Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/650

634 shaven in the adults, with the effect of exaggerating its long and pointed formation. More conclusive still, it is said that in early manhood side whiskers are often grown upon the broadest part of the cheeks. This would obviously serve still more to exaggerate the peculiar form which the face naturally possesses. A neighboring people, the Andalusians, differ in their way of adorning the face in such wise as to heighten the contrast between themselves and the Basques. Among them chin whiskers are grown, which serve to broaden their already rounded chins and to distinguish them markedly from the pointed-chinned Basques. All this fits in perfectly with much of the evidence brought forward by Westermarck, in his History of Human Marriage, serving to show that the fashions in adornment which prevail among various peoples are largely determined by the physical characteristics which they naturally possess. Thus the North American aborigines, having a skin somewhat tinged with a reddish hue, ornament themselves almost entirely with red pigment, heightening still more their natural characteristics. Among the negroes a similar fact has been observed, in each case the attempt being to outdo Nature.

Is it not permissible to suppose that here the same process has been at work gradually remolding the physical type? A far-reaching and bold hypothesis this, to be sure. It would have less probability in its favor did we not observe in modern society many phenomena of fashion and custom closely akin to it in their immediate effects. We have but to suppose a fashion arising by chance, or perhaps suggested by some casual variation in a local hero or prominent family. This fashion we may conceive to crystallize into customary observance, until finally through generations it becomes veritably bred in the bone and part of the flesh of an entire community, A primary requisite is isolation—material, social, political, linguistic, and at last ethnic. No other population in Europe ever enjoyed all of these more than the Basques. If such a phenomenon could ever come to pass, no more favorable place to seek its realization could be found than here in this uttermost part of Europe.

the use of scientific terminology in scientific books, a reviewer in The Athenæum maintains that "those most interested soon become familiar with the meaning of terms, and, experiencing their convenience, adopt them. It is only those who have no real knowledge or interest in the subject who refuse to read a book because they have not mastered the alphabet. We do not think it possible that anybody who would take the trouble to master the structure of half a dozen plant types could remain in ignorance of a considerable amount of terminology, or could express, himself rationally without it if he tried."