November 3, 1904] 



NA TURE 



high rate of transmission, as much as i6 km. per second, 

 obtained for near earthqualces by a calculation from the 

 observed duration of the preliminary tremors, on the 

 assumption that their rate of propagation is uniform. In 

 another part of the paper he gives the results of direct calcu- 

 lation in the case of ten earthquakes the time of origin of 

 which was known ; for Tokio, at a mean epicentral distance 

 of 665 krn., the rates were 75 km. per second for the first, 

 and 55 km. per second for the second, phase of the pre- 

 liminary tremors, while Osaka, at a mean epicentral 

 distance of 856 km., gave 82 km. and 58 km. per second 

 respectively. These values may be accepted as more trust- 

 worthy than those obtained by the other method. 



Globus of September 15 contains a note by Wilhelm Krebs 

 on the distribution of submarine earthquakes, illustrated 

 by a map of the world, on which all the recorded instances 

 are plotted. Many of these are submarine volcanic erup- 

 tions, and their great concentration in the middle of the 

 narrowest part of the Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and 

 •South America, is very striking. The utility of charts of 

 this description would be much increased if they bore on 

 their face indications of the principal trade routes of the 

 oceans ; as it is, some doubt may be felt as to whether the 

 much greater frequency of recorded seismic phenomena in 

 the .Atlantic Ocean may not be due to a very large extent 

 to the fact that this ocean is, proportionately, much more 

 frequented than the Pacific. The other centres of activity, 

 according to the map, are the West Indian islands, the 

 west coast of South America, the south of the Bay of Bengal, 

 the Malay Archipelago, the east coast of Japan, and the 

 Mediterranean. 



THE HACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE PRESENT 



POPULATION OF EUROPE.^ 

 T^Hp; lecturer opened his discourse with a graceful 

 acknowledgment of the honour conferred upon him 

 by the Anthropological Institute, and paid a respectful 

 tribute to the memory of Huxley, who was the first to make 

 the two-fold division of the peoples of Europe into xantho- 

 chroid and melanochroid races. With the name of Huxley 

 he coupled the names of Beddoe and Broca as pioneers in 

 European ethnographical research. To the two races 

 mentioned above a third was soon added — the Mediterranean 

 race — and the lecturer himself had in 1897 made a further 

 step by dividing the population of Europe into si.x main 

 races. He then dealt with criticisms which had been passed 

 upon his own theories, chiefly by the American ethnologist 

 Ripley, and stated that the further researches upon which 

 he had continually been engaged since that date, and of 

 which he was about to lay the results before the audience, 

 had confirmed him in his first opinion. During a consider- 

 able number of years he had been diligently collecting 

 statistics concerning the stature, colour of eyes and hair, 

 and head measurements of the various nationalities, and 

 now, in spite of certain lacunae, some of which he regretted 

 to observe occurred in Britain, he was able to say that he 

 possessed data covering the whole of Europe. 



In no part of the world does there exist such a blending 

 of races, such an intermixture of somatic characters, as 

 amongst the ethnic groups which constitute the present 

 populations of Europe, even when we make abstraction of 

 the " national " groupings, such as -Austro-Hungarian 

 monarchy, for instance, and consider only the properly 

 called ethnic or linguistic groups, like Slavic, Roman, 

 Germanic, &c. 



In an anthropological study of the European populations 

 it is impossible to proceed in the same way as in the case 

 of the majority of the so-called uncivilised peoples, where 

 the measurements of a small series of individuals (often 

 twenty or fifty) suffices to give an idea of the whole 

 copulation. 



Another method is required for the study of complicated 

 ethnic groups. It is the combination of the statistical and 

 the cartographical methods, in which the observations taken 

 on many thousands of individuals permit the investigator 

 to exclude the influence of accidental variations, an 



1 Summary of the Fifth Hu.xley Memorial Lecture, delivered before the 

 Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, on Octoher 7, by 

 Dr. J. I>eniker, president of the Anthropological Society of Paris, to whom 

 was presented the Huxley Memorial medal. 



deduce one or several racial types in the population of a 

 given region. 



