OCR Rendition - approximate

284 b c3 rn rn RETORT--1 fi83. T p 0 a cn 0 cn 0 d x G v n .r h v CL r. d X REPORT OF THE ANTRROPOAIF.TRIC COMMITTEE. 285 Infants at IErlh. Table XV. 54. The statistics relating to infants at birth have been tabulated separately, because the conditions of measurement differ from those of other children, the stature having been taken in the recumbent position, and the weight without clothing. The parents of the infants were English and Scotch ; and although the charitable institutions from which the observations were obtained are situated in London and Edinburgh, persons bred in the country are frequently admitted as inmates, and it is probable, therefore, that the statistics fairly represent the labouring classes. Observations on infants of other classes of society could not be obtained. The statistics refer only to infants presumably born at the fall period of gestation, and contain the due proportion of twin births. The table is constructed to show the relative stature and weight of each infant, and the differences between the sexes. 55. The table is one of great interest to the student examining the physical development and the physical improvement of a race, as it presents the materials with which lie has to deal in its earliest and simplest form. According to this table the average length of male infants is 19.52 inches, and of females 19.32 inches, showing a difference of only one-fifth of an inch. The average naked weight of male infants is 7.12 lbs., and of females 6'94 lbs., a difference of about 3 ounces in favour of males. The range of height between the tallest and shortest male infants is 10 inches, while that of boys of 15 years, when the disturbing influences of puberty are present, is 27 inches. 'This wide range in adolescence becomes contracted in adults to 20 inches. The range of height of female infants is two inches less than that of male infants, which may be due to accidental causes, but which suggests a less disposition to variation in the size in females than in males,' and which may be the cause of the greater freedom of female infants from accidents at the time of birth. It has been ascertained that still births occur in this country in the proportion of 140 males to 100 females, and this higher death-rate of male infants has been attributed to their greater size. We have no statistics of the size or weight of still-born infants, although they could be more easily obtained than those of living infants, but the table before us would seem to confirm this view, as the largest surviving infants are those of males. It would appear, therefore, that the physical (and most probably the mental) proportions of a race, and their uniformity within certain limits, are largely dependent. on the size of the female pelvis, which acts as a gauge, as it were, of the race,, and eliminates the largest infants, especially those with large heads (and presumably more brains), by preventing their survival at birth.' The greater disposition to vary in range of stature of males than females has been already referred to in the Report of the Committee for 1880, p. 141, in connection with Sir ltawson Ilawson's analysis of the successive annual measurements of 12 boys and 13 girls made by Professor Bowditch, of Harvard, United States. ' A marked feature in the charts when compared together is the greater regularity and parallelism of the growth of the girls, especially at the earlier periods of fife.' 7b ascertain if there is any difference between the circumference of the skull as compared with that of the pelvis in adults of very ditfercntt races of man, Mr. ltol,erta has measured the skulls mad pelves of sonic European and Andamanese