TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 119° 
The general result of these investigations is, that hair of a very strongly red hue 
is in scarcely any of the districts I have visited so common as it is in many parts of 
Scotland, and even of Ireland. The exceptions to this statement are two somewhat 
remarkable ones: the first is that of the peasantry about Cologne and Dusseldorf, 
whose ancestors, whether Sicambri or other Franks, may have had much to do with 
originating in the minds of their near neighbours, the Roman colonists, ideas relative 
to the German complexion and physiognomy. The other is that of the peasantry 
to the west of Eisenach. 
Red hair is decidedly uncommon in Friesland, and somewhat so in Holland and 
Flanders ; but blond hair of various shades, from flaxen and light brown to yellow, 
and even pale golden verging on red, prevails in all parts where the true Teutonic 
blood can well be supposed pure, including all that country between the Rhine and 
Elbe which is considered by Dr. Latham to be the homeland of the race. The same 
may be said of several districts in which we have reason to know that the Germans 
established numerous colonies. The proportion of light to dark eyes varies consider- 
ably : it is very large in Groningen, and small in Flanders, where, as in most parts 
of Germany, and in some of the Saxon districts of Britain, the combination of hazel 
or brown eyes with light hair is common. I found the Frisians a remarkably comely 
people, tall and well-made, with oval crania and faces, regular features, and noses 
of good length, straight or very slightly arched: the eyes are generally light blue’or 
light grey and well-opened ; the hair is, I think, much more often flaxen or light 
brown than strongly yellow. The Westphalian Saxons seemed to me shorter in 
stature ; with heads shorter, though still oval, and faces broader and heavier, and 
hair more often inclined to red. Beyond the Elbe and Saale, where Slavish blood 
assuredly predominates over German, the prevailing type changes accordingly; dark 
and even black hair become common; the head is often of the Slavonic form, short 
and broad, especially behind the ears, and flattened at the back, The Upper Au- 
strians look like true Germans, but I have seen natives of the Alpine valleys who had 
narrow square foreheads, prominent supra-orbital ridges, dark grey eyes and black- 
ish hair, and who altogether so much resembled one of the common Irish types as 
to call to mind the ancient Celts of Noricum. The Lower Austrians, whatever else 
they may be, have not the form or complexion of Germans. Their heads sometimes 
present the Slavish, sometimes even the Turanian (Avar?) type; and they are 
generally dark-haired. The Styrians are a mixed people, and apparently in part 
Celtic. In the Thuringerwald, at Riihla, near Eisenach, and not far from the fair- 
haired Hessians, I found a peculiar people of very dark complexion. The domain 
of the German type extends thence across the Rhine ; but on entering the Walloon 
country, which surrounds Liege, a remarkable change is observable: the people are 
distinguishable from their Teutonic neighbours by dark, often black hair, gaunt 
angular forms, square foreheads and narrow pointed chins; in fact, they have the 
characters assigned by W. F, Edwards to the Cimbrian race*. 
In many cities, as will be observed in the following Table, which exhibit in a form 
suitable for comparison some of my data for the colours of eyes and hair, the popu- 
lation is darker than in the surrounding rural districts. It might be wrong to con- 
clude from these facts that acity life, continued generation after generation, exercises 
a modifying influence on the colours: for this difference is not universal even in 
Germany,; it is greatest in Cologne, a Roman colony. The Germans being fairer 
than almost any other people, foreign immigration almost necessarily implies dark- 
ening, and such immigration takes place into cities almost exclusively. Lastly, I 
have found that at Liege, and in some parts of Italy, where the foreign element is 
likely to have been xanthous, the peasantry are darker than the urban population. 
On the whole, I conclude that the Germans were in the time of the Romans a 
ple fairer than the Gauls, and very strikingly fairer than the Romans and other 
southern Europeans ; that their hair, however, was probably often light brown or 
flaxen, and not always red or even yellow; and that this description applies at the 
_ present day to such of their descendants as are likely to have preserved their blood 
tolerably pure. 
* Sur les caractéres physiologiques de la race humaine. 
Table 
