Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/22

18 prehensile organ, and the specialization of the foot as a locomotory organ; the regular curvature of the line of the teeth, which are of the same length and in uninterrupted series, without diastemata; the nakedness of most of the body; and the large facial angle. These are the principal zoölogical characters by which the Hominidæ are distinguished from the Simiidæ or anthropoid apes. Physiologically, mankind is peculiar chiefly in the capacity of civilization, or the ability to create progressive institutions (including the formation and use of speech). Psychologically, man is separated by a very wide interval from the nearest Simiidæ. The family is the same as Anthropidæ; it is conterminous with its single genus Homo, with the order Bimana, and with the subclass Archencephala. (Vol. IV., p. 2866.) This is clear enough, and certainly amply good enough for a dictionary definition. However, as a generic diagnosis it offers us with numerous exceptions. In the first place negroes are to be found that possess the upper and lower canines, especially the former, much lengthened. Again, both men and women have been found, and exist at the present time, in whom the body (including the head sometimes) is completely covered with a thick and heavy growth of hair. In a Burmese family every member (eight or ten individuals) was so covered, even including the entire face. It is more frequently seen in the white than in the black-skinned races. Finally, there is great variance in the openness or the reverse, in the case of the facial angle.

With these and a few other minor exceptions added, there is not a biologist in the world today who will not fully indorse the definition of man and the family