xvin THREE EXTREME TYPES 275 



from each other structurally as are many of the so-called 

 species of any natural group of animals. Indeed, it may be 

 said with truth that their differences are even greater than 

 those which mark the groups called genera by many naturalists 

 of the present day. Nevertheless, the difficulty of parcelling 

 out all the individuals composing the human species into 

 certain definite groups, and of saying of each man that he 

 belongs to one or other of such groups, is insuperable. No 

 such classification has ever, or indeed can ever, be obtained. 

 There is not one of the most characteristic, most extreme 

 forms, like those I have just named, from which transitions 

 cannot be traced by almost imperceptible gradations to any 

 of the other equally characteristic, equally extreme, forms. 

 Indeed, a large proportion of mankind is made up, not of 

 extreme or typical, but of more or less generalised or inter- 

 mediate, forms, the relative numbers of which are continually 

 increasing, as the long-existing isolation of nations and races 

 breaks down under the ever -extending intercommunication 

 characteristic of the period in which we live. 



The difficulties of framing a natural classification of man, 

 or one which really represents the relationship of the various 

 minor groups to each other, are well exemplified by a study 

 of the numerous attempts which have been made from the 

 time of Linnaeus and Blumenbach downwards. Even in the first 

 step of establishing certain primary groups of equivalent 

 rank there has been no accord. The number of such groups 

 has been most variously estimated; by different writers from 

 two up to sixty or more, although it is important to note that 

 there has always been a tendency to revert to the four 

 primitive types sketched out by Linnaeus the European, 

 Asiatic, African, and American expanded into five by 

 Blumenbach by the addition of the Malay, 1 and reduced by 

 Cuvier to three by the suppression of the last two. After a 

 perfectly independent study of the subject, extending over 

 many years, I cannot resist the conclusion, so often arrived at 

 by various anthropologists, and so often abandoned for some 

 more complex system, that the primitive man, whatever he 



1 The Malay of Blumenbech was a strange conglomeration of the then little 

 known Australian, Papuan, and true Malay types. 



