228 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 301 



or tribe, and depend upon age, sex, and general health. Ex- 

 posure, mode of living, climate, and altitude are, furthermore, the 

 main factors which determine the many different shades of the 

 color of the skin, not only among the Mongoloids, but also among 

 the white and black races. 



Let us suppose for a moment that the color of a Mongolian were 

 yellow, and that of an American red : would it ever occur to a 

 modern anthropologist to classify them for this reason in a separate 

 and distinct race .' 



There is no race in which both the color of the skin and the color 

 of the hair vary more than in the white. Think of a blond, florid 

 complexioned Teuton, and an Italian with raven-black hair and 

 dark skin. And yet, on account of the rest of their physical char- 

 acteristics, they belong to the same race. 



After this, what Dr. Brinton said about the difference between 

 the character and color of the hair of Mongolians and Americans 

 needs no further refutation. 



Although I have probably studied somatologically more Ameri- 

 can Indians, and have examined more of their skulls, than any other 

 anthropologist living, as yel I hesitate to name " a positive cranial 

 characteristic of the red race." At any rate, Dr. Brinton is mis- 

 taken in thinking that the os Incce is found in its extreme develop- 

 ment in the " American race," and in its greatest rarity among the 

 Mongolians. What in the days of Von Tschudi seemed true, has 

 been refuted since. As I write this without any books at my dis- 

 posal, and simply quote from memory, I cannot now give any sta- 

 tistics of the relative frequency of this anomaly in different races, 

 but would refer to Virchow's and my own investigations on this 

 subject (ViRCHOW, Ueber Merkmale 7iiedrer MenschenraSen am 

 Schadel ; TEN Kate, Craniologie der Mongoloiden). 



Although it is true that the glabella is more prominent in Amer- 

 ican skulls than in Altaic or northern Mongoloid crania, this is no 

 argument to separate them racially from each other. The African 

 negroes, for instance, seldom have a prominent glabella ; the Aus- 

 tralians, on the contrary, have, as a rule, an exceedingly strongly 

 developed glabella ; but nevertheless both African negroes and 

 Australians are considered as belonging to the same race. 



As far as the " Aymarian depression " is concerned, one might as 

 well call all different artificial deformities of the skull, those in Eu- 

 rope included, racial characteristics. They are merely incidental, 

 and belong as much to the domain of ethnology as to that of phys- 

 ical anthropology.' 



It is not quite correct to assert, that, " of all the peoples of the 

 world, the Mongols, especially the Turanian branch, are the most 

 brachycephalic." 



Many years ago, in the days when our craniologie knowledge 

 was very limited, we had reason to believe this to be a fact ; but 

 since one armchair anthropologist copied this statement from the 

 other, and since Aitken Meigs studied craniology after very imper- 

 fect methods, facts have accumulated to show that in America also 

 we find extreme brachycephaly, as well among the prehistoric as 

 among the historic peoples, from British America to Patagonia. 

 At the same time extreme dolichocephaly is found, besides among 

 the Eskimo, throughout the American Indian tribes, from north to 

 south ; but it cannot be considered an American craniologie char- 

 acteristic, for among the Asiatic tribes dwelling nearest to the Es- 

 kimo (the Aleuts, for example), dolichocephaly in a marked degree 

 is found, which fact is in absolute contradiction to Dr. Brinton's 

 assertion (see, among other works, De Ouatrefages and Ha- 

 MY, Crania ethtiica ; KOLLMAN, ' Die Autochthonen Amerika's,' 

 in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1883 ; Topinard, Elements d'An- 

 thropologie generale ; and my own publications in American and 

 Asiatic anthropology). 



The value of the so-called 'Mongolian eye' {I'oeil bridS) may 

 have been exaggerated as a racial characteristic : it is nevertheless 



1 Although Dr. Brinton does not mention any ethnologic peculii 

 been asserted in favor of the affinity between Mongolians and Americans (for they 

 have been asserted), I think it would have been worth while to discuss them. What I 

 said above about the study of archseology is equally true in regard to ethnology. Sys- 

 tematic and comparative, and, above all, empiric ethnological researches, both among 

 the native Americans, especially the northern, and among different Mongolians, par- 

 ticularly the Siberian tribes, would throw much light upon their relationship. I think, 

 for example, that we will never be able to understand thoroughly the ethnology of the 

 Tinne tribes, as long as the Mongolians proper, and certain erratic tribes in the Gobi, 

 have not been studied. 



very frequent among children, both of Mongolians and native 

 Americans, as also among women, more than in any other race I 

 know of. As it is admitted that in all races women and children 

 show certain racial characteristics, especially those belonging to 

 physiognomy, better than men, we may safely call the Mongolian 

 eye a racial characteristic, though perhaps of less importance. 



