Contributions to the Antliropology of the East Greenlanders. 



157 



I therefore append the table subject to the necessary reserve, 

 and mainly in order to show how cautious one must be in treating 

 such small groups statisticalIз^ 



Age-class 



M 



en 



Women 



15 — 20 years 



5 



17 



8 



23 



1611 

 1621 

 1665 

 1626 



18 

 8 

 5 

 7 



1539 



20-25 



25-30 



over 30 



1545 

 1516 

 1541 



Total average . . . 



53 



1629 



38 



1538 



However, as far as we may venture to draw conclusions from 

 the material before us, we gather from the table that men attain 

 the greatest height between the ages of 25 and 30, while women 

 attain their greatest height between the ages of 20 and 25. The 

 irrelevancy of the figures is, moreover, further increased by the 

 circumstance that it has only been possible to give a rough estimate 

 of the ages of the different persons. 



The general proportions of the body, the relative dimensions 

 of its members, is one of the weakest points in comparative ana- 

 tomy. 



By the employment of a great variety of methods, an enormous 

 quantity of material has been collected all the world over; but as 

 yet it has not been possible to reduce the vast numbers of single 

 details to a system , and hence the value of the results obtained is 

 still problematic in the extreme. An accurate measurement of many 

 of the dimensions demands a knowledge of anatomy and a practised 

 skill such as the investigators very rarely possess, and in many 

 cases even knowledge and practice is unable completely to cope 

 with the technical details. These observations apply particularly to 

 the relative length of the limbs — the subject which will first 

 engage our attention — and the reader must therefore not expect 

 to find thoroughly satisfactory results in this section. 



The best description of the proportions of the limbs of the 

 East Greenlanders will be found in a brief written statement made 

 by Captain Holm, which runs as follows : "While the arms are very 

 powerfull}^ developed, the legs are inferiorly developed in propor- 

 tion to the rest of the body". 



These words give the essence of the matter, but it should be 

 added that the arms are not long, whereas the legs must be design- 

 ated as short in connection with their slightly developed muscles 

 (thin calves). 



