Data for the Problem of Evolution in Man. 



127 



Department of Applied Mathematics in University College, London, 

 have, so far as their other work allowed, been collecting and reducing 

 data concerning the variability and correlation of different organs and 

 characters in man. So far as variability is concerned, 160 cases of 

 organs in divers races of man were worked out by Miss Alice Lee, Mr. 

 G. U. Yule, and one of the present writers some years ago,* and since 

 then the more laborious task of measuring the correlation of characters 

 and organs in man has been going steadily forward, until at the present 

 time a considerable mass of material is reduced and ready for publica- 

 tion. The present series of short papers is intended to cover this 

 ground. It will simply state the numerical results reached and any 

 obvious conclusions to be drawn from them, leaving to a later date the 

 consideration of the material as a whole, and in particular its bearing 

 on the general problem of evolution and the relationship of local races 

 of man. 



2. This first study deals only with one character of the hand in one 

 sex and one race. A wider range of material on the skeleton of the 

 hand in another local race is already being dealt with. But while the 

 correlation of the anatomically simple parts of the hand is of very 

 great importance, it does not follow that the complex members of the 

 living hand may not be equally, or even more, significant when we have 

 to deal with fitness for the struggle for existence. So far as we have 

 been able to ascertain, although much has been written as to the fitness 

 of the hand for its tasks, no attempt has ever been made to ascertain 

 quantitatively the degree of correlation of its parts, f Hence our 

 first object was to get some idea of the correlation of the parts of the 

 hand from an easily measured and in practice important part. Is the 

 hand as highly correlated as the long bones, or as loosely correlated as 

 the parts of the skull, or does it occupy some intermediate position like 

 that of strength to stature 1 We accordingly selected as an easily 

 measured but still important character the first joint of the fingers. 

 The measurement therefore covers, besides the fleshy parts, the head of 

 the metacarpal bone together with the proximal phalange. It is thus 

 not anatomically simple, but it probably has much importance for the 

 fitness of the hand, and is a measurement which with a little care can 

 be made with considerable accuracy. Our measurements were taken 

 with a small boxwood spanner graduated to 1/10 inch, and provided 



* A diagram was exhibited at a soiree of the Koyal Society three years ago, and 

 we shall be glad to send a photograph of that diagram to any one working at the 

 problem of variation. The data without the diagram are published in a paper on 

 " Variation in Man and Woman," ' The Chances of Death,' vol. 1, pp. 256 — 277. 



f Here, as in other cases, both zoologists and anatomists have since the days of 

 Cuvier, talked a good deal about correlation, but would even to-day be unable to 

 reconstruct, with anything like quantitative accuracy, a skeleton from a long bone, 

 a hand from a finger- joint, or a skull from a fragment. 



