Mortillet have thought there is sufficient reason to suppose that the
tribes of the Vézère had no fixed habitation, but led a nomad life,
visiting in turn the shores of the two seas, hunting in the mountains
during the summer the game of the season, and passing the winter in a
warmer climate. We cannot adopt this hypothesis. The ever-increasing
fauna among the cooking _débris_ denotes a population, which, as it
multiplied in every way, made more and more use of the resources of
the country. These same heaps furnished Lartet with reindeer bones
of every age, amongst which were those of young fawns. Our great
authority concludes from this fact that the tribe was stationary
during the entire year, and we believe him to be right. The man
of Cro-Magnon, La Madeleine and Gourdan, must undoubtedly have
always been within reach of the reindeer, from which they obtained
nourishment, arms and clothing. But the migrations of this animal,
under the influence of a but slightly varying maritime climate, could
not have been very extensive, and the troglodytes of Périgord or the
Pyrenees, if they wished to keep within its range, would not have had
such expeditions to undertake, as those of the Red-Skins in pursuit
of the bison.
This semi-stationary life did not exclude travels by land or even by
sea. Among the fossil shells found at Laugerie-Basse, there are some
which could only have come from the Isle of Wight. Now, in the age of
the reindeer, there was no longer land communication between France
and England. As M. Fischer has remarked, the presence of these shells
in a continental station proves the existence of navigation.
But, can it really have been the man of the Vézère who went to seek
these objects of adornment on the other side of the channel? It is
difficult to believe that these mountain tribes could have crossed
the sea. It is much more likely that this voyage was accomplished
by contemporaries, who, by long residence on the sea coast, had
developed navigating instincts. They, doubtless, would bring from the
English island those shells regarded as precious jewels, which would
then pass in exchange from hand to hand, till at length they reached
the valleys of Périgord. _Traffic_ of this kind can alone explain
this existence of an oyster-shell from the Red Sea in the Thayngen
grotto explored by M. C. Mayer, near to Schaaffhausen. We know,
moreover, that shells of the Pacific Ocean are in our day brought,
by a perfectly similar commerce, as far as the tribes of Red-Skins
inhabiting the shores of the Atlantic.
VIII. The history of the Cro-Magnon race, founded upon the industrial
remains which it has bequeathed to us, still presents many questions
answered in various ways by savants of the most different opinions. I
shall only point them out cursorily.
Did the quaternary tribes confine themselves to hunting those
animal species which are subject to us, and by which they were then
surrounded. Did they never domesticate the horse, or the reindeer?
M. Toussaint has answered the first question in the affirmative, and
M. Gervais the second. The accumulation, often prodigious, of the
bones of these animals is thus explained by all. At Solutré, a kind
of bone hollow, formed almost exclusively of the bones of the horse,
surrounds, so to speak, the space occupied by hearths and sepultures.
It comprises the remains of at least forty thousand horses, amongst
which we only occasionally meet with either foals or old animals.
The immense majority were killed at the age of from four to eight
years. This strange accumulation of remains furnished by one species,
and the choice of animals in their prime, are, in the opinion of
M. Toussaint, inexplicable facts, unless we admit the existence of
great herds from which man could draw supplies at will. The arguments
brought forward in favour of the domestication of the reindeer are
almost of the same nature. M. Piette, however, admits that the
latter, long hunted in a wild state, was only domesticated towards
the close of the quaternary period. His opinion rests upon the
proportion of reindeer bones which increase in number almost suddenly
in the upper layers of the Gourdan grotto. M. Piette also draws
attention to certain drawings in which reindeer are represented,
having upon the neck the appearance of a halter.
To these arguments, which are evidently not devoid of value, it has
been objected that man may very well have been able to tame some
individuals, without necessarily domesticating the species; that
the multiplication and utilisation of certain kinds of game under
general and better understood conditions, readily account for the
preference accorded to them at certain periods; and that a practised
hunter would, without difficulty, choose from among the herd the one
he wished to kill. All the facts brought forward by MM. Gervais,
Toussaint, and Piette with regard to France, are thus explained
without much difficulty. As to countries situated more to the north,
the facts obtained by M. Fraas from the grottoes of Suabia, and
his philological researches seem to support the opinions of these
savants. It is evident that the problem of the domestication of the
horse and the reindeer by quaternary man demands further study, and
may assume an entirely local character.
I should say almost the same with regard to social organisation. We
cannot doubt but that the tribes of La Madeleine and of Bruniquel
recognised chiefs, and that it was for them those daggers of
mammoth ivory were carved, of which I have spoken above. They were
evidently state arms. But was this universally the case? Was there,
even amongst these tribes, a true hierarchy, every grade of which
was marked by certain insignia? Certain large portions of reindeer
antlers, presenting a tolerably uniform appearance, diminished in
size by hand, and invariably decorated with special care, have, it
has been thought, offered sufficient proof for these facts. In some
cases they are whole, in others they are pierced at one extremity
with from one to four round holes, which sometimes encroach upon the
original drawing. These singular objects are certainly not arms.
They have been regarded as _commanders’ bâtons_, an interpretation
which appears to be plausible. Is it not, however, going rather too
far, when the number of holes are regarded as indicating the dignity
of the possessor, from which it would follow that these tribes
recognised five district grades of chiefs?
Had the quaternary man in question any belief in another life? Had he
a religion?
There can be no doubt as to the answer to the first of these
questions. The care bestowed upon burial places shows that the
hunters of Mentone, as also those of Solutré and Cro-Magnon, believed
in the wants of their dead beyond the tomb. Our acquaintance with the
customs of so many savage nations of the present epoch forbids any
other interpretation of the interment of food, arms, and ornaments
with the body.
The difficulty is greater in solving the problem of religion. It
is very probable that the man of this age had a belief similar to
that which we know to exist among nations leading almost the same
kind of life. We can scarcely help regarding a great number of small
objects, pierced so as to enable them to be worn round the neck, as
amulets, nor doubt that the troglodytes of the Vézère or the Pyrenees
attributed to them virtues analogous to those which are even now
ascribed to them by many savage tribes. M. Piette discovered one of
these amulets consisting of a plate pierced in the centre, from which
diverging lines took their rise; he found a similar emblem repeated
three times upon a _commander’s bâton_. He admits that they are so
many representations of the sun, and I very willingly accept this
interpretation. But does he not exceed the limits of legitimate
induction, when he concludes from this fact that the man of Gourdan
worshipped this heavenly body, and invented the _Sun God_, afterwards
discovered by the Egyptians and Gauls.
IX. Finally the race of Cro-Magnon was not wanting in either beauty
or intelligence. Taking its intelligence as a whole, it seems to me
to present striking points of resemblance with the Algonquin race,
as represented by the earliest travellers, and more especially by
missionaries who have spent much time amongst these Red-Skins. It had
undoubtedly both its good and bad qualities. Scenes of violence took
place upon the banks of the Vézère, as is proved by the hatchet-cut
in the skull of the Cro-Magnon woman. On the other hand, the burial
places of Solutré, though containing many indented male and female
heads, seem to show that old age received particular attention, and
was, therefore, honoured among these tribes. This race believed in
another life; and the contents of tombs upon the banks of the Vézère
and the Somme, seem to prove that a happy prairie-land was looked
forward to here, as upon the banks of the Mississippi.
The man of Périgord, like the Algonquin, did not rise above the very
lowest stage in the social scale; he remained a hunter, at least
till towards the close of that age, during which he appeared among
the mountains of France. It is, then, an error to employ the term
_civilization_ in speaking of this race. Yet he was endowed with an
intelligence both pliable and capable of improvement. We have seen
that he made progress and changes by himself, a fact, of which no
trace is to be observed in his American representative, so that,
in this respect, he was undoubtedly his superior. And lastly, his
artistic instincts, and the remarkable productions which he has left,
gain for him a special place among the savage races of all times.
X. During all the first part of the reindeer age, the Cro-Magnon
race supported itself in the state, of which I have just been
pointing out the principal features. But from the commencement of
the second half of the same age, during the deposition of the red
diluvium and the upper loess, we observe an unmistakable decline,
which becomes more and more striking as we proceed. The working
of bone and reindeer antlers diminishes and returns to its former
rudeness; flint cutting, on the contrary, gains in favour, and in
some places, as in the grotto discovered at Saint Martin d’Excideuil
by M. Parrot, acquires a most remarkable finish. But this very
perfection seems to herald the approach of a new age, and to betray
the influence of a strange element.
The fact is, that during this period an amelioration in the general
conditions of life was taking place. Europe had at length risen above
the waves; a continental climate was succeeding to the maritime
climate: the weather was more settled; warm summers followed winters
more severe, but less rainy; the glaciers consequently retreated and
became confined within their present limits; and consequently again,
the fauna became divided. Animals fond of cold, and organised for a
mountain life, such as the chamois and bouquetin, were content to
emigrate _in altitude_, and followed the glaciers in their retreat
to our highest mountain summits. The reindeer, in no way adapted
for climbing, was forced to emigrate _in latitude_ and go further
north. Its herds became more and more rare, and at length disappeared
from our countries, where, even if domesticated, it could not have
continued for long. The human population, who had, doubtless,
for centuries lived upon this animal, and obtained from it their
clothing, arms, and implements, must have felt the change intensely,
losing with the reindeer, what we may call their staff of life.
What happened now? According to MM. Cartailhac, Forel, and de
Mortillet, man disappeared or emigrated with the animal which had
become necessary to him, and the valleys of Périgord, Mâconnais, and
the Pyrenees became uninhabited. They hold that, after the close
of the reindeer age, there is an immense space, a great gap, during
which the fauna was renewed, and after which a new race of men
suddenly made their appearance, who polished stone instead of cutting
it, and surrounded themselves with domestic animals.
In spite of the incontestable authority of the savants whom I have
just named, their opinion has, I believe, gained but very few
partisans, and has been hotly contested. It is indeed possible, and
even probable, that a certain number of stations were abandoned
during the period in question, and that the inhabitants moved
northwards to seek those conditions of climate and facilities for the
chase to which they had been accustomed. But other tribes remained
where they were, yielding to the new necessities, adopting the arms
and customs of the immigrating populations, and becoming amalgamated
with them. I cannot here enter into the geological, zoological and
archæological considerations by which this view is justified. I shall
confine myself to mentioning some facts which belong especially to
anthropology.
