Editing Adolphe Quetelet (section)

===Anthropometry===

In his 1835 text on social physics, he presented his theory of human [[variance]] around the [[average]], showing human traits were distributed according to a [[Normal distribution|normal curve]]. The existence of such variation provided the basis for later writers, including Darwin, to argue that natural populations contained sufficient variability for [[artificial selection|artificial]] or [[natural selection]] to operate.<ref name=dc>{{cite book |last=Eiseley  |first=Loren |title=Darwin's Century |url=https://archive.org/details/darwinscenturye000eise  |url-access=registration  |date=1961 |publisher=Anchor Books (Doubleday) |page=[https://archive.org/details/darwinscenturye000eise/page/227 227] |isbn=9780385081412 }}</ref>

In terms of influence over later [[public health]] agendas, one of Quetelet's lasting legacies was the establishment of a simple measure for classifying people's weight relative to an ideal for their height. His proposal, the [[body mass index]] (or Quetelet index), has endured with minor variations to the present day.<ref>Garabed Eknoyan (2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110221195712/http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/1/47.full "Adolphe Quetelet (1796&ndash;1874) &ndash; the average man and indices of obesity".] In: ''Nephrol. Dial. Transplant''. 23 (1): 47–51.</ref> Anthropometric data is used in modern applications and referenced in the development of every consumer-based product.