Chapter IX: Biographical History of the Pupil and His Antecedents (1)

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The child, like every other individual, represents an _effect_ of multifold causes: he is a product of _heredity_ (biological product) and a product of society (social product). The characteristics of his ancestors, their maladies, their vices, their degeneration, live again in the result of the conception which has produced a new individual: and this individual, whether stronger or weaker, must pass through various obstacles in the course of his intrauterine life and his external life. The sufferings and the mistakes of his mother are reflected in him. The maladies which attack him may leave upon him permanent traces. Finally, the social environment receives the child at birth, either as a favoured son or as an unfortunate, and leads him through paths that certainly must influence his complex development.

All of the preceding and theoretic parts of this volume which took up each characteristic for separate consideration, have already explained all that it is necessary to know in order to interpret the characteristics present in a given individual, and the more or less remote causes which contributed to them.

We may now _apply_ our acquired knowledge to individual study, by making investigations into the antecedents of the child and recording his _biographic history_. It forms a parallel to the _clinical history_ which is recorded in medicine: and it leads to a diagnosis, or at least to a scientific judgment regarding the child.

Although this biographic part is eminently practical, certain
principal points of research may be indicated for the purpose
of guiding the student. But no one will ever make a successful
study of medical pedagogy unless he will _follow_ the practical
lessons dedicated to the individual study of the scholar, and make
a practice of personal observation. In the Pedagogical School of
Rome, we provide _subjects_, taken from the elementary schools or
from the Asylum School of De Sanctis for defective children. And we
read their biographical history in regard to their antecedents, and
then make an objective examination of them, frequently extending
it to an examination of their sensibility and their psychic
conditions and enquiring into their standard of scholarship. From
these lessons based upon theory, profitable discussions often
result; and they certainly are the most profitable lessons in the
course.

A biographical history is essentially composed of three parts: the _antecedents_, which comprises an investigation of the facts antedating the individual in question; _the objective examination_, which studies the individual personally; and the _diaries_, _i.e._, the continued observation of the same individual who has already been studied in regard to himself and his antecedents.

The objective examination and the diaries cannot be considered solely in the light of anthropology, because they chiefly require the aid of psychology. But even anthropology makes an ample and important contribution, first, in the form of an objective morphological examination, the vast importance of which has already been shown; secondly, because it gives us a picture of the biologico-social personality which it is necessary to compare with the _reactions_ of the subject in question, with his psychic manifestations, his degree of culture, etc.; and upon this comparison depends the chief importance of the individual study of the pupil.

Accordingly, in addition to an examination of the individual, anthropology ought to concern itself also with the conditions antedating the individual; therefore, it traces back to the _origins_ (antecedents), while psychology reserves for itself the principal task of _following the psychological development_ of the subject in his school life (diaries); a task in which it will nevertheless go hand in hand with anthropology since the latter must follow at the same time the physio-morphological development of the subject himself.

Accordingly, the gathering of _antecedent_ statistics is the task of anthropology. The antecedent statistics may be called the _history of the genesis_ of the individual; the manner of collecting them is by means of _enquiries_ that are generally made of the child's nearest relations (the mother) or of the teachers who have superintended his previous education. The enquiries are conducted under the guidance of a certain system of which we give the following outline:

anamnesis:

/ remote / ascendant
{ \ collateral
biopathological { / conception
{ { pregnancy
{ / mother { delivery
\ near { \ lactation
{ / dentition
/ first development of { locomotion
{ \ speech
\ child { maladies incurred
{ / character
{ maternal opinions { intelligence
\ of child \ etc.

/ vocation of parents
sociological { their morality
{ their culture
\ their care of their children
school record { opinions of teachers, history of previous schooling.

We may distinguish biopathological antecedents, which have regard to the organism of the child as a living individual; sociological antecedents, having regard to the social environment in which the child has grown up and which contributes to the formation of his psycho-physical personality; and scholastic antecedents or _scholarship_, regarding the previous schooling of the child under examination. The biopathological antecedents are certainly of fundamental importance. They are called _remote_ when we refer to the hereditary antecedents of the subject, and _near_ when we have reference to his personal antecedents.