MM. Louis Lartet and Chapelain Duparc discovered near Sorde, in the
department of the Basses-Pyrénées, a shelter in the lower bed of
which, after methodical excavations, a human skull and bones were
found, together with a necklace of the teeth of the lion and bear.
Immediately above, and mixed with the latter, was a thick layer of
charcoal from which the explorers obtained barbed arrows of the
Magdalénean type, and numerous instruments and implements of the
same age. Bones of the horse and ox were mixed with these products
of human industry. The reindeer was not wanting among this cooking
_débris_, but this species _was more rare_ than the others. Lastly,
above the charcoal, and partly confounded with its upper portion,
they discovered a layer which was, so to speak, composed of human
bones. The learned explorers here obtained several cut flints similar
to the preceding, but they also found a narrow, thin blade, as well
as a triangular dagger, which, from its form and the nature of the
work, is closely connected with the finest productions of the art of
polished stone.
The upper burial-place contained the remains of more than thirty
individuals. These bones have been taken to the museum, and M. Hamy
has not hesitated in referring them to the Cro-Magnon race. I had
only to confirm this opinion, as there could be no possible ground
for doubt. Upon the bones of the limbs as well as upon the skulls,
all those characters were observed which have become classic since
the great works of MM. Broca and Pruner Bey.
Thus, in this curious grotto at Sorde, we find the superposition of
two _archæological types_, the _cut_ stone (Palæolithic), and the
_polished_ stone (Neolithic); but there is only one human race, that
of Cro-Magnon. Is it not evident that this race must have known both
the latest times of the reindeer age, and the earliest of the present
epoch?
Whilst accommodating itself to the new conditions of existence, and
accepting the industries of strangers more advanced than itself,
the little tribe of Sorde seems to have preserved intact the purity
of its blood. This could not, however, be universally the case, for
the invasion must necessarily have occasioned crossing. Here, again,
facts fully justify all that is indicated by the theory.
In the cavern of L’Homme-Mort, situated upon a high plateau of the
Lozère, and so thoroughly investigated by MM. Broca and Prunières,
animal bones of the present epoch alone have been found; there were
neither reindeer, nor even horse, ox, or stag. Moreover, the head
of a lance or javelin had been worked with a fragment of hatchet
in polished stone. We here, then, find ourselves in the presence
of a population much posterior to the quaternary period, and very
probably contemporary with that which raised numerous dolmens in the
neighbourhood.
Now, the remains of this population betray in a high degree traces
of the Cro-Magnon type, modified partly, perhaps, by the action of
new conditions of life, but also by ethnological changes. The stature
is sensibly diminished; having descended to a mean of 1·62 m. (5
ft. 3·7 in.). The breadth of the upper part of the face is less
striking, and the whole head has become almost harmonic. But the
dolichocephaly remains; the lines of the skull are almost unaltered,
the orbits are always elongated, the nasal orifices narrow, the great
majority of the bones of the limbs especially have preserved their
very characteristic features. The same grooves are observed in the
fibula as at Cro-Magnon; the tibia is platycnemic; in the femur may
be observed that extraordinary prominence of the linea aspera which
constitutes one of the most curious features of the race; finally,
the ulna in every case possesses the sigmoid cavity, the curve so
often pointed out as _simian_. But at the same time we observe a
feature as yet foreign to the pure race of Cro-Magnon. The olecranon
depression of the humerus is perforated in a number of specimens in
as great a proportion as 26, or, perhaps, 33 per cent. This feature,
which we find in other fossil races, is of itself a sufficient
indication of crossing, and confirms the inferences which we might
have drawn from the diminution in height, modifications of the face,
etc.
Similar facts are proved by the two skulls, and the group of bones
from Géménos, near Marseille, which were saved from destruction by M.
Marion.
Thus, both upon the Lozère and in the neighbourhood of Marseille, the
Cro-Magnon race appears in the midst of the polished stone period,
but with a mixture of characters which indicates the influence of
a fresh element. We come upon it in the upper Cévennes and on the
shores of the Mediterranean just at the time when its tribes were
beginning to blend with those who had introduced among them the first
elements of modern civilization. We cannot be surprised that these
simple hunters should have been more or less absorbed by a denser
population, who possessed domesticated animals and raised dolmens.
XI. It may, however, be said with equal, and even with greater
truth, of the Cro-Magnon as of the Canstadt race, that it has not
disappeared. It may be traced through intermediate ages, and met with
again in certain populations of the present day.
In the neolithic tombs placed close beside the quaternary burial
places at Solutré, the old hunters of the horse are represented by
their descendants, of whom the more or less modified skulls have been
discovered. In the sepulchral grottoes of the Marne, so intelligently
and successfully explored by M. J. de Baye, the Cro-Magnon type is
found associated with those of four other quaternary races, and with
one neolithic race. In Germany, near the Taunus; in Belgium, in the
caverns of Hamoir and at Nivelles; in the neighbourhood of Paris,
in the recent alluvium of Grenelle; in the clays of the harbour of
Boulogne, human remains dating from the same epoch, and belonging to
the same race, have been found. M. Piette discovered a Cro-Magnon
skeleton in the Aisne, whilst excavating a Gaulish cemetery of the
iron age. At Paris even, the excavations of the Hôtel Dieu, those
of the Boulevard de Port Royal, etc., have brought to light skulls
of the same race, of probably as late a date as the fifth century,
and there are some more recent still. Modern specimens will most
certainly be found. I have myself twice observed in women features
which could only accord with the cranial and facial bones of the
race under discussion. In one of them, the dysharmony between the
face and skull was at least quite as striking as in the old man of
Cro-Magnon: the eye depressed beneath the orbital vault had the same
heavy appearance; the nose was straight rather than arched, the
lips somewhat thick, the maxillary bones strongly developed, the
complexion very brown, the hair very dark and growing low on the
forehead. A thick-waisted figure, slightly developed breasts, hands
and feet relatively small, served to form a whole, which, without
being attractive, was in no way repulsive.
The labours of M. Hamy have extended and enlarged this field of
research. He has again met with the type in question amongst the
Zaraus collection of Basque skulls, collected by MM. Broca and
Vélasco; he has followed it even into Africa in the megalithic tombs
explored principally by General Faidherbe, and to the Kabyles of the
Beni-Masser and the Djurjura. It is, however, chiefly in the Canary
Islands, in the collection of the Barranco-Hundo of Teneriffe, that
he has met with skulls, the ethnical relation of which with the old
man of Cro-Magnon is beyond discussion. On the other hand, some
points of comparison, unfortunately very few in number, have led him
to regard the Dalecarlians as connected with the same stock.
XII. However strange these results may appear, they are only a
repetition in the human race of what has already been proved in the
case of animals. It is now a long time since Lartet showed that at
the close of the quaternary age, and as the species peculiar to
this age were finally disappearing, the survivors were divided into
three groups. Some remained where they were, others migrated to
the north, and others again to the south. Perhaps the latter were
only persistent in Africa, from whence they had despatched their
representatives to us, and where we meet with them still, whilst
their colonies, which were at one time in a flourishing condition in
France, perished under the influence of the winters of the present
period. Finally, as an explanation is given of the ancient fauna,
and the cause which brought about their separation, we cannot be
surprised to find human populations presenting analogous facts.
During the quaternary period, the race of Cro-Magnon had its
principal European centre of population in the south-west of France.
The little basin of the Vézère was, so to speak, its capital; its
colonies spread into Italy, the north of France, the valley of
the Meuse, etc., where they encountered other races, to whom our
attention will soon be turned. But they themselves were perhaps only
a branch of an African population, which had emigrated to France with
the hyæna, the lion, the hippopotamus, etc. In this case, there is
no difficulty in explaining its existence at the present day in the
north-west of Africa, and in islands where it would be protected
from crossing. Some of its tribes, carried away in the pursuit of
the reindeer, will have preserved, in the Scandinavian Alps, the
tall form, black hair, and brown complexion which distinguishes
Dalecarlians of the neighbouring populations; others, mixing with all
the races by which France has been successively invaded, only betray
their ancient existence by the phenomena of atavism, which lays upon
some individuals the mark of the old hunters of Périgord.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
RACES OF FURFOOZ.
I. In giving the name of a locality justly celebrated in anthropology
to this group of races, and in applying it especially to the two
first, M. Hamy and I have been chiefly actuated by the desire to
honour the long and conscientious labours, which have led to the
discovery of quaternary man in Belgium. It is scarcely necessary to
remind my readers that it is due, after Schmerling, to M. Dupont, who
during seven years, from 1864 to 1871, has excavated more than sixty
caverns or rock-shelters, from which he has obtained, independently
of his human fossils, about forty thousand animal bones and eighty
thousand stones cut by the hand of man. The _race of Grenelle_ was
discovered by M. Émile Martin, in 1867, in the gravel-pits opened in
the neighbourhood of Paris, and afterwards characterised by M. Hamy.
The _race of La Truchère_ was found by M. Legrand de Mercey in a bank
of the Seille, near to the locality of which it bears the name.
II. Considered from the point of view of the general form of the
skull, these four types arrange themselves in an almost regular
manner. The cephalic index 79·31 places the first Furfooz race among
mesaticephali; the second Furfooz race becomes sub-brachycephalic by
its index 81·39; that of Grenelle, whose index rises to 83·53 in the
man, and 83·68 in the woman, approaches very nearly to brachycephaly
properly so called. This is also the case with that of La Truchère,
the index of which is 84·32.
Let us at once proceed to consider this latter, which, at present
represented in quaternary times only by a head, is, on that account
alone, far less interesting than its companions. The skull and face
are here remarkable for a dysharmony as striking as that of the
Cro-Magnon head; but the contrast is inverse. The skull, in this
case, is broad and short, while the face is long. The face view of
the former presents a very marked pentagonal appearance. The bones
are all strongly developed in the transverse direction, with the
exception of the inferior half of the coronal which slants rapidly
inward so as to form a narrow forehead. The whole face is relatively
small and narrow. The nose is very large and long; the massive cheek
bones are slightly prominent, and the superior maxillary bones are
slightly prognathous.
