302 Historical 



quently the lungs need a larger cavity to contain them; 4. that there- 

 fore the chest has a greater capacity than in the normal condition; 

 5. that this great development of the chest lengthens the trunk a 

 little beyond the ordinary proportions, almost out of harmony with the 

 length of the extremities, which have remained as they would have 

 been, if the chest had retained its natural dimensions. (Vol. I, p. 267.) 



Thse anatomical observations are so interesting that the Society 

 of Anthropology discussed them among the Ethnological and Medi- 

 cal Questions Relating to Peru, and suggested in 1861 that travel- 

 lers verify them. 



In a scholarly report, M. Gosse senior, 141 states that "up to the 

 present, the assertions of d'Orbigny have not been verified by any 

 traveller" (p. 107). He even mentions a fact which would seem 

 to prove that this is a racial characteristic independent of the 

 environment, since: 



The descendants of the mountaineers settled in a colony by the 

 Incas on the seashore near Cobija would have retained up to the pres- 

 ent, as an effect of heredity, the special physical constitution, said to 

 have been acquired in the atmosphere of the lofty plateaux. (P. 108.) 



The same, year, M. Jourdanet, 142 speaking of the Indians of 

 Mexico, said: 



The Indian, whom we may consider as positively acclimated, has a 

 chest the amplitude of which exceeds the proportions which we should 

 expect from his short stature. And so he performs work which might 

 well surprise, us in any country .... His vast chest makes him com- 

 fortable in the midst of this thin air. (P. 98.) 



On this point also he was contradicted by Coindet. 143 Accord- 

 ing to this observer, for a series of Frenchmen whose average 

 height was 1.678 meters, the thoracic circumference on the level 

 of the nipples was 92.450 centimeters, whereas in the Mexicans, 

 in an average height of 1.620 meters, it fell to 89.048 centimeters. 



But the English traveller Forbes confirmed the observations of 

 d'Orbigny and M. Jourdanet: 



M. D. Forbes, says M. Darwin, 144 who carefully measured a great 

 number of Aymaras, living at an altitude included between 10,000 and 

 15,000 feet, told me that they differ very greatly from the men of all 

 other races he has seen in the circumference and the length of their 

 bodies. 



Finally, in his last book, M. Jourdanet 145 gives specific data, 

 saying: 



I have the abstract of a great number of observations which do 

 not admit the least doubt. They justify me in stating that with an 

 average height of 160 to 165 centimeters, the Indians of Anahuac have 



