Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman.

Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are- 7. The points to which the Committee has addressed its inquiries (1) Stature. (2) Weight. (3) Girth of chest. (4) Colour of eyes 1 ^ , (5) „ hair | Complexion. (6) Breathing capacity. (7) Strength of arm. (8) Sight. (9) Span of arms. To these might have been added others, especially— (10) Size and shape of head. an Length of lower limbs as shown by the difference between the sitting and standing positions. (12) Girth, length, and breadth of other parts of the body. But the Committee was afraid of seeking to obtain more information than their contributors would be likely to furnish ; and experience has shown that- many of them have been unable to supply more than a por¬ tion of that which was requested. Few have furnished complete returns on all the subjects, but where one has failed another has succeeded, and sufficient data have been collected to give trustworthy statistical results on all the subjects of inquiry except those of breathing capacity and sight. An abstract of one of the complete returns will be given in its proper place, as exhibiting a good epitome of what the Committee has sought to obtain in all cases. (See Table XXIII.) 8. The large body of observations on stature, weight, and complexion collected by Dr. Beddoe, and those on stature, weight, and chest-girth collected by Mr. Roberts, previously to the formation of the Committee, have been made use of; and the Committee has thus had observations made on a total number of about 53,000 individuals of both sexes and of all ages, from which to construct their tables and to base their conclusions. 9. The statistics are unique in range and numbers, and have been obtained from a very large number of independent observers living in different- parts of the country, without prejudice, and often in ignorance of the use which would be made of them ; and they have been analysed and tabulated in a perfectly impartial manner, irrespective of all preconceived opinions. The Committee does not claim for them exemption from the liability to that amount of imperfection and probable error which must attach to all conclusions drawn from' a disproportionate, and from a comparatively small number of observations. But great care has been taken in the examination and classification of all the returns to eliminate obvious errors, and to call attention in the body of the Report to any apparent discrepancies from faulty observation or deficient numbers.1 5 ‘ If an exceedingly large number of measurements, weights, &c. be taken—sup¬ posing no bias, or any cause of error acting preferably in any one direction to exist —not only will the number of small errors vastly exceed that of large ones, but the results will be found to group themselves about the mean of the whole always accord¬ ing to one invariable law of numbers, and that the more precisely, the greater the total number of determinations.Rude and unskilful measurements of any kind, accumulated in very great numbers, are competent to afford precise mean results. Die only conditions are the continual animus mcnsurandi, the absence of
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