AN'THROPOM'ETRY ( Gk. iiia9m.nroc, anti, rd Fos, man + plrpov, met von, measure). A method of measurement pursued in anthropology. The primary measurements are those of the normal hody at rest, and include stature. weight, eir emnferenee of head, reach (or span of extended arms), circumference and expansion of chest, length of arm and leg, sitting height, circum ference of waist, limbs, hips, and shoulders, length of forearm and thigh, size of foot, length of fingers, size and position of ear, facial angle (i.e., degree of prognathism), shape of head, size and form of nose, position and attitude of eyes, etc. Of these elements of the human body, only a few are commonly regarded as of ethnic sig nificance, or of use in deseribing and comparing peoples or races considered collectively; the ele ments commonly so employed comprise stature, size and shape of head, facial angle, relative length of limb, attitude of eyes, etc. Some or all of the other elements receive special consid eration in studies and comparisons of selected classes of population, e.g., school-children of various ages or grades; and certain of the ele ments are customarily recognized in the study of individuals, such as athletes, criminals., etc. With these definitely quantitative measurements, other individual or typical attributes of the hu man body are commonly correlated; chief among these are color (of skin. hair, eyes, mucous membrane, nails, etc.), character of pelage (scalp hair, heard, axillary and pubic hair, body hair), local and general texture of integument, form and mobility of features, etc. Other measure ments of common use in anthropologic studies are those of the skeleton, particularly the skull, jaws, and long bones. Various anthropologists, like Alanonvrier and Deniker, have devised for mulas for determining stature from the length of femur, tibia. humerus, and other long bones; and the relative dimensions of the different bones of the skeleton are commonly regarded as ethnic indications. The forms of certain bones are also deemed ethnic criteria; the flattening of the tibia (platyenernism) and the perforation of the humerus in the olecranon fossa have received especial consideration in this connection. The measurement of the skull has been developed into a system known as craniometry, which in sonic schools has been held to constitute a large if not controlling part of anthropology, although others regard the cranial measurements as ex pressing little more than individual variations of trifling value in ethnology and general anthro pology. A leading feature in this aspect. of an thropomttry is the cranial index. i.e., the breadth of the skull in proportion to its length as viewed from above (in the norma verticalis) ; and three types are commonly defined as doliehoeephalie or long-head, mesoeephalic or round-head, and bra chycephalic or broad-head varieties of the genus Homo, the ratios of breadth to length being about 70 : WO, 80 : I00. and 85 : 100. respectively.
Another important feature of the system is the capacity of the brain-ease, measured by means of liquid or fragmental substances (water, glycer in, sand, fine shot, or small seeds), poured into the cavity and afterward weighed or ganged. or
by aid of a thin, elastic, and impervious bag inserted through the foramen magnum and after ward filled with liquid; and connected with such determinations is the direct weighing or meas urement of the brain itself. Still another fea ture is the facial angle, i.e., the angle subtended by the bones of face and forehead with the base of the cranium, viewed from the side (norma latcralis,), or in vertical antero-posterior section (norma medians). There are several modes of defining this angle. those of Camper, Cloquet, Jacquart, and Cuvier being best known; and the progressively increasing angle from the lower animals to the anthropoids, and thence from the lowest races to the highest type of humanity, is among the striking facts brought out by scien tific inquiry. The facial index is another feature of modern anthropometry, and affords arbitrary hut useful means of comparing crania of different types, while craniometric specialists have devised a series of points, lines, and angles serving to define cranial forms and types in great detail. Among the applications of anthropoinetry, in what may be called the static aspect, are those involved in the Bert illon system (q.v.) and relat ed methods of bodily description for identification or other purposes, and among these that of iden tification by finger-prints (i.e.. by the patterns of the papillaceons ridges which arc peculiar to each individual), which was brought out in America by Gilbert Thompson and in England by Francis Galion, is of much interest.
During recent decades, what may be called the dynamie aspect of anthropometry has attained prominence, and the measurement of structures has been supplemented by meaourement of func tions, both periodic and special. Among the former are rates of respiration and pulsation, which vary with sex, age, and race as well as with individual charaeteristics and conditions; and various devices (including the plethysmo graph, with its variants and improvements) have been devised to measure the interrelations be tween the periodic and special functions of the human body. The hitter functions are too nu merous and variable for ready treatment, though athletic records, the military step in various armies, the hours of labor in different countries and classes, the variation of faculty with race and culture, and other relevant material are grad ually assuming systematic form. Among the most fruitful lines of measurement of human function are those of experimental psychology, pursued in America by Cattell, Royce, Baldwin, Scripture, MacDonald, Witmer, and others, for these open new vistas of relationship between structures and functions, between body and mind, and between the processes and the products of organic development in the human genus. The data obtained through anth•opometry may be summarized under somatology (q.v.).