The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-05-15
Study of Human Types.

StuOy OF human IypeSs
The best naturaists hold that the human
species originated from single type. which
became differentiated into the various hui
man types now in existence. 1t is not nee
races of man; if it were. science would be
sadly at loss to say how many. Race is a
variable term. AS stated in our last article,
mankind is not divided off into races by
hard and fast lines. What we call a race
is in reality nothing more than a more or
less prominent point in a continuous line of
difference in the structure and character OF
the members of human kind. Accordingly
scientists differ, and have always differed,
as to the numbers of races to be assumed.
Two. three. four, five, six. seven, eight,
eleven, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-five, sixty,
sixty-three. and even hundred and fifty
have been defended with ardor and learn
ing. Cuvier was in favor of three races.
The weight of great authority Kant Lime,
Haeckel, Huxley, and Friedrich Muller, is
on the side of four races. The celebrated
Harvard professor. AgassiZ. believed in
eight races; the American anthrOpOlOgsts,
Pickering and Morton, assumed, respect
lively. eleven and twenty-five races. We
are most of us familiar with the old divis
ion into five races taught us in school, This
dates back about hundred years. and was
advanced by the GOettingen professor,
Blumenbach. who is considered by some as
the father of this science. The five races
are: l. The Caucasian. 2. The yellow or
Mongolian. 3. The black or Ethiopian 4.
The red or American. 5. The brown or
Malayan. Thus we see that the ordinary
conception OF race makes it directly de-
pendent upon color This taken by itself,
is by no means, as we shall see. satisfac-
tory basis for subdivision. Many other
views have been advanced. some of which
are not a little fanciful and amusing. One
anthrOpologist. Steffens, divides the race
according to the SO called temperaments.
He ascribes the phlegmatc temperament to
the American. the melancholic to the Mon.
gol. the chOleric to the Malay, and the san
gulne to the Caucasian. Another writer,
oxen, distributes the five races among the
five senses. He regards the Negro as the
race of touch. the Australian as the race of
taste. the American as the race of smell,
the MongOls as the race of hearing. and the
Europeans as the race of sight. We under.
stand why the American redskin should be
CdilCu GHo HAL vi StIl0ll-no follows in the
primeval forest the trail of the hated Euro
pean by the aid of its organ. But to desig-
nate the Australian, who lives to a cOnsid-
cradle extent on nauseating worms, as the
race OF taste-why. that is a matter of
taste. The ordinary division into five races.
according to color, is evidently based upOn
the erroneous notion that every continent
must have its own race. But the division
OF the globe into these continents is artifi-
clal, and the five races do not coincide with
the five continents. The geography of
animals and plants does not correspond
with the divisions into continents: their
fundamental types occur frequently in sew
eral parts of the globe very remote from
one another. In fact. color is one of the
least consequent race qualities and distinc-
lions based upon color alone are worthless.
The scale of color from the fairest North
European to the darkest African has no
hard and fast lines. but passes gradually
from tint to tint. From Northern fair
whites. through the darker whites of South
ern Europe, the brOwnish yellow of the
Malays, the reddish brown of the Ameri-
cans. the dark brown of the Australians.
and the black brown of the negroes. the
transition is by imperceptible degrees. Even
North Europeans differ very much in color.
and the most Aryan Englishman must at
times confess to very dark complexion.
Nevertheless, color is so salient that it will
never cease to be counted as the most dis