Instead of attempting to classify mankind as a whole, students were
now engaged in classifying skulls, hair, teeth, and skin. Many solid
results had been secured by these special researches; but as yet, no
two classifications, based on these characteristics, had been made to
run parallel. The most natural classification was, no doubt, that
according to the color of the skin. This gave us a black, a brown, a
yellow, a red, and a white race, with several subdivisions. This
classification had often been despised as unscientific; but might
still turn out far more valuable than at present supposed. The next
classification was that by the color of the eyes, as black, brown,
hazel, gray, and blue. This subject had also attracted much attention
of late, and, within certain limits, the results have proved very
valuable. The most favorite classification, however, had always been
that according to the skulls. The skull, as the shell of the brain,
had by many students been supposed to betray something of the
spiritual essence of man; and who could doubt that the general
features of the skull, if taken in large averages, did correspond to
the general features of human character? We had only to look around to
see men with heads like a cannon ball and others with heads like a
hawk. This distinction had formed the foundation for a more scientific
classification into brachycephalic, dolichocephalic, and mesocephalic
skulls. If we examined any large collection of skulls we had not much
difficulty in arranging them under these three classes; but if, after
we had done this, we looked at the nationality of each skull, we found
the most hopeless confusion. Pruner Vey, as Peschel told us in his
"Volkerkunde," had observed brachycephalic and dolichocephalic skulls
in children born of the same mother; and if we consider how many women
had been carried away into captivity by Mongolians in their inroads
into China, India, and Germany, we could not feel surprised if we
found some long heads among the round heads of those Central Asiatic
hordes.