24 OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS ACADEMY MEMBERS '"'""lE^'Srn 



[Vol. XXIII, 



QfcOAVH frlfc *** ■ 



Weight-Height Ratio (Grams per cm.) 



— — — 8 8 <Md. CUviMtowi. 



The academicians of old American families, curiously, show up to 60 a slight preponderance 

 over those born abroad or of more recent European extraction. In explanation of this difference 

 the only suggestion that seems of value is that those of old American derivation have had some 

 differences as to food and habits. 



In a few individuals in each of the two series of the Academy the weight-stature ratio, in its 

 turn, is subnormally low, in a few others somewhat abnormally high. Such instances are prob- 

 ably connected with some disturbances of normal metabolism. 



Height Sitting 20 



This measurement gives on one hand the height of the trunk together with the neck and the 

 head, and on the other hand, the length of the lower limbs, below the level of the ischia. The 

 absolute measurements here being of but little concern, we may take up at once their values 

 relative to stature. 



In the 247 "laboratory series" old American males at large, the sitting height averaged 52.94 

 percent of the stature, with the remarkably small range of variation of 13.6 of the average. In 

 the total series of 727 old Americans at large, measured by me before and including many young 

 adults in whom as an age effect the sitting height-stature ratio is known to be slightly lower, 21 

 the average was 52.6. The general mean in man approximates 53.5, but shows many differences 

 in the various human groups. 



In the old American group of the Academy the average comes out practically identical with 

 that of the general (laboratory) group of the old Americans at large, namely 52.84, and it is 52.96, 



30 Subject sitting upright on a bench 46 centimeters high; looking straight forward; with knees bent at right angle; buttocks, shoulders, and 

 Occiput touching the wall; procedure of taking and recording the measurement as with stature. 

 » The Old Americans, pp. 116, 117. 



