METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 215 



termed Ethnology, must be mainly founded on the 

 relations of their languages." 



An eminent living philologer, August 

 Schleicher, in a recent essay, puts forward the 

 claims of his science still more forcibly: — 



" If, however, language is the human Kar Qoxhv> the 

 suggestion arises whether it should not form the basis of 

 any scientific systematic arrangement of mankind; 

 whether the foundation of the natural classification of the 

 genus Homo has not been discovered in it. 



" How little constant are cranial peculiarities and other 

 so-called race characters! Language, on the other hand, 

 is always a perfectly constant diagnostic. A German 

 may occasionally compete in hair and prognathism with 

 a negro, but a negro language will never be his mother 

 tongue. Of how little importance for mankind the so- 

 called race characters are, is shown by the fact that 

 speakers of languages belonging to one and the same 

 linguistic family may exhibit the peculiarities of various 

 races. Thus the settled Osmanli Turk exhibits Caucasian 

 characters, whilst other so-called Tartaric Turks exem- 

 plify the Mongol type. On the other hand, the Magyar 

 and the Basque do not depart in any essential physical 

 peculiarity from the Indo-Germans, whilst the Magyar, 

 Basque, and Indo-Germanic tongues are widely different. 

 Apart from their inconstancy, again, the so-called race 

 characters can hardly yield a scientifically natural system. 

 Languages, on the other hand, readily fall into a natural 

 arrangement, like that of which other vital products are 

 susceptible, especially when viewed from their morpho- 

 logical side. . . . The externally visible structure of the 

 cerebral and facial skeletons, and of the body generally, 

 is less important than that no less material but infinitely 

 more delicate corporeal structure, the function of which 



