IBRAR THES RARY ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW. No. VIII. FEBRUARY, 1865. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS.* WITH regard to the usual classification of ocular colours, Dr. Broca remarks that the term "black," applied to the colour of the human eye, is entirely a misnomer, and that those which are commonly called black eyes are either very dark brown or occasionally very dark green. He observes of the eyes of negroes that, although they are universally called black, they are frequently scarcely darker than a chocolate colour. If to these pretended black eyes we add blue, grey, and green eyes, we shall have exhausted the list of ocular colours comprised in the previous classification. "But," says Dr. Broca," anthropological description requires greater precision. It is not sufficient simply to point out the fundamental colour of the eye which is the subject of observation: this indication is rendered impossible in many cases by the mixture of colours. Besides, when it is proposed to discover whether any relation exists between the colouring of the eye and that of the skin or hair, it is more important to determine the greater or less depth of shade of the iris than the nature of the shade itself. When it is said that one individual has a blue, and another a brown eye, it is understood that the first has in the eye more colouring matter than the second. And yet there are blue, green, and even grey eyes, which are in reality much darker, that is, much nearer black, than any eye which can be called brown. For this reason, Dr. John Beddoe, of Clifton, in his important inquiries upon the eyes of the Scotch, the * Bulletins de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris. Vol. iv, 4eme Fascicnle, September to December, 1863; vol. v, ler Fascicule, January to March, 1864. 2me Fascicule. [Continued from vol. ii, p. 217.] VOL. III.-NO. VIII. B Irish, and the Jews, has avoided mentioning the fundamental colour of the iris; he has confined himself to a classification according to shades, without pointing out the fundamental colours, and has thus reduced the whole chromatic scale of the eyes to three types, which he calls dark, neutral, and light. "But this classification is only available by those who have established it, or who have assisted de visû at the experiments. The application of shades is entirely personal, not in extreme cases, but in those which incline more or less to the intermediate. The object of the general instructions prepared by the Society is precisely to substitute for these personal appreciations uniform and methodical determinations, which shall not depend upon the degree of knowledge of the observers. It is thus necessary to place at their disposal a chromatic table, representing at once the principal tints and the principal shades of the colour of the iris.” Dr. Broca then proceeds to describe the plan upon which he has formed his classification, as follows:-"I have adopted Dr. Beddoe's principle in always arranging in sets of five the number of shades disposed in a scale from the lightest to the darkest. I have thus obtained five degrees expressing the quantity of colouring matter in the iris, and I have disposed them in five vertical columns, containing very dark, dark, medium, light and very light. I have then classed my sketches according to the fundamental colours, and it appears to me that these colours may be reduced to four principal types, viz., brown, green, blue, and grey. Yellow, which is frequently mixed with the preceding colours, is never sufficiently pure to constitute a distinct type. I may say the same of red, which always forms a certain part of the colouring matter of brown eyes. The reddish (roux), composed of red and yellow, does not seem to me either to deserve or to form a series by itself; this colour is observed in the eye of cats and lions, but I have not seen it in those of men. All the reddish eyes which I have seen approached the brown, and converged towards the intermediate degree of the series of browns. I have then commenced by disposing, in a graduated series, the eyes which belonged clearly to one of the four principal colours, brown, green, blue, or grey; and, placing the deepest of each series in the column of very dark eyes, and the lightest in the column of very light eyes, I have chosen among the other terms of the series the intermediate shades to fill up the intermediate columns. In this way, each vertical column shows types of colour different in kind, but nearly equivalent in shade, and each horizontal line includes types of colour similar in kind, but very different in shade. "The twenty types being thus distributed and numbered, it is easy to characterise by one or two numbers each eye of which the fundamental colour is decidedly brown, green, blue, or grey. When the shade corresponds exactly with one of the types represented, it will be marked with the number of that type. Thus, No. 2 refers to a dark brown eye; No. 8 to a medium green, &c. When the shade is included between two neighbouring types, it is represented by the two numbers separated by a hyphen. Thus, 3-4 would be a brown between the intermediate and light shades." This valuable system of classification, on which M. Broca has expended so much time and care, is likely to prove of the utmost use to the cause of Anthropological science, and we understand will be employed at an early date by the Anthropological Society of London. At the séance of December 3, an important paper by M. Boudin upon the subject of Consanguinity was read, in reply to that by M. Dally, which has already appeared in our columns; but as we may possibly soon publish this in extenso, we pass it over for the present. At the same meeting Dr. Armand read a continuation of his paper, read in 1862, upon the varieties of races observed in the various campaigns of the French army from 1843 to 1862, treating in this portion of the Chinese and Indo-Chinese. We gather from this paper the following interesting particulars relative to the Chinese, which appear to have been collected in the year 1860. The Chinese are generally short; the form of the head holds a medium place between the Northern European and the negro, the forehead and the face retreating a little more than in the European, but less than in the negro. The head is conical, the face triangular, the colour yellowish, the upper lip overhangs the lower, the root of the nose is very wide, the nose is flat with wide nostrils, the eyes are oblique and far apart, the eyebrows black and elevated, they have but little beard, and the hair is black, smooth and shining. The lower classes in China, who are accustomed to much exercise, are the best made and the most vigorous. The increase of population in China is immense, the civil servants, military and sailors, being obliged to marry, and all classes marrying at an early age. The Chinese prefer their women of slight figure, but the contrary holds good of the men, it being considered the proper thing for the male sex to attain aldermanic proportions. The women are entirely dependent on their male relatives, the daughter being under the government of her father; the wife, of her husband; the widow, of her son. They are taught to paint and to embroider upon silk. A large number cultivate music and letters, and they are all generally instructed in |