Daily camera., 1897-02-19
TURNING TO INDIANS.
We Are Growing More Like the
Aboriginal American.
Foreign Anthropologists Say This Is
Fact, But American Students
Enter Vigorous Pro-
test

propounded popularity of late. The in
luence of environment upon the race
resident in the United States must in
the course of four centuries produce
certain marked and undeniable physic
al results. 1t is not generally acknowl-
edged by American anthropologists
that there is a tendency of reversion
10 the type Indigenous to the soil. But
foreign students of race, with more
respective, have offered interesting
rood for reflection. A writer in the
Chicago Times-Herald, commenting on
the assertion of the French authors
that on this. continent the American
white man has varied toward the In
dian type orers a supporting study
which is curiouslY fascinating-pos-
sibly vastly important.
First, the lamar 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 cartoorist have high
cheek bones, and usually excellent
straight noses. These witnesses are
not, of course, scientifically admissible.
The faces given us by the caricature-
makers are impressions. not testimony.
Scientific, however, is tne study OF
fered of the Pennsylvania German
ahappy, 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.
1t is true tnuu une Pervas1ve and be-
guiling Irish have intermaTried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but in the main it is very ex-
elusive, pure-blooded Palatinate stock.
Data have been secured relatlve to
large number of school children, and
to adult males from 25 to so years OF
age, and many copies of portraits OF
original settlers. 1t appears that stat
ure increases and that other important
concentrations may be made, tentative
ly, of course. The increase Of finger
reach is marked and the head measures
are important
The anthropologist places consider
able value upon certain proportions or
e relations between measures" says the
Z student Of the subject. Thus the
{ length of the head and the breadth OF
; the head, when compared, give nu-
merical expression which is called the
cephaIic index. To find it the length is
divided into the breadth and the result
multiplied by 100, A head One-half a3
wide as il is long would have an index
of so; one three-fourths as wide as
long would have an index of rs; one as
wide as 4 was long would have an index
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
N5E. 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 round-headed. ToPinard gives
for some people of Lorraine the index
of S5.g The average index OF 100 Penn
svlyania Germans is 81.9, which IS EoE-
ably less and narrower. The heads OF
our northern and eastern Indians are
still longer and narrower. We cannot
at present make Il further comparison
with profit What we have already
said may prove erroneous when we
learn the actual Palatiuate 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,O43. 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 reacn appears to be
increasing In all these respects the
Pennsylvania German varies from the
assumed Palatinate type and in the di-
= rection of the Indian. If our assupp-
ton proves valid we may claim that our
evidence shows change, which: if con
tinued. may form an Indian type from
the German"
All this, it must be noted, is absolute
lv 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, fireside tales of New Englandinter-
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 num-
= bers of half-breeds whose descendants
find their way into the life of cities
brings to bear a curious and unreck-
oned force in the development of the
fiber and snew of the race in North
NATURALIZATION Transcript
Engaged.