October 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



225 



in great perfection the artificial frizzing-out of the hair, is 

 herewitli given. And it may be mentioned that in the 

 case of tribes who are in the habit of thus dressing their 

 locks, photographs have a decided advantage over busts, 

 in which it is impossible to reproduce the peculiar style of 

 capillary adornment. 



As regards the exhibition of human skulls and skeletons, 

 it must be freely confessed that in a public museum these 

 have, at least at first sight, a somewhat gruesome and 



Tasmanian. Woman. From a Photograph of a Life-like Model 

 in the British Museiini. 



ghastly effect. Nevertheless, this is to a very great extent 

 undoubtedly due to early assoiiations and prejudices ; and 

 if we can but disabuse ourselves of these, such objects are 

 really very far from being repulsive, especially if artistically 

 arranged among the busts and photographs, and not 

 occupying the whole of the shelves to themselves. Apart 

 from all such considerations, the exhibition of parts of 

 man's anatomy is, however, of primary importance in the 

 formation of an ethnological gallery, seeing that many of 

 the most important racial characteristics are displayed 

 solely by the skull and skeleton. Moreover, in order 

 rightly to appreciate the marked cranial peculiarities 

 distinguishing even the lowest representatives of the human 

 race so broadly from the highest of the man-like apes, it 

 is essential that a large series of the skulls of both should 

 be on view. 



Although there is stUl some difference of opinion among 

 anthropologists as to the number of primary branches 

 into which the existing members of the human race should 

 be divided, in the arrangement adopted in the Museum 

 only three such branches are recognised. These are (1) the 

 Negroid, or black branch ; (2) the Mongolian, or yellow 

 and red branch ; and (3) the Caucasian, or white branch. 

 Wherever and whenever these three branches first 

 originated, they are now so intermixed in many parts of 

 the world by crossing, that it is frequently difficult to 

 decide to which certain races belong, and it is consequently 

 in some instances impossible to draw a hard and fast line 

 between them. Nevertheless, the typical representatives 

 of each show very distinct modifications. Although the 



colour of the skin forms one of the most marked points 

 of distinction between such typical representatives, it must 

 not be inferred that this character will hold good for all 

 the races included under each. The Sudanis, for instance, 

 many of whom are included in the Caucasian branch, are 

 often as black as the Negroes, partly no doubt owing to a 

 large infusion of Negro blood. 



To give all the characteristics of each of the three 

 primary existing branches of mankind, and to enumerate 

 all the different races included in each, would obviously be 

 far beyond the scope of an article like the present, and 

 only a few of such points can be touched upon. 



The Negroid branch is obviously the lowest of the three, 

 as is exempUfied by the projecting jaws, everted lips, and 

 the flat and broad nose, supported by flattened nasal bones 

 quite unlike the arched form which they assume in the 

 Caucasian branch. It is in this branch alone that the 

 so-called " woolly," or more correctly, " frizzly " hair is 

 met with ; the frizzly nature being due to each individual 

 hair being elliptical instead of circular in cross section, 

 and thus tending to twist on its own axis. But this 

 frizzly character of the hair is not common to all members 

 of the Negroid branch, being absent, for example, in the 

 Australians, although present in their near neighbours 

 the Tasmanians. And it is an interesting question to 

 determine whether the frizzly or the ordinary cylindrical 

 hair is the more primitive type ; a question closely con- 

 nected with the primitive coloration of the skin in the 

 human race — whether black, yellow, or red. Some 

 authorities, Monsieur de Salles for example, have attributed 

 red hair to the earliest representatives of the human race ; 

 which would apparently imply also a light-coloured skin, 

 although red hair and a leaden skin are associated in the 

 Orang-utan. Again, M. de Quatrefages urges that nothing 

 authorizes us to regard the Negroid branch as having 

 preceded either of the other two, and further suggests that 

 the ancestors of the modern Negro were of a much lighter 

 colour than their present representatives. 



Of course this is just one of those questions about which 

 reams of paper might be written over without hope of a 

 definite conclusion. But it may be mentioned that all 

 anthropologists without exception recognize the projecting 

 jaws of Negroes as a primitive feature, and, secondly, that 

 the chimpanzee and gorilla, which come nearest of all the 

 apes to the human race, have black hair and skin. Con- 

 sequently, the onus of proving that the projecting jaws and 

 other primitive features met with in modern negroes were 

 ever associated with light-coloured skins and fair hair rests 

 with those who are objectors to what may be termed the 

 black theory of the human race. With regard to the 

 frizzly hair of so many representatives of the Negroid stock, 

 it is quite possible that this may be an acquired feature, 

 seeing that it is much more probable the hair of primitive 

 man was cylindrical, like that of apes, rather than elliptical. 

 And if this be so, the Australians would seem to indicate a 

 more primitive race than the Tasmanians. 



The Negroid branch includes the typical Negroes of 

 Africa south of the northern tropic, the pygmy Negrillos 

 of equatorial Africa, the somewhat larger but equally 

 primitive Negritos of the Andaman Islands and certain 

 other parts of Asia, and also the great group of Melanesian 

 or Oceanic Negroes, among which are comprised the 

 Papuans of New Guinea, and most of the inhabitants of 

 the smaller islands of the western Pacific, such as New 

 Zealand, New Britain, New Caledonia, the Solomons, the 

 New Hebrides, Fiji, etc. The native Australians and 

 Tasmanians likewise pertain to this branch. 



The true Negroes of Africa are the typical repre- 

 sentatives of this branch, and present its most character- 



