634 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



shaven in the adults, with the effect of exaggerating its long and 

 pointed formation. More conclusive still, it is said that in early 

 manhood side whiskers are often grown upon the broadest part 

 of the cheeks. This would obviously serve still more to exag- 

 gerate the peculiar form which the face naturally possesses. A 

 neighboring people, the Andalusians, differ in their way of adorn- 

 ing the face in such wise as to heighten the contrast between 

 themselves and the Basques. Among them chin whiskers are 

 grown, which serve to broaden their already rounded chins and 

 to distinguish them markedly from the pointed-chinned Basques. 

 All this fits in perfectly with much of the evidence brought 

 forward by Westermarck, in his History of Human Marriage, 

 serving to show that the fashions in adornment which prevail 

 among various peoples are largely determined by the physical 

 characteristics which they naturally possess. Thus the North 

 American aborigines, having a skin somewhat tinged with a red- 

 dish hue, ornament themselves almost entirely with red pigment, 

 heightening still more their natural characteristics. Among the 

 negroes a similar fact has been observed, in each case the attempt 

 being to outdo Nature. 



Is it not permissible to suppose that here the same process 

 has been at work gradually remolding the physical type ? A far- 

 reaching and bold hypothesis this, to be sure. It would have less 

 probability in its favor did we not observe in modern society 

 many phenomena of fashion and custom closely akin to it in their 

 immediate effects. We have but to suppose a fashion arising by 

 chance, or perhaps suggested by some casual variation in a local 

 hero or prominent family. This fashion we may conceive to 

 crystallize into customary observance, until finally through gen- 

 erations it becomes veritably bred in the bone and part of the 

 flesh of an entire community. A primary requisite is isolation 

 material, social, political, linguistic, and at last ethnic. No other 

 population in Europe ever enjoyed all of these more than the 

 Basques. If such a phenomenon could ever come to pass, no 

 more favorable place to seek its realization could be found than 

 here in this uttermost part of Europe. 



DEFENDING the use of scientific terminology in scientific books, a re- 

 viewer in The Athenaeum maintains that "those most interested soon be- 

 come familiar with the meaning of terms, and, experiencing their conven- 

 ience, adopt them. It is only those who have no real knowledge or interest 

 in the subject who refuse to read a book because they have not mastered 

 the alphabet. We do not think it possible that anybody who would take 

 the trouble to master the structure of half a dozen plant types could remain 

 in ignorance of a considerable amount of terminology, or could express- 

 himself rationally without it if he tried." 



