The Natural History of the Varieties of Man

by R. G. Latham

Physical conformation.—Dolikhokephalic, high facial angle; hair, eyes, and complexion, dark; frame, more slender than bulky.

When we consider that the aborigines of Spain were Iberic, that they probably extended as far as the Rhone, and that the ancient Ligurians of the Gulf of Genoa are not absolutely known in respect to their ethnological relations, the apparent impropriety of restricting the term Mediterranean to the classical nations of Greece and Italy becomes diminished; to which it may be added that the undoubted civilizational influence of the land-and-water conditions of these two peninsulas requires some term to suggest it. The term, nevertheless, is open to amendment.

So much of what belongs to Greece and Italy is historical, that the brevity of the preceding and following notices may be excused.

MEDITERRANEAN FAMILIES AND NATIONS.

Localities.—Greece and Italy.

Area.—Discontinuous.

Divisions.—1. The Hellenic branch. 2. The Italian (Ausonian) branch.

Historical Influence.—Preeminently moral. Material as well.

The discontinuity of the Greek and Italian areas is a difficulty which requires more investigation than it has met with, and is a purely ethnological question.