ENVIRONMENT AMONG MEN 341 



Perigueux in France. So far as this is so, the causes may have to 

 be sought in climatic differences as well as in other differences 

 more directly comparable with those which exist between well- 

 and ill-treated children in the same country. 



4. The influence of cHmate upon man has long attracted 

 attention. Statistical evidence has been produced showing that 

 the shape of the head — a characteristic usually considered not to 

 be in any way susceptible to such differences in the environment 

 as occur between one climate and another — is modified by climate. 

 Boas produced figures showing that the cephalic index (a measure 

 obtained by calculating the relation of breadth of the head to the 

 length which is put at 100) of Sicilians born in America to be 80, 

 while that of Sicilians born in Sicily is 78, and of Hebrews born in 

 America to be 81, while that of Hebrews born in Eastern Europe, 

 whence the immigrants came, is 83. It would appear that the 

 Hebrews who are broad-headed in Europe become narrower- 

 headed in America, and that the Sicilians who are narrow-headed 

 in Europe become broader-headed in America. There would thus 

 seem to be an approximation in America to a cephalic index the 

 mean of which lies between 80 and 81 } These results have been 

 severely criticized from many points of view. Sergi claims to have 

 shown that the results are the ' pure effect of illusion due to the 

 statistical methods employed by the author '.^ It has also been 

 suggested that the results are due to selection. In this connexion 

 it is interesting to note that both Ammon and Levi obtained 

 somewhat similar results and that they both attributed them to 

 selection. The former, working with figures from Baden, found 

 that the inhabitants of cities tended to become longer-headed 

 and concluded that the short-headed type tended to die out under 

 the conditions of cit}^ life.^ Levi, working on Italian figures, came 

 to the same conclusion and attributed it to the same cause.* 

 Others have suggested that the methods of nursing children may 

 affect the shape of the head and that the changed habits of the 

 immigrants in America may account for the changes in the shape 

 of the head. Though it has certainly not been proved that the 

 environment can in the manner suggested change the shape of 

 the head, the question cannot be regarded as settled. 



' Boas, Changes in Immigrants, p. 5. ^ Sorgi, ' Variation and Heredity ', 



p. 18 (in Problems in Eugeiiics). Few anthropologists, it may be added, accept 

 Boas's conclusions. ^ See Ammon, Naturliche Auslese beim Menschen and 



Znr Anthropologie der Badr.ner. * Levi, Anthropometria MiUlare. 



