SECTION G. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCE. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. By T. A. COGHLAN, F.S.S., Government Statistician CHILD MEASUREMENT. ANTHROPOMETRY means not only the measurement of the proportions of the human body and its parts, but also the measurement of human faculty generally, including sensibility to heat, sense of location, and the effects of fatigue. Though sometimes described as a branch of anthropology, it is rather a scientific method of investigation than a science itself, and is therefore a branch of Statistics. From very early times, measurements of the human body have been made by those who devoted themselves to the representation, in marble or pigment, of the form of man; but the artist sought only ideals of human symmetry, models of male and female beauty, and therefore measured none but the well-formed. The statistician cannot afford thus to pick and choose the objects of his investigation. He must measure people just as they are, without selection, indifferent alike to the perfection of face and figure sought by the sculptor, as to the deformities delightful to the caricaturist and the satirist of human frailty. Modern and scientific anthropometry owes its origin to Quetelet, the Belgian Statistician, who sought "to find what is typical in man," noting "the variations due to sex, age, race, and social condition." Since Quetelet's time, there has been considerable progress in the methods adopted for securing exact measurements, and the extent of the interest taken in the matter may be surmised from the fact that a recent catalogue of works upon anthropometry shows the names of 662 authors, and of 1048 publications. England, the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden, all contribute to the sum of knowledge attained by anthropometrical methods, and the material already published is a full storehouse of learning and research, of extreme interest, not only to students of biology and psycho-physiology, but also to the vital statistician and the schoolmaster. Up to the present time nothing of importance in the field of anthropometry has been accomplished in Australia, although isolated measurements have been made. Some years ago, Dr. F. N. Manning measured the height of a number of children, both in the private and public schools of New South Wales. The results of these measurements were not made public, but were forwarded by Dr. Manning to Mr. Charles Roberts, the well-known authority on anthropometry, and are referred to in Mr. Roberts' published works. In 1891, I was desirous of obtaining measurements of school children in connection with the Census, but I did not carry out my ideas, as proposals to do the same work had been made by certain leading surgeons of Sydney to the Minister for Public Instruction. The Minister was favorable to the proposals, and offered every facility for the making of the measurements, but the matter was not proceeded with. In 1894 the Anthropological Society of New South Wales was established, and for several years received an endowment of £150 a year from the State. The Society still exists, although the subsidy has been withdrawn. One of the main objects of the Society is to arouse sympathetic interest in child study, and to establish a laboratory wherein teachers and others having care of children may learn the principles of measurement. I believe that a number of persons have been measured by Dr. A. Carroll, the Secretary of the Society. In 1896 a paper was read before the Australasian Association by Lieutenant-Colonel Surgeon Ahearne as to the effect of tropical climates on the human race. Some measurements of Queensland children were given by the writer, but the number tested could not have been very large. In most countries a fair share of attention has been devoted to the measurement of adults, but the chief attention is being paid to children. This is as it should be, for the measurement of children is of the utmost importance, because here we are closest to the source of social and national life. The mental and physical defects and abnormalities of the child we may hope to counteract or remove, whereas similar shortcomings and peculiarities of the adult are beyond remedy. The object of all worthy educational systems is the freest and most symmetrical development of individual minds and bodies, and the training of our future citizens, so that they may approximate, as nearly as possible, the ideal human type. As a first step towards this, it is necessary to determine a standard by which physical development may be tested. This can be done by taking measurements of a large number of children, and summarising the results according to approved methods. The first and immediate result of this systematic measurement is to render apparent the law of normal growth. This being known, deviations therefrom may then be recognised. All educators periodically examine their pupils to ascertain the mental progress produced by their instruction, but it is no less necessary for the well-being of children that their physical growth and change be submitted to examination equally searching and intelligent. It is only by such examination that the evil effects of over-study, or insufficient nourishment, or lack of exercise, or even of unhappy temperament may be detected and intelligently combated. Few will venture to doubt that at the age when physical growth advances most rapidly in children there should be a corresponding diminution in the amount of schoolwork required of them, and that the greatest care should be taken that the mind is not cultivated at the expense of the body, nor the body unnecessarily cared for to the detriment of the mind. The natural inter-relation of the various physical powers and functions of an individual constitutes the health of that individual. From those in whom this condition of equilibrium is wanting, or disturbed, the ordinary amount