THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 25 



places of their birth that is to say, here again physical vigor 

 and the adventurous migratory spirit seemed to stand in close 

 relation to one another.* 



In times of peace, perhaps the most potent influence of this 

 form of artificial selection bears upon the differences in stature 

 which obtain between different occupations or professions. The 

 physically well developed men seek certain trades or occupations 

 in which their vigor and strength may stand them in good stead : 

 on the other hand, those who are by nature weakly, and coinci- 

 dently often deficient in stature, are compelled to make shift with 

 some pursuit for which they are fitted. Thus, workers in iron, 

 porters, firemen, policemen are taller, as a class, than the average, 

 because they are of necessity recruited from the more robust por- 

 tion of the population. In marked contrast to them tailors, 

 shoemakers, and weavers, in an occupation which entails slight 

 demands upon the physical powers, and which is open to all, how- 

 ever weakly they may be, are appreciably shorter than the aver- 

 age. Moreover, certain diseases fall upon this second class in a 

 way which tends still further to lower the average stature among 

 them. Thus, consumption is uncommonly prevalent in these par- 

 ticularly sedentary industrial classes, and it is also more common 

 among tall youths. It seems, therefore, that this disease weeds 

 out, as if by choice, those who within this relatively stunted class 

 rise above its average. As an extreme example of this selective 

 influence exercised in the choice of an occupation we may in- 

 stance grooms, who as a class are over an inch shorter than the 

 British population as a whole. This is probably because men 

 who are light in build and short in stature find here an opening 

 which is suited to their physique. Their weight may neverthe- 

 less be often greater than the stature implies, because of an in- 

 crease which has taken place late in life. 



The final effects of this influence of artificial selection are 

 highly intensified by reason of the fact that, as soon as the choice 

 of occupation is once made, other forces come into play which 

 differentiate still further the stature of the several classes. This 

 is the last of our modifying influences upon racial stature, name- 

 ly, the effect of habits of life or of the nature of the employment. 

 Thus, the weakly youth who enters a sedentary occupation imme- 

 diately becomes subjected to unfavorable circumstances as a 



* For most of the examples of social and economic diiferences in stature, I am in- 

 debted to Dr. Beddoe for his superb work On the Stature and Bulk of Man in Great 

 Britain ; to the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, report of 1 883 ; to Roberts's Manual of Anthropometry ; and to our American 

 results given in Gould's Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of 

 American Soldiers, 1869; and Baxter, in Medical Statistics of the Provost-Marshal-Gener- 

 al's Bureau, 18*75. 



