THE RACES OF MANKIND, 



299 



broad typical characters of the foreign race. It is just this broad 

 type that the anthropologist desires to sketch and describe, and he 

 selects as his examples such portraits of men and women as show it 

 best. It is even possible to measure the type of a people. To give an 

 idea of the working of this problem, let us suppose ourselves to be 

 examining Scotchmen, and the first point to be settled how tall they 

 are. Obviously there are some few as short as Lapps, and some as tall 

 as Patagonians ; these very short and tall men belong to the race, and 

 yet are not its ordinary members. If, however, the whole population 

 were measured and made to stand in order of height, there would be a 

 crowd of men about five feet eight inches, but much fewer of either 

 five feet four inches or six feet, and so on till the numbers decreased 

 on either side to one or two giants, and one or two dwarfs. This is 

 seen in Quetelet's diagram. Fig. 8, Avhere the heights or ordinates of 

 the binomial curve show the numbers of men of each stature, decreas- 

 ing both Tvays from the central five feet eight inches, which is the 

 stature of the mean or typical man. Here, in a total of near 2,600 

 men, there are 160 of five feet eight inches, but only about 150 of five 

 feet seven inches or five feet nine inches, and so on, till not even ten 

 men are found so short as five feet, or so tall as six feet four inches. 



'jr ECll'''iir!'ii!;;xr;M:; "":'!.''"'"' iir''i:,-i!:,,:,i: 



Ujlli ..; '!l.:|!'!l. 



Fio. 10. Malay Mother and Half-caste Daughters. 



It thus appears that a race is a body of peoj^le comprising a regular 

 set of variations, which center round one representative type. In the 

 same way a race or nation is estimated as to other characters. 



The people whom it is easiest to represent by single portraits are 



