156 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
Our author questions the alleged greater similarity of primitive 
than of modern types of man to the anthropoid apes, showing 
that this is true only of certain selected features, while in some 
other respects modern types show greater similarity than primi- 
tive types to their sub-human forbears.1. Granting that on the 
whole the brain of modern man is larger and heavier than that 
of primitive man, he refuses to grant to this fact a proof of greater 
mental capacity.? 
Boas discusses at length the influence of environment upon 
human types and shows how climate, food and labor have regis- 
tered their effect.2 The permanency of somatic characters, so 
emphasized by Gumplowicz and Deniker, is refuted by our 
author, not only on the authority of Wiedersheim,‘ but by reason 
of modern measurements by Bowditch, Peckham, Ammon, and 
Ripley * as well as by his own measurements of immigrants to 
America and their descendants. In this study the traits selected 
for examination were head-measurements, stature, weight and 
hair-color, and the ethnic groups chosen were the South Italians, 
representing the Mediterranean type of Europe, the Central 
European type, the Northwest European type, and the East 
European Hebrews. “ The results of our inquiry,” he says, 
“have led to the unexpected result that the American-born 
descendants of these types differ from their parents; and that 
these differences develop in early childhood, and persist through- 
out life.” 6 
Our author is unable to explain these somatic changes from the 
type, but holds that they prove that human types are plastic 
1 “ The European shares lower characteristics with the Australian, both retain- 
ing in the strongest degree the hairiness of the animal ancestor, while the specifically 
human development of the red lip is developed most markedly in the negro. The 
proportions of the limbs of the negro are also more markedly distinct from the 
corresponding proportions in the higher apes than are those of the European,” 
Mind of Primitive Man, p. 22. 
2 Ibid., pp. 24-28. 
3 [bid., pp. 23, 27, 40, 116. “I am inclined to believe that the influence of 
environment is of such a character that, although the same race may assume a 
different type when removed from one environment to another, it will revert to 
its old type when replaced in its old environment,” ibid., p. 76. 
4 Ibid., p. 41. 5 Tbid., pp. 45 f. § Ibid., p. 54. 
