Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-21
END THEIR SESSION
Scientists Hear Papers Read
and Admit New Members.
DR.. Franz Boaz Tells Of improvement,
in Those Coming to This
Country.

| Scientific papers and a business session
| concluded the meeting Of the National
| Academy of Sciences yesterday afternoon.
| The academy elected as members Profs.
E. f. Barnard, Yerkes observatory. Will
liams Bay. Wis; b. B. Boltwood. Yale:
E. IT, Hail. Harvard: r. A. Harper and
+. 3. Van Week. University of Wiscon-
sin; j. F. Keep. Columbia, and ]. O. Sties-
litz. University of Chicago; Drs. A. l..
| Day, Washington. and j. F. Hayford,
Northwestern University, Evanston. III.
! F.. Rutherford University of Manches-
ter England. and Vite Velterra. Univers
ty of Rome, Italy. were elected foreign
associates.
Changes by Environment.
| An interesting paper on bodily changes
as represented in the descendants Of inn
| migrants was read yesterday afternoon
| by DR.. Franz BoaZ. In the course OF his
remarks Dr. Boas said:
I'VE have ample observations showing
| that stature and weight are influenced by
environment. The Investigations of our
| own Bowditch and of many others have
] shown that the development OF stature
| depends upon economic condition. and
| that the better the economic condition
| the higher will be the stature. Gould and
| Baxter have shown that the transfer Of
/ Europeans to American soil increases the
! stature of their descendants. and the re-
| cent Investigations by Bolk. Daae and
| Mackeprang show that all over Europe
| IN eaverage stature is on the increase. l
! may remark here. incidentally. that gem
| orally this increase of stature is ascribed
| to better nutrition. 1t seems to my mind.
however. very plausible that the effect Of
| nutrition is much less important than the
gradual elimination of retardeat ton due to
| childrens diseases The mari ed decrease
int folt obi chr hot fla
mOrbidity of children must also be on the
decrease, and we must remember that the
study of growth has shown clearly that
the retarding influences of chronic dis
eases in early childhood can never be
made up by more rapid or long-continued
growth in later life. The changes in
weight and stature appear to us always
more as due to the elimination of unfa-
vorable circumstances than as an actual
change of type due to change in environ
ment.'
Changes in Head Less Marked.
DR.. Boas said that the changes in the
type Of the head. while appreciable. were
less marked than the changes in the type
of the body. These were less marked
also if the child was more than two
years old on coming into its new environ
ment. 1t was noticeable also that TIE
changes in the type of the head were
more marked in children BON some years
after their parents arrived than they
were in the first children born after ar
rival hee. He concluded. therefore. that
there was large amount of prenatal in
fluence on the type Of descendant besides
what was due in the growing child to
change Of environment.
The sum of his conclusions was that
While there is a certain Elasticity in the
human type. this is not great. Neither is
the human type absolutely fixed, but can
be considerably affected by environment
The next line OF investigation, he said,
would be to see how greatly these type
changes could be brought about.