Abstract
IF trenchant criticism of the methods employed in investigation affords any gauge of a healthy state in a given science, physical anthropology must be enjoying a peculiarly healthy activity. To recent attacks on racial classification on the basis of the measurement of physical characters may now be added criticism of both the accuracy and adequacy of bodily measurement itself. It may be remembered that Sir Arthur Keith was once criticised for relying on the evidence of the eye in racial discrimination. It was pointed out that in so doing he relied upon an inexact observation for evidence which was afforded more exactly by measurement. It should be remembered, however, that ‘racial discrimination by inspection’, to be effective, must be trained; while measurement itself, experience has shown, may be a source of error, if due precaution be not taken against the personal equation and any technical deficiencies of the observer.
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Method and the Science of Man. Nature 137, 594–595 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137594b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137594b0