1922.] P. C. Mahalanobis : Analysis of Stature, 3 



analysed those of persons known to have recent Negro or Mongo- 

 loid blood, i.e. persons one of whose parents or grandparents 

 was a Negro or belonged to a Mongoloid stock. This has been a 

 necessary precaution, because the number of individuals in which 

 the further complexity was introduced was large enough to affect 

 the results without being sufficiently numerous to afford a sound 

 basis for mathematical treatment. So far as recent Negro blood 

 was concerned I was fairly confident in accepting the statements 

 of those who offered themselves for measurement, as certain, not 

 by any means all, Negro traits were present. I refer particularly 

 to woolly hair, dark complexion, negroid nose and prognathism. 

 The long lower limb and slender shin of the Negro, which is of a 

 different type from that of the Indian, were not perpetuated in a 

 single individual. 1 As to old Negro blood, no definite information 

 was obtained. 



To eliminate the recent Mongoloid element from our inves- 

 tigations was, however, a much less easy task and I am by no 

 means sure that this has been done successfully. Here again I 

 had to trust to the statements of individuals measured, but 

 Mongoloid traits are often reproduced in a much more subtle 

 manner than Negroid, and the Mongoloid element in the popula- 

 tion of Calcutta is much larger than the Negroid. Indeed, 1 

 have observed that many of the most intelligent Anglo-Indians 

 with whom I have had dealings have had distinctly Mongoloid 

 features. This is not surprising, for the offspring of women of 

 the various Mongoloid tribes of the Himalayas, Assam and 

 Burma, who are not generally averse to unions of a more or less 

 permanent nature with educated Europeans settled in their dis- 

 tricts, are not only of respectable parentage in both lines but 

 often receive a good education, and Calcutta is the natural goal of 

 such people. So far as I could discover, it is unusual for an 

 Anglo-Indian to know much of his family for more than two or 

 three generations back and at the present time, in Calcutta at 

 any rate, most of the community are the result of marriages of 

 persons of mixed blood. 2 



The subjects of my investigations were, therefore, mainly of 

 mixed Indo-European blood, probably in many individuals with 

 some Mongoloid admixture, but not affiliated with the higher 

 Hindu castes. 



The measurements were taken in the zoological laboratory of 

 the Indian Museum in the years 1916 — 1919. I had the help of 



1 As only about half a dozen Anglo-Indian-Negros were examined, I have 

 refrained from giving details and merely cite the results for what they are worth. 

 Recent Negro settlers in Calcutta are mostly West Indians. They and their 

 families occupy a street practically by themselves. 



2 I may here note that further complexity is now being introduced into the 

 Anglo- Indian community by the marriage of Anglo-Indian women to Canton 

 Chinese, who are now numerous as cabinet-makers and bootmakers in Calcutta. 

 These men keep themselves entirely apart from the Indian communities and 

 frequently marry Anglo-Indians, though the custom of bringing" their wives from 

 China is becoming much common than it was a few years ago. 



