12 Anthropological Investigations. 



The recorded abnormalities comprised two principal classes of 

 characters: First, Those characters whose origin can be referred to 

 some irregularity or defect in the principles from which the child 

 originates, (that is in the paternal sperm or in the maternal ovule,) or 

 to the embryonic evolution of the individual. And second, All 

 those characters whose origin is subsequent to the origin period of 

 the being, and which develop mostly after the birth of the child. 



The first class of abnormalities is generally termed inherited, or 

 congenital, or inborn, while characters of the second class are called 

 acquired abnormalities. 



The abnormalities of the second class here defined are principally 

 the results of early pathological processes, or they may be due to 

 the habits of the individual. The pathological conditions which 

 most frequently are the source of such subsequent abnormalities in 

 a child are above all the various degrees of rachitis, and then early 

 paralyses. 



Abnormalities due to habit are usually developed by the individual 

 using one arm or one foot or some other part of the body much in 

 excess to the other limb or other parts, or by habitual improper 

 holding of the body. 



In the case of younger children, the subject will frequently allow 

 one of his shoulders to droop more than the other. Or the child will 

 support itself more on one lower limb than on the other, and as a 

 consequence acquire a lateral inclination of the pelvis, or of the 

 spine. Other children will habitually hold their heads too low or 

 to one side and acquire stooping shoulders, or a faulty position of 

 the head. 



In other children the nature of the work which they begin to do 

 frequently gives rise to habitual faulty positions of some part of 

 the body, which may ultimately result in established deformities. 

 As an example of abnormalities of this kind I may again mention 

 drooping shoulders, pelvic inclinations, and even depressions of cer- 

 tain parts of the chest, such as occur particularly in shoemakers. 



The significance and gravity of the various abnormalities differ 

 considerably. This problem can be viewed either objectively or 

 subjectively. 



The objective significance of atypical characters, that is, the mean- 



