'74 LECTUKE III. 



importance. For purposes of comparison (and all pictorial 

 representations used in natural historical researclies must be 

 comparable intey' se), strictly geometrical drawings are requi- 

 sitOj as they admit of the object which is to be compared with 

 the dehneation being brought into the same position in which 

 the drawing has been taken. 



For the delineation of the living head there are mostly only 

 two aspects which can be relied upon, viz., the profile and the 

 full front view, and these the artist rarely selects. With 

 regard, then, to ethnic portraits taken from life, we may boldly 

 assert that most of them have no scientific value, but are more 

 likely to mislead and to direct our attention to subordinate 

 points.* I say this, not only with regard to the position of 

 the subject, but also to the management of the light which, in 

 photography, constitutes the most essential element, and by 

 means of which prominent parts may be entirely suppressed, 

 and insignificant parts rendered prominent. The travelling 

 naturalist who undertakes such investigations, should, there- 

 fore, be a very expert photographer to overcome such diffi- 

 culties. If this be effected, there can be no doubt that photo- 

 graphy is the best means of obtaining ethnic pictures in great 

 numbers ; as science requires, in order to establish the mean 

 type, not individual characteristic faces, but a multitude of 

 them. 



Photography, in which the ray of light, subject to un- 

 alterable physical laws, takes the picture, and not the err- 

 ing hand of man, is the only means of obviating one of 

 the greatest obstacles in the study of anthropology, by en- 

 abling us to compare objects separated by time and space. 

 The soft parts of the head and the whole body are, in many 

 cases, of considerable importance. I need only mention the 

 shape of the nose, the lips, the aperture of the eyes, the posi- 

 tion and shape of the ear and the lobule, as well as of the 

 beard and the hair. But most of these parts are perishable, 

 and cannot be preserved in their original form. Without 



* With regai-d to living individuals, pliotograpliy is undoubtedly one of 

 the most invaluable aids to study, provided it is skilfully used. 



