REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
General Observations on Anthropometry.' — Under the title 
"Généralités sur l'Anthropométrie," Professor Manouvrier has 
recently published a paper which ought to be carefully read in extenso 
by every prospective as well as actual student, and by every instruc- 
tor, in that branch of anthropology. Manouvrier, one of Broca's 
scholars and for many years a professor and a practical teacher of 
anthropometry in the Paris School of Anthropology, is, it scarcely 
needs to be mentioned, eminently qualified to express himself on the 
subject chosen. 
The aims of the paper are, in brief, the imparting of a better 
understanding of the whole subject of measuring ; showing an urgent 
necessity for all disciples and workers in anthropometry of an ample 
preliminary biological training, and of practical apprenticeship in the 
technique of measuring, with a competent teacher; and a warning 
against any laxity in or needless modifications of the methods of 
measuring, the use of imperfect instruments, and faults in the con- 
ception of, or conclusions from, the work undertaken. 
Accurate data are precious aids in the study of man; inaccurate 
data, gathered by incompetent observers, through the means of 
imperfect instruments, a lax or faulty technique, serve only to encum- 
ber the science with harmful material and retard its progress, and to 
discredit the whole procedure of measuring. This is not only appli- 
cable to the study of man’s physical, but also to that of his 
Physiological and psychical characters. 
The system of measuring man or any part of the human system 
appears simple only to those of shallow understanding or superficial 
instruction, « Anthropometry is a procedure of anatomical research 
as much as dissection," and correct measuring does not require less 
instruction in anatomy or less technical experience than correct 
dissection. But the operations of anthropometry furnish a greater 
variety of conditions in which a proper judgment has to be exercised, 
* Manouvrier, L. Revue de P École d'A nthropologie de Paris, vol. xii (December, 
1900), pp. 413-439. 
499 
