244 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA 



[ETH. ANN. 46 



None of the series below are affected seriously by the age factor; 

 though with an organ so much influenced by age as the ear the ideal 

 way would be to compare only groups of the same age. 



Ears 



The chest. — The best measurements of the chest, experience has 

 shown, are the antero-posterior and lateral diameters at the nipple 

 height in the males and at the corresponding level of the upper border 

 of the fourth costal cartilages in the females. They give not merely 

 the individual dimensions but also their relation, which is of much 

 ontogenic as well as other interest, and their mean gives the chest 

 module which in relation to the stature is anthropologically as well as 

 individually (medically) important. 



The table following gives the chest measurements in the western 

 Eskimo, in a large group of Indians (my older data), and in the old 

 American whites as well as others. 



The Eskimo chest is large. In the males, in addition, it is very 

 deep. Compared to that of the white old Americans it is markedly 

 deeper in the males and broader in the females, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the Americans are much taller. It is even larger, besides 

 being relatively deeper in the males and somewhat broader in the 

 females, than it is in many tribes of the Indian. Only tall and 

 bulky Indians such as the Sioux show a chest that is absolutely 

 somewhat larger, but in relation to stature, with which the dimen- 

 sions of the chest stand in close correlation, 97 the Eskimo prevails 

 even in this instance. This excess in chest development in the Eskimo 

 must be ascribed in the main to his occupations and exertions, par- 

 ticularly again, it would seem, in connection with the canoe. 



M xhe chest dimensions correlate with stature, respectively the trunk height, and the 

 breadth correlates with the depth ; but both arc influenced by function. 



