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Components & Types. In The Varieties of Human Physique (Harper; $4.50), a summary of his work which he published last week, Dr. Sheldon describes and defines his three components. They are called endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic because the prominent features of each are derived, respectively, from the embryo's endoderm or inner layer (abdominal organs), the mesoderm or middle layer (bones, muscles, connective tissue, heart, blood vessels), and the ectoderm or outer layer (skin, hair, nails, sense organs, nervous system, brain).
The endomorphic component involves roundness and softness of body, central concentration of mass, short neck, small bones, weak, short, tapering limbs, small hands and feet.
The mesomorphic component involves squareness and hardness of body, rugged, conspicuous muscles, large, prominent bones, heavy chest, wrists and hands, broad shoulders, broad hips, powerful pelvis.
The ectomorphic component involves fragility and delicacy of body, spindly bones, stringy muscles, dropped shoulders, prominent ribs, long, thin, forward-bent neck, small face, sharp nose, thin, dry, sensitive skin, fine, quick-growing hair, prominent genitalia.
Endomorphy gets the first digit in the type number, mesomorphy the second, ectomorphy the third. The extreme endomorph is a 711, the extreme mesomorph a 171, the extreme ectomorph a 117.
But these extremes account for only a little over 1% of the sample studied. Much more common are two types in which the three components are well balanced, the 4433 and 4445. Such people are sleek, says Author Sheldon. "They groom well, they are relaxed, they are well filled out all over, their hair combs easily and lies smoothly, they have rosy color and good complexion . .. easy carriage ... smooth walk . . . soft pleasing skin."
Other types of interest:
"The 236 is a slender, upright physique, usually tall and [sometimes] has a symmetry and beauty of proportion that is aesthetically of the highest order." Dr. Sheldon found that many famous paintings of Jesus Christ represented Him as a 236 or a 235.
"The 172 is probably the masculine ideal which . . . carries supreme strength and masculine ruggedness. . . ." Those heroes of the comic strips, Tarzan, Superman and Li'l Abner, are 1728.
Utility. Dr. Sheldon declares that though people may put on or lose weight as they grow older, their basic physique types do not change. Thus weight tables which give "normal weights" against height and age, without regard to structural type, mean less than nothing. Example: A heavy woman of type 632 frets because she thinks she is 30 Ib. overweight, whereas she is actually 30 Ib. underweight for her type and ought to stop dieting at once.
Future investigation may show that different physical types have different nutritional requirements. It is a commonplace that fat endomorphic people usually like sweet and starch foods—carbohydrates. Sheldon thinks it may turn out that a high carbohydrate diet is just what such people need.