mean, are less numerous than those above it. This result
may be connected with the fact which I have just pointed out.
Nevertheless it appears to me probable that the number of
races above the mean stature, is greater than those below
it. The difference in number is compensated for by the
more than double extent of the oscillations below the mean.
Between the highest mean observed among the Southern
Patagonians, and the lowest mean among the Bosjesmans, we
find a difterence of O'"'5o4 (1ft 98 inch). The difference
between individuals will be 0'»-930 (:3ft OG inch). But I
think that it ought to be reduced to 0'"-790 (2ft 71 inch),
adopting as a mean the height 1"''14 (3ft 888 inch) given
by Barrow as the height of a Bosjesman woman who had
had several children. We are thus certain that we are not
taking a case of tcratological dwarfishness as a possible
normal state.
Travellers have not often measured separately the height
of men and women. Uniting the facts of this nature which
I have been able to collect, we find 0'"141 (.V57 inch) as the
mean ditference between the heights of the sexes, and 0973
jis the mean ratio, the woman being everywhere shorter than
the man. Among the Lapps, according to Capel Brooke and
Campbell, the mean difference is as high as 0'"278 (10*94
inches) ; in Austria, it is as low as 0""{)37 (1 45 inch) according
to Lihar/.ik.
V. I*ro]H)rtion of the body (f^d of the limhs. In all the
races of our domestic animals, the relative tlevcloj)inont of
the dilTerent parts of the body, the 2>'''V'c»r/<ojjs, have a
char.u-teri.slic value, which is c<|ual and frecjuently superior
to that of height. No one would think of separating the
greyhound from tho harrier. Jt ought to be exactly tho
same with man. \\ iili the animal, races are formed by a
External Characters — Proportions. 355
selection more or less open, and undertaken for a fixed
purpose. The proportions of the ditferent parts of tlie body
thus accpiire a fixity, whieh cannot be found in human races
on account of the absence of selection.
This variability is found even in the simplest relations,
and in those which migiit be considered fundamental. Such
is the relation of the height of the head to the total height.
Gerdy, who has taken up this question in a special manner,
has found that the height of Frenchmen is rarely beyond
7i heads, most frequently a little more than 8 heads, and
sometimes 9, The artistic ideal is no more fixed than the
reality, in spite of the mathematical rules laid down, from
Vitruvius to Liharzik and Silberman. The table drawn up
by Audran shows the variation from 7{v heads (the Egyptian
Termes) to 7H (the Fiirnese Hercules). The dit^'erence
between these two extremes is exactly half a head. Painters
have taken still more liberty. Raphael has only given a
lieight of G heads to some of his figures, and Micliael Angelo
has given them 8 or more.
The Pythian Apollo {jY\ heads), the Laocoon (7;t)> ^'"^
nevertheless che/n-d'ceuvrc, and we rightly bestow an equal
amount of admiration upon the two Italian masters. The
reason is just the same as with the rest of organised beings :
man's organism is not subject to absolute laws, nor to a rigor-
ously fixed development.
Doubtless there have been noticed among some human
races differences of proportion generally sufficiently marked
to serve as characters. But it just as often happens that
with some individuals the order of these ditferences is in-
verted. It is another example of intercrossing.
Thus the African Negro has generally the upper limb,
from the shoulder to the wrist, relatively longer than the
I'luropean White, and we shall return to this point further
on. Nevertheless, from the measures of Qudtelet, it follows
that a Negro, well known in the studio.s, where he acted as a
model, had much shorter arras than the soldiers, and than a
Belgian model, who were taken as terms of comparison.
35^ The llntnan Species.
^lorcovcr, the numbers found by Quetelct place the indi-
viduals, upon whom his observations were made, in the follow-
ing order : — 1st, mean of ten Belgian soldiers ; 2nd, an
Ojibbcway chief; 8rd, a Belgian model, and a Zulu Kaffir;
4th, an Amaponda Kaffir ; 5th, the Negi'o model ; 6th,
three young Ojibbeways; 7th, Cantfield, the Hercules of
the United States. Here intercrossing again appears in a
well marked manner, and it is in the White race that the
Brussels savant has found the two extremes.
