A biometric study has been conducted on 300 male inmates with mental disturbances, being hospitalized in the medical prison of Jono, Kokura City. The subjects, ranging in age from 19 to 59, were divided into several groups according to their respective native places. On each item of measurement the values of the mean, mean error and the type differences were computed, and these values were compared with those obtained from the inmates with normal mental ability in the same institution and with those from individuals outside in the community. The results are summarized as follows. 1 Of the standing height, the subjects belonging to the group of northern Kyushu, southern Kyushu and to the group from outside of Kyushu were included in the small type without exception. The type of the head of southern Kyushu group was eithev mesocephalic, hypsicephalic or acrocephalic, and the type of the head of northern Kyushu group and non-Kyushu group was either brachycephalic, hypsicephalic or acrocephalic. The face of the subject was included mainly in the short type, while the relative chest girth belonged to the normal chest type with all the groups examined. 2 Comparison between groups of the mean values of type differences procured from the values measured on each item of measurement revealed that fairly wide difference in the head type existed between the southern Kyushu group and the non-Kyushu group, while in regard to other bodily segments all the subject groups showed nearly the same values of measurement. Also in the standing height and length-width cephalic index no remarkable difference was not confirmed between every groups of subjects even if the comparison was made on the subject groups of definite age stage from 30 to 39 years rather than on the total subject groups ranging in age from 19 to 59 years. 3 Of the absolute values of actual measurement, the mentally defective inmates were inferior to the mentally sane inmates without exception or with very few exception in the following items : morphological face height, length of head, width of head, standing height, tragus height, height of shoulders, height of middle finger point, height of anterior superior illiac spines, height to suprasternal notch, height of pubic arc, breadth between shoulders, length of upper and lower extremities, and sitting height. Of the index values the mentally defective inmates are inferior to the sane inmates in length-width cephalic index and morphological facial index. Meanwhile, a few items in which the mentally defective inmates supercede the sane inmates are restricted to the following : the actual values in cephalo-auricular height and chest girth, and the index values between cephalic length and height and between cephalic width and height. It was also notable in the comparison of mean values of the type differences that the mentally defective inmates showed widely detached patterns of general physique traits from other groups examined, especially the marked inferiority of the former to the sane inmates in this point. 4 In the comparison between the mentally defective inmates and the community groups with regard to the actual and index values of measurement, the former were inferior to the latters with no or few exception in the following items : standing height, cephalo-auricular height, height of middle finger point, height of shoulders, height of anterior exterior illiac spines, height of superior margin of pubic arc, height of suprasternal notch, breadth of shoulders, breadth of pelvis, chest girth, length of lower extremities, sitting height, length of head, width of head, maximum interzygomatic breadth and morphological facial height in the actual values, mandibular indeces, relative breadth of shoulders and relative sitting height indices in the index values. The results of examining the mean values of the type differences procured from between the mentally defective inmates and
(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
