162 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. VI.
m
mingled. His definitions of their physical and moral characters, in which so much of contrast is
observed, need not he quoted *.
In the elaborate and valuable Treatise of Dr. J. C. M. Boudin, a table is given of the proportionate
number of young men exempted from military service, by reason of infirmities, in
each of the 86 departments of France, from 1831 to 18491- This table possesses considerable
ethnological interest, when we regard the remarkable difference of the numbers rejected for
defect of stature. The proportion varies in different Departments, from 23 exemptions in 1000
examined, to 189 in 1000. The districts in which the lower numbers, and those in which the
higher prevail, are, each of them, so grouped together as to lead to the inference that diversity of
stature is intimately connected with diversity of race. The fewest exemptions, in proportion, are
on the sides of France towards Belgium and Switzerland, therefore in districts in which we may
suspect a greater infusion of Germanic blood. On the contrary, the people of lowest stature are
most prevalent in the heart of France, south of the Loire, where the ancient Gaiils have been
least disturbed.
Taking this table as the basis of his investigations, an able and acute ethnologist. Dr.
Paul Broca, the highly-esteemed and indefatigable Secretary of the Société d'Anthropologie, has
pursued this inqu.iry with great diligence and ingenuity, mainly in support of the views of Thierry
and Edwards J. M. Broca admits in limine that the Celtic and the Kimric races of the Gauls form
the two chief constituents of the French nation. Still the Roman occupation and the Germanic
invasions, by Visigoths, by Burgundians, by Franks, and by Normans, he allows deserve a more
important estimation than they have hitherto received, and have produced a Germanizing influence
on the old Gaulish stocks. By a careful analysis of the data brought to light by M. Boudin's
Table, and a scrutiny into the history of the populations of France, he is able to elucidate the
ethnography of that country considerably §. He shows that an irregular line, passing obliquely
across the kingdom to the south and south-west of the Departments of Manche, Orne, Eure-et-
Loire, Loiret, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Rhône, and Isère, cuts off, to the south-west, aU the Departments,
save one, which contain the greatest amount of exemptions, as well as all the next series,
except two. Hence we arrive at the conclusion that, at the present day, as in the time of Csesar,
the truly Celtic portion of the population is located in the central area and the extreme west of
the country—admitting the observation so often repeated by the most trustworthy witnesses,
that the Celtic race of France is marked by comparative lowness of stature. By running another
line across the map pretty much in the same general direction, but on the south and south-west of
the Departments of Somme, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Mame, Aube, Còte d'Or, and Jura, M.
Broca separates to the north-east the whole of the 21 Departments having the fewest exemptions,
except two. The region thus marked off mainly corresponds with the Gallia Belgica of Csesar,
embracing Picardie, Champagne, and Lorraine, and includes the people of modern France who
* Caract. Physiol. 1859, pp. 65, 65. Frag, d'un Mém.
sur les Gaels in Mém. de la Soc. Ethnol. 1845, vol. ii. pp. 17,
42 ; 18, 42.
t Traité de Géographie et de Statistique Médicales, 1857,
Tol. ii. p. 238.
X Recherches sur l'Ethnologie de la France. Mém. de la
Soc. d'Anthropol. 1860, vol. i. p. 1.
§ To render the facts more obvious, M. Broca has constructed
a very ingenious map, in which he represents the
four series into which he divides the Departments by differences
in intensity of shading. He had previously distributed
84 of the Departments—the two exceptional ones, the Seine
and Corsica, being omitted—into four categories of 21 each,
according to the respective numbers of exemptions, from the
fewest, through two intervening proportions, to the most numerous.
The 21 Departments with the smallest number of
exceptions are left white in the map. The next 21 are
shghtly shaded by faint lines. The third 21, by stronger
lines running in a different direction; and the 21 containing
the greatest ratio of exemptions, by much darker lines.
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 163
have the tallest stature. The narrow strip of country situated between these two lines embraces
many intermediate Departments, which all, save two, belong to the next or second taUest category.