The two races of Furfooz, like that of Grenelle, have a certain
family resemblance, which does not exclude the existence of
distinctive characters. Thus, in the mesaticephalic race of Furfooz
the antero-posterior arc of the skull produces above the small but
well marked superciliary ridges, a very retreating forehead, and is
continued with no further inflexion than a slight depression at the
sutures. The face is broad and the index almost the same as that of
the race of Cro-Magnon. On account of the shortening of the skull,
the head is, however, _harmonic_, instead of being _dysharmonic_ as
in the troglodytes of Périgord. A slightly concave, but sufficiently
prominent nose, square orbits, slightly marked canine fossæ, and an
almost orthognathous superior maxillary bone complete this face,
the bony framework of which has a somewhat finely cut and delicate
appearance.
In this sub-brachycephalic race of the same locality, the forehead
rises in a somewhat perpendicular line to the level of the frontal
eminences. The arc then becomes suddenly flattened as far as the
first third of the parietal bones where the curve becomes more
inflected and is continued with almost unbroken regularity to the
foramen magnum of the occipital. We meet with almost the same index
in the face; but the orbits and the face are longer, the canine
fossæ form deep indentations, the superior maxillary bone projects
forward, the teeth follow the same direction, and the prognathism is
very striking.
In the race of Grenelle, the very prominent glabella and full
superciliary ridges give a slightly oblique direction to the base
of the forehead. But the arc soon rises and is regularly developed
without either projection or depression. The skull, viewed from the
face, appears as well proportioned as in profile. The face harmonises
with it. The cheek bones are well developed and prominent; the canine
fossæ high, but not deep; the orbits approach the square form; the
bones of the nose are concave and sufficiently prominent. Finally,
the maxillary bone and the teeth are equally prognathous, but less so
than in the preceding race.
III. The men of Grenelle, and still more those of Furfooz, were of
small stature. The former reached a mean of 1·62 m. (5ft. 3·8 in.),
but the latter descended to 1·53 m. (5ft. 0·2 in.) This is almost
exactly the mean height of the Lapps. Yet this reduced stature would
neither exclude the vigour nor the agility necessary to savage
populations. The bones of the limbs and trunk are strong, and the
eminences and depressions of their surface indicate a very marked
muscular development.
With the exception of this general appearance of strength superior
to that which is generally met with, the skeleton of the men of
Furfooz and Grenelle strongly resembles that of men of the present
day. The tibia in particular assumes the prismatic triangular form
which we are accustomed to observe in them. We remark, nevertheless,
the appearance of a character which we have as yet only noticed in
the cavern of L’Homme-Mort, where we considered it to be a sign of
crossing. The olecranon depression is often perforated in the races
now under discussion. In Belgium M. Dupont found this disposition to
exist in the men of the Lesse in the proportion of 30 per cent. M.
Hamy carries it to 28 per cent, in the fossil man of Grenelle, and to
4·66 per cent. only in the French of the present day.
IV. The races of Furfooz, coming after those whose history we have
just sketched, must have come in contact, and sometimes have formed
connections with them. The clearest demonstration of this fact is at
Solutré, where, side by side with Cro-Magnon skulls, two heads were
found belonging to the race of Grenelle. Intellectual and social
development must have progressed almost equally among men united into
a single tribe.
Our brachycephali have, however, had their special centres of
population where we can examine them in their home. The researches
of M. Dupont have been chiefly devoted to Belgium and the valley of
the Lesse. To give an idea of what the men of Furfooz were, we need
do no more than reproduce an abridged account of all that the learned
explorer of these caverns has said upon the subject.
V. The men of the Lesse, like those of the Vézère, inhabited caverns.
One of their complete stations comprised the grotto where they lived,
and a funeral grotto. M. Dupont found them almost in juxtaposition
at Furfooz, where the _Trou des Nutons_ presented all the characters
of a human habitation, and the _Trou du Frontal_ those of a place
of sepulture. These two localities alone would have furnished many
materials for the history of these ancient populations. Nevertheless
the _Trou de Chaleux_ excels them in this respect. It was long
inhabited by man, who left there a considerable accumulation of that
refuse which is now turned to such good account by science. The
roof one day fell in; the inhabitants escaped, leaving all that was
buried in their dwelling. Thus, when this heap of rubbish came to be
disturbed by the pick-axe, all was found just as it had been left at
the moment of the catastrophe, and it is with good reason that the
Grotto of Chaleux has been called a little quaternary Pompeii.
The man of Chaleux chiefly employed flint and reindeer horn to supply
his several wants. The former was used for the greater number of his
stock of implements; but he gave himself little trouble in varying or
perfecting the form. Narrow, elongated blades cut with a single blow
upon one side, with two or three upon the opposite face, and what are
called knives, seem to be the model from which all the implements are
worked. Notched upon one edge they became _saws_; rounded and recut
at one extremity they were transformed into _scrapers_, well adapted
for scraping and taking the hair off skins; tapered and chipped to a
point, they furnished _bodkins_, piercers, etc. As for reindeer horn,
it was divided into pieces from 10 to 15 centimetres (3·9-5·9 inches)
long, and then shaped so as to serve for lances or javelins. They
may possibly have sometimes received a point of flint. But M. Dupont
assures us that there are no grounds for supposing that the bow and
arrow were in use among these troglodytes.
The arms of the tribe of Chaleux, were then much inferior to those
of the Vézère or of Solutré. It still, however, hunted large game,
and knew also how to obtain the small. Its ancient dwelling-place
has furnished the remains of numerous horses, several oxen, some
reindeer, sixteen foxes, five wild boars, three chamois, three
aurochs, one brown bear, one Saïga antelope, etc.
The bones also of the hare, squirrel, water-rat and Norwegian rat,
have been found here; the remains of several birds, amongst others
those of the ptarmigan; and remains of fresh water fish. The fauna
of the Trou des Nutons is almost identical, but the proportion of
species is sometimes inverted. A much smaller number of horses and
much greater number of wild boars have been discovered there. Here
again, as in the stations of the Cro-Magnon race, the larger species
are scarcely represented by more than the bones of the head and
limbs, all those containing marrow having been carefully broken up.
Like the preceding race, that of Furfooz made use of the skins of
slain animals for clothing. This is proved by the bone needles found
at Chaleux. But they are here much ruder in form than those of La
Madeleine and other similar stations. Short and thick, they might be
taken for small bodkins were it not for the eye with which they are
pierced.
VI. The Belgian troglodytes were, from many points of view, far
behind those of Périgord and Mâconnais. The monuments of their
industry are much inferior to all that we have seen amongst their
predecessors, and they show no indication of the artistic aptitudes
so remarkable in the man of the Vézère. They surpass him however, in
one essential point; they had invented, or received from elsewhere,
the art of manufacturing a rude kind of pottery, of which M. Dupont
has found the remains in all the stations which he has explored, and
obtained in the _Trou du Frontal_ fragments in sufficient number to
restore the vase of which they had once formed part.
This, and some other facts, which it would take too long to discuss
here, have led some of the most competent _savants_, amongst others
MM. Cartailhac and Cazalis de Fondouce, to regard the Trou du Frontal
and the other contemporary stations as belonging to the neolithic
stone period, and not to the quaternary epoch.
But the character of the fauna discovered in the grottoes of Chaleux
and Furfooz makes it impossible in our opinion to accept this
opinion, which rests chiefly upon archæological considerations.
To refer the age of polished stone to an epoch when the chamois,
bouquetin, and Saïga antelope lived in Belgium with the Norwegian rat
and the ptarmigan, would be making it very distant. This question
may perhaps call for further study; but the juxtaposition of these
species in the neighbourhood of Dinant is, in our opinion, a proof
that the quaternary period had not then drawn to a close.
VII. The troglodytes of Belgium painted the face and perhaps the
body, like those of Périgord. The ornaments in use at Chaleux and
Furfooz were almost the same as those which we have found in the
south of France. We never, however, find amongst them any object
borrowed from marine fauna. This is a curious fact, as the man of the
Lesse journeyed in search of his _jewels_, as well as of the rough
material for his implements and arms much greater distances than that
which separated him from the sea.
In fact, the principal ornaments of the men of the Lesse were fossil
shells. Some, it is true, were obtained from the Devonian rocks
in their vicinity; but the greater part came from a considerable
distance, chiefly from Champagne and from Grignon near Versailles.
The flints, which our troglodytes used in such great numbers, were
obtained, not from Hainault or the province of Liège, but almost
entirely from Champagne. There are some even which could only have
been collected in Touraine, on the banks of the Loire. Judging from
the localities of these different objects, we might conclude that
the known world of the troglodytes of the Lesse scarcely extended
in a northerly direction for 13 to 25 miles, whilst to the south it
stretched to a distance of 250 to 300 miles.
There is something very strange in this fact, of which, however,
M. Dupont seems to have given what is, at least, a very plausible
explanation. He holds that two populations, perhaps two races, were
placed in juxtaposition in the countries in question during the
quaternary period. There must have existed between them one of those
many instances of, we may say, instinctive hatred similar to that
which prevails between the Red-Skins and the Esquimaux. Encircled on
the north and the east by their enemies, who occupied Hainault, the
aborigines of the Lesse could only extend towards the south, and,
through the Ardennes, communicate with the basins of the Seine and
the Loire.
But did they themselves undertake the long and difficult journeys,
by which alone they could procure the shells which they used for
ornaments, and the immense quantity of flint which they worked in
their caverns? We do not hesitate to assert with M. Dupont that
nothing is less probable. Everything, on the contrary, proves that
they obtained their supplies by means of a veritable commerce,
organised in a regular manner and upon a large scale; whether by the
existence of populations devoted to this form of industry, of which
there are several examples known to us in the present day; or by
the shells and flints passing from hand to hand through successive
exchanges, and reaching at length the banks of the Lesse. We cannot
explain in any other way the abundance of foreign flints at Chaleux,
Furfooz, etc., the prodigality with which they were used, and the
evident carelessness displayed in the preservation of tools which had
been manufactured from them.
VIII. In direct opposition to the men of Cro-Magnon, those of Furfooz
appear to have been eminently pacific. M. Dupont has not discovered
either in their grottoes or burial-places any warlike arms, and he
applies to them Ross’s remarks upon the Esquimaux of Baffin’s Bay,
who did not understand what was meant by war.
In the sepulchral grotto of Le Frontal, where the tribe of Les
Nutons buried their dead, a number of objects have been found, as
at Cro-Magnon, proving the existence of a belief in another life.
