ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORIES 249
One hears so much about the extraordinary sensitivity of the blind, that I was glad of an opportunity of testing a large number of children in an asylum. The nature of the test was fully explained to them, and that the most successful ones were to receive a sweetmeat. It was evident that all did their best, but their performances fell distinctly short of those of ordinary persons. I found afterwards a marked correlation between at least this form of sensitiveness and general ability.
After the Health Exhibition was closed in 1885, it seemed , a pity that the Laboratory should also come to an end, so I asked for and was given a room in the Science Galleries of the South Kensington Museum. I maintained a Laboratory there during about six years, and found an excellent man, Sergeant Randal, for its Superintendent. Useful data were obtained from this Laboratory, but I found that it ought to be either in the hands of a trained scientific superintendent, who would be competent to undertake much more refined measurements than mine were intended for, or else that a great many more persons than I could tempt to attend should be roughly measured.
Some few notabilities came, among whom I would especially mention Mr. Gladstone, whose measurements proved very acceptable to Mr. Brock the sculptor, in making a posthumous statue of him for Liverpool. Mr. Gladstone was amusingly insistent about the size of his head, saying that hatters often told him that he had an Aberdeenshire head-" a fact which you may be sure I do not forget to tell my Scotch constituents." I t was a beautifully shaped
