516 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



that such variations take place within very short periods, not only 

 in the case of the lower animals, as in the horse family, but in man 

 himself. Pigmentation is no true criterion, for we have found a steady 

 tendency to change in color in the case of the lower animals from lati- 

 tude to latitude, whilst in the case of man the steady shading off in 

 color from dark to blond may be traced from the equator to the 

 Baltic. Unless, then, we postulate that man is entirely free from the 

 natural laws which condition the osteology and pigmentation of other 

 animals, we must admit that neither bone nor color differences can be 

 regarded as crucial criteria. Further, we saw that the test of descent 

 through males or females broke down absolutely in the case of peoples 

 who can be proved historically never to have spoken any but a non- 

 Aryan language. Finally, we are forced to the conclusion that lan- 

 guage, now that we realize what are the laws which govern its borrow- 

 ing by one race from another, is really the surest of all the known 

 tests of race when dealt with broadly and over wide areas, and not 

 merely in the way of guesswork etymologies. 



II. Hitherto I have dealt only with the need of a rigid application 

 of zoological laws in studying the evolution of the various races of man. 

 In the time that is still left I propose to touch briefly on the vast 

 importance of such natural laws when dealing with the native races of 

 our great dependencies and colonies, and in our own social legislation. 

 I venture to think that the gravest mistakes which at present are being 

 made in our administration and legislation are due to the total dis- 

 regard of the natural laws, which not only modify and differentiate one 

 race from another, but also are constantly producing variations within 

 our own community. As physical characteristics are in the main the 

 result of environment, social institutions and religious ideas are no 

 less the product of that environment. Several of our most distin- 

 guished Indian and colonial administrators have pointed out that most 

 of the mistakes made by British officials are due to their ignorance of 

 the habits and customs of the natives. It has been in the past an 

 axiom of British politicians that in the English Constitution and in 

 English law there is a panacea for every political and social difficulty 

 in any race under the sun. Only let us give, it is urged, this or that 

 state a representative parliamentary system and trial by jury and all 

 will go well. The fundamental error in this doctrine is the assumption 

 that a political and legal system evolved during many centuries amongst 

 a people of northwestern Europe, largely Teutonic, and that, too, living 

 not on the mainland but on an island, can be applied cut and dried 

 to a people evolved during countless generations in tropical or sub- 

 tropical regions, with social institutions and religious ideas widely dif- 

 ferent from those of even South Europeans, and still more so from 

 those of northern Europe. We might just as well ask the Ethiopian to 



