'1 



INTRODUCTION 



And the chief advances determined by these researches may be summarized 

 as follows : 



(1) The employment of the word "anthropology" as descriptive of 

 morphological studies. 



(2) Eecognition of the fact that no sharp lines demarcate the several 

 varieties of Mankind, the transition from type to type being imperceptible. 



(3) The clear enunciation of a elassificatory scheme of the varieties of 

 Mankind, admittedly arbitrary, but devised with the object of facilitating 

 study : the classification was based on considerations of the characters of the 

 skin, the hair, and the skull. 



(4) A clear enunciation of the influence of external causes in producing 

 and perpetuating variations in animals, including Man ; recognition of the 

 origin of varieties through "degeneration"; Blumenbach thus very nearly 

 anticipated some important discoveries reserved for Darwin at a later date. 



Fig. 3. Blumenbach's " norma verticalis " of three crania; A, an " Ethiopian " ; 

 B, a Georgian woman; C, a Tunguse. The different degrees to which the maxilla 

 and the,zygcrmalic arches project beyond the periphery of the eranTaThones is to be 

 noticed. (The figure is copied from that illustrating Blumenbach's Works as trans- 

 lated by the Anthropological Society.) 



All differences in the cranial forms of Mankind were referred either to environ- 

 ment or to artificial interference. At the same time, it is suggested that 

 artificial modifications may in time be inherited (cf. Blumenbach's Works, 

 p. 121). 



A general review of this work, together with that of the other 

 authors cited, will shew that the main advances of the 18th 

 century may be described as (a) the recognition of Man as a definite 

 zoological form to which the methods and results of zoology are 

 applicable, and (6) the replacement of general impressions by 

 precise anatomical comparisons. 



