The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-04-01
BECO MING INIlIANS.

CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE DEveL.
oPlNG ON THAT LINE.
Increasing Resemblance In Facea TO tho
Aboriginal Type "A Studyof Heads.
With Especial Attention to tho Resi-.
dents of Pennsylvania.
1t is IN extraordinary question in nm
chronological science which has been
propoundcd popularity Of late. The in
f1uence of environment upon the race
resident in tho 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 tendency of reversion to the
type indigenous to the soil. But foreign
students of race, with more perspective,
have offered interesting food for refiec-
ton. A writer in 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 Yankee and the southron-
largo and loose limbed-of these pictures
are types, even as the stout, full faced
John Bull is u typo found in another
environment. Both American fayoritcs
of the cartoonist have high check 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-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.
1t is true that the pervasive and be-
guiling Irish have intermarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but i'll the main it is very exclu
sive. pure blooded Palatinate stock
Data have been secured relative to q
large number of school children and tc
adult males from 20 to 90 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.
1.-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 tho
breadth and the result multiplied by
100. A head one-half as wide MS it is
long would have an index Of 80; ono
three-fourths as wide as long would
have an index of rs; ono as wide us 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 80. 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 arc notably round head
ed. Topinard gives for some people of
Lorraine the index Of 85.3. The average
index of 100 Pennsylvania Germans is
$50, 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
further comparison with profit What
we have already said may provo 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.O43. 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
lengthening, 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-
tlnued, 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 tho 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
fireside tales of New England intermix-
turo of that sort have been common
enough. A recent novel has expressed