Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/126

112 and a Negro would be generally distinguished by their narrowness and the projection of the jaw from that of any Englishman; while, although both the Australian and Negro are thus dolichocephalic and prognathous, the first would usually differ perceptibly from the second in its upright sides and strong orbital ridges. The relation of height to breadth may furnish a valuable test; thus both the Kafir and the Bushman are dolichocephalic, with an index of about 72, but they differ in the index of height, which may be 73 and 71 respectively, in the one case more than the width and in the other less. It is, however, acknowledged by all experienced craniologists, that the shape of the skull may vary so much within the same tribe, and even the same family, that it must be used with extreme caution, and if possible only in conjunction with other criteria of race.

The general contour of the face, in part dependent on the form of the skull, varies much in different races, among whom it is loosely denned as oval, lozenge-shaped, pentagonal, &c. Of particular features, some of the most marked contrasts to European types are seen in the oblique Chinese eyes, the broad-set Kamchadal cheeks, the pointed Arab chin, the snub Kirghis nose, the fleshy protuberant Negro lips, and the broad Kalmuk ear. Taken altogether, the features have a typical character which popular obser vation seizes with some degree of correctness, as in the recognition of the Jewish countenance in a European city.

The state of adaptation in which each people stands to its native climate forms a definite race-character. In its extreme form this is instanced in the harmful effect of the climate of India on children of European parents, and the corresponding danger in transporting natives of tropical climates to England. Typical instances of the relation of race-constitutions to particular diseases are seen in the liability of Europeans in the West Indies to yellow fever, from which Negroes are exempt, and in the habitation by tribes in India of so-called &quot;unhealthy districts,&quot; whose climate is deadly to Europeans, and even to natives of neighbouring regions. Even the vermin infesting different races of men are classified by Mr A. Murray (Trans. R. Soc. Edin., vol. xxii.) as distinct. The physical capabilities of different races are known to differ widely, but it is not easy to discriminate here between hereditary race-differences and those due to particular food and habit of life. A similar difficulty has hitherto stood in the way of any definite classification of the emotional, moral, and intellectual characters of races. Some of the most confident judgments which have been delivered on this subject have been dictated by prejudice or wilful slander, as in the many lamentable cases in which slave holders and conquerors have excused their ill-treatment of subject and invaded races on the ground of their being creatures of bestial nature in mind and morals. Two of the best-marked contrasts of mental type recorded among races are Mr A. R. Wallace's distinction between the shy, reserved, and impassive Malay and the sociable and demonstrative Papuan (Tr. Eth. Soc., vol. iii. p. 200), and the very similar difference pointed out by Spix and Martins between the dull and morose natives of the Brazilian forests, and the lively sensuous African Negroes brought into contact with them (Reise in Brasilien, vol. i.) In general, however, descriptions of national or racial character are so vitiated by the confusion of peculiarity of natural character with stage of civilisation, that they can only be made use of with the greatest reserve. The relation of language to race is discussed below. (Section V.)

Were the race-characters indicated in the foregoing paragraphs constant in degree or even in kind, the classification of races would be an easy task. In fact it is not so, for every division of mankind presents in every character wide deviations from a standard. Thus the Negro race, well marked as it may seem at the first glance, proves on closer examination to include several shades of complexion and features, in some districts varying far from the accepted Negro type ; while the examination of a series of native American tribes shows that, notwithstanding their asserted uniformity of type, they differ in stature, colour, features, and proportions of skull. (See Prichard, Nat. Hist. of Man; Waitz, Anthropology, part i. sec. 5.) Detailed anthropological research, indeed, more and more justifies Blumenbach's words, that &quot; innumerable varieties of man kind run into one another by insensible degrees.&quot; This state of things, due partly to mixture and crossing of races, and partly to independent variation of types, makes the attempt to arrange the whole human species within exactly bounded divisions an apparently hopeless task. It does not follow, however, that the attempt to distinguish special races should be given up, for there at least exist several definable types, each of which so far prevails in a certain population as to be taken as its standard. M. Quetelot Quetelet's plan of defining such types will probably meet method. with general acceptance as the scientific method proper to this branch of anthropology. It consists in the deter mination of the standard, or typical &quot; mean man &quot; (komme moyen) of a population, with reference to any particular quality, such as stature, weight, complexion, &c. In the case of stature, this would be done by measuring a suffi cient number of men, and counting how many of them belong to each height on the scale. If it be thus ascer tained, as it might be in an English district, that the 5 ft. 7 in. men form the most numerous group, while the 5 ft. 6 in. and 5 ft. 8 in. men are less in number, and the 5 ft. 5 in. and 5 ft. 9 in. still fewer, and so on until the extremely small number of extremely short or tall indi viduals of 5 ft. or 7 ft. is reached, it will thus be ascer tained that the stature of the mean or typical man- is to be taken as 5 ft. 7 in. The method is thus that of selecting as the standard the most numerous group, on both sides of which the groups decrease in number as they vary in type. Such classification may show the existence of two or more types in a community, as, for instance, the population of a California!! settlement made up of Whites and Chinese might show two predominant groups (one of 5 ft. 8 in., the other of 5 ft. 4 in.) corresponding to these two racial types. It need hardly be said that this method of deter mining the mean type of a race, as being that of its really existing and most numerous class, is altogether superior to the mere calculation of an average, which may actually be represented by comparatively few individuals, and those the exceptional ones. For instance, the average stature of the mixed European and Chinese population just referred to might be 5 ft. G in. a worthless and, indeed, misleading result. (For particulars of Quetelet s method, see his Physique Sociale, 1869, and Anthropometrie, 1870.) The measurement and description of the various races of men are now carried to great minuteness (the tables in Schcrzcr and Schwarz, Reise der Novara, and those of Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Sud-Afrika's, 1872, may be cited as examples of modern method), so that race-classification is rapidly improving as to both scope and accuracy. Even where comparatively loose observations have been made, it is possible, by inspection of considerable numbers of indi viduals, to define the prevalent type of a race with tolerable approximation to the real mean or standard man. It is in this way that the subdivision of mankind into races, so far as it has been done to any purpose, has been carried out by anthropologists. These classifications have been numerous, and though, regarded as systems, most of them are now seen at the 