pecies
of any other animal group, and the characters on which it is based are
in great measure physical, though intellectual and traditional
peculiarities, such as moral habit and language, furnish important aid.
Among the best-marked race-characters are the colour of the skin, eyes
and hair; and the structure and arrangement of the latter. Stature is by
no means a general criterion of race, and it would not, for instance, be
difficult to choose groups of Englishmen, Kaffirs, and North American
Indians, whose mean height should hardly differ. Yet in many cases it is
a valuable means of distinction, as between the tall Patagonians and the
stunted Fuegians, and even as a help in minuter problems, such as
separating the Teutonic and Celtic ancestry in the population of
England (see Beddoe, "Stature and Bulk of Man in the British Isles," in
_Mem. Anthrop. Soc. London_, vol. iii.) Proportions of the limbs,
compared in length with the trunk, have been claimed as constituting
peculiarities of African and American races; and other anatomical
points, such as the conformation of the pelvis, have speciality. But
inferences of this class have hardly attained to sufficient certainty
and generality to be set down in the form of rules. The conformation of
the skull is second only to the colour of the skin as a criterion for
the distinction of race; and the position of the jaws is recognized as
important, races being described as prognathous when the jaws project
far, as in the Australian or Negro, in contradistinction to the
orthognathous type, which is that of the ordinary well-shaped European
skull. On this distinction in great measure depends the celebrated
"facial angle," measured by Camper as a test of low and high races; but
this angle is objectionable as resulting partly from the development of
the forehead and partly from the position of the jaws. The capacity of
the cranium is estimated in cubic measure by filling it with sand, &c.,
with the general result that the civilized white man is found to have a
larger brain than the barbarian or savage. Classification of races on
cranial measurements has long been attempted by eminent anatomists, and
in certain cases great reliance may be placed on such measurements. Thus
the skulls of an Australian and a Negro would be generally distinguished
by their narrowness and the projection of the jaw from that of any
Englishman; but the Australian skull would usually differ perceptibly
from t