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DIBRAIRIE POUR LÉS SCIENCES ET LES LANGUES ÉTRANGÈRES:
FRIEDRICH KLINCKSIECK,
11, rue de Lille, à Paris.
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Laugue et Littérature Auteurs classiques grecs
allemande, änglaise,
et latins, avec
italienne. : commentaires et traductions
Livres espagnole, portugaisOuvrages anciens et modennes
hollandais, danois, suédois e n languolatite
grek-moderne, turcs, etc.
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1848

MALAY
MONGOLIAN
MERICATE
CAUNAS
ETTATOP
LECTURES
ON
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY,
PHYSIOLOGY, ZOOLOGY,
ITV
S
1
AND
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
mos?
WILLIAM LAWRENCE, F.R.S.
SURGEON TO ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL. :)
WITH TWELVE NEW ENGRAVINGS.
Ninth Edition.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1848.
TO
I. F. BLUMENBACH,
*
14
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN, AULIC COUNSELLOR,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS, &c. &c.
*
Dear Sir,
The principal subject of the following pages has received
its most numerous and successful illustrations from your
sagacity, industry, and learning
Having freely availed myself of your labours, although
with that occasional dissent in matters of opinion, which
I doubt not will be more agreeable to the liberality of so
enlightened a philosopher, than invariable servile adoption,
I think it a mere act of justice to dedicate this work to
you. I do so with the greater pleasure, because it affords
me the opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the in-
struction and entertainment which I have derived from
your excellent writings; of recommending to imitation
the example you have set of combining together anato-
mical, physiological, and zoological pursuits, and advancing
them by reciprocal illustration; and of expressing indivi-
dually that high sense of your public services and merits,
which is felt generally by all the friends of science.
I remain,
DEAR SIR,
With the sincerest esteem and respect,
Your very obedient Servant,
W. LAWRENCE.
College of Physicians,
8th February, 1819
428387
CONTENTS
Page
DEDICATION
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES
.
.
.
i
.
ix
LECTURE I.
INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSE DELIVERED IN 1817.
Reply to the Charges of Mr. ABERNETHY;--Modern His-
tory and Progress of Comparative Anatomy
LECTURE II.
INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSE OF 1818.
The Cultivation of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy re-
commended as Branches of general Knowledge, and as
an interesting Department of Philosophy: their relation
to various Questions in general Philosophy exeni plified
in the Gradations of Organization, and the Doctrine of
final Causes. Examples of the Aid they are capable of
affording to Geology and the Physical History of the
Globe: Their Importance to Physiology, and consequently
to the Scientific Study of Medicine. Objects of Inquiry
in the Animal Kingdom, and Mode of Investigation;
Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology
27
LECTURE III.
On the Study of Physiology ;-the Aids and Illustrations
to be derived from other Sciences, as Natural Philosophy,
Mathematics, Chemistry. Study of the Physical Sciences
recommended. Peculiar Characters of the vital Phe-
nomena. Living Properties. Attempted Hypothetical
Explanation of them. Comparative Anatomy; its Ob-
jects; its Relations to Physiology exemplified :
46
CONTENTS.
LECTURE IV.
Page
Nature of Life; Methodical Arrangement of Living Beings;
Species, Varieties, Genera, Orders, &c. - Progressive
Simplification of Organization, and of Functions. Intel-
lectual Functions of the Brain, in the natural and dis-
ordered State, explained on the same Principles as the
offices of other Organs . . . . . . 64
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY or MAN
CHAPTER 1.
Nature and Objects of the Inquiry; and Mode of Investiga..
tion; the Subject hitherto neglected, and very erroneous
notions consequently prevalent. Sources of Information.
Anatomical Characters of the Monkey Tribe, and more
particularly of the Orang-outang and Chimpansé. Specific
Character of Man
. .
ib.
SECTION I.
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS, OR
Specific CHARACTERS OF MAN.
CHAPTER II.
The erect Attitude of Man, and consequent Peculiarities in
the Structure of the lower Limbs, Thorax, Spine, and
Pelvis . . . . . . . . . 92
CHAPTER III.
On the Upper Extremities ; Advantageous Construction of
kind four-handed : on the Natural Attitude and Gait of
Monkeys . . . . . . . . . 106
CHAPTER IV.
Comparison of the Human Head and Teeth to those of
Animals .
. . . . . . . 114
CHAPTER V.
Differences between Man and Animals in Stature, Propor-
tions, and some other Points . . . . . . 125
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAPTER VI.
Differences in the Structure of some internal Organs . . 130
Peculiarities in the animal Economy of the human Species ;
general Extension over the Globe; Man naturally omni-
vorous ; his long Infancy and slow Development: hence
suited to the social State . . . . . . 139
CHAPTER VII.
Faculties of the Mind; Speech; Diseases ; Recapitulation 156
SECTION II.
ON THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
:?
CHAPTER I.
Stacement of the Subject; Mode of Investigation; the
Question cannot be settled from the Jewish Scriptures;
nor from other historical Records. The Meaning of
Species and Variety in Zoology: Nature and Extent of
Variation. Breeding as a Criterion of Species. Crite-
rion of Analogy . . . . . . . . 165
CHAPTER II.
On the Colour of the human Species. Structure oi tie
Parts in which the Colour resides. Enumeration of the
various Tints. Colour and Denominations of the mixed
Breeds. Various Colours of Animals. Production of
Varieties. Spotted Individuals. Other Properties of
the Skin . .
. . . . . 134
CHAPTER III.
On the Hair, Beard, and Colour of the Iris
.
.
. 208
CHAPTER IV.
Differences of Features; Forms of the Skull; Teeth;
Attempted Explanations . . . . . . 220
Viü
CONTENTS,
Page
CHAPTER V.
Varieties in Figure, Proportions, and Strength. The Ears; .
Effects of Art upon them, and in other Parts of the
Body. The Mammæ. Organs of Generation. Fabulous
ieties . . . . . . . . 267
CHAPTER VI.
Difference of Stature. Origin and Transmission of Varie-
ties in Form
YO
CHAPTER VII.
Differences in the Animal Economy. Diseases. External
Senses. Language
314
CHAPTER VIII.
Differences in Moral and Intellectual Qualities
.
.324
CHAPTER IX.
On the Causes of the Varieties of the Human Species
. 343
CHAPTER X.
Division of the Human Species into Five Varieties.
CONCLUDING ADDRESS
. . . . .
. 376
. 392
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
The five first Figures, representing characteristic Portraits of
the principal Races or Varieties of the Human Species, are copied
from Engravings in the first Part of BLUMENBACH's Delinea-
tions of Objects in Natural History.
I. CAUCASIAN VARIETY. Jusuf Aguiah Efendi, a Turk, for-
merly Ambassador from the Porte at the Court of London.
II. MONGOLIAN VARIETY. Feodor Iwanowitsch, a Calmuck,
sent when young by the Empress of Russia to the Here-
ditary Princess of Baden, educated at Carlsruhe, and after-
wards a celebrated Engraver in Rome.
III. ETHIOPIAN VARIETY. J. J. E. Capitein, a Negro, who
received Holy Orders in Holland.
Mohawks, or Six Nations, whose Statement respecting
one of the physical Characters of his Countrymen is
quoted from the Philosophical Transactions.
V MALAY VARIETY. Omai, a Native of Ulietea, one of the
Friendly Islands, brought to England in 1773, and carried
back by Cook in his last Voyage.
VI. Skull of a Georgian Woman.
VII. Skull of a Calmuck.
VIII. Skull of a Negro; from a Specimen in the Collection of
Mr. ABERNETHY.
Skulls, according to the Norma verticalis of BLU-
MENBACH.
X. Skull of a Carib, from a Specimen in the Hunterian Collection.
XI. Skull of a Carib with the Forehead artificially flattened, from
a Specimen belonging to Mr. CLINE.
XII. Comparative View of the Skull in young Subjects of the
Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian Varieties.
** The first five Figures are now re-engraved, in a superior manner, on te
plate, and form the Frontispiece.
LECTURES
ON
PHYSIOLOGY, ZOOLOGY,
AND THE
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
LECTURE 1.
INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSE DELIVERED IN 1817.
Reply to the Charges of Mr. Abernethy; modern History and Progress of
comparative Anatomy.
GENTLEMEN!-I cannot presume to address you again in
the character of Professor to this College, without first publicly
clearing myself from a charge publicly made in this theatre;-
the charge of having perverted the honourable office, intrusted
to me by this Court, to the very unworthy design of propagating
opinions detrimental to society, and of endeavouring to enforce
them for the purpose of loosening those restraints, on which
the welfare of mankind depends.*
* Physiological Lectures, exhibiting a general view of Mr. Hunter's Physiology,
and of his Researches in coinparative Anatomy; delivered before the Royač College
of Surgeons, by J. Abernethy, F.R.S. See particularly Lect. 1, 2, 6, and 7: the
passages and pages are too numerous to be particularized. Had the author
been content with pronouncing his attack from the chair of the College, I
sliould have been satistied with defending myself in the same place. The pub-
lication of his charge has made it necessary for me to publish my reply.
The apparent contradiction between the allotted subject of these Physiolo-
gical Lectures, human anatomy; the professed topic.-Mr. Hunter's know-
ledge of comparative anatomy; and their actual contents, anatomical, physio-
al, ethical, controversial, abusive, &c. &c. ; is only to be reconciled by
a consideration of the real motives, which may be discovered without a very
deep research. That the few remarks on life, published in my Introduction
to comparative Analomy and Physiology, should have been the sole occasion,
and have furnished so much of the subject of these Lectures, was an honour
altogether unexpected and unwished on my part. If it should be thought that
I do not show a proper sense of so distinguished a compliment, by bestowing
in return so short a notice on the Physiological Lectures, more particularly
when nearly all the opinions and facts they contain would afford ample mat-
ter for discussion, iny apology must be want of room, and not being yet fully
convinced that the pretended Hunterian theory of life is the most important
subject that can be entertained by the human mind. This slowness of belief
must be pardoned in a modern sceptic.
Not to fatigue his audience by too much of one thing, however good, the
author judiciously interspersed his.views of the so called Hunterian doctrine,
and his series of anathemas against the designs, principles, and character of

IC
REPLY TO THE CHARGES
I feel obliged to call your attention to this subject;-not by
the probability of the accusation, and still less by the arguments
adduced in support of it;—but, because the character of the
accuser may with some supply the deficiency of proof ;-because
the silence of contempt, which the illiberality and weakness of the
charge would so well justify, might be construed by others into
an admission of guilt ;-and, if I could appear before you under
the possibility of such an admission, you might reasonably sup-
pose me indifferent to your approbation or blame, and therefore
unworthy of the office which I now hold.
I am not going to drag you again over the field of contro-
versy:-my opinions are published :--they were not brought
forward secretly; they have never shunned the light, and they
shall never be concealed nor compromised. Without this free-
dom of inquiry and speech, the duty of your professors would
be irksome and humiliating; they would be dishonoured in
their own eyes, and the estimation of the public. These privi-
leges, GENTLEMEN! shall never be surrendered by me: I will
not be set down nor cried down by any person, in any place, or
under any pretext. However flattering it may be to my vanity
to wear this gown, if it involves any sacrifice of independence,
the smallest dereliction of the right to examine freely the sub-
jects on which I address you, and to express fearlessly the
result of my investigations, I would strip it off instantly.
I willingly concede to every man, what I claim for myself ;-
the freest range of thought and expression; and am perfectly
indifferent whether the sentiments of others on speculative sub-
jects coincide with or differ from my own. Instead of wishing or
expecting that uniformity of opinion should be established, I
am convinced that it is neither practicable nor desirable; that
the audacious sceptics who refuse to accept the gracious present, with other
topics; and did not disdain to intermix the most elementary anatomical
truths. Thus we learn that the head is placed on the top of a column of bones:
called vertebre (p. 108); that the seven upper ribs are connected by gristles
to the breast-bone (121); that there are two bones of the fore-arm; and that
the ulna sends backward a projection ve name the elbow (126); that the wrist
is composed of eight little bores (126); &c. &c. &c. When we consider that
the audience, to whom these Lectures were delivered, comprised the venerable
elders of our profession, appuinted to guard the portals of the great edifice in
Lincoln's Inn Fields; the general body of London surgeons, who having been
admitted within the gates, must be deemed accomplished in all parts of ana-
tomical and surgical science; and the students of the several schools of medi-
cine; who having devoted one winter at least to anatomical pursuits, must be
presumed to possess the a b c of the science; and when we further reflect
that the author would undoubtedly be governed in his selection of subjects by
a deliberate view and sound estimate of the wants of his audience, we are na-
turally anxious to know for which of the three classes above mentioned these
" Early Lessons" in anatomy were designeri. Perhaps, however, like the
water in a medical prescription, they were only meant as an innocent vehicle
for the more active ingredients,
OF MR. ABERNETHY.
varieties of thought are as numerous, and as strongly marked,
and as irreducible to one standard as those of bodily form: and
that to quarrel with one, who thinks differently from ourselves,
would be no less unreasonable than to be angry with him for
having features unlike our own.
To fair argument and free discussion I shall never object,
even if they should completely destroy my own opinions; for
my object is truth, not victory. But when argument is aban-
doned, and its place supplied by an inquiry into motives, de-
signs, and tendencies, the case is altered. If vanquished in fair
discussion, I should have yielded quietly; but it cannot have
been expected that I would lie still, and be trampled on, lecture
after lecture; cut and mangled with every weapon fair and foul;
assailed with appeals to the passions and prejudices, to the fears
of the timid, the alarms of the ignorant and the bigoted : and
this, too, when nothing is easier than to destroy the ill-con-
structed fabric; to crumble its very fragments to dust, and
scatter them before the wind.
It is alleged that there is a party of modern sceptics, co-ope-
rating in the diffusion of these noxious opinions with a no less
terrible band of French physiologists, for the purpose of demo-
ralizing mankind ! Such is the general tenour of the accusation,
independently of the modifications, by which it is worked up
into separate counts, and of the rhetorical ornaments, by which
it was embellished. Had the statement been general, I should
not have appropriated it by entering on a defence ;-but have
left that service to any volunteer of the sceptical party, which
I know no more of, than I do of the man in the moon, and in
whose existence I believe just as much. The quotation of my
myself under the pretext of uncertainty; indeed, it particularized
and fixed the accusation, for which no other tangible object
could be discovered.
The vague and indefinite expressions of sceptical party, modern
sceptics, and other abusive terms, form too flimsy a veil to con-
ceal the real object of this fierce attack; while the pretended
concern for important truths and principles, and the loud impu-
tation of bad designs and evil tendencies, instead of decently
covering, rather expose the nakedness of the feelings in which
it originated.
Perhaps all the counts of this alarming indictment are not
intended to apply to all the persons thus unexpectedly dragged
B 2
REPLY TO THE CHARGES
IU
to the bar of public opinion ;-hut, as the prosecutor made no
distinction in the shades of guilt, I must plead to the whole
accusation ;-of propagating dangerous opinions,—and of doing
so in concert with the French physiologists :-the French, who
seem to be considered our natural enemies in science, as well
as in politics.
I plead not guilty; and enter on my defence with a confident
reliance on the candour and impartiality of the tribunal, before
whom the cause is brought ;-a tribunal too enlightened to con-
found the angry feelings and exaggerated expressions of con-
troversy with the calm deductions of reason ;—and well able to
appreciate this attempt at enlisting religion and morality on the
side of self-love; by which difference of opinion, at all times
but too irritating to the human mind, receives the double aggra-
vation, of real inability to persuade, and fancied right to con
demn.
Where, GENTLEMEN! shall we find proofs of this heavy
charge, -of this design so hostile to the very elements and
this treason against society? this compassing and imagining the
destruction of moral restraint, and the grounds of mutual con-
fidence? What support can you discover for such imputations
in the profession, pursuits, habits and character of those who
are accused? How will it promote their interests to endanger
the very frame of society? By what latitude and artifice of
construction, by what ingenuity of explanation, can the mate-
rials of such a charge be extracted from the discussion of an
abstract physiological question? from discourses first delivered
in this theatre to an assembly of the whole profession, and since
openly published to the whole world ? I need not remind you
that such an accusation is repelled by every appearance, every
probability, and every presumption; and that in opposition
to these primâ facie sources of distrust, it can only be esta-
blished by the clearest and most unequivocal evidence : not by
bold assertions and strained inferences—not by declamatory
common-places on morals—nor by all the pangs and complaints
of mortified self-love.
A party of modern sceptics !—A sceptic is one who doubts;
-and if this party includes those who doubt, or rather who
do not doubt at all,—about the electro-chemical doctrine of life,
I can have no objection to belong to so numerous and respect-
able a body. The assent of the mind to any proposition cannot
OF MR. ABERNETHY.
be forced; it must depend on the weight of evidence and argu-
ment. I cannot adopt this hypothesis until some proof or rea-
soning of a very different nature from any hitherto produced
shall be brought forwards. I declare most sincerely, that I
never met with even the shadow of a proof, that the contraction
of a muscle or the sensation of a nerve depended in any degree
on electrical principles; or that reflection, judgment, memory,
arise out of changes similar in their causes or order to those
tions inseparable from the animal organs;—first showing them-
selves when they are first developed ;-coming to perfection as
they are perfected ;-modified by their various affections :-de-
caying as they decay; and finally ceasing when they are
destroyed.
Examine the mind, the grand prerogative of man. Where
is the mind of the fetus? where that of the child just born? Do we
not see it actually built up before our eyes by the actions of the
five external senses, and of the gradually developed internal facul-
ties? Do we not trace it advancing by a slow progress through
infancy and childhood, to the perfect expansion of its faculties in
shedding of a little blood in apoplexy ;--decaying as the body
declines in old age; and finally reduced to an amount hardly
perceptible, when the body, worn out by the mere exercise of
the crgans, reaches by the simple operation of natural decay
that state of decrepitude most aptly termed second childhood ?
Where then shall we find proofs of the mind's independence
on the bodily structure?-of that mind, which, like the cor-
poreal frame, is infantile in the child, manly in the adult, sick
and debilitated in disease, frenzied or melancholy in the mad-
man, enfeebled in the decline of life, doting in decrepitude, and
annihilated by death?
Take away from the mind of man, or from that of any other
animal, the operations of the five external senses, and the func-
tions of the brain, and what will be left behind ?
That life then, or the assemblage of all the functions, is imme-
diately dependent on organization, appears to me, physiologi-
cally speaking, as clear as that the presence of the sun above
the horizon causes the light of day; and to suppose that we
could have light without that luminary, would not be more un-
reasonable than to conceive that life is independent of the animal
body, in which the vital phenomena are observed.
REPLY TO THE CHARGES
I say, physiologically speaking; and beg you to attend parti-
cularly to this qualification : because the theological doctrine of
the soul, and its separate existence, has nothing to do with this
physiological question, but rests on a species of proof altogether
different. These sublime dogmas could never have been brought
to light by the labours of the anatomist and physiologist. An
inimaterial and spiritual being could not have been discovered
aniid the blood and filth of the dissecting-room; and the very
idea of resortirg to this low and dirty source for a proof of so
exalted and refined a truth, is an illustration of what we daily
see, the powerful bias that professional habits and the exclusive
contemplation of a particular subject, give even to the strongest
minds,-an illustration of that esprit de metier, which led the
honest currier in the threatened city to recommend a fortifica-
tion of leather.
When we reflect that the immortality of the soul and a future
state of rewards and punishments were fully recognised in all
the religions of the ancient world, except the Jewish ;-and that
they are equally so in all those of more modern time; when
we consider, that this belief prevailed universally in the vast and
populous regions of the East, for ages and ages before the period
to which our remotest annals extend, and that it is firmly rooted
in countries and nations, on which the sun of science has never
yet shone, the demonstration that the anatomical and physiolo-
gical researches of the last half century have not the most remote
connexion with, or imaginable influence on, the proof of these
great truths will be completed beyond the possibility of doubt
or denial, in the estimation of every unprejudiced person. I do
not enlarge on this point, because it is too obvious, and because
divinity and morals, however excellent in their own time and
place, do not exactly suit the theatre, audience, or subject of
these Lectures.
The greatest of the ancient philosophers said that the surest
way of gaining admission into the temple of wisdom, was
through the portal of doubt-and he declared that he knew
only one thing his own ignorance. Were Socrates to show
his head above ground just now, he must conclude, either that
he himself had completely mistaken the road to knowledge, or
that his successors had accomplished the journey, and had
penetrated into the sanctuary of the temple. For, in the modern
philosophy, doubting is proscribed as the source of all mischief;
and an overbearing dogmatism, even on the most abstruse and
OF MR. ABERNETHY.
difficult questions, is held forth as a wiser course than the
modest confession of ignorance.
that parental partiality, which cannot bear to hear of faults in
the object of its attachment. The mere doubt of an impartial
observer is offensive; and the discovery of anything like a ble-
mish in the darling is not only ascribed to an entire want of
discrimination and judgment, but resented as an injury. The
irritation rises higher, in proportion to the coolness of the
object which excites it; as Sir Anthony Absolute in the play,
while swelling with rage, and boiling over with abuse on the
persons around him, begins to damn them again with tenfold
energy because they cannot keep their tempers, because they
cannot be as cool as he is.
By a curious inconsistency in the human mind, difference of
opinion is more offensive and intolerable in proportion as the
subject is of a more refined nature, and less susceptible of direct
proof. Hence the rancorous intolerance excited by the minute
and almost evanescent shades of opinion that distinguish many
religious sects. The quarrels of the Homoousians and the Hoa
moiousians filled the Roman empire for a long series of years
with discord, faction, persecution, and civil war. Yet the point
at issue, actually comprised in the variation of a single diph.
thong, is so minute as to be “scarcely visible to the nicest
theological eye,”* and certainly, in reference to either faith or
practice, is not a jot more important than the controversy which
divided the mighty empire of Lilliput, respecting the right end
to break in eating an egg. "Tis a pity we cannot find some
convenient way of settling these important controversies; such
as occurred to the traveller, who met with a people divided into
two parties on the question whether they should walk into the
temple of their deity with the right or the left leg foremost. Each
side conceived the practice of the other to be impious; the tra-
veller recommended the obvious expedient, which in the heat
of their quarrel they had overlooked, of jumping in with both
legs together.
The peculiar virulence of controversy, in all cases in which
religion is supposed to be concerned, is so remarkable, as to have
become proverbial :-the odium theologicum is the most con-
centrated essence of animosity and rancour. Let us not then
• Gibbon.
REPLY TO THE CHARGES
open the fair garden of science to this ugly fiend; let not her
sweet cup be tainted by the most distant approach of his
venomous breath.
Is the cause of truth to be promoted by affixing injurious and
party names to those who differ from us in these points of nice
and curious speculation? who cannot pursue the same track
with ourselves through the airy regions of immaterial being, of
which the only utility seems to consist in affording occupation
to the organs of ideality and mysticism? Is not this kind of
abuse more likely, by moving the passions, to disturb the opera-
tion of the judgment.
resorted to by the fair sex, and in religious discussions; in both
cases, apparently, from a common cause-the weakness of the
other means of attack and defence. The priests of former times
used to rain a torrent of abusive epithets, as heretic, infidel,
atheist, and the Lord knows what, on all who had the audacity
to differ from them in opinion. This ecclesiastical artillery has
been so much used, as to have become in great measure unser-
viceable: it is now found more noisy than destructive; and the
general discovery of its harmlessness has assisted, with the pro-
gress of liberal ideas, to discountenance its employment in con-
troversy, as poisoned weapons and other unfair advantages have
been banished from honourable warfare. Sometimes however
it frightens and stuns, if it does not dangerously wound; and
thus it silences antagonists, who could not easily have been over-
come by weight of argument.
It would have been praise enough to any doctrine, that it should
explain the great mystery of life; that it should solve the enigma,
which has puzzled the ablest heads of all ages ;--but this subtile
and mobile vital fluid is brought forward with more ambitious
pretensions, and it is not only designed to show the nature and
operation of the cause, by which the vital phenomena are pro-
duced, but to add a new sanction to the great principles of mo-
rals and religion, and to eradicate all the selfish and bad pas-
sions of our nature. An obscure hypothesis, which few have
ever heard of, and fewer can comprehend, is to make us all good
and virtuous, to impose a restraint upon vice stronger than Bow-
street or the Old Bailey can apply; and in all probability to con-
vert the offices of Mr. Recorder and his assistant Mr. Ketch into
sinecures.*
• Let us suppose for a moment that the adoption of this hypothesis would
really have all the efficacy that is pretended, it would then be desirable that
OF MR. ABERNETHY.
What has been the effect of this great discovery on its author ?
What are the first fruits of this new ethical power? A series of
Quixotic attacks on conspirators and parties as purely imaginary
as the giants and castles encountered by the knight of La Mancha;
of unfounded charges and angry invective, undisguised and
glaring national partiality, unreasonable national antipathy, un-
merited and unprovoked abuse of the writers of a whole nation,
afford an overwhelming proof of its complete moral inefficacy.
These magnificent designs are interrupted by a conspiring
band of sceptics and French physiologists ;-by a nest of plotters
brought forth all at once on this green table, and threatening, in
the noise and alarm which preceded their discovery, as well as
in their utter insignificancy and harmlessness when discovered,
to eclipse even the green bag conspiracy of another place. The
foundations of morality undermined, and religion endangered
hypothesis of life! Thus the possessor of a specific endeavours
to frighten people by the most lively pictures of their danger;
that they may receive, with a higher opinion of its virtues and
importance, his pretended infallible remedy.
I shall not insult your understandings by formally proving
that this physiological doctrine never has afforded, and never
can afford, any support to religion or morals; and that the great
truths, so important to mankind, rest on a perfectly different,
and far more solid foundation. If they could be endangered at
all by the discussions, with which we amuse ourselves, it would
be by unsettling them from their natural and firm establishment
in the natural feelings and propensities, in the common sense,
in the mutual wants and relations of mankind, and erecting
them anew on the artificial and rotten foundation of these
unsubstantial speculations, or on the equally unsafe ground
of abstruse metaphysical researches.*
it should turn out to be true: but would that afford any proof of the hypo-
thesis? If, in a disputed question, you tell me that I shall have a large estate,
if I am convinced that you are in the right: undoubtedly I shall desire with
all my heart to find that you are right; but I cannot be convinced of it, unless
your arguments should be found satisfactory. In the same way, in tossing up
for heads and tails, if I am to receive a guinea provided tails turn up, and a
hundred if it should be heads, this difference does not at all increase the
chances of the latter event, however it may operate on my wishes.
* The profound, the virtuous, and fervently pious Pascal acknowledged,
what all sound theologians maintain, that the immortality of the soul, the
demonstrably proved by mere reason; and that revelation alone is capable of
dissipating the uncertainties, which perplex those who inquire too curiously
into the sources of these important principles. All will acknowledge that,
as no other remedy can be so perfect and satisfactory as this, no other can be
necessary, if we resort to this with firm faith. How many persons could be
tound, whose belief in a Deity rests on the chain of reasoning in Clark's
10
REPLY TO THE CHARGES
As to the charge itself, of bringing forward doctrines with any
design hostile to the principles or opinions, on which the welfare
of society depends; or with any other intention, except that of
displaying to you the impartial result of my own reflections and
researches ;-I reply in one word ;-that it is false. I beg you,
indeed, to observe, that I have only remarked on the opinions of
others; I have adduced none of my own. I profess an entire
ignorance of the nature of the vital properties, except in so far
as they are disclosed by experience; and find my knowledge
on this subject reduced to the simple result of observation, that
question, what opinions I would substitute in place of those to
which I object, I answer, none. Ignorance is preferable to
error: he is nearer to truth, who believes nothing, than he who
believes what is wrong.
And here I take the opportunity of protesting, in the strongest
terms,-in behalf of the interests of science and of that free
discussion, which is essential to its successful cultivation,
against the attempt to stifle impartial inquiry by an outcry of
pernicious tendency; and against perverting science and litera-
ture, which naturally tend to bring mankind acquainted with
each other, to the anti-social purposes of inflaming and pro-
longing national prejudice and animosity. Letters have been
called the tongue of the world; and science may be regarded in
the same light. They supply common objects of interest, in
which the selfish and unsocial feelings are not called into action,
and thus they promote new friendships among nations. Through
Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God; or in Kant's Einzig
Mogliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Dasein Gotles? How many
are there who have had perseverance enough to go through the chain of ar-
physical acuteness of Clark and Kant have been employed to little purpose
on such a subject, what are we to expect from this pretended Hunterian
theory of life?
The author of the Physiological Lectures entertains some peculiar views
concerning the evidence, on which we are to rely in our physical researches,
which probably furnish a clue to tbe peculiar results at which he has arrived.
He “confides more in the eye of reason than in that of sense; and would
rather form opinions from analogy, than from the imperfect evidence of sight."
P. 203, where the expression is employed in discussing a question of fact,
The same statement, in nearly the same words, occurs in several other places,
From a coin parison of these passages with each other, and with the leading
doctrines of these lectures, I consider their ineaning to be, that when the
evidence of the senses is at variance with preconceived notions, or the con-
structions, combinations, or other operations of the mental faculties, the
author rejects the former and adheres to the latter. As the author must be
the best judge of the relative value belonging to the evidence of his own
senses and that of his fancy, imagination, and other internal powers, it is
fair to presume that he has exercised a sound discretion in this very impor-
tint determination. It is however rather unreasonable for him to expect that
others should rely on the workings of his fancy in preference to the evidence
of their own senses,
OF MR. ABERNETHY.
11
them distant people become capable of conversing; and losing
by degrees the awkwardness of strangers, and the moroseness
of suspicion, they learn to know and understand each other.
Science, the partisan of no country, but the beneficent patroness
of all, has liberally opened a temple where all may meet. She
never inquires about the country or sect of those who seek
admission : she never allots a higher or a lower place from exag-
gerated national claims, or unfounded national antipathies. Her
influence on the mind, like that of the sun on the chilled earth,
has long been preparing it for higher cultivation, and further
improvement. The philosopher of one country shouid not see
an enemy in the philosopher of another : he should take his seat
in the temple of science, and ask not who sits beside him. The
savage notion of a natural enemy should be banished from this
sanctuary, where all, from whatever quarter, should be regarded
as of one great family; and being engaged in pursuits calculated
to increase the general sum of happiness, should never exercise
intolerance towards each other, nor assume that right of arraign-
ing the motives and designs of others, which belongs only to the
Being who can penetrate the recesses of the human heart; an
assumption which is so well reprobated by our great poet :
Let not this weak unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw;
And deal damoation round the land
On each I judge thy foe.
In the introductory lecture* of last year, I attempted to sketch
out to you the history of Comparative Anatomy; to select the
names of those who had been principally concerned in establish-
ing and advancing the science; and to assign to each his pro-
per share of praise. At the same time that I found it a pleasing
task to review the successive steps in the progress of so interest-
ing a science, and to award the just tribute of our gratitude to
so many useful labours, I thought it would be interesting and
profitable to you to know to whose talents and to whose exer-
tions zoology had been indebted.
The space allotted to this historical review having been ne-
cessarily short, the names of many were omitted ; and others
were noticed more briefly than the number, extent, and impor-
tance of their contributions to science would have deserved,
This was particularly the case with many illustrious foreigners,
towards some of whom I shall now make up for that neglect.
The temple of science has not been raised to its present com-
* See Introduction to comparative Anatomy and Physiology.
A
12
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
manding height, or decorated with its beautiful proportions and
embellishments, by the exertions of any one country. If we
obstinately shut our eyes to all that other nations have con-
tributed, we shall survey only a few columns of the majestic
fabric, and never rise to an adequate conception of the grandeur
and beauty of the whole. Our insular situation, by restricting
intercourse, has contributed to generate a contempt for foreigners,
and an unreasonable notion of our own importance, which is
often ludicrous; always to be regretted; and in many cases
strong enough to resist all the weapons of ridicule. We shoula
consider what we think of these national prejudices, when we
observe them in others; when we see the Turks summing up
all their contempt for their more polished neighbours, in the
short but expressive phrase of Christian dogs; and the Emperor
of China accepting presents from the King of England, because
it is a principle of the celestial empire to show indulgence and
condescension towards petty states.
Science requires an expanded mind, a view that embraces the
abusing all the rest of mankind, the philosopher should make
the world his country; and should trample beneath his feet those
prejudices, which the vulgar so fondly hug to their bosoms.
He should sweep away from his mind the dust and cobwebs of
all national partiality and enmity, which darken and distort the
perceptions, and fetter the operations of intellect. If the love
of science and liberal views are not sufficient to repress the
noisy obtrusion of national claims, considerations of policy may
furnish the motive. The country, which has really done the
most for science, will certainly be the last to assert its preten-
sions, and a readiness to allow the merits of others will be the
most powerful means, next to modesty and diffidence, of recom-
mending our own to attention. If we could come to the strange
resolution of attending only to what has been done by English-
men in comparative anatomy and zoology, we should have to
go back in the science fifty years or more ; in short, to a state
of comparative darkness. For such it must be deemed, if we
excluded the strong light which has been thrown on these sub-
jects from Italy, Germany, and France.
The only parallel to such a proceeding is that afforded by the
Caliph OMAR, in his sentence on the Alexandrian library. This
ignorant fanatic devoted to the flames the intellectual treasure,
accumulated by the taste, the learning, and the munificence of
many kings, observing, that the books, if they agreed with the
OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
13
Koran, were superfluous, and need not be preserved; if they
differed from it, impious, and ought to be destroyed.
If this extraordinary kind of exclusion were realized, what
would be the result? A great national idol must be set up, and
we should be compelled to bow down and worship it under
the penalty of being thrown into the burning fiery furnace of
offended national pride..
At the first institution of the French Royal Academy of
Sciences, towards the middle of the century before the last,
some of its members occupied themselves with the very useful
undertaking of observing and dissecting several animals, of de-
scribing and illustrating them by figures. The value of their
labours is sufficiently attested by their having been several times
republished in various forms, and translated into Latin, English,
and other languages. Being drawn entirely from observation,
their histories will ever possess the value inseparable from
faithful delineations of nature. They have described forty-seven
animals, and represented their external figure and internal struc-
ture, in ninety folio plates. As examples of their knowledge,
it will be sufficient to mention, that you will find in their work
an account of the cells in the camel's stomach, which hold the
water, a point of structure and economy so strikingly suited to
the parched and sandy regions of Asia and Africa, which these
animals inhabit. All communication and commerce across these
extensive wastes would be impossible, without a race of animals
possessing that power of bearing the privation of water, which
this structure confers. They describe the air-cells and the
gastric glands of birds ; and the curious mechanism of the mem-
brana nictitans or third eyelid. Of many animals we know little
more, to the present day, than what they have told us. .
When we consider that the Royal Academy of Sciences, to
whose members we owe these splendid and useful labours, was
founded by Louis XIV. and his minister COLBERT; when we
review the long list of illustrious names which adorn the annals
of that body, and bring together the almost numberless acces-
sions to every branch of science, which have been the fruit of
their exertions through the reign of their despotic founder, and
his no less despotic successors down to the present time; we are
reluctantly compelled to acknowledge that the encouragement
of this branch of human knowledge (the sciences) is not confined
to free forms of government, and that there is nothing peculiarly
hostile to their progress, even in the most despotic. Absolute
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
rulers indeed, so far from having any interest in shackling or
impeding scientific or literary inquiries,' have an obvious and
strong motive for aiding and promoting them. They afford a
safe and harmless employment to many active spirits, who
might otherwise take a fancy to look into politics and laws; to
investigate the source, form, duties, and proceedings of govern-
ments, and the rights of the governed. A wise despot will be
glad to see such dangerous topics exchanged for inquiries into
the history of a plant or animal, into the properties of a mineral
or the form of a fossil ; into the uses of a piece of old Roman
to its rightful owner in some heathen goddery. Shutting out
the human mind from some of its most interesting and impor-
tant excursions, he will open every other path as widely as possible.
When the French Academicians discontinued their researches
and publications, the opportunities of zoological inquiry, which
the royal menageries had afforded them, passed into the hands
of BUFFON and DAUBENTON, who employed them with equal
industry, and equal advantage to science. When the direction
of the Jardin des Plantes was confided to BUFFON, he formed
the two-fold project, commensurate in boldness and magnificence
with his own genius;-that of assembling select and well-ar-
ranged specimens of all natural productions, to exhibit to man-
kind the fertility and variety of nature ;-and the formation of a
more durable monument, on which he proposed to engrave the
history or annals of this admirable nature. The immensity of
the design, which he was well aware of, did not discourage him
from the attempt: it only excited him to extend his resources by
calling in other aid. His discernment discovered the very qua-
lities he wanted in the modest, patient, persevering, yet zealous
DAUBENTON, who was born at the same place with himself,
Montbar, in Burgundy, and with whom he had been acquainted
from infancy. Destined by his father for the church, DAUBEN-
TON went to Paris to study theology, but he applied in secret to
medicine, and particularly anatomy; and when his father's death
allowed him to pursue the bent of his own inclination, he adopted
the medical profession, and began to practise it in his native
place, when Buffon invited him to Paris, and procured for him
the situations of keeper and demonstrator of the cabinet of na.
tural history. Their association presented the singular spectacle
of two men with high yet different qualifications, uniting their
efforts without impairing their energy, and combining the lights
OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. .
they derived from various sources only to increase their inten-
sity, and to throw them with greater effect on the objects they
both wished to illuminate. In the great work, so honourable to
the country which gave it birth, containing the result of their
associated labours, the share contributed by DAUBENTON is the
internal and external description of one hundred and eighty-two:
animals, several of which had neither been observed nor described
before by naturalists. The useful facts accumulated by him in
the course of many years devoted to this undertaking, are pre-
sented in a form so unpretending, that they are overpowered
and thrown into the back-ground by the grand and imposing
general views, the beautiful particular descriptions, and the elo-
quence at once majestic and captivating, of the French Pliny.
So great were the care and accuracy of DAUBENTON, in re-
gistering the facts which he observed, that, in spite of their num-
ber, we can hardly detect an error. He admitted nothing, but
for which BUFFON had so marked a predilection; without even
drawing those general conclusions, which might have been most
naturally deduced from his observations. Here perhaps his re-
serve was excessive; and it is in this respect CAMPER observed
of him, that he did not know himself how many things he had
discovered.
The anatomical plates and descriptions of DAUBENTON are,
in many instances, the most valuable part of the work which
passes under the name of BurFON: and they will retain this
value, as the sterling coin bearing the stamp of nature ever
does; while the base metal of hypothesis and speculation, de-
tected by a little wearing, is soon consigned to contempt and
oblivion. DAUBENTON therefore, although the author of no
work published in his own name (except some papers in the Me-
moirs of the French Academy of Sciences), will ever be regarded
as one of the first in that list of illustrious moderns, who have
prosecuted the study of zoology with enlarged views and on
proper principles.
CAMPER and PALLAS were cotemporary with DAUBENTON.
Animated with the true feeling for nature, they devoted them-
selves to her study with that enthusiasm which characterizes
genius. The zoologists of Europe have assigned to them, with
one accord, the highest rank in the temple of science; and point
them out with one consent as belonging to that small class, who
have contributed signally to extend the boundaries of natural
16
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
knowledge. Where will any sceptical opponent of their claims
find justification of his dissent from the public voice so strongiy
expressed in their favour? Let him seek it in their works, and
his doubts will soon be at an end.
Although CAMPER occupied at different times the chairs of
philosophy, anatomy, surgery, and medicine at Franeker, Am-
sterdam, and Groningen ;-although he filled various civil
situations, and wrote on many subjects in anatomy, midwifery,
surgery, medicine, and the fine arts, he found leisure for his
favourite pursuits. He collected a very valuable museum in
comparative anatomy, made numerous dissections of rare and
but expressive style, in which he has given us the admirable
engravings of the arm and pelvis. The air-cells in the bones of
birds, their communications and uses, the organ of hearing in
fishes and whales, the anatomy of the orang-outang, the ele-
phant, the rein-deer, and the Surinam toad, the organs of the
voice in monkeys, the head of the two-horned rhinoceros, and
fossil osteology, are some of the subjects which he has success-
fully illustrated.*
No man entered the path of zoology with greater ardour, or
SIMON PALLAS, the son of a surgeon of Berlin. His whole
life indeed was only a succession of labours devoted to the ex-
tension of natural knowledge. In passing over the wide field
of zoology, the student will see his name in all quarters; and
every where as the index of some important discovery. Should
he wish to survey any part of the territory more minutely,
PALLAS will be his safest guide. He published eighteen sepa-
rate works, several of them bulky, and in many volumes; and
he contributed fifty-five papers to various learned societies.
When the value of writings is so universally recognised, as in
the case of a HALLER and a PALLAS, their numerical amount
is a measure of the obligations under which science lies to their
authors. He acquired very rapidly the learned, and the modern
languages, and studied natural history, anatomy, physiology,
and the other branches of the medical profession, under the
for zoology was strongly marked at the age of fifteen, when he
* His various works are enumerated in the Notice de la Vie et des Ecrits de
P. Campcr, prefixed to the womes, tom.i.
+ A short account of the life of Pallas has been published by his friend
Rudolphi, in his Bcylrage zur Anthropologie und allgemeinen Naturgeschichte,
8vo. Berlin, 1812. It contains a complete catalogue of his numerous writings.
OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
17
sketched out an arrangement of birds on his own notions, and
made observations on the larvæ of the lepidoptera, particularly
with the view of determining whether they possess the sense of
hearing, which he settled in the affirmative. His Inaugural
Thesis, de Infestis viventibus intra viventia (that is, on animals
which live in the bodies of others), published in 1761, when he
was nineteen years of age, is still read with information and
pleasure ; although the important subject, on which it treats,
has received so much additional light from the researches of
subsequent naturalists. At the time of its appearance, this
production of the young PALLAS was much the best book for
the information it contained, and the views it disclosed. He
proves in it from his own investigations, the vitality of the
hydatid; and demonstrates the structure of the head of the
tapeworm : he also shows the general objections to the Linnæan
class vermes. For the purpose of prosecuting his favourite
pursuits of zoology and comparative anatomy, he visited various
parts of the continent, and England; employing himself par-
ticularly on the coasts in investigating the structure and habits
of marine animals, many of which he has described. His Elen-
chus Zoophytorum, a work both copious and profound, his Mis-
cellanea Zoologica and Spicilegia Zoologie, most rich repositories
of information on various departments of our science, were pub-
lished within a few years after his Inaugural Thesis. These
valuable works fully justify the eulogium of the judicious and
impartial HALLER, who pronounces their author “one of the
chief founders of comparative anatomy.”
Zoology had hitherto been to PALLAS a kind of passion
rather than an ordinary pursuit;—he followed the impulse of
his ardent feeling for nature, without looking to ulterior objects.
His zeal, talents, and information could not fail to attract atten-
tion; and they pointed him out to the great CATHARINE, who
seemed to feel for science a kind of manly love, and who pro-
moted it like an empress, as a proper person for her truly grand
design of exploring the vast regions that owned her sway, of
describing the countries, their productions and inhabitants.
His histories of these travels abound with information on all
points; I may particularly mention, in reference to our present
subject, his very interesting descriptions of the various native
tribes, scattered over the inmense regions of Asiatic Russia,
and previously very imperfectly known, and his copious details
in zoology.
18
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
The fatigues of these travels impaired a constitution never
very robust, and a subsequent less extensive excursion in the
southern regions of the Russian empire weakened it still further.
Yet he afterwards published his Nova Species Quadrupedum e
Glirium Ordine, the best monography we possess in the class
mammalia, and distinguished by characters, which few natu-
ralists have been able to impress on their writings. He not
only accurately describes the animals, and their anatomy, but
details their habits, and in many cases adds valuable physiolo-
gical information on their temperature.
After living some years in the Crimea, on estates given him
by the Empress, he returned towards the close of his life to
Berlin; where, for some months before the event, he was admo-
nished by pain and increasing weakness of his approaching end
Like many professors of our art, he obstinately refused to take
physic; exhibiting that want of faith, which, whether or not it
diminishes the chance of salvation, certainly amuses the pro-
fane. He died as he lived, engaged in zoological pursuits; for
his last occupation was that of arranging papers, and giving
directions for a grand work he had been long preparing on the
animals of the Russian empire; destined to illustrate their
structure and functions, as well as natural history. This,* or at
least some portion of it, is printed, but I believe not yet published.
Perhaps it is not necessary to insist on the merits of HALLER
in comparative anatomy, before an audience undoubtedly fami-
liar with the works, and therefore fully able to appreciate the
greatest ornament of our profession. I must however observe,
that he saw the subject in its just light: he perceived clearly
that the physiology of an organ could not be complete until its
structure had been examined in every class of animals, until all
its modifications and their effects had been noted. Hence each
section of his immortal work contains a collection of all the
facts then known respecting the structure of animals, as well
as of man.
At this favourable era, when the spirit of inquiry was
awakened, and active minds in all parts of Europe were engaged
in zoological and physiological investigations, Mr. Hunter com-
menced his career. He enjoyed the great advantage of singu-
lar importance to an uneducated and unlearned man, of being
initiated in these pursuits by his brother, the most accomplished
* Animalia Imperii Rossici. Rudolphi informs us, in his Life of Pallas,
that he had seen the text of the first volume, and part of the second; and gives
some account of the object and contents of the work. Beytrage, s. 55, u
OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
19
and learned anatomist, and then the most acute physiologist of
this or any other country. From Dr. WM. HUNTER, who first
taught him, and from the numerous able men brought up in the
same school, Mr. HUNTER learned in the shortest way whatever
could be derived from books, and became acquainted with the
labours and discoveries of all other countries.* Thus his genius
was excited and invigorated, without being deadened by the toil
of study; refreshed by these supplies, it became capable of
higher and stronger flights, and soared to an elevation, which we
cannot estimate justly without taking into consideration the
point of departure. Yet he never forgot that the physiologist
is the minister and interpreter of nature: and however little con-
versant he may have been with human works, no man ever
consulted with a more attentive and scrutinizing eye the book
of nature, which always instructs, and never deceives us. His
museum will teach us how he endeavoured to learn the struc-
show how he inquired into the actions of living beings. Such
were the means in his opinion best calculated to unfold the
nature of life; the characters of which he has drawn, not with
the wavering outline, and undefined forms of speculation, nor
in the gaudy and delusive tints of hypothesis ; but with the firm
touch, that real observation alone could give, and in the sober
colouring of that nature, with which he was so well acquainted.
He seldom ventured into the regions of speculation, and the
fruits of his excursions, when he did thus indulge himself, are
not calculated to make us regret they were so few. They bear
* The unrivalled opportunities of education and information enjoyed by
Mr. Hunter are very properly stated by the author of the Physiological Lec-
tures, p. 8. He surprises us afterwards by comparing him to Ferguson the
astronomer, who became acquainted with the phenomena of the heavenly
bodies, and constructed charts and instruments, while a shepherd's boy. In
original instruction, in acquaintance with the most improved state of science,
and with the labours of those by whom it had been thus advanced, the two
individuals exhibited a complete contrast instead of resemblance. The repre-
sentation that Mr. Hunter was the first in this, or in any other country, who
studied comparative anatomy and physiology extensively, in order to perfect

seems to me as unfortunate, as the comparison of Hunterto Ferguson.
Without mentioning Galen, whose labours, although he lived so many cen-
turies ayo, ought not to be forgotten ; without enumerating the long list of
illustrious men, who devoted themselves with so much zeal and success to
comparative anatomy and physiology in the 17th century, whose names are
connected with all the leadiny discoveries in those sciences, and whose
works, occupying the sixth book of Haller's Bibliotheca Analomica, under
the title of " Animalium Incisiones," contain many of the facts published as
new by the moderns, the name of Harvey immediately suggests itself, as
sufficient to refute this assertion. The researches of this great man on the
circulation and generation, show that he was fully aware what assistance
mighi be derived from the dissection and observation of animals in illustrating
the structure and functions of man, and that he knew well how to avai.
himself of it. See Introduction to comparative Anatomy and Physiology,
P. 41, et seq.
O 2
20
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
indeed the marks of the common weakness of our nature, and
remind us of the observation applied to the theological writings
of Sir ISAAC NEWTON, that they afford to the rest of mankind
a consolation and recompense for the superiority he displayed
over them in other respects. I forbear any further disquisition
of his merits, because they have already been sufficiently
explained to you this year; and particularly in reference to our
present subject of comparative anatomy; because too, the fre-
quent repetition of the theme might lead you to entertain those
doubts and suspicions, which uncommon earnestness and rei-
terated recurrence often suggest, when they do not arise
naturally out of the subject.
Comparative anatomy is still pursued with great zeal in Ger-
many, where literature and science are resuming that activity,
which had experienced a short interruption from war; the
favourite, but costly and destructive game of princes, and
indeed of people
The structure, economy, and scientific classification of intes-
tinal worms have been illustrated by several German naturalists,
as PALLAS, Bloch, GOEZA, and WERNER, whom I have
already mentioned to you. The same subject has been again
surveyed in all its parts, and has received many new illustra-
tions from Professor RUDOLPHI of Berlin; whose Entozoorum
Historia, or History of internal Worms, besides much original
matter, contains a complete collection of all that has been done
on the subject, and an arrangement of the genera and species,
which is now universally followed; it is indeed deservedly con-
sidered the first authority on this subject.
TILESIUS, a German naturalist, who accompanied a late
Russian voyager round the world, has delineated numerous
animals, particularly of the marine kinds, in the atlas of Krus-
ENSTERN's Voyage.*
Dr. Spix, a Bavarian, has published a folio work t on the
comparative osteology of the head, containing numerous plates,
which are a good specimen of the new art of lithography or
stone engraving.
Professor TIEDEMANN of Landshut gained a prize offered by
the French Institute for the best account of the organs of circu.
lation in the echinodermata, and has just published his essay I
* Reise um die Welt; Petersburgh.
+ Cephalogenesis, sive Capitis ossei Structura; Münich.
6 Anatomie der Rohren-Holothurie, des Pomeranz-farbenen See-sterns, und
des steinernen See-igels; folio, Landshut, 1816; with ten beautiful and ex-
pressive engravings.
OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
21
in folio, with several fine engravings, representing the whole
anatomy of the holothuria, asterias, and echinus. This book,
probably the only copy in the country ;-and the work of Spix,
are in the library of the Medical and Chirurgical Society. Many
other publications in the various departments of zoology have
appeared in Germany in the course of the past year.
We may form some judgment of the taste for these pursuits,
which exists in other countries, from the fact that BLUMEN-
BACH's Manual of Natural History has gone through nine edi-
tions. It is indeed remarkable for its clear arrangement, and
for the immense quantity of interesting and valuable informa-
tion it contains condensed into a small compass. It is altoge-
ther the best short elementary book on natural history in any
language.
This great zoologist has not only contributed many new ob-
servations to the science, and enriched it with excellent ele-
mentary works, but he has collected a very extensive and
valuable museum for the illustration of comparative anatomy
and zoology. A similar collection has been made by SOEMMER-
RING at Munich.
Of the magnificent cabinet of natural history, belonging to
the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, report speaks very highly: it
seems to be unrivalled in the number, beauty, and arrangement
of the specimens of the animal kingdom. Of the part which
relates to comparative anatomy I have not met with any detailed
account, except that the osteological department is peculiarly
rich.
I have great pleasure in hearing that a zoological collection
has been begun at the British Museum, because without such
aid, the study of the science must be prosecuted under great dif-
ficulties, and must necessarily languish. This department is
under the direction of Dr. LEACH, whose zeal, abilities, and
scientific knowledge are a sufficient assurance to us that nothing
will be omitted, which the zealous devotion of an individual
can accomplish.
In the unrivalled library of Sir Joseph BANKS, and in the
more uncommon liberality with which it is opened to all who
are engaged in scientific pursuits, the naturalists of this country
enjoy an eminent advantage. The powerful and munificent
patronage of this public-spirited individual is freely bestowed
on all branches of science: it is not confined to the cold sanction
of a bare assent, but takes the form of active and warm assist.
· MODERN HISTORY, &c.
ance in all scientific undertakings that promise to promote
public utility. Zoology has been a favourite pursuit with him-
self: the tie of a common object united him closely to Mr
Hunter; and he has ever shown a disposition to promote the
views of this College respecting the museum, which entitles him
to the particular gratitude of its members; as his general cha-
racter and conduct do to the warmest esteem and respect of all
friends to science.
The zoologists of France still exhibit that activity and acute-
ness, by which the science has been so much benefited, and by
which it receives, every year, important acquisitions. CUVIEP.
has terminated his labours on the mollusca by the anatomy of
the cuttle-fish tribe, and has published together, in one volume,
with thirty-two beautifully engraved plates, containing a very
large number of figures from his own drawings, the whole of
his important researches on this department of the animal king-
dom. Those who are acquainted with this admirable work;
who have appreciated the immense extent and variety of the
researches on which it is founded, and the satisfactory clearness
ard accuracy both of all its details, and of the general conclu-
sions and arrangements founded on them, will be astonished to
hear that its author has executed a series of investigations equally
extensive on the vertebral animals, the vermes, the zoophytes,
on many insects and crustacea. He has not published them in
the same way; but the preparations are deposited in the cabinet
of comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, and will be
employed ultimately in that great work on comparative anatomy,
to which all the previous and apparently finished productions
of this philosophical and accomplished zoologist, are regarded
by himself merely as a kind of prelude; although any one out
of their great number would have raised its author to a distin-
guished rank in the scientific world.
This history and anatomy of the mollusca is not the only
claim, which CUVIER has to our gratitude within the past year.
His work on the animal kingdom, in four volumes octavo, ex-
hibits a methodical and philosophical view of the science of
zoology: it places before us a subject capable of engaging and
satisfying an inquiring mind ; not a dry and uninteresting detail
of names and forms, but the philosophical principles of zoolo.
gical arrangement, and the execution of those principles through
all their details. It establishes the divisions and subdivisions
of the living world through the whole of the vast scale, on the
or COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
23
double basis of external and internal structure. it enumerates all
the well-authenticated species, which are known with certainty
to belong to each subdivision, and enters into some details on
those kinds, which from their abundance in these climates, the
advantages we derive, or the injuries we suffer from them, from
singularities in their manners or economy, their extraordinary
forms, beauty, or size, become objects of particular interest. Of
the confidence which this work deserves as a representation of
facts, in contradistinction from compilations the fruit of labours in
the closet, we may form a judgment from this circumstance, that
with the exception of such animals, as by their minuteness elude
the researches of the anatomist, there are very few groupes of
the rank of sub-genera mentioned in the book, of which the
author cannot produce at least some considerable portion of the
organs. In each division and each species we are referred to.
the best sources of information; not by indiscriminate and
accumulated quotations, which only increase and perpetuate
confusion, but by the selection of those works and figures, in
which the character of originality belongs; in short, by weighing
and pot counting authorities. A very valuable catalogue of
zoological authors is subjoined.
That it bears marks of haste, and does not in all parts corres-
pond to what we expect from the most knowing and most learned
(which are by no means synonymous epithets) of modern zoolo-
gists, might well be expected when we consider the wide field it
embraces, the multifarious pursuits, and the important political
and civil duties of the author. Yet, it is not less valuable than
indispensable to every zoologist, as the most perfect delineation
of the actual state of the science, as the most authentic and
worthy of confidence in its details, and from the enlightened
thorities.
If any of my hearers have regarded zoology as an amusement
rather than a philosophical pursuit, as something calculated to
employ light minds, or occupy hours of leisure and relaxation,
I would recommend them to survey the distribution of animals
presented in this work They will find that the science, thus
treated, is not only capable of affording an ample source of agree-
able and interesting instruction and entertainment, but also,
that, in exhibiting a methodical arrangement of a most copious
and multifarious subject, it is a very useful exercise and disci-
pline of the mind. This advantage, of distributing and classing
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
& vast number of ideas, which belongs in a remarkable degree
to natural history, has not yet been so much insisted on as it
deserves. It exercises us in that important intellectual operation,
which may be called method, or orderly distribution; as the
exact sciences train the mind to habits of close attention and
strict reasoning. Natural history requires the most precise
method or arrangement; as geometry demands the most rigo-
rous reasoning. When this art (if it may be so called) is once
thoroughly acquired, it may be applied with great advantage to
other objects. All discussions that require a classification of
facts, all researches that are founded on an orderly distribution
of the subject, are conducted on the same principles; and young
men, who have turned to this science as a matter of amusement,
will be surprised to find how much a familiarity with its processes
will facilitate the unravelling all complicated subjects.
I do not enter into any details of the accessions, for which
science is indebted to this illustrious naturalist, this great com-
parative anatomist; because the limits of a lecture would be
insufficient. Neither do I mean to compare or contrast * his
One object of the Physiologicai Lectures was to contrast Mr. Hunter's
knowledge of comparative anatomy with that of Cuvier. The field of living
nature has been surveyed and cultivated by these two great men with very
different views and objects: by the former, for the elucidation of physiology:
by the latter, for establishing the laws of zoology. It would have been inte-
resting to show how the general course of proceeding, the mode of investiga-
tion, the selection of objects, and the result, have been modified by this
diversity of design, and to point out the differences which are traceable to
the original diversity of endowment and of education. Such a comparison
requires a mind free from the national affections and antipathies, in which the
author of the Lectures glories : it requires too, that an accurate parallel should
be drawu by the labours and discoveries of each, and that all their respective
writinys should be well known. In the Leclures, there is no comparative
statement of what these great inen have accomplished; and the author gives
us to understand, that of Cuvier's numerous important works he is acquainted
only with his Lectures on comparative Anatomy. Yet he does not abandon
the design, but addresses his audience as Gentlemen of the Jury, coming for-
wards as "a voluntary advocate in the cause of Hunter versus Cuvier
and others," p. 16. In this mockery of a legal proceeding, he has unfortu-
nately omitted every one of the cautions and regulations, which in the justly
venerated forms of English judicial proceedings are designed to secure im-
partial justice. Where is the enlightened judge indifferent to both parties!.
Where the impartial jury, any of whom may be challenged by the accused ?
Where the advocate of the opposite party? He soon gets sick of his trial ;
does not even state the grievance complained of clearly ; adduces not a par-
ticle of evidence ; but uniting in his own person the characters of advocate,
judye, and jury, and not hearing anything in behalf of the defendant, of
course pronounces a verdict for his own client. Who the others are, com-
bined in this charge with Cuvier, or what they have been guilty of, we are
not informed. This happy thought of a trial is again introduced, and accom-
panied with a compliment to British liberty (p. 334): it was a singular period
to select for such an eulogium,--for transplanting to the College of Surgeons
the appeals to national vanity, which the increasing good sense and taste of
the very galleries have nearly banished from the theatres.
Haviny disposed of Cuvier, the author makes very short work with Haller
Daubenton, Pallas, and Camper: thinking apparently, that all merit allowed
10 then is so much clear loss to the object of his idolatry.
Waving shown how erroneous the opinion is, that our science owes any

OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMYALT
25
.
merits with those of any other individual: because I do not
possess any gauge for the inind; I have no plummet for sound-
ing the depth of intellect; nor any coinmon measure by which
its relative amount can be deterrained, under the different varie-
ties of exertion. I should not be able to weigh genius against
acquirements, or to decide whether the quantity of discovery in
one were equal to its quality in another. I can only state my
own opinion; which is, that if it were necessary to point out any
one man, as the chief contributor to the present state of zoology
in general, and of comparative anatomy in particular, to desig-
nate any individual to whom the modern progress of these
sciences has been principally owing, I cannot doubt that the
naturalists of Europe would pronounce an unanimous verdict for
CUVIER.
Yet perhaps they would not like to come to a decision in such
a question, and would prefer returning a special statement, that
should satisfy the claims of all, without conferring an offensive
pre-eminence on any one. They might probably pronounce that
the French academicians, that REDI, VALISNIERI, SWAMMER-
DAM, LYONNET, REAUMUR, DAUBEN TON, and HALLER, had
cleared the ground, dug out and laid the foundation of the build-
and CUVIER, had raised the edifice ;—while innumerable other
artists, by finishing particular apartments, or execucing decora-
tions and embellishments, had signally contributed, not only to
the commodiousness and comfort, but to the general effect of
the whole.
These great men, though born in different countries, may be
considered to have been united as contributors to one common
end, the advancement of useful knowledge. In reviewing their
labours, let us keep our attention fixed on this object, and not
look aside at the national questions, which divide and disturb
mankind. We expect from science that it should strengthen
feelings of benevolence, and promote acts of charity;--not
encourage controversy, and inflame national rivalry:--that it
should draw more closely those bonds which unite men toge-
ther; and not add fresh power to the repulsive forces which
already separate them too widely.
great obligations to these individuals, and relying firinly on the ignorance of
his audience in respect to dates, he arrives easily at the conclusion, that
the great illumination, which comparative anatomy and physiology have of
late received on the Continent, has in a considerable degree resulted from
reflected light, originally enanating from materials which Mr. Hunter brought
together, and from his brilliant physiological discoveries." P. 61.
26
MODERN HISTORY, &c.
LAMARCK is republishing in an enlarged form, his Natural
History of the invertebral Animals; and has already completed
four volumes.
SAVIGNY has made some very interesting discoveries in the
same division of the animal kingdom; and has published them
under the modest title of Memoirs on invertebral Animals; of
which two portions have already appeared.
Mons. BLAINVILLE, who succeeds Cuvier in his lectures at
the Jardin des Plantes, in the course of many years silently and
steadily devoted under so able a teacher, to the study of natural
history and comparative anatomy, has gained a most extensive
stock of information on these subjects, and displays his thorough
acquaintance both with their principles and details in numerous
memoirs, chiefly contained in the Bulletin des Sciences, and
other French collections.
It is perhaps yet too soon to determine how these and similar
pursuits may be influenced by the recent political changes in
France. Hitherto, however, science has not partaken in the
triumph of legitimacy.
mised a natural history of the medusæ, to be illustrated by those
inimitable delineations which he brought back from their voyage
of discovery to the austral regions, has found himself unable to
complete this undertaking, and is gone with many others, to the
new world. If we cannot repress a sigh when we see men of
peaceful pursuits thus torn from their native soil, and driven
mankind, that such an asylum for the victims of power and op-
pression exists; that there is, not a spot, but a vast region of
the earth, lavishly endowed with nature's fairest gifts, and exhi-
biting at the same time the grand and animating spectacle of a
country sacred to civil liberty; where man may walk erect in
the conscious dignity of independence, that
“Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye,”
and enjoy full freedom of word and action, without the permis-
threaten to convert Europe into one great state prison. The
numerous people, whose happiness and tranquillity are so effec-
tualiy secured by the simple forms of a free government, are the
growth of yesterday-at the same rate of progress, they may
reach in our lives as gigantic a superiority over the worn-out
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY, &c. 27
despotisms of the old world, as the physical features of Ames
rica, her colossal mountains, her mighty rivers, her forests, and
her lakes, exhibit in comparison with those of Europe.
LECTURE II.
INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSE OF 1818.
The Cultivation of Zoology and comparative Anatomy recommended as Branches
of general Knowledge, and as an interesting Department of Philosophy ;-
Their Relation to various Questions in general Philosophy exemplified in the
Gradations of Organization, and the Doctrine of final Causes ;-Examples of
the Aid they are capable of rendering to Geology and the physical History
of the Globe: Their importance to Physiology, and consequently to the scientific
Study of Medicine ;-- Objects of Inquiry in the Animal Kingdom, and Mode of
Investigation ;—Anatomy ;-Physiology ;-Pathology.
GENTLEMEN !-Having the honour of appearing before you
for the third time, as professor of anatomy and surgery, I deem
it a proper opportunity to observe, that the comparative esti-
mate I originally formed of the exigencies of this office, and of
the means I could bring forward for the purpose of meeting
them, which would, at all times, have deterred me from pre-
senting myself as a candidate for such a trust, remains unaltered
by my subsequent experience : or rather, that it has been con-
firmed by the nearer contemplation of a subject so arduous and
ample, as to require the industrious devotion and undivided
of those deficiencies in knowledge, which the urgency of other
avocations leaves me no hope of filling up. In pursuing the
path which I have entered upon, I must, therefore, still rely on
that indulgent consideration which I know that you are dis-
posed to extend to all sincere efforts at promoting the grand
objects entertained by the Court of this College ;-I mean the
diffusion throughout our body, and particularly among its rising
members, of a taste for all the auxiliary pursuits which are
capable of lending to our profession, either essential aid or
graceful ornament; the cultivation of surgery as a science; and
the securing for its honourable practitioners that rank in society
and that public regard, which are the just meed of liberal pur-
suits directed to the attainment of useful public ends.
As the riches of our collection are more calculated for the
leisure and deliberate survey of a visit to the museum, than for
the distant and hasty exhibitions of this theatre, I shall preface
the demonstrative part of the lectures by some general dis-
28
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
courses, which will be devoted to illustrate the aim and utility
of zoology in general, and of comparative anatomy in particular;
their relations to physiology, and to the sciences more imme-
diately connected with our practical pursuits; and the general
principles, which are to be kept in view in cultivating these
branches of knowledge. If, in this course, I should enter on
topics, which have been already brought under your review this
season, my apology must be, that my arrangements were made
before my worthy colleague had begun his lectures, and that
amputation or dislocation of the parts in question would have
been troublesome, if not painful operations
His interesting disquisitions on various parts of comparative
anatomy were not felt by me in the light of invasion or encroach-
ment. The manor of living nature is so ample, that all may be
allowed to sport on it freely; the most jealous proprietor cannot
entertain any apprehension that the game will be exhausted, or
even perceptibly thinned : to introduce anything like the spirit
of game-laws into science, would, if possible, exceed the oppres-
sive cruelty and intolerable abuses of that iniquitous and exe-
crable code.
Having alluded to the course of lectures just finished, I should
ziot do justice to my own feelings, nor to the merits of my
esteemed coadjutor, * if I did not sincerely thank him for the
information I have received—if I did not state, that, in listening
to those luminous and eloquent discourses, I felt a satisfaction
in belonging to a profession, which could boast such an asso-
ciate, and express a wish that a series of lectures, so honourable
to the author and to the profession, should receive that diffusion
by the press, which must be both useful and gratifying to the
public.
I KNOW no branch of knowledge more interesting to mankind
in general, including all ages and descriptions, than the history
of living beings, or, as we commonly call it, the natural history
of animals; of which comparative anatomy is the very life and
essence. This pleasing subject occupies us at the very first
dawn of reason, amusing our earliest infancy; and supplies a
fund of solid instruction and rational entertainment to our riper
years, and more developed faculties. In its boundless extent
and variety are included matters within the comprehension of
the slenderest and least cultivated understanding; and others,
• Aut. Carlisle, Esq.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
29
to which the strongest minds and most enlarged science are not
more than adequate.
The resemblance, which animals bear to ourselves in frame
and actions, naturally leads us to ascribe to them our own feel
ings, to fancy that they are susceptible of our pleasures and
pains, actuated by our desires and aversions, and impelled by
the same motives or springs of action; and thus excites in the
mind, even of the youngest and most unlearned, a sympathetic
interest and a degree of curiosity, which are never felt in exa-
mining inorganic nature, or in contemplating its phenomena.
None of the exhibitions in a fair are more crowded by young
and old, the ignorant and the learned, than the collections of
foreign and curious animals; no books are more generally read,
than descriptions of the form, actions, habits, instincts, and
character of living creatures.
The knowledge of living nature, which is well worthy of cul-
tivation, as a subject of mere amusement, at once innocent and
rational, and therefore suited to all ages, presents other and
higher claims to our attention. The multiplied relations, which
animals bear to our own species; supplying our most urgent
wants, aiding our greatest undertakings, and giving full effect to
our faculties and exertions; and the important part they fill in
the creation, animating and enlivening every scene, and often
changing the very face of nature, can hardly escape the notice of
the most unreflecting, and can only be neglected by those, who
are contented to remain ignorant of the most striking pheno-
mena around them. I do not speak at present of the important
bearings, which zoology has on the science of human organiza.
tion and life, and consequently on the art of healing ; but comes
sider it merely as a branch of general knowledge.
What a multitude of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes afford
occupation, either directly or indirectly, to the many savage
tribes, who live almost entirely on the produce of the chase or
the fishery, or to the sportsman, who seeks in these pursuits
merely a healthy recreation! What an interest is felt in
observing and investigating the habits of these various beings,
in comparing and contrasting their diversified endowments; in
watching the force and activity of some, the address, the strata-
gems, and the cunning of others, the wonderful instincts of all,
and the curious relation between their habits and the respective
situations they occupy!
What a number of the inhabitants of the earth, air, and
30
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
waters, are sacrificed to furnish us with food! while from the
same source, we derive a still larger portion of our clothing.
The number of living creatures, whether beasts, birds, and
fishes, or even reptiles, worms, and insects, consumed for food
in the various regions of the earth, is prodigious. None, even the
most disgusting, as locusts, beetles, maggots, spiders, entirely
escape. When we add to these what are destroyed to supply
us with clothing, particularly with wool, silk, leather, fur, fea-
thers; with the means of procuring light, as oil, spermaceti, wax,
tallow; with various articles of medicine, as hartshorn, musk,
castor, Spanish flies; with the materials of numerous useful and
elegant arts, as cochineal, parchment, glue, isinglass, catgut,
bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, hair, bristles, whalebone, horn ;-
and what are killed for our sport and amusement, or through
abuse, wantonness, and cruelty; the catalogue will be of im-
mense length; and will amply justify Dr. SPURZHEIM in having
marked out so considerable a tract, in his map of the human
brain, for the abode of destructiveness, and its near neighbour
and close ally, combativeness to say nothing of that circum-
stance, which is almost peculiar to our species, viz. their killing
each other ;*ma practice so essentially characteristic of human
nature, that it prevails in every region and climate, in every
variety of man, and in every state of society, from the rudest
tribe of savages to the most highly civilized empire; except,
indeed, among the Quakers, and one or two equally inconsi-
derable sects, whose singular and narrow-minded refusal to
follow the way of the world in so innocent a particular, has been
treated with suitable scorn and ridicule by their more enlight-
ened fellow Christians.f
* Besides war, “the game," our poet calls it, “ which, were their subjects
wise, kings should not play at," but which, unluckily, subjects enjoy almost
as much as kings, I may refer to the buman sacrifices, which either have been
or are still practised in most parts of the world, and to cannibalism, which,
having been much doubted and questioned, is now clearly proved to be still
prevalent in many places.
+ In complimenting the Quakers for not having followed the varlike and
destructive example set before them by the rest of mankind. I ought not to
have conveyed my praise in the ironical form of blame, because irony is often
misunderstood, even where we may think such a mistake almost impossible.
as in the case of the good bishop, who declared himself highly pleased with
Gulliver's Travels, but added, that the book contained some things which he
had a difficulty in believing. To obviate the possibility of further misunder-
standing, I lay aside irony, and state most seriously and sincerely, that, whe-
ther I regard them as a religious sect, or as a body of citizens ;-whether I look
to their private or public conduct, I hold the Quakers in the highest respect.
As Christians they entertain no unintelligible articles of faith; ihey waste no
time in splitting the hairs of theological controversy; their singular and
honourable distinction is practical Christianity, evinced in blameless lives, in
renouncing all force and violence, in endeavouring to fulfil literally the
Gospel precepts of peace and goodwill, in active benevolence, in unremitted

AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
There are instances, in which whole tribes of human beings
depend, for the supply of all their wants, on one or two species
of animals. The Greenlander, and the Esquimaux of Labrador,
placed in a region of almost constant snow and ice, where intense
cold renders the soil incapable of producing any articles of human
sustenance, are fed, clothed, and lodged from the seal. They
pursue, indeed, the rein-deer, other land animals, and birds;
but seal-hunting is their grand occupation. The flesh and blood
of the seal are their food; the blubber or subcutaneous stratum
of fat, affords them the means of procuring light and heat; the
bones and teeth are converted into weapons, instruments, and
various ornaments; the skin not only supplies them with cloth-
ing, but with the coverings of their huts and canoes. The
stomach, intestines, and bladder, when dried, are turned to many
and various uses : in their nearly transparent dry state, they
supply the place of glass in the windows; they form bladders
for their harpoons, arrows, nets, &c.; when sewed together they
make under garments, curtains, &c.; and are employed in place
of linen on many occasions. Thus every part of the animal is
converted, by a kind of domestic anatomy, to useful purposes,
even to the tendons, which, when split and dried, form excellent
threads. To the pursuit of the seal, the canoes, instruments,
weapons, clothing, education, and whole manner of life of the
Greenlanders are adapted. As a plentiful supply of these animals
enables them to dispense with every thing else, and as without
these they could procure neither dwellings, clothes, nor food, it
naturally follows that the great aim of education is to make the
boys expert seal-hunters; and that dexterity in this pursuit is
the greatest praise that can be bestowed on the man.* The
Laplanders and the Tungooses of north-eastern Asia, are equally
indebted to the rein-deer ; the Tschutski, the north-west Ameri-
cans, the Aleutians, and other neighbouring islanders, to the
whale and walrus. The latter, as well as the Greenlanders, seem
to have anticipated modern anatomists in accurately distinguish-
ing the several anatomical textures, and ascertaining what
BICHAT calls their “propriétés de tissue,” or properties result-
personal as well as pecuniary co-operation in all measures calculated to dimi-
nish the amount of human misery and suffering, and to inprove the condition
of their fellow-creatures. These truly Christian merits would redeem much
heavier sins than an adherence to the plain and simple garb, and the uncere-
monious language of George Fox and William Penn.
. * See the interesting account of the Greenlanders in Crantz, Geschichte
oon Gronland; also Egede, Description of Greenland ; Lond. 1818; of the Es-
quimaux, in Ellis's Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 137, and following.
32
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
ing from organization, in order to convert the various parts to
the manifold purposes of their economical anatomy. They sur-
prise us by manufacturing thread from the carcass of the great
leviathan ; splitting the fibres of its cutaneous muscle (the panni-
culus carnosus) into lengths of a hundred feet or more ; and
preparing from it a double-threaded twine, which, in the united
requisites of fineness and strength, will bear comparison with any
productions of European industry.
The flocks and herds, which are reared for food, and the various
domesticated animals employed in agriculture, in carrying bur-
dens, for draft, and in numberless other ways, are so useful and
important, that their structure, economy, and diseases, have been
carefully studied; and these subjects have been found sufficient
to occupy a particular class of persons. Indeed, without the
dog, the horse, the sheep, the cow, the goat, the rein-deer, the
camel, and the lama, many extensive regions of the globe would
be uninhabitable; and others now covered with a numerous
population, would be reduced almost to the condition of deserts.
Comparative anatomy bears the same relation to the veterinary
art, that human anatomy and physiology do to medicine. The
peculiarities in the organic structure and functions of particular
genera or species lead to corresponding peculiarities in their
diseases and derangements. Hence, a rational treatment of the
disorders incidental to animals, presupposes a knowledge of the
generic and specific characters of internal organization. It seems
superfluous to adduce the digestion of the ruminant order, or
other analogous instances, in illustration of a truth so evident
in itself.
Many animals are known to us as objects of alarm and terror,
or of considerable though less serious annoyance. Some are
directly formidable by their strength and ferocity, as beasts of
prey; others by their noxious properties, as venomous reptiles
and insects. Some ravage our fields and gardens, destroying
the various vegetable productions; others attack our food and
clothing. Some even perforate the planks of the largest ships,
or the timbers of other submarine constructions.
A more extensive field is opened to the philosopher in the
structure and economy of animals ; in their analogies and differ-
ences; in the relation of their organization and functions to the
circumstances in whicli they are placed, and in the modifications
corresponding to the infinitely varied combinations of abode,
surrounding element, food, mode of growth, and reproduction,
&c. &c.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
33
• We see some sagacious and docile, capable of instruction,
exhibiting mental phenomena analogous to our own-the germs
or imperfect state of what, when more developed, is human in-
tellect :-others are stupid, ferocious, and untameable. Some
are mild, sociable, and gregarious; others wild, savage, and
solitary. Many surprise us by their curious instincts, as in pro-
viding for the abode, defence, or food of themselves or their
offspring ; by the unerring regularity with which each individual
of the species, unaided by experience or instruction, obeys, as it
were, the fixed law of destiny, in performing at stated periods
the longest journeys, as in the migration of birds and fishes, or
executes the most perfect and intricate constructions, exceeding
the utmost exertions even of human skill and wisdom.
Some have an acuteness of the external senses, particularly
sight, hearing, and smelling, to which we are strangers : in some
we are astonished by the force, in others by the celerity and
variety of motion.
Some live altogether on flesh, others on vegetable matters;
some eat incessantly, as our common graminivorous quadrupeds;
others are satisfied with a full meal once a day, as the beasts of
prey; and others, as certain reptiles, will eat only once in several
weeks, and can even support an abstinence of many months.
To many animals, the interruption of respiration for a minute
or two, is fatal; some can go without breathing for an hour,
for many hours, or for days; and others pass months together
without the exercise of this function, in a condition of inactivity
and torpor hardly distinguishable from death..
To many, a slight injury of some organ is fatal; some survive
the loss of the most important members, and even reproduce
them; some, when divided into two or more portions, have the
power of forming an entire individual from each fragment.
It is the business of the philosophical zoologist to observe
closely all the circumstances of these interesting phenomena, and
of many other analogous ones; to trace their connection with
the rest of the economy, and with the peculiar organization of
each animal ; to compare together all the diversities and modi-
fications; and thus to arrive, if possible, at the rational theory,
or just explication of their causes.
The gradations of organization, and the final purposes con-
templated by nature in the construction of her living machines --
two interesting and much-agitated subjects in the philosophy of
natural history,-receive their only clear illustration and incon.
D
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
trovertible evidence from comparative anatomy. Many naturalists
have pleased themselves with arranging the animal kingdom in
a successive series according to external forma ; and have fancied
it a peculiar mark of wisdom and beauty in the creation, that
there are no abrupt changes, no breaks in the arrangement, but
the most gradual and gentle transition from link to link through-
out the whole chain. These views will not bear the test of im-
partial scrutiny, which soon destroys the belief in such a chain
of beings, so far as the basis of external figure goes. On the
other hand, the pursuits of zootomy, in unfolding the internal
mechanism and its movements, display the most evident tran-
sitions and gradations of organization and economy. We see
classes and orders, as, for example, birds, and the testudines (the
turtle and tortoise kinds,) which, by their external configuration,
are quite insulated in the creation, connected in the most natural
manner with others of quite different form, and united to them
by the principle of internal resemblance.
The four component parts of the upper extremity; viz. the
shoulder, arm, fore-arm, and hand, can be clearly shown to exist
in the anterior extremities of all mammalia, however dissimilar
they may appear on a superficial inspection, and however widely
they may seem to deviate from the human structure. The wings.
of the bat, osteologically considered, are hands; the bony
stretchers of the cutaneous membrane being the digital phalanges
extremely elongated. The dolphin, porpoise, and all other
whales have a fin on each side, just behind the head, consisting
apparently of a single piece. But we find, under the integu-
ments of this fin-like member, all the bones of an anterior ex-
tremity, flattened indeed, and hardly susceptible of motion on
each other, but distinctly recognisable: there are a scapula,
humerus, bones of the fore-arm, carpus, metacarpus, and five
fingers. The fore-feet of the sea-otter, seal, walrus, and manati,
form the connecting links between the anterior extremities of
other mammalia, and the pectoral fins of the whale kind. The
bones are so covered and connected by integuments, as to con-
stitute a part adapted to swimming ; but these are much more
developed than in the latter animal, and have free motion on
each other. The bones of the wing of birds have a great and
unexpected resemblance to those of the fore-feet of the mam-
malia, and the fin-like anterior member of the penguin, appli-
cable only to swimming, contains within the integuments, the
same bones as the wings of other birds, which execute the very
different office of flight.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
35
The same point is illustrated by another kind of cases in com-
parative anatomy; viz. the existence of certain parts, generally
in an imperfect state, or, in the anatomical phrase, as rudi-
ments, in some animals, where the function does not exist, and
where the parts therefore are not employed. It seems as if a
certain model or original type, adapted to the intended functions,
had been fixed on as a pattern for the construction of nearly
allied and analogous beings;, and that this model had been ad-
hered to, even in those cases, where some particular func-
tion did not exist, and where consequently the corresponding
organ was in reality unnecessary. The additional pelvic bones,
which support the false belly or abdominal pouch of the mar-
supial animals, are found in the males, as well as in the females,
although the former have not the pouch. Several carnivorous
animals have clavicular bones, connected merely to the muscles,
and obviously incapable of serving, even in the smallest degree,
those purposes for which true clavicles are added to the skeleton.
The breasts and nipples of male animals are another example.
The marsupial bones and the milk-secreting apparatus of
female animals are appointments of organization manifestly
designed to fulfil certain ends, and accomplishing very essential
purposes in the economy. In the male sex they are neither
subservient to use nor ornament; and seem, to our imperfect
knowledge, to exemplify the prevalence, in animal organization,
of a mechanical principle, of the adherence to a certain original
type or model.
The olfactory nerves of the cetacea, in whom the blowing
holes occupy the place of the nose, afford another instance, the
more remarkable, as their existence has been generally denied,
even by the greatest authorities in comparative anatomy. They
consist in the porpoise of two white extremely slender filaments,
which, although visible to the naked eye, cannot be distinctly
recognised as nerves without a magnifying glass.*
No subject has been more warmly contested than the doc-
trine of final causes ; which, however, has suffered more from
the ill-judged efforts of its friends, than from the attacks of its
enemies. We can hardly conceive that any person, who did not
. * Treviranus, Biologie, b. v. p. 342, tab. 4.
Blainville and Jacobson had already asserted the existence
nerves in the cetacea in the Bulletin des Sciences, 1815, p. 195.
In the work quoted above, Treviranus describes a very singular deviation
from the ordinary arrangement, as occurring in the mole. A branch of the
superior maxillary nerve goes to the eye, and forms the retina, while the
optic nerves, about the size of hairs, are entirely unconnected with each other,
and cannot be traced to the eyes. Ibid. p. 341, tab. 3.
D 2
36
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
feel a difficulty in believing that a watch was formed for the pur-
pose of showing the hour, could seriously doubt that our
stomachs were expressly constructed for digestion, our eyes for
seeing, and the rest of our organs for the purposes which they
so admirably fulfil. But one must be very fondly attached to
final causes to persuade himself, as some have done, that the sea
is salt to preserve it from putrefying ; that the tides of the ocean
are designed to bring our vessels safely into port; that stones
are made to build houses with ; and silkworms created in China
to furnish the helles and beaux of Europe with satins. It would
be only one step farther to assert that sheep have been formed to
be sheared and slaughtered ; legs to wear boots, and the nose
for spectacles.
Nothing, indeed, can be more truly unsatisfactory than the
well-meant but worn-out complimentary effusions we are too
often doomed to encounter, which, instead of evincing the wis-
dom of the creation, show only the folly of their authors; or at
least their misconceptions and short-sighted views. The physico-
theologists seem to have considered it their duty to point out
the end and purpose contemplated by the Creator in every
natural arrangement: thus, they have sometimes fallen into the
laughable absurdity of expatiating on the wisdom of certain
provisions, which subsequent examination has proved not to
exist at all.
The foot of an hymenopterous insect was described as being
perforated in a certain part by minute holes ;-immediately a
sufficient use was discovered for this structure. It was described
as a no less elegant than wise provision for sifting the pollen of
plants, and thus applying the fine fecundating powder to the
female organs: and, from the supposed structure and use, the
creature received the name of sphex cribraria. Unluckily for
the compliment thus designed to nature, the part was afterwards
discovered not to be perforated.*
Others, again, have so firmly believed, not only the wisdom
of creation, but their own insight into it, that they have called
in question the existence of particular arrangements, because
they could not discern the purposes to which they are subser-
vient. Thus, when BLUMENBACH pointed out to CAMPER
that the tadpoles of the Surinam toad (rana pipa) have tails, t
this great anatomist was disposed at first to deem the specimen
* Blumenbach, Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte, Ir. theil, p. 40, note.
+ Abbildungen naturhistorischer Gegenstande; No. 36.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
37
a monstrosity; * because he could not comprehend for what
purpose these strange beings, so curijusly lodged in the dorsal
cells of their mother, should have the swimming tail of the
common tadpole.
A distinguished English naturalist has argued that the fossil
elephant bones must belong to some species still existing,
because, says he,“ Providence maintains and continues every
created species; and we have as much assurance, that no races
of animals will any more cease, while the earth remaineth, than
seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day
and night.” Unluckily for the credit of this gentleman's as-
sumed acquaintance with the designs and schemes of Providence,
we have the fullest evidence that many species and genera of
animals have been annihilated.
The philosophic naturalist, guided by comparative anatomy,
discovers at every step striking peculiarities in the economy of
animals, founded on corresponding arrangements of organiza-
tion. We must take refuge either in verbal quibbles, or in an
exaggerated and unreasonable scepticism, if we refuse to recog.
nise in this relation between peculiarity of structure and func-
tion those designs and adaptations of exalted power and
wisdom, in testimony of which all nature cries aloud through all
her works.
Many things are, indeed, at present inexplicable to us; thus,
we cannot conceive to what purpose the long, slender, and
almost circular canine teeth of the upper jaw of the babyroussa
are subservient; and the offices of many parts, even in the
human body, are still hidden from us. But the ends or final
purposes of the Creator will be placed in the strongest light by
selecting any animal of marked peculiarity in its economy, and
comparing together its structure and mode of life. Let a person,
who knows the natural history of the mole, attentively contem-
plate its skeleton : if he should still withhold his belief in final
purposes, he would probably coincide in opinion with a cele-
brated member of the French Academy of Sciences, who declared
that it was as absurd to suppose the eye intended for seeing, as
to imagine that stones were created for breaking heads.
I shall be contented with two other illustrations, which,
although different from each other, are analogous in their pur-
pose. The large cavities of birds, and the interior of their bones,
are filled with air ; thus they are rendered light and buoyant;
* Beytr. zur Naturg. p. 41, note.
38
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
capable of raising themselves into the higher regions of the
atmosphere, of sustaining themselves with little effort in this
rare medium, and of cleaving the skies with wonderful celerity.
HUMBOLDT saw the enormous vulture of the Andes, the majestic
Condor, dart suddenly from the bottom of the deepest valleys
to a considerable height above the summit of Chimboraco, where
the barometer must have been lower than ten inches.* He
frequently observed it soaring at an elevation six times higher
than that of the clouds in our atmosphere. This bird, which
reaches the measure of fourteen f feet with the wings extended ;
habitually prefers an elevation, at which the mercury of the
barometer sinks to about sixteen inches.
· The mammalia, which live entirely or principally in the sea,
as the whale kind, the walrus, the manati, and the seals, are
rendered buoyant in this dense fluid by a thick stratum of fat
laid over the whole body under the skin. From this, which is
called blubber, the whale and seal oil are extracted. The object
of this structure in lightening these huge creatures, and facili-
tating their motions, is obviously the same as that of the air-cells
in birds in relation to the element they inhabit.
A scientific acquaintance with the animal kingdom is not only
valuable in its immediate reference to zoology and physiology,
but it aids other sciences; affording lights, which are not merely
useful, but absolutely indispensable in examining and illustrating
other departments of natural knowledge. An exemplification
occurs in geology, or the science which treats of the physical
construction of our globe. Certain rocks and earthy strata con-
tain vast numbers of shells, exuviæ of zoophytes, bones and teeth
of large animals, besides other organic substances, in a fossil
state.
Considerable mountains and extensive districts are sometimes
composed entirely of such animal remains. It is the business
of the naturalist to compare these organic remains of a former
world with the corresponding objects in the present order of
things; to determine their resemblances or differences;—whether
they are of the same or of different species or genera; to com-
pare the productions of the different strata to each other, and to
distinguish those, which have belonged to fresh, from those of
u Recueil de Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie comparee. Essai sur
l'Histoire naturelle du Condor, p. 26, et suiv. pl. 8 et 9.
: + Molina, Storia naturale di Chili, cap. 4; s. 5. This measure is assigned
by Shaw to an individual described and figured by him ; Museum Leverianum
vil, pl. 1.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
39
salt water animals; and lastly, to ascertain whether the organic
fossils of each country are like the living animals of the same,
or of different and remote regions and climates. Such investiga-
tions require extensive and accurate information, an acquaintance
both with the great outlines and minute details of nature, and
belong therefore to an advanced stage of science. They have
been commenced with zeal and industry by some of the greatest
modern naturalists, and have led to highly interesting results.
The bones of large quadrupeds, found in such numbers in almost
all the countries of the old and new continent, have been disco-
vered to belong to species and even to genera entirely new to us.
One of these, an elephant, specifically distinguishable from that of
Asia and Africa, has been met with in most parts of Europe, in
countries and climates, where no animal of the kind has ever
been known in a living natural state, and in which the known
species, inhabitants of the torrid zone, would be speedily de-
stroyed. The fossil shells differ more or less from those of living
species. In many places several successions of fresh and salt
water strata are discovered, indicating successive revolutions in
the earth's surface, under the action of causes differing from each
other in their nature. The inferior layers, or the first in order:
of time, contain the remains most widely different from the
animals of the living creation ; and, as we advance to the surface,
there is a gradual approximation to our present species.
These exarninations have furnished almost the only accurate
data for any reasonable conclusions respecting the number,
nature, and progressive series of the changes which have affected
the earth's surface ;--of the preadamitic revolutions of the globe :
and they suggest matter for curious speculation respecting the
extinct races of animals, and the mode in which their place has
been supplied by the actual species of living beings. The writings
of Cuvier, BRONGNIART, and LAMARCK in France, and of
Mr. PARKINSON in this country, will give you the best informa-
tion on this new kind of antiquarian research, on those authentic
memorials of beings, whose living existence must be carried
beyond the reach of history and tradition, beyond even the fabu-
lous and heroic ages, and has been supposed, with considerable
probability, to be of older date than the formation of the human
race.
Another important branch of the physical history of the globe
belongs to zoology; I mean the nature, origin, and progress of
the banks, reefs, and rocks of coral, and even the islands, which
40
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
are perpetually arising and accumulating in the intertropical seas..
These vast masses of calcareous matter are aggregated by the siow
but incessant operations of countless millions of minute beings, sa
smalland so simply organized, that they occupy the lowest rank of.
animal existence, and indeed have been recognised only in late
times as falling within the boundaries of the animal kingdom.
Their works commence in the fathomless depths of the ocean;
they rise towards the surface, forming sunken rocks, dangerous,
and often fatal to navigators; they reach the level of the water,
and then extend in length and breadth. When we see that
banks are formed of miles in extent, that coasts are obstructed,
harbours choked, and even new islands formed, the mind is con-
founded by the contrast between the insignificance of the agents
and the magnitude of the result.
be disclosed as we proceed. More perhaps has been already
said than was necessary to convince an enlightened audience that
the living part of nature's works is highly worthy of attention,
and that this study, connected as it is with so mnany useful, in-
teresting, and important departments of knowledge, must be
deemed an essential branch of liberal education.
To these considerations, which recommend zoology, not only
as a highly interesting, but essential branch of general know-
ledge, many others may be added, enforcing the cultivation of
comparative anatomy and physiology, more particularly on those
who devote themselves to the improvement of medicine. The
basis of our physiological principles is rendered broader and
deeper, in proportion as our survey of living beings is more ex-
tensive. The varieties of organization supply, in the investiga-
tion of each function, the most important aids of analogy, com-
parison, contrast, and various combination; and the nature of
the process receives at each step fresh elucidation. These en..
larged views, which unfold to us the natural play of the animal
mechanism, are our surest guide in the study of its deranged
motions, an essential criterion for estimating the nature and de-
gree of the deviation, and an important indication of the means
by which it may be corrected. Thus, general anatomy and phy-
siology furnish the principles, by, which we are guided in our
attempts to preserve health, to alleviate and remove disorder,
and cure disease. On such researches, and such studies, on a
foundation no less extensive than the whole empire of living
nature, the science of medicine must be established ; if, indeed.
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. . 41
it be destined to occupy the rank of a science; if its practical
precepts, its curative efforts, and its technical proceedings be
grounded in, and derived from a knowledge of the corporea)
mechanism, and a contemplation of its mode of action, from ob-
servations of its deranged state, and of the course and order by
which the return to health may be safely accomplished ;. if, in
short, it shall be permanently raised above its early state of aņ
empirical and blind belief in the virtues of herbs, drugs, and
plasters, or above its modern but equally deplorable con
dition of servile submission to the doginas of schools and
sects, or subjection to doctrines, parties, or authorities. I ap-
peal to the illustrious founder of our collection, to his labours
and his writings; to that change in the state of surgery, which
his exertions and his example have accomplished. Such achieve-
ments by a single hand, hold out to us the brightest prospects
and most encouraging anticipations of the ample harvest await-
ing the united efforts of more numerous cultivators. From this
quarter we must expect the future improvement of our profes-
sion; not from the addition of new medicines to a catalogue
already too long; not from fresh accessions to that mass of
clinical observations, which lie unread on the shelves of our
medical libraries.
In investigating the nature of living beings, various objects of
inquiry present themselves, and various modes of proceeding
may be adopted. We may examine their structure; the num-
ber, form, size, relative position, and connexions of the organs,
by the assemblage of which they are constructed: their tex-
ture; that is, the primary animal tissues, which compose the
various organs, and their mode of union; their elementary com-
position; or the number, nature, and combinations of the ele-
ments into which they can be resolved : lastly, their living phe-
nomena; the vital properties with which all the primary tissues
are endowed, the offices or functions executed by the organs, and
the mutualinfluences and diversified dependencies, which, regula-
ting the order and succession of these living operations, combine
so many partial and subordinate motions into one beautiful and
harmonious whole.
It is the business of the anatomist to demonstrate the struc-
ture, and unravel the texture of animal bodies; their composi-
tion falls within the department of the chemist, and their vital
phenomena occupy the labours of the physiologist. Anatomy,
therefore, teaches us the organization of animals, while physio-
42
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
logy unfolds the nature of life. The third division forms a kind
of border territory, lying between the domains of chemistry and
physiology, alternately occupied and cultivated by both. Under
the name of animal chemistry, it has received, of late years, a
constantly increasing share of attention, and produced import-
ant accessions to our knowledge of the composition and opera-
tions of animal bodies.
This branch of inquiry is much less advanced than that which
concerns their structure; and its progress is impeded by some
peculiar difficulties. The primary textures are so intimately
blended in all organs, that their complete separation seems im-
possible. The cerebral and nervous medulla is every where
interwoven and surrounded by cellular substance and vessels;
the muscular fibre with cellular substance, vessels, nerves, and
fat; the cellular substance itself with vessels and fat. Hence
arise doubts how far the results of experiment are to be attri-
buted to one or the other ingredient; so that we can seldoin
attain certainty, but must rest contented with probability. In
many cases we do not even know the primary tissues. Are the
stout sides of the uterus, or the beautiful and delicate moveable
curtain of the iris, cellular or muscular, or does each contain
some peculiar and not yet ascertained tissue? In a great num-
ber of living beings our senses are not even able to settle the
question. Who can decide whether the soft, tender, and almost
deliquescent body of the polype is made up of muscular fibres,
or of cellular tissue?
· By etymology and original acceptation, physiology means
doctrine of nature, and is not very appropriately applied to that
limited division of natural science, which has for its object the
various forms and phenomena of life, the conditions and laws
under which this state exists, and the causes which are active in
producing and rnaintaining it. A foreign writer * has proposed
the more accurate term of biology, or science of life.
Life, using the word in its popular and general sense, which
at the same time is the only rational and intelligible one, is
merely the active state of the animal structure. It includes the
notions of sensation, motions, and those ordinary attributes of
living beings, which are obvious to common observation. It
denotes what is apparent to our senses; and cannot be applied
. G. R. Treviranus of Bremen, whose Biologie, oder Philosophie der leben.
den Natur fur Naturforscher und derzle, in 5 vols. 8vo., but not yet finished,
is a very interesting work, both for the philosophic plan on which it is
founded, and the original views with which it abounds,
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
43
to the offspring of metaphysical subtlety, or immaterial abstrac-
tions, without a complete departure from its original accepta-
tion ; without obscuring and confusing what is otherwise clear
and intelligible.
The close connection between life and respiration has not
escaped the notice of ordinary observers; of those who were
ignorant of anatomy and physiology. Hence the breath has
been popularly deemed the mark of life. The Latin anima, or
breadth (from the Greek aveuos, wind), was also used to express
the vital principle, the essence of life being supposed identical
with the breath. But in the phrases animam efflare, exspirare,
&c. the word seems to be used in its original sense. In the
same way the Latin spiritus, or original of our spirit, from spiro
to breathe, means merely breath ; the same is the case with the
Greek Tverja ; and this is the original sensible object, out of
which all the abstractions and fancies, all the verbal sophistry
and metaphysical puzzles about spirit have proceeded.
Anatomy and physiology should be cultivated together ;-we
should combine observation of the function with examination of
the organization. The subjects are often distinctly treated in
books: let not, however, this unnatural separation lead you into
the error of viewing the vital manifestations as something inde-
pendent of the organization, in which they occur. Bear in mind
that every organ has its living phenomena and its use, and that
the chief ultimate object, even of anatomy, is to learn the nature
of the function :-on the other hand, that every action of a living
being must have its organic apparatus. There is no digestion
without an alimentary cavity; no biliary secretion without some
kind of liver; no thought without a brain.
To talk of life as independent of an animal body; to speak of a
function without reference to an appropriate organ, is physiolo-
gically absurd. It is in opposition to the evidence of our senses
and rational faculties. It is looking for an effect without a
cause. We might as reasonably expect daylight while the sun
is below the horizon. What should we think of abstracting
elasticity, cohesion, gravity, and bestowing on them a separate
existence from the bodies in which those properties are seen?,
HALLER, the father and founder of modern physiology, has
furnished us the best example, both for the method of cultivating
the subject, and of treating it in writing. He had devoted thirty
years to the dissection of human bodies, and those of animals,
and to observation and every variety of experimental research,
before he began to compose his Elementa Physiologie. In this
44
ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
drawn from his own dissections, precedes the history of its func-
tions. I know no anatomical descriptions superior to these ;
none deserving more implicit confidence. To regard this work
as a mere register of opinions, has always appeared to me very
unjust; it contains new and accurate information on almost
every part of the subject. It is no slight proof of its merits, that
the book of authority; and particularly in this country, which is
still destitute of original and standard works, in anatomy and
physiology.
In impressing upon your minds the close connection of anatomy
and physiology, I do not mean to represent to you that the former
teaches the latter. Strictly speaking, structure alone is learned
by dissection : the vital properties of organic textures, and the
functions of organs, are found out by observation. We have the
most perfect anatomical knowledge of the spleen, thymus and
thyroid gland; but their offices in the animal economy are wholly
unknown. What organ has been more carefully dissected and
studied than the brain ? yet the respective offices of its various
portions have not been discovered.
Anatomy however unfolds facts, of which the knowledge is
absolutely necessary in appreciating the results of observation.
It affords the only clue capable of guiding us through the multi-
plied and varied movements all going on together in the living
microcosm, and of thus enabling us to discriminate the proper
share of each organic apparatus. What kind of knowledge could
the most patient and acute observer gain of the circulation, if he
knew nothing about the structure of the heart, lungs, arteries,
and veins ? What insight could he acquire into the changes of
the food, and the nutrition of our bodies, if the alimentary canal,
with its divisions and appendages, and the absorbing vessels,
were unknown to him ? Just notions of the seat and nature of
diseases, and of the operation of remedies, would be out of the
question; but what chance has a person, ignorant of the general
construction of our frame, of escaping from the most absurd doc-
trines and systems, and from the most pernicious practical errors ?
Anatomy, again, clears up doubtful points, and suggests topics
of inquiry. It is a test and criterion of physiological explana-
tions : if the latter are inconsistent with the anatomical facts,
they must be rejected.
That its aid is essential to physiology, may be proved by refer-
ring to what even the most acute men have written about the
AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
45
animal economy, before anatomy had been cultivated. It is a
mass of error and fiction, without the smallest pretence to the
title of physiology.
Anatomy and physiology are the groundwork of pathology, or
the science of disease.
Disease is a relative term, implying a comparison with a state
of health, and presupposing a knowledge of that state. To
anatomy, or, science of healthy structure, is opposed morbid
anatomy, or science of diseased structure : to physiology, or
doctrine of healthy functions, pathology, or doctrine of diseased
manifestations. Morbid anatomy shows us the diseases; patho-
logy their external signs or symptoms. Often no change of
structure is observable: the deviations from the healthy con-
dition elude our means of inquiry. The organ is said to be func.
tionally disordered.
Thus we find that anatomy, physiology, morbid anatomy,
and pathology, are mutually related and intimately connected
Although called separate sciences, they are, in truth, parts of one
system ; and we must never lose sight of their mutua) bearings
On the foundation of these four departments of knowledge or sci-
ence, is raised the practice of medicine, or the healing art.-over-
looking the artificiai distinctions of physic, surgery, and so forth.
But is all this knowledge necessary for a practitioner? is it
required that a physician or a surgeon should know anatomy
natural and morbid, physiology, pathology? To the science of
medicine, and to its rational improvement and extension, it is
necessary; but by no means so to the mere routine of practice,
and the very successful prosecution of the trade. Perhaps, in-
deed, a firm faith in drugs and plasters, and a liberal adminis-
tration of them, may be the surer road to popular success, if the
remark addressed by a veteran practitioner to a young enthusiast
in science be well grounded : “Juvenis, tua doctrina non pro-
mittit opes; plebs amat remedia.”
A common sailor uses his glass without knowing the laws of
optics, or even suspecting their existence. But, wouid GALILEO
have invented the telescope, and have given to mankind the
power of penetrating into space, if he had been equally ignorant;
if he had been unacquainted with the action of various media,
and of variously shaped surfaces on the rays of light? An ordi-
nary workman, of education and habits purely mechanical, con-
structs the most powerful astronomical instruments; but it
belongs only to a HERSCHEL or a LA PLACE to improve these
means, and to employ them so as to unfoid the structure of the
46
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
universe, and expound the laws which govern the motions of the
heavenly bodies.
The collection of this College was formed, and is now arranged,
in conformity to the views just alluded to. The anatomical pre-
parations exhibit the organs in the manner best calculated to
elucidate their functions. To the rich and valuable series of
healthy parts, there is added a parallel and equally extensive
arrangement of morbid specimens.
Mr. HUNTER was the first in this country, who investigated
disease in a strictly philosophic method; bringing to bear on it
the clear and steady lights of anatomy and physiology. He
began by discarding all the doctrines of the schools, and resorted
at once to nature. Instead of creeping timidly along the coast of
truth, within sight of precedent and authority, he boldly launched
into the great ocean of discovery, steering by the polar star of
observation, and trusting to the guidance of his own genius.
His claim to the gratitude of English surgeons will be suffici-
ciently established by comparing surgical science before his time
with its present state; and by contrasting, at the two periods,
the relative rank of surgeons in public estimation. It would be
foreign to my present purpose to pursue this topic : I shall
therefore merely entreat you to bear it in mind; and to remem-
ber, that the true dignity of the profession, in which every indi-
vidual member is a sharer, will be best promoted, not by partial
privileges and arbitrary exclusions, not by anything which royal
charters or legal enactments can bestow or withhold, but by that
scientific cultivation and honourable practice, which constitute
the only just claim to public esteem and confidence. It would
be unnecessary for me to enter into further detail on a matter,
which has been already brought before you with such forcible
appeal to the best feelings of our nature, such display of elevated
and honourable sentiments, and such felicity of expression, by
iny ingenious, eloquent, and worthy colleague.*
LECTURE III.
On the Study of Physiology ;-The Aids and Illustrations to be derived from
other Sciences, as Natural Philosophy, Mathematics, Chemistry. Study of the
physical Sciences recommended.-Peculiar Character of the vital Phenomena,
-Living Properties.-Allempted hypothetical Explanations of them.--Com-
parative Anatomy; its Objects; its Relations to Physiology exemplified.
DISSECTION and the various auxiliary processes employed by
the anatomist, are the only means of learning the structure of
* Ant. Carlisle, Esq.
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
47
living beings; observation and experiment the only sources of
our knowledge of life. These are the tests or criteria, on which
we must depend, and to which we must always refer. No posi-
tion respecting structure can be listened to unless it admits of
verification by appeal to anatomy; no physiological statement
deserves attention, unless it be confirmed by observation.
Is this then all ? Are the labours of so many celebrated men,
the accumulated harvests of so many centuries, reduced to the
mere results of dissection and observation? It is so, in respect
to real knowledge ; and it will be occupation enough to anato-
mists and physiologists, for many ages, to cultivate these pur-
suits The multitude and variety of organs in the human body,
the complexity of their structure, the modifications incidental to
each, and their mutual influences, offer a most extensive field of
investigation, requiring so much time and assiduity, so much
caution and discrimination, that the qualities necessary to a
successful pursuit of physiology cannot be often combined in
one individual.
· When to man we add all the living beings, which fill every
department of nature, and consider the diversities and new
combinations, by which they are enabled to fulfil their various
destinies, it will be hardly figurative to say that the objects of
inquiry are infinite and inexhaustible.
In this, as in most other subjects, the quantity of solid
instruction is an inconsiderable fraction of the accumulated
mass. A few grains of wheat are buried and lost amid heaps
of chaff. For a few well-observed facts, rational deductions,
and cautious generalisations, we have whole clouds of systems
and doctrines, of speculations and fancies, built merely
on the workings of the imagination, and the labours of the
closet.
In reference, however, to biology, or the science of life, I may
observe, that descriptions of particular animals, and surveys of
detached districts in the great kingdom of nature, are not so
much wanted at present, as the assemblage and assortment of
some vigorous and comprehensive mind to furnish the funda-
mental principles of the science of living nature. It is employ-
ment, and not mere possession, that gives a value to intellectual
as well as material wealth. We have had workmen enough to
toil in the mine and the quarry; they have raised and roughly
fashioned an abundance of materials; and we now only wait for
48
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
the architect who shall be able to employ them in constructing a
temple suitable in majesty and simplicity to the Divinity, whose
shrine it is destined to contain.
The parts of natural history having been cultivated in a
detached manner, its doctrines were long in an insulated state;
unconnected to each other, like the pyramids in the deserts of
Egypt; as the number of detached parts increased, the neces-
sity of a system was felt, to bind them together, however
imperfectly, into something like a connected whole.
After many unsuccessful attempts by his predecessors,
LINNEUS produced an arrangement of natural objects, which
met with very general approbation and adoption. The efforts
of naturalists were subsequently directed to the correction and
extension of his system ; to the formation of arrangements for
detached parts, in imitation of that which he had framed for the
whole; and in the description of new genera and species. These
efforts have been continued to the present day in a constantly
increasing ratio; but, perhaps, without a due consideration
whether any results of proportionate utility to mankind were
Jikely to reward so much pains and trouble. Some, indeed,
and ainong them LINNEUS, were aware that all these artificial
systems, without reference to higher objects, were almost lost
labour; but they did not attempt to pursue those objects. The
ultimate purpose of our researches in natural history is to pene-
trate and lay open the secret springs, by which the great system
of organization called nature, is maintained in perpetual acti-
vity. Now, towards the accomplishment of this purpose, the
artificial systems, on which so much labour has been bestowed,
are hardly the first step. They do not exhibit the science, but an
index, or register of nature; which indeed has its recommen-
dations of utility in other respects. The assemblage of the
numerous facts, which are scattered through the works of natu-
ralists, and their combination into a whole, with reference to the
purpose just mentioned, and with a view to establishing the
laws of life, would possess a much higher value than all the
descriptions of new animals and plants, which teach us little
more than that they have such or such appearances, and that
they occur in this or that corner of the earth.
If the science of life, and with it some of the most important
departments of human knowledge, be destined to make any de-
cided progress towards perfection, it must be by the road of
experience, aided and enlightened by general philosophy. The
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
49
pay, indeed, is in some parts difficult; and its length indefinite :
out, whether we reach the end or not, our very efforts, and the
active state of mind they maintain, will be a sufficient recom-
pense; as the pleasure of the chase, and the healthy vigour it
imparts, reward us, even when the game escapes.
“ The intellectual worth and dignity of man are measured, not
by the truth which he possesses, or fancies that he possesses,
but by the sincere and honest pains he has taken to discover
truth. This it is that invigorates his mind; and by exercising
the mental springs, preserves them in full activity. Possession
makes us quiet, indolent, proud. If the Deity held in his right
hand all truth, and in his left only the ever-active impulse, the
fond desire, and longing after truth, coupled with the condition
of constantly erring, and should offer me the choice; I should
humbly turn towards the left, and say, Father, give me this :
pure truth is fit for thee alone.”* Thus spoke a sage; and his.
determination seems as wise as the famous choice of HERCULES.
In commencing the study of physiology, we are first led to
inquire, whether living beings are subject to the same laws as
inorganic bodies; whether the vital processes can be explained
on the same principles as the other phenomena of matter; whe-
ther, in short, the elucidations of the physical sciences are equally
applicable to the sciences of life. That animals obey those
general laws which regulate matter and motion in all other cases,
that all their parts, as well as their entire masses, are subject to:
the influences of gravity, impulso, and the like, is too obvious to
be a subject of question. The point of inquiry is, whether the
internal movements of the animal machine are explicable by the
laws of mechanics and hydraulics ; whether, like these, they can
be subjected to calculation; whether the changes of composition
incessantly going on in all parts of the frame, can be assimilated
to the operations of our laboratories, or reduced to the laws of
external chemistry; whether any living phenomena can be so
far likened to those of electricity, galvanism, magnetism, as to
justify us in referring for their explanation to the same principles.
In the beginning of the last century, the leading authorities
in physiology, of whom BOERHAAVE may be mentioned as the
head, supposed that all the functions of the living body, except
the will, are carried on by mechanical movements, susceptible
of rigid calculation, necessarily succeeding each other in the
organs from the time that life commences. Those movements.
+ Trepiranus. Biologie; b. 1, ..
50
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
he referred to an impulsive power in the heart, renewed by the
influence of the nervous fluid brought from the brain. In this
explanation the body is an hydraulic machine, in which the heart
performs the office of a piston: the beautiful construction and
endless variety of the animal organization are reduced to an as-
semblage of pipes, canals, levers, pulleys, and other mechanism.
The treatises on physiology of this period, were filled with mathe-
matical problems, long calculations, and algebraic formulæ.
This system maintained its ground for a long time, in defiance
of observation and common sense. In palliation of what strikes
us now as so extravagantly erroneous, it must be observed, that
many things in the animal economy admit of explanation on
these principles. The structure and motions of the joints are
purely mechanical; and the degree of effect produced by the
muscles of a limb, like the acting force of a moving power
applied to a common lever, depends entirely on the relative
situation of their tendinous insertions to the centre of motion,
and the relation which the course of their fibres bears to the axis
of the moving bone. All these things may be exactly determined
by calculation as the operation of common levers : but the con-
traction of the living fibre, or original moving force, cannot be
submitted to calculation, cannot be in the slightest degree elu-
cidated by mechanics.
The valves of the heart and blood vessels act mechanically,
and operate as well in the dead, as in the living body. The
swelling of the veins of the lower limbs in the erect posture,
and the turgescence of the same vessels in the head and neck,
when they are held in a dependent attitude, will convince us
that, although the blood flows through living canals, its motion
is not withdrawn from the all-pervading influence of gravity.
The transparent parts of the eye act on the rays of light ac-
cording to the common laws of optics; and bring them to a focus,
so as to form an inverted picture of the object on the retina, just
as well in the dead, as in the living organ, provided their trans-
parency be unimpaired.
: The operation, however, of those natural laws, to which living,
as well as other bodies are subject, is constantly modified in the
former case, by the vital powers; and this essential element in
all mathematico-physiological considerations, is, by its very na-
ture, fluctuating and indeterminate. Uncertainty in the condi-
tions of a problem, whether in respect to their entire number, or
to the quantity of each, is an original sin, for which no subse-
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
quent accuracy can atone; and this character, belonging to all
the circumstances of almost every case in the animal economy,
not only effectually precludes all useful application of mathema-
nothing but error and confusion. We can very seldom satisfy
ourselves that all the data are before us; and the precise amount
of each cannot be determined in any instance : nay more, varia-
tion and fluctuation are essential characters of all vital processes.
The totally inconsistent results, at which different mathematical
physiologists have arrived, in treating of the same functions,
shows us that very little useful service can be looked for from
this quarter. One estimated the force of the heart as equal to
180,000lbs.; another reduced it to 802.; and both these con-
clusions are deduced from reasonings clothed in all the imposing
forms of the exact sciences.
The circulation, in which a central impelling machine drives
the blood through an arrangement of tubes, seems naturally to
fall under the laws of hydraulics : and the course of the blood
in its living channels, no doubt, obeys the same laws that go-
vern the transmission of fluids through inanimate canals. But,
if we attempt to submit this intricate process to calculation, we
are stopped at the very outset by discovering, that, of its nume.
rous conditions, not one is ascertained with sufficient accuracy
for our purpose. It would be necessary to know the amount of
nervous influence on the heart and blood vessels, the measure
of active and passive power on the former organ, the quantity of
blood arriving at and departing from it, the elastic and other
properties of the vessels, their various capacities, the resistance
of the column in the arteries and veins, the density and cohe-
sion of the blood, and many other points :--and to know all
these with perfect accuracy. Even if all this were accomplished,
the great number of elements entering into such a theory would
conduct us to impracticable calculations. It would be the most
complex case of a problem, which is extremely difficult of solu-
tion in its simple state. The ablest geometricians, sensible of
these difficulties, speak of the operations of living bodies with a
modest caution, to which the bold calculations of some physio-
logists form a striking contrast. They acknowledge that the
springs of the animal frame are too numerous, too intricate, and
vantage, to calculation ; that, in such complicated operations,
experience is our only safe-guide, and inductions from numerous
E 2
52
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
facts the only sure support of our reasonings. The most just
calculations on such subjects can merely appreciate our igno-
rance; which may indeed be concealed, but cannot be removed,
by the vain parade of a science foreign to medicine.
If we define chemistry as the science which teaches us the
their elementary particles act on each other, when brought into
contact, the combinations or separations which result from their
affinities, and the circumstances which promote or obstruct the
action of those affinities, we must allow that many of the animal
processes exhibit to us chemical operations. Such are the
changes wrought upon the food by the solvent juices of the
stomach, and by the admixture of bile, pancreatic liquor, and
intestinal secretions; the new combinations, which the elements
of the blood enter into in the glands, the membranes, and the
skin, and in the texture of the various organs, so as to exhibit
to us a new set of products; the conversion of chyle and lymph
into blood; and the mutual action of this fluid and the atmos-
phere in respiration.
Chemical researches into the composition of the fluids and
solids of the animal frame, and comparative examinations of
them under the differences of age, sex, climate, food, mode of
life, and the various incidences of disease, have thrown great
light both on the healthy and disordered actions of our frame;
particularly those inquiries which have been conducted with the
advantages of the modern improvements in chemical science.
Further benefit is to be expected from a continuance of these
exertions; and we can have no hesitation in admitting that
many important points in physiology cannot be understood, the
nature and result of inany animal processes cannot be appre-
ciated, by a person unacquainted with chemistry.
Nor is the benefit confined to physiology; the kindred sciences,
which have for their object the knowledge of disease, its preven-
tion and cure, owe great and important obligations to modern
chemistry. By unfolding the composition, and separating the
various ingredients contained in an apparently homogeneous
fuid, the urine, it has enabled us to form some conception of
the important purposes executed by the kidney. By showing
the deviations which this animal fluid exhibits in various con-
ditions of disease, it has elucidated the mechanism of many dis-
ordered actions; and, by discovering what particular ingredients
existed in undue proportion, it has suggested the means of relief
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
53
by the internal administration of suitable chemical remedies,
Thus the modern views respecting the nature and treatment of
calculous disorders are completely chemical ; and modern expe-
rience fully substantiates the important truth, that alkalies and
acids taken into the stomach affect the chemical constitution of
the urinary secretion. But these views do not terminate here:
the condition of the urine is an index of what is going forwards
in the alimentary canal, an outward and visible sign of the
inward and hidden movements of the stomach, bowels, and other
parts. These again are variously modified by the nature and
quality of our food and drink, by the operation of our remedies,
and by those obscure and mysterious, but incontestable influences
of other parts, which are usually denominated sympathies. Thus,
as the successive undulations of water spread wider and wider
nation of a single excretion, by virtue of the mutual influences
which bind together all parts of our system, expands at last to
considerations embracing the whole economy.
For the theory of diabetes we are principally indebted to
chemistry; and we ought not to omit acknowledging the debt,
because its amount has not been increased by the suggestion of
an adequate remedy.
With these strong facts before our eyes, and with the know-
ledge that nature, however sportively various in unessential
details, is generally uniform in the leading principles of the means
by which she accomplishes similar purposes, may we not reason-
ably expect that the action of many remedies will be traced here-
after to chemical influence ? May we not hope that that dark
ministrations, will receive light from this quarter?
It is, however, in most cases, the result, and not the operation
itself, that we learn from chemistry. By comparing the blood
and the urine, we estimate the office of the kidney; but we know
just as little as we did before of that wonderful and mysterious
process, by which the capillaries of the gland transform blood
into urine; and when we see the capillaries of other parts con-
vert this same blood into twenty other fluids or solids, we feel
still more forcibly the striking contrast between these and the
operations commonly called chemical, and the insufficiency of
explanations grounded merely on the analogies of the latter
changes. If a gland, a membrane, a muscle, or a bone, in their
operations of secretion and nutrition, be chemical instruments,
54
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY,
their analogy to those employed in our laboratories is so remote,
as to be hardly perceptible.
Of the attempt at explaining the sentient and contractile opera-
tions of the nerves and muscles by chemical agencies, or at re-
solving life in general into a mere play of chemical affinities, I
can only say that they appear to me injudicious. The ablest
chemists, those who are most deeply versed in the operations,
means, various applications, and extent of their science, are ex-
tremely cautious in applying it to the explanation of vital pro-
cesses. One of the most striking phenomena of living bodies is
the exception which they offer to the laws of chemistry. Com-
posed of matters extremely prone to decomposition, and sur-
rounded by all the influences of heat, air, and moisture, which
are very favourable to such change, they yet remain unaltered.
Living bodies, as well as all dead ones, exhibit electrical phe-
the animal functions and electric operations is so obvious and
forcible, that the attempts to assimilate them do not demand
By the preceding observations, or by any subsequent ones, I
would by no means discourage surgical students from the pur-
suit of the physical sciences. I regard them, on the contrary,
not merely as a desirable ornamental accompaniment, but as
powerful and indispensable auxiliaries in physiological and me-
dical researches. A close alliance between the science of living
nature and physics and chemistry, cannot fail to he mutually
advantageous. What we have principally to guard against, in
our professional researches and studies, is the influence of partial
and confined views, and of those favourite notions and specula-
tions, which, like coloured glass, distort all things seen through
their medium. Thus we have had a chemical sect, which could
discern, in the beautifully varied appointments, and nice adapta-
tions of animal structure, nothing but an assemblage of chemical
instruments: a medico-mathematical doctrine, which explained
all the phenomena of life by the sciences of number and magni-
tude, by algebra, geometry, mechanics, and hydraulics ; and even
a tribe of animists, who, finding that all the powers of inorganic
nature had been invoked in vain, resorted to the world of spirits,
and maintained that the soul is the only cause of life. It is
amusing to observe the entire conviction and self-complacency,
with which such systems are brought forward. The parable of
Nathan the Wise is not confined in its application to matters of
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
55
theological faith,—to the ardour with which wrangling sectaries
dispute about their petty divisions and subdivisions of belief :
each medical sect conceives itself in possession of the true ring;
yet probably they are all more or less counterfeit.
If the seductive influence of favourite notions, and the dispro-
portionate importance attached to particular sciences, have ope-
rated so unfavourably on the doctrines of physiology and medi-
cine, the remedy for the evil must be sought in more enlarged
views and general knowledge. We cannot expect to discover
the true relations of things, until we rise high enough to survey
the whole field of science, to observe the connections of the
various parts and their mutual influence.
Besides the direct utility of the physical sciences in explaining
many parts of the animal economy, they serye a collateral pur-
pose, which recommends them strongly to the medical student.
They have their foundation in experiment, as physiology and
medicine have in observation; the only difference being, that in
the latter case we are obliged to take our subjects in all the com-
plexity of their natural composition, while in the former it is in
our power to regulate the conditions of the operation, and to
reduce them, by successive analyses, to the greatest simplicity.
The subsequent proceedings of physical science are governed by
strict method, and guarded against error by the severe rules of
inductive logic. The constant vigilance of these incorruptible
sentinels protects the sanctuary from the incursions of extra-
physical or metaphysical chimeras, and from the intrusion of
immaterial agencies. Strengthened by this salutary discipline,
and accustomed to close reasoning, the mind is well prepared
for the study of living nature, clothed with a defensive armour,
on which verbal and metaphysical puzzles, and the misplaced
exertions of the imagination, will make no impression.
Now, although certain parts of the animal economy obey the
laws of mechanics, and others admit of illustration by the aid of
chemistry, and thus far the living processes come within the
domain of the physical sciences, the main springs of the animal
functions, the original moving forces, cannot be explained on
these grounds. The powers of sensation and contraction, and
the properties of the capillary vessels, belong peculiarly and ex-
clusively to living organic textures : they are eminently vital,
and form the distinguishing character of living beings. We
learn them by observation, as we learn the properties of dead
matter, and we know nothing more than the fact, that certain
56
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
vital manifestations are connected with certain organic struc-
tures.*
Since I delivered these Lectures, I have become acquainted with Dr.
Brown's Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Efect, third edition, 8vo.
Edinburgh, 1818; a most instructive work, calculated to dispel much of the
obscurity and confusion, by which both physical and metaphysical discussions
have been perplexed and retarded, and to interest strongly all those who
derive pleasure from perspicuous language and close reasoning. As it is ex-
tremely important to possess clear notions of causation, of the relations ex-
pressed by the words cause, efect, property, quality, power, I subjoin an extract,
in which these matters are more satisfactorily explained than in any other
book I have met with.
"It is this mere relation of uniform antecedence, so important and so uni.
Versally believed, which appears to me to constitute all that can be philosophi-
cally meant, in the words power or causation, to whatever objects, material
or spiritual, the words may be applied. If events had succeeded each other
in perfect irregularity, such terms never would have been invented; but, when
the successions are believed to be in regular order, the importance of this re-
gularity to all our wishes, and plans, and actions, has of course led to the
employment of terms significant of the most valuable distinction which we
are physically able to make. We give the name of cause to the object which
we believe to be the invariable antecedent of a particular change; we give
the name of effect reciprocally to that invariable consequent; and the rela-
tion itself, when considered abstractedly, we denominate power in the object
that is the invariable antecedent-susceptibility in the object that exhibits, in
its change, the invariable consequent. "We say of fire, that it has the power of
melting metals, and of metals that they are susceptible of fusion by fire,
that fire is the cause of the fusion, and the fusion the effect of the application
of fire; but, in all this variety of words, we mean nothing more than our belief,
that when a solid metal is subjected for a certain time to the application of a
strong heat, it will begin afterwards to exist in that different state which is
termed liquidity,-that, in all past time, in the same circumstances, it would
have exhibited the same change,-and that it will continue to do so in the same
circumstances in all future time. We speak of two appearances which metals
present; one before the application of fire, and the other after it; and a
simple but universal relation of heat and the metallic substances, with respect
to these two appearances, is all that is expressed
"A cause, therefore, in the fullest definition which it philosophically
admits, may be said to be, that which immediately precedes any chunye, and
which, existing at any time in similar circumstances, has been always, and will
be always, immediately followed by a similar change. Priority in the sequence
observed, and invariableness of antecedence in the past and future sequen-
ces supposed, are the elements, and the only elements, combined in the notion
of a cause. By a conversion of terms, we obtain a definition of the corre-
lative ef'ect; and power, as I have before said, is only another word for ex-
pressing abstractly and briefly the antecedence itsell, and the invariableness
of the relation.
“The words property and quality admit of exactly the same definition; ex-
pressing only a certain relation of invariable antecedence and consequence,
in changes, that take place, on the presence of the substance to which they
are ascribed. They are strictly synonymous with power; or, at least, the only
difference is, that properly and quality, as commonly used, comprehend both
the powers and susceptibilities of substance, the powers of producing changes,
and the susceptibilities of being changed. We say equally, that it is a pro-
perty or quality of water, to melt salt, and that it is one of its qualities or pro-
perties to freeze or become solid, on the subtraction of a certain quantity of
heat; but we do not commonly use the word power, in the latter of these
cases, and say that water has the power of being frozen."-" Power, proa
perty, and quality, are, in the physical use of these terms, exactly synony-
mous. Water has the power of melting salt;—it is a property of water to melt
salt;-it is a quality of water to melt salt:--all these varieties of expression
signify precisely the same thing that, when water is poured upon sait, the
solid will take the form of a liquid, and its particles be diffused in continued
combination through the mass. Two parts of a sequence of physical events
are before our mind ; the addition of water to salt, and the consequent lique-
faction of what was before a crystalline solid. When we speak of all the
qualities of a body, we consider it as existing in a variety of circumstances,
and consider at the same time, all the changes that are, or may be, in these




ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
57
The only reason we have for asserting in any case that any
property, belongs to any substance, is the certainty or universality
with which we find the substance and the property in question
accompanying each other. Thus we say that gold is yellow,
ductile, soluble in nitro-muriatic acid, because we have always
found gold, when pure, to be so. We assert that living muscular
fibres are irritable, living nervous fibres sensible, for the same
reason. The evidence of the two propositions presents itself to
my mind as unmarked by the faintest shade of difference.
Having found by experience that every thing we see has some
cause of its existence, we are induced to ascribe the constant
concomitance of a substance and its properties to some neces-
sary connection between them: but, however strong the feeling
may be, which leads us to believe in some more close bond, we
can only trace, in this notion of necessary connection, the fact
of certainty or universality of concurrence. Nothing more than
this can be meant, when a necessary connection is asserted be-
tween the properties of sensibility and irritability, and the struc-
tures of living muscular and nervous fibres.
This language does not explain how the thing takes place ::
it is merely a mode of stating the fact. To say that irritability
is a property of living muscular fibres, is merely equivalent to the
assertion, that such fibres have in all cases possessed the power
of contraction. What then is the cause of irritability? I do
not know, and cannot conjecture.
In physiology, as in the physical sciences, we quickly reach
the boundaries of knowledge, whenever we attempt to penetrate
the first causes of the phenomena. The most we can accom-
circumstances, its immediate effects. When we speak of all the qualities of
a body, or all its properties, we mean nothing more, and we mean nothing
less. Certain substances are conceived by us, and certain changes that take
place in them, which, we believe, will be uniformly the same, as often as
The substances of which we speak exist in circumstances that are exactly
the same.
- The powers, properties, or qualities of a substance, are not to be regarded.
then, as anything superadded to the substance, or distinct from it. They are
only the substance itself, considered in relation to various changes, that take
place, when it exists in peculiar circumstances,”
We cannot be surprised that the author of the Physiological Lectures should
have poured forth the full vials of his wrath on doctrines at once completely
subverting all his airy structures of subtle fluids, mobile inatters, &c. &c.
considered as causes of vital actions, and so simple and logical, that any
attempt at direct opposition by reasoning would be utterly hopeless. He
therefore boldly affirms that “if they mean to insinuate that we have no
knowledge of cause or effect beyond that which results from mere observa.
tion, they publish at the same time a libel on the human understanding, a pro-
hibition to rational inquiry, and a most severe salire on themselves," P. 91.
Unless the author should show, on some future occasion, what he has not
even attempted on the present; vis. what it is that the words cause and effect
denote in addition to relative invariable antecedence and consequence, this
volley of hard words will only recoil on his own head.
58
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY,
plish is to make gradual conquests from the territories of igno.
rance and doubt; and to leave under their dominion those objects
only, which our reason has not reached, or is not able to reach.
The great end of observation and experiment is to discover
among the various phenomena, those which are the most general.
When these are well ascertained, they serve as principles, from
which other facts may be deduced. The Newtonian theory of
gravitation is a most splendid example. The only object of un-
certainty, which then remains, is the first cause of a small num-
ber of facts. The phenomena succeed each other, like the
generations of men, in an order which we observe, but of which
we can neither determine nor conceive the commencement.
We follow the links of an endless chain ; and, by holding fast
to it, we may ascend from one link to another, but the point
of suspension is not within the reach of our feeble powers.
To call life a property of organization would be unmeaning;
it would be nonsense. The primary or elementary animal
structures are endued with vital properties; their combinations
compose the animal organs, in which, by means of the vital
properties of the component elementary structures, the animal
functions are carried on. The state of the animal, in which the
continuance of these processes is evidenced by obvious external
signs, is called life.
The striking differences between living and inorganic bodies,
and the strong contrast of their respective properties, naturally
excited curiosity respecting the causes of this diversity, and en-
deavours to show the mode in which it was effected. Here we
quit the path of observation, and wander into the regions of
imagination and conjecture. It is the poetic ground of physio-
logy; but the union is unnatural, and, like other unnatural
unions, unproductive. The fiction spoils the science, and the
admixture of science is fatal to inspiration. The fictitious beings
of poetry are generally interesting in themselves, and are brought
forward to answer some useful purpose; but the genii and spirits
of physiology are awkward and clumsy, and do nothing at last,
which could not be accomplished just as well without them:
they literally incumber us with their help.
For those, who think it impossible that the living organic
structures should have vital properties without some extrinsic
aid ;-although they require no such assistance for the equally
wonderful affinities of chemistry, for gravity, elasticity, or the
other properties of matter, a great variety of explanations, suited
to all tastes and comprehensions, has been provided.
OF THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
59
Some are contented with stating that the properties of life
arise from a vital principle. This explanation has the merit of
simplicity, whatever we may think of its profoundness: and it
has the advantage of being transferable and equally applicable
to any other subject. Some hold that an immaterial principle,
and others, that a material, but invisible and very subtle agent
is superadded to the obvious structure of the body, and enables
it to exhibit vital phenomena. The former explanation will be
of use to those who are conversant with immaterial beings, and
who understand how they are connected with and act on matter.
But I know no description of persons likely to benefit by the
latter. For subtle matter is still matter; and if this fine stuff
can possess vital properties, surely they may reside in a fabric
which differs only in being a little coarser.
Mr. HUNTER has a good substantial sort of living principle ;
he seems to have had no taste for immaterial agents, or for
subtle matters. His materia vitæ is something tangible ; he
describes it as a substance like that of the brain, diffused all
over the body, and entering into the composition of every part.
He conceives even the blood to have its share.* We may smile
at these fancies, without any disrespect to a name that we all
revere, without any insensibility to the merits of a surgeon and
physiologist, whose genius and labours have reflected honour on
our profession and our country. If the father of poetry some-
times falls asleep, a physiologist may be allowed to dream a
little; but they who are awake, need not shut their eyes, and
endeavour to follow his example, need not exhibit another
instance of the perverted taste, which led the disciples of an
ancient philosopher to drink spinach-juice, that they might look
pale like their master.
PLATO made the vital principle to be an emanation of the
anima mundi, or soul of the world; an explanation, no doubt,
# That the author of the Physiological Lectures should have published two
books, principally for the purpose of explaining, illustrating, and confirming
· Mr. Hunter's" Theory of Life,' without showing us in either what that
theory was, without a single citation or reference to identify this doctrine,
thus boldly baptised with the name of Hunter, as the literary offspring of its
alleged parent, appears strange and suspicious. It is easily explained; for this
Hunicrian theory of life, which its real author so stoutly maintains to be
not only probable and rational, but also verifiable, is no where to be found in
the published writings of Mr. Hunter; and does not even resemble the specu-
lations on the same subject, which occur in the posthumous work on the
Blood, Inflamination, $c. part i. chap i. sec. 5, on the living Principle of the
Blood. In perusing the writings of Mr. Hunter, we should always remember
his unfortunate want of early education, the difficulty he felt in conveying his
notious clearly by words, and the mutilation which his thoughts must have
suffered in passing though the press, both from the causes just mentioned, and
from the revision and correction to which some of his writings were subjected.
60
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
quite satisfactory to those who know what the soul of the world
is, and how other souls emanate from it.
The Brahmins of the East hold a similar notion : but they
make the soul after death pass on into other bodies or into
animals, according to its behaviour; admitting, however, that
those of the good are immediately re-absorbed into the Divinity.
Some of the Greeks adopted a distinct vital, sensitive, and
rational principle in man.
These are merely specimens; a few articles, as patterns,
selected from a vast assortment. If you do not like either of
them, there are plenty more to choose from. As these and a
hundred other such hypothesis are all supported by equally
good proof; which is neither more nor less, in each instance,
than the thorough conviction of the inventor; and, as they are
inconsistent with each other, and, therefore, mutually destruc-
tive, we need not trouble ourselves further until their respective
advocates can agree together in selecting some one for their
patronage, and discarding the rest. For of these, as of the
numerous religions in the world, only one can be true.
What is comparative anatomy? The expression is rather
vague and indefinite. You naturally inquire what is compared?
What is the object of comparison? The structure of animals
may be compared to that of man. To lay down the laws of the
animal economy from facts furnished by the human subject
only, would be like writing the natural history of our species
from observing the inhabitants of a single town or village.
Repeated observations and multiplied experiments on the
various tribes of animated nature have cleared up many obscure
and doubtful phenomena in the economy of man: a continua-
tion of this method will place physiology on the solid basis of
experience, and build up science on ground hitherto occupied
by fancy and conjecture.
The physiologist, who is conversant with natural history in
general, is fortified against uncertain opinions, and the showy
but flimsy textures of verbal sophistry. An hypothesis, which
to others appears perfectly adequate to the object in view, is not
convincing to him. He rises above the particular object to
which it is accommodated, in order to appreciate its value; as
we ascend an eminence to gain a commanding view of a dis-
trict, to distinguish its features, to ascertain the number and
bearings of its parts, and their relations to the surrounding
country.
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
61
There are three points of view, in which comparative anatomy
has an important bearing on human physiology.
In the infancy of science, physiology, such as it was, owed its :
origin to zootomy, which was practised by physicians and natu-
ralists eighteen centuries before human dissections began. The
Anatomia Partium Corporis humani of MONDINI, written in the
beginning of the fourteenth century, was the first compendium
of human anatomy composed from actual dissection. It is easy
to show that even the osteology of GALEN was not drawn from
the human skeleton: and many parts of the body still bear
names derived from animals, which names are in some instances
not correctly applicable to the human structure; for example,
the epithets right and left as applied to the cavities of the heart.
Although human anatomy, after its first scientific development
by BERENGAR of Carpi, was so quickly brought to a high
pitch of perfection by the great triumvirate, VESALIUS, FAL-
LOPIUS, and EUSTACHIUS, yet the most important discoveries,
those of greatest weight in physiology, considered as the basis
of medicine, were made in animals. No period has been so
fruitful in these discoveries, nor so distinguished in the literary
history of our science, as the seventeenth century, in which the
anatomy of brutes was most zealously cultivated, and most of
the great anatomical facts were found out, which, by unveiling
the hidden springs and movements of the animal machine, have
furnished the principles, on which rational pathology and prac-
tical medicine have been established
These comparative researches render the most important ser-
vice by affording a criterion in doubtful cases for determining
the uses of parts; which, as the main object of this fundamental
inedical science, has been well chosen by GALEN for the title of
his classical work on physiology. Hence HALLER observes
that the situation, figure, and size of parts ought to be learned
from man ; their uses and motions must be drawn from animals.
I shall adduce a few particulars for the purpose of exemplifying
the preceding remarks.
A serpent swallows an animal larger than itself, which fills its
æsophagus, as well as stomach, and of which the digestion
occupies several days or even weeks. We open the reptile
during this process, and find that part of the animal which
remained in the esophagus, sound and natural, while the por-
tion which had descended into the stomach, though still retain-
ing its figure, is semi-liquefied, reduced into so soft a state, as to
break down under the slightest pressure. How effectually does
62
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY
this simple fact refute the notions of digestion being mechanical
trituration; or solution by heat (for the animal is cold-blooded);
or the effect of fermentation, or putrefaction, or coction!
The slow and languid motion of the blood in cold blooded
animals, has enabled us to demonstrate in them the circulation,
which in man can only be proved by argument.
Physiologists have been much perplexed to find out a common
centre in the nervous system, in which all sensations may meet,
and from which all acts of volition may emanate ; a central
apartment for the superintendent of the human panopticon; or.
in its imposing Latin name, a sensorium commune. That there
must be such a point they are well convinced, having satisfied
themselves that the human mind is simple and indivisible, and
therefore capable of dwelling only in one place. The pineal
gland, the corpus callosum, the pons Varolii, and other parts,
have been successively suggested. Now, there are many orders
of animals with sensation and volition, who have none of these
parts. And this assumed unity of the sentient principle becomes
very doubtful, when we see other animals, possessed of nervous
animals. Is the immaterial principle divided by the knife, as
well as the body?
The heart has been regarded by many physiologists as the
prime mover in the animal machine ;—the origin of vital motion
in the embryo, the chief agent in forming and maintaining the
fabric, and the main-spring for keeping the whole machinery in
action. There are whole classes of living beings, and some of
complicated structure, which have no heart.
Some have regarded the spleen as a spunge; soaking up the
blood when the stomach is empty, and allowing it to be squeezed
out again by the pressure of this bag when distended. In many
animals the spleen is neither cellular, nor so situated as to be
compressible by the stomach. This is the case, generally speak-
ing, with birds and reptiles.
The office of conveying away fluids from the stomach has
been assigned to it, making it a kind of waste-pipe to prevent
the liquid contents of the digestive cistern írom rising above a
certain level. But it exists in reptiles and fishes, where neither
in respect to food and digestion, admit of this explanation. In
the camel, which retains the water in its stomach, and in the
horse, where it passes very rapidly into the cæcum, the spleen
is as large as in other animals. In beasts of prey, which hardly
ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.
63
drink at all, it is as large and cellular as in the herbivorous
ruminant animals. Its size and its cells are particularly con-
spicuous in the latter : yet the fluids which they swallow, go
into the paunch, and not into the true digestive stomach.
. Although arguments from analogy are of great service in
physiology, and other departments of natural history, although
they throw light on obscure points, and give an interest to many
discussions, their employment requires caution, and they should
rather be resorted to for illustration than be relied on for direct
proof. Organs corresponding in situation and name are not
always constructed alike; hence a part is sometimes employed
in one class of animals for a different purpose from that which
the instrument of the same name and of analogous position in
the body executes in another. The gizzards of the gallinæ have
a prodigious triturating power; and those, who first ascertained
by experiment the extent of their power, were disposed to infer
that digestion is effected in man by mechanical attrition. Now,
the gizzard, although the corresponding part to our stomach, is
in structure and action the instrument of mastication; and, as
birds have no teeth, it is the only instrument for dividing the
hard grain on which they feed. Further inquiry shows, that
even in this stomach, which is covered by a thick insensible
cuticle, capable of bearing the friction of grain and siliceous
pebbles, digestion is really effected, as in the stomach of man,
by solution; the solvent juice being secreted by the large col-
lection of glands at the cardiac end of the oesophagus, and having
an operation similar to that of the gastric fuid of quadrupeds.
It has been argued, that the arteries of the mammalia must
have a contractile power, because, in some worms without a
heart, these vessels carry on the circulation alone. The whole
economy is too different in the two instances to admit of infe-
rences from analogy; the circulating apparatus, in particular, is
formed on plans altogether different in the two cases; and the
structure and actions of the vessels of worms, are, in fact, very
little known.
Because the vesiculæ seminales in some animals do not com-
municate with the vasa deferentia, and therefore cannot receive
the fluid secreted in the testicles, it has been inferred that they
do not serve the purpose of reservoirs for the seminal secretion
in man, where, however, they have so free a communication with
the vasa deferentia, that any fluids pass into and even distend
the former, before they go on into the urethra. The organic
arrangement is different in the two instances; and this difference
64
NATURE OF ūIFE.
leads us to expect a modification in the function, instead of
authorising us to infer that the same office is executed in exactly
the same manner in both cases. If we met with animals, in
whom the cystic duct opened into the small intestines separately
from the hepatic, shall we therefore infer that the human gall-
bladder is not a receptacle for the hepatic bile ?
Again, animals may be compared to each other. Each organ
must be examined in all the gradations of living beings; its
modifications compared and surveyed in relation to the varieties
of other parts, before a just notion of its functions can be formed.
This kind of examination of the animal kingdom, leads to what
may be called general anatomy, the basis of general physiology;
the objects of which are to determine the organization, and un-
fold the vital laws of the whole system of living beings.
In the physical sciences we have the power of insulating the
various objects of our research; of analysing them into their
component elements, of subtracting these successively, and thus
determining beforehand all the conditions of the problem we may
be studying. It would be desirable to employ the same proceed-
ing in natural history; and it is resorted to, when the objects
are sufficiently simple. But they are for the most part too com-
plicated, and connected too closely by mutual influences. We
cannot analyse an animal of the higher orders, and observe the
simple result of each organ by itself; for, if we destroy one part,
the motion of the whole machine is stopped. The phenomena
come before us under conditions not regulated by our own choice;
and in a state of complication requiring close attention and care-
ful discrimination to search out and determine the precise share
of each component part.
In this difficulty, comparative observations afford some assist-
ance. The animals of inferior classes are so many subjects of ex-
periment ready prepared for us; where any organ may be observed
under every variety of simplicity and complication in its own
structure: of existence alone, or in combination with others,
LECTURE IV.
Nalure of Lif?;-Methodical Arrangement of living Beings; Species, Varieties,
Genera, Orders, $C.-Progressive Simplification of Organization, and of Func-
tions.--Intellectual Functions of the Brain, in the natural and disordered State,
cxplained on the same Principles as the Offices of other Organs.
The notion of life is too complicated, embraces too many parti-
culars, to admit of a short definition. It varies in the different
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
.65
kinds of animals, as their structure and functions vary; so that
a description drawn from one would not be applicable to others
differently situated in the animal series. If we include in the
description those circumstances only, which are common to the
whole animal kingdom, we must direct our view to beings of
the most simple structure, where the phenomenon is reduced to
its essential features, and these are not obscured or confused by
accessary circumstances. .
The distinguishing characters of living beings will be found
in their texture or organization; in their component elements;
in their form; in their peculiar manifestations or phenomena;
and in the limits, that is, in the origin and termination of their
vital existence.
Their body is composed of solids and fluids; the former arranged
in fibres and laminæ, so as to intercept spaces, which are occupied
by the latter. The solids give the form to the body, and are con-
tractile. The fluids are generally in motion.
The component elements, of which nitrogen is a principal one;
united in numbers of three, four, or more, easily pass into new
combinations; and are, for the most part, readily convertible.
into fluid or gas.
Such a kind of composition, and such an arrangement of the
constituent parts, is called organization; and, as the vital pheno-
mena are only such motions as are consistent with these material
arrangements, life, so far as our experience goes (and we have
no other guide in these matters), is necessarily connected with
organization. Life presupposes organization, as the movements.
of a watch presuppose the wheels, levers, and other mechanism
of the instrument. .
The organization assumes certain definite forms in each kind
of animals; not merely in the external arrangement of the whole,
but in each part, and in all the details of each. On this depends
the kind of motion which each part can _exercise; the share
which it is capable of contributing to the general, vital move-
ment; which latter, or, in short, life, is the result of the mutual
actions and re-actions of all parts.
Living bodies exhibit a constant internal motion, in which we
observe an uninterrupted admission and assimilation of new, and
a correspondent separation and expulsion of old particles. The
form remains the same, the component particles are continually
changing. While this motion lasts, the body is said to be alive;
when it has irrecoverably ceased, to be dead. The organic struc-

66
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
ture then yields to the chemical affinities of the surrounding
agents, and is speedily destroyed.
All living beings have, in the first place, formed part of a body
like their own; have been attached to a parent before the period
of their independent existence. The new animal, while thus
connected, is called a germ : its separation constitutes generation
or birth. After this it increases in size according to certain fixed
laws for each species and each part.
The duration of existence is limited in all animals: after a longer
or shorter period the vital movements are arrested, and their
cessation or death seems to occur as a necessary consequence
of life.
Thus, then, absorption, assimilation, exhalation, generation,
and growth, are functions common to all living beings; birth
and death the universal limits of their existence; a reticular con-
tractile tissue, with fluids in its interstices, the general essence
of their structure; substances easily convertible into the state
of liquid or gas, and combinations readily changing, the basis of
tion, distinguish their species, determine the combination of
secondary functions peculiar to each, and assign to them their
respective situations in the system of the universe.
· After forming this general notion of living beings, we proceed
to examine the animal kingdom in detail. The first glance dis-
covers to us an infinite variety of forms; diversities so numerous,
that the attempt to observe and register the whole seems almost
hopeless. We find, however, that these forms, at first view so
infinitely various, admit of being classed together, of being
formed into groups, each of which is distinguished by certain
essential characters. In the latter all the animals comprehended
in each group agree; while they differ from each other in parti-
culars of minor importance.
• I have already mentioned that a fixed eternal form belongs to
each animal, and that it is continued by generation. Certain
forms, the same as those existing in the world at the present
inoment, have existed from time immemorial. Such, at least,
is the result of the separate and combined proofs furnished by
our own observation and experience respecting the laws of the
remains of antiquity, and by every kind of collateral evidence.
· All the animals belonging to one of these forms constitute
what zoologists call a SPECIES. This resemblance must not be
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
67
understood in a rigorous sense; for every being has its indivi.
dual characters of size, figure, colour, proportions. In this
sense the character of variety is stamped on all nature's works.
She has made it a fundamental law, that no two of her produc-
tions shall be exactly alike; and this law is invariably observed
through the whole creation. Each tree, each flower, each leaf,
exemplifies it; every animal has its individual character ; each
human being has something distinguishing in form, pro-
portions, countenance, gesture, voice; in feelings, thought, and
temper; its mental as well as corporeal physiognonay. This
variety is the source of every thing beautiful and interesting in
the external world; the foundation of the whole moral fabric of
the universe.
· I cannot help pointing out to you how strongly the voice of
nature, so clearly expressed in this obvious law, opposes all
attempts at making mankind act or think alike. Yet the legis-
lators and rulers of the world haye persisted for centuries in
endeavouring to reduce the opinions, the belief of their subjects,
to certain fancied standards of perfection ;-to impress on
human thought that dreary sameness, and dull monotony, which
all the discipline and all the rigour of a religious sect have been
hardly able to maintain in the outward garb of its followers.
The mind, however, cannot be drilled, cannot be made to move
at the word of command; it scorns all shackles; and rises with
fresh energy from every new attempt to bind it down on this bed
of PROCRUSTES.
All the oppression and persecution, all the bloodshed and
misery, which the attempts to produce uniformity have occa-
sioned, are, however, a less evil than the success of these mad
efforts would be, were it possible for them to succeed in opposi-
tion to the natural constitution of the human mind, to the
general scheme and plain design of nature.
The most powerful monarch of modern history, who exhibited
the rare example of a voluntary retreat from the cares of empire,
while still fully able to wield the sceptre, was rendered sensible
of the extreme folly he had been guilty of in attempting to pro-
duce uniformity of opinion among the numerous subjects of his
extensive dominions, by finding himself unable to make even
two watches go alike, although every part of this simple
mechanism was constructed, formed, and adjusted by himself.
The dear experience and the candid confession of CHARLES V.
were thrown away on his bigoted son ; who repeated on a still
F 2
68
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
grander scale, with fresh horrors and cruelties, the bloody expe-
nment of dragooning his subjects into uniformity, only to
instruct the world by a still more memorable failure.
remnants of ignorance and barbarism ; but much remains to be
done, before the final accomplishment of the grand purpose,
which, however delayed, cannot be ultimately defeated; I mean
the complete emancipation of the mind, the destruction of all
creeds and articles of faith, and the establishment of full freedom
of opinion and belief. I cannot doubt that a day will arrive,
when the attempts at enforcing uniformity of opinion will be
deemed as irrational, and as little desirable, as to endeavour at
producing sameness of face and stature.*
In the mean time, no efforts capable of accelerating a consum-
mation so beneficial to mankind should be omitted; and I have
therefore attempted to show you that, on this point, the analogies
invariable instructions of experience.
Certain external circumstances, as food, climate, mode of life,
have the power of modifying the animal organization, so as to
make it deviate from that of the parent. But this effect termi-
nates in the individual. Thus, a fair Englishman, if exposed to
the sun, becomes dark and swarthy in Bengal; but his offspring,
if from an English woman, are born just as fair as he himself
was originally: and the children, after any number of genera-
tions, that we have yet observed, are still born equally fair,
provided there has been no intermixture of dark blood.
Moreover, under certain circumstances, with which we are not
well acquainted, a more important change of organization occurs.
A new character springs up, and is propagated by generation :
this constitutes a VARIETY, in the language of naturalists. "The
number and degree of these variations are confined within nar-
row limits; they occur chiefly in the domesticated animals, and
have not interfered with the transmission and continuation of
those forms which constitute species. They will be more parti-
cularly considered hereafter.
• These opixions do not need the support of names, or I might cite Locke,
in whose Letters on Tolerolion all the great principles on which the freedom of
the human mind rests are fully developed, and unanswerably established.
This may be called speculation, theory, or other bad names: I have therefore
Inagistrate. See Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 261-270. Also the Appen-
aix, No. 3, containing “ An Act for establis ing religious Freedom passed in
the Assembly of Virginia in the beginning of the Year 1786 ;' an admirable model,
which has been perfectly successful, and hitherto adopted in no other part
of the world,
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
69
Proceeding, then, on the criterion of definite form, transmitted
by generation, we may define a species as a collection of ali the
individuals which have descended one from the other, or from
common parents, and of all those which resemble them as much
as they resemble each other. *
Thus, our first operation, in classifying the animal kingdom,
consists in referring individuals to their species. The next
brings together the species most nearly resembling each other,
and forms them into groupes called GENERA. This presupposes
a thorough knowledge of the animals; because the species
included under each genus should resemble each other more
closely, than the species of any other genus. For example, the
lion, tiger, lynx, leopard, panther, cat species, with some others,
compose the GENUS felis or cat. All these have a savage charac-
ter, as they prey on living animals. For this purpose they are
armed with powerful teeth, with great muscular strength in the
jaws, neck, and limbs. They all have the tongue and glans
penis covered with sharp, horny prickles ; and they are furnished
with curved, sharp, and cutting nails or claws, which, by a
peculiar mechanism, are retracted, so as not to press against the
ground when the animal is not employing them. Thus the
species in question all agree in the leading points of organization;
and they agree likewise in general habits and character. The
common cat is the only one actually domesticated; but the lion,
tiger, and others, are easily tamed and rendered familiar to man,
although their size and strength make them too dangerous for
playfellows; and many admit of training, so that they can be
employed in hunting.
The genera are again formed into groupes called ORDERS
thus the cow, sheep, goat, deer, antelope, camel, lama, and other
genera, compose the ORDER ruminantia. . All these feed on
vegetables, and submit their food to a double process of masti-
cation, in reference to which the stomach possesses a very pecu-
liar and complicated structure. This vegetable diet and this
process of rumination are connected with certain structures of
teeth and jaws, with particular arrangements of the organs of
sensation and motion, and with certain general habits, which
produce great similarity of character throughout the whole
order.
The different orders are again arranged into certain CLASSES.
Thus all the animals which are viviparous, and in which the
• Cuvier, Regne Animal; t. i. Introduction, p. 19.
70
ARRANGEMENT OF ANIMALS.
young are nourished for a certain time by a secretion of the
mother, are united into the class mammalia, or mammiferous
animals ; so called from their mammæ, or giandular organs,
which secrete the fluid nutriment of the young.
Lastly, the classes are assembled, on the same principle of
resemblance, into provinces or DEPARTMENTS of the animal
kingdom. The mammalia, birds, fishes, and reptiles, constitute
the DEPARTMENT vertebralia, or vertebral animals,-all of them
possessing a vertebral column or spine, the most important
piece of an internal articulated skeleton.
A scheme of the animal kingdom, drawn out on these prin-
ciples, is called a NATURAL METHOD or distribution, because
the natural relations or resemblances of the objects comprised in
it are the basis of its formation. To complete it, an accurate
knowledge of the whole animated creation is necessary, so that
it cannot be attempted, with any reasonable chance of success,
except in an advanced state of the science.
When such an arrangement has been properly executed ; that
is, when the animals have been assigned to each division
according to their resemblances of structure, so that the species of
each genus are alike, and more like to each other, than to those
of any other genus; and when the same remark is true. con-
cerning the genera of each order, the orders of each class, and
the classes of each department, it is an abridged expression of
the whole science, the embodied result of all our knowledge con-
cerning the structure and habits of animals. The place which
any animal occupies, denotes all the leading circumstances of its
organization and economy, and expresses them in few words.
We say, for example, that the dromedary belongs to the genus
CAMELUS, order RUMINANTIA, class MAMMALIA, and depart-
ment VERTEBRALIA. To a person conversant with the prin-
ciples of the arrangement, these four words convey a general
notion of the animal, which would otherwise require a length-
ened description
The great utility of this scientific short-hand writing in
abbreviating descriptions is too obvious to need illustration. It
is absolutely indispensable when we come to delineate the
structure and modifications of organs throughout the whole
animal kingdom. The recent work of Cuvier, entitled, the
“ Animal Kingdom distributed according to its Organization,”
contains the most complete and accurate view of the subject. .
If we contemplate living beings arranged in one line, begin-
SIMPLIFICATION OF ORGANIZATION. 71
ning with the most perfect, and continued downwards, we find
a tolerably regular gradation from complicated to simple,
through the whole series. At one end is man; at the other an
animated microscopic point, of which thousands are found in a
single drop of fluid. Numberless gradations are placed between
these ; so that, though the two ends of the chain are immea-
surably remote, there is close approximation between any two
links.
This simplification or degradation of the organization is
immediately perceptible on comparing together the four great
departments of the animal kingdom; and it is equally so in
each department. In the VERTEBRALIA, we pass from man to
the eel or serpent: in the MOLLUSCA, from the cuttle-fish to
the barnacle or oyster; in the ARTICULATA, from the crab or
lobster to the earth-worm or leech : in the RADIATA, from the
star-fish or medusa to an animalcule of infusions.
: The same progression is observable in each class; in the
mammalia, for example, we descend from man to the whale
or seal.
· A cursory general survey of the animal kingdom will show us
the gradual steps by which this simplification of the organization
is effected.
· The internal articulated skeleton, on which the figure, motions,
and other important properties of the vertebral animals, which
possess it, so much depend, ends in the vertebral department.fo
In some fishes it is reduced to the state of cartilage; and in
others it is so soft, as hardly to afford points sufficiently firm for
support and motion. External members for locomotion do not
exist in some vertebral animals, as serpents and certain fishes.
: The eyelids and lacrymal apparatus; the external ear and
tympanum; the organs of touch and taste; the parts called
cerebrum and cerebellum, do not extend beyond this depart-
ment, nor do they exist in all the animals belonging to this
division. The sympathetic nerve belongs only to the vertebral
department. I
: The primary division of the animal kingdom into the four departments
mentioned in the text, was proposed by Cuvier in the Annales du Museum
d' Elist. Nat. t. 19. The reasons on which the division is grounded, and the
principal anatomical characters of the four departments, may be seen in the
Regne Animal, Introduction, p. 57, et suiv.
#Unless we consider as a skeleton the curious and complicated arrangement
of connected bony pieces in the asterias; where, however, the principal parts
of the bony fabric are not applied, as in the vertebral animals, to the forma
tion of receptacles for the nervous system.
# If the simple nervous structures in some animals of the lover orders
'should be regarded as a sympathetic nerve, it will not materially affect our
72
SIMPLIFICATION OF ORGANIZATION.
The diaphragm ends with the mammalia ; so that the thorax
and abdomen are not distinct in any other animals.
The circulation is reduced in reptiles to the single state, and
is carried on by one auricle and ventricle.
Warmth of the blood—that is, a temperature of that fluid con-
siderably elevated above the surrounding medium-belongs only
to mammalia and birds; and the red colour of the same fluid is
confined, with yne small exception, to the vertebral animals.
Organs of voice end in reptiles ; not existing in fishes.
Viviparous generation, with its attendant process of suckling
the young, is confined to the mammalia; and is afterwards
succeeded by the more simple oviparous form.
Urinary organs end with the mammalia, many of which have
ro bladder, as birds, some fishes, and reptiles.
The absorbent system terminates in the vertebral department;
of which only the mammalia and birds possess lymphatic glands.
the number of its parts, and very imperfect in all respects, when
compared to that of the vertebral animals. They have no skeleton
to lodge the nervous system, and for the centre of motions; no
separate receptacles for the various internal organs; but the brain,
nervous cord, and viscera, are all placed in a common cavity.
In articulated animals the nervous system is reduced to a
knotted cord, and the organs of sense are gradually extinguished.
The heart ceases i inis department, and respiration also, as
carried on by a particular organ.
In the radiated department the organs of circulation finally
disappear; the heart having been before abolished. The ali-
mentary apparatus is reduced to a simple bag with one opening.
Finally, in the microscopic animalcules all special organs are at
view of the subject, so far as the simplification of the organization is con-
cerned. Treviranus regards the knotted abdominal cord of insects and worms
as the vertebral ganglia of the sympathetic nerve united into a symmetrical
19 hole. To call it a spinal marrow he thinks incorrect. " Its situation on
the abdominal instead of the dorsal aspect of the body, points out a great dif.
ference between it and the spinal marrow of the four vertebral classes. The
spiders and phalanyia, which in other respects are allied to other insects,
have no such cord, but, like the mollusca, single ganglia, not placed in a
straight direction one behind the other. A true spinal marrow is only found
in mammalia, birds, reptiles, and fishes." Biologie, b. y. p. 331, 332.
« In this view, the representation that the great sympathetic nerve belongs
only to red-blooded animals, must be deemed incorrect. This very nerve is
the most general, the original of all nerves; but it is variously modified in the
different classes. In worms and insects there are merely vertebral ganglia
without the cæliac ganglia of mammalia and birds; in the accphalous mol-
there are single ganglia of both kinds. All these lower animals have no spinal
marrow; fishes and reptiles have one, and also vertebral ganglia; but the
celiac ganglia either do not exist in them, or are uot so developed as in birds
and mammalia." Ibid. 334-5.
SIMPLIFICATION OF ORGANIZATION.
73
an end, and the animated being appears to our senses a spot of
mere jelly.
Take any organ, or system of organs, and the same progress
from complication to simplicity will be apparent. Let us observe
the nervous system. In man and the mammalia this apparatus
consists of a brain and spinal marrow, securely lodged in bony
called the great sympathetic nerve, and of the five external senses.
In passing through the mammalia, we observe the brain con-
siderably reduced in size; still farther diminished, and altered
in its figure and component parts, in birds ; lessened again, and
greatly simplified, in reptiles and fishes.
In the mollusca this large apparatus is reduced to one or more
small ganglia, with a few slender nerves; to which are added,
the rudiment of an ear in one instance only, and in some others
imperfect and almost doubtful organs of vision.
In articulated animals there is merely a straight cord with a
few branches; in some of the more complicated radiated animals
a few almost doubtful nervous branches; and below them nothing
neither brain, ganglia, nerves, nor organs of sense.
various animal structures, to follow any apparatus through the
whole animal series, unless the structure were a measure and
criterion of the function. Just in the same proportion as organiza-
tion is reduced, life is reduced ; exactly as the organic parts are
diminished in numberand simplified, the vital phenomena become
fewer and more simple; and each function ends, when the re-
spective organ ceases. This is true throughout zoology;, there
is no exception in behalf of any vital manifestations.
The same kind of facts, the same reasoning, the same sort of
evidence altogether, which show digestion to be the function of
the alimentary canal, motion of the muscles, the various secre-
tions of their respective glands, prove that sensation, perception,
memory, judgment, reasoning, thought, in a word, all the inani-
festations called mental or intellectual, are the animal functions
of their appropriate organic apparatus, the central organ of the
nervous system. No difficulty nor obscurity belongs to the
latter case, which does not equally affect all the former instances
no kind of evidence connects the living processes with the mate-
rial instruments in the one, which does not apply just as clearly
and forcibly to the other.
Shall I he told that thought is inconsistent with matter; that
174
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN,
we cannot conceive how medullary substance can perceive, re-
member, judge, reason? I acknowledge that we are entirely
ignorant how the parts of the brain accomplish these purposes
as we are how the liver secretes bile, how the muscles contract,
or how any other living purpose is effected :--as we are how
heavy bodies are attracted to the earth, how iron is drawn to
the magnet, or how two salts decompose each other. Experience
is in all these cases our sole, if not sufficient instructress; and
the constant conjunction of phenomena, as exhibited in her
lessons, is the sole ground for affirming a necessary connection
between them. If we go beyond this, and come to inquire the
manner how, the mechanism by which these things are effected,
we shall find every thing around us equally mysterious, equally
incomprehensible: from the stone, which falls to the earth, to
the comet traversing the heavens :--from the thread attracted
by amber or sealing-wax, to the revolutions of planets in their
orbits ;~from the formation of a maggot in putrid flesh, or a
mite in cheese, to the production of a NEWTON or a FRANKLIN.
: In opposition to these views it has been contended that thought
is not an act of the brain, but of an immaterial substance, residing.
in or connected with it. This large and curious structure, which,
in the human subject, receives one-fifth of all the blood sent out
from the heart, which is so peculiarly and delicately organized,
nicely enveloped in successive membranes, and securely lodged
in a solid bony case, is left almost without an office, being barely
allowed to be capable of sensation. It has, indeed, the easiest
Tot in the animal economy; it is better fed, clothed, and lodged
than any other part, and has less to do. But its office only one
remove above a sinecure--is not a very honourable one: it is a
kind of porter, intrusted to open the door, and introduce new
comers to the master of the house, who takes on himself the
entire charge of receiving, entertaining, and employing them.
Let us survey the natural history of the human mind;-its
rise, progress, various fates, and decay;--and then judge whether
these accord best with the hypothesis of an immaterial agent, or
with the plain dictates of common sense, and the analogy of
every other organ and function throughout the boundless extent.
of living beings.
You must bring to this physiological question a sincere and
earnest love of truth; dismissing from your minds all the pre-
judices and alarms which have been so industriously connected
with it. If you enter on the inquiry in the spirit of the bigot
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN.
75
and partisan, suffering a cloud of fears and hopes, desires and
aversions, to hang round your understandings, you will never
discern objects clearly; their colours, dimensions, will be con-
fused, distorted, and obscured by the intellectual mist. Our
business is to inquire what is true; not what is the finest theory;
not what will supply the best topics of pretty composition and
eloquent declamation, addressed to the prejudices, the passions,
and the ignorance of our hearers. We need not fear the result
of investigation : truth is like a native rustic beauty, most lovely
when unadorned, and seen in the open light of day: your fine
hypothesis and specious theories are like the unfortunate females
who supply the want or the loss of native charms, and repair
the breaches of age or disease by paint, finery, and decorations,
which can only be exhibited in the glaring lights, the artificial
atmosphere, and the unnatural scenery of the theatre or saloon.
Whenever it is thoroughly discussed, truth will not fail to come,
like tried gold from the fire. Like AJAX, it requires nothing
but day-light and fair play.
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual antidotes of
error. Give them full scope, and they will uphold the truth by ...
bringing false opinions and all the spurious offspring of ignorance,
prejudice, and self-interest, before their severe tribunal, and
subjecting them to the test of close investigation. Error alone
needs artificial support: truth can stand by itself.
Sir EvERARD HOME, with the assistance of Mr. BAUER and
his microscope, has shown us a man eight days old from the
time of conception; about as broad, and a little longer than a
pin's head. He satisfied himself that the brain of this homun-
culus was discernible. Could the immaterial mind have been
connected with it at this time; or was the tenement too small
even for so etherial a lodger? At the full period of utero-gesta-
tion it is still difficult to trace any vestiges of mind, and the be-
lievers in its separate existence have left us quite in the dark on
the precise time at which the spiritual guest arrives in his cor-
poreal dwelling, the interesting and important moment of amal.
gamation or combination of the earthly dust and the ethereal
essence. The Roman Catholic church has cut the knot, which
no one else could untie, and has decided that the little mortal,
on its passage into this world of trouble, has a soul to be saved;
it accordingly directs and authorizes midwives, in cases of diffi-
cult labour, where the death of the infant is apprehended, to
baptise it by means of a syringe introduced into the vagina, and
thus to save it from perdition
76
FUNCTIONS T
OF THE BRAIN.
They, whose scruples are not quite set at rest by the above-
mentioned decision of the church, nor by being told that the
mind has not yet taken up its quarters in the brain, endeavour
to account for the entire absence of mental phenomena at the
time of birth by the senses and brain not having been yet called
into action by the impressions of external objects.
These organs begin to be exercised as soon as the child is
born; and a faint glimmering of mind is dimly perceived in the
course of the first months of existence; but it is as weak and
infantile as the body.
As the senses acquire their powers, and the cerebral jelly
becomes firmer, the mind gradually strengthens; slowly advances,
with the body, through childhood to puberty, and becomes adult
when the development of the frame is complete: it is, moreover,
male or female, according to the sex of the body. In the perfect
period of organization, the mind is seen in the plenitude of its
powers; but this state of full vigour is short in duration both
for the intellect and the corporeal fabric. The wear and tear of
the latter is evidenced in its mental movements; with the decline
of organization the mind decays: it becomes decrepit with the
body; and both are at the same time extinguished by death.
What do we infer from this succession of phenomena ?-The
existence and action of a principle entirely distinct from body? or
a close analogy to the history of all other organs and functions ?
The number and kind of the intellectual phenomena in dif-
ferent animals correspond closely to the degree of development
of the brain. The mind of the Negro and Hottentot, of the
Calmuck and the Carib, is inferior to that of the European ; and
their organization is also less perfect. The large cranium and
high forehead of the orang-outang lift him above his brother
monkeys; but the development of his cerebral hemispheres and
his mental manifestations are both equally below those of the
negro The gradation of organization and of mind passes
through the monkey, dog, elephant, horse, to other quadrupeds;
thence to birds, reptiles, and fishes; and so on to the lowest
links of the animal chain.
In ascending these steps of one ladder, following in regular
succession at equal intervals, where shall we find the boundary
of unassisted organization ? where place the beginning of the
immaterial adjunct ? In that view, which assimilates the func-
tions of the brain to those of other organic parts, this case has
no difficulty. As the structure of the brain is more exquisite,
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN.
777
perfect, and complex, its functions ought to be proportionally
so. It is no slight proof of the doctrine now enforced, that the
fact is actually thus ; that the mental powers of brutes, as far as
we can see, are proportional to their orginization.
We cannot deny to animals all participation in rational endow-
ments, without shutting our eyes to the most obvious facts ;-to
indications of reasoning, which the unprejudiced observation of
mankind has not failed to recognise and appreciate. Without
adverting to the well-known instances of comparison, judgment,
and sagacity, in the elephant, the dog, and many other animals,
let us read the character drawn by HUMBOLDT of the South
American mules.
“When the mules feel themselves in danger, they stop, turn-
ing their heads to the right and to the left : the motion of their
ears seems to indicate that they reflect on the decision they
ought to take. Their resolution is slow, but always just, if it be
free; that is to say, if it be not crossed nor hastened by the
imprudence of the traveller. It is on the frightful roads of the
Andes, during journeys of six or seven months across the moun-
tains furrowed by torrents, that the intelligence of horses and
beasts of burden displays itself in an astonishing manner. Thus
the mountaineers are heard to say, 'I will not give you the mule
whose step is the easiest, but him who reasons best.'"*
If the intellectual phenomena of man require an immaterial
principle superadded to the brain, we must equally concede it to
those more rational animals, which exhibit manifestations differ-
ing from some of the human only in degree. If we grant it to
these, we cannot refuse it to the next in order, and so on in
succession to the whole series; to the oyster, the sea anemone,
the polype, the microscopic animalcules. Is any one prepared
to admit the existence of immaterial principles in all these cases ?
if not, he must equally reject it in man.
It is admitted that an idiot with a malformed brain has no
mind; that the sagacious dog and half-reasonable elephant do
not require any thing superadded to their brains; it is allowed
that a dog or elephant excels inferior animals in consequence of
possessing a more perfect cerebral structure; it is strongly sus-
pected that a NEWTON or a SHAKSPEARE excels other mortals
only by a more ample development of the anterior cerebral lobes,
by having an extra inch of brain in the right place: yet the
immaterialists will not concede the obvious corollary of all
these admissions ; viz., that the mind of man is merely that more
• Personal Narrative, v. iii.
78
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN.
perfect exhibition of mental phenomena, which the more com-
plete development of the brain would lead us to expect, and still
perplex us with the gratuitous difficulty of their immaterial
hypothesis. Thought, it is positively and dogmatically asserted,
cannot be an act of matter. Yet no feelings, no thought, no
intellectual operation has ever been seen except in conjunction
with a brain ; and living matter is acknowledged by most per-
sons to be capable of what makes the nearest possible approach
to thinking. The strongest advocate for immaterialism seeks
no further than the body for his explanation of all the vital pro-
cesses, of muscular contraction, nutrition, secretion, &c.;
operations quite as different from any affection of inorganic sub-
stance, as reasoning and thought. He will even allow the brain
to be capable of sensation.
Who knows the capabilities of matter so perfectly, as to be
able to say that it can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel, but cannot
possibly reflect, imagine, judge? Who has appreciated them so
exactly, as to be able to decide that it can execute the mental
functions of an elephant, a dog, or an orang-outang, but cannot
perform those of a Negro or a Hottentot ?
To say that a thing of merely negative properties, that is, an
immaterial substance, which is neither evidenced by any direct
testimony, nor by any indirect proof from its effects, does exist,
and can think, is quite consistent in those who deny thought to
animal structures, where we see it going on every day.
If the mental processes be not the function of the brain, what
is its office? In animals, which possess only a small part of the
human cerebral structure, sensation exists, and in many cases is
more acute than in man. What employment shall we find for
all that man possesses over and above this portion ;-for the
large and prodigiously developed human hemispheres ? Are we
to believe that these serve only to round the figure of the organ,
or to fill the cranium?
It is necessary for you to form clear opinions on this subject,
as it has immediate reference to an important branch of patho-
logy. They who consider the mental operations as acts of an
immaterial being, and thus disconnect the sound state of the
mind from organization, act very consistently in disjoining
insanity also from the corporeal structure, and in representing
it as a disease, not of the brain, but of the mind. Thus we come
to disease of an immaterial being, for which, suitably enough,
moral treatment has been recommended.
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN.
79
I firmly believe, on the contrary, that the various forms of
insanity, that all the affections comprehended under the general
term of mental derangement, are only evidences of cerebral
affections :disordered manifestations of those organs, whose
healthy action produces the phenomena called mental !-in
short, symptoms of diseased brain.
These symptoms have the same relation to the brain, as
vomiting, indigestion, heartburn, to the stomach; cough, asthma,
to the lungs; or any other deranged functions to their corres-
ponding organs.
If the biliary secretion be increased, diminished, suspended,
or altered, we have no hesitation in referring to changes in the
condition of the liver, as the immediate cause of these pheno-
mena. We explain the state of respiration, whether slow, hur-
ried, impeded by cough, spasm, &c. by the various conditions of
the lungs, and other parts concerned in breathing. These expla-
nations are deemed perfectly satisfactory.
· organs have nothing to do with the business; that colera, jaun-
dice, hepatitis, are diseases of an immaterial hepatic being; that
asthma, cough, consumption, are affections of a subtle pul-
monary matter, or that in both cases the disorder is not in
bodily organs, but in a vital principle ? If such a statement
would be deemed too absurd for any serious comment in the
derangements of the liver, lungs, and other organic parts, how
can it be received in the brain ?
The very persons who use this language of diseases of the
mind, speak and reason correctly respecting the other affections
of the brain. When it is compressed by a piece of bone, or by
effused blood or serum, and when all intellectual phenomena
are more or less completely suspended, they do not say that the
mind is squeezed, that the immaterial principle suffers pressure.
For the ravings of delirium and frenzy, the excitation and sub-
sequent stupor of intoxication, they find an adequate explanation
in the state of the cerebral circulation, without fancying that
the mind is delirious, mad, or drunk.
In these cases the seat of the disease, the cause of the symp-
toms, is too obvious to escape notice. In many forms of insa-
nity the affection of the cerebral organization is less strongly
marked, slower in its progress, but generally very recognisable,
and abundantly sufficient to explain the diseased manifestations;
-to afford a material organic cause for the phenomena-for the
80
FUNCTIONS RY
OF THE BRAIN.
augmented or diminished energy, or the altered nature of the
various feelings and intellectual faculties.
I have examined after death the heads of many insane persons,
and have hardly seen a single brain, which did not exhibit
obvious marks of disease. In recent cases, loaded vessels, in-
creased serous secretions : in all instances of longer duration,
unequivocal signs of present or past increased action ;-blood-
vessels apparently more numerous, membranes thickened and
opaque, depositions of coagulable lymph forming adhesious or
adventitious membranes, watery effusions, even abscesses. Add
to this, that the insane often become paralytic, or are suddenly
cut off by apoplexy.
Sometimes, indeed, the mental phenomena are disturbed,
without any visible deviation from the healthy structure of the
brain; as digestion or biliary secretion may be impaired or
altered without any recognisable change of structure in the
stomach or liver. The brain, like other parts of this compli-
cated machine, may be diseased sympathetically; and we see it
recover.
Thus we find the brain, like other parts, subject to what is
called functional disorder ; but, although we cannot actually
demonstrate the fact, we no more doubt that the material cause
of the symptoms or external signs of disease is in this organ,
than we do that impaired biliary secretion has its source in the
liver, or faulty digestion in the stomach. The brain does not
often come under the inspection of the anatomist, in such cases
of functional disorder; and I am convinced, from my own
experience, that very few heads of persons dying deranged will
be examined after death, without showing diseased structure or
evident signs of increased vascular activity.
The effect of medical treatment completely corroborates these
views. Indeed they, who talk of and believe in diseases of the
mind, are too wise to put their trust in mental remedies. Argu-
ments, syllogisms, discourses, sermons, have never yet restored
any patient; the moral pharmacopæia is quite inefficient, and
no real benefit can be conferred without vigorous medical treat-
ment, which is as efficacious in these affections, as in the disease
of any other organs.
In thus drawing your attention to the physiology of the brain,
I have been influenced, not merely by the intrinsic interest and
importance of the subject, but by a wish to exemplify the aid,
which human and comparative anatomy and physiology are
FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN.
81
capable of affording each other, and to show how the data fur-
nished by both tend to illustrate pathology. I have purposely
avoided noticing those considerations of the tendency of certain
physiological doctrines, which have sometimes been indus-
triously mixed up with these disquisitions. In defence of a
weak cause, and in failure of direct arguments, appeals to the
passions and prejudices have been indulged, attempts have been
made to fix public odium on the supporters of this or that opi-
nion, and direct charges of bad motives and injurious conse-
quences have been reinforced by all the arts of misrepresentation,
insinuation, and inuendo.
To discover truth, and to represent it in the clearest and most
intelligible manner, seem to me the only proper objects of
physiological, or indeed of any other inquiries. Free discussion
is the surest way, not only to disclose and strengthen what is
true, but to detect and expose what is fallacious. Let us not
then pay so bad a compliment to truth, as to use in its defence
foul blows and unlawful weapons. Its adversaries, if it has
any, will be dispatched soon enough without the aid of the
stiletto and the bowl. :
The argument against the expediency of divulging an opinion,
although it may be true, from the possibility of its being per-
verted, has been so much hackneyed, so often employed in the
last resort by the defenders of all established abuses and errors,
that every one, who is conversant with controversy, rejects it
immediately as the sure mark of a had cause, as the last refuge
of retreating error.
82
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
THE following remarks on those parts of the natural history of our species,
which admit of illustration from human and comparative anatomy and phy-
siology, formed twelve Lectures delivered after the three foregoing at the
Royal College of Surgeons in the past summer (1818). They are here ar-
ranged according to the natural divisions of the subject, without any refe-
rence to the arbitrary distinctions of the particular Lectures, which are there-
fore entirely omitted.
CHAPTER I.
therto neglected, and very erroneous Notions consequently prevalent.-Sources
of Information.--Anatomical Characters of the Monkcy Tribe, and more parti-
cularly of the Orang-outang and Chimpanse: Specific Character of Man.
sus fluminum, et gyros siderum :relinquunt seipsos nec mirantur.'_.
S. AUGUSTINUS.
THE natural history of man, in its most comprehensive sense,
constitutes a subject of immense extent and of endless variety;.
or rather includes several very important subjects, if we attempt
to describe both the individual and the species. In a complete
history of man, it would be necessary, in respect to the former,
to relate the phenomena of his first production, to examine his
anatomical structure, his bodily and intellectual functions, his
propensities and feelings, his diseases; and to pursue his pro-
gress from the time of birth to the grave: in reference to the
latter, to point out the circumstances that distinguish him from
other animals, and to determine the precise degree and kind of
resemblance or difference, of specific affinity or diversity
between them and ourselves; to compare or contrast with each
other the various nations or tribes of human beings, to delineate
the physical and moral characters of the people inhabiting the
different portions of the globe, and to trace their progress from
the first rudiments of civil society to the state at which they are
now arrived. To write such a history of our species would
demand a familiar acquaintance with nearly the whole circle of
human knowledge, and a combination of the most opposite pur-
suits and talents. This labour, much too extensive to be pro-
perly executed by any individual, is divided into several
subordinate branches. The anatomist and physiologist unfold
the construction and uses of the corporeal mechanism; the
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 83
surgeon and physician describe its diseases; while the metaphy-
sician and moralist employ themselves with those functions,
which constitute the mind, and with the moral sentiments. Man
in society, his progress in the various countries and ages of the
world, his multiplication and extension, are the province of the
historian and political economist.
I design, on the present occasion, to consider man as an object
of zoology ;-to describe him as a subject of the animal kingdom.
I shall therefore first enumerate, and consider the distinctions
between him and animals; and shall then describe, and attempt
to account for the principal differences between the various races
of mankind:
Although the questions, which now come before us in such a
review of the subject, as I now speak of, are of very high interest
and importance, and although the principles derived from these
investigations throw a strong light on many dark points in meta-
physics and morals, in legislation, history, antiquities, and the
fine arts, we shall find that they have not been investigated with
a corresponding degree of attention and perseverance.
What climates, what degrees of heat and cold can man bear?
How is he able to endure all the diversified external influences
of such various abodes? Is he indebted for this privilege to the
strength and flexibility of his organization, or to his mental
functions, his reason, and the arts which he has thence derived ?
Is he a species broadly and clearly distinguished from all others;
or is he specifically allied to the orang-outang and other mon-
keys? What are his corporeal, what his mental distinctions ?
Are the latter different în kind, or only superior in degree to
those of the higher animals? Is there one species of men only, or
are there many distinct ones? What particulars of external form
and inward structure characterize the several races? What
relation is observed between the differences of structure and
those of moral feeling, mental powers, capability of civilization,
and actual progress in arts, sciences, literature, government?
How is man affected by the external influences of climate, food,
way of life? Are these, or any others, operating on beings ori-
ginally alike, sufficient to account for all the diversities hitherto
observed.; or must we suppose that several kinds of men were.
created originally, each for its own situation? If we adopt the
supposition of a single species, what country did it first
inhabit? and what was the appearance of the original man?
Did he go erect, or on all fours? was he a Patagonian, or an
Esquimaux, a Negro, or a Georgian?.
G2
84 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
Such are the inquiries that claim our attention in a zoological
survey of the human species. To suppose that it is in my
power to furnish satisfactory replies, would be a degree of pre-
sumption which it is hardly necessary for me to disclaim. I
inention them only as examples; and I take the liberty of adding
my firm conviction, that these and similar matters will never be
cleared up except by those who are thoroughly acquainted with
the anatomy and physiology of our frame, with comparative ana-
tomy, with the principles of general physiology, and the ana-
logies derivable from the whole extent of living nature. I shall
be contented with having called your attention to a subject,
which falls within the province of our own pursuits; and with
exhibiting specimens of the mode of proceeding, and the objects
to be kept in view. The natural history of man is, indeed, yet in
its infancy; so that a complete view of the subject could not be
attempted. The description and arrangement of the various
productions of the globe have occupied numerous observers in
all ages of the world ; 'and have engaged their attention so
exclusively, that they have had no time to think of themselves.
Every reptile, bird, insect, plant, even every mineral has had its
historian, and been described with minute accuracy, while the
human subject has been comparatively neglected. In a'volu-
minous work, now publishing in this country, entitled General
Zoology, or Systematic Natural History, manis altogether omitted
without notice or apology. Accurate, beautiful, and expensive
engravings have been executed of most objects in natural his.
tory, of insects, birds, plants : splendid and costly publications
have been devoted to small and apparently insignificant depart-
ments of this science, yet the different races of man have hardly
in any instance been attentively investigated, described, or com-
pared together: no one has approximated and surveyed in
conjunction their structure and powers: no attempt has been
made to delineate them, I will not say on a large and compre-
hensive, but not even on a small and contracted scale; nobody
has ever thought it worth while to bestow on a faithful delinea-
tion of the several varieties of man one-tenth of the labour and
expense which have been lavished again and again on birds of
paradise, pigeons, parrots, humming-birds, beetles, spiders, and
many other such objects. Even intelligent and scientific travel-
lers have too often thrown away on dress, arms, ornaments,
utensils, buildings, landscapes, and obscure antiquities, the
utmost luxury of engraving and embellishment, neglecting
entirely the being, without reference to whom none of these
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
85
objects possess either value or interest. In many very expen-
sive works one is disappointed at meeting in long succession
with prints of costumes--summer dresses and winter dresses,
court and common dresses--the wearer in the mean time being
entirely lost sight of.* The immortal historian of nature seems
to have alluded to this strange neglect, in observing “ quelqu'in-
terêt que nous ayons à nous connaître nous mêmes, je ne sais si
nous ne connaissons pas mieux tout ce qui n'est pas nous.”+
Indeed, whether we investigate the physical or the moral nature
of man, we recognise at every step the limited extent of our
knowledge, and are obliged to confess that ignorance, which a
ROUSSEAU and a Burron have not been ashamed to avow :-
“ The most useful, and the least successfully cultivated of all
human knowledge is that of man; and the inscription I on the
temple of Delphi contained a more important and difficult pre..
cept than all the books of the moralists.”'s
That the greatest ignorance has prevailed on this subject, even
in modern times, and among men of distinguished learning and
acuteness, is shown by the strange notion very strenuously,
asserted by MONBODDO || and ROUSSEAU, and firmly believed
by many, that man and the monkey, or at least the orang-outang,
belong to the same species, and are no otherwise distinguished
from each other, than by circumstances, which can be accounted
for by the different physical and moral agencies, to which they
have been exposed. The former of these writers even supposes
that the human race once possessed tails; and he says, “the
orang-outangs are proved to be of our species by marks of huma-
nity that I think are incontestable.” A poor compliment to our
species; as any one will think, who may take the trouble of pay-
ing a morning visit to the orang-outang at Exeter Change.
Misled by his strange and fanciful notions of the unnatural
condition of man in society, ROUSSEAU has even applied the
Among the few works, in which we meet with characteristic delineations
of the human species deserving confidence, may be mentioned, Voyages de
C. Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Pörse, el aux Indes Orientals, 2 t. fol."
Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World, 2 v. 4to. 1777.
Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean; 3 v. to. 1785 : with folio Atlas.
Both these contain numerous excellent representations of the human subject.
Peron Voyage aux Terres Australes, tom. 1, has the best figures of human
heads yet published. There are numerous heads in Denon Voy. dans la
Haute et Bassc Egypte, pl. 104-112: and some in the unrivalled Description
de l'Egypte; Etat moderne. A few other references will be found in the
course of this work.
+ " De la Nature de l'Homme." Hist. Nat. l, 2. This great naturalist and
eloquent writer must be excepted from the remarks in the text. He treats
largely of man in the 20 and 3d volumes of the Histoire Naturelle Générale et
Particulière.
I'vwol EAUTOV.
& Discours sur l'Inégalité; Preface.
il On the Origin and Progress of Language, v. l; and ancient Metaphysics,
v. 3.
86 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
observations of travellers concerning animals to man; and if we
think fit to believe with him, that he knew better what they saw
than they did themselves, we may arrive at his conclusion con-
cerning the existence of wild men in an insulated and solitary
state similar to that of wild beasts.*
ROUSSEAU only show that they were equally unacquainted with
the structure and functions of men and monkeys, not conversant
with zoology and physiology, and therefore entirely destitute of
the principles, on which alone a sound judgment can be formed
concerning the natural capabilities and destiny of animals, as
certain departures from the original stock, may take place.
Mankind in general, the unlearned and the unscientific, do
not commit the gross mistake of confounding together man and
animals: this distinction, at least, so clear and obvious to common
observation and unprejudiced common sense, is preserved in
their short division of the animal kingdom into man and brutes.
Other writers, who expatiate with vast delight on what they
call the regular gradation or chain of beings, and discover great
wisdom of the Creator, and great beauty of the creation, in the
circumstance, that nature makes no leaps, but has connected the
various objects of the three kingdoms together like the steps of
a staircase, or the links of a chain, represent man only as a more
perfect kind of inonkey; and condemn the poor African to the
degrading situation of a connecting link between the superior
races of mankind and the orang-outang. Such is the view ex-
hibited by Mr. White, in his Account of the regular Gradation
in Man, and in different Animals and Vegetables, and from the
former to the latter;where he distinctly asserts that “the orang-
"Toutes ces observations sur les variétés que mille causes peuv
duire et ont produit en effet dans l'espèce humaine, nie font douter si divers
animaux semblables aux hommes, pris par des voyageurs pour des bêtes sans
beaucoup d'examen, ou à cause de quelques différences qu'ils remarquoient
dans la conformation exterieure, ou seulement parce que ces animaux ne
parloient pas, ne seroient point en effet de véritables hommes sauvages, dont
la race dispersée anciennement dans les bois n'avoit eu occasion de dévelop-
per aucune de ses facultés virtuelles, n'avoit acquis aucun degré de perfection,
et se trouvoit encore dans l'état primitif de nature." Lib. cit.
† Besides the subject of gradation from man to animals and vege tables, this
work includes observations on the varieties of organization in mankind,
which the author accounts for by the supposition of species originally distinct,
although he has omitted to fix the number and define the characters of those
species. I expect to show hereafter that this opinion is entirely ungrounded.
Mr. White indulges frequently in a looseness of expression and reasoning,
which renders his meaning very obscure. When he compares the African to
the European, the statement is not very precise : but when he brings in the
Asiatic, as iſ all the human beings in that immense region were marked with
one and the same character, the language conveys to us either no definito
sense, or one completely wrong.
ON THIE NATURAL HISTORY TNT
OF MAN. 87
outang has the person, the manner, and the actions of man"
(p. 35); and that the Negro "seems to approach nearer to the
brute creation than any other of the human species” (p. 42). If,
by regular gradation, nothing more is meant than the variety of
organization and its progressive simplification from man through-
out the animal kingdom, the truth is incontestable, and too
obvious to require a quarto for its illustration or support. On
the contrary, if it be designed to assert identity of species between
ourselves and monkeys, the position is quite untenable. At all
events, both the statements quoted above are more or less
incorrect.
That the Negro is more like a monkey than the European,
cannot be denied as a general observation. But why is the Negro
always selected for this comparison ? The New Hollander, the
Calmuck, the native American, are not superior to the Africans,
and are as much like monkeys. Why then is the Negro alone
to be depressed to a level with the brute? to fill up the break in
Mr. WHITE's chain between the European and the monkey? :
I do not hesitate to assert that the notion of specific identity.
between the African and orang-outang (on which point Mr.
WHITE's language is not sufficiently clear to enable me to decide
what he means) is as false philosophically, as the moral and
political consequences, to which it would lead are shocking and
detestable. The human species has numerous distinctive marks,
by which, under every circumstance of deficient or imperfect
civilization, and every variety of country and race, it is separated
by a broad and clearly defined interval from all other animals,
even of those species, which from their general resemblance to
us have been called anthropo-morphous.
It is only of late years, and principally through the labours,
the lectures, and the excellent writings of BĻUMENBACH,* that
the natural history of man has begun to receive its due share of
attention; and I liave no hesitation in asserting, that, whether
we regard the intrinsic importance of the questions that arise,
and their relation to the affinities, migrations, and history of
nations, or advert merely to the pleasure of the research, no
subject will be found more worthy of minute investigation. The
* He cliose the varieties of mankind for the subject of his inaugural thesis:
Goetting. 1775, 4to. ; and afterwards published it under the title De Generis
humani Variciale naliva, 12mo, of which the third and last edition appeared
in 1795. See also his Decades Craniorum diversarum Gentium illustrata;
1-5; Goetting. 1790-1808; his Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte; lr. u. 2. tlieil,
Gött. 1790 and isll; his Handbuch der Naturgeschichte; ed. 9, 1814; and his
Abbildungen Natur-historischer Geycnstände; more particularly 1s. heft. i
88
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
example of BUFFON * and BLUMENBACH has been followed by
some others; as ZIMMERMANN, MEINERS, SOEMMERING, S
LUDWIG, || in Germany, T HUNTER** and KAIMES 77. in
Scotland; SMITH II in America; and Dr. PRICHARD $$ in this
country, whose clear statements, convincing reasoning, and very
extensive information, stamp the highest value on his interesting
work, and distinguish it very advantageously from most other
productions on the same subject.
LINNEUS places man in the order prirates of the class. MAM-
MALIA, and has given him for companions the monkeys, lemurs,
and bats; of which the latter, at least, must be not a little sur-
prised at finding themselves in such a situation and company.
The characters of his order are, “Front teeth incisors; the supe-
rior, four; parallel. Two pectoral mammæ.”
The principles must be incorrect, which lead to such an
approximation.
As the monkey race approach the nearest to man, in structure
and actions, and their forms are so much like the human, as to
have procured for them the epithet anthropo-morphous, we must
compare them to man, in order to find out the specific characters
of the latter; and we must institute this comparison particularly
with those called orang-outangs. I shall have frequent occasion,
in this part of the subject, to mention the latter animal; it is
therefore necessary to explain clearly what creature I mean to
designate by that name; and the more so, as two distinct species,
and sometimes perhaps more, have been confounded under that
* See note, p. 122.
+ Geographische Geschichte der Menschen, und der allgemein verbreiteten vicr..
füssigen Thieren, 3 v. Svo. Leipsic, 1778-1783.
# Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit; Lemgo, 1793. A short but in
teresting work : particularly valuable from the very extensive erudition of the
author; and froin a copious catalogue of books, accompanied with short no-
tices of their character..
Gollingisches historisches Magazin, 11 v. His work entitled Verschiedenheit
der Menschen-naturen, which I have not scen, contains, I believe, the detached
essays and treatises of the Historisches Maguain collected together and arranged.
i Uher die körperliche Verschiedenheit des Negers vom Europaer, 8vo. Franko
fort, 1785.
|| Grundriss der Naturgeschichte der Menschen Species; Leipsic, 1796.
ST Some other books have been published in Germany, with which I am not
acquainted; piz., J. R. Forster and Klugel Mbildungen merkwurdiger Välker
und Thicre; Halle, 1793, 8vo.
G. Forster und Sprengel Beyträge zur Völker und Länderkunde.
** Dissi inaug. de Hominuin Varicialibus ; Edinb. 1775; and in Webster's
Collection.
it Skelches of the History of Man; 2 v. 8vo. Edinburgh.
#1 Essay on the Causes of the Variety of complexion and Figure in the Human
Species; Philadelphia; reprinted London, 1789.
38 Disp. inaug. de Hominum Varietatibus; Edin. 1808: greatly enlarged.
and translated into English under the title, Researches on the Physical History
of Man; 8vo. 1813.
CHARACTERS OF THE MONKEY' TRIBE. 89
common appellation. This is the case even with LINNCUS,
BUFFON, and ERXLEBEN; in whom the mistake is easily.
accounted for by the rareness of the animals, both of which are
very seldom seen in Europe. BLUMENBACH has pointed out
and rectified the error, both in his Manual of Natural History,
and in his Delineations of Objects in Natural History
All the simiæ, and the lemurs likewise, are quadrumanous ;
that is, they possess opposable members, or thumbs on the hind,
as well as on the fore limbs; they have perfect clavicles; perfect
pronation and supination of the fore-arm; long and flexible
fingers and toes: hence they have the power of imitating many
human actions; hence, too, they are excellent climbers. On the
other hand, they cannot easily stand or walk upright, because
the foot rests on its outer edge, the heel does not touch the
ground, and the narrowness of the pelvis renders the trunk un-
steady. Consequently, they are neither biped, nor strictly
quadruped. They resemble man in the general form of the
cranium, and in the configuration of the brain ; of which, how-
ever, the cerebral hemispheres are greatly reduced. The face is --
turned forwards; the optic axes are parallel; the orbits com-
plete, and separate from the temporal fosse. The nose is flat
(hence the name simia, from simus, flat-nosed), and has a single
triangular os nasi.
In this QUADRUMANOUs order there is a constantly increasing
deviation from the human structure, by increased elongation of
the muzzle, and advances to the quadruped attitude and pro-
gression. They have the same number and kinds of teeth as
man; and an alimentary canal very much like the human. Their
pectoral mammæ and loose penis are other approximations.
In so large a family as the monkeys we shall expect to meet
with considerable varieties of form, and to find that the human
character is strongly expressed in some, while others exhibit
successive degrees of approximation towards the neighbouring
animals.
The division of Orangs, which is the most strongly anthropo-
morphous, and includes the two simiæ confounded together
under the names of orang-outang, pongo, jocko, barris, &c. and
two others called gibbons (S. Lar, or long-armed monkey; S.
Leucisca, or wouwou), is characterized by the slight prominence
of the jaws, so that they have a large facial angle; by the want
of tail; by possessing an os hyoides, liver, and cæcum like the
human: the latter part as an appendix vermiformis as in man.
They have very long arms.
90 CHARACTERS OF THE MONKEY TRIBE.
The simia satyrus * is the true animal so much celebrated
under the name of the orang-outang.+ It is principally, if not
solely, found on the great island of Borneo, whence it has been
sometimes brought to us through Java. It is about three feet
in height; as the specimens conveyed hither have been young,
we may suppose that it would reach to between three and four
feet when grown up; but none have been seen in Europe ex-
ceeding three feet. The body is covered with strong reddishi
brown hair. The front of the head has a very human character,
the forehead being large and high, and the facial angle conse-
quently considerable : indeed, no animal approaches to man so
nearly as this, in the form of the head and volume of the brain.
The face is bluish or lead-coloured: there are no cheek pouches
nor collosities of the buttocks. Two large membranous bags
cover the front of the neck under the skin, and open into the
larynx between the os hyoides and thyroid cartilage: a structure
which spoils him from speaking. The thumb of the hind hand
similar to ours, and some appearances of human feeling. It
soon becomes attached, and imitates very quickly whatever we
do. A state of captivity, in climates and with diet unfriendly to
its nature, is not well calculated to develop its feelings and powers,
or to lead to a just estimate of its faculties and intelligence.
The reports of travellers concerning its immense strength and
ferocity, its stature represented as equal or superior to that of
man, its carrying off women and so forth, do not accord either
with the size or the dispositions of the creature as observed in
the examples brought into Europe. They must probably be
referred partly to exaggeration and partly to the circumstance of
* Blumenbach Abbildungen n. h. Gegenstande; No. 12; the cranium, No. 52.
The animal has been figured by Vosmaer, from a living specimen at the Hague,
from which engraving that of Blumenbach is copied: by Camper (who has also
given a detailed anatomical description of it), with his usual fidelity and accu-
planche I, fig. 1: fig. 2, 3, 4, and 5, of the same plate, are representations of
ihe entire and bony head; and most excellently, in a coloured engraving, by
Mr. Abel, who brought one with him from Batavia, now alive in Exeter
Change, and has given a very interesting description of himn in his Narrative
of a Journey in the Interior of China.
: * The import of this Malay term is wild man, or man of the woods. Orang
means, in fact, rational creature; and is applied to man, to the monk
question, and to the elephant.
* The absence of the nail was ascertained by Camper in seven out of eight
specimens: the eighth had a very small nail on the thumb of the right foot
only. Cuvres, i. p. 53, et suiv. The animal is represented by Edwards'
Glčanings of Natural History, i. pl. 213, p. 6 and 7, with nails; and it was so
figured in the proof of an engraving submitċed to the inspection of Camper by
Allamand: Additions au l. xv. de Buffon, p. 73, pl. ll. On examining the ani.
mals from which both these figures were taken, it was found that they had
no nails; and the same is the case with that of Mr. Abel. Such is the way in
which nature is often improved by artists who do not understand natural
history. Camper, de l'Orany-oulang, ch. i. - 8. 4.
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS OF MAN.
91
other large simiæ (particularly the pongo # of Borneo) having
been confounded with the true orang-outang.
The simia troglodytest is a native of Angola and Congo, where
it is called by the natives chimpansé. It resembles the former
in size ; but differs from it in being covered with black hair ; in
having a lower forehead, and large ears; and nails on the thumbs
of the hind hands. It is very susceptible of education, and
quickly learns to imitate human actions. This is the animal, of
which Tyson I has given an excellent anatomical description,
accompanied with very good engravings. In both these simiæ,
the hair of the upper and fore arm takes opposite directions ;
that is, it slants in each part of the limb towards the elbow.
A more minute and accurate account of the propensities, feel-
ings, and intellectual phenomena of both these creatures, is a
great desideratum in that important branch of comparative
physiology, which relates to the functions of the brain.
The peculiar characteristics of man appear to me so very
strong, that I not only deem him a distinct species, but also put
him into a separate order by himself. His physical and moral
attributes place him at a much greater distance from all other
orders of mammalia, than those are from each other respectively.
The zoological statement of his principal characters follows.Ş
ORDER, bimanum (two-handed); GENUS, homo; the species
single, with several varieties hereafter enumerated.
Characters; erect stature; two hands; teeth approximated and
of equal length : the inferior incisors perpendicular. Prominent
chin; rational ; endowed with speech; unarmed; defenceless.
These circumstances are so obvious and so abundantly suf-
ficient to characterize man, that the doubts and hesitation of
Linneus in assigning a specific distinction, appear to us rather
* In a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences, but not yet published,
Cuvier has endeavoured to prove that this tremendous creature is only the
adult S. Satrrus. They are both confined to the island of Borneo; and they
agree in tlie great length of the arins, and the prominence and strength of the
soinous processes of the cervical vertebræ. The skulls of both are in the
Hunterian collection; and are strongly contrasted to each other in the rela-
tive proportions of the cranium and face, as well as in some other points. If
these are merely the differences between the young and the full-grown ani.
mal, I know no other example of such a metamorphosis in the animal kinga
dom. For the skull of the orang-outang, see the plate of Blumenbach already
quoted; for that of the pongo, Fischer Naturhistorische Fragmente, tab. 3 & 4.
I must, however, acknowledge that the head of the individual at Exeter
Change comes much nearer to that of the pongo than either the cranium
figured by Blumenbach, or that in the Hunterian collection; and the resem.
blauce seems to me to increase with the animal's growth.
+ A good engraving from a living original is found in Le Cat Traile du Fluide
des Nerts; it is copied by Blumenbach Abbild. N.H. G. No.ll.
$ The Anatomy of a Pigmy, compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Mano
ở Blumenbach. Curier.

9%
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
i
incomprehensible. “Nullum characterem," he observes, “hac-
tenus eruere potui, unde homo a simia internoscatur.”* And
he again states, in the Systema Naturcent “ Mirum adeo parum
differre stultissimam simiam a sapientissimo homine, ut iste
geodætes naturæ etiamnum quærendus, qui hos limitet.” If
these representations were correct, zoology would not deserve
the rank of a science.
The remainder of this work will be divided into two sections :
the first, on the (corporeal and mental) differences between man
and animals, or, in other words, on the specific character of man,
will contain a detailed explanation of the particulars composing
that character, a commentary on the short zoological statement,
which immediately precedes, and an attempt to settle the ques-
tion, whether man be a distinct species, or have a common origin
with, and specific affinity to any other animals: the second will
he devoted to the different races of mankind, will contain an
enumeration and discussion of the characters by which they are
distinguished, and a full consideration of the question, whether
they ought to be regarded as originally distinct species, or as
varieties of one single species.
SECTION 1.
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS; OR SPECIFIC
CHARACTERS OF MAN.
CHAPTER II.
The erect attitude of Man, and consequent Peculiarities in the Structure of
the lower Limbs, Thorax, Spine, and Pelvis.
In the external conformation of man we immediately remark
his upright stature; that majestic attitude, which announces his
superiority over all the other inhabitants of the globe. He is
the only being adapted by his organization to go erect. En-
slaved to their senses, and partaking merely of physical enjoy-
ments, other animals have their heads directed towards the
earth: “ Quæ natura prona, atque ventri obedientia finxit.”
Man, whose more elevated nature is connected to surrounding
objects by moral relations, who can pursue the concatenations
of causes and effects, and embrace in his mind the system of
the universe, boldly regards the heavens, and can direct his
· Fauna Suecica, Pref.
+ Ed. 12, p. 34, note.
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
93
sight. even into the starry regions :—the contrast. so finely
expressed by the poet, is therefore quite correct in fact;
Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram,
Os homini sublime dedit; cælumque tueri
Jussit; et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
I propose to prove that the erect stature is suited to the orga-
nization of the human subject; and that it is exclusively peculiar
to man.
It might appear a sufficient proof of the upright attitude and
biped progression being natural to our species, that such has
been the invariable practice of all nations in all ages of the
world ;-that no people, no tribe, nor even any individual in a
healthy condition, has been known to do otherwise. Yet even
this has been contested ; and, as philosophers have not been
wanting to argue that we were naturally furnished with tails,
but, by soine strange change or chance, had got rid of the
degrading appendage ; so others have held that we were designed
by nature to go on all fours ; * justifying the acute remark,
“ Nihil tam absurdum esse, quod non ab aliquo philosopho
dictum fuit."
The chief support of this notion concerning the human sub-
ject being naturally quadruped, has been derived from the exam-
ples of wild men; that is, children lost in woods and growing
up in a solitary state. Even LINNEUS has kindly taken them
under his protection, and has provided a respectable situation
for them in his Systema Nature, under the head of “homo
sapiens ferus," to whom he assigns the epithets tetrapus, mutus,
hirsutus.
What is this homo ferus of LINNEUS ? How are we to con-
sider these wild men? In different countries of Europe a few
individuals—and very few indeed are authentically recorded -
have been met with in a solitary state ;-young persons, wan-
dering alone in the woods, or mountainous regions. To unso-
phisticated common sense they appear poor, half-witted, stupid
beings, incapable of speech, with faculties very imperfectly
developed, and therefore probably escaping from or abandoned
by their parents or friends. But their case has been eagerly
taken up and warmly defended by some philosophers, who
employ them to exemplify natural man,-the original uncor-
rupted creature-in opposition to those who have become vitiated
and degenerate by civilization. When presented to us in so
Moscati, don der körperlichen wesentlichen Unterschiede zwischen der
Structur der Menschen und der Thiere; Gottiny. 1771. 8vo.
Schrage, a Dutchman, in a Dutch journal, entitled Geneesnatuur-en Huis.
houci-kundiye Jaarboeken. T.3. p. 32.
U
94
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
important a character, and with such high pretensions, it is
necessary to inquire a little into the proofs of their pedigree and
claims.
Peter the wild boy, who lived many years in this county, is
one of the most authentic cases; and his biography will answer
the purpose very well.* In July 1724, Jurgen Meyer, a towns-
man of Hameln, met in his field with a naked, brownish, black-
haired boy, apparently about twelve years old, who uttered no
sound, was enticed, by showing him two apples, into the town,
and placed, for safe custody, in an hospital, by order of the
burgo-master SEVERIN. PETER—thus he was christened by
the children on his first appearance in the town, and he went by
the same to his death--behaved rather brutish at first; seeking
to get out at doors and windows, resting now and then on his
knees and elbows, and rolling himself from side to side till he
fell asleep. He did not like bread, but he eagerly peeled green
sticks, and chewed the peel for the juice, as he also did vegeta-
bles, grass, and bean-shells. He soon learned to conduct himself
more properly, and was allowed to go about the town When
anything was offered him to eat, he first smelt it, and then put
it in his mouth, or laid it aside shaking his head. In the
same way he would smell people's hands, and then strike his
breast if pleased, or otherwise shake his head. When he
particularly liked anything, as beans, peas, mulberries, fruit,
and particularly onions and nuts, he indicated his satisfaction
by striking repeatedly on his chest.
When shoes were first given to him, he could not walk in
them, and appeared happy in getting rid of them, and running
about again barefooted. Covering the head was equally unplea-
sant to him; and he enjoyed greatly throwing his hat or cap
accustomed to clothing.
His hearing and smell were acute.
In October 1725, he was sent for by George I. to Hanover;
whence he was transmitted to London in the beginning of the
following year, under the care of a king's messenger; and this
was the foundation of his fame and fortune.
Just at this time the controversy about the existence of innate
ideas was at its height; and PETER seemed the very subject for
determining the question. Count ZINZENDORF wished that
he should be intrusted to his charge, that he might watch the
* The following account is derived from Blumenbach's Beiträge zur Na.
turgeschichte, 2 theil. He has taken great pains to make out, from original
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
95
development of his innate ideas: but the King had already
placed him at the disposal of the Princess of Wales, the after-
wards celebrated Queen CAROLINE, who confided the precious
trust to Dr. ARBUTHNOT, still for the purpose of investigating
his innate ideas.
SWIFT has immortalized him in his humorous production,
It cannot rain but it pours; or, London strewed with Rarities.
LINNEUS gave him a niche in the Systema Nature, under the
denomination of “ Juvenis Hanoveranus;” BUFFON, DE
PAAUW, and J. J. ROUSSEAU, have extolled him as the true
child of nature, the genuine unsophisticated man. MONBODDO*
is still more enthusiastic, declaring his appearance to be a much
more important occurrence than the discovery of the planet
Uranus, or than if astronomers, to the catalogue of stars already
known, had added thirty thousand new ones.
Amidst these expectations and honours, a few circumstances
were either unknown or overlooked, calculated to raise great
doubts of PETER's fitness for such high destinies, and to pro-
duce an unpleasant suspicion that he had not entirely escaped
the contaminating influence of civilized life.
When he was first met with, a small fragment of a shirt hung
about his neck; and the whiteness of his thighs, compared to
his brown legs, proved that he must have worn breeches, but
not stockings. His tongue was very large, and little capable of
motion, so that an army surgeon at Hameln thought of attempt-
ing to set it free by cutting the frenum ; but did not perform the
operation. Further, some boatmen, in descending the Weser,
had seen at different points on the banks of the river, a poor
naked boy, and given him something to eat; and, lastly, it was
ascertained that a widower at Lüchtringen had had a dumb
child, who, having been lost in the woods in 1723, returned
home again ; but, on his father's second marriage, was driven
out again by his step-mother.
Dr. ARBUTHNOT soon found out that no brilliant discoveries
in psychology or anthropology could be expected from the case of
this poor idiot: he was therefore placed with a farmer in Hert-
fordshire, where he continued to live or rather vegetate till 1785.
PETER was of a middle size, somewhat robust in appearance,
and strong, and had a respectable beard. He took the ordinary
mixed diet, retaining his early fondness for onions. He liked
:*" I consider his history as a brief chronicle or abstract of the history of
the progress of human natiire, from the mere animal to the first stage of civil.
ized life, "-Ancient Metaphysics, v. iii. p. 57.
96
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
warmth ; and relished a glass of brandy. He always showed
the most perfect indifference to the other sex.
He could not be taught to speak : the plainest of the few arti-
culate sounds he could utter were, Peter, ki sho, and qui ca, the
two latter being attempts at pronouncing King George and
Queen Caroline. He had a taste for music, and would hum
over various airs that he often heard ; when an instrumental
performance took place, he would jump about with great delight
till he was quite tired. He was deficient in one important privi-
lege of our nature ; having never been seen to laugh.
He was a harmless and obedient creature, and could be
employed in little domestic offices, or in the fields, but not
without superintendence. Having been left to himself to throw
up a load of dung into a cart, as soon as he had executed the
task, he jumped up and set to work as diligently to throw it al
out again. Having, on one occasion, wandered away from
home as far as Norfolk, at the time when great alarms existed
about the Pretender and his emissaries, he was brought before
ajustice of peace as a suspicious character, and making no
answer to any interrogatories, was deemed contumacious, and
sent to prison. A fire broke out in the night, when he was
found sitting quietly in a corner, enjoying the light and warmth
very much, and not at all willing to move.
Such was this famous representative of unsophisticated
human nature !
Although PETER was little capable of filling that high situa-
tion, his history affords a striking and useful caution, by
exhibiting the uncertainty of human testimony and historical
evidence. No two accounts agree in the year, season, and place
of his discovery; and later printed histories contain serious nar-
ratives of George I. having found him in hunting at Herren-
hausen, or in the Harz; that it was necessary to cut down the
tree, in the top of which he had taken refuge; that his body was
covered with hair, and that he ran on all fours ; that he jumped
about trees like a squirrel, knew how to get the bait out of traps
placed for wolves ; that he was carried over to England in an
iron cage, learned to speak in nine months at the court of the
Queen, was baptized at the house of Dr. ARBUTHNOT, and soon
after died, &c. &c.
Peter was as upright in his attitude, and as invariably biped,
as any of ourselves; and the same remark holds good of all the
other authentic examples; as of the girl described by CONDA-
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
97
MINE, * a man found in the Pyrenees, † and the boyſ met with
near Aveyron, and brought to Paris soon after the revolution.
On the other hand, where they have been described as going on
all fours, suspicious circumstances occur in the narration, calcu-
lated to throw discredit on the whole. Such is the case with
LINNEUS's juvenis ovinus Hibernus, taken from TULPIUS,
Observat. Medicar. lib. iv. cap. 9. He is said to have been
brought up “inter oves sylvestres," and thence to have acquired
“natura ovilla ;" he is described further as “ ferox ac indomitus,
vultu truci,” &c.
An unprejudiced examination of all these cases, putting aside
what is obviously exaggerated or fabulous, proves that they
are merely instances of defective organization; mal-forined
animals, incapable of speech, and exhibiting few and imperfect
mental phenomena; pathological specimens, therefore, rather
than examples of human perfection. Nothing can be conceived
more widely renioved from the natural condition of man, than
these half-witted beings; and we might as rationally adopt any
monstrous birth for a model of the human form, as set them up
for a standard of the attitude, progression, or faculties of man.
But, if these beings had been free from defect, if they had
been well-formed, and capable of all human endowments, should
we deem them more natural for having been solitary? should we
not, on the contrary, be justified in regarding that insulated
condition as a deviation from the scheme of nature, comparing it
with VOLTAIRE to the state of a bee, which has lost the hive? $
Is the social rook or antelope more artificial or degenerate than
the solitary eagle or lion?
If the erect attitude and biped progression be peculiar to man,
the structure of the lower limbs which support his trunk, and
of their muscles, which move it, must exhibit characters of form,
size, and arrangement, which are met with in no other animals.
The influence of this peculiarity will not be confined to the lower
limbs; it will also modify the pelvis, which is the basis of the
trunk, receiving above the weight of the abdominal viscera, the
thorax, upper limbs, and head, transmitting this weight to the
lower limbs, and offering fixed points for their motions; the
upper limbs, which are not employed for support, but merely as
• Histoire d'une jeune Fille Sauvage, 12mo. Paris, 1761.
+ Leroy Escploitation de la Nature dans les Pyrenees; 4to, 17"
# Historical Account of the young Savage of Aveyron, 12mo.
i « Si l'on rencontre une abeille errante, devra-t-on conclure que cette
abeille est dans l'état de pure nature, et que celles qui cravaillent en société
· dans la ruche ont dégénéré ?!
98 ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
instruments of prehension ; the thorax, by which they are sepa-
rated, and on which they rest; and the junction of the head
with the vertebral column, on which the due support of this
weighty mass, and the proper direction of the eyes, mouth, and
face depend.
The length and strength of the lower limbs, the great instru.
ments of support and progression, are very striking, and quite
peculiar to man. They are equal in length to the trunk and
head together, which is not the case in any other animal, except-
ing the kangaroo, jerboa, &c. where the principles of construction
and the offices of these parts are quite different from the human,
In all the monkey tribe, they fall very far short of this pro-
portion; even in the orang-outang and chimpansé they are
short and weak, and manifestly inadequate to sustain the body
erect. This circumstance alone effectually disqualifies the most
manlike monkey from participating with man in that grand
attribute ; and would of itself be a sufficient ground for specific
distinction between the two beings. If the lower limbs of
monkeys are weak, in comparison with the human, those of other
animals, and particularly of true quadrupeds, are much more
so: the short thigh-bone is almost concealed by the muscles of
the body, and the rest of the limb is slender, and not covered
by any great muscular masses.
The disproportion in the respective lengths of our upper and
lower limbs, clearly points out the different offices they are
destined to execute. The superior length and power of the
latter, so necessary for the various purposes connected with our
erect attitude, make us altogether unfit for going on all fours,
as will be immediately shown by a trial. In such an experiment,
either' the lower limbs must be thrown obliquely backwards, or
the articulations held in a bent and very insecure position. Even
children, before they can walk, in whom the lower limbs are
comparatively shorter than in adults, crawl upon their knees, or
else drag the lower extremities after them on the ground.
To the long and powerful femur, to the strong tibia, to the
broad articular surfaces which join these at the knee, no parallel
can be met with in any animal.
The breadth of the human pelvis affords an ample basis of
support for the trunk; and this receives a still further transverse
enlargement by the length of the cervix femoris, another pecu-
larity of human organization. This long neck throws the body
of the bone outwards, disengages its shaft from the hip-joint,
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN : 99
1
and thus increases the extent of rotation. It gives the body
greater firmness in standing, without impeding progression,
since the head of the bone, and not the body, is the centre of
motion. If the thigh-bones possessed no neck, but were kept
equally far apart by increasing the distance between the cotyloid
cavities, the attitude of standing would be just as secure, the
transverse base of support being still the same; but progression
would be impeded, as it actually is in the female, from the greater
transverse diameter of the pelvis.
Another character of the human femur, is the obliquity of its
shaft, and superior length of the internal condyle, arising from
the breadth of the pelvis, and length of the cervix, combined
with the necessity for bringing its lower end perpendicularly
under the pelvis, in reference to the secure support of the trunk
The line of direction of the human femur is perpendicular, the
same as that of the trunk: its axis coincides with the centre of
gravity of the body; it is placed perpendicularly under the pelvis,
and thus supports the trunk steadily. In all other animals it
forms an angle with the spine; and this is often even an acute
one. It is obvious that the erect attitude must be extremely
unsteady, and the difficulty of maintaining the body in equilibrio
is raised perpendicularly in the orang-outang, the thigh-bones
form an obtuse angle with it: the long arms preserve the balance,
as they do likewise in the gibbon (S. Lar.) The angle is in-
efforts they make to remain upright on the hind feet are con-
tinued with difficulty, more especially if not assisted by some
other advantages of construction, as in the bear, for instance, by
the length of the heel.
The feet being the ultimate supports of the whole frame, and
bination of greater breadth, strength, and solidity, in proportion
to the size of the body, than those of any animal. The whole
surface of the tarsus, metatarsus, and toes, rests on the ground,
and the os calcis forms a right angle with the leg. The two last
circumstances are seen in no other animal: even the simiæ and
the bear have the end of the os calcis raised, so that this bone
begins to form an acute angle with the leg; the dog, the cat,
and other digitated quadrupeds, even the elephant himself, .do
not rest on the tarsus or carpus, but merely on the toes; the
cloven-hoofed ruminants (bisulca) and the solipeda, touch the
H 2
100 ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
ground merely with the extremities of the third phalanges, and
the os calcis is raised nearly into a perpendicular position. Thus,
as we depart from man, the foot is more and more contracted
and elongated, the part serving for support reduced, and the
angle of the heel-bone rendered more acute.
The great size of the os calcis, and particularly the bulk and
prominence of its posterior projection, to which the powerful
muscles of the calf are affixed, correspond to its important
office of supporting the back of the foot, and resisting force
applied to the front of the body. This single bone is, therefore,
an infallible characteristic of man; and “Ex calce hominem,”
would probably be a safer rule than “Ex pede Herculem.”
The concavity of the sole is an arrangement rendered necessary
by the whole surface resting flat on the ground. It provides
room for the muscles, nerves, vessels, and tendons of the toes.
It also assists the functions of the foot, by enabling it to gain a
kind of hold of the bodies on which it rests, and to accommodate
itself to unequal surfaces, an advantage almost destroyed by the
use of shoes, but eminently conspicuous in those people, whose
feet are not cramped by artificial means of defence..
The gradually increased breadth of the foot towards the front,
the predominance of its solid and nearly immovable parts, the
tarsus, and metatarsus, over the more flexible toes, the direction
of the metatarsal bone supporting the great toe, its situation and
want of mobility, are circumstances of strong contrast with the
structure of the hand, plainly pointing out the former as orga-
nised for strength and resistance, and adapted to increase the
extent and solidity of its support.
A further argument to the same effect may be drawn from
the comparative progress of ossification in the two members.
The bones of the tarsus, and particularly the os calcis, ossify at
an earlier period, and advance more rapidly in their development,
than those of the carpus : very little strength of hand is required
in the first years of life, while the feet, at the end of twelve
months, begin to be employed in sustaining the body, and
advancing it by progressive motion.
The lower limbs can be separated more widely in man, than
in any animal, in consequence of the great breadth of the pelvis,
and length of the cervix femoris. Thus we are enabled to derive
the full advantage from those admirable instruments of support,
the feet: an advantage, which may be estimated by observing
cha varied motions, the rapid changes and multiplied combina-
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN. 101
tions of movement, according to the probable direction of the
expected impulse, in boxing, wrestling, and other similar feats
of activity, in pushing, pulling, &c. &c.
In all the particulars just described, we see a strong contrast
between man, and the nearest or most anthropomorphous
animals, even the monkey and orang-outang. In the latter, the
cervix femoris is short, the thigh-bone straight, and its two con-
dyles of equal length.* The foot rests on its outer edge, the
heel not touching the ground; the tarsus is contracted, and the
digital phalanges lengthened, so that in these respects it resembles
a hand. +
The peculiarities of the human pelvis coincide with those of
the lower limbs. The form of this part is very characteristic in
man, and distinguishes him from the simiæ, and indeed from
all other mammalia. It might be asserted, that the human
skeleton alone has a proper pelvis ; that is, such an incurvation
of the sacrum and coccyx, and such an union of them with the
ossa innominata, as forms a basin-like cavity; from which, the
space included between the elongated ilia, and the straight
sacrum and coccyx of monkeys, differ toto cælo. In the orang-
outang, and the elephant, we find the nearest approach to the
human formation. In the former, however, the upper part of
the ilium is narrow and elongated, stretching upwards in the
direction of the spine, and its length exceeds its breadth; so
that the relations of these two dimensions are very different in
man and this animal.S In the latter, the symphysis pubis is
very deep; and in both, there is neither that incurvation of the
sacrum, from the promontory downwards, nor that direction of
the coccyx forwards, which, with the broad horizontal expan-
sion of the ilia, and the shallowness of the symphysis pubis, are
peculiar to the human frame, and make it a broad and firm basis
for the trunk, on which the weight of the abdominal contents,
and particularly of the pregnant uterus, is supported. The
lower part of the sacrum and the os coccygis are turned forwards
in man, and form the only firm bony resistance, in the inferior
aperture of the pelvis, to the abdominal viscera, forced down-
wards by the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. These bones
* Tyson, fig. 5.
+ Qčuvres de Camper, pl. II. fig. 5 & 6. Tyson, fig. cit.
$ Camper, Euvres, pl. II. fig. 7. Tyson, lig. 5.
i The height of the whole pelvis, from the tuber ischii to the crista of th:
ilium is :
7 in, 3 li, in man.
6 in, in the orang-outang.
Its breadth, between the two anterior 2 10 in. 6 li. in man.
spines . . . . . S 6 in. 6 li, in the orang-outang.
102 ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
are straight in all other animals, because the weight of the
viscera is differently supported. Even in the orang-outang, the
sacrum is flat and contracted, and continued, together with the
Os coccygis, in a straight line with the vertebral column. If the
human sacrum and coccyx had been continued in a straight
line with the spine, as those of the orang-outang and monkeys
are, the innominata remaining as at present, they would have
projected beyond those bones, so as to disable us from sitting
The curve which they describe, in man only, obviates this incon-
venience; and allows the pelvis to rest securely in the sitting
attitude on the broad and strong ischiatic tuberosities.
The influence of this structure on the direction and functions
of the vagina will be considered afterwards.
The distribution, size, and offices of the muscular masses
correspond to the organic arrangements of the skeleton. The
lateral and posterior surfaces of the pelvis give origin to the
powerful glutei, of which the exterior (glutei magni), exceeding
in size all other muscles in the body, and covered by a remark-
able stratum of fat, form the buttocks, which, by their ample,
fleshy, and convex protuberances, conceal the anus; and are
accounted both by the classical authors in natural history, as
ARISTOTLE and Buffon, and by the greatest physiologists, as
GALEN and HALLER, as the chief character by which man is
distinguished from the buttockless simiæ. “Les fesses," says
the great historian of nature, “n'appartiennent qu'à l'espèce
humaine." The final cause of this prerogative has been assigned
by an anatomist. “ Solus homo ex omnibus animalibus com-
mode sedet, cui carnosæ et magnæ nates contigere, et pro sub-
sternaculo pulvinarique, tomento repleto, inserviunt, ut citra
molestiam sedendo, cogitationibus rerum divinarum animum
rectius applicare possit."*
: The use of the glutei, however, is not confined solely to what
the pious SPIGELIUS has imagined ; viz., the forming a cushion
on which the body may be softly supported, for the purposes of
divine cogitation ; but they are very important agents in ex-
tending the pelvis on the thighs, and maintaining it in that
state in the erect position of the trunk. In standing on both
teract the natural tendency to fall forwards, which the weight of
the head, the usual position of the upper limbs in front of the
body, and the prominence of the abdominal viscera, impress
* Spigelius de hum. Corp. Fab. p.
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN,
103
upon the trunk. Hence, the bulk and power of these very
muscles in the human subject afford a clear proof that man was.
designed for the attitude on two feet. The other two glutei
are not essentially concerned in the attitude of standing on both
feet; but they are the principal agents in supporting and
balancing the trunk on one foot, by inclining the pelvis over the
head of that thigh-bone, on which the body rests, so that the
centre of gravity of the trunk may be in a line drawn through
that lower extremity. In this case, their exertion counteracts
the tendency of the trunk to fall on that side which is not sup-
ported. These muscles are employed in a similar manner in
progression: the gluteus magnus balances the pelvis, while one
leg is carried before the other, and brought to the ground; and
the two others support the trunk laterally, while the limb of the
opposite side is in the air.
The gluteus magnus, which is the largest muscle of the
human body, is so small and insignificant in animals, that it
may be almost said not to exist. F. CUVIER observes of the
orang-outang, “les fesses étoient presque nulles, ainsi que les
mollets."* Tyson indeed asserts, of the chimpansé, that “our
pygmie had buttock or nates, as we shall see in the myology,
but not so much as in man.”+ However, in his apparently
accurate figure | there is no trace of them.
The extensors of the knee are much stronger in the human
subject than in other mammalia ; as their two-fold opera-
tion of extending the leg on the thigh, and of bringing the
thigh forwards on the leg, forms a very essential part in the
human mode of progression. The flexors of the knee are, on
the contrary, stronger in animals; and are inserted so much
lower down in the tibia, even in the monkeys, than in the
human subject, that the cord which they form, keeps the knee
habitually bent, and almost prevents the perfect extension of the
leg on the thigh. Where the thigh and leg thus form an angle,
instead of being continued in a straight line, the support of the
body on the hind legs must be very insecure.
The extensor muscles of the ankle-joint, and chiefly those
which form the calf of the leg, are the principal agents in pro-
gression. Hence man is particularly characterized by the large-
ness of his calves; and no animal equals him in this respect.
Annales du Muséum, v. 16, p. 47. The correctness of this remark is fully
verified by the orang-outang belonging to Mr. Abel. It has neither buttocks
por calves.
+ Anatomy of a Pygmie, p. 14
104 ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN.
By elevating the os calcis, they raise the whole body in the act
of progression; and, by extending the leg on the foot, they
counteract that tendency, which the weight of the body has to bend
the leg in standing. The muscles of the calves lift the heels, and
thereby elevate the whole body, which is supported on the
astragalus : the weight is thus maintained on the anterior part
of the feet, and the individual is said to stand on tiptoes. If the
foot of one side be lifted from the ground, and the opposite heel
be raised by the calf of its own side, the whole body is then
elevated by the muscles of one calf. When a person stands on
tiptoe with a burden on the shoulders, or any other part of the
trunk, the weight of this, as well as of the body, must be raised
and supported by the muscles of the calf. In running, leaping,
jumping in the air, dancing, &c., the projection of the body is
accomplished by the same power.
ARISTOLE, and others after him, have justly observed that
calves of the legs can be ascribed to man only.
The whole arrangement of the thorax corresponds to the erect
attitude of man. It is flattened anteriorly, possesses a very
broad sternum, is wide transversely, but shallow from before
backwards. Its lateral width and inconsiderable depth from
sternum to spine, not only throw the arms far apart, and thus
give a more extensive range to their motions, but diminish that
preponderance of the trunk towards the front, which, although
it is unimportant in the horizontal, is very inconvenient in the
erect attitude. Man is said to be the only animal, in which the
transverse exceeds the antero-posterior diameter of the chest.
Even in the simia satyrus the latter exceeds the former measure-
ment.*
The human sternum is short, as well as broad; hence a large
space is left between the front of the chest and the pelvis, unpro-
vided with bony supports; the weight of the viscera, which are
sufficiently guarded by the abdominal muscles, is securely sus-
tained below by the ample pelvis.
Quadrupeds have a thorax compressed laterally, narrow and
keelshaped on its sternal aspect, consequently deep from
sternurn to spine, but confined in the transverse dimension.
This structure, with the absence of clavicles, allows the front
legs to come near together, to fall perpendicularly under the
front of the trunk, and support it with firmness and facility.
Their sternum is long and narrow, the ribs advance nearer to the
* Camper, Ouvres, i. p. 115.
ERECT ATTITUDE PECULIAR TO MAN. 105.
crista of the os innominatum, and together with the sternum ;
cover a large share of the abdomen, and support its viscera
more effectually in the horizontal position of the trunk. For
the same purpose too, the ribs in many cases are more numerous
than in man; viz., thirty-two in the hyena, thirty-six in the
horse, forty in the elephant, and forty-six in the unau (Brady-.
pus didactylus.)
These, with other points, which cannot escape observation,
when the skeleton of any rather long-legged quadruped is com-
pared to that of man, show how unfit he is for the attitude on
all fours, which in his case can never be otherwise than unsteady,
irksome, and fatiguing in the highest degree.
The spine of man presents some important peculiarities
resulting from his characteristic attitude. One of these is its
very remarkable increase of size in the lumbar region; an,
augnientation corresponding to that of the superincumbent
weight, and to the magnitude of the efforts which this part has
to sustain. The immense bulk of the sacrum,* far exceeding,
in proportion to the rest of the body, that of any animal, is
referable to the same cause, to the mode in which this weight is
transmitted to the hip-bones, and thence to the lower limbs,
and to the peculiar construction of the pelvis. The waving
line f of the column, arising from a series of alternate curves in
opposite directions, is altogether peculiar to man; it allows a
proper distribution of the weight with respect to the centre of
fall within the space covered by the feet, or by one foot when
we support the body on one only. As this line passes through
all the curves, motion is allowed in the upper regions without
impairing the general equilibrium.
The cervical vertebræ of the monkeys, including the satyrust
and troglodytes,ġ are remarkable for the length and prominence

