APPLETONS' 



POPULAE SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1897. 



THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 

 A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY. 



(Lowell Institute Lectures, 1896.) 

 By WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, Ph. 1)., 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECJINOLOGY ; LECTURER IN 

 ANTIIROPO-GEOORAPIIY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



IX. ITALY. 



THE anthropology of Italy has a very pertinent interest for 

 the historian, especially in so far as it throws light upon the 

 confusing statements of the ancients. Pure natural science, the 

 morphology of the genus Homo, is now prepared to render impor- 

 tant service in the interpretation of the body of historical mate- 

 rials which has long been accumulating. Happily, the Italian 

 Government has assisted in the good work, with the result that 

 our data for that country are extremely rich and authentic* The 

 anthropological problems presented are not as complicated as in 

 France, for a reason we have already noted namely, that in 

 Italy, lying as it does entirely south of the great Alpine chain, 

 we have to do practically with two instead of all three of the 

 European racial types. In other words, the northern Teutonic 

 blond race is debarred by the Alps. It does appear in a few 

 places, as we shall take occasion to point out, but its influence is 

 comparatively small. This leaves us, therefore, with two rivals 



* The best authority upon the liviDg population is Dr. Riclolfo Livi, Capitano Medico 

 in the Ministero della Guerra at Rome. To him I am personally indebted for invaluable 

 assistance. His admirable Antropometria Militare, Rome, 1890, with its superb atlas, must 

 long stand as a model for other investigators. Titles of his other scattered monographs 

 will be found in the author's Bibliography of the Ethnology of Europe, shortly to appear in 

 a Bulletin of the Boston Public Library. Among other references of especial value on 

 VOL. LI. 54 



