Association, were sent to the Secretaries of State for the Home 

 Department, Array, Navy, India, and the Colonies : — 



June 1893. 

 The Council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science having 

 had under consideration the question of the best means for the identification of 

 criminals, I am desired to lay before you the inclosed Report on this subject which 

 the Council have adopted. Good evidence has been submitted to them that anthro- 

 pometric methods, that is to say, the classification of measurements of bodily marks 

 and of finger prints, afford a ready and inexpensive method of identification, and the 

 progress made abroad in organising these methods justifies the hope that the subject 

 may be deemed worthy of serious inquiry by the various Government Departments 

 of this country. 



