32 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



only be said to belong to palaeontology, while the more limited 

 groups, now called races, are nothing but peoples, or societies of 

 peoples, brethren by civilization more than by blood. The race 

 thus conceived ends by identifying itself with nationality 1 ." Hence 

 it has been asked why, on the principle of convergence, a fusion of 

 various races, if isolated long enough in a given area, may not 

 eventually lead to a new racial type, without leaving any trace of 

 its manifold origin' 2 . 



Such new racial types would be normal for the later varietal 

 groups, just as the old types were normal for the earlier groups, 

 and a general application might be given to Topinard's famous 

 dictum that les peuples seuls sont des realites 3 , that is, peoples alone 

 groups occupying definite geographical areas have an objective 

 existence. Thus, the notion of race, as a zoological expression in 

 the sense of a pure breed or strain, falls still more into the back- 

 ground, and, as Virchow aptly remarks, "this term, which always 

 implied something vague, has in recent times become in the 

 highest degree uncertain 4 ." 



Hence Dr Ehrenreich treats the present populations of the 

 earth rather as zoological groups which have been 



The distin- . .... 



guishing cha- developed in their several geographical domains, 



f anc ^ are to be distinguished not so much by their 



bony structure as by their external characters, such 

 as hair, colour, and expression, and by their habitats and languages. 

 Relying on these essential factors, he proposes a general scheme 

 of the primary divisions, which largely agrees with that already 

 advanced in Ethnology, Part II. 



Too much weight is no doubt given to language^ which is 

 called the " main point," while peoples are said to be realities 

 " only so far as they are characterised by their speech; peoples 

 stand and fall with their speech 5 ." But with the general 

 principle little fault can be found, and the cogent remarks 

 on the intimate connection of peoples with their physical sur- 



1 Amer. J. of Sociology, Jan. 1898, pp. 467-8. 

 ; A. Vierkandt, Glolms, 72, p. 134. 



3 Elements d 1 Anthropologie Generate, p. 207. 



4 Rassenbildnng u. Erblichkeit ; Bastian- Festschrift, 1896, p. i. 

 ' Anthropologische Studien, &c., p. 14. 



