﻿NO. I NATIVES OF KHARGA OASIS HRDLICKA 91 



The Ears 



The dimensions of the ears possess certain anthropological value ; 

 the small ear of the negro is clearly separable from the larger one of 

 the white, and there are probably other racial differences. 



The writer measures invariably the left ear, which to a right- 

 hand observer is more easily approachable with the instruments than 

 that on the opposite side, and the measurements taken are the maxi- 

 mum height and the maximum breadth. 1 



The average height of the ear obtained in Kharga men amounts 

 to 6.3 cm., a relatively large proportion. Two hundred and fifteen 

 ears (right and left) of Alsatian and German males from 20 to over 

 80 years of age gave Schwalbe the average ear height of 6.59; but 

 the 125 of these ears from individuals between 20 and 59 years of 

 age, representing a more suitable group for comparison than the 

 total Schwalbe series which includes the ears of many old individuals, 

 give the average of 6.33 cm. — much the same as at Kharga. The 

 Alsatians and Germans are, however, of decidedly taller mean stature 

 than the Kharga natives, and stature exercises a certain amount of 

 direct influence on the size of the ears irrespective of other conditions. 



As to further comparative data, Weisbach records the ear height 

 of 6.4 in the Javanese, 6.3 in the Japanese, 6.2 in Hawaiians, 6.1 in 

 northern Chinese, Jews and Slavs, and 5.9 cm. in Gypsies and 

 Kaffirs; while the writer obtained the average of 5.99 cm. in 20 

 apparently full-blood American negroes, and 6.76 cm. in 76 American 

 Indians — all males. The short Kharga natives have therefore evi- 

 dently an ear somewhat above the general average in length and 

 differing very perceptibly in this respect from that of the negro. 



The range of variation of the dimension amounts to 2.0 cm., or 

 ±0.159 per unit of the average. The distribution of the measure- 

 ment is regular. 



x They are the same as those of Topinard (Elements d'Anthropol. gen., 

 Paris 1885, p. 1004 et seq.), Weisbach (Zeit. f. Ethnologic IX, Supplement, 

 Berlin, 1878), and Schwalbe (Beitrage zur Anthropologic des Ohres, Vir- 

 chow's Festschrift, 1891, p. 95 et seq.) The breadth is measured at right 

 angles to the height; the fixed branch of the sliding compass being applied, 

 with some pressure, parallel to the long axis of the ear and so as to touch 

 the anterior subcutaneous limit of the cartilaginous helix, while the movable 

 branch is brought to touch the most posterior part of the skin of the pinna. 



