APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MOKTHLY. 



JULY, 1897. 



THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY. 



(Lowell Institute Lectures^ 1896. ) 



By WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, Ph. D., 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TE0HNOLOGt|; LECTURER IN 

 ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



VI. FRANCE THESTEUTON AND THE|CELT. 



SEVERAL reasons combine to make];_France the^most interest- 

 ing country of Europe from the anthropological point of 

 view. More is known of it in detail than of any other part of 

 the continent save Italy. Its surface presents the greatest diver- 

 sity of climate, soil, and fertility. Its population, consequently, is 

 exposed to the most varied influences of environment. It alone 

 among the other countries of central Europe is neither cis- nor 

 trans-alpine. It is open to invasion from all sides alike. Lying 

 on the extreme west coast of Europe, it is a place of last resort 

 for all the westward-driven peoples of the Old World. All these 

 causes combine to render its population the most heterogeneous 

 to be found on the continent. It comprises all three of the great 

 ethnic types described in our last paper, while most countries are 

 content with two. Nay more, it still includes a goodly living 

 representation of a prehistoric race which has disappeared almost 

 everywhere else in Europe.* 



* It would be ungracious not to acknowledge publicly my indebtedness to two of the fore- 

 most authorities upon the population of I'rance Dr. R. Collignon, of the Ecole Superieure de 

 Guerre at Paris, and Prof. G. V. de Lapouge, of the University of Rennes in Brittany. In- 

 valuable assistance in the preparation of this and the following paper has been rendered 

 by each. No request, even the most, exacting, has failed of a generous response at their 

 hands. W. Z. R. 



VOL. LI. 22 



