Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-05-11
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.

Knots tied in the threads Of life as
they stretch from generation to gen.
Grafton may constitute a partial answer
to the biological enigma of race
Such is the conclusion of DR.. Ales
Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropol-
ogy Of the Smithsonian Institution, from
the study of many thousands of human
and animal skeletal remains in the COL
lection of the National Museum.
Most biological measurements, Dr.
Hrdlicka explains, tend to arrange them
selves in normal distribution curves. The
greater the number of specimens meas
ured the smoother such a curve. Along
such curve races and all other groups
shade imperceptibly into each other.
Strictly speaking, it is impossible to
differentiate human types at all.
For example, if the length of the thigh
bones of every human being on earth
could be measured and the measurements
plotted the result would undoubtedly be
very close to an absolutely smooth curve.
The same would result from plotting the
heights, weights, breadths of shoulders,
etc, of every human being on earth.
Quite different is the result, DR..
Hrdlicka finds, when one plots the form
or shape. or even the body as whole, Of
thousands of specimens. One no longer
is able to get a uniform distribution
curve, but curve in which there are
various nodes, or points of aggregation.
These form the focal points of forms or
types which differ substantially from
each other.
This newly discovered phenomenon OF
biological differentiation DR.. Hrdlicka
calls "typogeny" Hitherto the ever
present normal distribution curve" has
been an insuperable barrier to valid
differentiation of human groups and for
the first time it is broken down success
fully by DR.. Hrdlickas work.
This process of typogency," he says,
"is apparently of wide biological extern
sion, but is especially obvious in man. It
is observable in probably all the more
important and larger organs of the body,
and also in the body as whole. 1t is
most obvious in the so-called "constitu-
tons" in physiognomy, and in the nose,
hands and feet. It manifests itself in
the shapes of the skull, of the palate, of
the lower jaw, the sternum, the first rib,
the scapula, the sacrum and the long
bones. There are indications that it
extends also to the brain, the main parts
Of the body, the main internal organs
and even to human functions"
AS an example, DR.. Hrdlicka points
out, cross sections of the thigh bones of
thousands of individuals of different
races show five different shapes which
are quite clearly differentiated There
are the prismatic, the lateral prismatic,
the quadrilateral, the pear-shaped, the
gorrilloid. When these shapes are plotted
on a distribution curve their frequency
is found to differ markedly for racial
stocks. Each constitutes diagnostic
node.
The causes of this phenomenon, DR..
Hrdlicka says, seem to be multiple The
different forms are partly survivals and
partly individual functional modifica-
tons. A tendency toward frequency
or rarity of the different forms in fami-
lies, localized groups and races has al
ready become hereditary.
Says DR.. Hrdlicka: Most of the simple
advanced types go hand in hand with
others of similar nature, although some
appear to be independent. All involve
notifications in parts which depend on
them, or on which they depend. There
are simple and compound types. The
simplest types are those found in some
of the bones or organs such as the nose.
The most compound types are the con-