OCR Rendition - approximate

REPORT OF T11L AN I'll ROPOMETRIC COMMITTEE. 281 C111LURnN AND Anui:rs ui BOT11 Srxrs. 51. A large portion of the statistics collected by the Committee refer to children, and these, together with those referring to the adults already considered in the early part of this Report, have been arranged in Tables XV. to XXV. to show the influence of age, sex, nurture, occupation, and sanitary surroundings on the physical development of the British population. The children: aro chiefly those of English parents, as few returns have been received from other parts of the kingdom. All classes of the community are represented, from the upper and professional classes whose children attend the Public Schools, like Eton, Marlborough, and Radley, to the poorest town population, whose children are found in the public elementary (or Board) schools, charitable institutions, and industrial schools. The adults also include all classes, front the Universities of Ox101(1 and Cambridge, to town labourers and factory operatives. 52. In deciding upon the arrangeuu:al, for pr:lctical purposes of returns so varied in their origin, and yet cousist.ing in so large a proportion of information derived from special sources, the first consideration has been to establish a classification of the returns according to tile media, or influences which have been iustinmen;t:11 in differentiating one class from another. The Conuuitteo has adopted the subjoined scheme, prepared by Mr. Roberts, and first brought before the Association iii a paper read in the Anthropological Section in 1878. It is based on the principle of collecting into a standard class as large a number of cases as possible which iluply 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. .1 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 be determined. 58. 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 ebildren of the age of from clever: to twelve years. This age has been selected as particularly suited to the study of the Szedirr, 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 .11d divide class from class, but, is yet free. from the disturbing elements of puberty acid the numerous minor modifying influences, such as occupation, personal habits, &c., which in a measure shape the physique of older boys mud adults. The data on which the classification has been based are given below. The most obvious facts which the figures disclose are the cheek which growth receives as wo descend lower and lower in the social scale, and that a difference of five inches exists between tale average statures of the best and the worst nurtured classes of children of corresponding ages, and of ,1; inches ilk adults.