Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-07
LONGER LIFE FOR US.
Physical Future of Americans Painted
in Briqht Colors.

Physical Future Of Americans Painted
in Bright Colors.
DR.. w. j. MCGEE, director Of the st
Louis museum, strongly opposed thu
theory that the United States is ir
any danger from race suicide at thu
meeting Of the Association For the Ad
vancement Of Science, which was con
tinued ut Columbia university in New
York the other day, says the New Yorl
Sun.
DR.. MCGEE took the position N the
course of discussion before the an
thropological section. He held that the
reason the United States was In nc
danger from race suicide was that the
number of offspring Of any type varied
inversely with the length of life of the
type. He pointed as examples to the
eagle. which lives hundred years and
has only few eggs, and to the shad
which lives only short time, but hal
millions Of eggs. Americans, he said
were Increasing their average length
of life, and SO their offspring was de
creasing. A hundred years ago, he
said, the average was twenty-five
years, while now it is twenty-nine
DR.. MCGEE held that not only were
Americans becoming longer lived. but
that their period Of effectiveness was
being increased, as shown by the num-
Der Of influential men in the United
States who were over seventy.
DR.. McGee's paper dealt directly with
the question Of heredlty. and all the
other subjects came up incidentally
The American Of tomorrow, he said
would be taller, stronger, more intel
lectual and more humanitarian than
the American of today. This increase
Of strength, he said. would be due to
the blending Of types which has made
the American Of today what he Is
DR.. MCGEE denied that there was In
the American any tendency toward any
particular type or that any type such
as the blond or brunette was gradual
" disappearing. Variability OF height
complexion and character was what
DR.. MCGEE expected to be character
istic of the future American.
Just as the composite American hal
been formed, SO he thought that when
the tide Of immigration turned toward
South America composite type would
be built up there which would be like
the present North American. DR.. Nc
Gee, in speaking Of heredity, pointed
out how q yellow streak" such as
tendency to crime or disease, was
gradually dying out and said that an
thropology clearly showed that the
world was growing better.
John %. Rockefeller was pointed Out
as the typical American because he
was the incarnation of concentrated
effort" "If Mr.. Rockefeller had been
an anthropologist," said DR.. MCGEE
''he would have been great one" The
scientist held that while the keenness
of the struggle for existence was In.
creasing 1t was not doing so any faster
than was the power to struggle.
In discussing DIR. McGee's paper the
Rev. DR.. II. G. Hovey of Newburyport,
Mass, said that Aaron Burr was vic.
tim Of heredity. He pointed to the fact
that Burr was the only one Of JOna-
than Edwards seventy-flve grandchiE
dren who had turned out badly and
said that this was due to the fact that
Burr's great-grandmother was, though
a brilliant, an erratic woman.
With the modern man was compared
the man found in Nebraska. Concern
ing him DR.. II. B. Ward said:
1.-THE limb bones are massive and
large, indicating a stature of six feet,
and uncommonly rough, indicating a
people who were very muscular, par
ticularly in the lower extremities. The
strikingly large protuberances support
this view. The crania are low browed.
with heavy protruding supercillary
ridges and receding foreheads which
lack frontal eminence. In life these
people had fiat heads, protruding mus
cles. large chins and heavy brows,
shading eyes deep set and close to-
gether.
Several bones were deeply gnawed
by rodents, one or more appear to have
been hacked or scraped by some flint
blade and couple are interesting
pathologically. One of these is bro
ken ulna which had knit together with
out surgical aid, and the other is case
Of exostosis between two lumbar YER
tebrae which have become co-ossif1ed.
A stellate fracture Of the skull near
the temple tells Of tragedy, and the
roughened surface beneath and around
the fracture indicates the subsequent
infammatory abscess and lingering
DEATH
American Apples For Europe.