Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1886 — Mar, Know Thyself. [ARTICLE]

Mar, Know Thyself.

The plan of accurately measuring human faculty indicates the physical and mental adaptation of each individual, and offers a knowledge of the person’s capacity, which, if early in life, should direct intelligent parents or advisers to a more judicious selection of vocation than that often made. It also provides a means for marking the stages of individual growth, for the detectionof abnormalities of development in time to check them, and for laying the foundation for a rational education of the senses and the muscles. These are among the practical advantages which are expected to give anthropometry great value. Mr. Francis Galton, whose work in this new field attracted much attention at the London Health Exhibition, a couple of years ago, is now experimenting upon instruments for determining the exact size of the brain and the delicacy of the senses. When these are completed the demand may be supplied which has already arisen in many large cities for laboratories for furnishing individuals, from time to time, with accurate charts of their condition and powers. It is believed that in all stages of life the indications of such charts must be of real service.