342 ENVIEONMENT AMONG MEN 



Observations have been made on the cephaUc index of Jews 

 which may perhaps be held to lend support to the views of Boas. 

 Huntington gives the following table : ^ 



Country. 

 Caucasus 

 Galicia 

 Baden 



Little Russia 

 Turin . 

 Lithuania 

 Russian Poland 

 White Russia 



It would appear that there is a tendency for the cephalic index 

 of Jews to vary as does that of the surrounding types. Fishberg 

 has attributed this fact to intermarriage ^ and this may be in 

 part at least the explanation, though in the present state of our 

 knowledge the possible influence of the environment cannot be 

 altogether excluded. 



The uncertainty surrounding the matter is in fact a good 

 example of the state of our knowledge regarding many similar 

 problems affecting man.^ Boas himself, it may be noticed, only 

 believes in a ' strictly limited plasticity ' * of head-form ; it is 

 indeed evident that this and other physical characters which 

 distinguish the races of man are for the most part of the nature 

 of mutations and not of modifications. Europeans who migrate 

 to tropical climates and the inhabitants of tropical climates who 

 come to live in Europe retain the greater part of their distinguishing 

 physical characters. 



The manner and degree in which tropical climates influence 

 Europeans is a matter of considerable interest. There is as yet 

 but little known on the subject. Sir Patrick Manson, writing in 

 1907, said that ' although many attempts have been made to 

 trace and explain the effect of temperature on the physiological 

 processes of the human body, more especially in reference to the 

 pathological proclivities to which atmospheric heat and cold may 



1 Huntington, World Power and Evolution, \). 173. * Fishberg, Mem. 



Am. Anth. Ass., vol. i, 1905. 



3 Nystrom has elaborated a theory according to which the habits and customs 

 of races profoundly affect the shape of the head, but it cannot be said that he 

 brings forward any convincing evidence (' tJber die Forraenveranderungen des 

 menschlichen Schadels ', Arch, fur Anth., Bd. 27). 



* Boas, loc. cit., p. 76. 