* In the chimpansé, says Tyson, “the os sacrum was nothing so dilatedi
and spread, as 'tis in man; but contracted and narrow, as 'tis in apes; and
very remarkably different from the human skeleton." P. 69.
+ This is excellently represented in Albinus's plates of the skeleton ; par..
ticularly in the side view, tab. iii. I refer to the original Leyden edition of
this incomparable work ; which, when the plates of the bones are added, con-
stitutes the most accurate, useful, and splendid publication ever produced in
anatomy. Its merits cannot be estimated from the English editions,
t" Les vertèbres cervicales sont remarquables par la longueur extraordinaire
des apophyses epineuses des six inférieures ; mais surtout par celle du milieu."
« Les apophyses paroissent avoir besoin de cette longueur dans l'orang, pour:
dont les apophyses epineuses des vertèbres cervicales soient aussi longues,
excepté le philandre d'Amérique." Camper, OEuvres, 1. 126, pl. 2. fig. 3,
i Tyson, p. 68.
106 UPPER EXTREMITIES AND HANDS OF MAN.
of the spinous processes; a peculiarity probably connected with
the support of the head, which preponderates in front in conse-
quence of the elongation of the jaws and the retreat of the occi-
pital condyles backwards.*
I have explained how the lower extremities afford a sufficient
base of support and solid columns to sustain the trunk, and how
the same point is secured by the organic arrangements of the
latter. The breadth of the human pelvis forms an ample basis
for the body, and a firm point of action for the abdominal and
other muscles, enabling them quickly to rectify the position of
the parts above. In all the digitated animals, the pelvis is so
narrow, that the trunk resembles an inverted pyramid : there
would be great difficulty in maintaining it in equilibrio, even if
it were possible for the animal to assume the erect position. In
those instances, where the pelvis is broader, as in the hoofed
animals, the other conditions of the upright stature are absent.
The bear, however, forms an exception to these observations,
and may be taught to stand and walk erect, although the posture
is manifestly irksome to the animal. When quadrupeds endeavour
to support themselves on the hind extremities, as for the purpose
of seizing any objects with the fore-feet, they rather sit down
than assume the erect position ; for they rest on the thighs, as
well as on the feet, and this can only be done, where the fore-
part of the body is small, as in the simiæ, squirrel, &c. In other
cases the animal is obliged to support itself by the fore-feet also,
as in the dog, cat, &c.
CHAPTER III.
On the upper Extremities: Advantageous Construction of the Human Hand: Man
is two-handed, the Monkey kind four-handed: on the natural Altitude and
Gait of Monkeys.
A CURSORY survey of the upper limbs will be sufficient to
convince us that they are entirely unsuited to the office of sup-
porting the body, and as well calculated for the uses to which we
put them, of seizing and holding objects, and thereby executing,
besides all the processes of the arts, a thousand minute but most
serviceable actions of constant recurrence.
There is a general resemblance of form throughout the upper
and lower extremities: their principal divisions, the number and
. This great development of the cervical spines is most remarkable in the
pongo, where the enormous bulk of the jaws corresponds to it. See Audebert,
Hist, Nat. des Singes et Makis, fol, Planche Anatomique 2, fig. 5.
UPPER EXTREMITIES AND HANDS OF MAN. 107
S
form of the bones, and the construction of the articulations in
each division, correspond very clearly; the essential varieties
may all be referred to the principles of solidity and resistance in
the lower, of mobility in the upper, as leading purposes of the
formation. A comparison of the arm, fore-arm, and hand, to
the thigh, leg, and foot; of the os innominatum to the scapula;
of the hip, knee, and ankle, to the shoulder, elbow, and wrist;
of the carpus, metacarpus, and fingers, to the tarsus, metatarsus,
and toes; will at once prove and illustrate this difference.
The scapulæ, placed at the posterior and lateral aspects of the
trunk, are kept wide apart by the clavicles : a line falling per-
pendicularly from the shoulder, in the erect attitude of the body,
would pass far behind the hip: thus the upper limbs are thrown
outwards and backwards, and have a free range in their principal
motions, which are in the anterior direction. The glenoid cavi-
ties look outwards. The arms are widely separated above, and
they diverge towards their opposite ends: the lower limbs, on
the contrary, converge from above downwards. In true quad-
rapeds, the clavicles are suppressed ; * the shoulder-blades
brought forwards on the chest, and approximated to each other;
and the glenoid cavities are directed downwards. Consequently,
the anterior or pectoral members fall perpendicularly under the
front of the chest, and come still nearer together below than
above.
The deep cup of the os innominatum, and the powerful orbi-
cular ligament of the hip, are strongly contrasted with the shallow
glenoid cavity and weak capsule of the shoulder: the difference
between the broad articular surfaces and very powerful liga-
ments of the knee, and the strong joint of the ankle on one side,
and the articulations of the elbow and wrist on the other, is
equally striking.
The leg and fore-arm resemble each other less than the thigh
and arm; in the fore-arm the parts are arranged favourably to
mobility; in the leg, the object is to procure a firm and solid
* It is stated, in the Physiological Lectures, p. 123, that “ no animal, except
the monkey, has a clavicle like that of man." Certainly none, without ex.
cepting even the monkey, have either clavicles, or any other bones, exactly
resembling the human in all points; but many, even of the more common
kinds, have clavicles equal to those of man in relative size and length, as well
as in office. As the use of this bone is to maintain the shoulder at its proper
distance from the front of the trunk, and to prevent the scapula in particular
from coming forwards on the chest, it exists in all cases, where the pectoral
members are employed, either principally, or in great part, in executing pur-
Poses foreign to support, such as holding objects, climbing, flying, digging,
Taking the ground. It will be sufficient to mention that the lemurs and bats,
the squirrel, beaver, rat, porcupine, mole, ant-eater, hedgehog, shrew, and
sloth, possess perfect clavicles.
108 UPPER EXTREMITIES AND HANDS OF MAN.
support, which can transport the centre of gravity with ease and
safety from one point to another. Of the two bones of the fore-
arm, which are nearly equal in every respect, one rolls easily
over the other, and the hand is articulated with the moveable
bone. In the lower extremity these rolling motions would have
introduced dangerous unsteadiness and insecurity. The foot
therefore is articulated with the tibia, which corresponds to the
ulna; and the fibula possesses no perceptible power of motion.
The principal differences in the hand and foot occur in the
relation which the carpus and metacarpus, the tarsus and meta-
tarsus--the solid or resisting portions-bear respectfully to the
phalanges of the fingers and toes, the flexible portions of the
members. The solid part of the hand is less developed, and
has far less volume than the analogous part of the foot, on which
the whole weight of the body in standing finally rests : the
phalanges, on the contrary, which are the principal agents in
stronger than those of tie toes, which are not so essential to
station or progression. The three phalanges of the middle finger
equal in length the length of the carpus and metacarpus toge-
ther; while the respective proportions of the tarsus and meta-.
tarsus and toes are about and $. . The parts of the foot and
hand are disposed inversely in respect to their importance. The
posterior portion of the former, and the anterior of the latter,
are of the most consequence, and possess the most remarkable
characters. The functions of the hand render it necessary that:
its plane should be nearly continuous with that of the fore-arm;
otherwise the radius could not guide it so precisely to the objects
in view. In the font, the articulation is so disposed, that its
posterior part offers a powerful lever for muscular agents, and.
a solid support for the mass above: it is formed by a single bone.
of the foot, which adds to its solidity. The metacarpus and
metatarsus have a much greater similarity to each other; the
latter is the more solid, and offers this principal difference. The
metatarsal bone of the great toe, by far the strongest of the
whole, has scarcely any motion on the tarsus, and is parallel to
the others; while the corresponding bone of the thumb has a
very considerable extent of motion, and is anterior to the rest of
the metacarpus, supposing the palm to be turned directly for-
wards. These remarkable differences are easily understood,
when we consider that the great toe as one of the points on
UPPER EXTREMITIES AND HANDS OF MAN. 109
being concerned in all the numerous and varied motions of the
hand, must be organized for mobility.
The human hanıls being terminated by long and flexible
members, of which only a small portion is covered by the flat
nails, while the rest is furnished with a highly organized and
very sensible integument, form admirable organs of touch and
instruments of prehension. The animal kingdom exhibits no
corresponding part so advantageously constructed in these
respects. At the same time, the lateral attachment of the arms
to the trunk, and the erect attitude, gives us the freest use of
these admirable instruments. So greatly does man excel animals
in the conformation of the hands, that ANAXAGORAS asserted
what HELVETIUS has again brought forwards in our times,
-“that man is the wisest of animals, because he possesses hands.''
In such a view we can by no means coincide; yet ARISTOTLE
is well justified in observing that man alone possesses hands
really deserving that name. Several mammalia have also hands,
but much less complete, and less serviceable than that of the
human subject, which, in comparison to them, was justly enough
termed by the Stagyrite the organ of all organs. The great
superiority of the human hand arises from the size and strength
of the thumb, which can be brought into a state of opposition
to the fingers, and is hence of the greatest use in enabling us to
grasp spherical bodies, and take up any object in the hand, in
giving a firm hold on whatever we seize, in executing all the
mechanical processes of the arts, in writing, drawing, cutting,
in short, in a thousand offices, which occur every moment of
our lives, and which either could not be accomplished at all, if
the thumb were absent, or would require the concurrence of
both hands, instead of being done by one only. Hence it has
been justly described by ALBINUS as a second hand,“ manus
parva majori adjutrix.” *
All the simiæ possess hands; but the most distinguishing
part, the thumb, is slender, short, and weak, even in the inost
anthropo-morphous :t regarded as an imitation of the human
structure, it would almost justify the term applied to it by
EUSTACHIUS, ridiculous. The other fingers are elongated and
slender. I
* De Sceleto, p. 465.
: + The thumb of the orang-outang and chimpansé, besides being much
smaller than the fingers, reaches only to the metacarpo-digital joint. Camper.
Cuvres, pl. 2, fig. 5. F. Cuvier in the Annales du Muséum, t. 16, p. 4. Tyson,
p. 12, fig. 5.
Simiæ in general have nine bones in the carpus; and Camper found the
110
MONKEYS ARE QUADRUMANOUS.
Some animals, which have fingers sufficiently long and move-
able for seizing and grasping objects, are obliged, by the want
of a separate thumb, to hold them by means of the two fore-
paws; as the squirrel, rat, opossum, &c. Those which are
moreover obliged to rest their fore-feet on the ground, as the
dog and cat, can only hold objects by fixing them between the
paw and the ground. Lastly, such as have the fingers united by
integuients, or inclosed in hoofs, loose all power of prehension.
The comparison, which I have already drawn between the
construction of the hand and foot, having shown that the latter
is merely calculated for support in man, we may state that he is
two-handed and two-footed, or bimanous and biped.
Monkeys, apes, and other anthropo-morphous animals can,
in fact, be called neither bipeds nor quadrupeds; but they are
quadrumanous, or four-handed.* They have opposable thumbs
on the lower, as well as upper extremities; and thus their feet
are instruments of prehension as well as their hands.
By a thumb we mean a member, not placed in a direction
parallel to the fingers, but standing off from them laterally,
enjoying separate motion, and therefore capable of being brought
into opposition to them, as in grasping or prehension. A great
toe, in its direction, articulation, and extent of motion, corres-
ponds entirely to the other toes; whereas the joints and mus-
cles must be altogether different in a thumb. It is hardly
necessary to point out how unfit the human feet are for all
purposes of prehension : but the hind limbs of the simiæ really
deserve the name of hands more than the front; and are more
either no fore-thumb or only a rudiment of it.

We may now answer the question, whether the orang-outang
and other simiæ go erect, or on all fours : they do neither, but
live chiefly in trees, for which they are admirably adapted by
ninth bone in the orang-outang; it was a sesamoid bone in the tendon of the
abductor longus pollicis. Euvres, 143. He found in the same animal a large
sesamoid bone in the tendon of the popliteus: ibid. 133.
* Aristotle observed that the feet of monkeys resemble hands; and Tyson,
in describing the foot of the chimpansé (S. troglodytes), says, " But this part,
in the formation and its function too, being liker a hand than a foot, for the
distinguishing this sort of animals from others, I have thought, whether it
might not be reckoned and called rather quadrumanus than quadrupes; i. e. a
four-handed, than a four-fooled animal," P. 13.
· + Mr. Geoffroy has placed together the simiæ thus circumstanced in a new
the chamek (atèles penta lactylus) there is a siugle phalanx, without a nail,
and very slightly prominent. The coaita (S. paniscus L. Atèles paniscus
Geoff.) Has absolutely no visible thumb.
NATURAL ATTITUDE AND GAIT OF MONKEYS. 111
having prehensile members, instruments for grasping and hold-
ing, on both upper and lower extremities. Hence CUVIER calls
them “les grimpeurs par excellence."* They live in trees, and
find their food in them; they can hang by one fore or hind leg,
employing the remaining members in gathering fruit, or in other
offices. Those which have less perfect hands, are furnished
with prehensile tails, by which they can be more securely sup-
ported in trees.
ing erect, it must be ascribed to instruction and discipline. The
delineations of the orang-outang and chimpansé taken from the
life, show how unnatural and inconvenient the erect posture is
to them: they are drawn with the front hands leaning on a
stick, while the posterior ones have the toes bent something
like a clenched first.t.
The circumstances in the structure of the monkey kind, which
render them unsuited for the erect attitude, have been already
in part explained : viz., the narrowness of the pelvis, the short
and weak lower limbs, the angle formed by the thigh at its
junction with the trunk, and that between the leg and thigh,
sınall size of the muscles composing the buttocks and calves,
and the slight prominence of the os calcis, which bone does
not come to the ground. It may be added, that the exterior
margin of the foot chiefly rests on the ground in the siiniæ;
which circumstance, while it leaves them a freer use of their
thumb and long toes in seizing the branches of trees, ren-
ders the organ so much less adapted to support the body
on level ground. The plantaris muscle, which is very fleshy
in the monkey kind, instead of terminating, as it does in
manı, by insertion in the os calcis, passes over that bone into
the sole, and is there connected with the plantar aponeu-
rosis and flexor perforatus, so that it may be regarded as
making a part of both. $ In other quadrupeds it holds the
place of the flexor perforatus, entering the foot over the os
calcis. These arrangements are quite incompatible with the
erect attitude, as the tendon would be compressed, and its action
* Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée, t. 1, p. 493. From the agility, which the
orang-outang at Exeter Change exhibits, in moving along the ropes suspended
strictly to deserve the denomination of a climbing animal.
+ See Vosinaer's figure as copied by Blumenbach Abbild. n. h. enstände,
No. 12. Tyson, fig. 1 & 2. The sitting attitude of Mr. Abel's figure, in which
the extremities are all gathered up to the trunk, is much more natural than
the erect position in which the monkey tribe are often represented.
# Vicq D'Azyr, Discours sur l'Anatomie, Euvres, t. 4, p. 149.
112
NATURAL ATTITUDE AND
impeded, if the heel rested on the ground. The thumbs, both
of the fore and hind hands, have no separate flexor longus in
the monkeys, but receive tendons from the flexors of the other
fingers. Hence, the thumbs in these animals will generally be
bent together with the other fingers; and they are less capable
of those actions, in which the motion of the thumb is combined
with that of the fore and middle finger, a combination so im-
portant in numerous delicate operations.
It is rather singular, since persons have been found to con-
tend that man ought to go on all fours, that there should have
been others, who undertake to prove that the orang-outang, and
the monkey tribe in general, have an organization suited to biped
progression. Even BUFFON states that one, which he saw,
always went on two feet, and he ascribes the erect attitude to
him without any hesitation. No doubt he can sustain this
posture for some time, and in the unnatural condition of con-
finement he may frequently sit: hence, perhaps, we may account
for the numerous observations, in which he is said to go erect.
But the circumstances of structure already explained show
clearly that he is not calculated, like man, for that attitude; and
we find, in some of the most authentic accounts, that he is said
to have gone on all fours. ALLAMAND, who saw a simia
satyrus in Holland, gives the following account of its motions
and attitudes : “ Its usual attitude was sitting, with its thighs
and knees raised; it walked nearly in the same posture, its rump
being very near the ground. I never saw it perfectly upright,
knees were always a little on the bend, and it tottered.”+
VOSMAER, who has described the same individual, says, “ this
animal generally walked on all fours, like the other monkeys;
but it could, likewise, walk erect on its hind feet, and, provided
with a stick, it would often support itself for a considerable
time. However, it never used its feet flat on the ground, as a
supported itself on the external edge of its hind feet, with the
toes drawn inwards, which denotes a posture for climbing
trees.” | The testimony of CAMPER concerning one which
lived for some time in the menagerie of the Stadtholder at Petit
Loo, is to the same effect : “ L'orang vivant couroit à quatre
pattes, et lorsqu'il se tenoit debout (ce qu'il fit le plus dans les
premiers tems de son arrivée et lorsqu'il jouissoit encore de
• See the work above quoted. + Buffon, by Wood; v. 10, p. 79. # Ibid. p. 84
GAIT OF MONKEYS.
113
toute sa vigeur), il tenoit les genoux ployés."* The description
of the individual observed by F. CUVIER corroborates these
observations: he climbed excellently, but walked as imperfectly.
In the latter operation, he rested his closed hands on the ground,
and dragged forwards his hind parts. If one hand was held,
he could walk on his feet: but then he supported himself by
resting the other hand on the ground. The outer edge of the
foot alone touched the ground; and the toes were bent. This
description will apply in all points to the orang-outang brought
from Batavia by Mr. ABEL ;I and a short observation of his
customary attitudes and motions will convince any one that he
is not organized for biped progression, nor capable of it, even
for a short trial, without a troublesome and painful effort.
The bent knees and general attitude of the figure represented
by Tyson, show that the chimpansé is not a biped : “ Being
weak," says the author, “ the better to support him I have
given him a stick in his right hand.”'S Several passages show,
that the animal often went on all fours; and thus confirm the
representation given by the directors of the Sierra Leone com-
pany ; || who say, in describing a young one, that “at first he
crawled on all fours; always walking on the outside of his
hands; but, when grown larger, he endeavoured to go erect,
supporting himself by a stick, which he carried in his hand.”
That the gibbon (S. Lar), another of the anthropomorphous
simiæ, is not constructed for the erect attitude, appears from
the testimony of DAUBENTON.T It could go almost erect on
the feet, but the legs and thighs were rather bent; and some-
times the hand touched the ground to support the reeling body:
it was unsteady whenever it stopped in an upright posture, the
heel only resting on the ground, and the sole being raised : it
remained but a short time in this attitude, which appeared
unnatural.
No instance has ever been produced of a monkey, nor indeed
of any animal, except man, which could support the body in
equilibrio on one foot only. The causes of this prerogative of
the human organization will be found in the breadth of his foot,
in the resting of its entire surface on the ground, in the bony
and muscular strength of the lower extremity, and the length
of the cervix ſemoris.
* Curres, t. I, p. 60.
+ Annalns du Muséum, v. 16, p. 49.
# Narrative of a Journey in China, p. 322, and following.
2 P. 16, ul. 1.
il P. 101. 1 Bution, by wood, v. 10, p 80.
114
CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD.
The foregoing considerations render it very clear that the
erect stature is not only a necessary result of the human struc-
ture ; but also that it is peculiar to man: and that the differences
in the form and arrangement of parts, derived from this source
only, are abundantly sufficient to distinguish man by a wide
interval from all other animals. The assertion of LINNEUS,*
“ dari simias erecto corpore binis æque ac homo pedibus ince-
dentes, et pedum et manuum ministerio humanam referentes
speciem,” is not only unsupported by any authentic testimony
concerning animals of the monkey tribe, but directly contra-
dicted by all the well-ascertained facts relating to those which
most nearly resemble us in stature.
CHAPTER IV.
Comparison of the Human Head and Teeth to those of Animals.
WHEN we consider that the head affords a receptacle for the
organ of the mind, that it lodges the principal external senses,
as well as the instruments for procuring, receiving, masticating,
and swallowing the food, and a considerable part of the appa-
ratus employed in producing sound, we shall not be surprised
at the striking differences in its construction, at those propor-
tional developments or contractions of its several parts, which
determine the faculties and endowments of different animals,
and their relative rank in the scale of nature. The most con-
venient position for this important assemblage of organs
including the chief means by which we are connected, actively
or passively, with the external world-must exhibit corres-
ponding varieties. A situation is required, combining firin-
ness of support with freedom of motion, a ready communication
of the senses with their appropriate external objects, and a
corresponding arrangement of the entrances to the respira-
tory, digestive, and vocal cavities. The mode in which the
entire mass is articulated and supported must therefore be
varied according to the predominance or contraction of the
various particular organs, as well as in conformity to the atti-
tude of the animal, and the distribution of other parts, par-
ticu' rly the upper limbs. · As the proportions of its parts in
the human subject indicate a predominance of the organ of
thought, and reflection over the instruments employed m
external sensation and the supply of merely animal wants,
* Fauna Succica; Præfat,
CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD.
115
which places man at the top of the intellectual scale; so the
position of the whole, and the arrangement for its support and
examined, in reference to his peculiar distinction of the erect
attitude.
A very striking difference between man and all other animals
consists in the relative proportions of the cranium and face;
which are indicated in a general but not very accurate manner,
The organs, which occupy most of the face, are those of
vision, smelling, and tasting, together with the instruments of
mastication and deglutition. In proportion as these are more
developed, the size of the face, compared to that of the cranium,
is augmented. On the contrary, when the brain is large, the
volume of the cranium is increased in proportion to that of the
face. The nature and character of each living being must
depend on the relative energy of its animal propensities and
functions, its feelings, and mental powers : its leading traits
will be derived from those which are most predominant. This
is sufficiently evinced in the human species ; but the differences
observable between one man and another are fewer and less
strongly marked than those which occur between animals of
different species.
The brain being the organ, by which the impressions on the
external senses are combined and compared, in which all the
processes called intellectual are carried on, we shall find that
animals partake in a greater degree, or at least approach more
nearly to reason, in proportion as the mass of medullary sub-
stance forming their brain exceeds that which constitutes the
rest of the nervous system; or, in other words, in proportion as
the organ of the mind exceeds those of the senses. Since, then,
the proportions of the cranium and face indicate those of the
brain and of the principal external senses and instruments of
mastication, we shall not be surprised to find that they point out
to us. in great measure, the general character of animals, the
degree of instinct and docility which they possess :-hence the
study of these proportions is of high importance to the naturalist.
Man combines by far the largest cranium with the smallest
face and animals deviate from these relations in proportion as
they increase in stupidity and ferocity.
expressing the relative proportion of these parts is by the course
of the facial line, and the amount of the facial angle. Sup-
116 CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD.
posing a skull to be observed in profile, in the position which it
would have, when the occipital condyles are at rest in the arti-
cular hollows of the atlas, in the erect attitude of the body, and
neither inclined forwards nor backwards, a line drawn from the
greatest projection of the forehead to that of the upper maxillary
bone, follows the direction of the face, and is called the facial
line ; the angle, which this forms with a second line, continued
horizontally backwards, is the facial angle, and measures the
relative prominence of the jaws and forehead.* In man only is
the face placed perpendicularly under the front of the cranium;
so that the facial line is perpendicular: hence the angle formed
between this line and the horizontal one above described is
most open, or approaches most nearly to a right angle, in the
human subject. The face of animals is placed in front of
the cranium instead of under it: that cavity is so diminished
in size, that its anterior expanded portion or forehead is soon
lost, as we recede from man. Hence the facial line is oblique,
and the facial angle is acute; and it becomes more and more
so as we descend in the scale from man : in several birds,
most reptiles and fishes, it is lost altogether, as the cranium
and face are completely on a level, and form parts of one hori-
zontal line.
The idea of stupidity is associated, even by the vulgar, with
the elongation of the snout; which necessarily lowers the facial
line, or renders it more oblique: hence the crane and snipe
have become proverbial. On the contrary, when the facial line
is elevated by any cause, which does not increase the capacity
of the cranium, as in the elephant and owl, by the cells which
separate the two tables, the animal acquires a particular air of
intelligence, and gains the credit of qualities which he does not
in reality possess. Hence the latter animal has been selected
as the emblem of the goddess of wisdom; and the former is
distinguished in the Malay language by a name which indicates
an opinion that he participates with man in his most distin-
guishing characteristic, the possession of reason.
The invaluable remains of Grecian art show that the ancients
were well acquainted with these circumstances. They were
aware that an elevated facial line, produced by a great develop-
ment of the instrument of knowledge and reflection, and a
corresponding contraction of the mouth, jaws, tongue, nose,
* See Camper Kleinere Schriſlen; t. 1. pt. i. pag. 15. Hist. Nat. de l'Orang-
outang; Ch. VII; pl. 1. fig. 3. . Dissertution physique sur les Différences réellet
que présentent les Traits du Visage, 8c. 4to. Utrecht, 1791. The course of the
horizontal line, and its point of contact with the facial line, are by no means
uniform in all the figures represented by Camper,
CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD. 117
indicated a noble and generous nature. Hence they have
extended the facial angle to 90° in the representation of legis-
lators, sages, poets, and others, on whom they wished to bestow
the most august character. In the statues of their heroes and
gods they have still further exaggerated the human and reduced
the animal characteristics, extending the forehead over the face,
so as to push the facial line beyond the perpendicular, and to
make the angle 1000.
The facial angle* in the human subject varies from 650 to
850, speaking of the adult; for in the child it reaches 900. The
former is a near approach to the monkey race: the angle may
be extended beyond the latter, as the Greeks have done in their
representations of the Deity: here, however, 100° seem to be the
ne plus ultra: beyond which the proportions of the head would
appear deformed. That angle, according to CAMPER, consti-
tutes the most beautifult countenance; and hence he supposes
Outline engravings of several human heads and skulls, as well as of a
monkey, and an orang-outang, in profile, with the lines measuring their facial
angles, are subjoined to Camper's Dissert. physique. Some are also given in
Audebert, Hist. Nat. des Singes; pl. anat. 2.
The practical application of this measurement is much less extensively use-
ful and important than Camper had imagined. It merely affords a striking
general vieiy of the great characteristic difference between man and some ani-
mals, without indicating to us the diversities of the human species itself, and
much less those of animals. In many of the latter, indeed, it does not mea-
sure the prominence of the brain, but that of the frontal sinuses or nose. In
man and the quadromanous animals, the sinuses are inconsiderable; but in
the carnivora, the piy kind, some ruminants, and particularly in the elephant,
they are very larve, and raise the facial line to a degree far beyond what the
convexity of the braiu would do. In the rodentia and the walrus the nose is
very large, and throws back the cranium so that it offers no point for measure.
ment in front,
The following is a statement of the angle in certain animals, taken by
drawing a line parallel to the floor of the nostrils, and another from the
greatest prominence of the alveoli to the convexity of the cranium, without
regarding the outline of the nose and face.
Camper states it at 58° (Diss. phys. pl. 1, f. 2).
Mr. Abel at 57° (Journey in China, p. 322).
In the skull, belonging to the Hunterían col-
Young orang-outang - 670
lection, when the facial line is drawn from
the forehead, the angle 56°; when from the
prominent superciliary ridge, 60°.
Sapajou - - - - - 65 | Mastiff-line drawn from the outer surface of
Guenon -
57 the cranium
- - 300
Mandrill - - - - 42-301 , inner
41
Coati - -
- - 30
Pole-cat -
31 | Ram -
Pug-dog - - -
35 Horse
. 23
Cuvier, Leçons d'Anat, comp. Lect. viii. art. 1.
When the facial angles of the anthropo-morphous simiæ, as above stated,
are compared to those of some Negroes, as, for example, the skull delineated
in pl. vii. which has an angle of 65°, and that in Sandifort's Museum Acad.
Lugduno-Batavum, v. l, which has nearly the same, we find this method in.
sufficient, even to distinguish man and animals. An American monkey figured
by Humboldt(simia melano-cephala) has as good a facial line as the generality
of Negroes. Recueil d'Obs, de Zool. et d' Anat, comp. i. pl. 29. He ascribes to
it“ facies nigra, anthropo-morpha, ſero Ethiopis;" p. 317.
+ That these unnatural proportions may have been selected by the Grecian
artists in order to convey the preternatural impressions associated with their

- 28
28
Hare'

-
30
118 CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD.
the Greeks adopted it. “ For," says he, “it is certain no such
head was ever met with; and I cannot conceive any such should
have occurred among the Greeks, since neither the Egyptians,
from whom they probably descended, nor the Persians, nor the
Greeks themselves, ever exhibit such a formation on their
medals, when they are representing the portrait of any real
character. Hence the ancient model of beauty does not exist
in nature, but is a thing of imaginary creation : it is what WIN-
KLEMANN calls beau idéal.”
A vertical section of the head, in the longitudinal direction,
shows us more completely the relative proportions of the cranium
and face. In inan the area of the section of the craniuin is
nearly four times as large as that of the face : the lower jaw not
being included. It is, perhaps, about three times as large in the
orang-outang; twice as large in the sapajous; and they are
nearly equal in the baboons and the carnivorous animals, except-
ing the dogs with short muzzles, such as the pug, where the
cranium rather exceeds the face. In the hare and marmot the
face exceeds the cranium by one-third, in the porcupine and
ruminants by one-half, in the pig kind by a still greater propor-
tion. The face is three times as large as the cranium in the
hippopotamus, and nearly four times in the horse.
The human and the brute face are not more strongly con-
trasted in size, and in their relation to the cranium, than in
general configuration, in the construction of individual parts, the
motions and uses to which they are subservient. The latter is
merely an instrument adapted to procure and prepare food, and
often a weapon of offence and defence; the former is an organ of
expression, an outward index of what passes in the busy world
within. The elongated and narrow jaws with these muscles,
with their sharp cutting teeth, or strong pointed and formidable
fangs, principally compose the face of the animal: the chin, lips,
cheeks, eye-brows, and forehead, are either removed, or reduced
to a size and form simply necessary for animal purposes. The
nose is confounded with the upper jaw and lip; or, if more
developed, is still applied to offices connected with procuring
food. Thus we have a muzzle or snout rather than a face. In
man, on the contrary, the animal organs, the jaws, and teeth,
notion of superior natures, and may have been well calculated to produce the
intended effect is what I can easily understand. But that proportions, which
have never existed in nature, shoulll yet constitute, in our estimation, the most
beautiful (bean) countenance, appears to me, in that unqualified statement,
either an unmeaning proposition, or inconsistent with any reasonable sense of
de word beautiful.
CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN HEAD
119
are reduced in size, and covered from view; hence the mouth is
extremely small, and neither used, nor capable of use, in directly
taking or seizing the aliment. The chin, lips, cheeks, bridge of
the nose, eyelids, and eyebrows, receive a fulness of development,
and free play of action, which is seen in no other animal. The
constant motions of this finely-formed countenance correspond
with the inward workings and emotions; and are a most im-
portant medium of influence and communication with our
fellow-creatures ;-inviting and attracting them by its expan-
sion in love, friendship, affection, and benevolent feelings;
warning and repelling by its fearful contraction in indignation,
scorn, hatred, malice. When to the human face we add the
ample and capacious forehead, the organization of the intellectual
and moral being is perfect; the contrast with all others, even of
the manlike class, pointed and complete. How admirably do
the positions of the face, in the erect attitude of man, and the
prone posture of brutes, correspond to these striking differences
in construction!
The want of the intermaxillary bone has been assigned by
Camper as one of the grand characteristics, which distinguish
the human head from that of other animals.
The superior maxillary bones of the human subject are united
to each other, and contain the whole of the upper series of teeth:
they are, however, separated in other mammalia by a third bone
of a wedge shape, which contains the incisor teeth, and was
therefore called os incisivum. Since, however, this bone is
found where there are no incisor teeth, as in the horned rumi-
nants, in the elephant, and the two-horned rhinoceros of Africa,
and also where there are no teeth at all, as in the ant-eater and
some of the whale kind, BLUMENBACH* has bestowed on it the
more appropriate name of the os intermaxillare. It is a single
bone in some cases : in many others, composed of two sym-
metrical portions. It is connected to the upper jaw-bone by a
facial suture, running from the side of the nose to the alveolar
margin, and by a palatine suture passing transversely from the
alveoli to the anterior palatine foramina.
That man possesses nothing analogous to this intermaxillary
bone of brutes is so clear, that we cannot easily account for that
excellent anatomist Vica D’Azyrt having discovered any ana-
logy in the human jaw to the structure of quadrupeds. The
• De Generis humani Farietate nalivice, p. 35.
Mémoires de l'Acad. des Sciences de Paris, 1780.
120
ARTICULATION AND
only ground for such an opinion is the small transverse fissure
in the palate behind the alveoli of the incisors, observable in the
fetus and child, and sometimes tolerably distinct in the adult
But there is this very obvious and important distinction; that
no vestige of suture can ever be traced in the human subject
between the alveoli, much less on the upper and anterior surface
of the jaw: so that the similarity to the structure of the quad-
ruped is very remote.
That all mammalia, besides the human subject, possess this
bone is not so decidedly ascertained, as that man has it not.
BLUMENBACHf found no trace of it in the crania of some simiæ,
although all the sutures were perfect; yet it is seen in the head
of the orang-outang (S. satyrus) figured by him, I as well as in
that of CAMPERS On the contrary, in the head of a very
anthropo-morphous simia in the museum of the College of Sur-
geons, which seems to me to be the S. satyrus, not a vestige of
the sutures separating this bone is to be seen, although the in-
dividual must have been very young, as the pieces of the occi-
pital bone are not yet consolidated. According to Tyson and
DAUBENTON it is not found in the chimpansé.
However the question may be decided, there can be no doubt
that the crania of all the quadrumana, as well as of all other
mammalia, are distinguished from the human skull by the com-
parative size, great length, and projection of the jaws.


The articulation of the head with the spine determines the
mode of its support and extent of motion, the direction of the
mouth, jaws, eyes, and rest of the face; it must therefore vary
according to the construction and relative magnitude of its
parts, as well as to the ordinary attitude of the body. The
position and direction of the great occipital foramen affords a
* The fissure in question is more distinct in young than in old subjects, and
it is called by Blumenbach sutura incisiva (Beschreibung der Knoclıcı). Al-
though overlooked by several modern osteologists, it was observed and accu-
rately described by the great anatoinists of the sixteenth century, Vesalius,
Fallopius, and Columbus. It is also mentioned by Riolan (Anthropographia,
p. 649). Gaien has expressly enunerated an intermaxillary bone among the
component parts of the human face; and Vesalius very justly inferred from
this, arruong many equally striking proofs, that the anatomical descriptions of
that author, which had beer: unirersally received with the most implicit co-
ference till that time, had not been drawn from the examination of the human
subject. This attempt to rescue inankind from error and prejudice drew upon
him nothing but hatred and reproaches from his contein poraries, who were
driven to the most absurd arguments in defence of their idol Galen. One of
them suggested that an intermaxillary bone, though not found now, might
uave belonged to the human structure in former times (Jac. Sylvii Depulsio
Caluinniaruin resani cujusdam in Galenum).
• De Gen, hum. Var, nal, sect. I, 15.
. Abbildungen n. h. Gegenstände, No. 52. 1 Euvres, pl. 1, fig. 3.
SUPPORT OF THE HEAD.
121
criterion of these differences.* The vertebral column being
vertical in the human subject, affords a scéd support for the
head, which is placed nearly in equilibriu on its upper end.
· Hence the great occipital hole and the articular condyles are
found almost in the centre of the basis cranii; and if the vertical
line of the trunk and neck were continued upwards, it would
pass through the top of the head. Consequently the weight of
the latter is sustained almost entirely by the vertebral column.
The head would be in a state of perfect equilibrium on the
spine, in the erect attitude of our body, if the parts in front of
the column exactly counterbalanced those behind it. This, how-
ever, is not the case. The articular condyles are manifestly
nearer to the occipital tuberosity than to the most prominent
point of the jaws; and thus the greater share of the weight is
in front of the joint. Place the occipital condyles on any point
of support, and the head will incline forwards, unless it be held
in equilibrio by a force applied behind. The preponderance is
greater when the lower jaw is added, and it is still further
increased by the accession of the tongue, muscles, and other
soft parts.
The inclination of the head forwards is counteracted in the
living body by the extensor muscles, and their constant exertion
is necessary for maintaining the head in equilibrio on the verte-
bral column. Whenever their contraction is suddenly suspended,
as in a person falling asleep in the erect attitude with the head
* Daubenton sur la Différence du grand Trou occipital dans l'Homme et dans
les autres Animau; Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences, 1764.
+ I am unfortunate enough to differ with the author of the Physiological
Lectures, in matters of fact as much as in matters of opinion. To the following
assertion I can only oppose the circumstances mentioned in the text. "The
condyles are placed so exactly parallel to the centre of gravity, that when we sit
upright, and go to sleep in that posture, the weight of the head has a tendency
to preponderate equallij in every direction, as we see in those who are dozing in
a carriage. Nay, their heads sometimes revolve in a circle, like the head of
harlequin on the stage." Lect. 3. The second expression marked in italics
cannot be taken literally; because inequality is essential to preponderance:
and an equal preponderance in every direction, if we disregard the contradics
tion in terms, is just equivalent to no preponderance at all. If the author
means to assert that the weight behind, exactly counterbalances that in front
of the occipito-atloidal articulation, the easy trial of supporting a skull by the
condyles will quickly show whether such a representation be correct or not.
· An analogous representation occurs in the same lecture respecting the dis.
tribution of weight in the trunk of the body. “We know that in an upright
posture the whole weight of the upper part of the body is so perfectly balanced
on the base of the vertebral column, as to have an equal propensity to prepon.
derate in every direction."
The weight of the head, of the thoracic and abdominal viscera, and the or.
dinary position of the upper limbs, carry the centre of gravity in front of the
spine. The tendency of the trunk to fall forwards is counteracted by the great
extensor muscles of the loins and back. The hip-joints are carried forwards.
and the feet prolonged in front of the ankle, in order to secure the body
against the consequences of this preponderance in the anterior direction, the
natural effect of which is seen by our falling forwards when muscular action
is suddenly suspended in fainting.


122
ARTICULATION AND
unsupported, that part, abandoned to the force of gravity,
immediately nods forwards.
The greatest number, and by far the most powerful muscles
are placed at the back of the head, and pass between the posterior
surface of the vertebral column and the occipit. The recti
postici, obliqui superiores, trachelomastoidei, complexi, splenii
capitis and trapezii are balanced by few and inconsiderable mus-
cles in front; by the recti antici, recti laterales, and longi colli.
Let a line be drawn according to the plane of the occipital
foramen; it will pass from the posterior edge along the surface
of the condyles, and, if continued anteriorly, will come out just
under the orbits. It forms, in short, almost a horizontal line,
which intersects, nearly at right angles, the vertical line of the
body and neck, when the head is held straight, without being
inclined backwards or forwards.
In this attitude, the face is in a vertical line, parallel to that
of the body and neck; and consequently the jaws hardly extend
in front beyond the forehead. They are very short in comparison
with those of most animals :.for the length of the lower maxillary
bone of man, measured from the chin to the posterior edge of
the condyle, is only half the length of the whole head, as taken
from the chin to the occipui: and scarcely the ninth part of the
height of the body from the anus to the vertex: and about the
eighteenth part of the whole length of the body from the top of
the head to the feet. This latter point of comparison is, how-
ever, scarcely applicable to the subject; inasmuch as there is
hardly any animal but man, which has the hind legs as long as
the trunk, neck, and head taken together, and measured from
the vertex to the pubes.
The horizontal plane of the foramen magnum, its nearly cen-
tral position in the basis of the skull, the support of the head
by the spine, and the direction of the face forwards, are admirably
suited to the erect attitude of man, and correspond to the absence
of the ligamentum nuchæ. If the human spine were placed
horizontally, how could the weight of the head be sustained ?
there is no adequate muscular power to support and elevate the
heavy mass; not to mention that it could not be carried suffi-
ciently backwards on the spine, for the eyes to be directed for-
wards; and that, if lowered, the jaws would not come to the
ground, as they do in animals, in consequence of their shortness,
but the forehead or vertex would touch it.*
* The absence of the rete mirabile, and of all analogous provision for mo-
derating the influx of the blood into the brain, accords, with the other circum-
SUPPORT OF THE HEAD.
123
In most animals, the great occipital foramen is placed at the
back of the head; the jaws are considerably elongated; the oc-,
ciput forms no projection beyond this opening, the plane of
which is vertical, or at least very slightly inclined. Hence, the
head is connected to the neck by its back part, instead of being
articulated, as in man, by the middle of its basis; and, instead
of being in equilibrium on a perpendicular column placed under
it, it hangs to the front of the neck, where its weight is sustained
by the powerful cervical ligament.* This arrangement bestows
on quadrupeds the power of using their jaws for seizing what is
before them; of elevating them to reach what may be above the ,
head, although the body be placed horizontally; and of touch-
ing the ground with the mouth, by depressing the head and
neck as low as the feet. In several animals there is some dis-
tance between the foramen magnum and the posterior extremity
of the occiput; but this interval is no where so considerable as
in the human subject; and in proportion as it is increased, does
the direction of the occipital foramen approach more to the
horizontal one.
Animals of the monkey kind exhibit a closer resemblance of
the human structure, in the position and direction of the occi-
pital foramen, than any others. In the orang-outang it is twice
as far from the jaws, as from the back of the head ;t and it is
considerably inclined downwards, so that a line drawn in its
level passes below the lower jaw, instead of going just under the
orbit, as in inan.
The difference in the direction of the foramen may be esti-
mated, by noting the angle formed by the union of a line drawn
in the manner above-mentioned, according to the direction of
stances enumerated above, in showing that man is entirely unfit for the attı.
tude on all fours.
The ligamentum puchæ or suspensorium colli, which is confounded in the
Physiological Lectures (p. 116), with the yellow ligaments connecting the plates
of the spinous processes, is affixed at one end of the spines of the cervical and
dorsal vertebræ, and at the other to the middle of the occiput, between the
two fossæ cerebelli. This thick and powerful ligament affords a steady and
constant support to the head of quadrupeds, which would have otherwise
needed an immense mass of muscles to sustaiu it. Such a structure is not re-
quired in man, where, if this ligament can be said to exist at all, it is only as a
weak and insignificant rudiment. I do not know how the orang-outang and
other monkeys are circumstanced in this respect. Camper, however, states,
that the spinous processes of the cervical vertebræ are very long in the oranga
outang (uvres, i. p. 126). And the same circumstance is still more remark-
able in the skeleton of the pongo of Batavia, whose enormous jaws and face
must require the support of a suspensory ligament, probably attached in both
animals to the cervical spines. Audebert, Hist. Nat. des Singes; pl. anat. 2.
+ The effect of this structure in throwing the centre of gravity forwards, and
thus increasing the difficulty of maintaining the erect position, is particularly
pointed out by Mr. Abel; Journey in China, p. 322.

124 CHARACTERS OF THE HUMAN TEETH.
the opening, with another line passing from the postertor edge
of the foramen to the inferior margin of the orbit. This angle
is of 30 in man, and of 370 in the orang-outang ; 470 in the
uemur. It is still greater in the dog; and in the horse it is of
90° or a right angle, the plane of the opening being completely
vertical.
The distance of the foramen magnum from the front of the
jaws and the posterior surface of the occiput may be in man
respectively, as and, or even more nearly equal : the former
is twice as great as the latter in the orang-outang; while, in
almost all other mammalia, the opening is at the very posterior
aspect of the skull.
The teeth of man are distinguished by being all of one length,
and by the circumstance of their being arranged in an uniform
unbroken series. The cuspidati are a little longer than the
others at first; but their sharp points are soon worn down to a
level with the rest. In all animals the teeth of different classes
differ in size and length, often very considerably; and they are
separated by more or less wide intervals : this is particularly the
case with the teeth called canine, or cuspidati, which are long,
prominent, and distinct from the neighbouring teeth: their not
projecting beyond the rest, nor being separated from them by
any interval, is, therefore, a very characteristic circumstance in
the human structure. Even in the simiæ, whose masticatory
apparatus most nearly resembles that of man, the cuspidati are
longer, often very considerably longer than the other teeth; and
there are intervals in the series of each jaw to receive the cuspi-
dati of the other.
The inferior incisors are perpendicular; the teeth, indeed, and
the front of the jaw are placed in the same vertical line. In
animals, these teeth slant backwards, and the jaw slopes back-
wards directly from the alveoli; so that the full prominent chin,
so remarkable a feature in the face of our species, is found in no
animal, not even in the orang-outang : it appears as if the part
were cut off.
The obtuse tubercles of the grinders are again very peculiar
and characteristic: they are worthy of particular remark, be-
cause, being the great instruments of dividing the food, they
correspond to the kind of nourishment which the animal natu-
rally takes. Their surface does not resemble the flat crowns
with rising ridges of intermixed enamel belonging to our com-
mon herbivorous animals : nor are they like the cutting and
STATURE, PROPORTIONS, &c.
125
tearing grinders of the carnivora. But they are well adapted to
that mixed diet prepared by the arts of cookery, which man has
always resorted to, when he could get it, and when his natural
inclinations have not been thwarted by the interference of reli-
gious scruples or prohibitions, nor opposed by his own whims
and fancies.
The lower jaw of man is distinguished by the prominence of
the chin, a necessary consequence of the inferior incisors being
perpendicular; by its shortness,* and by the oblong convexity
and obliquity of the condyles.
CHAPTER V.
Differences between Man and Animals in Stature, Proportions, and some
other Points.
The height of the whole body, and the proportion of its several
specific differences between man and the most anthropo-
morphous simiæ.
The difference of stature is remarkable : of the orang-outangs
or chimpansés hitherto brought into Europe, none has been
more than three feet high; and most have been several inches
ABEL, and now at Exeter Change, is thirty-one inches. t Of
eight seen by CAMPER I none exceeded two feet and a half
(Rhynland measure): from observing the state of the teeth, and
progress of ossification, and estimating, according to the human
subject, the additions which the stature might be expected to
receive, he thinks that their adult height may be set down at
four feet of the same measure. F. CUVIERS makes it considerably
less. Yet they are spoken of, on the faith of travellers, as being
five or six feet high, or even more: what is said of their erect
gait, and many other particulars, is probably of equal accuracy.
Tyson's chimpansé, measured twenty-six inches from the
vertex to the heel. ||
The great length of the upper limbs, the predominance of the
* The length of the inferior maxilla is I of that of the trunk from the vertex
to the anus, in the simia satyrus; it is in man.
The elephant is equally remarkable with man for the shortness of the lower
jaw, of which a considerable portion projects in front of the teeth. This can-
not properly be deemed a chin. The incisors and cuspidati do not exist in the
lower jaw of this animal; the projection in question is the part, which is
+ Journey in China; 322.
& Annales du Muséum ; xvi, 51.
# Euvres ; I. 51.
11 Anat. of a Pygmic, 15.
126
CHARACTER OF MAN IN
fore-arm over the upper arm, the shortness of the lower limbs,
and the great length of the hands and feet, are other striking
characters of the monkey kind.
The span of the extended arms in man equals the height of
the body; it is nearly double that measure in the anthropo-
morphous monkeys. Our upper arm is longer than the fore-
arm by two or three inches; in the last-mentioned animals the
fore-arm is the longest. In us the hip-joint divides the body
equally; the lower extremity is less than half the height of the
body in monkeys. The proportion of the hand and foot to the
body is much greater in them than in us; the excess arising
from increase in the length of the phalanges. That all these
circumstances are very suitable to the climbing habits of the
monkey race, is too obvious to require particular elucidation.
In the following table, I have arranged in parallel lines, the
dimensions of some parts of a male skeleton, of the orang-outang
measured by CAMPER, of that described by Mr. ABEL, and of
Tyson's chimpansé.
Man.
Simia Satyrus. Simia Tro-
Inches.
Camper. Abel. glodytes.
The whole body from the 71 Uncertain, but} 30 31
26
vertex to the licel. 3 less than .
Upper extremity
24. 25 . . 17
Lower
16 . 13 .
84. 9
10 s Ulna
Fore-arm (ulna) ..
Radius
Hand . . .
g. 67-10ths
Thumb
14 . . .
Middle fing
. 3 . . . . 24
Temur
Tibia
· 167 . :
Foot
Middle toe : : : : : 23
In a monkey of two feet two inches the humerus measured
four and a quarter, the ulna five inches.
The upper extremities of the pongo* of Borneo reach to the
ankles, when the animal is erect: its ulna, in the College
Museum, is 154 inches long; the whole height certainly not
exceeding five feet. The man, whose gigantic skeleton is pre-
served in the same place, was eight feet four inches; the ulna,
however, is only 13 inches.
The upper limbs of the gibbon touch the ground when the
animal is erect.
* Audebert, Hist. Nat. des Singes; Planche anat. 2, fig. 6. The short de-
scription of this animal, which, from the enormous size and strength of his
jaws, must lie extremely furmidable, given by Wurmb in the second vol. of
the Memoirs of the Butavian Society in Dutch, is translated in the work of Au-
debert, pr. 22, 23. It is the first and only description we have up the animal.
Buffon, who had never seen this creature, nor any lart of it gives the name
of pongo to the orang-outans.
.
32
.
•
Humerus .
•
CTC
.
•
•
•
•
.......
•
2
.
.
STATURE, PROPORTIONS, &c. 127
Passing over some circumstances of less importance, ordinarily
enumerated among the distinctive characters of man, as the
lobules of the ear, the tumid lips, particularly the inferior, &c.
I have a few remarks to make on the smoothness of the human
integuments. “Dantur," says LINNEUS,* “alicubi terrarum,
simiæ minus quam homo pilosæ ;” but he does not tell us in
what part of the world they are to be found. The unanimous
reports of all travellers, as well as the specimens of such animals
exhibited in Europe, prove incontestably, that the manlike simiæ,
whether the orang-outang of Borneo, or chimpansé of Angola,
as well as the long-armed monkey or gibbon, are widely different
from the human subject in this respect. Although the indivi-
duals brought into these countries have been under the adult
age, and generally very sickly, their body has been in all cases
universally hairy. We have, indeed, some accounts of people,
particularly in the islands of the South Sea, remarkable for their
hairiness; but they are not completely satisfactory. SPANGBERG
relates, that he found such a race in one of the southern Kurile
islands (lat. 430 500) on his return from Japan to Kamtschatka:t
and J. R. Forster observed individual anomalous instances in
the islands of Tanna, Mallicollo, and New Caledonia. I It was
reported to Mr. MARSDEN, when inquiring concerning the
aborigines of Sumatra, that there are two species living in the
woods, with peculiar language; one of these (called orang-gugu)
was described as “differing but little in the use of speech from
the orang-outang of Borneo, their bodies being covered with
long hairs."'S
These accounts furnish no satisfactory proof that any race ||
* Fauna Suecica; præf. + Russischer Geschichte; T. III. p. 174.
" I observed several of these people (the Mallicollese), who were very
hairy all over the body, not excepting the back; and this circumstance I also
observed in Tanna and New Caledonia." Observations on a Voyage round the
World, p. 243. That this hairiness is neither common to all the natives of the
islands enumerated, nor even very frequent or remarkable in accidental cases.
may be inferred from its not being at all noticed by Cook, who however de.
scribes minutely the persous of these islanders. Voy. towards the South Pole.
v. ii. pp. 34, 78, 118."
History of Sumatra, ed. 3, p. 41, note.
i The skin, like other parts, is subject to occasional varieties of formation.
Thus patches of it are sometimes thickly covered with hair, like that on the
head. Such accidental varieties, exaggerated by credulity and fraud, have
given occasion to reports of persons having hides like animals. Buffon (Sup-
plement, v. 4, p.571), Wunsch (Kosmologische Unterhaltungen, part 3), and La-
vater (Physiog. Frayn. part 4, p. 68,) have given figures and descriptions of
A. M. Herriy, a woman of Triers, said to have the skin of a deer, and shown
in many parts of Europe, Soemmerring saw this person, and found the pe-
culiarity to consist of numerous and large elevations of the skin, covered by
thick and strong liairs. They were of the nature of the moles often seen on
the face of very fair persons, and generally giving origin to hairs. He could
not discover a single hair resembling that of a deer. Beschreibung einiger Miss-
geburten, 1. 34.

128
CHARACTERS OF MAN IN
of men exists with a skin differently organized or covered from
what we are acquainted with. The smoothness and nakedness
of the human integuments therefore form a sufficient diagnostic
character of our species, as compared to the monkey, or any
other nearly allied mammiferous animal; and this circumstance,
with the absence of all fur, spines, bristles, scales, &c. and the
want of those natural offensive weapons, fangs, talons, claws,
&c. justify us in denominating the human body as naturally
unarmed and defenceless. The deficiency is amply made up by
the internal faculties, and the arts to which they give rise.
the whole, some parts are even more covered with hair than in
animals, as for example, the pubes and axilla, which the ancients
consequently regarded as peculiar characters of man.
In comparing man with the anthropo-morphous simiæ it must
be noticed further, that one species (satyrus) has no nail on the
thumb of the hind-hand; and the other (troglodytes), according
to Tyson, has thirteen ribs. Both of them have a sacrum
composed of three pieces only, instead of five, as in the human
subject. One at least (satyrus) has one or two large membraneous
pouches on the front of the neck, under the platysma myoides,
communicating with the cavity of the laryny, between the os
hyoides and thyroid cartilage, and capable of distention and
evacuation at the will of the animal.* It has no ligamentum teres
in the hip-joint. t It has a membraneous canal running along
the spermatic cord from the abdomen to the tunica vaginalis, I
as other monkeys and quadrupeds have; but this does not exist
in the chimpansé. $ The roof of the mouth is nearly black.
I venture to assert that the differences only, which have been
just enumerated, without any others, would be amply sufficient
to establish the distinction of species : that no example can be
adduced of animals deviating so far from the original model of
their structure as to exhibit varieties like those just enumerated;
and consequently that the differences in question can be accounted
for only by referring the animals to species originally distinct.
There are some points, in which man has been erroneously
supposed to differ from animals. The approximation of the two
eyes is not peculiar; they are much nearer together in the simiæ.
• Camper, in Philos. Trans. v. 69, p. 139. Euvres; t. 1. De l'Orang, ch. ii.
Camper ascribes the want of power of the orang-outang to produce articulated
sounds.
i Camper, Ruvres, i. 153. # Ibid. 109. Tyeon, p. 82.
STATURE, PROPORTIONS, &c. 129
Many other mammalia, particularly among the quadrumana,
have cilia in both eyelids: this is the case in the elephant. .
Although the prominent nose is a striking character of the
human face, particularly in comparison with the monkeys,
whose very name (simia, from simus) is derived from the flatness
of this part, there is a species considerably surpassing man in
the length of this feature ;-the long-nosed monkey, S. rostrata,
or nasalis.*
The external ears are not incapable of motion in all men; nor
are they moveable in all other mammalia; in the ant-eaters, for
example.
Many quadrumana have an organ of touch, and an uvala, as
well as man.
Again, there are some parts, which man alone, or with a few
other mammalia, does not possess. Most of these, which are
found chiefly in the domesticated kinds, were formerly attri-
buted to man, when human dissections, from want of opportuni-
ties, were uncommon.
The panniculus carnosus, or thin subcutaneous stratum of
muscular fibres covering the ventral and lateral parts of the
trunk immediately under the skin, described by GALEN and his
followers, and even by VESALIUS, the great restorer of anatomy
and exposer of GALEN's errors, as a part of the human body,
does not exist in man, nor according to Tyson, in the chimpansé.
It is found in the monkeys.
· The rete mirabile of the cerebral arteries, included by GALEN
among the parts of the human body, was shown by VESALIUS
not to belong to the human structure.
The seventh or suspensory muscle of the eyeball, which is
found in the four-footed mammalia, is not seen in man, as
FALLOPIUS observed : neither is the allantois or membrana
nictitans.
That man has neither the ligamentum nuchæ nor the inter-
maxillary bone, has been already explained. The foramen
incisivum is common to the human species with quadrupeds; it
is small and single in the former; double and of considerable
size in the latter.
There are a few other parts, not found in many animals, and
* Buffon, Hist. des Quadrupèdes; Supplm.. t. vii. tab. 11, 12. The animal is
also figured by Blumenbach, Abbildungen ; No. 13; and by Pennant, History
of Quadrupeds, y, 2. p. 322, pl, 104 and 105, under the name of proboscis mon-
key. The nostrils of this proboscis do not terminate, as in man, close to the
upper lip; but at the extremity of the prominence; and the structure, in
other respects, differs essentially from that of the human nose.
K
130
PECULIARITIES OF
sometimes erroneously ascribed to man: such as the pancreas
Asellii, hepatico-cystic ducts, corpus Highmori, &c.
CHAPTER VI.
Diferences in the Structure of some internal Organs.
The instrument of knowledge and reflection, the part by which
we feel, perceive, judge, think, reason, the organ or organs
connecting us with the external world, and executing the moral
and intellectual departinent in our economy, claim our first
attention. In spite of metaphysical subtlety, of all the chimeras
and fancies about immaterial agencies, ethereal fluids, and the
like, and all the real or pretended alarms so carefully connected
with this subject, the truth, that the phenomena of mind are to
be regarded physiologically merely as the functions of the
organic apparatus contained in the head, is proved by such over-
whelming evidence, that physiologists and zoologists have been
led, almost in spite of themselves, to show their belief in it, by
the great attention they have paid to this part.
The vast superiority of man over all other animals in the
faculties of the mind, which may be truly considered as a
generic distinction of the human subject—in my opinion a more
unequivocal and important one than many of those, in com-
pliance with which, diversity of genus and species is established
in the animal kingdom-led physiologists at a very early period
to seek for some corresponding difference in the brains of man
and animals.
It has been asserted from remote times that the brain of man
is larger than that of any animal; and I know no exception to
this assertion of ARISTOTLE and PLINY besides the elephant :
unless the larger cetacea should be as well supplied with brain,
in proportion to their size, as the smaller. Certainly all the
larger animals, with which we are more commonly acquainted,
have brains absolutely smaller, and considerably so, than that of
man. This, indeed, may be easily shown by a comparison of
skulls; by contrasting the compressed, narrow, elongated crania
of brutes, hidden behind their enormous jaws and face, with the
length, breadth, and ample vault of the human “ cerebri taber-
naculum,"* whose capacious globular expanse surmounts and
covers the inconsiderable receptacles of the senses and ali-
mentary apparatus.
# Haller
INTERNAL STRUCTURE-BRAIN.
131
In later times the subject has been investigated in a different
way ;-by comparing the proportion which the mass of the brain
bears to the whole body. The result of this comparison in the
more common and domestic animals was deemed so satisfactory,
that, without prosecuting the inquiry further, a general propo-
sition was laid down, that man has the largest brain in propor-
tion to his body. More modern physiologists, however, in
following up this comparative view in a greater number of ani-
mals, have been considerably perplexed at discovering many
exceptions to the general position. They found that several
mammalia, as the dolphin, seals, some quadrumana, and some
animals of the mouse kind, equal the human subject, and that
some small birds even exceed him in this respect. *
As these latter observations entirely overturned the conclusion,
which had been before generally admitted, SoEMMERRING has
furnished us with another point of comparison ; viz. that of the
* It cannot be a very satisfactory mode of proceeding to compare the body,
of which the weight varies so considerably according to illness, emaciation,
or embonpoint, with the brain, which is affected by none of these circum-
stances, and seems to remain constantly the saine. Thus in the cat, the weight
of the brain, compared to that of the body, has been stated as 1 to 156, by one
anatomist; as 1 to 82 by another; that of the doy, as 1 to 305, 1 to 47, &c. The
following numbers, taken principally from Haller (Element, Physiol. lib. X.
sect. 1.) and Cuvier (Leçons d'Anat, comp. Lec. ix. art. 5, will show that in
the proportionate mass of his brain, man is surpassed only by a few small,
slender, and lean animals.
Child of 6 years, 2 lb. 284dr.; or . Haller.
Adult, 3. Haller. From 2 lb. 3} oz. to 3 lb. 32 oz. Soemmerring.
Orangs.
Chimpansé, of 26 inches in height, 11 oz. 7 dr. Tyson.
A proportion equal to the human.
Gibbon (S. Lar.), .
Sapajous, or American monkeys with prehensile tails.
Saïmiri (S. sciurea), gy; Saï (S. capucina), s; Ouistiti (S. jacchus), agº
Coaita (S. paniscus), T.
Apes.-Malbrouc (S, faunus), 24; Callitriche (S. sabæa) and Patas (5. ru-
bra), 1; (S. mona), ; Mangabey (S. fulinigosa), 25
Baboons.—Macaque (S. cynomolgus), 6; Magot (S. sylvanus), 105.
Great Baboon (S. sphynx), 104:
Lemurs.—Mococo (L. catta), o1; Vari (L. macaco), 3.
Bat (V. noctula), do; Mole, it ; Bear, ut5; Hedgehog, 16s.
Fox, 205; Wolf, zo; Martin, 365; Ferret, 135
Beaver, ojo; Hare, ots; Rabbit, 140152; Water-rat, ; Rat, to;
Mouse, 4s; Field-mouse, sti:
Wild Boar, ota; Domestic, sodiy; Elephant, 500-7 or 10lb.
Stag, zoo; Roebuck (young), da; Sheep, 35I) 10m ; 0.x, Toy Sto
Call, niy; Horse, Tooi do; Ass, pat
Dolphin (delphinus delphis), 25, 3d, to idg ; Porpoise (D. phocæna), os.
Birds.--Eagle, to; Falcon, id); Goose, to (Haller); Duck, 25T; Cock,
; Blackbird, o's; Redbreast, 3; Chaflinch, o't; a Fringilla, carefully
weighed and examined by Haller, gt; Sparrow, os; Canary-bird, 4.
Reptiles.-Turtle, Es; Tortoise, 2 0; Coluber-natrix, rga; Frog, Itrº
Fishes.-Shark, 2407; Dog-fish, 1844; Pike, 1305; Carp,
K 2
132
PECULIARITIES OF
ratio, which the mass of the brain bears to the bulk of the nerves
arising from it. Let us divide the brain into two parts ; that
which is immediately connected with the sensorial extremities of
the nerves, which receives their impressions, and is therefore
devoted to those common wants and purposes, which may be
considered as the seat of the mental phenomena.
In proportion, then, as any animal possesses a larger share of
the latter and more noble part; that is, in proportion as the
organ of reflection exceeds that of the external senses, may we
expect to find the powers of the mind more diversified and more
fully developed. In this point of view man is decidedly pre-
eminent: although in his senses and common animal properties
he holds only a middle rank, here he surpasses all other animals
that have been hitherto investigated; he is the first of living
beings. “All the simiæ,” says this accomplished anatomist,
“for I have been fortunate enough to procure specimens of the
four principal divisions, come after him ; for, although the pro-
portion of their brain to the body, particularly in the small
species with prehensile tails, is equal to that of man, their very
large eyes, ears, tongue, and jaws, require a much larger mass
of brain than the corresponding parts in the human subject; and
if you remove this, the ratio of the brain to the body is much
diminished.*
“ Animals of various kinds seem to me to possess a larger or
smaller quantity of this superabundant portion of brain accord-
ing to the degree of their sagacity and docility. The largest
brain of a horse, which I possess, weighs one pound seven
ounces; the smallest human brain that I have met with in an
adult, two pounds five ounces and a quarter. But the nerves
in the basis of the horse's brain are ten times larger than in the
other instance, although it weighs less by fourteen ounces and
a quarter.
“But we are not hastily to conclude that the human species
have smaller nerves than any other animals. In order that my
ideas may be better understood, I shall state the following
imaginary case. Suppose the ball of the eye to require 600
nervous fibrils in one instance, and in another, half the size,
300; further, that the animal with 600 fibrils possesses a
brain of seven, and that with 300 a brain of only five drams.
To the latter we ought to ascribe the larger brain, and
Blumenbach las figured the brain of the ribbed-nose baboon or mandrill
(papio maimon) in the two first editions of his work, De Gcn. Hum. Var. nat.
mbi 1, fig. 1. T'he deviation from the human character iu the size of the nerves
is very striking.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE-BRAIN.
135
a more ample capacity of registering the impressions made
on the organ of vision. For, allowing one dram of en-
cephalon to 100 fibrils, the brain, which is absolutely the least,
will have an overplus of two drams, while the larger has only
one. That the eye, which is supplied with a double quantity of
fibrils, may be a more perfect organ of sense, will be readily
admitted: but that point is not connected with the present
question."*
Independently of weight and size, SOEMMERRING observed
fifteen visible material anatomical differences between the brain
of the common tailless ape and that of man.t
It must be acknowledged that the inquiries into the relative
weight of the brain and the body, and the comparison between
the former and the nerves connected with it, have not yet af-
forded any precise and clear information respecting the diffe-
rences between man and animals, nor on the grounds of the infi-
nitely various faculties that distinguish different animals. It
can hardly be expected that these matters will receive any clear
elucidation, while we continue so ignorant as at present of the
functions executed by the different parts of the encephalon.
The basis of the position so much insisted on by SOEMMER-
RING is an assumption, that a certain bulk of nerve requires
always the same proportion of brain for the execution of its
office-a datum by no means self-evident. The comparison of
the nerves to the brain in general is not satisfactory; we should
wish to know the relative proportions of the cerebrum, cerebel-
lum, and medulla oblongata. The latter, indeed, is an impor-
tant point, as most of the nerves are immediately connected with
it, few with the cerebrum, and none with the cerebellum, pro-
perly so called.
The most striking character of the human brain is the prodi-
gious development of the cerebral hemispheres, to which no ani-
mal, whatever ratio its whole encephalon may bear to its body,
affords any parallel. I
It is also the most perfect in the number and development of
* Veber die körperliche Verschiedenheit des Negers vom Europäer; p. 63–67.
See also the dissertation of the same author De Basi Encephali; and J. G.
Ebel Obs, neurol. ex Anat. comparala, p. 17; Francof. ad Viadr. 1788; or in
Ludwig Scriptores neurologici.
+ Ueber die körp. Versch. p. 77, note.
i On this point I apprehend, from the following passage, that the Wenzels
agree with výhat is stated in the text: “ Homini pro ratione longe plus massa
cerebri inesse, quam mammalibus, sive illam massa cerebri partem, quæ in
interiore cerebro sitas, peculiariter formatas, sive individuas partes ambit, in
nomine pro ratione majorem esse, quam iu mammalibus." De penilivri Strucke
Cerebri Hominis et Brutorum, p. 259.
134
PECULIARITIES OF .
its parts; none being found in any animal, which man has not;
while several of those found in man are either reduced in size,
or deficient in various animals. Hence it has been said, that by
taking away, diminishing, or changing proportions, you might
form, from the human brain, that of any animal: while, on the
contrary, there is none from which you could in like manner
construct the brain of man.
It approaches the most nearly to the spherical figure. That
the nerves are the smallest in proportion to the brain, has been
already pointed out: the brain diminishes and the nerves in-
crease from man downwards. In the fætus and child the nerves
are proportionally larger than in the adult.
The assertion that it has the largest cerebrum in proportion
to the cerebellum * does not seem to be quite correct. It has,
however, the largest cerebrum in proportion to the medulla ob-
longata and spinalis t, with the single and indeed singular
exception of the dolphin.
It has the deepest and most numerous convolutions, appa-
rently in consequence of its size, as the purpose of this structure
seems to be that of affording a more extensive surface for the
application of the vascular membrane, the pia mater. The con-
volutions become fewer and shallower as the brain diminishes in
size; there are none in the rodentia ; none in very small brains,
It has the greatest quantity of medullary substance in propor-
tion to the cortical. In the fætus the cortical is much more
abundant than in the adult.
SOEMMERRING has shown that that curious structure, the
* The following numbers indicate the comparative weights of the cerebrum
and cerebellum.
Man . . 1-9 S. Mona. 1–8 | Beaver. . 1-3 | Wild Boar. 1-7
Saïmiri. . l-14 Dog . . 1-8 Rat . . 1-3 Cow ... 19
Sai. . 1-6 Cat. . 1-6 | Mouse. . 1-2 Sheep. . . 1-5
Magot. . 1-7 Mole. . 1-41 Hare . . ]-6 | Horse. . . 1-7
Baboon . 1-7
Cuvier, Leç. d'Anat, comp. ii. 153,
· The Wenzels, whose accuracy seems to deserve the greatest confidence, re-
present some of these proportions diflerently. They have found the cere-
brum, compared to the cerebellum, to be, in man, as 6221-87701 to 1; in the
horse, 4{ to 1; cow, 511ỉ to l; dog, 67to l; cat, 415 to 1; mole, 3 to l;
mouse, ož to 1. Lib. cit. tab. iv.
: * The breadth of the medulla oblongata behind the pons Varolii, compared
to the greatest breadth of the brain, is,
In Man as . . . . . 1-7 Cat. . . . . 8-22 Cow . . . . 5-13
Simia sinica (Bonnet 2, Rabbit . 3-8-1–3 Calf . . . 2-5
Chinois)
* | Pig. . .. . 5-7 | Elorse . . . . 8-21
S. Crnomolgus . 1-5 | Sheep . . . . 5—7 Dolphin . . . 1-13
Dog... 6—11 or 3–8 Roe. .. 1-3
In the latter animal the breadth of the brain is twice its length:- propor.
tion of which there is no other instance in the animal kingdom.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE-BRAIN.
135
sandy or earthy matter of the pineal gland (acervulus pinealis),
belongs to the healthy natural state of the human brain, being
found from the fourteenth year, and that it is almost con-
fined to man * He found it, however, once in the fallow-deer
(cervus dama); and MALACARNE + met with it in the goat
An instance communicated by CALDANI, of an old man, in
whose brain it was deficient, is regarded by BLUMENBACH I
as a rare anomaly of structure S.
The position of the heart in biped man differs from that which
it holds in quadrupeds. Its oblique direction to the left side, its
flat surface resting on the diaphragm, and the firm attachment
of its serous membrane to the tendinous centre of that muscle,
present, in the former, a contrast to its straight situation in the
middle of the chest, to its support on the sternum, and to the
want of attachment between the pericardium and muscle, which
are even separated by a distinct interval in the latter; a contrast
easily explained by the differences in the form of the thorax, and
# De Lapillis vel prope vel intra Glandulam pinealem sitis; Mogunt. 1785.
of Encefalotomia d'alcuni Quadrupedi, p. 31,
De g. h. var. nat. p. 44. From the very accurate researches of tlie Wenzels,
it appears that a deficiency of the acervulus is not so unfrequent as had been
represented by Soemmerring; and they found, on the other hand, that the
latter excellent anatomist has not been correct in fixing the fourteenth year as
the date of its earliest appearance; they have met with it from the age of
seven. They mention six instances, in which the acervulus did not exist. De
penitiori Structura Cerebri Hominis et Brutorum, Tubinga, fol. 1812, n.316.
& The human encephalon undergoes considerable changes after birth, in its
entire mass, in the proportions of its parts, and in the texture and consistency
of its substance. The gradual evolution of the mental faculties corresponds to
these alterations; which, indeed, accord with the slow development of the
human frame in other respects. The Wenzels have afforded accurate infor-
mation on some points. In an embryo of five months they found a brain of
720 grains; cerebrum of 683; cerebellum of 37, which is a ratio of the former
to the latter as 1837 to 1: at eight months the numbers were 4960, 4610, 350,
or, as 13 to 1: at the time of birth, as 6150, 5700, 450, or 12 to 1: at three
Fears, 15,240, 13,380, 1860, or 7991 to 1: at five years, 20,250, 17,760, 2490, or
nito l. From fifteen to eighty-eight the highest numbers occurred in a
youth of the former age; they were 24,420, 21,720, 2700, or 8795 to 1. Tab. 3.
Soemmerring observes, in the explanation of his beautiful talula bascos ence-
phali, p. 13, that the human brain has reached its full development at three
years of age: the Wenzels affirm that this is not the case till seven, when, they
observe, cerebrum hominis et quoad totum et quoad singulas partes abso-
lutum esse videtur." P. 247. If the perfect state of the brain be considered
to include the proportionate development of arts, the entire size and weight,
the consistence and cohesion of the mass, and the state of vascular supply
characterizing the adult, we must fix as its era a much later period than the
seventh year. I apprehend that the brain of animals will be found nearly
perfect in its organization at the time of birth; and, consequently, that a com.
parison of man and animals in this point of view will disclose a remarkable
point of distinction between them. The medullary striæ of the fourth ventricle
are not seen at birth : their appearance in tlie first year, and that of the acer-
vulus in the seventh, are regarded by the Wenzels as great peculiarities of the
human brain, since that of the mammalia exhibits no such development of new
parts after birth. Cap. 27. This seems to me a confined and inadequate view
of a point, which, in its full extent, is of great importance.
2013; 19. sraduons of Troesco

136
PECULIARITIES OF
in the respective attitudes in the iwo cases. The orangs (S.
the pericardium attached to the diaphragm. In other simiæ the
apex only is a little inclined to the left, and touches the muscle.
The curvature of the sacrurn and os coccygis gives rise to the
peculiar situation and direction of the sexual organs, and par-
ticularly of the vagina of the human female. As these bones
are extended in the same straight line with the spine in all other
mammalia, the canal of the vagina follows the axis of the pelvis,
lies nearly parallel to the spine, and has its external orifice
directed downwards or backwards : the orifice of the urethra
opens into the vagina itself. These arrangements fully explain
to us why brutes discharge the urine behind, why they copu-
Iate backwards, and why parturition is so easy with them.
· In these points of structure, the monkey kind agree with the
mammalia in general, and differ from man. The axis of the
vagina is directed downwards in them; the urine is discharged
within it (such, at least, BLUMENBACH* found to be the case
in the papio maimon and the simia cynomolgus), and they are,
consequently, retromingent and retro-copulant.
Mr. HUNTER, who had had opportunities of observing the
process, informs us that “monkeys always copulate backwards.
this is performed sometimes when the female is standing on all
fours; and at other times the male brings her between his
thighs when he is sitting, holding her with his fore-paws.”+
Dr. FRORIEP, of Weimar, late physician to the King of
Wurtemberg, informed me that he had often seen monkeys
copulate in the extensive menagerie of that monarch; and that
they performed the process backwards; the male supporting
himself by the feet on the calves of the female, so that he did
not touch the ground.
The incurvation of the sacrum and coccyx turns the human
* De g. h. var. nat. sect. i. 87. The urethra does not, however, open within
the vagina in the orang-outang. Camper mentions that the nymphæ of this
them. Euvres, i. 102.
According to Cuvier the female urethra always opens at the external orifice
of the vagina, and therefore holds the same situation in respect to this canal, ir
all animals. The canal exterior to this termination of the urethra he calls vulva.
It is a simple entrance of little depth in the human subject; rather larger in the
baboons, equal in length to the vagina itsell in some other monkeys, as the
sapajous, or even superior, as in the bear. · Leç, d'Anat. comp. v. 128.
On account of the great depth of the symphysis pubis in the orang-outang
(two inches in an animal of little more than two Teet, which is equal to its
greatest depth in the tallest woman), the urethra of the orang-outang is even
longer than that of the human female. Camper, ut supra, p. 107.
† Animal Economy, p. 136.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE--VAGINA, HYMEN.
137
vagina forwards, so that its axis cuts that of the pelvis nearly at
right angles, and its anterior opening is turned forwards; the
urethra opens on its upper and front edge, not at all within the
canal. Hence the human female differs from all other mam-
malia * in not being retromingent and retro-copulant; hence,
too, although many inconveniences to which she would have
been otherwise exposed, particularly during pregnancy, are
obviated, parturition is rendered much more difficult, and a.
physical reason is found for that doom under which she labours,
of bringing forth children in sorrow and in pain.
Although it cannot be deemed an internal organ, this seems
the fittest place for mentioning the hymen, an interesting part
of the female structure in many respects, and therefore more
noticed and investigated than so small a fold of skin would
have seemed to deserve. The general opinion of its non-
existence in the other mammalia besides man, and the circum-
stance of its being found in women only at a particular period
of life, and even then not universally, have led many anatomists
to deny its existence altogether. The question, however, can be
so easily settled by direct evidence, that we are surprised to find
Buffon still contesting the point. Though the opinion of this
great naturalist is incorrect in point of fact, we cannot but
admire the eloquence with which he inveighs against the dis-
graceful opinions and practices which have prevailed on this
subject. †
It has been generally asserted that this little part is found
* Probably the cetacea may form an exception to this statement. Our atten-
tion, however, is hardly extended to them in this comparison of man and
animals. According to the representations of Sieller, the manati and the ursine
seal (sea-cow and sea-bear) copulate in the human method. Nov. Comin,
Acad. Scicnt. Petrop, v. ii. pp. 325 and 354,
. of "Les hommes, jaloux des primautés en tout genre, ont toujours fait grand
cas de tout ce qu'ils ont cru pouvoir posséder exclusivement et les premiers :
c'est cette espèce de folie, qui 2 fait un être réel de la virginité des filles. La
virginité, qui est un être nuoral, une vertu qui ne consiste que dans la pureté
du caur, est devenu un objet physique dont tous les hommes se sont occupés;
ils ont établi sur cela des opinions, des usages, des cérémonies, des superstitions,
et même des jugemens, et des peines; les abus les plus illicites, les coutumes
les plus deshonnêtes ont étés autorisées ; on a soumis à l'examen des matrones
ignorantes, et exposé aux yeux de médecins prevenus les parties les plus
secrètes de la nature, sans songer qu'une pareille indécence est un attentat
contre la virginité ; que c'est la violer que de chercher la reconnoître ; que toutes
situation honteuse, tout état indécent, dont une fille est obligée de rougir inte
rieurement, est une vraie déforation. Je n'espère pas réussir à détruire les:
ugés ridicules qu'on s'est formés sur ce sujet; les choses, qui font plaisir
à croire, seront toujours crues, quelques vaines et quelques déraisonnables
qu'elles puissent être; cependant, comme dans une histcire on rapporte non
seulement la suite des evenemens, et les circonstances des faits, mais aussi
l'origine des opinions et des erreurs dominantes, j'ai cru que dans l'histoire de
l'homme, je ne pourrois me dispenser de parler de l'idole favorite à laquelle il
sacrifie, d'examiner quelles peuvent être les raisons de son culte, et de recher-
cher si la virginité est un être réel, ou si ce n'est qu'une divinité fabuleuse."
prei
138 PECULIARITIES OF INTERNAL STRUCTURE, &c.
only in the human subject. In the female orang-outang CAM-
PER* says that the hymen was not apparent, although the
individual was very young. BLUMENBACH + informs us that
he could neither find any trace of this part, nor those supposed
remains of it called carunculæ myrti-formes, in monkeys or
baboons; and that his search was equally fruitless in a female
elephant, in which it had been reported that a hymen existed.
CUVIER, on the contrary, represents that several mammalia
have a distinct membranous fold at the entrance of the vagina,
and others a decided contraction in the same situation.
It is not so easy to explain the use or purpose of this mem-
brane, as to establish the fact of its existence. This little fold
has indeed completely puzzled the physico-theologists, who have
as yet assigned no rational explanation of it. The moral pur-
poses alluded to by HALLER S are quite unintelligible in our
own species; and are still more inapplicable to the case of brutes.
The clitoris and the nymphæ have been supposed peculiar to
the human female, as well as the hymen ; the latter, indeed, are
generally absent in the mammalia, but BLUMENBACH || informs
us that a lemur, which he kept alive for many years, had them
very closely resembling the human. The clitoris seems to be
universally found in the mammalia : it is very large in the
monkey kind, and in the carnivora; and BLUMENBACH saw
it of the size of a fist in a balana boops stranded on the coast of
Holland.
* Euvres, i. 102.
of Deg. . var. nat. Lect. i. 8.
He states, on the authority of Stella, that the northern manati has a strong
semilunar fold at the orifice of the vagina, contracting the entrance of that.
canal; that the mare and ass have a similar structure, and that in the ouistiti
(simia jacchus) the marikina (S. rosalia), and the coaita (S. paniscus), there
are two lateral similunar folds, leaving between them a perpendicular slit. In
the otter, dog, cat, and ruminants, he found a constricted circle. In the brown
bear there was a thick lip-like fold of the internal meinbrane, reducing the
entrance of the vagina to a simple transverse slit; and the hyena exhibited an
analogous structure. A young hyrax had a very distinct circular hymen.,
Leço d' Anat. comp. T. v. p. 131, 132.
O " Vix tamen dubites, cum solo in homine sit repertus, etiam ad morales
fines ei esse concessum signuin pudicitiae, quo et vitium illatuin cognoscatur,
et pura virgo decus suum possit tueri,.et ipse maritus de castitate spousæ facile
convincatur; eo facilius, quod præterea in illibata virgine vagina angusta sit..
Etsi enim possit fieri ut parvus, ut laxus sit hymen, atque prima venus ali-
quando absque sanguine absolvatur, neque hymen rumpatur; etsi artificio.
porro in parum pudica femina sanguis possit elici; etsi teneræ virgines ali-
quando etiam in altero, coitu sanguinem reddunt, et menses fluentes vaginam
Laxant; tamen in universum debet prima venus cruenta esse, eoque signo
pudor virgineus adseri, cium vix possit plena venus obtineri, quin superior
margo. partis majoris hymenis laceretur. Quare et Mosaicæ leges, et multo.
pum populorum consuetudo, hoc signum servata castitatis et requirunt et
ostertant, et de exemplis in virginibus etiam pene trigenariis certus sum, quæ
insignem in prima venere sanguinis jacturam sunt passæ.” Elem. Physiol.
lib. 28, sect. 2, 2 27.
11 Lib. cit., p. 21.
T Lord.


HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY.
139
CHAPTER VI.
Peculiarities in the animal Economy of the human Species; general Extension
over the Globe; Man naturally omnivorous; his long Infancy and slow Devea
lopmenti-hence suited to the Social Slate.
In the diversity of the regions, which he is capable of inhabiting,
the lord of the creation holds the first place among animals.
His frame and nature are stronger and more flexible than those
of any other creature; hence he can dwell in all situations on
the surface of the globe. The neighbourhood of the pole, and
the equator, high mountains and deep valleys, are occupied by
him: his strong but pliant body bears cold, heat, moisture, light
or heavy air; he can thrive any where, and runs into less re-
markable varieties than any other animals, which occupy so great
a diversity of abodes :-a prerogative so singular, that it must
not be overlooked.
The situations occupied by our species in the present times
extend as far as the known surface of the earth. The Green-
lander and Esquimaux have reached between 700 and 300 of
N. L. and Danish settlements have been formed in Greenland in
the same high latitude. Three Russians lived between six and
seven years on Spitzbergen between 770 and 780 N. L* The
Negro lives under the equator, and all America is inhabited even
to Terra del Fuego. Thus we find that man can exist and pro-
pagate his species in the hottest and coldest countries of the earth.
The greatest natural cold ascertained by thermometrical mea-
surement was that experienced by the elder GMELIN in 1735,
at Jeniseik : the mercury froze in the thermometer.t The
sparrows and jays were all killed. When PALLAS was at Kras-
noiarsk, the quicksilver also froze in the ball of the thermo-
meter; and a large mass of pure mercury froze in the open air. I
Our own countrymen experienced apparently as severe a degree
of cold on the Churchill River in Hudson's Bay. Brandy was
frozen in the rooms where they had fires. Yet the Canadian
savages and the Esquimaux go to the chase in this temperature;
and the inhabitants of the countries visited by Gmelin and
PALLAS cannot remain in their houses all the winter. Even
Europeans accustomed to warmer climates, can undergo such
cold as I have just mentioned, with impunity, if they take
• Dr. Aikin on the Attempts to winter in high Northern Latitudes; Manchester
Society's Memoirs; v. I, p. 96.
Flora Sibirica; Pref.
# Travels in Russia; pl. 3.
1 Philos. Trans, No. 465.
140
PECULIARITIES IN THE
exercise enough. The Danes have lived in Greenland in 720
N. L.; and the Dutch, under HEEMSKERK, wintered at Nova
Zembla in 760 N. L. Some of them perished; but those, who
moved enough, and were in good health at first, withstood the
dreadful cold, which the polar bear (ursus maritimus), apparently
born for these climes, seems to have been incapable of support-
ing: for their journal states, that, as soon as the sun sinks be-
low the horizon, the cold is so intense that the bears are no
longer seen, and the white fox (isatis, canis lagopus) alone braves
the weather. * We have another example, in which three men
remained between six and seven years in 780 N. L.T
The power of the human body to withstand severe cold will
appear in a more remarkable light when we obserye what heat
it is capable of bearing. BOERHAAVE asserted, that a tempe-
rature of from 960 to 1000 would be fatal to man. The mean
temperature of Sierra Leone is 840 Fahr.: Messrs. WATT and
WINTERBOTTOM saw the thermometer frequently at 100°, and
even 1020 and 1030 (in the shade), at some distance from the
coast.I ADANSON saw it at 10840 in the shade at Senegal in
170 N. L.: S and Buffon cites an instance of its being seen at
117°. The country to the west of the great desert may be still
hotter than Senegal, from the effect of the winds which have
swept over the whole tract of its burning sands. When the
sirocco blows in Sicily, the thermometer rises to 112°, according
to BRYDONE. Dr. CHALMERS observed a heat of 1150 in
South Carolina in the shade: || and HUMBOLDT, of 1100 to 1150
in the Llanos or deserts near the Orinoco in South America. I
Thus man can support all possible degrees of atmospherical
heat and cold: he has an equal power of supporting varieties of
pressure. The ordinary pressure of the air, at the level of the
sea, may be reckoned at 32,325lbs. for the whole surface of the
body, supposing the barometer at 30 inches. If we ascend to a
height of 12,000 feet, of which elevation extensive tracts, inha-
bited by thousands, are found in South America, the barometer
stands at 204 inches, and the pressure is 21,750 lbs. CONDA-
Vov. de la Comp. des Indes; pl. l. A short account of the voyage is given
by Mr. Barrow in his Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions :
chap. ii. The polar bears disappeared, and the white foxes were seen in great
numbers, as soon as the sun set: when it rose again, the foxes went away,
and the bears returned.
of Dr. Aikin, as above quoted.
# Winterbottom's Account of the native Africans; y. 1, p. 32, 33.
& Voy. au Sénégal.
!! On the Weather and Diseases of South Carolina.
* Tableau physique des Régions Equatoriales.
HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY.
141
MINE and BOUGUER, with their attendants, lived three weeks
at a height of 2434 toises, or 14,604 French feet, where the ba.
rometer stood at 15 in. 9 lines, and the pressure must conse-
quently have been 16,920 lbs. * In the Peruvian territory, ex-
tensive plains occur possessing an altitude of 9000 feet; and
three-fifths of the vice-royalty of Mexico, comprehending the
interior provinces, present a surface of half a million of square
miles, which runs nearly level at an elevation between 6000 and
8000 feet. Mexico is 7475, and Quito 9550 feet above the level
of the sea. The hamlet of Antisana, 13,500 feet above that level,
is the highest inhabited spot on the surface of our globe;' but
HUMBOLDT ascended Chimboraço to 19,300 feet. There are
no instances of men living under a pressure much greater than
what has been mentioned: the depths to which the earth has
been penetrated, in the operations of mining are trifling in this
point of view. In diving, however, the body is subject to, and
cạn bear, several atmospheres; as, on the contrary, in balloons,
men have ascended beyond any point of elevation on the sur-
face of the earth, I and have consequently been exposed to a
much more considerable diminution of the ordinary pressure
than what I have stated above.
As the physical capabilities of his frame enable man to occupy
every variety of climate, soil, and situation, it follows of necessity,
that he must be omnivorous, that is, capable of deriving suffi-
cient nourishment and support from all kinds of food. The
power of living in various situations would be rendered nugatory
by restriction to one kind of diet.
If it was the design of nature, that the dreary wastes of Lap-
land, the naked and barren shores of the Icy Sea, the ice-bound
coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and the frightful deserts of
Terra del Fuego, should be not left entirely uninhabited, it is
impossible to suppose that either a vegetable or even a mixed
diet is necessary to human subsistence. How could roots, fruits,
or other vegetable productions be procured, where the bosom of
the earth is closed the greater part of the year, and its surface
either covered with many feet of snow, or rendered impenetrable
by frost of equal depth ? Experience shows us that the constant
: * Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences, année 1744; p. 262, 263.
+ Tableau phys. des Régions Equaloriales, and Tableaux de la Nature.
# The height of 23,040 feet above the level of the sea, reached by Mr. Gay
I.ussac in his second ascent, although considerably higher than the summit
of Chimboraco, may however he surpassed by some peaks of the Himmalek
mountains; if the recent suppositions concerning their altitude should to
hereafter verified.
142
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
use of animal food alone is as natural and wholesome to the
Esquimaux, the Samoiedes, the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego,
&c &c. as the most careful admixture of vegetable and animal
matters is to us. We even find that the Russians, who winter
on Nova Zembla, are obliged to imitate the Samoiedes, by drink-
ing fresh rein-deer blood, and eating raw flesh, in order to pre-
serve their health. In the memoir already quoted, Dr. AIKIN
informs us, that these practices were found most conducive to
health in those high northern latitudes. Hence, we shall be less
surprised at finding men in certain situations living and enjoying
health on what seem to us the most filthy and disgusting objects.
The Greenlander and the inhabitant of the Archipelago between
north-eastern Asia and north-western America, eat the whale,
often without waiting for cookery. The former bury a seal, when
they catch one, under the grass in summer, and the snow in
winter, and eat the half-frozen, half-putrid flesh with as keen a
relish as the European finds in his greatest dainties. They drink
the blood of the seal while warm, and eat dried herrings moistened
with whale oil.*
unfavourable to raising and supporting those flocks and herds
of domesticated animals, which would be necessary to supply
the numerous population with animal food. The number, fierce-
Dess, and strength of beasts of prey, the periodical alternations
of rains and inundations, with the long continued operation of a
vertical sun, whose direct rays dry up all succulent vegetables
and all fluids, are the principal and insurmountable obstacles.
The deficient supply of flesh is most abundantly compensated
by numerous and valuable vegetable presents; by the cocoa-nut,
the plantain, the banana, the sago-tree; by the potatoe, yam,
cassava, and other roots; by maize, rice, and millet; and by an
infinite diversity of cooling and refreshing fruits. By these
climates the most suitable kind of nourishment: here, accord-
ingly, a vegetable diet is found most grateful and salubrious, and
In the temperate regions of the globe, all kinds of animal food
can be easily procured, and nearly all descriptions of grain, roots,
fruit, and other vegetable matters; and, when taken in modera-
tion, all afford wholesome nourishment. Here, therefore, man
appears in his omnivorous character. As we pass from these
• Cranz, Gesch, von Grönland,
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
middle climes towards the poles, animal matters are more and
more exclusively taken ; towards the equator, cooling fruits and
other produce of the earth constitute a greater share of human
diet.
The diversity of substances composing the catalogue of human
aliments, * offers a strong contrast to the simple diet of most
other animals, which, in their wild state, are confined to one
kind of food, either animal or vegetable, and are often restricted
to some very small part of either kingdom. Hence, it has been
conceived, that man also ought to confine himself to one sort,
that he probably did so in his natural state, and that the present
variety in his bill of fare is the consequence of degeneration or
departure from nature. The question of the natural food of
man, has, therefore, been much agitated.
The nature of an animal is only to be learned by an observa-
tion of structure, actions, and habits. From the powerful fangs
and jaws, the tremendous talons, the courage, and the vast mus-
cular strength of the lion, and his constant practice of attacking
living prey, we pronounce his nature to be ferocious, predatory,
and carnivorous. From evidence of the same sort, we determine
the nature of the hare to be mild, timid, and herbivorous. In a
similar way we conclude man to be naturally omnivorous; find.
ing that he has instruments capable of procuring, masticating,
and digesting all descriptions of food, and that he can subsist in
health and strength on flesh or vegetables only, or on a mixture
of both.
# To this long list, which, already comprehending most of the substances in
the two organic kingdoms of nature, so fully justifies us in denominating man
an omnivorous animal, we have to add, on the authority of recent trials in
Germany, the wood of various trees. The ligneous fibres of the beech, birch,
so as to form an impalpable powder like coarse flour, are not only capable of
affording wholesome nourishment to man or animals, but even, with some
admixtures, and some culinary skill, constitute very palatable articles of food.
If cold water be poured on some wood flour, inclosed in a fine linen bag, it
becomes milky, and considerable pressing or kneading is required to wash out
from the flour all the starch-like matter it contains, Like starch, this matter
slowly subsides in cold water; and it forms, when boiled with water, a thick
tenacious paste, which will firmly agglutinate the leaves of paste-board.
The following publications have apreured on the subject, viz. Oberlechner,
Ars fabricandi Frumentum verum ; Salzburg, 1805. Wie kann man sich bey
grosser Theuerung und Hungersnoth ohne Getreid gesundes Brod verschaffen?
Salzburg, 1816. Autenrieth, Gründliche Anleitung zur Brod-zubercitung, aus
Holz; Stuttgard, 1817.
The last work, by Professor Autenrieth of Tubingen, is analysed in the
Salzburg medicinisch-chirurgische Zeitung, 1817, v. 3, No. 56.
The bark of trees has been lorg occasionally used as a substitute, in times
of scarcity, for other food. Professor Von Buch has described the prepara-
tion and effects of the Norwegian Barke Bröd, which seems however a very
imperfect and unwholesome kind of nutriment, Travels through Norway and
Lapland; p. 87.

