338 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
The American of today remains a close derivative of the stocks that have settled 
here, but he has at the same time undergone modifications from his ancestral 
types. His deviations from European norms are either the results of mixture 
among the various representatives of Old World types or the consequence of 
an increased size with the attendant changes in bodily proportion that follow on 
such a quantitative expansion. [P. 255.] 
Obviously, these writers have said about all that our present knowl- 
edge warrants saying about the evolving American type. The rate 
and kind of change in the physical appearance of our population is 
largely unknown. Thus far this problem has not been tackled directly. 
Except possibly in the case of the Army, physical anthropologists have 
not raised their sights to the nation asa whole. The few students who 
have entered this field have restricted their efforts to small selected 
samples. This does not mean that these special studies have not 
yielded much of value to human biology. Optimistically perhaps they 
can be compared to the pilot plants of new industries. 
Since the white population is now approaching 120 millions, it is 
too vast a subject to be studied by individuals. Only the Government 
or an institution with large resources can handle the subject properly. 
Ideally, physical observations should be made on the population by 
physical anthropologists in connection with at least every third na- 
tional census. This interval would permit some continuity of 
direction. § 
The Government, naturally, has been reluctant to take up this type 
of survey, because the utilitarian objectives have not appeared suffi- 
cient to warrant the required expenditure of public funds. This is 
the reason that physical anthropologists, seeking extra measurements 
on the Army, have had to disguise themselves as tailors. The people 
have not questioned the money spent to improve the fit of their sons’ 
uniforms. 
Yet a good case can be made for the utility of periodic surveys of 
the American population. The fit of clothing, which has already 
received some attention, as we have seen, needs much more study. 
Secular changes in physical size may well lead to periodic adjustments 
in patterns. 
A few other reasons for this type of study can be pointed out briefly. 
It is an accepted fact that some physical types are better insurance 
risks than others. For instance, insurance companies report that, 
in general, life expectation decreases as body weight increases. This is 
probably a very crude generalization, because, as already pointed out, 
life insurance companies have little information on body types for 
purposes of such correlations. On the other hand, studies made 
during the recent war on young men showed that types with somewhat 
of a feminine body build could not achieve a high level of physical 
fitness. This information was useful in the selection of men for dif- 
