THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 17 



Despite these lamentable conditions, there is a leaven in the 

 nation which may. work for regeneration if the accursed and ster- 

 ilizing effects of Chinese influence and dominion can be rooted 

 out of the land. I have met Koreans of the highest character, 

 noble, unselfish, possessing every lovable trait and animated by 

 the highest patriotism, and these men may yet be heard from in 

 the councils of the nation. 



THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 

 A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY. 



(Lowell Institute Lectures, 1896.} 

 BY WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, PH. D., 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ; LECTURER IN 

 ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



IV. STATURE. 



E average stature of man, considered by racial groups or 

 social classes, appears to lie between the limits of four feet 

 four inches and five feet ten inches, giving, that is to say, a range 

 of about one foot and a half. The physical elasticity of the spe- 

 cies is not, however, as considerable as this makes it appear. The 

 great majority of the human race is found restricted within much 

 narrower limits. As a matter of fact, there are only three or four 

 groups of really dwarfed men, less than five feet tall. Our map 

 of the world shows a considerable area inhabited by the diminu- 

 ti^e Bushmen in South Africa, and another large body of dwarfs 

 occurs in New Guinea. The line of demarcation in the first case 

 between the yellowish African Bushmen and the true negroes is 

 very sharp ; but in the East Indies the very tall and light Poly- 

 nesians shade off almost imperceptibly in stature through Mela- 

 nesia into the stunted Papuans. Other scattering representatives 

 of true dwarf races occur sporadically throughout the Congo 

 region and in Malaysia, but their total number is very small. On 

 the whole, considerably more than ninety- nine per cent of the 

 human species is above the average height of five feet and one 

 inch ; so that we may still further narrow our range of variation 

 between that limit and five feet ten inches. We thereby reduce 

 our racial differences of stature to about nine inches between 

 extremes. These variations in size, it will be observed, are less 

 than those which occur among the lower animals within the same 

 species. Compare, for example, the dachshund, the St. Bernard, 

 the Italian greyhound, and the smallest lapdog, and remember 

 that they are all ascribed to the same species ; or that the Shet- 



TOL. LI 2 



