THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. 105 



be confined to an inquiry as to how far these influences ohtain 

 among our North American Indians, since we possess more re- 

 liable data concerning this than that of the negro race. 



Quite recently I had the opportunity of making an investiga- 

 tion into the type of respiration as it exists in the Indian female, 

 and I then unexpectedly found that a large proportion of the 

 Indian girls which were examined had white blood coursing 

 through their veins, and that this not only modified the color of 

 their skin, but also had a marked influence on their mode of 

 breathing. It is well known that, as far back as 1774, Boerhaave 

 observed a different type of respiration in civilized man and 

 woman — the former breathing principally with the diaphragm 

 or abdomen, which is called the abdominal type ; while the latter 

 breathes principally with the upper portion of the chest, which 

 is called the costal type. This investigation was carried on in 

 the Lincoln Institution of Philadelphia — a school for Indian 

 girls — and was undertaken with a view to ascertain whether the 

 Indian female, who is not accustomed to the wearing of corsets 

 and tight clothing around the abdomen, has the same type of 

 respiration as that which obtains among our civilized females, 

 and in all I examined the chest-movements of eighty-two Indian 

 girls by means of a pneumograph devised by me somewhat after 

 that of Paul Bert. In each case I took an abdominal and a 

 costal tracing. Of the eighty -two girls which were examined, 

 and whose ages ranged between ten and twenty years, there were 

 only thirty-three full-blooded Indians; five were one fourth, 

 thirty-five were one half, and two were three-fourths white. 

 Seventy-five girls showed a decided abdominal type of breath- 

 ing, three a costal type, and in three both were about even. 

 Those who showed the costal type, or a divergence from the ab- 

 dominal type of breathing, came from the more civilized tribes, 

 like the Mohawks, Chippewas, etc., and were either one half or 

 three fourths white, while in no single instance did a full- 

 blooded Indian girl possess this type of breathing. This is sig- 

 nificant in showing that, so far as the Indian is concerned, the 

 abdominal type is the original type of respiration in both male 

 and female, and that the costal type in the civilized female is ac- 

 quired through the constricting infiuence of dress around the 

 abdomen. That which is of still greater importance, however, is 

 the fact that only those girls who were either one half or three 

 fourths white, and who were hence under the greater domination 

 of the inherited characteristics of civilized blood, possessed the 

 costal or an approach to the costal type of respiration. 



An examination of the pupils of the Lincoln Institution, there- 

 fore, not only shows that a rapid amalgamation is taking place 

 between the white and the Indian races, but that the latter is 



