Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/203

Rh on every hand. Even in the most secluded hamlet of the Alps, where population has remained undisturbed for thousands of years, he will be able to point out blond-haired children whose parents were dark, short sons of tall fathers, and the like. Our portraits of four Corsicans chosen at random offer a case in point. The people of this rocky island are as highly individualized as any in Europe. They offer the purest examples of the southern or Mediterranean type of Europeans; and yet these four men are quite different from one another. As the indexes show, the heads are quite unlike in their proportions. The man on the right is apparently broader-faced than either of the fellows next him, although he is relatively much longer-headed than either. The four vary considerably in the color of the hair and eyes. Nor in stature is there any greater apparent similarity. Such diversities



confront us on every hand even in this retired corner of Europe. What may we not anticipate in less favored places, especially in the large cities?

Traits in themselves are all right, our objector will maintain: but you must show that they are hereditary, persistent. More than that, you must prove not alone the transmissibility of a single trait by itself, you must also show that combinations of traits are so handed down from father to son. Three stages in the development of our proof must be noted: first, the distribution of separate traits; secondly, their association into types; and, lastly, the hereditary character of those types which alone justifies the term races. We have already taken the first step: we are now entering upon the second. It is highly important that we should keep these distinct. Even among professed anthropologists there is still much confusion of thought upon the subject—so much so, in fact, that some have, it seems to me without warrant, abandoned the task in despair. Let us beware the example of the monkey in the fable. Seeking to withdraw a huge handful of racial nuts from the jar of fact, we may find the neck of scientific possibility all too small. We may fail because we have grasped too much at once. Let us examine.