he Negroid in its upright sides and strong orbital ridges. The
relation of height to breadth may also furnish a valuable test; but it
is 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 defined 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 Kamchadale cheeks, the pointed Arab chin, the snub Kirghiz
nose, the fleshy protuberant Negro lips, and the broad Kalmuck ear.
Taken altogether, the features have a typical character which popular
observation seizes with some degree of correctness, as in the
recognition of the Jewish countenance in a European city.

Were the race-characters constant in degree or even in kind, the
classification of races would be easy; but this is not so. 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 "innumerable varieties of mankind run into one
another by insensible degrees." 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. L.A.J. Quetelet's plan of defining such types will probably
meet with general acceptance as the scientific method proper to this