XIV.] THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES. 519 



That the Teutons ranged in considerable numbers far beyond 

 their northern seats is proved by the spread of the German 

 language to the central highlands, and beyond them down the 

 southern slopes, where a rude High German dialect lingered on 

 in the so-called " Seven Communes " of the Veronese district far 

 into the nineteenth century. But after passing the Main, which 

 appears to have long formed the ethnical divide for Central 

 Europe, they entered the zone of the brown Alpine round-heads 1 , 

 to whom they communicated their speech, but by whom they were 

 largely modified in physical appearance. The process has for 

 long ages been much the same everywhere perennial streams of 

 Teutonism setting steadily from the north, all successively sub- 

 merged in the great ocean of dark round-headed humanity, which 

 under many names has occupied the central uplands and eastern 

 plains since the Neolithic Age, overflowing also in later times 

 into the Balkan Peninsula. 



This absorption of what is assumed to be the superior in the 

 inferior type, may be due to the conditions of the general move- 

 ment warlike bands, accompanied by few women, appearing as 

 conquerors in the midst of the Alpines and merging with them 

 in the great mass of brachy populations. Or is the transformation 

 to be explained by de Lapouge's new doctrine, which, whatever may 

 be its ultimate fate, is at least entitled to a respectful hearing, and 

 not to be dismissed, as Sergi and others dismiss it, as " fantastic " ? 

 Briefly put, the theory is that the long and the round cranial forms 

 are not so much a question of race as of social conditions, and 

 that, owing to the increasingly unfavourable nature of these con- 

 ditions, there is a general tendency for the superior long-heads to 

 be absorbed in the inferior round-heads 2 . 



Thus is struck a deep pessimistic note, which under the cover 



1 See Ripley's Craniological chart in Notes et Documents pour la construc- 

 tion cTune carte de F In dice Cephaliqne en Europe. 



The case is stated in uncompromising language by M. Alfred Fouillee: 

 " Une autre loi, plus generalement admise, c'est que depuis les temps prehisto- 

 riques, les brachycephales tendent a eliminer les dolichocephales par 1'invasion 

 progressive des couches inferieures et 1'absorption des aristocraties dans les 

 democraties, oil elles viennent se noyer" (Rev. des Dezix Mondes, March 15, 

 1895)- 



