Report of the Anthropometric Committee : [1880].

Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Anthropometric Committee : [1880]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    *> I. As to Glassification of Returns. In deciding upon the arrangement for practical purposes of returns so various in their origin, and yet consisting in so large a proportion of infor¬ mation derived from special sources, the first consideration has been to establish a classification of the returns. In this the Committee have had material assistance from their colleague, Mr. Roberts, who has prepared the subjoined scheme of classification (Table III.), which the Committee have adopted. It is based on the principle of collecting into a standard class as large a number of cases as possible which imply the most favourable conditions of existence in respect to fresh air, exercise, and wholesome and sufficient food—in one word, nurture—and specialising into classes which may be compared with this standard, those which depart more or less from the most favourable condition. By this means, in respect to social condition, the influence of mental and manual work; in respect to nurture, the influence of food, clothing, &c., on development; in respect to occupation, the influence of physical conditions ; and in respect to climate and sanitary conditions, the influence of town and country life may, as sufficient materials accumulate under the hands of observers, be determined. The classification has been constructed on the physiological and hygienic laws which are familiar to the students of sanitary science, and on a careful comparison of the measurements of different classes of the people, and especially of school children of the age of from eleven to twelve years. This age has been selected by Mr. Roberts as particularly suited to the study of the media, or conditions of life, which influence the development of the human body, as it is subject to all the wide and more powerful agencies which surround and divide class from class, but is yet free from the disturbing elements of puberty and the numerous minor modifying influences, such as occupation, personal habits, &c., which in a measure shape the physique of the adult. Table IV. contains some of the data on which the classification has been based. The most obvious fact which it discloses, apart from the check which growth receives as we descend lower and lower in the social scale, is, that a difference of five inches exists between the average statures of the best and the worst nurtured classes of the community. When it is remem¬ bered that at birth children are of the same average size in all classes, it is evident that the conditions of life, combined with heredity, exert a most potent influence on the physique of the population of this country, and it will be seen that the labours of the Committee are directed to the elucidation of a subject which is of great national importance as well as of scientific interest. II. Results of Returns relating to Class I. (Standard No. I.) Tables V.-X.1 and the accompanying diagram give the results, of the returns which -the Committee have obtained relating to individuals coming under the Standard Class (Class I.) 1 It is necessary to call attention to the difference in the meaning of the terms average and mean—which in common language are synonymous—when used in this report. An average is obtained by dividing the sum of the values observed by the number of observations, while a mean is the value at which the largest number of observations occur. An average includes and is influenced by exceptional cases, while a mean excludes exceptional cases, and is consequently uninfluenced by them.
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