144
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
It is alleged in reply, that man in society is artificial and
degenerate; and the object of inquiry is stated to be, what does
be feed on before civilization, in his original, unsophisticated
condition? Generally on animal food, the produce of the chase
or the fishery; because vegetable food cannot be obtained in
sufficient certainty and abundance, until something like settled
habits of life have begun, until the arts, at least that of agricul-
ture, have commenced. If the rudest barbarism be the most
natural state of man, the New Hollanders and the inhabitants of
Van Diemen's Land, are the most unexceptionable specimens;
raised, and but just raised, above the level of brutes. These
savages are very thinly scattered, in small numbers, and at wide
intervals, along the coasts of the great austral continent; and
derive their support from the sea. They are not, however, pure
acthyophagists, as they sometimes get a kangaroo, a bird, or a
few roots, and sometimes the large larvæ of an insect from the
bark of the dwarf gum-tree (eucalyptus resinifera): sometimes
they mix their roots with ants, and their larvæ into a paste.*
The individuals, whom we send to New South Wales, are not
the best specimens of our iron age, yet they are far beyond these
children of nature, in physical and moral attributes.
The Greenlanders, the Kurilian and Aleutian islanders, the
wandering hordes of Asia, and the hunting tribes of North
America, are, perhaps, too much civilized to be admitted as
examples of natural man: they are all carnivorous.
If the practices of savage and barbarous people are to be tne
criterion, we must deem it natural to eat earth. “The Otto-
maques," says HUMBOLDT, + ” on the banks of the Meta and
the Orinoco, feed on a fat unctuous earth, or a species of pipe-
clay, tinged with a little oxyd of iron. They collect this clay
very carefully, distinguishing it by the taste: they knead it
into balls of four or six inches in diameter, which they bake
slightly before a slow fire. Whole stacks of such provision
are seen piled up in their huts. These clods are soaked in
water, when about to be used; and each individual eats about a
pound of the material every day. The only addition, which they
occasionally make to this unnatural fare, consists in small fish,
lizards, and fern-roots. The quantity of clay that the Otto.
* Collins, Account of the English Colony in New South Wales; Appendix,
No. 4. Their habitations, if that name be deemed applicable to a hole in a
tree or rock, or to a piece of bark stripped from a single tree, bent and laid
on the ground; and the rest of their domestic aud social economy, as portrayed
in the same work, are quite in unison with their bili of lare.
+ Tab. phys. des Regions equatoriales,
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
145
maques consume, and the greediness with which they devour
it, seem to prove that it does more than distend their hungry
stomachs, and that the organs of digestion have the power of
extracting from it something convertible into animal substance."
The same practice has been observed in other places.*.
Is it a just point of view to regard the savage state exclusively
as the state of nature ? Is civilization to be considered as
opposed to and incompatible with the nature of man?
A power of improvement, of advancement in arts and sciences,
that is, the capability of civilization, or perfectibility, as it has
sometimes been called, is recognised in all human beings : its
degree is very various in individuals and races. · Al have lived
in society, which strongly tends to promote and assist the de-
velopment of this power. Social life and progressive. civili-
zation, instead of being unnatural to man, are therefore parts,
and very valuable parts of his nature, as much as the erect
stature and speech; as much as ferocity and solitary life are the
nature of predacious animals, or mildness and herding together
are of many herbivorous opes. It is as much the nature of man
to form societies, to build up political associations, to cultivate
arts and sciences, to spread himself over the globe, and avail
himself of both organized kingdoms for his support, as it is that
of the bee and ant to establish their communities, to gather honey
and lay up provisions, or that of any other animals to perform
the actions by which they are respectively characterized.
These considerations lead to the conclusion, that progressive
advance and development, and the employment of all kinds of
food, are as natural to man, as stationary uniformity and restric-
tion to one species of aliment are to any animals.
In discussing this question, we soinetimes meet with posi-
tions respecting the influence of animal or vegetable diet, on
the development of the bodily and mental powers, which are
quite unsupported by direct proof: and some have even sought
for a support to their systems in the fictions of poetry.
“ The Pythagorean diet,” says Buffon, “though extolled
by ancient and modern philosophers, and even recommended by
certain physicians, was never indicated by nature. If man were
obliged to abstain totally from flesh, he would not, at least in
* "I saw one man, whose stomach was already well lined, but who, in our
presence, ate a piece of steatite, which was very soft, of a greenish colour, and
twice as large as a man's fist. We afterwards saw a number of others eat of
the same earth, which serves to allay the sensation of hunger by filling the
Htomach." Labillardiere, 'nyage in search of La Perouse, v. ii. 214.
146
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
our climates, either exist or multiply. An entire abstinence
from flesh can have no effect but to enfeeble nature. To pre-
serve himself in proper plight, man requires not only the use of
this solid nourishment, but even to vary it. To obtain com-
plete vigour, he must choose that species of food, which is most
agreeable to his constitution; and, as he cannot preserve himself
in a state of activity, but by procuring new sensations, he must
give his senses their full stretch, and eat a variety of meats, to
prevent the disgust arising from an uniformity of nourishment."
We are told, on the other hand, that in the golden age man
was as innocent as the dove; his food was acorns, and his
beverage pure water from the fountain. Finding every where
abundant subsistence, he felt no anxieties, but lived inde-
pendent, and always in peace both with his own species, and the
other animals. But he no sooner forgot his native dignity, and
sacrificed his liberty to the bonds of society, than war and the
iron age succeeded that of gold and of peace. Cruelty and an
insatiable appetite for flesh and blood were the first fruits of a
depraved nature, the corruption of which was completed by the
invention of manners, arts, and sciences. Either immediately,
or remotely, all the physical and moral evil, by which indivi-
duals are afflicted, and society laid waste, arose from these
carnivorous practices.
Both these representations are contradicted by the only crite-
rion in such questions, an appeal to experience. That animal
food renders man strong and courageous, is fully disproved by
the inhabitants of northern Europe and Asia, the Laplanders,
Samoiedes, Ostiacs, Tungooses, Burats, and Kamtschadales, as
well as by the Esquimaux in the northern, and the natives of
Terra del Fuego in the southern extremity of America, which
are the smallest, weakest, and least brave people of the globe,
although they live almost entirely on flesh, and that often raw.
Vegetable diet is as little connected with weakness and
cowardice, as that of animal matters is with physical force and
courage. That men can be perfectly nourished, and their bodily
and mental capabilities be fully developed in any climates by a
diet purely vegetable, admits of abundant proof from experience.
In the periods of their greatest simplicity, manliness, and bra-
very, the Greeks and Romans appear to have lived almost
entirely on plain vegetable preparations; indifferent bread, fruits,
and other produce of the earth, are the chief nourishment of the
modern Italians, and of the mass of the population in most coun-
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
147
tries of Europe : of those more immediately known to ourselves,
the Irish and Scotch may be mentioned; who are certainly not
rendered weaker than their English fellow-subjects by their
freer use of vegetable aliment. The Negroes, whose great
bodily powers are well known, feed chiefly on vegetable sub-
stances; and the same is the case with the South Sea Islanders,
whose agility and strength were so great, that the stoutest and
most expert English sailors had no chance with them in wrest-
ling and boxing.
The representations of the Pythagoreans respecting the
noxious and debilitating effects of animal food, are, on the other
band, the mere offspring of imagination. We have not the
shadow of a proof, unless we admit Ovid's Metamorphoses and
other poetical compositions, that this state of innocence, of exalted
temperance, of entire abstinence from flesh, of perfect tranquil-
lity, of profound peace, ever existed, or that it is more than a
fable, designed to convey moral instruction. If the experience
of every individual were not sufficient to convince him that the
use of animal food is quite consistent with the greatest strength
of body and most exalted energy of mind, this truth is pro-
claimed by the voice of all history. A few hundreds of Euro-
peans hold in bondage the vegetable-eating millions of the East.
If the Romans in their earliest state employed a simple vege.
table diet, their glorious career went on uninterruptedly after
they had become more carnivorous : we see them winning their
way, from a beginning so inconsiderable that it is lost in the
obscurity of fable, to the empire of the world ; we see them, by
the power of intellect, establishing that dominion, which they
had acquired by the sword, and producing such compositions in
poetry, oratory, philosophy, and history, as are at once the
admiration and despair of succeeding ages; we see our own
countrymen rivalling them in arts and in arms, exhibiting no less
signal bravery in the field and on the ocean, and displaying in
a Milton and SHAKSPEARE, in a NEWTON, BACON, and
LOCKE, in a CHATHAM, ERSKINE, and Fox, no less mental
energy Yet, with these proofs before their eyes, men are
actually found, who would have us believe, on the faith of some
insulated, exaggerated, and misrepresented facts, and still more
miserable hypothesis, that the development, form, and powers
of the body are impaired and lessened, and the intellectual and
moral faculties injured and perverted, by animal food.
On this subject of diet a question naturally presents itself,
I 2
148
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
whether man approaches most nearly to the carnivorous or
herbivorous tribes in his structure? What kind of food should
we assign to him, if we judged from his organization merely,
and the analogy it presents to that of other mammalia ? Physio-
logists have usually represented that our species holds a middle
rank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between the
flesh-eating and the herbivorous animals ;-a statement which
seems rather to have been deduced from what we have learned
by experience on this subject, than to result fairly from an actual
comparison of man and animals.
The molar teeth, being the instruments employed in dividing
and preparing the food, must exhibit, in figure and construction,
a relation to the nature of the aliment. They rise, in the true
carnivora, into sharp-pointed prominences; and those of the
lower shut within those of the upper jaw: when the series is
viewed together, the general outline may be compared to the
teeth of a saw. These animals are also furnished with long,
pointed, and strong cuspidati or canine teeth, which are
employed as weapons of offence and defence, and are very ser-
viceable in seizing and lacerating their prey: they constitute in
some animals, as the lion, tiger, &c. very formidable weapons.
The herbivorous animals are not armed with these terrible canine
teeth: their molares have broad flat surfaces, opposed in a
vertical line to each other in the two jaws. Plates of enamel are
intermixed with the bone of the tooth in the latter : and, as its
superior hardness makes it wear less rapidly than the other
textures of the teeth, it appears on the grinding surface in rising
ridges, which must greatly increase the triturating effect. In
carnivorous animals the enamel is confined altogether to the
surface of the teeth.
The articulation of the lower jaw differs in the two cases as
much as the structure of the teeth. In the carnivora it can only
move backwards and forwards; all lateral motion being pre-
cluded by rising edges of the glenoid cavity : in the herbivora it
has, moreover, motion from side to side. Thus we observe, in the
flesh-eaters, teeth calculated only for tearing, subservient, in
part at least, to the procuring of food, as well as to purposes of
defence, and an articulation of the lower jaw, that precludes all
lateral motion. In those which live on vegetables, the form of
the teeth and the nature of the joint are calculated for the lateral
or grinding motion. The former, having rudely torn and
divided the food, swallow it in masses, while in the latter it
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
149
andergoes considerable comminution before it is swallowed.
The teeth of man have not the slightest resemblance to those of
the carnivorous animals, except that their enamel is confined to
the external surface. He possesses, indeed, teeth called canine,
but they do not exceed the level of the others, and are obviously
unsuited to the purposes which the corresponding teeth execute
in carnivorous animals. The obtuse tubercles of the human
molares have not the most remote resemblance to the pointed
projections of these teeth in carnivorous animals: they are as
enamel of the herbivorous molares. In the freedom of lateral
motion, however, the human inferior maxilla more nearly
resembles that of the herbivora.
The teeth and jaws of man are in all respects much more
similar to those of monkeys, than of any other animals. A
skull, apparently of the orang-outang, in the Museum of the
College, has the first set of teeth: the number is the same as in
man, and the form so closely similar, that they might easily be
mistaken for human. In most other simiæ the canine teeth are
much longer and stronger than in us; and so far these animals
have a more carnivorous character. The points and ridges
of the molares in simiæ are distinguished by their sharpness from
the peculiar obtuse tubercles of the human molares.
The length and division of the alimentary canal are very dif-
ferent according to the kind of food. In the proper carnivorous
animals the canal is very short,* the large intestine cylindrical,
and the cæcum not larger than the rest. The form of the
stomach and the disposition of its openings are calculated to
allow a quick passage of the food. In the herbivora the whole
canal is long it and there is either a complicated stomach, or a
very large cæcum and a sacculated colon : the stomach, even
where simple, is so formed as to retain the food for a consi-
derable time.
In comparing the length of the intestines to that of the body
in man, and in other animals, a difficulty arises on account of the
legs, which are included in the measurement of the body in the
former, and not in the latter. The great depth of the cranium in
* The length of the body, in a straight line from the snout to the anus, coin-
pared to that of the intestines, varies in the carnivora, according to Cuvier,
from 1:3 to 1: 5.8; excepting the hyæna, where it is as 1:8.3. Leç. d' Anat.
comp, iii. 450.
+ In the ruminantia the comparative lengths of the body and intestines vary
between 1:11 and 1:28: in the solipeda, between 1:8 and 1:10. Ib. 453, 453.
150
MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
diminishes the proportion which the intestine bears to it. As
our legs are half the height of the body, that should be reduced
one-half, when it is compared to that of animals measured from
the head to the anus'; or the length of the intestines may be
doubled. When allowance is made for this circumstance, man
will be placed nearly on the same line with the monkey race,
and will be removed to a considerable distance from the proper
carnivora. SOEMMERRING* states that the intestinal canal of
man varies from three to eight times the length of the body. In
TYSON's chimpansé of twenty-six inches, the canal measured 159
inches, or about six times the length of the body. In two
sapajous and two monkeys the intestines were respectively
62 and 96 inches; as the body is said in all to have been about
14 inches from the head to the anus, its proportion to the intes-
tines will be in the former as 1:44, in the latter as 1 :612.1
From these as well as other instances it is apparent that the
comparative length of the alimentary canal in simiæ is less than
in man.s
The form of the stomach and cæcum, and the structure of the
whole canal, are very much alike in man and the monkey kind.
The orange (S. satyrus, troglodytes, and gibbon) have the
appendix vermiformis, which the others want.
Thus we find that, whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or
the immediate instruments of digestion, the human structure
closely resembles that of the simiæ ; all of which;. in their natural
state, are completely herbivorous.ll.
* De Corp. hum. Fab. t. vi. p. 200.
Anat. of a Pygmie, p. 32.
* Mémoires pour servir à l'Hist, nat. des Animaux; 4to. part u: p. 925
& The body, from the snout to the anus, is to the intestines, in the
Gibbon (S. Lar), as . 1-8 |Malbrouk (S. Sinica) ... 1–6:
Sajou (Cercopithecus,) 146 Macaque (s. Cynomolgus) : 1-6.7
Coaita (S. Paniscus): 1-6.3 | Magot (Barbary Ape. Š. Inuus, 1-5.4
.. 1-6.5 | Mandril Ribbed-nose Baboon, l1_RO
Callitriche (S. Sabæa). 1-6 l S. Maimon . . . Super
Cuvier, Leç. d'Anat. comp. iii. 448.
If we take the measurement of Soemmerring, and double the length of the
intestines, in consequence of the legs being included, the proportion will be in
man from 1: 6 to 1: 16. If the valvula condiventes are peculiar to man, this
peculiarity will be equivalent to a considerable increase of length in the canal.
* Mr. Abel's orang-outang appears to have naturally preferred fruit: he
yielded on ship-board to the temptation of meat, and seems to have quickly
become as carnivorous as his companions. " His food in Java was chiefly
fruit, especially mangostans, of which he was excessively fond. He also
sucked eggs with. voracity; and often employed himself in seeking them. Ons
board ship his diet was of no definite kind. He ate readily all kinds of meat,
and especially raw meat; was very fond of bread, but always preferred fruits
when lie could obtain them." Journey in China; p. 325. At present (December,
1818) his diet is vegetable, both. from his own choice, and because it agrees
much best with him. Of some species of South American simiæ, it is inci-
dentally mentioned by: Humboldt, that they live on fruits :: Recueil d' Obs, de
Zoologie,.&c. Di 308, of the Si trivirgata ; p. 313, of the S. chiropo

MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS.
151
Man possesses a tolerably large. cæcum, and a cellular colon,
which, I believe, are not found in any carnivorous animal.
I do not infer from these circumstances that man is designed
advantageous to him to adopt that diet. The hands and the arts
of man procure for him the food, which carnivorous animals
earn by their teeth. The processes of cookery bring what he
eats into a different state from that in which it is employed either
by carnivorous or herbivorous animals. Hence the analogy in
the modes of procuring and preparing food is too loose for us to
place much confidence in the results of these comparative views.
We must trust to experience alone for elucidating the great
problem of diet; its decision has been long ago pronounced,
and will hardly now be reversed.
It is again a different inquiry, which diet is on the whole most
conducive to health and strength? Which is best calculated to
avert or remove disease? Whether errors in quantity or quality
are most pernicious? The solution of these and other analogous
questions can only be expected from experimental investigation.
Mankind are so averse to relinquish their favourite indulgences;
and to desert established habits, that we cannot entertain very
sanguine expectations of any important discovery in this depart-
ment: we must add to this, that there are many other causes
affecting human health besides diet. Before venturing to draw
any inference on a subject beset with so many obstacles, it
would be necessary to observe the effects of a purely animal
and a purely vegetable diet on several individuals of different
habits, pursuits, and modes of life; to note their state, both
bodily and mental; and to learn the condition of two or three
generations fed in the same manner.
Recurring to the subject which has been already adverted to,
-the extension of the great human family over the whole habit-
able globe,--let us inquire a little into the causes of a pheno-
menon, which so remarkably distinguishes man from all animals;
this power of existing and multiplying in every latitude, and
in every variety of situation and climate. Does it arise from
physical endowments, from any peculiar capabilities of the
human organization ;—from strength and flexibility of the ani-
of the S. melanocephala. It appears that some will occasionally take animal
food, p. 320, and that the Titi (S. sciurea) will eat insects as well as fruits,
p. 333. This little animal immediately distinguished, in some plates of natural
history, the insects on which it had been accustomed to prey, from other
similar objects.
152
PECULIARITIES IN THE
mal machinery? or from the effects of human art and con-
trivance in affording protection from extremes of heat and cold,
from winds and rains, from vapours and exhalations, and the
other destructive influences of local situation? Is it, in short,
the result of physical constitution, or of reason? I think that
both these causes are concerned ;--that the original source of an
attribute, which so strikingly characterizes our species, is to be
sought in the properties of the human frame; and that this
original power of the bodily fabric is assisted and fully developed
by the mental prerogatives of man.
In what way do the Greenlander, the Esquimaux, and the
Canadian* employ remarkable talents or invention to protect
themselves against the cold? They brave the winter with open
breast and uncovered limbs, and devour their whales and seals
drest, raw, or putrid. The Negrot is healthy and strong under
a vertical sun, with the soles of his feet bare on the burning
sands. On the other hand, the fox, the beaver, the marmot,
and the hamster, seek the shelter of dwellings, which they dig
for themselves. In this comparison, in respect to protection
from external influences, man enjoys no peculiar privilege. The
mind, indeed, employs the excellent structure of the body, lifts
man above the rest of the creation, accommodates him to all
places, gives him iron, fire and arms, furs, and screens from the
sun, &c.; but with all this could never make him what he now
is, the inhabitant of all climates, if he did not possess the most
enduring and flexible corporeal frame. The lower animals, in
general, have no defence against the evils of a new climate, but
the force of nature. The arts of human ingenuity furnish a de-
fence against the dangers that surround our species in every
region. Accordingly, we see the same nation pass into all the
climates of the earth ; reside whole winters near the pole; plant
colonies beneath the equator ; pursue their commerce, and es-
tablish their factories in Africa, Asia, and America. They can
equally live under a burning sky and on an ice-bound soil, and
inhabit regions, where the hardiest animals cannot exist. Such
# The Knisteneaux (situated north of the great lakes and Canada) often
go to the chase in the severest frost, covered with ordinary slight clothing.
Mackenzie, Travels in North America; Preliminary Hist. of the Fur Trade,
p. 94. Two Indians (Americans) slept on the snow in an ordinary light dress,
when the thermometer at sunrise was 40 below 0. lille man suffered no in-
convenience: the boy had his feet frozen, but they were recovered by cold
water. Lewis and Clark's Travels, 4to. p. 112.
+ The women and children on the coast of Sierra Leone wear nothing on
their head, either in rain or sunshine. The mean heat is only 84°; but the
thermometer rises in the sun to 130 or 140. Winterbottom, on the Native
Africans, y. i. p. 38.
HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY.
153
changes indeed ought not to be hazarded suddenly and without
precaution. The greatest evils that have arisen from change of
climate, have been occasioned by the presumption of health,
that refuses to use the necessary precautions, or by the neglect
of ignorance, that knows. not what precautions to use. But
when changes are gradually and prudently effected, habit soon
accommodates the constitution to a new situation, and human in-
genuity discovers the means of guarding against the dangers of
every season and of every climate.
The superiority of man appears more striking, when we con-
trast his universal extension with the narrow limits, to which
other animals, even the most anthropo-morphous, are confined.
The whole tribe of simiæ are nearly included within the tropics;*
and no species has any considerable range even within these
boundaries. No species is common to the old and the new
world; none, probably, to Asia and Africa. The orang-outang
seems to be only found in the island of Borneo; and the chim-
pansé in a district of Africa. The gibbon is peculiar to the East
Indies; and the proboscis monkey (simia rostrata) to the Sunda
isles.
The two most man-like monkeys (S. satyrus and troglodytes),
inhabiting small districts of warm regions, are very inconsider-
able species in number; and thus offer a strong contrast to the
thousand millions of the human species. They are subject to
numerous diseases; lose all their vivacity, strength, and natural
character; and perish, after lingering in a miserable way, when
removed from their native abodes. An orang-outang brought
to Paris, never recovered the exposure to cold in crossing the
Pyrenées, and died at the age of fifteen months, with most of
the viscera diseased and tuberculated.The monkeys in general
exist with difficulty in temperate countries, and can propagate
only in warm climates. One which was impregnated in Eng-
land, and attended with all possible care, brought forth a young
one, which died immediately. I Probably the species could not
be continued here, with all the aid of art, and it certainly could
not be effected; if the animals were wild. When they are in-
troduced into the north (indeed into the greater part) of Europe,
and carefully managed in their food, temperature, &c. they die
very quickly, and in almost all cases, of disease in the viscera,
particularly the lungs.
The simia inuus, or Barbary ape, has been transplanted from Africa to
the rock of Gibraltar.
Annales du Muséum, t. xvi. p. 53. • Hunter on the Animal Economy, p. 137.
154
PECULL LRITIES IN THE
Other animals, as the polar bear, naturally constructed for
cold, cannot subsist in warmer regions. The dog accompanies
man every where ; but, with all the protection and assistance
afforded by his master, degenerates, and undergoes remarkable
changes, both of bodily structure and other properties, in very
warm and very cold regions.
Other circumstances in the human economy correspond with
this power of adaptation; such are the slow growth, long in-
fancy, and late puberty of man. In no animal but man do the
sutures of the cranium close, or the teeth come out at so late a
period: none is so long before it can support the body on the
legs, before it arrives at the complete adult stature and capacity
for exercising the sexual functions. The long infancy of our
species is compensated by proportionate longevity: no other of
the mammalia, of corresponding size, enjoys so long a life as man.
As the duration of life is in proportion to the time spent in arriv-
ing at the full growth, there is every reason to suppose that the
monkeys fall very short of man in this respect; in this climate,
they are cut off so quickly, that we cannot form a judgment.
If we add to the foregoing circumstances, that man is not pro-
vided by nature with means of defence, and, consequently, re-
quires assistance; and that his great distinctions, reason and
speech, are only germs which are not developed by themselves,
but are brought to maturity by extraneous assistance, cultivation
and education, we shall infer that he is designed, by nature, for
social union. Such a. condition: appears more consonant to the
structure, properties, and functions of our frame, even if it were
not supported by the concurring voice of actual experience in
all ages and nations, than the imaginary and most absurdly named
“state of nature" of some philosophers. ROUSSEAU, the great
apostle of this doctrine, informs us, in direct words, that the
state of nature never has existed: and he sets aside all facts as
foreign to the question. With these admissions before us, we
are required to believe that we have degenerated from our natural.
state : that speech, society, arts, inventions, sciences, agriculture,
commerce, property, civil government, and inequality of con-
dition, have introduced all possible misery, and have debilitated
our physical being ; that we should live in the woods scattered
and solitary to get food enough, protect life by flight and force,
satisfy our desires, and sleep. BUFFON has reasoned so well
on this subject, that I employ his words: “In this condition of
nature, the first education requires an equal time as in the civi.
HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY.
155
lized state ; for in both, the infant is equally feeble and equally
slow in its growth, and, consequently, demands the care of its
parents during an equal period. In a word, if abandoned before
the age of three years, it would infallibly perish. Now, this
necessary and long-continued intercourse between mother and
child is sufficient to communicate to it all that she possesses;
and though we should falsely suppose that a mother, in a state
of nature, possesses nothing, not even the faculty of speech,
would not this long intercourse with her infant produce a lan-
guage? Hence, a state of pure nature, in which man is sup-
posed neither to think nor speak, is imaginary, and never had
an existence. This necessity of a long intercourse between
parents and children produces society in the midst of a desert.
The family understand each other both by signs and sounds;
and this first ray of intelligence, when cherished, cultivated,
and communicated, expands, in process of time, into the full
splendour of reason and intellect. As this habitual intercourse
could not subsist so long, without producing mutual signs and
sounds, these, always repeated, and gradually engraven on the
memory of the child, would became permanent expressions.
The catalogue of words, though short, forms a language, which
will soon extend as the family augments, and will always follow,
in its improvement, the progress of society. As soon as society
begins to be formed, the education of the infant is no longer indi-
vidual, since the parents communicate to it, not only what they
derive from nature, but likewise what they have received from
their progenitors, and from the society to which they belong.
It is no longer a communication between detached individuals,
which, as in the animals, would be limited to the transmission
of simple faculties, but an institution of which the whole species
participates, and whose produce constitutes the basis and bond
of society."*
The menstrual discharge is peculiar to women, and belongs to
the whole sex in all countries : so that PLINY is right in regard-
ing woman as the only “animal menstruale.” “I know, indeed,"
says. BLUMENBACH,t “that the same discharge has been as-
cribed to other animals, particularly of the order quadrumana..
I have carefully inquired about all the female monkeys, which I
have seen for these twenty years, either in menageries or carried
about for public exhibition, and have found some of them liable
to uterine hæmorrhage which observed no period, and was
• Buffon by Wood, vol. X. p. 30. + De g. h, dar. nat. p. 51, note.
156
DISTINCTIONS OF MAN
regarded by the more intelligent keepers as a circumstance aris-
ing from disease ; although they acknowledged, that, in order
to excite the admiration of their visitors, they often represent it
as a true menstruation.”
The celebration of the rites of Venus is not confined in man,
as in animals, to a particular season of the year.
CHAPTER VII.
Faculties of the Mind; Speech; Diseases; Recapitulation.
All philosophers refer with one accord to the enjoyment of
reason, as the chief and most important prerogative of the human
species. If we inquire, however, more particularly into the
meaning of this word, we shall be surprised to find what various
senses different individuals affix to the same expression. Accord-
ing to some, reason is a peculiar faculty of the mind, belonging
exclusively to man: others consider it as a more enlarged and
complete development of a power which exists, in a less degree,
in other animals : some describe it as a combination of all the
higher faculties of the mind; while others assert that it is only
a peculiar direction of them. “Non nostrum inter hos tantas
componere lites.”
The subject may, perhaps, be more shortly and safely dis-
clear and satisfactory notion of the mental nature of man and
animals, it would be necessary for us to have as complete a
knowledge of their internal movements, as we have of our own.
But, as it is impossible to know what passes within them, or
how to rank and estimate their sensations, in relation to those
of man, we can only judge by comparing the effects which result
from the natural operations of both.
Let us, therefore, consider these effects; and, while we ac-
knowledge all the particular resemblances, we shall only examine
able to manage the most alert and sagacious animal; he governs
it, and makes it subservient to his purposes. This he effects,
not so much by bodily strength or address, as by the superiority
of his intellectual nature. He compels the animal to obey him,
by his power of projecting and acting in a systematic manner.
The strongest and most sagacious animals have not the capacity
of commanding the inferior tribes, or of reducing them to a state
IN MENTAL FACULTIES. .
157
of servitude. The stronger, indeed, devour the weaker : but
this action implies an urgent necessity only, and a veracious
appetite; qualities very different from that which produces a
train of actions all directed to one common design. If animals
be endowed with this faculty, why do not some of them assume
the reins of government over others, and force them to furnish
their food, to watch for them, and to relieve the sick or wounded ?
But among animals there is no mark of subordination, nor the
least trace of any of them being able to recognise or feei a supe-
riority in his nature above that of other species. . We should
therefore conclude, that all animals are in this respect of the
same nature, and that the nature of man is not only far superior,
but likewise of a very different kind from that of the brute.
Thrown on the surface of the globe, weak, naked and defence-
iess, man appeared created for inevitable destruction. Evils
assailed him on very side; the remedies remained hidden. But
he had received from his Creator the gift of inventive genius,
which enabled him to discover them. His exertions were roused
by the various wants of food, clothing, and dwelling, by the infinite
variety of climate, soil, and other circumstances.
Pater ipse colendi
Haud facilem esse viam voluit; primusque per artem
Movit agros ; curis acuens mortalia cor
This prerogative of invention seemed so important in the earlier
periods of society, that it has been honoured with divine worship,
as the Thoth of the Egyptians, the Hermes of the Greeks.
“The first savages collected in the forests a few nourishing
fruits, a few salutary roots, and thus supplied their most imme-
diate wants. The first shepherds observed that the stars move
in a regular course, and made use of them to guide their journies
across the plains of the desert. Such was the origin of the
mathematical and physical sciences.
“Once convinced that it could combat nature by the means
which she herself afforded, genius reposed no more; it watched
her without relaxation; it incessantly made new conquests over
her, all of them distinguished by some improvement in the situa-
tion of our race.
“From that time a succession of conducting minds, faithful
depositaries of the attainments already made, constantly occupied
in connecting them, in vivifying them hy means of each other,
have conducted us, in less than forty ages, from the first essays
of rude observers, to the profound calculations of Newton and
158
DISTINCTIONS OF MAN
LA PLACE, to the learned classifications of LINNEUS and
JUSSIEU. This precious inheritance, perpetually increasing,
brought from Chaldea into Egypt, from Egypt into Greece,
concealed during ages of disaster and of darkness, recovered
in more fortunate times, unequally spread among the nations of
Europe, has every where been followed by wealth and power ;
the nations which have reaped it, are become the mistresses of
the world; such, as have neglected it, are fallen into weakness
and obscurity."*
Man has made tools for assisting his labour ; and hence
FRANKLIN sagaciously defined him a “ tool-making animal :"
he has formed arms and weapons, he has devised various means
of procuring fire. Lastly, “ The most noble and profitable
invention of all others was that of speech; whereby men declare
their thoughts one to another for mutual utility and conversa-
tion, without which there had been amongst men neither com-
monwealth nor society, no more than amongst lions, bears, and
wolves.”+ This is a most important characteristic of man, since
it is not born with him, like the voices of animals, but has been
framed and brought into use by himself, as the arbitrary variety
of different languages incontestably proves.
Man exhibits, by external signs, what passes within him ; he
communicates his sentiments by words, and this sign is uni-
versal. The savage and the civilized man have the same powers
of utterance; both speak naturally, and are equally understood.
It is not owing, as some have imagined, to any defect in their
organs, that animals are denied the faculty of speech. The
tongue of a monkey is as perfect as that of a man: CAMPER
asserts that the laryngeal pouch renders it impossible for the
orang-outang to speak; I do not clearly understand how this is
ascertained; but, allowing its truth, there are other monkeys,
who have not this pouch, and yet cannot speak.
Several animals may be taught to pronounce vvords, and even
to repeat sentences; which proves clearly that the want of speech
is not owing to any defect in their organs; but to make them
conceive the ideas, which these words express, is beyond the
power of art. They articulate and repeat like an echo or machine.
Language implies a train of thinking; and for this reason
brute animals are incapable of speech ; for, though thein external
* Cuvier, Reflections on the Progress of the Sciences, &c. read at the Royal
Institute of France, April 24, 1816.
of lionbes; Leviathax: .
IN MENTAL FACULTIES.
159
senses are not inferior to our own, and though we:should allow
some of them to possess a faint dawning of comparison, reflection,
and judgment, it is certain that they are unable to form that
association of ideas, in which alone the essence of thought con-
sists.
The possession of speech, therefore, corresponds to the more
numerous, diversified, and exalted intellectual and moral endow-
ments of man, and is a necessary aid to their exercise and full
development. The ruder faculties and simple feelings of ani-
mals do not require such assistance. The natural language of
inarticulate sounds, gestures, and actions, suffices for their pur-
poses. The wonderful discovery of alphabetical writing, and
the invention of printing, complete the benefits derived from
the noble prerogative of speech.
With the operations of animals, who always perform the same
work in the very same manner; the execution of any individual
being neither better nor worse than that of any other; in whom
the individual, at the end of some months, is what he will remain
through life, and the species, after a thousand years, just what
it was in the first year ;-contrast the results of human industry
and invention, and the fruits of that perfectibility, which cha-
racterizes both the species and the individual. By the intel-
ligence of man the animals have been subdued, tamed, and
reduced to slavery: by his labours marshes have been drained,
rivers confined, their cataracts effaced, forests cleared, and the
carth cultivated. By his reflection, time has been computed,
space measured, the celestial motions recognised and repre-
sented, the heavens and the earth compared. He has not
merely executed, but has executed with the utmost accuracy,
the apparently impracticable tasks assigned by the poet,
Go wondrous creature ! mount where science guides;
Weigh air, measure earth, and calculate the tides.
By human art, which is an emanation of science, mountains
have been overcome, and the seas have been traversed; the
pilot pursuing his course on the ocean, with as much certainty,
as if it had been traced for him by engineers, and finding at
each moment the exact point of the globe on which he is, by
means of astronomical tables. Thus nations have been united;
and a new world has been discovered, opening such a field for
the unfettered and uncorrupted energies of our race, that the
senses are confused, the mind dazzled, and judgment and cal-
culation almost suspended by the grandeur and brightness of
160
DISTINCTIONS OF MAN
the glorious and interminable prospects. The whole face of the
earth at present exhibits the works of human power, which,
though subordinate to that of nature, often exceeds, at least, so
wonderfully seconds her operations, that, by the aid of man, her
whole extent is unfolded, and she has gradually arrived at that
point of perfection and magnificence in which we now behold her.
In the point of view which I have just considered, man stands
alone: his faculties, and what he has effected by them, place
him at a wide interval from all animals; at an interval which no
animal hitherto known to us can fill up. The man-like monkey,
the almost reasonable elephant, the docile dog, the sagacious
beaver, the industrious bee, cannot be compared to him. In
none of these instances is there any progress either in the indi-
viduals or the species.
In most of the feelings, of which other individuals of the
species are the objects, and in all which come under the deno-
mination of moral sentiments, there is a marked difference
between man and animals, and a decided inferiority of the latter.
The attachment of the mother to the offspring, so long as its
wants and feebleness require her aid and defence, seems as
strong in the animal, as in the human being; and bears equally
in both the characters of actions termed instinctive. Its dura-
tion is confined in the former case, even in social animals, to
the period of helplessness; and the animal instinct is not suc-
ceeded, as in man, by that continued intercourse of affection and
kind offices, and those endearing relations, which constitute the
most exalted pleasures of human life.
Of courage the animal kingdom offers many examples; and
the moralists have celebrated the attachment of the dog to bis
master. It may be doubted whether we can find any instances
of such feeling between animals themselves, excepting some
cases of sexual unions. In general, they seem entirely destitute
of sympathy with each other, indifferent to each other's suf-
ferings or joys, and unmoved by the worst usage or acutest
pangs of their fellows. Indeed, if we except some associated
labours in the insect class, principally referring to the conti-
nuation of the species, and securing a supply of food, and some
joint operations of the male and female in the higher classes,
animals seem entirely incapable of concert or co-operation for
common purposes, of combining various exertions for the
attainment of a common end. This appears to arise from the
limited nature and extent of their knowing and reflecting
IN MENTAL FACULTIES.
powers; to which probably we must refer their incapability of
conceiving moral relations.
Laughter and weeping are natural signs in man of certain
mental affections, and probably are also peculiar to him: ani-
zmals are not susceptible of the emotions or states of mind indi-
cated by these external signs.
That many animals besides man secrete tears is well known;
but whether they weep from grief is doubtful: yet respectable
witnesses have represented that they do so. STELLER states
this of the phoca ursina ;* PALLAS, of the camel ; t and HUM-
BOLDT, of a small American monkey. I
Whether any animals express mirth or satisfaction by laughter
is more doubtful, to say nothing of the other causes of smiling.
or laughter in our species. The fact has been asserted, for
instance, by Le Cat, who says that, he saw the chimpansé both
laugh and weep. The orang-outang brought from Batavia by
Mr. ABEL certainly never laughs : his keeper informs me that
he has seen him weep a few times.
I have had occasion, in a previous lecture,ll to advert to these
striking zoological phenomena, and to explain at some length
the views which I entertain respecting their nature and cause.
I consider the differences between man and animals in propen-
same cause as that which we assign for the variations in other
functions, viz. difference of organization ; and that the supe-
riority of man in rational endowments is not greater than the
inore exquisite, complicated, and perfectly developed structure
of his brain, and particularly of his ample cerebral hemispheres,
to which the rest of the animal kingdom offers no parallel, nor
Nov. Comm. Acad. Scient, Petrop. ii. 353. “Tandem, cum nos cum catulis
abituros videret, simili more ut femella adeo largiter lacrymabat, ut totum
pectus ad pedes usque lacrymis inundaret, quod et post gravia inflicta vulnera
contingit; vel post gravem illatam injuriam, quam ulcisci uequit. Observavi
phocas captas simili ratione lacrymari.”
* When the camel will not suckle its young, which is very rare, the Mongols
and the Daurian Tungooses have recourse to an expedient detailed by Pallas,
in which they employ a plaintive melody imitating the voice of the young
animal. This elicits copious tears from the old one, and completely excites
Völkerschajion; th. i. p. 177.
* The Titi of the Orinoco; saïmiri, Buffon, t. XV; simia sciurea, Linneus.
" Leur physionomie est celle d'un enfant; même expression d'innocence,
même sourire malin, même rapidité dans le passage de la joie à la tristesse.
Les Indiens affirment que cet animal pleure comme l'homme, lorsqu'il éprouve
du chagrin ; et cette observation est très exacte. Les grands yeux du singe
se mouillent de larmes à l'instant même qu'il marque de la frayeur ou une
vive inquiétude." Recueil d'Obscrvations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie comparée;
t. i, p. 333.
& Traité de l'Eixistence du Fluide des Nerfs; p. 35.
· Lect. IV. ; p. 60 and following.
M
162
DISTINCTIONS OF MAN
even any near approximation, is sufficient to account for That
the senses of man and other animals will not explain all their
varied and wonderful mental phenomena ; and that the supe-
riority of man can by no means be deduced from any pre-
eminence in this part of his construction, are truths too obvious
to require further notice.
Some modern inquirers have gone beyond this general state-
ment, and have ventured to particularize, in the brains of ani.
mals and of man, the organ or residence of each propensity,
feeling, and intellectual power. I cannot pronounce on the
accuracy and completeness of the mental and cerebral survey
executed by Messrs. Gall and SPURZHEIM; nor pretend to
judge of the exactness and fidelity with which the numerous
positions are marked down in their very complete and well-filled
map of the brain. They appeal to observation for the confirma-
tion or refutation of their statements; but my observations are
not numerous or varied enough for these purposes. No one can
refuse to them the merit of patient inquiry, careful observation,
and unprejudiced reflection. They have performed the useful
service of rescuing us from the trammels of doctrines and
authorities, and directing our attention to nature. Her instruc-
tions cannot deceive us : whether the views of Gall and
SPURZHEIM may be verified or not, our labours in this direction
inust be productive, must bring with them collateral advantages.
Hence they may be compared to the old man in the fable, who
assured his sons, on his death-bed, that a treasure was hidden in
his vineyard. They began immediately to dig over the whole
ground in search of it; and found, indeed, no treasure; but the
loosening of the soil, the destruction of the weeds, the admission,
of light and air, were so beneficial to the vines, that the quantity
and excellence of the ensuing crop were unprecedented.
The diseases peculiar to man may be deemed a more fit sub-
ject for pathology than natural history; but, as these unnatural
phenomena arise out of the natural organization and habit of
the body, and the dispositions of the animal economy, they
cannot be entirely passed over in this discussion.
While the causes of disease in general are so obscure, and the
exact series of phenomena has been ascertained in so few
instances, it is hazardous to set down any particular affections
as belonging exclusively to man; other animals might be
affected, if exposed to the same causes. Those in a wild state
have very few and simple diseases, if any: domesticated ones
IN MENTAL FACULTIES.
163
11
inave several; and they are more numerous in proportion as the
subjugation is more complete, and the way of life differs more
widely from the natural one. The diseases of our more valuable
domestic animals are sufficiently numerous to employ a parti-
cular order of men; and the horse alone has a distinct set to bis
own share. The miserable canary-birds seem to be equally in
want of professional assistance; for, in the list of disorders to
which they are subject, we find inflammation of the bowels,
asthma, epilepsy, chancres of the bill, and scabs.* In man, the
inost artificial of all animals, the most exposed to all the circum-
stances that can act unfavourably on his frame, diseases are the
most numerous, and so abundant and diversified, as to exhaust
the ingenuity of the nosologist, and fatigue the memory of the
physician. Perhaps nosological catalogues would afford the
most convincing argument that man has departed from the way
of life to which nature had destined him; unless, indeed, it
should be contended that these afflictions are a necessary part
of his nature; a distinction from aniinals, of which he will not
he very likely to boast.
The accumulation of numbers in large cities, the noxious
effects of impure air, sedentary habits, and unwholesome
employments ;-the excesses in diet, the luxurious food, the
heating drinks, the monstrous mixtures, and the pernicious
seasonings, which stimulate and oppress the organs ;-the
unnatural activity of the great cerebral circulation, excited by
the double impulse of our luxurious habits, and undue mental
exertions, of the violent passions which agitate and exhaust us,
escape, and then reacting on and disturbing the whole frame ;-
the delicacy and sensibility to external influences caused by our
heated rooms, warm clothing, inactivity, and other indulgencies,
are so many fatal proofs that our most grievous ills are our own
work, and might be obviated by a more simple and uniform way
of life. Our associates of the animal kingdom do not escape
the influence of such causes. The mountain shepherd and his
nervous and hysterical fine lady, and her lap-dog; the extreme
point of degeneracy and imbecility of which each race is
susceptible.
The observations of HUMBOLDT confirm the position, that
individuals, whose bodies are strengthened by healthy habits in
* Buffon by Wood; v. xiv. 1). 87.
M
2
164
DISEASES PECULIAR TO MAN.
respect to food, clothing, exercise, air, &c. are enabled to resist.
the causes which produce disease in other men. He paints to.
us the Indians of New Spain as a set of peaceful cultivators,
accustomed to uniform nourishment, almost entirelv. of a vege-
table nature, that of their maize and cereal gramina. “ They* are.
hardly subject to any deformity. I never saw a hunch-backed
Indian; and it is extremely rare to see any who squint, or who
are lame in the arm or leg. In the countries where the inha-
bitants suffer from the goître, this affection of the thyroid gland.
is never observed among the Indians, and seldom among the.
Mestizoes.”+
. He repeats the same testimony very strongly concerning
various tribes in South America, as the Chaymas, Caribs, the
Muyscas, and Peruvian Indians. I
WINTERBOTTOM $ says, that he never saw, nor heard of, a
case of hare-lip among the native Africans. But he adds, that
ATKINS inentions a case seen by himself.
The comparison of diseases is difficult, since the study of
serious obstacles. The diseases in the following list, derived
from BLUMENBACH, may be considered in all probability as
peculiar to man.
Nearly all the exanthemata; at least variola,ll morbilli, scar-
latina, miliaria, petechiæ, pestis.
Nervous affections. Hypochondriasis; hysteria; inental af-
fections properly so called, as mania, inclancholia, nostalgia;
properly also satyriasis, and nympho-inania. Cretinismus.
Cachexiæ. Rachitis ? scrofüla ? 9 lues venerca. Podagra,
lepra and elephantiasis.
Local diseases. Amenorrhæa ? cancer? chlorosis; hernia
congenita ? The various kinds of prolapsus, particularly that
congenital one of the urinary bladder. Herpes ; tinea capitis.
The two kinds of lice that infest our species, have not been
found on any other aniinal. Whether the human intestinal
worms are all distinct species, peculiar to man, I do not know.
I recapitulate the characters of man, discussed in the six pre-
+ Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain; v. i. p. 152.
+ The offspring of an European and an American.
Personal Nairalitc, iii. 233. 2 Account of the Nalive Africans ; ii. 224.
W A monkey at Amsterdam contracted a local ulcer from the contagion of
small-pox, but had no lever. Bluesbach, Deg, h. var, nat. p. 59.
| Monkeys perish in these climates of alllections very much resembling
scroful. The lymphatic glands, lunys, and other viscera are diseased; usually
tuberculated, and the bones ure ofteu atlected.
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
165
ceding chapters, that the proofs of his constituting a distinct
and separate species may be brought together in one view.
1. Smoothness of the skin, and want of natural offensive weapons, or means
of defence.
2. Erect stature ; to which the conformation of the body in general, and that of
the pelvis, lower limbs, and their muscles in particular, are accommodatec.
3. Incurvation of the sacrum and os coccygis; and consequent direction of
the vagina and urethra forwards.
4. Articulation of the head with the spinal column by the middle of its basis,
and want of ligamentum nuchæ.
5. Possession of two hands, and very perfect structure of the hand.
6. Great proportion of the cranium (cerebral cavity) to the face (receptacles
of the senses and organs of mastication.)
7. Shortness of the lower jaw, and prominence of its mental portion.
. Want of the intermaxillary bone.
9. Teeth allof equal length, and approximated : inferior incisors perpendicular.
0. Grcat development of the cerebral hemispheres.
11. Great mass of brain in proportion to the size of the nerves connected with it.
12. Grealer number and development of mental faculties, whether intellectual
or moral.
13. Speech.
14. Capability of inliabiting all climates and situations; and of living on all
kinds of food.
15. Slow growth ; long infancy ; late puberty.
16. Menstruation ; exercise of the sexual functions not confined to particular
Scisons.
SECTION II.
OX THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
CHAPTER I.
3/alement of the Subject; Mode of Investigalion; the Queslion cannot be settled
from the Jewish Scriptures; nor from other historical Records. The Meaning
of Species and Variety in Zoology; Nature and Extcnt of Variation. Breed-
ing is a Criterion of Specics. Criterion of Analogy.
THE differences which exist between inhabitants of the different
regions of the globe, both in boldly formation and in the facul-
ties of the mind, are so strikiny, that they must have attracted
the notice even of superficial observers. With those forms,
proportions, and colours, which we consider so beautiful in the
fine figures of Greece, contrast the woolly hair, the flat nose, the
thick lips, the retreating forehead and advancing jaws, and black
skin of the Negro; or the broad square face, narrow oblique
eyes, beardless chin, coarse straight hair, and olive colour of the
Calmuck. Compare the ruddy and sanguine European with
the jet-black African, the red man of America, the yellow Mon-
golian, or the brown South Sea Islander: the gigantic Pata-
gonian, to the dwarfish Laplander; the highly civilized nations
of Europe, so conspicuous in arts, science, literature, in all that
can strengthen and adorn society, or exalt and dignify human
nature, to a troop of naked, shivering, and starved New Hol.
166 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES,
2.
landers, a horde of filthy Hottentots, or the whole of the more
or less barbarous tribes tíac cover nearly the entire continent of
Africa. Are these ali brethren? have they descended from one
stock? or inust we trace them to more than one ? and if so, how
many Adarns must we admit?
The phenomena are capable of solution in either of these
ways: we may suppose that different kinds of men were ori-
ginalıy created; that the forms and properties, of which the
contrast now strikes us so forcibly, were impressed at first on
tae respective races; and consequently that the latter, as we
now see them, must be referred to different original families,
according to which supposition they will form, in the language
of naturalists, different species. Or, we may suppose, that one
kind of human beings only was formed in the first instance, and
account for the diversity, which is now observable, by the
agency of the various physical and moral causes to which they
have been subsequently exposed ; in which case they will only
form different varieties of the same species.
The question belongs to the domain of natural history and
physiology: we must be contented to proceed in our examina-
tion in the slow and humble, but sure method of observation.
It will be necessary to ascertain carefully all the differences that
actually exist between the various races of men; to compare
these with the diversities observed among animals; to apply to
them all the lights, which human and comparative physiology
can supply; and to draw our inferences concerning their nature
and causes, from all the direct information and all the analogies,
which these considerations may unfold.
In the first place we must dismiss all arguments à priori, as
entirely inapplicable to the subject. One philosopher tells us,
that nature does nothing in vain; that she would not give her-
self the trouble to create several different stocks, when one
family would be sufficient to colonise the world in a short space
of time. Another, with equal speciousness, dilates on the absur-
dity of supposing that immense regions should remain for ages
an unoccupied and dreary waste, while the offspring of a single
pair was slowly extending over the face of the earth; or that
such an admirable variety of islands should display their charms
in vain, till a shipwreck or some other casual occurrence might
supply them with inhabitants. He shows how much more con-
sonant to the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity it would be,
for the earth to have teemned from the first moment of its pro-
VARIETIES nu!
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 167
duction, with trees and fruits, and to have been occupied by all
kinds of animals, suited to each soil and sky. I cannot too
strongly reprobate such idle declamation, which, by withdraw-
ing our attention from the right method of investigation,
inevitably tends to perpetuate our ignorance of nature. Dr.
PRICHARD, in his excellent inaugural discourse on this subject,
has so well exposed the futility of such arguments, that I have
great pleasure in quoting his words. “ Hæc quanquam satis
speciosa videantur, omnia ut fit plerumque in hujusmodi argu-
mentationibus fluxa et incerta sunt. Qui magna loquuntur,
tanquam ipsi ex Dei concilio descendissent, neque ut humiles
ministros, et naturæ interpretes oportet, raro lumine quantulo-
cunque ejus abdita illustrant. Illi quidem dixerunt quomodo
mundum constituissent, si hoc eorum curationi fuisset com-
missum ; sed qua ratione re ipsa constitutus sit, talibus aus-
piciis, et latet, et semper latebit.”—p. 5.
Most persons, when they first turn their attention to the sub-
ject, and select for contemplation strongly marked specimens of
the varieties of man, will be inclined to adopt the supposition
of originally distinct species. This is the case with VOLTAIRE,*
who has recurred to the subject repeatedly in his various
writings, and has expressed himself very positively, ridiculing
the idea of referring such different beings as the Negro, Euro-
pean, African, Albino, &c. to the same original. “ Il n'est
permis qu'a un aveugle de douter que les blancs, les Négres, les
Albinos, les Hottentots, les Lappons, les Chinois, les Améri-
cains, soient des races entièrement différentes.”+ He says of
the Negroes, “ Leurs yeux ronds, leur nez épaté, leurs lèvres
toujours grosses, leurs oreilles différemment figurées, la laine de
leur tête, la mesure même de leur intelligence, mattent entr'eux
et les autres espèces d'hommes des différences prodigieuses.
Et ce qui démontre qu'ils ne doivent point cette différence à
leur climat, ces que des Négres et des Négresses transportés
dans les pays les plus froids, y produisent toujours des animaux
de leur espèce, et que les mulâtares ne sont qu'une race bâtarde
d'un noir et d'une blanche, ou d'un blanc et d'une noire.”I
To these, which are in truth well-founded remarks, although
in favour of what I think will appear to be the wrong opinion on
* Histoire de Russie sous Pierre le Grand; chap, i. Essai sur les Maurs,
introduction ; and chap. cxlii. Dictionnaire Philosophique, art. Homme.
Lettres d'Amabed, let. iv. Trailé de Métaphysique, chap. i In the place last
quoted, he gives a short but lively and interesting sketch of the different races
of men, and of the distinction between man and animals,
+ Ess, sur les Maurs.
$ Ibid.
168 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
the subject, he adds others of a less correct description ; enr.
merating as proofs of distinct species, the beardlessness of the
Americans, the black nipples of the Samoiede women, and "le
tablier que la nature a donné aux Caffres, et dont la peau lâche
et molle tombe du nombril sur les cuisses."*
I am not surprised at the view which VOLTAIRE has taken
of the question; for first appearances strongly favour his opi-
>
-
his various excellencies in so many departments of literature
and philosophy, may be well excused for not having possessed
sufficient zoological and physiological knowledge to guide his
judgment on such a point. Indeed, the progress of science and
discovery, and the more accurate accounts of various people
he did not possess. We must not, however, follow his example
in selecting two or three prominent contrasts, and considering
them alone: such partial and insulated views cannot lead to any
satisfactory results. It is necessary to examine, not only the
more marked differences, but also the numerous gradations by
which opposite extremes are in all cases connected and gradually
brought together : it is also necessary to cast our view yver the
animal kingdom at large, and to compare with man the various
living beings which more nearly resemble him. The whole pro-
ceeding must be governed by the principles of general physiology.
This disquisition will, perhaps, be deemed superfluous by those,
who regard the Hebrew Scriptures as writings composed with
the assistance of divine inspiration, and therefore commanding
our implicit assent; who receive, as a narrative of actual events,
authenticated by the highest sanction, the account contained in
Genesis of the formation of the world, the creation of man and
animals, and their dispersion over the face of the globe.
The Mosaic account does not, however, make it quite clear
that the inhabitants of all the world descended from ADAM and
Evet Moreover, the entire or even partial inspiration of the
. Ess, sur les Mours.
+ We are told, indeed, that " Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she
was the mother of all living." But in the first chapter of Genesis, we learn
that God created man male and female ; and this seems to have been previously
Eden had been prepared. Again, we learn in the fifth chapter of Genesis, that
“in the day that God created inan, in the likeness of God made he him; male
and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam,
in the day when they were created." We find also that Cain, after slaying
his brother, was married, although no daughters of Eve are mentioned before
this time. "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the
land of Nod, on the cast of Eden. And Cain knew his wiſe, and she conceived,
and bare Enoch. Indeed it is said (ch. V. 4), that “the days of Adam, after
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 169.
various writings comprehended in the Old Testament has been,
And is doubted by many persons, including learned divines, and
distinguished oriental and biblical scholars. The account of the
creation and of subsequent events, has the allegorical figu-
rative character common to eastern compositions; and it is dis-
tinguished among the cosmogonies by a simple grandeur and
natural sublimity, as the rest of these writings are by appropriate
beauties in their respective parts not inferior to those of any
human compositions.
To the grounds of doubt respecting inspiration, which arise
from examination of the various narratives, from knowledge of
the original and other oriental languages, and from the irrecon-
cilable opposition between the passions and sentiments ascribed
by the Deity to Moses, and that religion of peace and love un
folded by the Evangelists, I have only to add, that the represen-
tations of all the animals being brought before ADAM in the
first instance,* and subsequently of their being all collected in
the ark,t if we are to understand them as applied to the living
inhabitants of the whole world, are zoologically impossible.
The collection of living beings in one central point, and their
gradual diffusion over the whole globe, may not be greatly in-
consistent with what we know of our own species, and of the few
more cominon quadrupeds, which accompany us in our various
migrations, and are able to sustain with us great varieties of
climate, food, situation, and all external influences.
But when we extend our survey to the rest of the mammalia,
we find at all points abundant proofs of animals being confined
to particular situations, and being so completely adapted by their
structure and functions, by their whole organization, economy,
and habits, to the local peculiarities of temperature, suil, food,
&c. that they cannot subsist where these are no longer found.
In proportion as our knowledge of species becomes more exact,
he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and
daughters. This, it should seem, took place after the birth of Seth, and con-
seguently long after Cain had his wife; for Seth was not born till after the
death of Abel. If Cain had sisters prior to that period, from amongst whom
ne might have taken a wife, Moses has not noticed them.
het "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field,
aud ererz fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he wouldi
call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air,
and to every beast of the field." Gen. ii. 19, 20.
of " And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thoa bring
into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and fernale,
Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creepingiling
of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come untu thee, to keep
them alive." Gen. vi. 19, 20.
170 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES,
the proofs of this locality are rendered stronger, and the examples
of admirable conformity between the organic capabilities of
animals and the circumstances of the regions which they in-
habit, are multiplied and strengthened.
· The peculiar adaptation of the camel to the sandy deserts in
which he is placed, strikes the most cursory observer. The herds
of antelopes and other ruminant animals, and the great troops
of solidungular quadrupeds, are not less suited to the boundless
plains of Asia and Africa; the vast assemblages of elk and buf-
falo, to the uninhabited wilds of America; the tiger to the
jungles and the thickets of the East Indies; and the troops of
sapajous, with their prehensile tails, to the lofty forests of Guiana
and Brazil.
Even when the external circumstances are nearly alike, remote
regions are occupied in most cases by distinct genera or species.
The lion so common in Africa, is hardly found in Asia, while
the tiger is peculiar to the latter; the elephants and rhinoce-
roses of these two quarters of the world are specifically distinct.
The instances of America, New Holland, and some other
islands, afford unanswerable arguments against the creation of
ail animals in one spot. None of the mammalia of the southern
hemisphere, the torrid zone, or even the two northern temperate
regions, are common to the two continents. When the Spaniards
anded in the new world, they did not find a single animal they
were acquainted with; not one of the quadrupeds of Europe,
Asia, or Africa. On the other hand, the puna,* the jaguar, t
the tapir, the cabiai, the llama,ſ the vicugna,ll the sapajous,
were creatures altogether new to them. No quadrupeds are
found in both continents except such as dwell north of the Baltic
in the old, and of Canada in the new world; such, in short, as
are capable of bearing the cold of those regions, where the two
continents approximate to each other.
Here, indeed, we must guard against the mistakes, which the
inconsiderate application of the same naines to animals, really
different, though more or less analogous to each other, might
occasion. We read of American lions; but the creature so called
(the puma), although a carnivorous animal, is widely different
* Couguar (Felis discolor, Linn).
+ Felis onçà L. American tiger; nearly a match in size and strength for the
royal tiger of Bengal.
# Cavia capybara, L,
Cameius Llacma, L. the camel of Peru, and the only beast of burden in the
ountry at the time of the Spanish conquest. The guanaco is the wild llama.
Paco; camelus vicunna, L. producing the fine soft and fawn-coloured wool
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 171
fiom the lion of Africa : American monkeys again form a very dis-
tinct family, without any specific affinity to those of the old world.
· A similar phenomenon was again experienced in our own times
on first exploring the coasts of New Holland and the adjacent
isles. A dog was indeed found here, whether of the same species
with those we are acquainted with, and introduced from the
neighbouring islands, is not perhaps yet clearly ascertained. This
great southern continent contained no other mammiferous ani-
mals previously known to naturalists; but, on the contrary, it
has furnished about forty species, altogether new; of which the
kangaroos, the phascolomys, * the dasyuri, the péramèles, the
flying phalangers, † the ornithorhynchi, and the_echidnæ, have
astonished zoologists by the novelty and singularity of their
conformation, contrary to all the rules hitherto established, and
at variance with all their systems. I Even the island called
VAN DIEMEN's Land, although situated so near to New Hol.
land, and in some degree connected to it by intervening islands,
has its own peculiar species. S
The orang-outang is found only on the island of Borneo ; and
the makis are confined to that of Madagascar, while the neigh-
bouring continent of Africa has none of them, but numerous
monkeys instead.
Even marine animals are confined to particular situations:
although it might appear so probable à priori, that the waves
and currents of the ocean would carry them into all situtions,
and the medium in which they live seems so favourable for their
transportation. Peron and LE SUEUR assert that there is no
well-known animal of the northern hemisphere, which is not spe-
cifically distinct from every other equally well-known of the
southern; and that this is true even of those possessing the lowest
and simplest organization.||
* Wombat, Didelphis ursina of Shaw.
+ Petaurus, Shaw.
Cuvier Regne animal; on the order marsupiaux; t. i. p. 169, et suiv,
ģ « En effet, tous les animaux, que nous avons recueillis sur la terre de
Diemen, et qu'on peut regarder comme plus particulièrement propres au sol,
tels que les mammifères, les reptiles, &c. sont spécifiquement différer les
animaux de la Nouvelle Hollande ; la plupart même des espèces, qui peuplent
ce continent, n'existent pas sur la grande ile qui l'avoisine." Peron syurge
de Découvertes aisc Terres Australes; v. ii. p. 165.
Il “ Personne plus que nous, il est permis de le dire, n'a recueilli d'animaux
de l'hémisphère Austral; uous les avons tous observés décrits, et figuréss:les
lieux : nous en avons rapportés plusieurs milliers d'espèces en Europe; elles
sont déposées dans le Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris. Que l'on com
pare ces nombreux animaux avec ceux de notre hémisphère, le problème sera
bientôt résolu, non seulement pour les espèces d'une organization plus parfaite,
mais encore pour toutes celles qui sont beaucoup plus simples, et qui, sous ce
rapport, sembleroient devoir être moins variées dans la nature. Qu'on exa-
mine, nous ne dirons par les doris, les aplysies, les salpas, les néréndes, les
amphinomes, les amphitrites, et cette foule de mollusques et des vers pies
172 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
If all the difficulties connected with the facts just recited.
and with the numerous analogous ones,* which every depart-
ment of natural history could furnish, were removed, insur-
mountable obstacles would still be found to this hypothesis of
the whole globe having received its supply of animals from one
quarter How could all living beings have been assembled in
one climate, when many, as the white fox (isatis), the polar bear,
the walrus, the manita, can exist only in the cold of the polar
regions, while to others the warmth of the tropic is essential ?
How could all have been supplied with food in one spot, since
many live entirely on vegetables produced only in certain dis-
tricts? How could many have passed from the point of assem-
blage to their actual abode, over mountains, through deserts,
and even across the seas? How could the polar bear, to whom
the ice of the frozen regions is necessary, have traversed the
torrid zone? If we are to believe that the original creation com-
prehended only a male and female of each species, or that one
pair only was rescued from an universal deluge, the contradic-
tions are again increased. The carnivorous animals must have
soon perished with hunger, or have annihilated most of the other
species.
Such an assumption, in short, is at variance with all our
knowledge of living nature. Why should we embrace an hypo-
thesis so full of contradictions ?-to give to an allegory a literal
construction, and the character of revelation; which is so much
the less necessary here, because we do not follow the same rule
in other points. The astronomer does not pourtray the hea-
venly motions, or lay down the laws which govern them, accord-
ing to the statements in the Jewish Scriptures; nor does the
geologist think it necessary to modify the results of experience
according to the contents of the Mosaic writings.
composés qui se sont successivement offerts à notre observation : qu'on de-
scende jusqu'aux holothuries, aux achnies, aux béroës, aux méduses : qu'on
s'abaisse même, si l'on veut jusqu'à ces éponges informes, que tout le monde
s'accorde à regarder comme le dernier terine de la dégradation, ou plutôt de la
simplicité de l'organization animale; parmi cette multitude, pour ainsi dire
eftrávante, d'animaux antarctiques, on verra qu'il n'en est pas un suel qui se
retrouve dans les mers boréales ; et de cet examen bien réfléchi, de cette lon-
gue suite de comparaisons rigoureuses, on sera force de conclure, ainsi que
nous vous dû nous-mêmes le faire, ' qu'il n'est pas une seule espèce d'ani-
maux marins bien connue, qui, véritable cosmopolite, soit indistinctement
proare à toutes les parties du globe.""_Notice sur les Habitations des Ani-
maux inarins; in the Voyage allt Terres Australes, t. ii. p. 348, 349.
. Further illustrations of this important subject may be seen in Dr. Pri-
chard's Researches on the Physical History of Xan, clap. iii. sec. 2 and 3. Zini-
mermann, Geographische Geschichte, &c. Rudolphi, Beyträge zur Anthropoloyie
und allgemeinen Naturgeschichte, No.iii. and in the paper of Peron and Le Sueur
already quoted.
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
173
at all events, if the descent of mankind from one stock can be
proved independently of the Jewish books, the conclusion will
tend collaterally to establish the authority of these ancient
records.
- determining this great problem ; whether the earliest traditions
and records may not enable us to trace the succession of the
human race from its origin downwards, or whether we may not
be able to follow back particular tribes or nations to the period
of their first descent or establishment. We soon find that these
efforts are unavailing; that neither the annals nor the traditions
of any people reach back to the remote ages when the various
ramifications of the original stock-if there were any such-
separated from each other, and took possession of the different
countries where they are now settled. We cannot trace the
branches of any such family, nor point out the time and manner
in which they divided and spread over the face of the globe.
Even among the most enlightened people the period of authentic
history is short, and every thing beyond that period is fabulous
and obscure.
The Jewish annals, in which it is not always easy to separate and
distinguish what ought to be received as literally true, although
of very high antiquity, merely relate to the transactions of a
small tribe and some of their neighbours. The Indian and
Chinese, also very ancient, are equally confined. The phrase
“ Græcia mendax” has long ago afforded a caution against
placing much reliance on the early traditions transmitted by the
Greeks.
In the introduction to his great work on language, ADELUNG*
has summed up what history discloses to us on this subject;
and, as it has an important reference to the present object of
inquiry, I hope the length of the extract will be excused.
“ Asia has been in all times regarded as the country where the
human race had its beginning, received its first education, and
from which its increase was spread over the rest of the globe.
“ Tracing the people up to tribes, and the tribes up to families,
we are conducted at last, if not by history, at least by the tradi-
tion of all old people, to a single pair, from which families,
• Mithridates, ocöer allgemeine Sprachenkunde, &c. lr. Th. Berlin, 1806. 2r.
31. 45. Th. von. J. S. Vater, Berlin, 1809-1817, a most important work in rela-
tion to the history of our species, and the aflinities and migrations of various
tribes,
174 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
tribes, and nations have been successively produced. The
question has been often asked, what was this first family, and the
first people descending from it? where was it settled ? and how
has it extended so as to fill the four large divisions of the globe?
It is a question of fact, and must be answered from history.
But history is silent; her first books have been destroyed by
time, and the few lines preserved by Moses are rather calcu- .
lated to excite than satisfy our curiosity,
- In the first feeble rays of its early dawn, which are faintly
perceived about 2000 years before the commencement of our
present chronology, the whole of Asia, and a part of Africa, are
already occupied with a variety of greater and smaller nations, of
various manners, religion, and language. The warlike struggle
is already in full activity: here and there are polished states,
with various useful inventions, which must have required long
time for their productions, development, and extension. The
rest of the human race consists of wild hordes occupied merely
with pastoral pursuits, hunting, and robbery ; thus a kind of
slave-trade is seen in the time of ABRAHAM. Soon after a few
weak glimmerings of light discover to us Europe in a similar
state of population, from the Don to the Pillars of Hercules :
here and there traces of culture, industry and commerce; for
instance, the amber trade in the Baltic, at least in the time of
HOMER, and that of the British tin. All this is perceived in
remote obscurity, where only a few points of light occasionally
shoot across, to show us the germs of future history, which is
still profoundly silent respecting the time and place of such
events. Nothing is left for us but humbly to assume the garb
of ignorance, to look round us in the great archives of nature,
and see if there are any documents which may at least lead us to
conjectures. Happily there are such.
“ The present structure of the earth's surface teaches us,
what Moses confirms, that it was formerly covered to a certain
depth with water, which gradually lessened, from causes
unknown to us, so that various spots became dry and habitable.
The highest dry surface on the globe must, therefore, have been
the earliest inhabited; and here nature, or rather her Creator,
will have planted the first people, whose multiplication and
extension must have followed the continual gradual decrease of
the water.
“ We must fancy to ourselves this first tribe endowed with all
human faculties, but not possessing all knowledge and expe.
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 175
rience, the subsequent acquisition of which is left to the natural
operation of cinie and circumstances. As nature would not
unnecessarily expose her first-born and unexperienced son
to conflicts and dangers, the place of his early abode would
be so selected, that all his wants could be easily satisfied, and
every thing essential to the pleasure of his existence, readily
procured. He would be placed, in short, in a garden, or
paradise.
“ Such a country is found in central Asia, between the 30th
and 50th degrees of north latitude, and the 90th and 110th of
east longitude (from Ferro): a spot which, in respect to its
height, can only be compared to the lofty plain of Quito in
South America. From this elevation, of which the great desert
Cobi, or Shamo, is the vertical point, Asia sinks gradually
towards all the four quarters. The great chains of mountains,
running in various directions, arise from it, and contain the
sources of the great rivers which traverse this division of the
globe on all sides; the Selinga, the Ob, the Lena, the Irtisch,
and the Jenisey, in the north; the Jaik, the Jihon, the Jemba,
on the west; the Amur and the Hoang-ho (or Yellow River),
towards the east; the Indus, Ganges, and Burrampooter, on the
south. If the globe was ever covered with water, this great
table land must first have become dry, and have appeared like
an island in the watery expanse. The cold and barren desert of
Cobi would not, indeed, have been a suitable abode for the first
people; but, on its southern declivity we find Thibet, separated
by high mountains from the rest of the world, and containing
within its boundaries all varieties of air and climate. If the
severest cold prevails on its snowy mountains and glaciers, a
perpetual summer reigns in its valleys and well-watered plains.
This is the native abode of rice, the vine, pulse, fruit, and all other
vegetable productions, from which man draws his nourishment.
Here, too, all the animals are found wild which man has tamed for
his use, and carried with him over the whole earth ;-the cow*,
* To determine the original stock of our domestic animals is one of the most
difficult undertakings in zoology. I know no data on which the ox-kind can
be referred to any wild species in Asia. Cuvier has concluded, from a minute
osteological inquiry, that the wild ox (11rus or bison of the ancients; aurochs
of the Germans), formerly found throughout the greater part of temperate
Europe, and still met with in the forests of Lithuania, of the Carpathian and
Caucasian chains, is not, as most naturalists have supposed, the wild original
of our cattle; but that the characters of the latter are found in certain fossil
crania; whence he thinks it probable" that the priinary race has been anni.
hilated by civilization, like that of the cannel and dromedary." Des drimaut
fossiles, v. iv. ; Ruminans fossiles; p. 52.
176
ZOOLOGICAL ACCEPTATION Or
horse, * ass, † sheep, I goat, camel, || pig, dog, T cat, and
even the serviceable rein-deer,** his only attendant and
friend in the icy deserts of the frozen polar regions. Close to
Thibet, and just on the declivity of the great central elevation,
we find the charming region of Cashmire, where great elevation
converts the southern heat into perpetual spring, and where
mature has exerted all her powers to produce plants, animals,
and man, in the highest perfection. No spot on the whole
earth unites so many advantages ; in none could the human
plant have succeeded so well without any care.”ft This spot,
therefore, seems to unite all the characters of paradise, and to
be the most appropriate situation in Asia for the birth-place of
the human race.
Such is the general result of historical inquiry: it points out
* Pallas Spicileg. Zool. fasc. xi. p. 5, note b. t Ibid, note c.
I There are two or three wild species, nearly related to each other, which
seem to have equal claims to be considered as the source of our sheep. Of
these the argali found in the great mountains of Asia strongly resembles the
sheen. Pallas Spicileg. Zool. fasc. xi. tab, 1 and 2.
& The wild goat (ægagrus) is met with in the mountains of Persia, where it
has the name of paseng or pasan (whence the term pasahr, corrupted into be-
zoar, applied to their intestinal concretions), and probably elsewhere, even in
the Alps of Europe. Cuvier, Ménagerie de Museum, 8vo. v. ii. p. 177. The
2bex (bouquetin) occupies the highest summits of the mountains of the old
continent: that of Asia is described by Pallas, Spic, Zool, f.ll, p. 31, et seq.
tab. iii. Another species inhabits the chain of Caucasus (capra Caucasica);
Guldenstadt, Comment. Petrop. 1779, pl. xvi, xvii.
ll In opposition to the assertion of Buftou, who represents that the entire
race is reduced to slavery, and who strangely regards the callosities of its
chest and limbs as the result of its servile labours. Pallas reports, on the faith
of the Bucharian merchants, and of the wandering nomades of Asia, that na-
tive wild camels are still found in the vast plains of the temperate part of this
continent, and are distinguished from the domesticated animals by their supe.
rior size, spirit, and swiftness. The northern confines of India, and the deserts
between it and China, seem to be the native abode of the Bactrian camel, or
that with two protuberances. The wild camels about the Balchasch Lake and
Bogdo Mountain are probably produced from those which have been set at
liberty by the Calmucks from religious motives. Fascie. xi. p. 4, note a.
1 Pallas seems fully convinced that the jackal, "copiosissimum in universo
oriente animal,” is the source of our dogs, which he closely resembles in
manners and disposition, being also very like some breeds in size and figure.
" Homini facillime adsuescit, nunquam, uti lupus et vulpes cicurati, in fidi
animi signa edens, lususve cruentans; canes non fugit, sed ardenter appetit,
cum iisque colludit, ut plane nullum sit dubium cum iisdem generaturum, si
tentetur experimentum. Vocem desiderii caninæ simillimam habet; homini
cauda eodem modo abblanditur, et in dorsum provolvi atque manibus demula
ceri amat. Ipse quoque ululatus ejus, cum latratu capum ejulabundo magnam
habet analogiam. Ergo dubium vix esse puto, hominis speciem, in eadem
cum lupo aureo climate naturaliter inquilinam, antiquitus hujus catulis cicu-
ratis domesticos sibi educasse canes, quorum naturalis instinctus jam homini,
quem feri non multum timent, amicus, et in venationem pronus erat." Spicil.
Zool. fasc. xi. p. 1, note.
These opinions are confirmed by the statements of Guldenstadt, who found
the cæcum and the teeth perfectly alike in the dog and jackal; it is not so in
the wolf. The jackal makes water sideways; i odorat anum alterius; co-
hæret copula junctus." Nov. Cominent. Petrop. v. 20, p. 459, tab. xi.
** The rein-deer is only known at present in the coldest regions. Adelung
could not, I think, have any sufficient authority for placing its origin in the
Tegion and climate which he here describes
7+ Adelung; 15. Theil. Einlcitung, p. 3-9

SPECIES AND VARIETY.
177
the East as the earliest or original seat of our species, the
source of our domesticated animals, of our principal vegetable
food, and the cradle of arts and sciences : but it does not fur-
nish the means of deciding whether the globe has been peopled
factorily the mode in which their dissemination has been
accomplished.
Before entering on the immediate object of this section, it is
necessary to consider what is the precise acceptation of the
terms species and varieties in zoology; what constitutes a
species, and how varieties arise out of it.
Animals are characterized by fixed and definite external forms,
which are transmitted and perpetuated by generation. The
offspring of sexual unions is marked with all the bodily cha-
racters of the parents. However strong the impulse may be,
which leads to the continuation of the species, there seems to be
an equally powerful aversion to intercourse with those of other
species. Hence in the wild state even the inost nearly allied do
not intermix, as the hare and rabbit; the horse and ass; the.
different kinds of mice, or of rats. Constant and permanent
difference, therefore, is the essential notion conveyed by the
word species; and, provided it be invariably maintained, it is.
immaterial whether that difference be great or small. Thus the
specific distinction between the black rat (mus rattus) and the
brown or Norway rat: (m. decumanus), or between the domestic.
mouse (m. musculus) and the field mouse (m. arvalis), is as
perfect, as between either of these and the elephant.
By the reproduction of the same characters, and the aversion
to union with other species, uniformity is maintained ; and the
lapse of ages produces no deviation from the original model.
Animals are just the same now as at any, even the remotest
period of our acquaintance with them. The zoological descrip-
ply in all points to the individuals of the present time; and
every incidental mention of animals, or allusion to their cha-
racters and prop erties in the writings of historians, poets, fabu-
lists, confirms this idendity of form and endowments. Every
actual relics in tombs, mummies, &c. all corroborate the proof.*
"I have carefully examined the figures of animals and birds engraren on
the numerous obelisks brought from Egypt to ancient Rome. In the general
character, which is all that can have been preserved, these representations
perfcctly resemble the originals, as we now see them. My learned colleague,
N
178
ZOOLOGICAL ACCEPTATION OF
These remarks are chiefly applicable to wild animals, which
remain in places most congenial to their nature; where the
climate, seasons, air, soil, supply of food, correspond to their
organization, economy, and wants. Some of these, however,
are capable of enduring greater diversity of situation than
others; and hence are exposed to considerable differences in
various external agencies. “ The wolf and the fox,” says
CUVIER,* " are found from the torrid zone to high northern
little more or less beauty in the fur. I have compared the crania
of the northern and Egyptian foxes to those of France, and have
found only individual differences. Wild animals, confined within
narrow limits, particularly those of the carnivorous order, vary
still less. A fuler mane is the only circumstance distinguish-
ing the hyena of Persia from that of Morocco.”
Variations in the quantity and quality of food may cause
some slight differences: thus the tusks of elephants, or the
horns of the deer kind, may be larger or longer where the ali-
ment is more abundant and nutritious.
There are, however, many animals which are no longer in
their natural wild state, having been domesticated or reduced to
slavery by man. Here the original form is no longer strictly
preserved. Deviations take place in size, colour, form, propor-
tions, and qualities; and the degree of the effect will of course
be measured by the intensity and duration of the cause.
The degree of domestication is very various. In some cases
the animals do not breed in servitude; consequently each
individual must be reduced from the original wild state : here
no variation occurs. The elephant affords an example. The
rein-deer is confined within narrow limits as to temperature;
and, since it cannot be removed from these, it varies little.
There are degrees of domestication, dependent probably on
original capabilities of education. The cat, which is only par-
tially enslaved, merely varies in the texture and colour of its
fur ; and inconsiderably in size: but the skeleton of any tame
cat differs from that of the wild in no essential point.
The greatest differences are produced when man regulates the
Mr. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, collected numerous mummies of animals from the
ibises, birds of prey, dogs, monkeys, crocodiles, and an ox's hrad embalmed.
There is no more difference between these relics and the animals we are now
acquainted with, than between human mummies and the skeletons of the pre-
sent day,”-Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossemens fossiles; i. Disc. prelior. p. 80.
* Ibid. p. 75.
SPECIES AND VARIETY.
179
sexual intercourse of animals: by selecting individuals to breed
from, he can effect the most surprising changes in form and
qualities, as the examples of the pig, sheep, horse, cow, and
dog, will abundantly evince. The deviation has become at last
so great, that the original stock from which the animals de-
scended is doubtful.
The herbivorous domestic animals, following us into all cli-
mates, and governed by us in their food, labour, and external
defence or protection, exhibit variations which, although appa-
rently very considerable, are chiefly superficial. The size, the
greater or less development, or entire want of horns, the nature
of the hairy covering, and such other points, are the subjects of
change. The skeleton, the form and connection of the bones,
the teeth, are never altered. The comparatively imperfect deve-
lopment of the tusks in the pig, and the consolidation of the toes,
are the most striking effects produced in this class of animals.
“The strongest marks of human influence are seen in the
animals of which man has made the most complete conquest;
in the dog, who is so perfectly devoted to us, that he seems to
have sacrificed to us his individual character, interest, and feel-
ings. Carried by man all over the world, subjected to the action
of the most powerful causes, and directed in sexual intercourse
by the will of their master, the dogs vary in colour, in the quantity
of hair, which is sometimes entirely lost; in their nature and
properties ; in size, which may differ as one to five in linear
dimensions, or more than one to a hundred in the mass; in the
form of the ears, nose, tail ; in the height of the limbs; in the
development of the brain, and consequent form of the head,
which may be slender, with elongated muzzle and flat forehead;
or short with convex forehead; so that the apparent differences
between a mastiff and a spaniel, a greyhound and a poodle, are
greater than we find between any wild species of the saine
natural genus. Lastly, which is the maximum of variation
hitherto known in the animal kingdom, there are races of dogs
with an additional toe and corresponding metatarsal bone on the
hind. foot, as there are six-fingered families in the human species.
Still, in all these variations, the relations of the bones remain
the same, and the form of the teeth is never altered."*
Thus we find that species must be taken in very different
acceptations in wild and domestic animals; that while all the
beings included under the same species exhibit, in the former
Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossemens fossiles; i. Disc. prelim, p. 78.
N 2
180
ZOOLOGICAL ACCEPTATION OF
case, a close and rigorous resemblance, admitting at most of
slight diversities in colour, fur, size, and development of some
less important parts ; wider deviations are allowed in the latter,
than are observed between some wild animals acknowledged to
belong to different species.
It may be stated, in the abstract, that all animals which differ
in such points only as might arise in the natural course of de-
generation, that is, from recognised causes of variation, belong
to the same species; while those different which cannot be ac-
counted for on this supposition must lead us to class the ani-
mals which exhibit them in different species. But the chief
difficulty is to point out the characters by which, in actual prac-
tice, mere varieties may be distinguished from genuine specific
differences.
The transmission of specific forms by generation, and the
aversion to unions with those of other kinds, soon led naturalists
to seek for a criterion of species in breeding. * They esta-
blished the rule, that those animals which copulate together, and
produce an offspring equally prolific with themselves, belong to
one and the same species, ascribing the differences which niay
exist between them to adventitious causes. The high authority
of Burfon and HUNTER, who adopted this opinion, occasioned
the criterion of breeding to be very generally relied on.
If we admit this, the question respecting the human species
would be immediately solved. For all the races breed together,
and their offspring is prolific, either with each other, or with any
of the original races. Indeed, we know no difference in pro-
ductiveness between such unions and those of the same race.
This rule, however, involves a petitio principii, in assuming
that animals of distinct species never produce together a prolific
offspring. Generally, indeed, hybrid animals, or the offspring
of any two species, are incapable of generation ; and this is a
powerful additional provision for preserving uniformity of spe-
cies. There are, however, instances, both among the mammalia
and birds, of individuals belonging to species universally held to
be distinct, uniting and producing young, which were again
prolific. That the mule can engender with the mare, and that
the she-mule can conceive, was known to ARISTOTLE. The
circumstance is said to occur most frequently in warm countries;
# The principle has not escaped common observation: it is expressed in
the English word brecd, and in the German gallung (species), which signifies
oopulation.
SPECIES AND VARIETY.
181
but it has taken place in Scotland.* Burron states that the
offspring of the he-goat and ewe possesses perfect powers of
reproduction. We might expect these animals, with the addi-
tion also of the chamois (antilope rupicapra), to copulate together
easily, because they are nearly of the same size, very similar in
internal structure, accustomed to artificial domestic life, and to
the society of each other from birth upwards. There is a similar
facility in some birds belonging to the genera fringilla, anas, and
phasianus, where such unions are often fruitful, and produce
prolific offspring. The cock and hen canary birds produce with
the hen and cock siskin and goldfinch ;t the hen canary pro-
duces with the cock chaffinch, bullfinch, yellow-hammer, and
sparrow. The progeny in all these cases is prolific, and breeds
not only with both the species from which they spring, but
likewise with each other.f The common cock and the hen
partridge, as well as the cock and the guinea hen,ſ the pheasant
and the hen,|| can produce together.
The anser cygnoides (Chinese goose) copulates readily in
Russia with the common goose, and produces a hybrid but per-
fectly prolific offspring ; the race soon returns to the characters
of the common goose, unless crossed again with the Chinese
species.
It is true that these unnatural unions take place in animals
under the power of man, are accomplished with the assistance
of contrivance and stratagem, and generally require an attention
to several preliminary circumstances; it is also found, that,
under artificial constraint and privation, unions of distinct spe-
cies may take place without fecundation, as of the hare and
bitch, ** the bull and mare ;ft they prove, however, sufficiently
that this affair of generation will not afford the criterion we are
in search of.
It was soon found that this rule of reproduction could not be
applied to domesticated animals, on account of their unnatural
way of life, and hence Frisch, towards the beginning of the
last century, confined it entirely to the wild ones. And here it
is of little service: for how can we expect ever to bring toge-
ther those wild species to ascertain the point, particularly when
they inhabit different countries, as, for instance, the chimpansé
* Buffon, by Wood, v. iv. p. 200—205.
+ Buffon, by Wood, v. xiv. p. 63, and following. Ibid. p. 70.
& Toid. v. xii. 61.
| Pallas, Spicil. Zool. f. xi. p. 36, note.
I loid. Act. Acad. Scient. Petrop. 1780; p. 83, note ; p. 96.
** Pallas saw tliis in the instance of a tame hare kct with dogs. Snic. Zoul.
fasc. xi. p. 30, note.
++ Buffon, «. iv. p. 221.
182
ZOOLOGICAL ACCEPTATION OF
of Angola and the orang-outang of Borneo ? Nor are there so
many doubts about these, as about the domesticated animals,
which are thus excluded.
The different breeds of dogs, for example, are referred by
some to different species; and they are, indeed, sufficiently
marked by distinctive permanent characters to warrant the
opinion, if the constancy of such characters were a sufficient
proof of difference in species. Others, again, refer them ail to
the shepherd's dog; and others include all the dogs, the wolf,
fox, and jackal, in one species. The dog and bitch produce
with the male and female wolf, and with the dog and bitch fox;
and the offspring is prolific. Yet we cannot surely ascribe
animals, which are marked in their wild state by such strong
characters, of bodily formation, disposition, and habits, as the
wolf, fox, and jackal, to one and the same species, without over-
turning all the fundamental principles of zoology, however freely
they may intermix, and however perfect the reproductive power
may be in their offspring, *
We may conclude, then, from a general review of the pre-
ceding facts, that nature has provided, by the insurmountable
barriers of instinctive avcrsion, of sterility in the hybrid offspring,
and in the allotment of species to different parts of the earth,
against any corruption or change of species in wild animals.
We must therefore admit, for all the species which we know at
present, as sufficiently distinct and constant, a distinct origin
and common date. On the other hand, the fruitful intermix-
ture which art has accomplished, of some of these species, will
not justify us in ascribing to them identity of race or origin,
when we see them in the natural wild state distinguished by
constant characters from the type of the neighbouring species,
and always producing an offspring marked by these characters.
Since neither the principle of breeding, nor the constancy
* Pallas entertains the opinion that our sheep, dogs, and perhaps poultry,
are factitious beings, not descended from any single wild orig inal, but from a
mixture of nearly allied primitive species, whose hybrid offsprings have pos-
sessed prolific powers. He observes that those domesticated animals, which
either do not intermix with other species, or which produce with others un.
prolific progeny, are very little changed, however completely and anciently
they may liave been brought under the dominion of man; or at least are not
so changed as to cause any difficulty respecting their origin. This is the case
with the horse and ass in all climates; with the ox kind; with the pig; the
camel and dromedary; and the rein-deer. He refers our sheep to intermix-
tures of the Siberian argali (ovis ammon), the mouflon of Corsica and Sardinia,
that of Africa (ovis tragelaphus Cuv.), the wild goat of Persia (paseng, the
bezoar animal, caprą ægragrus), the bouquetin (capra ibex), and the wild goat
of Caucasus (capra Caucasical. The dog he considers to have proceeded from
the jackal solf, and fox. Méinoire sur la variation des Animau; Acta Acad.
Petrop. 1780.
SPECIES AND VARIETY.
183
of particular characters, are sufficient in all cases to enable
us to judge of species, and since these fail, particularly in
the domestic kinds, where their aid is principally required,
we must resort at last to the criterion recommended by Blu-
MENBACH, and draw our notions of species in zoology from
analogy and probability. If we see two races of animals resem-
bling each other in general, and differing only in certain respects,
according with what we have observed in other instances, we
refer them without hesitation to the same species, although
the difference should be so considerable, as to affect the whole
external appearance. On the contrary, if the difference should
be of a kind which has never arisen, within our experience of
the animal kingdom, as a variety, we must pronounce them to
belong to distinct species, even although there should be, on
the whole, a great general resemblance between the two. “I
see,” says.this acute and judicious naturalist, “ a remarkable
difference between the Asiatic and African elephants in the
structure of the molar teeth. Whether these inhabitants of
such distant regions will ever be brought to copulate together,
and whether this formation be universal, is uncertain : but it
exists in all the specimens I have seen or heard of, and I know
no example of molar teeth changed in such a manner by dege-
neration, or the action of adventitious causes: therefore I con-
jecture, from analogy, that these elephants are not mere varieties,
but truly different species. On the other hand, I hold the ferret
(mustela furo) to be only a variety of the pole-cat (m. putorius),
not so much because they produce together, but because it las
red pupils ; and the analogy of numerous other instances in-
duces me to regard all the other mammalia, which are destitute
of the colouring pigment of the eye, as varieties degenerated
from their original stocks."*
This method is the only satisfactory one of investigating the
varieties of the human species. The diversities of physical and
moral endowment which characterize the various races of man,
must be analogous in their nature, causes, and origin, to those
which are observed in the rest of the animal creation; and must
therefore be explained on the same principles.
There is no point of difference between the several races of
mankind, which has not been found to arise, in at least an equal
degree, among other animals, as a mere variety, from the usual
causes of degeneration. Our instances are drawn chiefly from
* De Gen. hum. Var. nat. pp. 70, 71.
184
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
the domesticated kinds, which, by their association with man,
lead an unnatural kind of life, are taken into new climates and
situations, and exposed to various other circumstances, alto-
gether different from their original destination. Hence they
run into varieties of form, size, proportions, colour, disposition,
would be considered by a person uninformed on these subjects
to be originally different species. Wild animals, on the con-
trary, remaining constantly in the state for which they were
originally framed, retain permanently their first character.
Man cannot be called, in the ordinary sense of the term, a
domesticated animal ; yet he is eminently domestic. Inhabiting
every climate and soil, acted on by the greatest variety of external
agencies, using every kind of food, and following every mode
of life, he must be exposed still more than any animal to the
causes of degeneration.
I proceed to consider the circumstances in which the several
races of men differ from each other, to compare them to the
corresponding differences of animals, and to show that the par-
ticular and general results of these inquiries lead us plainly to
the conclusion, that the various races of human beings are only
to be regarded as varieties of a single species. Whether this
one species owes its origin to one pair, a male and a female, is
a question which zoology does not possess the means of solving;
a question which is of no more importance respecting our own
species, than it would be in the case of the elephant, lion, or any
other animal.
CHAPTER II.
On the Colour of the human Species.-Structure of the Parts in which the Colour
resides.-Enumeration of the various Tints. ---Colour and Denomination of the
mixed Breeds, Various Colours of Animals.-Production of Varieties.
ALTHOUGH a general survey of organized bodies in hoth the
animal and vegetable kingdom by no means leads us to regard
colour as one of their most important distinctions, but, on the
contrary, will soon convince us that it may undergo very signal
changes without essential alterations of their nature; and
although this remark holds equally good of the human subject;
selves so immediately to observation, and forcing themselves,
in a manner on the attention of the most incurious, have always
185
been regarded by the generality of mankind as the most charac-
teristic attribute of the various races. These several hues form,
indeed, very constant hereditary characters, clearly influenced
by the colour of both parents in the mixed offspring of different
varieties, and bearing a very close and nearly uniform relation
to that of the hair and iris, as well as to the whole temperament
of the individual.
The skin, in which the colour of animals resides, is a more or
less dense membrane covering the surface, and generally pro.
portioned in thickness to the volume of the body; serving the
purpose of binding together and protecting the subjacent organs,
of separating, under the form of sensible and insensible perspi-
ration, a large quantity of excretory inatter, the residue of
digestion and nutrition, and of establishing the relations between
the living frame and surrounding objects. It is the sensitive
limit of the body, placed at the extremity of the organs, inces-
santly exposed to external influences, and thus forming one
great connexion between animal existence and that of surround-
ing substances.
Anatomical analysis resolves this apparently single envelop
of our organs, commonly called skin, into two or more strata,
technically termed the common integuments.
The most considerable and important of these, making up,
indeed, the chief bulk of the skin, is the cutis vera, or true skin,
dermis, corium, le corion Fr.;—the part which, when prepared
by the chemical process of tanning, constitutes leather. It is a
compact and strong areolar tissue, composed of a dense fibrous
substance, with numerous vacuities or intervals. The inter-
texture of the fibrous or cellular tissue is close and compact on
its external surface, so as to resemble the smooth continuity of
a membrane ; more loose, with large areola on the opposite or
adhering aspect; where the fibrous threads are lost in those of
the subjacent cellular or adipous tissue. Immersion in water
softens the skin by separating the fibres of its corion, and ren-
dering their intervals more distinct: we then find that the
areolæ are not confined to the external surface, but are pro-
longed into its substance, which is penetrated by them in its
whole thickness. They serve for the passage of hairs, exhalants,
and absorbents, as they come to the surface.
The areolar tissue of the cutis is permeated in every direction
by countless myriads of arterial and venous ramifications, of
which the ultimate capillary divisions occupy the external or
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
compact surface of the organ, and form a vascular network over
the whole body, eluding our inquiries and defying calculation
by the number and fineness of its tubes. In the glow of ex-
ercise or the flush of shame, in the excitement of fever, or the
eruption of measles, scarlatina, &c. these cutaneous vessels are
filled with blood; they may be injected with coloured fluids
after death. Their ramifications are particularly numerous and
subtle in those parts of the cutaneous organ which possess the
most exquisite sensibility; and where the surface is found, on
minute examination, to be covered by numerous fine processes
called papillæ or villi.*
The absorbents of the skin seem nearly equal in number to
its blood-vessels.
Numerous nerves enter it in all parts, and distribute their
largest ramifications in the situations occupied by the papillæ.
The colour of the cutis is uniform, or very nearly so, in all
the varieties of the human race, and depends entirely on the
state of its capillary blood vessels. According as they are full
or empty, it inay vary (as we see in the white races) from a more
or less florid red, constituting what artists call flesh-colour, to
the waxy paleness of fainting or exhaustion from hæmorrhage.
Maceration in water makes its areolar tissue quite white; and
injection with sise coloured by vermillion gives it a deeper or
lighter shade of red, according to the force employed.
The cuticle or epidermis, the exterior layer of our common
integuments, is the thin transparent or light grayish pellicle
raised by a blister : in the natural state it adheres closely, almost
inseparably, to the subjacent parts, and is accurately fitted to
the cutis, having folds and lines corresponding to all the in-
equalities of that organ. It presents no traces of fibres, laminæ,
or cells; it has no blood vessels, absorbents, or nerves. There-
fore, though perforated by the hairs, by the excretory tubes of
and possibly by absorbent orifices, it is incapable of sensation
and all vital actions, extravascular, inorganic. It is a protecting
sheath for the finely-organized and sensible skin, and serves the
further purpose of preventing evaporation, by which that organ
. The external vascular surface of the cutis, with its papillæ or villi, seems
to be what Bichat has described as a separate stratum, under the name of corps
reticulaire (Anat. générale). I have never seen the distinction. My object,
here is not however to describe the skin fully, but merely to consider it as the
seat of colour. They who wish for further information on the structure of the
integuments may consult Dr. Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Integuments; and Dr.
Gordon's System of Human Anatomy, book ii. chap. 4.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
187
would otherwise be inevitably dried. Thus the external surface
of our living machine is in a manner dead; and objects applied
to it act on the cuticular nerves through this insensible medium.
When preternaturally thickened, it destroys sensation ; if re-
moved, as by blistering, the contact of bodies gives pain, but
does not produce the appropriate impressions of touch.
The cuticle, as well as the cutis, is nearly the same in the
white and the dark-coloured races; it is, on the whole, darker
in the latter than in the former, and possesses a grayish or .
brownish tint. If there are any other slight modifications, they
have not yet been ascertained.
A third and more delicate stratum, interposed between the
epidermis and the true skin, and called the rete or reticulum
Malpighii or mucosum, has been generally regarded as the seat
of human colour ;-of all the diversified tints which characterizes
the various races of men. The softness of its texture, and its
perforation by hairs, papillæ, &c. account for the name rete
mucosum.
It is a black layer, about as thick as the cuticle itself, or even
thicker in the Negro; and darker coloured on its dermoid than
on its cuticular surface. Putrefaction detaches it with the
cuticle from the subjacent cutis; its further progress resolves
the soft tissue into a kind of unctuous slimy matter, readily
washed away from the cuticle and skin. It is not easily sepa-
rated from the former : indeed it is, under all circumstances,
very difficult,* and where the skin is delicate quite impossible,
to exhibit it detached, in any considerable portion, as a distinct
membrane. It agrees with the cuticle in showing nothing like
fibrous texture; in being inorganic and extravascular. It dif-
fuses itself in water, and communicates a turbid cloud to the
fluid like that produced by the pigmentum nigrum of the eye;
then subsides as an impalpable powder to the bottom. Thus
the source of colour in the dark varieties of our species is satis-
factorily ascertained.
I have stated elsewhere that “the demonstration of this reticu-
lar body is much less easy in the white races than in the Negro;
and indeed very little seems to be known concerning its anatomy
in the former ;” and further, “ that it seems really to be a matter
* Soemmerring experienced this difficulty; he says, “it cannot, without
much trouble, be shown as a peculiar detached membrane; and I could only
succeed in the scrotum in exhibiting considerable portions of it as a separate,
coherent, and independent membrane." Ueber die körperliche Verschiedenheit
des Negers vom Europäer, pp. 45, 46.
188
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
of doubt, whether in the white races there be any colouring
matter in the exterior capillary system analogous to the black
substance of the Negro, or whether the colour of their surface
arise merely from that of the cutis and cuticle."* When the
cuticle separates by putrefaction from the cutis, the surfaces are
moistened by a putrid offensive fluid; but I could never detach
any thing like a distinct membrane, even in the smallest portion.t
The late Dr. GORDON came to a similar conclusion from his
investigation of the subject. “After the strictest exainination,
I have not been able to find any light-coloured rete mucosum,
corresponding to this black one, in the inhabitants of Great Bri-
tain, nor in those of other nations resembling them in colour.
I have tried all the means usually said to be necessary for dis-
covering it, and many others besides, but always without suc-
cess: I am, therefore, disposed to deny the existence of any such
membrane in white persons."'I
· The differences between black and white men in the texture
of the rete mucosum are distinctly noted by BLUMENBACH.
He states that the native reddish white of the cutis shines through
the transparent outer coverings in the white races, while in the
dark the cutaneous pigment is seated in the rete mucosum, the
epidermis, although pale, manifestly partaking of the tint. He
adds,“ Quo fuscius reticulem sit eo crassius quoque et propius
ad membranulæ sui generis speciem accedens; quo pellucidius
contra, eo tenerius, et non nisi difflui muci habitum præ se
ferens."$ HALLER || uses a similar contrast; representing this
part in the Negro as “involucrum, crassius quam in Europæis,
et veræ membranæ simile, cum istis potius mucus sit coactus.".
There is, in the Hunterian collection, a portion of white skin
with the cuticle turned down; a small portion of a thin trans-
parent pellicle has been subsequently separated from the cutis.
A further examination, particularly in the skins of intermediate
* Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Integuments,
+ Soemmerring remarks that he once found, in an European female, the outer
covering of the cutis distinctly divisible into two lamella ; and that he pre-
serves a specimen of it in his collection. Ueb, die körperliche Verschiedenheit,
&c. p. 45.
# System of Human Anatomy; v. i. p. 242. I cannot omit this opportunity of
paying to my deceased friend the small but sincere tribute of my high respect,
and deep regret for the loss which our science has sustained in his premature
death. His abilities, acquirements, and zealous devotion to science, were well
known. Atan early age he had distinguished himself as a teacher and a writer,
and he set the useful example of appealing in all cases to nature, and admitting
no statements which he had not personally verified. A brilliant and useful
career was just opening before him: in the present state of anatomy in this
Kingdom, his labours would have been singularly useful
8 De gin, var. nat. sect. iii. 842. Elem. physiol. lib. xii. sect. i. 8 11.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
189
tints, will be required in order to settle the point. Although I
we otherwise account for the difference between the fair and
the swarthy, or for the remarkable peculiarity of the Albino ?*
· The colours impressed on the skin in the operation of tattooing,
Sea Islanders exhibit such remarkable and often very elegant spe-
cimens, reside in the cutis, and are indelible, except by the removal
or destruction of the part. The cuticle does not partake in the
effect, which therefore, for obvious reasons, is brighter and more
conspicuous when that integument has been removed.
When we direct our attention to the very numerous colours
and shades which the several varieties of the great human family
exhibit, merely with the view of ascertaining with how many
external modifications nature has been pleased to diversify the
chef-d'æuvre of the terrestrial creation, the subject, like all be-
longing to man, has its attraction and interest. But the inves-
tigation hecomes much more important when it embraces the
causes of these appearances, and the degree of force belonging
to each; when we inquire whether the colour of a people depends
on the climate of their present or former abode, or on their de
scent; whether that of children is influenced by the climate in
which they are born, or by the blood of their parents ; whether
it is a sure token of race and pedigree; how many principal o..
leading colours we ought to assign to man as at present known,
and whether any and what number of these are to be deemed
original or primary. These points are yet undecided, and cer-
tainly worthy of our attention.
The very nature of language, the want of adequate expressions
to denote the endless shades of colour, and the indeterminate-
ness of those which are applied to various tints, create some
difficulties in this part of the subject, by producing considerable
discrepancies in the reports of travellers, which again are of
* Camper seems to be influenced by similar arguments, rather than by
direct anatomical evidence, in ascribing a rete mucosum to the white races.
“ Credibile esse mihi videtur, omnes homines reticulo simili gaudere, quod.
pro diversis revionibus, et in diversis hominibus non modo, sed in eodem, pro
partium varietate, diversam superficiem naclum, album, fuscum, vel nigrum
apparet. Præparavi cutis portionem, e latere fæminæ emortuæ depromptam,
cujus facies, et pectus nive erant candidiora, in qua reticulum intense fuscum:
est.” Demonstrat. Analom. pathul. lib. i. cap. 1.
He repeats in the same page the common representation of the rete mucosum
not being regenerated, and of cicatrices in blacks being therefore white. I
nave had repeated opportunities of ascertaining that this notion is altogether
unfounded.
190
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
course increased in many cases by haste and carelessness ; by
superficial examination and loose choice of expressions. The
same tribe will be very differently described, according to the
comparison, which the observer makes between them and any
model in his mind; or according to the contrast they may pre-
sent with the lighter, darker, or differently coloured people, whom
he may have recently observed.
The human skin is dyed vith various tints of white, yellow,
red, brown, black; and it exhibits, in degree, every possible
intermediate shade between the clear snowy whiteness of the
most delicate European female, or of the Albino, and the deep
ebony or jet black of a Goldcoast Negress. None of these gra,
dations obtains so universally as to be found in all the indi-
viduals of any particular nation, nor is so peculiar to any one
ones: we may, however, refer the national varieties of colour, on
the whole, with sufficient accuracy, to the five following princi.
pal classes :-
I. White, to which redness of the cheeks is almost wholly
confined;* being observed, at all events, very rarely in the other
varieties. It is seen in all the European nations, excepting the
Laplanders; in the western Asiatics, as the Turks, Georgians,
Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians, Persians, &c.; and in the
northern Africans.
.“ It is only,” says HUMBOLDT, “in white men, that the
instantaneous penetration of the dermoidal system by the blood
can take place; that slight change of the colour of the skin,
which adds so powerful an expression to the emotion of the
soul. "How can those be trusted, who know not how to blush ?'
says the European in his inveterate hatred to the Negro and the
Indian.”+
Yet in some very light examples of the brown and yellow
* Capt. Cook observes of the Otaheiteans, that "their natural complexion
is that kind of clear olive or brunette, which many people in Europe prefer to
the finest white and red. In those, who are exposed to the wind and sun, it is
considerably deepened; but in others, that live under shelter, especially in the
superior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most
delicately smooth and soft. They have no tint in the cheeks, which we dis-

In the mountaineers of Bootan, which he saw on the road from Tassisudon
to Teshoo-Loomboo, and who seem to possess all the traits of the Mongolian
race, Capt. Turner particularly noticed the ruddiness of their countenances.
Embassy to the Couri of the Teshoo Lana, p. 193.
† Personal Narrative, v. iii. p. 229.
Mr. Chappell says of the Esquimaux, that "the complexion is a dusky
yellow, but some of the young women have a little colour bursting through
this dark tint." Narrative of u Voyage to Hudson's Bay, P. 58.
mess of their countengolian
velo
Chappell sative, W: iii. p. 229.ma, P. 193.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
191
varieties, blushing has been noticed ; as by ForsteR* in the
fairest Otaheitean women; and by DAMPIERt in the Tun-
quinese : “ they are,” he observes, “ of a tawny Indian colour;
but, I think, the fairest and clearest I ever saw of that com-
plexion : for you may perceive a blush or change of colour in
some of their faces on any sudden surprise of passion, which I
could never discern in any other Indians.”
Considerable variety, however, will be found to exist in the
colour known by the general epithet white.
That singular description of human beings called Albinos,
possesses a skin of a peculiar reddish, or an unnatural white tint,
with corresponding yellowish white or milk-white hair, and red,
or at least very light blue or gray eyes. The cutaneous organ
has sometimes a roughness, which has been construed as an
approach to a degree of lepra. The hair of all parts of the
body is unnaturally white and soft; it has not the snowy white-
ness of old age, nor the elegant light yellow or flaxen appear-
ance of the fair-haired (blondins, Fr.) German variety; but it is
compared to that of milk or cream, or of a white horse. The
eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, the hair of other parts, and often a
soft down covering the whole body, are of the same colour.
The iris is of a pale rose colour, and the pupil intensely red :$
these parts, in short, are exactly similar to the corresponding
ones in white rabbits and ferrets. ||
* Observations made on a Voyage round the World; p. 229. He says that the
complexion of the chiefs, or best formed race in Otaheite, is of a white tinctured
with a brownish vellow, however not so strongly mixed, but that on the cheek
of the fairest of the women you may easily distinguish a spreading blush."
+ Voyages, v. ii. p. 40.
I Blumenbach has given an interesting description of two brothers who live
in the vale of Chamouny. "Cutis eorum, præter ruborem singularem, maxime
in facie conspicuum, præprimis epidermide in niveos et tenellos furfures quasi
fatiscente, memorabilis erat. Capilli autem lapæ caprinæ similes, tum recto et
omnis inflexus experto decursu, tum insueto colore ex albo singulariter flaves-
cente, erant insignes. Quibus etiam cilia, et supercilia, et pubes tenella, cum
mentum tum reliquum corpus obsidens, respondebant." De Oculis Leuca.
thiopum, et Iridis Motu, in Commentation. Reg. Soc. Scient. Goetting.; V. vii.
Dr. Winterbottom saw a white African woman with a remarkably coarse
and wrinkled skin; it was dry and harsh to the touch, and marked with deep
furrows. It had a reddish linge in parts exposed to the sun, being of a dirty
white in other situations. Black spots, like freckles, of the size of a pea, were
thickly scattered over the skin. Another tall and well-formed white Negro
had a similar rough, harsh, and freckled skin. Another young white Negress
had the skin of an unpleasant dead-looking white, and pretty smooth, but
beginning to assume a cracked appearance from the action of the sun. Account
of the Native Africans, v. ii. pp. 167-170,
In five or six seen by Cook at Otaheite, the skin was of a dead white, like the
nose of a white horse, scurfy, and covered with a white down; they had white
hair, beard, eyebrows, aud eyelashes. Hawkesworth, Voyages ; v. ii. p. 188.
"Oculi in universum cuniculorum alborum aculis perfecte similes : iride
nempe tenella et fere pellucidula, valde mobili, quasi oscillante, et quæ jam
sub modica luce late expandebatur; colore diluto, inter pallide violaceum et
rubellum medio. Pupillis autem saturate rubicundis et fere rutilis, qualis succi
rubi idæi intensior esse solet.' Blumenbach in lib. cit.
| Two African Albinos were brought to France, and scen by Voltaire, who
192
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
The characters of the Albino arise from a deficiency of the
colouring principle, common to the skin, hair, and eyes. Thus
the former has the hue, which its cellular and vascular contex-
ture produces; the hair is reduced to its simple organic ground-
work; and in the eyes, which are entirely destitute of pigmen-
tum, the colour of the iris depends on the fine vessels which are
so numerous in its composition, and that of the pupil on the
still greater number of capillaries, which almost entirely form
the choroid membrane.
The close connection of these parts, in respect to their co-
lour, is evidenced by the fact that neither is ever separately
affected.
The state of the eyes is the principal source of inconvenience.
The absence of the black pigment, which has the iinportant
office of absorbing superfluous portions of light, renders the eye
preternaturally sensible of this stimulus. Strong lights affect
the organ painfully ; even the glare of open day is too much.
Hence the eyelids are more or less closed; the eyes are described
as weak and tender; and sometimes as affected with chronic
lippitudo. These evils are balanced in some measure by supe-
“Ad nocturnam quidem caliginem, non magis quidquam dis-
cernere poterant ac alii homines. In crepusculo autem, et ad
pant. Fulgida vero lux, sive meridiana sereno cælo, sive can-
delarum aliusve ignis, non quidem per se valde molestus ipsis
videbatur, verum plane inutilis; cum quidem eandem sine gra-
viore incommodo aut dolore perferre possent, non aliter autem
has selected and shortly characterized their leading traits : “ Leur blancheur
n'est pas la nôtre; rien d'incarnat, nul mélange de blanc et de brun, c'est une
couleur de linge, ou plutôt de cire blanchie; leurs cheveux, leurs sourcils sont
de la plus belle et de la plus douce soie; leurs yeux ne ressemblent en rien à
ceux des autres hommes, mais ils approchent beaucoup des yeux de perdrix."
Essai sur les Maurs, Introduction. They are also described by Buffon, Supplee
ment, t. iv. P. 559.
Pallas has minutely described a “Leucæthiopissa elegantissima,” whom
he saw in London in 1761. “ Sedecim tunc circiter annos nata, et a patre
atque matre nigritis in Jamaica insula genita dicebatur, de quo tanto minus
dubitari poterat, quum nihil hybridæ ex albo nigroque parente genituræ simile
præ se ferret. Staturæ erat minoris, artubus et collo turgidulis, cute san-
guineo-phlegmaticæ tincturæ candida, labiis rubris et rubicundis genis vigens,
vultu omnino Æthiopis, naso quassato, labiis tumidis, fronte brevi, circum-
scriptione faciei subrotunda, notis variolarum sparsis cutem minus teneram
distinguentibus. Oculorum irides neque rubri nec cæsii, sed griseo-lutescentis
erant coloris ; neque visus nocturnus, sed tamen apertæ lucis intolerantia,
quam præsertim post variolas ortam narrabant custodes. Cilia et supercilia
pallide fiava, et capillitium totum ejusdem quidem coloris (blond) pallide flavi.
at penitus in densissimas circinnos crispatum, et duriusculam Ethiopis lanam
ad amussin referens. Hebeti videbatur ingenio, et pudibunda spectatores
admittebat; sanissima cæteroquin et egregia corporis proportione. Cognatos
omnes nigerrimos Æthiopes habuisse dicebatur," Nova Species Quadrupedum,
pp. 10, 11, Note nou

IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
193
exinde occæcarentur, ac nos ubi solis fulgore aut nivis candore
subito perstringimur."*
Mr. JEFFERSON had seen seven examples of this pecunarity
in the Negro race. Three of them were sisters ; having two
other full sisters, who were black. Two of them bore black
children to black men. They were uncommonly shrewd, quick
in their apprehension and reply. Their eyes were in a perpe-
tual tremulous vibration, very weak, and much affected by the
sun; but they could see better than other persons in the night.
The fourth is a woman, whose parents came from Guinea, and
had three other children of their own colour. She is frec,zied,
and has such weak eyes, that she is obliged to wear a shade in
the summer; but she sees better in the night. She bore an
Albino child to a black man. Another white Negress had a
black daughter by a black man. The last instance was a male,
tall, with tremulous weak eyes.t
WAFER has given a good description of those which are met
with in the isthmus of Darien. Their skin is milk-white, much
like the colour of a white horse, and covered with a short down.
“They see not very well in the sun, poring in the clearest day;
their eyes being but weak; and running with water if the sun
shine towards them: so that in the daytime they care not to go
abroad, unless it be a cloudy dark day. But notwithstanding
their being thus sluggish and dull in the daytime, yet when
moonshiny nights come, they are all life and activity, running
ahroad and into the woods, skipping about like wild bucks; and
running a fast by moonlight, even in the gloom and shade of
the woods, as the other Indians by day, being as nimble as they,
though not so strong and lusty.” Hence they are called moon-
eyed. I
The peculiarity always exists from birth : it never changes
efterwards; and it is propagated by generation.
In the natural history of our species the Albinos have not met
with much better treatment than the Negroes: for some have
doubted whether they, as well as the latter, belong to the same
species with us. The Negroes were too black, the Albinos too
white. They have been supposed incapable of propagation.
They are, in truth, not numerous enough for them to breed
together, and thus form a permanent variety; but, that they
. Blumenbach in lib. cit.
+ Notes on Virginia, pp. 112-120.
* New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, p. 134 and seg,
Voltaire Essai sur les Naurs; introduction; also chap. 143,
194
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
can both beget and conceive, is most abundantly proved. I
know no instance of two being matched together; but when
they are paired with common Negroes the offspring is generally
black, sometimes white.
Of a white African woman the parents, brothers, and sisters
were all black. She was married to a black man, and had a
dish brown eyes, and very weak sight, was the son of a white
Negro. His mother, three brothers, and three sisters were
black: one sister was white like himself.*
A classical writer t on the natural history of man has con-
ceived that they labour under a disease, which he refers to the
cachexiæ, and considers as akin to leprosy ; and this opinion
has had so much weight with Dr. WINTERBOTTOM, that he
a description of the native Africans ; but thrusts them into the
second, among the diseases.
I consider these views completely incorrect. The individuals
in question do not exhibit a single character of disease. All
their functions are executed as in other persons. They are born
of healthy parents, occur among the robust and hardy members
of savage tribes, and a similar deviation takes place in many
wild animals. Mr. JEFFERSON expressly mentions, of the
seven cases which he saw in American Creole Negroes, that all
the individuals were well formed, strong, anıl healthy.
The first example mentioned by Dr. WINTERBOTTOM I is
the daughter of two Mulattoes, born in Nova Scotia, who had
all the Negro features, with woolly hair of a dirty white colour,
and a skin equalling in whiteness that of an European, without
any thing disagreeable in its appearance or texture. Her eyes
were between a red and light hazel colour, and not much
affected by light. There are no signs here of cachexia or
leprosy; nor are there any in the two Swiss youths described
by BLUMENBACH, and before him by SAUSSURES They seem
indeed to be short for their age; the elder was twenty-two years
old, with the stature of fifteen ; the younger seventeen, with
that of twelve. Two writers of very different characters, who
had both seen African Albinos, seem to have equally felt that
the notion of disease was quite unfounded ; and have used the
* Winterbottom in lib. cit.
* Blumenbach deg. 1. var, nat. sect. iii. 8 77. He terms it “varictas genti-
lita ex Yi grbosa affectione."
& Voyages dans les Alpes, iv. 303
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
195
very same words in conveying their strong opinion to this effect.
“ Prétendre que ce sont des Nègres nains, dont une espèce de
lèpre a blanchi la peau, c'est comme si l'on disoit que les noirs
eux-mêmes sont des blancs que la lèpre a noircis."* " Cæte-
rum,” says PALLAS, “ hasce varietates Æthiopum albas non
magis morbosam naturam (quod BLUMENBACHIO placuit)
appellari posse puto, quam ipsa Æthiopum nigredo morbus
est.”+
This variety was first observed in the African, as the great
difference of colour renders the variation more striking : hence
the individuals were termed Leucæthiopes, I or white Negroes :
their peculiar constitution, for the deviation is by no means con-
fined to the surface of the body, may be conveniently termed,
after some modern authors, leucæthiopia. From their avoiding
the light, the Dutch gave them in the island of Java) the con-
temptuous appellation of Kakkerlakken, cock-roaches, insects
that run about in the dark: and hence the French name Cha-
crelas. The Spaniards called them Albinos, and the French
Blafards.
So far is this variety from being peculiar to the Negro, or
even to the torrid zone, that there is no race of men, nor any
part of the globe, in which it may not occur. BLUMENBACH S
has seen sixteen examples of it in various parts of Germany;
and it has been also noticed in Denmark, England, || Ireland,
France, Switzerland, Italy, T the Grecian Archipelago, and
Hungary.
It is probably more common in Africa, than elsewhere: Dr.
WINTERBOTTOM mentions eleven instances among the native
tribes about Sierra Leone; and Mr. JEFFERSON seven among
the Negro slaves of America. The African Aibinos do not pre-
sent that entire absence of colouring matter from the eye, which
we observe in the European instances. Mr. JEFFERSON does
not mention the colours of the eyes; but Dr. WINTERBOTTOM
describes them as light blue or brown. They were as weak as
the red eyes of our Albinos.
# Voltaire Essai sur les Maurs, introduction.
+ Noor Species Quadrupedum, p. ll, note.
# Pļiny mentions Leucæthiopes in his Natural History, lib. v. sec. 8; and
Plolemy, lib. iv. c. 6. But whether they mean Albinos is doubtful.
2 De s. n. var. nat. p. 278. Medicinische Bibliothek. t. iii. p. 161 et seq.
| An English Albino is shortly mentioned by Mr. Hunter; Obs, on cerlain
Parts oj* the Animal Economy, p. 207.
Buzzi had the opportunity of dissecting one at Milan. I have not suon
ceeded in procuring his Dissertazione sopra una Varietà particolare di Uoming
vianchi Eliofobi, 4to. Milano, 1784.
O 2
196
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
Mr Bowdich informed me that the king of Ashantee has
collected nearly a bundred white Negroes.
· HUMBOLDT * says that examples of this degeneration are
rare in the copper-coloured race, Yet they seem rather nu-
merous by WATER's description in the isthmus of Darien. In
the gardens of a palace belonging to Montezuma, were found, at
the time of the Spanish conquest, among rare birds, and other
curiosities, “ Albinesi d'ogni età et d'ogni sesso.
Dubois states that they are not uncommon among the
Hindoos. I
· Cook met with them in several islands of the Pacific.§
In all cases, however, this leucæthiopic constitution has only
occurred sporadically, or in detached instances, as a congenital
variety, from individuals of the ordinary characters in their
respective races. It has indeed been asserted that whole tribes of
Albinos exist in Africa,|| Java, Ceylon, and the isthmus of
Darien, but no eye-witness reports such a fact; and
Warer,** whose authority is often cited, expressly mentions
“ that they are not a distinct race by themselves, but now and
then one is bred of a copper-coloured father and mother."
Hence the notion of entire leucæthiopic nations may be regarded
as completely unfounded.
There is another description of men with a very fair or white
skin, yellow (flaxen) or red hair, and generally blue or light gray
eyes (irides). Such individuals, when the health is good, and
the circulation active, have a rosy tint, which is deeper and more
florid in the face. The cutaneous capillares are easily filled ;
and their “ eloquent blood” sympathises with every mental
emotion. The ancient and modern Germans, and the nations
descended from them, the Belgians, Dutch, the Danes, Swedes,
English, &c. have this character.
Lastly, there is a most extensive race, including nearly all the
people enumerated in the first division, with the skin, although
white, possessing more or less of a brown tint, accompanied
with dark brown or black hair, and dark eyes.
* Personal Narrative, iii. 288. + Carli Lettere Americane; t. i. let. 5.
I On the Character, Manncrs, fc. of the People of India; p. 199.
$ At Otaheite; Hawkesworth's Collection, ii. 99, 188: at the Society Isles,
and New Caledonia; Voy. lowards the S. Pole, ii. 114; at Hapaee und Anna-
mooka (Friendly Isles); Voy. lo the Pacific, i. 381.
Il "Les Albinos sont à la vérité une nation très petite et très rare ; ils habi-
tent au milieu de l'Afrique, leur faiblesse ne leur permet guère de s'écarter
des cavernes où ils demeurent; cependant les Negres en attrapent quelquefois,
et nous les achetons d'eux par curiosité." Voltaire Essai sur les Maurs, in
troduction.
1 Buffori by Wood; vol. iii. pp. 328–344-419.
** Loc. cit.
197
II. Yellow or olive (gilvus or buxeus, a middle tint, between that
of ripe wheat and boiled quince or dried lemon-peel) characterizes
the Mongolian tribes, usually called, together with the inha-
bitants of a great part of Asia, Tartars (Tatars).
III. Red or copper colour (bronzé Fr. an obscure orange or
rusty iron colour, not unlike the bark of the cinnamon-tree)
prevails in various shades over nearly the whole continent of
America, and is almost confined to that division of the globe.
IV. Brown or tawny (basané Fr. a middle tint between the
.colour of fresh mahogany and of cloves or chesnuts). It cha-
racterizes the Malays, and most of the inhabitants of the nume-
rous islands scattered through the Pacific ocean.
V. Black, in various shades, from the sooty colour or tawny
black, to that of pitch or ebony, or jet-black. This prevails very
extensively on the continent of Africa, characterizing all the
Negro tribes. It is found also in the Negro-like natives of
New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, Papua or New Guinea, the
New Hebrides, and other islands of the South Sea; and is seen,
mingled with the national colour, in Brazil, California, and
India. The New Caledonians constitute an insensible transition,
with the chesnut-coloured islanders of Tongataboo, and the dark
New Hollanders, from the tawny or brown Otaheiteans to the
Papuas or Negroes of New Guinea
In describing these varieties, it is necessary to fix on the most
strongly marked tints, between which there is every conceivable
intermediate shade of colour. The opposite extremes run into
each other by the nicest and most delicate gradations; and it is
the same in every other particular, in which the various tribes
of the human species differ. This forms no slight objection to
cannot define their number, nor draw out the boundaries that
divide them; whereas, in animals most resembling each other,
the different species are preserved pure and unmixed. Neither
does the colour, which I have described in general terms as
belonging to any particular race, prevail so universally in all the
individuals of that race, as to constitute an invariable character,
as we should expect if it arose from a cause so uniform as an
original specific difference: its varieties, on the contrary, point
out the action of other circumstances. Thus, although the red
colour is very prevalent on the American continent, travellers
have observed fair tribes in several parts, as ULLOA* and
* Voyage to South America; i. 257.
198
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
1
BOUGUER* in Peru; Cook+ and VANCOUVERſ at Nootka
Sound; HUMBOLDT $ near the sources of the Orinoco; and
Weld near the United States. The natives of New Zealand
vary from a deepish black to an olive or yellowish tinge.ll In
the Friendly Islands many of the women are as fair as those of
Spain or Portugal; several of both sexes are of an olive colour;
and many of a deep brown.T
The domestic animals exhibit varieties entirely analogous to
those which have been just enumerated; a fact so familiarly
known with respect to the sheep, pig, borse, cow, dog, cat,
rabbit, &c. that it cannot be necessary to support the assertion
by any details. The leucæthiopic constitution occurs too in
wild and domestic animals, as well as in the human subject. It
has been observed (not to mention the well-known examples of
the rabbit, ferret, mouse, horse) in the monkey, squirrel, rat,
hamster, guinea-pig, mole, opossum, martin, weasel, roe,** fox, tt
rhinoceros, 11 elephant,$$ badger, beaver,|||| bear, camel, TT buf-
falo,*** and ass.ttt The crow, blackbird, canary-bird, partridge,
common fowl, and peacock, are sometimes the subjects of it;
but it has never been seen in any cold-blooded animal.
In the leucæthiopic inammalia and birds just enumerated, the
nature and characters of the deviation seem to be perfectly ana-
logous to those of the human Albino. The pure whiteness of
their skin and other integuments, and the redness of the iris and
pupil, mark the same deficiency of colouring inatter. A white
mouse possessed by BLUMENBACH also exhibited the into-
lerance of light, which has been noticed almost universally in
* Relation abrégée du Voyage, &c. ; in Acad. des Sciences, 1740, p. 274. He
represents the Peruvians at the foot of the Cordilleras to be nearly as white as
Europeans.
+ He represents the colour of their skin as not very different from that of
Europeans, but with a pale dull cast. Voyage to the Pacific; ii. 303.
Voyage; i. 395.
& Political Essay on the Kingdom of Nuo Spain; i. 144.
ll Anderson, in Cook's Voyage to the Pacific; i. 154.
9T Cook's Voyage to the Pacific; i. 381.
** Blumenbach de g. h. var. nat. sect. iii. 2 78.
+ Shaw's Zoology.
: #Barrow's Travels in South Africa; i. 395.
88 The white elephants are very rare, and highly valued; they receive the
greatest care and attention, and are regarded in some cases with a kind of re-
ligious respect. One of his Birman majesty's titles is, “ Lord of the white
elephant.” Symes' Embassy to Ava; 8vo. v. ii. p. 390 ; and v. iii. p. 338.
Il The beaver inay deviate either into white or black. The white are very
scarce; the black are beautifully glossy, and more common. Hearne's Jour.
ney to the Northern Ocean, p, 241.
TAT“ One of the camels was pure white with blue eyes."-Elphinstone's
Account of Caubul, Introduction, P. 30.
Pallas mentions the same fact. Travels in the Southern Provinces of the Rusa
sian Empire.
*** Shaw's Zoology.
tti Buchanan's Journey from Madras, &c. v. i. p. 7.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
199
the human examples : the animal kept its eyelids closed even in
the twilight.*
When two varieties copulate together, the offspring resembles
neither parent wholly, but partakes of the form and other pro-
perties of both. This cannot with propriety be termed hybrid
generation, as authors apply that word to the animals produced
by the copulation of different species, as of the horse and ass, the
canary-bird and goldfinch. In this sense hybrids are never
produced in the human species. “Non desunt,” says Blu-
MENBACH, “ historiæ nefandæ hominum cum brutis copulæ,
quando aut viri cum bestiarum femellis rem habuerunt, sive
effrenata libidine rapti,+ sive ex vesana continentiæ opinione,I
sive quod medicum usum ex ejusmodi facinore sperarent; $
aut femina sa brutorum masculis |subactas esse relatum est,
sive violenti stupro id acciderit, sive solicitantibus ex libidine
insanientibus feminis, T sive prostituentibus sese ex religiosa
superstione ;** nullum tamen unquam a teste fide digno relatum
comperimus exemplum, ubi fecunda evaserit, ejusmodi copula,
hybridumque ex hominis cum bestia immani coitu prognatum
fuerit.” Yet the laws of various countries have directed that
the fruit of such unnatural intercourse should be burned, or
otherwise destroyed.
We can only speak, in the human subject, of such hybrids as
proceed from copulation of the different varieties of one and the
same species, as of a cart-horse and a racer, the green and white
* Commentation. Reg. Soc. Scient. Gotting. v. vii. p. 34.
+ Th. Warton ad Theocriti Idyll. i. 88, p. 19. ' Audivi ex docto quodam
amico, qui per Siciliam insulam iter faciens, ibidem cum vetera monumenta,
tum populi mores accuratius investigaverat, inter confessionis articulos a Si-
culis caprariis apud montes vitam solitariam degentibus, etiamnum per sacer-
dotes proprios rito solere exigi, an rem cum hircis suis habuerint!'
# Mart, a Baumgarten, Peregrinatio in Egyptum, Arabiam, &c. p. 73. " Ex
Alchanica Egypti egressi, venimus ad casale quoddam Belbes dictum, ubi ca.
rabenæ eunti Damascum sumus conjuncti. Ibi vidimus sanctum unum Sara-
cenicum, inter arenarum cumulos, ita ut ex utero matris prodiit, nudum
sedentem.-Audivimus sanctum illum, quem eo loco vidimus, publicitus
apprime commendari: eum esse hominem sanctum, divinum ac lintegritate
præcipuum, eo quod nec fæminarum unquam esset nec puerorum, sed tan-
tummodo asellarum concubitor atque mularum."
Hoc fine Persas ischiade laborantes onagras inire Pallas auctor est, in
Neuen Nordischen Beyträgen, p. ii. page 38.
|| Phillips, speaking of the baboons of Guinea, in Churchill's Collection of
Voyages, v. vi. p. 211, says, “ Here are a vast number of overgrown large ba-
boons, some as big as a large mastiff dog, which go in droves of fifty and one
hundred together, and are very dangerous to be met with, especially by women;
whom I have been credibly informed they have often seized upon, ravished,
and in that kind abused one after another, till they have killed them."
1 Ita feminas Kamtschadalicas quondam cum canibus coivisse Steller refert,
in Beschreibung von Kamtschatka, p. 289.
** Ut Mendesiæ feminæ cum hirco sacro : de quo singulari ritu videsis uber-
rime disserentum D’Hancarville in Recherches sur l'Origine des Arts de la Grèce,
t. i. p. 320.
200
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
canary-birds, &c. These unions have a great effect in changing
the colour, conformation and other properties of the offspring,
and are consequently employed with wonderful advantage in
improving the breeds of our domestic animals, particularly the
horse, sheep, and cattle.
Children produced from the copulation of different races ex-
hibit the middle (or nearly so) between the two tints of their
parents. This law liolds good universally ; climate not making
the smallest difference: Mulattos precisely similar are produced
from the union of Negroes and Europeans, whether in Africa,
in the East Indies, in the sugar islands, in North America, or
in Europe. From a refinement of vanity, the inhabitants of the
Spanish colonies in America have enriched their language with
terms for the finest shades, which result from the degeneration
of the primitive colour; and have also distinguished the off-
spring of the various dark-coloured races with the whites.
In the first generation, the offspring of Europeans and Negroes
are called Mulattos (mulâtre, Fr.). The word Creole (criollo)
has been frequently confounded with this, even by good writers;
but that name, originally applied by the first Negroes conveyed
to America in the sixteenth century, to their children born in
that country, and borrowed by the Spaniards from then to
denote their own offspring in the new world, * belongs properly
to the children of European or Negro parents born in the East
or West Indies.
In colour, figure, and moral qualities, the Mulatto is a m.e-
dium between the European and African. The colour is inore
or less yellow, brown, or tawny, according as the European
father may have been fair or dark; and the countenance has
the middle form between that of both parents. There is no
redness of the cheek. The hair is curled and black, but much
longer than that of the Negro; and the iris is dark. In clean-
liness, capacity, activity, and courage, they are decidedly supe-
rior to the Negroes.
Europeans and Mulattos produce Tercerons (sometiines also
• Garcilasso del Origen de los Incas, p. 255. We can easily understand how
the use of the word inay have been extended in the West Indies to the animals
which have been produced from stocks imported from the old world.
+ Whether either colour or sex affects the offspring more strongly than the
other, is an interesting question, which we have not the means of answering
satisfilctorily. I find an opinion expressed, that in the union of the European
and Negress the nobler blood predominates. Estwick, History of Jamaica,
ii. 335. There is the same authority for an opinion that male and female
Mulattos do not produce so many children together, as if they were united
to Negresses and Europeans. Mr. Long, in his History of Jamaica,
gives a similar testimony on this point, and that in strong terms.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
201
called Quarterons, Moriscos, and Mestizos). The hair and
countenance of these resemble the European; the former has
nothing of the grandmother's woolly curl: the skin has a slight
brown tint, and the cheeks are red. In the Dutch colonies they
often have blue eyes and fair hair. The stain of the black blood
is principally visible in the organs of generation : the scrotum
is blackish in the male, and the labia pudendi dark or purplish
in the female.
In political rights these class with the Mulattos in the Euro-
pean colonies.
Europeans and Tercerons produce Quarterons or Quadroons
ochavones, octavones, or alvinos), which are not to be distin-
guished from whites : but they are not entitled, in Jamaica at
least, to the same legal privileges as the Europeans or white
Creoles, because there is still a contamination of dark blood,
although no longer visible. It is said to betray itself sometimes
in a relic of the peculiar strong smell of the great-grandmother.
The genealogy of these hybrid races is carried into the fifth
generation, the children of Europeans and Quarterons being
called Quinterons* (puchuelas SPAR.). It is not credible that
any trace of mixed origin can remain in this case, according to
the observations of the most judicious eye-witnesses concerning
the third generation, viz. that in colour and habit of body they
cannot be distinguished from their European progenitors. AC-
cordingly, even the law is now satisfied, and considers them
sufficiently whitened to enjoy its full protection: they are legally
white, and free.
By an opposite course of proceeding the Mulatto offspring of
the European and Negro may be reduced again to the charac-
ters of the latter. If the Mulatto be paired with a Negro, and
the children again and again with Negroes, the fourth genera.
tion is perfectly black.
Thus, in obedience to that principle by which the properties
of the offspring depend on those of the parents, we have the
power of changing one species into another by repeated inter-
mixture. If the offspring of a white woman and a black be
matched with a black man, and this process be repeated two or
three times, the form of the original mother is entirely lost, and
that of the father substituted; or vice versa. In this manner
the colour of the race may be completely changed in three or
* The offspring of a Quadroon woman and white man is called Mestize, or
Mustee, accordiner to Edwards, Hist. of the West Inuties; ii. 18: and Winter.
bottom, Account of the Native Africans; i. 188.
202
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
four generations; while it never has been changed by climate,
even in the longest series of ages.
The offspring of an European and Indian (American) is named
Mestizo* (mestee, Eng). The hair is black and straight; the
iris dark: the skin varies according to the tint of the American
parent. As the latter is by no means so dark-coloured as the
Negro, the Mestizo is much lighter than the Mulatto. Many
native Americans are nearly as fair as Europeans; hence Mes-
tizos are often not distinguishable by colour from Europeans.
“A Mestizo," says HUMBOLDT,+ "is in colour almost a
pure white, and his skin is of a particular transparency. The
small beard, and small hands and feet, and a certain obliquity
of the eyes, are more frequent indication of the mixture of
Indian blood, than the nature of the hair.”
They have often some parts of the body darker than others;
and this is always the case with the organs of generation in both
sexes. European fathers and Mestee mothers produce Quar-
terons, Quatralvi, or Castizos, corresponding to Tercerons in
the Negro breed, and not distinguishable from Europeans ;I
Quarteron women with Europeans, Ochavons, or Octavons; and
Europeans with female Octavons, Puchuelos, which are not only
not distinguishable in any respect from native Europeans, but
also enjoy full legal rights and privileges in the Spanish colonies.
The offspring of Negroes and Americans are called Zambos
or Sambos ;and sometimes Mulattos. Negroes with Mulattos
produce Zambos || de Mulata (griffos, or cabros); an European
and Zambo, a Mulatto ; an American and Zambo, a Zambaigo.
The offspring of the Zambos are styled, in derision, by the
Spaniards Cholos; that of a Negro and Zamba is called Zambo
prieto (black Zambo). T
# They also are sometimes called Mestindi, Metifi, Mamelucki.
+ Political Essay, v. i. p. 244. The testimony of Ulloa is to the saine effecto
“The inhabitants (of Conception) consist of Spaniards, and of Mestizos, who
in colour are hardly distinguished from the former; both being very fair, and
some have even fresh complexions.” Voyage to South America: ii. 237.'
* " If a Mestiza marry a white man, the second generation differs hardly in
any thing from the European race.” Humboldt, loc, cit.
" The descendants of Negroes and Indian womnen bear at Mexico, Lima,
and eveu at the Havannah, the strange name of Chino, Chinese. On the coast
of Caraccas, and, as appears from the laws, even in New Spain, they are called
Zambos. This last denomination is now principally limited to the descendants
of a Negro and female Mulatto, or a Negro and a Chinese female." Humboldt,
loc. cil.
1 " The offspring of a Negro or Negress with a Mulatto man or woman is
called in the English colonies Sambo. Edwards' Hist. of the West Indies;
y, ii. p. 18.
If a Mulatto and Terceron, or Tercon and Quarteron, intermix, the off
spring are called Tenti en ayre by the Spaniards ; because they remain in the
same legal condition, ueither advancing uor receding. Ulloa, Poyage, i. 31.
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
203
“ In a country governed by whites, the families reputed to
have the least mixture of Negro or Mulatto blood are naturally
the most honoured. Thus, in (Spanish) America, the greater
or less degree of whiteness of skin decides the rank of an indi-
vidual in society. A white, who rides barefooted on horseback,
thinks he belongs to the nobility of the country. When a
common man disputes with one of the titled lords of the
country, he is frequently heard to say, ' Do you think me not
so white as yourself ?' It becomes, consequently, a very inte-
resting business for the public vanity to estimate accurately the
fractions * of European blood which belong to the different castes.
" It often happens that the families suspected of being of
mixed blood demand from the high court of justice (audiencia)
to have it declared that they belong to the whites. These decla-
rations are not always corroborated by the judgment of the
senses. We see very swarthy Mulattos, who have had the
sion). When the colour of the skin is too repugnant to the
judgment demanded, the petitioner is contented with an expres-
sion somewhat problematical. The sentence then simply hears,
that such individuals may consider themselves as whites (que
se tengan por blancos).'"f
Where several races are brought together, as in some parts of
Spanish America, and in some European-Asiatic settlements,
their mixtures with each other, and the several crossings between
the original races and their various descendants, give rise to a
vast number of mixed breeds, and every possible variety of
colour. The dark races, and all who are contaminated by any
visible mixture of dark blood, are comprised under the general
denomination of people of colour. It is not, however, merely
by this superficial character that they are distinguished; all
If a Terceron mixes with a Mulatto woman, or a Quarteron with a Terceron
woman, the offspring are called Saltatras, or retrogrades; because they take a
path
** The proportions are represented below according to the principles sanc-
tioned by usage.
Parents.
Ollspring.
Degree of Mixture.
Negro and European . . . . . Mulatto . . . . white black.
European and Mulatto . . . . Terceron .
Negro and Mulatto . . . Griffi, or Zambo i black & white
European and Terceron. . . . Quarteron, ... of white black.
Negro and Terceron . . . . . . . . . . . of black & white.
European and Quarteron ... Quinteron . ..To white it black.
Negro and Quarteron ............ ii black To white.
The two latter are respectively white and black; and of these the first are
white by law, and consequently free in our West India islands. All reinains
of colour are so completely banished, that they are not distinguishable from
· Whites in any respect.
+ Humboldt, Polit. Essay; i. 246, 247.
.....
204
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
other physical and moral qualities are equally influenced by
those of the parents. The intellectual and moral character of
the Europeans is deteriorated by the mixture of black or red
blood, while on the other hand an infusion of white blood tends,
in an equal degree, to improve and ennoble the qualities of the
dark varieties.
The general law, that animals produce their like, by which
uniformity of species is maintained, suffers some exceptions.
Children do not always resemble their parents; and hence we
have occasionally persons produced in each race with characters
approaching to those of the other races. Among the white races
of Europe scattered instances of individuals with skins nearly as
dark as those of the Mongols or South Sea Islanders are not
unfrequent. I lately saw a girl whose dark olive skin and jet
black hair, very much like those of a Chinese, joined to English
features, made me suppose that there was some mixture of
blood : it turned out, however, that her parents were both Eng-
lish; the mother dark, but not of so deep a tint as the daughter,
and the father fair. Among the Otaheiteans, descended from
the Malay race, individuals with light brown or sandy hair, and
fair complexion, are not very uncommon :* and Forster saw,
in the island of Otaha, a man with fair freckled skin and red
hair. f Red-haired individuals have been observed in most of
the dark nations, as the Wotiaks, Esquimaux, islanders of New
Guinea and New Zealand, and the Negroes. I The origin of
Albinos, particularly in the dark races, is a remarkable example
of native variety of colour.
In the mixed breeds, too, although the children generally par-
take of the character of both parents, they sometimes resemble
one only; and, in such a case, the influence of the other is often
observed in the second or third generation. Children inay be
seen like their grandsires, and unlike the father and mother.
Fit quoque, ut interdum similes existere avorum
Possiut, et referant proavorum sæpe figuras.
Inde Venus varias producit sorte figuras,
Majorumque refert voltus, vocesque, comasque.-Lucret. lib. ii.
Thus it is possible that an African Albiness and an European
may produce together a true Mulatto ;$ the offspring receiving
its dark tint through the mother, although she has it not herself.
* Forster Obs. On a Voyage round the World: p. 229.
op Ibid. 230.
# Blumenbach deg, h. var. nat. p. 169. He himself saw a Mulatto with red
hair, of which he procured a specimen. A man of mulatto complexion,
freckled, with strong red hair, disposed in small wiry curls, and burn of black
parents, was seen by Winterbottom, ii. 170; who met with others having red
complexion and hair; i. 193.
& Stednan's Surinam, ii, 260.
IN, THE HUMAN SPECIES.
205
The offspring of a black and white may be either black or
white, instead of being mixed ; and in some rare cases it has
been spotted.
A black man married a white woman in York : in due course
of time she had a child that was entirely black, and very much
pation in the features or colour of the mother. A Negro was
married in London to a white woman, who afterwards had a
daughter as fair as any one born of white parents, and like the
mother in features, but her right buttock and thigh were as
black as the skin of the father. Two Negro slaves having mar-
ried in Virginia, the woman brought forth a white girl. The
husband's father was white, his grandfather and grandmother
black ; and in every family related to them there had always
been a white child.*
A Negress had twins by an Englishman: one was perfectly
long hair +
Dr. WINTERBOTTOM says that in a family of six persons,
which he knew, one half was alınost as light coloured as Mu-
lattos, while the other was jet black. The father was a deep
black, the mother a Mulatto. I
Variations of colour, analogous to those just enumerated, are
of daily occurrence among animals, as in the production of black
sheep, cats, horses, foxes, &c. White sheep may produce black
lambs; and gray rabbits may bring forth either white (leucæ-
thiopic) or black ones. The production of leucæthiopic animals
from those of the ordinary colour is very common. In the
beaver, which is a wild animal, we have either black or leucæ-
thiopic white ones produced from the common animal. Dr.
BUCHANAN says of the asses in the Carnatic, that “some are
of the usual ash colour, whilst others are almost black, in which
case the cross on the shoulders disappears. Milk-white asses
are also to be found, but they are rare. These are not varieties
as to species ; for black individuals have sometimes ash-coloured
colts; and, on the contrary, black colts are sometimes produced
by ash-coloured dams."
Two common peacocks produced fourteen young : two were
white, the rest resembled their parents.||
# These instances are related by Dr. Parsons in the Philos. Transact. v. 55;
and seem to be of unquestionable authenticity.
* White on the Regular Gradation, p. 122. On the Native Africans, i. 188.
Journcy from Madras through Mysore, &c.; v. i. p. 7.
11 Buffon; v. xii. p. 286, note.
206
VARIETIES OF COLOUR
· The native or congenital varieties thus produced are propa-
gated by generation, and become established as permanent
breeds, if individuals with these new characters constantly in-
termix, and none others are admitted into the breed. Thus the
leucæthiopic constitution has become fixed in the white rabbit
and ferret; and thus, before our eyes, as conspicuvas a devia-
tion from the common stock has been formed, as any in the
human race. Black rams are always rejected in breeding, be-
cause they would transfer their colour to their progeny. In
many parts of England all the cattle are of one colour: this
arises from the long-established custom of slaughtering all the
calves which have not the desired tint. There is no reason to
doubt that, if the same plan were adopted with the human sub-
ject, that is, if persons marked by certain native peculiarities
were united, their offspring again matched with similar indivi-
duals, and this constantly repeated, any native variety might be
fixed as a permanent breed. Human Albinos are too few for
this purpose : hence we have no race in our species like the
ferret or white rabbit.
The disposition to change is exhausted in one generation, and
the characters of the original stock return, unless the variety is
kept up by the precaution above-mentioned of excluding from
the breed all which have not the new characters. Thus, when
African Albinos interinix with the common race, the offspring
generally is black. The same circumstance is seen in vege-
tables: the seeds of our fine cultivated apples almost always
produce the common crab; and the variegated holly can only
be preserved as a variety by grafting when we attempt to pro-
pagate it by seed, it returns to the common green holly. In
considering this as an explanation of the mode in which varieties
of colour may have arisen in the human race, an objection will
probably occur, that we do not, in point of fact, see Negroes,
Americans, or Mongols, produced among the white races ; nor
Europeans among the former. The theory of unity of the spe-
cies would certainly be untenable, if it depended on proving
that such varieties occur. But the Negro and the European are
the two extremes of a very long gradation : between them are
almost innumerable intermediate stages, which differ from each
other no more than the individuals occasionally produced in
every race differ from the generality of the race.
That the common opinion, which refers the characteristic dif-
ferences or colour in the varieties of the human species to
IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
207
climate, and particularly to the degree of solar heat, is entirely
unfounded, will, I trust, be fully proved hereafter. Enough
has now been said to show that these differences depend on the
breed; and that the hue of the offspring follows that of the
parents, excepting in the rare cases of native or congenital
variety. The latter examples prove that colour is not an es-
sential character of race; that identity of tint is not necessary
to establish descent from a common stock. These occurrences,
together with the numerous examples of the widest deviation in
colour in animals confessedly of the same species, fully authon
rize us to conclude, that however striking the contrast may be
between the fair European and the ebon African, and however
unwilling the former may be to trace up his pedigree to the
same ADAM with the latter, this superficial distinction is alto-
gether insufficient to establish diversity of species.
Examples occur of individuals spotted with different colours ;
but they are by no means so common as those of spotted ani.
mals. Persons of the black races are sometimes marked by
patches of white, of various size and number, without any thing
like disease of the skin. This circumstance has been observed
most frequently in Negroes, and generally begins in early
infancy; the individuals are called spotted or piebald Negroes,
in French, Nègres-pies. BLUMENBACH has described a man
who kept the animals at Exeter Change. He was a young inan
perfectly black, excepting the umbilical and hypogastric regions
of the abdomen, and the middle of the lower limbs, including
the knees and neighbouring parts of the thighs and legs, which
black, like the skin of a panther. His hair was of two colours.
On the middle of the front of the head, from the vertex to the
forehead, where it ended in a sharp point, there was a white
spot, with a yellower tinge than those on the trunk and legs,
The hair covering this was white, but resembled the rest in other
respects.* On comparing the picture of this man with three
others (a boy and two girls), he observes that the white spots
occupied the abdomen and thighs, never appearing on the hands
and feet, which parts, with the groins, are the first to turn black
in the newly-born Negroes ; and that the arrangement of the
white parts was symmetrical. Both the parents of this man,
* De . h, var. nat. sect. iii. & 48. Abbildungen natur-historischer Gegen.
stände; No. 21. Another spotted Negro is delineated in Buffon, Supplement,
t. iv. p. 565, tab. 2.
208 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD,
and of the others,* of whom BLUMENBACH had collected
accounts, were entirely black; so that Burron's conjecture of
this variety being produced by the cohabitation of a Negro with
an Albiness, is groundless.
These spots, in which the epidermis is perfectly healthy, and
which are distinguishable from the rest of the skin only by their
whiteness, are not to be confounded with diseases of the organ,
where the cuticle becomes scaly or branny, which are frequent
in some of the black races. Nor are they peculiar to dark-
coloured people. BLUMENBACH has seen two instances in
Germans; one of a youth, the other of a man sixty years old.
They both had a rather tawny skin, marked here and there
with various sized spots of the clearest white. They appeared
manhood.
The skin differs in some other properties besides its colour.
Travellers have described it as remarkably soft and smooth, and,
as it were, silky in certain races: as in the Carib, Negro;t
Otaheitean, I and Turk. It secretes a matter of peculiar odour
in some races. “The Peruvian Indians,” says HUMBOLDT,
“who in the middle of the night distinguish the different races
by their quick sense of smell, have formed three words to ex-
press the odour of the European, the Indian American, and the
Negro: they call the first pezuna, the second posco, and the
blood preserve the odour peculiar to the cutaneous transpiration
of those primitive races.
CHAPTER III.
On the Hair, Beard, and Colour of the Iris.
EVERY part of our frame deserves to be attentively considered
and quantity, over nearly the whole external surface, might
• Byrd, in the Philos. Transact. v. xix. p. 781, mentions a boy, in whom
the spots were first seen in the fourth year, and progressively increased. Mr.
Jefferson mentions a Negro, born black of black parents, on whose chin, wher:
a boy, a white spot appeared. It continued to increase till he became a man.
when it extended over the chin, lips, one cheek, the under jaw and neck of
the same side. Notes on Virginia, p. 120. Another case is mentioned by
Morgan in Trans. of the Philos. Society of Philadelphia, v. ii. p. 392.
+ is 'Their skins are always cool, at least more so than those of Europeans in
the same climate; and they are also remarkable for their sleekness and velvet-
like softness." Winterhottom, Account of the Native Africans ; i. 180.
# Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages; t. ii. p. 187.
:0 Humboldt, Political Essay; i. 245.
AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS
209
seem at first view an excrescence hardly worthy of notice. We
are soon struck, however, with the contrast between man and
animals, in respect to this growth ; with its general abundance
over the whole body in the latter, and the comparative naked.
ness of the former, while in the head these proportions are re-
versed, and its copious and long growth, to which there is
nothing parallel in animals, forms a distinguished and peculiar
ornament, imparting a character of dignity and majesty to the
human head. It presents, again, well-marked varieties in the
different races of men: compare the short woolly knots on the
head of the genuine Negro, or the coarse, straight, and thin hair
of an American or Mongolian, together with their beardless
faces, to the ample growth of fine and undulated locks and the
full beard which so gracefully adorn the head and face of the
Caucasian races. The physiologist will be interested in examin-
ing the relation between the hair and the integuments; and in
noticing the sexual distinctions, which are more or less strongly
marked by this production.
Implanted in the skin, and deriving from the cutaneous ves-
sels the materials of its growth, the structure and properties of
the hair are closely allied to those of this organ. The horny
substance composing it is very analogous to that of the cuticle;
and being equally destitute of vessels, nerves, sensibility, and
all power of exhibiting vital processes, may be regarded, like it,
as dead matter.
Each hair may be traced, through the cuticle and surface of
the cutis, to a bulb situated partly in the corion of the latter
organ, and partly in the cellular texture which unites it to the
subjacent parts. This bulb consists of a dense external cover-
ing, in which the tubular root of the hair, and a conical vascular
pulp, by which that root is secreted, are contained.* The vas-
cular body adds the new matter to the root of the hair, which is
elongated by these additions, in the same way as the nail grows
by its root. The conical vascular pulp, and the hollow of the
hair in which it is lodged, are easily seen in the larger examples,
which the whiskers of many mammalia afford. The precise re-
lations of the cuticle and rete mucosum to the hair have not
been ascertained; it is not settled whether these coverings are
simply perforated, or whether productions of them are continued
orer the hairs. It is, however, clear, that the colouring principle
* See the article Hair in Comparatire Analomy: in the Cyclopædia of Dr.
Rees; contributed by Dr. Macartney, Professor of Anatomy in Trinity College
Dublin.
210 VARIETIES IN THE HAIN, BEARD,
is of a common nature in the skin and hair; and, moreover,
that there is a connection between them in texture.
The colourless Albino has a soft white hair. In the first or
white variety of the human species, every gradation from the
fair to the dark is accompanied by correspondent alterations in
the tint of the hair. This is true, not only of nations, but of
individuals, in the white races. A light complexion and thin
skin are accompanied with delicate fair or red hair; a dark one
and thick skin with black hair, almost invariably, even in indi-
viduals of the same family; a difference which, according to the
philosophy of some writers, would be sufficient ground for class-
ing them in distinct species.
The four coloured varieties of men have black hair, which is
always stronger and coarser in texture than in the whites. This
difference is particularly noticed by the Chinese, who con-
temptuously compare the hair of Europeans to the soft fur of
the smaller animals. In Negroes, native Americans, and New
Zealanders, I have found the texture much stronger than in
the darkest Europeans. A striking proof that the colour of the
hair depends on that of the skin is afforded by the spotted
Africans, in whom the hairs growing out of a white patch on
the head are white.*
The principal differences of the hair may be brought under
the four following heads :
1. Brownish, deviating into yellow (flaxen) or red on one side,
and black on the other; copious, soft, long, and forming more
or less distinct ringlets or undulations. It is seen in the tem-
perate climates of Europe, and its light shades forinerly attracted
particular notice in the ancient Germans. The thin-skinned
Albino has the softest and most colourless hair ; in the Ger-
manic race it is also very soft and light-coloured; and red hair
is usually found in conjunction with a thin and soft skin. The
Celtic and Slavonic races, which make up the chief population
of Europe, the eastern Asiatics, and northern Africans, have
generally, with a rather thicker and darker skin, stronger, black,
or dark brown, and more or less curling hair.
The lighter and darker kinds of hair will grow to very consi-
derable lengths in Europeans, when not cut.t
# Blumenbach Abbildungen n. N. gegenstände, No. 21. White on the Reguiar
Gradation, &c. ; p. 145.
+ White mentions an Italion lady, in whom the liair trailed on the ground
when she stood upright; the same observation may be made of the Greek
women. A Prussian soldier liad ii long enough to reach the ground; and in
an English lady it was six feet lovg. On the Regular Gradation, pp. 93, 94,
AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS.
211
2. Black, strong, straight, and thin; in the Mongolian and
American varieties. The greater part of the head is shaved by
the Chinese ; the portion of hair which they leave, often reaches
the ground. The same remark holds good of the Americans.*
3. Black, softer, dense, copious, and curled ; in most of the
South Sea Islanders.
4. Black and crisp, so as generally to be called woolly; com-
mon to all the Negro tribes. This is either formed into small
and short masses, or it may admit of being combed to the
length of three or four inches, still forming a kind of general
woolly fleece.
The analogy, on which the hairy covering of the Africans has
been called wool, is quite a loose one, and goes no further than a
slight resemblance in appearance. The filament of wool is rough
on the surface; in hair it is smooth. The latter is of an uniform
thickness throughout, or rather slenderer towards the point,
while the former is unequal in size, and larger towards its end.
The thicker part is said to be produced in the summer; the
thinner in the winter months. In a variety of experiments
made by Dr. ANDERSON † he always found that the growing
part of the fibre of wool varied in thickness with the tempera-
ture of the season; being thickest in summer, smaller in spring
and autumn, and smallest of all in the winter. Another distinc-
tion of wool is, that it falls off altogether in a mass; while human
hairs always drop off singly and from time to time.
The above division is sufficient as a general one: but there
are some exceptions to it. Woolly hair is not confined entirely
to the Africans, nor is the black colour invariably found in all
the three last varieties. Bruce describes the Gallas as having
long hair ; and some brown people (as those of the Duke of
York's Island near New Ireland in the South Pacific) have it
strongly curled.
In the Papuas of New Guinea it is completely frizzled and
woolly; but so much longer than in the Negroes, that when
fully dressed out, according to their favourite fashion, it forms
a round bush of three feet f in diameter, quite eclipsing our
- most dignified, legal and theological wigs.
The New Hollanders and the natives of Van Diemen's Land,
• Mr. Hearne says, that the North American savages leave a single lock on
the head; and that he saw some nearly six feet high, in whom, when let
down, it would trail ou the ground, as they walked. Journey in the frozen
Ocean, p. 305, note.
+ White on the Regular Gradation, 2. 95.
# Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea.
P 2
212 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD,
forın so complete a medium between the woolly-haired African,
and the copious curling hair of the other South Sea Islanders,
that we are completely puzzled how to class them. The diffi-
culty is greater when we find in this one race many individuals
with the short crisp knots of the genuine Negro,* and others
with hair of considerable length.
Individual instances of red hair occur in the threef dark-
coloured varieties of men; and the soft white hair of the Albino
is occasionally seen in all of them.
The animal kingdom furnishes us with numerous parallel
varieties in the colour and texture of the hair, as, for example,
in the black sheep, in the black and white horses, in the various
hues of cattle; in the white, black, brown, or spotted rabbits ;
all undoubtedly produced from the original gray stock.
Sheep exhibit every kind of covering, from the soft and deli-
cate fleeces of Thibet and Spain, to the coarse and rough hair,
which takes the place of wool in very warm countries. There is
a mixture of hair with the wool in the argali, the supposed wild
original of our flocks. The sheep of some of the Tartar tribes
have a similar mixture; and the same thing will occur in this
country where the breed is neglected. In these cases, if the
animals with the best fleeces are selected to breed from, and this
rule be observed constantly, the wool would he gradually im-
proved, and the hairs disappear; or, vice versá, the sheep would
become entirely hairy.
Goats, rabbits, and cats in Angora, a small district of Asia
• Peron, Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes ; p. i.; pl. 8, 10, 11, 12.
The individuat represented in pl. 11 is a complete Negro in culour and hair :
all these are natives of Van Dieman's Land. Capt. Cook says, that their hair
is as woolly as that of any Negro; Voyage to the Pacific; i. 96 : and Mr, Anderson
concurs in this representation ; lvid. 112.
+ Peron. ibid. pl. 170, represents a New Hollander with large and loose
curls: in øl. 18 and 21 the curl is not considerable; and in the former the hair
is very long. In an individual who came to England, and had learned to pay
attention to cleanliness and dress, the hair was long and copious. Collins
Account of New South Wales, p. 554; and portrait, p. 439.
"Les habitans de la terre de Diemen ont les cheveux courts, laiueux et
crepus; ceux de la Nouvelle Hollande les ont droits, longs, et roides." Perod,
vo), ii. p. 164.
of Red-haired Africans and Mulattos are mentioned by Winterbotton, on the
Native Africans, i.193: Blumenbach, de gen. hum. var. nat. p. 169; and others.
Charlevoix mentions similar facts of the Esquimaux, Hist. dela Nouv. Pirance,
jii. 179: Gmelin of the Wotiaks, Reise durch Sibirien, i. 89; and Sonnerat of
the Papuas, Voy. à la Noud. Guinée, 153, Furster saw individuals with yellowish
brown or sandy hair at Otaheite; Obs. on ( Voyage round the World; p. 229:
and a single mani at Otala (one of the Friendly Islands) with perfectly red
hair, , ibid. 230). Among the tawny and black-haired natives of Chinese Tarlary,
and of the neighbouring great island or Tchoka or Sugilien, individuals were
seen with chesnut-culoured-hair. Rollin in Peronise's Voyage; v. iii. pp. 235,
242. Instances of brown and fair (blond) hair occur among the Mongolian
tribes, according to Pallas, but they are very rare. Samilungen über die
Mongolischen Völkerschaften; I. Th. p. 100.
dividual is not con New Hou

AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS.
213
Minor, are remarkable for the length and softness, as well as
snowy whiteness of their coverings.
If these goats, and those furnishing the material from which .
the precious shawls of Cashmere are fabricated, are of the same
species with our domestic animal, and with the wild goats consi-
dered as its original stock, the variation far exceeds what we
observe in the hair of the various human races; and this, toge-
ther with the examples of the dog and sheep, will prove to us
that a difference in the hair is not a sufficient ground for
establishing a distinction of species.
The various races of rnankind exhibit considerable differences
in the beard and the hair on other parts of the body, as well as
in that of the head. One of the most general characters of the
dark-coloured nations, at least of those which belong to the Mon-
golian, American, and African varieties, is either an entire want
of beard, or a very thin one developed at a more advanced age,
than is usual with us : on the contrary, a copious beard has
always been the pride of the white races : and, from its being a
distinguishing attribute of the male, has been commonly
regarded as a mark of masculine strength. Dark-coloured
nations with strong beards are as uncommon as individuals of
the white races with an inconsiderable growth of this covering.
A general smoothness of the whole body is combined with this
diminution of the beard ; and these characters are rendered
more striking by the very common practice among the dark-
coloured nations of carefully eradicating or destroying the hair;
which affords another example of their great disposition to
exaggerate by artificial means whatever may be deemed imperfect
hair of the head.
The beardlessness of the Mongolian variety, which attracted
the attention of the older writers, I has been fully confirmed by
the testimonies of modern travellers. “In all the Mongolian
tribes,” says PALLAS, “ the adult males have much less beard
than in the Tartar and European nations ; it also grows later.
The Calmucks have the most, yet they are very poorly fur-
* Dobrizhofter de Abiponibus; ii. 26.
→ Heame of the Esquimaux, on the Copper Mine River : "there is one
custom prevalent among them, viz. that of the men having all the hair of their
heads pulled out by the roots," &c. Journey to the Frozen Ocean, p. 170.
# Ammianus Marcellinus says of the Huns, “senescunt imberbes, absque
ulla venustate,” XXX. 2. Thinness of the beard is one of the traits ascribed by
Jornandes to Attila: "rarus barba."
214
VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD,
nished; they commonly have small mustachios, and some pre-
serve besides a tuft on the lower lip.” “ They have very little
hair on the body, and the mothers seek to exterminate it in their
children. But in certain parts, which the Tartar women like to
keep quite smooth, those of the Calmucks leave the hair undis-
turbed."* “ The Mongols have less beard and thinner hair of
the head than the Calmucks. The Burats are nearly as beard-
less as the Tungooses and other hordes of Eastern Siberia.
Without any means of destruction having been resorted to,
their chin often remains quite smooth even to advanced age. It
is not common to see a Burat with a beard at the usual com-
mencement of adult age; and they are constantly smooth and
bald in the rest of the body.t GMELIN observes, “ that it is not
easy to find a beard among the Tungooses or the neighbouring
tribes. For they eradicate the hair as soon as it appears, and
repeat this constantly, till at last no more is produced.” I
The Chinese resemble the Mongolian tribes, to which they
owe their origin, in this deficiency of beard ; although they pre-
serve it, and encourage the growth as much as they can.
The practice of extermination is mentioned by KÆMPFER as
prevalent in Japan and among the Malays; by FORREST, among
the Mindanao islanders; Wilson, in the Pelew Islands;
LANGSDORFF, in the Marquesas ; || CARTERET, among the
Papuas; BOUGAINVILLE, in the Navigators' Islands; Mr.
MARSDEN, in Sumatra ; &c. &c.
There has been a great dispute about the Americans ; some
asserting their entire and natural want of beard, and assigning
this as a proof of their physical inferiority, of that degeneracy,
* Sammlungen üb. die Mongol. Völkersch. 1: Th. p. 100. + Ibid. 171.
* Reise durch Sibirien ; ii: p. 125.
3 The Booteeas, or inhabitants of Bootan, have all the characters of the
Mongolian variety, and the deficiency of beard with the rest. “Their skins
are remarkably smooth, and most of them arrive at a very advanced age, before
they can boast even the earliest rudiments of a beard." "" Their eyelashes are
so thin, as to be scarcely perceptible" Turner, Einbassy to the Court of Teshoo
Lama, pp. 84-85,
1 - The natives of Nukahiwah consider an entirely smooth skin a great
beauty, and therefore eradicate the hair under the arms and from the breast."
Voyages and Travels, &c. p. 114.
of The men are beardless, and liave chins so remarkably smooth, thai
were it not for the priests displaying a little tuſt, we should be apt to conclude
that nature had refused them this token of manhood. It is the same with
respect to other parts of the body in both sexes; and this particular attention
to their persons they esteem a point of delicacy, and the contrary an unpardon-
able neglect. The boys, as they approach the age of puberty, rub their chins,
upper lips, and those parts of the body that are subject to superfluous hair,
with chunam (quick lime, especially of shells), which destroys the roots of
the incipient beard. The few pilæ, that afterwards appear, are plucked out
with tweezers, which they always carry about with them for that purpose.'
Hist, of Sumatra ; Ed. 3, p. 45.
AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS215
.
.
IRISwhich is supposed to have affected all animal nature in the new
world : while others are inclined to ascribe the apparent dif-
ference entirely to the practice of eradication.
We have abundant evidence that the American race is cha-
racterized generally by a small and imperfect beard; yet there
are tribes, particularly in North America, with a more copious
growth. The tall and robust stature of some of the American
nations which have little beard, proves that the absence of this
excrescence is not a sure sign of weakness ;* while its existence
in the New Hollander,t the people of Tanna, Mallicollo, I &c.
shows that its presence does not necessarily indicate vigour or
beauty.
The very competent and respectable testimony of Ulloa,
establishes a general deficiency of beard among the South Ame-
ricans. “ The Indians have no beard; and the greatest altera-
tion occasioned by their arriving at the years of maturity is only
a few straggling hairs on the chin; but so short and thin, as
never to require the assistance of a razor."$ He states in another
place, || that gray hair and beards indicate in the American race
or The Mexicans, particularly those of the Aztec and Otomite races, have
more beard than I ever saw in any other Indians of South America. Almost
all the Indians in the neighbourhood of the capital wore small mustachios, and
this is even a mark of the tributary caste. These mustachios, which modern
travellers have also found among the inhabitants of the north-west coast of
Ainerica, are so much the more curious, as celebrated naturalists have left the
question undetermined, whether the Americans are naturally destitute of beard
and of hair on the rest of their bodies, or whether they pluck them carefully
out. Without entering here into physiological details, I can aflirm that the
Indians who inhabit the torrid zone of South America have generally some
bcard; and that this beard increases when they shave themselves, of which
we have seen examples in the unissions of the Capuchins of Caripe, where the
Indian sextons wish to reseinble the monks their masters. But many indivi.
duals are naturally destitute of beard and hair on their bodies.
"Mr. De Galeano, in the account of the last Spanish expedition to the Straits
of Magellan, informs us, that there are many old men among the Patagonians
with beards, though they are short, and by no means bushy. (Viaje al Estrecho
de Magalhaens, p. 331). On comparing this assertion with the facts collected
by Marchand, Mears, and especially Mr. Volney, in the northern temperate
zone, we are tempted to believe that the Indians have more and more beard
in proportion to their distance from the equator. However, this apparent want
of beard is by no means peculiar to the Ainerican race; for many hordes of
Eastern Asia, and especially many tribes of African Negroes, have so little
beard, that we should be almost tempted to deny its existence. The Negroes
of Congo, and the Caribs, two eminently robust races, frequently of a colossal
stature, prove that to look on a beardless clin as a sure sign of the degeneration
and physical weakness of the human species, is a mere physiological dream.
We forget that all which has been observed in the Caucasian races does not
apply equally to the Mongol or American race, or to the African Negroes."
Humboldt, Polilical Essay, v. i. p. 147, 148.
+ Collins, Account of the English Colony in New South Wales; p. 550.
# The Mallicollese have strong, crisp, and bushy beards, although they are
called an “an ape-like nation," and the ugliest seen in the South Sea. Cook,
Voyage towards the South Pole; v. ii. p. 34, plate 47. Of the Tannese and New
Celedonians, see ibid. p. 118; plates 26 and 39: and Forster's Observations,
P. 238.
2 Travels in South America; v. i. p. 267. :
N Noticias Americanas ; v. ii. It is translated into German and French,

216 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD,
a very advanced age: the former is not seen till before or about
the seventieth year; the latter aborit the age of sixty, and then
slender and thin. Bouguer, * CHARLEVOIX,t the Chevalier
De PINTO, I DOBRIZHOFFER, S MOLINA, || and HUMBOLDT, T
give similar testimony on this point.
There is some contradiction in the reports of travellers con.
cerning the native North Americans : it is, however, easily
explained on the probable supposition that the proportion of the
beard varies in different tribes.
Mr. HCARNE observed, of those whom he saw on his journey
to the Copper Mine River, “ that few of the men have any
beard : this seldorn makes its appearance, till they are arrived at
middle age; and then in by no means equal quantity to what
is observed in the generality of the Europeans: the little they
have, however, is exceedingly strong and bristly." He men.
tions the practice of eradication; and adds, that “ neither sex.
* Of the Peruvians, “ils n'ont point de barbe, ni de poil sur la poitrine, n.
en aucun endroit du corps.” Mem de l'Acad. des Sciences, 1740. 7. 274.
+ Journal Historique, p. 311. # In Robertson's History of America; v. i. 460.
2 De Abiponibus, v. ii. 6, 25, and seq.
! - The Chilians, like the Tartars, have but little beard; and the custom of
plucking out the hair, as fast as it grows, makes them appear as if beardless .
for this purpose they always carry with them a small pair of pincers, whicn
forms a part of their toilette. There are some of them, however, who have as
thick a beard as the Spaniards. The hair which marks the age of puberty, they
bave in still greater quantities than the beard. The opinion that a thin beard
is the mark of a feeble body is not verified in the case of these people. The
Indians are generally vigorous, and are better able to endure fatigue than the
Creoles ; for which reason they are always preferrel in those employments
that require strength.” Natural History of Chili, p. 275.
The Araucans « have scarcely any beard, and the smallest hair is never to
be discerned on their faces, from the care they take to plurk out the little that
appears.". 6. The same attention is paid to removing it from their bodies, where
its growth is more abundant. Civil Hist. of Chili, 11. 55.
- The Chaymas are almost without beard on the hin, like the Tungooses,
and other nations of the Mongol race. They pluck oui the few hairs that
appear; but it is not correct to say they have no beard, merely because they
pluck out the hairs. Independently of this custoin, the greater part of the
natives would be nearly beardless." No controversy would have arisen on
this point, if the correct account given by the first historians of the conquest
of America had been sufficiently attended to. (See the Journal of Pigafetta,
published by Amoretti, 1800, p. 18. Benzoni, Sloria del Mundo Nuovo, 1572
D. 85. Bembo, Hist. Venet. 1557, p. 86.) “The Patagonians and Guaranies in
South America have beards. When the Chaymas, instead of extracting the
little hair they have on the chin, shave themselves frequently, their beard
grows. I have seen this experiment tried with success by young Indians, who
served at inass, and who aixiously wished to resemble the Capuchin fathers,
their missionaries and instructors. Most of the people, however, have as great
an antipathy to the beard as the Eastern nations have veneration for it. This
antipathy is derived from the same source as the predilection for flat foreheads,
which is seen in so singular a manner in the statues of the Azteck heroes and
divinities. Nations attach the idea of beauty to every thing which particularly
characterizes their own physical conformation, their natural physiognomy.
Hence it results, that if nature have bestowed very little beard, a llarrow forex
head, or a brownish red skin, every individual thinks himself beautiful, in
proportion as his body is destitute of hairs, his head flattened, and his skiu
covered with annatto or chica, or some other coppery red colour.” Personu
Narrative, iii. 237.

AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS.
217
have any hair under their armpits, and very little on any other
part of their body, particularly the women."*
Mr. MACKENZIE states that the Knisteneaux “ very gene-
rally extract their beards; and both sexes manifest a disposition
to pluck the hair from every part of their body and limbs.”+
Among the Chepewyans “ the men in general extract their
beards; but some are seen to prefer a bushy black beard to a
smooth chin.” I
Respecting the Canadian Indians and the adjoining tribes,
we have a curious statement in the Philosophical Transactions,
communicated by a celebrated Mohawk chief named THAYAN-
DANEEGA, but better known to the English by the name of
Capt. BRANT, whose portrait is represented in Plate IV.
“ The men of the Six Nations have all beards by nature, as
have likewise all other Indian nations of North America, which
I have seen. Some allow a part of the beard on the chin and
upper lip to grow; and a few of the Mohawks shave with razors
like Europeans; but the generality pluck out the hairs of the
beard hy the roots, as soon as they begin to appear; and, as
they continue this practice all their lives, they appear to have
no beard, or at most only a few straggling hairs, which they have
neglected to pluck out. I am, however, of opinion, that if the
Indians were to shave, they would never have beards, altogether
so thick as the Europeans; and there are some to be met with,
who have actually very little beard.”
The beardlessness of the natives at Nootka Sound is ascribed
by Cook/| entirely to their practice of eradication; and the same
opinion is expressed respecting the Chopunnish, a tribe on
Lewis's River, which joins the Columbia, by Captains LEWIS
and CLARKE, who are of opinion that several of them would
have good beards, if they adopted the practice of shaving. I
PEROUSE ** reports, that about one-half of the adult Indians
in New California had beards, which in some were ample: that
* Journey, ch. ix. p. 305. + Voyages, &c. p. 92.
Ibid. p. 120.
& For the vear 1786; art. ll, communicated by Mr. M'Causland, an army
surgeon, who had resided for ten years at Niagara, in the midst of the Six
Nations, and who confirms the statement of the American chief.
"Some have no beards at all; and others only a thin one on the point of
the chin. This does not arise from an original deficiency of hair in those parts,
but from their plucking it out by the roots; for those, who do not destroy it,
flave not only considerable beards on every part of the chin, but also whiskers,
or mustachios running from the upper lip to the lower jaw obliqnely down.
wards." Voyage to the Pacific, v. ii. p. 302. Pl. 38, Man of Nootka Sound;
pl. 46, Man of Prince William's Sound.
Travels to the Source of the Missouri, p. 556, 557.
** Voyage, v. ii. p. 197, 198.
218 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD,
he could not ascertain whether the deficiency observed in the
others arose from natural defect, or from the beard being
plucked out.
The genuine Negroes have very little growth of hair on the
chin,* or on other parts of the body. In a full-grown lad of
seventeen, there was not the smallest appearance of beard, nor
of hair on any other part except the head. I never saw any
hair on the arms, legs, or breasts of Negroes, like what is
observed on those parts in Europeans.
Although the South Sea Islanders come under the dark.
coloured division of the human race, they are not at all deficient
assigning to them in many cases a copious growth.
That a similar connexion in point of colour to that which I
have just explained between the skin and the hair, exists also
between the former organ and the eyes, was noticed by ARIS-
TOTLE, who observed that white persons have blue, and dark
ones black eyes. Thus, in European countries, newly-born
children have generally light eyes and hair, and both grow
gradually darker together in individuals of dark complexion.
Again, in proportion as the hair turns gray in the old subject,
the pigmentum of the eye loses much of its brown colour. I
With the colourless skin and hair of the Albinos, is combined
an entire deficiency $ of colouring in matter in the eye ; so that
the iris and choroid have a more or less red hue with a tendency
to violet, from the colour of the blood in their numerous capil-
laries. Different children of the same family not unfrequently
have opposite complexions, where one of the parents is fair and
the other dark: hence we may see brothers and sisters with
different coloured irides.
trigesimum ætatis agentes annum, quorum genas vix lanugo vestire cæpit
tenerrima."
+ The portrait of Potatow, an Otaheitean chief, has beard enough for a Jewish
rabbi. Voyage towards the S. Pole, v. i. p. 159, pl. 56. New Zealander, v. ii.
p. 152, pl. 55. See also the portrait of Tiarrah, a New Zealand chief, prefixed
to Savage's Account of Nero Zealand. The representations of the Tannese,
Mallicollese, and New Caledoniaus have been already quoted; note t, p. 215.
Man of Mangeea; folio atlas to the Voy, to the Pacific, pl. ll.
# Pigmentum nigrum is an incorrect expression as applied to the human
eye, in which the matter in question, whether in the choroid membrane, or on
the uvea, is always brown. It is neither black, nor of a tint that could be
mistaken for it, even in the darkest races; although it is of a deep black in
our common quadrupeds,
& In his “ Observations on the Pigmentum of the Eye,” Mr. Hunter speaks of
the white pigmentum of the Albino, white rabbit, white mouse, ferret, &c.
Oos. on the Animal Economy. It seems to me easily demonstrable that there
is no colouring matter in these cases; and that the light rose-colour of the iris,
and the deeper violet-red of the pupil, depend solely on the blood.
AND COLOUR OF THE TRIS.
219.
Those animals only, in which the skin and hair are subject to
variety of colour, vary in that of the eyes. This is not confined,
as the ancients thought, to man and the horse, but extends also
to others, particularly of the domesticated kinds. Moreover,
the iris sometimes exhibits more than one colour in those ani-
mals which have a spotted skin; as was noticed by MOLI-
NELLI * in dogs. Something of the same kind may be observed
in sheep and horses ; but BLUMENBACH says that it is most
conspicuous in the rabbit ; the gray, or those which retain the
native colour of their wild state, have brown irides; those
spotted with black and white have the irides evidently varie-
gated; and the white, like other leucæthiopic animals, have
The three principal colours of the human eye were well laid
down by ARISTOTLE ; viz. blue, passing in its lighter tints to
what we call gray; an obscure orange, which he calls the colour
of the eye in the goat (Fr. yeux de chevre), a kind of middle
tint between blue and orange, and sometimes remarkably green
in men with very red hair and freckled skin; and lastly brown
call hazel, dark, or black eyes. The red eyes of the leucæ-
thiopic constitution may constitute a fourth division.
These may all occur in different individuals of the same race;
or even of the same family: and again, they are sometimes con-
fined to the distinct tribes of the same country within the
limits of a few degrees. Thus LINNEUS + describes in Sweden
the Gothlander, with light hair and grayish blue eyes; the Fin
with yellow hair and brown iris; and the Laplander with black
hair and eyes.
Blue eyes, as well as yellow hair (cærulei oculi, rutilæ comæ), I
have characterized the German race from the earliest times;
and the same combination is met with, in scattered instances, in
the niost remote nations. The iris of the Negro is the blackest
we are acquainted with ; so that close inspection is necessary,
in living individuals, to distinguish it from the pupil. It is
invariably dark in all the coloured tribes of men; as well as in
dark-complexioned individuals of the white variety.
* Comment. Instit. Bonon., t. iii. p. 281.
+ Fauna Suecica, p. 1.
# Tacitus, Germ. 4. Rutilus is applied to splendid or shining objects, as fire
and flame; and denotes frequently the colour of gold, as in this case. Thus it has
here the same meaning as the “auricomiº of Silius applied to the Batavi, and
the cpithet "golden-haired," SO common among the earlier German writers.
220
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES.
CHAPTER IV.
Differences of Features ; Forms of the Skull; Teeth; attempted Explanations.
Although it is a common and very just observation, that two
individuals are hardly to be met with possessing exactly the
same features, and although this variety, according with what
we observe throughout all nature, * is a simple and effectual
provision for very important ends, yet there is generally a
certain cast of countenance common to the particular races of
men, and often to the inhabitants of particular countries. The
five following varieties are established by BLUMENBACH |
after a careful comparison of numerous drawings and of the
various races themselves, in situations, where commerce attracts
them from all parts of the globe, as at London and Amsterdam.
This distribution is only meant to indicate the most leading
traits; details and minute particulars are not therefore taken:
into consideration
1. An oval and straight face, with the different parts mode-
rately distinct from each other ; high and expanded forehead;
nose narrow, and slightly aquiline, or at least with the bridge
somewhat convex; no prominence of the cheek-bones; small
mouth, with lips slightly turned out, particularly the lower one,
a full and rounded chin. See PLATE I.
This is the kind of countenance which accords most with our
ideas of beauty: it may be considered as a middle, departing
into two extremes, exactly opposed to each other, in most
respects, yet agreeing in having a low and receding forehead,
In one, the face is expanded laterally ; in the other, it is length-
ened forwards or downwards. Each of these includes two
varieties, which are most readily distinguished by a profile view;
one, in which the nose and other parts ran together; and the
other, in which they are more prominent and separate.
2. Broad and flattened face, with the parts slightly distin-
guished, and as it were running together : the space between the
eyes flat and very broad, flat nose, rounded projecting cheeks ;
" Præterea genus humanum, mutæque natantes
Squaminigerum pecudes, et læta armenta, feræque,
Et variæ volucres ; lætantia quæ loca aquarum
Concelebrant, circun ripas, fonteisque, lacusque;
Et quæ pervolgant nemora avia pervolitantes;
Horum unum quodvis generatim sumere perge:
Invenies tamen inter se distare figuris.
Nec ratione alia proles cognoscere matrem,
Nec mater possit prolem ; quod posse videmus,
Nec minus atque homines inter se nota cluere."--Lucrel. L. ii.
+ De gen. human, var. nat. Sect. iii. 256.
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES.
221
narrow and linear aperture of the eyelids extending towards the
temples (yeux bridés, Fr.), the internal angle of the eye de-
pressed towards the nose, and the superior eyelid continued at
that part into the inferior by a rounded sweep; chin slightly
prominent. See PLATE II.
This is the face of the Mongolian tribes; commonly called in
English the Tartar face, from the confusion of the Tartars
(Tatars) with the Mongols.
3. Face broad, but not flat and depressed, with prominent
cheek-bones, and the parts when viewed in profile, as it were,
more deeply and distinctly carved out. Short forehead, eyes
deeply seated, nose flattish, but prominent. Such is the coun-
tenance of most Americans. See PLATE IV.
4. Narrow face projecting towards its lower part; narrow,
slanting, and arched forehead; eyes prominent (à fleur de tête);
a thick nose, confused on either side with the projecting cheeks
(nez épaté); the lips, particularly the upper one, very thick;
the jaws prominent, and the chin retracted. This is the coun-
tenance of the Negro—the Guinea face. See PLATE III.
5. The face not so narrow as in the preceding, rather pro-
jecting downwards, with the different parts in a side-view rising
more freely and distinctly. The nose rather full and broad, and
thicker towards its apex (bottled-nosed). The mouth large.
This is the face of the Malays, particularly of the South Sea
Islanders. See PLATI V.
In his Abbildungen natur-historicher Gegenstände, p. i, BLU-
MENBACH has given characteristic representations of these five
varieties, engraved from accurate portraits of celebrated indivi-
duals. These engravings have been copied for the present work, *
as they render the subject much more intelligible than mere
description.
In features, as in colour, the different races are connected to
each other by the most gentle gradations ; so that, although any
two extremes, when contrasted, appear strikingly different, they
are joined by numerous intermediate and very slightly differing
degrees; and no formation is exhibited so constantly in all the
individuals of one race, as not to admit of numerous exceptions.
We see, indeed, an astonishing difference, when we place an
ugly Negro (for there are such as well as ugly Europeans)
against a specimen of the Grecian ideal model ; but, when we
See plate 1.-V. Vignettes illustrating the same subject are introduced
in the Beyträge zur Natuurfreschichie; lr Theil,
222
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES.
trace the intermediate gradations, this striking diversity vanishes.
“ Of the Negroes of both sexes,” says BLUMENCACH,“ whom
I have attentively examined, in very considerable number, as
well as in the portraits and profiles of others, and in the
numerous Negro crania, which I possess, or have seen, there
are not two completely resembling each other in their formation;
they pass by insensible gradations, into the forms of the other
races, and approach to the other varieties even in their most
pleasing modifications. A Creole whom I saw at Yverdun, born
of parents from Congo, and brought from St. Domingo by the
Chevalier TREYTORRENS, had a countenance, of which no part,
not even the nose, and rather strongly marked lips, were very
striking, much less displeasing; the same features with an
European complexion would certainly have been generally
agreeable."* The testimony of LE MAIRE, in his journey to
Senegal and Gambia, is to the same effect; that there are
Negresses, except in colour, as handsome as European women.
VAILLANT says of the Caffre women, that setting aside the
prejudice which operates against their colour, many might be
accounted handsome, even in an European country. The accu-
rate ADANSON confirms this statement in his description of the
Senegambians. “The women are equally well made with the
men. Their skin is of the finest texture, and extremely soft.
The eyes are black and large; the mouth and lips small; and
all the features well proportioned. Several are perfectly beau-
tiful. They have much vivacity, and an easy air, which is very
pleasing.t
The Jaloffs, according to MUNGO PARK, have not the protu-
berant lip nor flat nose of the African countenance.f We have
also the testimony of another traveller, concerning this tribe, to
the same effect: according to MOORE,$ they have handsome
features, and neither broad noses nor thick lips. PIGAFETTA |
states, that the Congo Negroes have not the thick lips of the
Nubians, and that, except in colour, they are very like the
Portuguese. DAMPIER, in his account of Natâl, describes the
natives as having curled hair, but a long face, well-proportioned
nose, and agreeable countenance. The six Negro crania en-
graved in the two first decades of BLUMENBACH, exhibit very
* Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte; 1. Th. p. 89.
+ Histoire Naturelle du Sénégal, p. 22.
# Travels into the Interior Districts of Africa; 8vo. edition, 7. 23. The
Foulahs also have pleasing features, p. 25.
& Zimmermann, Geograph. yeschichte, v. i. p. 99,
i Relazione del Reame di Congo; Roma, p. 12.
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES.
223
clearly this diversity of character in the African race; and prove,
most unequivocally, that the variety among individuals is cer-
tainly not less, but greater, than the difference between some of
them and many Europeans.*
The same observations hold good of the American race. The
most accurate observers treat with contempt the hyperbolical
assertion of some, that all the inhabitants of the new world have
one and the same countenance, so that he who has seen one
may say that he has seen all.
"I cannot help smiling,” says MOLINA,“ when I read in
certain modern authors, and those too accounted diligent
observers, that all the Americans have one cast of countenance,
and then when you have seen one, you know the whole. These
writers have been too much influenced by the deceptive appear-
ances of resemblance, consisting chiefly in colour, which imme-
diately disappear when we confront individuals of two nations.
The difference between an inhabitant of Chili and a Peruvian is
not less than between an Italian and a German. I have found
the Indians of Paraguay, of the Straits of Magellan, and of other
parts, most obviously and strikingly distinguished from each
other by peculiar lineaments.”
We have further unexceptionable testimony to prove that the
same variety of countenance is found in the Americans as in the
other races ; although it generally follows the model above
described. In South America only we have the Caaiguas with
filat noses, observed by Nic. DEL TECHO; the neighbouring
Abipons, of whom many individuals have aquiline noses, by
MARTIN DOBRIZHOFFER; the Peruvians with narrow and aqui-
line noses, by ULLOA; the Chilese with rather a broad nose, by
MOLINA ; and the islanders of Tierra del Fuego with a very de-
pressed one, by G. FORSTER.
The truth of this representation is most fully attested by
HUMBOLDT, whose accuracy and extensive opportunities
entitle his observations to the most implicit deference. “In the
faithful portrait, which an excellent observer, Mr. VOLNEY, has
drawn of the Canada Indians, we undoubtedly recognise the
tribes scattered in the meadows of the Rio Apure and the
Carony. The same style of feature exists, no doubt, in both
Americas; but those Europeans who have sailed on the great
rivers Orinoco and Amazons, and have had occasion to see a
* Decas Craniorum, p.22; Decas attera, p. 13.
+ Storia naturale dei Chili, p. 336. English Translation, 274, 275.
224
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES:
great number of tribes assembled under the monastical hierarchy
in the missions, must have observed that the American race
.contains nations, whose features differ as essentially from one
another, as the numerous varieties of the race of Caucasus, the
Circassians, Moors, and Persians, differ from one another. The
tall form of the Patagonians is again found by us, as it were,
among the Caribs, who dwell in the plains from the delta of the
Orinoco, to the sources of the Rio Blanco. What a difference
between the figure, physiognomy, and physical constitution of
these Caribs, who ought to be accounted one of the most robust
nations on the face of the earth, and are not to be confounded
with the degenerate Zambos, formerly called Caribs of the
island St. Vincent, and the squat bodies of the Chayma Indians
of the province of Cumana! What a difference of form between
the Indians of Tlascala and the Lipans and the Chichimecs of
the northern part of Mexico !"*
An analogous variety of countenance has been noticed in the
Friendly Islanders ; “ their features are very various, insomuch
that it is scarcely possible to fix on any general likeness by
which to characterise them, unless it be a fulness at the point
of the nose, which is very common. But, on the other hand,
we met with hundreds of truly European faces, and many
genuine Roman noses amongst them.t
Individuals in Europe often have the countenance exactly
resembling the Negro or Mongol face.
From our survey of the countenance, we proceed, by a natural
and easy transition, to a consideration of the bony head. It is
sufficiently obvious that there must be a close connection
between the external soft parts of the face, or the features, and
the bony fabric, or mould, on which they are formed and sup-
ported ;—that the size and configuration of the latter must
determine those of the former. I We inight venture to affirm,
that a blind man, if he knew the vast difference which exists
between the face of a Calmuck and that of a Negro, would be
able to distinguish their skulls by the mere touch ; nor could
you persuade any person, however ignorant of the subject, that
either of these belonged to a head similar to those from which
* Polilical. Essay, v. iv. p. 142. + Cook's Voy, to the Pacific; i. 380.
$ I do not speak of the original formation, nor mean to assert that the par-
ticular forms of the soft parts depend on those of the bones, as their cause;
for numerous phenomena rather tend to prove the reverse of that position, or
that the soft parts intluence the configuration of the bones. I only wish to
point out the relation between them, and to state, that either being known, it
will be easy to determine the other.
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
:
225
copied. Differences equally striking are found in the cavity of
the cranium; of which the general capacity and particular
forms depend entirely on the size and partial development of
the brain. Hence our zoological study of man will be greatly
assisted by carefully examining genuine specimens of the skulls
of different nations; which are easily prepared and preserved,
may be conveniently handled and surveyed, considered in
various points of view, and compared to each other.
Such a comparison will show us that the form of the cranium
differs no less than the colour of the skin, or other characters;
and that one kind of structure runs by gentle and almost inob-
servable gradations into another: yet that there is, on the
character in the crania of different nations, contributing very
essentially to national peculiarities of form, and corresponding
exactly to the features which characterize such nations. Hence
anatomists have attempted to lay down some scale of dimen-
sions, to which the various forms of the skull might be referred ;
and by means of which they might be reduced into certain classes.
With the exception of a few desultory observations, which are
scattered through the works of different writers, DAUBENTON'S
paper, “ Sur la Différence du grand Trou occipital dans l'Homme
et dans les autres Animaux," in the Memoirs of the Royal Acam
demy of Sciences for 1764, contains the first attempt at any
general remarks on the subject : and this, indeed, is more im-
portant in pointing out the differences between the human
structure and that of animals, than in defining the characters of
the skull in the different races of mankind. CAMPER has at-
tempted a more general view, by means of his facial line and
angle already described (see Chap. IV.) But what he has said
cannot be considered even as approximating to a systematic ac-
count of the national varieties of the skull. It is sufficiently
obvious that his method is applicable to such varieties only as
differ from each other in the size and prominence of the jaws,
that it will not at all exhibit the characters of those which vary
in the opposite way, viz. in the greater or less breadth of the
face, while the upper, posterior, and lateral aspects of the cranium
are entirely disregarded. It often happens that crania of the
most different nations, which differ toto cælo from each other on
the whole, have the same facial line; and, on the contrary, that
skulls of the same nation, which agree in general character
226
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
differ very much in the direction of this line.* CAMPER could
not, indeed, have fully explained this subject, because he had
no sufficient collection of crania for the purpose. His Disserta-
tion contains an engraving of a skull, which he calls that of a
Calmuck, and adduces as a representative of all the natives of
Asia. The characters of this skull are completely Negro; and
the very reverse of those which distinguish the Calmück. Be-
sides this he brings forward one Negro skull; and these two are
all that it contains except European heads.
We are indebted to BLUMENBACH for the completest body
of information on this subject, which he has been enabled to
illustrate most successfully by an unrivalled collection of the
crania of different nations from all parts of the globe.
· His admirable work on the varieties of the human species
contains a short sketch of the various formations of the skull in
different nations; but he has treated the subject at greater
length and with more minute detail in his Decades Craniorum,
where the crania themselves are represented of their natural
size.
He states, that in the examination and classification of his
immense collection, he finds it every day more and more diffi-
cult, amidst such numerous differences in the proportion and
direction of various parts, all of which contribute more or less
to the national character, to reduce these to the measurements
or angles of any single scale. Since, however, in distinguish-
ing the characters of the different crania, such a view will gain
the preference to all others, as offers at one glance the most
numerous and important points, and such as contribute especi-
ally to the comparison of national characteristics, he has found
by experience that to be the best adapted to this purpose, which
is obtained by placing the different crania, with the zygomas
perpendicular, on a table in a row, and contemplating thein from
behind. When skulls are thus arranged, those circumstances
which contribute most to the formation of the national character,
viz. the direction of the jaws and cheek-bones, the breadth or
: The crania of a Negro and of a Pole, represented in the Decades of Blu:
menbach (Dec. altera ; tab. x.: Dec. tertia, t. xxii.), possess exactly the same
facial line: yet the general character of the two skulls is most opposite, when
we compare the narrow and keel-shaped Ethiopian to the broad square form
of the Lithuanian. There are, in the same work, two Negro crania of very
different facial lines, which, when viewed in front, betray their Ethiopic origin
most incontestably by the same characters of a narrow and compressed cranium
and arched forehead. In short, this criterion of the ſacial line, which I have
already shown to be quite insufficient as a key to the intellectual rank of
animals, is equally, if not more unserviceable, in its application to the varieties
of man,

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FORMS OF THE SKULL.
227
narrowness of the head, the advancing or receding outline of the
forehead, are all distinctly perceived at one view. This method
of considering the bony head he calls norma verticalis. It is
exhibited in the three figures of Plate IX., where three heads
are represented in this point of view, in order to illustrate the
subject. The middle of the three, distinguished by the sym-
metry and beauty of all its parts, is that of a Georgian fernale .
the two outer ones are examples of heads differing from this in
the opposites extremes. That on the left, elongated in front, is
the head of a Negress; the other, on the right, expanded late-
rally, and flattened in front, is the cranium of a Tungoose from
the north-east of Asia. The great expanse of the upper and
anterior part of the cranium, hiding the face, characterizes the
Georgian. In the Ethiopian, the narrow slanting forehead
allows the face to come into view; the cheeks and jaws are com-
pressed laterally, and elongated in front. In the Tungoose, on
the contrary, the maxillary, malar, and nasal bones are widely
expanded on either side ; and the two latter are on the same
horizontal level with the glabella ;* the forehead being still low
and slanting.
In the first, or white variety of man, to which BLUMENBACH
has given the epithet Caucasian, including the ancient and mo-
dern inhabitants of Europe, the western Asiatics, or those on
this side of the Caspian Sea, the rivers Ob and Ganges, and the
northern Africans ;--in a word, nearly all the inhabitants of the
world as known to the ancients, the skull presents the finest
intellectual organization; proportions indicating the greatest
predominance of the rational faculties over the instruments ou
sense and of the common animal wants. The upper and front
parts of the skull are more developed than in any other variety,
and their ample swell completely hides the face, when we survey
the head according to the norma verticalis. The facial line must,
therefore, be nearly vertical; and the facial angle nearly a right
angie. The face is comparatively small, and its outlines rounded,
without anything harsh or unpleasantly prominent. The cheek-
bones are small, and do not stand out, but descend in a nearly
straight line from the external angular process of the frontal
bone. The alveolar margin of the jaws is rounded; and the
front teeth are perpendicular in both. The chin is full and
prominent.
Since this conformation is exhibited in the various nations of
* The space between the frontal sinuses,
Q 2
228
FORMS OF THE SKULL:
S
Europe, its leading traits must be familiar. As a specimen, I
have selected from the third decade of BLUMENBACH's work
the skull of a Georgian* woman, because it comes from a quar-
ter near the supposed original seat of our race, and from a tribe
celebrated for personal beauty. From the elegance and symmetry
of its formation, it may be regarded as the model of a female
head; and is certainly far preferable in this point of view, to
that of
“ The bending statue which enchants the world.”
GALL and SPURZHEIM judiciously observed that the head of
the VENUS was too small for an intellectual being; and that
the goddess of Love was thus represented as an idiot. In this
Georgian head the physical and moral attributes are well com-
bined; the personal charms, which enchant the senses, are
joined to those rational endowments which command esteem
and respect, and satisfy the judgment.
The form of this head is of such distinguished elegance, that
it attracts the attention of all who visit the collection in which
it is contained. The vertical and frontal regions form a large
and smooth convexity, which is a little flattened at the temples;
the forehead is high and broad, and carried forwards perpen-
dicularly over the face. The cheek-bones are small, descend-
ing from the outer side of the orbit, and gently turned back.
The superciliary ridges run together at the root of the nose, and
are smoothly continued into the bridge of that organ, which
forms an elegant and finely-turned arch. The alveolar processes
are softly rounded, and the chin is full and prominent. In the
whole structure there is nothing rough or harsh; nothing dis-
agreeably projecting. Hence it occupies a middle place between
the two opposite extremes, of the Mongolian variety, in which
the face is flattened, and expanded laterally: and the Ethiopian,
in which the forehead is contracted, and the jaws also are
narrow and elongated anteriorly.
BLUMENBACH observes that the form of this head corres-
ponds exactly to that of the marble statue of a nymph in the
collection of the late Mr. TOWNLEY, of which he possesses a
plaster cast. It tends also to confirm the testimony of the nu-
merous travellers, who have unanimously concurred in extolling
the beauty of the inhabitants of Georgia and the neighbouring
* Decas tertia; No. xxi. The sixth plate of this work is copied from the
figure of Blumenbach. The representations in the Tabulæ Sceleli et Musculorum
Hominis, and in the Tab. Ossiuin humanoruin of Albinus, also exemplify the
characters of this variety.
Plate 6.

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CAUCASIAN VARIETY.
229
countries. The expressions of CHARDIN are so warm and
animated, that I subjoin the original passage. “Le sang de
Géorgie est le plus beau de l'orient, et je puis dire du monde.
Je n'ai pas remarqué un visage laid en ce païs-là, parmi, l'un
et l'autre sexe; mais j'y en ai vu d'angeliques. La nature y a
répandu sur la plupart des femmes des graces qu'on ne voit
point ailleurs. Je tiens pour impossible de les regarder sans
les aimer. L'on ne peut peindre de plus charmans visages, ni
de plus belles tailles, que celles des Géorgiennes."* The head
of the Jewish girl engraved in PLATE XII. exemplifies equally
well the Caucasian formation.
The characters above described belong to the following people,
whether ancient or modern; viz: the Syrians and Assyrians,
Chaldeans, Medes, Persians,t Jews, Egyptians, Georgians,
Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians, Turks,|| Arabs, Afghans,
Hindoos of high cast, Gipsies, T Tartars, ** Moors and Berbers
in Africa, Guanches in the Canary Islands, Greeks, Romans, tt
and all the Europeans except the Laplanders. The enumeration
includes all the human races in which the intellectual endow-
ments of man have shone forth in the greatest native vigour,
have received the highest cultivation, and have produced the
richest and most abundant fruits in philosophy, science and art,
in religion and morals, in poetry, eloquence, and the fine arts,
in civilization and government; in all that can dignify and en-
noble the species. We cannot, therefore, wonder that they
should in all cases have not merely vanquished, but held in per-
manent subjection, all the other races.
Much uncertainty has prevailed respecting the physical cha-
racters of the ancient Egyptians : and some have maintained
the opinion that they were Negroes. If The question is certainly
* Voyages en Perse; t. i. p. 171. Edition of 1735.
* Blumenbach, Dec. No, xxxiv.
I Ibid. n. xxviii. and xxxv,
& Ibid. xli.
| Ibid. ii. :
T A genuine Transilvanian Gipsey ; ibid. xi.
** Itid. xii. Sandifort, Muséuin Acad. Lugduno-Bat. v. i. tab. 2.
*+ Roman prætorian soldier; ibid. xxxii.
** Volney seems to assume it as a settled point, that the ancient Egyptians
were Negroes. "How are we astonished when we behold the present bar-
barism and ignorance of the Copts, descended from the profound genius of the
Egyptians, and the brilliant imagination of the Greeks, when we reflect, that
to the race of Negroes, at present our slaves, and the objects of our extreme
contempt, we owe our arts, sciences, and the very use of speech; and when
we recollect that in the inidst of those nations who call themselves the friends
of liberty and humanity, the most barbarous of slaveries is justified; and that
it is even a problem, whether the understanding of Negroes be of the same
species with that of white men !” Travels in Syria and Egypt; chap. vi.
The researches of Meiners into the ancient authorities lead to the conclusion
that there was a great conformity, both in bodily formation and in customs
and in political institutions, between the Egyptians and Indians (Hindoos);
Transil port, Museuibid. xxxled point, we bebolaound gentlect, t?
230
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
interesting, particularly if it should appear that this opinion is
well grounded. That a race ever devoted, within the period
embraced by authentic history, to slavery, or to an independent
existence not much better, and possessing, under the most
favourable circumstances, only the rudiments of the common
arts, and the most imperfect social institutions, should have
accomplished in the remotest antiquity undertakings which
progress in civilization and social life, in arts and sciences; that
they should have subsequently lost all traces of this surprising
progress, and never have exhibited the smallest approximation
to such a pre-eminence in any other instance, would be a fact
extremely difficult to explain.
Egypt was venerated, even by antiquity, as the birthplace of
the arts, and still retains innumerable monuments of their former
splendour, after so many ages of desolation. Her principal
temples, and the palaces of her kings, still subsist, although the
least ancient of them were constructed before the war of Troy
With our present experience of the capacity of Negroes, and our
knowledge of the state in which the whole race has remained
for twenty centuries, can we deem it possible that they should
have achieved such prodigies ? that HOMER, LYCURGUS, SOLON,
PYTHAGORAS, and PLATO, should have resorted to Egypt to
study the sciences, religion, and laws, discovered and framed
by men with black skin, woolly hair, and slanting forehead ?
The situation of Egypt favours the notion of a mixed popula-
tion, which may have flowed in at various times from different
The Caucasian races of Arabia, Syria, and the surrounding
parts, must have found their way into this fertile and flourish-

and a less marked affinity between the former and the Ethiopians. But it is
not clear what race of men was meant by that term, For the ancient historians
speak of Negro Ethiopians, of another African Ethiopian race with long hair.
and of Asiatic Ethiopians. De veterum Egyptiorum Origine; in Commentation,
Reg. Soc. Scient. Goetting. v. 10.
Dr. Prichard has brought together, with great learning and industry, all the
ancient testimonies that can illustrate this question; and has examined and
collated them so carefully, that nothing further can be expected from this
quarter. The results are thus summed up: “We may consider the general
result of the facts which we can collect concerning the physical characters of
the Egyptians to be this, that the national cont ation prevailing in the
most ancient times was nearly the Neyro form, with woolly hair, But that
in a later age this character had become considerably modified and changed,
and that a part of the population of Egypt resembled the modern Hindoos.
The general complexion was black, or a least a very dusky hue.” Researches
into the Physical History of Man, p. 388. In the seventh and eighth chapters
of this work the most extensive and learned researches are employed to prove
were marked by the characters of the Negro race.
CAUCASTAN VARIETY.
231
ing country: the Red Sea offers an easy medium of communi-
cation both with Arabia and India; while the freest access exists
on the south and west to the Negroes and Berbers of Africa.
Hence specimens of various races may be naturally expected
to occur among the mummies; and may have afforded models
to the painter and sculptor. If, however, among the myriads of
embalmed bodies, of the sculptured figures, which cover the
walls of temples and palaces, and of other works of art, we should
meet with one or two of Negro formation, are we thence to
conclude that the original Egyptians were Negroes? or that
men of the latter race possessed those distinguished powers of
knowledge and reflection, which the early history of this won-
derful country compels us to assign to its ruling race ? Qught
we not rather to draw our conclusions from the most prevalent
forms, those which are most numerous and abundant in the
oldest specimens? If, among a profusion of mummies and
figures, bearing the stamp of the Caucasian model, a few should
occur with a little dash of the Negro character, may we not
suppose the individuals who furnished the pattern of the latter
to have been in Egypt, as they have been every where, slaves *
to the race of nobler formation? To give the new Negroes the
glory of all the discoveries and achievements of this first civilized
race, and overlook the more numerous individuals of different
character, would be in opposition to the invariable tenour of our
experience respecting human nature.
In the course of his inquiries into the natural history of man,
this subject attracted the attention of BLUMENBACH, who has
been fortunate enough to procure the opportunity of examining
several mummies. He gave an account of some of these in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1794. Having afterwards met
with another very perfect specimen, he published a more en-
larged and detailed essay on the whole subject, in his Contribu-
tions to Natural History, part i. Goett. 12mo. 1811.
He expresses his surprise that professed and judicious anti-
quaries, such as WINKELMANN and D'HANCARVILLE, should
have ascribed one common character of national physiognomy
to the ancient Egyptian works of art, and should have dispatched
it shortly and decisively in two lines.
“I think,” he continues, " that we cannot fail to recognise at
least three principal differences, which, indeed, like all varieties
of formation, in our species, run together by numerous grada-
* Slavery is coeval with our earliest records. See Gen, ix. 25, 26; xii. 5.
232
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
U
tions, yet are marked, in their strongest forms, by very distinct
characters. They are, the Ethiopian, the Indian, and one re-
sembling the Berbers or original inhabitants of the Barbary
states."
The first is marked by prominent jaws, thick lips, a broad
flattened nose, and projecting eyes. Such, according to LED-
YARD, VOLNEY, LARREY, and other competent authorities, are
the characters of the modern Copts :* such, too, according to
the best descriptions and delineations in NORDEN, VOLNEY,
DENON, and others, is the countenance of the great sphinx at
Gizeh, and of many other ancient works of Egyptian art. The
Egyptians themselves, according to the well-known passage of
HERODOTUS,t had these characters; and LUCIANI gives a
similar description of a young Egyptian at Rome.
Ethiopian form must be here understood in that wide accep-
tation which we give to the expression Ethiopian race in the
arrangement of the human species ; and not in the more marked
but narrower sense of what the English call the true Guinea
face. Indeed, the physiological characters of the Negro, taken
in a general sense, are as loosely defined as his geographical
description ; for, among Negroes, there are several who, in
smoothness of the hair and general beauty of form, excel many
Europeans.
· A complete contrast to this Ethiopian form is presented in
the Hindoo-like character of other old remains, which consists
of a long slender nose, long and narrow aperture of the eyelids,
running upwards to the temple, ears placed high on the head,
short and slender trunk, and long legs. The female figure on
the back of Capt. LETHIEULLIER's mummy in the British
Museum, in a characteristic representation of this form, and ac-
cords entirely with the well-known national make of the Hindoos.
.. The Copts, who are regarded as the descendants of the ancient Egyptians,
have “a yellowish dusky complexion, which is neither Grecian nor Arabian;
they have alla puffed visage, swoln eyes, flat noses, and thick lips; in short, the
exact countenance of a Mulatto." Volney, Travels in Syria and Egypt.
I do not, however, find the Negro Character expressed in the delineations
of Copts, by Denon, Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte; pl. 105, No.ii.;
pi. 108, No. i. and iii. ; nor in those of the great Description de l'Egypte; see
Etat Moderne, vol. ii. Costumes and Portraits. Neither have I succeeded in
discovering representations of Negroes among the almost numberless sculptures
of the ancient buildings represented in both these works. The human figures
are marked by traits of a form altogether different.
+ He argues that the Colchians must have been a colony of Egyptians,
because they were μελάγχρωες και ουλότριχες”_black skinned and woolly
haired. Lih. ii.
* Navigium, S. Vola, c. ii.
Blumenbach refers in a note to two figures with marked Negro form; one
is engraved as a vignette to the Preface of his Contributions, part ii, ; and the
other is described by P. as, Bartholomæo, in his Mumiographia Obiciana, p. 51.
Such a head is represented in the title-page vignette,
CAUCASIAN VARIETY.
233
A very.competent judge, the learned P. a S.BARTHOLOMÆO,
after carefully comparing together the various Egyptian works
of art in the rich Italian collections, not only fully adınits the
justice of my threefold division, but particularly confirms the
strong contrast between the Ethiopian formation and that Hin-
doo character so well known to him from his long residence in
Hindostan.*
In accordance with this distinction, long smooth hair has been
found in some mummies, and short curled hairt in others.
The third and commonest kind of form resembles neither of
the foregoing, and is characterized by a peculiar bloated habit,
swoln and rather loose cheeks, short chin, large projecting eyes,
and fleshy body. (See the vignette at the end of the Preface).
I call this the Berber character, because the great analogies
which constitute the surest basis for conclusions respecting the
descent and affinities of people, viz. those of form, language, and
agreament in customs of marked peculiarity, are here all united.İ
I proceed to an osteological examination of the mummy heads;
which, if performed with accuracy and discrimination, will sup-
ply us with sure data, as far as they go. We shall find that the
bodies thus preserved have the characters of the Caucasian
variety, and we shall hardly discover, among a great multitude
of examples, a single unequivocal instance of Negro formation.
In his Decades Craniorum, No. I. and XXXI., BLUMENBACH
has represented two Egyptian skulls. The first bears no marks
of Ethiopian origin, nor does the author assign to it any such
characters. “In universum hujus cranii habitus eundem cha-
racterem præ se ferre videtur, quem et ingentia Ægyptiacæ
artis veteris opera spirant, non quidem elegantem et pulchellum,
ast magnun.” P. 13.
The European or Caucasian character of the second is quite
obvious; yet, in the description, there appears a desire of fixing
on it some mark of Negro descent. “Quod vero universum
vultum attinet, differt quidem ille satis luculenter a genuino isto
Nigritarum, qui Anglis vulgo facies Guineensis audit; Æthio-
pici tamen aliquid spirat, ita ut proprius absit ab Habessinico,
qualem curata icon exhibet, proxime autem ab eo, quem tot an-
tiquissima Ægyptiacæ artis monumenta præ se ferunt.” The
*"Stat ergo ea veritas, præter Æthiopicum vultum in Egypto, ejusque
mumiis et monumentis, admittenduin esse characterem quendam Indicum,
qui Egyptiis non minus gentilitius et nativus est quam Ethiopicus."
+ For this fact Gryphius is quoted.
# P. 130 137.
234
FORMS OF THE SKULL:
Abyssinians, to whom a comparison is here made, are of Arab
descent, and have all the characters of the Caucasian variety.
SOEMMERRING describes the head of four mummies which he
has seen : two of them differed in no respects from the Euro-
pean formation; the third had the African character of a large
space marked out for the temporal muscle; no other proof of
Negro descent is mentioned, and what is stated concerning the
face rather contradicts the supposition: the characters of the
fourth are not particularized.
“ Caput mumiæ, quod Cassellis in museo servatur, nil fere ab
Europæo differt. *
“ Caput etiam mumiæ in theatro anatomico Marpurgensi ser-
vatum, cujus exacta delineatio ad manus est, nil a capite Euro-
pæo deflectit.
“Pulcherrima et optime servata, forsan virilis mumiæ calvaria
optimæ ætatis, qua me Mieg, Professor Basileensis benevole
donavit, quæque olim in collectione F. PLATERI fuit, distincte
formam Africanam, alte progrediente vestigio insitionis musculi
temporalis, repræsentat; vertex non est compressus, neque ossa
faciei robustiora sunt ossibus Europæorun. Densum ordinem
integri pulchri dentes sistunt, non nisi inferiores incisores et
canini oblique priora et inferiora versus attenuati sunt, pluri-
mum vero medium incisorum par, brevioribus ea de causa coroa
nis instructum.
“ Calvaria mumiæ hominis senis confecti, ab eodem MIEG
mihi data, Ægyptiacam ossium faciei formam minus accurate
repræsentat, verum dentes incisores exteriores inferiores, et
dentes canini modo quem suprà indicavi, se habent; distant
nimirum inter se, et in planum sunt attenuati.”[
DENON states of the female mummies, “ que leurs cheveux
étoient longs et lisses; que le caractère de la tête de la plupart
tenoit du beau style. Je rapportois une tête de vieille femme,
qui étoit aussi belle que celles des Sibylles de MICHELANGE.”I
The embalmed heads from the catacombs of Thebes (Quour-
nah), engraved in the great French work, are of the finest
European form, to which their abundant, long, and slightly
flowing hair fully corresponds. There is a male head, with the
broad and fully developed forehead, small perpendicular face,
and all the contours of our best models. “ L'angle facial se
* Bruckmann's Nachricht von einer Mumie; Brunswick, 1782, 4to.
+ De Corporis humani Fabrica; t. i. pp. 70, 71.
I Voyage, p. 252.
Description de l’Egypte; Antiquities, t. ii. pl. 49.
CAUCASIAN VARIETY.
235
rapproche beaucop d'un angle droit ; et les dents incisives sont
plantées verticalement, et non inclinées ni avancées, comme elles
le seroient dans une tête de Nègre.” The nose is finely arched;
the jaws perpendicular; the mouth and chin well formed. The
front and profile views of a female head * are of the same cha-
racter; the face completely European, the hair copious, and
disposed in small masses or locks, a little turned. The same
remarks are applicable to another head, t of which a section is
also exhibited.
The skulls of four mummies in the possession of Dr. LEACH,
of the British Museum, and casts of three others, agree with
those just mentioned in exhibiting a formation not differing
from the European, without any trait of Negro character.
Lastly, so far as osteological proofs go, the question may be
considered as completely decided by the strong evidence of
CUVIER.
“ It is now clearly proved—yet it is necessary to repeat the
truth, because the contrary error is still found in the newest
works—that neither the Gallas (who border on Abyssinia) nor
the Bosjesmen, nor any race of Negroes, produced that cele-
brated people who gave birth to the civilization of ancient
Egypt, and from whom we may say that the whole world has
inherited the principles of its laws, sciences, and perhaps also
the religion.
“ BRUCE even imagines that the ancient Egyptians were
Cushites, or woolly-haired Negroes; he supposes them to have
been allied to the Shangallas of Abyssinia.
“Now that we distinguish the several human races by the
bones of the head, and that we possess so many of the ancient
Egyptian embalmed bodies, it is easy to prove that, whatever
may have been the hue of their skin, they belonged to the same
race with ourselves; that their cranium and brain were equally
voluminous; in a word, that they formed no exception to that
cruel law, which seems to have doomed to eternal inferiority all
the tribes of our species which are unfortunate enough to have
a depressed and compressed cranium.
“ I present the head of a mummy, that the Academy may
compare it to those of Europeans, Negroes, and Hottentots. It
is detached from an entire skeleton, which I did not bring on
account of its brittleness : but its comparison has furnished the
same results. I have examined, in Paris, and in the various
* Description de l'Egypte; Antiquities, t. ii. pl. 50. + Ibid. pl. 5..
236
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
....
....
......
.
.
..
.
collections of Europe, more than fifty heads of mummies, and
not one amongst them presented the characters of the Negro
or Hottentot."*
By examination of the bony head we learn that the Guanches
also, or the race which occupied the Canary Islands at the time
of their first discovery by the Europeans in the fourteenth cen-
tury, belonged to the Caucasian variety. The name Guanches
signifies men or sons in their language. The Spaniards, who
conquered them, represent then as a people of strength and
courage, of powerful bodies and intelligent minds, advanced in
social institutions, and of pure morals. They made the bravest
resistance to their European invaders, who did not completely
subject them until after a hundred and fifty years of repeated
contests. They had a tradition of their descent from an ancient,
great, and powerful people.
We now know them, as we do the Egyptians, only by their :
mummies, f the race being completely extinct. The entire head,
engraved in BLUMENBACH's fifth Decade, I offers no essential
difference from the European form.
The testimony of Cuvier is to the same effect. “I present
to the Academy the head of a Guanche; a specimen of that race
which inhabited the Canaries before they were conquered by the
Spaniards. Some authors, believing the tales of Timæus con-
cerning the Atlantis, have regarded the Guanches as the wreck
of the supposed Atlantic people. Their practice of preserving
dead bodies in the mummy form might rather lead us to suspect
some affinity to the ancient Egyptians. However that may
* Extrait d'Observations faites sur le Cadavre d'une Femme connue à Paris.co
à Londres sous le nom de Vónus Hoticniolle. Mémoires du
t. iii. pp. 173, 174.
f The body of which Blumenbach's engraving exhibits a head, appears to
him to be that of a female. “When brought from its subterranean abode on
the island of Teneriffe to London, it was entirely and curiously sewed up in
goat skins, according to the usual practice of this ancient and aboriginal race.
See Viera Nolicias de las Islas de Canaria; Glass's History of the Canary
Islands; Golbery Voyage en Afrique; i. p. 88-95. It was surprisingly dry, and
perfectly inodorous, although the muscles and skin, the contents of the head,
thorax, and abdomen, in short, all the soft parts, had been preserved. So
Powerful had the process of exsiccation been, that the entire body weiglied only
seven pounds and a half; although a female skeleton of the same stature, in its
crdinary state of dryness, would weigh at least nine pounds." Dec. v. p. r.
* No. xlii.
§ Although the Guanches were separated from the Egyptians by the entire
breadth of northern Africa, they not only resembled them in the singular
practice of preserving the dead, which was intrusted in both cases to the
priests, and in some of the ornaments bestowed on the mummies, but also in
linguage. From a vocabulary of the Tuariks, near Egypt, collected by Mr.
Hornemann, Mr. Marsden traced an affinity between them and the Berbers
or Numidians, with whose language it is well known that the small remains
of the Guanche tongue ayrce. "Blumenbach, loc. cit. p. 8. Adelung, Mithri-
dates ; vol. iii. part. i. pp. 59, 60,

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CAUCASIAN VARIETY.
237
be, their head, like that of the Egyptian mummies, demon-
strates their Caucasian origin. *
The latter point is fully confirmed by two Guanche skulls in
the possession of Dr. LEACH.
The form of the cranium has not yet been sufficiently studied
and observed to enable us to say that the several very different
nations included under the Caucasian variety are or are not
are, however, some peculiarities so striking, that they imme-
diately attract notice. The completely globular form of the
skull in the Turk is one of these: it is exemplified in an
engraving of BLUMENBACH's first Decade, f corresponding
exactly to a skull which I have seen. The cranium (properly
to exist, as the foramen magnum is placed very near the posterior
part of the basis cranii ; the forehead is broad, and the glabella
broad. The proportions of the face are symmetrical and ele-
gant. The alveolar part or the upper jaw-bone is singularly
short; not measuring more than the breadth of the little finger
under the nose. The basis of the lower jaw is remarkable for
its shortness: the facial line nearly vertical, so that the prepon-
derance of the parts placed in front of the occipito-atloidal arti-
culation is reduced as much as possible.
Two other Turkish skulls in BLUMENBACH's possession have
exactly the same shape; which is very general in living Turks,
and is always visible in good portraits of them. This peculiarity
of form has been observed by several authors ; it is indeed so
striking, that it could hardly have escaped observation. “ It
appears," says VESALIUS, “ that most nations have something
peculiar in the form of the head. The crania of the Genoese,
and still more remarkably those of the Greeks and Turks, are
completely globular in their form. This shape, which they
esteem elegant, and well adapted to their practice of enveloping
the head in the folds of their turbans, is often produced by the
midwives at the solicitation of the mothers." I
A corresponding statement to this account is given by Baron
Asch in a letter to BLUMENBACH. He says, that the mid-
wives at Constantinople commonly inquire of the mother, after
* Cuvier, loc. cit. Soemmerring mentions that the head of a Guanche
mummy at Cassel has the Negro characters; but enters into no further detail
De Corp. humani Fabric, t. i. p. 71.
+ No, ii.
I De Corporis humani Fabrica; p.23, ed. of 1555.
238
FORMS OF THE SKULL .
from a tight circular bandage, as they think that their turbans
sit better when the head has that round shape. *
That the old women should have told such a story, and that
the Baron should have believed them, is not surprising ; but it
seems to me very extraordinary that a physiologist, and one well
acquainted with nature, should have given credit to this old
wife's tale. A single glance at his own engraving of this beau-
fabric, the nice correspondence and adjustment of all parts, the
perfect harmony between the cranium and face, and in all the
details of each, demonstrate most unequivocally that it is a
natural formation, and a very fine work of nature too. There
is not the minutest vestige of artificial impression: and I can
have no hesitation in asserting the impossibility of inducing by
bandage, pressure, or artifice of any kind, such a form on a
head of a different original configuration.
In the passage already quoted, VESALIUS goes on to observe
“ that the Germans had generally a flattened occiput and broad
head, because the children are always laid on their backs in the
cradles; and that the Belgians have a more oblong form, because
the children are allowed to sleep on their sides.” These prac-
tices account just as well for the German and Belgian forms, as
the manæuvres of the Constantinople midwives do for the sphe-
rical skulls of the Turks. I have, however, seen German heads
of a globular form; remarkably high and broad behind; re-
sembling the Turkish cranium in this respect, and in the
approximation of the great occipital foramen to the posterior
part of the basis cranii.
SOEMMERRING says that he finds no well-marked differences
between the German, Swiss, French,t Swedish, I and Russians
skulls in his collection ; except that the orbits are contracted in
the Russian, their margins quadrangular, and the teeth small.
In the skull of a Pole figured by BLUMENBACH,|| the smallness
of the orbits is a remarkable feature.
That no striking difference has been discovered on comparing
together one or two casual specimens of each of the nations
above mentioned, does not authorize us to conclude that no
differences exist. On the contrary, if the brain be the seat of
* Blumenbach, Dec. i. p. 16.
+ Sandifort, Muséum Acad. Lugd. Bal. v, i. tab. 6.
* Ibid, tab, 4.
& ibid. t. 9.
| Decad. iii. No, 22.
MONGOLIAN VARIETY.
239
our intellectual and moral functions, which nobody at present
seems to doubt; and if the several propensities, sentiments and
intellectual powers are the functions of certain parts of this
organ, which is at least a probable doctrine; we shall be much
surprised to find that no distinctions are observable in the shape
of the cranium between English, French, Germans, Italians, &c.
The only mode of ascertaining the point satisfactorily would be
to collect a considerable number of heads of each nation, or of
accurate casts or portraits; and to select, for this purpose, indi-
viduals of genuine descent, whose organization has not been
modified by foreign intermixture. My friend, Mr. GEORGE
LEWIS, whose quickness in distinguishing forms, and readiness
and accuracy in portraying them to the very life, are well
known, observed, in a tour through France and Germany, that
the lower and anterior part of the cranium is larger in the
French, the upper and anterior in the Germans; and that the
upper and posterior region is larger in the former than in the
latter. He was always struck with the very fine forms of the
skull in Italians, which coincides completely with what I have
seen of them in this country. Our decision, then, on this very
interesting subject must be postponed at present, and await the
result of more numerous and accurate comparisons.
Into minuter differences, such as the high cheek-bones of the
Scotch, the aquiline noses of the Jews and Armenians, &c. I
do not propose to enter.
In the four following varieties of the human race we observe,
on comparing them to the Caucasian, a much less perfect de-
velopment of the upper and anterior parts of the cranium, and
very often a greater size of the face. This and similar observa-
tions are to be taken in a general sense; individual modifications
are numerous in all the varieties, so that both the Caucasian
and the dark-coloured divisions furnish examples of individuals,
which exhibit in each case respectively, the characters of the
other; yet, in many of the dark races, a low, narrow, and re-
treating forehead, is a very striking and general character.
The second, or Mongolian variety, includes those Asiatics
which do not come under the first division, and the inhabitants
of the northern parts of America and Europe. The forehead is
low and slanting, and the head altogether of a square form. The
cheek-bones stand out widely on either side. The glabella and
ossa nasi, which are flat and very small, are placed nearly on the
same plane with the malar bones. There are scarcely any super-
240
FORMS OF THE SKULL :
ciliary ridges. The entrance of the nose is' narrow; the malar
fossa forms but a slight excavation. The alveolar edge of the
jaws is obtusely arched in front; the chin rather prominent.
This formation is most strikingly exhibited in the Mongolian
tribes, which are widely scattered over the continent of Asia,
and which have generally, but erroneously, been included, with
others of different origin and formation, under the name of
Tartars (Tatars); whereas the last-mentioned tribes, properly so
nucks and other Mongolian nations which overran the Saracen
empire under Zenghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, and had
entered Europe, are described in the Historia Major* of MAT-
THEW PARIS, under the name of Tartars; whereas that appel-
lation, or rather Tatars, properly belongs to the western Asiatics,
who had been vanquished by the Mongols. The error, however,
arising from this source has been propagated down to the present
day, so that in the works of the most approved naturalists, as
BUFFON and ERXLEBEN, we find the characters of the Mon-
golian race ascribed to what they call the Tartars. The mistake
has not been detected, even by the most celebrated and classical
modern historians; for Dr. ROBERTSONT speaks of Zenghis as
the Emperor of the Tartars.
MENBACH's work (Dec. alter. No. 14) the engraving of a Cal-
muck's skull, see PLATE VII.; and that of a Burat child,
London, 1686, fol. p.530. The description is contained in a letter sent by an
ecclesiastic from Vienna, in 1243, to his archbishop in France, and speaks " de
Borribili vastatione inhumanæ gentis, quain Tartaros vocant." These barba-
rous hordes had at that time entered Hungary, and penetrated even to Vienna.
His description of their corporeal characters corresponds to the portrait which,
from Buffôn downwards, so many naturalists have drawn of the Mongolian
tribes. under the name of Tartars. " Habent autem Tartari pectora dura. et
robusta, facies macras et pallidas, scapulas rigidas et erectas, nasos distortos
et breves, menta proeminentia et acuta, superiorem mandibulam humilem et
profundam, dentes longos et raros, palpebras a crinibus usque ad nasum pro-
tensas, oculos inconstantes et nigros, aspectus obliquos et torvos, extremitates
ossosas et nervosas, crura quoque grossa, sed tibias breviores, statura tamen
nobis æquales; quod enim in tibiis deficit, in superiori corpore compensatur.'
Blumenbach, from whose Second Decade, p.7, I have borrowed this quotation,
observes " that the writer obviously speaks, not of the genuine Tatars, but of
a people most widely different from them, namely, the Mongols or Calmucks,
whose only affinity to them consisted in the name by which then, and even
now, the two races are improperly confounded. All the characters, therefore,


