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The White population of the United States differs from that of Europe not so much in character as in the mode of assemblage of its component elements. The important theoretical and practical problems that arise in a study of the biological characteristics of our population relate largely to the effects of the recent rapid migrations of the diverse types of Europeans. The problem is further complicated by the presence of a large Negro population, of small remnants of Indian aborigines, and by a slight influx of Asiatics.

It would be an error to assume that the intermingling of different European types is a unique historical phenomenon which has never occurred before. On the contrary, all European nationalities are highly complex in origin. Even those most secluded and receiving the least amount of foreign blood at the present time have in past times been under entirely different conditions. An excellent example of this kind is presented by Spain. The Iberians are the earliest substratum of population with which we are acquainted. The coast population was undoubtedly affected by a certain amount of intermixture with Phenician and Greek colonists. There followed a number of migrations of Keltic tribes from northwestern Europe and a thorough colonization of the peninsula by Rome. The Teutonic tribes which invaded Spain came in part from the regions of the Black Sea. Later on we can trace waves of migration from northern Africa, which attained their greatest importance during the time of the Moorish empires. With the development of medieval conditions and the expulsion of the Moors and the Jews, the population of Spain became stable and there was no further disturbance due to important migrations. It is therefore evident that the present population of Spain contains elements derived from practically all parts of Europe and from northern Africa.

Similar conditions may be observed in Great Britain, where there is also clear evidence of a large number of waves of migration. In prehistoric times we find a long-headed type, quite different in appearance and in customs from a later round-headed type. With the beginning of historic times we observe first Roman colonization, then waves of migration entering Great Britain from all parts of the North Sea, from Scandinavia and northern Germany, and, finally, the influx of the Normans. With this event extended migration ceased and the population of the island was gradually welded into the modern English.

Migrations of this kind may be recognized even in very early times. After sweeping over the older population of Greece, north European types established themselves in the Balkan Peninsula and on the Aegean Islands during the so-called Doric migration, which occurred a thousand years before our era. Later on the movements of the Finnish ancestors of the Bulgarians and the migrations of the south Slavic peoples added to the intermixture of types in the eastern European peninsula.

It might seem that a few countries in Europe were not so much exposed to intermixture as those previously mentioned, and it is particularly assumed that Sweden and Norway represent a very homogeneous population. Still, we may recognize here also a considerable differentiation of local types. An investigation of the districts nearest to Finland shows very clearly an approach to the Finnish type which may be due to intermixture. In southern Norway is encountered a strongly aberrant type whose origin cannot be historically determined. In the northern area the Lapps present a foreign element. In later times immigrations were not by any means rare. Thus the development of the mining industry brought in a great many Walloons; and the nobility, at least, is a composite of descendants of natives from many parts of Europe. Historical evidence shows that the central parts of Europe over which migrations have swept periodically were, even more than the outlying districts, exposed to intermixture of different types.

Intermixture in Europe was largely confined to antiquity, although in some parts it continued into the Middle Ages, whereas the intermingling of different local types in the United States is recent. Owing to the social conditions in ancient Europe amalgamation of distinct elements may have been rather slow. Notwithstanding the relatively small numbers of migrating individuals, it may have taken several generations for the intrusive and native populations to become merged. In the United States, owing to the absence of hereditary social classes, the amalgamation is on the whole more rapid and involves larger numbers of individuals than the intermixture which took place in earlier periods in the Old World.

The impression that the population of European countries is comparatively speaking “pure” in descent is founded on its stability. In northern and central Europe this condition developed after individual hereditary landholding was substituted for the earlier forms of agricultural life, and with the attachment of the serf to the soil which he inhabited. These conditions prevailed in the Mediterranean area even in antiquity, but in the northern parts of Europe they did not develop until the Middle Ages, when the more or less tribal organization of the people gave way to feudal states. During the period when the Keltic and Teutonic tribes moved readily from place to place a vast amount of mixture occurred in all parts of Europe. Later on, when families became settled, those parts of the populations which were proprietors of the soil, or otherwise attached to the soil, became stationary, and consequently intermixture between distant parts of the continent became much less frequent than in previous times. On the other hand, the mutual permeation of neighboring communities probably became much more thorough.

These conditions of stability continued until by the development of cities diverse elements were brought together in the same community. This process became important with the growth of modern industrialism and with the concomitant growth of urban populations that were drawn together from large areas. Investigations made in different parts of Europe, particularly in Italy^[4] and in Baden,^[5] show differences in type between city populations and those of the open country. These may in part be explained by the strong intermixture of types drawn from a wide area which assemble and intermarry in the city. Observations of the population of Paris^[6] indicate the same kind of intermixture of north European and central European types.

The settlement of the unoccupied districts of the United States has brought about an intermixture of types similar to that occurring in modern city populations, because settlers from different parts of Europe may dwell in close proximity in newly opened countries. Although in many cases we find a strong cohesion of farmers who come from the same European country, there is also a great deal of scattering.

