PROPOSED CLASSIFICATIONS OF RACES.
We shall now examine in turn the traits on which these and other writers have subdivided the human species, so as to give each its just weight.
I. By Location: The Linnenan System, or the Geographical System.— In this scheme the species is simply divided with reference to the geo graphical areas which its various tribes inhabit. It is sometimes called the Linna'an classification, as having been suggested by the eminent Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in the last century. The continental areas give their names to the races, thus dividing the species into six—the European, the Asiatic, the African, the American, the Australian, and the Oceanic.
In spite of the numerous and elaborate systems which have been devised since Linnaeus wrote, there is much to be said in favor of retaining this simple and broad division of ethnographic science, espe cially with a few provisos and modifications.
One excellent reason is that it commits one to no theory of character istic and permanent traits. Furthermore, although not strictly identical with the areas of characteristic fauna, the great geographical divisions named certainly approach near to them, and each presents some features peculiarly its own.
Again, it must be understood that these divisions are to be considered to apply to the location of the tribes of mankind, not as they are now, but at the earliest period known to history or where pre-historic research can confidently locate them. Thus, the European race is now found all over the globe, and at the dawn of history occupied large tracts in West ern Asia ; but the most modern research renders it almost certain that it was in its origin exclusively European, and that the Persians, the Brah mans, even the Semitic tribes and the Copts of pure descent, wandered eastward out of Europe at some very remote epoch. The true Negro is found nowhere out of Africa, other than in those countries whither we know lie was transported. The same is the case with the American Indian, and it holds nearly as good in the instances of the Asiatic Mongolian and the Malay.
We find, therefore, that the Linn can or Geographical method of clas sification, when properly applied, approaches closely that which has long been the most popular—that 2. By the Skin: Ps Color, Odor, or color of the skin is the most striking feature which impresses the observer, and conse quently was the first adopted as a means of classification. It is used for this purpose in early Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek literature, and upon it is based the classification proposed by Blumenbach, Cuvier, and others. The former, who is often spoken of as the founder of scientific anthro pology, in his celebrated treatise De Generis Hilmani Varielate, proposed a division into five races or varieties, based almost exclusively on the color of the skin (see frontispiece)—to wit: i. The White or Caucasian race, the purest types of which he believed could be found among the tribes of the Caucasus or to have proceeded from that locality ; 2. The Yellow or Mongolian race, of which the Chinese are typical examples ; 3. The Black or Ethiopian race, embracing the true Negroes of Africa ; 4. The Red or American race ; and 5. The Brown or Malayan race, including the Polynesians.
Cuvier, as has been mentioned, followed Blumenbach in selecting color as the most salient trait in the varieties of the species, although he restricted the shades to three, omitting the red and brown races. These he treated as branches of the yellow race.
To estimate the importance of the coloration of the skin, its phys iological origin should be understood. This has been but imperfectly attained. Anatomically, color is not even "skin deep." It arises from a deposit of carbonaceous matter from the blood immediately upon the surface of the dermis or true skin. When by accident, as a scald or a blister, the epidermis or scurf-skin is removed in the Negro or Indian, most of the coloring-matter comes away with it, and the dermis has the appearance of that in a white man (pl. I, fig. 9).