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Harvard students are nearly two inches taller than the average undergraduate at midwestern universities, William H. Sheldon, research associate in Physical Anthropology, said today, after the conclusion of an extensive photographic measurement of the entire Freshman class.
The study of the physical constitution of this year's Yardlings "ties up directly with Professor Hooton's work in racial types," according to Sheldon, who has reached startling conclusions by comparing Undergraduates with inmates of the New York State Hospital for the Insane.
Has Sampled Mid-West
Sheldon's measurements which total 10,000 from students at Chicago, North-western, Wisconsin, and other small Western coleges as well have led to "very much the same results" that Hooton exposed in his latest work on "Crime and the Man."
"At least one representative of each of the 70 basic anthropological types of white men are found at Harvard," Sheldon said. He pointed out, jokingly, that there was more indication that the Yardlings represented the New York mental cases than the college men in the Mid-West. His associates are now in Africa, photographing Liberians.
Constitution Clue to Psychology
Explaining what he termed a "close relationship" with Professor Hooton's study, the research associate said: "There is no question but what my work supports his contention that by careful measurements of the physical proportions of individuals we can throw a good deal of light on the psychological and physical differences of man."
"Descriptions of the constitutional makeup of the body types can be so put together that they are statistically useful." He showed that the data can reveal evidence of disease susceptibility and specific psychological traits.
Races Based on Physical Differences
The former assistant professor of Psychology at Chicago said that arbitrary classifications of racial types are "apart from Jewish and Nordic groups." He added; "Racial characteristics are physical attributes, and psychological differences are reflected in physical differences."
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