It should, therefore, be understood that the problems presented by the population of the United States do not differ materially from the analogous European problems. The differences are due to the larger numbers of individuals involved in the whole process, in its rapidity, in its extension over rural communities, and in the forms of cohesion between members of the same group which are dependent upon the mode of settlement of the country. The process resembles earlier European mixtures in so far as many diverse European types are involved. In modern Europe only European types enter into the mixture, but a number of races morphologically removed from the White race enter into certain phases of the problem in America. Even this aspect of the problem was probably present in antiquity when slaves of foreign races formed a considerable part of the population.

The long continued stability of European populations which set in with the beginning of the Middle Ages and continued, at least in rural districts, until very recent times, has brought about a large amount of inbreeding in every limited district. In default of detailed statistical information in relation to the development of populations it is impossible to give exact data, but a cursory investigation shows that inbreeding of this type must have occurred for a very long time. The theoretical number of ancestors of every living individual proceeds by multiplication by two from generation to generation back, so that ten generations (or approximately 300 or 350 years) ago every single individual would have had 1,024 ancestors. Therefore, about 600 or 700 years ago there would be more than 1,000,000 ancestors for each individual. Considering the stability of population, and the fact that brothers and sisters have the same ancestors, such an increase in the number is, of course, entirely impossible, and it necessarily follows that a very large number of individuals in the ancestral series must be identical, which means that there must have been a large amount of inbreeding.

The “loss of ancestors” becomes the greater the further back we go in the ancestry and the more stable the population. It is obvious that particularly in the landholding group of families which remains from generation to generation in the same place, there must have been much inbreeding. Statistical information is available only for a few village communities and for the high nobility of Europe. The genealogies of all these families demonstrate that the decrease in the number of ancestors is very considerable. The calculations for the high nobility of Europe^[7] show that in the sixth ancestral generation there are only 41 ancestors instead of 64; in the twelfth generation, only 533 instead of 4,094. These numbers seem to be quite similar to those found in the stable village communities of Europe. Owing to this intermixture and to the similarity of descent of the families constituting the population, each family represents fairly adequately the whole population, or as we might express it, the whole population is homogeneous, in so far as all the families have the same kind of descent. On the other hand, in a population that results from recent migration and in which individuals from the most diverse parts of the world come together, a single family will not be representative of the whole population, because entirely different ancestral lines will be present in the various families. Therefore the population will be heterogeneous in so far as the different families belong to different lines of descent. To illustrate this point we might assume a community consisting of Whites and Negroes in which the Whites always intermarry among themselves, and the Negroes among themselves. Obviously in such a population, a single family would not be representative of the whole community, but only of its own fraction. On the other hand, if we had a community in which Whites and Negroes had intermarried for a long time, as is the case among the so-called Bastards of South Africa—a people very largely descended from Dutch and Hottentots and in which this intermingling has continued for a long time—we have a homogeneous population in so far as every family represents practically the same line of descent.^[8] It will therefore be seen that homogeneity is not by any means identical with purity of race. In the case of a homogeneous population of mixed descent we may expect, on the whole, a high degree of variability in the family, while all the families will be more or less alike. On the other hand, in a heterogeneous population in which each part is, comparatively speaking, “pure,” we may expect a low variability of each family with a high variability of the families constituting the whole population. On account of its migratory habits the American city population must be heterogeneous. Heterogeneous are also the immigrants and their immediate descendants, whereas in the stationary populations of New England villages and of the Kentucky mountains we have presumably homogeneous groups.

[3]

The following paper deals with purely anthropometric problems. It was intended to show the kinds of information needed for understanding the meaning of bodily build of individuals in relation to their descent and social environment. For this reason the important questions relating to relative fertility as bringing about changes in the constitution of the population and the problems involved in the hereditary characteristics of pathological characteristics, physiological and psychological traits determined by the genetic character of the individual were not touched upon. The whole problem should be solved by a consideration not only of the anthropometric traits, but also by a detailed study of heredity, of functions of the body and of the differential constitution of the population. Since the paper was written much valuable work has been done in this direction, particularly by the Population Association of America. Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 18 (June, 1922), pp. 181-209.

[4]	Ridolfo Livi, Antropometria Militare (Rome, 1896), p. 87 et seq.

[5]	Otto Ammon, Zur Anthropologie der Badener (Jena, 1899), p. 641.

[6]	Franz Boas, “The Cephalic Index,” American Anthropologist, N. S., vol. 1 (1899), p. 453.

[7]	Ottokar Lorenz, Lehrbuch der gesammten wissenschaftlichen Genealogie Berlin (1898), p. 289 et seq., pp. 308, 310, 311.

[8]	Eugen Fischer, Die Rehobother Bastards (Jena, 1913); Franz Boas, “On the Variety of Lines of Descent Represented in a Population,” American Anthropologist N. S., vol. 18 (1916), p. 1 et seq.