56 A BIOMETRIC STUDY OF BASAL METABOLISM IN MAN. 



gible importance. A far greater difficulty is inherent in the factor of 

 racial differentiation. One has only to glance at such tables as those 

 of Martin 50 or the discussion and maps of Ripley 51 to realize how great 

 the racial, geographical, and social factors are in determining the 

 average stature of a group of individuals. The fact that our normal 

 men and women are taller than those with which we have compared 

 them may be due to one or more of three factors. 



a. A differentiation of the American population from the European 

 with respect to stature. 



6. An indirect selection of the taller men and women from the gen- 

 eral American population due to the individuals volunteering for these 

 metabolism observations being a superior class. 62 



c. Unconscious selection of taller individuals for metabolism meas- 

 urements by those who have had to choose among the subjects who 

 presented themselves. 



Some evidence on the first of these questions is afforded by abstract- 

 ing from Martin's Anthropologie the average statures, as far as given 

 in the comparative table (p. 213-217). 



Men. Women. 



French 164.1 157.0 



Bavarians 165.6 



Swedes 170.9 



American whites 171.9 



English 172.8 159.9 



Even if we increase the stature of the French and Bavarian men 

 by 1 cm. to correct for the age at which measurements were made for 

 military purposes, we note that the American white population stands 

 next to that of the middle classes of Great Britian in stature. 



Fortunately we may take from Baxter's 53 report the average stat- 

 ures of immigrants of various nationalities. As abstracted by the 

 Anthropometric Committee of the British Association 54 they are as 

 follows : 



Centi- Centi- Centi- 



meters, meters. meters. 



Norwegians 171.9 English 169.2 French 168.3 



Canadians, chiefly Hungarians 169.2 Poles 168.2 



French 170.3 Germans 169.1 Italians 167.7 



Swedes 170.0 Swiss 168.7 Spaniards 166.8 



Danes 169.4 Russians 168.7 Portuguese 166.3 



Dutch 169.3 



60 Martin, Lehrbuch dor Anthropologie, 1914. See especially pp. 204-237. 



51 Ripley, The Races of Europe, 1900. Sec especially pp. 78-102. 



52 How great the influence of social differentiation may be is well shown by a comparison of 



the regression slopes for fraudulent criminals and for criminals at large, in Goring's 



English Convict- It is also clear from the Swiss data for stature by occupation given 



on page 90 of Ripley's Races of Europe. 

 6 Baxter, Statistics, Medical and Anthropological, 1875. 

 M British Association Report (Southport), 1883, pp. 269-271. See also W. H. Holmes, 



Am. Journ. Phys. Anthrop., 1918, 1, p. 84. 



