438 



NA TURE 



{Sept. 8, 1 88 1 



and permanent, and often passing insensibly into one another. 

 The great groups are s/lit up into minor subdivisions, and filling 

 up the gaps betueea them all are intermediate or intercalary 

 forms, derived either from the survival of individuals retaining 

 the generalised or ancestral characters of a race fro:n which two 

 branches have separated and taken opposite linesof modification, or 

 from the reunion of members of such branches in recent times. If 

 we could follow those authors who can classify mankind into 

 such divisions as trunks, branches, races, and sub-races, each 

 having its definite and equivalent meaning, our work would 

 appear to be greatly simplified, although jierhaps we should not 

 be so near the truth we are seeking. But being not yet in a 

 position to define what am mnt of mjdification is nece-sary to 

 constitute distinction of race, I am compelled to use the word 

 vaguely for any considerable group of men who resemble each 

 other in certain common characters transvnitted from generation 

 to geieration. 



In approaching the question of the classification of the races 

 of man from a physical point of view, \Ae mu^t bestow gre.it 

 care upon the characters upon which we rely in distinguishing 

 o.ie group from another. It is well known in zoology that the 

 modifications of a single organ or system may be of great value, 

 or may be quite useless a-cording as such modifications are 

 correlated with others indifferent organs or system;, or are mere 

 isolated example ^ of variali m in the economy of the ar.inal 

 without structural changes elsewhere. The older ornithologists 

 associated in one order all the birds with webbed feet, and the 

 order thus constituted, A'atatores or Palmipedes, which received 

 the great sanction o"^ Cuvier, still stands in many zoological 

 compilations. Recent iuvestigati ms into the anatomy of birds 

 have sh5wn that the species thus associated together shiw no 

 other sign of natural affinity, and ud evidence of being derived 

 from the same stock. In fact, there is tol.-rably good pro jf that 

 the webbing of the feet is a merely adaptive character, deve- 

 lopei or lost, present or absent, irrespective of other structural 

 modifications. In the same way, when anthropology was le-s 

 advanced than it is now, it was thought thit the distinction be- 

 tween long and short-headed, dolichocephalic and brachycephalic, 

 people, pointed out by Rctzius, indicated a primary division 

 of the human species ; but it w as aftfrwirds discovered that, 

 although the character was useful otherwise, it was one of only 

 sec jndary importance, as the longheaded as well as the short- 

 headed group both included races other>vise of the strongest 

 dissimilarity. 



In all classifications the point to be first ascertained is the 

 fundamental plan of construction ; but in cases where the fnnda- 

 mmtal plan has undergone but little modification, we are 

 obliged to make use of whit appear trivial characters, and com- 

 pensate for their tiiviality by their number. The m ire numerous 

 the combinations of specialised characte.-s, by which any species 

 or race differs from its congeners, the more confidence we have 

 in their importance. The separ.uion of what is essential from 

 what is incidental or merely superficial in such characters lies at 

 the root of all the proMens of this nature that zoologists are 

 called upon to solve; and in proportion as the difficulties in- 

 volve J in thi, delicate and often perplexing discrimination are 

 successfully met and overcome will the value of the conclusions 

 be increa-el. These difficulties, so familiar in zoology, are still 

 greater in the case of anthropology. The differences we have 

 1 deal with are often very slight ; their significance is at present 

 very little understood. We go on expending time and trouble 

 in heaping up elaborate tables of measurements, and minutely 

 recording every point that is capable of description, with little 

 regard to any conclusions tint may be drawn fi-om them. It is 

 certainly time now to endeavour, if possible, to discriminate 

 characters which indicate deep-lying affinity from those that are 

 more transient, variable, or ad iptive, and to adjust, as far as 

 may be, the proper importance to be attached to each. 



