Mat 28, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



843 



swered by a generalized historical treat- 

 ment such as we have attempted here. 

 The advocates of the theory of a degrada- 

 tion of type by the influx of so-called 

 "lower" types will not be silenced by refer- 

 ence to earlier mixtures in Europe, the 

 course of which can no longer be traced in 

 actual detail for we do not know to what 

 extent actual intermarriages have taken 

 place, and what the development of fami- 

 lies of mixed descent as compared with 

 those of pure descent has been. It seems 

 necessary that the problem should be ap- 

 proached from a biological standpoint. It 

 seemed well, however, to gain first a clearer 

 view of the historical relations of our prob- 

 lem. A knowledge of the events of the past 

 tends to lay our apprehensions, that make 

 the problem exciting, and which for this 

 reason fill the observer with a strong bias 

 for the results which he fears or desires. 



Two qiiestions stand out prominently in 

 the study of the physical characteristics 

 of the immigrant population. The first is 

 the question of the influence of selection 

 and environment in the migration from 

 Europe to America. The second is the 

 question of the influence of intermixture. 

 A beginning of a thorough study of the 

 former question was made as early as the 

 time of the civil war, when Gould and 

 Baxter, in their statistics of the enlisted 

 soldiers, proved that the immigrant repre- 

 sentatives of European nations were al- 

 ways better developed than the corre- 

 sponding people in Europe. It has not 

 been possible, up to the present time, to 

 learn whether this difference is due to bet- 

 ter development here or to a process of 

 selection, by which the weaker elements are 

 eliminated before leaving their home 

 country. It would be easy to ascertain the 

 facts by an investigation of the arriving 

 immigrants. That there is good reason to 

 suppose that more favorable social sur- 

 roundings in the United St&tes have much 



to do with the better development of the 

 immigrants is proved by the anthropo- 

 metrical statistics collected by Bowditch 

 in Boston and by Peckham in Milwaukee, 

 who f ouud that the children growing up in 

 America are better developed than Euro- 

 pean children. Although much additional 

 material has been collected on the old lines, 

 the fundamental questions which are in- 

 volved in this investigation have never 

 received adequate attention. Statistics 

 which I had occasion to collect recently 

 seem to show that the development of chil- 

 dren of immigrants is the better the longer 

 their parents have been in the United 

 States. I presume this merely suggests 

 that the economic well-being of the immi- 

 grants increases, on the whole, with the 

 length of their stay here, and that the cor- 

 responding better nutrition of the chil- 

 dren results in better physical develop- 

 ment. "Whether, however, the whole change 

 can be explained adequately in this man- 

 ner is open to doubt. It is quite possible 

 that the type may undergo certain changes 

 due to environment. 



In how far types must be considered as 

 stable is a question in regard to which 

 there is still considerable diversity of 

 opinion. Investigators like KoUmann 

 maintain the absolute stability of the types 

 now existing ; while, on the other hand, in- 

 dications are not absent which suggest a 

 changeability of types, at least in certain 

 respects. It would seem that stature may 

 be considerably influenced by long-con- 

 tinued more or less favorable environment. 

 There are investigators who maintain that 

 the more or less energetic use of the jaws 

 may influence the form of the head, owing 

 to the pressure brought about by the 

 muscles, which tend to compress the skull 

 laterally. On the other hand, we have 

 very clear evidence that features, like the 

 form of the head, the form of the face and 

 stature, are inherited from generation to 