-Such measurements concerning the principal racial 

 characters, for instance, the stature, the colours of the hair 

 and the eyes, the shape of the head (expressed principally 

 by the cephalic index, i.e. the centesimal relation between 

 Ihe length and the breadth of the head), &c., have been made 

 in nearly all the parts of Europe — especially by the examin- 

 ation of conscripts for the military service. 



The only countries in which such measurements are now 

 absent are Montenegro, some provinces of European Turkey 

 and of Cauccisus. Some other countries, and not of the 

 least civilised, have not yet furnished sufficient information. 

 For instance, there is no data concerning the cephalic index 

 and the stature for Prussia and some other States of 

 northern Germany ; concerning cephalic index and pigment- 

 ation for Hungary, Roumania, and Servia ; concerning the 

 cephalic index for some parts of Switzerland, of Holland, 

 of Russia, and, the lecturer regretted to have to mention 

 that, for some parts of the United Kingdom. 



The lecturer expressed then the hope that in a short time 

 all these lacunae would disappear ; considering this fact, 

 that many serious efforts are made now for studying the 

 populations in Germany, Roumania, Russia, and Great 

 Britain. In every case this lacunae represent only a small 

 part of Europe. For the rest, the details are sufficient, and 

 furnish a basis for general deductions. 



Taking the whole mass of these results (about 20,000, 

 expressing the observations on more than 3,000,000 of 

 individuals), and correcting them as to be comparable with 

 each other, the lecturer explained how he put on the maps 

 of Europe, of a comparatively large scale (1/10,000,000), 

 district by district, this different data, and obtained in this 

 way the distribution of every one of the principal somatic 

 characters throughout the different regions of Europe. 



Concerning' the cephalic index, Europe can be divided 

 into four regions : — 



(i) A region of long-headed people with medium-headed 

 areas in the north-west (Scandinavia, north of Germany, 

 Holland, Great Britain). 



(2) A region in the south-west (Portugal, Spain, south of 

 Italy, east of Balkan Peninsula), characterised by even 

 greater length of head. 



(3) A very short-headed region in western Central Europe 

 (south-eastern France, southern Germany, northern Italy, 

 Switzerland) and in the immediate west of the Balkan 

 Peninsula. 



(4) A region comprising Russia and Poland subdivided 

 into three, moderately long-headed in the centre, and 

 medium-headed on the east and west. 



After discussing these regions in detail, he proceeded to the 

 subject of stature. He remarked that the great mass of his 

 data was compiled from measurements taken on conscripts, 

 and explained an ingenious method by which these measure- 

 ments could be modified so that they represented fairly the 

 typical stature of the full-grown male population. In Europe 

 there are no people of very short stature according to the 

 classification invented by Topinard (under 1,600 mm., or 

 63 inches) ; on the other liand, this continent is distinguished 

 by the tallest race known, the Highlanders of Scotland, 

 flence, for the purpose of this lecture, he would speak of 

 statures ranging between 1650 and 1675 nmi. (65 inches to 

 66 inches) as medium, those below these measurements as 

 short, and those above as tall. Tall statures are, with a 

 very few exceptions, particularly well represented in the 

 north-west ; the rest of the population of Europe is, again 

 with certain exceptions, chiefly in the Balkan Peninsula, 

 of medium or short stature. People of medium stature are 

 found grouped round the regions where the tall peoples 

 occur, and connect the tall races of the north-west with 

 those of the south-east. Short statures he divided into three 

 groups, eastern (Russia), western (France), and southern 

 (Spain and Italy), and showed how the eastern zone com- 

 municated by narrow " channels " with other centres of 

 hoi^^itature. 



groupi^i^tlie' peoples of Europe with regard to colour 

 of complexicm^ eyes and hair, he had taken as the basis of 

 his classification the brunette type (eyes and hair darl; 

 brown or black), as the most easy of recognition. Those 

 peoples among whom are found from 17 per cent, to 30 per 

 cent, of brunettes mav be called intermediate. Where less 



NO. 1827, VOL. 71] 



