Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-19
THE RACES OF MANKIND.
There are Seventy-two Of Them Exist
ing NOw-Au Came From Asia.

From the London Times.
M. de Quatrefages the leading French ethnol-
ogist, in presenting the second part of his
Introduction to the Study of the Human
Races" to the academy of sciences has given an
interesting summary of his general conclusions
with regard to the origin and distribution Of
mankind.
Neglecting the minor differences, he esti-
mates that there are no fewer than seventy-two
distinct races in the human species. All these
descend or branch off from three fundamental
types-the black, the yellow, and the white
which had their origin at the great central mass
OF northern Asia, which is thus the cradle of
mankind. Representatives of these different
types and the races which sprang from them
are still to be found there.
The whites, according to M. de Quatrefages,
appear to have originated on the west of the
central mass, the yellows ON the north, and the
blacks on the south The whites extended
westward and northward, giving birth to three
secondary types, the Finnish, the Semetic and
the Aryan, if We except the Allophyles, which
form separate group. Their area OF dlstri-
button is continuous, as is that of the yelows,
because OF the extensive land surface of the
Eurasian continent. Tie yellows spread east
ward and crossed into America. The whites
and yellows checked or blended with each
other, producing many varieties Of man. The
blacks, or negro type, which originated on the
south OF the central mass was forced by the
nature of the continent, and probably by the
attacks of the whites and yellows, to 60 south
into Africa and east into the Indian archipel-
ago, or Melanesia. The proto-Semites ar
rested their distribution in the north
of Africa and the mixture of the two
races gave rise to the negroid populations. In
the center and south of Africa the blacks con-
tinued in their ethnic purity until the infiltra-
ton of other races from Europe and the north
of Africa in modern times. Those which re-
manned in their original home became blended
with the whites and yellows, giving rise to the
dravidian populations which pass by shades
into the three fundamental types.
As for the Allophyles, represented by the
race of Cro-Magnon, they occupied parts of
Europe and North Africa, from which they ex-
tended to the Canaries The three funda-
mental types also found themselves in Oceanica,
the Ailophylian whites occupying Polynesia,
the blacks Melanesia, the yellows MALAYSIA. The
latter were, according to VI. de Quatrefages,
the last to come into the maritime world.
The peopling of America dates from the
quaternary period and is due to migrations of
different types-Allophylic white and yellow,
blending with the local Quaternary races,
which also belonged to the yellow type.
Europe, since the tertiary ages, has received
only Allophylian whites, Firms and Aryans.
The number OF races now existing in pure
state is exceedingly restricted, if, indeed,
there is a single one which can be accepted as
such. Perhaps some little groups, protected
by their isolation, such as the MIncopies, may
show an identity of characters attest1ng their
ethnic homogeneity.