festly broad-headed. This Alpine racial characteristic is intensified all along the northern frontier. In proportion as one penetrates the mountains this phenomenon becomes more marked. It culminates in Piedmont along the frontier of France. Here, as we have already shown in our general map of Europe, is the purest representation of the Alpine race on the continent. Dr. Livi has photographed a recruit from this region for me. It is reproduced upon this page. The rounded fullness at the forehead and the shortness of head from front to back can not fail of notice. Across the frontier, in French Savoy, the same racial type is firmly intrenched in the high Alps. Such is also the prevalent physical type of the Swiss, who are descendants of the Rhætians of Roman times. Still further back we come upon the prehistoric lake dwellers. No change of race has here taken place since very early times. All indications point to a primitive occupation and a persistent defense of the Alpine highland by this broad-headed racial type.[1]
This Alpine type in northern Italy is the most blond and the tallest in the kingdom. This, of course, does not imply that these are really a blond and tall people. Compared with those of our own parentage in northern Europe, these Italians appear to be quite brunette; hair and eyes in our portrait type were classed as light chestnut. Standing in a normal company of Piedmontese, an Englishman could look straight across over their heads; for they average three to five inches less in bodily stature than we in England or America; yet, for Italy, they are certainly one of its tallest types. The traits we have mentioned disappear in exact proportion to the accessibility of the population to intermixture. The whole immediate valley of the Po, therefore, shows a distinct attenuation of each detail. We may in general distinguish such ethnic intermixture from either of two directions: from the north it has come by the influx of Teutonic tribes across the mountain passes; from the south, by several channels of communication across or around the Apennines from the peninsula. For example, the transition from Alpine broad heads in Emilia to the longer-headed population over in Tuscany near Florence is rather
- ↑ Whether this brachycephalic population is to be identified historically with the "Ligurians" or not is still matter of earnest dispute. Nicolucci, Calori, and most foreign authorities answer it affirmatively. On the other hand, such eminent specialists as Livi, Sergi, and Zampa agree in tracing the Ligurians back to a still more primitive and underlying stratum of population. This original stock was dolichocephalic, identical with the Mediterranean type in the south. Its direct descendants and survivors are the people of the modern province of Liguria, to be described shortly. These latter writers hold the broad headed more recent overlying people to be the true Celtic invaders from the Alps. Whichever theory be correct, we may rest assured of the ethnic facts in the case. There is no longer doubt of the two distinct strata. To christen them is a relatively unimportant matter, from our point of view.
