14 INTRODUCTION [CHAP. I 



its biological relations is clearly appropriate. And to the sum 

 total of these subjects, the methods of Biometry and of Mendelian 

 research will apply. 



A fourth division consists in the study of Geographical distri- 

 bution and its relation to Mankind. The influence of environment 

 is so intimately connected with the factors of climate, that the 

 vast importance of this question is clearly evident. Moreover it is 

 to be noted that those factors are not entirely neutralized even by 

 the resources of modern civilization, though their action may be 

 somewhat affected thereby. 



A fifth method, more closely allied to the first (that of Com- 

 parative Morphology) than to any other, involves the investigation 

 of the characters of such fossil animals as may be supposed to 

 have figured in the ancestral history of Man and his nearest allies 

 among the animals still in existence. This section of the science 

 of Palaeontology claims much attention in the attempts to solve 

 the problems of our subject. 



Having discussed the general position of Man in Nature, it 

 will be necessary to consider the various human races, and to 

 enquire whether some of those races are to be regarded as 

 morphologically inferior to others, and especially whether the 

 races which are commonly accounted as lower in the scale of 

 civilization and culture are also inferior in morphological status. 

 Should this be established, it will next be necessary to ascertain 

 whether such morphologically inferior forms can be considered as 

 representatives of the generalized human ancestors. We thus enter 

 on a division of the second great question, viz. that of the appearance 

 and nature of the ancestral animal-forms which led up to Man. 



The foregoing notes will give an idea of Human Morphology 

 as studied from the standpoint of Anthropology ; the immediate 

 subject of consideration is thus seen to be the place of Man in 

 the zoological series, or animal kingdom. Without entering into 

 an elaborate exposition of various types of life, it will suffice to 

 say that judged by his structure Man is undoubtedly a vertebrate 

 animal of the class Mammalia. Starting from this point, it is 

 proposed to briefly study the characteristics of Mammals so as 

 to understand how it is that this statement as regards Man can 

 be justified. The following chapter will accordingly deal with 

 Mammalia in general. 



