| Administrative History | These cards are a continuation of the anthropometric measurements recorded in the Department's Registers of Observations and Registers of Fingerprints (MSU 1332/5/1 and MSU 1332/5/2).The two registers were merged in 1939, creating a single card on which to record biographical details, general physical description, anatomical measurements (principally, height, head and limbs), fingerprints and photographic record (head only, facing and in profile). A section on eyesight was included in the card, but appears not to have been used.
The card created in 1939 remained in use until at least 1974. By the 1980s, the format had altered slightly, although the information gathered remains largely unchanged. Blank examples of the cards used pre-1939 and post-1970s are listed at the end of this series. |
| Description | Anthropometric record cards, 1939, 1941 - 1964, 1973/4, 1983 - 1984.
The following details are recorded:
Observation number, full name, sex, birthplace, date of birth, occupation, date of observation;
Parents' surnames, parents' and grandparents' birthplaces, if parents were first cousins;
Age last birthday, general condition (stout, medium, thin), skin (dark, ruddy, pale, freckled), hair (black, dark brown, brown, light brown, fair, red, straight, wavy, curly), eye colour (after Galton), profile of nose (number of outline, after Topinard), lips (thin, medium, thick), lobules of ears (absent, present, attached, detached);
Horizontal head circumference, maximum head length, maximum head breadth, minimum frontal breadth, auricular head height, head (cephalic) height, face length (Gnathion-Naison), maximum bizygomatic breadth, interocular breadth, bigonial breadth, nasal height, nasal breadth, ear length, ear breadth;
Height standing, height of acromion from ground, height of tip of middle finger from ground, calculated length of arm, height of antr. spur. iliac. spine from ground, calculated length of leg, height sitting above seat of chair, biacromial breadth, bicristal (widest transverse pelvic) breadth, span of arms from opposite mid. finger tips (behind chest), weight (with and without clothing);
Cephalic index, length height index, breadth height index, frontal index, facial index, mandibulo-jugal index, jugo-frontal index, nasal index, ear index, cranial capacity, keenness of hearing (normal, abnormal), right or left handed;
Finger prints (both hands, all fingers), finger print formulae (both hands, all fingers);
Colour sense (normal or abnormal in violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red), acuteness of eyesight (smallest Snellen's type read at six metres), refraction of eye, acuteness of eyesight with refraction corrected (smallest Snellen's type read at six metres), size of pupil, radius of curvature of cornea;
Black and white photograph of head and neck (front facing and in profile). |