Měření Čechoslováků - Česká společnost biotypologická a konstituční lékařství v ČSR mezi lety 1937-1959 – Musil Jan (2025)

The publication deals with the emergence, activities, and demise of the Czech Biotypological Society and the penetration of the science of human constitution into Czechoslovak medicine from the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s. Biotypology, or the science of human constitution, stemmed from the ambition to classify each individual based on their morphological and physiological traits in relation to an ideally established constitutional type. It was founded on the belief in a firm correlation between physical appearance, psychological traits, and mental abilities of a person, as well as the effort to generalize individual characteristics, mathematically typify, and derive function from form. Biotypologists hoped to gain insight into the most hidden corners of human individuality, thus obtaining an overview of the traits, abilities, and health potential of the population. It was meant to serve as a starting point for rational and effective medical care and for the education, selection, and appropriate job placement of individuals in the conditions of mass production. This research received extraordinary resonance and support in Baťa's Zlín. As an example of a contemporary health-oriented scientific program and social engineering in medicine, the story of the Czech Biotypological Society is also a story of dangerous self-confidence and ambition...