930 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 78. 



4. The relation between stature and cephalic 

 index. 



5. The relation between the cephalic index 

 and color of hair. 



6. The distribution of the cephalic index for 

 each per cent. 



For the provinces the previous data are sum- 

 marized and the following are given in addition: 



1. The distribution of the circumference 

 of the chest in groups of 5 cm. 



2. The relation between stature and circum- 

 ference of chest. 



3. The distribution of statures for each cm. 



4. The frequency of the principal descriptive 

 -characters, form of hair, complexion, nose, 



face and chin. 



These results are presented in a most attrac- 

 tive manner, on an atlas which brings home 

 some of the salient results of Dr. Livi's exten- 

 sive work at a single glance. 



It is not possible to enter into all the impor- 

 tant results which the author by the judicious 

 use of good statistical methods has reached. 

 From a general point of view the most impor- 

 tant is perhaps the final proof of the fallacy of 

 the theories of Dr. Ammon in regard to the 

 effect of natural selection upon the develop- 

 ment of the type of civilized man. A number 

 of years ago Tonnies pointed out the weakness 

 of his arguments (Ztschr. fiir Psychol, u. Phys. 

 der Sinnesorgane), but it remained to Dr. Livi to 

 finally prove the real cause of the phenomena 

 which Dr. Ammon had observed, namely, that 

 the inhabitants of the towns of Baden are more 

 dolichocephalic than those of the country. Dr. 

 Livi has shown that everywhere the cephalic 

 index of the town population is nearer the 

 average than that of the country population. 

 Consequently in a brachycephalic region, such 

 as Baden, the people of the towns are more 

 dolichocephalic, while in dolichocephalic re- 

 gions the reverse is the case (p. 86 ff.). The 

 satisfactory explanation of this fact is that the 

 town population are more mixed than the 

 country population is. The author has proved 

 that the same facts may be observed in regard 

 to the distribution of color of hair and eyes and 

 of statures, and I think that in this observation 

 he has given a very strong proof of the heredity 

 of stature. 



Among other points of biological interest I 

 mention the detailed investigation of the influ- 

 ence of the altitude of habitat upon the vari- 

 ous measurements. The clearest and best pro- 

 nounced example of such an influence that the 

 author has found is that upon the circumference 

 of the chest which increases with increasing al- 

 titude. The stature decreases quite consider- 

 ably in the mountainous districts. The color 

 is lighter than in the plains. The two last phe- 

 nomena the author is inclined to attribute to an 

 earlier arrest of development due to more un- 

 favorable social conditions, but he does not deny 

 the possibility of other influences of altitude 

 upon the development of the human body. 

 The observation that among the primitive 

 Americans the stature also decreases with alti- 

 tude seems to me to indicate that social con- 

 ditions alone do not sufficiently account for the 

 phenomenon. 



Of special interest are also the detailed in- 

 vestigations on the correlations of the various 

 observations, for instance, of the proportions of 

 the head and the color of the hair which show 

 clearly that the dark people are the more doli- 

 chocephalic ones, and that tall people have 

 more frequently wavy hair than short people. 



Most of the relations of measurements or 

 observations treated by Dr. Livi are based on 

 stature, i. e. , the individuals are grouped ac- 

 cording to stature and the correlated changes 

 of the other measurements have been.recorded. 

 While the results thus obtained are of great 

 value it would probably have been better to 

 treat them as correlations, that is to investigate 

 also the reverse relation. The undue weight 

 which is thus given to stature as compared to 

 all other measurements would have been obvi- 

 ated by this means. This mode of treat- 

 ment would have been the more desirable, 

 as stature is one of the measurements which 

 depend to a considerable extent upon the 

 Influence of environment. Besides this the 

 distribution of stature as recorded by Dr. 

 Livi is, as he himself points out, not that 

 of the total population, as all those individuals 

 who are unfit for military service are not in- 

 cluded in the records. Thus all of less than 154 

 cm. stature are excluded, and among the others 

 who were rejected for other reasons the lower 