In the general characteristic of negro races, we often find
quoted the slight development and the relatively high posi-
tion of the calf of the leg. I have no definite information
upon the latter of these characters. As fur the former, it
has been represented to be too general. Two Blacks, the
Amaponda Kaffir, and the Negro model in the tables of
Qudtelet, present the maxinmm 0"'"41() (1G14 inches), and
the minimum 0'"328 (12 92 inches) of development of this
part. They are separated from each other by the Belgians,
the Ojibbeways, and Cantfield.
Finally, the vieans taken for the different parts of the
body will doubtle.ss give results useful for the distinction
of race-s. But still, account will have to be taken of many
of the conditions. All hunting peoples, including the Aus-
tralians, according to travellers who have been among them.
Could furnish moilels for the sculptor, and are generally re-
niarkalile for the symmetry and beauty of their proportions.
In this respect civilized populations, especially those of our
great towns, present a deplorable inferiority. Is our funda-
mental type degraded in this respect ? Certainly not. But
civilization itself, by the facilities of existence which it pro-
cures, by the vices which it induces, by the weakly indi-
viduals which it preserves, introduces into the race the
elements of drgradation. Here again appears, in all its
fulness, the inHuenco of the conditions of life.
VI. Colovr'nuj. With all anlhroj)ologists I recognise the
high vahie of the colour of the skin as a character. Never-
theless, its importance must not be exaggerated. We now
ILxtcrnal Characters — Colouring. 357
know that it docs not result from the existence or disappear-
ance of special hiycrs. Black or white, the skin always com-
prises a white dcnnl^, penetrated by many capillaries, and an
i'lndemxis, more or less transparent and colourless. Between
the two is ]ilaced the raxicons layer, of which the }>i'jment
alone in realitv v.iriis iu quantity and colour according to the
race.
All the colours presented by the luunun skin iiave two
common elements, the white of the dermis and the red of
the blood. Moreover, each has its own proper element, re-
sultinEf from the colourings of the pigment. The rays re-
flected from these different tissues combine into a result-
ant which produces the different tints and traverses the
epidermis. This latter plays the part of roughened glass.
The more delicate and the finer it is, the more perceptible
is the colour of the subjacent parts.
This arrangement explains why, among certain coloured
races, for example, among the Sandwich Islandei-s, the
upper classes, who do not live an exposed life, often ex-
hibit the colour in a most pronounced form. Among them
sun-hurninf/ ma.sks the colour of the pigment, as it masks
with us the colour of the dermis and its vessels.
From the preceding, we can also understand why the
White alone can be said to turn pule or to hlusli. The
reason is, that in him the pigment allows the slightest
differences in the afflux of blood to the dermis to be per-
ceived. With the Negro as with us, the blood has its
share in the colouring, the tint of which it deepens or
modifies. When the blood is wanting, the Negro turns
grey from the blending of the white of the dermis with
the black of the pigment.
It is well known that from the point of view of the colour-
ing, human races can be divided into four principal groups :
white, yellow, black, and red races. But we must guard
against attaching an absolute sense to these expressions.
Every grouping of races founded solely on colour would
break clo.so relations, and would lead to comparisons which
2,s^ The Htiman Species.
would evidently be at variance v itli the sum of the remain-
ing charactere, Kevertheless, this systematic point of view
brings to light some interesting general foots.
The races of a white colour present sufficient homogeneity.
From the sum of their characters, they belong almost ex-
clusively to the type which borrows its name from this kind
of colouring. It is, moreover, useless to insist upon the
differences of tint which the latter exhibit, from the Eng-
lish or German woman of the upper classes to the Portu-
guese, and especially to the Arab. Nevertheless, in the
northern regions and in Central Asia, some populations,
the Tchukchees for example, ajipcar to unite witli a white
colour certain characters which connect them with the
yellow.s.
In the purest white, the epidermis ca.sily loses its trans-
parency as .soon as the colour deepens. The sub-cutaneous
veins can tlion only be recognised by their swelling. It is
only with individuals who.sc skin is very fine and trans-
parent, that the course of the veins is marked b}' the well-
known blui.sh colour. Whenever this trait is exhibited by
any population whatever, it may with certainty be connected
with the white type. For this reason I have not hesitated to
place among the Allophylians some of the most savage tribes
of the north western shores of North Amc i ica, and the 'JVhuk-
chees, of whom I have just spoken.
