Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/205

 noted occasional tendency to a prominence of the angles of the lower jaw. The skin is as in other central Europeans, never swarthy except in those with Mediterranean or other darker admixture. The hair and beard in their general characteristics are also as in other Europeans, though the growth of hair as well as that of beard seems to be especially favored by nature among the Russians. The prevalent hair color in the north is grizzly to brown, but as one proceeds westward and southwest darker shades increase in frequency. Lighter shades of hair occur (especially light brown), but real blondness in an unmixed Slav would be an anomaly. The color of the eyes ranges in the main from gray to brown. Blue eyes occur also, but somewhat exceptionally. The teeth on the whole are probably more regular and better preserved than in the more western European and particularly the Anglo-Saxon populations. The women are inclined to fullness of face and healthy fullness of figure. The hands and feet are in general of medium length and inclined rather to broad than to narrow. Narrow head and face, thin long nose, thin lips, thin long neck, meager chest and bust, narrow pelvis, and long narrow hands and feet, are essentially un-Slavic.

(B) Physiological.—As the Slavs are derived from the same source as the rest of the European populations and in addition are more or less admixed with other parts of these populations, it cannot be expected that they would show any radical differences in functional respects. Nevertheless, due to climate, habits and perhaps other causes, there appear to be certain tendencies or peculiarities.

The first and most important of these relates, as has already been partly pointed out, to the birthrate. The Slavs as a whole show the highest fertility among the more important European peoples. This will be well seen in the tables that follow. The birthrate among the Russians and southern Slavs is relatively enormous; and although the deathrate in these groups is also large, nevertheless the yearly excess of population remains superior to that of all other groups. During the last two decades some diminution in the birthrate has been observed in Bohemia, as everywhere in western Europe, but as yet this is almost restricted to the cities and has affected but very little the rural population. In Poland, Russia, and among the southern Slavs, with the exception of a few cities such as Petrograd, there is no diminution. In some of the Russian provinces the birthrate is nearly twice as large as that of the United States and nearly three times that of the French people in Europe.

The causes of these intensely interesting demographic conditions among the Slavs are not easy to determine. Some of the factors favoring the high birthrate are doubtless the good physical status of the people, and the simple and often hard rural life of the vast majority. Except in Bohemia, parts of Moravia and Poland, and a few spots of Russia, industrialism is but little developed. And among the rural population there is, notwithstanding the prevalent notions about the Russian moujik of the casual observer, relatively little real alcoholism. There is also, self-evidently, but little voluntary restriction. But beyond all this there seems to be something in the Slav make-up which favors a high birth rate, otherwise the phenomenon would not be so general. It is a gift of nature which if properly safeguarded and conserved, would lead to far-reaching consequences in the future.