=Remote Antecedents.=--These include an investigation regarding the ancestors, the brothers and sisters, and the collateral relations. The age of the parents (since we know that too immature or too advanced an age, or a disparity in age between the parents may result in the birth of weak children). Degree of relationship between the parents (since we know that the offspring of parents related to each other may be weak). Maladies incurred by them or prevalent in their families, incidental vices of the parent (since we know that constitutional maladies, such as syphilis, tuberculosis, gout, pellagra, malaria, mental and nervous diseases, etc., _alcoholism_ or an irregular life of excesses, may lead to the procreation of degenerates). Furthermore, since it is known that according to the laws of collateral heredity, maladies may reappear in nephews which previously occurred in uncles and not in the parents, information should be sought, so far as possible, from all members of the family. Information regarding the brothers of the subject offers an interest of a very particular kind, because this gives us an insight into the generative capacity of the parents: for instance, if there were abortions, children who died at an early age of convulsions, meningitis, etc., this argues unfavourably for the normality of the subject.

=Near Biopathological Antecedents:= _Mother, Child._--Our inquiries should centre first of all upon the mother, in order to know the conditions of conception, pregnancy, delivery and lactation, in the case of the child under examination, because we know that frequently an error at the time of conception may produce a degenerate or a weakling. For example, a child generated in a state of physical or mental exhaustion--_e.g._, after a long trip on a bicycle, or after passing an examination--may be born feeble, predisposed to nervous diseases (idiocy, meningitis), just as he may be born abnormal (epilepsy, anomalies of character, criminal tendencies) if generated by the father during an alcoholic excess, or by the mother while suffering from hypochondria, illness, etc. The history of the pregnancy is also of interest: whether it proceeded regularly to the close of the nine months, whether the mother suffered especially from mental anxiety, illness or received any blow on the abdomen.

Other causes which may affect the health of the child have reference to birth and to lactation. If the delivery requires an operation, it may, for instance, deform the skull; while a hired wet-nurse, or artificial feeding are more or less apt to cause deterioration in the child.

Having completed this first enquiry, we pass on to consider the child itself, from the time of birth onward, lingering especially over its early development and more particularly over the _cutting_ _of the teeth_, _learning to walk_ and _learning to speak_, which are the three first obstacles to infantile development. The healthy child overcomes them according to normal laws, while the child of tardy development shows the first characteristic anomaly in these three fundamental points of its early existence (tardiness of development, incomplete and defective development, development accompanied by diseases, etc.).

Usually a tardiness in the development of the teeth denotes general weakness and more especially skeletal weakness (rachitis, syphilis); tardiness in learning to walk may occur in connection with the above-named causes (weakness of the lower limbs); or with difficulty in attaining an equilibrium (of cerebral origin; witness the case of idiots who, without being paralytic, cannot walk, because they cannot _learn how to walk_); or with paresis, more or less partial or diffused, of the muscles controlling the act of walking (infantile paralysis, Little's disease, etc.). A tardy development of speech is sometimes found together with a notable intellectual development and the child will not begin to speak until he can express thoughts and speak well; but more frequently such delayed development is due to partial _deafness_; or it originates in the association centres of the brain (the idiot child cannot _learn_ to speak).

It will also be helpful to know whether the child was ever ill. It is very important in this connection to find out whether the child ever suffered from infantile eclampsia in early life (convulsions, or "fits" as the mothers of the lower classes call them). This is an indication of a cerebral malady which leaves behind it permanent alterations of the brain and of its functions. The child may be an idiot, or may belong to one of the various catagories of children who go under the name of defectives; or he may be abnormal in character (cerebroplegic forms). Another important fact to record is nocturnal _enuresis_ (loss of urine during sleep subsequent to the normal age); this is considered by some authorities as a pre-epileptic state--that is, a child that suffers such losses may in the future become subject to epilepsy, and quite probably, if studied, will show various anomalies of the nervous system, such, for example, as too deep sleep, slowness of intelligence, etc. Repeated attacks of _infective diseases_, even though they are survived, also denote organic weakness, with facile predisposition to infective agencies--in other words, deficient powers of immunity.

Prolonged intestinal maladies or typhus in the early months (denutrition from pathological causes, exhaustive diseases) may, in themselves, be the cause of the child's enfeeblement and its consequent arrest in development.

But in the interpretation of such observations, the physician should be the guide and the direct judge.

The most salient symptoms in regard to the child--intelligence, conduct, character, endurance, etc.--are, for the most part, expressed with great clearness by the mothers. Prof. De Sanctis, for example, has noted that the mother's first words might serve the purpose of a diagnosis; for instance, the mother says of an idiot child: "he doesn't understand," of a child retarded in development, "he is stupid," of an abnormal child, "he understands but he is bad." Accordingly, Prof. De Sanctis begins his diagnostic researches by registering the _maternal judgments_, because the mother is _struck_ by the salient characteristics of her child; and even if she is uneducated she always finds concise and effective phrases to express her judgment.

