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Life and Letters of Francis Galton
Anthropometric Percentiles'.

Values Surpassed and Values Unreached, by various percentages of the persons measured
at the Anthropometric Laboratory at the late International Health Exhibition.

Values surpassed by percents. below

 

Character measured

Age

Unit of

measure-

merit

Sex

No.

of

sons

95%

5°/ 0

90%

80%

Values

unreached

by

70.10 60-1150%14%

0.10

'

percents.

3% 0% 20°oy10°oi

below

90°/ 0

501o

95°/ 0

10°/ 0

20°/ 0

30°/ 0

40°/ 0

50°/0

0 60°/

70°/0

80°/ 0

Height standing

23-

Inches

M.

811

63-264-5

 

65.8

66.5

67.3

67.9

68-569-2

 

70.0

71.3

72.4

without shoes

51.

17

F.

770

.58-959-9

 

61.3

62.1

62.7

63.3

63-964-6

 

65.3

66.4

67.3

Height sitting from

23-

Inches

M.

1013

 

33-634-2

34.9

35.3

35.4

36.0

36-336-7

 

37.1

37.7

38.2

seat of chair

51

91

F.

775

 

31-832-3

32.9

33.3

33.6

33.9

34-234-6

 

34.9

35.6

36.0

Span of Arms   ...

23-

Inches

M.

811

65-066-1

 

67.2

68.2

69.0

69.9

 

70-671-4

72.3

73.6

74.8

 

51

F.

770

58-659-5

 

60.7

61.7

62.4

63.0

63-764-5

 

65.4

66.7

68.0

Weight in ordinary

23-

Pounds

-M.

520

121

125

131

135

139

143

147

150

156

165

172

indoor clothes

26

F.

276

102

105

110

114

118

122

129

132

136

142

149

Vital or Breathing

23-

Cubic

M.

212

161

177

187

199

211

219

226

236

248

277

290

Capacity

26

Inches

F.

277

92

102

115

124

131

138

144

151

164

177

186

Strength of Pull as

23-

Pounds

M.

519

56

60

64

68

71

74

77

80

82

89

96

archer with bow

26

F.

276

30

32

34

36

38

40

42

44

47

51

54

Strength of Squeeze

23-

Pounds

M.

519

67

71

76

79

82

85

88

91

95

100

104

with strongest band

26

F.

276

36

39

43

47

49

52

55

58

62

67

72

Swiftness of Blow

23-

Feet per

M.

516

 

13.214.1

15.2

16.2

17.3

18.1

 

19-120-0

20.9

22.3

23.6

 

26

second

F.

271

 

9.210.1

11.3

12.1

12.8

13.4

 

14.014.5

15.1

16-3

16-9

Keennessof Sight by

23-

Inches

M.

398

13

17

20

22

23

25

26

28

30

32

34

distance of reading

diamond type

26

F.

433

10

12

16

19

22

24

26

27

29

31

32

Taking the table, it can be shown by plotting in reverse directions that the male and female ogive curves, for squeeze of hand say, intersect at 7 °/° , or if we had to select the 100 strongest individuals out of 100 men and 100 women taken at random, we should select 93 men and seven women. On this Galton makes the comment

"Very-powerful women exist, but happily perhaps for the repose of the other sex, such gifted women are rare." (p. 278.)

It is probable that if Galton had taken the fisherfolk of Aberdeen, the peasantry of the Tyrol, or any primitive people, he would have found a considerably greater percentage of women in his 100 strongest individuals. He was largely dealing with a town population. Our experience in the Galton Laboratory shows that there are quite a few characters in which the absolute values reached by the women equal or excel those of the men, notably in Memory of Form, Discrimination of Colour, Steadiness of Hand, and SpeedAccuracy of Hand.

' The value that is unreached by n'/. of any large group of measurements and surpassed by (100 - n) °/, is called the nth percentile.