392 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 



The summary of inquiries among the principal hatters of Boston is as 

 follows : " Larger hats are required for New England than for the 

 Southern States. To New Orleans we send 20f to 22|^ ; and to New 

 Hampshire 2 If to 23 inches." One extensive New England manu- 

 facturer adds : " New England heads are long and high ; longer and 

 higher than any European heads. British heads are longer than 

 Continental. German and Italian heads are round. Spanish and 

 Italian very small." 



Let us now see if this experience acquired in the daily observation 

 of the trader and manufacturer will yield any available results in 

 reference to our present inquiries. An ingenious instrument, known 

 by the name of the Conformiteiw, was brought into use in Paris, I 

 believe about twenty years since, and is now employed by many hatters, 

 on both sides of the Atlantic, for the purpose of determining the form 

 and relative proportions of the human head, so far as required by them. 

 The instrument fits on the head like a hat ; and, by the action of a 

 series of levers encircling it, repeats on a reduced scale, the form 

 which they assume under its pressure. By inserting a piece of paper 

 or thin card board, and touching a spring, the reduced copy is secured 

 by the impress of pins attached to the ends of the levers. Owing to 

 this repetition being made on the top by limbs of equal length, acting, 

 within a circle, at right angles to the main levers, the form produced 

 is more or less exaggerated longitudinally in proportion to the length 

 of the heado But this does not interfere with the value of compara- 

 tive results derived from numerous head-forms taken by the same 

 instrument, and correspondingly affected according to their relative 

 proportions. 



Taking advantage of the precise data furnished by the conformiteur, 

 I have availed myself of the peculiar facilities which Canada supplies 

 for instituting a comparison between the diverse races composing its 

 population. Upper Canada is settled by colonists from all parts of 

 the British Islands. In some districts Highland, Irish, German, and 

 "Coloured" settlements perpetuate distinct ethnical peculiarities, and 

 preserve to some extent, the habits, and usages, and even the languages 

 of their original homes. But throughout the more densely settled 

 districts and in most of the towns,* the population presents much the 

 same character as that of the larger towns of England or Scotland, 



* The exceptions in the Upper Province are where a large coloured populatioa 

 has congregated ; as at St. Catharines, Chatham, and Windsor. 