As regards the nasal index, before we can draw any conclusions 

 from it, we have to make a distinction between the nasal index of 

 the living {sur le vivant) and the nasal index of the bony skull, 

 which often are in no correlation at all. Such is the case among 

 the Eskimo, who are leptorrhinic, and belong at the same time to 

 the same group as the .American and northern Asiatic tribes. 



To come to Dr. Brinton's last argument against the asserted 

 Chinese traits of certain American tribes, I must say, that, although 

 I never have seen any living Botocudo, I have examined their cra- 

 nia, and find that there is a certain resemblance between them and 

 those of the Eskimo. If I am not wholly mistaken. Dr. Ph. Rey, 

 who has also lived among the Botocudo, has pointed out this simi- 

 larity in his anthropological study on this tribe (Paris, 1880). 



I cannot say whether the tribes of the North-west Pacific coast 

 have any Chinese traits, as I have not seen them myself ; but this- 

 I can state, that among several tribes in North and South America 

 (for example, Iroquois, Apaches, Hualapais, Maricopa, Pima, Carib, 

 Arowak) I have seen persons who strongly resembled not only Chi- 

 nese, but also Japanese and other Mongolians, and even Malays. 



In some of them this similarity was so marked, that once on the 

 Demerara River, in British Guiana, I questioned some Indians of 

 the Ackavvoio tribe, to convince myself that they were not China- 

 men. 



Dr. Brinton admits that the Eskimo " possess in some instances 

 a general physiognomical similarity," concluding that " this is all," 

 and "not worth much as against the dissimilarities mentioned." 

 Does not Dr. Brinton know that physiognomy is really a very im- 

 portant consideration in racial distinctions .' Every anthropologist 

 knows that physiognomy is a complex of different traits, several of 

 which are first-class racial characteristics. I will only mention the 

 general shape of the forehead, the implantation and form of the 

 nose, and the breadth and length of the face. If physiognomical 

 characteristics had as little value as Dr. Brinton seems to think, 

 then we might as well give up the study of physical anthropology 

 altogether. 



To recapitulate my criticism. I wish to say that Dr. Brinton's 

 argumentation against the affinity between Americans and Mongo- 

 lians is based upon entirely wrong reasoning. If the reasons he 

 gives were correct, then the classification of the other races of the 

 human species would be equally wrong ; for in each of them peo- 

 ples are grouped together, which, although related by physical 

 characteristics, are linguistically and ethnologically entirely different 

 from each other, not to speak of the difference in their psychologi- 

 cal and social evolution. 



When I admit that the native Americans are Mongoloids, I do 

 not necessarily imply that America has been populated from Asia 

 or elsewhere. However, if we accept the theory of evolution, this 

 is the most probable explanation of the observed facts. But, leav- 

 ing the doubtful origin of the Americans, and of their languages 

 and arts, out of the question, I maintain that there is a physical 

 similarity, racial affinity, and relationship between the indigenous 

 Americans and the Mongolians in the widest sense. 



This is, in the present state of anthropological knowledge, an 

 undeniable fact. He who denies it does not believe in physical an- 

 thropology ; and not to recognize this branch of science is equal to 

 denying natural history in general. Dr. H. TEN KATE. 



Mexico, Oct. 8. 



Queries. 

 38. When was the Billion changed.' — Can any of the 

 readers of Science state at what time, and from what incentive (by 

 what fatuity), the people that has proposed a system of metrology 

 for universal adoption depreciated the arithmetical billion (the sec- 

 ond power of the million) to a nominal ' trillion,' making the anom- 

 alous ' billion ' one-thousandth of its explicit value ? , 



W. B. T. 



Washington, D.C., Oct. 31. 



