Abstract
IN a written reply in the House of Commons under date September 28, to a question in reference to offers from ex-officer anthropologists to conduct an anthropometric survey of H.M. Forces, Sir Victor Warrender, financial secretary, War Office, stated that he was advised that “though such a survey might be of scientific interest, it is impossible in present circumstances to carry it out, owing to the time which would be required for the purpose”. Captain A. G. Pape, by whom the attention of NATURE has been directed to the passage in Hansard reporting question and author (September 28, 1939, p. 1516), writes strongly urging the need and advantages of such a survey, which, he informs us, he himself had suggested to the authorities with the offer of his services. Readers of NATURE will scarcely need to be reminded of the deplorable gap in evidence relating to the constitution of the British population, owing to the lack of systematic records of physical characters and other anthropometric data. The survey contemplated by Captain Pape, however, is apparently of a far more extensive character, and would include observations demanding the services of medical and psychological specialists, and an extension to the rising generation through an organization embracing both university and school. Strong though the argument for an anthropometric record of the population may be—the need will be much more insistent when post-war measures of social amelioration have to be considered—it is probably quite inevitable that in so far as regards H.M. Forces, the time factor is all-decisive. While opportunity might possibly be found to examine troops serving in the field or in training, these subjects would not be representative of an average sample of the population; and the measurement and recording of the minimum observations of any value of men as they are brought up for enrolment in the Forces, who would more nearly approach the standard of the general population, would. overburden the medical officer, who already protests against the inadequate time allowed for individual examination owing to pressure of numbers.
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Anthropometry and the War. Nature 144, 933–934 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144933c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144933c0