Abstract
It has been the usual biometrical procedure that the facial and nasal heights are measured from the nasion to either the gnathion or the subnasale as in the bone measurement. It is well known, however, that the exact determination of the nasion in the living body is very difficult if not impossible. We feel, from our experiences, that confidence can hardly be placed on the values of the facial and nasal heights obtained by other authors unless they have had experiences of measuring the same in at least 50-60 cadavers.
The senior author, while serving as the Committee Secretary, proposed to the Committee for Research on Japanese Standard Physical Constitution of the Japanese Anatomical Society that the measurement be taken in two ways, one, from the nasion to the gnathion, and the other, from the supraorbitale to the gnathion, and this proposal was adapted by the Committee in spite of some oppositions.
Henceforth, the new procedure has been used by the Biometrical Group of the Society. There is as yet no information on a possible discrepancy in values obtained by the two methods of measurement described above. It is felt for this reason that a publication of our results are well warranted.
The material of our investigation consists of students from Tokyo University and Juntendo University and farmers in Yamagata Prefecture.
Results and Discussion : - The results are presented in table. It includes ours and those of the Committee for Research on Standard Physical Constitution. The latter are considered somewhat unreliable in comparison with ours due to the fact they are the combined results obtained by a number of authors on the bases of different techniques in the determination of the nasion.
Since errors introduced in measurements cannot be entirely eliminated, the differences found in the data taken from different groups of our material require careful evaluation, at least in the present state of our studies.
The difference in the values obtained from the new and old methods is to be used only in converting the value from the new method to that of the old and never theother way. Conclusion : 1. The differerce of the absolute values obtained from the new and old methods is approximately 8mm in both the facial and nasal heights.
2. In regard to the indices, the difference is about 5.5 for the facial about 8.0 for the nasal.
3. Sexual difference is not recognizable in so far as the data on hand at present are concerned. Even if a difference is present, it would be too slight to be used for the conversion.
