n come from Astrolabe Bay, in New Guinea. With these Papuans
before them they discussed the question of the unity of the races,
and Von Maclay could see no difference between these Papuans and those
of Astrolabe Bay, while Meyer declared that the similarities between
them and the Negritos of the Philippines was most striking. He says:
"That was my standpoint then regarding the question, neither can I
relinquish it at present."

Although they defended the unity of the Negritos and the Papuans they
recognized that the Papuans were diversified and presented a variety
of types, but Meyer regards this not as pointing to a crossing
of different elements but as revealing simply the variability of
the race. He continues (p. 80): "As the external _habitus_ of the
Negritos must be declared as almost identical with that of the Papuans,
differences in form of the skull, the size of the body, and such like
have the less weight in opposition to the great uniformity, as strong
contrasts do not even come into play here, and if the Negritos do not
show such great amount of variation in their physical characters as
the Papuans--which, however, is by no means sufficiently attested--it
is no wonder in the case Of a people which has been driven back and
deprived of the opportunity of developing itself freely."

Thus it remains for future investigations to establish beyond doubt
the identity of the Papuans.

De Quatrefages divides all other Eastern pygmies into two
divisions--insular and continental--and no authors find fault with this
classification. Only in fixing the distribution of the Negritos do
the authorities differ. The islands admitted by everybody to contain
Negritos to-day may be eliminated from the discussion. These are
the Philippines and the Andamans. In the latter the name "Mincopies"
has been given to the little blacks, though how this name originated
no one seems to know. It is certain that the people do not apply the
name to themselves. Extensive study of the Andamans has been made by
Flower and Man.

The Moluccas and lesser Sunda Islands just west of New Guinea were
stated by De Quatrefages in 1887 (Les Pygmees) to be inhabited by
Negritos, although three years previously, as recorded in Hommes
Fossiles, 1884, he had doubted their existence there. He gave no
authority, and assigned no reason in his later work for this change
of opinion. Meyer thinks this sufficient reason why one should not
take De Quatrefages too se