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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1347 



arisen because the anthropometer has for- 

 gotten that it is as much his duty to meas- 

 ure the human mind as it is his duty to 

 measure the human body, and that it is as 

 much his duty to measure the functional 

 activities of the human body — its dynamical 

 characters — as its statical characters. By dy- 

 namical characters I imderstand such quali- 

 ties as resistance to fatig-ue, facility in phys- 

 ical and mental tasks, immunity to disease, 

 excitability under stimuli, and many kindred 

 properties. If you tell men that we are here 

 trenching on the field of psychology and 

 medicine, I reply: Certainly; you do not sup- 

 pose that any form of investigation which 

 deals with man — body or mind — is to be 

 omitted from the science of man? If you do 

 you have failed to grasp why anthropology 

 is the queen of the sciences. The university 

 anthropological institute of the future will 

 have attached to it a psychologist, a medical 

 officer and a biologist. They are essential por- 

 tions of its requisite staff, but this is a very 

 different matter from lopping off large and 

 important branches of its fitting studies, to 

 lie neglected on the ground, or to be dragged 

 away, as dead wood, to be hewn and shapen 

 for other purposes by scientific colleagues in 

 other institutes. Remember that I am em- 

 phasizing that side of anthropology which 

 studies man in the service of the state — an- 

 thropology as a utile science — and that this is 

 the only ground on which anthropology can 

 appeal for support and sympathy from state, 

 from municipality, and from private donors. 

 You will notice that I lay stress on the asso- 

 ciation of the anthropological institute with 

 the university, and the reasons for this are 

 manifold. In the first place, every science is 

 stimulated by contact with the workers in 

 allied sciences; in the second place, the insti- 

 tute must be a teaching as well as a research- 

 ing body, and it can only do this effectively 

 in association with an academic center — a 

 center from which to draw its students and to 

 recruit its staff. In the third place, a great 

 university provides a wide field for anthropo- 

 metric studies in its students and its staff. 

 And the advantages are mutual. It is not of 



much service to hand a student a card con- 

 taining his stature, his weight, his eye color, 

 and his head leng-th! Most of these he can 

 find out for himself! But it is of importance 

 to him to know something of how his eye, 

 heart, and respiration function; it is of im- 

 portance to him to know the general character 

 of his mental qualities, and how they are 

 associated with the rapidity and steadiness of 

 muscular responses. Knowledge on these 

 points may lead him to a fit choice of a 

 career, or at any rate save him from a 

 thoroughly bad choice. 



In the course of my life I have often re- 

 ceived inquiries from schoolmasters of the 

 following kind : We are setting up a school 

 anthropometric laboratory, and we propose to 

 measure stature, weight, height sitting, etc. 

 Can you you suggest anything else we should 

 measure ? 



My invariable reply is: Don't start measur- 

 ing anything at all until you have settled the 

 problems you wish to answer, and then just 

 measure the characters in an adequate num- 

 ber cf your boys, which will enable you to 

 solve those problems. Use your school as a 

 laboratory, not as a weighhouse. 



And I might add, if I were not in dread of 

 giving offence: And most certainly do not 

 measure anything at all if you have mo prob- 

 lem to solve, for unless you have you can not 

 have the tnie spirit of the anthropologist, and 

 you will merely increase that material up and 

 down in the schools of the country which no- 

 body is turning to any real use. 



AVTiich of us, who is a parent, has not felt 

 the grave responsibility of advising a child 

 on the choice of a profession? We have be- 

 fore us, perhaps, a few meager examination 

 results, an indefinite knowledge of the self- 

 chosen occupations of the child, and perhaps 

 some regard to the past experience of the 

 family or clan. Possibly we say John is good 

 with his hands and does not care for lessons; 

 therefore he should be an engineer. That 

 may be a correct judgment if we understand 

 by engineer, the engine-driver or mechanic. 

 It is not true if we think of the builders of 

 Forth Bridges and Assuan Dams. Such men 



