Physical differences between white and colored children

PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN

WHITE AND COLORED CHILDREN

DR ALES HRDL1CKA

y

Reprinted from The American Anthropologist, November, 1898

WASHINGTON, D. C.

_)UI)D & detweieer, PRINTERS
1898

; -v- „ . ..

PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHITE AND
COLORED CHILDREN 1

DR ALES HRDLICICA

Associate in Anthropology, Pathological Institute of the N. Y. State Hospitals

This paper presents an abstract of a study of the more stable
differences of a physical nature which exist between wdiite and
negro children of the same sexes and the same ages.

Within the last two years I have examined about fourteen
hundred children, of whom about three hundred were negroes.
Such a number of subjects gave me sufficient opportunity to
satisfy myself that certain well-defined physical differences do
exist between the white and the colored children of the same sex
and age, and also to follow those differences in children from five
}^ears of age up to and even a little beyond the age of puberty.

The differences found may be arranged into those which occur
equally in both sexes, and those which are prevalent in either
the boys or the girls. Some of the characters in which white
and black children differ are fairly well known and will receive
but a passing notice. Other differences, on the other hand, have
been as yet never or but seldom mentioned, and these will re-
ceive more consideration.

In a general way, white children present more diversity , negro
children more uniformity, in all their normal physical characters.
This becomes gradually more marked as age increases.

As to physical abnormalities, those of congenital origin are
much less frequent in the negro child than in the white one.
With acquired abnormalities, principally the result of rachitic
conditions, the case is almost the reverse, those characters being
less frequent in the white children.

In detail we find the following differences between the two
classes of children :

Size of body : The average height of the colored child is in all
ages from one to three centimeters greater than that of white

i Read before the American Assoc, for the Adv. of Sci,, Boston, August, 1898,

DIFFERENCES NOT DEPENDENT UPON AGE OR SEX

APR 30 1900

/ » )

Si*

348

THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

[Vol. XI

children, all the nationalities of these latter being taken together.
It is still, though not at all ages, slightly greater when compared
with the average height of only the American-born children, who
are taller than the children of most other nationalities.

The average weight, unlike the height, is greater in the white
children at all ages up to puberty. Beyond puberty, particularly
in the girls, the colored subjects seem to gain in weight more
rapidly than do the white ones.

The size of the head is, on the average, slightly less in negro
children than in the white, provided we consider this in its re-
lation to the size of the body. There are individual exceptions
to this rule.

The form of the head is less variable in the colored children
than it is in the American-born white children. A pure Ameri-
can colored child almost always shows a pronounced dolicho-
cephaly, while the normal white American child will show every
variation from a markedly long head to a pronounced brachy-
cephaly. West Indian negro children are more frequently short-
headed than those of North American origin.

The hair of the pure negro child is quite lusterless, and, as a
rule, either curly or wavy, by far more frequently the former
than the latter. The proportion of wavy hair increases largely
in mixed subjects, and the same is true about luster of the hair.
In white children, those of American origin especially, curly
hair is very seldom found, and the curls always differ from those
of the negro. They possess luster, and will never show the com-
pact rouleau arrangement. We do find curly hair now and then
among Jewish children and children born in southern European
countries. Wavy hair is quite common among Jewish and
Syrian subjects.

The forehead averages narrower at all ages in the negro child
than in the white. The height of the forehead, however, is not
less in the colored subjects, and is occasionally even greater than
in some of the white children.

The face of colored children is generally more prognathic than
is that of white. The prognathism is both facial and alveolar.

The malar bones are somewhat more prominent in the colored
child, but the difference is not so great as that which may be
observed between a child of a yellow race and a white one.

Nov. 1898] PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN

349

The nose in the negro is frequently shorter and generally lower
and broader than the nose of the white child. These differences
increase with age.

The lips of the colored subjects are very prominent. This is
partly due to the greater prognathism of the alveolar processes
in the colored, but, besides this, the lips of the colored children
are substantial]}7 thicker.

The mouth is broader, and it is also more spacious antero-
posteriorly in negroes. This is due to the fact that in the colored
child the palate is larger and longer.

The teeth of negro children are often stronger than are those
of white individuals. Irregularities in the setting of the teeth,
so frequent in white children, are quite rare among the colored.

Dentition in the colored is more regular.

The uvula is frequently shorter and stouter in the colored than
it is in the white children, and is less frequently deflected in the
former.

The lower jaw is often somewhat higher and stronger in the
colored subjects than it is in the white.

The ears of the colored child deserve special notice. They
show in many cases a marked and almost specific character hut
rarely seen in the white, in that the helix is bent on itself and
compressed at the highest fourth of the ear. The negro ear is
usually somewhat smaller in all its dimensions than the white
one, and in a certain number of cases broader in the lower half
than in the upper.

The body shows marked differences in the two classes of
children, some of which are more marked in children of certain
ages than in adults. These differences are more marked in
females.

In general, the body of the negro child shows less adipose
tissue and greater muscular development. The average strength
in each arm, as measured by the dynamometer, is greater in
colored children, not only at all ages, but also in proportion to
bodily weight.

The pelvis of the colored child is more inclined forward than
that of the white child, and this is equally true in both sexes.

The arms of the colored child are longer than those of the
white, and the arm-spread, relatively to the height of the body,
is greater.

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THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

[Yol. XI

Both hands and feet, but especial! y the feet, are longer in the
colored than in the white child. The feet are flatter in the
colored. The thighs of the negro child show a remarkable differ-
ence from those of the white. They appear not unlike the thighs
of a frog, being most prominent in the middle. This character
is due to a higher forward and outward curvature of the thigh
bone in the colored.

The calves are somewhat smaller in the negro child than in
the white one.

DIFFERENCES PECULIAR TO BOYS

The negro boy is generally well built, lean, and muscular.
The body, unlike that of many normal white boys, and unless
deformed by disease, is plastic, straight, and symmetrical. His
chest is a little deeper.

The pelvis of the colored boy is more inclined, and in conse-
quence of this the lumbar curve is more pronounced and the
buttocks are more prominent.

The penis of the colored boy is generally longer than that of
a white boy of corresponding age or size.

DIFFERENCES PECULIAR TO GIRLS

The colored girl, before the age of puberty, and sometimes
even beyond this period, is shaped more like a boy than is the white
girl. Among white children girls can be seen to show decided
feminine characters — that is, feminine shoulders and thorax,
waist distinctly narrowed, large hips, and fat thighs — as early as
eight years of life. Among negro female children these charac-
ters do not become manifest, unless in exceptional cases, until
after twelve years of age, or even much later. When seen in
profile the greater inclination of the pelvis in the female colored
child becomes very apparent.

Such are, in abstract, the principal differences between white
and colored children. A detailed study will follow promptly.