OCR Rendition - approximate

254 11EPORT-1883. REPORT OF THE ANTHROPOMETRIC COMMITTEE. 255 . 7. The points to which the Committee has addressed its inquiries are (1) Stature. (2) Weight. (:1) Girth of chest. (4) Colour of eyes Complexion. (. ) „ hair (G) 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. (11) 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 portion of that which was requested. Few leave furnished complete returns on all the subjects, but where one has failed another has succeeded, and snflicient data have been collected to give trustworthy statistical results on :ill the subjects of intiuirY y exceP ~p t 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 oil stature, weight, and complexion collected by Dr. Beddoe, and those on stature, weight, and cheat-girth collected by Mr. Roberts, previously to the formation of the Committee, have been made :t3,000 individuals of both sexes and of use of; and the Committee lilts thus had observations made on a total number of about . individuals of both sexes and of all ages, from which to construct their tables and to base their conclusions. t). Tho 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, 1preJjudice and often in ignorance off c the use which would be made of them ; and they have been analysed ,tut tabulated in a perfectly impartial manner, irrespeetivo of all preconceived o1tittions. The Committee does not claim for them exemption from the liii ilily to that amount of imperfection and probable error which must - attntclt to :ill conclusions drawn Front a disproportionate, and from a comparatively small number of observations. But great care has been taken in the examination and classificat.tion of all the returns to eliminate obvious errors, and to call attention in the body of the Report to any apparent, discrepancies from fault} - observation or deficient numbers.' , , it' :rat exceedingly large ntunbcr of nteasarements, weights, 2e. be t;tl.on -stip posi„g, rttt hints, or ants calls o uof' (scene ael ing l g trefet.tit} ill :111Y one dircction to exist, t not only will ill(, ntunbcr of suuill errors vastly exceed that, c f lark ttut's but, tile ace t results kill he found to group thentscltes about the mean of the whole al ~, ~ ,~c td - great ing to one invariable law of mnuhct:a, and that the more prce ts,.,1}, the ~, cr the 'f test:d number of determinations. . Rude and unskilful nte,isurentr rats . ot ants kind, accumulated in tore great, emnhers, arc, competent to afford precise mean results. The outy' conditions ere the continual teninnii ntrnsvraedi, the absence of .Methods. 10. The forms and instruments used have been explained in the Reports for 1878 and 1880; but practical difficulties have been found to exist in obtaining trustworthy observations with regard to breathing capacity. Experience has also led the Committee to believe that the use of Snellen's test-types for sight, Nos. 1 and 10, is more convenient, and will yield more trustworthy results, than that of the army test-dots, which were adopted in its original circulars.' Since 1879, also, the Committee has introduced the use of cards for recording the observations relating to single persons, which has been extensively adopted in Germany and the United States, and recently by the Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, and which offers great facilities in analysing and grouping the facts observed. The Committee appends copies of the forms of the cards and of the methods of measurement and observation which they have employed. (See Appendix A.) 11. The difference between the average and mean of a number of observations and its importance in dealing with the still ' .ie<,ts under considera ftion has been pointed out and discussed b y Mt. Roberts in the Report, or 1881, at p. 2:)3 ; 2 aril the special sense in which Mr. Roberts employs the term vwav, being that value in an arithmetic series of observed values of which the observations are the most frequent, has been adopted by the Conrmittee.a 1.2. -lit connection with the question of the applicability of the exponential law of error to statistical results relating to anthropometry, Mr. Francis Galton has contributed a valuable series of tables, with remarks, on the range in height, weight, and strength, in which lie introduces his method of the calculation of deciles, quartiles, and medians.' Was, the correctness of t.lio scalee with which the measures are compared, anti the, assurance that wehave tla, t entire range of error, at lo;tstt in one direction, tvithut the record.' ',it J. F. 1V. Ilerschel, E/fs. Ilex. Vol. xoii. I Sec the Report for 1881 for a discussion of this subjects Its lie. Lawson antl Mr. Robert s. = Also in a note at p. 121 of the Report, for 1880. $ 11r. Cohorts lilts followed Quetelet in the use of the word n1l nr, and its differ ence front all ar•ora./re is Chas explained ,, by Sir J(Ihu Itt.rschel. Speaking of Quctele,tk hmrnnc rare./re'n he says }. s : ' Now, , .tt, this result, he it ol)s