Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/37

Rh physical trait so liable to disturbance by circumstances outside the human body is correspondingly invalidated as an indication of hereditary tendencies which lie within. We are compelled for this reason to assign the third place to this characteristic in our series of racial tests, placing it below the color of the hair and eyes in the scale. This does not mean that it is entirely worthless for our ethnic purposes. There are many clear cases of differences of stature which can be ascribed to no other cause; but it bids us be cautious about judging hastily. It commands us to be content with nothing less than hundreds of observations, and to rigidly eliminate all social factors. The best way to do this is to take the broad view, by including so many individuals that locally progressive and degenerative factors may counterbalance one another. Turning back to our world map of statures, it will at once appear that we can not divide the human species into definite continental groups characterized by distinct peculiarities of stature. The so-called yellow Mongolian race comprises both tall and short peoples. The aborigines of America are, as a rule, tall; but in the Andes, the basin of the Columbia River, and elsewhere they are quite undersized. The only two racial groups which seem to be homogeneous in stature are the true African negroes and the peoples of Indonesia and the Pacific. In Africa the environment is quite uniform. In the other cases racial peculiarities seem to be deeply enough ingrained to overcome the disturbances due to outward factors. The Malays are always and everywhere rather short. The Polynesians are obstinately inclined toward tallness. With these exceptions, racial or hereditary predispositions in stature seem to be absent. Let us turn to the consideration of Europe by itself, and inquire if the same rule holds here as well.

The light tints upon this map indicate the tall populations; as the tint darkens, the people become progressively more and more stunted. Here again we find that Europe comprehends a very broad range of variations. The Scotch, with an average height of five feet and ten inches, stand on a level with the tall Polynesians and Americans, both aboriginal and modern white. At the other extreme, the south Italians, French, and Spaniards, range alongside the shortest of men, if we except the abnormal dwarf