Mongolian race. We know, on the contrary, that the Tatars are a handsome
people, conspicuous for the beauty and symmetry of their countenance, as is
evinced in the skull here represented, No. 12), which presents a complete
contrast to the Mongolian characters of several specimens in this collection.”
Further information on the origin of this confusion of names may be procured
from J. E. Fischer, Conjectuæ de Gente et Nomine Tatarorum, in his Quæstiones
Petropolitance; also from his Sibirische Geschichte, t. i.
+ History of America; v. i. p. 45.
ETHIOPIAN VARIETY.
211
PLATE XII. The cranium is nearly globular; the face broad
and flattened; the forehead flat and wide; the inalar bones
standing out laterally; the orbits very large and open; the su-
perciliary arches elevated ; the general habit of the skull in a
manner swoln (quasi inflatus et tumidus).
“The whole character of this skull corresponds to the well-
known Calmuck countenance, and agrees perfectly with the
engraving of a Calmuck skull published by J. B. DE FISCHER;*
but nothing can be more different from it than the figure t in
CAMPER's posthumous work on the facial line, which he brings
forward as a representation of a head of the same race, and con-
siders as a type of the formation prevailing over all Asia, North
America, and the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean. Without
noticing the latter opinion, which is contradicted by the slightest
acquaintance with the native inhabitants of these various regions,
I shall merely observe that I am well convinced that the skull
in question belongs to that variety of the human race which is
the most widely different from the Calmuck, viz. to the Negro.
Although no national form is so constant as not to be exposed
to many deviations, and hence we meet among Europeans with
individuals approaching to the Negro or Mongol characters, yet
the form of the Calmuck head is so completely contrary to that
of the Negro, and the figure in question bears so genuine and
unequivocal an Ethiopian character, that I am convinced the
excellent author must have been deceived, and consequently
that his work, besides European, contains only two African
skulls." I
The head of a Yakut, g from the remotest parts of Siberia, ex
hibits the same characters. A square face ; large orbits sepa-
rated by a very considerable ethnoid bone; the nasal bones
small and running together above into a point.
This is followed by the skull of a Tungoose,ll of that descrip-
tion which is called Rein-deer Tungooses. The face is flattened,
and of great breadth across the cheeks; the forehead depressed;
the olfactory apparatus very considerable.
The Decades of BLUMENBACH contain also figures of another
Calmuck,9 of a Burat child ** a year and a half old, of a Don
Cossack,tt a Daurian or Chinese Tungoose, If and an ancient
• Dissertatio ostcologica de Modo quo Ossa se vicinis accommodant Partibus.
Ludy. Bat. 1713, 4to. tab. l.
+ Traité physique des Différences réciles, &c. ; tab. i. fig. 4; tab. iii. fig. 3.
# Dec. alt. p. 9, 10.
Ibid. tab. 15.
li Ibill. tab. 16.
T Tab. 5.
** T. 29.
++ T. 1.
T. 230
R
242
FORMS OF THE SKULL :
inhabitant of southern Siberia,* all exemplifying, in a more or
less marked manner, the characters of the Monglian variety.+
The same characters are strongly expressed in the sknll of a
Lapland female ; # and prove unequivocally that this race belongs
to the Mongolian variety.
The third or Ethiopian variety comprehends all the Africans
which are not included within the first or Caucasian division;
all of whom partake more or less of the well-known Negro form.
The front of the head, including the forehead and face, is
compressed laterally, and considerably elongated towards the
front; hence the length of the whole skull, from the teeth to
to the occiput, is considerable. It forms, in this respect, the
strongest contrast to that globular shape which some of the Cau.
casian races present, and which is very remarkable in the Turk.
The capacity of the cranium is reduced, particularly in its
front part, where it appears as if the forehead had been sliced
off. The face, on the contrary, is enlarged.
“I measured,” says SOEMMERRING, “ several Negro, and
nearly all my European crania, in order to compare the capacity
of the respective cerebral cavities. I found in the former ; 1st,
That the measure taken by carrying a string from the root of
the nose, along the middle of the forehead, and the sagittal
suture, to the posterior edge of the foramen ovale, the length of
the face being equal, was much shorter. 2ndly, That the hori-
zontal circumference, measured by a string carried round the
head above the eyebrows, and the superior edge of the temporal
bone, was much less. 3dly, That neither the long diameter
from the forehead to the occiput, nor any transverse diameter
between the parietal or the temporal bones, is equal to the
corresponding one in the European.”'s
The frontal bone is shorter, and, as well as the parietal, less
excavated and less capacious than in the European; the tem-
poral ridge mounts higher, and the space which it includes is
*** T. 33. This skull was taken from one of the very ancient burial-places
which are found near the workings of old mines in the mountainous parts of
Siberia, and are ascribed by the natives to Tschudæ or barbarians. They are
particularly described by Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Rus-
sischen Reichs; t. iii, p. 608 et seq. Neither history nor tradition has pre-
served any memorials of the people whose remains and works are found in
these situations. The lightness of the skull, from the entire loss of the animal
substance, corresponds with this fact in proving the high antiquity of this
race; and its physical characters accord with those of the tribes who now
occupy the same region,
+ A Calmuck skull of very characteristic form is represented in E. Sandifort
Muséum Acaaemicurl Ludg. Bat. v. i. tab. 1.
# Dec. Quinta; tab. 43.
i Ueber die körperliche Verschiedenheit des Negers des vom Europäer; 850,
ETHIOPIAN VARIETY.
243
much more considerable. The front of the skull seems com-
pressed into a narrow keel-like form between the two powerful
temporal muscles, which rise nearly to the highest part of the head;
and has a compressed figure, which is not equally marked in the
entire head; on account of the thickness of the muscles. Instead
of the ample swell of the forehead and vertex, which rises
between and completely surmounts the comparatively weak
temporal muscles of the European, we often see only a small
space left between the two temporal ridges in the Ethiopian.
Tlie foramen magnum is larger, and lies farther back in the
head: the other openings for the passage of the nerves are larger.
skull thicker, and the whole weight consequently more con-
siderable.
The bony apparatus employed in mastication, and in forming
receptacles for the organs of sense, is larger, stronger, and more
advantageously constructed for powerful effect, than in the races
where more extensive use of experience and reason, and greater
civilization, supply the place of animal strength.
If the bones of the face in the Negro were taken as a basis,
and a cranium were added to them of the same relative magni-
tude which it possesses in the European, a receptacle for the
brain would be required much larger than in the latter case.
However, we find it considerably smaller. Thus the intellectual
part is lessened, the animal organs are enlarged: proportions
are produced just opposite to those which are found in the
Grecian ideal model. The facial angle of the skull engraved in
and the elongation of the jaws into a kind of muzzle, give to
this head an animal character, which cannot escape the most
cursory examination.
A similar head, with a similar facial angle, has been figured
by Ed. SANDITORT.* It is sufficiently obvious, that on a
vertical anteroposterior section of the head, the area of the face
will be more considerable in proportion to that of the cranium,
in such a skull, than in the fine European forms.
The larger and stronger jaws require more powerful muscles.
The temporal fossil is much larger; the ridge which bounds it
rises higher on the skull, and is more strongly. marked, than in
the European. The thickness of the muscular mass may be
estimated from the bony arch, within which it descends to the
* Muséum Acad. Lugd. Bat. t. i. tab. 3.
R?
244
FORMS OF THE SKULL:
lower jaw. The zygoma is larger, stronger, and more capacious
in the Negro; the cheek-bones project remarkably, and are very
strong, broad, and thick: hence they afford space for the
attachment of powerful masseters.
The orbits, and particularly their external apertures, are capa-
cious.
Both entrances to the nose are more ample, the cavity itself
considerably more capacious, the plates and windings of the
ethmoid bone more complicated, the cribriform lamella more
extensive, than in the European. The ossa nasi are flat and
short, instead of forming the bridge-like convexity which we
see in the European. They run together above into an acute
angle, which makes them considerably resemble the single tri-
angle nasal bone of the monkey. In the Negro skull engraved
in PLATE VIII., they are nearly consolidated together in their
whole length.
· The superior maxillary hone is remarkably prolonged in front;
its alveolar portion and the included incisor teeth are oblique,
instead of being perpendicular, as in the European. The nasal
spine at the entrance of the nose is either inconsiderable
or entirely deficient. The palatine arch is longer and more
elliptical. The alveolar edge of the lower jaw stands forward,
like that of the upper; and this part in both is narrow, elon-
gated, and elliptical. The chin, instead of projecting equally
with the teeth, as it does in the European, recedes considerably
like that of the monkey.
The preceding description of the Negro cranium must be
taken in a general sense, with an allowance for exceptions and
individual modifications. It is drawn from strongly-marked
examples, and cannot therefore be received as universally and
strictly applicable. We seldom meet with instances in which
the animal character is so strongly portrayed as in the subject
of the eighth plate. The depression, narrowness, and flatness
of the forehead, the great size and projection of the jaws, are
carried here to an extraordinary and very striking degree.
Travellers inform us that several Africans differ from the Euro-
pean formation in little more than colour; so that the peculiar
construction of the head, on the faith of which some would class
these people as a distinct species, is by no means a constant
character.
· This diversity of form is abundantly proved by delineations
of Africans executed by the best artists; and is well illustrated
ETHIOPIAN VARIETY.
245
hy the engravings which BLUMENBACH has published of six
African heads, * all differing from each other, and exhibiting as
much variety as we see in Europeans. They vary considerably
in the development and prominence of the forehead, in the size
and arching of the nasal bones, in the projection of the jaws and
teeth, the formation of the chin, and in other points ; and fully
justify his conclusion, “ genuinos Æthiopes, si craniorum for-
mam spectes, non minus certe, imo vero magis passim inter
seipsos ab invicem differre, quam nonnulli eorum a multorum
Europæorum capitis forma differunt.”+
The tribes in the south of Africa, that is, near the European
colony at the Cape—the Hottentots, Kaffers, Bosjesmen, &c.
are not yet enough known to enable us to decide whether they
ought to be arranged under the Ethiopian variety, or whether
they belong to a different type. BLUMENBACH has figured
and described a skull in his last Decade; I and, more recently,
Cuvier has published an account of a female head. In some
points these two specimens differ from each other remarkably.
In the male Bosjesman's head represented by BLUMENBACH,
the cranium is less compressed than in the Negro. The orbits
and cheek-bones are wide, the jaws not at all prominent, the
incisor teeth with their alveoli and chin in the same perpendi-
nasal bones are very small, and nearly in the same plane with
the nasal processes of the superior maxillæ.
“ The bony head of our female Bosjesman,” says CUVIER,
“ presented a striking combination of the traits of the Negro
with those of the Calmuck. In the Negro the mouth is pro-
minent, the face and cranium compressed laterally: in the Cal-
muck the jaws are flattened, and the face wide. In both, the
bones of the nose are smaller and flatter than in the European.
Our Bosjesman had the jaws more projecting than the Negro,
the face wider than the Calmuck, and the nose flatter than
either. In the latter respect particularly, her head came nearer
to that of the monkey than any I ever saw. From these general
arrangements many particular traits of structure result: the
orbits are very wide in proportion to their height; the entrance
of the nostrils has a peculiar form; the palate has a larger sur-
face; the incisor teeth are more oblique; the temporal fossa
more extensive, &c.
* Dec. prima; tab. 6, 7, 8. Dec. allera; tab. 17, 18, 19.
+ Dec. altera, p. 13.
# Dec quinta, tab. 45.
246
FORMS OF THE SKULL:
than in other heads; which, acccording to the views of SOEM.
MERRING, would indicate an inferior nature."*
The characters of the Ethiopian variety, as observed in the
genuine Negro tribes, may be thus summed up: 1. Narrow and
depressed forehead; the entire cranium contracted anteriorly :
the cavity less, both in its circumference and transverse measure-
ments. 2. Occipital foramen and condyles placed farther back.
3. Large space for the temporal muscles. 4. Great development
of the face. 5. Prominence of the jaws altogether, and par-
ticularly of their alveolar margins and teeth; consequent obli-
quity of the facial line. 6. Superior incisors slanting. 7. Chin
receding. 8. Very large and strong zygomatic arch projecting
towards the front. 9. Large nasal cavity. 10. Small and flat-
tened ossa nasi, sometimes consolidated, and running into a
point above.
In all the particulars just enumerated, the Negro structure
approximates unequivocally to that of the monkey. It not only
differs from the Caucasian model, but is distinguished from it
in two respects; the intellectual characters are reduced, the
animal features enlarged and exaggerated. In such a skull as
that represented in the eighth plate, which indeed has been par-
ticularly selected, because it is strongly characterized, no per
son, however little conversant with natural history or physio..
logy, could fail to recognise a decided approach to the animal
form. This infer: y of organization is attended with corres-
ponding inferiority of faculties; which may be proved, not so
much hy the unfortunate beings who are degraded by slavery, as
by every fact in the past history and present condition of
Africa.
I state these plain results of observation and experience with-
out any fear that you will find in them either apology or excuse
for Negro slavery. In the warm and long disputes on this sub-
ject, both parties have contrived to be in the wrong in the ques-
tion regarding the Negro faculties. The abolitionists have errred
in denying a natural inferiority so clearly evinced by the con-
curring evidences of anatomical structure and experience. But
it was only an error of fact, and may be the more readily ex-
cused as it was on the side of humanity.
Their opponents have committed the more serious moral
mistake of perverting what should constitute a claim to kind.
ness and indulgence into justification or palliation of the revolt-
ing and antichristian practice of traffic in human flesh; a prac-
* Extrait d'Observations sur la Vénus Hottentotle: Mém. du Muséum, pp. 270-75

Plate 12


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ETHIOPIAN VARIETY.
247
tice branded with the double curse of equal degradation to the
oppressor and the oppressed. This very argument, which has
been used for defence, seems to me a tenfold aggravation of the
city for knowledge, arts, and science, should be employed to
extend the blessings of civilization, and multiply the enjoyments
of social life; not as a means of oppressing the weak and
ignorant, of plunging those who are naturally low in the intel-
lectual scale still more deeply into the abyss of barbarism.
When we see a strong and well-armed person attack one
equally powerful and well-prepared, we are indifferent as to the
issue; or wa may look on with that interest which the qualities
called forth by the contest are calculated to inspire. But, if the
strong attack the weak, if the well-armed assail the defenceless,
if the ingenuity, knowledge and skill, the superior arts and arms
of civilized life are combined to rob the poor savage of his only
valuable property, personal liberty, we turn from the scene with
indignation and abborrence.
They who possess higher gifts should remember the condi-
tion under which they are enjoyed : “From him to whom much
is given, much will be expected.” What a commentary on this
text is furnished by Negro slavery, as carried on and permitted
by religious nations, by Christian kings, Catholic majesties,
defenders of the faith, &c.!
In the two following varieties the figure of the skull is not so
strongly characterized as in the three which have been already
considered. They form, indeed, two intermediate gradations
African on the other.
The fourth, or American variety, includes all the Americans,
excepting the inhabitants of the northern parts of the continent,
which I have placed in the Mongolian division.
In this variety the cheeks are broad, but the malar bones are
more rounded and arched than in the Mongolian ; and not ex-
panded to such an extent on either side, nor possessing such an
angular form. The forehead is small and low; the orbits deep;
and the nasal cavity, in many cases at least, very large. The
entire bony apparatus of the face is in general much developed.
BLUMENBACH has published several specimens, in which the
characters just enumerated are exeni plified. Tab. 9 is the head
of a North American savage executed for murder at Philadelphia.
It is remarkable for the flatness anů depression of the ver-
248 .. FORMS OF THE SKULL.
tex, the development of the region above the ear, and the great
size of the olfactory apparatus. BLUMENBACH considers that
the latter circumstance explains the anecdotes related by travel-
lers of their extraordinary acuteness in the sense of smelling
The form of this skull entirely agrees with the engraved por-
traits of eight Cherokee Indians,* all of whom have prominent
cheeks, and the upper part of the skull depressed
The head of an American from an Indian burial-place on the
eastern bank of the Mississippi, about 400 north latitude, tab.
38, presents a conformation approaching more to the Caucasian
than to the Mongolian. In a race, of which the characters are
intermediate between two others, we may reasonably expect that
some individuals will approximate to one and some to the other
variety.
The Esquimaux t and the Greenlanders | form a transition
from the American to the Mongolian variety; they have broad
cheek-bones, large jaws and face, and small flattened nose. The
size of the head altogether, and particularly the cranium, is
larger in the latter than in the former. The figures of BLUMEN-
BACH correspond to the best descriptions of these people, in
which the largeness of their heads is noticed.
The head of an ancient Aturian, brought by HUMBOLDT
from the subterranean excavations in the granite rocks at the
cataracts of the Orinoco in New Andalusia, exemplifies the low
slanting forehead, as well as other points of the American for-
mation. The entrance of the nose and the whole apparatus of
There is an engraving, by Basire, of seven; Lond. 1730. Thayendaneega,
a chicf of the Six Nations, is represented in an engraving by Smith, from a
painting by Romney, 1779.
+ Tab. 24 and 25 are engravings of two Esquimaux crania from the Danisi
colony of Nain on the coast of Labrador. The strong characters of these
crania, and the marked affinity which they exhibit to the American and Mon-
golian races, concur with all accurate descriptions of the physical character
of the people in refuting the strange opinion of Robertson (Hist. of America,
v. ii. p. 40,) that the Esquimaux are descendants from the Normans. Blumen.
bach, Dec. iii. 17. 8 10. A similar skull from Hond Eyland (Dog's Island),
near Disko, in Baffin's Bay, is described by Winslow, Mém. de l'Acad. des
Sciances; 1722.
# The heads of a Greenland man and woman are represented in tab. 36 and
37: they came from the Daniah colony Godhavn, on the west coast of Green-
land. "They are large, and the crarium in particular is ample, and elongated
posteriorly. The bone is remarkably thin and light, in proportion to the size.
The orbits are large; the nasal bones long but very narrow." Ib. Dec. iv. p. 12.
& Bluinenbach, Dec. v. tab. 46. In one of the caverns visited by this indefa-
tigable and enlightened traveller, there were the remains of six hundred bodies.
each of which was contained in a basket or bag. These remains consisted
either of the boncs alone, of their natural white colour, or reddened by annatto,
or of the same preserved in the way of mummies, with a mixture of bitumen
and leaves. There were, moreover, sarcophaguses of unbaked clay, five feet
long and three wide, painted with figures of crocodiles, and full of bones. The
situation of these cataracts is 5° 39' N. Lat. 500 W. Long. from Ferro. p. 14.
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249
smelling are very large. The heads of a Brazilian man and
woman # have the low forehead, broad face, and large nose of
the American variety. In a general roundness of figure they
agree with the descriptions of the natives of Brazil.
The head of the man is very ingeniously and perfectly pre.
served entire, in the state of mummy. It is not separated from
an entire embalmed body, but must have been cutoff immediately
after death, as the skin of the neck is equally drawn in all
directions towards the foramen magnum, and fixed there by the
bituminous matter employed in the process. The skin pre-
serves that copper colour verging to black which distinguishes
the Brazilians. The head is shaved round the vertex; what is
left on the top of the head, and about the ears, is short, strong,
and of the deepest black. A thin beard appears on the upper
lip and part of the chin. The orbits and mouth are filled with
a bituminous mass. It hangs by a cotton string fixed to the
mouth. The slit in the external ear is filled with portions of
cotton. A splendid ornament composed of the finest feathers
of the red tantalus, the toucan, and the most brilliant parrots,
covered the forehead.†.
· There is no American, nor indeed any other race, in which
the forehead is so low as in the Caribs. And in order to exag-
gerate a character, which they deemed beautiful, they had re-
course to artificial means of flattening this region at the time
when the bones, are - soft, and capable of yielding to artificial
pressure. As the same character of a low forehead characterizes
all the Americans in a greater or less degree, similar attempts
to increase this natural defect have been made by other tribes,
as well as the Caribs, in both North and South America.
The tenth plate exhibits a skull belonging to the College
Museum ; in which there are no evidences of any artificial change
of figure. The development of the anterior cerebral lobes must
have been more imperfect in this individual, than in any other
example which I have seen. Setting aside what we should term
this natural defect, the organization is perfect. The bony sub-
stance is dense, compact, and hard, and the entire skull con-
sequently very heavy. The size of the head, (which is greater
than the engraving) and the strong muscular impressions, cor-
respond, as well as the hardness of the bone, with the accounts,
which eye-witnesses have furnished, of the colossal stature and
* Blumenbach, tab. 47, 48.
+ Dec. quinta, p. 15, 16.
250
-
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
minent at the glabella; it continues nearly horizontally backwards
from the orbits, rising a little towards the vertex. A slight convex
protuberance on each side marks the situation of the anterior
cerebral lobes. The temporal fossa is large, and the skull con-
sequently not wide in its lateral measurement. Although thus
contracted at its upper and fore part, the bony receptacle of the
brain swells out below and behind into its usual size; the fosse
cerebelli are large..
This singular formation is attended with a change in the dis-
that in the human head the parts in front of the occipital con-
dyles are heavier than those behind; so that the head falls for-
ward when left to itself, and is only retained in equilibrio, in
the erect posture, by muscular contraction. (See page 121.)
In this Carib skull, however, the parts behind preponderates,
and that very decidedly; so that, I apprehend, the eyes must
be habitually directed upwards; which is the more probable,
as the orbits, in some degree, look upwards, even when the
zygomas are horizontal. The face is characterized by its great
size and strength, and the marked development of all its parts.
What the front of the skull has lost, seems compensated here.
The nasal bones are not very small nor flat; the cavity is ample;
the jaws and teeth powerful. The superior maxillary bone is
ward in this part.
Another Carib skull in the College Museum coincides with
this in the form of the forehead, in the direction of the eyes
upwards, and in the preponderance of the parts placed behind
the foramen magnum.
The same character is seen in a skull engraved in the Journal
de Physique ; t but the representation is too badly executed to
admit of a satisfactory determination whether it is a natural
formation, or the effect of art. Its very general existence in the
native tribes of America is expressly and strongly pointed out
by HUMBOLDT. “ There is no race on the globe, in which the
* - The Caribbees, properly speaking, those who inhabit the Missions of
the Cari, in the Llanos of Cumana, the banks of the Caura, and the plains to
the north-east of the sources of the Orinoco, are distinguished by their almost
gigantic stature from all the other nations I have seen in the new continent."
Humboldt, Personal Narrative; v. iii. p. 286. These people are called Caribbees
(Carives) by the first navigators, and are still known by that naine throughout
Spanish America: although the French and Germans have transformed it into
Caraïbes, and the English bave shortened it into Caribs. Ibid. 284.
+ April, 1789, v. 34; tab. l.
AMERICAN VARIETY.
251
frontal bone is more depressed backwards, or which has a less
projecting forehead, than the American.” “ This extraordinary
flatness is to be found among nations, to whom the means of
producing artificial deformity are totally unknown, as is proved
by the crania of Mexican Indians, Peruvians, and Atures,
brought over by Mr. BONPLAND and myself, and of which
several were deposited in the Museum of Natural History at
Paris.”
He thinks that “the custom of flattening the head had its
frontal bone, as to characterize the race in a decided manner.”—
“ The Aztecs, who never disfigure the heads of their children,
represent their principal divinities, as their hieroglyphical manu-
scripts prove, with a head much more flattened than any I have
seen among the Caribs.”*
That, in compliance with a strange notion of beauty, attempts
are made by these people to flatten their foreheads still further,
and that for this pupose they subject children's heads to pressure
immediately after birth, and continue it for some time, is proved
by the most respectable and abundant testimony. In certain
crania very unequivocal marks of this process are found ; actual
identations of the forehead, producing a degree of deformity
quite different from natural depression of the skull, or from the
instances of malformation, which are occasionally seen. Some,
indeed, have argued that even these are natural forms, and have
boldly denied the possibility of producing the effect by such
means as those described.t
The bones are the most solid parts of our frame; and form
a kind of firm support and foundation, on which the softer
structures rest. Yet physiological experiments, and the pheno-
mena of disease, prove that they change more easily, than the
softer parts of the body. Their elements are continually de-
tached and removed in an insensible manner by the absorbents;
other particles newly secreted from the blood. This continual
change in the bony materials of the body is well illustrated by
the experiment of mixing madder with the food of animals.
Soon after this has been begun, the bony substance is found of
* Political Essay, v. i. p. 154, and note.
+ Sabatier. Traile d' Anatomie, t. i. p. 25.
Camper in Kleinere Schriften.
Conformation de la Tête des Caraïbes, et sur quelques Usages bizarres attribuées
à des Nations sauvages.
252
FORMS OF INTE SKULL;
a pink colour throughout; and this dye is as quickly removed,
when the madder is no longer administered. The short period,
in which such changes are brought about, forms a striking
contrast to the indelible nature of the marks produced in the
cutis by gunpowder and other colouring matters. The uninter-
rupted exchange of particles, carried on in the bones from the
period of their first formation, allows them to accommodate
themselves to the neighbouring parts, and to become, as it
were, formed and fashioned by their action. The conformation
of the head affords the most unequivocal proof of this
circumstance. The internal surface of the cranium exhi-
bits a mould of the lobes and convolutions of the brain,
to which it was adapted; and the external surface displays
the most manifest impressions from the actions of muscles,
as well as traces of the form of the features, the general confi-
guration of which may be easily conjectured froin a view of the
bóny skull. In like manner, the shape of the bones may be
affected by the pressure of tumours, by collections of pus in their
cavities, by constant weights, as that of the trunk bearing on
the lower limbs, before their substance is hard enough. Hence
we cannot doubt that the cranium may experience a partial
change of figure if a given external pressure can be kept up for
some time; and the comparative softness of its texture at birth
renders that a very favourable period for such attempts.
The objection will occur, that the functions of the brain would
be suspended by an effectual pressure; that the infant's life
would be endangered. They who have seen a child's head,
after it had passed through a small pelvis in a difficult labour,
under which circumstances it is often found squeezed into an
oblong shape, will not entertain much apprehension for the
effects of such manæuvres as are said to be practised on the
Carib and other American newly-born infants. It is not neces-
sary, however, to suppose the force so considerable, as to affect
the figure of the bone at the time; I should rather apprchend
that the ultimate effect is produced by the continued action of a
gentle pressure; as the thigh and leg of a rickety child slowly
yield to the weight of the body. The change of form is pro-
duced organically, not mechanically.
Should it be objected, that such unnatural violence would
prevent or impede the development of the brain, and could not
be borne without fatal results; I reply, that if the fact can be
established, the supposition, on which this objection rests, must
· AMERICAN VARIETY.
253
be ungrounded. And that it is so, I am further induced to
believe by cases of large bony tumours growing within the skull,
and encroaching on the brain, without causing any of those incon-
veniences or dangers, which a small sudden pressure often pro-
duces. In the newly-born child too, when the sutures are all
open, the brain, if prevented from growing in one direction, may
expand easily in other quarters.
. I conclude, therefore, that the thing is possible ; and I shall
add the evidence, which seems to me quite sufficient to prove
that it is true.
Besides the Carib skull, which I have already described, in
which the forehead indeed is extremely low, but the continuity
of outline, regularity of form, symmetry and harmony of parts,
prove that it is a natural organization; there are many others,
in which the regular outline is interrupted, the smooth convexity
of the skull harshly and abruptly disturbed, an uneven rising
and sinking surface substituted for the natural uniform swell of
the forehead, and a configuration is thus produced, such as
would naturally arise from the alleged artificial process, but
totally different from any thing in the works of nature.
· Various modes of proceeding are described; the difference in
this respect, in the method of application, the length and con-
stancy of the process, the residence of the skull and brain during
the pressure, and the degree of recovery after its cessation,
account for the individual diversities in these compressed skulls.
The tenth plate of BLUMENBACH's first Decade is the head
of a male Carib from the island of St. Vincent,* in which the
frontal bone, originally very low, presents a broad indentation
about its middle. The enumerated characters are, “ a depressed
forehead (frons retropressa); orbits surprisingly large, patulous,
and looking upwards, as is seen in hydrocephalic patients; the
orbital plate of the frontal bone slanting downwards, and the
superciliary margin very obtuse.” P. 26.
In his second Decade,BLUMENBACH has figured the skuli
of This is the race, which occupied the West Indian islands at the time of
their first discovery by Columbus, and agreed in physical characters with the
Caribs of the continent already alluded to p. 250, note *, from whom they were
originally derived. European hostility and encroachment confined the last
small remnant of this unfortunate race on a part of the island of St. Vincent's.
They were here distinguished, under the name of Red Caribs, from the de-
scendants of some Negroes who escaped from a shipwreck, and whose num-
bers were perhaps augmented in other ways, who were called Black Caribs.
The latter are merely Negroes. The hostilities of the two races have been very
fatal to the former; who are now nearly extinct. Edwards, History of the
West Indies; i. p. 411.
of Tab. 20; p, 25,
254
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
of a female Carib from the same island as the preceding, where
the forehead is much lower, and the orbits are in like manner
directed upwards. How strikingly it deviates from the ordinary
construction may be collected from the author's expressions:
“ prodigiosum plane cranium”—“ horrida et fere monstrosa
hujus capitis distortio.” The contraction of the front seems to
have been compensated by expansion of the lateral and posterior
parts; so that this head, when placed on the vertebral column,
must evidently have preponderated backwards.
A head, in all points very similar to this, is in the possession
of Dr. LEACH: a broad flat surface above, or rather behind the
eyes, seems to mark out the situation and action of the pressure.
The preponderance of the parts behind the occipital condyles is
the same.
The kindness and liberality of Mr. CLINE enable me to add
the engraved representation of a very interesting specimen from.
his collection, and thus to illustrate, by direct contrast, the
difference between the natural and artificial form of the Carib
head. The artificial excavation of the frontal bone and the
superficial risings denoting the anterior cerebral lobes, are
obvious on the first inspection. It is clear too, that this indivi-
dual would have had naturally a very low forehead. A violent
and unnatural bulge behind and at the sides seems to show that
the contraction in front has been compensated by an equivalent
extension in those quarters. The figure of the occipital bone is
so changed, that the external transverse ridge, which naturally
forms the posterior boundary of the basis cranii, is now far
within that boundary. The face is broad across the eyes and
cheeks ; the interval between the orbits wide; those cavities are
large, shallow, and directed upwards. The facial angle is 660.
The distance from the posterior edge of the vomer to the corres-
ponding vertical point of the head is only 24 inches: the
transverse measurement at the same point 6 inches, across the
coronal suture 64 inches. The distance from the alveolar edge
of the superior maxilla to the back of the occiput is 8 inches;
from the occiput to the posterior edge of the foramen magnum
31, to the anterior 4. When the skull is supported on the
condyles, the back part greatly preponderates.
The skull, like that which Dr. LEACA possesses, came from
the island of St. Vincent's. It was presented to Mr. CLINE by
a surgeon of Tobago; who stated that the individual had been
chief of the Red Caribs in St. Vincent's; that he used to come
AMERICAN VARIETY.
255
to Tobago on the commercial and other business of his inbe;
that he was well known there, and regarded as an intelligent,
well-informed, and prudent character. *
A more detailed knowledge of the two Carib men, whose skulls
are engraved in this book, would be highly interesting in phy
siology.
A head precisely similar to this of Mr. CLINE has been figured
by HUNAULD in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences.t
The inferences, to which these and similar specimens lead,
are completely supported and confirmed by the unanimous tes-
timonies of the most judicious and respectable travellers ; which
cannot be set aside without a degree of scepticism that would
equally prevent us from believing all that is stated on such
authority.
LABAT relates that “the Caribs are all well made and pro-
portioned; their features are sufficiently agreeable, excepting
the forehead, which appears rather extraordinary, being very
flat, and as it were depressed. These people are not born so, but
they force the head to assume that form, by placing on the
forehead of the newly-born child a small plate, which they tie
firmly behind. This remains until the bones have acquired their
consistence; so that the forehead is flattened to that degree that
they can see almost perpendicularly above them, without elevat-
ing the head.”I
CONDAMINE informs us that “the appellation Omaguas in
the language of Peru, as well as Cambevas in that of Brazil
given to the same people by the Portuguese of Para, signifies
flat-head. For they have the strange custom of pressing between
two plates the forehead of their newly-born children, in order
to give them this singular shape, and make them, as they say,
resemble the full moon.S
A collateral proof of these practices is afforded by their having
been noticed, and expressly prohibited by the Spanish ecclesias-
* Besides the skull, which is figured by Mr. Arthaud in the Journal de Phy-
seque, t. xxxiv. he mentions another, in which there was a large depression in
the centre of the os frontis. P. 253.
+ 1740, p. 371, tab. xvi. fig. 1.
# Voyage aus Isles de l'Àlmérique, t. ii. p. 72. Blumenbach also cites the au-
thority of Oviedo, Historia General de las Indias; 1535, p.25: and Raymond
Breton, Dictionnaire Caraïbe-François; 1665, 8vo. pp. 58, 92, 145, 289. The
same custom which belonged originally to the red-coloured natives of the
West Indies, has been adopted by the free Negroes or black Caribs of St. Vin-
cent's. See Thibault de Chanvalon, F'oyage à la Martinique, p. 39; and Amic
iu Journal de Physique, v. xxxix, p. 132.
Mémoires de l' cicad. des Sciences, 1745, pp. 427, 428. Ulloa gives the same
testimony respecting the Omaguas; Travels in South America, v. i. p. 394:
also Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana; t. iii. p. 623.
256
TORMS OF THE SKULL.
tical councils (as related by BLUMENBACH), two hundred years
ago. In the history of the Third Synod of the diocese of Lima,
held in July 1595, a decree was passed against the Indian prac-
tice of disfiguring the head. “ Cupientes penitus extirpare
ahusum et superstitionem, quibus Indi passim infantum capita
formis imprimunt, quas ipsi vocant caito, oma, opalto ;---statui.
mus et præcipimus,” &c. &c. reciting various punishments, as,
for instance, that any woman found guilty, “frequentet doc-
trinam per continuos decem dies mane et vesperi, pro prima
cuipa; pro secunda vero per viginti,” &c.*
This custom has prevailed as much in North, as in South
America, and in the islands. ADAIR says that the northern
savages “flatten their heads in divers forms; but it is chiefly
the crown of the head they depress, in order to beautify them-
selves, as their wild fancy terms it, for they call us Long-heads
by way of contempt.” “They fix the tender infant on a kind
of cradle, where his feet are tilted above a foot higher than a
horizontal position; his head bends back into a hole made on
purpose to receive it; when he bears the chief part of his weight
on the crown of the head, upon a small bag of sand, without
being in the least able to move himself.”+
Lastly, the very interesting narrative of the journey to the
source of the Missouri, performed by Messrs. LEWIS and
CLARKE, informs us that the attempts at beautifying the head,
by flattening its fore-part, have been and are very extensively
that great range of mountains, running nearly parallel to the
to the Pacific, and on the other into the Mississippi and its various
tributary streams.
“The most distinguishing part of their physiognomy is the
peculiar flatness and width of their forehead, a peculiarity which
they owe to one of those customs by which nature is sacrificed
to fantastic ideas of beauty. The custom, indeed, of flattening
the head by artificial pressure during infancy, prevails among
all the nations we have seen west of the Rocky Mountains. To
the east of that barrier the fashion is so perfectly unknown,
that there the western Indians, with the exception of the Allia-
tan or Snake nation, are designated by the common name of
* J. S. de Aguirre Collectio maxima Conciliorum omnium Hispaniæ et Novi
Orbis; ed. ii. Romæ, 1755, fol. t. vi. p. 204.
+ History of the North American Indians, p. 8. See also Lawson's History of
Cusolina, p. 33; and Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, t. iii, pp. 187–328.
'AMERICAN VARIETY.
257
Flat-heads.”—“Wherever it may have begun, the practice is
now universal among these nations. Soon after the birth of the
child, the mother, anxious to procure for her infant the recom-
mendation of a broad forehead, places it in the compressing
machine, where it is kept for ten or twelve months; though the
females remain longer than the boys. The operation is so
gradual, that it is not attended with pain ; but the impression is
deep and permanent. The heads of the children, when they are
released from the bandage, are not more than two inches, thick
nor, with all its efforts, can nature ever restore its shape; the
heads of grown persons being often in a straight line from the
nose to the top of the forehead."*
Besides this general statement, applying to the western tribes
altogether, these enterprising travellers note the existence of the
practice on many particular occasions; as among the Skilloots
head was so flattened, that the forehead runs straight from the
nose to the crown (p. 351); and the Chinnooks, whose heads
they speak of as having been flattened in a most disgusting
manner. In one tribe which they saw on the Pacific, they ex-
pressly mention that the custom did not exist (p. 428.)
That nothing might be wanting to this part of the proof, the
very bandages employed by the Caribs have been brought into
Europe. A description and figures of them may be seen in the
Journal de Physique.t
The fifth, or Malay variety, including the inhabitants of the
numerous Asiatic islands, and those of the Great Pacific Ocean,
constitutes an intermediate link between the European and
Negro. The cranium is moderately narrowed and slanting at
its anterior and upper part; the face large, and all its parts fully
developed; the jaws more or less prominent.
* Travels to the Source of the Missouri, chap. xxiii. See also Meares of
America, p. 249.
+ Aug. 1791, n. 132, tab. 1 & 2. The account is written by Dr. Amic, a
physician of Guadaloupe, who had seen and conversed with both red and
Black Caribs in the West Indies. In mentioning the answers which they gave
to his inquiries, he says, “Contre mon attente elles se reduisirent toutes à
m'assurer qu'ils ne devoient l'applatissement de leur front qu'à la pression
d'une planche garnie de coton, qu'on fixoit sur cette partie pour l'empecher
d'acquérir la convexité, qui lui est naturelle. C'etoit-là me direntils le carac-
tère de leur nation. Pour l'imprimer on fait aux enfans porter cette planche
jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient assez grands, pour qu'il ne s'efface pas. Je remarquai
parmi eux un jeune homme de seize à dixsept ans, dont le fiont étoit bombé
comme celui d'un Nègre. Il repondit à mon observation, que pour ne pas le
défigurer comme les autres, son mère n'avoit pas voulu le soumettre à un vieil
coutume." P. 133,
258
FORMS OF THE SKULL.
· It must be confessed that the numerous tribes included within
the boundaries of this variety differ considerably from each
other; and consequently, that the whole cannot fall within any
one clearly-marked character. The Papua race are described as
having all the appearance of Negroes. I have seen no skull,
nor any representation of one, belonging to a native of New
Guinea. The New Hollanders certainly partake of the Negro
form, yet are still easily distinguishable from African Negroes.
In the two heads engraved by BLUMENBACH,* the forehead
rather slants above the eyes, but the head rises to a considerable
height at the coronal suture. The nose is not so flat; nor the
zygoma so prominent, as in the African. The alveolar edge of
the upper jaw projects in front; the chin is not cut off, as in
the Negro. The crania of New Hollanders which I have seen
correspond with these. In some, as in a female skull in the
College Museum, the superior incisors are placed as obliquely
as in the Negro; but none have so low a forehead and vertex
as some of that race.
The Otaheitean skullt does not differ in any essential points
from the European formation, so far as the cranium goes. The
front and lower part of the forehead may be a little contracted
and slanting. The face is altogether large, and the upper jaw
fully developed; its alveolar portion, too, projects slightly in front.
The head of a native of Nukahiwah, f one of the group called
the Marquesas Islands, presents a very beautiful and symme-
trical organization corresponding to the descriptions of the great
stature, fine proportions, and strength of these islanders. Except
that the face is larger, its lower part especially more consider-
able and prominent than in the best models of the Caucasian
variety, and that the jaws and teeth altogether have a marked
projection, this head is not very essentially distinguished from
that form. The forehead is indeed more slanting than in the
intellectual European heads; but the whole structure has un-
equivocal marks of an organization calculated for strength.
The skull of a Buggess, $ from the island of Celebes, has the
low slanting forehead, large face, and prominent jaws of the true
Negro; but it combines the lateral expansion, particularly across
the cheeks, of the Mongolian variety.
The arrangement of skulls under the five general forms just
described is, in a great measure, arbitrary. It must not, there-
fore, be taken in a strict sense; we must not expect to find all the
* Tab. 27 and 40. + Ibid. tab. 26. Ibid. tab. 50. Ibid. tab. 49.
DIFFERENCES OF THE TEETH.
259
individuals, comprised under each of these varieties, decisively
distinguished by the assigned characters from all others. In
the endless diversity of individual forms, many instances are
met with, in each variety, of organizations approaching to those
of the others : so that among many Europeans and Negroes we
might select skulls in which it would be difficult to determine
the predominant character. The two intermediate forms between
the Caucasian middle, and the Ethiopian and Mongolian ex-
tremes, complete the series of gradations. Of the numerous
tribes or nations in each division, some come nearer to one and
some to the other of the two immediately joining varieties.
Thus the natives of some islands in the South Sea are hardly to be
distinguished in countenance and head from Europeans; while
others approach as near to the Negroes. The Marquesans, the
Society, Friendly, and Sandwich Islanders, might be almost
arranged under the Caucasian variety ; while the natives of New
Guinea, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, New Britain, &c.
Louisiade, &c. have strong claims to be admitted into the
Ethiopian division; and those of Solomon Islands, the New
Hebrides, and New Zealand, form so many points of transition
between the two. The same observation holds good of the
other varieties. Hence, if we had numerous specimens of
each, we might arrange them in such a manner that the interval
between the most perfect Caucasian model and the most exaga,
gerated Negro or Mongolian specimens should be filled with
forms conducting us from one to the other by almost imper-
ceptible gradations. We must therefore conclude that the diver-
sities of features and of skulls are not sufficient to authorize us
in assigning the different races of mankind in which they occur
to species originally different. This conclusion will be strength-
ened by the analogies of natural history. The differences
between human crania are not more considerable, nor even so
remarkable, as some variations which occur in animals con-
fessedly of the same species. The head of the wild boar is
widely different from that of the domestic pig. The different
breeds of horses and dogs are distinguished by the most striking
dissimilarities in the skull : in which view the Neapolitan and
Hungarian horses may be contrasted. The very singular form
of the skull in the Paduan fowl is a more remarkable deviation
from the natural structure than any variation which occurs in
the human head.
The oblique position of the anterior incisors in the Negroes
s2
260
DIFFERENCES OF THE TEETH.
and some other tribes, which have prominent jaws, is the only
national difference I know of in the teeth. Their size and form
cxhibit merely individual differences. The complete and minute
correspondence of the teeth in number and form through all
races of men is a strong argument for the unity of the species.
BLUMENBACH* has pointed out what he conceived to be a
peculiarity in the teeth of some Egyptian mummies, which first
attracted his notice on examining two specimens in the year
1779. The incisors, instead of possessing their ordinary thin
cutting edges, were thick in their bodies, and resembled trun-
cated cones; the cuspidati were not pointed as is usual, but
broad and flat on the masticating surface, and very similar to
the neighbouring bicuspides. The same circumstances have
been observed in other specimens, as in a mummy at Cambridge,
described by MIDDLETON ;t in another at Cassel ; † and in a
third at Stuttgard. $ BLUMENBACH observed a similar struc-
ture in the head of a young mummy, which he opened in Lon-
don;ll and in another which he received as a present from Mr.
TURNER of Cambridge. “ There must,” he observes, “ be
great differences in the crania of various mummies, when it is
considered that the practice of embalming the body after death
prevailed in Egypt for many ages, during which great vicis-
situdes occurred in the government and inhabitants of the
country; consequently we cannot reasonably expect to find this
formation of the teeth in every specimen. Yet it constitutes a
singular variety, and deserves mention, as it may assist in dis-
tinguishing the mummies of some particular age and nation.
It would be difficult to assign a satisfactory cause for this pecu
liarity; yet we may not improbably ascribe it in great part to
the kind of food taken by the Egyptians, which Diodorus
Siculus expressly describes to have consisted of vegetables,
roots, &c. Hence the teeth must have been worn down; and
it has been observed that these organs, when reduced by attri.
tion, or purposely diminished in length, grow thicker, both in
man and animals."**
* Von den Zähnen der alten Ægyptier, und von den Mumien, in the Gölling.
Magazin der Wissensch. und Litteratur. P. l.
en. num, var. nal. sect, iii. & 64.
Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte, part ii. Ueber den Ægyptien Mumien, & 11.
+ Monuincnt, Antiq. in Works, v. iv. “ Quod vero singulare et prodigii fere
loco habendum (dentes), anteriores s. incisores, non acuti illi quidem atque ad
incidendum apti, sed perinde ac maxillares lati plane atque obtusi sunt."
I Bruckmann's Nachricht von einer Mumie; Braunsch
2 Blumenbach, Beyträge; part ii. p. 98.
i Philosophical Transactions, 1794, part ii. p. 184.
I Dec. quarta Craniorum, p. 4. * ** De g. 1, var. nat. sect. iii. 8 64.
DIFFERENCES OF THE TEETH.: 261
A similar formation of the teeth was noticed by Winslow*
in the cranium of a Greenlander from the Isle of Dogs (Hond-
Eyland), on the west coast of Greenland. “ The incisors,” says
this anatomist, “are flat from before backwards, and short,
instead of having a cutting edge; hence they resemble grinders
more than cutting teeth.” “Mr. RIECKE, who presented me
with this cranium, said that the inhabitants of Hond-Eyland
eat their meat raw.” “ They move their jaws in a very singular
manner, and make several grimaces while chewing and swal-
lowing. It was the observation of this spectacle that induced
him to seek for an opportunity of discovering whether these
islanders possessed any peculiarity of construction in their jaws
or teeth."
This account is confirmed by two Esquimaux crania t in the
possession of BLUMENBACH, which exhibit the same worn
appearance of the teeth. It is well known, he observes, that the
Esquimaux are derived from the same race with the Green-
landers, and that their name has its origin from their practice
of eating raw flesh.
A similar configuration from the inferior incisors was found
in the head of the Guanche mummy figured in BLUMENBACH'S
Fifth Decade, tab. xlii. p. 8.
I have seen the same configuration in the heads of Egyptian
mummies, and in other instances, and am fully convinced that
there is no real original difference in the form of the teeth in
these cases; and that the observed peculiarity is entirely owing
to the mechanical attrition which the teeth had experienced in
all the examples. As the incisors are wedge-shaped, and
increase gradually in thickness from their cutting-edge to the
gums, when half worn away they lose their natural appearance
of cutting-teeth, and resemble in form those found in the crania
above-mentioned. If the teeth are naturally large and strong,
the appearance will be more marked. We cannot admit an
original difference of form until it is proved by the exhibition of
entire teeth in which the enamel has not been worn away from
the masticating surface.
At all events, the notion that the teeth grow thicker in con-
sequence of the attrition of their surfaces, is not admissible. No
point is more clearly ascertained than that these organs have no
powers of growth, or organic change, and that they experience
no alteration, after appearing through the gum, but that of
..Mem de l'Acad. des Sciences de Paris; 1722, p. 323,
– Dec, tortia, tab. 24 and 25.
262 DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES AND SKULLS.
mechanical wearing or chemical decay. That their substance
possesses neither vessels nor nerves, is, I think, fully proved
by what I have stated in another place.*
The assertion of BUFFON, ERXLEBEN, and others, that the
teeth of the Calmucks are longer and separated by wider in-
tervals from each other, is contradicted by the specimens of
their crania in the possession of BLUMENBACH.
Certain colours and forms are given to the teeth artificially
in some instances by way of ornament.
Mr. MARSDEN + informs us, that the Sumatrans commu-
nicate to the teeth a jetty blackness by the empyreumatic oil of
the cocoa-nut sliell; and that they even abrade the enamel, that
they may receive and retain the dye more perfectly.
The very general practice among the Malays and Asiatic
islanders, of chewing the Areka-nut, betel-leaf, and chunam or
lime, I turns the teeth black, unless great pains are taken to pre-
vent it, and covers them with a brownish black incrustation.
From one or the other of these causes the teeth are blackened in
the Javanese § the Birmans, || Tunquinese, T and Buggesses. **
Some Negro tribes file their teeth so as to make them conical
and sharp-pointed; tt some file away their inner edges, II or notch
them ; $$ some even grind them away down to the gums. 11 11
A more or less complete abrasion of the enamel is very com-
mon among the Asiatic islanders. TT
The observations in the following chapter respecting the
varieties of forin in general, include the subjects of national
features and form of the skull. I shall only make a few remarks
here on some attempts at explaining the latter subjects.
Climate has generally been brought forwards as the cause of
the varieties that distinguish man. It has been almost univer-
sally represented as the source of differences in colour, and not
. In Dr. Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Cranium. + Hist. of Sumatra; ed. ii. p. 53.
The practice is described particularly by Dampier, Voyages, v. i. p. 318;
"It tastes rough in the mouth, and dyes the lips red, and the teeth black
but it preserves them, and cleanseth the gums.” See also v. ii. p. 54.
& Blumenbach, tab. 39. Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages, v. ii.
pp. 286.347.
|| Symes, Embassy to Ava;
| Dampier, y. ii. P. 41.
* Blumenbach, tab. 49.
++ Churchill's Voyages, v. v. pp. 139, 143, 385. Philos. Trans. v. lxxiii. p. 92.
Winterbottom on the Native Africans ; v. i. 104. The Sumatrans also do it:
Marsden, p, 53.
#1 Tuckey's Narrative of a Voyage to the Congo, pp. 80---124.
Ibid. p. 210.
- All Vancouver found in the natives of Trinidad Bay, on the north-west coast
of America, that “all the teeth of both sexes were, by some process, ground
uniformly down horizontally to the gums.' v. ii. p. 247. It was also observed
by Perouse, Voyage Round the World, v. ii. p. 138.
TT In Magindanao; Forrest, Voyage to New Guinea, p. 237: in Celebes ;
Blumenbach, Dec. v. tab. 49 : in Jaya, Hawkesworth, v. iii. p. 349. Blumen-
Wach, de g. h. var. nat. p. 231.
235.
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES AND SKULLS. 263
much less depended on for solving the great problem of varie-
ties of form. “ The inquiry into the causes of difference of
features is exposed,” says BLUMENBACH,“ to such serious dif-
ficulties, that we can only expect to arrive at a problem solution.
That climate is the principal agent in producing difference of
features is proved to my satisfaction by three arguments.
“1. In the natives of certain regions a national countenance
is so common and universal in persons of all conditions, that it.
can be referred to no other cause. The Chinese may serve as
an example; the characteristic flattened countenance being as.
general among them, as great symmetry and beauty are among
the English and Majorcans.
“2. Unless I am greatly deceived, there are instances of
people who, after leaving their old abodes, have in progress of
time assumed new features, corresponding to their new situa-
tions. Thus the Yakuts are referred, by those who have inves-
tigated northern antiquities, to the Tatar race: but their coun-
tenance is now completely Mongolian, according to the reports of
the most accurate observers, and to a Yakut skull in my collec-
tion. Thus also it has been observed that the Creole offspring
of European parents in the West India islands have, in some
degree, exchanged their native British features for those cha-
racteristic of the American aborigines, and have acquired their
deeper eyes and higher cheeks.” He adds, that the northern
invaders, who have at different times entered India, have gra-
dually assumed the character which the climate has impressed
on the native Hindoos.
« 3. Nations, which can be deemed only colonies of one and
the same race, have acquired different characteristic countenances
in different climates. It is now proved that the Hungarians
and Laplanders come from one stock. The latter have acquired,
in their northern abodes, the cast of countenance peculiar to the
inhabitants of those cold regions; while the former have
assumed a more elegant formation in their milder seats near
Greece and Turkey."*
That so able a writer could find no better proofs in support of
his opinion, only shows how completely unfounded that
opinion is.
The flat face of the Chinese not only extends throughout that
vast empire, which covers nearly forty degrees of latitude, and
seventy of longitude, but also over the neighbouring regions of
* De g. h, var. nat, sect. iii. & 57.
264 DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES AND SKULLS.
central and northern Asia, the north of Europe, and of America;
over a very farge portion of the globe, including every possible
variety of heat and cold, elevation and lowness, moisture and
dryness, wood, marsh, and plain.
That European Creoles in the West Indies, in America, and
in the East, have preserved their native features in all instances
where no intermixture of blood has occurred, is proved by the
uninterrupted experience of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and
English, who have had foreign colonies, in climates most dif-
ferent to their own, longer than any other nation.
If the Yakuts, which are now decidedly Mongolian in their
{ratures, had originally the Caucasian formation, and if the
northeri, invaders of India have assumed the Hindoo counte-
nance, the change must have been effected by intermarriages.
All who have visited India and attentively examined its various
people, unanimously represent that the Afghauns and Mongols
of pure blood are at this moment just as distinct in features from
the Hindoos, as the parent races are in their original seats. ;
Respecting the case of the Hungarians and Laplanders, if we
admit their descent from one stock, which is probable, let us
next ascertain what the amount of the differences between them
may be, and then inquire whether mixture with other races may.
not have produced these.
BLUMENBACH proceeds to observe, that the intermixture if
races has a great effect in modifying the natural countenance;
and that the ancient Germans, the modern Gipsies, and the
Jews, afford examples of peculiar and distinctive casts of coun-
tenance being preserved in every climate. These well-known
facts are quite sufficient to overturn the hypothesis which refers
the differences of features to climate; and a short examination
of the races in any part of the world will soon supply numerous
additional ones. Indeed, I do not know a single well-established
fact or sound argument in its favour. *
Some have even attempted to show how climate might operate
in producing national features.“ En effet,” says VOLNEY,
“;'observe que la figure des Nègres représente précisement cet
état de contraction que prend notre visage lorsqu'il est frappé
par la lumière et une forte réverbération de chaleur. Alors le
sourcil se fronce ; la pomme des joues s'élève ; la paupière se
serre; la bouche fait la moue Cette contraction, qui a lieu
• This subject will be resumed in the chapter on the causes of the varieties
uf the human species.
DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES AND SKULLS. 265
pernétuellement dans le pays nud et chaud des Nègres, n'a-t-elle
pas dû devenir la caractère propre de leur figure ?"* Unfortu.
nately for these speculations, the Negro features occur in
numerous tribes spread over a great extent of country, with
various climates, and in many instances where the heat is by no
means excessive; the character, too is permanent, after any
number of generations, when the Negroes are taken into other
climes. Again, the most opposite features occur under similar
climates in different parts of the world. There are races with
flattened countenances as well as with narrow and elongated
visages in hot countries. The whole notion is, however, so fan-
ciful and so unphilosophic, that it hardly deserves serious atten-
tion; and I therefore regret to find that the idea is so far coun-
tenanced by an instructive writer on this subject, that he speaks
of the numerous gnats which annoy the New Hollanders as
contributing to the formation of their peculiar physiognomy.
The custom of carrying the children on the back has been
referred to, in order to explain the flat nose and swoln lips of
the Negro. In the violent motions required in their hard
young one is said to be constantly thumping against the back of
the mother. This account is seriously quoted by BLUMENBACH.
The testimonies concerning the employment of pressure,
in order to flatten the nose, are so numerous and circumstantial,
that we cannot doubt of the attempt being made. It is practised
annong the Negroes, Hottentots, Brasilians,t Sumatrans,f and
South Sea Islanders: $ we have, however, no proof that the
figure of the part is ever changed by such attempts; while, on
the contrary, it can be shown most clearly, that the well-known
flatness of the nose is the natural formation of the organ in the
Negro, and the notion of its being produced by pressure is
justly ridiculed by that intelligent observer, Dr. WINTER-
BOTTOM. |. The children of African parents in Europe, America,
• Voyage en Sgrie et Egypte, t. i. p. 74.
+ De Lery, Voyage en la Terre du Brésil; pp. 98–265.
«The figure of the nose seems to have been an object worthy the attention,
of the midwives of Otaheite; and since they are of opinion that a broad some-
what flat nose is ornamental, they depress the nose immediately after the
birth of the child, and repeat this action upon the child while it is still tender."
" The women of the Hottentots squeeze the noses of their children flat with
the thumb (Kolbe, Description of the Cape of Good Hope ; i. 52); and in Macassar
they flatten the noses of the children, and repeat the operation several times
every day, softening the nose at the same time with oil or warm water."*
Forster, Obs. on a Voyage Round the World; pp. 593, 594. See also p. 556.
di Account of the Native Africans; i. p. 201.
266 DIFFERENCES OF FEATURES AND SKULLS.
and other situations, where there are opportunities of knowing
that no means are used to flatten the nose, resemble in all..
respects those born in Africa. Why, indeed, should artificial
causes be adduced to account for the flatness of the part in so
many dark-coloured races, rather than for its convexity, and
prominence in others? Do not the various parts of the coun-
tenance harmonize equally in both cases? Would it improve
a Negro or a Chinese face to introduce into it an aquiline nose ?
In short, these flat noses have all the characters of natural con-
struction about them, equally with those of a different figure,
and exhibit none of the marks of violence and artificial change,
which are seen in the foreheads of some Caribs. Moreover, the
diversities extend so generally through the whole bony fabric
of the lead, and are observable in so many parts where external
pressure could have no influence, not to mention that they
consist, in many instances, of formations just the reverse of
what pressure could effect, that we cannot have the smallest
hesitation in rejecting entirely the notion of external influence,
and ascribing them to native variety. This conclusion is con-
firmed by the fact, that all the peculiarities of the Negro cranium
exist in the fætus ; that the prominent jaws, flat nose, and all
other characters, are found as strongly marked in the youngest
embryo, as in the adult.
“I examined,” says SOEMMERRING, “a Negro embryo and a
child only a few months old, and found the jaws as prominent,
the lower part of the nose as broad and flat as in the parents.
There was no vestige of any violence; but the forın of the nose
was naturally different from that of white children. CAMPER*
examined several years ago, with the same view, Negroes of
various ages, including fætuses. He observed nothing parti-
cular in the nose; but he concluded that this organ will be less
prominent, other circumstances remaining the same, when the
parts below it come forwards, and that the lips must be larger
and thicker in order to cover the teeth completely.
“ My friend BLUMENBACH asserts, from the examination o.
two Negro children in the Royal Museum at Göttingen, what
BUFFON also maintained, that the flat noses are congenital, not
artificial, and refers to the engravings of RUYSCH and SEBA in
* In his Lecture on the Origin and Colour of the Blacks, describing the fætus
of an Angola Negress, he says, “ You see that the nose, the lips, the whole
face, correspond completely to those of adult Africans ; you may be convinced
that the nose is not depressed after birth, but that an immature being like this
has already every lineament of its race.'' Kleinere Schriften; b. i. st. 1. p, 43.
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, PROPORTION, &c. 267
confirmation of the same point. LODER possesses a Negro
embryo of four or five months and a half, in which the peculiar
form of the nose and jaws is very plain." *
These arguments receive a further confirmation from three of
the crania engraved by BLUMENBACH f of a Jewish girl, five
years old ; a Burat child, a year and a half; and a newly.born
Negro; in which the characters of the Caucasian, Mongolian,
and Ethiopian varieties are as strongly represented as in the
heads of adults. As these skuils are very characteristic, I have
added an engraving of them to this work. (See PLATE XII.)
CHAPTER V.
Varieties in Figure, Proportions, and Strength.--The Ears; Efects of Art
upon them, and in other parts of the Body.-The Mainme.- Organs of Gene-
ration.-Fabulous Varieties.
In consequence of the foramen magnum being placed further
back in the head of the Negro than in that of the European
(see p. 230), and of the head being consequently situated more
forwards on the vertebral column in the former than in the
latter, the occiput of the Negro projects less behind the spine.
Hence a line drawn from the posterior extremity of the skull
along the nape of the neck, which dips in considerably under
the head in the European, is nearly straight in the African, as
if a part of the cranium had been sliced off. The hind head is
still further reduced in the monkey kind.
Artists have taken great pains to determine the proportions
which the parts of the human body, the head, neck, trunk, and
limbs, bear to each other; and to discover the relative magni-
frame; in short, to fix a standard of perfection, or the model
were consistent with strength and activity, it would be worth
while to pay some attention to these laborious efforts of painters
and sculptors at establishing how many times the length of the
head is contained in the whole body, in the trunk, the upper or
lower limbs; how many noses are in the head, &c. Even then,
the strange method they have adopted, of measuring certain
celebrated statues, seems as likely to accomplish the professed
object of instructing us in natural proportions, as the academic
+ Ueber die korp. versch. & 4. Ludwig gives a similar testimony respecting
two Negro embryos in his collection. Grundriss der Naturgeschichte der Menschen
Specres, 2 148, p. 121.
of Dec. altera, tab. 28, 29, 30.
268
VARIETIES OF FIGURE:
exercises of drawing old painted casts are to confer a power of
representing living forms and attitudes. A little attention to
nature, which is indeed too often neglected in learned investi-
gations of proportions, and in academy studies, will convince us,
that even in the same race individual varieties are endless in
number and great in degree, without any diminution of strength
and activity; and that forms and relations very different from
each other may yet be thought equaily beautiful by those who
ancient statues. Still greater differences exist between the
several races of mankind; insomuch, that if we adopt for the
model of beauty the standard of proportions discovered in the
Greek statues, a great part of the human race will be cut off, by
its very organization, from all chance of participating in this
endowment. When, however, we find that Hottentots and
American savages will outrun wild animals in the chase, will
pursue and hunt down even deer; that they will accomplish
long journeys on foot over the most difficult countries, where
there is no path to direct, and every obstacle to obstruct their
progress; that the effeminate Hindoos, as we frequently call
them, will keep up with horses, and perform astonishing journeys
in a short time; that the South Sea Islanders amuse themselves
for hours together by swimming about in the strongest surf,
which would instantly destroy a boat or vessel; we shall be
obliged to allow that the form and proportions to which we are
most accustomed are not essential to bodily vigour and flexibi-
lity of movement. Our own inferiority in these respects arises,
I am aware, from want of exercise, not from organic deficiency.
Civilized man is ignorant of his own powers: he is not sensible
how much he is weakened by effeminacy, nor to what extent he
might recover his native force by habitual and vigorous exercise
of his frame.
The body is described as broad, square, and robust; the
extremities short and nervous; and the shoulders high in the
Mongolian tribes, which entered Europe in the thirteenth cen.
tury. See p. 239.
about the neck, but slender and thin in the limbs. You hardly
ever see corpulent persons among the common people ; even
those who are rich and of higher rank, living in indolence and
abundance, do not become immoderately large ; while, on the
contrary, numerous fat and unwieldly individuals are seen
MONGOLIANS-NEGRO PELVIS.
269
among the Kirgises, and other Tataric pastoral tribes, who follow
exactly the same mode of life.” *
BLUMENBACH possesses the entire skeleton of a Don Cos-
sack, whose head, as exhibited in the fourth plate of his First
Decade, is marked with the character of the Mongolian variety.
The broad and flat face, the harsh muscular impressions and
irregular outlines of this skull, and the construction of the
skeleton in general, correspond to the character which this race
bears for strength and hardiness, and to the alarms which they
generally create as enemies.
“Habitus in totum horridus. Orbitæ maxime profundæ et
latæ, sed valde depressæ. Narium apertura late patula.”
“ Limbus plani semicircularis ubi a processu orbitali externo
ossis frontis sursum vergit, in acutum quasi jugum abiens;
anguli alarum maxillæ inferioris fere monstrose extrorsum
tractæ, et masseterum insertione valde inæquales et quasi his-
pidi. Crassities ossi occipitalis prope protuberantias enormis.
Sed et textura ossium calvariæ tam densa, ut hinc illinc casu
detritæ marmoris durissimi aut iaspidis politi in modum niteant.
Hinc et pondus universi cranii ingens. Verum et reliqui sceleti
partes capitis horridæ conformationi respondent. Cylindrica
V. C. ossa præter modum crassa et ponderosa. Pectoris os qua-
tuor fere digitos transversos latitudine æquans, et quæ sunt
hujus generis alia, rude robur testantia.”
Mr. Rollin, the surgeon who sailed with LA PEROUSE, has
given us the measurements of the Chinese whom he saw at the
Baie de Castries, on the east coast of China, in about 520 N.
lat. and 1410 E. long. ; and also those of the natives of the oppo-
site great island of Tchoka, or Saghalien.
BAIE DE
MEN.
TCHOKA.
CASTRIES.
Ft. In. Lines.
Orjinary stature . . . 5 00
Circumference of the head. . 1 10 4
Long dianneter of the head. . 098 0 90
Short diameter of the head. . 0 5 8
0 5 4
Lengtis of upper extremity. . 2 1 6
2 1 0
Length of lower extremity. . 2 8 0 2 6 0
Length of foot . . . 1.0 95
090
Circumference of the chest . . 3 20
Breadth of the chest . 1 1 4 011 0
* Sammlungen hest, nach, über die Mongöl. Völkersch. i Th. p. 98.
o
270
VARIETIES OF FIGURE:
BAIE DE
MEN.
ТснокА.
CASTRIES
Ft. in. Lines. Ft. In. Lines.
Circumference of the pelvis. . 2 6 0 2 3 0
Height of the vertebral column . 1 11 0 1 10 0
WOMEN.
Circumference of the pelvis
2 21 0*
The measures are French ; of which the foot is to that of
England as 1.066 to 1.000.
The trunk is more slender in the Negro; particularly about
the loins and pelvis: the dimensions of the latter cavity are con-
siderably smaller than in the European, and the extremities in
some instances longer. I found the following proportions in a
full-grown African lad of seventeen.
Ft. In.
Length of the body (lying dead on a table) . 5 7
Length of the upper extremity
Length of the lower extremity
Breadth from shoulder to shoulder . .
• 1 0
Circumference of the pelvis, 'between the crista ilii and
the great trochanter . . . . . . 2 1}
Breadth between the anterior superior spines of the
ossa innominata . . . . . . O s
The two latter measurements, in an Englishman of 5 feet 9
inches, were respectively 2 feet 11 inches, and 10 inches.
In a Negro skeleton of 5 feet 7 inches, the measurement
between the anterior superior spines was 84 inches.
SOEMMERRING gives the following statement of comparative
measures.
In. Lines.
" In my skeleton of a Negro, about twenty years old,
the great diameter of the pelvis is . . . 3 il;
the small . . . . . . 3 73
In another of fourteen years the great diameter is. 3
the small . . . . . .
In an European of sixteen years the great diameter is 4
the small . . . . . . 3 I
In an old well-made European, inferior in stature to the
negro of twenty years, the great . . . 4 6
the small . . . . . . . 3 11”
CAMPER + states that the great diameter of the pelvis, from
* Perouse, Voyage Round the World; v. iii. p. 247.
+ Transactions of the Dutch Society at Rotterdam, in Dutch; v. i.
CU A LO
MONGOLIANS-NEGRO PELVIS.
271
one os innominatum to the other, was to the small diameter,
irom the sacrum to the symphysis pubis, in the
Negro as
39 to 273
European . . . 41 27
Yet the Negro was much taller than the European.
The proportion in another European was as · 44 to 28
In ALBINUS's male skeleton . . . . 66 43
In a female European skeleton . . . . 4928
In two others · ·
44 28
·
In the Farnese Hercules . . . . . 48 34
In the Antinous . . . . . . 40 34
In the Apollo ,
. : 36
according to ALBERT DURER . . . 35 20
Venus de Medici . . . . . 46 34*
...::
· · · · .i.
The same slenderness of the trunk may be observed in some
of the Indians; it is at least apparent in the Lascars, who come
to this country in the East India ships. Their legs also are
long. There are no actual measurements of these.
the proportions of the body in males and females at three dif-
The following are the results in French measures.t
* Von der Rörp. Verschied. pp. 34, 35. + Perouse's Voyage, v. ii. P. 223,
272
VARIETIES OF FIGURE :

Inches. | Conception-Chili.
36° 41' S. Lat.
e Feet.
o Lines.
Montercy
North America.
36° 41' N. Lat.
Baie des Français-
North America.
58° 38' N. Lat.
or Feet.
Inches.
o Lines.
0 Feet.
w Inches. I
o Lines.
· MLN.
0
o
0
H
0
0
e
o
0
o
2 10
Common stature
Long diameter of the head,
from the superior angle
of the occiput to the chin
Short ditto; from the cen-
tre of one parietal bone
to the other.
0 5 0 0 5 40 5.6
Upper extremity; from the
head of the humerus to
the end of the middle
finger
2 1 6 2 1 9 2 2 3
Lower ditto; from the head
of the femur to the heel | 2 8 0 1 2 9 0
Length of the foot . lo 9 4 / 0 10 0 10 10 6
Breadth of the chest be-
tween the shoulders 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 4
Breadth of the shoulders (14 8 1 7 0 1 7 5
Height of the vertebral co-
lumn from the first ver-
tebra to the sacrum .li 10 0 1 ll 0 1 2 0 4!
Circumference of the pelvis 2 4 4 2 6 8 2 7 5 |
WOMEN.
Long diameter of the head o 8 010 8 5 10 8 10
Short diameter of the head 0 4 11 0 5 3 0 5 5
Length of the upper extre-
mity .
2 0 7 1 2 1 0 2 1
Length of the lower extre-
mity .
1 2 5 2 2 6 0 12 6 S
Length of the foot .
lo 8 0 08 610 8 9
Breadth of the chest Tol0 6 10 10 9 10 11 3
Breadth of the shoulders 1 1 2 0 1 2 8 1 3 3
Height of the vertebral co-
lumn . . . 11 8 0 1 6 1 8 9
Circumference of the pelvis 2 5 0 2 6 0 1 2 6 9
Breadth between the ante-
rior superior spinouspro-
cesses . . . . 10 8 0 10 8 5 10 8 10
Oo
ao
SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS.
273
The fine forms, the uncommon symmetry, the great strength
and activity of many tribes in the South Sea Islands, have been
noticed by all who have had intercourse with them.* The
attention of LANGSDORFF was particularly attracted by a youth
named Murau, twenty years of age, whom he saw at Nukahi-
wah, one of the Marquesas Islands. His height was 6 feet 2
inches (Paris measure-between 6 feet 7 and 8 English); his
figure and strength perfect: the following are the measures in
French feet and inches, of various parts of his body; from
which those who are conversant with academic proportions will
be able to decide whether his frame was rightly constructed.
or not.
From the point of the shoulder to the tip of the In. Lines.
longest finger . . . . . . . 227
From the top of the skull to the chin. . , 10 0
From the top of the skull to the navel. . . 3110
From the navel to the division of the thighs. . 10. 0
From the division of the thighs to the sole of the foot 38 0
Length of the foot .
. . . . 133 0
Greatest breadth of ditto . . .
Breadth across the shoulders . .
Circumference at the same part . .
Breadth across the breast .
Circumference of the breast . . .. 42 0
Circumference of the head round the forehead and .
above the ears
28.
10
Circumference of the abdomen about the spleen. 320
Circumference of the pelvis at the hip. . . 42 0
.
.
andet.
.
Circumference of the calf . . . .
Circumference of the ankle at its smallest part
Circumference of the upper part of the arın .
Circumference of the lower ditto . . .
Circumference of the hand . . . .
Circumference of the neck
1770
10 0
1370
134 0
111 0
16 of
.
.
.
grandeur of form, in regularity of features, and in colour, all the other South
Sea Islanders. The men are almost all tall, robust, and well made. Few were
so fat and unwieldy as the Otaheiteans, none so lean and meagre as the people
of Easter Island. We did not see a single crippled or deformed person, but
such general beauty and regularity of forms, that it greatly excited our astonish-
ment. Many of thein might very well have been placed by the side of the
most celebrated chef d'euvres of antiquity, and they would have lost nothing
by the comparison." Langsdorli's Voyages and Travels in various Parts of the
World; v. i. p. 108.
* Voyages and Trarels in various parts of the world, p. 109. “We were
274 : DIFFERENCES IN BODILY STRENGTH.
The natives of New Holland * and Van Diemen's Land t are
be owing in part to the bad quality and deficient quantity of
their food (see p. 135). It is always of the least nutritious
kind, and scarce; and this scarcity is often aggravated to actual
famine, under which the miserable natives are reduced to the
appearance of spectres, I and probably often perish from inanition.
With these differences in stature and proportions we may
reasonably expect to find various degrees of bodily strength
combined. The Spaniards, in their first intercourse with the
new world, found the natives in general much feebler than
themselves; and the inability of the former to sustain the severe
labour of the mines led to the introduction of African slaves,
ments between troop and troop, or man and man, the Virgi-
nians and Kentuckians have always shown themselves stronger
than the American savages. | HEARNE, MACKENZIE, PE-
ROUSE, LEWIS, CLARKE, and others, have found the same
inferiority of physical force in various parts of the North Ame-
rican continenta
The testimony of PALLAS respecting the Mongolian tribe of
the Burats is very remarkable : “ Their appearance is generally
effeminate, and they are mostly so small in stature and weak,
that five or six Burats are often unable to effect what a single
Russian can accomplish. This want of power is not the only
circumstance which proves, in the Burats and other Siberian
nomadic people, that a mere animal diet is unnatural, and inca-
pable of maintaining in perfection the physical prerogatives of
our species. The bodies in all these people are remarkably light
told " says Langsdorff. " that the chief of a neighbouring island, by name
Udoa, with equally exact proportions as Mufau, was a head taller, so at least
Roberts and Cabri both assured us: if they were correct, this man must be
nearly seven Paris feet high." The vigour and activity of Muſau seem to
have been equal to his stature; " though he had never, till now, been on board
an European ship, he ran up the mainmast many times together of his own
accord, and threw himself from it into the sea, to the grcat astonishment of
the spectators. He had actually gone.up one day with the intention of throw-
irig himself from the topmost gallery ; but Captain Krusenstern called him
back, and would not permitit. It was impossible to see, without equal shudder-
ing and astonishment, how he would spring from such an height, and balance
himself in the air for some seconds, with his feet dawn up against his body,
so as to keep his head up; from the force of the fall, and the great weight of
his body, he came with so violenta plunge into the water, that several seconds
elapsed before he appeared again on the surface." P. 170.
. ** Collins, Account of the English Colony, &c. p. 553. Peron, Voyage de
Découvertes ; t. i. tab. 20.
+ Couk, Voyage to the Pacific; v. i. Ď, 96.
# Collins, lib. cil. Peron), v. i. p. 463, et suiv.
2 Herrera, Dec. i. Lib. ix. cap. 5.
i Voluey, Tableau des Etats-unis; t. i. p. 417.

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· DIFFERENCES IN BODILY STRENGTH.
275
in comparison to their size. You can raise and hold up the chil
dren with one hand, when those of the Russian boors of the
same age could only be lifted with both hands. Even adult.
Burats, compared to the Russians, are astonishingly light; so
that the horses, which are not indeed powerful, when tired by a
Russian rider, recover themselves if a Burat takes his place."*
In order to procure some exact comparative results on this
point, PERON took with him on his voyage an instrument called
a dynamomètre, so constructed, as to indicate, on a dial-plate,
the relative force individuals submitted to experiment. He
directed his attention to the strength of the arms and of the.
loins, making trial with several individuals of each kind; viz.
twelve natives of Van Diemen's Land, seventeen of New Holm
Land, fifty-six of the island of Timor, seventeen Frenchmen
belonging to the expedition, and fourteen Englishmen in the.
colony of New South Wales. The following numbers express
the mean result in each case; but the details are all given in a
tabular form in the original.
STRENGTH.
of the Arins: of the Loins.
Kilogrammes. Myriagrammes.
1. Van Diemen's Land . . 50.6
2. New Holland
50.8
10.2
3. Timor . . . . 58.7
11.6
4. French . .
69.2
15.2
5. English . . . . 71.4
16.37
The highest numbers in the first and second class were
respectively, 60 and 62; the lowest in the English trials, 63,
and the highest 83, for the strength of the arms. . In the power
of the loins; the highest among the New Hollanders was 13, the
lowest of the English 12.7, and the highest 21.3.
These results offer the best answer to the declamations on the
degeneracy of civilized man. The attribute of superior physical
strength, so boldly assumed by the eulogists of the savage
state, has never been questioned or doubted. Although we
have been consoled for this supposed inferiority by an enume-
ration of the many precious benefits derived from civilization, it
has always been felt as a somewhat degrading disadvantage.
Bodily strength is a concomitant of good health, which is pro..
duced and supported by a regular supply of wholesome and
* Sammlungen histor. Nachricht, pp. 171, 172. .
+ Peron, Voyage, t. i, chap. xx. p. 446, et suiv. ; t. ii. Additions arut Corroca
tions, p. 400, et siiv.
T
276 VARIETIES OF FIGURES AND PROPORTION.
nutritious food, and by active occupation. The industrious and
well-fed middle classes of a civilized community may therefore
be reasonably expected to surpass, in this endowment, the mise-
rable savages, who are never well fed, and too frequently
depressed by absolute want and all other privations.
In the first Section, Chap. V., I have pointed out a diffe-
rence between the structure of the human subject, and that of
the monkey, in the relative length of the arm and fore-arm.
The latter is always the shortest in man; while the two are
equal in our. near neighbours, or the fore-arm is even the
longest. The Negro holds, in this respect, a middle place,
about equidistant from. Europeans and monkeys. “I mea-
sured,” says Mr. WHITE, “ the arms of about fifty Negroes,
men, women, and children, born in very different climates, and
found the lower arm longer than in Europeans, in proportion to
the upper arm, and to the height of the body. The first Negro
on the list is one in the Lunatic Hospital at Liverpool, his fore-
arm measures 124* inches, and his stature is only 5 feet 10%
inches. I have measured a great number of white people, from
said to have the longest arms of any man in England, but none
of them had a fore-arm equal to that of the black lunatic.
skeletons, and have found that the os humeri or upper arm
exceeds in length the ulna, which is the longer bone of the fore-
arm, by 2 or 3 inches; in none by less than 2, in one by not
less than 3 inches. In my Negro skeleton the os humeri is
only l} inch longer than the ulna. In Dr. Tyson's pigmy
the os humeri and ulna were of the same length; and in my
skeleton of a common monkey the ulna is of an inch longer
than the os humeri.”+
Of a Negro skeleton in the very valuable collection of Mr.
LANGSTAFF, the entire height is 5 feet 75 inches : the humerus
measures 12 inches, the ulna 111. In the individual men-
tioned at p. 255, the upper arm was 13 inches, the ulna 11}.
The comparative results of several measurements are placed
in succession in the following list.
**The ulna of the giant in the College Museum is only one inch longer than
this See page 126.
+ White on the Regular Gradation ; p, 52 and following. See also the tables,
PP. 45 and 46.
NEGRO ARM AND FORB ARM-LEGS.
277

Stature.
Length of Length of
Os Humeri. Ulna.
Inches.
Inches.
Feet.
Inches.
16
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151
125
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15
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14
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124
123
ܕ
er er er er er er er en ooo
12
ola
13
121
13
Ole
121
An Englishman
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto .
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
Englishwoman.
Ditto
European male skeleton .
Ditto . . .
A Negro at the Lunatic
Hospital, Liverpool
Another from Virginia .
Another from the Gold
Coast . .
Another . .
Negro skeleton.
Another. .
A Lascar .
Venus de Medici
Tyson's chimpansé (Simia
troglodytes). .. .
Mr. ABEL's orang-outang
CAMPER's ditto .
Mr. WHITE's monkey .
er 7
15
e rer or I er er
30
N
2
The legs of the Hindoos are said to be long, and those of the
Mongolian nations short, as compared with those of our own race.
The ancients noticed that certain defects of form were very fre-
quent in the legs of the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Negro slaves
SOEMMERRING observes, that in the Negro the bones of the
leg seemed pushed outwards under the femoral condyles, so
that the knees appear rather further apart, and the feet are
directed outwards. This is the case in both his Negro skeletons,
and in more than twelve living Negroes whom he examined.*
It is seen in the cast of the Negro belonging to the College
Museum. The tibia and fibula are more convex in front than
in Europeans. † The calves of the legs are very high, so as to
* Von der körperl. versch. 8 42.
+ Mr. White has represented the bones of the leg and foot of the Negro and
European in a comparative view: On the Regular Gradation, pl. i.
278
VARIETIES OF FIGURE:
encroach upon the hams. The feet and hands, but particularly
the former, are flat: the os calcis, instead of being arched, is
continued in nearly a straight line with the other bones of the
foot, which is remarkably broad. “Both hands and feet termi-
nate in beautiful but very long, and therefore almost ape-like,
fingers and toes; and they had all sesamoid bones, which are
certainly rare in Europeans."* “ The only peculiarities,” ob-
serves WINTERBOTTOM,+ " which struck me in the black hand
and foot, were the largeness of the latter, the thinness of the
hand, and the flexibility of the fingers and toes.” Unseemly
thickness of the legs is not uncommon among the Negroes;
and the feet exhibit numerous chinks and fissures, which, as
they occur principally in the soles, must probably be referred to
the effect of the burning sands. In the sole of a healthy Negro,
who died at Cassel, BLUMENBACH found the epidermis “mirum
in modum crassa, rimosa, et in multifidas lamellas dehiscens.”I
: Peculiarities of form are traceable, in some instances, to par-
ticular practices. “ The only and very common defect ob-
seryable among the Calmucks (says PALLAS) is curvature of
'the thighs and legs, arising from their sitting, even in the
cradle, on a kind of saddle in a riding attitude, and being accus-
tomed to riding as soon as they are able to go alone.”
The curvature of the legs, which is found not only in the
Negroes, but in the Hindoos,|| Americans, and in many other
cases, arises from the practice of squatting; that is, of resting
the utmost. The weight of the trunk in this attitude, which is
painful and indeed insupportable to those who are not accus-
tomed to it, rests on the back of the leg: hence the form of the
calf is spoiled by it.
* Soemmerring has represented the bones of the leg and foot of the Negro
and European in a comparative view.
of Account of the Native Africans, v. 257.
* Deg. h. var, nat. p. 246, note b.
į Sammlungen, &c. Th. i. p. 98,
i Thiš curvature of the leg and deficiency of the calf are represented to me
hy that accomplished artist Mr. Daniel as the only faults in the Indian form ;
which he describes as very far exceeding that of Europeans in elegance and
fine proportions.
Fuego, Forster observes that the lower limbs are by no means proportioned
to the upper parts; that the thighs are thin and lean, the legs bent, the knees
Jarge, and the toes turned inwards. Obs, made on a Voyage Round the World,
p. 851. Cook describes the natives of Nootka Sound as having small, ill-made,
and crooked limbs, with large feet badly shaped, and projecting ankles. He
.ascribes these circumstances to their sitting so much on their hams and knees.
Vouage to the Pacific, y. ii. Po 303. Lewis and Clarke found broad, thick, flat
feet, thick ankles, and crooked legs, in the Western American tribes generally,
They ascribe the latter deformity to the universal practice of squatting, or
sitting on the calves of their legs and heels. Travels, ch. 23.
ELONGATION OF THE EARS.
279
Smallness of the hands and feet has been remarked by careful
observers in many races. Thus it has been found, when the
Hindoo sabres have been brought to England, that the gripe is
too small for most European hands.*
The Chinese were amused by the largeness and length of
Mr. ABEL's hands. He adds, “ Those of all the Chinese,
when compared to the hands of Europeans, are very small.
When placed in mine, which are not excessively large, wrist
against wrist, the ends of their fore-finger scarcely extended
beyond the first joints of mine." +
Mr. CHAPPELL observes of the Esquimaux, that “ the most
surprising peculiarity of these people is the smallness of their
hands and feet.” I
HUMBOLDT says, that “ the Chaymas, like almost all the
native nations (of America) I have seen,' have small slender
hands.” §
Similar observations have been made respecting the New
Hollanders and Hottentots.||
or size of the ears, as characterizing the several races of men.
are in some degree moveable in savages; also that the lobulus
is enlarged and monstrously elongated by various artificial
means in many instances. These practices may have given
rise to the fables of some older writers concerning the enormous
ears of certain people.
In some instances a slit is made in the external ear, parallel to
and near its circumference, and extending through almost its
whole length. This is not only subservient to decoration by
holding ornaments, but is also converted to the convenient
purpose of receiving knives or other useful articles.
The Brasilians inserted gourds in the slits of their ears,
increasing the size until the fist could be put through, and the
ears reached the shoulders. When they prepare for battle, these
ornamental appendages were fastened behind,**
CONDAMINE and ULLOA saw the lobuli extended to four or
* Hodges, Travels in India, p. 3.
† Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China, p. 91.
* Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay, P. 59.
Personal Narrative, v. iii. p. 226. See also Ulloa, Noticias Americanas,
v. ii.; and Morse's American Geography, v. i.
Il Barrow's Southern Africa, v. 1. p. 157.
I See Portrait of a New Zealander, in Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages,
v. ii. pl. 13. Also pl. 11 in the Atlas of Cook's Voyage to the Pacific,
** Southey's History of Brasil, v. i. pp. 135, 136, 631, note 35.
280
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, &c.:
five inches in length, so as to touch the shoulders in many cases.
The perforations were seventeen or eighteen lines in diameter.*
Similar practices prevail extensively in the Asiatic and Soutn
Sea Islands, where persons are seen with the lobuli reaching the
shoulders, and having slits large enough for the hand to pass.
I shall shortly mention here some other modes of ornamental
bodily embellishment, which have been practised chiefly among
tribes in a more or less rude state. The flattening of the fore-
head, the dying and filing of the teeth, have been already
noticed; See CHAPTER IV. SECT. II.
The operation of tattooing, or puncturing and staining the
skin, has prevailed in various degrees in most parts of the
world; but it has been adopted most extensively and generally
in the South Sea Islands, where it is considered as highly orna-
mental. The art is carried to its greatest perfection in the
Washington or New Marquesas Islands; where wealthy and
powerful individuals are often covered with various designs from
head to foot. I The elegance and symmetry of the tattooed
figures are as much admired by them, as those of dress are by
us. We may pardon their simplicity in attaching so much value
to the multiplicity and arrangement of these punctures, when
we consider that those satisfactory tests of personal merit, the
stars, ribbons, and orders, of which more civilized men are so
justly proud, are not yet known to them. “ For performing
the operation, the artist uses the wing-bone of a tropic-bird,
phaëton ethereus, which is rendered jagged and pointed at the
end like a comb, sometimes in the form of a crescent, sometimes
in a straight line, and larger or smaller according to the figures
he designs to make. This instrument is fixed into a bamboo
handle about as thick as the finger, with which the puncturer, by
means of another cane, strikes so gently and dexterously, that it
scarcely pierces through the skin. The principal strokes of the
figures to be tattooed are first sketched upon the body with the
same dye that is afterwards rubbed into the punctures, to serve
as guides in the use of the instrument. The punctures being
• Mémoires de l'Acad. des Sciences; 1745, p. 433. Travels in South America,
v, i. p. 395. A similar account is given by Adair, Hist. of the North American
Indians, p. 171.
# Forster, Obs, on a Voyage Round the World, p. 592. A man at Tanna wore
thirteen ear-rings of turtle-shell, an inch in diameter and three quarters of an
inch broad. Cook's Voy, towards the South Pole, v. i, p. 290, pl. 46, 47, man
and woman of Easter Island, with elongated lobuli.
# Langsdorff's Voyages and Travels, &c. v. i. chap. 5. The designs, which
are symmetrically arranged, anıl show no inconsiderable taste, are exhibited
in two plates, at pp. 119–122. See also Hawkcsworth's Collection, v. iii, pl. 13,
for the tattooed head of a New Zealander.
OTHER EFFECTS OF ART.
281
made so that the blood and lymph ooze through the orifice, a
thick dye, composed of ashes from the kernel of the burning
occasions at first a slight degree of smarting and inflammation;
it then heals, and, when the crust comes off after some days, the
bluish or blackish blue figure appears.” “ When once the
decorations are begun, some addition is constantly made to
them at intervals of from three to six months, and this is not
unfrequently continued for thirty or forty years before the
whole tattooing is completed. We saw some old men of the
higher ranks, who were punctured over and over to such a
degree, that the outlines of each separate figure were scarcely to
be distinguished, and the body had an almost Negro-like appear.
ance. This is, according to the general idea, the height of
perfection in ornament, probably because the cost of it has been
very great, and it therefore shows a person of superlative
wealth.”*
• The colour of the tattooed figures resides in the cutis or true
skin; the cuticle is not affected. Contrary to what we should
have inferred, from the generally assumed principle of constant
change in the component particles of animal bodies, these marks
are indelible; they are neither extinguished, nor rendered
fainter by lapse of time, and can be got rid of only by excision.
Another mode of ornamenting the skin, by means of raised
cicatrices, is principally practised in Africa. WINTERBOTTOM
informs us, that in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, it is pecun
liar to the female sex ; " that it is used upon the back, breast,
abdomen, and arms, forming a variety of figures upon the skin,
which appears as if embossed. The figures intended to be
represented are first drawn upon the skin with a piece of stick
dipped in wood ashes, after which the line is divided by a sharp-
pointed knife. The wound is then healed as quickly as possible,
by washing it with an infusion of bullanta.” “ These incisions
or marks are generally made during childhood, and are very
common on the Gold Coast, where each nation has its peculiar
mode of ornamenting themselves, so that by the disposition of
the marks it is easy to know which country the person belongs
to: for the most part the females possess the greatest number
of these painful ornaments.”+
In the recent voyage up the Congo, the embossed cicatrices
• Langsdorff, pp. 118–120.
282
OTHER EFFECTS OF ART.
were found a very common ornament. Capt. TUCKEY observed
on entering the river, that “ all the visitors, whether Christian
or idolaters, had figures raised on their skins in cicatrices.”* As
he proceeded further, he found that “the cicatrices or orna-
mental marks on the bodies of both men and women were much
more raised than in the lower part of the river. The women in
particular had their chest and belly below the navel embossed
in a manner that must have cost them infinite pain.”+
The septum narium is sometimes perforated, and a piece of
bone or wood worn in the aperture, often of considerable mag-
nitude. But the most singular practice is that of the women on
the north-west coast of America, who make a large horizontal
penetrating into the mouth; they wear in it ornaments of dif-
ferent kinds, but generally oval pieces of wood a little concave
on the two surfaces, and grooved at the edge. The smallest of
these additional mouths, as described by VANCOUVER,I was
24 inches long; the largest 31 inches by 11. Capt. Dixon
brought home one of the lip ornaments, which measured
35 inches by 25. It was inlaid with a small pearly shell, and
surrounded with a rim of copper."S
The natives of the neighbouring Fox Islands seem determined
to unite all kinds of personal embellishment. “ They make
three incisions in the under lip; they place in the middle one a
flat bone, or a small coloured stone, and in each of the side ones
the ears. They likewise make a hole through the gristle of the
nose, into which they put a small piece of bone, in such a man-
ner as.to keep the nostrils extended. They also pierce holes in
the ears, and wear in them what little ornaments they can
procure.”'ll
The barbarous Chinese custom of contracting the feet of
women, and the great extent to which their irrational purpose
is accomplished, are well known. While the Europeans were
expressing their surprise at such an absurdity, and pitying the
* Narrative of an Expedition, &c. pp. 80—124.
† Moid. pp. 182, 183. The custom is retained by the black Caribs in the West
Indies; Amic, in Journal de Physique, Aug. 1791,
# Voyage, v. ii. p. 280.
g Voyage, p. 208. Also pp. 172–186. Perouse, Voyage, v. ii. p. 139 and
following. Langsdorf's Voyages and Travels, v. ii. p. 115. The same practice
exists in the archipelago between America and Kamtschatka. Coxe's Account
of the Russian Discoveries; third ed. pp. 34, 35, 104, 138, 176, 197.
|| Coxe, pp. 176, 177. A similar custom prevailed among the Brasilians ;
Southey, History of Brazil, v. i. p. 11.
VARIETIES OF FIGURE AND MAMMÆ. 283
sufferers, they were constantly permitting under their own eyes
the equally, if not more pernicious practice of tight stays; by
which I have seen the figure of the thorax completely and per-
manently altered at its lower part.*
When the male New Hollanders approach the age of puberty,
they have one of the front incisors of the upper jaw knocked out,
with a curious set of ceremonies described and delineated by
Mr. Collins. The women of these people, and of some
others, particularly in the South Sea, are often seen to have
lost one or two joints of the little finger. The exact nature and
object of both these mutilations are not understood.
Many travellers have spoken of the large and pendulous
mammæ of the females of certain barbarous tribes, particularly
in Africa. There is no original difference in these cases; the
Hottentots and Negresses, previously to child-bearing, have
bosoms as finely formed as any women; but after this time the
breasts become very loose and flaccid, so that they can turn
them under or over the shoulder, and suckle their infants on
their backs. This practice and that of long-continued suckling
probably tend to increase the elongation.
In speaking of the Shangallas, BRUCE says that " after a few
days, when the child has gathered strength, the mother carries
it in the same cloth upon her back, and gives it suck with her
breast, which she throws over her shoulder, this part being of
such a length, as in some to reach almost to the knees. I
Capt. TUCKEY $ noticed the “pendent flaccidity of bosom"
which belongs to the African women, and which is thought
ornamental by the girls of the Zaire, or rather promoted by them
as a token of womanhood.||
Dr. SOMERVILLE 9 says that the breasts of the Hottentot
women, at the time of puberty, “become long, round and firm,
the nipple scarcely projecting from the areola, which is more
extensive than in other females. Soon after this period, and
particularly during utero-gestation, the nipples increase, and do
not again entirely shrink. After one or two births the breasts
. These small waisted damsels are placed by Linneus among the monstrous
varieties of our species; “juncea puellæ, abdomine attenuato, Europeæ."
+ Account of the English Colony, &c. Appendix; with eight illustrative
engravings.
| Travels to the Source of the Nile; second ed. v. iv. p. 35.
E.cpedition to explore, &c. pp. 18—124.
1 - Au Sénégal les jeunes filles font leurs efforts pour faire tomber leur
gorge afin qu'on les croye femmes, et qu'on les respecte d'avantage."
Lamiral, L'Afrique, p. 45.
| Medico-chirurgical Transactions, v. vii. p. 157.
28+
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, &c.
are flaccid, wrinkled, and pendulous, hanging down sometimes
to the groins, like bags suspended from the neck.”
When the Hottentot Venus was stripped naked, “ the breasts,
which she used to raise and confine by her dress, showed their
large pendent masses, terminated by black areolæ of more than
four inches in breadth, and marked by radiated wrinkles."*
· Mr. BARROW, in speaking of the Namaaqua Hottentots, says
that “ the breasts are disgustingly large and pendent: the usual
way of giving suck, when the child is carried on the back, is by
throwing the breast over the shoulder.
Ullon I observed the Negresses in South America carried
their children on their backs, and passing the breasts to them
for suckling under the arm or over the shoulder..
This fact is reported by numerous and respectable travellers,
and has been confirmed to me so positively, both in the Negro and
Hottentot races, by eye-witnesses, that I am surprised to find it
contradicted by Dr. WINTERBOTTOM, who says, “ I never saw
an instance where women could suckle their children upon their
backs, by throwing their breasts over their shoulders ; and it
may be affirmed that such a circumstance would occasion as
much astonishment on the western coast of Africa as it would
in Europe."'S
This assertion is rather more general than could be warranted
by the author's experience, which seems to have been prin-
cipally confined to the Nova Scotia Negroes, settled in Free-
town, Sierra Leone. We can only infer from it, therefore, that
the fulness and elongation of the breasts are not universal in
the African race.
Some of the accounts, indeed, bear an evident air of exagge-
ration; Bruce's expressions are rather strong; but what are
we to think of the assertion that tobacco-pouches manufactured
from the breasts of the Hottentot females are sold in great
numbers at the Cape of Good Hope ? ||
On the other hand, similar conformations have been occa-
sionally noticed in some European countries. “I saw," says
LITHGOW,“ in Ireland's north parts, women travayling the
way or toyling at home, carry their infants about their neckes,
and laying the dugges over their shoulders, would give sucke
• Cuvier, in Mémoires du Muséum d'Hist, nat, t. iii. p. 265.
+ Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, v. i. p. 390.
+ Travels in South America, v. i. p. 32.
i dccount of the Native Africans, v. ii. p. 264.
U Mentzel Beschreibung des Vorgebirges der guten Hoffnuny; t. ii. p. 566.
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, &c.
285
to the babes behind their backes, without taking them in their
armes : such kind of breasts, me thinketh, were very fit to be
made money-bags for East or West India merchants, being
more than halfe a yard long, and as well wrought as any tanner,
in the like charge, could ever mollifie such leather.”
A large size of the breasts has been observed in the Morla-
chian women by FORTIS; and is alluded to by JUVENAL as a
well-known circumstance, in speaking of the Egyptians
“In Meroe crasso majorem infante papillam.”
The Portuguese women of modern days are said to be remark-
able in the same way; while the Spaniards, in the last century
at least, took pains to compress these parts, in order to prevent
too great a luxuriance.
To the disgrace of London, even in this pious age of societies
for suppressing vice and distributing Bibles, a philosophic
foreigner has found in her streets a proof of the effects of too
early venereal excitement in enlarging the breast; and has com.
memorated the fact in a classical work, which must convey the
scandal over the whole learned world. “ Contraria cura ambi-
tum mammarum augeri posse nullum dubium est ; quantum
vero præterea Venus quoque præmatura eo conferre possit me-
morabili sane exemplo impuberes et nondum adultæ puellæ
mercenariæ docent, quæ Londinum, præsertim ex vicinis maxime
suburbiis confluunt, et quæstum corpore facientes ingenti
numero plateas noctu pervagantur." +
There are no essential differences in the organs of genera-
tion; their construction and functions are the same in the
various races of mankind. The Negroes, indeed, have gene-
rally been celebrated for the size of a principal member of this
apparatus. “Nigritas mentulatiores esse vulgo ferter. Res-
pondet sane huic asserto insignis apparatus genitalium Æthiopis,
quem in supellectili et mea anatomica servo. Num vero con-
stans sit hæc prærogativa et nationi propria, nescio."| Two
specimens in the College Museum strongly confirm the common
opinion, which is also corroborated by Mr. WHITE, both from
dissection and observation of living Negroes. He mentions an
instance where the part in question was found on dissection to
be twelve inches long. In the living and dead Negroes whom
I have seen, there has been no deviation in size from the Euro-
pean formation ; but I have never injected the part.
* Rare Adventures and painefull Peregrinations, p. 433.
+ Blumenbach, Deg. l. var. nat. sect, iii, 67.
* Ibid. p. 240.
On the Regular Gradation, 11. 61.
286
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, &c.:
Mr. WHITE observes that many Negroes have no frænum
præputii; and that in others it is small and imperfect.*
It has been supposed that the Hottentot women have some-
thing peculiar in this part of their organization; that they are
distinguished from all other daughters of Eve by being furnished
with a natural fig-leaf of skin, produced from the lower and
front part of the abdomen, and covering the sinus pudoris. It
has been called a natural apron (tablier, Fr. ; ventrale cutaneum;
schürze, Germ.). Although the native country of these females
has been so much visited by Europeans from all quarters for
a long series of years, and the structure, according to ordinary
descriptions, must be very recognisable, there is a singular dis-
cordance among travellers concerning this interesting point in
natural history. Some affirm, others altogether deny its exist-
ence; and of the former, hardly any two agree in the precise
nature of the peculiarity, some referring it to the labia, some to
the nymphæ, others to a peculiar organization ; some deeming
it natural, others artificial.
This discordance is accounted for in great measure by two
circumstances. First, that the peculiar organization is not
visible in the ordinary attitude of the body, being concealed
between the thighs ;t and, secondly, that it is confined to a
particular tribe. It does not exist in the Negroes, where the
female organs of generation differ from the Europeans only in
colour, the Kaffers, the Booshuanas, at least not in a conspi-
cuous degree, or in the Hottentots generally; but it belongs to
that particular tribe of Hottentots who are called Bosjesmen, or
Boschismen.
This name is equivalent to Bushmen, was given by the Dutch
to a diminutive race strongly resembling the Hottentots in
general formation. They are wild and fugitive beings, fre-
quently engaged in rapine and plunder, and retiring for security
into deserts and thickets; whence their name seems to have been
derived. I Perpetual warfare existed between these Bushmen
* On the Regular Gradation, p. 62. Tyson states that the chimpansé had no
frænum ; Anat. of a Pigmie, p. 45. The exact structure of this part is not
mentioned by Camper.
+ The Hottentot Venus displayed her charms to the French savans at the.
Jardin du Roi, where she had the complaisance to undress herself, that she
might be drawn naked.” “On this occasion the most remarkable peculiarity of
her formation was not observed; she kept her "tablier' carefully concealed.
either between her thighs, or still more deeply, and it was not known, till after
death, that she possessed it." Cuvier, Mémoires du Muséum : pp. 264, 265.
# Cuvier gays they were called Bushmen " parce qu'ils ont coutume de
se faire des espèces de nids dans des touffes de broussailles." Where he heard
of these human nests I cannot conjecture. Mr. Barrow simply states “ that
they are known in the colony by the name of Bosjesmans, or men of the bushes,

ORGANS OF GENERATION. a 287
and the Dutch, who hunted and destroyed them with as little
ceremony as the other wild game of the country. That they
remained in the most savage state, and were very rarely seen in
the Dutch colony, is easily understood from these circumstances..
On the authority of LE VAILLANT, * and of drawings com-
municated to him by Sir JOSEPH BANKS, BLUMENBACHT
describes the peculiarity to consist in an elongation of the labia,
and represents it as produced by artificial means. More careful
and accurate examinations, both in Africa and Europe, have
proved most clearly that it resides in the nymphæ, which acquire
a length of some inches, and that the formation is natural.
SONNERAT had already represented the matter nearly cor-
rectly. “ Le tablier fabuleux qu'on prête à leurs femmes, et
qu'on dit leur avoir été donné par la nature, n'a point de réalité;
il est vrai qu'on aperçoit dans certaines une excroissance des
nymphes qui quelquefois pend de six pouces, mais c'est une
phénoméne particulier, dont on ne peut pas faire une règle
générale.”I
“ The well-known story,” says Mr. BARROW, “ of the Hot-
tentot women possessing an unusal appendage to those parts
that are seldom exposed to view, which belonged not to the sex
in general, is perfectly true with regard to the Bosjesmans.
The horde we had met with possessed it to a woman; and,
without the least offence to modesty, there was no difficulty in
satisfying curiosity. It appeared on examination to be an elon-
gation of the nymphæ or interior labia, more or less extended
according to the age or habit of the person. In infancy it is
just apparent, and in general may be said to increase in length
with age. The longest that was measured somewhat exceeded
five inches, which was in a subject of a middle age. Many were
said to have them much longer. These protruded nymphæ,
collapsed and pendent, appear at first view to belong to the
other sex. Their colour is that of livid blue, inclining to a red-
dish tint, not unlike the excrescence on the beak of a turkey,
which indeed may serve to convey a tolerable good idea of the
whole appearance both as to colour, shape, and size. The
interior lips or nymphæ in European subjects which are corru-
gated or plaited, lose entirely that part of their character, when
brought out in the Hottentot, and become perfectly smooth.
from the concealed manner in which they make their approaches to kill and
to plunder.” Travels in South Africa, v. i. p. 234.
* Voyage dans l'Intéricur d'Afrique, p. 371. + De g. h. var, nat. sect, iii. 8 68.
# Voyage dans les Indes Orientales, t, "ii. p. 93.
288
VARIETIES OF FIGURE, &c. :
Though in the latter state they may possess none of those stimu.
lating qualities, for which some anatomists have supposed nature
to have formed them, they have at least the advantage of serving
as a protection against violence from the other sex, it seeming
next to impossible for a man to cohabit with one of these women
without her consent, or even assistance."*
Mr. BARROW adds, that “the elongated nymphæ are found
m all Hottentot women, only they are shorter in those of the
colony, seldom exceeding three inches, and in many subjects
appearing merely as a projecting orifice, or an elliptical tube of
an inch or less in length. In the bastaard (offspring of Euro-
pean father and Hottentot mother) it ceases to appear." He
observes again, of the Namaaquas, that “ they had the same
conformation of certain parts of the body as the Bosjesman
women, and other Hottentots; in a less degree, however, than
is usual in the former, and more so than in those of the latter." I
This account is fully confirmed by the accurate descriptions
of Dr. SOMERVILLE,who speaks from ample opportunities of
observation and dissection. He states that the mons veneris
is less prominent than in Europeans; and either destitute of
hair or thinly covered by a small quantity of a soft woolly
nature: that the labia are very small, insomuch that they seem
sometimes to be almost deficient: that the loose, pendulous,
and rugous growth, which hangs from the pedendum, is a
double fold, and proved by the situation of the clitoris at the
commissure of these folds, as well as by all other circumstances,
to be the nymphæ; and that they descend in some cases five
inches || below the margin of the labia.
The description by Cuvier of the individual publicly exhi-
bited in London and Paris, under the name of the Hottentot
Venus, agrees entirely with Dr. SOMERVILLE's account. He
found the labia small; a single prominence descended between
them towards the upper part; it divided into two lateral por-
tions, which passed along the sides of the vagina to the inferior
angle of the labia. The whole length was about four inches.
This formation often has been ascribed to artificial elongation.
• Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, v. i. 278, 279.
of Ibid. 280, 281.
Ibid. 389.
& Medico-chirurgical Transactions, v, vii. p. 157.
li In one of Blumenbach's drawinys the length is 64 inches (Rhynland
measure). Vaillant speaks of their reaching 9 inches.
T Méi du Muséum, t. iii. p. 266. When Peron visited the Cape of Good
Hope, he turnerl his attention to this subject; but his statements, as contained
in the second volume of the Voyage des Découvertes, &c, chap. xxxiv published
after his death, are quite erroneous.
ORGANS OF GENERATION.
289
« The testimony of the people themselves,” says Mr. BARROW,
“ who have no other idea, but that the whole human race is so
formed, is sufficient to contradict such a supposition; but many
other proofs might be adduced to show that the assertion is
without any foundation in truth. Nụmbers of Bosjesman
women are now in the colony who were taken from their
mothers when infants, and brought up by the farmers, who,
from the day of their captivity, have never had any intercourse
whatsoever with their countrymen, nor know, except from
report, to what tribe or nation they belong; yet all these have
the same conformation of the parts naturally, and without any
forced means."*
Dr. SOMERVILLE observes, that if any practice of elongating
the nymphæ had existed among the Hottentots, it could not
have escaped his knowledge; that they do not wish to have
them long, nor take any pains for that purpose. They, who
have them longest, are not thought the more beautiful ; nor
are those slighted, in whom they are short. +
This extension of the nymphæ in the Bosjesman and Hot-
tentot females will appear the less remarkable, when we con-
sider that their size varies in Europeans; that they often project
beyond the labia, and are of an inconvenient length. A con-
siderable development of these organs is more common in warm
climates, and has been noticed in the Negroes, Moors, and
Copts, among whom it has been the practice. for females to be
circumcised. This point is even noticed by Pliny. When
the Abyssinians were converted to Christianity in the sixteenth
century, the Catholic missionaries thought fit to forbid circum-
cision, deeming it a relic of Judaism. As the taste of the men
had been formed on the old practice, they did not approve this
innovation, and the Catholic girls found that they should get
* Travels, &c. pp. 279, 280.
+ Lib. cit. p. 158.
# In the Appendix, No. 1, entitled “An Account of Circumcision as it is
practised on the windward coast of Africa,” to the second volume of his very
interesting account of the native Africans, Dr. Winterbottom informs us, that
this operation is performed on the females as well as the males; and that it is
equally common to both sexes in many parts of Arabia, at Bagdad, Aleppo,
and Surat, in Egypt, Abyssinia, and the neighouring countries. "Among the
Mahommedan nations on this part of the coast (Sierra Leone), thie operation
consists in removing the nymphæ, together with the præputium clitoridis, not
the clitoris itself, as has been imagined." P. 239. Bruce, who gives a similar
account of the circumcision, or, as he calls it, excision, practised in Abyssinia,
refers the oriyin of the custom to a natural redundancy or excess of the parts,
on which it is performed. Dr. Winterbottom, however, asserts that on the
windward coast of Africa there is no physical reason for it; the redundancy
mentioned by Bruce being more rarely met with in these countries than in
Europe; "and where the custom of circumcision is unknown, which is pro-
bably over the greater part of the continent, no complaint is made on this
head." P. 241,

