H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 191 
At first sight, the answers to the questions seem to be unsatisfactory, 
and itis common to hear of the physical deterioration of the people, though 
such pessimism is of long standing, being found as early as ‘ The Reflec- 
tions of an Egyptian Sage.’ It seems worth while to inquire if the change 
is real and permanent. 
The most alarming data in regard to the position in Britain come from 
the Report of the Ministry of National Service on the findings of the 
recruiting boards during the last years of the European war. The recruits 
were graded into four categories, from those who exhibited the full normal 
standard of health and strength and a capacity to sustain severe exertion, 
through those with various partial disabilities, down to those totally and 
permanently unfit for any form of military service. The ages of those 
examined extended from eighteen to fifty, and the report therefore com- 
prised such a study of a selected sample of a people as had never before 
been attempted. The survey of some two and a half million men showed 
them to be graded in the proportions * :— 
Grade I. .. 36 per cent. 
Grade IJ. .. 23 per cent. 
Grade III. .. 31 per cent. 
Grade IV. .. 10 per cent. 
Grave disappointment followed this discovery; but a reassuring 
comment was made by the Commissioner for Yorkshire,? who pointed 
out that grading for military purposes must, in many essentials, differ 
from grading in respect to fitness for civilian life, which, after all, is the 
factor of most permanent importance toa nation. For example, an exag- 
gerated flat foot might render a man useless for general military service, 
and yet for civilian purposes be of trifling import. The same would apply 
to many minor disabilities that increase with age. No previous data had 
given any idea of the extent of age changes in efficiency, though it was well 
known that the period of maximum efficiency in active games was the ages 
under thirty. It is therefore not surprising that the numbers fit for severe 
_ strain should fall off after that age or that relatively few over forty should 
be fit for effective military service. There is no reason to think that this is 
_ many way a new phenomenon associated with urbanisation, or that a similar 
census in past centuries would have yielded any better results; indeed, 
data on health to be submitted on subsequent pages suggest that larger 
numbers of fit individuals at the higher ages exist now than in any past 
time. Another and more serious criticism of this report as an accurate 
survey of the whole state of the population of Britain rests on the fact that 
it was only undertaken after some years of war, when the physical pick of 
_ the nation had already voluntarily enlisted. 
The more valuable data are contained in the records of some 260,000 
youths born in 1900, about two-thirds of the total number attaining the 
age of eighteen in 1918, the proportion in their case being (in round 
- numbers) * :— 
Grade I. .. 65 per cent. 
Grades II. & IIJ. 30 per cent. 
Grade IV. .._ 5 per cent. 
1 Report, Ministry of National Service, vol. i., p. 4. 
2 Thid. p. 109. 3 Tbid. p. 22. 
