Abstract
IT is of considerable interest to know in an exact way the amount of change that may have occurred in our race during recent generations. 1 therefore send the following results concerning the changes in weight, which I have calculated from data obligingly furnished to me by Messrs. Berry, of 3, St. James's Street, London. Messrs. Berry are the heads of an old-established firm of wine and coffee merchants, who keep two huge beam scales in their shop, one for their goods, and the other for the use and amusement of their customers. Upwards of 20,000 persons have been -weighed in them since the middle of last century down to the present day, and the results are recorded in well-indexed ledgers. Some of those who had town houses have been weighed year after year during the Parliamentary season for the whole period of their adult lives. I examined two of the ledgers at my own house, and was satisfied of their genuineness and accuracy; also that they could be accepted as weighings in “ordinary indoor clothing” unless otherwise stated. Much personal interest attaches itself to these unique registers, for they contain a large proportion of the historical names in our upper classes.
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GALTON, F. The Weights of British Noblemen During the Last Three Generations . Nature 29, 266–268 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/029266a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/029266a0