322 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
distribution, the law of social stratification, and the law of migra- tion. But whereas we shall, for the sake of simplicity, formulate our conclusions into three laws parallel with the above, it should be understood that evidence as to the rank of the Mediterranean is as yet less conclusive than that as to the relative rank of Homo Europaiis and Homo Alpinus, and that our further generalizations will be of a somewhat hypothetical and provisional character.
Law of the distribution of wealth. In countries inhabited joi?itly by tlu Mediterranean and the otlier races; the former element possesses the smallest proportion of wealth. Our first illustration may be taken from the statistics of the tax yielding capacity of the different races in France. The two French departments in which the Mediterranean element enters largely into the population are the Pyrenees Orientales and Corsica. The tax paying capacity of both is weak, not only in comparison with the departments dom- inated by Homo Europ&us, but also in comparison with the dis- tinctly brachycephalic departments. Corsica takes one of the last places, and under many categories of taxation, the very last ; and the Pyrenees Orientales does not stand much better. A more conclusive proof may be drawn from a study of taxation in Italy. The population of the northern part of Italy contains a considerable element of Homo Europ&us, as shown by the lighter average coloration and Jthe higher stature, as compared with the southern portion. Proceeding southward this element Europceus nearly disappears ; the brachycephalic element persists ; but the Mediterranean becomes more and more the predominant factor in the population. The southern provinces show the lower cephalic index on account of this increasing prevalence of the Mediterraneans. Thus it is that in the south, the most dolicho- cephalic part of Italy, a low index in any group of subjects marks them as belonging to the Mediterranean element ; whereas in the north, the most brachycephaiic part of the country, a low index in any given group indicates the probable presence therein of the element Europaus. With this explanation, we see at once the significance of the fact that in northern Italy the brachy- cephalic populations pay a less proportion of the taxes than
