474 MR ROBERT WORTHINGTON. 



The graphical expression of the normal regression formula 



B^c^ + c^A 

 is a straight line. This, Professor Pearson shows, is probably a 

 small, and sensibly straight, part of a curve expressing the 

 more extended regression formulae which would embrace giants 

 and dwarfs. 



Unfortunately, the data for giant and dwarf races are at 

 present much too scanty to admit of its exact analytical 

 determination. Of the general form of the curve, the data 

 give however some indication. The form selected was fitted 

 to the giant data so as to pass approximately through the mean 

 of the plotted points.^ 



The curves determined were for reconstruction from the 

 femur, tibia, humerus, and radius. And although constructed 

 with reference to statures at one extreme of the scale only — 

 the giants — yet the curves predict the stature of dwarfs to 

 within 2-5 centim. average error. The curves can thus be 

 used for the determination of stature anywhere between the 

 limits 90 and 250 centim. The author applies them to the 

 reconstruction of Bushmen, Akkas, Andamanese, and European 

 Neolithic dwarfs. 



The memoir, of which I have here given but the briefest 

 sketch, concludes with a comparative table of statures of divers 

 races, either determined by various authorities or ' recon- 

 structed ' by the author. I would especially draw the reader's 

 attention to this paper for the many interesting and suggestive 

 points raised, but chiefly for the way in which it illustrates the 

 possibilities of the mathematical method. 



" A First Study of the Variability and Correlation of the Hand " 

 (Miss M. A. Whitely and Karl Pearson). — The material consists 

 of the measurements of the length of the first joint of each 

 finger in both hands of 551 women of the educated classes. To 

 be more precise, the measurement includes the first phalanx, 

 the head of the metacarpal bone, and the covering fieshy parts. 

 The grouping of the material was done to ^ inch. The 

 numerical results tabulated are the means, standard deviations, 



' The points are plotted with reference to a pair of rectangular axes so that 

 the ordinates are the measures of the A-organ (femur, tibia, etc.), and the 

 abscissae are the corresponding measures of tlie B-organ stature. 



