ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the rise and fall of a method for the assessment of body dimensions and fitness that was put forward in Britain in the late 1910s and early 1920s by Georges Dreyer, Professor of Pathology at Oxford University. It shows how changes in knowledge about the relationship between body dimensions and physical well-being were a result of the conflicting aspirations of professional groups and the social and scientific context of the time. The relationship of vital capacity to body dimensions had been investigated by John Hutchinson in the mid-nineteenth century. Hutchinson had claimed that there was a simple arithmetical progression with increasing height, but no definite relationship with weight, or chest measurements. The work of the Anthropometric Standards Committee, and Dreyer's own work in particular, promised to help the MRC consolidate its position in the postwar period by providing the knowledge and techniques required for the study and improvement of public health as a part of reconstruction programs.
