Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752 — 1840) was a distinguished German naturalist, physiologist, anatomist, and ethnologist. He is regarded as the founder of physical anthropologist and was a great advocate for religious liberty. He was born at Gotha, studied at Jena, and became professor at Göttingen, an office he filled for 60 years. Although is approach has since been greatly modified, his works gave a great impulse to scientific research in all directions. He made craniology a special study and classified modern human beings into five broad categories — Caucasian, Mongoloid, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American — chiefly on the basis of cranial measurements. His chief works were "Institutiones Physiologicæ," "Manual of Natural History," and "Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology".