Here is a new boy. What is he and how will he act and for what will he be best prepared? Simple anthropometric measurements of his body and perhaps an X-ray study of his intestinal tract will aid classification. The physical and mental education may then be directed into the proper channels and the working boy mainly prepared for a definite occupation, with full assurance that it will be one in which he will appear to good advantage.
The man on the job: will they fit each other? Some such question is ever presenting itself in one form or another to employer or his subordinates. Here, again, physical type will provide a key. A large employer of labor in the Government service told Dr. Bryant that experience enabled him to divide labor into two classes. Being asked, on one occasion, how much help he wanted for a certain piece of work, he replied, without thinking how it would sound, "About so many broad backs and about 60 many narrow backs." The explanation was that the broad backs were the office force, who stayed behind and worked up the duties attained by the narrow backs. The latter were to draw their pay for their proficiency in overcoming obstacles to success in field work.
Blood pressure is of great importance in determining physical condition. The normal pressure ranges from 110 to 140. The carbohydrates will usually be found to have a pressure below the average and the herbivores above. In disease pressure tends to fall in the carbohydrates, but to rise in the herbivores. Drugs often act in a totally different manner in the case of a carnivore and that of a herbivore. 