WHY WE MEASURE PEOPLE. 



13 



tables show that Dordogne, Correze and Haute-Vienne are 

 among the four Departments in the whole of France which 

 have the greatest number of exemptions from conscription 

 •owing to deficiency of stature. The neighbouring Depart- 

 ment of Puy-de-Ddme occupies the eighty-fourth rank with 

 128 exemptions. 



Inversely the high statures are also at a minimum. 

 Haute-Vienne having the least proportion of tall people 

 and the greatest population of short people of any Depart- 

 ment of France. 



Bondin and Broca considered that this remarkable short- 

 ness was purely a question of race, the normal smallness of 

 the brachycephals. This very simple explanation will no 

 longer suffice, in the presence of the dolichocephaly proved 

 for Dordogne, Charente and Haute-Vienne. If we compare 

 the maps of the distribution of the cephalic index with those 

 of colour and stature, and mentally superimpose them, we 

 find that there is absolutely not a shadow of a relation be- 

 tween them. The "black spot" extends alike over the 

 brachycephals of Correze, the brown dolichocephals of 

 Dordogne, and the fair dolichocephals of Haute-Vienne. 

 There is then no relation between this demonstrated phe- 

 nomenon and race. 



Some anthropologists seek a cause in the geological 

 character of the soil ; but here as in Brittany and Cotentin 

 it explains nothing. It is true that the line of separation 

 between the granites and crystalline rocks on the east and 

 the calcareous beds on the west runs pretty closely along 

 the southern border of the black spot ; but we also find the 

 greatest number of high statures on the granites and the 



