﻿IOO 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



vol. 59 



Girth of the Leg 



The maximum girth of the leg is a measurement which in the 

 main indicates the individual development of the musculature of the 

 part, but collectively is also of some anthropological significance, for 

 regardless of age, health, nourishment and exercise of the part, all 

 of which agencies affect its dimension, there are certain peoples, 

 such as the Indians for instance, who have in general a smaller calf 

 than the whites. 



The average maximum circumference of the left leg, which is 

 measured by the writer, amounts in white men less than 50 years of 

 age, to about 36 cm., in the Indian the writer obtained, on 200 indi- 

 viduals in good state of bodily preservation, 34.0 cm., and in 20 

 apparently full-blood American negroes 36.9 cm. One hundred and 

 eleven Kharga men in good condition gave the mean of only 32.0 

 cm., and in more than a half the measurement was smaller. The sig- 

 nificance of this relatively poor record is doubtless in the main not 

 racial, but connected with the poor nutrition of the majority of the 

 Oasis people and their consequent subnormal development, which 

 was shown already by other determinations. 



KHARGA OASIS, MEN: MAXIMUM GIRTH OF LEG 



Number of observations: in. 1 



Average: 32.0cm. (1st 50: 32.1; 2d 50: 31.9cm.) 



Median : 31.5 cm. Mode : 31.0-32.0 cm. 



Minimum : 27.3 cm. Maximum : 37.0 cm. 



Table of frequencies : 





£ 

 00 



a 



u 



On 

 00 



a 







CO 



o\ 



a 



u 



CO 

 1 



6 



t*3 



a 







CO 

 1 



CO 



a 

 



CO 

 CO 



N 



CO 



a 



u 



co 

 CO 



CO 



a 

 10 



CO 

 1 



CO 



a 



co 



1 



10 



CO 



a 



CO 

 CO 



Number of cases 



Per cent 



2 



1.8 



3 11 

 2.7 9.9 



22 



19.8 



23 

 20.7 



20 



18.0 



17 



15.3 



9 



8-1 



3 

 2.7 



I 

 0-9 











1 No cases of plain emaciation, senile or otherwise, included. 



SUMMARY OF THE MAIN RESULTS SHOWN BY MEASUREMENTS; 

 TABLES OF COMPARISON 



The Kharga men are, on the average, of short stature ; the head is 

 of moderate size, medium height and dolicho- to mesocephalic in 

 form ; the face is rather narrow, the nose mesorhynian, the mouth of 

 fair size; the ears are rather long and narrow, the hands and feet 

 of medium proportions, the legs small. In general the measure- 

 ments indicate a rather poor physical development. 



