148 REPORT — 1871. 



On Degeneration of Race hi Britain. By John Bebdoe, M.D. 



AVhile he allowed that iu some classes, and particularly in the upper classes ot 

 townspeople, the conditions of life were on the whole improving, and that the opera- 

 tion of the Factory Acts had checked the progress of physical degeneration among 

 manufacturing operatives, the author was of opinion that, on the whole, the agencies 

 tending to promote degeneration were more powerful than the counteiTailing ones. 

 Amono' them were the great increase of town population, the relative or even ab- 

 solute diminution of the inhabitants of rural districts, the increased demand for female 

 and youthful labom*, and for labour of a nocturnal or otherwise exhausting kind. He 

 did not think the food of the people improved proportionately vni\\ the rise of wages. 

 The disuse of milk among the poor of large towns and some dairy districts was a 

 great evil, and might have to do with the growing deterioration of teeth. England, 

 the richest and most advanced of the four British countries, had been shown by 

 Edward Smith to be the worst fed, so far as regarded the working classes. 



Dr. Beddoe's opinions were based in great measure on the results of certain 

 weighings and measurements executed by his correspondents in various parts of 

 the country, and he was anxious to add to the number of these correspondents, and 

 to obtain more data of a similar kind. 



• On Le Sette Communi, a German Colony in the neighbourhood of Vicenza, 



By Dr. Charnock, F.S.A. 



After referring to theories as to the origin of Le Sette Commimi, the author of 

 the paper showed that they settled in Italy temp. Theodoric, king of the Ostro- 

 goths. Tlie population amounts to 25,500. The people are principally engaged in 

 breeding cattle. At the present day quite two thirds of tliem would seem to be 

 neither of German nor of mixed origin, but are pure Italians, and speak Italian. 

 Even the rest of the people (many of whom have mtermarried with Italians) bear 

 a greater resemblance to the latter than to the Germans. Dr. Charnock never- 

 theless noticed many people with fair hair and German features. This was espe- 

 cially the case among the women. The people are simple in their manners, and 

 honest, but are poor, dirty, ignorant, and superstitious. No cases of goitre or 

 cretinism, and no peculiarity of dress were observed. The dialect resembles the 

 Oberdeutsch of the 15th century, and the language still spoken by the mountain- 

 dwellers of the Schlier and Tegern. The author made some remarks on the gram- 

 mar, and the paper concluded with a vocabularj' of some of the most important 

 words, and a specimen of the Lord's Pra3'er, which Dr. Charnock compared with 

 that of Le Tredici Communi. 



On the Physical, Mental, and Philological Characteristics of the Wallons. 

 By Dr. Charnoce, F.S.A., and Dr. Carter Blake. 



The ordinary Wallons stand in the same relation to Belgium as the Irish pea- 

 sants do to the " Sassenach " of England. They are usually jovial, good-natured, 

 generous, hospitable, chaste, poor, quarrelsome, and superstitious, like the Irish ; and 

 thus evince their Keltic descent. They are tough, rough, and hardy, and make 

 excellent soldiers. The Spanish armies in the Pays-Bas were made up of Wallons. 

 As evidence of their peculiar character, a Wallon will drag a pig from Namur to 

 Ghent, Bruges, or Antwerp, to gain a few sous more than he could in his own district. 

 The character of the people differs somewhat in each district. Those of Liege are 

 very lively, spiritual, and laborious ; those of Namur proud and coarse. The Wal- 

 lons of Lower Pomerania stand even lower than those of Namur. Among the 

 Wallons of Liege, even the women are renowned for their strength, industry, and 

 energy. Like the men, they do the hardest Irind of worlc, as coal-drawing, and 

 towing the Mouse boats ; and the Germans style Liege " HoUe der Frauen." Tlie 

 Wallon dialect is rich in metaphors, witty in expression, boldly figurative, and full 

 of onomatopoeias. Generally speaking, it may be said that the Wallon is a spo- 

 ken, not a written language. The pronunciation differs in different localities ; and 

 such are the modifications of accentuation, that almost everj^ village has its own 



