The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-30
a MODERN ADAM AND EVE.
What Measurements or 10 600 Per-
From the PhladeIDhia Record

Boston, MASS, March lS-Under the
dextrous hands Of Sculptor Harry Kilson
and OF Boston's favorite girl sculptor, Miss
Theo Ruggles, two figures are growing up
in clay in BoylstOn street studio. They
are remarkable couple Of figures, for they
represent the typical American male and
female forms Of the present day.
This ls the first attempt made 10 represent
IN sculpture the typical form of a whole
people, and it is the result of a long labor on
the part Of DR.. d. A. Sargent Of Harvard,
director OF the Hemingway gymnasium.
The genesis of this modern Adam and Eve
which MIR. Kilson and hiss RugRles are
shaping out of the original clay in Mr.. Kill
sons studio is as follows:
They are the result Of measurements care
fully taken by the most approved anthropo-
logical methods of no less than 10000 differ
ent persons, nearly all of them in the bloom
of youth-that is, between IS and % wears
OF aRe-and the great majority Of them col
lege students. Five thousand Harvard un-
dergraduates alone have been measured for
the male statue A number of measure
ments Of students OF other colleges and "a
few Of professional athletes have been used
THE FEMALE MEASUREMENTS.
There are little less than 5000 meas
urements Of ladies, nd they are from
and other female institutions Ever since
1880 these measurements of Harvard men
have been piling up in the archives Of the
gymnasium, and the work represented by
the order which Director Sargent submit
ted to Mr.. Kilson has been simply stupen-
dous. Sixty-fve different announcements
had TO be taken of every individual before
he was considered TO have been measured
at all, and these sixty-fiye measurements
have been taken of every one of the 10000
people represented by the two figures
The measurement includes the girth Of
head, the neck, trunk, arms and legs, each
in number of different places; the length
OF the body and limbs, both standing aud
sitting, and part OF other dimensions toe
numerous to mention. It is absolutely cor
rect that from the measurements thus taken
an exactly accurate statue of the person
measured could be made; absolutely per-
feet in every detail of muscle any conhgur.
alton, except, of course, the features and
expression. Then the sixty-five measure
ments Of the 10000 people are classified and
the mean obtained OF each one Of the sixty
five. A mean, be it noted. is not
at all the same as an average. In
popular colloquialism, the words
are used INTERCHANGEABLE, but not
so in science. Scientific men have, in fact
ceased to make any use of averages any
way. They use the mean instead. The
mean, instead of being the average of all
instances examined, is the instance that is
found most frequently.
For instance, il more of the 600 men
are just sixty-eight inches tall than theirs
are Of any other hight, sixty-eight inches,
the mean, is taken by this method Of oalcu-
lation. The extremes do not count. The
giants of seven feet and the dwarfs of four
do not distort the mean away from the
true normal type which is exactly attained,
and is unaffected by the freaks and eccen-
tricities in which even mother nature at
times INDUCES.
Thus in getting the proportions Of the
typical figure sixty-five different calcula-
tions have been made, and into each calcu-
latlon 10000 measurements entered. This
is undoubtedly one of the most gigantic Sc
ries of calculations ever undertaken by any
mathematician in pursuit of single result.
NO PERFECT MAN OR WOMAN.
And an odd feature of It has been that
scarcely an individual has filled the meas
urements OF the type in more than one or
two particulars, and great multitude, of
course, have not single one of the meas
urements Of the typical figure. One dihir
Guilty that has greatly bothered the artists
has been the utter impossib iity of finding
q model who could come anywhere near the
proportions Of the figure ordered. One man
would be possessed of exactly the hight of
the type, and therefore would be the char
Rcteristic American man In the one par
ticular. Another might have the collar
bone of the typical American and be Vio-
lent departure from the type in all other
respects. AS q matter Of curiosity Prof.
Sargent may some time go over the meas
urements aud pick out the individual who
comes the nearest to the type, but this
would be big task and is not likely TO be
done right away, if at all.
The dimensions of the figures have been
gained by setting aside the means of
all the various measurements and
putting them together for the dimensions of
the type. Thus the mean hight of the 5000
young men is the hight of the typical
figure, the mean circumference of the neck
is the neck of the figure, and so on.
The faces are taken from opposite photo
graphs. Some 300 faces of young men will
be represented In the face of the male figure,
and about as large a number in the female
The female face is that of a co~composite
representing a number of separate compo-
sites from the different female colleges
already enumerated. The face Of the male
figure, which is beardless, is q composite of
Harvard men, reinforced by composites
from Amherst. Bowdoin and other colleges.
The figures are for the worlds fair. They
will be completed early next month. He-
pleas in various materials will be furnished
to all museums and other institutions that
may wish to possess them.