is a steady carrying out of a routine which never changes and requires rather brawn than brain. This we find admirably reflected in the character of the peasantry, now, as in antiquity, interested only in the securing of enough food to live and to marry upon. But this did not seriously modify the character of the ruling class for, from pre-dynastic times, they have always been foreigners. Accordingly, their character has always been that formed in other countries. Only one effect should be noted. Just because they did not adjust themselves to the climate, they became enervated and finally were killed off. In other words, the climate has only a negative effect on the men who have made Egyptian culture worthy of our study." 36

Natural conditions in the Nile valley permitted the congregation of a large population in a small area and thereby made possible the development of a high civilization. For the closer the contact between men, the more intimate the intercourse, and the less the likelihood of losing the fruits of collective experience. Competition of many individuals sharpens wits and raises the activity of human powers. The maintenance of steady increase of population seems to be intimately connected with the development of culture.37 Sparsely populated areas have a low type of civilization. In all centers of civilization, whether old or new, we find dense populations. If the topography of a region limits the possibilities of intercourse and renders large permanent assemblies of men impossible there is slight chance for the development of an enduring culture.

36 Olmstead, A. T.-"Climate and History," Journal of Geography, vol. x, pp. 163-168.

37 Ratzel, F.-History of Mankind, vol. i, pp. 10-12.

The topography of an inhabited region besides determining the direction and destination of migrations or furnishing protection from the assaults of hostile peoples, often results in the more or less complete isolation of a people from the progressive or retarding influences acting upon the general population without the sheltered valley or far from the lonely island.

Isolation prohibits much intermixture of different stocks. This tends to accentuate traits already existing in the stock, as potential possibilities. Sometimes defects, intensified and inherited, appear with great frequency. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell made a careful genealogical study of western Martha's Vineyard and found that there had been a great deal of intermarrying and a great many consanguineous marriages. The locality is inhabited by farmers and fishermen of average intelligence and good character. Deaf mutes are strikingly numerous. In 1880 there was a proportion of 1 to 25 of the whole population affected.38 Further south along the Atlantic coast there are beaches or banks some distance from the mainland. Here there are many consanguineous marriages. A wide-spread trait that may be ascribed to this inbreeding is suspicion and mental dullness; and a relatively high frequency of insanity.39 Over sixty-six per cent. of the population of Sardinia are brunettes. Whereas, brunettes on the continental peninsula of Italy range from thirty-eight per cent. to over sixty-six per cent. of the total population. This shows how the pure color traits of the stock have been preserved by isolation.40

38 Davenport, C. B.-Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, 1911, pp. 191192. 40 Ripley, W. Z.-The Races of Europe, p. 253.

39 Ibid., p. 193.

Isolation affects not only the physical characters of the people but their cultural development as well. Separated from the stream of collective experience by moun

FIGURE 54. Natives adapting their life to dangerous conditions of existence. A tree-dwelling in the tiger infested jungles of India.

tain barrier or sea, men retain customs and usages which have long since fallen into disuse in the thronging centers of life on the neighboring plain or continent. Sardinia and Corsica are two of the most primitive spots in all Europe because they are islands off the main line. To a large extent feudal institutions of the Middle Ages prevail. The old wooden plow of the Romans is still in

41

common use to-day. The Transylvania Saxons, although isolated from their German relatives for seven hundred years in the midst of a Hungarian population have preserved the Teutonic traditions of the fatherland. They have clung stubbornly, tenaciously, blindly to each peculiarity of dress, language and custom, knowing that every concession meant increased danger of assimilation into the surrounding Hungarian population. If they had been left on their native soil, and surrounded by friends and countrymen, they would undoubtedly have changed as other nations have changed. Their isolated position and the peculiar circumstances of their surroundings have kept them what they originally were.42 The mountaineers of the southern Appalachians have been isolated from the experiences of the rest of America since colonial times. President Frost of Berea College calls these people, "Our contemporary ancestors of the South." They have been undisturbed by the railway, the printing-press, the electric car, the automobile, the power loom and the telegraph. They retain in all their simplicity the industrial methods of our colonial ancestors. Wool is spun by the old-fashioned wheel and woven into cloth by the clumsy hand loom. Here we have the survival of a culture which the rest of the nation has outgrown. New ideas have been rapidly communicated outside these isolated mountain valleys and the whole length and breadth of the land has gained by the discovery of the few. Isolation, while it may act as a protective influence in the early stages of civilization, retards later development.

The earlier advocates of the materialistic interpreta41 Ibid., p. 271.

42 Gerard, E.-The Land Beyond the Forest, pp. 31-32, 33, 34.