Inversely the high statures are also at a minimum, HauteVienne having the least proportion of tall people and the greatest population of short people of any Department of France. Bondin and Broca considered that this remarkable shortness was purely a question of race, the normal smallness of the brachycephals. This very simple explanation will no longer suffice, in the presence of the dolichocephaly proved for Dordogne, Charente, and Haute-Vienne. If we compare the maps of the distribution of the cephalic index with those of colour and stature, and mentally superimpose them, we find that there is absolutely not a shadow of a relation between them. The "black spot" extends alike over the brachycephals of Corrèze, the brown dolichocephals of Dordogne, and the fair dolichocephals of Haute-Vienne. There is then no relation between this demonstrated phenomenon and race. Some anthropologists seek a cause in the geological character of the soil; but here as in Brittany and Cotentin it explains nothing. It is true that the line of separation between the granites and crystalline rocks on the east and the calcareous beds on the west runs pretty closely along the southern border of the black spot; but we also find the greatest number of high statures on the granites, and the low statures flourish equally well on the Liassic and Cretaceous calcareous beds of Sarladais and Riberacois. The only plausible explanation is the social condition, and in this case it is summed up in the expressive French term la misère. The steep slopes and barren soil only produce poor cereals, rye, barley, and buckwheat. The natives live on these, and on milk and chestnuts. Communication is difficult; no great tillage as in the fertile valleys of the Vienne and Gartempe, none of the larger industries that enrich a people. "In the cantons of Vigeois, Uzerche, and Treignac in Corrèze," writes M. Vacher," the population is settled in confined valleys, in deep gorges receiving little light and air, with an impermeable subsoil and marshy ground." In a poor country the most elementary hygiene is unknown, the death-rate is raised, and organic defects are more frequent than elsewhere. One of the more direct corollaries of misery is ignorance. In many other parts of France, such as in the Hautes-Alpes and Sologne, poverty is allied with ignorance, and results in the degeneration of the race. THE NASAL INDEX. The nasal index is the ratio of the breadth of the wings of the nose to its length, the latter being measured from the root of the nose to where the septum passes into the upper lip. The narrow noses (leptorhines) are those with an index below 70; the mesorhines range from 70 to 85; while the broad noses (platyrhines) are those above 85. As a The mean nasal index is 68.8, but the individual range is enormous, 49.9 to 96.4, that is, more than 46 units. whole, the mesorhine indices, i. e., those over 70, are massed in the centre of the five Departments. This distribution follows in the main that of the stature. But why? Simply in accordance with a law previously thus formulated by Collignon: "In a given race, leptorhiny is in direct relation to stature; the higher this is raised the longer the nose, the lower the height the more the nose tends to mesorhiny." A careful consideration of the data tends to show that, independent of stature, the brachycephals possess a mean nasal index of about 69, that is to say, very near mesorhiny, which is in agreement with previous investigations. The dolichocephalic races are more leptorhine. 1 "Étude anthropométrique élémentaire des principales Races de France," Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris, 1883, p. 508. One result of this inquiry is that the value of the nasal index has received a serious blow. Certainly this character is very important for the discrimination of the great trunks of mankind, as has been abundantly proved in anthropological investigations in India, but so far as the European nations are concerned it is incontestable that the nasal index has only a subsidiary and relative value. HEIGHT INDICES OF THE CRANIUM. The importance of the vertical height of the cranium as a racial character has been emphasised by Virchow, but Collignon was the first to study this factor in the living. The two height indices are obtained by comparing the total height of the head measured from the vertex to the centre of the ear-hole with, (1) the length of the head, and (2) its greatest breadth, each of these two diameters being taken A really high skull, if it is very broad, may appear relatively low, or a low, but very narrow head, may appear decidedly hypsicephalic. Hence the necessity to consider first the cephalic index, and thereby to recognise the normal and harmonic fluctuations of the inverse variations of these two vertical indices. Dr. Collignon has plotted the distribution of these indices for the Department of Dordogne alone. We have seen that the northern cantons are what he termed dolichocephalic, and the southern are brachycephalic. The length-height index of the former varies from 65 to 68, and of the latter from 70 to 72. Taking the mean at 66 and 70 respectively, it follows that the dolichocephals are platycephalic and the brachycephals hypsicephalic; but this platycephaly is a true flattening of the skull, and is not merely due to a lengthening of the cranium, as it is not the most dolichocephalic cantons that are the most platycephalic. FIG. 20. Distribution of the Height-length Index in Dordogne; after Collignon. FIG. 21. Distribution of the Height-breadth Index in Dordogne; after Collignon. Hypsicephalic (shaded) 85 + The oblique band enclosed with a thick line corresponds to the division between On the other hand, all the brachycephalic cantons have a height-breadth index of from 81 to 84, that is, they are, or appear to be, platycephalic and mesocephalic, but their mean is mesocephalic. The mixed race which inhabits the zone between the brachycephals and dolichocephals (cephalic index 80-82) is also intermediate with a height-breadth index of 83-85, but the dolichocephals fall into two groups; the one with indices from 85 to 87 are hypsicephalic, the others, like the brachycephals, are mesocephalic and platycephalic. Thus the platycephaly of the valley of the Isle is established. The brachycephals are only false platycephals owing to an exaggeration of the transverse diameter. Without going into further details, we may now make an attempt to unravel the ethnology of these five Departments. Taking the three characters of cephalic index, colour, and stature, we can distinguish: short and dark or tall and fair brachycephals; fair, tall dolichocephals and dark dolichocephals. The brachycephals occupy all the region south of the rivers Dordogne and Vézère, the whole of the Department of Corrèze and the east of that of Creuse. The brown brachycephalic type extends to the mountainous region of Auvergne, to the east of France and to the south of Germany. This race of short, dark brachycephals is a wellmarked type which has received several names. Dr. Collignon, for want of a better term, adopts Broca's designation of Celts, as the founder of French anthropology considered that these were essentially the Celta of Cæsar. They are often called Auvergnats. The tall, fair variety is due to a crossing of this type with the fair race. A similar racial mixture occurs in Lorraine. The fair dolichocephals inhabit the upper valley of the Cher; the neighbourhood of Limoges, whence they spread to the south, following the plateaux that separate the valleys of the Isle and of the Dordogne; and also the north of Charente, Angoulême, and in general along the very ancient route between Paris and Bordeaux. These are the modified |