To the end of rendering the research into antecedents surer and more complete so far as regards the personal antecedents of the child, certain anthropological tablets are being introduced to serve as _maternal diaries_. In this way the mothers have a guide for studying their children, and this forms one of the first practical attempts toward the "education of the mothers."

Here is a form of chart for keeping a record of the dentition. The significance of the letters is as follows:

_U. r._: upper right, _i.e._, the right half of the upper jaw.

_U. l._: upper left.

_L. r._: lower right.

_L. l._: lower left. (The fact must be borne in mind that in
the first dentition there are twenty teeth.)

FIRST DENTITION

-------------------------------------------------------------
| Dates |
Teeth |------------------------------------| Observations
| of first | of complete | of |
|appearance | development | shedding |
--------+-----------+-------------+----------+---------------
U. r. 1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
| | | |
U. l. 1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
| | | |
L. r. 1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
| | | |
L. l. 1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------

In this way we have an analytical and exact chart of the development of the teeth. Analogous tables are made for the second dentition, for the growth of the stature, for increase in weight, for certain physiological notes, etc. When the first period of growth is ended, the mother's note-books contain annual notes, like the following:

YEAR 190....

Special annual diaries are now employed for keeping a minute record of maladies incurred, symptoms, treatment, etc.

These note-books, similar to those hitherto kept by ladies for their house accounts, or for sentimental notes, would be of great service and aid to pedagogic anthropology, even though their use could not be extended to all mothers (the mothers of the proletariat, immoral women, etc., either could not or would not give similar contributions). The institution of "Children's Houses," if more widespread, could easily facilitate the _education_ _of the mothers_ and the diffusion of "Maternal Note-books" throughout all grades of society. But at most these mother's diaries furnish us only with notes of the near antecedents and not of the remote, which are of extreme importance.

=Sociological Antecedents:= _Vocation, Morality, Culture._--Before all else, in inquiring into the sociological antecedents, it is necessary to know in what sort of an environment the child has grown, and whether it is an environment favorable, or otherwise, to his physical, psychic, intellectual and moral development. This is an exceedingly important matter to determine for the purposes of a clinical history, since the child's moral conduct and the profit derived from study depend to a large extent upon the environment in which the child has grown and lived. To this end inquiries should be made into the economic circumstances of the child's parents, their vocation, moral standards and degree of education, and also into the child's mode of life, whether with the parents or other relations, or with persons not related to him, whether he plays in the street, keeps company with street children, etc.

=School Record:= _Judgments of Teachers._--This is the history of the pupil as made by his teachers, beginning with the first day that he enters school. The judgments of teachers, although not always so precise and so fair as those of mothers, nevertheless have an importance of their own. Inquiry should be made into the child's conduct in school and the profit he derives from his studies.

_Illustrative Cases._--There are, for example, certain families so infected with a degenerative or pathological taint that the remote antecedents are sufficient in themselves to stigmatise the biological condition of an abnormal subject. This may be seen in the genealogy of the Misdea family (taken from Lombroso's work):

_Grandfather_: MICHELE MISDEA
(Not very intelligent, but very active)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | |
1st uncle 2nd uncle 3d uncle 4th uncle Misdea the
Guiseppe Domenico Cosimo Michele father (alcoholic,
(imbecile) (eccentric (quick-tempered (semi-imbecile) spendthrift, married
and killed in a to an hysterical
violent) quarrel) woman, one
| of whose brothers
------------------------------------------------------- was a brigand and
| | | | another a thief).
1st cousin 2d cousin 3d cousin 4th cousin |
(idiot) (madman) (imbecile) (imbecile) |
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | |
1st brother 2d brother 3d brother 4th brother 5th brother
Cosimo Salvatore (sane) (alcoholic) (incorrigible)
(obscene, Misdea
epileptic,
drunkard,
convicted of
assault).
|
grandson
(obscene)

Similarly extraordinary is the genealogy of Ada Türcker, an alcoholic, thief and vagabond, born in 1740, a large part of whose numerous descendants it has been possible to trace. Out of the 834 individuals derived from this degenerate woman, the lives of no less than 709 have been followed up, and among these are included 143 mendicants, 64 inmates of asylums, 181 prostitutes, 69 criminals, and 7 murderers, who altogether cost the state upward of seven million francs!

