THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 1 3 



3d. Having classified all the cranial types in different regions 

 and among different peoples, we may learn by their geographical 

 distribution the numerical extension of types and also their 

 geographical origin ; that is, the place of departure and the course 

 of emigration and dispersion of such forms. 



4th. Then it will be easy to learn what cranial characteristics 

 are found among populations which already have ethnic names, 

 ancient and modern, and to discover among them points of simi- 

 larity and difference. 



Being, therefore, obliged on acount of universal human hybrid- 

 ism to select as a guide to classification the most important and 

 the most useful of the internal characteristics, we find greater 

 advantages in choosing the human cranium, about which all the 

 other characteristics, internal and external, are grouped. If we 

 select one characteristic, or a number of variable characteristics, 

 we shall find ourselves in the same position as other anthropolo- 

 gists who classify by external or accessory traits. It follows that 

 accepting the cranium as the principal internal characteristic, we 

 impliedly accept the brain in its various forms, and the brain is the 

 most important of human organs. 



II. 



The classification of man by means of the cranium alone is by no 

 means new. It will be well to consider these schemes, from that 

 of Retzius down to the last, that of Kollmann. Nor, indeed, is 

 the conception of the importance and superiority of the cranium 

 for distinguishing ethnic groups by any means recent. To show 

 that, we have but to refer to the enormous work which has been 

 done, from Morton to Davis and Thurman, from Broca to G. 

 Retzius, to De Quatrefages, to von Holder, to Ecker, to His and 

 Rutimeyer, to Virchow, to Ranke, to others still more numerous, 

 in Italy, from Nicolucci to Mantegazza. 



Notwithstanding so much labor expended on the human cra- 

 nium, satisfactory results were not reached, nor, indeed, I may 

 affirm, have we yet reached them, at least not in the signification 

 which I intend these results to have. The fault lies in the nature 

 of the method of studying the human cranium and in the value 

 attributed to craniometiy. 