The populations with a black skin arc far from being as
homogeneous as the preceding. All black men are not
Negroes ; there are sonie, who, from the sum of their more
important characters, are closely connecttil with the white
stock. Such, for example, are the I>icliaris and other
negroid populations, on the borders of the Red Sea, whose
skin is much blacker than that of some negroes, but whoso
hair and cliai actors are perfectly Semitic.
Among Negroes properly so called, the tints vary, perhaps,
much more than with the White. Witlioiit going further
than Cairo, individuals niay bo seen, who, without any
traces of the mixture of races, arc of » brown colour with
External Charactci's — Colouring. 359
a considerable mixture of black. The Yulofs are of a bluish
black, resembling the wing of a raven, and Livingstone
speaks of some tribes on the Zambesi who are the colour
of caJ4. au lait. But, perhaps, mixture of races has some
action in this extreme modification of the colour.
Populations with a yellow skin present facts analogous
with the preceding, but nut so numerous nor so striking.
Perhaps this difference is only due to the difficulty of
recojjnisinsr the shades of the fundamental colour. Never-
theless, a more or less pronounced yellow colour equally
characterises the great Mongolian stock, and the Houzuu-
ana or Bosjesman race, which it is impossible to separate
from the Negroes. On the other hand, this same tint is
so well marked among tlie mulattoes that they are often
designated by the name of ijdlows, in distinction to the
Blivcks and the Whites.
Of the four groups into which the colour of human races
may be divided, the least characteristic is the red. It has
been attempted to make it the attribute of the Americans.
This is a mistake. On the one hand, in America the
Peruvian, Autisian, Araucanian, and other races are more or
less deep brown, the Brazilio-Guaranians of a yellowish
colour slightly tinted with red, etc. On the other hand, in
Formosa a tribe has been found as red as the Algonquins,
and more or less copper tints are met with among (.'orean,
African populations, etc.
Moreover, the red tint appears a^ the sole etTect of the
crossing between races, neither of which possess it. Fitzroy
informs us that in New Zealand it frcMjuently characterises
the half-breeds of English and Maories. This fact also ex-
plains why it should be met with among many of the
populations mentioned above. With man it is one of
those facts which show how intercrossing can give rise to
the appearance of new characters.
Finally we see that the colour of the skin, although
furnishing excellent secondary characters, cannot be taken
as a starting jxiint in the dassificafion of human races
360 The Hujiian Species.
)iK>x man, as well as for plants, we ought to recall the
aphorism of Linnajus : '^ nimiuiniX ne crede colori"
The same may be said still more emphatically of the colour
of the eyes. Doubtless, the black colour is generally found
among coloured races, and sky-blue scarcely exists except
among fair populations. The former tint appears even to be
constant among the yellows and certain alloj)hylian Whites.
But, even among the Negroes, we often meet with brown
eyes, and sometimes with grey eyes.
Just as with the colour of the skin, the colour of the eyes
is a resultant due to the combination of the tints reflected by
the different layers of the iris, intensified by the colour of
the blood and seen through the transparent cornea. Hence
arises the difficulty experienced by painters in rendering the
general effect.
VII. The shin and ils principal annexes. The skin,
which covers the entire body, is a real covering composed
of organs which are anatomically and physiologically dis-
tinct. The j)rincipal one is the cutaneous on/an or skin
properly so called, to which are annexed the organs
jyroductive of villositles, the siulori parous glands, the
cutaneous glands, and some others which do not concern
us.
In extreme cases, the surface of the skin is sometimes
dry and rough, sometimes supple and like satin. The first
variety is generally met with among Arctic races, the
second among inhabitants of hot countries, as the Negroes
and Polynesians.
The two facts arc easily exj)lainod by the sole action of
the temperature. Cold contracts the tissues, drives the
blood towards the interior, or checks its circulation to-
wards the surface of the body. It must consequently
diminish the functional activity of the skin properly so
called, and partially diminish perspiration. Heat, on the
contrary, r^-iusrs a fhiw of blood to the surface of the
])ody, and r<;n(krs th(; functions of the skin, and espcciall}'
the perspiration, more active. The lattrr. I»y the produc-
External Characters — Skin, Pers/)iration. 36 1
tion of a constant evaporation on the surface of tlie body,
maintains the suppleness of the epidermic layer, and the
general freshness whicli causes Negresses to be sought after
in harems.