Besides families like these there are others infected with a pathological taint, in which phthisis and gout alternate with epilepsy and insanity. Then again there are other families in which the pathological taint is scarcely perceptible, as for example, the family of an epileptic child with criminal tendencies, personally studied by me; all the members of this family are long-lived and enjoy good health; the father alone is a sufferer from articular rheumatism. Lastly there are families in which there is no sign of pathological or degenerative weakness; and in such cases we say that there is nothing noteworthy in the genealogy, and the near antecedents assume the highest degree of importance.

The study of antecedents not only has a scientific importance, in so far as it contributes to a knowledge of anthropological varieties of mankind (due to adaptation); but it also has an immediate pedagogic importance through its useful application to the school.

Lino Ferriani is the first jurist to investigate the antecedents of juvenile delinquents, by gathering notes not only regarding their parents, but also in regard to their own _school standing_ (by consulting the teachers in the schools where these juvenile criminals received their education!). I have extracted from his volume on "Precocious and senile delinquency" the following statistics of the physico-moral condition of the parents:

Convicted of crimes against property 1,237
Convicted of crimes against the person 543
Addicted to wine 2,006
Women leading meretricious lives 581
Doubtful reputation 1,500
Very bad reputation 670
Good reputation 210
Industrious 1,888
Semi-idle 4,000
Idle 2,000
Sentenced for drunkenness 1,590
Sentenced for offences against public morals 240
Alcoholics 1,001
Confined in lunatic asylums 48
Mothers deflowered before the age of 15 1,560
Couples separated through fault of the husband 59
Couples separated through fault of the wife 69
Couples separated through fault of both parties 135

Among these notes there is a numerical preponderance of _idlers_ (the idle and semi-idle: degenerates are weaklings who cannot work and who shun work; their only form of work is crime, which is an attempt to reap the fruit of other people's industry) and alcoholism (addicted to wine, alcoholics, and those sentenced for drunkenness; this also is a stigma of degeneration: weaklings have recourse to alcohol, because it gives them an illusion of strength). Furthermore, the majority show, through crime and prostitution, that they belong to the class of social parasites.

In regard to the psycho-physical characteristics of juvenile offenders, Ferriani gives these principal notes:

Nervous 1,250
Habitual liars 3,000
Fond of wine and gluttonous 2,501
Proud of delinquency 2,700

Blasphemers 3,900
Cruel to animals 2,100
Excessive emaciation 1,648
Long hands 1,650
Unreliable workers 2,195
Without interest in life 1,347
Desirous of authority 1,000
Scrofulous 700
Rachitic and syphilitic 500
Vindictive 842
Timid and cowardly 900
Obscene 900
Cruel to parents 700
Cruel to companions 700

And now we come to the most interesting part of all, namely, the notes taken by teachers where these children went to school.

_Boys._--Age from ten to twelve years. Characteristic notes on 100 children in regard to bad conduct:

Humiliating poorer companions 2
Absolute refusal to obey 4
Corrupting companions 4
Mutilating books of poor companions 2
Spirit of rebellion 1
Malicious and headstrong 1
Resentful of routine 1
Stealing food at expense of companions 6
Abnormally spiteful 4
Impertinent answers 7
Proud of inventing misdeeds 2
Stealing from companions and teacher (school stationary, etc.) 10
Calumniating companions 6
Desire to play the spy 8
Obscene writings in toilet room 2
Obscene writings in copy-books 6
Obscene actions in the school-room 9
Obscene writings on the benches 3
Violence with a weapon (pen-knife) 2
Bullying smaller boys 12
Feigning loss of speech for a month, to avoid reciting lessons 1
Blaspheming 1
Afraid of everything and savagely vindictive 1
Frequently absent from school, to play games of chance 3
Spirit of destruction 1
Spirit of contradiction 1

_Girls._--Age from ten to twelve years. Characteristic notes on 50 children in regard to bad conduct:

Soiling the clothing of their companions 3
Abnormally spiteful 2
Intense envy 4
Frequent absence from school, to play games of chance 4
Tyranny 3
Immoderate vanity 2
Spirit of rebellion 1
Insolent answers 1
Absolute intolerance of supervision 1
Damaging the school furniture 2
Slandering the teacher 4
Slandering school-mates 6
Theft, limited to pens 1
Lascivious love-letters 4
Constantly speaking ill of her mother 1
Attempts to make school-mates unhappy 1
Unkindness toward animals 1
Unkindness toward old persons 1
Unkindness toward small children 1
Obscene writings in the toilet room 1
Harmful anonymous letters 1
Hatred of beautiful things 1
Spirit of contradiction 1
Corrupting companions 1
Thefts in school 1
Mutilating the clothing of companions 1

The prevailing faults among the boys are: theft, obscene actions, tyranny over the weak; and among the girls: slander, extreme envy and lascivious love-letters.

