424 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



but while in eight cases the students attain a mean of 67 

 inches or more, there are forty-two out of the whole number 

 of districts (which is 206) in which the mean stature of the 

 entire male population (including all the rejected), at twenty 

 years of age, does not exceed 1600 mms. or 63 inches. 

 The whole of these forty-two are situated either in the 

 island of Sardinia or within the limits of the old kingdom 

 of Naples, and nowhere else in Europe, so far as we know, 

 can such a mass of undersized people be met with. The 

 average for the entire kingdom is 1624 mms. or about 64 

 inches. This is much below that of most parts of Northern 

 and Central Europe, though perhaps equal to that of Poland 

 and of Central Hungary. And it is considerably below that 

 of the conterminous countries, France, Switzerland, Austria 

 and the Hungarian Littoral, though not below that of every 

 French department or of every Swiss canton. 



An interesting and extensive investigation of the cir- 

 cumference of the chest has the following results : — 



1. The absolute chest-measure increases directly with 

 the stature, but 



2. The relative magnitude increases inversely as the 

 stature. 



3. In the kingdom taken as a whole, and in twelve of 

 the sixteen provinces, the chest-measure is a little larger in 

 the mountaineers than in the inhabitants of the plains, for 

 equal statures. 



4. The chest-measure is, not only absolutely, but appar- 

 ently also in relation to the stature, comparatively small in 

 the extreme south and in the islands ; 



5. And comparatively large in Lombardy, Liguria, 

 Emilia, Umbria, Latium and Apulia. 



The larger chest-circumference of the mountaineers may 

 be due, as Livi supposes, partly to the greater rarefaction of 

 the air at high levels, but partly to the facts that the moun- 

 taineers are mostly agricultural or pastoral by occupation, 

 and that there are few considerable towns situated at a high 

 level. As for its relation to racial differences, it is generally 

 believed, as much perhaps from common observation as 

 from the more definite authority of Collignon and Houze, 



