ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. 567 



encounter no objection from us. A possibility exists, we acknowledge, 

 that all races and tribes may have sprung from a single pair by means 

 of transmutations. But no one has actually demonstrated that negroes 

 descended from white parents, or vice versa. Whenever a black tribe 

 is found the naturalist supposes that there were negroes before, and 

 where a white tribe is located that such a tribe always has been white. 

 Of course, all this is likewise a mere suppositiou, which can not be es- 

 tablished. In short, every proof is lacking to show that a nation or a 

 tribe is capable of a total transmutation. This is seen in Egypt. I 

 thought that I could find by means of comparative examinations of the 

 \i\ ing and the remains and pictures of the dead some points establish- 

 ing a change of ancient Egyptians into Egyptians of historic times, but 

 I have returned with the conviction that ancient Egypt and its neigh- 

 boring countries have not essentially changed during all these periods. 

 If Menes really existed, there were in his time negroes, since quite 

 old mural paintings show negroes with all their peculiarities. Nor 

 do the native Egyptians offer any data to speak of. The Egyptian of 

 to-day possesses still the forms of the ancient one. Unfortunately for 

 us, Egyptian skulls and skeletons are not as ancient as we might wish. 

 There has never a skull been seen belonging to the three oldest dynas- 

 ties. Hence there is no possibility of a continuous list. But anyhow 

 the register goes as fai back as 3000 b. o. with positive certainty, which 

 gives us in all some 5000 years. During this long time only one 

 difference has been noticed, namely : An appearance of brachycephalons 

 men in the old kingdom in contrast with dolicho- and meso-cephalous 

 people of the new kingdom. At any rate, definite proof is not wanting 

 that since the beginning of the new kingdom, 1700 b. c, no noteworthy 

 change of type has taken place. A permanence of type accordingly 

 during thirty-five centuries is established. 



It does not look unreasonable to assume a certain influence of climate 

 and occupation. In this respect both the straitest orthodoxy and the 

 purest Darwinism agree. Their thesis is the same. The former go as 

 far back as the first human pair, the latter beyond it to the first pair of 

 animals ; aside from this they both accept the transmutation of a primi- 

 tive race into different races. Those can not sustain scientifically 

 their i)osition in the case of man, and these as regards the monkey. If 

 you should ask me whether the first i)air was white or black, I must 

 confess I do not know. We have no foundation upon which to base 

 any decision. It can not be supposed that there lived, e. g., in France 

 at the time of the troglodytes all negroes with woolly heads and that 

 from these sprung white and straight-haired i)eople. For other reasons 

 moreover it is not clear to me how or where this could have happened. 

 The very oldest remains show already differences. It sounds very 

 plausible that the north made man light complexioned. But in Amer- 

 ica where similar conditions exist we do not find any blonde natives. 

 The primitive Germans as well as the Finns of Mongolian origin are 



