December 22, 1905.] 



• SCIENCE. 



813 



campus of the leading pioneers, the virgin 

 soil of teeming yield whence the richest 

 frnits of each passing decade are gathered. 

 Naturally, in view of the vigorous vitality 

 symbolized by the Universal Exposition of 

 1904, the virile subject of human progress 

 formed the leading motive of the depart- 

 ment of anthropology — the exposition, in- 

 deed, affording the world's finest oppor- 

 tunity for framing the science and setting 

 is on a firm basis. The objects-matter 

 embrace the generations, families, stocks 

 and races of men, with the human activities 

 and products in their endless variety ; the 

 methods comprise observations and com- 

 parisons of growth, heredity, viability, 

 fecundity, and development by exercise and 

 cultivation, together with manufacture and 

 other forms of production. Its leading 

 divisions are: (1) archeology, or the sci- 

 ence of human relics, with the human 

 paleontology covering fossil and other re- 

 mains of prehistoric man, and the paleog- 

 raphy dealing especially with ancient 

 writings; (2) history, and (3) the unclassi- 

 fied and nameless body of knowledge con- 

 cerning current conditions and events in 

 the human world. 



Such, in general terms, are the main 

 divisions of anthropology, outlined with 

 special reference to the work of the de- 

 partment. 



III. 



It is a leading aim of anthropology to 

 classify the peoples of the world in con- 

 venient and useful ways ; and different 

 classific systems have been devised. 



The prevailing classification of mankind 

 during the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- 

 turies was ethnic, i. e., the peoples of the 

 world were divided into natural groups, 

 defined chiefly by physical characteristics, 

 called races. Partly by reason of lim- 

 ited information concerning the remoter 

 peoples, 'ethnologists differed somewhat as 



to the definition and number of the races 

 of mankind; some held that the world's 

 peoples were better divided into twenty or 

 thirty or even into fifty or more races, 

 ' while others found it more convenient to 

 reduce the number. During the later half 

 of the nineteenth century there was a 

 strong tendency to reduce the races or prin- 

 cipal varieties of mankind to five, viz. : 

 (1) the Caucasian or white race, especially 

 characteristic of the central and western 

 portions of the Eurasian continent; (2) 

 the Mongolian or yellow race, inhabiting 

 the eastern-central portion of the same con- 

 tinent; (3) the Malayan or brown race, 

 occupying the southeastern border and 

 islands; (4) the African or black race, in- 

 habiting the continent of Africa; and (5) 

 the Amerind or red race, inhabiting the 

 two continents of America. This classifi- 

 cation is simple and convenient, but open 

 to the objection that certain peoples hardly 

 fit any one of the five classes; the Japanese 

 are neither white nor yellow nor brown, 

 much less red or black, forming, indeed, 

 an ethnologic puzzle, if not a distinct race ; 

 while the Blackfellows of Australia and 

 the Papuans of New Guinea, the tribes of 

 eastern Madagascar, various islanders of 

 Polynesia, the Ainu of northern Japan, 

 certain peoples of southern Eurasia with 

 the Laps and Tartars of the north, the 

 Eskimo of the western hemisphere, and 

 several other peoples depart in greater or 

 less measure from the five race-types. 



From the earliest times, thinking men 

 classed mankind in two or more divisions, 

 of Avhich the lower was regarded as rank- 

 ing with brutes; and this view survives 

 to-day among most primitive peoples. So 

 the ancients divided the human genus into 

 two species. Homo sapiens and Homo hru- 

 tus, and held the former to possess and 

 the latter to lack mind and soul. As ex- 

 ploration proceeded and knowledge of re- 

 moter peoples progressed during recent 