of labour cannot be exacted without injury. It is of immense importance, therefore, that we should ascertain the effects upon boys and girls of their school life, so that if there be any hygienic faults connected therewith, they may be remedied. A deputation, considerable alike in numbers and in importance, is knocking at our doors, and the countless millions of posterity demand that we should safeguard their interests. It is our duty to heal and develop the stunted and deformed bodies, ill-balanced brains, and defective senses, which are to be found in all our schools, and, by discovering the causes of these defects, to remove them, so that the young of our race may have the full use and enjoyment of life. Comparative anthropometry will teach us how far excessive study is to be blamed for injuries to the eyesight, chest capacity, or muscular powers, and whether we may not oftener than is supposed trace the objectionable symptoms to preventible causes to badly ventilated rooms, deficiency of light, or some such neglect of the laws of health. There can be little doubt that many nervous diseases have their origin in the schoolroom, and are due in part to the ignorance and neglect of teachers who do not understand the importance of watching for the signs of incipient mental fatigue in their pupils. There is a widespread opinion in the medical profession that nervousness, as a disease, is largely on the increase; indeed, it has been confidently affirmed that thirty per cent. of the school children of Europe suffer from nervous affections. This, like many another general statement of the kind, will require substantial backing before it can be accepted, but it is safe to say that there is much nerve destruction in children brought on by the exhaustion of school life-by the failure to proportion the amount of work required from any individual child to the strength of that child. Actual malformation of the body, too, may possibly be caused by remediable unhygienic conditions. For example, there are many cases of pigeon-breast and curvature of the spine amongst the children attending school in New South Wales, and there is a strong suspicion that many of these are caused, or at least aggravated, by the faulty positions in which the children have to sit at their lessons. Apart from the detection of pathological symptoms or malformation, the light which anthropometry sheds on the law of growth and the significance of the physical changes incident to puberty is peculiarly interesting. Investigations made in various countries have demonstrated that boys and girls differ in their rates of growth with respect to stature and weight. It as been shown, for example, "that a depression which occurs in the growth of (English) males from 10 to 15 years of age does not occur in the growth of (English) females at corresponding ages, nor is there any similar depression at any other period of the growth of girls." It is possible, but does not seem probable, that the accession of puberty checks the growth of boys, for previously to the advent of puberty there are no physiological differences in the two sexes. It would have been an argument against the assumption that the accession of puberty checks the growth of boys had it been found that the boys of New South Wales exhibited no retardation of growth between 10 and 15 years. New South Wales evidence is not conclusive. Up to 10 years there is no sign of retardation; and from 10 to 12 years the growth is greater than at any previous period; The while from 12 to 13 years the growth is certainly retarded. Mr. Charles Roberts believes the more probable explanation is, that boys do not live under such favourable conditions for their regular bodily development as girls." In England boys are sent to boarding schools at an earlier age, and their education is more persistent and severe, from a sanitary point of view, than that of their sisters; they receive less care and protection in the home life, and are frequently subjected to laborious physical occupations at an early age. Their bones thus are often prematurely consolidated. Moreover, they are sometimes underfed, as well as overworked. at an age when all their developmental energy should be spent in growth. The differences of growth due to difference in race are very important, but as the non-Anglo-Celtic strain is very small in these States any comparison of racial peculiarities based upon local observations would necessarily have little value. The scope of the anthropometrist working in Australia must therefore lie principally in noting the differences which develop themselves in people of the same race living under different social conditions; and I think Australian observations will tend to confirm the conclusions of observers elsewhere, that not to heredity, but to environment, must be attributed the major differences that are discernible among children of the same race who are born healthy. The observations which I have so far been able to make have not been sufficiently numerous to enable me to arrive at any firm conclusions beyond these: First. That the children of the non-labouring classes are physically more robust than the children of the labouring classes; Second. That hindrances to growth show themselves at an early age; and Third. That many of the conditions that make for evil may be removed or greatly modified in their action. I now propose to give the results of the measurement of some 2000 children made in Sydney during last year. The number measured form but a small proportion of the children of the State, but they are well representative of the various social grades to be found in Sydney, and I hope some day to be able to record the observation of 25,000 others. The card herewith circulated shows the description of the measurements made. It will be seen that besides the information necessary for the identification of the child the following particulars were obtained:-As regards the |