ANTERROPOMETRY.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1827, 30 December 1879, Page 4

ANTERROPOMETRY.

An Austrian professor has come forward as the discoverer of a new science. He has approached humanity with a measuring tap?, and now publishes the results of his laborious investigations, All science is built up more or less on statistics, and Professor Weisbaeh haa laid the foundation of what he himself calls " Anterropometry." He has divided the human race into nineteen d'fferent people, and, collecting his inferences from a sufficient number of individuals, has published his knowledge in a tabulated form. Tiiepointß which he haa selected for illustrating his theories seem curiously choaen. The length of the body, the circumference of tie head, the proportions of the iiosp, the relation of the arm as compared with other limbs, and the rapidity of pulsation arc the chief centres of bis system. For example, in the matter of rapidity of pulse he thus catalogues humanity. The dullest ciiculation seems to belong to the negrotsof Congo, who have -02 pulsations in a minute. Aftr them come the Hottentots with 64, the Kaffirs 70, the Northern Slavs 72, the Siamese 74, the Jewß 77, the Sandwich Islanders 78, and the Nicobars 84. In matters of height the shortest people in tho world—not being actually dwarfs—are tho Hottentots, the average height, in m'llimetres, beirg 1 287. T!*.en follow the Japanese nt 1,569, the Jews 1.599, the Australians 1 Gl7, the Slavs 1 671, the Northern Ohinccc '..675, tho Kaffirs 1.753, and tho Maoris 1 757, 'ihcoc figures may be instructively compared with recognised Europeau alt.'.udes, which the Professor exhibits in a parallel colnmn. The results are curious, and establish iacontestably the superiority of northern races. The Norwegians nrc the tallest, but they are r.ot as tall as the Maoris, the nverase heights being relatively 1.728 and 1.758. The Scotch come nest at J.7CB, then the Swedes at 1.700, then the English at 1.090, and nest fallow the Daues 1.035, the Germans I.GSO, the French 1.667, '.be Italians and the Portuguese. It ia found that largeness or head ie generally in invergo proportion to length of tody ; not that tall men have little heads ao much as that tall races have small heads, the only exception being the Patagoaians, whose great height is not deformed by insignificant brain. The variations of nose are more remarkable than those of any other organ which the Professor has measured. The Jews and the Pategonians head the list, the average in millimetres being 71; the nearest arc the Maoris at 52 ; and the furthest the Australians at 30 ; while in breadth of nostril the list must be read upsids down ; it commences with the Australians at 52, and ende with the Jews at 34. Fur torso and breadth of chest the American Indians surpass all other people, while it is recorded of the Africans, and especially of the Congo negroes, that the relative proportion between length of arm and length of leg is, iu their case, completely inverted.