28 galton.org
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Inquiries into Human Faculty
lying idly about the streets than in any other town in Europe, I have tried
the whistle for hours together, on a great many large dogs, but could not
find one that heard it. Ponies are sometimes able to hear very high notes. I
once frightened a pony with one of these whistles in the middle of a large
field. My attempts on insect hearing have been failures.
ANTHROPOMETRIC REGISTERS.
When shall we have anthropometric laboratories, where a man may,
when he pleases, get himself and his children weighed, measured, and
rightly photographed, and have their bodily faculties tested by the best
methods known to modern science? The records of growth of numerous
persons from childhood to age are required before it can be possible to
rightly appraise the effect of external conditions upon development, and
records of this kind are at present non-existent. The various measurements
should be accompanied by photographic studies of the features in full face
and in profile, and on the same scale, for convenience of comparison.
We are all lazy in recording facts bearing on ourselves, but parents are
glad enough to do so in respect to their children, and they would probably
be inclined to avail themselves of a laboratory where all that is required
could be done easily and at small cost. These domestic records would
hereafter become of considerable biographical interest. Every one of us in
his mature age would be glad of a series of pictures of himself from
childhood onwards, accompanied by physical records, and arranged
consecutively with notes of current events by their sides. Much more
would he be glad of similar collections referring to his father, mother,
grandparents, and other near relatives. It would be peculiarly grateful to
the young to possess likenesses of their parents and those whom they look
upon as heroes, taken when they were of the same age as themselves.
Boys are too apt to think of their parents as having always been elderly
men, because they have insufficient data to construct imaginary pictures
of them as they were in their youth.
The cost of taking photographs in batches is so small, and
