THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 589 



as to equal the Flathead Indian monstrosities which have been so 

 often described. Fortunately, these barbarous customs are rare 

 among the civilized peoples which it is our province to discuss. 

 Their absence, however, can not be ascribed to inability to modify 

 the shape of the head ; rather does it seem to be due to the lack 

 of appreciation that any racial differences exist, which may be 

 exaggerated for social effect or racial distinction. 



Another equally important guarantee that the head form is 

 primarily the expression of racial differences alone, lies in its im- 

 munity from all disturbance from physical environment. As will 

 be shown subsequently, the color of the hair and eyes, and stature 

 especially, are open to modification by local circumstances ; so 

 that racial peculiarities are often obscured or entirely reversed 

 by them. On the other hand, the general proportions of the head 

 seem to be uninfluenced either by climate, by food supply or 

 economic status, or by habits of life ; so that they stand as the 

 clearest exponents which we possess of the permanent hereditary 

 differences within the human species.* Ranke, of Munich, with 

 Virchow, the leader of anthropological science in Germany, has 

 long advocated a theory that there is some natural relation be- 

 tween broad-headedness and a mountainous habitat. He was 

 led to this view by the remarkable Alpine localization, which we 

 shall speedily point out, of the brachycephalic race of Europe. 

 Our map of the world, with other culminations of this type in 

 the Himalayan plateau of Asia, in the Rocky Mountains, and the 

 Andes, may seem to corroborate this view. Nevertheless, all at- 

 tempts to trace any connection in detail between the head form 

 and the habitat have utterly failed. For this reason we need not 

 stop to refute it by citing volumes of evidence to the contrary, as 

 we might, t Our explanation for this peculiar geographical phe- 

 nomenon, which ascribes it to a racial selective process alone, is 

 fully competent to account for the fact. The environment is still 

 a factor for us of great moment, but its action is merely indirect. 

 In the present state of our knowledge, then, we seem to be justi- 

 fied in ruling out environment once and for all as a direct modi- 

 fier of the shape of the head. 



Having disposed of both artificial selection and environment 

 as possible modifiers of the head form, nothing remains to be 

 eliminated except the element of chance variation. This last is 



* For a curiously old-fashioned statement of the exact opposite of this view, see A. H. 

 Keane's Ethnology, recently published by Macmillan, pp. 43 and IVY. There is one custom 

 which is effective. The peoples who use hard cradles or wooden pillows for infants' use 

 are undoubtedly modified in head form by it. This is a disturbing factor in the Americas, 

 and to some extent in parts of Europe. 



f This theory is best stated in J. Ranke, Beitrage zur physisehen Anthropologie der 

 Bayern, Part I, chap, ii, p, 75 seq. 



