CHAPTER III. 

 The Girth of the Chest. 



The discussions on the girth of the Jewish chest has occupied 

 many pages of the anthropological literature of the Jews. As 

 is well known, the girth of the chest exceeds, or at least equals 

 one half the body height in most people. The measurements 

 taken on thousands of Jewish conscripts in the Eastern European 

 armies have shown the Jewish recruits to be deficient in this re- 

 gard. From Snigirew's extensive statistics it is seen that meas- 

 urements taken on 4,470 Jewish recruits in Poland have given 

 an average circumference of the chest of 80.1 cm. (31.5 inches) 

 As their average stature was 162.2 cm., the girth of their chest 

 was only 49.68 percent of their body height. Among 2,122 

 Jews in Lithuania the same authority has found a girth of only 

 49.55 percent of their stature. Majer and Kopernicki have 

 found that the girth in 569 Galician Jews was only 49.2 percent 

 The non-Jewish population of these countries have a chest, 

 girth which exceeds half their body height by from two to eight 

 percent. This deficiency of the Jews in girth has given rise to a 

 considerable amount of discussion as to whether the Jews, 

 owing to their deficiency in *' vital capacity," and having a lesser 

 ''index of vitality," are fit for military duty.^ Ripley, on re- 

 viewing this subject says that the Jews are "anthropologically 

 as well as proverbially, narrow chested.^ 



Of the Jews recorded in this work only 983 have been ex- 

 amined as to the circumference of the chest. Many submitted 

 to the ordeal of having their heads, etc., measured, but they de- 

 clined to undress for the purpose of having their chest measured. 

 Among these we find an average girth of 85.87 cm., or 52.2 per- 



' See Snigirew, "Materials for Medical Statistics and Geography of Russia," 

 Voyeno- Medizinsky Zhiirnal, 1878-9; Goldstein, " Des circonferces du thorax et 

 de leur rapport a la taille," Revue if Anthropologie, serie, 2, VII, pp. 460-485 ; 

 B. Blechman, '' Ein Beitrag zur Anthropologic der Juden," Dorpat, 1882. 



2 Races of Europe, p. 582. 



200 



