vii.] METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 157 



ethnologist. We know absolutely nothing of the ethno- 

 logical characters of the men of Abbeville and Hoxne ; 

 but must be content with the demonstration, in itself of 

 immense value, that Man existed in Western Europe 

 when its physical condition was widely different from 

 what it is now, and when animals existed, which, though 

 they belong to what is, properly speaking, the present 

 order of things, have long been extinct. Beyond the 

 limits of a fraction of Europe, Palaeontology tells us 

 nothing of man or of his works. 



To sum up our knowledge of the ethnological past 

 of man : so far as the light is bright, it shows him 

 substantially as he is now ; and, when it grows dim, it 

 permits us to see no sign that he was other than he 

 is now. 



It is a general belief that men of different stocks 

 differ as much physiologically as they do morphologically ; 

 but it is very hard to prove, in any particular case, how 

 much of a supposed national characteristic is due to 

 inherent physiological peculiarities, and how much to 

 the influence of circumstances. There is much evidence 

 to show, however, that some stocks enjoy a partial or 

 complete immunity from diseases which destroy, or 

 decimate, others. Thus there seems good ground for 

 the belief that Negroes are remarkably exempt from 

 yellow fever ; and that, among Europeans, the melano- 

 chrous people are less obnoxious to its ravages than the 

 xanthochrous. But many writers, not content with 

 physiological differences of this kind, undertake to prove 

 the existence of others of far greater moment ; and, 

 indeed, to show that certain stocks of mankind exhibit, 

 more or less distinctly, the physiological characters of 

 true species. Unions between these stocks, and still 

 more between the half-breeds arising from their mixture, 

 are affirmed to be either infertile, or less fertile than those 



