814 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 573. 



centuries, scientific observers were more 

 impressed by the resemblances among than 

 by the differences between the human types, 

 and were unable- to discover or define the 

 brutal species recognized by the ancients. 

 Yet the question of affinity or relationship 

 between man and lower organisms — and no 

 greater question has arisen in all human 

 history — refused to down, and reappeared 

 in inquiries concerning the origin of man. 

 In England Huxley and Darwin, and in 

 Germany Haeckel, showed that the struc- 

 ture of the lowest humans more nearly 

 resembles that of the highest quadrumanes 

 (the 'four-handed' ape-like animals) than 

 that of the highest humans, and from all 

 known facts of both structure and develop- 

 ment drew the inference that just as low^er 

 humans grow into higher types, so, in 

 earlier times, some of the higher quadru- 

 manes grew into lower humans; and much 

 was said of the prospective finding of a 

 'missing link' combining more nearly than 

 any known organisms the characters of 

 human and quadrumane beings — a proph- 

 ecy verified a quarter-century later by the 

 discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus (erect 

 monkey-man) in Java. The effect of the 

 discussions and discoveries was to keep 

 alive the idea of the close connection be- 

 tween man and the lower animals. Even 

 before the discovery in Java, renowned 

 anthropologists in Europe, and especially 

 in Germany, noted a correspondence be- 

 tween the white, yellow, brown and black 

 races of the old world and four leading 

 types of quadrumanes, and suggested that 

 the four human stocks were fundamentally 

 distinct and had descended (or ascended) 

 from the subhuman species. From this 

 suggestion sprang the doctrine of poly- 

 genesis, which was opposed by those who 

 preferred the theory of monogenesis, i. e., 

 the descent of all mankind from a single 

 pair — the theory fostered by tradition and 

 the doctrine of evolution, and originally 



held by all peoples. One effect of the en- 

 suing discussion was to fix more clearly in 

 all minds the classification of the peoples 

 of the old world in four ethnic divisions or 

 races ; another was to keep in mind the idea 

 of our ancestors that at least some men and 

 the lower animals are closely akin. At 

 every stage the views of the experts found 

 their way into general thought, too often 

 with some distortion ; and partly for this 

 reason all the world desires to see the lowest 

 and remotest types of mankind, preferably 

 in connection with those higher quadru- 

 manes whose man-like features and move- 

 ments form a source of endless interest to 

 old and young alike. 



In the early discussion of types of man- 

 kind and of human prototypes, little ac- 

 count was taken of the western hemisphere 

 and the red race ; when not altogether 

 neglected, the aborigines of the American 

 continents were commonly dismissed as 

 emigrant offspring of an old-world stock 

 admitted to the new world during pre- 

 historic times over Behring Strait or some 

 other transoceanic way. Especially during 

 the later half of the nineteenth century 

 the native tribes of the western hemisphere 

 were brought under systematic observation, 

 as were various other little-known peoples; 

 and the observers were impressed by the 

 number of aberrant or outstanding types — 

 peoples like the Japanese, the Papuans and 

 others who fail to conform to the conven- 

 tional varieties or subspecies of Homo 

 sapiens. The new world natives were easily 

 defined as an additional variety or race, at 

 first miscalled Indian in perpetuation of 

 Columbus's error, then known generally as 

 American, and afterward designated spe- 

 cifically as the Amerind type or race ; yet 

 even this race was found to present a con- 

 siderable variety of physical types or sub- 

 species, such as the Eskimo of the north, 

 the so-called 'giants' of Patagonia,, the 

 light-skinned and almost flaxen-haired deni- 



