The natives of Kharga Oasis, Egypt / by Ales̆ Hrdlic̆ka.

  • Alex Hrdlicka
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The natives of Kharga Oasis, Egypt / by Ales̆ Hrdlic̆ka. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VOL. 59 Girth of the Leg The maximum girth of the leg is a measurement which in the main indicates the individual development of the musculature of the part, but collectively is also of some anthropological significance, for regardless of age, health, nourishment and exercise of the part, all of which agencies aflfect its dimension, there are certain peoples, such as the Indians for instance, who have in general a smaller calf than the whites. The average maximum circumference of the left leg, which is measured by the writer, amounts in white men less than 50 years of age, to about 36 cm., in the Indian the writer obtained, on 200 indi- viduals in good state of bodily preservation, 34.0 cm., and in 20 apparently full-blood American negroes 36.9 cm. One hundred and eleven Kharga men in good condition gave the mean of only 32.0 cm., and in more than a half the measurement was smaller. The sig- nificance of this relatively poor record is doubtless in the main not racial, but connected with the poor nutrition of the majority of the Oasis people and their consequent subnormal development, which was shown already by other determinations. KHARGA OASIS, MEN: MAXIMUM GIRTH OP LEG Number of observations: iii.^ Average: 32.0cm. (ist 50: 32.1; 2d 50: 31.9cm.) . ' Median: 31.5 cm. Mode: 31.0-32.0 cm. Minimum : 23.3 cm. Maximum: 3/.0 cm. Table of frequencies: S E E E E £ E E s E u U u U u U u U u U 00 0 HH CO rt 10 VO cs PO fp CO cp CO Cp cp CO HH HH hH M HH hi HH hi i-i 06 cf\ 6 l-H CO 10 v6 N IN ro CO CO CO CO CO CO Number of cases 2 3 II 22 23 20 17 9 3 I Per cent l.s 2.7 9-9 J9.S 20.7 2S.0 jj.j 3-2 2.7 0.9 ^No cases of plain emaciation, senile or otherwise, included. SUMMARY OF THE MAIN RESULTS SHOWN BY MEASUREMENTS; TABLES OF COMPARISON The Kharga men are, on the average, of short stature; the head is of moderate size, medium height and dolicho- to mesocephalic jn form; the face is rather narrow, the nose mesorhynian, the mouth of fair size; the ears are rather long and narrow, the hands and feet of medium proportions, the legs small. In general the mea.sure- ments indicate a rather poor physical development.