THE STATUKE OE MAN AT VARIOUS EPOCHS. 531 



result, in fact, wliicli arises from all that has so far been said in the 

 present article — that when a race or people is sufficiently homoge- 

 neous, when it is not too mixed with other very dissimilar races, the 

 average height is found to remain the same, provided enough meas- 

 urements have been obtained. In the course of time it becotnes inva- 

 riable; it provides significant indications of great value. The ame- 

 lioration of conditions of existence, which would appear to increase 

 stature, does so only indirectly by eliminating a greater number of 

 exceptional cases, which lower the average in a factitious manner. It 

 excludes from comparison persons wdio, through disease^ or sickness 

 contracted during the period of growth, have not developed harmo- 

 niously or attained their full height. 



Nevertheless, it is important to state that the results announced 

 some years ago by Manouvrier and Ralion have raised some objec- 

 tions. At first glance it is clear that all their measurements syste- 

 matically lower the numbers generally assigned to man's height. 

 In many cases the outcome of their exact methods contradicts not onl}' 

 general opinion, but the affirmations of historians and the results of 

 approximate measurements. Objection was raised before the society 

 of anthroj^ology. A. Ilovelacque, in particulai', exi)ressed his aston- 

 ishment at the very low figure at which M. Rahon estimated the 

 height of the Burgundians of Ramasse. All ancient authors agree 

 in declaring the Burgundians, a Teutonic people, originally from 

 North (iermany, l)etween the Oder and the Vistula, to have been 

 extremely tall men. According to the measurements of M. Rahon 

 they were only a little above the average (1.6G() meters). If, as M. de 

 jNIortillet says is true, the men buried at Ramasse were Burgun- 

 dians, and if the number of skeletons examined is enough to establish 

 an average, one sees the conse(}uences of the flagrant contradiction 

 between anthropology on the one hand and historic evidences on the 

 other. 



M. Manouvrier replied to the objections made by A. llovelacipie. 

 lie declared that this contradiction did not affect him, since the deter- 

 mination of the size of the body from exact measurements of the long 

 bones was an operation sufficiently j^recise to carry greater weight 

 than the assertions of historians and geographers. Even the most 

 exact historians, like Herodotus, Caesar, and Strabo were cajiable of 

 exaggerating the size of the people of whom they wrote. We have 

 seen how the navigators and explorers of the eighteenth century, in 

 speaking of the Patagonians, of individuals whom they themselves 

 had seen, gave varying descriptions of them. Some set their height 

 dow^n as G feet, others at 7^ feet or more. Such facts as this may well 

 put us on our guard against illusions of the eye, and still more against 

 those of the imagination. 



Even so, the figures given in regard to the height of the Burgun- 



