Sept. 8, 1881] 



NA TURE 



437 



the scientific work of that country is setting in tlie tame 

 direction. 



It is true tliat a vei-y great proportion of tlie energies of the 

 societies, inttitutions, and individuals who cultivate this vast 

 subject are, in all these lands, as it is indeed to so great an 

 extent in our own, devoted to that branch which borders upon 

 the old and favourite studies of archaeology and geology. The 

 fascinating power of the pur.'uit of the earliest tiaces of man's 

 existence upon the earth, with the possibilities of obtaining 

 some glimpses of his mode of origin, is attested in the devotion 

 seen everywhere in museums, in separate publications, and in 

 journals, to pre-historic anthropology. 



But, though the ttudy of man's origin and earliest appearances 

 upon the earth, and that of the structural modifications to which 

 in course of time he has arrived, or the study of races, are inti- 

 mately related, and will ultimately throw light upon one another, 

 I venture to think that the latter is the more pressing of the two, 

 as it is certainly the more practically important ; and hence the 

 necessity for greater attention to physical anthropology. In 

 seeking for a criterion upon which to base our study of races, in 

 looking for essential proofs of consanguinity of descent from 

 common ancestors in different groufs of men, I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that we must first look to their physical or 

 anatomical characters, next to their moral and intellectual cha- 

 racters — for our purpose more difficult of apprehension and 

 comparison — and, lastly, as affording hints, often valuable in 

 aid of our researches, but rarely to be depended upon, unless 

 corroborated from other sources, to language, religion, and 

 social customs. 



The study of the physical or anatomical character cf the races 

 of man is unfortunately a subject beset with innumeralile diffi- 

 culties. It can only be approached with full advantage by one 

 already acquainted with the ordinary facts of human anatomy, 

 and with a certain amount of zoological training. The methods 

 used by the zoologist in discriminating species and varieties of 

 animals, and the practice acquired in detecting minute resem- 

 blances and differences that an ordinary observer might overlook, 

 are just what are required in the physical anthropologist. 



As the great problem which is at the root of all zoology is to 

 discover a natural classification of animals, so the aim of zoo- 

 logical anthropology is to discover a natural classification of 

 man. A natural classification is an expression of om^ know- 

 ledge of real relationship, of consanguinity — of "blood," as the 

 author of "Endymion" expresses it. When we can satisfac- 

 torily prove that any two of the known groups of mankind are 

 descended from the same common stock, a point is gained. The 

 more such points we have acquired, the more nearly shall we 

 be able to picture to ourselves, not only the present, but the past 

 distribution of the races of man upon the earth, and the mode and 

 order in which they have been derived from one another. 



The difficulties in the way of applying zoological principles to 

 the classification of man are vastly greater than in the case of 

 most animals ; the problem being, as we shall see, one of much 

 greater complexity. When groups of animals become so far 

 differentiated from each other as to represent separate species, 

 they remain isolated ; they may break up into further sub- 

 divisions — in fact, it is only by further subdivision that new 

 species can be formed ; but it is of the very essence of species, 

 as now universally understood by naturalists, that they cannot 

 recombine, and so give rise to new forms. With the varieties 

 of man it is otherwise. They have never so far separated as to 

 answer to the physiological definition of species. All races are 

 fertile one with another, though perhaps in different degrees. 

 Hence new varieties have constantly been formed, not only by 

 the segmentation, as it were, of a portion of one of the old 

 stocks, but also by various combinations of those already esta- 

 blished. 



Neither of the old conceptions of the history of man, which 

 pervaded the thought, and form the foundation of the works of 

 all ethnological writers up to the last few years, rest on any 

 solid basis, nor acccunt for the phenomena of the present condi- 

 tion and distribution of the species. 



The one view — that of the monogenist — was that all races, 

 as we see them now, are the descendants of a single pair, who, 

 in a comparatively short period of time, spread over the world 

 from one common centre of origin, and became modified by 

 degi-ees in consequence of changes of climate and other external 

 conditions. The other — that of the polygenist — is that a certain 

 number of varieties or species (no agreeuient has been arrived at 

 as to the number, which is estimated by different authorities at 



from three to twenty or more) have been independently created 

 in different parts of the world, and have perpetuated the dis- 

 tinctive characters as well as the geographical position with 

 which they were originally endowed. 



