Athletic Sports (extract)

Physical Characteristicsof the Athlete and proportions that characterize differ­ ent races. We seetheir influence also upon people of the same race, family,and kindred. It is manifest that a chart made up from meas­ urements of ten thousand African Bush­ men, whose average height is 4 feet 4.78 inches, would have a different mean from a chart composed of the measurements of the same number of Englishmenor Amer­ icans, whose average height is nearer 5 feet 7J inches. For the same reason a chart composed of the measurements of a picked class in the community would represent a higher mean than a chart made up from a class less favorably situated. Now, the same laws that govern the growth and development of the body in races and different classes in the communi­ ty are just as apparent in the development of the class itself. The general chart at present under consideration was made up largely from college students, as stated in the preceding article. There wereabout as many men above the mean as below it in the measurements of every part taken. In some individual cases all the measure­ ments were abovethe mean, inother cases all were below, while others ranged ex­ tensively in both directions. To assume 98