September 24. 1908] 



NA TURE 



53' 



never spoke any save an Aryan tongue. Moreover, I have 

 shown elsewhere that the Ligurians, who are now generally 

 admitted to have spoken always an Aryan language, had 

 descent through women, whilst I have also pointed out 

 that there is good evidence that the ancient Latins, who 

 have generally been taken as typical Aryans, had the same 

 system. Again, it is admitted that the ancient lUyrians 

 and dark-complexioned Thracians spoke an Aryan language, 

 which, inasmuch as it differed materially in certain ways 

 from that spoken bv their Celtic overlords, must have been 

 aboriginal, whilst' I have further given grounds for 

 believing that the ancient Iberians (though not the Basques) 

 were also an .-^ryan-speaking folk. But there is good 

 evidence that the lUyrians, melanochrous Thracians and 

 Iberians all traced descent through women. In view of 

 these facts it is useless to urge that because the Picts of 

 Scotland and the ancient Irish had that system of succession 

 through females these peoples must have been non-Aryan. 



We have now reviewed the three main criteria of race 

 at present used by anthropologists : (a) pigmentation of the 

 skin, hair, and eyes ; (b) the shape of the skull and other 

 osteological characteristics ; and finally (c) their system of 

 tracing descent. We have seen that osteological differences 

 may be but foundations of sand, because it is certain that 

 such variations take place within very short periods, not 

 onlv in the case of the lower animals, as in the horse 

 faniilv, but in man himself. Pigmentation is no true 

 criterion, for we have found a steady tendency to change 

 in colour in the case of the lower animals from latitude 

 to latitude, whilst in the case of man the steady shading 

 •oft in colour from dark to blonde may be traced from the 

 ■equator to the Baltic. Unless then we postulate that man 

 is entirely free from the natural laws which condition the 

 osteology and pigmentation of other animals, we must 

 admit that neither bone nor colour differences can be re- 

 garded as crucial criteria. Further, we saw that the test 

 of descent through males or females broke down absolutely 

 in the case of peoples who can be proved historically never 

 to have spoken any but a non-.Aryan language. Finally, 

 we are forced to the conclusion that language, now that 

 we realise what are the laws w^hich govern its borrowing 

 by one race from another, is really the surest of all the 

 known tests of race when dealt with broadly and over wide 

 areas, and not merely in the \vay of guesswork etymologies. 



II. Hitherto I have dealt only with the need of a rigid 

 application of zoological laws in studying the evolution of 

 the various races of man. In the time that is still left 

 I propose to touch briefly on the vast importance of such 

 natural laws when dealing with the native races of our 

 great dependencies and colonies, and in our own social 

 legislation. I venture to think that the gravest mistakes 

 which at present are being made in our administration and 

 legislation are due to the total disregard of the natural 

 laws, which not only modify and differentiate one race 

 from another, but also are constantly producing variations 

 within our own community. As physical characteristics are 

 in the main the result of environment, social institutions 

 and religious ideas are no less the product of that environ- 

 ment. Several of our most distinguished Indian and 

 Colonial administrators h.ave pointed out that most of the 

 mistakes made by British officials are due to their ignor- 

 ance of the habits and customs of the natives. It has 

 been in the past an a.xiom of British politicians that in 

 the English Constitution and in English law there is a 

 panacea for every political and social difficulty, in any race 

 under the sun. Only let us give, it is urged, this or that 

 State a representative parliament.-ary system and trial by 

 iury and all will go well. The fundamental error in this 

 ■doctrine is the assumption that a political and legal system 

 evolved during many centuries amongst a people of North- 

 western Europe, largely Teutonic, and that too living not 

 on the mainland but on an island, can be applied cut and 

 dried to a people evolved during countless generations in 

 tropical or subtropical regions, with social institutions and 

 religious ideas widelv different from those of even South 

 Europeans, and still more so from those of Northern 

 Europe. We might just as well ask the Ethiopian to 

 change his skin as to change radically his social and 

 religious ideas. It has been shown by e.xperience that 

 ■Christianity can make but little headway amongst many 

 peoples in .Africa or Asia, where, on the other hand, 



N'O. 2030, VOL. 78] 



