tray race types which we recognize to-day without trouble. Differences in human stocks were known but all outsiders were usually lumped together as gentiles or barbarians and held in contempt or fear as the case might be. Doubtless they were created by their own gods. No one seems to have thought of the possibility of relationship nor did the development of monotheism greatly affect their relations. The term race was hardly used until Buffon towards the end of the eighteenth century employed it to designate varieties of organisms produced, as he thought, by the influences of soil and climate. Already the growing knowledge of the world was forcing attention to the variety of human types.

Early Classifications

Linnæus (1735) described man as Homo sapiens and listed as varieties, first, ferus (wild), giving some eight cases based on stories of children reared by animals, and last, monstrosus (monstrous), including three types supposed to be deformed. Between these extremes he put the American, described as reddish in color, beardless, black-haired, stubborn, contented, fond of liberty, painting his body, and ruled by habit; the European, light with fair hair and blue eyes, active, shrewd, inventive, fond of closely fitting garments and respectful to the authority of law; the Asiatic, yellowish in color, with dark hair and brown eyes, avaricious, cruel in character, fond of show, liking to dress in flowing garments, ruled by prevailing opinion; and the African, with black, woolly hair, indolent and cunning, who greases his body and lives under despotic government. Evidently Linnæus was not well informed as to the physical traits even of the Europeans. We need not blame him then for knowing so little about the rest of the world. It is to be noted that he sought to include certain mental traits as characteristic of his different groups.

In the tenth edition of his work (1789) Linnæus suggests a different classification of man whom he now divides into albus, badius, niger, cupreus and fuscus, thus approaching a classification to be noted shortly.

Buffon (1749), considering skin color, stature and body size, suggested the division of mankind into the following six races: (1) the Polar race; (2) the Mongolian; (3) the Southasiatic; (4) the European; (5) the Aethiopian; (6) the American.

An English physician, John Hunter (1728-1793), suggested in 1775 a classification based almost wholly on skin color.

Blumenbach's Classification

It remained for the man often called the "father of anthropology," J. F. Blumenbach (1752-1840), to lay a much broader foundation for the physical study of man in his work of 1776, wherein he considers not only skin color, but hair color and shape, the skull form, jaw and teeth and other stigmata. He coined the word Caucasian, which has been so much used since to designate the light-colored groups which, he thought, had originated near the Caucasus Mountains. His classification, which has been followed ever since in popular works, is almost identical with the second suggestion of Linnæus, though he reassigns some of the groups. He recognized:

1. The Caucasian: light-skinned, with red cheeks, brown hair, round skull, oval face, smooth forehead, narrow, slightly aquiline nose, small mouth, perpendicular front teeth, face symmetrical and agreeable. All Europeans except the Finns and Lapps; Asians to the Caspian, Obi and Ganges, and North Africans. It is noteworthy as Scheidt points out that no mention is made of the light-haired, blue-eyed blonds so emphasized to-day and already mentioned by Linnæus. Scheidt suggests that this may be due to the recognition by Blumenbach that his Caucasian race was the forerunner of present European races.

2. The Mongol: yellowish sallow skin; straight, thin hair

on the head; almost square skull; nose small and upturned; narrow eyes; projecting cheek bones. All Asians except the Caucasians and Malays, Finns, Lapps and Eskimos.

3. The Aethiopian: dark, brown skin; dark, curly hair; long heads; broad nose with prominent upper jaw, protruding lips. All Africans except those of the north.

4. The American: copper color; thin, straight, black hair; face broad but not flat; skull often deformed. All Americans save the Eskimo.

5. The Malay: chestnut-brown skin; black hair, thick and curly; broad nose with thick lips; upper jaw slightly projecting. Malay Peninsula and many of the Pacific Islands.

This scheme had great merit and could not have been bettered in its day. It was simple and correlated certain facts of geographical distribution with physical traits. No later suggestion has won so much popular favor. Yet it is hopelessly inadequate in the light of present information.

We need not dwell long on various suggestions. Cuvier (1769-1832) appears to have been the author of the thesis that the three sons of Noah started the basic groups of mankind; Shem becoming the ancestor of the Semites; Ham of the black folk who were cursed to be the "hewers of wood and the drawers of water"; while the rest of us fell to the lot of Japhet. Leibnitz and Kant postulated four main races, as did Huxley at a later date. Agassiz thought nine would be adequate, while some students have claimed that one or two hundred races demanded recognition. Almost every physical trait has been used as a basis of classification. Still there is no agreement. The significance of this fact should be noted.

Race Criteria

Skin color is one of the most striking traits of man and it is not an accident that it has been so widely used as a basis of classification. Unfortunately it is one of the most difficult to measure accurately. The darkest members of the light-colored groups are often darker than the lighter members of darker groups. The actual color appears to depend on the thickness of the skin and the amount of pigment rather than on a difference in tint of pigment itself. Color may change somewhat as by exposure to sun and wind. We do not know how permanent it is in the history of a race. The American Indians had the color of the Polynesians but in all other regards they approached the Mongolian group to which all available evidence indicates their relationship. It is granted that we might adopt a color scale and measure the world and find out just how many folks had skins of tints one, two, three, and so on. How much would we know after we had finished?

The same criticism applies to any other single trait which may be selected. The Scotch are among the tallest people of earth but some of the Negro and Polynesian groups are also very tall, and among the Negroes we find some of the shortest people on earth; the Pygmies of Africa and New Guinea whose average stature is about 4 feet. In any group of fairly uniform descent, so far as we know, the extreme forms of any trait will be as far apart as if we were considering the differences between any two groups of no known connection. That is, the variations within any group about equal the variations between groups. It is for this reason that no generally satisfactory analysis of human races has been made as yet, a most surprising thing considering the glib use made of the term race.

The breeders of domestic plants and animals learned long ago that only by the exercise of the utmost care in mating, by the ruthless casting out of variant individuals, could any stock be kept up to standard. It has been noted in earlier pages that peculiar types of plants and animals are usually found in isolated regions. Uniformity of physical type seems to result from long-continued inbreeding with all possibility of outbreeding reduced to the minimum or eliminated. Can it be an accident that this is true of man also? As our knowledge of the world increases we find that the groups most uniform physically are living in areas least exposed to migrants from other sections. By contrast easily accessible regions show the greatest medley of traits. Compare the relatively uniform Indians of the Americas with the mixture of traits found in Europe.

HUMAN ORIGINS

Our problem might be simpler if we knew whether all men were of common origin, descended from one type, or not. Our traditions on this point are valueless. Yet, in spite of a few dissenters, the best opinion is that man originated somewhere in Asia along with other higher mammals and that the world has been populated by successive migrations. If these took place in early days (as we know they have in later years) the migrants must have followed the routes available at the time, "corridors" as Taylor calls them. Obviously these may have been very different from the routes of to-day. Pushing ahead to new regions often pushed from behind, no doubt the most primitive types would ultimately find themselves at the ends of the earth. This is a bold generalization but it is based on a body of evidence which seems to be increasing.

Early Remains

It is significant that the oldest skeletons of man have been found in western Europe, South Africa, Java and Australia, places about the most remote from the assumed starting point, barring America which was long inaccessible to man, in so far as we now know.

The remains found in Java in 1891, to which the name