THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 21 



acquired in following scientific habits and which have become a 

 part of science and public opinion, because in face of the danger 

 of seeing human varieties doubled or decupled, he feels an aver- 

 sion, like an instinct of preservation for that which is established 

 and which has become the belief of most scientists and cultivated 

 men. The human races until now have been either three, four or 

 fi\e, but never six; the first time it is affirmed that they may be 

 twenty, opposition is inevitable; it is the fjiisoneisni of Lombroso, 

 the inertia of the mind, which opposes such resistance, just as 

 matter is opposed to every change in the direction of its forces. 

 Treating of man, into which we ourselves enter with our senti- 

 ments, the opposition is greater, even in spite of good intentions. 

 Notwithstanding this psychological phenomenon which influences 

 us all, the force of facts is superior to every inertia and sooner or 

 later will conquer. 



With the observations and the methods which I propose, I 

 believe that many errors will be eliminated from anthropology. 

 Those errors have been accepted because we have never pos- 

 sessed natural scientific methods for the study of human classifi- 

 cation, such as we have in zoology. To apply zoological methods 

 to man appeared to lower him to his congenerous beings; and, 

 while in zoology, science advances freely, in anthropology, on the 

 other hand, preoccupations embarrass researches. I observe that 

 such preoccupations do not exist in two very eminent anthro- 

 pologists, although the contrary at first appears evident in one of 

 them — Blumenbach and De Quatrefages — at least a century apart. 

 Blumenbach, in a valuable little book, attempts to apply the 

 zoological method to man, not only for classification, but for the 

 explanation of the causes of animal and human varieties. De 

 Quatrefages, in his last work, employs the same method and the 

 same scientific freedom. Unfortunately the followers or succes- 

 sors of both have only followed their masters in form, but not in 

 method. Blumenbach, who, after various researches, reduces the 

 human species to five varieties, finds, however, that human varia- 

 tions are infinite in number. If his method had been followed 

 strictly, the number of human varieties would long ago have been 

 increased, both in respect to the structure and the cranial forms. 



The neglect of such methods and the failure to distinguish 

 human varieties by means of the cranium has caused a curious 



