NEW TYPES AMONG MEN 171 



perhaps the Spaniards. In classical times the proportion of fair- 

 haired, blue-eyed persons among the Greeks and Romans was 

 quite surely much larger than at present. Witness the painted 

 statues in the museum on the Acropolis at Athens. This type 

 doubtless disappeared in part because the victorious Greeks and 

 Romans intermarried with the dark slaves whom they brought 

 from the provinces. In addition to this, however, it appears 

 that in countries as hot and sunny as the lands around the 

 Mediterranean Sea a fair skin is a disadvantage. The blond type 

 is there more prone to disease than the dark type. Hence it 

 gradually disappears. Economic conditions may possibly favor 

 people of one complexion more than those of another, but this is 

 very doubtful. The disappearance of the blond type, however, 

 seems to have been hastened by the climatic changes which we 

 have discussed, for those changes apparently decreased the 

 cloudiness and storminess which are favorable to people with fair 

 skins. Hence even if the Mediterranean Jews have not inter- 

 married with their neighbors, we should expect them to have 

 become darker during the past two thousand years. 



Farther north the case is different. In his monograph on the 

 Jews, Fishberg gives tables showing that on an average about 

 20 or possibly 30 per cent of the Jews in central and eastern 

 Europe are more or less blond. It is hard to see how economic 

 conditions could have much to do with this, but it accords with 

 what we should expect on the basis of the climate. The fair com- 

 plexions derived from the early Amorites would persist in the 

 more northern climate while they would die out farther south. 

 Of course the degree of blondness would vary from region to 

 region in accord with the character of the original settlers. But 

 how do we know that the blondness comes from remote ancestors 

 and not from intermarriage with the surrounding Gentiles during 

 recent centuries? Fishberg makes this clear. The blondest 

 Jewish population is by no means found in the regions where the 

 surrounding population is fairest. If the complexion of the Jews 



