August 30, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



249 



of the chief aims of ethnology, and that the 

 terms of this definition are not satisfied by 

 geographic explanations. Let me, with ut- 

 most brevity, name a few other connota- 

 tions, prei)otent, I believe, in the future 

 fate of nations and races. 



Ifone, I maintain, can escape the mental 

 correlations of its physical structure. The 

 black, the brown and red races differ ana- 

 tomically so much from the white, especi- 

 ally in their splanchnic organs, that even 

 with equal cerebral capacity, they never 

 could rival its results by equal efforts. 



Again, there is in some stocks and some 

 smaller ethnic groups a peculiar mental 

 temperament which has become hereditarj' 

 and general, of a nature to disqualify them 

 for the atmosphere of modern enlighten- 

 ment. Dr. Von Buschan has recently 

 pointed out this as distinctly and racially 

 pathologic ; an inborn morbid tendency, 

 constitutionally recreant to the codes of 

 civilization, and therefore technically crim- 

 inal. 



Once more, one cannot but acknowledge 

 that the relations of the emotional to the in- 

 tellectual nature vary considerably and per- 

 m.anently in different ethnic groups. Noth- 

 ing is more incorrect than the statement so 

 often repeated by physicians that the mod- 

 ern civilized man has a more sensitive emo- 

 tional system than the savage. The re- 

 verse is the case. Since the Dark Ages, 

 Europe has not witnessed epidemic neuroses 

 so violent as those still prevalent among 

 rude tribes. 



These and a number of similar traits sep- 

 arate races and peoples from each other by 

 well taarked idiosyncrasies, extending to 

 the vast majoritj^ of their members and 

 pregnant with power for weal or woe on 

 their present fortunes and ultimate desti- 

 nies. The patient and thorough investiga- 

 tions of these peculiarities is, therfore, one 

 of the most apposite aims of modern eth- 

 nology. 



In this sense we can speak of the Volhs- 

 geist and VolkergedanJcen, a racial mind, or 

 the temperament of a people, with as much 

 propriety and accuracy as we can of any of 

 the physical traits which distinguish it from 

 other peoples or races. 



For the branch of anthropology which 

 has for its field the investigation of these 

 general mental traits, the Germans have 

 proposed the name ' Characterology ' (Kar- 

 acterologie) . Its aim is to examine the col- 

 lective mental conditions and expressions 

 of ethnic groups, and to point out wherein 

 they differ from other groups and from hu- 

 manity at large ; also, to find through what 

 causes these peculiarities came about, the 

 genetic laws of their appearance, and the 

 consequences to which they have given rise. 



This branch of anthropology is that which 

 offers a positive basis for legislation, poli- 

 tics and education, as applied to a given 

 ethnic group ; and it is only through its 

 careful study and application that the best 

 results of these can be attained, and not by 

 the indiscriminate enforcement of general 

 prescriptions, as has hitherto been the cus- 

 tom of governments. 



The development of hiimanity as a whole 

 has arisen from the differences of its com- 

 ponent social parts, its races, nations, tribes. 

 Their specific peculiarities have brought 

 about the struggles which in the main have 

 resulted in an advance. These peculiari- 

 ties, as ascertained by objective investiga- 

 tion, supply the only sure foundation for 

 legislation ; not a priori notions of the 

 rights of man, nor abstract theories of what 

 should constitute a perfect state, as was the 

 fashion with the older philosophies, and 

 still is with the modern social reformers. 

 The aim of the anthropologist in this prac- 

 tical field is to ascertain in all their details, 

 such as religions, language, social life, no- 

 tions of right and wrong, etc., wherein lie 

 the idiosyncrasies of a given group, and 

 frame its laws accordingly. 