They consisted of a number of perforated shells, ornaments in spar,
flat pieces of sandstone traced with sketches, the vase which we
have mentioned above, and some selected flint implements. All these
objects are, moreover, of the same nature as those in the Trou des
Nutons. It is clear that they had been laid in the sepulchral vault
under the impression that they would serve to supply the wants of the
deceased in the new existence which was opening before them.
Another fact, upon which M. Dupont has with justice insisted, adds
to the probability arising from various considerations, of our being
right in attributing to these quaternary men a kind of religion more
or less analogous to Fetishism. In the Trou de Chaleux, a mammoth’s
ulna was placed by the side of a hearth upon a slab of sandstone. Now
the mammoth no longer existed in Belgium at the close of the age of
the reindeer, and this bone must have been found in the alluvium of
the preceding age. It had doubtless been the cause of an error which
may be observed even at the present day, and had been looked upon as
having belonged to a giant. The place of honour which was allotted
to it in the dwelling of the troglodytes seems to intimate that it
had become an object of veneration.
IX. Very few remains of the two races of Furfooz and that of
Grenelle, have been discovered in other quaternary deposits than
those which have just been mentioned. The former are, however,
represented in the basins of the Somme and the Aude; the latter has
been met with at two or three points in the basin of the Seine. We
have seen that it existed at Solutré, and the skull of Nagy-Sap in
Hungary must probably be referred to it. These facts are sufficient
to show that since the glacial epoch the races in question have
occupied an extensive area.
In the neolithic age, we find the mesaticephali of Furfooz extending
from the Var and Hérault to Gibraltar; the sub-brachycephali are
represented from Verdun to Boulogne-sur-mer, and to Camp-Long from
Saint-Césaire; they intermingled with the ancient inhabitants of
Cabeço d’Arruda in Portugal.
The brachycephalic race of Grenelle, has, however, left the most
distinct traces. It has been discovered in France in several dolmens,
and in the Round Barrows in England. In Denmark it constitutes the
brachycephalic type of Eschricht, and in Sweden forms a dozen of
the total number of the skulls found in dolmens by Retzius and his
successors.
The intervention of these different races in the formation of
existing races is equally evident. The exact demonstration of the
fact is, however, often difficult. The crossing which took place
between groups placed in such close contact with each other, more or
less confused the types. Other brachycephalic types, amongst others
the Celtic race, such as it has been described by M. Broca, came to
add to the confusion. Nevertheless, when visiting the valley of the
Lesse, several members of the Congress of prehistoric Anthropology
recognised skulls and faces as bearing in the clearest manner, the
distinctive marks of the local fossil races, and these traces are
still more frequent in the rural population which supplies the
markets of Antwerp.
It is the race of Grenelle, again, which reappears most persistently
in living populations. The numerous Parisian skulls in the Paris
Museum present several examples of this fact. The type is, however,
very rarely found pure, a fact, which is probably the result of two
causes. On the one hand, the new conditions of existence imposed
upon the quaternary races by change of climate, must have caused an
alteration in some of their characteristics. On the other hand, fresh
elements, differing but slightly from the fossil element, have been
blended with it. If the skulls of Grenelle are compared, as they
have been by M. Hamy, with Lapp skulls, we find that from the extent
of the horizontal arc, from the length of the antero-posterior and
transverse diameters, and from the cephalic indices, the former must
be placed almost exactly half-way between the two great known orders
of Lapp skulls. We observe indeed, certain differences between them.
For example, the cranial vault is more flattened in the Lapp than in
the man of Grenelle; but, on the whole, the analogies are far greater
in number than the differences.
The elder Retzius, Sven Nilsson, Eschricht, and others, had already
recognised, by means of their investigations of the ancient burials
of their country, the great extension of an ancient brachycephalic
race, which they identified with the true Lapps. M. Schaafhausen,
at the last Stockholm Congress, brought forward another example in
support of this opinion.
After considering these facts, M. Hamy and I have been led to admit a
_Lapp-like type_, to which, with the race of Grenelle, a great number
of populations scattered through time, and extending over nearly the
whole of Europe, may be referred. In the Dauphiné Alps particularly,
this type is represented in an almost pure state. A curious
collection of skulls in the possession of M. Hoël leaves no room for
doubt on this point. We have then confirmed, while giving it greater
precision and tracing it to an earlier period, one of those general
views, for which anthropology owes so much to the Scandinavian
savants.
X. Thus, the races of Furfooz and that of Grenelle, the last to
appear in the quaternary epoch, came in contact during the glacial
ages with the dolichocephalic races which had preceded them. In
certain respects they have become amalgamated with them; in others,
they have preserved their autonomy; and they have shared the same
fate. They also experienced that change of soil and climate,
which we have seen causing such trouble to the rising societies
of the Cro-Magnon race; they also witnessed a gradual change in
the conditions of existence; and the results of these changes have
affected them in the manner which we have already pointed out.
A certain number of tribes spread northwards, following the reindeer
and other animal species which they had been accustomed to regard
as necessary to their existence; they emigrated in latitude. Others
from the same motive emigrated in altitude, accompanying the chamois
and bouquetin into the mountain chains, which had been liberated by
the melting of glaciers. Others, again, remained stationary. The two
first groups were free for a much longer time from the influence
of ethnical mixture. The tribes composing the third soon found
themselves in the presence of brachycephalic and dolichocephalic
immigrants of the polished stone period, and were easily subjugated
and absorbed by them.
XI. On their arrival in Europe, the men of the polished stone period
did not meet only with those races which we have been discussing.
They came in contact with all the quaternary races. This is proved
by many of the facts already mentioned; and is proved merely by the
magnificent collection of skulls and skeletons collected by M. de
Baye from the sepulchral grottoes of the Marne. With the exception
of the Canstadt type, all those which we have just described seem
to have met together in this remarkable locality. Even that of La
Truchère is represented by a head almost as strongly characterised
as that of the Seille. The foundation of this neolithic population
still belonged, however, to a newly arrived type. It is scarcely
necessary to add that, whether old or recent, all these races have
intermingled, and that the crossing is betrayed sometimes by the
fusion, and sometimes by the juxtaposition, of characteristics.
Either by infiltration or conquest, new races mingled with the
preceding, before even the arrival of the Aryans. The latter spread
to the western extremities of the continent, leaving extensive
regions on the north and the south, where their predecessors
continued to exist. Then followed historic invasions. It is from the
mixture of all these elements brought together by war, and fused
by the experiences of peace, that our European societies have been
formed.
XII. Man has been the sole essential agent in the formation of fresh
ethnical groupings. From the earliest times of the polished stone
period, land and climate have remained unaltered in our western
world. European man has then been at liberty to obey the laws of
his evolution, to found, modify, or destroy his associations and
his societies, to traverse the ages of bronze and iron as well as
historic times, without having to battle with those invincible
forces, which perhaps arrested the development of the hunters of
Cro-Magnon.
In what degree does the anthropological past of the rest of the world
resemble that of Europe? Science will some day, undoubtedly, answer
this question, but we could now only form conjectures. It is wiser to
abstain, content with having deciphered in less than half a century,
almost a whole chapter of that prehistoric and palæontological
history of man, the existence of which was not even suspected by our
fathers.
BOOK IX.
PRESENT HUMAN RACES.—PHYSICAL CHARACTERS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.—EXTERNAL CHARACTERS.
I. I considered that I ought to give a somewhat detailed account of
our knowledge of fossil human races. The interest and novelty of
the subject induced me to do so, and its moderate extent rendered
it possible. But I cannot treat the history of present races in the
same manner. If I wished to study them singly, I could scarcely
devote more than a few lines to each. Even if I grouped them into
_families_, I should only be able to give an incomplete and vague
account of them, unless I went much beyond the limits of this work.
It seemed to me then preferable to adopt the practice of botanists
and zoologists, who always begin with a general account of the nature
and significance of the characters of the group which they wish to
discuss. These notions, when affecting the whole group, are moreover
always necessary. They alone allow us to grasp and comprehend certain
general results. They become still more indispensable, when _races
derived_ from one and the same species are under discussion, because
they bring forward and render evident the unity of specific origin of
these races, just as much as direct proofs.
II. If we were familiar with primitive man, we should regard as
characterising races, everything which separates them from this type.
From want of this natural term of comparison, we have taken the
_European White_ as normal, and compared the remaining human groups
with him. This leads to a tendency, which must be pointed out at once.
Influenced by certain habits of thought, and by a self-love of race
which is easily explained, many anthropologists have thought that
they could interpret the physical differences which distinguish men
from one another, and consider simple characteristic features as
marks of inferiority or superiority. Because the European has a short
heel, and some Negroes have a long one, they have wished to consider
the latter as a mark of degradation. The remarks which were made upon
this subject, with so much justice, by Desmoulins with reference
to the Bosjesmans were forgotten. Because the greater number of
civilizations have risen among dolichocephalic nations, a head
elongated from before backwards has been regarded as a superior form.
It was forgotten that the Negroes and the Esquimaux are generally
dolichocephali of the most pronounced type, and that European
brachycephali are in every case the equals of their dolichocephalic
brethren.
All analogous interpretations are absolutely arbitrary. In
fact, superiority between human groups depends essentially upon
intellectual and social development; it passes from one to another.
The Chinese and Egyptians were already civilized, when all Europeans
were true savages. If the latter had judged our ancestors as we too
frequently judge foreign races, they would have found many signs of
inferiority in them, commencing with the white skin of which we are
so proud, and which they would have been able to regard as betraying
an irremediable degeneration.
Is the fundamental superiority of one race really betrayed outwardly
by some material sign? We are still in ignorance upon this point. But
when we examine it more closely, we are led to think that it is not
so. In expressing myself thus, I know that I am separating myself
from the opinions which are generally admitted, and am at variance
with men whose works I value most highly. But I hope to give decisive
proofs in my favour further on.
Differences of every kind nevertheless exist between one human
group and another. These must be taken for what they are, for
_characters_ of _race_, for _ethnical characters_. It is the duty of
the anthropologist especially to recognise these differences, to make
use of them for defining the groups, then to connect or separate,
according to their affinities, the races thus characterised. In other
terms, his work is the same as that of the botanist or geologist
describing and classifying plants and animals.
