made careful anthropometric studies of about 600 registrants. A preliminary report said:1

Time has been lacking for a final study of the observed data. However, the figures seem to indicate that the foreignborn registrants were markedly less fit for service than the native born.

Since this report was written this local board has gone farther into the matter and summarized certain results which verify these preliminary conclusions:2

While the following data are based on a relatively few cases (397) the differences are too great to be considered mere accidental differences. They are real mathematical differences.

TABLE III

REPORT OF PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS ON DRAFTED MEN IN LOCAL BOARD 129, NEW YORK CITY, 1919

Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Number Cent ber Cent ber Cent ber Cent ber

1 Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the Operations of the Selective Service System to December 20, 1918, pp. 160-161.

Dr. Louis R. Sullivan, American Museum of Natural History, Analysis of Data Furnished by Local Board 129, New York City, July 14, 1919. (Manuscript.)

In Class A, which included all men who are physically fit, we find a greatly increasing percentage of men falling in this class as we pass from foreign born, and American born of foreign parents, to American born of mixed and native parents. These two latter groups are well above the average for the total series, while the two former are considerably below this average.

Class B is of little significance since it included only those with minor defects.

Class C included all men with a defect serious enough to be an impediment in general military work, but not necessarily in some special vocation. Here the percentage decreased from the foreign born to the American born of American parentage.

In Class D, which included all men with some defect serious enough to incapacitate them for all military service, and probably also most civilian vocations, we find small differences, yet these differences favor the Americans of mixed or American parentage.

MORBIDITY OF SPECIAL RACES

Considering how scant are morbidity data of any sort in the United States, we are fortunate in being able to present original figures from the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, relative to illness among the Italians and Hebrews. These two races predominate in the districts surrounding the settlement. Careful record by race was kept in 1916 of the cases of illness visited by the nurses from the settlement. The 17,380 cases were tabulated according to race, disease, deaths, and age distribution. The table given on the following page is made up from the full report.

When statistics are gathered for such a considerable number of cases racial differences become apparent. There is a heavy incidence of respiratory diseases upon

the Italians. Although they represent only one in every five people attended for any form of sickness, about two out of every five respiratory cases were Italians. This high per cent is found in each Italian age group, being highest for the groups between one year and six.

DIAGRAM 2.-PROPORTION OF PNEUMONIA AND OTHER RESPIRATORY CASES TO ALL CASES ATTENDED BY HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT NURSES

In the mortality from all respiratory cases we find a striking difference between Jews and Italians. The Jews have a per cent of 2.6 and the Italians of 8.9. Among children under one year only 5.7 per cent of Jewish children died as compared to 17.7 per cent of Italian.

HIGH MORBIDITY OF ITALIANS

The high rate of morbidity and mortality of Italians, both children and adults, is attested by several other studies.

Dr. Donald B. Armstrong, in a recent article about influenza,1 spoke of the high morbidity rate from this disease and from pneumonia among the Italians in Framingham, Massachusetts. He found there that the Italians had suffered from a rate four times that of the rest of the population, which was chiefly Irish.

1D. B. Armstrong, M.D., Boston, "Influenza: Is It a Hazard to Be Healthy?" Medical and Surgical Journal, January, 1918, p. 65.

The prevalence of malnutrition and rickets among✔ the Italians is strongly verified by the experience of numerous health agencies. In the investigation of the physical welfare of 1,400 school children, New York, 1907, the proportion of malnourishment cases varied in the several races.1

TABLE V

PER CENT OF FOURTEEN HUNDRED NEW YORK SCHOOL CHILDREN
SHOWING LOW NUTRITION, 1907

The high figures for the Italians, which are over seven times that for the American child, tells its own story of underfeeding and lack of bodily vigor.

Some figures from East Orange, New Jersey, offer corroborative evidence:

Approximately 1,100 children were examined at the beginning of the local Children's Year campaign, and some interesting facts disclosed. One hundred and twenty-seven children, or 11.6 per cent of those examined, were found to be sufficiently under weight to require the attention of a physician.. . . . The following table shows the per cent of children under weight when grouped according to the

1 Frank A. Manny, "Nutrition Study," Malnutrition and Race, sec. xi, chap. G, p. 3, 1916.