Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-08-17

Parents, teachers and lovers of chill
dren generally will be greatly inter-
ested in the results of an experimental
study of no less than twenty-five
thousand school boys and school girls,
white and colored, just completed by
the United States Bureau of Educa-
ton. 1t has been a monster under
taking, requiring several years, as IS
shown by the first detailed account OF
the work.
All of the youthful subjects IL
grouped together would equal in num-
Der the men in the ranks of our stand
ing army at the outbreak of the last
war. The object of the investigation
was to discover the relationship be-
tween parentage, surroundings, nation
ality, stature, weight, size and shape
of head and other conditions and the
conduct, intellect and health of chill
dren at different ages. Almost all OF
the subjects were selected from the
public schools of Washington, the
transient population of which includes
nearly all American ana foreign types
of childhood.
For the case of each child was issued
blank calling for as many as LOT de-
tails, covering all facts and character
istics to be considered. All these data
were collected by teachers in the va
rious schools. under the direction of
DR.. Arthur Macdonald, we'll known as
an anthropologist, who personally ex-
amined cases demanding the use of
instruments of precision.
OF such instruments, devised entire
~ for measurements of man, the Blu
reau has one of the most elaborate col
lections in existence. They automati-
cally measure the relative acuteness
of the senses, sensitiveness to pain
and other stimuli, and the dimensions
and motions of external parts of the
body, besides keeping strict account of
the changes in breathing and the dis
tribution of the blood circulation I'M
der different conditions.
The extravagant theories of pseudo
scientists of the spectacular schools of
phrenology must be abandoned for
conclusions reached by such thorough
work as this. No attempt was made
to study the bumps of the youthful
heads, yet the general dimensions of
the Uranium were carefully considered.
One of the most interesting deductions
is that broad-headed children appear
to be brighter than long-headed chill
Hpan hn lapofh IF ho;,
measured from front to back of the
Uranium.
In estimating whether each head was
broad, medium or long a simple for
mula was applied. The maximum
width was always multiplied by 100
and divided by the maximum length.
When the resulting mineral was Is or
less the subject was registered as long
headed, when between rs and so he
was medium and between so and 50
he was broad-headed.
Another interesting deduction is that
the child with a large head is apt to
be more intelligent than the one
whose Uranium is small. Diagrams
made from the statistics show that as
the circumference of the skull in
| creases so does mental ability. Chill
dren of laborers were found to have
smaller heads than those whose pa
rents work with their brains rather
than with their bodies. OF all his
measurements the anthropologist says
he attaches most Importance to those
of the head. Defects of the Uranium,
says he, are probably more significant
than those of other parts, and in gen.
eral the nearer a bodily defect is to
the brain the more important it is.
Can any relationship exist between
a child's height or weight and his men
tai ability? was another question. The
bright boys were found to excel the
! dull ones in standing height, sitting
height and weight. surprising dis
covery was that the children of the
laboring classes, whose parents daily
exercise their bodies, have much