The technique of anthropology consists, essentially, of two principal branches: 1. the gathering of anthropological data by means of measurements (anthropometry) and by inspection (anthroposcopy); 2. the formulation of laws based on these anthropological data.
Anthropometry requires a knowledge: a. of anthropometric instruments; b. of the anatomical points of contact to which the instruments must be applied.
For beginners it will be found helpful to mark upon the subject the anthropometric points of contact by means of a dermographic pencil.
In anthropology so large a number of measurements are taken, both from life and from skeletons, that a minute description of them all would demand a separate treatise. We shall limit ourselves to indicating such measurements as it has been found of practical utility to take in school.
The Form
In the theoretic part of this work we emphasized the word form, representing the body as a whole and embodying the conception of relationship between the proportions of the body, tending to determine the morphological individuality.
From the normal point of view the two individualities which are most interesting and worthy of comparison are those of the new-born child and the adult (see Fig. 140 and its eloquent testimony). In these two individualities the greatest possible prominence is given to those differences of proportion between bust and limb on which all the various measurements of the form depend: the standing and sitting stature; the total spread of the arms; the weight; the circumference of the thorax (see "Theoretic Lessons on the Form"). With the theory recalled to mind we may now pass on to the practical procedure for obtaining these various measures. Among them the most important is the stature, whose cycle is represented in Fig. 141. The theoretic section of this book devotes special attention to the stature in a separate chapter following that on the Form. It is well to have in mind the general principals before taking up the technique of the separate measurements.
Stature.—The stature is the distance intervening between the plane on which the individual stands in an erect position and the top of his head.
Fig. 140.—New-born child and adult man reduced to the same height and preserving their relative bodily proportions. The head of the new-born child is twice the height of that of the adult and extends downward to the level of the latters's nipples. The pubes of the adult correspond to the navel of the new-born child; and the pubes of the child to the middle of the adult's thigh.