In this sense it found admission into most European languages where it gradually was called upon for the designation of other things and still is. The Gothic word, reszza, really had only the meaning of rift or line. But if one examines thoroughly the countless gradations of these three races one reaches a point at last where one cannot say with certainty where one race leaves off and the other begins. If a white North European is set beside a Negro and a typical Mongolian the difference is clear to any layman. So that as respectable a researcher as Luschan could with justice assert that it is just as impossible to determine the number of the existing races of men as of the existing languages, since one can no more easily distinguish between a race and a variety than between a language and a socalled dialect. Till at length Haeckel was talking of twelve, Morton of twentytwo, and Crawford of sixty racesa number which was to be doubled a little later. For a long time we were content with the four races of Linnaeus then Blumenbach produced a fifth and Buffon a sixth Peschel followed at once with a seventh and Agassiz with an eighth. To all these difficulties must be added the fact that we are not at all clear about the concept of "race," as is seen from the arbitrary way men have played about with the classification of existing races.
Darwin maintained this point of view when he said: "All human races are so immensely closer to one another than to any ape that I am inclined to view them as: descending from a single form." What has caused prominent men o f science to adhere to the unity of the human species is principally the structure of the human skeleton, which determines the whole bodily formation, and which among all races shows an astonishing similarity of structure. Most researchers today still maintain the standpoint of monogenesis and are of the opinion that mankind goes back to a single original source and that race distinctions appeared only later through change of environment. In other words, whether the genus Man sprang from a single stem and the differences of race were subsequently caused by migrations or changes in the external conditions of life, or whether difference of race was due to descent from different stems from the very beginning. The question also remains unanswered whether the appearance of mankind was confined to a definite region or occurred in various parts of the earth approximately at the same time. Decided differences of opinion among the most noted representatives of biological science have again been brought sharply to the front during recent years by the results of the CameronCable expeditions in South Africa and the Roy Chapman Andrews American expedition in Outer Mongolia. We are also completely in the dark concerning man's original home. However, the opinion is lately gaining ground that man's past can be traced back to the Tertiary Period. It was some time before they were willing to place the first appearance of man on earth as far back as the Glacial Epoch. Scientific authorities are not agreed in their opinions as to the age of the human race. The latter undertaking is extremely risky, inasmuch as we are quite uncertain not only of the origin of races, but of the origin of men in general, and have to rely solely upon hypotheses, not knowing how far they correspond to reality, or fail to do so.
From the very beginning we must make here a clear distinction between purely scientific investigations concerning the origin of races and their special characteristics, and the socalled "race theories" whose advocates have ventured to judge the mental, moral and cultural qualities of particular human groups from the real or imaginary physical characteristics of a race. We are here speaking of ''Community of blood" and of the alleged influence of race on the structure of the nation and on its spiritual and cultural creative endowment.
Men and ideas in the light of race theoryīesides the concepts already discussed concerning the character of the nation there is another which today is very clamorous and has gained many adherents, especially in Germany. The consequences of a delusive conception The "race soul." race characteristics of the German bearers of culture