cation, and ignore the bilious temperament, we have in this class only the nervous, while in the first group we have both the sanguine and lymphatic, with no means of separating them, except that the national characteristic shows an excess of the sanguine over the lymphatic, probably about the ratio of three to one.
TABLE II. Vital Capacity as indicated by Ratio of Chest-Expansion of over Three Inches for all Heights to Complexion. Based upon the examination of 190,621 American-born white men accepted; expressed in ratios of 1,000.
| GIRTH OF CHEST AT EXPIRATION. | LIGHT.[1] | DARK.[2] |
| Under 29 inches | 3.588 | 1.141 |
| 29 and under 31 inches | 37.654 | 15.285 |
| 31""33" | 98.387 | 46.906 |
| 33""35" | 103.015 | 56.605 |
| 35""37" | 46.255 | 26.793 |
| 37 inches and over | 12.676 | 7.151 |
| Total number of men accepted | 126,445 | 64,176 |
Table II. shows the relation of chest-expansion to complexion. The range of chest-movement, while it cannot be deemed an absolute measure of vitality, which must be regarded rather as the sum of organic and functional action than the degree of perfection in any one set of organs, yet may be fairly assumed to bear a close relation to the general vigor of the system that defines the quality of vital activity. A free chest-expansion implies a large consumption of oxygen, a corresponding degree of force and activity in the. circulation of the blood, and this, in its turn, calls for a large demand for food, with a proportional muscular vigor. In the table, a chest-expansion of over three inches is taken as the basis of comparison, for the reason that, at an expansion less than this, men of impaired strength may be included. It is but necessary to glance at the table in order to understand all that is implied by it—that size and muscular vigor of the sanguine and lymphatic greatly exceed these conditions in the nervous.
TABLE III.—Ratio of Diseases to Complexion.
| DISEASES IN GENERAL DIVISIONS. | Number examined, | Number examined, |
| 117,029. | 217,292. | |
| DARK. | LIGHT. | |
| Ratio per 1,000. | Ratio per 1,000. | |
| General diseases | 26.857 | 31.552 |
| Diseases of the nervous system | 11.322 | 12.366 |
| Diseases of the circulatory system | 30.881 | 36.614 |
| Diseases of the respiratory system | 9.271 | 10.902 |
| Diseases of the digestive system | 87.978 | 95.894 |
| Diseases of the urinary system | 1.871 | 2.467 |
| Diseases of the generative system | 6.392 | 7.713 |
| Diseases of the organs of locomotion | 30.334 | 37.180 |
| Diseases of the cellular tissues[3] | 0.752 | 1.063 |
| Diseases of the cutaneous system | 11.638 | 11.860 |
