3 o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



proved Teuton, Celt, or Iberian, it is all the same. We have no 

 monopoly of inheritance in it in any case. 



I. The European races, as a whole, show signs of a secondary or 

 derived origin; certain characteristics, especially the texture of the 

 hair, lead us to class them as intermediate between the extreme 

 primary types of the Asiatic and the negro races respectively. 



From what we have seen of the head form, complexion, and 

 stature of the population of Europe, we might be led to expect that 

 in other physical traits as well this little continent contained all ex- 

 tremes of human variation. We have been surprised, perhaps, at 

 the exceeding diversity of forms occurring within so restricted an 

 area, and in a human group which most of us have perhaps been 

 taught to regard as homogeneous. One physical characteristic 

 alone affords justification for this hypothesis of ethnic homogeneity. 

 This is the form and texture of the hair. Only in this respect, not 

 in color, the hair is quite uniform all over Europe, and even far into 

 Hindustan, where Aryan languages have migrated. At the same 

 time, however, this texture in itself indicates a secondary origin — 

 that is to say, it denotes a human type derived from the crossing of 

 others which we may class as primary. The population of Europe, 

 in other words, should be numbered among the secondary races of the 

 earth. What its constituent elements may have been we shall discuss 

 somewhat later. 



The two extremes of hair texture in the human species are the 

 crisp curly variety so familiar to us in the African negro; and the 

 stiff, wiry, straight hair of the Asiatic and the American aborigines. 

 These traits are exceedingly persistent; they persevere oftentimes 

 through generations of ethnic intermixture. It has been shown by 

 Pruner Bey and others that this outward contrast in texture is due 

 to, or at all events coincident with, real morphological differences 

 in structure. The curly hair is almost always of a flattened, ribbon- 

 like form in cross section, as examined microscopically; while, cut 

 squarely across, the straight hair more often inclines to a fully 

 rounded or cylindrical shape. It may be coarse, or fine, or of any 

 color, but the texture remains quite constant in the same individual 

 and the same race. Moreover, this peculiarity in cross section may 

 often be detected in any crossing of these extreme types. The result 

 of such intermixture is to impart a more or less wavy appearance to 

 the hair, and to produce a cross section intermediate between a flat- 

 tened oval and a circle. Roughly speaking, the more pronounced 

 the flatness, the greater is the tendency toward waviness or curling, 

 and the reverse. 



Our map herewith represents the geographical distribution of 

 these several varieties of hair texture among the races of the earth. 



