5 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the circumstances. The affair promised to become an international 

 incident. 



A champion of the Prussians was not hard to find. Professor 

 Virchow of Berlin, set himself at work to disprove the theory which 

 thus damned the dominant people of the empire. The controversy, 

 half political and half scientific, waxed hot at times, both dis- 

 putants being held victorious by their own people.* One great 

 benefit flowed indirectly from it all, however. The German gov- 

 ernment was induced to authorize the official census of the color of 

 hair and eyes of the six million school children of the empire which 

 we have so often mentioned in these pages. One of the resultant 

 maps we have reproduced in this article. It established beyond 

 question the differences in pigmentation between the north and south 

 of Germany. At the same time it showed the similarity in blond- 

 ness between all the peoples along the Baltic. The Hohenzollern 

 territory was as Teutonic in this respect as the Hanoverian. Thus 

 far had the Prussians vindicated their ethnic reputation. It is 

 profoundly to be regretted that the investigation was not extended 

 by a comprehensive census either of stature or of the head form of 

 adults, similar to those conducted in other countries. Such a project 

 was, in fact, sidetracked in favor of the census of school children. 

 Whether politically inspired, or whether considered derogatory to 

 the noble profession of arms, the Prussian army is forbidden for all 

 scientific investigations of this kind, despite the efforts of Yirchow 

 and other eminent authorities in that direction; so that data are 

 still scrappy, as we have seen. 



To an American the apparent unwillingness on the part of the 

 Germans boldly to own up to the radical ethnic differences which 

 exist between north and south is incomprehensible. It seems 

 to be not improbable that the Teutonic blond race has so persist- 

 ently been apotheosized by the Germans themselves as the original 

 Aryan civilizer of Europe, that to acknowledge any other racial 

 descent has come to be considered as a confession of humble origin. 

 Or, more likely still, this prejudice in favor of Teutonism is an un- 

 conscious reflection from the shining fact that this type is widely 

 prevalent among the aristocracy all over Europe. Whether Aryan 

 or not, it certainly predominates in the ruling classes to-day. At 

 all events, the attempt is constantly being made to prove that the 

 ethnic contrasts between north and south are the product of environ- 

 mental influences, and not a heritage from widely different ancestry. 

 This is not an impossibility in respect of pigmentation; but it can 



* Under the dates of 1871 '72, the articles by the two principal disputants will be found 

 in our Bibliography of the Anthropology of Europe, above mentioned. 



