pro TUC EDITOR Os TIM 'STICOTATOR: * 1 Sin,—Mr. Alexander and I
agree in believing that physical activity is commoner among the English than among the German well-to-do classes, but there our agreement ends. Mr. Alexander believes that the general physique of these classes is better in England than in Germany, and I am convinced it is much better in Germany than in England. You, Sir, and our fellow-readers of the Spectator, whose opinions Mr. Alexander and I wish to influence, know well that the eye sees as a rule only what it expects to see; and as you cannot know what expectations were behind Mr. Alexander's eyes and mine when we looked at Germans, you are not likely to be led to accept either his view or mine by anything we say respecting the large number of observations we have made. I refrain, therefore, from asking you to let me give you a list of the opportunities which I have had, and tried to use, of comparing British and German military and naval officers, merchants, manufacturers, men of science, students, teachers, &c. I write to make a suggestion. Mr. Hall, of Leeds, who has done good service to us all by calling attention to the superiority in physique of Jewish to Gentile children in Leeds, has published the reproductions of photographs of a group of ten-year-old Gentiles and of a group of ten-year-old Jews, and the pictures show that, if the eight children in each group fairly represent large numbers, English parents have much to learn from Jewish parents respecting the care of children. Would it not be possible to obtain similar evidence with regard to the physical condition of members of different sections of the well-to-do class in Germany and England by having a certain number of members of different sections photographed by cameras of the same construction, the persons photographed to be placed in all cases at the same distance from the camera? I should suggest as typical classes the dons and undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge and the professors and Students at Heidelberg and Jena, the officers of a British and of a German warship, those of a P. and 0. steamer and of a North German Lloyd steamer, the officers of a British and of a German regiment. To keep the numbers within manageable compass, and to ensure that the persons photo- graphed should not be chosen on account of their being of unusual size, only those of a given age whose names began with certain letters Might be chosen. I believe that the photographs would show in the majority of cases more tall, broad-shouldered, and fewer very small and slight, men in the German than in the British groups. It is to the interest of both Germany and this country that it shall be known which system of physical training gives the better results, so that I think that it is possible that some German and some English people may be willing to co-operate in giving effect to my suggestion. I should be very glad to contribute 225 towards
[Mr. Horsfall's suggestion is interesting, though we do not think his test would be final. Horses look much more powerful in a photograph than ponies, and yet a pony may be the stronger animal. Should Mr. Horsfall succeed in raising the subscription be desires, and is able to carry his plan into practice, we will do our best to make the results
known. We cannot, unfortunately, publish illustrations our- selves ; but our contemporary, the County Gentleman and Land and Water, authorises us to state that it will, if Mr. Horsfall so desires, do its best to reproduce a reasonable number of the comparative photographs which he may be able to obtain. By this means the public at large will be able to judge, as far as judgment from photographs is possible, whether the Germans or the British well-to-do make the better show and look the more "likely." We may add that the photographs of British and Jewish children submitted to us by Mr. Horsfall form a most striking and painful contrast. There is no disputing as to which are the better cured for. The Jewish children are a credit to their parentage ; the children of British blood exactly the reverse. —ED. Spectator.]
THE PAUCITY OF ARMY OFFICERS.
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