6o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



remote geographically, we can not help coming to the conclusion that 

 these customs have either been communicated in some hitherto unex- 

 plained manner, or are the outcome of some common element of hu- 

 manity, in either of which cases they tell nothing of the special rela- 

 tions or affinities of the races which practice them. 



This subject of ethnography, or the discrimination and description 

 of race characteristics, is perhaps the most practically important of 

 the various branches of anthropology. Its importance to those who 

 have to rule — and there are few of us now who are not called upon to 

 bear our share of the responsibility of government — can scarcely be 

 overestimated in an empire like this, the population of which is 

 composed of examples of almost every diversity under which the 

 human body can manifest itself. The physical characteristics of 

 race, so strongly marked in many cases, are probably always asso- 

 ciated with equally or more diverse characteristics of temper and in- 

 tellect. In fact, even when the physical divergences are weakly 

 shown, as in the case of the different races which contribute to make 

 up the home portion of the empire, the mental and moral character- 

 istics are still most strongly marked. As it behooves the wise physi- 

 cian not only to study the particular kind of disease under which his 

 patient is suffering, and then to administer the approved remedies for 

 such disease, but also to take into careful account the peculiar idiosyn- 

 crasy and inherited tendencies of the individual, which so greatly 

 modify both the course of the disease and the action of remedies, so 

 it is absolutely necessary for the statesman who would govei-n success- 

 fully, not to look upon human nature in the abstract and endeavor 

 to apply universal rules, but to consider the special moral, intellectual, 

 and social capabilities, wants, and aspirations of each particular race 

 with which he has to deal. A form of government under which one 

 race would live happily and prosperously would to another be the 

 cause of unendurable misery. No greater mistake could be made, 

 for instance, than to apply to the case of the Egyptian fellah the 

 remedies which may be desirable to remove the difficulties and dis- 

 advantages under which the Birmingham artisan may labor in his 

 struggle through life. It is not only that their education, training, 

 and circumstances are dissimilar, but that their very mental constitu- 

 tion is totally distinct. And when we have to do with people still 

 more widely removed from ourselves — African negroes, American In- 

 dians, Australian or Pacific islanders— it seems almost impossible to 

 find any common ground of union or modus Vivendi ; the mere con- 

 tact of the races generally ends in the extermination of one of them. 

 If such disastrous consequences can not be altogether averted, we have 

 it still in our power to do much to mitigate their evils. 



All these questions, then, should be carefully studied by those 

 who have any share in the government of people of races alien to 

 themselves. A knowledge of their special characters and relations 



