From the FOREWORD

IT is our hope that this report be considered in the nature of a preliminary study in the anthropometry of the feeble-minded. We have developed the treatment of the data from the point of view of mental tests, as an aid to diagnosis rather than as a contribution to anthropometry proper. Our primary aim is to establish a definite objective means of interpreting the measurements employed, measurements which are taken in nearly all laboratories and clinics but interpreted in few. We particularly urge that those who apply this method of interpretation consider the individual measurements not so much by themselves as in their relation to each other in the anthropometric curve, and that for individual cases due regard be paid to special conditions affecting each subject. These are, especially, physical deformities, pathological conditions, personal history (including nationality, parentage, previous health and nutrition, physiological status, physical and social environment, et altera), examinational conditions (such as time of day, season, weather), and other internal and external factors, like incentive, emulation, or their negatives. Data regarding these conditions and their effects could not be obtained in sufficient quantity or reliability to be of value in this study, but their importance should by no means be disregarded. The effect of these varying factors is illustrated in a research by E. L. Kuhnes (Experimental Study of Dynamic Periodicity as Influenced by Diurnal, Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal and Yearly Efficiency, Ped. Sem., Vol. XXII, No. 3, September 1915, pp. 326-346), from which it appears that motive, incentive, and such almost uncontrollable internal stimuli far outweigh all other factors. Only by controlled introspection, an impossibility with feeble-minded subjects or young children, can these effects be evaluated or allowed for.

Because our study is preliminary we have been constrained to avoid making definite conclusions, except so far as these are summary statements of results, and to refrain from any interpretation of the results. The author hopes to overcome this deficiency by a later investigation dealing with the body proportions of the feeble-minded in relation to age and mental ability. In view of the development of the theory that the feeble-minded tend toward a condition of organic and functional infantility, perhaps more general and complete than is ordinarily suspected, such a research seems unusually promising. It lies, however, beyond the limits of our present aims and means.