INTRODUCTION. 27 



encircling a central stem, the apex of one cone being received into 

 the base of the superior one." Hair, though sometimes rough and 

 covered with scales, has no serrations, or tooth-like projections; it 

 is an even-sided tube, smooth, and nearly of equal calibre. 



The hair of the dark races is not wool, but a curled and twisted 

 hair ; it has the appearance of a cylinder with a smooth surface ; 

 the coloring matter is the most abundant in the Negro hair ; the 

 Abyssinian hair, very dark, had a riband-like band running through 

 the middle of the tube, as did also the Mulatto hair; European hair 

 seemed almost entirely transparent, like an empty tube. Even if 

 that of the Negro were " wool," it would not prove him a distinct 

 species, since we know that, in some tribes of animals, some of a spe- 

 cies bear wool, while others of the same species are covered with hair. 



Since the time of Camper and Blumenbach, anatomists have 

 attempted to classify mankind according to the shape of the skull ; 

 but hardly any two writers have agreed as to the number of the 

 divisions and their exact limitation. One of their fundamental 

 principles seems to be wrong, viz., that tribes resembling each other 

 in the shape of their skulls must needs be more nearly related to 

 each other than to tribes having a differently formed head. As sim- 

 ilar causes may have produced similar effects on widely different 

 people, any particular anatomical character so produced can afford 

 no proof of near relationship. If there be any such relation between 

 the physical characters of different tribes and the chief circumstances 

 of their external condition, there may be pointed out three principal 

 varieties, which are prevalent in the savage or hunting tribes, in 

 the nomadic or wandering races, and in the civilized divisions of 

 mankind. Among savages and hunters, among whom are the lowest 

 Africans and Australians, the jaws are prolonged forwards, consti- 

 tuting the prognathous form of the head ; among the wandering 

 Mongolians, we have broad, lozenge-shaped faces, and the pyramidal 

 skull ; while the civilized races have the oval or elliptical skull. 

 There are numerous instances of transition from one of these forms 

 to another, when a nation has changed its manner of life; for 

 instance, the nomadic Turks of Central Asia have a strongly marked 

 pyramidal skull, while their civilized brethren of the Ottoman 

 Empire have the European or oval form. The three principal ways 

 of viewing the skull are laterally, vertically, and from below ; these 

 three combined enable us to form an idea of all its characters. 



Camper says, " The basis on which the distinction of nations is 



founded, may be displayed by two straight lines ; one of which is to 



be drawn through the meatus auditorius, or opening of the ear, to the 



ase of the nose, and the other touching the prominent centre of the 



