104 



The Journal of Heredity 



of long-headed jx'oplcs, deri\in<,' from 

 the two great Eviroijcan stocks, the 

 Nordic and the Mediterranean. To 

 the latter the frequency of dark hair 

 and brown eyes is ijrol)ably due, both 

 in England and in America. 



While the average of the old .\meri- 

 cans corresponds closely to the average 

 of the English, there is a great deal of 

 x'ariation in both countries. Tlie 

 cephalic index is a good trait for 

 comparison, because it has been cal- 

 culated so extensively by anthro])olo- 

 gists. It will be worth while, therefore, 

 to examine this trait more carefully, to 

 learn whether the American stock 

 seems to be changing. 



Unfortunately, it is imi:)ossible to 

 compare the present Americans with 

 their ancestors, because measurements 

 of the latter are lacking. But to assume 

 that the early colonists did not difTer 

 greatly from the modern English is 

 probably justifiable. A comparison of 

 modern Americans (of the old w^hite 

 stock) with modern English should 

 give basis for an opinion as to whether 

 the English .stock underwent any marked 

 modifications, on coming to a new 

 environment. 



It has already been noted that the 

 average cephalic index is practical!}- 

 the same; the only jjossibility of a 

 change then lies in the amount of 

 variability. Is the American stock 

 more or less variable'" Can a "melting 

 pot" influence be seen, tending to 

 produce homogeneity, or has change of 

 environment rather produced greater 

 variability, as is sometimes said to be 

 the case? 



The amount of \'ariability is most 

 conveniently measured by a coeflicient 

 known as the standard deviation (a), 

 which is small when the range of varia- 

 tion is small, but large when dix'ersity 

 of the material is great. The following 

 comj^arisons of the point at issue may 

 be made.^ 



Avg. 



3.1 



100 American men 78.3 



1011 Cambridge graduates 



(EnKlish males) 79.58 2.95 



For the men, little difference is dis- 

 cernible. The old Americans are 

 slightly more long-headed than the 

 r^nglish, but the amount of variation in 

 this trait is nearly the same on the tw^o 

 sides of the ocean. , 



The average of the American women 

 is 79.5 with o-=2.6. No suitable 

 series of measurements of English 

 women has been found for comparison. 

 It will be noted that the American 

 women are slightly more round-headed 

 than the men: this is found regularly 

 to be the case, when comparisons of 

 head-form of the two sexes are made 

 in any race. 



NO GEOGRAPHICAL TYPES 



Dr. Hrdlicka's study has further 

 given him opportunity to find whether 

 there are any marked geographical 

 types among the old Americans: 

 whether, for instance, the first families 

 of Virginia are measureably different 

 from the Puritans of New England. 

 He believes that they are not — that such 

 dift"erences as are recognized are merely 

 those of training, habits, dress, and 

 social customs; and that this, likewise, 

 holds true of the westerners, whose 

 more or less recognizable type Dr. 

 Hrdlicka finds to be merely a matter 

 of home influence, education and dress, 

 and not so much of structure or 

 physiology. 



Two main objects were in \iew when 

 the study of the old Americans was 

 undertaken. One was to establish reli- 

 able norms or standards for anthro- 

 l)ological comparisons. 



The other main object in \-iew was, as 

 already said, to determine whether the 

 descendants of the early American 

 settlers, living in a new environment 

 and more or less constanth' inter- 

 marrying, w^ere being amalgamatetl into 

 a distinct sub-type of the white race. 

 Enough has already been found, as this 

 preliminary report shows, to prove that 

 such amalgamation has not taken place 

 to any important degree. The per- 

 sistency in heredit}' of certain features, 



* English data frf)m K. Pearson, Biomctrika V, p. 124. 

 for calculating the standard deviations of Hrdlicka's data. 



Thanks are due to Dr. .Sevvall Wright 



