STATURE OF EUROPEANS. 721 



large cheek-bones, low forehead, broad nose, 

 small eyes, and ill defined features ; or with the 

 black skin, coarse woolly hair, large mouth, thick 

 lips, broad flat nose, advancing jaws, diminutive 

 forehead, and dull eyes, of the African ! the Ber- 

 bers of north Africa, like the Caffres of the south, 

 are also greatly superior in strength, activity, 

 symmetry of form, regularity of features, and in- 

 telligence, to the tribes of the interior, who are 

 distinguished by low cunning, cruelty, cowardice, 

 and sensuality. 



The climate most favourable to a high develop- 

 ment of the human race, would seem to be one 

 in which the mean annual temperature approxi- 

 mates that of the whole earth, which is about 50, 

 and in which the variations are small, as in the 

 middle latitudes of Europe, where the average of 

 summer is seldom more than 10 above the mean 

 of the year, and that of winter rarely more than 

 10 below the same standard. For man has at- 

 tained to larger stature in Great Britain, Ger- 

 many, Holland, Belgium, Prussia, Sweden, and 

 Russia, than in any other quarter of the world. 

 It was long supposed that the natives of Pata- 

 gonia were larger than those of any other nation. 

 Yet we have no recent authentic account of any 

 individual of that tribe who measured above six 

 feet six inches and a fraction, or more than forty- 

 eight inches around the thorax, according to 

 Wallace and Cordova. They are even inferior 



