410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 3 



much the same derivation, much the same mean stature, but from 

 the extremes of mental training, work, and achievement, and to a 

 large extent also from the extremes of environment and habits. 

 Yet no difference in the height of the forehead is found — nor, it 

 may be said at once, in any of its other essential characters. This 

 permits but one possible conclusion, which is that the lowness or 

 height of the forehead, in normal human beings, does not express 

 or have any relation to the kind of brain it helps to harbor. This 

 will be further confirmed in what follows. 



FOREHEAD AND RACE 



Equally remarkable and unexpected conditions as those shown in 

 the preceding section appear from the study of the forehead height 

 in different races. The next table shows the dimensions in four 

 important human groups. 



Height of forehead, males 



No. 



Group 



Centi- 

 meters 



Relation 

 to stature 

 (S = 1,000) 



510 



1,239 



19 



181 



Old Americans at large 



American Indians.. 



Fullblood young to middle-aged American Negroes. 

 Alaskan Eskimos (Kuskokwim region) 



6.59 

 6.62 



7.16 



37.8 

 39.7 

 41.4 

 44.2 



All the measurements in the above series were made by myself, 

 by the same method and with one and the same set of accurate 

 instruments. Should there be any bias, it would affect similarly 

 all the groups, for their measurements interdigitated in time; but 

 the procedure is based too rationally to permit of much bias in any 

 direction. If the facts are contrary to the anticipation, they are 

 none the less realities. They do away completely with the idea that 

 high forehead, in general, indicates a high intellectuality, or that 

 it is a mark of racial superiority. 



In both the absolute height of the forehead and its relative value 

 to stature, the white old Americans at large — certainly one of the 

 best of stocks in every way — stand not at or even near the head but 

 at the foot of the four groups. They are surpassed in height of 

 forehead by the Indian, still more so by the Negro, and most by the 

 Eskimo. In the absolute measurements the differences in males in 

 favor of the Indian are only one-half of 1 percent, but in favor of the 

 Negro they amount to nearly 6, in favor of the Eskimo nearly 9 

 percent; and the last column of the table shows that these differ- 

 ences are even more marked in the relative height of the forehead 

 to stature. 