Men of an impatient or venturous disposition will perhaps reproach
me with making anthropology too _descriptive_. I shall only make a
partial defence against the accusation. Provided that the description
embraces the entire being, it enables us to become acquainted with
it. If we take our stand on this point of view, we remain on the
ground of positive knowledge, and run less risk of losing ourselves
in hypotheses.
I still consider it the right and almost the duty of the
anthropologist, to investigate the causes which may have given
rise to the appearance of the features which characterise races.
The study of the actions of the conditions of life sometimes gives
valuable indications on this subject. The evolution of the human
being from his appearance in the embryonic state to the adult state,
especially furnishes facts of great interest. A simple _arrest_, a
slight _excess_ in the evolutive phenomena, are, it appears to me,
the causes of the principal differences which separate races, and
particularly the two extremes, the Negro and the White.
I know full well that a wish has been felt to go further back. Under
the more or less perceptible influence of transmutationist doctrines,
terms of comparison in the estimation of these differences have too
often been sought for among animals, and especially among apes.
Eminent men, without even adopting these doctrines, frequently use
the expressions, _simian character_, _animal character_. Why forget
the embryo or the human fœtus? Why not remember even the infant?
Question their history. It furnishes all the elements of a _human
evolution theory_, certainly much more precise and true than the
_simian theory_. This is again a result which will be made clear, I
hope, by the facts which I shall have to mention.
But whether or not I may be able to explain the appearance of the
features which distinguish races from each other, and whatever origin
may be attributed to them, I shall only take the word _character_ in
the sense which is given to it in botany and zoology.
III. An animal species is not characterised solely by the
peculiarities manifested by its physical organism. No history of
bees or ants omits to speak of their instincts, or to show how these
differ in different species. With much stronger reason ought we to
point out in the history of human races the characteristic points in
their intellectual, moral, and religious manifestations. Of course,
when approaching this order of facts, the anthropologist ought none
the less to remain exclusively a naturalist.
This very simple consideration is sufficient to determine the
relative value which ought to be attributed in anthropology to
characters of different orders. Here, as in botany and in zoology,
the first place ought to be given to the most persistent characters.
Now, a man, tribe, or an entire population can in a certain number
of years change its social state, its language, religion, etc. They
do not on that account modify their external or anatomical physical
characters. It is therefore to the latter that the anthropologist
will attach most importance, contrary to what the linguist, the
philosopher, or the theologian would certainly do.
Nevertheless we shall see that, in some very rare cases, the
linguistic characters preponderate over the physical characters, in
the sense that they furnish more striking indications on the subject
of certain ethnical affinities. Considered from a physical point of
view, man exhibits characters which may be divided into four distinct
categories, namely: external characters, anatomical characters,
physiological characters, and pathological characters.
IV. EXTERNAL CHARACTERS.—_Height._ All breeders regard height as
characteristic of race among animals. It is also one of the traits
which are most striking in man. This character sometimes shows that
it is very evidently dependent upon the conditions of existence.
Sheltering and feeding somewhat carefully the mares of La Camargue,
has been sufficient to raise the height of this excellent breed of
horses. With man, M. Durand (de Gros), confirming an observation
already due to Ed. Lartet, has shown that, in the Aveyron, the
populations of the limestone cantons are sensibly taller than those
of the granite or schistose cantons. He agreed with the statement of
Dr. Albespy, that liming lands in the non-calcareous portions of this
district has raised the height by two, three or even four centimetres
(·78, 1·17, 1·57 inch) on the lands where the practice has existed
for the longest time.
But on the other hand, it is indisputable, that races of very
different height live side by side, without its being possible
hitherto to point out the cause of this diversity. The dwarfed
Negroes, the Akkas and Obongos, seem to be placed under conditions
precisely similar to those under which much taller neighbouring
tribes live.
I have given above 163 statures of human races. I have insisted
with sufficient strength upon the consequences which follow from
them; from the point of view of the gradation and intercrossing of
characters. But we can extract from these numbers some other results
which are not less interesting.
The general mean given by these numbers will be 1^m·635 (5ft 4·37
inch). I regard it as a little too great, the measures being wrong
rather for the short races, than for the tall. Nevertheless it cannot
be very far from the truth, and may be accepted provisionally.
It is seen from the table that the Roumanians and the Magyars
represent, from this point of view, exactly the mean stature.
The oscillations of the mean statures above and below this general
mean, extend in the case of the Patagonians to +0^m·115 (4·53 inch),
and in the case of the Bosjesmans to -0^m·265 (10·43 inch). The
individual oscillations are +0^m·295 (11·71 inch) for the inhabitants
of Tongatabou, and -0^m·495 (1ft 7·49 inch) or -0^m·635 (2ft 1 inch)
for the Bosjesmans.
We see from the table that the oscillations below the general 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 difference of 0^m·554
(1ft 9·8 inch). The difference between individuals will be 0^m·930
(3ft 0·6 inch). But I think that it ought to be reduced to 0^m·790
(2ft 7·1 inch), adopting as a mean the height 1^m·14 (3ft 8·88 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 teratological 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^m·141 (5·57 inch) as the mean difference between
the heights of the sexes, and 0·973 as 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^m·278
(10·94 inches); in Austria, it is as low as 0^m·037 (145 inch)
according to Liharzik.
V. _Proportion of the body and of the limbs._ In all the races of our
domestic animals, the relative development of the different parts
of the body, the _proportions_, have a characteristic value, which
is equal and frequently superior to that of height. No one would
think of separating the greyhound from the harrier. It ought to be
exactly the same with man. With the animal, races are formed by a
selection more or less open, and undertaken for a fixed purpose. The
proportions of the different parts of the body thus acquire a fixity,
which 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 might 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 7½ 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 7-19/48 heads (the Egyptian Termes) to
7-43/48 (the Farnese Hercules). The difference between these two
extremes is exactly half a head. Painters have taken still more
liberty. Raphael has only given a height of 6 heads to some of his
figures, and Michael Angelo has given them 8 or more.
The Pythian Apollo (7-42/48 heads), the Laocoon (7-27/48), are
nevertheless _chefs-d’œuvre_, 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 rigorously 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 differences is inverted. 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 European White,
and we shall return to this point further on. Nevertheless, from
the measures of Quételet, it follows that a Negro, well known in
the studios, where he acted as a model, had much shorter arms than
the soldiers, and than a Belgian model, who were taken as terms of
comparison.
Moreover, the numbers found by Quételet place the individuals, upon
whom his observations were made, in the following order:—1st, mean
of ten Belgian soldiers; 2nd, an Ojibbeway chief; 3rd, a Belgian
model, and a Zulu Kaffir; 4th, an Amaponda Kaffir; 5th, the Negro
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 position of the calf
of the leg. I have no definite information upon the latter of these
characters. As for the former, it has been represented to be too
general. Two Blacks, the Amaponda Kaffir, and the Negro model in the
tables of Quételet, present the maximum 0^m·410 (16·14 inches), and
the minimum 0^m·328 (12·92 inches) of development of this part. They
are separated from each other by the Belgians, the Ojibbeways, and
Cantfield.
Finally, the _means_ taken for the different parts of the body will
doubtless give results useful for the distinction of races. But
still, account will have to be taken of many of the conditions. All
hunting peoples, including the Australians, according to travellers
who have been among them, could furnish models for the sculptor,
and are generally remarkable 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 _fundamental type_ degraded in this respect? Certainly not.
But civilization itself, by the facilities of existence which it
procures, by the vices which it induces, by the weakly individuals
which it preserves, introduces into the race the elements of
degradation. Here again appears, in all its fulness, the influence of
the conditions of life.
VI. _Colouring._ With all anthropologists I recognise the high
value of the colour of the skin as a character. Nevertheless, its
importance must not be exaggerated. We now know that it does not
result from the existence or disappearance of special layers. Black
or white, the skin always comprises a white _dermis_, penetrated
by many capillaries, and an _epidermis_, more or less transparent
and colourless. Between the two is placed the _mucous layer_, of
which the _pigment_ alone in reality varies in quantity and colour
according to the race.
All the colours presented by the human skin have two common elements,
the white of the dermis and the red of the blood. Moreover, each
has its own proper element, resulting from the colourings of the
pigment. The rays reflected from these different tissues combine into
a resultant 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 Islanders, the upper classes, who do not
live an exposed life, often exhibit the colour in a most pronounced
form. Among them _sun-burning_ masks 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 pale_ or to _blush_. The reason is, that in him the
pigment allows the slightest differences in the afflux of blood to
the dermis to be perceived. 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 colouring, 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 close relations, and would lead to comparisons
which would evidently be at variance with the sum of the remaining
characters. Nevertheless, this systematic point of view brings to
light some interesting general facts.
The races of a white colour present sufficient homogeneity. From the
sum of their characters, they belong almost exclusively 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 English or German woman of the upper classes to the
Portuguese, and especially to the Arab. Nevertheless, in the northern
regions and in Central Asia, some populations, the Tchukchees for
example, _appear_ to unite with a white colour certain characters
which connect them with the yellows.
In the purest white, the epidermis easily loses its transparency as
soon as the colour deepens. The sub-cutaneous veins can then only be
recognised by their swelling. It is only with individuals whose skin
is very fine and transparent, that the course of the veins is marked
by the well-known bluish 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 America, and the Tchukchees, of whom I have just
spoken.
The populations with a black skin are far from being as homogeneous
as the preceding. All _black men_ are not _Negroes_; there are some,
who, from the sum of their more important characters, are closely
connected with the white stock. Such, for example, are the Bicharis
and other negröid populations, on the borders of the Red Sea, whose
skin is much blacker than that of some negroes, but whose hair and
characters are perfectly Semitic.
Among Negroes properly so called, the tints vary, perhaps, much more
than with the White. Without going further than Cairo, individuals
may be seen, who, without any traces of the mixture of races, are of
a brown colour with a considerable mixture of black. The Yolofs 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 _café 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 not so numerous nor so striking. Perhaps this
difference is only due to the difficulty of recognising the shades
of the fundamental colour. Nevertheless, a more or less pronounced
yellow colour equally characterises the great Mongolian stock, and
the Houzouana or Bosjesman race, which it is impossible to separate
from the Negroes. On the other hand, this same tint is so well marked
among the mulattoes that they are often designated by the name of
_yellows_, in distinction to the Blacks 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 Corean, African populations, etc.
