Caucasian race and lung function: Time to revisit the racial groups used in reference values.

To the Editors: We would like to comment upon the term “Caucasian”, used in the article by Vandervoorde et al. 1, and in general upon the racial groups still employed in the modern lung-function reference values. The term Caucasian originates from J.F. Blumenbach, a German physiologist and anthropologist, born in Gotha, Germany in 1752. He studied medicine at Jena, Germany, and graduated in 1775 with his MD thesis De generis humani varietate nativa [On the Natural Varieties of Mankind] 2. On the basis of his craniometrical research (analysis of …