bly
inhospitable habitat in which it has long been isolated, we may not
pretend to decide.

Let us now for a moment take up the consideration of a second physical
characteristic of city populations--viz., stature. If there be a law at
all in respect of average statures, it demonstrates rather the
depressing effects of city life than the reverse. For example, Hamburg
is far below the average for Germany. All over Britain there are
indications of this law, that town populations are, on the average,
comparatively short of stature. Dr. Beddoe, the great authority upon
this subject, concludes his investigation of the population of Great
Britain thus: "It may therefore be taken as _proved_ that the stature of
men in the large towns of Britain is lowered considerably below the
standard of the nation, and as _probable_ that such degradation is
hereditary and progressive."

A most important point in this connection is the great variability of
city populations in size. All observers comment upon this. It is of
profound significance. The people of the west and east ends in each city
differ widely. The population of the aristocratic quarters is often
found to exceed in stature the people of the tenement districts. We
should expect this, of course, as a direct result of the depressing
influence of unfavorable environment. Yet there is apparently another
factor underlying that--viz., social selection. While cities contain so
large a proportion of degenerate physical types as on the average to
fall below the surrounding country in stature, nevertheless they also
are found to include an inordinately large number of very tall and
well-developed individuals. In other words, compared with the rural
districts, where all men are subject to the same conditions of life, we
discover in the city that the population has differentiated into the
very tall and the very short.

The explanation for this phenomenon is simple. Yet it is not direct, as
in Topinard's suggestion that it is a matter of race or that a change of
environment operates to stimulate growth. Rather does it appear that it
is the growth which suggests the change. The tall men are in the main
those vigorous, mettlesome, presumably healthy individuals who have
themselves, or in the person of their fathers, come to the city in
search of the prizes which urban life has to offer to the successful. On
the other hand, the degenerate, the stunted, those who entirely
outnumber the other