METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 237 



fair complexions and yellow or red hair; one for 

 the " leucomelanous," with dark hair and pale 

 skins; one for the " xanthomelanous," with black 

 hair and yellow, brown, or olive skins; and one for 

 the " melanous," with black hair and dark brown 

 or blackish skins. 



It is curious to observe that almost all the 

 woolly-haired people are also long-headed; while 

 among the straight-haired nations broad heads pre- 

 ponderate, and only two stocks, the Esquimaux and 

 the Australians, are exclusively long-headed. 



One of the acutest and most original of ethnolo- 

 gists, Desmoulins, originated the idea, which has 

 subsequently been fully developed by Agassiz, that 

 the distribution of the persistent modifications of 

 man is governed by the same laws as that of other 

 animals, and that both fall into the same great dis- 

 tributional provinces. Thus, Australia, America, 

 south of Mexico; the Arctic regions; Europe, Syria, 

 Arabia, and North Africa, taken together, are each 

 regions eminently characterised by the nature of 

 their animal and vegetable populations, and each, 

 as we have seen, has its peculiar and characteristic 

 form of man. But it may be doubted whether the 

 parallel thus drawn will hold good strictly, and in 

 all cases. The Tasmanian Fauna and Flora are es- 

 sentially Australian, and the like is true, to a less 

 extent, of many, if not of all, the Papuan islands; 

 but the Negritos who inhabit these islands are 

 strikingly different from the Australians. Again, 