According to the very probable view of M. Broca, this strip is the seat of a more mixed
population, presenting an intermediate stature. Impressed with the results of his previous
curious researches on Hybridity *, he points out at the outset that the population of France is
almost universally very mixed,—the Basques and the Bretons being the only good exceptions to
this rule—his Celtic peculiarities, of medium stature, brown skin, dark eyes and hair, small
features, nearly straight nose terminating in a rounded lobule, and round head, being nowhere
else to be met with immodified by his Kimric peculiarities, which, on the contrary, are tallness,
fairness, blond hair, blue eyes and long head with a broad, high forehead, chin strongly pronounced,
and nose with its point bent downwards and its alse raised at the sides t .
The ancient ethnology of Gaul, so intimately connected with that of our own island, is full of
obscurities. Those who saw the various peoples of ancient Gaul, for they were not homogeneous,
must have perceived differences among them; yet they described them carelessly, from insufficient
examination, or perhaps fell into some popular prepossession which gave to them certain
prescriptive characters, as all Australians and Tasmanians, at the present day, receive the appellation
of "Blacks," however much they depart from a negi-oid hue, and however much they
vary. Dr. Prichard, who devoted much research to the accounts of the physical characters of
the ancient Gauls in classical writers, arrived at this result:—" On the whole, it must be concluded
that the Gauls are universally described by the ancients as a remarkably tall, large-bodied,
fair, blue-eyed, yeUow-haired people,"—a statement which he attempts to reconcile with modern
observations by his doctrine of mutations J. Dr. Perier has been led to regard the Kimris of
Am. Thierry as an immigrant race, very distinct from the true Celtse, or Gauls, which allows for
the diversity in physical characters observed in the population of different districts of France §.
Baron de Belloguet, who does not admit mutations, but contends for persistency of type, takes up
the hypothesis of Ware, Bodichin, Omalius d'Halloy and others, who assume the existence
of a pre-Celtic, Iberian or Ligurian, dark, short, brachycephalic race. The admixture of this
stock, in different degrees, with their tall, fail-, dolichocephalic Celtic conquerors, M. de Belloguet
supposes will explain every appearance observed |1.
* Kecherches sur l'Hybridité Animale, 1860.
t A careful examination of the populations of France on the
plan of W. F. Edwards, but much more extended and minute,
is greatly to be desired, and we hope will be carried out by M.
Broca with the aid of the Society to which he is attached. Till
this is accomplished we cannot rightly appreciate the worth of
Edwards's observations. M. Gilbert VUleneuve assures us that
in Finisterre there are two groups, distinct both physically and
morally, and divided by the little mountain chain of Arree, under
the parallel of Brest. Those to the north,in the country of Léon,
he reports to be very tall aud fair people, with long heads ;
those on the south of this range, in Comouaille, are short,
squat, dark people, with round heads (Broca, Ethnol. de la
France, p. 21). M. Broca has recently informed us of his impression
of the importance of this district of the kingdom. His
words are, " La clef de l'ethnologie de la France est en Bretagne."
The acuteness and energy of the learned Secretary
of the Société d'Anthropologie we trust will ensure, by his
continued devotion to these inquiries, many valuable results.
Î Phys. Res. 3rd ed. iii. 196.
§ Fragments Ethnologiques. In this erudite work Dr.
J. A. N. Perier has examined the family bonds between
the Gaels and Cymris at some length. He shows that the
Gauls sometimes gave a red colour to the hair by artificial
means ; that some of the Gauls mentioned in the confused
accounts of classical writers as having golden, yellow, and blond
hair were in reality Cimbri, and thus, as he believes, Germans ;
and concludes that the ancient Celtoe, Gauls, or Gaels were a
brown race, the colour of their hair being like that of their descendants,
whether in France or Britain. In an examination of
the relationship of the Gaels and Cymris, using these terms in
the sense of Am. Thierry, he decides that they differed in origin
as well as in the type which characterizes them, and that
they are not two branches of the same family, but two families
or distinct races,—the Gaels being the ancient Celtse or Gauls
of Ceesar, and the Cymri a people of Germanic hneage.
¡1 See De Belloguet's learned and agreeable volume, Ethnogénie
Gauloise. Types Gaulois et Celto-Breton, 1861. He is
another powerful opponent of the doctrine of Am. Thierry ; receives
literally the classical notices of the large, fair-haired