The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1897-03-06
TURN in g TO nd A
We Arese Growing lIore Like q
I: Aboriginal Am rlcan. &

S AboIig rican
Foreign Antiirop biologists Say This sIss
8 Fact, But American Students
Enter q vigorous Pro-
test
It is an extraordi binary question in
an tthrop geological science which has been
ounded popularity of late The be- in n
sslence Of environment pom the race
esident in the United States must in
he course of four centuries produce
tain marked aud ndeniable physic
al results. 1t is not generally acknoWl
edged by American allthropolo gistss
that there is a tendency sof reyersions
toithe type indige nons to the soil. But
foreign students of race, with more
respective, have offered interesting
food for reflection. A writer in the
Chicago Times Herald, CONNIE nting on
The assertion Of the French authors
that on this continent the American
white man has varied toward the In
dian type offers a supporting study
which is curiously. fascina ting
sibly vastly imp rtant.
First, the familiar faces of the carl:
caturists' creation are called in as wit
nesses. The Yankee and the Southron,
large and loose-limbed of these pic
lures are types, even as the stout, full
faced John Bull is a type found in an.
other environment. Both American
favorites of the cartoonist have high
cheek bones, and usually excellent
straight noses. These witnesses are
not, of course, scientifically admissible.
The faces given us by the earicature-
Scientific, however, is the study Of
fered of the Pennsylvania German
a happy, thrifty, frugal people, who have
been subjected to American conditions
for nearly two centuries, with very lit
tie intermingling with other races,
much less than the English people in
New England or in Virginia. s.s
It is true that the pervasive and be-
quilting Irish have intermarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but in the main it is a very ex-
elusive, pure blooded Palatinate stock.
Data have been secured relative to a
large number Of school children, and
to adult males from IS to SO years. Of
age, and many copies Of portraits of
original settlers. It appears that stat
ure increases and that other important
CONGRATULATIONS may be nlade, tentative
ly, of course The increase Of finger
reach is marked and the head measures
are important.
THE apthropologist places consider
able value upon certain proper ions Or
relations between measures says the
student of the subject. s.Thus the
length of the head and the breadth of
the head, when compared, give nl-
merical expression which is called the
cephalic index. To find it the length is
divided into the breadth and the result
multiplied by 100, A head cne-half as
wide as it is long would have nsindex
of so; one three-fourths ais wide as
long would have an index of rs ;sonesas
wide as it was long would have anindex
of 100. There is no race whose head is
normally so wide as to have an index
of 100, or so narrow as to have one OF
So. The higher the index, of course.
the broader and souDder the head; the
lower the index, the longer and narrow
er the head. Germans generally are
notably round4headed. Topinard gives
for some people of Lorraine the index
of S5.3. The average index Of 100 Penn.
10 ic, which ici ~
ably less and narrower. The heads of
our northern and eastern Indians are
still longer and narrower. We cannot
at present make further comparison
with profit. IS What we = have already
said may prove erroneous when we
learn the actual Palatinate type. We
assume now that the .Palatinate Ger
mans were of medium stature, light
haired, blue or light eyed, round head
ed, with a finger reach of 1,043. We
find that the Pennsylvania German
children are dark in hair and eyes; that
the men are probably Of increased stat
ure; that heads appear to be length
ening; that arm reach appears to be
increasing. In all these respects the
~EeluSElpctIlld OVTutinf VARIES IEC11 LllC
assumed Palatinate type and in the di-
rection of the Indian If our assump
ton proves valid we may claim that our
evidence shows change, which, if con
tinued, may form an Indian type from
the German" 81
All this, it must be noted, is absolute
ly distinct from any of the reasons for
discussing the tendency-,of Americans
to revert to original types from the in
filtration of the red Indian Blood itself
in the veins of the white race. From
the days of the old French and Indian
wars, freside tales of New Eng land inter
mixture of that sort have been common
enough. A recent novel has expressed
the country knowledge in New England
that there is an occasional streak
from ancestry that approached New
England from the west as well as that
which approached it from the east
across the Atlantic. In the western
states and territories the great mum
bers of lf-breeds whose descendants
find their way into the life of cities