3 MAY 1884, Page 24

Life-History Album. Edited by Francis Galton, F.R.S. (Mac- millan.)—This "Album,"

prepared by direction of the Collective- Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, gives a number of tables of various particulars of physical constitution— height, weight, girth round chest, strength of pulse, colour of eyes. and hair, Sm.—which parents are to fill in as their children grow up. The date of cutting of teeth, any severe trial of mental power (what volumes some parents would write under this item !), and many other things, are to be noted. Then there is a space for photographs, and a space, modestly limited to two pages (lesson for biographers), in which " life-history" is to be recorded. This is a kind of thing which we do not feel competent to do more than describe.