568 ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. 



blonde, why these should be thus, while tlie rest of the Mongoliaus 

 became black or deeply' brunette is a question which we can not an- 

 swer. It must not be forgotten that language does not stand in correla- 

 tion with outward physical phenomena. On the contrary, they are related 

 to each other in a similar manner as a process of the forehead ^which 

 may appear as a single marli without its necessitating a corresponding 

 similarity in all the rest of the given characteristics ; nor can we say 

 that underneath alight skin there is always one and the same arrange- 

 ment of internal organs. It may be entirely different. 



In this particular direction I have tried from the very first appear- 

 ance of Darwinism to modify the doctrine of heredity. I recognize as 

 truth the law of heridity, but I ever emphasized, and do so again to- 

 day, that heredity in man is only a partial one. Man is not subject to 

 a general heredity by means of which all peculiarities are developed in 

 him from generation to generation. If botanists have begun upon a 

 basis of local variations to establish subdivisions, and in that way have 

 instituted within the same genus individual subgenera or variations 

 with hereditary character, it is a very easy matter to form out of these 

 sub-genera new genera. But the ftict that within the same genus there 

 occur individual variations which appear to be hereditary, only proves 

 that the same individual may be the possessor of different hereditary 

 peculiarities. 



It is indeed well known that one may inherit peculiarities from both 

 father and mother and thus unite in himself a double heredity ; or he may 

 even exhibit characteristics which belonged to his grandparents while 

 at the same time marks may be present which were inherited from his 

 parents. In the same individual may unite then the aggregate of par- 

 tial heredities, which are more or less limited. There may be many of 

 these parts, but that can not be established. Only in the case of twins 

 it sometimes happens they can not be distinguished without much pains- 

 taking observations ; whenever they can be distinguished it is done by 

 means of marks peculiar to each one of them. Hereditary character- 

 istics under some circumstances may appear with such prominence 

 that the resulting shape actually differs from the type. 



Often people are born with six fingers and six toes. These transmit 

 this peculiarity and whole families of this description come into exist- 

 ence. If this peculiarity were cultivated by in-breeding one might 

 get a whole tribe with six fingers. Something like this exists in the 

 dynasty of Hadramaut in Southern Arabia where only six-fingered 

 descendants have any right to the crown. Certainly these are peculiar 

 formations, but it can not be said on that account that in j^rimeval times 

 all mankind had six fingers. The negroes in the neighborhood of the 

 Congo River have often web-membranes between their fingers and since 

 fishes have not only five but many more single rays in their fins, be- 

 tween which there is found such membrane, while the rays show, also, 

 articulation, the thought suggests itself that web-membranes of the 



