Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/39

Rh for the phenomenon. Wherever they have penetrated, as in northern France, down the Rhone Valley, or in Austria, the population shows its effects.

Central Europe is generally marked by medium height. The people tend to be stocky rather than tall. The same holds true as we turn to the Slavic countries in the east of Europe. Across Austria and Russia there is a progressive although slight tendency in this direction. The explanation of the extreme short stature of southern Europe is more problematical. Our map points to a racial center of real diminutiveness, at an average of five feet and one or two inches. Too protracted civilization, such as it was, is partly to blame. Some authorities, notably Lapouge



and Fallot, even assert that naturally the people are as tall as the Alpine populations. Northern Africa certainly favors this view. We must await further investigation on this point, resting content with the fact, whatever the cause may be, that the average stature is exceedingly low to-day.

We may demonstrate the innate tendency of the Teutonic peoples toward tallness of stature more locally than by this continental method. We may follow the trait from place to place, as this migratory race has moved across the map. Wherever these "greasy seven-foot giants," as Sidonius Apollinaris called them, have gone, they have implanted their stature upon the people, where it has remained long persistent thereafter.