32 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



who have occupied their more northern and inland area for a 

 geological epoch, aside from recent mixtures with more northern 

 peoples, have not grown considerably lighter than their early an- 

 cestors were, in spite of any notion on their part that their own 

 actual color was the most beautiful of all. And the fact is cer- 

 tain that the peoples of the more elevated and colder regions 

 show a universal tendency to lighter colors of the skin, hair, and 

 eyes, the colder the latitude and the more elevated the country 

 which they inhabit. 



It is forcibly argued by Mr. Darw^in that the earliest semi- 

 human tribes were both bearded and hairy, and that their succes- 

 sors, in course of time, by sexual selection, became more and 

 more naked and beardless. Whatever the caUse, the fact seems 

 to be so, generally, with all the colored races to the present time. 

 In this characteristic, the red Indians share with the Mongolian 

 and Malayan populations. At the same time, they exhibit such 

 well-marked differences in color, in the high nose, in the forms 

 of the skull, and other peculiarities, as to distinguish them now 

 from all other races of men. And this fact would certainly argue 

 a separation from them for an immense length of time, if not an 

 occupation of this continent since the beginning of the Pliocene 

 period. Except the Ainos (most probably an isolated survival 

 from a very ancient origin), the white race is said to be the most 

 bearded and hairy of all. The suggestion of Mr. Darwin, that 

 this character is due to a later reversion towards a primitive cha- 

 racteristic in the semi-human progenitors of all, is at least not 

 inconsistent with the theory here maintained, viz., that the white 

 race and color received its distinctive development from approxi- 

 mate types ofdarker shades growing lighter and lighter as in the 

 course of migration from lower latitudes and levels they ascended 

 to the high fertile valleys of Central Asia ; not suddenly, but as 

 the slow effect of the climate and conditions (together with in- 

 ward causes) operating through a geological epoch, in which 

 sexual selection may have continued to have some operation. 



What is thus brought to light, concerning the known races of 

 men, would seem to indicate in general a distribution of black 

 races southwardly into Africa and Australia ; of brown races, 

 westwardly into northern Africa and southern Europe, and east- 

 wardly into the Pacific islands and America, on either side of the 



