ON SELECTION IN MAN. 407 



inquiry into the colours of the German schoolchildren, 

 made use of twenty-one categories : I, myself, always use 

 at least fifteen. Unless, therefore, the aggregate number 

 of specimens examined is very large, the numbers in the 

 least populous categories come to be so small as to depend 

 very much on chance. 



To explain Ammon's methods it is almost necessary to 

 reproduce one or two of his tables : — 



Freiburg Conscripts. 



Origin of Subjects. 



Mean of surrounding district 

 Immigrants, born in the Duchy - 

 Half-citizens (father country-born) 

 Citizens (father city-born) - 



Here the man who is attracted to the city has on the 

 average a head longer both actually and relatively to its 

 breadth than the peasant whom he leaves behind him. He 

 is the product of a selective process. But an analogous 

 process would seem to go on after his arrival. The doli- 

 chokephal is not only attracted by the city ; he is in some 

 way more suited to a city life. The broader-headed among 

 his immigrant comrades seem either to return unsuccess- 

 ful to the country or to fail in rearing progeny in the 

 city. 



Though the competitive struggle in these South German 

 cities may be in some respects more severe than in the rural 

 districts, it would seem that the whole urban population is 

 better nourished than the peasantry. Ammon at least 

 always takes this for granted in his arguments ; and it is 

 confirmed by the fact that the city-born youth, at the age of 

 conscription, are taller than the country-born, though, as the 

 former are clearly much more forward in the development 

 of the physical signs of manhood, it is almost certain that 

 growth continues in the latter to a later period. Doubtless 

 here also the influence of some kinds of selection enters into 

 the problem. 



These conditions are not identical with those which 