From this action of heat, and the increased activity of the
cutaneous organs which is its consequence, other results
follow which explain some of the facts noticed by travellers
and anthropologists.
Pruuer Bey luxs insisted strongly upon the thickness of the
cutaneous layers, and especially upon that of the dermis in
the Negro. Is not this thickness the natural consequence of
the How of nutritive principles brought by the blood, which is
incessantly passing to the surface of the body to keep up the
perspiration ?
It has long ago been remarked that the Negioes and
other races inhabiting hot countries perspire much less
than the inhabitants of temperate climates. This is ac-
counted for by the preceding facts. The blood, which is
constantly brought to the surface and into the cutaneous
organs, docs not flow so copiously in the sudoriparous
glands, which are deeply buried beneath the adipose tissue.
Between transpiration and perspiration, in consequence
of the position of the organs, a real equilibrium should
e.xist.
Probably, one of the difficulties of acclimatisation arises
from the fact that the proportional activity of these two
functions has to be changed when we pa:ss from a temper-
ate to a tropical climate, or vice versa. The researches
of Krause show that the body of a European contains
more than 2,281,000 sudoriparous glands. Tl;e total
volume of all these small organs would amount to about
40 cubic inches. A sudden change in functions could not
therefore be unimportant. Moreover, the sebaceous glands,
which are smaller but more numerous than the sudoriparous,
participate in this change, which can only result in a serious
shock to the organism.
The villosities are cither very rare or absolutely wanting
362 The Human Species.
on the surface of the boily of a Negro, except i.ome parts
which in man arc always covered with hair. On the other
hand, tlie glandular cutaneous covering is highly developed
in his case.
Both these facts may also be referred to the same cause,
and are explained by the balancing of connected organs.
The blood, when brought to the surface of the body, aban-
dons the hulhs of the hair which are too deeply planted; but,
for the same reason it flows into the sebaceous glands, which
are situated near the surface. It easily follows that the
former suffer atrophy, and the latter experience an excep-
tional development.
This development accounts for the exaggerated odour
which is peculiar to the Negro. It is known that a slave-
ship may be recognised by this smell. But African popula-
tions are not the only ones which are characterised in this
manner. Humboldt informs us that the Peruvians distinguish
the odour of a native, a white, and of a negro, calling them
posco, i^ezunay and gra'io. Amongst oureelves, every individ-
ual has his own peculiiir odour, which is easily detected by
the deHcatc .sense of smell of the dog.
V'lll. Villoaiiics, beard, hair. Villosities in man repre-
sent the hair of the mammalia; but whilst the latter are
always covered, with tlic exception of some special races,
• such as rhli'n.i tares, calongo cattle, etc., man is generally
only covered to any notable extent upon certain places. In
the African Negro, and most of the yolhnv race.s, it only
exists upon the normal parts of the body. Nevertheless the
practice of epil.'ition, which is common to a great mimber of
coloured pojjul.itions, h:us caused the frecpioncy and intensity
of this character to be exaggerated. Eckewclder represents
Ilcd-Skin warriors, in their leisure monjents, as occupied in
tearing out the smrdh-st hairs with ])incc'rs espoci.illy made
fur the purpose.
Wliite races an- j^i mialiy imni: ur lus.s hairy, and this
trait has long l>een known to be developed to a very excep-
tional degree among the Aiiios. Tlie photographs of Colonel
Extciual Characters — Beard, Hair. 363
Marsliall show tliat the Todas are their equal in this respect.
Ill certain individuals among the latter the villosities form a
real fur, especially on the lower limbs.
Of all the villosities of the human body, those which cover
the face and cranium have justly attracted most attention.
All races have hair ; but a considerable number in Asia,
America, and Africa, have been noticed to be entirely without
beards. PalKos, Humboldt, Brasseur de Bourbourg and
Pruner Bey, have contradicted these assertions, and shown
that the absence of beards is entirely due to careful epila-
tion. All human races are more or less provided with a
beard. ^Nevertheless great difterences are known, even
among races belonging to the same fundamental type.
Certain Melanesian Nogioes present a striking contrast in
this respect to their African brothers.
The hair of the head is much more constant in respect to
quantity than that of the beard. Nevertheless it appears to
be sensibly thicker among some arctic races, who have
moreover a more abundant down than races in temperate
climates. In this respect there is perfect agreement with
the known facts among animals.
