22 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



The advantage of Blumenbach's system consists in the 

 greater prominence given to the relative values of the skull, 

 both the occipital and sincipital, and in the greater exactitude 

 of the geographical distribution, those characters acquired by 

 physical conditions and culture being made subordinate and 

 regarded as secondary race distinctions. 



Cuvier, the illustrious anatomist, has treated the subject 

 more simply ; following the plan of the Mosaic distribution he 

 recognises only three races : the white, the yellow, and the 

 black, without further particularising their distinguishing char- 

 acters. The latter task was undertaken by the later French 

 naturalists who took into account, as additional race characters, 

 skull, nose and hair. Thus Topinard subdivides each of Cuvier's 

 three races into six sub-races. 



Darwin, in the Descent of Man, in order to show the 

 inherent difficulty of classifying mankind according to race has 

 compared the views of different authors on the point. Vivey 

 gives two races, Jacquinot three, Kant four, Blumenbach five, 

 Buffon six, Hunter seven, Agassiz eight, Pickering eleven, 

 Bory St. Vincent fifteen, Desmoulins sixteen, Morton twenty- 

 two, Crawford sixty, and Burke sixty-three. Of the more 

 recent classifications Huxley's celebrated system has won pre- 

 eminence by its simplicity. He admits only four principal 

 types, these being variously modified by means of intercrossing. 



1. The Xanthochroic Type, half white, fair, with blue or 

 grey eyes, bearded, with abundant growth of hair on the body, 

 dolichocephalous, mesocephalous or brachycephalous skull. In- 

 habitants of the greater part of Central Europe. In the South 

 and West they are replaced by the Melanochroi (Brunettes), a 

 result of intercrossing between Xanthochroi and one of the 

 dark types. In the East is found an admixture of the Mon- 

 golian type. 



2. The Mongolian Type, in stature short and thick-set, with 

 golden-brown skin, sleek, coarse, black hair, scanty beard, pro- 

 nounced brachycephalous skull, flat, small nose and oblique- 

 looking eyes. They, inhabit the entire region east of a line 

 from Lapland to Siam. Differing from the type in their skull 

 formation are, first, the dolichocephalous Chinese and Japanese, 

 secondly, the Polynesians, approaching the Australian type and 



