William Frédéric Edwards

[11] His work led to the book De l'influence des agens physiques sur la vie (1824) (English translation by Thomas Hodgkin).

Edwards was following a direction in Lavoisier's research on "animal chemistry", and addressing questions raised in Magendie's journal.

[15] As related by Edwards, he had been convinced of such a permanence since the early 1820s, when on a visit to London he was discussing the works of James Cowles Prichard with Hodgkin and Robert Knox.

[17] He followed on from the studies of Johann Kaspar Lavater and Franz Joseph Gall in physiognomy,[18] and pioneered the concept of race as determined by the shape of the face and head.

[24] Edwards came to theorise broadly about human diversity, influenced by polygenism,[8] and argued in favour of fixed types and characters attached to populations.

[28] Edwards followed up his work correlating physiological characteristics with races, and other interests, by the foundation in 1839 of the Société Ethnologique de Paris, with a broader programme including also languages and traditions; its goal was to define human groups and identify their origins.

[29][30] When Paul Broca founded the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris in 1859, he drew on the definition Edwards had given of ethnology.