Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/749

Rh of modern origin; certainly not their stature, at all events. For Strabo tells us that the Romans were accustomed to recruit their legions here because of the massive physique of the people.

In order to make the reality of this curious patch more apparent, we have reproduced in our small map on this page a bit of the country in detail. It shows how suddenly the head form changes at the crest of the Apennines as we pass from the Po valley to the coast strip of Liguria. As we leave the river and rise slowly across Emilia toward the mountain range the heads



gradually become less purely Alpine: and then suddenly as we cross the watershed we step into an entirely different population. On the southern edge this little spot of Mediterranean longheadedness terminates with almost equal sharpness, although geographical features remain quite uniform. This eliminates environment as an explanation for the phenomenon; we must seek the cause elsewhere.

All sorts of explanations for the peculiarities of this ethnic spot about Lucca have been presented. Lombroso, who first discovered its tall stature, inclines to the belief that here is a last relic of the ancient and long-extinct Etruscan people penned in