ABSTRACT
Classifications by language instead of physical characters turned science into politics, Topinard claimed, ‘and we know the evil it produced, the pretexts it provided and the blood it shed’. However, Topinard simultaneously claimed that races did exist as ‘constituent elements of present and past human agglomerations’. By measuring different physical characters and calculating averages, Topinard nevertheless did already formulate far-reaching conclusions about brachycephalic superiority in his Elements d’anthropologie generale. In contrast to the Belgian anthropologists, who tried to connect superior Walloons to superior Celts, Topinard still stressed the difference between ‘Celto-Slaves’ in the center and ‘Kimris’ in the north of France. Only in 1887, when Topinard was no longer the SAP general secretary and was replaced by Charles Letourneau, Jacques published a review of Topinard’s manual and evaluated the use of his ‘simple’ yet ‘seducing’ method of averages.