Mohammedanism has made and is steadily making pro- 

 gress, acting distinctly for good, as in Africa, by puttmg 

 down human sacrifice and replacing fetish worship by a 

 lofty monotheism. This is probably due to the fact that 

 Mohammedanism is a religion evolved amongst a Semitic 

 people who live in latitudes bordering on the aboriginal 

 races of Africa and Asia, and that it is far more akm 

 in its social ideas to those of the Negro or Malay than 

 are those of Christianitv, more especially of that form of 

 Christianity evolved during the last twelve centuries by 

 the Teutonic peoples of Upper Europe, who are of all races 

 furthest in physical characteristics, in religious ideals and 

 social institutions, from the dark races of Africa and Asia. 

 This great gulf is due not merely to shallow prejudice 

 against other people's notions, it is as deep-seated as is 

 the physical antipathy felt by the Teuton for the Negro, 

 which is itself due to the very different climatic conditions 

 under w'hich both races have been evolved. The Teuton 

 does not freely blend with the black, and even when he 

 does intermarry he treats his own half-bred progeny with 

 contempt, or at most with toleration. On the other hand, 

 some South Europeans, for example the Portuguese, are 

 said to have little objection to intermarrying with dark 

 races and allowing the mixed progeny an equal social 

 status, whilst the Arab through the ages has freely taken 

 to wife the .African, and has never hesitated to treat the 

 hybrid offspring as equals. There is thus a wide breach 

 between the physique and the social and religious ideas of 

 the African and' our own; but, as political and legal institu- 

 tions are indissolublv bound up with social and religious, 

 it follows inevitablv that the political and legal institu- 

 tions of a race cradled in Northern Europe are exceed- 

 ingly ill adapted for the children of the equator. Accord- 

 ingly in any wise administration of these regions it must 

 be a primarv object to study the native institutions, to 

 modify and elevate them whenever it may be possible, but 

 never to seek to eradicate and supplant them. Any 

 attempt to do so will be but vain, for these institutions 

 are as much part of the land as are its climate, its soil, 

 its fauna, and its flora. " Naturam expellas furca, tamen 

 usque recurret." Let us hope for a successful issue for the 

 effort now being made by the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute to establish an Imperial Bureau of Anthropology 

 the function of which will be, not only to carry out 

 svstematicallv the scientific study of man, but also to aid 

 the administrator and the legislator, the merchant and the 

 missionarv. 



III. I now pass to mv last and most important topic- 

 natural laws in relation 'to our own social legislation. We 

 have seen that environment is a powerful factor in the 

 differentiation of the various races of man, alike in 

 physique, institutions, and religion. It is probable that 

 the food-suppiv at hand in each region may be an 

 important element in these variations, whilst the nature of 

 the food and drink preferred there may itself be due m no 

 small degree to climatic conditions. Each zone has its 

 own peculiar products, and beyond doubt the natives of 

 each region differ in their tastes for food and drink. The 

 aboriginal of the tropics is distinctly a veget.arian, whilst 

 the Eskimo within the Arctic circle is practically wholly 

 carnivorous. In each case the taste is almost certainly dun 

 to the necessities of their environment, for the man in the 

 .Arctic regions could not survive without an abundance of 

 animal fat. It is probable that the more northward man 

 advanced the more carnivorous he became in order to 

 support the rigours of the northern climate. The same 

 holds equallv true in the case of drink. Temperance re- 

 formers would enforce by legislation complete abstinence 

 from all alcoholic liquors, and they point to the sobriety 

 of the Spaniards, Italians, and other South Europeans, 

 and urge, if these nations are so temperate, why should 

 Britons and Irish continue to drink beer and spirits in 

 such large quantities? This appeal depends unfortunatelv 

 on the false assumption that the natives of these islands 

 enjoy the same climate as the people of the sunny south. 

 All across Northern Europe and Asia there is a universal 

 love of strong drink, which is not the mere outcome of 

 vicious desires, but of climatic law. In Shakespeare's 

 time " vour Englishman was most potent in potting," and 

 this was no new outbreak of depravity, for the earliest 

 reference in historv to the natives of these islands tells us 



