A UNIFORM BLANK OF MEASUREMENTS TO BE USED IN RECRUITING. A PLEA FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS1

Abstract

AMONG the many problems which for some time past await a satisfactory solution, there is one which demands, and I believe fully deserves, your earnest attention and co6peration. It is the problem of the standardization of anthropological measurements, which includes also that of the method of expressing the measurements numerically; a problem which may to some appear insignificant, but which really is of high scientific and practical, value. It is well known to all of you that standardization of anthropometric measurements is urgently needed, and that, at the International Congresses of Monaco in 19o6, and Geneva in September of 1912, a satisfactory agreement for craniometry and cephalometry and anthropometry was reached. But it must also be recognized that for the measurements of some parts of the body, an agreement in practice is yet to be attained. We see, in fact, that for the thorax, for the pelvis, and for the other parts of the skeleton, the measurements vary, as much for the number as for the points of reference which distinguish them one from another, and for the manner in which they are made. For the thorax, for instance, some authors take only two diameters, others four, others six; and in regard to the antero-posterior diameter, it is taken at the level of the nipples or at the level of the fourth rib, or at the level of the jugulum, not at the level of the basis or apex of the xiphoid cartilage, making the measurement