14 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
mate, for all of them were taken, as mentioned above, on men who 
were not barefooted, and allowance had to be made for different 
kinds of footgear in different individuals ; for these reasons I 
have only given the results in centimetres, though the measure- 
ments were originally taken in millimetres, and I believe that when 
recorded thus they are fairly accurate. The statures seem to fall 
into two very distinct series, those of 170 cm. and above and 
those below that figure ; it is noteworthy that the last four men 
'examined fall within the former category, showing how necessary 
a large series of measurements must always be in estimating the 
mean stature of a race. Dr J0rgensen’s series of thirty-three men 
from the northern islands gives a mean of 169 cm., with extremes 
of 155 and 178 mm. Again, a very serious discrepancy exists 
between my measurements and his, for my mean is 166 cm., and 
my extremes are 157 and 176 cm., but I have not been able to 
discover whether his measurements were taken on barefooted 
-subjects, or, if not, whether allowance was made for footgear. In 
any case, a visual inspection of the Faroemen makes it obvious that 
they are a very short race, perhaps as a result of in-breeding, 
though they are robust and well-built, and not, so far as I have 
been able to discover, degenerate in any other way. It is 
difficult, however, to discover to what extent insanity prevails 
-among them, as all bad cases of madness are removed to Denmark; 
but on the little island of Naalsoe, where several families, con- 
sidering themselves to be descendants of the kings of Scotland, 
Tefused to marry the inhabitants of other islands, imbecility 
and total hereditary deafness are said to have been unusually 
•common (3). 
I have not thought it worth while to record my observations on 
the skin colour in detail, as I believe that this is due far more to 
the degree of exposure to which the individual has been subjected, 
to climate, and even to altitude, than to race, at any rate within 
reasonable limits ; for no amount of protection from the elements, 
no cold, and no altitude would make a Negro white, or even give 
an Italian the complexion of a Dane. All that can be said on 
this point as regards the Faroemen is, that those men who 
have dark hair have also a dark skin, which in some cases is as 
■dark as that of an Italian, and that such persons have frequently 