The view which appears best to accord with what is now 

 known of the characters and distribution of the races of man, 

 and with the general phenomena of nature, may be described as 

 a modification of the former of these hypotheses. 



Withe ut entering into the difficult question of the method of 

 man's first appearance upon the world, we must assume for it a 

 vast antiquity — at all events as measured by any historical stand- 

 ard. Of this there is now ample proof. Dx-'ring the long 

 time he existed in the savage slate — a time compared to which 

 the dawn of our historical period \7as as yesterday — he v as 

 influenced by the oferation of those na'ural laws w hich have 

 produced the variations seen in other regions of organic nature. 

 The first men may very probably have been all alike ; but, when 

 spread over the face of the earth, and become subject to all 

 kinds of diverse external conditions— climate, food, competition 

 with members of his own species or with wild animals — racial 

 diflferences began slowly to be developed through the potency of 

 various kinds of selec'ion acting upon the slight variations which 

 appeared in individuals in obedience to the tendency implanted 

 in all living things. 



Geographical position must have been one of the main elements 

 in detei mining the formation and the permanence of races. 

 Groups of men isolated from their fellows for long pieriods, 

 such as those living on small islands, to which their ancestors 

 may have been accidentally drifted, wculd naturally, in course 

 of time, develop a new type of features, of skull, of complexion 

 or hair. A slight set in one direction, in any of these characters, 

 would constantly lend to intensify itself, and so new races would 

 be formed. In the same way different intellectual or moral 

 qualities would be gradually developed and transmitted in differ- 

 ent groups cf men. Thebngera race thus formed remained 

 isolated, the rrore strongly impressed and the more permanent 

 would its characteristics become, and less liable to be changed 

 or lost, when the surrounding circumstances were altered, or 

 under a moderate amount of in'ernjixture from other races — the 

 more "true," in fact, would it be. On the other hand, on 

 large continental tracts, where no "mountains interposed make 

 enemies of nations," or other natural barriers form obstacles to 

 free intercourse betw een tribe and tribe, there would always be 

 a tendency towards uniformity, from the amalgamation of races 

 brought into close relation liy war or by commerce. Smaller or 

 feebler races have been destroyed or absorbed by others im- 

 pelled by : uperabundant population or other causes to spread 

 beyond their original limits ; or sometimes the conquering race 

 has itself disappeared by absorption into the conquered. 



Thus, for untold ages, the history of man has presented a 

 shifting kaleidoscopic scene ; new races gradually becoming dif- 

 ferentiated out of the old elements, and, after dwelling a while 

 upon the earth, either becoming suddenly ai.nihilated or gradu- 

 ally merged into new combinations ; a constant destruction and 

 reconstruction ; a constant tendemy to separation ar.d differeii- 

 tiation, and a tendency to combine again into a common uni- 

 formity — the two tendencies acting against and modify irg each 

 other. The history of these processes in former times, except 

 in so far as they may be inferred from the present state of 

 things, is a difficult study, owing to the scarcity of evidence. If 

 we had any approach to a complete palxontological record, the 

 history of man could le reconstructed : but nothing of the kind 

 is forthcoming. Evidences of the anatomical characters of man 

 as he lived on the earth during the time when the great racial 

 characteristics were beirg developed, during the kng ante- 

 historic period in which the negro, the Mongolian, and the Cau- 

 casian were being gradually fashioned into their respective types, 

 is entirely wanting, or, if any exists, it is at present safely buried 

 in the earth, perhaps to be revealed at some unexpected time 

 and in some unforeseen manner. 



It will be observed, and perhaps observed with perplexity by 

 some, that no definition has as yet been given cf the oft-recurring 

 word "race." The sketch just drawn of the past history of 

 man must be sufficient to show that any theory implying that the 

 different individuals composing the human species can be par- 

 celled out into certain definite groups, each with its well-marked 

 and permanent limits separating it from all others, has no scien- 

 tific foundation ; but that in reality these individuals are aggre- 

 gated into a number of groups of very different value in a 

 zoological sense, whh characters more or less strongly marked 



