May 27, 1880] 



NATURE 



79 



and from Patagonia, can be shown which are almost 

 undistinguishable from one another, but the materials at 

 hand, at all events in European collections, are not yet 

 sufficient for following out this interesting investigation 

 to a satisfactory conclusion. 



Races of Africa. — Of the great primary divisions of the 

 human species no one is more distinctly characterised than 

 the Negroid race, if under this term we include the whole 

 of the dark-coloured, frizzly-haired people who inhabit 

 considerable portions of the equatorial region of the 

 so-called Old World, from the West Coast of Africa 

 eastward to the middle of the Pacific. The oceanic 

 branches of the group are not at present under considera- 

 tion, but only those which inhabit the continent of 

 Africa. The physical features of the Ethiopian negroes 

 have remained unchanged since the earliest historic 

 period, as they are depicted in ancient Egyptian drawings 

 much as we see them now, but geographical and geologi- 

 cal considerations tend to indicate a much vaster antiquity 

 for the race. The present northern limit of the negro 

 population of Africa, e.xtending from the River Senegal 

 on the west across the continent in a nearly due easterly 

 direction, corresponds with the Ethiopian region of 

 zoologists, characterised by a fauna altogether different 

 from that of the more northern parts of the continent. The 

 cause of this difference is accounted for by the undoubted 

 fact that at a comparatively recent geological epoch the 

 Sahara was covered with sea, and the portion of Africa 

 lying to the south of it was isolated from the great conti- 

 nental track composed of Europe, North Africa, and 

 Asia. The distribution of the races of man so closely 

 coincides with that of the remainder of the fauna that it 

 is natural to suppose that it 'must arise from the same 

 cause, and we may thus attribute to the long separation 

 of the races north and south of the Sahara, during the 

 period in which the waters of the Atlantic flowed over it, 

 their strongly opposed physical characteristics. Since 

 the two races have come in contact by the drying up of 

 these waters much interniinglinghas taken place along the 

 frontier line, but, considering the immense period of this 

 stage of their existence, it is remarkable how little the 

 original geographical boundary has been shifted. 



The physical characters of the negro, in his most typical 

 form, as found in the equatorial regions of Africa, have 

 attracted much attention from, anatomical anthropologists. 

 In discussing the possible range of differences between 

 different members of the human species the African negro 

 has, on account of his structure being better known than 

 that of any other of the lower races, always been taken as 

 the antithesis of the white man of Europe, and in 

 numerous treatises on the subject the differences between 

 them have often been either exaggerated or softened down, 

 according to the bias of the writer. The black colour of 

 the skin of the negro, due to an increased number of 

 pigment granules in the cells of the epidermis, is pro- 

 verbial, but very few negroes, if any, are really black. 

 The Joloffs of Senegambia are described as being "jet 

 black," or even "blue black," but various shades of 

 brown, or even yellow, are more common. The iris is 

 dark brown and the conjunctiva yellowish. The hair is 

 always black, except in the not unfrequent case of 

 albinism. Its peculiar character, its flattened elliptical 

 section, and tendency to assume very close spiral coils, 

 giving the general efiect commonly called "woolly," or 

 more properly " frizzly," are well known. The division 

 of the negro races into two distinct groups, those in 

 which the hair grows evenly scattered over the scalp 

 {o-iocoiin) and those in which it grows in distinct tufts, 

 with bare inten'als between {loplwcomi), though often 

 demonstrated to have been based upon fallacious obser- 

 vations, holds its ground with great tenacity, and is still 

 adopted in most treatises on anthropology. The report 

 of a committee of the Paris Anthropological Society on 

 the growth of the hair of a negro in one of the hospitals 



of that city, published last year in the Bulktin of the 

 Society, ought to set the question at rest for ever. 



The features of the negro are so well known as scarcely 

 to need description. Their chief characteristics are, a nar- 

 row but rather vertical forehead, small but rather prominent 

 eyes, full cheek bones (intermediate between those of Euro- 

 pean and Mongolian), flat broad nose, prognathous mouth, 

 with very full and everted lips, often projecting beyond 

 the level of the nose, large white teeth, and a small chin. 

 In stature there is considerable variation, some tribes 

 being equal or even above the average of Europeans, 

 others much smaller, and there is some evidence of the 

 existence of a true race of pygmy negroes in the interior of 

 Africa. Two thousand black soldiers of .'\frican descent in 

 the United States of America, carefuUymeasured during the 

 war, gave an average of 66'2i inches, or nearly one inch 

 below the average of whites (67'i5). The difference in 

 the proportions of the different parts of the body indifterent 

 races have received much attention from anatomists, 

 and comparison between the negro and the standard 

 European is more completely elaborated than that be- 

 tween any other races ; but owing to the paucity of 

 skeletons, on which alone perfect accuracy of measurement 

 can be obtained, much still remains to be done. As 

 regards the length of the clavicle, Broca and Pasteau find 

 that this bone is slightly longer in the negro than in the 

 European, that is as compared with the humerus ; but the 

 comparison is not a satisfactory one, the latter bone being, 

 as will be shown, peculiarly short. Compared with the 

 femur, which is a better standard, as its proportionate 

 size to the height is nearly the same in the two races, 

 the clavicle (as far as the materials available permit the 

 comparison) appears to be shouer than in the European, 

 as was shown last year to be the case with the Andaman 

 Islanders. The differences in the form of the scapula have 

 been fully described by Broca and Livon of Paris. All 

 observers agree that the arms of the negro are longer in 

 proportion to the height than are those of Europeans. 

 This is illustrated by the measurements taken in the 

 American war, which show that when standing upright 

 the mean distance between the tips of the fingers and the 

 upper end of the patella was 2 '88 inches in the negro, 

 and as much as 5 inches in the white. The legs are also 

 longer in proportion to the height, though to a less extent. 

 The arms, compared to the legs, are slightly shorter than 

 in Europeans. This is caused by the shortness of the 

 humerus, its length as compared with the femur being as 

 6g to 100 in the negro and 73 to 100 in the European. 

 The radius is longer even as compared with the femur or 

 with the height, and a fortiori as compared with the 

 humerus. The humero-radial index is therefore one of 

 the most characteristic distinctions between the two races. 

 In Europeans it averages 74 (the humerus being 100), in 

 negroes 80. The femoro-tibial index presents a similar 

 but less striking difference, being in Europeans 82, in 

 negroes 85. Some of these characters, as the humero- 

 radial index, approximate the proportions of the negro to 

 those of lower forms, but others, as the shortness of the 

 humerus and the greater length of the lower limbs as 

 compared with the height, do not do so, and only present 

 signs of divergence from the Eiu-opean standard, but not 

 of inferioritv. The other black races agree generally with 

 the typical African negro in such proportions as he differs 

 from the European, and hence these might be used as 

 valuable distinctive characters in the classification of 

 man ; but difficulties arise when the negro is compared, 

 not only with the European, but with other races generally 

 held to be distinct. Although very few of them have been 

 measured in sufficient numbers to give reliable averages, 

 the indications already obtained show that in many 

 points the proportions, 'though they may distinguish the 

 ncro from the European, do not separate him from 

 others, which in many respects are most dissimilar. In 

 the humero-radial index, for instance, the Peruvian and 



