Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/55

 A DIFFERENCE IN THE METABOLISM OF THE SEXES 4*

ment of the brain through premature closing of the sutures r and both these variations occur more frequently in men than in women. The form of woman is rounder and less variable than that of man, and art has been able to produce a more nearly ideal figure of woman than of man ; at the same time the bones of woman weigh less with reference to body weight than the bones of man, and both these facts indicate less varia- tion and more constitutional passivity in woman. The trunk of woman is slightly longer than that of man, 1 and her abdomen is relatively more prominent, and is so represented in art. In these respects she resembles the child and the lower races, i. e. t the less developed forms. 2 Ranke states that the typical adult male form is characterized by a relatively shorter trunk, rela- tively longer arms, legs, hands, and feet, and relatively to the long upper arms and thighs by still longer forearms and lower legs, and relatively to the whole upper extremity by a still longer lower extremity ; while the typical female form approaches the infantile condition in having a relatively longer trunk, shorter arms, legs, hands, and feet, relatively to short upper arms still shorter forearms, and relatively to short thighs still shorter lower legs, and relatively to the whole short upper extremity a still shorter lower extremity 3 a very striking evidence of the ineptitude of woman for the expenditure of physiological energy through motor action. Morphological differences are less in low than in high races, and the less civilized the race the less is the physical difference of the sexes. In woman the repro- ductive function fixes the form with relative definiteness at an early period ; but the further variation and fixation of phys- ical- traits in man is conditioned by a multifarious activity, and it results that in the higher races men are both more unlike one another than in the lower races, and at the same time more unlike than the women of their own race; and the less civilized TOPINARD, he. <!/., p. 1066.

Topinard's figures (foe. <//., p. 1066) show, however, that the Esquimaux and the Tasmantans have a shorter trunk than the Europeans.

S J. RAN zur physischen Anthropologie der Bayern," Btitr&ge

ur Anthropologie und Urgeschickte Baycrns, Vol. V 1 1 1. p.