Abstract
THE point which Prof. Johannsen raises is interesting, though absolute measurements on men and women are scarcely comparable. Absolute measurements on women are not only smaller than those on men of the same type, but also differ in their relationships. As pointed out in a summary of our measurement results in Man for May 1922, a range of absolute head length 181-193 mm. in women of a certain race type corresponds with a range of absolute head length 194-204 mm. in men of that race type. It will thus be seen at once that a comparison of a man and a woman having the same absolute head length means a comparison between two people not only of different sex, but, also of different race type. In such a comparison one gets a woman towards the long headed end of the series compared with a man towards the short headed end of the series for that sex. The smallest absolute measurements for head breadth are among women, for all women's measurements are small, but at the same time these heads need not necessarily be narrow proportionately to their length, which may also be very small. Classifying race types on the basis of summation of characters our thousands of measurements undoubtedly show that women's heads show greater relative breadth (i.e. are not so oval in shape) as those of the men nearest to them in general features.
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FLEMING, R. Cephalic Index and Sex. Nature 109, 715 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109715a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109715a0
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