184 C. W. M. POYNTER AND J. J. KEEGAN 
In Huxley’s classification the negroid type includes all individuals 
in which the skin and eyes are brown or black, the hair the 
same color, short, woolly and scant, the skull dolicocephalic, 
the forehead rounded, the nasal bones flat and the teeth promi- 
nent. Deniker classifies them as follows: ‘‘The Negroes may 
likewise be divided into two sub-races: (a) The Nigritans, of 
the Sudan and Guinea, more prognathous (more ‘negroid,’ 
if we may thus express it) than (b) The Bantus of subequatorial 
and southern Africa.’? The remainder of the dark-skinned 
woolly or curly haired, broad-nosed people he divides into six 
races; Bushmen, Negrito, Ethiopian, Australian and Dravidian, 
each placed with a rank equal to that of the Negro as just defined. 
The American Negro originally came from the east coast of 
Guinea and consequently belongs to the Nigritian sub-race as 
classified by Deniker. Ever since 1785 the Negro has been a 
conspicuous figure in the history of this country and his place 
in the racial scale has been much discussed. His inferior social 
and educational status is generally admitted but the question 
as to whether this subordinate position is grounded in structural 
inferiority is doubted, and upon the settlement of this point 
the solution of the race problem in a large measure still rests. 
Proof of the inferior position of the Negro in the racial scale 
was first sought in structure and it was suggested that he presents 
- morphological features which suggest a closer relation to the 
lower animal forms than shown by the so-called higher races. 
However, more extensive study has not proven that these strue- 
tural differences, when they exist, necessarily indicate inferiority. 
Boas states, ‘‘This is, however, no proof whatever that these 
differences signify any appreciable inferiority of the Negro 
* * * *  * for these racial differences are much less than 
the range of variation found in either race considered by itself.” 
Some attempts have been made to establish racial character- 
istics in the brain. The first of these had to do with brain weight, 
and, while there is still some division of opinion on the subject, 
it may be safely said that no fundamental basis has been estab- 
lished for the determination of race, sex or mental development 
through gross weight of the brain. The next step was a study 
