40 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



from 138 centimeters (or 54 inches) in the negrilloes of 

 Africa to 180 centimeters (or 71 inches) in the Scotch, 

 Among European males, stature ranges from 150 centimeters 

 (60 inches) to 190 centimeters (75 inches), while that of 

 women rarely exceeds 180 centimeters (71 inches).^ 



The importance of stature as a definite character is seen 

 in its distribution in Europe. Apart from the variations 

 ascribed to environment there are clear racial (i. e,, inherit- 



5T/\TVRE am:> HE./M-TH 

 .^^* F1N15TERRE 



AFTEK CHAISAGNE 



Fig. 15. — Two maps of Brittany, France. On the left is shown the dis- 

 tribution of the various mean statures ranging from 1.62 meters to 1.64 meters. 

 On the right is shown the distribution of rejection of recruits for constitutional 

 defects. Ripley: "The Races of Europe." 



able) differences. The rugged hills of Scotland harbor a 

 race that are, relatively, giants; the mild and productive 

 shores of the Gulf of Tarent, Southern Italy, hardly more 

 populous, are inhabited by a people that are, relatively, 

 dwarfs. Conditions of life cannot account for the difference; 

 there is a difference of blood- It is easy to go astray in 

 assigning environmental causes for statxu'e. Thus Ripley 

 (1900, p. 85) referring to a map of Brittany says: '^In the 

 interior cantons, shorter on the average by an inch than 

 the population along the sea coast, there is a corresponding 



1 Deniker, "Races of Man/' p. 584. 