If we compare the notes regarding the parents with those relating to the children, we find a connection amounting to that of cause and effect. We might almost say that the phenomenon revealed to us in school through the teachers' notes concerns not so much the pupil himself as his past history. To keep this sort of record of misconduct, so damnatory to the pupils in question, would be worse than useless, if we were unable to trace back their source to the presumable causes which determined them. There is an intimate relation between the environment and the products of that environment. If we should read the notes relating to the children who receive prizes for good conduct, and who are held up as moral examples, we could trace back and find the cause of these notes in a favourable family environment; hence, the qualities which we praise in the child are not a merit peculiar to the child, but are due to causes, of which the pupil himself is merely the fortunate epilogue.

And passing from studies taken from works of criminal anthropology to examples contained in works of pedagogic anthropology (these works all being based upon the same scientific standards), I am happy to cite a work which has even earned the praise of Lombroso: _Notes on Infantile Psycho-physiology_, written by Professor Calcagni.

Notwithstanding that this book of Menotti Calcagni's is inspired by the most advanced pedagogic conceptions, so that it well deserves to be cited in its entirety with much profit, I shall avail myself only of the part which particularly interests me at the present moment. It is the part containing the data collected and arranged by the author in a series of tables, in the form of a brief clinical history, of each pupil in the class studied by the author.

I shall pass over the statistical tables concerning the personal examination of the pupils (anthropological, physiological, etc.), and confine myself to just two tables: one in regard to the examination into the pupil's antecedents (name and surname; day of birth; place of birth; age of father; age of mother; vocation of father; vocation of mother; conditions of home environment, hygienic, economic and moral; conditions of other members of the family; maladies and casualties incurred by the parents before and after the procreation of the child; defects and vices of parents, and details regarding their psychic constitutions; conditions and accidents during pregnancy, birth and puerperal period; illnesses incurred by the child); the other in regard to the pupil's previous school record (name and surname; pupils enrolled at beginning of the year; those transferred to other classes; those promoted without examination; those promoted after examination; those permitted a second trial; those not admitted to examination; those dropped from their class, and for how many different years). I select from these the notes referring to the children _promoted without_ _examination_ and those _not admitted to examination_; _i.e._, the privileged ones before whom an obstacle has been withdrawn which the majority must surmount before continuing on their path in life: go forward in peace, you favoured ones! and those who are not even allowed a chance to overcome the obstacle: turn back, you to whom the path of other men is closed!

And I read these notes relative to those _promoted without examination_: "Father shoemaker, Mother dress-maker, home orderly, frugal and clean; brothers labourers;"--"F. professor of chemistry, M. housekeeping, condition of environment excellent, brothers studious;"--"F. assistant engineer, M. keeps house, conditions of environment good, deaths in family from acute diseases;"--"F. country tradesman, M. keeps house, conditions of environment excellent, very religious family;"--"F. man of means, M. housekeeping, conditions of environment excellent, brothers studious;"--"F. machinist, M. keeps the house, home somewhat damp because of adjoining garden; much anxiety on the part of the mother regarding the children, because her first husband was a consumptive, and the seven children she had by him all died. Children of second marriage all healthy; but the pupil in question frequently had attacks of fever;"--"F. cab-driver, M. keeps house, economic and moral conditions satisfactory;"--"F. antiquarian, M. keeps house, condition good;"--"F. manager of a lottery office, M. keeps house, economic conditions of the very best, moral conditions good," etc.

And here are a few notes on the pupils _not admitted to the examinations_: "Father itinerant vendor, Mother keeps house, home exceedingly dirty, utmost indifference regarding the children and their education. Insufficient nutriment for the mother both before and after the child's birth;"--"F. cobbler, M. wash-woman, poverty, squalor, and indifference, dwelling gloomy and cramped;"--"F. mason, M. dead, dwelling gloomy and unhealthy, through lack of supervision, Giacinto often runs away from home and goes to play on the banks of the Tiber; the mother died of tuberculosis; the father is an alcoholic; the child was brought up by a wet-nurse, etc."

