4 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



three races only: the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian; but the author hesitates 

 to refer to either of these, the Malays, the Papuas, the Australians, and the South 

 Sea Islanders.* 



At the other extreme is Malte-Brun, the distinguished geographer, who 

 enumerates sixteen races, of which the American nations form but one.f 



Much has also been written in reference to the unity of the human species : 

 the affirmative opinion is sustained by Linnaeus, Blumenbach, Cuvier, and many 

 other distinguished naturalists ; yet, on the contrary, Virey has divided mankind 

 into two species, Dumoulin into eleven, and Bory into no less than fifteen.^ 

 Finally, a French professor, overstepping the barriers of reason and nature, has 

 attempted to establish several subgenera.^ 



Such wide differences of opinion have led some persons to reject all classification 

 in Anthropology ; but the same objections would apply with equal force to the 

 whole range of Natural Science, which, divested of arrangement, presents an 

 uninviting chaos. As our means of comparing the races of men become more 

 extended, our classification will of course improve ; and meanwhile we must rest 

 content with an approximation to accuracy. It may here be remarked, that two 

 leading features constitute the basis of most of the attempted classifications of the 

 human species : one of these is called the physical^ the other the ethnographic 

 method. In the former, mankind are grouped in great divisions characterised by 

 similarity of exterior conformation ; while on the last mentioned plan, the arrange- 

 ment is based on analogies of language. Each of these systems has its advocates 

 to the exclusion of the other ; but it is reasonable to suppose that method most 

 natural and comprehensive which is derived from both these sources, as well as 

 from all others which tend to establish analogies among men. In order to 

 combine, as far as possible, all these advantages, it is proposed in this place to 

 consider the human species as consisting of twenty-tivo families. 



It is necessary, however, to premise, that these families are not assumed as 

 identical with races, but merely as groups of nations possessing, to a greater or 

 less extent, similarity of physical and moral character, and language. Some of 

 these families possess, it is true, the peculiarities of the aboriginal races to which 



* Regne Anim. T, 84. 



t See Bory de St. Vincent, T. I, p. 95.— I have not been able to find this classification in 

 Malte-Brun, ed. 1832. 

 t Ibid. I, p. 83. 

 § Broc, Essai sur les Races Humaines, 1836. 



