OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS ON THE MEMBERS OF THE 

 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Ales Hrdlicka 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



In 1925 the writer completed and published a study on the old elements of the American 

 population. 1 The object of that study from its beginning was to establish reliable standards on 

 the most characteristic and genetically uniform part of the American population, and with this 

 aim constantly present in mind all the observations and measurements were made personally, 

 under due regulations, with the same instruments and with scrupulous care. 



The results of the study showed some remarkable differences between the cultured con- 

 tingent of the "old Americans" and the belated mountaineers of equally old extraction, to the 

 advantage of the former. This made it very desirable to study in the same ways and by the 

 same observer the mentally most active and advanced in the old American population, to find 

 whether or not and how they differed from the cultured old Americans at large. 



A group of such persons in somewhere near sufficient numbers and availability was best to 

 be found, it was recognized, in the membership of the National Academy of Sciences. The 

 matter was therefore brought before the Academy, the consent of the members was given. The 

 examinations began in the building of the Academy in 1926, and were continued until 1933. 

 In 1928 the undertaking became associated with the Committee on Biographical Memoirs, 

 thus securing the aid of Doctor Charles B. Davenport, Chairman of the Committee, which 

 is hereby gratefully acknowledged. 



At the annual meeting in 1932 the first brief general report on the results of the work was 

 given to the Academy and in 1933 another portion, observations on the forehead, was discussed 

 before the American Philosophical Society. 2 In 1933-34 Dr. Davenport's laboratory aided the 

 work with such simpler mathematical determinations as seemed to offer some hope of useful- 

 ness. In 1935 a second report on the results of the study was given to the National Academy, 

 and since then the present final treatise on the work has been in preparation for publication. 



Among the members of the Academy the study met in general with the kindest coopera- 

 tion; but there were also some difficulties. It being impracticable to visit the members in 

 their homes or institutions, or to secure elsewhere the proper accommodations, the examina- 

 tions could only be carried on during the annual meetings at Washington; these meetings are 

 generally attended by less than a half of the members, those present are busy with the proceed- 

 ings, and not a few can come only to present their own or hear some special communication; 

 the result of all of which was that on the average not more than about 20 members could be 

 secured for the measurements each year. An even greater difficulty was encountered with 

 those who were too old or too feeble to attend the meetings in Washington, and a considerable 

 number of such members passed away before they could be examined. Under these conditions 

 it became impossible to get the whole membership of the Academy; but eventually data were 

 obtained on 100 otherwise unselected members of old American derivation, 3 and on 50 of 

 European or of recent American parentage. 



The series, especially the latter, are numerically less than desirable. It is known to anthro- 

 pologists that a satisfactory series among the living should contain at least 200 individuals; 



i The Old Americans, 1925, 8°, I-XIII and 438 pp., Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, Md. 



1 The Forehead. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, 1933, LXXII, 315-324; reprinted in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1934. 



' At least three generations on each side, inclusive of the subject, born Americans. 



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