268. 



NATURE 



\_yuly 17, 1879 



ing, atid cattle-breeding. Occasionally, when united 

 under the leadership of some military chieftains of ex- 

 traordinary capacity, as Attila, Tchinghis Khan, and 

 Timur, they have overrun nearly the whole of the con- 

 tinents of Asia and Europe ; now, however, they are 

 everywhere either the actual subjects, or live by suffer- 

 ance, of the people over whom they formerly terrorised — 

 the Russians, Chinese, &c. 



The anatomy of these races is only represented in the 

 museum by a complete skeleton and several skulls of 

 Samoyedes, a people now inhabiting the most inclement 

 parts of North-western Siberia. They were conquered 

 by the Russians in 1499. They are dwellers in tents 

 made of pieces of bark covered with reindeer skins, and 

 live chiefly by fishing and the chase, and by the produce 

 of the herds of reindeer which they keep. Their external 

 physical characters are always described as being typi- 

 cally Mongolian. Their skulls are very broad and low, 

 the average latitudinal index of four being 847, and the 

 average altitudinal index 719. They are, therefore, de- 

 cidedly brachycephalic. The orbits are round (mega- 

 seme), the average index being 938 ; the nasal index is 

 431, so that they are truly leptorhine ; the alveolar index 

 of 102 shows them to be mesognathous, with a strong 

 inclination to prognathism. The skeleton, that of an old 

 male, is slightly below five feet in height. The pelvic 

 index is only 78, but both bones of the upper extremity 

 are disproportionately long compared with those of the 

 lower limb, and the radius and the tibia are relatively 

 longer compared with the proximal segments of the limbs 

 than in Europeans. 



The Turks, the Magyars, the Finns, and other repre- 

 sentatives of the Mongolian type, have for so many 

 generations intermingled with the people through whom 

 they have passed in their migrations, that their original 

 physical characters have been completely modified. Even 

 the Lapps, a dimihutive race of nomads, inhabiting the 

 most northern parts of Europe, supposed to be of ^lon- 

 golian descent, show so little of the special attributes of 

 that race, that it is difficult to assign them a place in a 

 classification based on physical characters. Their crania 

 are remarkably capacious, one in the collection being as 

 large as 1,800 c.c, and another 1,600. They are brachy- 

 cephalic, have a' latitudinal index (average of seven) of 

 812. The orbital index of the same number is 984. The 

 nasi-malar index, though lower than in the true Mongo- 

 lian, being about 136°, is higher than in the other 

 Europeans. 



Races of Eastern Asia 



Many races of Asia, of similar physical type to the 

 Mongolian, are divided from the Altaic group by lan- 

 guage and by mode of life. One large group is formed 

 by the people of Thibet and Burmah, with various tribes 

 dwelling within the north-eastern frontiers of India. The 

 four Burmese crania in the museum are all short, high, 

 round, or rather square skulls ; the average latitudinal 

 index is 82, and the altitudinal index nearly as high. 

 The orbital, nasal, and alveolar indices are all moderate. 

 The nasi-malar angle of 144° is thoroughly Mongoloid. 

 From the Burmese, the transition (physically) to the 

 Malays is very easy ; and through the Malays, the purer 

 races of the Polynesians are connected with the inhabit- 

 ants of Central Asia. 



The various races constituting the population of the 

 vast empire of China all belong to the Mongolian type, 

 and ha\e gradually moved southwards to their present 

 dwelling-places. The existing reigning dynasty is Mand- 

 schurian, belonging to the Tungus branch of the Altaics. 

 The Chinese proper formed their earliest settlements in 

 the north-western provinces of what is now called China 

 about 2000 B.C. The aboriginal tribes they found there 

 still exist, as the Miaw or Miautze, &c. 



The following cranial characters of the Chinese are 



deduced from sixteen specimens of the male sex r — The 

 average capacity is 1,424. The index of breadth is 782, 

 so they fall under the mesocephalic category, inclining to 

 brachycephaly. All the other Mongolian races hitherto 

 treated of have been decidedly brachycephalic. The 

 height-index is lower, viz., 753. The general form of the 

 face is Mongolian, the forehead smooth, with little deve- 

 lopment of the glabella, the space between the orbits 

 wide, the malar bones large and prominent, the anterior 

 root of the jugal arch stands out laterally from the face, 

 then turns sharply backwards beyond the maxillo-jugal 

 suture, instead of gradually sloping backwards from that 

 point, as in the English skull. The nasi-malar angle is 

 142 deg. The orbital, nasal, and alveolar indices are all 

 medium, being respectively 869, 504, and 993. 



The Japanese differ entirely from the Chinese, and re- 

 semble the Altaic races in the polysyllabic character of 

 their language. They appear to have migrated from the 

 Asiatic continent to the islands they now inhabit in the 

 seventh century B.C., first taking possession of the 

 southernmost island, Kiu-siu, and soon afterwards passing 

 on to Niphon, gi-adually driving out the original popula- 

 tion, the Ainos. It is, however, probable, that some por- 

 tion of the latter became absorbed into the conquering 

 race, which circumstance may account for part of the diver- 

 sity of features and type seen among them. In the main 

 the physical characters of the Japanese are Mongolian. 

 At present we have really very little ^information about 

 their anatomy. There are but six male skulls in the Col- 

 lege Museum, which give the following averages : — Ca- 

 pacity, 1,486 ; latitudinal index, 771 ; altitudinal inde.x, 

 753 ; orbital index, 910 ; nasal, 472 ; alveolar, 971 ; nasi- 

 malar angle, 141 deg. 



The people who inhabited Japan before the Japanese 

 are called the Ainos. They have lately attracted much 

 attention from ethnologists, owing to the fact that in their 

 physical characters, manners, and customs, they entirely 

 differ from all the other races of the part of the world in 

 in which they dwell. They formerly inhabited the whole 

 of the Japanese islands, Saghalien, and the Kuriles. They 

 are mentioned in Chinese books before the time of Con- 

 fucius, under the significant title of the villous or hairy 

 men, and are called by the Japanese, " Mo-sins," a word 

 having the same signification. " Aino," in their own 

 language, means "the men," or "the people." Their 

 numbers are now extremely reduced, and the territory 

 they occupy limited by the encroachments of the 

 Japanese from the south, who have driven them up to the 

 most northern part of the island of Jesso, while the 

 Mandschu Tartars have taken from them more than two- 

 thirds of the Island of Saghalien. Though their language 

 has received a considerable infusion of Japanese and 

 Mandschu words, it appears to be of fundamentally 

 different origin. They have no agriculture, and live 

 principally by fishing and hunting, shooting deer and 

 bears with the bow and arrow. They appear to be good- 

 natured, honest, and of a mild, contented disposition. 



In stature they are short (the men about 5 feet 2 inches 

 in height), but stouter made, and more hardy and mus- 

 cular, than the Japanese. Their head is large, their colour 

 rather dark ; their forehead low, the superciliary ridges 

 prominent, the nose straight, short, and thick, and 

 rounded at tlie end. The eyes are open, and not oblique 

 like those of the Mongols, and bright, sparkling, and 

 intensely black. What distinguishes them most in 

 external appearance from all the surrounding races is the 

 abundant development of their hair and beard, but this 

 has been much exaggerated ; it is black, coarse, straight, 

 and shaggy ; that on the head is worn long over the 

 shoulders, and mingles with the beard. The few skulls 

 known are heavy, and have the muscular impressions 

 strongly marked. The average altitudinal index of four 

 in Dr. Barnard Davis's collection is 78 ; of three mea- 

 sured by Prof. Flower, 74 '3. These present none of the 



