Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman.

Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee, consisting in 1882-3 of Mr. F. Galton (Chairman), Dr. Beddoe, Mr. Brabrook {Secretary), Mr. Frank Fellows, Mr. James Heywood, Pro¬ fessor Leone Levi, Dr. F. A. Mahomed, Mr. J. E. Price, Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers, Sir Rawson W. Rawson, and Mr. C. Roberts. Associates, Dr. T. G-. Balfour, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, Inspector-General Lawson, Dr. W. Ogle.1 Drawn up by Mr. C. Roberts and Sir Rawson W. Rawson. [Plates IY.—X.J 1. The Committee, originally appointed in 1875, and aided bysucces- sive grants, of which, it has expended 2801., has made a Report in each of the five years 1878 to 1882, and now submits its final Report. 2. Rot that the work open to the Committee is exhausted, although it has to a great extent supplied what was pointed out in its Reports of 1881 and 1882 as chiefly wanting, or that its conclusions are to its own mind complete and satisfactory. But it would require more time and larger funds than are at the disposal of the Committee to prosecute its inquiries, even with the materials now in its possession, to the end which it has had fin view ; and the Committee is of opinion that the most useful course will be to bring before the Association the results of its past labours, indicating at the same time the conclusions which it considers to be sufficiently established by the facts ascertained, and the deficiencies, both of data and methods, which remain to be supplemented, either by individual exertion, or by the reappointment of a similar Committee at some future period under the auspices of the Association. 3. In order to furnish a complete review of the information obtained, it will be necessary to refer to tables and data contained in previous reports. A list of these Reports is furnished in a note.2 Objects and Operations of the Committee. 4-. The Committee was appointed for the purpose of collecting obser¬ vations on the systematic examination of the height, weight, and other physical characters of the inhabitants of the British Isles. 5. Its operations in each year are described in the introduction to its Report of 1881. The description and amount of the statistics which it has collected, and the names of the persons to whom it is indebted for the collection, are detailed chiefly at the commencement of its several Reports from 1880 to 1882. 6. Among the objects early aimed at by the Committee, and prose¬ cuted by it up to the year 1881, was the collection and comparison of photographs of the typical races of the United Kingdom ; but at the meeting of that year this inquiry was assigned to a separate Committee, upon whom will devolve the duty of reporting upon this branch of the general subject. 1 The late Dr. William Farr was a member, and Chairman of the Committee from 1875 to 1879. 2 1, Report for 1878, 5 pp. (numbered pp. 182-6 in the Annual Report of the Association). 2, Report, 1879, 35 pp.; ibid. pp. 175-209. 3, Report, 1880, 41 pp.; ibid. pp. 120-59. 4, Report, 1881, 48 pp. ; ibid. pp. 225-72. 5, Report, 1882, 3 pp.; ibid. pp. 278-80. An Index to the Tables is given in Appendix C. D