With certain Negro races, the Bosjesmans of South Africa,
the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, the Papuans of
Melanesia, and some African tribes, the hair forms upon the
head small i.slands, separated by spaces which are perfectly
smooth. Hence results the heads of hair en grains de
poivre noticed by different travelleiu Amongst most African
Negroes, and amongst the Yellows an<l the Whites, the
distribution of the hair, on the contrary, is uniform.
The variation of the colour of the hair is well known.
Some general facts may nevertheless be collected from the
midst of all these special cases. I have said already tliat we
find isolated cases in all races of individuals with hair of a
more or less reddi.sh colour. Fair hair has for a long time
been regarded as the appanage of a small number of Aryan
groups. Nevertheles.s, according to Pruner Bey, we also
meet with it sometimes among the Asiatic Semites, and we
364 TJic Human Species.
know for certain that tlicy are very frequent among the
Kabyles. Facts sucli :is Pierre Martyr, P. Kes, James, etc.,
liave noticed among the Parians, the Lee-Panis, the Kiavas,
etc., will no doubt one day be explained by migrations and
intercrossings. It seems to me, for instance, almost evident
that the Scandinavians must have introduced their fair hair
among several tribes of the American shore, and that the
facts noticed by Pierre INIartyr are one of the proofs of their
extension beyond the Gulf of Mexico.
There is also something characteristic in the fonn of the
hair taken as a whole. Everyone knows the falsely called
vjoolbj head of the Negro, which is covered with very short
and crisp hair. The very long and harsh hair of yellow,
American, and other populations, contrasts in a striking
manner with the preceding. That of the white races, which
is frequently curly, almost takes the mean between these
two extremes.
This general a.spect ordinarily corresponds with the dif-
ferences of structure and general form of the hair. Brown
has already proved that a horizontal section of the hair
varies from an elongated ellipse with the Negro, to a circle
with the IledSkin, and that the hair of the Anglo-Saxon is a
mean between the two. Pruncr Boy has resumed this study,
and (lesciibed the form of a horizontal section of the hair in
.several races belonging to the three fundamental types. He
ha-s proved that the elongativl ellip.sc characterises Negro
races in general, a.s well as the ]it>ttentot-Bosjesman ; that
the oval forms belong essentially to Aryan popidations; that
more or less regularly circular forms charactori.so yellow,
American, and other races, and that in this respect the
allophylian white laces (Ba.sque.s) appear to resemble the
prfceding.
Brown and rnincr Bey moreover agree in the statement
that a mixture (»f forms is found ujinn iIm' hc.id.s of half-
brecdH. Exactly the same often haj»p< ns in the rro.ssing of
the merino with races of shoe)) with a coarse wool.
I have hitherto only sp«)kon of the characters furnished
Extcnial Characters — Cranium, Face. 365
l)y the beard and the hair when grown freely. But it is
well known that the love of adornment, one of the most
characteristic instincts of man, endeavours to modify nature
in tiiesc two directions. This results in characters, which
are doubtless artiHcial, but which have sometimes a real
value. This side of the question has often been attacked,
and M. E. Cortambert has made it the object of a work, in
which he has given a summary of the work of his pre-
decessoi*8 in addition to his own.
IX. Characters of the cranium and of (he face. From
the point of view of descriptive anthropology as well as
from an anatomical point of view, the head is composed
essentially of two regions, the cranium and the face. The
former is covered solely by the hairy skin which follows all
its contours, and it in reality therefore only presents osteo-
logical characters. The general form, proportions, etc., are
almost the same in the living man as in the skeleton. I
will therefore go into greater detail upon this subject when
treating of the latter. Here 1 will only remark that the
inequality of the skin and of some subjacent muscular fibres
necessitates some corrections in the comparison of measure-
ments taken from the living head and from the skull. For
example, the presence of the temporal mu.scles increases
to a sufficiently sensible extent the transverse maximum
diameter. Consequently the ratio of the latter to the
anterio-posterior diameter becomes raised. This ratio, which
constitutes the crplmllc index, is one of the charactei^s
which anthropologists employ most frequently, and it was
important to determine the correction to be made in case
of comparison. Broca ha.s shown that it is two units when
the ratio is expressed in the manner which I shall mention
further on.
The case is dilTerent with the face. Here the super-
imposed soft parts play a part of which the importance Ikis