THE PROBLEMS OF SOMATOLOGY 507 



from a more carefully conducted series of observations. In another 

 field from which great light may be expected, namely, the in- 

 vestigations into the laws of growth, much has been done, espe- 

 cially by Boas and his collaborators, relating to the laws which 

 determine the rate of growth of children, yet the problems of far- 

 reaching importance are almost entirely without means of solu- 

 tion. The need for observations on this subject is most important 

 and pressing, and in such observations should be included full 

 data relating to mortality, nutrition, and occupation. 



What, finally, we have to ask, are the criteria, or rather the 

 methods applicable for the solution of the fundamental problem 

 of somatology? As already indicated, general appearance, such 

 as form, color, etc., sufficed for the first classification of man- 

 kind. Later these general observations were supplemented by 

 studies on the skeleton, especially the skull. The ease with which 

 the skeleton could be studied and the fact that our knowledge of 

 extinct races was based entirely upon the skeleton led to the great 

 development of the application of the metric method, and em- 

 braced within what is usually termed craniology. The ease with 

 which such methods were pursued, and the infallibility, as was 

 first supposed, of the results of such investigations had a tendency 

 to increase enormously the number of measurements taken, -and 

 this led to an almost total disregard of systems other than the 

 skeleton in the study of the anatomy of man. So eagerly was the 

 metric method pursued that it may be said fairly to have gone to 

 seed, and the result was such that no less eminent somatologist 

 than Ehrenreich questioned whether the methods of craniology 

 were worthy of serious attention. Nevertheless it is true that crani- 

 ology has proved, and will prove to a larger extent, when used 

 properly and intelligently, of the very greatest assistance in de- 

 fining types, although apparently it is destined not to play an 

 important part in the classification of those larger groups of man- 

 kind which we call races. It must be admitted also that up to the 

 present time the metric method has discovered no criteria which 

 will enable us to distinguish individuals of one race or type from 

 those of another. Hence the claim has been put forth that the 

 characteristic features of types were not stable; that they were 

 influenced to such an extent by both geographic and social en- 

 vironment that the results derived from craniology were not trust- 

 worthy. As a matter of fact, it is not the fault of the method, but 

 rather the lack of a sufficient amount of observation which, up 

 to the present time, has made it impossible for us to give an accu- 

 rate and exhaustive description of the somatological characters 

 of groups of individuals from one locality which will enable us to 

 identify them without difficulty. Metrical data, the observations 



