TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 984, 2 March 1910, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

AMERICA MOULDING THE KACES.

I Zangwill's idea of America as a J "great melting-pot," "God's crucible,*' wherein all the races cf Europe are to be fused and reformed Ito produce "the American," seems I actually to have received the indorsej ment of anthropological science. The I recent report of the United States Immigration Commission incudes the results of an investigation under the direction of Professor Franz Boas, of Coulrabia University, on the physical conditions and characteristics of immigrants.. The discoveries made by professor Boas are generally regarded as indicating the development of a distinct American physical type in persons of European parentage, but born in that country. The inquiry, as far as the present report is concerned, has been confined to New York City and to Sicilians and East European Hebrews, about 26,000 school children having been examined. The chief facts noted iG this report have been given to the press as follows:-—"Among other results noted it is shown that the American born children of the long-headed Sicilians and those of the round-headed East European Hebrews have nearly the same intermediate head form. The children of the long-headed Sicilians are more round-headed, the children of the round-headed Hebrews are more long-headed than their par ents; Similar changes are traced in the development of the faces of these types. , The amalgamation is most rapid during the period immed lately following the arrival of immigrants. The difference in tpye between parents and children manifests itself almost immediately after their arrival here. Among individuals born a long time after the arrival of the parents in America, the difference is increased, but only slightly as compared to the great difference that develops at once. Up to this time the investigations have not been carried so far as to determine what happens in the second generation of immigrants; but it seems likely that the influences at work among the first generation born in America will be still further accentuated."