Moreover, the red tint appears as the sole effect of the crossing
between races, neither of which possess it. Fitzroy informs us that
in New Zealand it frequently characterises the half-breeds of English
and Maories. This fact also explains 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 point
in the classification of human races For man, as well as for plants,
we ought to recall the aphorism of Linnæus: “_nimium 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 allophylian 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 skin and its principal annexes._ The skin, which covers
the entire body, is a real covering composed of organs which are
anatomically and physiologically distinct. The principal one is the
_cutaneous organ_ or _skin properly so called_, to which are annexed
the _organs productive of villosities_, the _sudoriparous 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 are easily explained by the sole action of the
temperature. Cold contracts the tissues, drives the blood towards the
interior, or checks its circulation towards 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, causes a flow of blood to the surface of the body, and
renders the functions of the skin, and especially the perspiration,
more active. The latter, by the production of a constant evaporation
on the surface of the body, maintains the suppleness of the epidermic
layer, and the general freshness which 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.
Pruner Bey has 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 flow 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 Negroes and other races
inhabiting hot countries perspire much less than the inhabitants of
temperate climates. This is accounted for by the preceding facts.
The blood, which is constantly brought to the surface and into the
cutaneous organs, does 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 exist.
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 pass from a temperate 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. The 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 either very rare or absolutely wanting on the
surface of the body of a Negro, except some parts which in man are
always covered with hair. On the other hand, the 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, abandons the _bulbs 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
exceptional 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 populations 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_, _pezuna_, and _graïo_. Amongst ourselves, every
individual has his own peculiar odour, which is easily detected by
the delicate sense of smell of the dog.
VIII. _Villosities, beard, hair._ Villosities in man represent the
hair of the mammalia; but whilst the latter are always covered,
with the exception of some special races, such as _chiens turcs_,
_calongo_ cattle, etc., man is generally only covered to any
notable extent upon certain places. In the African Negro, and most
of the yellow races, it only exists upon the normal parts of the
body. Nevertheless the practice of epilation, which is common to a
great number of coloured populations, has caused the frequency and
intensity of this character to be exaggerated. Eckewelder represents
Red-Skin warriors, in their leisure moments, as occupied in tearing
out the smallest hairs with pincers especially made for the purpose.
White races are generally more or less hairy, and this trait has long
been known to be developed to a very exceptional degree among the
Aïnos. The photographs of Colonel Marshall show that the Todas are
their equal in this respect. In 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. Pallas, Humboldt,
Brasseur de Bourbourg and Pruner Bey, have contradicted these
assertions, and shown that the absence of beards is entirely due to
careful _epilation_. All human races are more or less provided with
a beard. Nevertheless great differences are known, even among races
belonging to the same fundamental type. Certain Melanesian Negroes
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 islands, separated
by spaces which are perfectly smooth. Hence results the heads of
hair _en grains de poivre_ noticed by different travellers. Amongst
most African Negroes, and amongst the Yellows and 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 that we find isolated cases in
all races of individuals with hair of a more or less reddish colour.
Fair hair has for a long time been regarded as the appanage of a
small number of Aryan groups. Nevertheless, according to Pruner
Bey, we also meet with it sometimes among the Asiatic Semites, and
we know for certain that they are very frequent among the Kabyles.
Facts such as Pierre Martyr, P. Kes, James, etc., have noticed among
the Parians, the Lee Panis, the Kiawas, 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 Martyr are one of the proofs of their
extension beyond the Gulf of Mexico.
There is also something characteristic in the form of the hair taken
as a whole. Everyone knows the falsely called _woolly 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 aspect ordinarily corresponds with the differences 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 Red-Skin, and that the hair of
the Anglo-Saxon is a mean between the two. Pruner Bey has resumed
this study, and described the form of a horizontal section of the
hair in several races belonging to the three fundamental types. He
has proved that the elongated ellipse characterises Negro races in
general, as well as the Hottentot-Bosjesman; that the oval forms
belong essentially to Aryan populations; that more or less regularly
circular forms characterise yellow, American, and other races, and
that in this respect the allophylian white races (Basques) appear to
resemble the preceding.
Brown and Pruner Bey moreover agree in the statement that a mixture
of forms is found upon the heads of half-breeds. Exactly the same
often happens in the crossing of the merino with races of sheep with
a coarse wool.
I have hitherto only spoken of the characters furnished by 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 these two directions. This results in
characters, which are doubtless artificial, 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 predecessors in addition to his
own.
IX. _Characters of the cranium and of the 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 osteological 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 measurements taken from the
living head and from the skull. For example, the presence of the
temporal muscles 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 _cephalic index_, is one of the characters which
anthropologists employ most frequently, and it was important to
determine the correction to be made in case of comparison. Broca has
shown that it is two units when the ratio is expressed in the manner
which I shall mention further on.
The case is different with the face. Here the super-imposed soft
parts play a part of which the importance has been alternately
exaggerated or neglected. William Edwards considered that races
should be determined, as we judge of individuals, solely by the
facial characters. Serres, starting from the fact that the bony
framework determines the general form and the proportion of the face,
required that osteological characters only should be taken into
account. Both were too exclusive.
Doubtless the skeleton is important in the most superficial
characters of the face. But the muscles, the cellular and adipose
tissue, and the cartilages are much more developed on the face
than upon the cranium; and from their greater or less extension,
from their various relations, differences of feature result which
constitute so many characters. Unfortunately it is often very
difficult to define the latter. The most detailed descriptions
are rarely sufficient, and the most exact measurements are far
from giving an idea of certain variations of the human figure. For
example, they cannot make the difference intelligible, which is
nevertheless very sensible to the eye, which distinguishes the nose
of a negro of Guinea from that of a Nubian negro.
The nose is nevertheless one of the features of the face which
is best adapted for investigations of this kind. Its length is
determined by the point of attachment of the nasal bones to the
frontal bone and the position of the nasal spine; its breadth at the
bridge depends upon the angle formed by the nasal bones; its breadth
at the base is more or less related to the anterior opening of the
nasal fossæ. But the form and development of the cartilages, as well
as the thickness of the nostrils upon two very similar skulls, can
modify considerably the type itself of this organ; and the exterior
nasal index can give no idea of these variations. The study of
Topinard upon this subject, nevertheless, possesses a real interest;
but from the point of view of the characterisation of races, the
researches made by Broca upon the nasal osteological index, which we
will discuss further on, has a much more important value.
The characters drawn from the nose, which are observed upon the
living body, are however most important. This organ is more or less
pressed in, broad and flat among almost all Negroes, the greater part
of the Yellow races, and certain allophylian Whites; it is on the
contrary narrow and prominent in fair white races. These two general
types moreover present variations of which drawings only can give any
idea.
I may say the same with reference to the mouth. The thousand
differences of form and dimensions which it can exhibit, from
the negro of Guinea with his enormous and, as it were turned up
lips, to certain aryan or semitic Whites can neither be measured
nor described. We can only point out the general characters when
they become very pronounced. It may, however, be remarked that
the thickness of the lips is very marked among all negroes, in
consequence of their projection in front of the maxillary bones and
the teeth.
The mouth of the Negro presents another character which seems to me
to have been generally neglected, and which has always struck me. It
is a kind of clamminess at the outer border of the commissures, and
which seems to prevent the small movements of the corner of the mouth
which play such an important part in the physiognomy. The dissections
of M. Hamy have explained these facts. They have shown that in the
Negroes the muscles of this region are both more developed and less
distinct than in the Whites.
Independently of the colour of the iris, the eye also exhibits
differences which constitute so many characters, having at times a
real value in the development of the eyelids, and in the dimensions
of the palpebral fissure. Everyone knows _Chinese eyes_, which
slope from below upwards, and from inwards outwards. They have
been regarded as peculiar to Yellow races, whether pure or mixed.
Nevertheless these oblique eyes are found pretty frequently in
Europe, principally among women, and are united to a fairness and
freshness of colour which are almost exceptional, as well as to
features unanimously regarded as most pleasing.
The general form of the countenance, and some other peculiarities
drawn from the prominence of the cheek bones, from the form and
prominence or retreat of the chin, etc., favoured some considerations
analogous to the preceding. But here again the external characters
are wanting in the precision which we shall find in the osteological
characters.
X. _Characters drawn from the trunk and limbs._ When speaking of
proportions I have already pointed out some of these characters; I
will return to them when speaking of the skeleton. I will here only
make a few remarks, and point out two remarkable features.
One of the peculiarities, which, in our European eyes, chiefly
contribute to bodily beauty, is the width of the chest, of the waist,
and of the hips. A body of a uniform breadth we consider ungraceful.
It is a feature which is met with among several yellow and American
races. The comparison of these dimensions will furnish indices which
it is interesting to compare. But we have only taken that of the
chest, or more generally its circumference. To judge from the numbers
given by various authors, the Negroes of Fernando Po would have
the most fully developed chest. With them, its circumference would
be 95·2 c.m. (37·48 inches). The English would come next, and the
minimum observed would be among the Todas, whose thorax would only
have a circumference of 81·8 c.m. (32·2 inches).
The Hottentot, and especially the Bosjesman women, exhibit, in a
high degree, two peculiarities, which have for a long time been
considered special to them, but which have been met with elsewhere: I
mean _steatopygia_ and the _Hottentot’s apron_ (tablier). The first
consists of a strange development of the fatty folds in the buttocks,
from which results an enormous protuberance. The Hottentot Venus, of
which a model exists in the Paris Museum, gives a good example of it,
but it appears that this character can be still more exaggerated.
It is the reproduction in man of a feature noticed by Pallas as
characteristic of certain races of sheep of Central Asia, among which
the atrophy of the tail coincides with the appearance of enormous
fatty protuberances.
Steatopygia has been noticed among various black and Negröid
populations. It was very noticeable in a queen of Poun, figured upon
the Egyptian temple built by M. Mariette, for the Exhibition of 1867.
Livingstone assured us that it had begun to manifest itself among
certain women of the Boers, who are nevertheless of a quite pure
white race. But nowhere is it so pronounced as among the Bosjesman
women, and it constitutes one of the most striking characters of the
race.
