Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-13
THE RACES OF MANKIND.
There are Seventy-Two of Them and Al
Came From Asia.

There are Seventy-Two of Them and Al
Came From Asia.
NJ. de Quatrefages, the leading French
ethnologist, In presenting the second part
of his Introduction to the study of the
Human Races to the Academy of Scien-
ces, says the London Times, has given an
interesting summary of his general con-
illusions with regard to the origin and dis
tribution of mankind Neglecting the
minor differences, he estimates that there
are no fewer than seventy-two distinct
races in the human species. All these de-
scend or branch off from three fundamental
types-the black. the yellow and the white
which had their origin at the great cen
trail 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
these.
The whites according to NJ. de Quatre-
FACES, appear to have originated on the
West of the central mass, the yellow on
the North and the blacks on the South.
The whites extended westward and north
ward, giving birth to three secondary
types-the Finnish, the Semitic and the
Aryan, if we except the Allophyles, which
form separate group. Their area of
distribution is continuous, as is that of the
yellows, because of the extensive land sur
face of the Eurasian Continent. The yell
lows spread eastward and crossed into
America The whites and yellows checked
or blended with each other, producing
numerous varieties of man.
The blacks, or negro type, which origin
ated on the south of the central mass, was
forced by the nature of the continent, and
probably by the attack fthe whites and the
yellows, to go south into Africa and East
into the Indian Archipelago, or Melanesia.
The proto-Semites arrested their distri-
button 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 continued In
their ethic purity until the inflnation 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, Civ
ing rise to the dravidian populations which
pass by shades into the three fundamental
types.
As for the AllophyIes, represented by
the race of Gro -Magnon, they occupied parts
of Europe and North Africa, from which
they extended to the Canaries. The three
fundamental types also found themselves
In OceanIca; the AllOphyllan whites Occu-
pied Polynesia, the blacks Malanesia.
the yellow MaIasias. The latter were,
according to NJ. de Quatrefages, the lasf
to come into the maritime world.
The peopling of America dates from
the quaternary period, and is due to mi
grations of different types-Allophylic
white and yellow, blending with the local
quaternaIy 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 single one
which can be accepted as such. Perhaps
some little groups, protected by their iso
lation, such as the Mincopies, may show
an identity of characters attesting their
| ethnic homOgeneity.