The generally recognized ethnological division of mankind, with reference to race, is into three leading families--the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro. Two other families--the Malay and the American--are commonly added to these, making five in the total. The first-named division is that suggested by the illustrious French naturalist, Cuvier. The five-fold division is due to the German philosopher, Blumenbach. In the scheme of the former, the Malay and American are regarded as sub-varieties--the one of the Caucasian and the other of the Mongolian family. Other writers again enumerate a much greater number of varieties of mankind, each possessing characters sufficiently distinct to entitle it to be regarded as a separate family. [In using the word _race_, as applied to different families of man, the division must be understood as implying “variety” only--not species. There is no _specific_ difference in the various members of the human family--no difference, that is, which implies anything in contradiction to the assumption that all mankind have had a common origin, springing from a single pair. The human family differs in this regard from all the lower members of the animal kingdom. The order “bimana” (_i. e._, _two-handed_), to which, in scientific classification, man is referred, comprises only a single genus, and a single species. The characteristic points of difference between the great families of mankind above referred to are the color of the skin, eyes, and hair (with the nature of the latter, whether curled, lank, woolly, or frizzled), and the shape of the skull. All other physical differences, as regards stature, form of limbs, and general outline of body, seem capable of ready explanation by reference to opposite conditions of climate, food, and habits of social life. But between the Caucasian and the Negro, or the latter and the Mongol, there is a broad and strongly marked difference, and one that extends over the whole historic period.] The distinguishing attributes of the Caucasian race, physically considered, are the oval form of the skull with the generally symmetrical shape of the entire head and frame of body. The face is of oval form, the features moderately prominent, the forehead arched, the cheek-bones only slightly projecting, the mouth small, the chin full and round; with the skin generally of light color (varying, however, from white to a deep brown, or swarthy, hue), the eyes and hair of various hue, and the latter often curling. The facial angle[14] is greater in the case of the Caucasian than in either of the other varieties of mankind.