It is not exactly the same with “_tablier_,” resulting from the
exaggerated development of the labia minora, which project out of
the vulva and hang down in front of the thighs. This feature is
found more or less developed in a number of races, and has given
rise to the practice of circumcision among women. In Europe there
is doubtless scarcely an accoucheur who has not noticed it on some
occasion in some perfectly pure Whites. Nevertheless it seems that
among the Bosjesman women it sometimes reaches a development which
is not noticed elsewhere. In the Hottentot Venus, of which the
Paris Museum possesses a model, the length from the right reaches
55 millimetres (2·16 inches), and from the left 61 millimetres (2·4
inches); the breadth is 34 millimetres (1·33 inch) from the right,
and from the left 32 millimetres (1·26 inch). The thickness, which is
uniform, is 15 millimetres (·58 inch).
CHAPTER XXX.
ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS.
I. _Osteological characters._—Without denying the very great value
of external characters, I agree with almost all anthropologists,
in attaching a greater importance to anatomical characters _in the
majority of cases_. Unfortunately, the comparative anatomy of human
races has, as yet, made but little progress. The fact is, that the
solid portions, the skeleton alone, have, necessarily, been the
subject of serious examination. The study of the perishable portion
has scarcely been begun. For this, and several other reasons, I shall
distinguish these two orders of facts, and discuss separately our
knowledge of _osteological characters_ and _organic characters_.
The skeleton, the framework of the body, presents the same regions
as the latter: we can distinguish the head, the trunk, and the
extremities. Each of these regions offers peculiarities more or less
connected with the diversity of human groups. The best studied, and
fortunately the most important, are furnished by the head. For some
years craniological collections have been singularly on the increase;
and throughout Europe, the study has been entered upon with equal
ardour. Craniometrical methods and instruments have multiplied,
perhaps a little beyond the actual need. MM. Vogt and Topinard have
made an excellent summary of this mass of research. I can only refer
to their publications. I cannot here even reproduce all the results
already acquired, and must confine myself to pointing out a few of
the principal ones.
II. _Characters drawn from the cranium alone._—From an
anthropological point of view, as well as in an anatomical sense, the
skull is divided into two parts, the _cranium_ and the _face_. Each
of these regions has its special indications, while new characters
again rise from their reciprocal relations. Let us briefly review
them.
The general form of the cranium depends, above all, upon the relation
existing between the _length_ measured from before backwards,
and the _breadth_ taken from one side to the other. The honour
of having appreciated the importance of this relation belongs to
Retzius. He made use of it to establish the distinction between
_dolichocephalic_, or long-headed races, and _brachycephalic_, or
short-headed races.
Retzius considered the relations 7 : 9 or 8 : 10 as representing the
limit, left by him uncertain, of dolichocephaly and brachycephaly.
M. Broca proposed the formation of a third group, which should
comprise all crania, the length and breadth of which presented a
relation comprised within these limits, and anthropologists now admit
with him the _mesaticephalic_ races. In expressing these relations
by decimals, and in creating the term _horizontal cephalic index_,
now universally adopted, M. Broca has, moreover, facilitated, to an
extraordinary degree, the study of this character, and the ideas to
which it may give birth. His sub-division of the two extreme groups
into two has also, in certain cases, been an advantage. He has
himself, however, shown that it is not wise to go too far in this
direction.
The definitions of dolichocephaly, mesaticephaly, and brachycephaly
have, it seems to me, been somewhat arbitrary. I draw this conclusion
from the following tables, which I borrow from MM. Broca and
Pruner Bey. They represent the means discovered by these eminent
investigators. I have merely substituted the serial order for the
purely geographical distribution adopted by M. Pruner. Moreover, I
have continued the calculation to the second decimal place, thus
rendering the distinctions more minute, and the general result more
striking.
INDICES OF HUMAN RACES AFTER M. PRUNER BEY.
Races. Indices.
Americans of the Pampas, of Bogota, etc. 0·93
Americans of Vera Paz 0·87
Germans of the south (men) } 0·86
Germans of the south (women) }
Laos }
Annamites } 0·85
Brachycephalic Turks }
Brachycephalic Malays }
Javanese }
Borneans }
Brachycephalic Peruvians } 0·84
Puelches }
Lapps }
Ancient brachycephalic Europeans }
Kalmucks } 0·83
Brachycephalic Bretons }
Brachycephalic Kanaks }
Aëtas (women) } 0·82
Ancient Europeans (women) }
Malays (women) 0·81
Brachycephalic New Guineans }
Mexicans } 0·80
Brachycephalic Peruvians (women) }
Indo-Chinese }
Tagals }
Belgians } 0·79
Dutch }
Hovas }
Papuans with aquiline nose }
Red-Skins } 0·78
Chinese (women) }
Bellovaques (men) }
Modern Greeks }
Kabyles (women) }
Jews (women) } 0·77
Kourouglis (men and women) }
New Guineans }
Intermediary Americans } 0·77
Araucanians (men) }
Chinese (men) } 0·77
Ancient Romans }
Kabyles (men) }
Aëtas (men) }
Tasmanians (women) } 0·76
Dolichocephalic Celts }
Scandinavians (men) }
Dolichocephalic Bretons }
Modern Italians (men and women) }
Arabians }
Sacalaves (men) } 0·75
New Zealanders }
Dolichocephalic Kanaks }
Micronesians }
Tasmanians (men) }
New Guineans (women) }
Dolichocephalic Turks } 0·75
Etruscans }
Phœnicians }
Scandinavians (women) }
Tahitians }
Americans of Brazil, Peru, etc. } 0·74
Araucanians (women) }
Negroes (women) }
Kaffirs }
Semitic Hindoos } 0·73
Ancient Celts (men & women) }
Irish }
Negroes (men) }
Sacalaves (women) }
Australians (women) }
Brahmans } 0·72
Dravidians }
Persians }
Bellovaques (women) }
Bosjesmans } 0·70
Hottentots (women) }
Hottentots (men) } 0·69
Esquimaux }
INDICES OF HUMAN RACES AFTER M. BROCA.
Races. Indices.
TRUE BRACHYCEPHALI.
Americans (deformed crania) { 1·03
{ 0·93
Syrians of Gébel Cheikh, slightly deformed } 0·85
Lapps }
Bavaria and Swabia } 0·84
Auvergnats of St. Nectaire }
Finns } 0·83
Indo-China }
SUB-BRACHYCEPHALI.
Alsace and Lorraine }
European Russia } 0·82
Bretons of the Côtes du Nord (Gaulish cantons) }
Javanese } 0·81
Turks }
Different Mongols } 0·81
Bretons of the Côtes du Nord (Breton cantons) }
Estonians } 0·80
French Basques }
MESATICEPHALI.
North Americans, undeformed }
South Americans, undeformed }
Non-Javanese Malays }
North French, Bronze age } 0·79
Parisians of 16th cent. }
Parisians of 12th cent. }
Parisians of 19th cent. }
Gallo-Romans }
Roumanians } 0·78
Mexicans, undeformed }
SUB-DOLICHOCEPHALI.
Spanish Basques of Zaraus } 0·77
Gauls of the Iron age }
Malgaches }
Chinese }
Copts } 0·76
Merovingian French }
Sclaves of the Danube }
Tasmanians }
Polynesians }
Ancient Egyptians }
Guanches }
Corsicans of Avapezza of the 18th cent. } 0·75
Bohemians of Roumania }
Papuans }
North French of the polished stone age }
TRUE DOLICHOCEPHALI.
Kabyles } 0·74
Arabs }
Nubians of Elephantine }
South French; Neolithic age (cave Homme-Mort) }
France; Palæolithic age } 0·73
Negroes of West Africa }
Bengalese }
Kaffirs } 0·72
Hottentots and Bosjesmans }
Australians }
New Caledonians } 0·71
Esquimaux }
These tables mutually confirm and complete each other in general
results. The secondary differences which distinguish them, are
doubtless occasioned, on the one hand, by the number of crania
employed by the two authors to obtain their means; on the other,
from some diversity in the use of these materials. M. Pruner Bey
distinguished the sexes, which are united by M. Broca: the latter has
placed in one group the Hottentots and Bosjesmans, separated by M.
Pruner, etc.
From M. Broca’s table it appears that the mean of all these indices,
leaving deformed skulls out of the question, is 0·78. From a
numerical point of view this would be that of true mesaticephaly.
The mean group ought, it seems to me, to descend equally as it
rises, and consequently to absorb at least a part of M. Broca’s
sub-dolichocephali. In fact, upon inspecting the two tables, it
appears that the indices above 0·74 and below 0·79 comprise the
greater number of races belonging to the three fundamental types,
and taken from all parts of the world. It seems to me that true
mesaticephaly should be comprised within these limits. I do not,
however, propose that those which have been adopted should be changed.
These tables give rise to many other observations, of which I shall
only point out the principal.
M. Pruner Bey carried his calculations to the third place of
decimals; M. Broca to the fourth. I have gone no further than the
second, that the eye may be more easily attracted by the series
formed by these numbers, so important in the characterization of
races. It should be remembered that the greater number are means
taken from a certain number of crania. Were there a sufficient
number of subjects for each race, and all the indices taken from
each arranged in serial order, the distance from one to the other
would undoubtedly be no longer 0·01, but would be diminished to
0·001, or even less. The insensible shades observed in passing from
one individual to another would here be as remarkable as in the
comparison of stature.
There is no need to insist at any length upon the intercrossing, so
strikingly betrayed by the two tables. We see that the same index
places side by side the most dissimilar races, the South German
with the Annamite, the Breton with the Kalmuck, the Belgian with
the Tagal, the Parisian with the Malay, the Italian with the Maori,
etc., and that by their several indices the white races are scattered
throughout almost all the coloured races. I need not return to the
consequences which may be drawn from these facts from a monogenistic
point of view.
The yellow and black races are not so widely separated as the white;
the former are either brachycephalic or mesaticephalic, the latter
all dolichocephalic, with the exception of the Aëtas. I have shown
that the latter belong to a group of populations extending from
the Andaman and Philippine Islands to Torres Strait in Melanesia,
penetrating New Guinea, and forming a special _branch_ in the midst
of the Melanesian Negro population.
