SELECTION IN MAN. 177 



rapidity in America or Australia. I have already said that 

 in the latter country the attempt does not seem to have 

 been so perniciously successful as might have been antici- 

 pated or feared. And in our own islands social conditions 

 seem to step in where legal ones fail, and the criminal by 

 degeneration is not as a rule highly reproductive. Here 

 we seem to have discovered an agency which may tell a 

 little in favour of the blond, who is menaced with gradual 

 extinction by other processes. 



The kephalic index, however, is a much more promising 

 test in matters of selection than the colour of the hair and 

 eyes. In England, indeed, less can be expected from it 

 than in some other countries, owing to the fact that most 

 of 07i7' race-types are more or less dolichokephalic, and 

 therefore not to be readily distinguished by the simple 

 application of the callipers. But De Lapouge in France, 

 and Ammon in Belgium, have developed and worked this 

 method with ingenuity and success, some of their results 

 being unexpected and indeed wonderful. Of these I hope 

 to give an account in my next communication. 



John Beddoe. 



