The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-03-02
BECOMING INDIANS.
CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE DeveL.
OP'NG ON THAT LINE.

Increasing Resemblance In Faces to tho
Aboriginal Type - y Study of Heads,
with Especial Attention to the Resi-.
dents of Pennsylvania
1T iS'an extraordinary question in an
chronological science which has been
propounded popularity of late The in
fiuoncc OF environment upon the race
resident i'll the United States must in
the course of four centuries produce Ger.
tain marked and undeniablc physical
results 1t is not generally acknowlcdp
ed by American anthropologists that
there is Il tendency of rcvcrsion to the
type indigenous to the soil But foreign
students of race, with more perspective
have offered interesting food for retlcc-
ton y writer i'll the Chicago Times.
Herald, commenting on the assertion of
the French authors that on this CONT
nent the American white man has varied
toward the Indian type, offers support
ing study which is curiously FASCINATING
possibly vastly important.
First, the familiar faces of the carica-
turists' creation are called in as wit
ncsscs. The Yankee and the southron-
large and loose limbed-of these pictures
are types, even as the stout, full faced
John Bull IS IL type found i'll another
environment. Both American favoritcs
of the cartoonist have high cheek bones
and usually excellent straight noses
These witnesses are not, of course. scicn
titically admissible The faces given us
by the caricuturc makers arc imprcs
sions, not testimony.
Scientific, however, is the study Of
fercd of the Pennsylvania Germans-a
happy. thrifty, frugal people, who have
been subjected TO American conditions
for nearly two centuries, withvery lit.
tie intcriningling with other races.
much less than the English people i'll
New England or i'll Virginia.
1t Is true that the pcrvasivc and be-
quilting Irish have intcrmarricd some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but i'll the main it is very cXclu-
sivc, pure blooded Palatinate stock.
Data have been secured relative to
large number of school children and to
adult males from 20 to 80 years of age,
and many copies of portraits of original
settlers. 1t appears that stature in
allZationS may he made tentatively of
course. The increase of finger reach is
marked, and the head measures are i'm.
portant.
Tho anthropologist places consider
able value upon certain proportions or
relations between measures, - SAYS the
student of the subject THUS the length
of the head and the breadth of the head
when compared, give numerical expires
sion, which is called the ccphalic index
To find it the length is divided into the
breadth and the result multiplied 10y
100. n head onc-half as wide us it is
long would have an index of so; one
thrcc-fourths as wide us long would
have an index of 10; one as wide as it
was long would have an index of 100.
There is no race whose head is normally
so wide us to have an index of 100 or SO
narrow as to have one of 90. The higher
the index, of course, the broader and
soundcr the head; the lower the index,
the longer and narrower the head Ger
mans generally are notably round head
ed. Topinard gives for some people of
Lorraine the index of S5.3. The average
index of 100 Pennsylvania Germans is
Sl.9, which is notably less and mar
rover. The heads of our northern and
eastern Indians are still longer and mar
rover. We cannot at present make Il
further comparison with profit What
we have already said may prove erro-
ncons when we learn the actual Palati-
nate type. We assume now that the
Palatinatc Germans We're of medium
al 1i.,,t I,nira1 l Ill.
round headed, with IL finger reach of
.Ol3. We find that the PENNSYLVANIA
German children are dark i'll hair and
eyes. that the men are probably of in
creased stature, that heads appear to be
lcngthehing, that arm reach appears to
be increasing. In all these respects the
Pennsylvania German varies from the
assumed Palatinatc type and in the di-
rcc;ion of the Indian. If our assumption
proves valid. we may claim that our
evidence shows change, which, if con-
tinucd, may form an Indian type from
the German -
All this, it must be noted, is abso-
lutcly distinct from any of the reasons
for discussing the tendency of Americans
to revert 10 original types from the in
filtration of the red Indian blood itself
III the veins of the white race. From the
days of the old French and Indian wars
firesidc tales of New England ntcrmix-
tulc of that sort have been common
enough. \ recent novel has expressed
the country knowledge iii New England
that there is an occasional streak"
from ancestry that approached New
England from the west as well us that
which approached it from the east across
the Atlantic. In the western states and
mo