184 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



forms and with their present-day characteristics; the 

 common character of skin color exhibited by any group 

 of peoples of a single continent was to them only a 

 convenient label for purposes of description and classifi- 

 cation. It was not until years later that fundamental 

 resemblances were recognized as indicating an actual 

 blood relationship of the races displaying them, and 

 therefore of evolution. Since the doctrine of human 

 descent and of the divergence of human races in later 

 evolution has been accepted, those who have attempted 

 to work out fully the complete ancestry of different 

 peoples have found that no single character can be taken 

 by itself, while the various criteria themselves differ in 

 reliability ; the color of the skin is not so sure a guide as 

 the character of the hair and skull, wherefore the classi- 

 fications of recent times, notably those of Huxley and 

 Haeckel, have been based largely upon the latter. The 

 latest systems have been more rigidly scientific and more 

 in accord with the most modern conceptions of organic 

 relationships in general, as evidenced by the thorough- 

 going methods of Duckworth in his recent treatise on 

 human classification. 



It now remains to present the salient facts regarding 

 the genetic relationships of typical human races, 

 although it is obviously impossible to go into all of the 

 details of the subject. But these are not essential for 

 the main purpose, which is to show that the evolution- 

 ary explanation is the only one that is reasonable and 

 self-consistent. Opinions are sometimes widely at 

 variance regarding countless minor points, but no an- 

 thropologist of to-day can be anything but an evolu- 

 tionist, because the main principles upon which the 



