14 THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



The classification of Retzius is based upon a single characteristic 

 of the cranium, which, however, is merely the numerical expres- 

 sion of the norma verticalis of Blumenbach, that is, the cephalic 

 index. 



According to Retzius we have only two forms of crania, the long 

 and short; though, in fact, many forms of short and long crania 

 are found differing very much from each other. 



When craniometry was developed in a systematic manner, fol- 

 lowing principally the work of Broca, it appeared the key of 

 anthropology, and took the first place among means of investi- 

 gations, as being the most effectual method for distinguishing 

 human races. The French exaggerated its value; the Italians 

 followed with zeal, in spite of the skepticism of Mantegazza, the 

 head of the Florentine school of anthropology; the Germ.ans 

 have been more rational, and with them the Swiss, represented by 

 His and Rutimeyer. At the head of them I would place Blumen- 

 bach, who based his small but valuable book upon a rational foun- 

 dation.^ The Germans try to establish cranial type almost or 

 entirely independent of the cephalic index; as one may see from 

 the works of von Holder, of Ecker, of His and Rutimeyer, of 

 Virchow, of Kollmann, of Ranke and others. In my opinion the 

 German method is an approximation to the truth, but unfortunately 

 the conception of type is undeveloped and, I should say, has 

 remained rudimental. because craniometry, like a pernicious weed 

 among the grain, injures the harvest. Virchow, the most pro- 

 nounced scholar in anthropolog)^, and the man who has studied 

 more than all others the crania of all peoples, believes that the 

 germ of a sound anthropology should develop from it. He con- 

 cedes only a secondary value to craniometry ; but, nevertheless, in 

 his last work, precisely when he distinguishes types, attempting 

 to establish them definitely, he determines them by craniometry 

 alone. In fact, in his great work. Crania Ethnica Americana^ 

 he defines types in this manner: "Die Form ist long, schmal und 

 relativ hoch," or, " Die Form des Schadels ist hypsi-brachycephal," 

 and gives the index and the measures. Now the reader who will 

 observe that the Araucanians, the Pampeans, the Chilians of 

 Huanilla and of Copiapo, and the Peruvians of Iquique, have the 



^ De generis humani varietate nativa. Ilia edit. GSttingen, 1795. 