The case appears to be somewhat similar in Africa. This discovery,
entirely contrary to the ideas generally maintained till the present
time, is due to M. Hamy. This excellent investigator recognized
brachycephaly in six skulls taken from the Paris collections, and
obtained from Cape Lopez, or the mouths of the Fernand Yaz. Shortly
afterwards, M. Duchaillu having brought from the same districts
ninety-three skulls, the measurements of which were made public
by Englishmen, M. Hamy calculated the indices, and found that
twenty-seven of these crania were brachycephalic or mesaticephalic.
There is then every indication that the Negro _stock_ in Africa
presents a special _branch_ corresponding to the Negritoes. This
result is confirmed by Schweinfurth, who places the Niams-Niams and
some neighbouring tribes amongst the brachycephali.
We see that the horizontal cephalic index cannot serve as a starting
point in the classification of human races, as Retzius imagined it
might. We also see, however, that all the value which was attributed
to it by its author, is preserved in the characterization of
secondary groups.
The extreme means given in M. Pruner Bey’s table were found in two
American races, the Esquimaux and the inhabitants of the Pampas of
Bogota, etc. Whatever the differences may be which separate these two
races, it is evident that neither of them belong either to the black
or the white type. They show the greatest affinity to the yellow type.
From one extreme mean to the other there is, according to M. Pruner,
a difference of 0·246 between the cephalic indices; according to M.
Broca of 0·14552 only. This difference rests chiefly upon the fact
of M. Broca rejecting, as deformed, skulls which M. Pruner seems to
accept without observation. Again, the individual indices present a
much wider variation than would, at first sight, be expected. Huxley
mentions a Mongol whose cephalic index rises to 0·977, and a New
Zealander, of unmistakable Melanesian origin, in whom it descends to
0·629. The difference is, therefore, 0·348.
The general relations of length and breadth in the cranium of human
races is apparent from birth. Nevertheless, from the researches
of Gratiolet, it appears that dolichocephaly is due to a relative
development of bones, which varies with age. In the infant it is
essentially _occipital_, in the child _temporal_, and _frontal_ in
the adult man. In the woman the elongation of the cranium depends
essentially on the length of the temporal regions; in this respect,
then, the woman remains a child all her life.
Starting from these primary results, the same observer has compared
dolichocephalic Whites with African and Melanesian Negroes. He found
that the frontal dolichocephaly of the former was replaced in the two
black races by an occipital dolichocephaly. M. Broca has established
the same fact in comparing Basques with Parisians. Thus the
distinction proposed by M. Gratiolet furnishes a secondary character,
which may be of use in certain cases, but which falls very short of
the importance with which some have attempted to invest it. They
would consider occipital dolichocephaly as a character which widely
separates the Negro from the White; the observations of M. Broca
show that this is not at all the case, and from the observations of
M. Gratiolet it appears that we have here only the persistence of an
anterior condition common to both. The Negro and the Basque preserve
throughout life the cephalic character of the infant Parisian, thus
forming one of the many examples of that cessation of evolution
which, as we see more distinctly every day, plays a considerable part
in the characterization of human races.
The study of the horizontal cephalic index might lead to many other
remarks. I shall only recall the results obtained by M. Diétrici. It
appears from his calculations that, the total population of the globe
given at 1288 millions, there are 1026 millions of dolichocephali,
and only 262 millions of brachycephali. But the Berlin savant places
in the first category the Chinese, who are mesaticephali, and must
alone be reckoned at 421 millions. All these facts considered, it
appears to me, from the tables of MM. Pruner Bey and Broca, and other
data, received up to the present time, that the mesaticephali are
much more numerous than either the brachycephali or dolichocephali.
If mesaticephaly is taken in the sense pointed out above, the latter
in their turn predominate over the brachycephali, owing chiefly to
African black populations, which we are daily learning to estimate as
much more dense than they were formerly thought to be.
Retzius only compared the antero-posterior and transverse maximum
diameters. Later investigators have sought the relation between the
latter and the height of the cranium. The _vertical cephalic index_
has thus been obtained, the importance of which is at once evident.
It plays an equally important part in the table of M. Pruner Bey,
and gives rise to considerations analogous to those just discussed.
I cannot, however, enter into all these details without exceeding
the limits of this book. From the same motive I shall not mention
the other measurements of the cranium, maximum and minimum _frontal
diameters_, _total circumference_, _antero-posterior arc_, and others.
The composition of the cranium can only vary within very narrow
limits. Nevertheless, in Negroes, in ancient Egyptians, etc., the
squamous portion of the temporal bone is sometimes united to the
frontal without the partial interposition of the wings of the
sphenoid. This is a remarkable fact, being in direct contradiction
to the _principles of connections_, so justly regarded by Etienne
Geoffroy as one of the most essential principles of comparative
anatomy.
In the preceding case, the composition of the cranium is altered
by the suppression of a normal suture. This may also be caused by
the appearance of an abnormal suture, by which two distinct bones
are formed from a single one. Such is the case when the occipital
bone seems to divide, so as to leave its upper portion free. We
then have what has been called the _epactal bone_, or _bone of the
Incas_, because Rivers and Tschudy imagined this conformation to
be a character peculiar to the race. M. Jacquart, however, showed
that it was merely the result of a cessation in the evolution of the
occipital bone, of which examples are found in the most different
human races. It is to a similar phenomenon that the persistence of
the medio-frontal suture is due. This, again, is doubtless universal,
but much more frequent in the Aryan white race than in coloured
races, and especially in the Negroes.
These facts are connected, moreover, with a group of observations
and ideas which Gratiolet has brought forward on several occasions.
According to this ingenious observer, the anterior sutures are
the first to unite in inferior races, while in superior races the
obliteration commences with the posterior sutures. Again, the
sutures, as a whole, have a tendency to disappear rapidly in savage
races, while the isolation of the bones of the cranium is persistent
in civilized races, and particularly in the European White. This
disposition allows a continuance of the development of the brain,
although it gradually becomes slower. Gratiolet thus explains the
continuance of the intellectual power, so remarkable in men who have
constantly exercised their intelligence. The statistic researches of
Dr. Pomerol, while correcting all that is absolute in this theory,
seems to confirm it in some respects.
Since I am unable to review all the cranial characters, I shall pass
by those drawn from the prominence of different bones, the occipital
indices of Broca, the cephalo-spinal of Mantegazza, etc. I shall only
say a few words upon the position of the foramen magnum, and the
sphenoïdal angle of Welker, but I shall dwell more at length upon the
_capacity_ of the cranium.
D’Aubenton, in a special work, shows that the foramen magnum is
always placed further back in animals than in man. Sœmmering remarked
that it seemed more so in the Negro than in the White; and this
opinion, which was apparently confirmed by some measurements, was at
once accepted by a number of anthropologists, and regarded by them
as a _simian character_, but this result was attained by considering
the position of the aperture relatively to the entire length of the
skull, including the face. Now it is at once evident that the forward
development of the latter, by reason of prognathism, would increase
the apparent retreat of the former.
The researches of M. Broca upon _cranial projections_ enable us to
state this problem correctly, and to give the solution of it. M.
Broca compared 60 Europeans with 35 Negroes. Representing the _total
projection_ by 1000, he found that in the former the _anterior
projection_ was 475, and in the latter 498. The anterior border of
the foramen magnum is then further removed from the alveolar border
in the Negro than in the White, the difference being 23. But this
projection includes, with the _anterior cranial projection_, the
_facial projection_, which is 65 in the European and 138 in the
Negro. If this is deducted from the former, we find that the White
stands first in _cranial projection alone_, and that the difference
is 50.
We learn from these calculations that, relatively to the cranium
to which it belongs, the foramen magnum is placed more forward in
the Negro than in the White, which is by no means the case in apes.
These same calculations demonstrate the real difference which here
distinguishes the two, that, namely, of the forward prolongation of
the face.
In drawing comparisons between men and apes, the _sphenoïdal angle_
discovered by M. Virchow, studied by M. Welker, and which, thanks
to M. Broca, may be measured without making a section of the skull,
presents special interest. It presents an inverse evolution in man,
and the Quadrumana during growth. This may be seen from the annexed
calculations borrowed from M. Welker:—
MAN.
8 Infants 141°
10 Children from 10 to 15 years 137°
30 Adult Germans 134°
----
Difference -7°
APES.
Sajou, at birth 140°
” adult 174°
----
Difference +34°
Orang., young 155°
” adult 172°
” old 174°
----
Difference +19°
I have already insisted that facts of this nature are irreconcilable
with those theories which attribute a more or less pithecoid ancestor
to man.
In discussing the cranial cavity, our special object is to supply the
deficiency of information upon the volume and weight of the brain.
Now, from this point of view, we may easily fall into error. The bony
cabinet and its contents are developed, to a certain extent at least,
independently. This is very clearly demonstrated by a fact which was
observed by Gratiolet, and is too frequently forgotten. The subject
is an infant in whom the cranium presented the normal conformation.
The brain was, nevertheless, almost entirely wanting. In well-formed
men the sinuses and coverings of the brain may very easily be more or
less developed according to the individual or race, and influence the
relative dimensions of the brain.
Moreover, the exact measurement of the capacity of the cranium is
attended by difficulties which have not yet been entirely surmounted.
In spite of the improvements introduced by M. Broca in his method of
measuring with shot, consecutive measurements of the same cranium by
the same observer will vary considerably in the result.
Again, there are peculiarities to be taken into consideration, the
importance of which has long been neglected. We have known for
several years that the stature has an influence upon the weight of
the brain. It cannot be without influence upon the cavity by which
the latter is enclosed. M. Broca has shown that sex is of itself a
cause of variation. In the woman the mean cranial capacity is always
less than in the man, and the difference varies between different
races.
Nevertheless, in examining a sufficient number of skulls, the causes
of error may counterbalance each other, and the means may be accepted
as giving results sufficiently near the truth. The results obtained
by the same observer are especially favourable for comparison, and
from them certain results may be obtained. There is no reason,
therefore, why the cranial capacity should not be considered as
a character well worthy of study. But its importance must not be
exaggerated.
M. Broca arrived at the following result, in considering the
distinction of extreme races. The cranial capacity of the Australian
being represented by 100, that of the African Negro is 111·60, and
that of fair European races 124·8.
I borrow from my eminent colleague the following table, published by
M. Topinard in his _Anthropologie_. This table gives the mean cranial
capacity, in cubic centimetres, for a certain number of races in both
sexes. I have merely substituted the serial order in the men for
the almost geographical division of the author, and calculated the
difference between the sexes.