664 PRIMATES. 



We therefore relinquish the attempt to ascertain the primary races, 

 and we relinquish it without regret, for we doubt if any such natural groups 

 exist or ever have existed in nature. They are useful groups for the 

 student and as such have considerable value. But too much importance 

 must not, in our opinion, be attached to them, for it cannot be shown 

 that at any previous epoch in the history of man an interdigitation of 

 races which is so characteristic of the present time did not exist. 



The primary groups * into which the human race may be divided are 

 three in number: (1) the Negroid races, (2) the Mongolian, and (3) the 

 Caucasian. 



(1) The Negroid races are characterised by frizzly hair, dark skin, a 

 broad flat nose, thick lips, prominent eyes, large teeth, a narrow pelvis, 

 and dolichocephalic skulls. The typical example of this group is the 

 African Negro. The following varieties may be mentioned : (a) the 

 Bushmen of S. Africa ; they have a yellowish skin and in certain other 

 features approach the Mongolian type. (6) The Pigmy races of the Central 

 African Forests, of the Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula and the Philip- 

 pines ; they depart from the type in having brachycephalic skulls, 

 (c) The Melanesians or Oceanic Negroes of the Western Pacific and the 

 Tasmanians ; they depart in many features from the type and are probably 

 largely mixed with other races, (d) The Australians who differ in many 

 respects from the type, notably in not possessing the frizzly hair. 



(2) The Mongolian races have a yellowish skin, black straight hair, a 

 broad face with prominent cheek bones, small nose, sunken narrow eyes, 

 teeth of moderate size, and a variable skull. The typical examples of 

 this group are the inhabitants of Northern and Central Asia (China, 

 Thibet, Japan, Burmah and Siam). In Europe they are represented in 

 a much modified form by the Lapps, the Finns, the Magyars and the 

 Turks. The other representatives of this group are the Esquimaux, the 

 Malay (including the inhabitants of Madagascar), the brown Polynesians 

 (Samoan, Tongan, Eastern Polynesian Islands and New Zealand) who 

 present in some respects affinities to the Caucasian group, and lastly the 

 original inhabitants of the continent of America who differ in some im- 

 portant respects from the type. 



(3) The Caucasian or White races, which present two main varieties, 

 (a) the Xanthochroi with fair and white skin found in Northern Europe 

 extending into North Africa and West Asia, (&) the Melanochroi with black 

 hair and skins varying in colour from white to black. The Melanochroi com- 

 prise the inhabitants of S. Europe, N. Africa, and S.W. Asia. The 

 Caucasians have soft, straight hair, well developed beard, variable cranium, 

 retreating cheek-bones, narrow and prominent nose, small teeth, and 

 broad pelvis. 



Man is not known fossil till the Pleistocene. He is there represented 

 by H. sapiens, and by an extinct species, H. primigenius Schwalbe (nean- 

 derthalensis) from the Neanderthal (1856), from Spy (1885), and from 

 Krapina in Croatia (about 1899), and possibly from other localities. This 

 extinct species is not thoroughly known, but it clearly belongs to a lower 

 grade of organisation than H. sapiens. 



* In the following account the classification adopted by Flower and 

 Lydekker (op. cit, ) has been mainly followed. 



