172 FISHBERG 



in New York, and a survey of the literature of the anthropology 

 of the Jews does not reveal one recorded. According to 

 Gould's statistics, nearly 5 individuals in 1,000 are taller than 

 190 cm., and in England, according to the report of the Anthro- 

 pometric Committee, 3 in 1,000. This again accentuates the 

 shortness of stature of the Jews when compared with a tall 

 people like the Americans or the English. The Italians, who 

 are of about the same stature, or even lower than the Jews, show 

 the same characteristic. Pagliani found only one individual in 

 7,000 examined to be 190 cm. or over in height That the 

 shortest individual among the Jews observed in New York was 

 135 cm. is also peculiar — it is best explained by recalling that 

 dwarfed persons are less likely to emigrate to a distand land, and 

 perhaps also that the immigration authorities may not permit 

 their landing. 



Biologists have recently been making use of another method 

 of estimating the variability of physical characteristics which 

 gives better results than the mere average, with the calculation 

 of the extreme variation of the maximum and minimum. It is 

 known as the *' error of mean square" or the "index of vari- 

 ability." This is determined as follows : At first the deviations 

 \_xj from the average, both positive and negative, are determined. 

 Each of these is then squared [;r'] and then added, and the 

 sum is divided by the number of observations [;/] , and finally 

 the square root of the quotient is extracted, thus : 



. . . ISilZ) 



^ 



H 



The resulting " 0- " is termed by Pearson the '' standard devi- 

 ation." It is a concrete number, being expressed in the same 

 units of measurement as the measurement of the individuals 

 measured. In the case of human stature it is expressed in cen- 

 timeters. 



To make use of this method of estimating the variability of 

 stature of the Jews, the magnitudes obtained by measurement 

 were arranged in a series of classes, each class representing the 

 number of persons who have attained a certain height, at inter- 



