Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.
- Great Britain. Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![honorary, but the ordinary allowances for travelling expenses should be granted. The members of this Committee should be anthropologists of acknowledged reputation who are acquainted with the structure of the human body and the laws which regulate its development and growtli. They should be likewise men of weight and influence. The duties of the Committee would be:—1. To determine the measurements and observa- tions to be made; 2. To determine the instruments to be employed; 3. Along with the Director of the Central Bureau, to construct the form of card by which the observations are to be recorded; and 4. Each in his own country to advise and assist the permanent officers in any cases of difficulty that might arise, and above all to interest the people at large in the work. II. Central Bureau. 47. The Central Bureau should be established in London, and should be organised somewhat upon the same plan as the Geological Survey Office. It would probably be necessary to appoint a Director and Deputy Director. One of these should be an anthropologist acquainted with the anatomy and development of the human body, and with experience in anthropometrical work; the other should be a statistician trained in modern scientific methods. A statistical department would also require to be organised in the Bureau. The work carried out in this office would be the following: 1. To keep the standard instruments and issue all the instruments required in the inquiry ; 2. To issue the cards on which the observations are to be recorded to those engaged in the measuring, etc. ; 3. To arrange surprise visits at intervals to different schools, etc., with the view of determining whether the surveyors were obtaining accurate results ; 4. To receive the cards after they have been filled up, to classify them, to prepare the requisite statistical tables, and publish a yearly report; 5. To form in London a centre where the different classes of the people may be measured, and a centre also where the surveyors or measurers may be instructed in the methods of making their observations, and in those anatomical details which are requisite for the acquisition of accurate results; and 6. To disseminate information on anthropometrical work and create an interest in the public in regard to the importance of maintaining the national physique. III. Surveyors or Measurers. 48. The real difficulty in devising a working scheme consists in deter- mining how the measurements are to be taken and how the survey shall be carried out. 49. With regard to the measurements to be taken. Professor Cunning- ham thought that, in the event of the establishment of a Central Bureau, the decision as to what particular facts it would be expedient to note and classify might with advantage be relegated to the Consultative Committee. The measurements and tests would require to be selected with great care and judgment, and tliev should not be too numerous. Probably, the follow- ing would be sufficient, though information regarding parentage, district of birth, and conditions of living should also be obtained. 1. Height. 2. Chest girth (a) maximum. [b) minimum. This gives the range of the thoracic play, which is important. 3. Weight. 4. Head—length—breadth—height. 5. Breadth of shoulders (callipers). 6. Breadth of hips (callipers). 7. Vision Tested (1) by Snellens' type. (2) by different colours. 8. Degree of Pigmentation. The witness considered the eighth test of importance, in order to correct what might otherwise be erroneous deductions from racial peculiarities. ]74:. . B](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21358916_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
