The first attempt at the classification of mankind was that of a French traveller, F. Bernier (1625-1688), whose scheme appeared in an anonymous article in the Journal des Scavans, 1684, entitled “A new division of the earth, according to the different species or races of men who inhabit it,” etc.[[65]]
[65]. See T. Bendyshe, Mem. Anth. Soc., I., 1865, p. 360.
He distinguished “four or five species or races”: (1) The inhabitants of Europe, North Africa (including the Egyptians), and a great part of Asia (including the Indians). He notes that the Egyptians and Indians are black or copper-coloured, but considered the complexion to be due to climate. (2) The Africans, with thick lips, flat noses, and black skins, due not to climate but nature, with scanty beard and woolly hair. (3) The Asiatics not included in the first group, white, with “broad shoulders, a flat face, a small squab nose, little pig’s-eyes long and deep-set, and three hairs of beard.” (4) The Lapps, “little stunted creatures, with thick legs, large shoulders, short neck, and a face elongated immensely; very ugly, and partaking much of the bear; they are wretched animals.” He hesitates whether to put the Americans or the inhabitants of South Africa, who are unlike the Negroes, into a fifth class. The latter are probably the Hottentots or Bushmen, in spite of his statement that “some of the Dutch say they speak turkey.”
Linnæus.
The next classification was that of Linnæus. His service to Anthropology by fixing the place of Homo sapiens in the animal kingdom has already been noted (p. [19]). In the first edition of the Systema naturæ (1735),[[66]] Man is classed as a quadruped, and together with the Ape and Sloth constitutes the order Anthropomorpha. Four varieties of Homo are recorded: H. Europæus albesc., Americanus rubesc., Asiaticus fuscus, Africanus nigr. In the second edition (1740) Homo is divided into the same four varieties, which are distinguished by the colour of their skin, located severally, one in each of the then known continents—Europæus albus, Americanus rubescens, Asiaticus fuscus, and Africanus niger.
[66]. These accounts have been taken from the original editions; but the reader is referred to the verbatim copy given by Bendyshe in the Mem. Anth. Soc., I., 1865, p. 421.
In the tenth edition (1758) more divisions are recognised: the genus Homo consists of two species—Sapiens, 1 H. diurnus. Ferus, including hairy men without speech who run about on all-fours, of which six records are given; Americanus (α) and Europæus (β), Asiaticus (γ), Afer (δ), Monstrosus (ε), which include (a) Alpini (small), Patagonici (large); (b) Monorchides—Hottentotti, Junceæ—Europæ; (c) Macrocephali—Chinenses, Plagiocephali—Canadenses. A second species being Troglodytes 2. H. nocturnus (Homo sylvestris Orang-Outang). This classification was retained in the twelfth edition (1772). In these two latter editions the genera Simia, Lemur, and Vespertilio were classed with Homo in the order Primates.
In Fauna Suecica, published in 1746, Linnæus made a more detailed classification of the population of Sweden, recognising three main types, distinguished by their stature, hair, and eye colour. These were the Goths, tall, hair white and straight, iris of the eyes ashen blue; Finns, with muscular body, hair long and yellow, and dark iris; and Lapps, with small, thin body, straight black hair, and iris blackish.
Blumenbach.
Blumenbach (1775) based his classification not only on skin colour, but also on skull form. To the four groups of Linnæus he added a fifth, dividing the one species into five varieties—the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethiopian, the American, and the Malayan. The last group included the then little known Australian, Papuan, and pure Malay types.