346 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
according to Hansen, to degenerate. The children, poorly 
nourished and brought up with inadequate education, recruit the 
army of vagabonds and ne’er-do-wells that forms so heavy a 
burden upon the productive members of society. Thus cities, 
according to Hansen, are racially destructive. They cause a 
gradual deterioration of their inhabitants and constitute a potent 
factor in the decline and fall of empires. 
Views similar to those of Hansen have been set forth by Am- 
mon. This writer differs from Hansen in that he does not consider 
that the rural migrants become at once members of the middle 
class. The majority begin at the lower rounds of the ladder, 
becoming servants, janitors, waiters, teamsters, etc., and sub- 
sequently work up into the skilled trades and higher professions. 
During this period they are subjected to the rigid operation of 
natural selection. The less intelligent and forceful brachycepha- 
lic types are eliminated in a few generations. The dolichocepha- 
lics tend to succeed both in the struggle for wealth and position 
as well as in the more literal struggle for life. As a result, cities 
tend to become composed of a relatively high percentage of the 
dolichocephalic type. The anthropometric studies of Ammon 
upon the population of Baden have yielded results supporting 
this conclusion, inasmuch as he finds that the urban population 
is more dolichocephalic than the rural, and that the successful 
types are more dolichocephalic than those of inferior status. 
But in the long run, city life proves fatal even to the victors in 
the struggle. Ammon who shares the very prevalent German 
persuasion regarding the long headed, blond “‘Germanic”’ type, 
naturally looks upon the process of urban migration as destruc- 
tive of the best elements of the race. The rural population it is 
which is the source of national vitality. ‘‘Der Bauernstand ist 
nicht ein Stand wie jeder beliedige andere, der sich durch Zugang 
neuer Krafte ergainzt, sondern er ist eben der Vorratsbehilter, 
der Jungbrunnen der Menschheit, er hat die Nachschiibe fiir alle 
anderen Sta&nde zu liefern, in denen die Menschen nach dem 
natiirlichen Laufe der Entwickelung sich verbrauchen und 
zerstoren.”’ 
