THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 603 



where contributory influences, sucli as professional selection and the 

 like, come into operation.* 



A most important point in this connection is the great vari- 

 ability of city populations in size. All observers comment upon this. 

 It is of profound significance. The people of the west and east ends 

 in each city differ widely. The population of the aristocratic 

 quarters is often found to exceed in stature the people of the tene- 

 ment districts. Manouvrier (18S8) has analyzed the Parisians 

 most suggestively in this respect, giving a map to show his results. 

 In Madrid also it appears that the well-to-do people are nearly 

 two inches taller on the average than the residents of the poorer 

 quarters, f We should expect this, of course, as a direct result of 

 the depressing influence of unfavorable environment. Yet there 

 is apparently another factor underlying that — viz., social selection. 

 "While cities contain so large a proportion of degenerate physical 

 types as on the average to fall below the surrounding country in 

 stature, nevertheless they also are found to include an inordinately 

 large number of very tall and well-developed individuals. In other 

 words, compared with the rural districts where all men are sub- 

 ject to the same conditions of life, we discover in the city that the 

 population has differentiated into the very tall and the very short. 

 This is true in Hamburg; % it holds good in many of the cities of 

 Switzerland, especially in Basle,* where it has been found that the 

 percentage of tall men, over five feet seven inches in height, is 

 nearly twice that in the country roundabout. At the same time 

 the stunted individuals are in the same city two and a half times 

 as frequent as outside the city walls. In Modena a similar fre- 

 quency of very tall men has been noted. 1 1 The explanation is simple. 

 The tall men are in the main those vigorous, mettlesome, presum- 

 ably healthy individuals, who have themselves, or in the person of 

 their fathers, come to the city in search of the prizes which urban 

 life has to offer to the successful. On the other hand, the degen- 

 erate, the stunted, those who entirely outnumber the others, so far 

 as to drag the average for the city as a whole below the normal, are 

 the grist turned out by the city mill. They are the product of the 

 tenement, the sweat shop, vice, and crime. Of course, normally 

 developed men, as ever, constitute the main bulk of the population; 

 but these two widely divergent classes attain a very considerable 

 representation. As an example of the influence of such selection, 

 Dr. Beddoe remarks upon the noticeably short stature of all the 



* These we have heretofore analyzed in our article on Stature in the May (ISO?) number 

 of this present series. f Oloriz, 1896, pp. 42 and 61. 



% Meisner, 1889, p. 120. * Chalumeau, 1896 a, p. 7. 



1| Riccardi, 1882, pp. 249-253. 



