Ethnology

(nol'o-je.) [Gr. ethnos, a nation, and logos, doctrine. That branch of science which treats of the varieties in the human race; their most marked physical, mental, and moral characteristics, when compared one with the other; their present geographical distribution on the globe; their history traced backwards, with the aid of written documents and natural or monumental remains, to the earliest attainable point; and finally, the languages of the various nations and tribes of mankind, whether still spoken or extinct, cla ified and compared, with the view, by their means, of determining the chief points of resemblance or di imilarity among the nations of the earth. [s. 343]