Men are classed by Dr. Blumenbach under five great divisions, viz. the
Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. The Caucasian
family may be asserted, though by its own members, to have been always
pre-eminent above the rest in moral feelings and intellectual powers,
and is remarkable for the large size of their heads. It need not be more
minutely described, than by saying it includes all the ancient and
modern Europeans, (except the Laplanders and Fins;) the former and
present inhabitants of Western Asia as far as the Ob, the Caspian Sea,
and the Ganges, viz. the Assyrians, Medes, Chaldeans, Sarmatians,
Scythians, Parthians, Philistines, Phoenicians, Jews, and Syrians; the
Tartars on the Caucasus, Georgians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians,
Turks, Persians, Arabs, Hindoos of high caste, Northern Africans,
Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Guanches. They are supposed to have
originally had brown hair and dark eyes.

The Mongolian family is of an olive colour and black eyes, flat nose and
face, small stature, black hair, no beard, and thick lips. It comprises
the people of Central and Northern Asia, Thibet, Ava, Pegu, Cambodia,
Laos, and Siam; the Chinese, Japanese, Fins, and Esquimaux.

The Ethiopian family is black, with black and woolly hair, compressed
skull, low forehead, flat nose, and thick lips. It includes all Africans
not comprehended in the Caucasian family.

The American family has a dark skin, a red tint, straight hair, a small
beard, low forehead, and broad face. It includes all the American
tribes, except the Esquimaux.

The Malay family is brown, varying from a light tint to black. Their
hair is black and curled, head narrow, bones of the face prominent, nose