ABSTRACT
The British Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1831 and retained this name until 2009. The Committee, comprising such luminaries as Francis Galton, was in pursuit of a statistical map of the ‘races’ of the United Kingdom, on the understanding central to anthropometry that physical measurements revealed hereditary norms and deficiencies. The Committee was appointed for the purpose of collecting observations on the systematic examination of the height, weight, and other physical characters of the inhabitants of the British Isles. Its operations in each year are described in the introduction to its Report of 1881. The forms and instruments used have been explained in the Reports for 1878 and 1880; but practical difficulties have been found to exist in obtaining trustworthy observations with regard to breathing capacity.