U
290
FAT BUTTOCKS OF
no husbands. In this dilemma the college of the Propaganda
sent a surgeon from Rome to examine and report; and, in
the ancient custom.
Although it is not immediately connected with the generative
organs, I may mention here another striking peculiarity in the
same women. I mean the vast masses of fat accumulated on
their buttocks, and giving to them the appearance of extraor-
dinary and unnatural appendages.
“ The great curvature of the spine inwards, and extended
posteriors, are characteristic of the whole Hottentot race; but
in some of the small Bosjesmans they are carried to a most
extravagant degree."--" The projection of the posterior part of
the body in one subject, measured five inches and a half from á
line touching the spine. This protuberance consisted of fat.
and, when the woman walked, had the most ridiculous appear-
ance imaginable, every step being accompanied with a quiver-
ing and tremulous motion, as if two masses of jeiiy were
attached behind."*
The vibration of these substances at every movement was
very striking in the Hottentot Venus. They were quite soft to
the feel. She measured more than eighteen inches (French)
across the haunches; and the projection of the hips exceeded
six inches.
Dr. SOMERVILLE found on dissection, that the size of the
buttocks arose from a vast mass of fat interposed between the
skin and muscles; and that it equalled four fingers' breaäth in
thickness. + CUVIERI describes the protuberance to be pro-
cellular threads, and easily removed from the glutei. The Hot-
tentot Venus stated that this deposition of fat does not take
place until the first pregnancy; and this statement is confirmed
by the testimony of Mr. BARROW.Ş
It seems almost superfluous to add, that the sacrum and os
coccygis have the same size, figure, and direction in these, as in
other females; that the latter bone is not turned backwards,
much less prolonged into any resemblance or even approach to
a tail.
If the Negroes and Hottentots approximate in some points to
the structure of the monkey kind, as they very certainly do, this
particular of the elongated nymphæ is rather an instance of the
• Barrow, lib. cit. p. 281. + Lib. cit. p. 160. Ibid. n. 269. Ibid. p. 158,
THE HOTTENTOT WOMEN.
291
opposite description. For the corresponding cutaneous folds
are barely visible in the simiæ. The tremulous masses of fat
with which the glutei are loaded, constitute, on the contrary,
according to CUVIER,* “a striking resemblance to those which
appear in the female mandrills, baboons, &c. and which assume,
at certain epochs of their life, a truly monstrous development.”
The most analogous animal structure, however, is that of the
sheep, of which such vast and numerous flocks are reared by
the pastoral tribes of Asia. In this variety, a large mass of fat
berance is smooth or naked below, and appears, when viewed
behind, as a double hemisphere, the coccyx being just percep-
tible to the touch in the notch between the two. It consists
merely of fat, and fluctuates in walking when very large, like
the buttocks of the Hottentots. The mass sometimes reaches
the weight of thirty or forty pounds. PALLAS,+ who has
described this breed of sheep very well, calls it ovis steatopyga,
or fat-buttocked sheep.
The peculiarity is lost by crossing the breed with other sheep;
and it becomes considerably diminished, when the animals, being
purchased by the Russians and conveyed to their towns, quit
their native pastures, and change their mode of life.
As this fat-buttocked sheep is universally held to be a mere
variety, we cannot deem the analogous structure of the Bosjes-
men and Hottentots to afford any adequate ground for referring
lopment of the nymphæ, and the other varieties enumerated in
this chapter, are merely analogous to the varieties observed in
corresponding points among our domestic animals.
The works of the older cosmographers, and even the narratives
of comparatively recent travellers, make mention of human
varieties much more remarkable than any which I have
recounted. Such are the African Blemmyes or people without
heads, the Arimaspi and Cyclops with one eye, the Monos-
celi with one leg, the giants and pigmies, the Monorchides, the
Anorchides, Triorchides, Hermaphrodites,& the Cynocephali,
Cynomolgi, &c. &c. which are spoken of by HERODOTUS,
* Lib. cit. p. 268.
+ Spicilegia Zoologica; fascic. xi. p. 63. et seq. There are breeds of sheep
sia, Syria, Palestine, and some parts of Africa, in which the tail is not
deficient as in the ovis steatopyga, but retains its usual length, and becomes
loaded with fat.
# I have considered this subject in the article Generation of Dr. Rees'
Cyclopædia.
292
FABULOUS VARIETIES.
PLINY, POMPONIUS MELA, PTOLEMY, and many others. The
proverbial license assumed by travellers, their ignorance or dis-
position to deceive, their carelessness in receiving or communi-
cating facts, and the credulity and love of the marvellous in
their readers, are all favourable to the production and diffusion
of such stories. In proportion as distant regions become well
known, such monstrosities disappear; and the progress of
natural knowledge will gradually consign all these marvellous
tales to oblivion. The great mass of information, which we now
possess concerning the animal creation in general, respecting
the human structure and functions in particular, and the
various modifications in the principal races of the species, afford
us critical rules, by which the truth or falsehood of any extraor-
dinary narratives can be easily and certainly determined. We
need not waste any more time on the fabulous varieties above
alluded to, yet there is one, which has found believers even in
our own times: I allude to the men with tails, who having been
again and again spoken of by various authors, were defended and
patronised not long ago by Lord MONBODDO. Not to mention that
the existence of a tail in man would be quite inconsistent with
all the rest of his structure, and more particularly with all the
arrangements both of the hard and soft parts composing or con-
tained in the pelvis, we may observe that nearly all, who have
spoken of the homines caudati, do so, not from their own
observation, but from the reports or information of others.
While, on the other hand, they who pretend to have had ocular
testimony of the fact, mention it in such a manner, and with
such circumstances, as obviously to destroy their own credit ;
and they differ most widely from each other even when speaking
of the same people.* Again, the most intelligent and accurate
travellers, in describing the same people, either make no men-
tion of the prodigy, or else characterize it as a pure fiction.
Thus, instead of finding the existence of any race of men with
tails authenticated by credible witnesses, there is no example
even of a single family displaying such an anomaly, although
These remarks are exemplified by Blumenbach in the statements which
have been published concerning the tails of the Formosans: De g. h. var. nat.
sect, iii. 276. He also succeeded in tracing to its source the engraved repre-
sentation of a man with a tail, and in proving that it was originally the figure
of a monkey, transmitted froni one author to another, and humanized a little
at each ster. Martini, in his version of Buffon, took a plate from the Amanitates
of Linneus; who took it from Aldrovandus, who took it from Gesner, who
took it from a German description of the Holy Land (Reyss in das Gelobte Land;
Mentz, 1486), in which it represents a quadrumanous monkey, which, with
other exotic animals, was seen in the journey. This quadrumanous simia had
been gradually transformed by those who successively copied the engravings,
into a human two-handed being. Ibid. note, , 271,
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
293.
there are 'well-known instances of families with six fingers on:
each hand.
The consideration of monstrous productions belongs to
pathology and physiology, rather than to the natural history of
our species. I have given a description of them, with some
remarks on their production, in the fifth volume of the Medico-
chirurgical Transactions.
.
.
CHAPTER VI.
Differences of Stature.--Origin and Transmission of Varieties in Form.
No part of the natural history of man has been more confused.
and disgraced by fables and hyperbolical exaggeration than the
present division. Not to mention the pigmies and giants of
antiquity, the bones of different large animals ascribed to human,
subjects of immoderate stature, even by such men as BUFFON,
sufficiently prove our assertion. The accuracy of modern
investigation has, however, so completely exposed the extrava-
gance of such suppositions, that they do not require very detailed
consideration.
There is no fixed lay deterinining invariably the human
stature, although there is a standard, as in other species of ani.
mals, from which the deviations, independently of disease or
accident, are not very considerable in either direction. In the
temperate climates of Europe the height of the human race
varies from four feet and a half to six feet. Individuals of six
feet and some inches are not uncommon in this and other Euro-
pean countries. Occasional instances have been known, in
various parts of the world, of men reaching the height of seven,
eight, or even nine feet; and ancient and even modern authors
speak of the human stature reaching ten, and even eighteen feet.
The latter representations are grounded on large bones dug out
of the earth. These, together with the common propensity to
believe and report what is marvellous, and the notion that man-
kind have undergone a physical as well as moral degeneracy
since their first formation, have led to a very common belief
that the human stature in general is at this period less than it.
was in remote ages.* We are warranted in suspecting the.
* The notion of diminished stature and strength seeins to have been just as
prevalent in ancient times as at present. Pliny observes of the human height,
"cunto mortalium generi minoren indies fieri :” vii. 16. A most alarming
prospect, if it had been well founded. Homer more than once inakes a very
disparaging comparison of his own degenerate cotemporaries to the powerful
heroes of the Trojan war. .
294
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
accounts of such great elevation above the ordinary stature in
the human species, by observing that nature, within the time of
which we have any authentic records, exhibits no such dispro-
portions in other species. We find, too, that the height of these
giants is reduced, as we approach modern times, to what we
have opportunities of observing now: so that we may probably
affirm, that no sufficiently authenticated example can be
adduced of a man higher than eight or nine feet.
The large bones, on which the notions about giants have been
in many instances founded, have been discovered, by the accu-
rate examinations of modern science, to belong to extinct
species of animals of the elephant and other allied kinds. Of
the loose and unphilosophical manner in which these matters
have generally been inquired into, we have a specimen in the
supposed bones of a barbarian king. HABICOT, an anatomist:
of some celebrity, in a work entitled Gigantosteologia, describes
some huge bones, found near the ruins of the castle of Chau-
mont in Dauphiny, in a sepulchre, over which was a gray stone
inscribed TEUTOBOCCHUS REX. This skeleton, he says, was
twenty-five feet and a half high, and ten feet broad at the shoulders.
RIOLAN, in his Gigantomachia, disputes this measurement, and
affirms that the bones belong to the elephant. In the long con-
troversy which ensued, it never occurred to either of the learned
disputants to describe or represent the boues exactly. It is
surprising that BUFFON should have figured and described the
fossil bones of large animals as remains of human giants, in the
supplement* of his classical work. Together, with others, he
mentions those dug up at Lucerne in the sixteenth century,
and still preserved there. BLUMENBACH found these, on
the first view, to be elephants' bones. FELIX PLATER, an
excellent physician and anatomist of his time, after carefully
examining and measuring these bones, declared that they
belonged to a human giant of seventeen feet, and had a draw-
ing made of the skeleton, according to his opinion of its di-
mensions; which drawing is still preserved in the Jesuits”
College at Lucerne.fi
That men in general were taller in the early ages of the
world than at present, or that examples of very tall men were
then more frequent than now, has been asserted without any
proof. The remains of human bones, and particularly the
teeth, which are unchanged in the most ancient urns and burial-
places, the munimies, and the sarcophagus of the great pyramid
* Tom. v.
+ De g. l. var. nat. p. 251.
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
295
of Egypt, demonstrate this point clearly; and every fact whicn.
we can collect, from ancient works of art, from armour, as
helmets and breast-plates, or from buildings designed for the.
abode and accommodation of men, concurs in strengthening
person, taken out of a burial-place of the most remote antiquity
in Denmark (ex antiquissimo tumulo Cimbrico), and correspond-
ing in size to the modern standard. That we cannot have dege-
nerated in consequence of the habits of civilized society, is clear,
because the individuals of nations living in a way so different
from us as the native Americans, Africans, and South Sea,
Islanders, &c. do not exceed us in stature. Indeed, it has been
generally observed of these races that they are shorter than the.
Europeans.
In mentioning individuals who have exceeded the ordinary
height, it is necessary to confine ourselves, in order to avoid
what may be fabulous or exaggerated, to instances in our own
times. One of the King of Prussia's gigantic guards, a Swede,
measured 81 feet; and a yeoman of the Duke John FREDERIC,
at Brunswick Hanover, was of the saine height. GILLY, who
was exhibited as a show, measured 8 feet (Swedish).* J. H..
REICHARDT, of Friedberg near Frankfort, was 8 feet 3 inches ::
his father and sister were both gigantic.t Several Irishmen,
measuring from 7 to 8: feet and upwards, have been exhibited
lege Museum was. 8 feet 4 inches.
· A female of Stargard, named LA PIERRE, was 7 feet. (Danish). I
MARTIN SALMERON, a Mexican giant, the son of a Mestizo
by an Indian woman, measures 7 feet 3 inches, and is well
proportioned.||
BEBE, the dwarf of. STANISLAUS, King of Poland, was 33.
inches (French), and well-proportioned. His spine became
curved as he approached manhood; he grew weak, and died at
twenty-three. S
The Polish nobleman, BORWLASKI, who was well-made,
clever, and skilled in languages, measured 28 Paris inches.
He had a brother of 34 inches, and a sister of 21.1
A Friesland peasant at twenty-six years of age had reached
· Abhandl. der königl. Schwed. Akademie; 1765, p. 319.
+ Ludwig, Naturgeschichte der Menschen-Species, p. 151,
# Toid. See also Haller, Elem. Physiol, lib, XXX. sect, i. 17.
Humboldt's Political Essay, book ii. chap), 6.
|| Buffon, Hist, nat. t. XV. P. 176.
I Memoirs of the celebrated Drowrf, Jos. Borwlaski, &c. Lond. 1788.
296
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
29 Amsterdam inches. C. H. STÖBERIN, of Nuremberg, was
nearly 3 feet high at twenty, well-proportioned, and possessed
of talents. Her parents, brothers, and sisters, were dwarfs. *
Of numerous other instances on record, most seem to have
been diseased, and particularly rickety individuals; so that they
may be classed among pathological phenomena. The men who
have considerably exceeded the ordinary standard, have neither
possessed those proportions in their form which we account
elegant, nor has their strength by any means corresponded to
their size. The head, in these cases, is below the ratio which it
should bear to the body, according to what we deduce from men
of ordinary stature; hence the brain must be comparatively
sinaller. It is a general observation, that very large men are:
seldom distinguished by extent or force of mental power. The
dwarfs, again, are mostly ill-made; the head in particular, is too
large. There are very few instances of what we can deem healthy
well-made men, with all the proper attributes of the race, much
below the general standard.
short of the ordinary stature in a small degree. The source of
these deviations is in the breed; they are quite independent of
external influences. In all the five human varieties some tribes
and nations are conspicuous for height and strength; others.
for lower stature, and inferior muscular power. But in no case
is the peculiarity, whether of tallness or shortness, confined to
any particular temperature, climate, situation, or mode of life.
In the Caucasian variety, there are no strongly-marked devia-
tions from the ordinary standard, in either direction. Some
parts of Sweden and Switzerland, the mountains of the Tyrol
and Salzburg, are rather distinguished for the tallness of their
inhabitants; while the Finnish race in the north of Europe may
The ancient Germans were remarked for their great stature;
“ magna corpora” is the expression of TACITUS, which is also
corroborated by the testimony of Cæsar. Large bodies and
limbs, as well as undaunted courage, are the attributes assigned
to them by POMPONIUS MELA; “ immanes animis et corpori-
bus.” We have no data for determining their precise stature;
there is, however, no proof that it exceeded the tallest of the
present Gerinan races, so that some of their finest and most
* Lavater's Physiognom. Fragment. iv. p. 72. Ludwig, Naturgeschichte, Scc.
p. 154.
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
297
robust men may have somewhat exceeded six feet. Modern
Saxony and the Tyrol could probably furnish an equal propora
tion of such individuals.
The inhabitants of America exhibit more conspicuous exam.
ples both of tall and short races. ULLOA observes of the
Peruvians, that men and women are generally low, but well-
proportioned.* Cook calls the Pecherais of Tierra del Fuego
“ a little, ugly, half-starved race;" and adds, “ I did not see a
tall person among them.”+ The Western American tribes of
Nootxa Sound, near the Columbia, and further north, are de-
scribed by Cook, I LEWIS, and CLARKE, $ as low in stature.
“ The Chaymas of South America," says HUMBOLDT,“ are
in general short, and they appear so particularly when com-
pared, I shall not say with their neighbours the Caribbees, or
with the Payaguas or Guayquilits of Paraguay, equally remark-
able for their stature, but with the ordinary natives of America.
The common stature of a Chayma is 1.57 met. or 4 feet 10
inches French (about 5 feet 2 inches English). Their body is
thick-set, shoulders extremely broad, and breast flat. All their
limbs are round and fleshy." ||
He adds, in a note, “ that the ordinary stature of the Guay-
quilits or Mbayas, who live between 200 and 220 south latitude,
is, according to AZZARA, 1.84 met. or 5 feet 8 inches French
(6 feet 1 inch English). The Payaguas, equally tall, have given
their name to Payaguay or Paraguay.” The same accurate
observer informs us, respecting the Caribbees of Cumana, that
they are distinguished by their almost gigantic size from all
the other nations he has seen in the new world.
Among the native tribes in the cold regions north of Canada,
Mr. HEARNE ** saw individuals of 6 feet 3 and 4 inches. Mr
BARTRAM found the Muscogulges and Cherokees of North Ame-
rica, between 310 and 350 north latitude, taller than Europeans;
many being above 6 feet, and few under 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, tt
The Patagonians,If or, according to their indigenous name,
* Voyage to South America, v. i. p. 267.
+ Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole; v. ii. p. 183. Also Forster, Obs. 073
a Voyage Round the World; p. 250.
# Voyage to the Pacific; v. ii. pp. 301-366.
& Travels to the source of the Missouri, ch. 23.
il Personal Narrative, v. iii. pp. 222, 223,
Ibid. p. 286.
** Journey to the I'rozen Occan, p. 351, note.
++ Travels, p. 482.
** The name of Patagonians is said by Blumenbach to have been given to
thein by the Spaniards, because they deemed them allied to the neighbouring
tribe of Chonos, and from their lower limbs being covered with guanaco skins,
so as to resemble the hairy legs of animals, which are called in Spanish patas.
De g. ho var, nat. p. 254,
298
DIFFERENCES OF STATURL.
the Teheuls, who occupy the south-eastern part of South Ames
rica, have been the most celebrated for their colossal stature;
and really seem to be the tallest race of human beings. Their
height, however, has been exaggerated by some, while others
have denied that it exceeded the ordinary standard. PIGA-
FETTA,* who accompanied MAGALHAENS on the first circum-
navigation of the globe, gives them the height of eight Spanish
for two centuries and a half, the narratives of European travellers
are so strangely contradictory and inconsistent with each other
on the subject of these Patagonians, that they afford. a lessor.:
inculcating most strongly the necessity of caution and diffidence
purpose to represent what appears the probable state of the case,
after weighing and critically considering the most unexception-
able testimonies.
The Patagonians seem to be a tall but not gigantic race, and
to possess a remarkably muscular frame. The only individuals:
ever seen in Europe were brought to Spain towards the end of
the sixteenth century, and seen at Seville by the classical tra-
veller VAN LINSCHOTEN, who says they were well-formed and
large in the body. The variety in the statements of different.
travellers makes it difficult to assign any particular height; but
we are authorized in representing it as commonly reaching
six feet, being often five or six inches higher, and sometimes
even seven feet.
BOUGAINVILLE says that none were under 5 feet 6 inches,
and none over 5 feet 11 inches : which, in English measure,
are about 5 feet 11 and 6 feet 4 inches. I COMMERSON, S
however, who was with him, makes some of the highest 6 feet 4
inches (6 feet 9-10 Eng.) BOUGAINVILLE, says that their broad
shoulders, large head, and stout limbs made them appear like,
* Viaggio atorno il Mondo, in the collection of Ramusio, v. i. p. 353.
of The opposing testimonies of various Spanish, French, English, and Dutch
navigators, who have spoken of the Patagonians from the time of their being
first noticed by Pigafetta to the voyages in the last century, are brought
together in the French Histoires des Navigations aux Terres Australes; and
the statement may be seen in English in Dr. Hawkesworth's general intro-
duction to the account of the voyages undertaken by order of His present
Majesty, &c, 3 vols. 4to.
# Voy, autour du Monde, 4to. p. 126. The crew of the Etoile had'seen several
in a preceding voyage 6 feet high (nearly 6 feet 5 English). Ibid. De la
Giraudais represented the least of those he saw, in 1766, as 5 feet 7 inches Fr.
or imore than 5 feet 11 inches English. Pernetty's Hist, of a Voyage to the
Falkland Islands, p. 288. The least of those seen by Duclos Guyot were of tae
same size ; the resi considerably taller. Ibid. p. 273.
9 Letter to Lalande in the Journal Encyclopédique, 1772.
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
299
giants. They were robust and well-made, with strong mus-
cles, firm and compact flesh.
Commodore BYRON says of one who appeared to be the chief
of the party, “ I did not measure him ; but if I may judge of
his height by the proportion of his stature to my own, it could
not be much less than 7 feet.”* Ain Englishman of 6 feet 2
inches appeared among them as a pigmy among giants. They
were large and muscular in proportion.t
Captain WALLIS measured several of them carefully: one of
them was 6 feet 7 inches; several were 6 feet 5 inches and
6 feet 6 inches : but the stature of the greater part was from
5 feet 10 inches to: 6 feet. I CARTERET'S § statement coin-
cides with this.
· FALKNER, who lived some time in the country, describes the
great Cacique CANGAPOL as seven feet some inches high.
When standing on tip-toe, he could not reach to the top of his
head. He did not recollect ever to have seen an Indian above
an inch or two taller than CANGAPOL. ||
The stature of the Patagonians was measured with great
accuracy by the Spanish officers in 1785, and 1786: they found
the common height to be 63 to 7 feet; and the highest was
7 feet 11 inch.
FALKNER says that this tribe, which he calls Puelches, live
wandering, we shall not be surprised that some of those who
have visited the coast have not met with them; but have found,
instead of the tall Patagonians, Americans of ordinary stature
belonging to the other neighbouring tribes.
After surveying the tall and muscular frames of the Patago-
nians, Caribbees, Cherokees, and many other American tribes,
what shall we think of the notion brought forward and de-
fended by many learned men, including even a Burron and a
ROBERTSON, that the new world is unfavourable to the formation
and full development of animal existence? The former writer
asserts that the animals common to the old and new world
on a smaller scale; that those which have been domesticated
* Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages, v. i. p. 28.
* Ibid. p. 32.
# Ibid. p. 374.
& Philosophical Transactions, v. Ix. “We measured the height of many of
these people : they were in general all from 6. feet to 6 feet 5 inches, although
there were some who came to 6 feet 7 inches, but none above that." "Alto-
gether they are the finest set of men I ever saw any where." pp. 22, 23.
ll Description of Patagonia.
I Viaje al Estrecho de Magalhaens; Madrid, 1788, 4to. p. 325 et seq.
300:
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
in both, have degenerated in America; and that, on the whole,
it exhibits fewer species. He extends the same kind of asser-
tion and reasoning to the human species, which he describes
as dwarfish, puny, and weak in body, and destitute of all mental
vigour, capacity and talent. * All these representations are fully
and clearly refuted by Mr. JEFFERSON, † who has displayed as
much eloquence and sound reasoning in vindicating the savage
nations of America from the aspersions of the great French
naturalist, as he showed energy and perseverance in asserting
the liberties of his own countrymen, wisdom and firmness in
fulfilling the duties of their chief magistrate. In the following
remarks he has brought forward the mammoth in opposition to
those learned theories: the reasoning is equally applicable to
the Patagonians, Caribs, and other tribes of powerful men,
which, being in actual existence, afford a safer ground of con-
clusion respecting the present capabilities of the climate, soil, and
air of America, than those colossal remains of an extinct species,
which may have belonged to a very different order of things.
“ It (the nammoth) should have sufficed to rescue the earth
it inhabited, and the atmosphere it breathed, from the imputa-
tion of impotence in the conception and nourishment of animal
life on a large scale ; to stifle in its birth the opinion of a writer,
the most learned of all in the science of animal history, that in
the new world living nature is much less active, much less
energetic, than in the old. As if both sides of the globe were-
not warmed by the same genial sun; as if a soil of the same
nutriment in America than in the ancient continent; as if the
fruits and grains froin that soil and sun yielded a less rich chyle,
gave less extension to the solids and fluids of the body, or pro-
duced sooner in the cartilages, membranes, and fibres, that
rigidity which restrains all further extension, and terminates
animal growth. . The truth is, that a pigmy and a Pantagonian,
a mouse and a mammoth, derive their dimensions from the
same.nutritive juices; the differences of increment depends on
circumstances unsearchable to beings with our capacities. All
races of animals seem to have received from their Maker cer-
tain laws of extension at the time of their formation. Their
elaborative organs were formed to produce this, while proper
obstacles were opposed to all further progress. Below tliese
limits they cannot fall, nor rise above them. What interme.
: * Histoire nalurelle, t. xvii. pp. 100–156. Notes on Virginia, pp. 72–94.
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
:301
diate station they shall take, may depend on soil, climate, food,
or selection in breeding: but all the manna of heaven would
never raise the mouse to the bulk of the mammoth.”
Similar differences of stature to those which I have described
in the American occur also in the Ethiopian variety. That of
the Negroes in general does not differ essentially from our own.
The Hottentots at the southern extremity of the country are
the smallest of the species in Africa. The whole race is shorter
than Europeans, yet not so invariably but that tall individuals
sometimes occur. Thus LATROBE mentions one of 6 feet in
height.* The Busjesman tribe, however, are remarkably short,
even among the Hottentots. Two individuals seen by LICH-
TENSTEIN were scarcely four feet high. † Mr. BARROW says
that “in their persons they are extremely diminutive. The
tallest of the men in horde or kraal containing one hundred
and fifty individuals) measured only four feet nine inches, and
the tallest woman four feet four inches. About four feet six
inches is said to be the middle size of the men, and four feet
that of the women. One of these that had several children
measured only three feet nine inches." I
To show how little the varieties of our species depend on
climate, situation, or other external influences, we find the
neighbouring tribe to the Hottentots, the Kaffers, distinguished
for height and strength. These qualities, however, are more
conspicuous in the men than in the women, and the same
remark holds good in other instances. LANGSDORFF was sur-
prised at finding the Marquesan women deficient in those per-
sonal qualities which were so remarkable in the men; and could
hardly suppose them to be the mothers of the very fine males
whom he saw. “ The Kaffer women were mostly of low sta-
ture, very strong limbed, and particularly muscular in the leg;
but the good humour that constantly beamed upon their coun-
tenances made ample amends for any defect in their persons.
The men, on the contrary, were the finest figures I ever beheld:
they were tall, robust, and muscular; their habits of life had
induced a firmness of carriage, and an openly manly manner,
which, added to the good nature that overspread their features,
showed them at once to be equally unconscious of fear, suspi-
cion, and treachery. A young man about twenty, of 6 feet 10
inches high, was one of the finest figures that perhaps was ever
* Journal of a Visit to South Africa, 4to. p. 282.
of Travels in Southern Africa, chap. viii.
# Travels, p. 227.
302
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
created. He was a perfect Hercules:; and a cast from his body
would not have disgraced the pedestal of that deity in the
He states in another place, that “there is perhaps no nation
on earth, taken collectively, that can produce so fine à race of
men as the Kaffers : they are tall, stout, muscular, well made,
elegant figures. They are exempt, indeed, from many of those
causes that, in more civilized societies, contribute to impede the
growth of the body. Their diet is simple; their exercise of a
salutary nature; their body is neither cramped nor encumbered
by clothing; the air they breathe is pure; their rest is not dis-
turbed by violent love, nor their minds ruffled by jealousy; they
are free from those licentious appetites which proceed frequently
more from a depraved imagination than a real natural want;
their frame is neither shaken nor enervated by the use of
eat when hungry, and sleep when nature demands it. With
such a kind of life languor and melancholy have little to do.
The countenance of a Kaffer is always cheerful; and the whole
of his demeanour bespeaks content and peace of mind." +
LICHTENSTEIN gives a similar description of this people;
and mentions one individual as 7 feet high. (Rhynland measure).
The several people classed under the Mongolian variety are
belonging to the other varieties, they exhibit differences in this
respect. The Chinese and Japanese are nearly of the same
height with ourselves.
The Mongols, Calmucks, Burats, and other tribes of central
Asia, are shorter. The Lewchews are a very diminutive race,
the average height of the men not exceeding 5 feet 2 inches at
the utmost. The Laplanders and Samoiedes, in Europe, the
Ostiacs, Yakuts, Tungooses, and Tschutski, in Asia, the Green-
landers and Esquimaux of America, all, indeed, who inhabit high
northern latitudes, are equally short, measuring from four to a
little more than five feet; || and they agree remarkably in other
characters, although occupying countries so distant from each
other.
It has been long ago reported that a nation of white dwarfs,
* Barrow's Southern Africa, v. i. 1. 169.
+ Ibid. v. i. p. 205.
* Travels in South Africa, ch. xvi. and xviii.
8 Macleod's Voyage of the niceste, &c. p. 110.
il “Such a person as Niels Sara, at Kautokeino (in Lapland), who measured
5 feet 8 inches English, may not be again found among many hundreds of
them." Von Buch, Travels, p. 354.
DIFFERENCES OF STATURE.
303
called Quimos or Kimos, exists in the interior of Madagascar ;
but no direct testimony on the subject has been offered to the
public; and FLACOURT, who visited the island in the seven-
teenth century, has treated the report as fabulous.* Lately,
this nation of dwarfs has been again brought forwards; Com-
the Count de MODAVE, governor of the French settlement at
Fort Dauphin, having declared their belief in its existence.+
The only fact adduced in proof of this point is, that the governor
purchased a female slave, of light colour, about three feet and a
half high, with long arms reaching to her knees. BLUMEN-
BACH. I thinks it probable that this individual must have been
malformed, and in a state somewhat similar to that of the
Cretins of Salzburg and the Valais. Without, therefore, deny-
the reports respecting the Quimos, we may safely conclude
that no proof has yet been brought forwards that any race of
white long-armed dwarfs exist in the island of Madagascar.
On reviewing the facts detailed in the foregoing pages, we
see that, although the various races of men differ from each other
in stature, as well as in other points, these differences are con-
fined within narrower limits in man than in the species of
domestic animals; and consequently that they do not prove
diversity of species. The pigs taken from Europe to the island
of Cuba have grown to twice their original size, and the cattle of
Paraguay have experienced a very remarkable increase. It is
hardly necessary to mention the contrast between the small
Welsh and the huge cart-horses, or the Flanders breed of those
animals; or between the Scotch or Welsh, and the Holstein
cattle.
Perhaps the horse affords the most remarkable instance of
difference in stature. Mr. PENNANT $ says, that " in the inte-
rior parts of Ceylon there is a small variety of this animal, not
exceeding thirty inches in height, which is sometimes brought
to Europe as a rarity."
* Histoire de la grande Ile de Madagascar. Paris, 1658.
+ The statements of Commerson, who died at Madagascar, and of Mr. de
Modave, are introduced into the Voyage à Madagascar ct aut Indes Orientales,
par Mr. l'Abbé Rochon, Paris, 1791. A letter of Commerson to Lalande is
also appended to the Voyage autour du Monde of Bougainville.
* De g. h. var. nat. sect. iii. 9 73. Le Gentil, who was in Madagascar at the
same time with Commerson, altogether disbelieves the existence of any such
dwarſish people. Voy. dans les Mers de l'Inde, t. ii. p. 503. And Sonnerat,
who saw the individual mentioned in the text, considered it mer as an indi
vidual formation ; Voyage aux Indes Orientales, t, ii. p. 57.
1 History of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p.2.
304
ORIGIN AND TRANSMISSION
The Paduan fowl is twice the size of the common poultry.
In further proof that the diversities of stature in mankind
-afford no sufficient argument of original specific difference, we
may observe that individuals often occur in each race, differing
from each other quite as widely as the generality of any two
races differ. Nay, we may even see two brothers as much
unlike each other in this respect as the Laplander and the
Patagonian.
· In endeavouring to account for the diversities of features,
proportions, general form, stature, and the other particulars
mentioned in the three preceding chapters, I must repeat an ob-
servation already made and exemplified in speaking of colour;
namely, that the law of resemblance between parents and off-
spring, which preserves species, and maintains uniformity in
the living part of creation, suffers occasional and rare exceptions ;
new properties, different from those of the progenitors; and that
the most powerful of these causes is that artificial mode of life
which we call the state of domestication.
A question here naturally suggests itself, how this comes
about? How does it happen that any circumstances in the
mode of life influence the result of the generative process ? The
reply to this inquiry must be deferred until the internal mecha-
nism of the animal motions shall be more completely laid open;
until we are able to słuw how the capillaries of the mother form
the germ of a new being out of materials presented by the com-
mon mass of nutritive fluid ; and how the vessels of this embryo,
when more advanced, fashion the nutritive supply derived from
the mother into a new set of organs, and give to the whole a
more or less accurate resemblance to the bodies of both parents.
At present we can only note the fact, that the domestic condition
produces in great abundance not only those deviations from the
natural state of the organization, which constitute disease, but
functions, which lead to the production of new characters in the
offspring, and thus lay the foundation of new breeds. The
domestic sow produces young twice a year; the wild animal
only once. The former frequently brings forth monstrous
fætuses, which are unknown in the latter. Our pigs, too, are
invaded by a new kind of hydatids,* dispersed through the
* They are represented by Blumenbach in his Abbildungen Natur-historischer
Gegenstände; No. xxxix.
OF VARIETIES IN FORM.
305
substance of all the organs, constituting what is called the
measles in pork. The creation of these must be referred to an
epocha posterior to that of the species in which they are found,
as they do not exist in its natural state.
Native or congenital peculiarities of form, like those of colour,
are transmitted by generation. Hence we see a general simili-
tude in persons of the same blood, and can distinguish one
brother by his resemblance to another, or know a son by his
likeness to the father or mother, or even to the grandfather or
grandmother. All the individuals of some families are charac-
terized by particular lines of countenance : and we frequently
observe a peculiar feature continued in a family for many
generations. The thick lip introduced into the imperial house
of Austria, by the marriage of the Emperor MAXIMILIAN with
MARY of Burgundy, is visible in their descendants to this day,
after a lapse of three centuries. HALLER Observes that his own
family had been distinguished by tallness of stature for three
generations, without excepting one out of numerous grandsons
descended froin one grandfather.*
Individuals are occasionally produced with supernumerary
members on the hands or feet, or on both; and from these,
whether males or females, the organic peculiarity frequently
passes to their children. This does not constantly happen,
because they intermarry with persons of the ordinary form; but
if the six-fingered and six-toed could be matched together, and
the breed could be preserved pure by excluding all who had not
these additional members, there is no doubt that a permanent
race might be formed constantly possessing this number of
figures and toes.
PLINY has mentioned examples of six-fingered persons among
the Romans : such individuals received the additional name of
sedigitus or sedigita. C. HORATIUS had two daughters with
this peculiarity.f REAUMUR speaks of a family in which a
similar structure existed for three generations, being transmitted
both in the male and fem ile lines. I Mr. CARLISLE has re-
corded the particulars of a family, in which he traced supernu-
merary toes and fingers for four generations. They were intro-
duced by a female, who had six fingers on each hand, and six
toes on each foot. From her marriage with a man naturally
formed were produced ten children with a supernumerary mem.
• Elem. physiol. lib. xxix. sect. ii. & 8.
+ Hist. nat. lib. xi. 99.
& Art de faire éclorre les Oiseaux domestiques, t. ii. p. 377 et suiv.
306
ORIGIN AND TRANSMISSION
ber on each' limb; and an eleventh, in which the peculiarity
existed in both feet and one hand; the other hand being natu-
rally formed. The latter married a man of the ordinary forma-
tion; they had four children, of which three had one or two
limbs natural, and the rest with the supernumerary parts, while
the fourth had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on
each foot. The latter married a woman naturally formed, and
had issue by her eight children, four with the usual structure,
and the same number with supernumerary fingers or toes. Two
of them were twins, of which one was naturally formed, the
other six-fingered and six-toed.*
Another remarkable example of the occurrence of a singular
organic peculiarity, and of its hereditary transmission, is afforded
by the English family of porcupine men, who have derived that
name from the greater part of the body being covered by hard
dark-coloured excrescences of a horny nature. The whole sur-
face, excepting the head and face, the palms and soles, is occu-
pied by this unnatural kind of integument. The first account
of this family is found in the Philosophical Transactions,
No. 424;t and consists of the description of a boy, named
EDWARD LAMBERT, fourteen years old, born in Suffolk, and
exhibited to the Royal Society in 1731, by Mr. MACHIN, one
of the secretaries. “ It was not easy to think of any sort of
skin or natural integument, that exactly resembled it. Some
compared it to the bark of a tree; others thought it looked like
seal skin ; others, like the skin of an elephant, or the skin about
wart, or number of warts uniting and overspreading the whole
body. The bristly parts, which were chiefly about the belly
and flanks, looked and rustled like the bristles or quills of a
hedgehog, shorn off within an inch of the skin.” These pro-
ductions were hard, callous, and insensible. Other children of
the same parents were naturally formed.
In a subsequent account presented to the Society twenty-four
years afterwards by Mr. H.BAKER, and illustrated with a figure
of the hands, this man is said to continue in the same state. He
was a goodlooking person, and enjoyed good health: every
thing connected with his excretions was natural; and he de-
rived no inconvenience from the state of his skin, except that it
would crack and bleed after very hard work He had now
+ The account is accompanied with a figure of the back of the hand, and a
magnified view of the excrescences; pl. i. p. 299.
OF VARIETIES IN FORM.
307
been shown in London under the name of the Porcupine Man.
“ The covering,” says Mr. BAKER,“ seemed most nearly to
resemble an innumerable company of warts, of a dark brown
colour, and a cylindrical figure, rising to a like height (an inch,
at their full size), and growing as close as possible to one
another, but so stiff and elastic, that when the hand is drawn
They are shed annually, in the autumn or winter, and suc-
“ He has had the small-pox, and been twice salivated, in hopes
of getting rid of this disagreeable covering ; during which dis-
orders the warts came off, and his skin appeared white and
smooth, like that of other people; but on his recovery it soon
became as it was before. His health at other times has been
very good during his whole life.” “He has had six children,
all with the same rugged covering as himself; the first appear-
ance whereof in them, as well as in him, came on in about nine
weeks after the birth. Only one of them is living, a very pretty
boy, eight years of age, whom I saw and examined with his
father, and who is exactly in the same condition.”*
Two brothers, JOHN LAMBERT, aged twenty-two, and Rich-
ARD, aged fourteen, who must have been grandsons of the
original porcupine man, EDWARD LAMBERT, were shown in
Germany, and had the cutaneous incrustation already described.
A minute account of them was published by Dr. W. G. TILE-
SIUS,+ who mentions that the wife of the elder, at the time he
saw him, was in England pregnant.
Let us suppose that the porcupine family had been exiled
from human society, and been obliged to take up their abode in
some solitary spot or desert island. By matching with each
other, a race would have been produced, more widely different
from us in external appearance than the Negro. If they had
been discovered at some remote period, our philosophers would
have explained to us how the soil, air, or climate had produced
so strange an organization; or would have demonstrated that
they must have sprung from an originally different race; for
who would acknowledge such bristly beings for brothers ?
The giants collected by FREDERICK WILLIAM I. for his
regiment of guards produced a very tall race in the town where
• Philos. Trans. v. xlix. p. 21. A representation of the hand is also given
by Edwards, in his Gleanings of Natural History, v. i. p. 212.
* Beschreibung und Abbildung der beiden sogenannten Stachelschreininenschen;
Altenburg, fol. 1802, with two platis, containing several figures. They are also
described by Blumenbach, in Voigt's Neues Magazin, v. iii. part 4.
X 2
308
ORIGIN AND TRANSMISSION
they were quartered : in the language of Dr. JOHNSON, they
“ propagated procerity."**
This resemblance of offspring to parents, in native peculiari-
ties of structure, prevails so extensively, that those minute, and
in many cases imperceptible differences of organization or vital
properties, which render men disposed to particular diseases,
are conveyed from father to son for age after age. This is
matter of common notoriety with respect to scrofula, consump-
tion, gout, rheumatism, insanity, and other affections of the
head. There is more doubt in some other cases, as harelip,
squinting, club-foot, hernia, aneurism, cataract,' fatuity, &c.;
of which, however, there are many well-authenticated exam-
ples. There is an hereditary blindness in a family in North
America which has always affected some individuals for the last
hundred years. I have attended, at different times, for com-
plaints of the urinary organs, a gentleman, whose father and
grandfather died of stone.
In small and secluded communities, where marriages take
place within what we may regard only as a more extensive
family, hereditary varieties are blended and produce one form,
which prevails through the whole circle. The operation of this
principle may be clearly perceived in several small districts : it
will act with more efficacy, and, consequently, be more discernible
in larger collections of men, where differences of manners, reli-
gion, and language, and mutual animosities, forbid all inter-
marriages with surrounding people. In the course of time the
individual peculiarities are lost, and a natural characteristic
countenance or forin is established, which, if the restrictions of
intercourse are rigidly adhered to, is constantly more and more
strengthened. The ancient Germans, according to the descrip-
tion of TACITUS, were such a people ; and his short, but expres-
sive sketch of their character, most aptly confirms the preceding
view: “ Ipse eorum opinionibus accedo, qui Germaniæ populos
nullis aliis aliarum nationum connubiis infectos, propriam et
sinceram et tantum sui similem gentem extitisse arbitrantur.
Unde habitus quoque corporum, quanquam in tanto hominum
numero, idem omnibus ; truces et cærulei oculi, rutilæ comæ,
† " The guards of the late King Frederic William of Prussia, and likewise
those of the present nionarch, who are all of an uncommon size, have been
quartered at Potsdam for filty years past. A great number of the present
inhabitants of that place are of very high stature, which is more especially
striking in the numerous gigantic figures of women.” Fiorster's Observations
made on a Voyage round the World; pp. 248, 249.
# Haller, Elen. Physiol. loc. cit. * New York Medical Repository, v. iii. No. 1.
OF VARIETIES IN FORM. .
309
magna corpora.” De Morib. Germ. 4. The Gipsies afford
another example of a people spread over all Europe for the last
four centuries, and nearly confined in marriages, by their pecu-
liar way of life, to their own tribe. In Transylvania, where
there is a great number of them, and the race remains pure,
their features can consequently be more accurately observed :
in every country and climate, however, which they have inha-
bited, they preserve their distinctive character so perfectly, that
they are recognized at a glance, and cannot be confounded
with the natives. But, above all, the Jews exhibit the most
striking instance of a peculiar national countenance, so strongly
marked in almost every individual, tkat persons the least used
to physiognomical observations detect it instantly, yet not easily
understood or described. Religion has in this case most suc-
cessfully exerted its power in preventing communion with other
races; and this exclusion of intercourse with all others has pre-
served the Jewish countenance so completely in every soil and
climate of the globe, that a miracle has been thought necessary
to account for the appearance.
In what other way can we explain the difference between the
English and Scotch? Would it be more reasonable to suppose
that they descended from different stocks; or to ascribe the
high cheek-bones of the latter to the soil or climate ?
As, on the one hand, a particular form may be perpetuated by
confining the intercourse of the sexes to individuals in whom it
exists; so, again, it may be changed by introducing into the
breed those remarkable for any other quality. Connections in
marriage will generally be formed on the idea of human beauty
in any country; an influence this, which will gradually approxi-
mate the countenance towards one common standard. If men,
in the affair of marriage, were as much under management as
some animals are in the exercise of their generative functions,
an absolute ruler might accomplish, in his dominions, almost
any idea of the huinan form.
The great and noble have generally had it more in their power
than others to select the beauty of nations in Inarriage; and
thus, while, without system or design, they gratified merely
their own taste, they have distinguished their order, as much by
elegant proportions of person, and beautiful features, as by its
prerogatives in society. “ The same superiority," says Cook,
" which is observable in the erees or nobles in all the other
islands, is found here (Sandwich Islands). Those, whom we
310
OBIGIN AND TRANSMISSION
saw, were, without exception, perfectly well formed; whereas,
the lower sort, besides their general inferiority, are subject to
all the variety of make and figure that is seen in the populace
of other countries."*
In no instance, perhaps, has the personal beauty of a people
been more improved, by introducing handsome individuals to
breed from, than in the Persians, of whom the nobility have, by
this means, completely succeeded in washing out the stain of
their Mongolian origin. “ That the blood of the Persians,”
says CHARDIN, “is naturally gross, appears from the Guebres,
who are a remnant of the ancient Persians, and are an ugly,
ill-made, rough-skinned people. This is also apparent from the
inhabitants of the provinces in the neighbourhood of India, who
are nearly as clumsy and deformed as the Guebres, because they
never formed alliances with any other tribes. But, in the other
parts of the kingdom, the Persian blood is now highly refined
by frequent intermixtures with the Georgians and Circassians,
two nations which surpass all the world in personal beauty.
There is hardly a man of rank in Persia who is not born of a
Georgian or Circassian mother; and even the king himself is
commonly sprung, on the female side, from one or other of
these countries. As it is long since this mixture commenced,
the Persian women have become very handsome and beautiful,
though they do not rival the ladies of Georgia. The men are
generally tall and erect, their complexion is ruddy and vigorous,
and they have a graceful air and an engaging deportment. The
mildness of the climate, joined to their temperance in living,
has a great influence in improving their personal beauty. This
quality they inherit not from their ancestors; for, without v11e
mixture mentioned above, the men of rank in Persia, who are
descendants of the Tatars, would be extremely ugly and
deformed.”+
There is no one of the varieties above enumerated, which does
not exist in a still greater degree in animals confessedly of the
same species. What differences in the figure and proportion
of parts in the various breeds of horses; in the Arabian, the
Barb, and the German! How striking the contrast between
the long-legged cattle of the Cape of Good Hope and the short-
legged of England! The same difference is observed in swine.
The cattle have no horns in some breeds of England and Ire-
• Voyage to the Pacific; book iii, chap. 6. Forster gives a similar repre-
sentation of the Otaheiteans; Ots. on a Poyage round the World, p. 229,
Voyage en Perse, t. ii. p. 34.
OF VARIETIES OF FORM.
311
land; in Sicily, on the contrary, they have very large ones. A
breed of sheep, with an extraordinary number of horns, as three,
four, or five, (ovis polycerata), occurs in some northern coun-
tries, as, for instance, in Iceland, and is accounted a mere
variety. The Cretan breed of the same animal (ovis strepsi-
ceros) has long, large, and twisted horns. We may also point
out the solidungular swine, with undivided hoof, as well as
others with three divisions of that part; the five-toed fowl
(gallus pentadactylus); the fat-rumped sheep of Tatary and
Thibet, and the broad-tailed breed of the Cape, in which the
tail grows so large, that it is placed on a board, supported by
wheels, for the convenience of the animal; and the rumpless
fowl (gallus ecaudatus) of America, and particularly Virginia,
which has undoubtedly descended from the English breed.
The common fowl, in different situations, runs into almost
every conceivable variety. Some are large, some small; some
tall, some dwarfish. They may have a small and single, a large
and complicated comb; or great tufts of feathers on the head.
Some have no tail. The legs of some are yellow and naked, of
others, covered with feathers. There is a breed with the fea-
thers reversed in their direction all over the body; and another
in India with white downy feathers and black skin. All these
exhibit endless diversities of colour.
A breed of sheep was lately produced in America, the origin
and establishment of which confirm the positions alreadly brought
forwards. An ewe produced a male lamb of singular proportion
and appearance. His offspring, by other ewes, had, in many
instances, the same characters with himself. These were short-
ness of the limbs * and length of the body, so that the breed
was called the otter breed, from being compared to that animal.
The fore-limbs were also crooked, so as to give them in one
part the appearance of an elbow, and hence the name ancon
(from aykwy) was given to this kind of sheep. They were pro-
pagated in consequence of being less able to jump over fences.
“ They can neither run nor jump like other sheep. They are
more infirm in their organic construction, as well as more
awkward in their gait, having their fore-legs always crooked,
and their feet turned inwards when they walk.
« When both parents are of the otter or ancon breed, their
descendants inherit their peculiar appearance and proportions
* Sir Everard Home found that the bone of the fore-leg in one of these
sheep was larger but not so long as that of a much sinaller Welsh sheep.
Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, v. i.
312
ORIGIN AND TRANSMISSION
of form. I have heard but of one questionable case of a con-
trary nature.
“When an ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram, the
increase resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. The
increase of a common ewe, impregnated by an ancon jam,
follows entirely the one or the other, without blending any of
the distinguishing and essential peculiarities of both.
“Frequent instances have happened where common ewes
have had twins by ancon rams, when one exhibited the com-
plete marks and features of the ewe; the other of the ram. The
contrast has been rendered singularly striking when one short-
legged and one long-legged lamb, produced at a birth., have
been seen sucking the dam at the same time."*
The formation of new varieties by breeding from individuals
in whom the desirable properties exist in the greatest degree,
is seen much more distinctly in our domestic animals than in
our own species, since the former are entirely in our power.
The great object is to preserve the race pure, by selecting for
propagation the animals most conspicuous for ile size, colour,
form, proportion, or any other property we may fix on, and
excluding all others. In this way we may gain sheep valuable
or thin legs; just such, in short, as we choose, within certain
limits.
The importance of this principle is fully understood in roar
ing horses. The Arabian preserves the pedigree of his horse
more carefully than his own; and never allows any ignoble
their unsullied nobility by formal depositions and numerous
witnesses.* The English breeder knows equally well that he
must vary his stallions and mares according as he wishes for a
cart-horse, a riding-horse, or a racer; and that a mistake in
this point would immediately frustrate his views. The distir-
. Col. Humphreys On a new Breed of Sheep. Philos. Trans. 1813, pt. i.
† “ Several things concur to maintain this perfection in the horses of Arabia.
such as the great care the Arabs take in preserving the breed genuine, and by
permitting none but stallions of the first form to have access to the mares: this
is never done but in the presence of a witness, the secretary of the empir, or
some public officer; he attests the fact, records the name of the horse, mare;
and whole pedigree of each; and these attestations are carefully preserved, for
on them depends the future price of the fual." A copy of a public legal certi-
ficate given to the purchaser of an Arabian horse is added in a note, Pennant's
by the Circassians, who distinguish the various races by marks on the buttock,
To imprint the character of noble descent on a horse of common race is a kind
of forgery punished with death. Pallas Travels in the Southern Provinces of
the Russian Empire, ch, xiy.
OF VARIETIES IN FORM.
313
guished and various excellencies, which the several English
races of these useful animals have acquired, show what close
attention and perseverance can accomplish in the improvement
of breed.
Blood is equally important in the cock; and the introduction
of an inferior individual would inevitably deteriorate the proper-
ties of the offspring.
The hereditary transmission of physical and moral qualities,
· so well understood and familiarly acted on in the domestic
animals, is equally true of man. A superior breed of human
beings could only be produced by selections and exclusions
similar to those so successfully employed in rearing our more
valuable animals. Yet, in the human species, where the object
is of such consequence, the principle is almost entirely over-
lonked. Hence all the native deformities of mind and body,
which spring up so plentifully in our artificial mode of life, are
handed down to posterity, and tend by their multiplication and
extension to degrade the race. Consequently, the mass of the
population in our large cities will not bear a comparison with
that of savage nations, in which if imperfect or deformed indi-
viduals should survive the hardships of their first rearing, they
are prevented, by the kind of aversion they inspire, from pro-
pagating their deformities. The Hottentots have become almost
proverbial for ugliness; and one of their tribes, the Bosjesmen,
are plainly ranked by an acute and intelligent traveller “among
the ugliest of human beings.”* The numerous sketches of
Bosjesmen and Hottentots taken by Mr. S. DANIEL, have been
very kindly and politely shown to me by his brother Mr. W.
DANIEL. In form, variety, and expression of countenance,
they are not at all inferior to our cocknies; while, in animation,
in beauty, symmetry and strength of body, in ease and elegance
of attitude, they are infinitely superior.
This inattention to breed is not, however, of so much conse-
quence in the people as in the rulers; in those to whom the
destinies of nations are intrusted : on whose qualities and actions
depend the present and future happiness of millions. Here,
unfortunately, the evil is at its height: laws, customs, preju-
dices, pride, bigotry, confine them to intermarriages with each
other, and thus degradation of race is added to all the perni-
cious influences inseparable from such exalted stations. What
result should we expect if a breeder of horses or dogs were
* Barrow, Travels in Southern Africa ; v. i. p. 277,
restricted in his choice to some ten or twenty families taken at
random ? if he could not step out of this little circle to select
finely formed or high-spirited individuals ? How long a time
would elapse before the fatal effects of this in-breeding would
be conspicuous in the degeneracy of the descendants ? The
strongest illustration of these principles will be found in the
present state of many royal houses in Europe : the evil must be
progressive, if the same course of proceeding be continued.
I shall cite a single example to prove, what will to most
persons seem unnecessary, namely, that mental defects are pro-
pagated as well as corporeal. “We know,” says HALLER, “a
very remarkable instance of two noble females, who got hus-
bands on account of their wealth, although they were nearly
idiots, and from whom this mental defect has extended for a
century into several families, so that some of all their descend-
ants still continue idiots in the fourth and even in the fifth
generation." *
CHAPTER VII.
Diferences in the Animal Economy.--Diseases.--External Senses.—Language.
THERE are no essential differences between the various races of
the human species in the execution of the animal functions.
The circumstances which have been hitherto noticed in this part
of the subject, are plainly referable, for the most part, to the
effect of climate, mode of life, exercise of the organs, or other
external causes, and not to any original diversity.
I have already alluded to the peculiar odour of the cutaneous
secretion in the Negro (p. 208). It is said by those who are
well acquainted with this race, to be very characteristic, and to
be transmitted to the offspring, as well as their other peculiari-
ties, in the mixed breeds. It has been also observed that they
sweat much less than Europeans.
The lice, which infest the bodies of Negroes, are darker
coloured and larger than those of Europeans;t but I believe
that naturalists have not yet ascertained whether they are of the
same, or of different species in the two cases.
It is hardly necessary to allude to the erroneous notion of
the seminal fluid being black in Negroes; this, however, is
* Elem. Physiol. lib. xxix. sect. 2. & 8.
+ Long's History of Jamaica. White on the Regular Gradation, p. 79, note.
Soemmerring, ieber die körperliche Verschiedenheit, p. 8, note.
DIFFERENCES IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
315
expressly stated by HERODOTUS, but properly contradicted by
ARISTOTLE.
The blood and the bile have the same colour and obvious
external characters in the dark as in the white races. I am not
aware that any comparative chemical examinations of these
or the other animal fluids have been made.
Dr. WINTERBOTTOM * observed no difference between
African and European women in respect to the menstrual dis-
charge. The earlier maturity of the former seems to be simply
the effect of climate; it is equally observable in the white
races which occupy warm countries.
The very easy labours of Negresses, native Americans, and
other women in the savage state, have been often noticed by
travellers. This point is not explicable by any prerogative of
physical formation ; for the pelvis is rather smaller in these
dark-coloured races than in the European and other white
people. Simple diet, constant and laborious exertion, give to
these children of nature a hardiness of constitution, and exempt
them from most of the ills which afflict the indolent and luxuri-
ous females of civilized societies. In the latter however, the
hard-working women of the lower classes in the country, often
suffer as little from childbirth as those of any other race. Ana-
logous differences, from the like causes, may be seen in the
animal kingdom. Cows kept in towns, and other animals
deprived of their healthful exercise, and accustomed to unna-
tural food and habits, often have difficult labours, and suffer
much in parturition.
Accurate observers in many parts of the world have remarked
that the dark races are characterized by rareness and almost
entire absence of personal deformity; all the individuals being
well made, and many exhibiting the finest models of symmetry
and beauty. The mode of life will account in great measure for
this physical prerogative, which hunting, pastoral, and even
agricultural tribes, enjoy over their more polished brethren of
highly-civilized communities and large cities. HUMBOLDT
considers that something is also due to natural strength of con-
stitution. After stating the great freedom from deformity in
the Peruvian Indians, in a passage which I have already quoted
* Account of the Native Africans, v. ii. p. 259.
+ Thus Dr. Somerville says of the Hottentots: “ Huic genti, fasciarum in
infantibus, pileorum in ætate provectioribus, nullus usus. Deformitas raris-
sima est, nisi ex casu aliquo. Thorax amplus, corpus erectum, artus torosi et
agiliores multo quam facile crediderint quibus vestitus arctior est fanuiliaris.'
Medico-chir. Trans. v. vii. p. 156.
316 DIFFERENCES IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
(see p. 164), he proceeds to observe that “when we examine
savage hunters or warriors, we are tempted to believe that they
are all well made, because those who have any natural deformity
either perish from fatigue, or are exposed by their parents ; but
the Mexican and Peruvian Indians, those of Quito and New
Grenada, are agriculturists, who can only be compared with the
class of European peasantry. We can have no doubt, then, that
the absence of natural deformities among them is the effect of
their mode of life, and of the constitution peculiar to their race.
All men of very swarthy complexion, those of Mongol and
American origin, and especially the Negroes, participate in the
same advantage. We are inclined to believe that the Arab-
European (Caucasian] race possesses a greater flexibility of
organization, and that it is more easily modified by a great
number of exterior causes, such as variety of aliments, climates,
from its original model."*
I am not aware that any difference has been ascertained
between the various races of man in the average length of life.
Very old persons are sometimes seen among the dark as well
as among the white people.
“ It is by no means uncommon," says HUMBOLDT, " to see
in Mexico, in the temperate zone, half-way up the Cordillera,
natives, and especially women, reach a hundred years of age.
This old age is generally comfortable; for the Mexican and
Peruvian Indians preserve their strength to the last. While I
was at Lima the Indian HILARIO PARI died at the village of
Chiguata, four leagues distant from the town of Arequipa, at the
age of 143. He remained united in marriage for 90 years to
an Indian of the name of ANDREA ALEA ZAR, who attained
the age of 117. This old Peruvian went, at the age of 130, from
three to four leagues daily on foot."
Mr. EDWARDS informs us that the Negroes in the West
Indies often attain a great age; t and Mr. BARROW saw Hot-
tentots more than 100 years old. I
Although the general uniformity in structure and functions
throughout the species must be expected to produce a general
similarity in diseases, the obvious organic variations in the
several races lead us to look for some inodifications in the
* Political Essay, v. i. p. 152, 153.
old: y. iii. p. 247, another strong and hearty at the age of 95 at least.
$ Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, v. i. P.P. 383, 398.
DIFFERENCES IN DISEASE.
317
morbid phenomena. But the concurring influence of other
causes, such as climate, diet, mode of life, and moral agencies,
renders it difficult to distinguish what may be owing simply to
peculiarity of organization. This discrimination can only be
accomplished by a long series of patient observations on nume-
rous individuals of each race, and under similar circumstances
in different parts of the world.
In his Treatise on Tropical Diseases, Dr. MOSELY observes
that “ the locked-jaw appears to be a disease entirely of irrita-
bility. Negroes, who are most subject to it, whatever the cause
may be, are void of sensibility to a surprising degree. They
are not subject to nervous diseases. They sleep sound in
every disease, nor does any mental disturbance ever keep them
awake. They bear chirurgical operations much better than
white people; and what would be the cause of insupportable
pain to a white man, a Negro would almost disregard. I have
amputated the legs of many Negroes, who have held the upper
part of the limb themselves.”
Negroes are so seldom affected by the yellow fever, that they
have often been said not to be susceptible of it; and there have
been instances in which, under a very general prevalence of the
complaint, not one has fallen sick. On other occasions some
have been seized with this fever ; but the number has been small,
and they have recovered more easily than the whites.
If the yellow fever be a highly inflammatory affection, pro-
duced by those external causes which are peculiar to hot climates,
we shall not be surprised that Negroes, who are organized for,
and habituated to such climates, enjoy, when contrasted with
the whites, a comparative exemption from its destructive attacks.
A singular instance is recorded, in the Philosophical Transac-
tions, * of a very fatal inflammatory fever, which appeared in
two islands on the coast of North America (Nantucket and
Martha's Vineyard), and was confined entirely to the Indian
(American) population; not a single white person having been
affected on either island. The whole number of Indians on
Nantucket was 340 ; of these 258 had the distemper in the
course of six months, and only 36 recovered. Of those who
did not take the disease, 40 lived in English families, and 8
dweit separate. In Martha's Vineyard it went through every
Indian family into which it came, not one escaping it. Of 52
persons affected, 39 died. A few individuals of mixed breed
• Vol. liv, for the year 1764 : p. 386.
318 DIFFERENCES IN THE EXTERNAL SENSES.
(European and Indian), and one of Indian and Negro, had the
distemper, but recovered. None, indeed, died but such as were
entirely of Indian blood : hence it was called the Indian sickness.
· In three Negroes, who died of disease, SOEMMERRING found
the same morbid appearances; and they were peculiar. They
all perished with symptoms of consumption. Besides indura-
tion and abscess of the lungs, they had thickening of the coats
of the intestines, and deposition of a steatomatous matter in
them. In the first there were caseous concretions in several
parts of the abdomen; and the small intestines seemed as if
covered by a layer of fat. The bronchial glands were greatly
diseased. In the second, the intestinal canal and peritoneum
were every where united by adhesions, and beset with rather
hard, yellowish black tubercles, of various size and form. The
mesenteric glands were diseased. In the third, the appearances
were nearly similar; the abdominal viscera all adhering together,
and covered by a kind of adipous stratum.*
I have seen similar appearances to these in the bodies of some
Negroes. The morbid change of the bowels, of which the coats
are thickened by a black and yellow newly-deposited substance,
is different from any thing I have seen in Europeans.
Monkeys are carried off in these climates by consumption
and tubercular affections of the abdominal viscera. They exhibit
morbid appearances analogous to those just mentioned; to
which, affections of the bones are often added. The general
unhealthy condition of the frame in both cases would, I appre-
hend, be termed scrofula by nosologists; and its cause is pro-
bably the coldness of the climate, together, in the case of the
animals, with confinement, impure air, and unnatural food.
The disease called the yaws is a peculiar morbid production
of Africa, and has been conveyed by the Negro slaves to the
West Indies, where it seems to be communicable to Europeans.t
The dark-coloured races exhibit in general a great acuteness
of the external senses, which is in some instances heightened by
exercise to a degree almost incredible. In the unsettled life of
wandering tribes the chief occupations are hunting, war, and
plunder. The members of the community are trained from
their earliest infancy to these pursuits; and their progress in
the necessary accomplishments determines not only the degree
of their own personal enjoyment and security, but also their
# Ueber die körperliche Verschiedenheit, 2 67, 68.
+ Dr. Bateman's Practical Synopsis; Ord. vii. No. 9.
DIFFERENCES IN THE EXTERNAL SENSES. 319
influence over others, and their rank in the association. The
astonishing perfection of their sight, hearing, and smelling,
must be referred, I apprehend, to the constant exercise of the
organs; as their capability of enduring violent or continued
exertion in performing long journeys is the simple result of
habit. Both are very interesting in a physiological view, and
acquaint us with the extent of our powers, which are very
imperfectly developed in the members of civilized societies.
Mr. COLLINS * has mentioned the quick-sightedness of the
New Hollanders; and another traveller has borne testimony to
the same effect. “ The quickness of their eye and ear is equally
singular: they can hear and distinguish objects which would
totally escape an European. This circumstance renders them
very acceptable guides to our sportsmen in the woods, as they
never fail to point out the game before any European can dis-
cover it.”+
- In describing a New Zealander, who accompanied him to
England, Mr. SAVAGE says, “ It was worthy of remark how
much his sight and hearing were superior to other persons on
board the ship; the sound of a distant gun was distinctly heard,
or a strange sail readily discernible, by MOYHANGER, when no
other man on board could hear or perceive them.” I
We learn from Mr. BARROW that the Hottentots, " by the
quickness of their eye, will discover deer and other sorts of
game when very far distant; and they are equally expert in
watching a bee to its nest. They no sooner hear the humming
of the insect, than they squat themselves on the ground, and,
having caught it with the eye, follow it to an incredible distance.”S
He relates the following anecdote of one whom he had left
behind ill on a journey: “ He had fallen asleep about the
middle of the preceding day, and had not awakened till night.
route, he had found us by following the track of the waggon,
There is not an animal among the numbers that range the wilds
of Africa, if he be at all acquainted with it, the print of whose
foot he cannot distinguish.” “ The print of any of his compa-
nions' feet he would single out among a thousand,”'||.
Dr. SOMERVILLE confirms this statement, and refers the
• Account of the English Colony of N. S. Wales; pp. 553, 584.
+ Turnbull, Voyage round the World ; second edition, p. 92.
Some Account of New Zealand ; p. 101.
i Travels in Southern Africa, v. i. p. 160.
# Ibid. p. 370.
320 . DIFFERENCES OF LANGUAGE.
superiority of the Hottentots in these points to constant exer-
cise of the organs.*
In his frequent intercourse with the Nomadic tribes of Asia,
PALLAS had the best opportunities of observing their capabi-
lities. “ The Calmucks,” he says, “ have a fine nose, a good
ear, and an extremely acute eye. On their journeys and military
expeditions they often smell out a fire or a camp, and thus pro-
cure quarters for the night, or obtain booty. Many of them can
distinguish, by smelling at the hole of a fox or other animal,
whether the creature be there or not. By lying flat, and putting
their ear to the ground, they can catch at a great distance the
nothing is so surprising as the perfection of their eyes, and the:
extraordinary distance at which they often perceive, from incon-
siderable heights, small objects, such as the rising dust caused
by cattle or horsemen; more particularly as the undulation of
the boundless steppes or plains, and the vapours which rise
from and float upon them in warm weather, render things very
obscure. In the expedition which the Torgot Vice-chan UBA-
SCHI led against the Kubanians, the Calmuck force would
certainly have missed the enemy, if a common Calmuck had not
perceived, at the estimated distance of thirty versts, the smoke.
and dust of the hostile army, and pointed it out to other equally
experienced eyes, when the commander, Colonel KISCHINSKOI,
could discern nothing with a good glass. They pursue lost
or stolen cattle or game by the track for miles over deserts.
Kirgises, or even Russians, in the wild parts of the empire, are.
equally able to follow and discriminate tracks by the eye. This,
indeed, is not difficult on soft ground, or over snow; but it
requires great practice and skill to choose the right out of
several intermingled traces, to follow it over loose sand or snow,
not to lose it in marshes or deep grass, but rather to judge
from the direction of the grass, or from the depth of the print
in snow or sand, how long it has been made.”+
Representations equally surprising of the perfection of the
senses are confirmed to us by the most unexceptionable authori-
ties in the case of the North American savages; and of other
wild races.
“Nonnulli feras venandi aut hostes effugiendi perpetua fere consuetudine,
possent, ubi aliis nihil omnino appareret: hanc facultatem enim, utpote tum
ad victum, tum ad salutem ipsam prorsus necessariam, assidue exercent, et sic
mirum in modum acnunt.” Medico-chir. Trans. v. vii, pp. 155, 156.
+ Saminlungen histor, nachricht. Th. i. pp. 100, 101.
DIFFERENCES OF LANGUAGE.
The differences of language are as numerous as the other
distinctions which characterize the several races of men. The
various degrees of natural capacity, and of intellectual progress;
the prevalence of particular faculties; the nature of surrounding
circumstances; the ease or difficulty with which the different
wants and desires are gratified, will produce not only peculiar
characters in the nature and construction of language, but in its
copiousness and development.
In the formation of the sound, or voice, and in its utterance
in an articulated form, or speech, no further varieties are observed,
than the different combinations of the several organs concerned
in the process will easily explain. The pronunciation of the
Hottentots has generally been deemed very singular by European
cbservers ; * who compare it to the clucking of a turkey, or the
harsh and broken noises produced by some other birds. They
have numerous guttural sounds, produced deep in the throat,
and pronounced with a peculiar clack of the tongue, which is
quickly struck against and withdrawn from the teeth or palate.
They combine their aspirated gutturals with hard consonants,
without any intervening vowels, in a manner that Europeans
cannot imitate: it is never acquired except occasionally by the
child of a colonist when accustomed to it from youth. ADELUNG
represents that their bony palate is smaller, shorter, and less
arched than in the other races : and that the tongue, particularly
in the Bosjesmen, is rounder, thicker, and shorter.f.
One of the most curious points in the subject of language is
the continued existence in a large portion of Asia, very anciently
civilized, and considerably advanced at least in the useful arts,
of simply monosyllabic languages. Their words are merely
radical sounds of one syllable, not admitting of inflexion or com-
position, so that all modifications and accessory ideas must be
either overlooked or imperfectly expressed by tedious and
awkward circumlocution. Such are the languages of Thibet,
the contiguous immense empire of China, and the neighbouring
countries of Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tungquin, and Cochin-china.
“These extensive regions, and these only in the whole world,
betray in their present language all the imperfection of the first
attempts at speech. As the earliest efforts of the infant are
• Barrow and Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa. Similar descrip-
tions are given by Sparmann, Thunberg, and Le Vaillant. Dr. Somerville
observes the peculiarity of the Hottentot utterance, to which, he says, nothing
similar is heard in any other part of the world. Medico-chir. Trans. v. vii, p. 155.
+ Mithridates ; 3r. Theil ; le. Abtheilung, pp. 292, 293.
322
DIFFERENCES OF LANGUAGE.
merely sounds of one syllable, so the first adult children of
nature stammered out their meaning in the same way: the people
of Thibet, China, and the neighbouring southern countries, go
on speaking as they learned some thousands of years ago, in the
cradle of the species. There is no separation of ideas into certain
classes, such as produce the distinction of the parts of speech.
in more perfectly formed languages. One and the same sound
signifies joyful, joy, and to rejoice; and that through all persons,
numbers, and tenses No attempt is made, by affixing sounds
expressive of relations or accessory notions to the simple mono-
syllabic root, to give richness, clearness, and harmony to the
poor language. On the contrary, the mere radical ideas are set
down together, and the hearer must guess at the connecting
links. As there are no inflexions, the cases and numbers are
either.not noted, or they are marked, under urgent circumstances,
by circumlocution. They form plurals as children do, either by
repetition, as tree, tree, or by adding the words much or other;
as tree much, tree other. I much, or I other, means we. Be heaven
I other Father who, is the mode of expressing Our Father,
which art in heaven!""* “That languages of such poverty,
which merely place together the most essential ideas without
connecting them, must open a wide field for ambiguity and
obscurity in civil life, and be totally inapplicable to the purposes
of science, is immediately apparent. Hence the people who
speak them must ever remain children in understanding. How-
ever the Chinese may exert themselves, so long as they are
impeded by this imperfect language, they must be unable to
appropriate to themselves the sciences and arts of Europe." +
We are again surprised at discovering that this peculiar lan-
guage is not connected with the peculiar organization of that
variety (the Mongolian) to which the people enumerated above
belong. The tribes immediately adjoining the latter on the north,
for example, the proper Mongols, the Calmucks, and the Burats,
although they have at all times occupied the regions close to
Thibet, and have obviously derived their language from this
quarter, are no longer confined to such an imperfect instrument
of thought and communication as a monosyllabic language
affords. They have inflexions and derivations, both for nouns
and to express times. The same observations are applicable to
the Mandshurs, § or Mantchoos.
The Japanese, too, another numerous people of Mongolian
• Adelung; Mithridates, v. i. p. 18. + Ib. p. 28. #10. p. 504. & Ib. p. 514.
DIFFERENCES OF LANGUAGE.
323
formation, have a well-formed polysyllabic language, without any
resemblance to that of the Chinese.* *
The monosyllabic language of so large a portion of Asia appears
the more remarkable, when it is contrasted with the languages
of the native Americans, who in the form of the head, approach
closely to the characters of the Mongolian variety. In the capa-
bility of inflexion and composition, and in the consequent length
of words,t many of the American tongues offer a complete con-
trast to those of China, Thibet, &c.
America is also distinguished from the old continent by the
great number of its different languages. Mr. JEFFERSON I
states that there are twenty radical languages in America for one
in Asia. “More than twenty languages are still spoken in the
kingdom of Mexico, most of which are at least as different from
one another as the Greek and the German, or the French and
Polish. The variety of idioms spoken by the people of the new
continent, and which, without the least exaggeration, may be
stated at some hundreds, offers a very striking phenomenon,
particularly when we compare it to the few languages spoken in
Asia and Europe.” $
The causes of these diversities, and the relations between the
form and structure of the brain, the appetites, sentiments, moral
and intellectual character, of the several human races, and the
genius of their languages, are important subjects for future in-
quiry. It will be sufficient to assert, in reference to the present
subject, that no difference of language hitherto observed affords
any argument against unity of the species. We can have no
difficulty in arriving at this conclusion when we find, as in
America, numerous completely distinct tongues in the several
families of one great and, in all essential points, uniform race;
and when we discover, moreover, so strong a contrast as that
which the monosyllabic languages of Asia and the complicated
long words of so many American languages present, in nations
whose organic traits are so similar.
* Adelung; Mithridates, v. i. p. 572.
+ Huniboldt informs us that nollazomahuiztespizcaiatzin is the term of respect
used by the Mexicans in addressing the priests. Political Essay, v. i. p. 139, note.
# Notes on Virginia, p. 164.
Political Essay, v. i. p. 138. This statement is corroborated by Vater,
who observes that “in Mexico, where the causes producing insulation of the
several tribes have been for a long time in a course of diminution, Clavigero
recognisedt hirty-five different languages (Saggio di Storia dinericana, t. iii.
append, ii. c. 3, p. 282). And those with which we are acquainted by written
accounts are quite radically distinct, and almost unconnected with each other.
Mithridates, th. iii. p. 373.
Y 2
324
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
CHAPTER VIII.
Differences in moral and intellectual Qualilies.
Arter surveying and describing the diversities of bodily forma-
tion exhibited in the various races of men, and alluding to a few
physiological distinctions, we naturally proceed to a review of
their moral and intellectual characters, to examine whether the
latter exhibit such peculiarities as the numerous modifications
of physical structure lead us to expect; whether the appetites
and propensities, the moral feelings and dispositions, and the
capabilities of knowledge and reflection, are the same in all, or
as different as the cerebral organs, of which they are the func-
tions ?* If the physical frame and the moral and intellectual
phenomena of man be entirely independent of each other, their
deviations will exhibit no coincidence; the noblest characters
and most distinguished endowments may be conjoined with the
meanest organization: if, on the contrary, the intellectual and
moral be closely linked to the physical part, if the former be the
offspring and result of the latter, the varieties of both must
always correspond.
The different progress of various nations in general civilization,
and in the culture of the arts and sciences, the different characters
and degrees of excellence in their literary productions, their
varied forms of government, and many other considerations,
convince us beyond the possibility of doubt, that the races of
mankind are no less characterized by diversity of mental endow-
ments, than by those differences of organization which I have
already considered. So powerful, however, has been the effect
of government, laws, education, and peculiar habits, in modifying
the mind and character of men, that we experience great diffi-
culty in distinguishing between the effects of original difference,
and of the operation of these external causes.
From entering at large and minutely into this interesting
subject, I am as much prevented by want of the necessary
information, as by the immediate object and limited length of
these Lectures. To pass it over in silence would be omitting
the most important part of the natural history of our species ;
one of the most interesting views in the comparative zoology of
man. I shall therefore submit a few remarks to illustrate the
point of view in which the phenomena have appeared to myself,
• See Lecture IV. p. 73 and following, on the Functions of the Brain; Sec-
tion I. Chap. IV. on the Characters of the Human Head; Chap. VI. on the
Structure of the Brain; and Chap. VII, on the Mental Faculties of Man..
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
325
and shall be happy if they incite any of my readers to a further
prosecution of the inquiry.
The distinction of colour between the white and black races:
is not more striking than the pre-eminence of the former in
moral feelings and in mental endowments. The latter, it is
true, exhibit generally a great acuteness of the external senses,
which in some instances is heightened by exercise to a degree
nearly incredible. Yet they indulge, almost universally, in dis-
gusting debauchery and sensuality, and display gross selfish-
ness, indifference to the pains and pleasures of others, insen-
sibility to beauty of form, order, and harmony, and an almost
entire want of what we comprehend altogether under the expres-
sion of elevated sentiments, manly virtues, and moral feeling.
The hideous savages of Van Diemen's Land, of New Holland,
New Guinea, and some neighbouring islands, the Negroes of
Congo and some other parts, exhibit the most disgusting moral
as well as physical portrait of man.
Peron describes the wretched beings, whom he found on
the shores of Van Diemen's Island, and of the neighbouring
island Maria, as examples of the rudest barbarism: “ without
chiefs, properly so called, without laws or any thing like regular
government, without arts of any kind, with no idea of agricul-
ture, of the use of metals, or of the services to be derived from
animals; without clothes or fixed abode, and with no other
shelter than a mere shed of bark to keep off the cold south
winds; with no arms but a club and spear."*
Although these and the neighbouring New Hollanders are
placed in a fine climate and productive soil, they derive no other
sustenance from the earth than a few fern-roots and bulbs of
orchises ; and are often driven by the failure of their principal
resource, fish, to the most revolting food, as frogs, lizards, ser-
pents, spiders, the larvæ of insects, and particularly a kind of
large caterpillar found in groups on the branches of the euca-
lyptus resinifera. They are sometimes obliged to appease the
cravings of hunger by the bark of trees, and by a paste made by
pounding together ants, their larvæ, and fern-roots.t
Their remorseless cruelty, their unfeeling barbarity to women
and children, their immoderate revenge for the most trivial
affronts, their want of natural affection, are hardly redeemed by
the slightest traits of goodness. When we add, that they are
• Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes ; t. i. chap. 20.
+ Collins, Account of the English Colony in N. S. Wales. Appendix. Sec also
Turnbull's Voyage round the World, second edition, ch, viii.
326
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
quite insensible to distinctions of right and wrong, destitute of
religion, without any idea of a Supreme Being, and with the
feeblest notion, if there be any at all, of a future state, the
revolting picture is complete in all its features.* What an
afflicting contrast does the melancholy truth of this description
form to the eloquent but delusive declamations of ROUSSEAU
on the prerogatives of natural man and his advantages over his
civilized brethren!
The same general character, with some softening, and some
modifications, is applicable to most of the native Americans, of
the Africans, and of the Mongolian nations of Asia ; to the
Malays, and the greater part of the inhabitants of the numerous
islands scattered in the ocean between Asia and America. In
the most authentic descriptions we every where find proofs of
astonishing insensibility to the pains and joys of others, even
their nearest relations; inflexible cruelty, selfishness and dis-
position to cheat, a want of all sympathetic impulses and feel-
ings, the most brutal apathy and indolence, unless roused by
the pressure of actual physical want, or stimulated by the desire
of revenge and the thirst of blood. Their barbarous treatment
of women, the indiscriminate and unrelenting destruction of
their warfare, the infernal torments inflicted on their captives,
and the horrible practice of cannibalism, fill the friend of huma-
Dity by turns with pity, indignation, and horror.
With the deep shades of this dismal picture some brighter
spots are mingled, which it is a pleasing task to select and par-
ticularize.
The inferiority of the dark to the white races is much more
general and strongly marked in the powers of knowledge and
Teflection, the intellectual faculties, using that expression in its
most comprehensive sense, than in moral feelings and disposi-
* Mr. Collins, who had ample opportunities of observing this race, and who
seems to have contemplated them with an unprejudiced mind, says, “I am
certain that they do not worship sun, moon, or stars; that, however necessary
fire may be to them, it is not an object of adoration; neither have they any
Respect for any beast, bird, or fish. I never could discover any object, either
substantial or imaginary, that impelled them to the commission of good actions,
OI deterred them from the perpetration of what we deem criines. There
indeed existed among them some idea of a future state ; but not connected in
any wise with religion; for it had no influence whatever on their lives and
actions," Lib. cit. p. 547. Whether they had any knowledge of right and
wrong, was doubtful. They had words for good and bad, as applied to useful
or hurtful objects. The sting-ray which they never ate, was bad, the kangaroo
good. Their enemies were bad; their friends good; cannibalism was bad;
When our people were punished for ill treating them, it was good. "Midnight
murders, though frequently practised among them, whenever revenge or
passion were uppermost, they reprobated; but applanded acts of kindness aúd
enerosity; for of both these they were capable." Hid. 549,
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
327
tions. Many of the former, although little civilized, display an
openness of heart, a friendly and generous disposition, the
greatest hospitality, and an observance of the point of honour
according to their own notions, from which nations more ad-
vanced in knowledge might often take a lesson with advantage.
Many of the Negroes possess a natural goodness of heart and
warmth of affection : even the slave-dealers are acquainted with
their differences in character, and fix their prices, not merely
according to the bodily powers, but in proportion to the docility
and good dispositions of their commodity, judging of these by
the quarter from which they are procured.
Although the Americans appeared so stupid to the Spaniards,
that they were with some difficulty convinced of their being men
and capable of becoming Christians (for which purpose a papal
bull was necessary); and although this deficiency of intellect is
still attested by the more candid and impartial reports of modern
travellers, the empires of Mexico and Peru show that some tribes
at least were capable of higher destinies, and of considerable
advancement in civilization. They were united under a regular
government; they practised agriculture, and the other neces-
sary arts of life, and were not entirely destitute of those which
have some title to the name of elegant.* History and romance
The visionary notions of De Paauw (Recherches Philos. sur les Américains)
and Buffon (Hist. Naturelle; Homme) concerning the imperfection and feeble-
ness of animal life in America, too lightly adopted in many instances by
Robertson (Hist, of America), have been amply exposed and refuted, so far
as the people themselves are concerned, by Count Carli, who has proved, by
the clear testimonies of the original Spanish conquerors, that the Mexicans
and Peruvians defended themselves with the greatest bravery and resolution ;
and that they had made considerable advances in knowledge, in the arts, in
general civilization, and in government, at the time of the Spanish conquest.
(See his Lcllere Americane, composing the llth, 12th, 13th, and 14th volumes,
of his Opere, 15 t. Milano, 1786 : but particularly the two first.) The two
fundamental truths of religion, the existence of God, and the immortality of
the soul, were recognised in Peru (Lettere, t. i. 1. 7); and the knowledge of
arithmetic and astronomy had been carried to a great extent ib. t. ii. 1. 1. et 2).
They had constructed considerable aqueducts, of which the remains are still
to be seen, and numerous canals for irrigation, of which one is said to have
been 150 leagues in length (t. i. p. 317). They were able to extract, separate,
and fuse metals; to give to copper the hardness of steel, for the fabrication of
their weapons and instruments; to make inirrors of this hardened copper or of
hard stone; to form images of gold and silver hollow within; to cut the hardest
precious stones with the greatest nicety; to manufacture and dye cotton and
wool, and work and figure the stuff's in various ways; to spin and weave the
fine hair of hares and rabbits into fabrics resembling and answering the purposes
of silks (ibid. t. 1). The preceding statements are fully corroborated by the
existing remains of these ancient arts, as seen and described by Ulloa, Bouguer,
Condamine, and Humboldt. (Travels in South America, v. i. book 6, ch. 11.
Acad. des Sciences; 1740, 1745. Vuedes Cordilleres, Monumens des Peuples, &c.)
"The Toultees,” says the latter author, “introduced the cultivation of maize
and cotton; they built cities, made roads, and constructed those great pyra.
mids, which are yet admired, and of which the faces are very accurately laid
out. They knew the use of hieroglyphical paintings; they could found metal
and cut the hardest stones; and they had a solar year more perfect than that
of the Greeks and Romans." Political Essay, book ii, ch. 6.