It is, however, quite to be expected that, in the infancy of all 

 sciences, a vast amount of 1 hour must be expended in learning 

 the methods of investigation. In none has this been more con- 

 spicuous than in the subject nnder con-ideration. Many have 

 come to despair, for instance, of any good commensurate with 

 the time it occupies, coming of the minute and laborious work 

 involved in craniometry. This is because nearly all our present 

 methods are tentative. We have not yet learnt, or are only 

 beginning to learn, what lines of investigation are profitableand 

 what are barren. The results, even as far as we have gone, are, 

 however, quite sufficient, in my opinion, to justify persever- 

 ance. I am, however, not so sure whether it be yet time to 



answer the demand, so eager and so natural, which is being 

 made in many quarters, for the formulation of a definite plan of 

 examination, measurement, and description to which all future 

 investigation should rigidly adhere. All steps to promote 

 agreement upon fundamental points are to be cordially wel 

 c >med, and meetings or congresses convened for such a purpose 

 will be of use by giving opportunities fur the impartial discussion 

 of the relative value of different methods ; but the agreement 

 will finally be brought about by the general adoption of those 

 measurements and methods which experience proves to be the 

 most useful, while others will gradually fall into disuse by a kind 

 of process of natural selection. 



The changes and improvements which are being made yearly, 

 almost monthly, in instruments and in methods, show what we 

 should lose if we were to stop at any given period, and decree 

 in solemn conclave that this shall be our final system, this instru- 

 ment and this method shall be the only one u^ed throughout the 

 world, that no one shall depart from it. We scarcely need to 

 ask how long such an agreement would be binding. The subject 

 is not sufficiently advanced to be reduced to a .state of stagnation 

 such as this would bring it to. 



To take an example from what is perhaps the most important 

 of the anatomical characters by which man is distinguished 

 from the lower animals, the superior from (he inferior races of 

 man ; the smaller or greater projection forwards of the lower 

 part of the face in relation to the skull proper, or that which 

 contains the brain. From the time when Camper drew his facial 

 angle, to the present day, the readiest and truest method of esti- 

 mating this projection has occupied the attention of anatomists 

 and anthropologists, and we are still far from any general agree- 

 ment. Every country, every school, has its own system, so 

 different that comparison with one another is well nigh impos- 

 sible. This is undoubtedly an evil ; but the question is whether 

 we should all agree to adopt one of the confessedly defective 

 systems now in vogue, or vvhe'her we should not rather continue 

 to hope for, and endeavour to find, one which may not be subject 

 to the well-known objections urged against all. 



We want, especially in this country, mure workers, trained 

 and experienced men who will take up the subject seriously, and 

 devote themselves to it continuously. Of such we may say, 

 without offence to those few who have done occasional excellent 

 Work in physical anthropol 'gy, but whose chief scientific activity 

 lies in other fields, we have not one. In the last number of the 

 French Revue d^Anthropologie, a reference caught my eye to a 

 craniometrical method in u e by the " EnglLsh school" of 

 anthropologists. It was a reference only to a method which I 

 had ventured to suggest, but which, as far as I know, has not 

 been adopted by any one else. A school is just what we have 

 not, and what we want — a body of men not only willing to learn, 

 but able to discuss, to criticise, to give their approval to, or 

 reduce to its proper level, the results put forth by our few 

 original investigators and writers. The rapidity with which any 

 one of the mo-t slender pretensions who ventures into the field 

 (I speak from painful experience) is raised to be an oracle among 

 his fellows is one of the most alarming proofs of the present 

 barrenness of the land. 



Another n,o t urgent need is the collection and preservation of 

 the evidences of the physical structure of the various modifica- 

 tions of man upon the earth. Especially urgent is this now, as 

 we live in an age in which, in a far greater degree than any 

 previous one, the destructi n of races, both by annihilation and 

 absorption, is going on. The world has never witnessed such 

 changes in its ethn ilogy as tho e now taking place, owing to the 

 rapid extension of" maritime di-covery and maritime commerce, 

 which is especially affecting the island population among which, 

 more than elsewhere, the solution of the most important anthro- 

 pological problems may be looked fo '. If we have at present 

 neither the knowledge nor the leisure to examine and describe, 

 we can at lea-t pre-erve from destruction the materials for our 

 successors to work upo i. Photographs, mo lels, anatomical 

 specimens, skeletons or parts of skeletons, with their histories 

 carefully registered, of any of the so-called aboriginal races, now 

 rapidly undergoing extermination or degeneration, will be here- 

 after of inestimable value. Drawings, descriptions, and measure- 

 ments are also useful, though in a far le^s degree, as allowance 

 must always be made for imperfections in themehods as well as 

 the capacity of the a list or observer. Such co'lections mu tbe 

 made upon a far larger scale than has hitherto been attemjoted, 

 as, owing to the difficulties already pointed out in the classifica- 

 tion of man, it is o:dy by large numbers that the errors arising 



