Evening star., 1930-03-31
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
CLEVELAND, March 31.-The type
of shoulder blade a person possesses
may hold secrets of considerable value
in the study of those factors underlying
his health, the length of his life and
his adaptability.
This is the belief of DR.. William
w. Graves, professor and director
of the department of neuro-p -psychiatry,
st. Louis University School of Medicine,
who is examining blades and other
bones in what is said TO be the largest
and most complete collection OF human
skeletons in the world, conserved in the
Hamann Museum, Western Reserve
University School of Medicine.
He has classified shoulder blades ac-
cording to the contour of their verte-
bral borders. which lie adjacent to the
spinal column.
He has found that the borders of
shoulder blades in all accessible races
of man, whether ancient or modern, are
readily classifiable into convex, straight
and concave types. The three types
are found before birth as well as in
subsequent life.
Convex Mostly in Old.
Studying these three types, DR..
Graves has discovered that the straight
and concave predominant in frequency
of occurrence in the young, whereas the
convex predominant in frequency of
occurrence in the old.
From my own studies of the living,
when chosen at random, in various pc
RODS of life from birth to old age, ap-
proximately 65 per cent, in the first 10
years of life are possessors of the
straight and concave, whereas only 35
per cent are poSSessors of the convex" !"
DR.. Graves said. I'm all old people,
similarly chosen, beyond 65 years of
age, only approximately 35 per cent
have straight or concave and 65 per
cent convex
Seeking corroboration and explana-
ton of these findings, which, DR.. Graves
said, are unparalleled by any other fea-
ture of mans makeup, he and other
workers have found supporting evi-
dence for only one explanation. This
is that q large number of poSseSSors
Of straight and concave than of con-
vex types are among persons unduly
susceptible to disease, the sick and the
shorter-lived individuals Of the race"
During 20 years, while Dr. Graves has
had several hundred individuals of va
rious ages under continuous observa-
ton, he has found that the shoulder
blade type in each individual remains
unCnanBeO, Ie&dToleSS Oh disease, nan
dular function, occupation, or a natural
process Of growth or advancing age.
Moreover, he has found that the
plus potentially sick" in the broad
est sense, such as the feeble-minded,
the insane, the tubercular and the
groups classified as criminal, show rela-
lively large percentages of straight and
concave shoulder blades than groups
considered healthy and normal
DIR. Graves said that aside from the
commonly observed physical character
isticS of races, there is no physical
characteristic more constantly trans
mitted by heredity than a shoulder
blade type.
Power Of Heredity.
obviously, shoulder blade type
cannot have a greater significance for
the individual than his heredity," DR..
Graves said. THE part is never greater
than the whole, nor the whole greater
than the sum of all its parts. There
fore, whatever type a person may pos
sess he has probably gotten 1t from his
ancestors, and whatever type or any
other inherited feature he may have,
it is cause neither for elation or de-
preston"
DR.. Graves has examined more than