Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/118

 good specific characters in the skeleton has also been stimulated by the necessity of studying extinct races. The conditions in these cases are the same as those found in paleontological studies, where the osseous remains alone of extinct species are available. Researches into the earliest history of man must be based on studies of the skeleton.

Studies of the human skeleton had not been carried very far when it was found to be not quite easy to determine racial characteristics with sufficient accuracy by mere verbal description. This led to the introduction of measurements as a substitute for verbal description. With the increase of the material, the necessity of accurate description became more and more apparent, because intermediate links between existing forms were found with increasing frequency. These conditions have led to a most extensive application of the metric method in the study of the human skeleton and also in the study of the external form of the living.

The results of the minute studies that have been carried on in this manner appear discouraging to many students, because we have not been able to find any criterion by which an individual skeleton of any one race can be distinguisheed with certainty from a skeleton belonging to another race, except in a very general way. A typical full-blood negro may be distinguished from a white man, and an Indian of Florida from an Eskimo; but it would be difficult to distinguish the skeletons of a Chinaman from that of certain North American Indians.

This lack of definite individual descriptive features has led many investigators to conclude that the method is at fault, and that the skeleton cannot be used as a satisfactory basis for a classification of mankind. This view has been strengthened by the belief, frequently expressed, that the characteristic features of each race are not stable, but that they are influenced to a great extent by environment, geographical as well as social.

It seems to me that these views are not borne out by the