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134
II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.
3. national characteristics. moral and
social conditions.
The Swedish race is of Teutonic origin without foreign intermixture,
and the external appearance of the people testifies to the fact. They are,
as a rule, tall and well-grown; they have light hair, broad and lofty
foreheads, and blue or grey eyes. The formation of the skull is
dolichocephalic — though brachycephalic skulls also occur — and orthognathous.
The Swedes are one of the tallest nations on the earth. Indeed it
is possible that they rank second to none of the civilized peoples in this
particular. The most recent statistics show that the average height
of a male Swede between the ages of 30 and 35 is 170-8 centimeters.
According to the extensive researches undertaken during these last years, the
Swedish people seems to be the purest remainder now extant of the old Teutonic
race, and anthropologically it shows a remarkable homogeneity. Considering the
shape of the head, the investigations mentioned have made manifest that in Sweden
a high degree of dolichocephalousness is prominent: the average number of cranium
index is 75-9, the variation in the different provinces being only between 74’8 in
Södermanland and 77-s in Lappland.* Upon the whole, 87 % of the population
of Sweden can be considered as dolichocephalous and only 13 % as
brachyce-phalous; how the latter numbers vary in different parts of the country will be seen
by the map on page 136.
As regards colour of the hair and colour of the eyes, the researches above
mentioned have proved that 75-3 % of the population of Sweden have light,
22-4 % dark (brown), and 2-3 % red hair; light (blue or grey) eyes are to be
found in 66-7 brown ones only in 4-5 %, and eyes of mixed colours in
28-8 %. When considering the matter at large you will find the light colours
of the hair and of the eyes predominant and most strongly marked in those
parts of the country where a pronounced dolichocephalousness prevails.
It is an interesting circumstance that the statistics collected in connection
with compulsory military service prove incontestably that there has been a
considerable increase in the average height of the population of Sweden during the
last half-century. The average height of a conscript accepted for military
service of the age of twenty years, works out for the five-year periods 1841/45 to
1866/70 and 1891/95 in order at: 167"o, 167-1, 167"5, 167-7, 168*2, 169"3
and 170"i centimeters; that is to say, there is no less than 3 centimeters’
increase. — The variations in height in different parts of the country may be seen
by the chart on page 136. The greatest average height is attained by
the inhabitants of South Norrland and of the towns of Stockholm and
Gothenburg. The investigations undertaken by A. Key show that the average height of
pupils at the Swedish public colleges ranges higher than that of the population at
large at the same ages. Both in regard to height and to weight Key’s figures, it
may be noted, give a very favourable result when compared with data collected
for other countries, and that holds good not only about boys but also of girls.
* By cranium index is understood the ratio between the length and the breadth of
the cranium; where the breadth is less than 80 per cent of the length, the shape of the
cranium is said to be dolichocephalous, otherwise it is brachycephalous. The general
average numbers are calculated by the Swedish naturalist A. Retzius, inventor of this
classification, to be: for dolichocephalous 75 per cent and for brachycephalous 83 per cent.
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