Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-02-18
BECOMING INDIANS.
CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE DEvEL-
oPINe ON THAT LINE.

Increasing Resemblance In Faces to the
Aboriginal Type A Study of Heads,
With Especial Attention to the Resi-
dents of Pennsylvania.
1t is an extraordinary question in an
thropo1ogical science which has been
propounded popularity Of late. The in
fluence Of environment upon the race
resident in the United States must in
the course of four centuries produce GER
tain marked and undeniable physical
results. 1t is not generally acknowledge
ed by American anthropologists that
there is a tendency of reversion to the
| type indigenous to the soil But foreign
students of race, with more perspective,
have offered interesting food for refec-
ton. A 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
nesses. The Y ankee and the southron-
large and loose limbed-of these pictures
are types, even as the stout, full faced
John Bull is type found in another
environment Both American favorites
of the cartoonist have high cheek bones
and usually excellent straight noses.
These witnesses are not, of course, scien-
tifically admissible. The faces given us
by the caricature makers are impress
sions, not testimony
Scientific, however, is the study Of
fered of the Pennsylvania Germans
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.
1t is true that the peryasive and be-
quilting Irish have intermarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but in the main it is very exclu-
sive, pure blooded Palatinate stock.
Data have been secured relative to a
large number of school children and to
adult males from 20 to so years of age,
and many copies of portraits of original
settlers. 1t appears that stature in
creases and that other important gener-
alizations may be made, tentatively of
course. The increase of finger reach is
marked, and the head measures are i'm
portant
The 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 express
sion, which is called the cephalic index
To find it the length is divided into the
breadth and the result multiplied by
100. A head one half as wide as it is
long would have an index of so; one
three-fourths as wide as long would
have an index of 70; one as wide as it
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 90. The higher
| the index, of course, the broader and
sounder 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 853. The average
index of 100 Pennsylvania Germans is
| S1.9, 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 a
| further comparison with profit. What
we have already said may prove erro-
neous when we learn the actual Palati-
nate type. We assume now that the
Palatinate Germans were of medium
stature, light haired, blue or light eyed,
round headed, with finger reach of
| 1.043. We find that the Pennsylvania
German children are dark in hair and
eyes, that the men are probably of in
creased stature, that heads appear to be
frightening, that arm reach 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 assumption
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 abso-
lutely 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 England intermix-
ture 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 numbers of half
breeds whose descendants find their way
into the life of cities brings to bear a
curious and unreckoned force in the de-
velopment of the fiber and sinew of the
race in North America. Boston Tran
script
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