STRUCTURE OF VARIATION IN PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS(<Special Issue>the Scientific Insight into Population)

Abstract

This article provides a historical viewpoint on how human variations have been understood in 19th century. "Homme moyen" ("average man" in English) was an idea advocated by Adolf Quetelet (1796-1874) and was intended as an explanation for why inter-individual variations in human traits follow a normal distribution. His idea has been influential until today although it received much criticism in those days. This idea, however, blurs the distinction between inter- and intra-individual variations in human traits. The discrimination of these two variations is a requisite procedure for studying polymorphism in physiological traits since it generally presents larger intra-individual variations compared with physical traits.