viii THE HUMAN RACES 377 



turned the scale in favour of either the one or the other ; it may be 

 that the time is not yet ripe. We must hope that the discovery 

 and study of other fossil human remains and further examination 

 of the characteristics of the different living races may lead to 

 more profitable discussion of the problem and in time to its 

 solution. 



Different classifications of the human races from the point of 

 view of monogenism and polygenism will be given later. 



VIII. Another argument much discussed in anthropology 

 is that of the classification of the human races. The difficulties 

 encountered in this problem are closely connected with the value 



: 



FIG. 143. Polynesian women (Notanthro2)u-s ci 



and importance attributed to the different morphological and 

 distinctive characteristics which we have already mentioned and 

 which have been regarded by various writers as differential 

 characteristics on which to base their classification. We have 

 seen in fact that no one of the said characteristics suffices for the 

 demarcation of limits separating the different races sharply from 

 one another ; one and all prove to have intermediate stages which 

 gradually join the extremes. 



In general it may be said that the more numerous and more 

 thorough the researches into the different morphological character- 

 istics, the more do scientists tend to increase the number of groups 

 into which the human race can be divided. 