To recapitulate: in the case of children promoted without examination there is an absolute prevalence of the most favourable social and biologico-moral conditions, while the opposite holds true of the children excluded from examinations.

Finally, in my own modest work on children adjudged to be the highest and the lowest in their classes, I arrived at some very eloquent conclusions.

In the case of children who stand at the foot of their class, the prevailing conditions are not only an unhealthy home but an over-crowded one, with ten or twelve persons sleeping in a single room. On the contrary, in the case of the children standing at the head of their class, the homes are for the most part roomy, comfortable, well-aired and hygienic.

In regard to nutrition, the children who have the lowest standing are those who go to school without their breakfast and who go from the school to the street without having had their luncheon. Those who stand first, on the contrary, bring with them a luncheon that is sufficient and sometimes over-lavish; and after school, they return home, with the assurance that food, care and comfort await them.

The parents of these leaders of their class belong nearly all of them to the liberal professions or the more favoured crafts and trades; consequently the pupils enjoy a more comfortable and respectable environment, a higher standard of culture, a mother who can aid them in their lessons, and who, equally with the father, watches with solicitous care over her children's education.

The others, the dullest pupils, go at the close of school into the street, or else--although fortunately very few of them do so--return directly to the wretchedly cramped quarters that they call home.

Consequently it is not enough to recognise the fact that in school we have to deal with the more intelligent pupil and the less intelligent, with the moral and the immoral, the highest and the lowest; these are effects, the causes of which it is our duty to discover; and that is what the study of antecedents does for us.

Here begins the far-sighted task of the teacher, who no longer praises the pupil who is a product of fortunate causes, nor blames the unfortunate one heavily handicapped by a destiny which is in no way his fault; but he gives to all an affectionate and enlightened care, designed to correct and reform the reprobates and raise them to the level of the chosen few, thus working for the brotherhood and the amelioration of all mankind, and devoting special attention to those that need it most.

The study of antecedents is what contributes most to the interpretation of personality. It is needful, however, that it should be sufficiently thorough; and to this end a certain order of interrogation should be followed. Physicians are well acquainted with this order, from the habit they have acquired of taking the antecedents of the patient in their clinical practice; but for making biographic charts for schools, a _guide_ is needed for the use of whoever puts the questions. Besides, the biographical history is based on different principles from those of the clinical history (_e.g._, the moral status of the parents, their degree of culture, etc., which are not taken into consideration, in treating a patient). Consequently, the blank forms of biographic charts contain suggestions that are likely to prove helpful in conducting an inquiry into antecedents. Among such models, I have selected that of Pastorello, because it is one of the most complete, and also because it was compiled by an educator (see page 420).

Nevertheless, the inquiry into his antecedents is only a preparation for the scientific study of the pupil in his present state; a study which should _follow_ the pupil through his daily life (diaries) and thus constitute his complete _Biographical History_.

Having collected the antecedent details, we pass on to the objective anthropological and psychic examination of the pupil: beginning with the anthropological, which it is more important to secure first; since the psychic examination will produce better results after a _prolonged observation of the subject_ (diaries, school records).

In the anthropological examination it is customary to begin by taking the principal measurements (total stature, sitting stature, weight, thoracic perimeter, perimeter of the head, and its two maximum diameters) which furnish the data needed to give a fundamental idea of the child's physiological constitution and racial type, and to determine the normality of his growth. Many other measurements may be taken (spirometry, dynamometry), according to the custom of the school, and, in private schools, according to the object which the Principal has in view, in the way of contributions to science. For instance, in a school for defectives the examinations as to general sensibility, speech, muscular strength have an importance of the first order, and equally important is the accurate and minute inspection of the different organs, for the purpose of discovering possible malformations. There are various special objects to be attained by gathering anthropological data, and accordingly every school based upon modern scientific principles has its own "Biographical Chart" drawn up according to special forms containing the necessary measurements and observations, and the examiner has only to follow the directions of this guide and to fill in the required information obtained from the individual pupil.

INQUIRY INTO ANTECEDENTS IN PASTORELLO'S BIOGRAPHIC CHART

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General Information Regarding Pupil's Family
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NAME AND SURNAME OF PARENTS

_Father_.........................................................