ABSTRACT
Information on historical heights combined with the theory of anthropometric history promise to fuel the debate further by supplying evidence of the changing nutritional status of the population. Pioneering dietary studies nonetheless indicate little advance in the caloric intake of workers. The biological systems of workers in the new industrial surroundings may have been temporarily less efficient in absorbing nutrients. The late-nineteenth century heights for Canadian police recruits at the low end of their range compare with the heights estimated for Austro-Hungarian adults toward the mid-eighteenth century before their subsequent decline. The techniques for undertaking dietary and nutritional surveys were first developed in North America in the late 1880's and 1890's at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Storrs, Connecticut. Development policies of the early national government were helping to establish the infrastructure before 1896 that provided the foundation for more rapid overall growth in the later subperiod.
