686 EEPOKT— 1881. 



loped, during the long ante-historic period in which the negro, the Mongolian, and 

 the Caucasian 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 of the oft-recurring word ' race.' The sketch just 

 drawn of the past history of man must be sufficient to show that any theory imply- 

 ing that the different individuals composing the human species can be parcelled out 

 into certain definite groups, each with its well-marked and permanent limits 

 separating it from all others, has no scientific foundation ; but that, in reality, these 

 individuals are aggregated into a number of groups of very different value in a 

 zoological sense, with characters more or less strongly marked and permanent, and 

 often passing insensibly into one another. The great groups are split up into minor 

 subdivisions, and filling up the gaps between them all are intermediate or inter- 

 calary forms, derived either from the survival of individuals retaining the general- 

 ised or ancestral characters of a race from which two branches have separated and 

 taken opposite lines of modification, or from the reunion of members of such 

 branches in recent times. If we could follow those authors who can clnssify man- 

 kind 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 perhaps we should not be so near the truth we are seeking. But being 

 not yet in a position to define what amount of modification is necessary to consti- 

 tute distinction of race, I am compelled to use the word vaguely for any consider- 

 able group of men who resemble each other in certain common characters trans- 

 mitted from generation to generation. 



In approaching the question of the classification of the races of man from a 

 physical point of view, we must bestow great care upon the characters upon which 

 we rely in distinguishing one 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 according as such modifications are correlated with others in different 

 organs or systems, or are mere isolated examples of variation in the economy 

 of the animal without structural changes elsewhere. The older ornithologists 

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

 Katatores or Falmipcdes, which received the great sanction of Cuvier, still stands 

 in many zoological compilations. Recent investigations into the anatomy of birds 

 have shown that the species thus associated together show no other sign of natural 

 aflinity, and no evidence of being derived from the same stock. In fact, there is 

 tolerably good proof that the webbing of the feet is a merely adaptive cliaracter, 

 developed or lost, present or absent, irrespective of other structural modifications. 

 In the same way, when anthropology was less advanced than it is now, it was 

 "thought that the distinction between long and short-headed, dolichocephalic and 

 brachycephalic people, pointed out by Eetzius, indicated a primary division of the 

 buman species; but it was afterwards discovered that, although the character 

 was useful otherwise, it was one of only secondary importance, as the long-headed 

 as well as the short-headed group both included races otherwise of the strongest 

 dissimilarity. 



In all classifications, the point to be first ascertained is the fundamental plan of 

 construction ; but in cases where the fundamental plan has undergone but little 

 modification, we are obliged to make use of what appear trivial characters, and 

 compensate for their triviality by their number. The more numerous the combi- 

 nations of specialised characters, by which any species or race differs from its con- 

 g:eners, the more confidence we have in their importance. The separation of what 

 is essential from what is incidental or merely superficial in such characters lies at 

 the root of all the problems of this nature that zoologists are called upon to solve; 

 and in proportion as the difiiculties involved in this delicate and often perplexing 

 discrimination are successfully met and overcome will the value of the conclusions 

 be increased. These difficulties, so familiar in zoology, are still greater in the 

 case of anthropology. The differences we have to deal with are often very slight; 

 their significance is at present very little understood. We go on expending time 



