100 



The Journal of Heredity 



women, often accompanied by deficient 

 development of the breasts and shoul- 

 ders. Indeed, one of the most striking 

 of the facts ])rought out is that, barring 

 individual excefHions, the women of 

 the old American stock appear to be 

 below i)ar, jjhysically. The males are, 

 on the whole, admirable specimens of 

 the white race; the females are not 

 infrequently undersized, underdevel- 

 o])cd, and weak in comparison with what 

 they should l)e. 



This dilTerence is not due, the investi- 

 gator thinks, to heredity, but is solely a 

 inatter of bringing-u]). It is already 

 being corrected in the yovmger genera- 

 tion, he thinks, for under the stimulus 

 of widespread interest in sports, outdoor 

 life and a sensible manner of living, 

 not a few of the younger women and 

 girls whom he has measured seem to be 

 superior to their mothers. But he sees 

 still room for improvement, if the women 

 of the old American families are to be 

 as a class such j^hysically good types of 

 womanhood as are the American men 

 of manhood. 



FACE 



The face is, in general, high and oval; 

 in females it occasionally gives the 

 impression of narrowness. The fore- 

 head is well develo]3ed in both sexes, 

 a fact which should please those persons 

 who believe frontal development to be 

 a sure sign of intellectual capacity. The 

 nose is prevalently long and of medium 

 breadth; it is longer than that in any 

 immigrants coming to this country who 

 ha\'e so far been measured,' except 

 the English, in whom the proportions, 

 as to both length and breadth, are 

 practically identical with those of the 

 Americans. The mouth shows medium 

 breadth in both sexes, and its averages 

 equal exactly those ol)taincd for the 

 French. The ears of the old Americans 

 are longer than those of any immigrants 

 except the I*>nglish. 



Comi)aringlhe ])resent representatives 

 of the old American stock w4th what is 

 known of their ancestors, it appears that 

 the face has retained its length but is 



* Comprising Armenians, Croatians, KnKlish, (jrecks, Ru.ssian Jrws, Irish, Soutli Italians, 

 North Italians, Magyars, Poles, Rumanians and Russians, 500 individuals in all. 



have merely jjroduced a inosaic-like 

 mixture. This is good evidence of the 

 permanence of inherited traits, although 

 it must be qualified by the statement 

 that it does not extend equally to all 

 the features of the body, the face, 

 hands and feet having been found less 

 variable than, for instance, the stature 

 or form of the head. 



Turning to the detailed measure- 

 ments, this review can give only the 

 averages : those who want to know the 

 distribution of variations must consult 

 Dr. Hrdlicka's own account, where 

 they are all published. 



STATURE 



The stature of both American men 

 and women is high, higher than the 

 average of any Eurojjean nation except 

 the Scotch. The individual variation 

 is, however, enormous, amounting to 

 16.4% of the average in . males and 

 nearly 16% in females. For males, 

 174 cm. is the average, for females 

 162. The arm spread in males is greater 

 than their stature, in females it is less. 



WEIGHT 



The average weight of the males is 

 154 pounds, that of the females 130. 

 Taking into consideration the tall 

 stature, these weights are about equal 

 to those among Eurojjeans. The differ- 

 ence between male and females is 

 15.6% ; among larger series of Europeans 

 it is 17%, which indicates a slightly 

 greater tendency to stoutness (among 

 those above 30 years of age) among the 

 American women than among their 

 Euroi)ean sisters. Less than 10%, of 

 the men but at least 17% of the women 

 were found to be decidedly under 

 weight; the proportion of stout indi- 

 viduals was nearly the same in the two 

 sexes. 



BODY 



The general proportions of the body 

 must be classed as medium, but great 

 fluctuations are shown, particularly 

 in the chest — a feature which shows 

 distinctly jjoor development among the 