328
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
have shed their glories round MANCO CAPAC, the first sage
and lawgiver, and the succeeding Incas or emperors of Peru,
whose lives and exploits have been recorded by one of their own
descendants on the female side, GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA,
surnamed the Inca. .
In stating the moral and intellectual inferiority of the native
Americans to the white races, I speak of an inferiority common
to them with the other dark-coloured people of the globe; and
do not mean to adopt, in the smallest degree, the fanciful
notions promulgated by some writers of the degeneracy of all
animal nature in this vast continent. That the quadrupeds and
other animals are deficient neither in size nor vigour is now
well known; and though the fables respecting the gigantic
stature of the Patagonians have passed away, they still remain
superior in size to any Asiatic or European race of men. There
are some unconquered tribes equally conspicuous for the nobler
attributes of our nature. The Araucans of Chili have success-
fully maintained their independence against all the attacks
of the Spaniards, and are well known in Europe by the epic
poem of ERCILLA, in which these contests are celebrated. In
the interesting portrait, which MOLINA has lately drawn of their
character, manners, customs, government, and history, we
recognise in many points a strong resemblance to the ancient
Germans, and a pleasing proof that all the natives of this new
world are not doomed to mental inferiority.
“ The moral quality of the Araucans," says MOLINA,“ are
proportioned to their physical endowments; they are intrepid,
animated, ardent, patient in enduring fatigue, ever ready to
sacrifice their lives in the service of their country, enthusiastic
lovers of liberty, which they consider as an essential constituent
of their existence, jealous of their honour, courteous, hospitable,
faithful to their engagements, grateful for services rendered
them, and generous and humane towards the vanquished."*
The ninety + years' struggle which they maintained against
the Spaniards, and by which they at last successfully established
their independence, is more remarkable for its duration, for acts
of desperate resolution and devotion to the great cause of
liberty, and traits of individual heroism, than the contest between
the Dutch and the Spaniards, the Swiss and the Austrians, or
any ancient or modern analogous European case.
* Civil History of Chili, p. 59. Their strict integrity and high sense of honour
in commercial dealings, are confirmed by the testimony of Ulloa ; Travels in
South America, v. ii. p. 276.
+ Ibid. p. 291.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
329
In the savage tribes of North America we often meet with
lofty sentiments of independence, ardent courage, and devoted
friendship, which would sustain a comparison with the most
splendid similar examples in the more highly gifted races.
Honourable and punctual fulfilment of treaties and compacts,
patient endurance of toil, hunger, cold, and all kinds of hard-
ships and privations, inflexible fortitude, and unshaken perse-
verance in avenging insults or injuries according to their own
peculiar customs and feelings, show that they are not destitute
of the more valuable moral qualities.
The Mongolian people differ very much in their docility and
moral character. While the empires of China and Japan prove
that this race is susceptible of civilization, and of great advance.
ment in the useful and even elegant arts of life, and exhibit the
singular phenomenon of political and social institutions between
two and three thousand years older than the Christian era, the
fact of their having continued nearly stationary for so many
centuries, marks an inferiority of nature and a limited capacity
in comparison to that of the white races.
When the Mongolian tribes of central Asia have been united
under one leader, war and desolation have been the objects of
the association. Unrelenting slaughter, without distinction of
condition, age, or sex, and universal destruction have marked
the progress of their conquests, unattended with any changes
or institutions capable of benefiting the human race, unmingled
with any acts of generosity, any kindness to the vanquished, or
the slightest symptoms of regard to the rights and liberties of
mankind. The progress of ATTILA, ZINGis, and TAMERLANE,
like the deluge, the tornado, and the hurricane, involved every
thing in one sweeping ruin.
In all the points which have been just considered, the white
races present a complete contrast to the dark-coloured inha-
bitants of the globe. While the latter cover more than half the
earth's surface, plunged in a state of barbarism in which the
higher attributes of human nature seldom make their appear-
ance, strangers to all the conveniences and pleasures of advanced
social life, and deeming themselves happy in escaping the
immediate perils of famine; the former; at least in this quarter
of the world, either never have been in so low a condition, or,
by means of their higher endowments, have so quickly raised
• See Mr. Jefferson's eloquent vindication of the North American savages
from the degrading picture drawn of them by Buffon. Notes on Virginia.
330
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
themselves from it, that we have no record of their existence as -
mere hunting or fishing tribes. In the oldest documents and
traditions, which deserve any confidence, these nobler people
are seen at least in the pastoral state, and in the exercise of
agriculture, the practice of which is so ancient, that the remotest
and darkest accounts have not preserved the name of the disco-
verer, or the date of its introduction. No European people,
therefore, have been in a condition comparable to that of the
present dark-coloured races, within the reach of any history or
tradition :
The invention of arts and sciences in the East, and their sur-
prising progress in Europe, are due to the white men. The
comparatively national system of Heathenism contained in the
Grecian mythology, with its elegant fables and allegories; and
the three religions, which exhibit the only worthy views of the
Divinity, that is, Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism, all
derive their birth from the same quarter.
The Caucasian variety claims also the Persian ZOROASTER;
and, if I mistake not, the founders of the religion of BRAMAH,
who in the peninsula of India had signalized themselves by
great advances in art and science in the very remotest antiquity.
In the white races we meet, in full perfection, with true
bravery, love of liberty, and other passions and virtues of great
souls; here only do these noble feelings exist in full intensity,
while they are, at the same time, directed by superior know-
ledge and reflection to the accomplishment of the grandest pur-
poses. They alone have been as generous and mild towards
the weak and the vanquished, as terrible to their enemies; and
have treated females with kindness, attention, and deference.
Here alone are compassion and benevolence fully developed;
the feeling for the pains and distresses of others, and the active
attempt to relieve them; which, first exerted on our nearest
connections, is extended to our countrymen in general, and
embraces, ultimately, in its wishes and exertions, the interests
of all mankind.
The white nations alone have enjoyed free governments; that
is, not the lawless dominion of mere force, as in many barbarous
tribes, but institutions recognising the equality of all in political
rights, giving protection to the weak against the powerful,
securing to all equal freedom of opinion and conscience, and
administered according to laws framed with the consent of all.
The spirit of liberty, the unconquerable energy of independence,
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
331
the generous glow of patriotism have been known chiefly to
those nobler organizations, in which the cerebral hemispheres
have received their full development. The republics of Greece
and Rome, of Italy in the middle ages, of Switzerland and Hol-
land, the limited monarchy of England, and the United States
of America, have shown us what the human race can effect,
when animated by these sacred feelings; without which nothing
has been achieved truly great or permanently interesting. This
is the charm that attaches us to the history, the laws, the insti-
tutions, the literature of the free states of antiquity, and that
enables us to study again and again, with fresh pleasure, the
lives and actions of their illustrious citizens.
Even the more absolute forms of government have been
conducted among the white races, with a respect to human
to the pure despotisms, which seem to be the natural destiny of
our dark brethren. The monstrous faith of millions made for
one has never been doubted or questioned in all the extensive
regions occupied by human races with the anterior and superior
parts of the cranium flattened and compressed
That these diversities are the offspring of natural differences,
and not produced by external causes, is proved by their univer-
sality, whether in respect to time, place, or external influence.
Some have found a convenient and ready solution in climate,
but have not condescended to show, either by example or rea-
soning, how climate can operate on the moral feelings and intel-
lect, or that it has actually so operated in any instance. The
native Americans are spread over that vast continent from the
icy shores of the Arctic Ocean to the neighbourhood of the
Antarctic Circle; the Africans have a tolerably wide range in
their quarter of the globe; the Mongolian tribes cover a tract
including every variety of climate from the coldest to the most
warm. Yet, in such diversities of situation, the respective races
exhibit only modifications of character. White people have
distinguished themselves in all climates; every where preserving
their superiority. Two centuries have not assimilated the
Anglo-Americans to the Indian aborigines, nor prevented them
from establishing in America the freest government in the
world. A WASHINGTON and a FRANKLIN prove that the noble
qualities of the race have suffered no degeneracy by crossing
the Atlantic.
Accurate observers have found the hypothesis of climate
332
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
equally unsatisfactory in other parts of the world. “ The phi. .
losophy which refers exclusively to the physical influence of
climate, this most remarkable phenomenon of the moral world, is
altogether insufficient to satisfy the rational inquirer ; the holy
spirit of liberty was cherished in Greece and its Syrian colonies
by the same sun which warms the gross and ferocious supersti-
tion of the Mahommedan zealot : the conquerors of half the
world issued from the scorching deserts of Arabia, and obtained
some of their earliest triumphs over one of the most gallant
nations of Europe (Spain).
“A remnant of the disciples of ZOROASTER, flying from
Mahommedan persecution, carried with them to the western
coast of India the religion, the hardy habits, and athletic forms
of the north of Persia ; and their posterity may at this day be
contemplated in the Parsees of the English settlement at Bom-
bay, with mental and bodily powers absolutely unimpaired after
the residence of a thousand years in that burning climate. Even
the passive but ill-understood character of the Hindoos, exhi-
biting few and unimportant shades of distinction, whether
placed under the snows of Imaus, or the vertical sun of the
torrid zone, has, in every part of these diversified climates, been
occasionally roused to achievements of valour, and deeds of des-
peration, not surpassed in the heroic ages of the western world.
The reflections naturally arising from these facts are obviously
sufficient to extinguish a flimsy and superficial hypothesis,
which would measure the human mind by the scale of a
FAHRENHEIT's thermometer."*
White nations have kept up their character under every form
of government. Science and literature have flourished in
monarchies as well as in republics. Yet, let us never forget that
the principal and the richest portion of our intellectual treasure
consists of the literature and history of two nations of antiquity,
whose astonishing superiority seems to have arisen principally
from their having enjoyed freedom.
The white nations may degenerate, as in the case of the
Greeks and Romans; but the qualities, which distinguished
them in their proudest state, are still visible. The senate, the
forum, and the capitol, which were trodden by Scipios,
BRUTUSES, and Catos, by POMPEY, CÆSAR, and CICERO, by
VIRGIL, HORACE, LIVY, and TACITUS, have been long defiled
by a vermin of priests and monks, of eunuchs and singers • the
• Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India ; v. ii pp. 22, 23.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
333
processions and fooleries of a despicable superstition have suc-
ceeded to the three hundred and twenty triumphs which gave
to a small spot in Italy the command of the world, proclaiming
conquests generally as beneficial to the conquered as glorious
the domestic fetters of monkery and priestcraft, and the still
more galling yoke of foreign rule; yet the classic ground has
ever produced, and still continues to produce, men worthy of the
race that realised and long maintained universal empire. What
other people has sent forth, within the same period, or even in
any wider range, men equal in force of genius and variety of
excellence to the immortal names which Italy can boast even in
her degradation ;--to DANTE, PETRARCA, and BOCCACCIO ;
to Tasso, ARIOSTO, METASTASIO, ALFIERI ; to GALILEO,
GASSENDI, and TORRICELLI; to MACHIAVEL, DAVILA,
BENTIVOGLIO, and GUICCIARDINI ; to RAPHAEL, MICHAEL
ANGELO, and a whole host of others ?
The prerogatives of the white races may be equally distin-
guished in the least advanced state of civilization. Compare the
ancient Germans, as delineated by TACITUS and CÆSAR, with
the savages of New Holland, with a horde of Hottentots, with a
tribe of American Indians; compare the ancient Spaniards, or
Scandinavians, the Highland Scotch, or any Celtic people, to
the African, American, or Mongolian tribes.
A fair comparative experiment has been made of the white and
red races in North America ; and no trial in natural philosophy
has had a more unequivocal and convincing result. The copper-
coloured natives, although in all their original independence,
have not advanced a single step in three hundred years; neither
example nor persuasion has induced them, except in very small
number and few instances, to exchange the precarious supplies
of the hunting and fishing state for agriculture and the other
arts of settled life. A little ingenuity is manifested in making
clothes, ornaments, arms; and personal endurance of exertion,
fatigue, and the cruelest torture, is carried to a great height.
Even in war, in their eyes the first and most exalted of occu-
pations, they show few traces of generous or honourable feel-
ings. Bitter revenge and utter destruction are the motive and
man can be ignorant of the mighty empire founded by a handful
of his countrymen in the wilds of America ; of its gigantic
strides from the state of an insignificant colony, within forty
334
DIFTERENCES IN MORAL
short years of independence, to the rank of a first-rate power.
No friend of humanity can be a stranger to the glorious prospect,
to the energies of freedom, which vivify this new country. No
human being, who is interested in the progress of his species,
can refuse his tribute of admiration to this new world, which has
established itself without the prejudices of the old ;--where reli-
gion is in all its fervour, without needing an alliance with the
state to maintain it; where the law commands by the respect
which it inspires, without being enforced by any military power.
acknowledged by the other races. The most intelligent Negro,
whom Mr. PARK* met with, after witnessing only such evidences
of European skill and knowledge, as the English settlement of
Pisania afforded, and being acquainted with two or three Eng-
lishmen, would sometimes appear pensive, and exclaim with an
involuntary sigh, “ Black men are nothing !" The narratives
of travellers abound with similar traits. This consciousness best
explains the fact of the Negroes generally submitting quietly
tions and the proportions of the population were reversed, and
the European slaves were five, six, eight, or ten times as nume-
rous as their Negro masters, how long would such a state of
things last? When the blacks form any plots, although their
natural apathy and unvarying countenance are favourable to
concealment, they always fail, through treachery or precipitation
in commencing operations, or are disconcerted by any resolute
opposition, even from very inferior numbers.
Some will probably explain in a different manner these
remarkable phenomena of the moral and intellectual world,
which I have just been considering; they will attempt to prove
that these strongly-marked varieties may have been produced,
in races formed originally with equal capabilities, by the external
influences of civilization, education, government, religion, and
perhaps other causes. To assert uniformity of bodily structure
over the whole world would be too repugnant to the testimony
of the senses: equality of mental endowments seems to me
hardly a less extravagant tenet. There have, however, been
philosophers who even held that all men are born with equal
powers; and that education and other accidental circumstances
make the only difference between the wisest and the weakest
of mankind.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
335
That civilization, government, and education act very power-
fully on the human race, is too obvious to be doubted; but the
question relates to the capability of civilization. Why have the
white races invariably, and without one exception, raised them-
selves to, at least some considerable height in the scale of cul-
tivation ; while the dark, on the contrary, have almost as
suppose that at any remote era, all mankind, in all quarters of
the globe, were in the latter condition, what are the accidental
circumstances which have prevented all the coloured varieties
of man from raising themselves, and at the same time have
assisted the progress of all the others? If the nations in the
north and west of Europe, when first conquered by the Romans,
should be allowed (contrary, however, to historical proof) to
have been in a state of barbarism not superior to that of the
present rude tribes of Asia, Africa, or America, why have they
advanced uninterruptedly to their present exalted pitch of cul-
ture, while the latter remain plunged in their original rudeness
and ignorance?
I do not mean to assert that all individuals and all tribes of
dark-coloured men are inferior in moral and intellectual endow-
ments to all those of the white division. The same gradations
and modifications of structure and properties exist here as in
other parts. Certainly we can produce examples enough in
Europe of beings not superior to Hottentots and New Hol-
landers: and individuals of considerable talents and knowledge
are met with in savage tribes. There may not be much dif-
ference between the lowest European community and the highest
in some dark variety of man. Examples of individuals and of
small numbers will therefore prove little in this matter.
I am aware also that all the white races have not made those
spoken as indicating their superior endowments. Their organi-
zation makes them capable of such distinctions, if circumstances
are favourable, or rather if no obstacles exist. In the dark
races, on the contrary, inferior organization renders it vain to
present opportunities, or to remove difficulties.
Loss of liberty, bad government, oppressive laws, neglected
education, bigotry, fanaticism, and intolerance in religion, will
counteract the noblest gifts of nature, will plunge into ignorance,
degradation, and weakness, nations capable of the highest cul-
ture, of the most splendid, moral, and intellectual achievements
336
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
Greece, Italy, and Spain bear melancholy testimony to this
afflicting truth. Where are the brave republican Dutch, who
first sustained a forty years' contest with Spain in the zenith of
her power, when she could alarm all Europe by her ambitious
schemes; and who then contended with England for the domi-
nion of the sea? What causes the present feebleness of Turkey,
whose very name is deemed almost synonymous with despotism
and ignorance? Careful observers can discern even in these
victims of oppression and fanaticism, the germs of all the higher
qualifications of our race, the evidences of those moral excel-
lencies and intellectual powers, which require only a favourable
opportunity to display themselves. It is generally allowed that
the Turks are superior in natural qualifications to their con-
querors the Russians, who enjoy over them the advantages of a
government and religion * more favourable to the progress of
knowledge and to individual security and happiness.
Such are the results deducible from experience respecting the
differences of moral feelings and intellectual power: having
stated thein strongly, I am anxious to express my decided opi-
nion that these differences are not sufficient in any instance to
warrant us in referring a particular race to an originally dif-
ferent species. They are not greater in kind or degree than
those which we see in many animals, as in horses, asses, mules,
dogs, and cocks. I protest especially against the opinion, which
either denies to the Africans the enjoyment of reason, or ascribes
to the whole race propensities so vicious, malignant, and trea-
cherous, as would degrade them even below the level of the
brute. It can be proved most clearly, and the preceding obser-
vations are sufficient for this purpose, that there is no circum-
stance of bodily structure so peculiar to the Negro, as not to be
found also in other far distant nations; no character, which
does not run into those of other races by the same insensible
gradations as those which connect together all the varieties of
mankind. I deem the moral and intellectual character of the
* The unfavourable influence of the Mahometan religion on intellectual
culture has been exemplified by Mr. Fourier in the case of the Arabs. If
the Arabians, like the people of the West, had possessed the inestimable
advantage of a religion favourable to the arts and to useful knowledge, they
would have cultivated and brought to perfection every branch of philosophy.
At the commencement of their extraordinary career they were ingenious and
polished: they made remarkable progress in poetry, architecture, medicine,
geometry, natural history, and astronomy; they preserved and transmitted to
us many of those immortal works which were destined to aid the revival of
learning in Europe. But the Mussulman religion was incompatible with this
development of the mind; the Arabs were exposed to the alternative of.
renouncing their faith, or returning to the ignorance of their ancestors,"
Description de l'Egyple, Préface historique, p. 16.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
337
Negro inferior, and decidedly so, to that of the European ; and,
as this inferiority arises from a corresponding difference of orga-
nization, I must regard it as his natural destiny : but I do not
consider him more inferior than the other dark races. I can
neither admit the reasoning nor perceive the humanity of those
who, after tearing the African from his native soil, carrying him
to the West Indies, and dooming him there to perpetual slavery
and labour, complain that his understanding shows no signs
of improvement, and that his temper and disposition are incor-
rigibly perverse, faithless, and treacherous. Let us, however,
observe him in a somewhat more favourable state than in those
dreadful receptacles of human misery, the crowded decks of the
slave-ship, or in the less openly shocking, but constrained and
extorted, and therefore painful labours of the sugar plantation.
That the Negroes behave to others according to the treatment
they receive, may be easily gathered from the best sources of
information. . They have not, indeed, reached that sublime
height, the beau ideal of morality, the returning good for evil,
prohably because their masters have not yet found leisure
enough from the pursuit of riches to instil into them the true
spirit of Christianity. “The feelings of the Negroes (says an
accurate observer) are extremely acute. According to the
manner in which they are treated, they are gay or melancholy,
laborious or slothful, friends or enemies. When well fed, and
not maltreated, they are contented, joyous, ready for every
enjoyment; and the satisfaction of their mind is painted in their
countenance. But, when oppressed and abused, they grow
peevish, and often die of melancholy. Of benefits and abuse
they are extremely sensible, and against those who injure them
they bear a mortal hatred. On the other hand, when they
contract an affection to a master, there is no office, however
hazardous, which they will not boldly execute, to demonstrate
their zeal and attachment. They are naturally affectionate, and
have an ardent love for their children, friends and countrymen.
The little they possess they freely distribute among the neces-
sitous, without any other motive than that of pure compassion
for the indigent."*
The travels of BARROW, LE VAILLANT, and MUNGO PARK,
abound with anecdotes honourable to the moral character of the
.Africans, and prove that they betray no deficiency in the amiable
qualities of the heart. One of these gives us an interesting
* Histoire des Antilles, p. 483,
z
338
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
1
portrait of the chief of a tribe: “His countenance was strongly
marked with the habit of reflection; vigorous in his mental, and
amiable in his personal qualities, Gaika was at once the friend
and ruler of a happy people, who universally pronounced his
name with transport, and blessed his abode as the seat of felicity:"
Some European kings might take a lesson from this savage.
Mr. Barrow gives a picture, by no means unpleasing, of the
Hottentots. Their indolence probably arises from the state of
subjection in which they live; as the wild Bosjesmen are parti-
cularly active and cheerful.
"They are a mild, quiet, and timid people; perfectly harmless,
honest, faithful; and though extremely phlegmatic, they are kind
and affectionate to each other, and not incapable of strong attach-
ments. A Hottentot would share his last morsel with his com-
panions. They have little of that kind of art or cunning that
savages generally possess. If accused of crimes, of which they
have been guilty, they generally divulge the truth. They seldom
quarrel among themselves, or make use of provoking language.
Though naturally fearful, they will run into the face of danger
if led on by their superiors. They suffer pain with patience.
They are by no means deficient in talent."*
“The Bosjesman, though in every respect a Hottentot, yet in
his turn of mind differs very widely from those that live in the
colony. In his disposition he is lively and cheerful; in his person
active. His talents are far above mediocrity; and, averse to idle-
ness, they are seldom without employment.”+ They are very
fond of dancing, exhibit great industry and acuteness in their
contrivances for catching game, and considerable mechanical
skill in forming their baskets, mats, nets, arrows, &c. &c. I
I see no reason to doubt that the Negro race, taken altogether,
is equal to any in natural goodness of heart. It is consonant to
our general experience of mankind, that the latter quality should
be deadened or completely extinguished in the slave-ship or
plantation ; indeed, it is as little creditable to the heads as to the
hearts of their white masters, to expect affection and fidelity from
slaves after the treatment they too often experience.
The acute and accurate BARBOT, in his large work on Guinea,
says, “The blacks have sufficient sense and understanding, their
conceptions are quick and accurate, and their memory possesses
extraordinary strength. For, although they can neither read nor
write, they never fall into confusion or error in the greatest hurry
* Travels in Southern Africa, v. i. p. 152. + Ib. p. 283. Ib. pp. 284–290.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
339
of business and traffic. Their experience of the knavery of
Europeans has put them completely on their guard in transac-
tions of exchange: they carefully examine all our goods, piece
by piece, to ascertain if their quality and measure are correctly
stated; and show as much sagacity and clearness in all these
transactions, as any European tradesman could do."
Of those imitative arts, in which perfection can be attained
only in an improved state of society, it is natural to suppose that
the Negroes can have little knowledge; but the fabric and colours
of the Guinea cloths are proofs of their native ingenuity; and,
that they are capable of learning all kinds of the more delicate
manual labours, is proved by the fact, that nine-tenths of the
artificers in the West Indies are Negroes. Many are expert
carpenters, and some watchmakers.
their accuracy of outline and correctness of proportion.
Negroes have been known to earn so much in America by
their musical exertions, as to purchase their freedom with large
sums. The younger FREIDIG in Vienna was an expert performer
both on the violin and violincello; he was also a capital drafts-
man, and had made an excellent painting of himself. Mr.
EDWARDS, † however, speaks very contemptuously of their
musical talents in general: he says, “they prefer a loud and
long-continued noise to the finest harmony; and frequently con-
sume the whole night in beating on a board with a stick.”
The capacity of the Negroes for the mathematical and physical
sciences is proved by HANNIBAL, a colonel in the Russian
artillery, and LISLET of the Isle of France, who was named a
corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, on
account of his excellent meteorological observations. FULLER of
Maryland, was an extraordinary example of quickness in reckon-
ing. Being asked in a company, for the purpose of trying his
powers, how many seconds a person had lived who was seventy
years and some months old, he gave the answer in a minute and
a half. On reckoning it up after him, a different result was
obtained : “ Have not you forgotten the leap years?" says the
Negro. This omission was supplied, and the number then agreed
with his answer. I
BOERHAAVE and DE HAEN have given the strongest testi-
* Travels, &c. v. i. p. 239-307. + Hist, of the TV est Indies, v. ii. p. 102.
I Stedman's Surinam; v. ii. p. 270. This circumstance is related on the
authority of Dr. Rush, as having happened in his presence.
2 2
340
DIFFERENCES IN MORAL
mony that our black brethren possess no mean insight into prac-
tical medicine; and several have been known as very dexterous
surgeons. A Negress of Yverdun is mentioned by BLUMENBACH
as a celebrated midwife of real knowledge and anexperienced hand.
Omitting MADOCKS, a Methodist preacher, and not attempt-
ing to enumerate all the Negroes who have written poems, I may
mention that BLUMENBACH possesses English, Dutch, and
Latin poetry, by different Negroes.
In 1734, A. W. Amo, an African, from the coast of Guinea,
took the degree of Doctor at the university of Wittenberg; and
displayed according to BLUMENBACH, in two disputations,
extensive and well-digested reading in the physiological books
of the time.*
JAC. ELIZ. JOH. CAPITEIN; who was bought by a slave-
dealer when eight years old, studied theology at Leyden, and
published several sermons and poems. His Dissertatio de Servi-
tute Libertati Christianæ non contraria went through four editions
very quickly. He was ordained in Amsterdam, and went to
Elmina on the Gold Coast, where he was either murdered, or
exchanged for the life and faith of his countrymen those he had
learned in Europe.
· IGNATIUS SANCHO, and GUSTAVUS VASA, the former born
in a slave-ship on its passage from Guinea to the West Indies,
and the latter in the kingdom of Benin, have distinguished them-
selves as literary characters in this country in modern times.
Their works and lives are so well known, and so easily accessible,
On reviewing these instances, which indeed must be received
as exceptions to the general results of observation and experience
respecting the Negro faculties, I may observe with BLUMENBACH,
from whom some of them are borrowed, that entire and large
provinces of Europe might be named, in which it would be diffi-
correspondents of the French Academy. These insulated facts
are not, however, adduced to prove that the African enjoys an
equality of moral and intellectual attributes with the European
race; but merely to show, that of the dark-coloured people none
have distinguished themselves by stronger proofs of capacity for
literary and scientific cultivation, and consequently that none
approach more nearly than the Negro to the polished nations of
the globe. That the Ethiopian, taken altogether, is decidedly
* Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte; Th. i. p. 98.
AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.
341
inferior to the Caucasian variety in the qualities of the heart
.and of the head, will be soon recognised by any one who atteil-
tively weighs the representations of all unprejudiced and disin-
terested observers respecting the conduct, capabilities, and
character of the Africans, whether in their own country, in the
West Indies, or in America; and the continuance of the whole
race, for more than twenty centuries, in a condition which, in
its best forms, is little elevated above absolute barbarism, must
give to this conviction the clear light and full force of demonstra-
tion. I cannot therefore admit, without some restriction and
explanation, the quaint but humane expression of the preacher
who called the Negro “God's image, like ourselves, though
carved in ebony."
As the external influences of climate, soil, situation; of way
of life, degree of civilization, habits, customs, form of govern-
ment, religion, education, are manifestly inadequate to account
for the very marked differences which at all times, in all coun-
tries, and under all circumstances, have characterized the white
and the dark races, and the various sub-divisions of each, we
must look deeper for their causes, and seek them in some circum-
stances inseparably interwoven in the original constitution of
man. In conformity with the views already explained respecting
the mental part of our being, I refer the varieties of moral feel-
ing, and of capacity for knowledge and reflection, to those diver-
sities of cerebral organization, which are indicated by, and
correspond to the differences in the shape of the skull. If the
nobler attributes of man reside in the cerebral hemispheres; if
the prerogatives which lift him so much above the brute are
satisfactorily accounted for by the superior development of those
important parts; the various degrees and kinds of moral feeling
and of intellectual power may be consistently explained by the
numerous and obvious differences of size in the various cerebral
parts, besides which there may be peculiarities of internal orga-
nization, not appreciable by our means of inquiry. Proceeding
on these data, we shall find, in the comparison of the crania of
the white and dark races, a sufficient explanation of the supe-
riority constantly evinced by the former, and of the inferior
subordinate lot to which the latter have been irrevocably doomed.
If examples can be adduced, either of nations having such a
form of the brain and head, as that which characterizes the
Caucasian variety of man, placed under favourable circumstances
for the development of their moral and intellectual powers, and
342
DIFFERENCES AND QUALITIES.
yet not advancing beyond the point which has been reached by
the African or American tribes of the present time; or of people,
stances, that degree of moral and intellectual cultivation which
exist in the several polished countries of Europe, the preceding
reasoning will be overturned: if no such instances can be brought
forwards, the conclusion that the marked differences between
the white and dark-coloured divisions of our species arise from
original distinctions of organization, and not from adventitious
circumstances remains unshaken.
I cannot but respect the feelings of philanthropy, and the mo-
tives of benevolence, which have prompted many of our country-
men to exert themselves in behalf of the unenlightened and
oppressed; I cannot contemplate without admiration the heroic
self-denial, and the generous devotion of those, who, foregoing
the comforts, luxuries, and rational enjoyments of polished
society, expose themselves to noxious climates and to all the
perils of unknown countries, in order to win over the savage to
the settled habits, the useful arts, and the various advantages of
bestow on him the inestimable blessings of mental culture and
pure religion. But our expectations and exertions in this, as in
other cases, must be limited by the natural capabilities of the
subject. The retreating forehead and the depressed vertex of
the dark varieties of man make me strongly doubt whether they
are susceptible of these high destinies ;-whether they are capa-'
ble of fathoming the depths of science; of understanding and
appreciating the doctrines and the mysteries of our religion.
These obstacles will, I fear, be too powerful for missionaries and
Bible societies; for BELL and LANCASTER schools. Variety
of powers in the various races corresponds to the differences
both in kind and degree, which characterize the individuals of
each race : indeed, to the general character of all nature, in
which uniformity is most carefully avoided. To expect that the
Americans or Africans can be raised by any culture to an equal
height in moral sentiments and intellectual energy with Euro-
peans, appears to me quite as unreasonable as it would be to hope
that the bull-dog may equal the greyhound in speed ; that the
latter may be taught to hunt by scent like the hound; or that
the mastiff may rival in talents and acquirements the sagacious
and docile poodle.
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
343,
CHAPTER IX.
On the Causes of the Varieties of the Human Species.
HAVING examined the principal points in which the several
tribes of the human species differ from each other; namely, the
colour and texture of the skin, hair, and iris, the features, the
skull and brain, the forms and proportions of the body, the
stature, the animal economy, the moral and intellectual powers,
I proceed to inquire whether the diversities enumerated under
these heads are to be considered as characteristic distinctions co-
eval with the origin of the species, or as the result of subsequent
variation; and, in the event of the latter supposition being
adopted, whether they are the effect of external physical and
moral causes, or of native or congenital variety. The very nu-
merous gradations, which we meet with, in each of the points
above mentioned, are an almost insdpetable objection to the
notion of specific difference ; for all of them may be equally
referred to original distinction of species; yet if we admit this,
the number of species would be overwhelming. On the other
hand, the analogies drawn from the animal kingdom, and
adduced under each head, nearly demonstrate that the character-
istics of the various human tribes must be referred, like the cor-
responding diversities in other animals, to variation. Again, I
have incidentally brought forward several arguments to prove
that external agencies, whether physical or moral, will not
account for the bodily and mental differences, which characterize
the several tribes of mankind; and that they must be accounted
for by the breed or race.* This subject, however, requires fur-
ther illustration.
The causes which operate on the bodies of living animals
either modify the individual, or alter the offspring. The former
are of great importance in the history of animals, and produce
considerable alterations in individuals; but the latter are the
most powerful, as they affect the species, and cause the diversi-
ties of race. Great influence has at all times been ascribed to
climate, which indeed has been commonly, but very loosely and
indefinitely represented as the cause of most important modifi,
cations in the human subject and in other animals. Differences
of colour, stature, hair, features, and those of moral and intel-
lectual character, have been alike referred to the action of this
* See scct. ii. chap. ii. p. 203, and following ; chap. iv. p. 262, and following;
chap. vi. p. 301.
344
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
mysterious cause; without any attempt to show which of the
circumstances in the numerous assemblage comprehended under
the word climate produces the effect in question, or any indica-
tion of the mode in which the point is accomplished. That the
constitution of the atmosphere varies in respect to light and
heat, moisture, and electricity; and that these variations, with
those of elevation, soil, winds, vegetable productions, will operate
decidedly on individuals, I do not mean to deny. While, however,
we have no precise information on the kind or degree of influence
attributable to such causes, we have abundance of proof that they
are entirely inadequate to account for the differences between
the various races of men. · I shall state one or two changes
which seem fairly referable to climate.
The whitening (blanching or etiolation) of vegetables, when
the sun's rays are excluded, demonstrates the influence of those
rays on vegetable colours. Nor is the effect merely superficial:
it extends to the texture of the plant, to the taste and other
properties of its juices. · Men much exposed to the sun and air,
as peasants and sailors, acquire a deeper tint of colour than
those who are more covered; and the tanning of the skin by
the summer sun in parts of the body exposed to it, as the face
and hands, is a phenomenon completely analogous. The ruddy
and tawny hues of those who live in the country, particularly of
labourers in the open air, and the pale sallow countenances of
the inhabitants of towns, of close and dark workshops and
manufactories, owe their origin to the enjoyment or privation of
sun and air. Hence, men of the same race are lighter or darker
coloured according to the climate which they inhabit, at least
in those parts which are uncovered. The native hue of the
Moors is not darker than that of the Spaniards, of many French,
and some English; but their acquired tint is so much deeper,
that we distinguish them instantly. How swarthy do the Euro-
peans become who seek their fortunes under the tropic and
equator, and have their skins parched by the burning suns of
“ Afric and of either Ind!”
Mr. EDWARDS represents that the Creoles in the English
West-Indian islands are taller than Europeans; several being
six feet four inches high; and that their orbits are deeper.*
It has been generally observed by travellers, that the Euro-
pean population of the United States of North America is tall,
and characterized by a pale and sallow countenance. The latter
• History of the West Indics, v. ii. p. 11.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
345
effect is commonly produced in natives of Europe when they
become resident in warm climates. That both sexes arrive
earlier at puberty, and that the mental powers of children are
sooner developed in warm than in cold countries, are facts
familiarly known.
The prevalence of light colours in the animals of polar and
cold regions may, perhaps, be ascribed to the influence of cli-
mate; the isatis or arctic fox, the polar bear, and the snow-
bunting, are striking instances. The same character is also
semarkable in some species, which are more dark-coloured in
warmer situations. This opinion is strengthened by the ana-
logy of those animals which change their colour in the same .
country, at the winter season, to white or gray, as the ermine
(mustela erminea), and weasel (m. nivalis), the varying hare,
squirrel, reindeer, white game (tetrao lagopus), and snow-bunt-
ing (emberiza nivalis).* PALLAS observes, “ that even in
domestic animals, as horses and cows, the winter coat is of a
lighter colour than the smoother covering which succeeds it in
the spring. This difference is much more considerable in wild
animals. I have shown instances of it in two kinds of ante-
lope (saiga and gutturosa), in the musk animal (moschus mos-
chifer), and in the equus hemionus. The Siberian roe, which
is red in summer, becomes of a grayish white in winter ; wolves
and the deer kind, particularly the elk and the reindeer, become
light in the winter; the sable (m. zibellina), and the martin :
(m. martes), are browner in summer than in winter.”+
Although these phenomenon seem obviously connected with
the state of atmospherical temperature, and hence the change of
colour, which the squirrel and the mustela nivalis undergo in
Siberia and Russia, does not take place in Germany ;I we do :
not understand the exact nature of the process by which it is
effected; and cold certainly appears not to be the direct cause.
For the varying hare, though kept in warm rooms during the
winter, gets its white winter covering only a little later than
usual;§ and in all the animals in which this kind of change.
takes place, the winter coat, which is more copious, close and
downy, as well as lighter coloured, is found already far advanced
in the autumn, before the cold sets in. |
• Linneus. Flora Lapponica; ed. of Smith, pp. 35, 352.
* None Species Quadrupedum, p. 7.
# Ibid. p. 6, note h. The ermine changes its colour in the winter in Gera
many; but Pallas states, on the faith of sufficient testimony, that it does not
undergo this change in the more southern districts of Asia and Persia.
ď Nova Species Quadrupedum, p. 7.
Hid, p. 9.
346
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
The coverings of animals, as well as their colour, seem to be
modified in many cases by climate ; but as the body is naked
in the human subject, and as the hair of the head cannot be
regarded in the same light as the fur, wool, or hair which covers
the bodies of animals generally, the analogies offered by the
latter are not very directly applicable to the present subject.
copious, so as to form a much more effectual defence against
the climate than the coarser and rarer textures which are seen
in warın countries. The thick fleece of the dogs lately brought
from Baffin's Bay, exemplifies this observation very completely.
The wool of the sheep degenerates into a coarse hair in Africa;
where we meet also with dogs quite naked, with a smooth and
soft skin.
Whether the goat furnishing the wool from which the shawls
of Cashmere are manufactured, is of the same species with that
domesticated in Europe, and whether the prodigious difference
between the hairy growth of the two animals is due to diversity
of climate, are points at present uncertain. Neither do we know
whether the long and silky coat of the goat, cat, sheep, and
rabbits of Angora can be accounted for by the operation of this
cause : it is at least worthy of notice, that this quality of the
hair should exist in so many animals of the same country. It
continues when they are removed into other situations, and is
transmitted to the offspring; so that we may, probably, regard
these as permanent breeds.
It is well known that the qualities of the horse are inferior in
FON, Spanish or Barbary horses, when the breed is not crossed,
become French horses sometimes in the second generation, and
always in the third. * Since the climate of England, which
certainly does not approach more nearly to that of the original
abode of this animal, than that of France, does not impede the
development of its finest forms and most excellent qualities, we
may, perhaps, with greater probability, refer the degeneracy of
the French horses to neglect of the breed. We know that the
greatest attention to this point is necessary, in order to prevent
deterioration in form and spirit.
Differences in food might be naturally expected to produce
considerable corresponding modifications in the animal body.
Singing birds, chiefly of the lark and finch kinds, are known to
• Vol. iv. p. 106.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
347
become gradually black, if they are fed on hemp-seed only.*
Horses fed on the fat marshy grounds of Friesland grow to a
large size; while, on stony soils or dry heaths, they remain
dwarfish. Oxen become very large and fat in rich soils, but
are distinguished by shortness of the legs; while, in drier situa-
tions, their whole bulk is less, and the limbs are stronger and
more fleshy. The quantity of food has great influence on the
bulk and state of health of the human subject: but the quality
seems to have less power; and neither produces any of those
differences which characterizes races.
In all the changes which are produced in the bodies of animals
by the action of external causes, the effect terminates in the
individual; the offspring is not in the slightest degree modified
by them,t but is born with the original properties and consti-
tution of the parents, and a susceptibility only of the same
changes when exposed to the same causes.
The change in the colour of the human skin, from exposure
to sun and air, is obviously temporary; for it is diminished and
even removed, when the causes no longer act. The discoloura-
tion, which we term tanning, or being sun-burnt, as well as the
spots called freckles, are most incidental to fair skins, and dis-
appear when the parts are covered, or no longer exposed to the
sun. The children of the husbandman, or of the sailor, whose
countenance bears the marks of other climes, are just as fair as
those of the most delicate and pale inhabitants of a city: nay,
the Moors, who have lived for ages under a burning sun, still
Indies have the original tint of their progenitors.
BLUMENBACH has been led into a mistake on this point by
an English author, I who asserts that Creoles are born with
a different complexion and cast of countenance from the chil-
dren of the same parents brought forth in Europe. In oppo-
sition to this statement from one who had not seen the facts, I
place the authority of Long, a most respectable eye-witness,
who, in his History of Jamaica, affirms, that "the children born:
in England have not, in general, lovelier or more transparent
* Der Naturforscher, pt. i: p. l; pt. ix. p. 22.
+ When the lætus in utero has small-pox or syphilis, there is actual com.
munication of disease by the fluids of the mother. This is a cuse altogether
different from those under consideration. Neither does hereditary predispo.
sition to particular diseases prove that acquired conditions are transmitted to
individuals to different diseases on application of the same external causes.
These natural varieties, like those of form, colour, and other obvious properties,
are continued to the children.
1. Hawkesworth, in Collection of Voyages, v. iii. p. 374.
348
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
skins than the offspring of white parents in Jamaica.” The
“austrum spirans vultus et color," which the above-mentioned
acute and learned naturalist ascribes to the Creole, is merely
the acquired effect of the climate, and not a character existing
at birth.
“Nothing," says Dr.. PRITCHARD, * “seems to hold true
more generally, than that all acquired conditions of body, whe-
ther produced by: art or accident, end with the life of the indi-
vidual in whom they are produced. Many nations mould their
bodies into unnatural forms; the Indians flatten their foreheads;
the Chinese women reduce their feet to one-third of their natural
dimensions; savages elongate their ears; many races cut away
the prepuce. We frequently mutilate our domestic animals by
removing the tail or ears, and our own species are often obliged
by disease to submit to the loss of limbs. That no deformity,
or mutilation of this kind is hereditary, is so plainly proved by
everything around us, that we must feel some surprise at the
contrary opinion having gained any advocates. After the ope-
ration of circumcision has prevailed for three or four thousand
years, the Jews are still born with prepuces, and still obliged to
submit to a painful rite. Docked horses and cropped dogs
bring forth young with entire ears and tails. But for this salu-
tary law, what a frightful spectacle would every race of animals
exhibit! The mischances of all preceding times would over-
whelm us with their united weight, and the catalogue would be
continually increasing, until the universe, instead of displaying
a spectacle of beauty and pleasure, would be filled with maimed,
imperfect, and monstrous shapes.
It is obvious that the external influences just considered, even
though we should allow to them a much greater influence on
individuals than experience warrants us in admitting, would be
still entirely inadequate to account for those signal diversities,
which constitute differences of race in animals. These can be
explained only by two principles already mentioned ;+ namely,
the occasional production of an offspring with different charac-
ters from those of the parents, as a native or congenial variety;
and the propagation of such varieties by generation. It is impos-
sible in the present state of physiological knowledge, to show
how this is effected; to explain why a gray rabbit or cat some-
times brings forth at one birth, and from one father, yellow,
black, white, and spotted young; why a white sheep sometimes
* Disp. inaug.
+ See pp. 203 and following; 299 and following.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
349
has a black lamb; or why the same parents at different times
have leucæthiopic children, and others with the ordinary forma-
tion and characters.
The state of domestication, or the artificial mode of life, which
they lead under the influence of man, is the most powerful
cause of varieties in the animal kingdom. Wild animals, using
always the same kind of food, being exposed to the action of
the climate without artificial protection, choose, each of them,
according to its nature, their zone and country. Instead of
migrating and extending, like man, they continue in those places
which are the most friendly to their constitutions. Hence,
their nature undergoes no change; their figure, colour, size,
proportions, and properties, are unaltered ; and consequently
there is no difficulty in determining their species. Nothing can
form a stronger contrast to this uniformity of specific character
than the numerous and marked varieties in those kinds which
have been reduced by man. To trace back our domestic animals
to their wild originals is in all cases difficult, in some impossible;
long slavery has so degraded their nature, that the primitive
animal may be said to be lost, and a degenerated being, running
into endless varieties, is substituted in its place. The wild ori-
ginal of the sheep is even yet uncertain.. Bufron conceived
that he discovered it in the moufion or argali (ovis ammon):
and PALLAS, who had an opportunity of studying the latter
animal, adds the weight of his highly respectable authority to
the opinion of the French: naturalist. Yet BLUMENBACH
regards the argali as a distinct species. Should we allow the
latter to be the parent of our sheep, and consequently admit
that the differences are explicable by degeneration, no difficulty
can any longer exist about the unity of the human species. An
incomplete horn of the argali, in the Academical Museum at
Gottingen, weighs nine pounds.*
“ Let us compare,” says Burron, “our pitiful sheep with
the mouflon, from which they derived their origin. The mouflon
is a large animal. He is fleet as a stag, armed with horns and
thick hoofs, covered with coarse hair, and dreads neither the
inclemency of the sky nor the voracity of the wolf. He not only
escapes from his enemies by the swiftness of his course, and
scaling, with truly wonderful leaps, the most frightful preci-
pices; but he resists them by the strength of his body and the
solidity of the arms with which his head and feet are fortified.
• Blumenbach, Handbuch der Naturgeschichte, p. 111, note.
350
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
How different from our sheep, which subsist with difficulty in
flocks, who are unable to defend themselves by their numbers,
who would all perish if man withdrew his protection! So com-
pletely are the frame and capabilities of this animal degraded by
his association with us, that it is no longer able to subsist in a
wild state, if turned loose, as the goat, pig, and cattle are. In
the warm climates of Asia and Africa, the mouflon, who is the
common parent of all the races of this species, appears to be less
degenerated than in any other region. Though reduced to a
domestic state, he has preserved his stature and his hair ; but
the size of his horns is diminished. Of all domestic sheep,
those of Senegal and India are the largest, and their nature has
suffered least degradation. The sheep of Barbary, Egypt, Arabia,
Persia, Tartary, &c. have undergone greater changes. In rela-
tion to man, they are improved in some articles, and vitiated in
others; but with regard to nature, improvement, and degene-
ration, are the same thing; for they both imply an alteration of
original constitution. Their coarse hair is changed into fine
wool. Their tail, loaded with a mass of fat, and sometimes
reaching the weight of forty pounds, has acquired a magnitude
so incommodious, that the animals trail it with pain. While
swollen with superfluous matter, and adorned with a beautiful
fleece, their strength, agility, magnitude, and arms are dimi-
nished. These long-tailed sheep are half the size only of the
mouflon. They can neither fly from danger, nor resist the
enemy. To preserve and multiply the species, they require the
constant care and support of man. The degeneration of the
original species is still greater in our climates. Of all the quali-
ties of the mouflon, our ewes and rams have retained nothing
but a small portion of vivacity, which yields to the crook of the
shepherd. Timidity, weakness, resignation, and stupidity, are
the only melancholy remains of their degraded nature."*
The pig-kind afford an instructive example, because their
descent is more clearly made out than that of many other
animals. The dog, indeed, degenerates before our eyes; but it
will hardly ever, perhaps, be satisfactorily ascertained whether
there is one or more species. The extent of degeneration can
hitherto been sceptical enough to doubt whether they descended
from the wild boar; and they were certainly first introduced by
* Buffon.' .hood, v. iv. p. 7.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
. 351
the Spaniards into the new world. The pigs conveyed in 1509,
from Spain to the West Indian island Cubagua, then celebrated
for the pearl fishery, degenerated into a monstrous race with
toes half a span long.* Those of Cuba became more than twice
as large as their European progenitors.f How remarkably again
have the domestic swine degenerated from the wild ones in the
old world: in the loss of the soft downy hair from between the
bristles, in the vast accumulation of fat under the skin, in the
form of the cranium, in the figure and growth of the whole body.
The varieties of the domestic animal too are very numerous :
in Piedmont they are almost invariably black; in Bavaria reddish-
brown; in Normandy white, &c. The breed in England, with
straight back and large pendulous belly, is just the reverse of
that in the north of France, with high convex spine and hanging
head : and both are different from the German breed; to say
nothing of the solidungular race found in herds in Hungary
and Sweden, and already known by ARISTOTLE, and many other
varieties.
The ass, in its wild state, is remarkably swift and lively, and
: still continues so in his native Eastern abode.
The original stock of our poultry cannot be determined, nor
can the varieties into which they have run be enumerated. No
wild bird in our climates resembles the domestic cock; the
pheasant, grouse, and cock of the woods, are the only analogous
kinds; and it is uncertain whether these would interınix and
have prolific progeny. They have constituted distinct and sepa-
· rate species from the earliest times, and they want the combs,
spurs, and pendulous membranes of the gallinaceous tribes. I
There are twenty-nine varieties of canary-birds known by
name, all produced from the gray bird. S
Most of the mammalia, which have been tamed by man, betray
their subjugated state by having the ears and tail pendulous; a
condition of the former parts, which, I believe, belongs to no wild
, animal. In many, the very functions of the body, as the secre-
tions, generation, &c. are greatly changed. See the examples
mentioned in Chap. VI. p. 304.
The application of these facts to the question concerning the
human species is very obvious. If new characters are produced
in the domesticated animals, because they have been taken from
their primitive condition, and exposed to the operation of many,
# Herrera, Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas, $c. v. i. p. 239.
+ Clavigero, Storia antica del Messico, v. iv. p. 145.
# Buffon, v. xii. p. 112.
Ibid. v, xiv. p. 61.
352
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
to them unnatural causes ; if the pig is remarkable among these
for the number and degree of its varieties, because it has been
the most exposed to causes of degeneration; we shall be at no
loss to account for the diversities in man, who is, in the true,
though not ordinary sense of the word, more of a domesticated
animal than any other. We know the wild state of most of
them, but we are ignorant of the natural wild condition to which
man was destined. Probably there is no such state, because
nature, having limited him in no respect, having fitted him for
every kind of life, every climate, and every variety of food, has
given him the whole earth for his abode, and both the organised
kingdoms for his nourishment. Yet, in the wide range through
which the scale of human cultivation extends, we may observe a
contrast between the two extremities, analogous to that which is
seen in the wild and tamed races of animals. The savage may
be compared to the former, which range the earth uncontrolled
by man; civilised people to the domesticated breeds of the same
species, whose diversities, form, and colour are endless. Whether
we consider the several nations, or the individuals of each, bodily
differences are much more numerous in the highly civilised
Caucasian variety, than either of the other divisions of mankind.
Such, then, are causes by which the varieties of man may be
accounted for. Although I have acknowledged my entire igno-
rance of the manner in which these operate, I have proved that
they exist, and have shown by copious analogies, that they are
sufficient to explain the phenomena. The tendency, under certain
circumstances, to alterations of the original colour, form, and
other properties of the body, and the law of transmission to the
offspring, are the sources of varieties in man and animals, and
thereby modify the species ; climate, food, way of life, in a word,
all the physical and moral causes that surround us, act indeed
powerfully on the individual, but do not change the offspring,
except in the indirect manner just alluded to. We should, there-
fore, openly violate the rules of philosophising, which direct us
to assign the same causes for natural effects of the same kind,
and not to admit more causes than are sufficient for explaining
the phenomena, if we recurred, for the purpose of explaining
the varieties of man, to the perfectly gratuitous assumption of
originally different species, or called to our aid the operation of
climate, and other external influences.
Yet, if it be allowed that all men are of the same species, it
does not follow that they all descend from the same family. We
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
353
have no data for determining this point : it could indeed only be
settled by a knowledge of facts, which have been long ago in-
volved in the impenetrable darkness of antiquity.
By the most intelligent and learned writers on the varieties of
mankind, their production has been explained in a different
manner from that which has been just attempted; they have
solved the problem entirely by the operation of adventitious
causes, such as climate, particularly the light and heat of the
sun, food, and mode of life. These, it is said, acting on men
originally alike, produce various bodily diversities, and affect the
colour of the skin especially ; such alterations, transmitted to
the offspring, and gradually increased through a long course of
ages, are supposed to account sufficiently for all the differences
observed at present in the inhabitants of the different regions of
the globe. If we were disposed to submit, in this question, to
authority, the number and celebrity of the philosophers, * who
have contended for the influence of climate, and other physical
and moral causes, would certainly compel our assent to their
opinions. Our respect for their talents and labours will be suf-
ficiently marked if we enter into a closer examination of the
arguments which they have adduced on this subject.
opinion, and must have appeared very probable, when the Negro
natives of the torrid zone were the only black people known.
“Ethiopas," says PLINY, “ vicini sideris vapore torreri, adustis-
que similes gigni, barba et capillo vibrato, non est dubium.”+
“The heat of the climate,” says BUFFON, “is the chief cause
of blackness among the human species. When this heat is
excessive, as in Senegal and Guinea, the men are perfectly black;
when it is a little less violent, the blackness is not so deep;
when it becomes somewhat temperate, as in Barbary, Mongolia,
Arabia, &c. mankind are only brown; and lastly, when it is alto-
gether temperate, as in Europe and Asia, men are white. Some
varieties, indeed, are produced by the mode of living. All the Ta-
tars (Mongols) for example, are tawny; while the Europeans, who
live under the same latitude, are white. This difference may
safely be ascribed to the Tatars being always exposed to the air,
to their having no cities or fixed habitations, to their sleeping
* Among them are Buffon, Blumenbach, Smith (Essay on the Causes of the
mann i Geographische Geschichte des Menschen, Sc.); and Forster (Observations
made during a Voyage round the World; chap. vi. sec. 3). The arguments of
these writers are very ably combated by Dr. Prichard in his Researches into
the Physical History of Man.
Hist, Nat. lib, ii. 80.
2
A
354
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
constantly on the ground, and to their rough and savage man-
ner of living. These circumstances are sufficient to render the
Tatars more swarthy than the Europeans, who want nothing to
make life easy and comfortable. Why are the Chinese fairer
than the Tatars, though they resemble them in every feature?
Because they are more polished; because they live in towns,
and practise every art to guard themselves against the injuries
of the weather; while the Tatars are perpetually exposed to the
action of the sun and air.
“ Climate may be regarded as the cause of the different colours
of men: but food, though it has less influence than colour,
greatly affects the forin of our bodies. Coarse, unwholesome,
and ill-prepared food makes the human species degenerate. All
those people who live miserably, are ugly and ill-made. Even
in France, the country people are not so beautiful as those who
live in towns: and I have often remarked, that in those villages
where the people are richer and better fed than in others, the
men are likewise more handsome, and have better countenances.
The air and the soil have great influence on the figures of men,
beasts, and plants.
“Upon the whole, every circumstance concurs in proving
that mankind are not composed of species essentially different
from each other; that, on the contrary, there was originally but
one species, which, after multiplying and spreading over the
whole surface of the earth, has undergone various changes by the
influence of climate, food, mode of living, epidemic diseases,
and mixture of dissimilar individuals; that, at first, these changes
were not so conspicuous, and produced only individual varieties;
that these varieties became afterwards more specific, because
they were rendered more general, more strongly marked, and
more permanent, by the continual action of the same causes;
that they are transmitted from generation to generation, as de-
formities or diseases pass from parents to children, and that,
lastly, as they were originally produced by a train of external and
accidental causes, and have only been perpetuated by time, and
the constant operation of these causes, it is probable that they
will gradually disappear, or, at least, that they will differ from
what they are at present, if the causes which produced them
should cease, or if their operation should be varied by other cir.
cumstances and combinations."*
“In tracing the globe,” says SMITH, “ from the pole to the
* Natural History, by Wood, v. iii. pp. 443—446.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
355
equator, we observe a gradation in the complexion, nearly in
proportion to the latitude of the country. Immediately below
the arctic circle, a high and sanguine colour prevails : from this
you descend to the mixture of red and white: afterwards suc-
ceed the brown, the olive, the tawny, and at length, the black, as
you proceed to the line. The same distance from the sun, how-
ever, does not, in every region, indicate the same temperature of
climate. Some secondary causes must be taken into considera-
tion, as correcting and limiting its influence. The elevation of
the land, its vicinity to the sea, the nature of the soil, the state
of cultivation, the course of winds, and many other circum-
stances, enter into this view. Elevated and mountainous coun-
tries are cool, in proportion to their altitude above the level of
the sea,” &c. &c.*
BLUMENBACH informs us how climate operates in modifying
the colour of the skin, but does not attempt to explain its effects
on the stature, proportions, and other points. He states that
the proximate cause of the dark colour of the integuments is an
abundance of carbone, secreted by the skin with hydrogen, pre-
cipitated and fixed in the rete mucosum by the contact of the
atmospheric oxygen.t He observes further, that this abundance
of carbone is most distinctly noticeable in persons.of an antrabi-
larious temperament, which fact, together with many others,
proves the intimate connection between the biliary and the cuta-
neous organs; that hot climates exert a very signal influence on
the liver; and thus that an unnatural state of the biliary secre-
tion, produced by heat, and increased through many generations,
causes the vessels of the skin to secrete that abundance of car-
bone, which produces the black colour of the Negro. I
If any one can believe that the Negroes and other dark people,
whom we see in full health and vigour, and with every organic
perfection, labour under a kind of habitual jaundice, he may
think it worth while to inquire further into this assumed secre-
tion and precipitation of carbone. It will then be necessary to
explain how this jaundice is produced in the numerous dark
races, which dwell in temperate climates; and why it does not
occur in the white people who occupy hot countries.
It cannot be supposed that men of undoubted talents and
learning would take up these opinions without any foundation at
all; and accordingly we find that there is a slender mixture of
truth in these statements.; but it is so enveloped in a thick cloud
* Essay, pp. 8–10.
+ De gen. hum. var. nat. p. 124.
$ Tvid. pp. 126–137. :
2 A2
356
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
of error, and so concealed by misrepresentation and exaggera-
tion, that we do not recognise it without difficulty. The colour
of Europeans nearly follows the geographical positions of coun-
tries : this part of the world is occupied almost entirely by a
white race, of which the individuals are fairer in cold latitudes,
and more swarthy or sun-burnt in warm ones ; thus, the French
may be darker than the English, the Spaniards than the French,
and the Moors than the Spaniards. In the same way, where
different parts of a country differ much in latitude and tempera-
ture, the inhabitants may be browner in the south than in the
north : thus the women of Granada are said to be more swarthy
than those of Biscay, and the southern than the northern Chi-
nese, &c. For a similar reason the same race may vary slightly
in colour in different countries. The Jews, for example, are
fairer in Britain and Germany, browner in France and Turkey,
swarthy in Portugal and Spain, olive in Syria and Chaldea. An
English sailor, who had been for some years in Nukahiwah, one
of the Marquesas islands, had been so changed in colour, that he
was scarcely to be distinguished from the natives.*
These diversities are produced by the climate, as I have already
explained. The effect goes off if the cause be removed : it ter-
minates in the individual, and is never transmitted to the
offspring, as I shall prove most incontrovertibly presently.
Moreover the effect is confined to the parts of the body actu-
ally exposed to the sun and air. Those, which remain covered,
retain all their natural whiteness. Mr. ABEL found this
strikingly exemplified in his Chinese journey. “The dark
copper colour of those who were naked, contrasted so strongly
with the paleness of those who were clothed, that it was difficult
to conceive such different hues could be the consequence of
greater or less exposure to the same degree of solar and atmos-
pheric influence: but all conjecture on this subject was set at
rest by repeated illustrations of their effects. Several indivi-
duals, who were naked only from their waist upwards, stripped
themselves entirely for the purpose of going into the water, to
obtain a nearer view of the embassy. When thus exposed, they
appeared at a distance to have on a pair of light-coloured pan-
taloons.”+
On a superficial view, again, we observe that temperate Europe
is occupied by a white race, and that the blacks, of whom we
see and hear most, dwell chiefly under the burning suns and on
• Langsdord's Voyages, 8c. v. i. p. 90. + Narralive of a Journey, fc. p.78.
or THE HUMAN SPECIES.
357
live in hot, and the greater number of dark-coloured people who
are found in cold countries, are not taken into the account of
these imperfect and partial comparisons.
I proceed to show that climate does not cause the diversities
of mankind; and in this consideration, my remarks are chiefly
directed to the colour of the skin, as that is the part in which
its operation has been regarded, by all the defenders of its influ-
ence as the most unequivocal; the reasoning, however, will
apply in general to the other points of difference, as well as to
this.
The uniform colour of all parts of the body is a strong argu-
ment against those who ascribe the blackness of the Negro to
the same cause as that which produces tanning in white people,
namely, the sun's rays. The glans penis, the cavity of the
axilla, the inside of the thigh, are just as black as any other
parts ; indeed, the organs of generation, which are always
covered, are among the blackest parts of the body. Neither is
the peculiar colour of the Negro confined to the skin; a small
circle of the conjunctiva, round the cornea, is blackish, and the
rest of the membrane has a yellowish brown tinge. The fat has
a deep yellow colour, like bees-wax, at least in many of them,
which may be distinguished by a very superficial inspection,
from that of an European. The representation that the brain
of the Negro is darker coloured than that of the white races, is
not correct.
The development of the black colour in the individual does
not accord with the notion of its being produced by external
causes. “Negro children,” says Dr. WINTERBOTTOM, “are
colour until several days have elapsed. The eyes of new-born
Negro children are also of a light colour, and preserve somewhat
of a bluish tinge for several days after birth.”*
Negro child born at Amsterdam. It was at first reddish, nearly
like European children; "on the third day the organs of genera-
tion, the folds of skin round the nails, and the areola of the
breasts were quite black : the blackness extended over the whole
body on the fifth and sixth days, and the boy, who was born in
a close chamber in the winter, and well wrapped up, according
to the custom of the country, in swaddling-clothes, acquired the
• Account of the Native Africans, v. i. st. i. p. 189.
358
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
native colour of his race over the whole body excepting the
palms and soles, which are always paler, and almost white, in
working Negroes."*
On the other hand, a black state of the skin is sometimes
partially produced in individuals of the white races. In the
fairest women, towards the end of pregnancy, spots of a more or
less deep black colour have been often observed ; they gradually
disappear after parturition. “The dark colour of the skin," says
WHITE, “in some particular parts of the body, is not confined
either to the torrid or frigid zones : for in England the nipple,
the areola round the nipple, the pudenda, and the verge of the
anus, are of a dark brown, and sometimes as black as in the
Samoiede women. It is to be remarked that the colour of these
parts grows darker in women at the full period of gestation.
One morning I examined the breasts of twenty women in the
lying-in hospital in Manchester, and found that nineteen of them
had dark-coloured nipples; some of them might be said to be
inches and a half in diameter, was of the same colour.” LE
CAT mentions a woman near Paris, in whom the abdomen became
black at each pregnancy, and afterwards recovered its colour; in
another the same change occurred in the leg. I
· CAMPER dissected at Groningen a young woman who died in
childbed; her abdomen, and the areola round the nipples, were
of a deep black. The face, arms, and legs were of a snowy
whiteness. S
The species of domestic fowls in the East Indies with black
periosteum, affords a further proof that the operation of the
sun's rays is not a necessary circumstance to the production of
colour in animal bodies.
division of the world, we shall quickly find that the opinion,
be given up; that the same race inhabits the most different
regions, preserving in all an uniformity of character; that dif-
ferent races are found in the same countries, and that those, who
have changed their native abodes for situations, in which, accord-
ing to the hypothesis, they ought to have undergone a complete
metamorphosis, still retain their original distinctions.
In the north of Europe, as also in the north of Asia and
* Keinere Schriften, b. i. st. i. p. 44.
+ On the Regular Gradation, p. 114. # Traité de la Couleur de la Peau liumaine.
& Kleinere Schriften, v. i. st. i. p. 47.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
359
America, that is, in countries nearest to the pole, in which,
according to the opinion above stated, the whitest races ought.
to be found, we have very brown and black people: they are;
much darker coloured than any other Europeans. The Moors
in Africa, and the Arabs of the desert, are born with a white
skin, and continue fair unless adventitious causes are applied.
But the Laplanders and Greenlanders, the Esquimaux, Samoiedes,
Ostiacs, Tschutski, &c. who hardly ever feel a moderate heat.
of the same race, who have extended and multiplied along the
coasts of the North Sea, in deserts, and under climates which
could not be inhabited by other nations. They have broad large
colours of the Mongolian variety.
It is curious to observe how easily the asserters of the power
of climate in changing the human body get over an instance so
fatal to their opinions : they tell us roundly that great cold bas.
the same effect as great heat: “when the cold becomes extreme,
it produces effects similar to those of violent heat. The Samoiedes,
Laplanders, and natives of Greenland are very tawny; we are
even assured that some of the Greenlanders are as black as the
Africans; thus the two extremes approach each other : great.
cold and great heat produce the same effect upon the skin, because
each of these causes act by a quality common to both; and this
quality is the dryness of the air, which, perhaps, is equally great
in extreme cold and extreme heat. Both cold and heat dry the
skin, and give it that tawny hue which we find among the Lap-
landers. Cold contracts all the productions of nature. The
Laplanders, accordingly, who are perpetually exposed to all the
rigours of the frost, are the smallest of the human species."*
If this reasoning should not convince us, there are other
arguments in reserve. The state of society is said to have great
effect on the conformation and colour of the body. The naked-
ness of the savage, the filthy grease and paint with which he
smears his body, his smoky hut, scanty diet, want of cleanliness,
and the undrained and uncleared country which he inhabits,
not only, according to SMITH, darken his skin, but render it
impossible that it ever should be fair.t On the other hand, the
conveniences of clothing and lodging; the plenty and healthful
quality of food; a country drained, cultivated, and freed from
noxious effluvia; improved ideas of beauty, the constant study
* Buffon, v. iii. p. 443. See also Smith's Essay. + Essay, &c. pp. 48–52.
360
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
of elegance, and the infinite arts for attaining it, even in per-
sonal figure and appearance, give cultivated an immense ad.
vantage over savage society in its attempts to counteract the
influence of climate, and to beautify the human form.* What
false notions must mankind have hitherto entertained on this
subject! We can no longer believe travellers, who tell us that
the finest forms and the greatest activity are to be seen in savage
tribes, and that no ill-formed individuals can be met with
amongst them: and as little can we trust the testimony of our
own senses, concerning the frequency of deformity and disease
in civilized society; since there are so many reasons why the
former should be deformed, black, and ugly, and the latter
well-proportioned, fair, and handsome. Unluckily, however,
this theory does not correspond with a few plain facts. Most of
the modern European nations existed in a more or less complete
state of barbarism within times of which we have the most
authentic records: some of these were seen and described by
philosophers; yet the permanence of their characters is SO
remarkable after a greater progressive civilization than has
happened in any other instance, that those descriptions are
applicable with the greatest exactness to the same races of the
present day. Instead, therefore, of accounting for the dark
colour, peculiar features, and stature of the Greenlander, Lap-
lander, and Samoiede, from their smoke, their dirt, their food,
or the coldness of the climate, we can have no hesitation in
ascribing them to the same cause that makes the 'Briton and the
German of this day resemble the portraits of their ancestors,
drawn by Cæsar and Tacitus, viz. their descent from a race
marked by the same characters as distinguish themselves.
These tribes owe their origin to the Mongols, and retain in the
north those marks of their descent, which we find so strongly
expressed in the Chinese, under the widely different latitudes
of the south. At the same time, the parent tribes live in the
middle of Asia, equally removed from the former and the latter.
“ With slight exceptions," says Dr. PRITCHARD; “ the dif-
ferent countries of Europe are now occupied by the same.
nations that have occupied them since the date of our earliest
authentic accounts. Conquests have been made by small
numbers, so that the races have been little changed by this
cause. Thus, when Clovis and his 30,000 Franks reduced
the large and populous province of Gaul under their dominion,
• Smith's Essay, p. 53.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
361
the bodily characters and the language of the conquerors were
lost in those of the conquered. The nations which have inha-
bited Europe for the last 2500 years, consist of three great
races, distinguished from each other by their bodily formation,
character, and language.
“1. The Celtic race, with black hair and eyes, and a white
skin verging to brown, occupies the west of Europe : to this
belong the ancient and modern inhabitants of France, Spain,
Portugal, and the greatest part of Italy; the ancient Britons,
Welsh, Bretons, Irish, Scotch, and Manks. The resemblance
of the Silures to the Iberi was noticed by TACITUS; it is
obvious to every observer in the present time; nor is the obser-
vation peculiar to the Welsh ; it holds good of all other Celtic
nations. Silurum colorati vultus, et torti plerumque crines,
et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque
sedes occupasse, fidem faciunt.' That black hair and a browner
complexion belonged to all the Celts, is not only proved by
many direct observations, but also because the marks of the
sanguine constitution were universally considered as the dis-
tinction of the German race.
yellow or reddish hair, fair and red skin, occupies the middle of
Europe, and includes the Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders,
Danes, ancient and modern Germans, Saxons and English,
Caledonians or Pictæ, and the Lowland Scotch, who have
sprung from them, the inhabitants of the Low Countries, the
Vandals and Goths, &c. Historical records, and the similarity
of language and character both of body and mind, prove that
“ 3. The east of Europe contains the Sarmatian and Slavonic:
tribes, characterized by dark hair and eyes, and a darker skin
than the German, with perhaps larger limbs than the Celts.
To this division belong the Russians, Poles, Croats, Slavons,
Bohemians, Bulgarians, Cossacks, and others who speak the
Slavonic language."* He proceeds to show from DIODORUS
Siculus, that the Sarmatians descended from the Medes, and
were found on the banks of the Tanais, 700 years before the
Christian era ; by the authority of HERODOTUS, that they occu.
pied the country between the Tanais and the Borysthenes,
when DARIUS HYSTASPES invaded Syria; and from Clu-
VERIUS, that the coasts of the Baltic, the banks of the Vistula,
• Diss. inaug. de Variet. pp. 102-109.
362
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
Prussia, and the country as far as the situation of the Finni and
Venedi, were the ancient seats of the Sarmatians. Since then,
a people of very different race have existed in the neighbour-
hood of the Germans from the most remote times, how can we
explain the differences of the European nations, by, the opera-
tion of climate, by heat and cold? How does the same sky
cause the whiteness of the German and Swede, and the compa-
ratively dark complexion of the Pole and Russian ?
But these European races are found also in Asia and Africa
All that part of the former region, which lies to the west of the
river Ob, the Caspian Sea, and the Ganges; all the north of
Africa, Abyssinia, and perhaps other parts still farther south, on
the east, are occupied by a race agreeing nearly in character with
the Sarmatians and Celts.
Thus it appears that, excepting the Germans, and the Lap-
landers and Samoiedes, whom.we deem of Mongolian origin, the
same native or congenital constitution prevails over the whole of
Europe, the western parts of Asia, and the north of Africa.
Black hair, dark eyes, and a white skin, tending rather to a
brownish tint, than to the peculiar whiteness of the German
tribes, belong to the French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and
all the Celts; to the Russians, Poles, and others of Slavonic
origin; to the Tatars, commonly confounded with the Mongols,
the Armenians, Persians, Circassians, and Georgians, the Turks,
Greeks, Arabians, Abyssinians, Syrians, Jews, and the inhabi-
tants of Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. That climate
cannot cause similarity of character in nations spread over fifty
degrees of latitude, and that food, dress, state of civilization,
peculiar customs, or other moral causes, are equally inefficacious
in accounting for the phenomenon, when we consider how vari-
ous in all these points the nations are in whom it occurs, will be
allowed by every unprejudiced observer.
The middle and northern parts of Asia, and most of its eastern
portion, are occupied by tribes and nations, all of which possess
the general characters of the Mongolian variety, although dis-
tinguished from each other by such modifications as usually cha-
racterize separate people. They are distinct in their conforma-
tion from all other races, and differ from Europeans quite as
decidedly as the Negroes. History points out as their original
seat, the elevated central table-land of Asia, from which they
have spread in various directions, according to circumstances,
every where preserving their peculiar traits of organization
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
363
The Mongols, Calmucks, and Burats, are three great divisions,
of which each includes many tribes, scattered over the middle of
Asia, leading generally a pastoral life, sometimes practising
agriculture, and devoted universally to the idolatrous lama-wor-
ship. Their first distinct appearance in history is under the
name of Huns. (Hiong-nu of the Chinese) in the first century
of the Christian era, when they were impelled towards the west
by the progress of the Chinese power. Afterwards three great
conquerors appeared among them at distant periods ; the most
conspicuous that the world has ever seen, who made all Asia
and Europe tremble, but happily, appeared and vanished like
meteors; because, though powerful in conquest and desolation,
they knew not how to possess and govern. ATTILA, with his
Huns, penetrated into the centre of Europe. Eight centuries
later, ZINGIS or DSCHINGIS KHAN united not only the Mongo-
lian but the Tataric tribes, and with this formidable mass reduced
nearly all Asia. In two hundred years more, TIMURLENG or
TAMERLANE appeared, and rendered himself the terror of west-
ern Asia and India, which latter country has been ruled by his
descendants until very modern times. The Mantchoos or Mand-
shurs, the Maourians, Tungooses, Coreans, Kamtschatkans, and
perhaps other tribes, on the east, the Yakuts, Samoiedes, Kir-
gises, on the West, the people of Thibet and Bootan on the
south, have a similar organization to that of the central tribes.
The empires of China and Japan, the islands of Sagalien, Lew-
chew, and Formosa, are peopled by races of analogous physical
and moral characters. Short stature, olive-coloured skin, devia-
ting into lighter yellow, coarse, straight, and perfectly black
hair, broad flat face, high and broad cheek-bones, flat nose,
oblique eyes, entire deficiency or smallness of beard, are the
common traits of the numerous people spread over this immense
portion of the globe. Besides this general agreement of the
tribes occupying countries so distant and different from each
other, it is important to observe that the Samoiedes, Kamtschat-
kans, and others in the colder northern parts, are darker
coloured than the Chinese, Tunquinese, and Cochin Chinese in
the warm southern regions.
“India," says Dr. PRITCHARD, “is inhabited by a mixed
race, made up of the Aborigines, and of others, whom the pur-
suits of war and conquest have at various times brought there.
The religion of BRAMAH seems to have been introduced from
the north; and at later periods vast numbers of the Mongols
364
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
have entered and conquered the country. These mixtures
have effaced the peculiar characters of the original inhabitants,
which we must, therefore, seek for in the islands, protected by
their situation from such visits. The islands of the Indian Sea,
as well as those of the Pacific, contain two races of men, differ-
ing in many respects. One of these approaches, and in some
instances equals, the blackness of the Negro : the hair is curled
and woolly, the body slender, the stature short, the disposition
barbarous and cruel. The other is more like the Indians of the
continent, has a fairer skin, larger limbs and stature, better pro-
portions, and exhibits some marks of humanity and civilization.
According to FORSTER, the former, who are Aborigines, have
occupied the middle and mountainous parts of many islands,
leaving the coasts and plains to the more recent colonists. They
occupy the highest parts of the Moluccas, the Philippines, For-
mosa, and Borneo; all New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland,
and New Caledonia, Tanna, Mallicollo, New Holland, and Van
Diemen's Land. The more recent nation occupies Sumatra,
and the other islands of the Indian Sea, Otaheite, and the So-
ciety Islands, the Friendly Islands, Marquesas, Ladrones,
Marian and Caroline Islands, New Zealand, Sandwich, and
Easter Islands. The language of all the latter resembles the
Malay, and there can be no doubt that they arise from that race,
and have spread by their ships over these distant spots. The
black people are every where barbarous, and, according to
Forster, have languages not agreeing with each other. In
neither can we perceive any traces of the influence of climate.
The latter race, scattered in various parts of the vast island of
New Holland, which has such variety of temperature, every
where retains its black colour, although the climate at the
English settlement is not much unlike that of England; and
in Van Diemen's Land, extending to 45° south lat. (it is well
understood that the cold is much more severe in the southern
hemisphere, at an equal distance from the equator, than in
the northern), they are of a deep black, and have curled hair
uke the Negroes."'*
The same observations are applicable to the Malay race. The .
inhabitants of Otaheite are very fair ; yellow hair is not unfre-
quently seen amongst them : those of New Zealand, and of
Easter Island, twice as distant from the equator, are much
darker. “The fairness of the Sumatrans,” says Mr. MARSDEN,
- Disp. inaug. de Variet. pp. 85–89. + History of Sumatra ; ed, üi. . 46.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
365
“situated as they are under a perpendicular sun, where no
season of the year affords an alternation of cold, is, I think, an
irrefragable proof that the difference of colour in the different
inhabitants of the earth is not the immediate effect of climate.
The children of Europeans born in this island are as fair as
those born in the country of their parents. I have observed the
same of the second generation, when a mixture with the people
of the country has been avoided. On the other hand, the off-
spring and all the descendants of the Guinea and other African
slaves imported there continue in the last instance as perfectly
black as in the original stock."
The foregoing statements authorize us in concluding, that in
Asia, where we have countries with every variety of situation
and temperature, at every distance from the equator, mountains,
valleys, plains, islands, and continents, no effect of climate can
be traced on the colour, or on any other characters of the human
хасе.
On the hypothesis, which assigns the varieties of mankind to
the operation of climate as their cause, we should expect to find
in Africa all tribes under the equator of the most intensely black
colour; the tinge should become lighter and lighter as we pro-
ceed thence towards the south, and the complexion ought to be
white when we arrive at regions which enjoy an European cli-
mate. This, however, is by no means the case. The Abyssi-
placed near the equator, and surrounded by Negroes. In the
same part also, the Gallas, a great and barbarous nation, having
according to BRUCE, long black hair, and white skin verging to
brown, occupy extensive regions under the equator itself. On
the other hand, as we proceed from the equator towards the south,
through tribes of Negroes, we find the black colour continue
that the Congo Negroes, in the blackness of their skin and
woolly hair, equal any race of Africans. PATERSON assures us
that the Kaffers within a few degrees of the Cape of Good Hope,
where the climate is so far from being intolerably hot, that the
and the same fact is familiarly known of the surrounding tribes.
The island of Madagascar, which is cooled by the mild breezes
of the Indian Ocean, and ought therefore to continue a white
race, has two kinds of natives: one of olive colour with dark
hair; the other true Negroes.
366
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
The Hottentots, at one or two degrees from the deep black
Kaffers, are of a brownish-yellow colour: this distance can
hardly account for the difference.
When we consider how large an extent of Africa is occupied
by the black woolly-haired Negroes, and that these regions vary
in their latitude, their elevation, and every other point; that
they include sandy deserts, coasts, rivers, hills, valleys, and very
great varieties of climate; the conclusion that these adventitious
circumstances do not influence the colour or other properties of
the race is irresistible
It only remains for us to examine the continent of America,
which, as it stretches uninterruptedly from the neighbourhood
of the north pole to 550 south lat. and includes regions diversified
in every possible way, affords the most ample opportunity for
the development of all the changes that climate and position can
produce: and to examine whether the facts ascertained con-
cerning its inhabitants are more favourable to the hypothesis
under consideration than what we have observed in the other
three divisions of the world.
The reports of travellers are unanimous concerning the identity
of general character in the whole American race: copper-coloured
skin, long and straight black hair, and a certain cast of features,
are said to belong to all the inhabitants of this extensive con-
tinent. How remarkable this agreement is, may be collected
from the statement sometimes made, that a person who has seen
one may consider that he has seen all; which, however, in its
full extent, must be regarded as an exaggerated or partial view.
The Esquimaux are not included in this account: their colour is
more of the olive cast; in which, as well as in other points, they
betray their Mongolian origin. They retain in America the same
characters which distinguish the Mongolian tribes and natives
of the old continent.
The most intelligent and accurate observers have informed us
that nearly all the native tribes, whether of the northern, middle,
or southern parts of America, have the skin of a more or less red
tint; and some of them expressly state that its lighter or darker
shades are entirely uninfluenced by any of the causes connected
with geographical position.
“The Indians (Americans),” says ULLOA, “are of a copper
colour, which, by the action of the sun and air, grows darker.
I must remark that neither heat nor cold produces any sensible
change of colour, so that the Indians of the Cordilleras of Peru
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
367
are easily confounded with those of the hottest plains; and those
who live under the line cannot be distinguished by the colour
from those who inhabit the fortieth degrees of north and south
latitude."*
HEARNET and MACKENZIE I found the hunting tribes in
the cold regions about Hudson's Bay, and thence to the Frozen
Ocean, copper coloured and black haired. LEWIS and CLARKES
describe those on the Colombia and near its mouth as of the
“usual copper-coloured brown of the North American tribes;
though rather lighter than that of the Indians of the Missouri,
and the frontier of the United States.' WAFER || and DAMPIERT
found the same tint in the Isthmus of Darien, BOUGUER** and
CONDAMINE ++ under the equator, STEDMANII and others in
Brasil, MOLINA $$ in Chili, WALLIS ||| and COOKETT in Pata-
gonia and Tierra del Fuego. HUMBOLDT, whose extensive
opportunities of observation and philosophic spirit give great
most ample manner. “The Indians of New Spain bear a general
resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and
Brasil. They have the same swarthy and copper colour, flat and
smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner
directed upwards towards the temples, prominent cheek-bones,
thick lips, and an expression of gentleness in the mouth, strongly
contrasted with a gloomy and severe look. The American race,
after the Hyperborean *** race, is the least numerous; but it
occupies the greatest space in the globe. Over a million and a
half of square leagues, from the Tierra del Fuego islands to the
river St. Lawrence and Bering's Straits, we are struck at the
first glance with the general resemblance in the features of the
inhabitants. We think we perceive that they all descend from
the same stock, notwithstanding the enormous diversity of
language that separates them from each other. However, when
we reflect more seriously on this family likeness, after living
Nolicias Americanas; cap. xvii. p. 307, quoted in Humboldt, Personal
Narrative, v. iii. 297.
# Travels through the Continent of North America; prel. remarks, p. 92. .
Travels, 4to. p. 437.
| New Voyage and Description, &c. p. 134.
Voyage round the World ; v. i. p. Y ** Acad. des Sciences, 1744,.p. 273.
++ Acad. des Sciences, 1745, p. 4
#Travels in Surinam, v.i. p. 335.
22 Natural History of Chili, p. 274. Of the Araucaps; Civil History, p. 54. :
I Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages, v.i. 374. IT Ibid. v. ii. p.55. .
*** The author probably means to inclurle under this name the diminutive
olive-coloured black-haired people, of Mongolian formation, who occupy the
high northern latitudes of both continents; viz, the Esquimaux, Laplanders,
Samoiedes, and Tungooses.
368
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
longer among the indigenous Americans, we discover that cele-
brated travellers, who could only observe a few individuals on
the coasts, have singularly exaggerated the analogy of form
among the Americans.
"Intellectual cultivation is what contributes most to diversify
the features. In barbarous nations there is rather a physiognomy
peculiar to the tribe or horde than to any individual. When we
compare our domestic animals with those which inhabit our
forests, we make the same observation. But an European, when
he decides on the great resemblance among the copper-coloured
races, is subject to a particular illusion. He is struck with a
complexion so different from our own, and the uniformity of this
complexion conceals from him for a long time the diversity of
individual features. The new colonist can at first hardly dis-
tinguish from each other individuals of the native race, because
his eyes are less fixed on the gentle melancholic or ferocious ex-
pression of the countenance than on the red coppery colour, and
dark, coarse, glossy, and luminous hair: so glossy, indeed, that
we should believe it to be in a constant state of humectation.
“The Indians of New Spain have a more swarthy complexion
than the inhabitants of the warmest climates of South America.
This fact is so much the more remarkable, as in the race of
Caucasus, which may also be called the European Arab race,
the people of the south have not so fair a skin as those of the
north. Though many of the Asiatic nations, who inundated
Europe in the sixth century, had a very dark complexion, it
appears that the shades of colour observable among the white
race, are less owing to their origin or mixture than to the local
influence of the climate. This influence appears to have almost
no effect on the Americans and Negroes. These races, in which
there is abundant deposition of carburetted hydrogen in the
corpus mucosum.or reticulatum of Malpighi, resist in a singular
manner the impressions of the ambient air. The Negroes of
the mountains of Upper Guinea are not less black than those
who live upon the coast. There are, no doubt, tribes of a
colour by no means deep among the Indians of the new con-
tinent, whose complexion approaches to that of the Arabs or
Moors. We found the people of the Rio Negro swarthier than
those of the lower Orinoco, and yet the banks of the first of
these rivers enjoy a much cooler climate than the more northern
regions. In the forests of Guiana, especially near the sources
of the Orinoco, are several tribes of a whitish complexion, the
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
369
Guaicas, Guaiaribs, the Ariguas, of whom several robust indi-
viduals, exhibiting no symptom of the asthenical malady which
characterizes Albinos, have the appearance of true Mestizos.
surrounded by other tribes of a dark brown hue. The
Indians in the torrid zone, who inhabit the most elevated plains
of the Cordillera of the Andes, and those who, under the 450
south lat. live by fishing among the islands of the Archipelago
of Chonos, have as coppery a complexion as those who under a.
burning climate cultivate bananas in the narrowest and deepest:
valleys of the equinoctial region. We must add, that the Indians
of the mountains are clothed, and were so long before the con-
quest; while the Aborigines, who wander over the plains, go.
quite naked, and are consequently always exposed to the per--
pendicular rays of the sun. I could never observe that in the
same individual those parts of the body which were covered
were less dark than those in contact with a warm and humid.
air. We every where perceive that the colour of the American
depends very little on the local position in which we see him.
« The Mexicans, as we have already observed, are more
swarthy than the Indians of Quito and New Granada, who
inhabit a climate completely analogous; and we even see that
the tribes dispersed to the north of the Rio Gila are less brown
than those in the neighbourhood of the kingdom of Guatimala.
This deep colour continues to the coast nearest to Asia. But
under 540 10' of north latitude, at Cloak Bay, in the midst of
copper-coloured Indians, with small long eyes, there is a tribe.
with large eyes, European features, and a skin less dark than.
that of our peasantry."'*
How does it happen, that the same sun, which makes the
African black, tinges the American of a copper colour? and
that the dark lue, which might possibly be produced by heat
in the equatorial regions, should be found also in the cold and
inhospitable tracts of Tierra del Fuego, and the most northern
not be ascribed to the want of sufficiently cold climates. Bou-
GAINVILLE found the thermometer, in the middle of summer,
5430 in lat. 520 south ; and Messrs. BANKS and SOLANDER,
and their attendants, had nearly perished all together from the
cold in an excursion in Tierra del Fuego, in the middle of the
summer. Two of the servants were actually lost.
* Polilical Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, v. i. pp. 140-145.
Hawkesworth's Collection, y. ii. c. 4.
2 B
370
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
A very cursory survey of the globe will show us that the same
regions have been occupied by men of different races, without
any interchange of characters, in many instances, for sėveral
centuries. The Moors and Negroes are found together in
Africa ; Europeans, Negroes, and Americans, in North and
South America; Celts, Germans, and Slavons in Europe, and
even in the same kingdoms of Europe ; Mongols, Afghans, and
Hindoos in India, &c. &c. The distinctions of these different
traces, except where they have been confused by intermarriages,
is just as easy now as it has been in any time, of which we have
authentic records.
The permanency of the characters of any race when it has
changed its original situation for a very different one, when it
has passed into other climes, adopted new manners, and been
exposed to the action of these causes for several generations,
affords the most indisputable proof that these characteristics
are not the offspring of such adventitious circumstances. From
the numerous examples, in every race, which a slight knowledge
of history will furnish, I shall select a few of the most striking.
In the earliest times, to which our historical records ascend,
white skin, dark hair and eyes; the characters, in short, which
are now visible in the Spaniards, most of the French, the native
Welsh, the Manks, and the Highland Scotch. The German
race, originally situated more to the north and east, have long
ago obtained settlements by war and conquest in many of the
countries previously peopled by the Celts; but their light rosy
skin, flaxen hair and blue eyes, are now, after nearly two thou-
sand years, just as strongly contrasted with the very different
traits of the Celtic character, in those situations and those fami-
lies where the blood has remained pure, as they were originally.
It was observed by CÆSAR, that the Germans had possessed
themselves of the Belgic provinces of Gaul, and the contiguous
Southern parts of Britain.* That the Caledonians or Picts (Low-
land Scotch), were a German people, is rightly represented by
Tacitus, whose description of the natives occupying this
island exhibits the same physical characters, which exist in the
menta; namque rutilæ Caledoniam habitantium comæ, magni
artus Germanicam originem adseverant. Silurum colorati
vultus, et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania,
* De Bel. Gal. lib. ii, and v.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
371
Iberos veteres trajecisse easque sedes occupâsse fidem faciunt:
proximi Gallis, et similes sunt: seu durante originis vi, seu
procurrentibus in diversa terris, positio cæli corporibus habitum
dedit.”* Under the names of Saxons, Angles, Danes, and
Normans, numerous supplies of Germans successively arrived
in England, and gradually drove the original Celtic population
into the most distant and inaccessible parts of the island. An
exposure to the same climate for so many centuries has not
approximated the physical characters of the more recent German
to those of the older Celtic inhabitants in the smallest degree;
and both descriptions are equally unchanged after a progress
from barbarism to the highest civilization. A similar perma-
nence of the original distinctive characters is observable in
France. “ Among us,” says VOLNEY, “a lapse of nine hun-
dred years has not effaced the discriminating marks which dis-
tinguished the inhabitants of Gaul from the northern invaders,
who, under CHARLES THE GROSS, settled themselves in our
richest provinces. Travellers, who go from Normandy to Den-
mark, observe with astonishment the striking resemblance of
the inhabitants of these two countries.”+
The Vandals I passed from Spain into Africa about the middle
of the fifth century : their descendants may be still traced,
according to SHAW S and BRUCE,|| in the mountains of Aurez,
by their white and ruddy complexion and yellow hair. “Here
I met,” says the latter writer, “ to my great astonishment, a
tribe, who, if I cannot say they were fair like the English, were
of a shade lighter than that of the inhabitants of any country
to the southward of Britain. Their hair also was red, and their
eyes blue.”—“ I imagine them to be a remnant of the Vandals.
PROCOPIUS mentions a defeat of an army of this nation here,
&c. They confessed their ancestors had been Christians."
The change in the race produced by climate must be infinitely
small, since it is not yet perceptible after a lapse of thirteen
centuries.
The establishments of the Europeans in Asia and America
have now subsisted about three centuries. VASQUEZ DE GAMA
landed at Calicut in 1498; and the Portuguese empire in India
was founded in the beginning of the following century. Brazil
was discovered and taken possession of by the same nation in
the very first year of the sixteenth century. Towards the end
* Agricola, xi.
+ Travels in Syria and Egypt, v. i. ch. 6.
Gibbon; Decline and Fall, c. 33.
i Travels, ch. ii.
Travels to Diswoor, &c. Svo ed. Introduction, p. 35.
2 B 2
372
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
of fifteenth, and beginning of sixteenth century, COLUMBUS,
CORTEZ, and PIZARRO subjugated for the Spaniards the West
Indian islands, with the empires of Mexico and Peru. Sir
WALTER RALEIGH planted an English colony in Virginia in
1584; and the French settlement of Canada has a rather late
date. The colonists have, in no instance, approached to the
natives of these countries; and their descendants, where the
blood has been kept pure, have at this time, the same characters
as native Europeans. In the hotter situations, indeed, as in
the warmer countries of Europe, the skin is swarthy in parts of
the body which are not covered; but the children, at the time
of birth, and women who are never exposed much to the sun's
rays, have all their native whiteness. This observation admits
of no exception : in the tint of the skin, the colour and other
qualities of the hair, the features, the form of the cranium, the
proportions and figure of the body, the European colonists retain
all their original characters. The sanguine constitution, with
its blue eyes, yellow hair, and fair skin, which is so remarkably
different from that of the natives, is nevertheless transmitted
without the least alteration from generation to generation.
· Negroes have been introduced into the new world for nearly
an equal length of time; in the West Indian Islands, in the
United States, in the various parts of Spanish America, they live
under new climates, and have adopted new habits. Yet they
have still woolly haſr, black skins, flat nose, thick lips, and all
the other characters of their race.'
The inhabitants of Persia, of Turkey, of Arabia, of Egypt,
and of Barbary,* may be regarded in great part as the same
race of people, who, in the time of MAHOMET and his succes-
sors, extended their dominions by invading immense territories.
In all these situations the skin retains its native fairness, unless
the tint be changed by exposure to the sun; and the children
* Africa, north of the great desert, has been always inhabited by races of
Caucasian forraation. The original tribes, called Berbers or Brebers, have given
the name of Barbary to this division of the continent. We know but little of
their peculiar physical characters; which, however, probably were similar to
those of the ancient Egyptians and Guanches (see p. 224). These Berbers, which
constituted the people known to the Roman writers by the names of Libyans,
Getulians, Numidians, Mauritanians, Garamentes, have received accessions
of Phænicians (the Carthaginians), Greeks, Romans, Vandals and Arabians:
The latter particularly entered the north of Africa in great numbers, destroying
or driving away the original inhabitants. The go eneral prevalence of Mahomet-
anism and of the Arabian language, testifies the impression which they made
on the country. The remnants of the aboriginal tribes are now principally
found in the mountains. They may be traced, however, south of the great
desert, and seem to form even considerable states betwcen Tombuctoo and
Upper Egypt; where they preserve their distinctive characters in the same
climates with the Negro race,
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
373
are invariably fair “Il n'y a femme de laboureur ou de paysan
en Asie (Asia Minor) qui n'a le teint frais comme une rose, la
peau delicate et blanche, si polie et si bien tendue, qu'il semble,
toucher du velours." The Arabians are scorched by the heat,
of the sun, for most of them are either covered with a tattered
shirt, or go entirely naked : LA BOULLAYE informs us, that the
Arabian women of the desert are born fair, but that their com-
plexions are spoiled by being continually exposed to the sun.t
Another traveller remarks that the Arabian princesses and
ladies, whom he was permitted to see, were extremely handsome,
beautiful, and fair, because they are always covered from the
rays of the sun, but that the common women are very much,
blackened by the sun.I
The Moors, who have lived in Africa since the seventh cen-
tury, have not degenerated in their physical constitution from
their Arabian progenitors: the sun exerts its full influence on
their skin, but their children are just as white as those born in.
Europe. They are by no means confined to the northern coast,
but have penetrated, as the prevalence of the Mahometan religion
attests, deeply into the interior: here they dwell in countries,
of which the woolly-haired Negro is the native, but have not
acquired, in six centuries of exposure to the same causes, any of
his characters. The intelligent and accurate SHAW informs us
that most of the Moorish women would be reckoned handsome
.even in Europe ; that the skin of their children is exceedingly
fair and delicate ; and though the boys, by being exposed to
the sun, soon grow swarthy, yet the girls, who keep more within
doors, preserve their beauty till the age of thirty, when they.
commonly give over child-hearing. “Les Maures,” says POIRET,
“ne sont pas naturellement noirs, malgré le proverbe, et comme
le pensent plusieurs écrivains; mais ils naissent blancs, et
restent blancs toute leur vie, quand leurs travaux ne les exposent
pas aux ardeurs du soleil. Dans les villes les femmes ont une
blancheur si éclatante, qu'elles éclipseroient la plupart de nos
Européennes; mais les Mauresques montagnardes, sans cesse
brulées par le soleil, et presque toujours à moitié nues, devien-
nent, même dès l'enfance, d'une couleur brune qui approche
beaucoup de celle de la suie."'S The testimony of BRUCE is to
the same effect.
That the swarthiness of the southern Europeans is merely the
* Obs. de Pierre Belon, p. 199. Voyages de La Boullaye le Gouz, 11. 318.
* Voyage fait par Ordre du Roi dans la Palestine, p. 260.
i Voy, en Barbaric, tom. i. p. 31.
374
CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES
effect of the sun's action on the individual, whose children are
born perfectly white, and continue so unless exposed to the
operation of the climate, might be easily proved of the Spaniards
and Portuguese, the Greeks, Turks, &c.; but the fact is too well
known to render this necessary.
The Jews exhibit one of the most striking instances of na-
tional formation, unaltered by the most various changes. They
have been scattered, for ages, over the face of the whole earth;
but their peculiar religious opinions and practices have kept the
race uncommonly pure; accordingly their colour and their
characteristic features are still the same under every diversity of
climate and situation.
The advocates for the power of climate have made very erro-
neous representations respecting these people; asserting that
their colour is everywhere modified by the situation they occupy.
The Jews, like all the native people adjoining their original
seats, have naturally a white skin and the other attributes of
the Caucasian race. In hot countries they become brown by
exposure, as an European does; but they experience no other
influence from climate. Their children are born fair; and the
countenance and other characters are every where preserved in
remarkable purity, because their religion forbids all intermixture
with other races. Dr. BUCHANAN met, on the coast of Mala-
bar, with a tribe, who represented that their ancestors had mi-
grated from Palestine after the destruction of the temple by
Titus, and who have preserved their native colour and form
amidst the black inhabitanis of the country, excepting in in-
stances, where they have intermarried with the Hindoos. Those
of pure blood are called white Jews, in contradistinction from the
others, who are termed black Jews.*
The foregoing facts sufficiently prove, that native differences
in general, and particularly that of colour, do not depend on ex-
traneous causes ; I have an observation or two to make on some
other points. That the curled state of the hair in the African is
not produced by heat, appears from its being found in many
situations not remarkable for high temperature, as in the Mo-
luccas, New Guinea, Mallicollo, Borneo, New Holland, and
even in the cold regions of Van Dieman's Land; as well as from
the hot regions of Asia and America being inhabited by long-
haired races.
The woolly appearance of the Negro hair is just opposite to
• Christian Researches in Asia; section, on the Jews.
OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
375
that which hot climates have been said to produce in the covering
of sheep, in which it is represented that hair is produced instead
of wool. When we contrast the hairy coat of the argaili or
mouflon with the beautiful fleeces of our most beautiful sheep,
we see a prodigious difference, which is probably owing more to
cultivation and attention to breed than to climate. It does not
appear, at least, that change of climate will convert the wool of.
an individual English sheep into hair; and it is equally incapable
of conferring a woolly covering on the hairy sheep. Dr.WRIGHT,*
who lived many years in Jamaica, speaking of the opinion
that the wool of sheep becomes more hairy in warm climates,
says, that in the West India islands there is to be found a breed
of sheep, the origin of which he has not yet been able to trace,
that carry very thin fleeces of a coarse shaggy kind of wool;
which circumstance, he thinks, may naturally have given rise to
the report. But he never observed a sheep that had been brought
from England to carry wool of the same sort with those native
sheep: on the contrary, though he has known them live there
several years, these English sheep carried the same kind of close
burly fleece that is common in England; and, in as far as he
could observe, it was equally free from hairs.
The differences in stature, again, have been very confidently
ascribed to adventitious causes. A temporate climate, pure air,
copious food, tranquillity of mind, and healthy occupation, have
been thought favourable to the full development of the human
frame; while extreme cold, bad and unwholesome food, noxious
air, and similar causes, have been thought capable of reducing
the dimensions of the body below the ordinary standard. That
these causes may have some effect on individuals I do not deny,
although I believe that it is very slight: but the numerous ex-
ainples of large people in cold countries, and diminutive men in
warm climes, induce me to deny altogether its operation on the
race. The tall and large-limbed Patagonians, certain North
American tribes, and some of the German races inhabit cold
situations; the Mongols, who are small in stature, live in warm
countries.
The facts and observations adduced in this section lead us
manifestly to the following conclusions; 1st. That the differences
of physical organization and of moral and intellectual qualities,
which characterize the several races of our species, are analogous
in kind and degree to those which distinguish the breeds of the
Dr. Anderson on the Different kinds of Sheep; appendix ü.
376
DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
domestic animals; and must, therefore, be accounted for on the
same principles. 2dly, That they are first produced, in both
instances, as native or congenital varieties; and then transmitted
to the offspring in hereditary succession. 3dly, That of the
circumstances which favour this disposition to the production of
varieties in the animal kingdom, the most powerful is the state
of domestication. 4thly, That external or adventitious causes,
such as climate, situation, food, way of life, have considerable
effect in altering the constitution of man and animals; but that
this effect, as well as that of art or accident, is confined to the
individual, not being transmitted by generation, and, therefore,
not affecting the race. 5thly, That the human species, therefore,
like that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig, and others, is single;
and that all the differences which it exhibits, are to be regarded
merely as varieties.
If, in investigating the subject, we are satisfied with comparing
the existing races of men to those of the domestic animals, and
with bringing together the characteristic marks, on which the
distinctions are grounded in the two cases, as I have done in
several preceding chapters, we shall have no difficulty in arriving
at the fifth conclusion. If, however, we should carry ourselves
back, in imagination, to a supposed period, when mankind con-
sisted of one race only, and endeavour to show how the numerous
arisen out of the common stock, and have become so distinct
from each other, as we find them at present, we cannot arrive at
so satisfactory a decision; and we experience further embarrass-
inent from the fact, that the races have been as distinctly marked,
and as completely separated from the earliest periods, to which
historical evidence ascends, as they now are. The same remarks,
in great measure, are true concerning animals; so that, on this
ground, no difficulty prevents us from recognising the unity of
the human species, which is not equally applicable to them.
CHAPTER X.
Arter taking into consideration the principal circumstances
which characterize the several races of man, and arriving, by the
proof that all such distinctions are produced in a still greater
degree among animals, chiefly of the domesticated kinds, from
the ordinary sources of degeneration, at the conclusion that there
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
377
is only one species, it remains for me to inquire how many varie-
ties ought to be recognised in this species, and to enumerate the
characters by which they may be distinguished. As there is no
circumstance, whether of corporeal structure, or of mental endow-
ment, which does not pass by imperceivable gradations into the
opposite character, rendering all those distinctions merely rela-
tive, and reducing them to differences in degree, it is obvious
that any arrangement of human varieties must be in great
measure arbitrary. Our imperfect knowledge of several tribes
constitutes another very serious difficulty. A complete and
accurate arrangement cannot therefore be expected at present;
and it is more advisable to adopt a general one, which may
answer the purposes of classifying the facts already known, and
affording points of comparison in aid of future inquiry, than to
attempt the details and minuter distinctions, for which we must
depend on further investigation.
I think it hest to follow the distribution proposed by BLUMEN-
BACH, although it is not free from objection; and although the
five varieties, under which he has arranged the several tribes of
our species, ought rather to be regarded as principal divisions,
each of them including several varieties. .
This acute and judicious naturalist divides the single species,
which the genus Homo contains, into the Caucasian, Mongolian,
Ethiopian, American, and Malay varieties. He regards the
Caucasian as the primitive stock. It deviates into two extremes
most remote and different from each other; namely, the Mongo-
lian on one side, and the Ethiopian on the other. The two other
varieties hold the middle places between the Caucasian and the
two extremes; that is, the American comes in between the Cau-
causian and Mongolian; and the Malay between the Caucasian
and Ethiopian.
· The following marks and descriptions will serve to define these
five varieties. But it is necessary to observe, in the first place,
that on account of the multifarious diversity and gradation of
characters, one or two are not sufficient for determining the race,
consequently, that an enumeration of several is required ; and,
secondly, that even this combination of characters is subject to
numerous exceptions in each variety. The migrations of the
several races in quest of more eligible abodes, the changes of
situation consequent on invasion, war, and conquest, and the
intermarriages to which these lead, account for much of this
uncertainty. Thus the Mongolian and Caucasian varieties have
378
DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
been much intermixed in Asia; the latter and the Ethiopian in
Africa.
I. CAUCASIAN VARIETY.* Characters. A white skin, either
with a fair rosy tint, or inclining to brown; red cheeks; hair
black, or of the various lighter colours, copious, soft, and gene-
rally more or less curled or waving. Irides dark in those with:
brown skin, light (blue, gray, or greenish) in the fair or rosy
complexioned. Large cranium with small face: the upper and
anterior regions of the former particularly developed: and the
latter falling perpendicularly under them. Face oval and
straight, with features distinct from each other ; expanded fore-
head, narrow and rather aquiline nose, and small mouth; front
teeth of both jaws perpendicular ; lips, particularly the lower,
gently turned out; chin full and rounded. Moral feelings and
intellectual powers most energetic, and susceptible of the highest
development and culture.
It includes all the ancient and modern Europeans except the
Laplanders and the rest of the Finnish race; the former and
present inhabitants of Western Asia, as far as the river Ob, the
Caspian Sea, and the Ganges; that is, the Assyrians, Medes,
and Chaldeans; the Sarmatians, Scythians, and Parthians;
the Philistines, Phoenicians, Jews, and the inhabitants of Syria
generally; the Tatars,t properly so called ; the several tribes
actually occupying the chain of Caucasus; the Georgians, Circas-
sians, Mingrelians, Armenians; the Turks,# Persians, $ Arabi-
ans;|| Afghauns, 9 and Hindoos** of high cast; the northern
- The name of this variety is derived from Mount Caucasus, because in its
neighbourhood, and particularly towards the south, we meet with a very
beautiful race of men, the Georgians; see the quotation from Chardin, at ñ
229 : and because, so far as the imperfect lights of history and tradition extend.
the original abode of the species seems to have been near the same quarter,
to Foran account of the people, to whom this name of Tatar has been applied
at various periods of history, and of those to whom it is more strictly appli.
cable, see Adelung's Mithridates, v. i. p. 453, and following. Portraits of
Tatars are given by Corn. le Brun, Voyage par la Moscovie, en Perse, &c.; V. i.
pp. 97, 104.
Adelung, loc. cit. For portraits see Denon, Voyage, '&c.; pl. 106, 107:
also Description de l'Egypte ; état moderne, costumes en portraits, particularly
v. ii. pl. 2.
O Portraits in C. Le Bran, v. i. pl. 85–88. Representations of the ancient
Persian form may be seen in the fragments of Persepolitan sculpture ; ibid. v.ii.
pl. 138, 142; and in the plates of antiquities in Mr. Morier's Travels in Persia.
* Denon, Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte; pl. 104, 105, 109, 110, 112.
Some indifferent figures in Elphinstone's Account of Caubul serve to show
the physical traits.
** Buchanan's Journey from Madras, &c. Portrait of Krishner Rajah, curtor
or sovereign of Mysore; and of Nandi Rajah, his maternal grandfather
(Hindoos) : v. i. frontispiece, and p. 67. Portraits of three sons of Tippoo
Sultan (Mussulmen) ; v. iii. pl. 35, 36, 37. Our knowledge of the several tribes
which occupy the great Indian peninsula, is not yet sufficient to enable us to
class thema satisfactorily. The crania of Hindoos, which I have seen, belong
to the Caucasian type; and the great artist, Mr. W. Daniel, who has probably

INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
379
Africans including not only those north of the Great Desert;
but even some tribes placed in more southern regions; the Egyp-
tians, * Abyssinians, and Guanches.
When these numerous races are assigned to one variety, ineir
assemblage will not be understood to indicate that they are all
alike in physical and moral traits. The distribution of our species
into five divisions must be regarded in a very general view; and
this general conformity is not inconsistent with various and
strongly marked modifications. The latter are more numerous
in the Caucasian than in the other varieties ; perhaps from
greater natural softness, delicacy, or flexibility of organization,
concurring with the influence of more ancient and complete civili.
zation. In surveying the distinctions of moral and intellectual
endowments, we feel uncertain how much ought to be ascribed
to original difference, and how much to the powerful influence
of government, education, religion, and other analogous causes.
I think, however, it will appear, that most of the virtues and
talents which adorn and ennoble man, have existed from early
times in a higher degree among the Celtic and German than
usually displayed a more sensual character than the former.
BLUMENBACH is inclined to believe that the primitive form
of the human race was that which belongs to the Caucasian
variety, of which the most beautiful specimens are now exhibited
by the Georgians, Turks, Greeks, and some Europeans. From
the finely-formed skull of this race, as from a primitive configu-
surveyed the country, the antiquities, and the people more extensively than
any other person, and whose matchless drawings have made us so well acu
quainted with the prodigious architectural achievements of the natives, as well
as with the scenery of India, has informed me that the finest examples of such
forms, both in features and general proportions, abound in India. He never
saw any specimens of Negro characters either in countenance or bair; although
some tribes, as the Malabars, are very dark coloured. The sculptured repre-
sentations of the human form in the oldest of their subterranean temples
correspond to the physical traits of the modern Hindoos; and this conformity
was particularly noticed by Mr. Morier in the caves of Canarch in Salsette.
Second Journey in Persia, p. 22. Thereare numerous varieties, as we might expect
in so extensive a region. Dubois informs us that the agriculturists are nearly
as dark as Kaffers, while the Brahmans and those not exposed to the sun are
comparatively light. He compares the hue of the Brahmans to copper, or
rather a bright infusion of coffee. He adds, “I have seen people in the south
Their women, who are still more sedentary, and less exposed to the rays of
the sun, are still lighter in complexion than the males." Some wild hordes
on the hills and forests of Malabar are less deeply tinged than any of the casts
which have been mentioned. “In the woods of the Coorga country, there is
of complexion to the Spaniards or Portuguese."--Description of the Character,
Manners, &c. of the People of India; ch. XV.
* Heads of Copts, Denon, pl. 105, 108. Figures of two fresco paintings in the
sepulchres of Thebes ; Bruce, pl. 6, 7. Description de l'Egypte ; état moderne;
costumes et portraits.
+ Five portraits in Bruce, pl. 2, 3.
380
DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
ration, the other forms descend by an easy and simple grada-
tion, on the one hand to the Mongolian, and on the other to the
the arts and sciences; indeed, almost our whole treasure of lite-
rature and knowledge has been derived from the same quarter.
These nations have the most intelligent and expressive counte-
nance, and the most beautiful bodily proportions. They occupy
the middle regions of the globe, while the extremities are filled
by others. The most ancient and most early civilized nations
have belonged to this division ; to which, also, according to the
observation of BLUMENBACH, there is a disposition to return
in the other races, as may be observed in the South Sea Islands,
and in some parts of Africa; while this does not easily deviate
into the dark coloured varieties. .
· If we admit the Caucasian to liave been the primitive form of
man, are we to suppose that the skin was rosy, the hair yellow
or red, and the eyes blue, or that the former had a tendency to
brown, and that both the latter were dark? We can have little
hesitation in adopting the latter opinion ; for those characters
belong to all of this race except the Germans, which have occu-
pied the more distant regions.
In support of the opinion, that the original stock of the
human species had the characters of the Caucasian variety, it
may be stated that the part of Asia, which seems to have been
the cradle of the race, has always been, and still is, inhabited by
tribes of that formation, and that the inhabitants of Europe, in
great part, may be traced back for their origin to the west of
Asia. I think, however, that we have not the data necessary for
establishing a satisfactory conclusion on this point. We cannot.
yet assume it as a point fully proved, that all the varieties of man
have been produced from one and the same breed.
II. THE MONGOLIAN VARIETY is characterized by olive
colour, which in many cases is very light, and black eyes; black,
straight, strong, and thin hair; little or no beard; head of a
square form, with small and low forehead; broad and flattened
face, with the features running together; the glabella flat and
very broad; nose small and flat; rounded cheeks projecting
externally; narrow and linear aperture of the eyelids ; eyes
placed very obliquely; slight projection of the chin ; large ears ;
thick lips. The stature, particularly in the countries near the
North Pole, is inferior to that of Europeans.
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
381
; It includes the numerous more or less rude, and in great part
Nomadic tribes, which occupy central and northern Asia; as
the Mongols, Calinucks, and Burats,* the Mantchoos or Mand-
shurs, Daourians, Tungooses, and Coreans: the Samoiedes, t
Yukagirs, Coriacks, Tschutski, and Kamtschadales ; the Chi-
nese S and Japanese ; || the inhabitants of Thibet and Bootan,
those of Tungquin, Cochin China, Ava, Pegu, Cambodia, Laos,
and Siam ; the Finnish races of northern Europe, as the Lap-
landers; and the tribes of Esquimaux extending over the nor-
thern parts of America, from Bering's Strait to the extremity of
Greenland.
- “The Calmucks, and all the Mongolian tribes," says PALLAS,
“ are characterized by obliquity of the eyes, which are depressed
towards the nose, and by the rounded internal angle of the
eyelids; by thin, black, and scarcely curved eyebrows; by the
nose, which is altogether small and flat, being particularly broad
towards the forehead; by high cheek-bones; a round head and
face. Black-brown irides, large and thick lips, short chin,
white teeth remaining firm and sound even in advanced age, and
large ears standing off from the head, are universal.” “They
are of middling size, and we see very few tall people amongst
them; the women are particularly small, and very delicately
formed.” T
That the characters of the ancient Huns corresponded to this
description, may be collected from the short but expressive
portrait, which JORNANDES has drawn of ATTILA: “Forma
brevis, lato pectore, capite grandiore, minutis oculis, rarus
barba, canis aspersis, simo naso, teter colore, originis suæ signa
restituens."
Mr. BARROW says that “the Mantchoo Tatars are scarcely
distinguishable from the Chinese by external appearances: the
Chinese are rather taller, and of a more slender and delicate
frame than the Tatars, who are in general short, thick, and
robust. The small eye, elliptical at the end next the nose, is a
predominating feature in the cast of both the Chinese and Tatar
countenance, and they have the same high cheek-bones and
pointed chins. The native colour, both of Chinese and Tatars,
* The figures in the plates of Pallas, Histor. nachrichten über die Mongol.
Volkerschaften, give some idea of the general characters of the Mongolian tribes,
+ Voyage de Corn. Le Brun, v. i. pl. 7, 8, and 9.
# Cook's Voyage to the Pacific; pl. 75 and 76.
8 Barrow's įravels in China; frontispiece, and
|| Langdorff's Voyages, &c. v. i. pl. 16, p. 316.
T Pallas, Histor, nachricht, Th. i. pp. 98 and 99.
382 DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
seems to be that tint between a fair and a dark complexion,
which we distinguish by the word brunet or brunette; and the
shades of this complexion are deeper or lighter, according as
they have been more or less exposed to the influence of climate.
The women of the lower class, who labour in the fields, or who
dwell in vessels, are almost invariably coarse, ill-featured, and of
a deep or brown complexion, like that of the Hottentots. We
saw women in China, though very few, who might pass for
beauties even in Europe. A small black or dark brown eye, a
short rounded nose, generally a little flattened, lips considerably
thicker than in Europeans, and black hair, are universal." *
Mr. TURNER informs us that the people of Thibet have in-
variably black hair, small black eyes with long pointed corners,
scarcely perceptible, and eyebrows but slightly shaded. Below
the eyes is the broadest part of the face, which is rather flat, and
narrows from the cheek-bones to the chin. Their skins are
remarkably smooth, and most of them arrive at a very advanced
age before they can boast even the earliest rudiments of a beard.
European Portuguese.”+
The Esquimaux are formed on the Mongolian model, although
they inhabit countries so different from the abodes of the origi-
nal tribes of central Asia.
“The male Esquimaux have rather a prepossessing physiogno-
my, but with very high cheek-bones, broad foreheads, and small
eyes, rather further apart than those of an European. The
corners of their eyelids are drawn together so close, that none
of the white is to be seen; their mouths are wide, and their
teeth wide and regular. The complexion is a dusky yellow, but
some of the young women have a little colour bursting through
this dark tint. The noses of the men are rather flattened, but
those of the women are rather prominent. The males are,
generally speaking, between five feet five inches, and five feet
eight inches high, vony and broad-shouldered; but do not
appear to possess much muscular strength. The flesh of all the
Esquimaux feels soft and flabby, which may be attributed to the
nature of their food. But the most surprising peculiarity of this
people is the smallness of their hands and feet.” I
* Travels in China, pp. 183, 185.
Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, pp. 84, 85. He
observed the same character of countenance in the Regent of Thibet (241,) in
the person second in rank, a Mantchoo Tatar (p. 247,) and in the mother of
the new Lama (p. 336.)
# Chappell's Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay, pp. 58, 59.
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
383
The same characters belong to the several tribes of Esqui-
maux, which are scattered over the whole breadth of the Ame-
rican continent. HUMBOLDT* mentions the affinity of the
languages at the two extreme points; and Dr. CLARK+ has
noticed the complete resemblance of the dresses, ornaments,
weapons, &c. brought by Mr. CHAPPELL from Hudson's Straits
to those in a collection made by Commodore BILLINGS in the
north-west extremity of the continent.
Similar descriptions might be quoted of the other people in-
cluded under this variety.
III. In the ETHIOPIAN VARIETY the skin and eyes are
black ; the hair black and woolly; the skull compressed laterally
and elongated towards the front; the forehead low., narrow, and
slanting; the cheek-bones are prominent; the jaws narrow and
projecting; the upper front teeth oblique ; the chin recedes.
The eyes are prominent; the nose broad, thick, flat, and con-
fused with the extended jaw; the lips, and particularly the upper
one, are thick. The knees turn in in many instances.
All the natives of Africa, not excluded in the first variety,
belong to this.
The striking peculiarities of the African organization, and
particularly the great difference between its colour and our own,
have led many persons to adopt the opinion of VOLTAIRE,I who
had not a sufficient knowledge of physiology and natural his-
tory to determine the question, that the Africans belong to a
distinct species. I have shown, in the preceding divisions of
this article, that there is no one character so peculiar and com-
mon to the Africans, but that it is found frequently in the other
varieties, and that Negroes often want it; also, that the cha-
racters of this variety run by insensible gradations into those of
the neighbouring races, as will be immediately perceived by
comparing together different tribes of this race, as the Foulahs,
Jaloffs, Mandingoes, Kaffers, and Hottentots, and carefully
noting how in these gradational differences they approach to the
Moors, New Hollanders, Arabians, Chinese, &c.
Again, great stress has been laid on the fact, that the Negroes
resemble more nearly than the Europeans, the monkey tribe ;
the fear of being drawn into the family, even as distant relations,
has, I believe, induced many to place our black brethren in a
distinct species; while others have brought forward this ap.
' * Personal Narrative, v. iii. p. 291.
+ Chappell's F'oyage, Sc. Introductory Advertisement; and Appendix E.
# See the quotation of his opinion at p. 167,
384 DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
proximation to the simæi, with the view of degrading the African
below the standard of the human species, and thereby palliating
the cruel hardships under which he groans in the islands and
continent of the new world.
· It is undoubtedly true, that in many of the points, wherein
the Ethiopian differs from the Caucasian variety, it comes nearer
to the monkeys, viz. in the greater size of the bones of the face,
compared to those of the cracium; the low and slanting fore.
head; the protuberance of the alveoli and teeth; the recession
of the chin; the form of the ossa nasi; the position of the fora-
men magnum occipitale; the outline of the union of the hea!
and trunk; the relative length of the humerus and ulna, &c.
This resemblance is most unequivocally admitted by those who
have minutely examined the anatomical structure of the Negro.*
It appears to me, that this fact is not very important; if there are
varieties of hodily formation among mankind, some one of these
must approach nearer to the organization of the monkey than
the others; but does this prove, that the variety in which the con-
formity occurs, is less poanthanthe others; the solidungular variety
of the common pig is mors like the horse than other swine ; do
we hence infer, that the nature of this animal in general is less
porcine, or more like that of the horse, than that of other pigs ?
The points of difference between the Negro and the European
do not affect those important characters which separate man in
general from the animal world: the erect attitude, the two hands,
the slow development of the body, the use of reason, and con-
sequent perfectability, are attributes common to both.
That very little importance can be attached to the general
observation of the resemblance of the Negro and monkey,
founded on external appearance, may be clearly inferred from
this fact, that the same remark has been made, even by intellı.
gent travellers, of particular people in the other varieties.
REGNARD concludes his description of the Laplanders wich
these words : “Voilà la description de ce petit animal qu on
appelle Lapon, et l'on peut dire qu'il n'y en a point, après le
singe, qui approche plus de l'homme.”+
CARTWRIGHT thought the Esquimaux very like monkeys .
he informs us that “walking along Piccadilly one day with the
two men, I took them into a stop !o show them a collection of
animals. We had no sooner entered, than I observed their
* Soommerring üb. die körp. rersch. preface, 17, 19, and 2 60.
+ Eutres, t. i. p. 71.
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
385
attention riveted on a small monkey; and I could see horror
most strongly depicted in their countenances At length the
old man turned to me, and faltered out, 'Is that an Esquimaux ?'
I must confess that both the colour and contour of the coun-
tenance had considerable resemblance to the people of their
nation. On pointing out several other monkeys of different
kinds, they were greatly diverted at the mistake which they had
made; but were not well pleased to observe that monkeys re-
sembled their race much more than ours."*
NIC. DEL TECHO represents a native tribe in South America
as “tam simiis similes, quam hominibus.”+ Cook calls the
FORSTER uses the same comparison ; “The natives of Mallicollo
are a small, nimble, slender, ill-favoured set of beings, that of
all men I ever saw border nearest upon the tribe of monkeys."'$
As the characteristic form of the head and features of the Negro
are just opposite to those of the Esquimaux and native Ameri-
cans, we must regard these comparisons, which cannot be correct
in all the instances, as loose expressions, not meant to be inter-
preted literally.
Under the Ethiopian variety, as under the Caucasian and
Mongolian, are included numerous nations and tribes distin-
guished from each other by well-marked modifications of orga-
nization and moral qualities. Nothing is more erroneous than
the common notion that all Africans have one and the same
character. I have already noticed the diversities of features
and skulls (see pages 222 and 224); and equally strong distinc-
tions are observable in general character whether physical or
moral. To the proofs of the former point before adduced, I
shall here add the testimony of Dr. WINTERBOTTOM: “ As
great a variety of features occurs among these people as is to be
met with in the nations of Europe ; the sloping contracted fore-
head, small eyes, depressed nose, thick lips, and projecting
jaws, with which the African is usually caricatured, are by
no means constant traits : on the contrary, almost every grada-
tion of countenance may be met with, from the disgusting
picture too commonly drawn of them, to the finest set of Euro.
pean features. Want of animation does not characterize them,
• Journal of Transactions, 8c, during a Residence of nearly sixteen Years on
the Coast of Labrador; v. i. p. 270. + Relat, de Cadiyuarum Gente, p. 34.
# Doyuge towards the South Pole, v. ii. p. 34.
Observations on a Voyage round the World, p. 242.
386
DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
1
and faces are often met with which express the various emotions
of the mind with great energy."*
Mr. EDWARD:S, who had seen them in the West Indies,
regards the Foulahs as a link between the Moors and Negroes.
They are of a less glossy black than those of the Gold Coast;
their hair is crisped and bushy; not woolly, but soft and silky.
They have not such flat noses or thick lips as we generally
include in our notion of the Negro countenance; nor have they
the peculiar fetid cutaneous odour.”+ The Koromantyns from
the Gold Coast are characterized by firmness of body and mind,
activity, courage and ferocity; by the greatest fortitude and
contempt of death. He adduces a horrid example of these
qualities in a punishment inflicted for revolt. Two of them
were hung up alive in chains : one died on the eighth, the
other on the ninth day, without having uttered a groan or com-
plaint. The Eboes from the Bight of Benin “ are the lowest
and most wretched of all the nations of Africa.”-“I cannot
help observing too, that the conformation of the face, in a great
majority of them, very much resembles that of the baboon.'s
In some parts of Africa intermixture with other nations may
have produced occasional departures from the original type of
the race. In the north, the Aboriginal Berber tribes, and sub-
sequently the Arabian or Saracen conquerors, not to mention
the Phænician, Greek, Roman, and Turkish colonists, must
have mingled extensively with the Negroes. On the east, the
kingdom of Abyssinia is of Arabian origin, and traces of the
same people are found along the coast nearly as far as the Cape.
Europeans, and particularly the Portuguese, have had settle-
ments on the west coast between three and four centuries. The
result of such mixtures must not be confounded with natiye
differences.
The tribes in the south of Africa are marked by strong pecu-
liarities. The fine forms, tallness, and strength of the Kaffers,
have been already observed (p. 301). Although their hair is
black and woolly, or rather short and curling, the skin is of a
deep brown instead of black; they have the high forehead
and prominent nose of Europeans, with thickish lips, and pro-
jecting cheek-bones. In moral qualities, arts, and civilization,
they excel the true Negroes as much as in organization.ll
* Account of the Native Africans, v. i. p. 198.
+ History of the West Indies, v. ii. p. 73. Mr. Park's description coincides !
with this account; Travels into the Interior Districts of Africa, 8vo. ed. p. 25. ..
# Edwards, ibid. p. 79.
- Ibid. 88, 89. ::.
| Barrow's Southern Africa; v. i. ch. 3. Lichtenstein's Travels, ch. 18.
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
387
The Hottentot race is again clearly distinguished both from
the Kaffers and Negroes. I have mentioned in another place
(p. 301) their very short stature. The colour of the skin is a
yellowish brown, or that of a faded leaf. The cheek-hones are
high and much spread out in the lateral direction, so that this
is the broadest part of the face ; which is suddenly contracted
below to a very narrow and pointed chin. The nose is remark-
ably flat, and broad towards its end; but in some it is more
raised. The forehead has a narrow appearance, from the great
breadth across the cheeks; but it is not either contracted or
low.-" The colour of the eyes is a deep chestnut; they are
very long and narrow, removed to a great distance from each
other; and the eyelids, at the extremity next to the nose,
instead of forming an angle, as in Europeans, are rounded into
each other, exactly like those of the Chinese, to whom, indeed,
in many other points, they bear a physical resemblance."
“ The hair is of a very singular nature, it does not cover the
whole surface of the scalp, but grows in small tufts at certain
distances from each other, and when kept short has the appear-
ance and feel of a hard shoe-brush, with this difference, that it
is curled and twisted into small round lumps about the size of a
marrow-fat pea. When suffered to grow, it hangs in the neck
Bosjesmen is the same in all essential points.t.
IV. THE AMERICAN VARIETY is characterized by a dark
skin, of a more or less red tint; black, straight, and strong hair,
small beard, which is generally eradicated, and a countenance
and skull very similar to those of the Mongolian tribes. The
forehead is low, the eyes deep, the face broad, particularly across
the cheeks, which are prominent and rounded. Yet the face is
not so flattened, as in the Mongols; the nose and other features
being more distinct and projecting. I The mouth is large, and
Animals; fol.
* Barrow, lib. cit. pp. 157, 158. Dr. Somerville, Obs, de Gente Hottentoitarum
in Medico-chir. Trans. v. viii. Portrait of a Hottentot; Barrow, Travels in
China, p. 50. Kora Hottentot woman, Barrow, Voyage to Cochin China, p. 373.
Booshuana man and woman; ibid. p. 394, But the best representations of these
people and the Bosjesmen are to be seen in Mr. Daniell's African Scenery and
Animals.
+ Barrow's Africa; v. i. p. 278.
.* "If the Chaymas," says Humboldt, "and in general all the natives of
South America and New Spain, resemble the Mongol race by the form of the
eye, their high chcek-bones, their straight and flat hair, and the almost entire
tant of beard ; they cssentially differ from them in the form of the nose,
which is pretty long, prominent through its whole length, and thick towards
the nostrils, the openings of which are directed downwards, as in all the nations
of the Caucasian racc." Personal Narrative, v. iii. p. 224.

2c2
388 DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
the lips rather thick.* The forehead and vertex are in some
... This variety includes all the Americans, with the exception of
the Esquimaux.
The redness of the skin is not so constant, but that it varies
in many instances towards a brown, and approaches in some
situations to the white colour. Cook states that the natives of
Nootka Sound have a colour not very different from that of
Europeans, but with a pale dull cast:t and BouGUER makes the
same observations of the Peruvians on the Andes. HUMBOLDT
observes that “the denominations of copper-coloured men could
never have originated in equinoctial America to designate the
natives.” | Mr. BIRKBECK says of the natives, whom he saw in
the western territory of the United States, “that their complexion
is various; some are dark, others not so swarthy as myself; but
I saw none of the copper colour, which I had imagined to be
their universal distinctive mark.”
In describing the Chilians, MOLINA says, “Their complexion,
but it is of a clearer hue, and readily changes to white. A tribe,
who dwell in the province of Baroa, are of a clear white and red,
without any intermixture of the copper colour.”'ll
The most accurate observers, in various parts of the continent,
have particularly noticed the imperfect development of the fore-
head in the American race. “In the natives of Nootka Sound,"
says Cook," the visage of most is round and full; and some-
times also broad, with high prominent cheeks; and above these
the face is frequently much depressed, or seems fallen in quite
across between the temples ; the nose flattening at its base, with
pretty wide nostrils, and a rounded point. The forehead rather
low.” The same lowness of this region is remarked by
HEARNE ** in the northern Indians; by LEWIS and CLARKE, Et
of the western tribes; by Mr. Rollin, the surgeon who accom-
panied LA PEROUSE, of the natives on the western coast in
58 deg. north lat., II of the Californians, $$ and the Chilians; |||| by
DAMPIER, of those on the coast of Nicaragua, and the Isthmus of
Darien ; 919 and by HUMBOLDT, of the Americans generally.***
* For portraits of Americans, see Cook, Voy. towards the South Pole; v. ii.
p. 183, pl. 27; native of Tierra del Fuego: and Voyage to the Pacific; pl. 38,
$9, 46, 47,54; natives of the north-west coast. + Voyage to the Pacific, v. ii. p. 303.
Personal Narratire, v. iii. p. 223. & Notes on a Journey in America, p. 100.
Civil History of Chili, p. 4. T Voyage towards the South Pole, v. ii. p. 183.
** Journey to the Frozen Ocean, pp. 89 and 306. ++ Tvavels, p. 64, and ch. xxiii.
** Voyage, &c. v. iii. p. 202. 02 lbid. 201. l Ibid. 200.
15 Döyayes, 8c. v. i. p. 32; v. ii. p. 115. *** See the quotation at p. 249.

INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
389
In describing the Chaymas, he says that “the forehead is small,
and but little prominent. Thus, in several languages of these
countries, to express the beauty of a woman, they say that she
is fat and has a narrow forehead."* A singular intellectual
defect has been noticed in some Americans, and may, perhaps,
be connected with this peculiarity in the configuration of the
head. “The Chaymas have a great difficulty in comprehending
any thing that belongs to numerical relations. I never saw a
single man who might not be made to say that he was eighteen
or sixty years of age.”p WAFER observed the same circum-
stance in the Isthmus of Darien. The Indians attempted to
reckon a party of between three and four hundred persons: one
of them put a grain of maize into a basket for each that passed;
but they could not cast it up.
Some days after, twenty or thirty of the chief men came
together, and tried their skill. “But, when they could tell no
further (the number probably exceeding their arithmetic), and
seemed to grow very hot and earnest in their debates about it;
one of them started up, and sorting out a lock of hair with his
fingers, and shaking it, seemed to intimate the number to be great
and unknown, and so put an end to the dispute. But one of them
came after us, and inquired our number in broken Spanish.” I
Several fabulous reports have been propagated, and entertained
even by writers of credit, respecting the distinguishing characters
of this race. The representation of their entire natural deficiency
of beard has been rectified already (see p. 309 and following).
It has been asserted that the women are not subject to the
menstrual discharge; and that in some places the men suckle,
and not the women. § A formal refutation of such fancies can- .
not be necessary.
V. MALAY VARIETY. Brown colour, from a light tawny
tint, not deeper than that of the Spaniards and Portuguese, to a
deep brown approaching to black. Hair black, more or less
curled, and abundant. Head rather narrow; bones of the face
large and prominent; nose full and broad towards the apex;
large mouth.
The inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca, of Sumatra,
Java, Borneo, Celebes, and the adjacent Asiatic islands; of the
Molucca, Ladrone, Philippine, Marian, and Caroline groups; of
New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, New Guinea, New Zealand,
* Eersonal Narratire, v. iii. p. 223. + Ibid. p. 241.
New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, p. 179.
& Clavigero, Storia di Messico; iv. 169.
390 DIVISION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
and the numberless islands scattered through the whole of the
South Sea, belong to this division. It is called Malay,* because
most of the tribes speak the Malay language; which may be
traced, in the various ramifications of this race, from Madagascar
to Easter Island.
Under this variety, to which, in truth, no well-marked.common
characters can be assigned, are included races of men very dif-
ferent in organization and qualities; too different indeed to be
arranged with propriety under one and the same division, but
hitherto too imperfectly known for the purposes of satisfactory
arrangement.
In that division of the abodes of this race, which may be called
the Southern Asiatic, or East Indian islands, we find at least two
very different organizations ; namely, one Negro-like, black,
with strongly curled hair ; another of brown or olive-colour, with
longer hair. The first, regarded as the Aboriginal inhabitants,
occupy some islands entirely, but are found in the larger ones
in the mountainous interior parts, whither they seem to have
been driven by the encroachments of new settlers. They resemble
the African Negroes in their black colour, woolly hair, and
general formation of the skull and features; and hence they are
called by the Dutch writers Negroes and Moors. They are
distinguished, however, by their language, and by a copious
bushy beard. In Sumatra they are called Batta; in Borneo,
Biajos; in the Moluccas, Haraforas.or Alfoeras; in the Philip-
pines, Ygolotes. They are wild, barbarous, and uncivilized, like
their African kindred.
Col. SYMES, who visited the great Andaman island on his
voyage to Ava, describes the natives as seldom exceeding five
feet, having slender limbs, large bellies, high shoulders, and
large heads. They had woolly hair, flat noses, and thick lips;
and skin of a deep sooty black. They are naked, and in a state
of complete barbarism:t
* The term Malay, says Mr. Marsden, like that of Moor in the continent of
India, is almost synonymous with Mahometan. Hist. of Sumatra; third edition,
P. 42. These people, he says, are supposed to have come from the peninsula
of Malacca, and to have spread thence over the adjacent islands; whereas it is
clearly proved that the Malays went from Sumatra to Malacca in the 12th
century; "and that the indigenous inhabitants, gradually driven by them to
the woods and mountains, so far from being the stock from which the Malays
were propagated, are an entirely different race of men, nearly approach
their physical characters to the Negroes of Africa." Ibid. 326.**
+ Embassy to Ava, 8vo. p. 301. Å similar description of them is given by
the Arabian travellers in the ninth century, whose account is translated by
Renaudot, ibid. p. 296, note. “It deserves remark," the author adds, “that
on the continent of India, extra Gangem, figures of Boodh or Budhoo, the
Gaudma of the Birmans and Siamese, are often seen with the characteristic
INTO FIVE VARIETIES.
391
The lighter coloured race, with more oval countenance, longer
hair, and finer forms altogether, occupy the coasts of the larger
islands, and some smaller ones entirely. Many of them show
their Malay origin by their organization, language, and manners;
and appear to have gradually spread from the continent over the
adjacent islands. Others, however, cannot be traced so satis-
factorily to this source. *
In the numerous larger and smaller islands of the South Sea,
extending from New Holland to Easter Island over a space of
sa early 140 degrees of longitude, very various tribes are found,
of light brown or olive to black colour, of woolly or long hair,
tall or short, handsome or ugly; and that often very near each
other. They may be arranged, as in the latter case, under two
divisions; between which, however, there are several inter-
mediate gradations forming an insensible transition from the one
to the other. 1st. Negro-like men, with curly hair, occupy the
south-western islands; and may, perhaps, have descended from
the analogous race in the Moluccas and other East Indian islands.
They are savage, ferocious aud suspicious.fi
This race is found in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land,
New Guinea, New Britain, and the adjacent group sometimes
called Solomon's Islands, New Georgia and the Charlotte
Islands, the New Hebrides, including Tanna, Mallicollo, and
others, New Caledonia, and the Feejee islands.
The remaining islands of the South Sea, from New Zealand ore
the west, to Easter Island, contain a race of much better orga-
nization and qualities. I In colour and features many of them
approach to the Caucasian variety; while they are surpassed by
none in symmetry, size, and strength. They have made con-
siderable advances in civilization, and readily learn the arts
imparted by their European visitors.
hair and features of the Negro," p. 302, note. Mr. Colebrook's.account ofithe
physical traits, the ferocity, and the completely savage state of this race, is
precisely similar to that of Col. Symes. Asiatic Researches, v. iv.
** Two natives of Timor.are represented by Peron, Voy. de Décowvcrtes aux
Terres Australes, t. i. pl. 25 et 26.
+ For portraits of this race see Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole. v. ii.
pl. 47, Man of Mallicollo; pl. 26 and 45, Man and Woman of Tanna; pl. 30
and 18, Man and Woman of New Caledonia. Cook's Voyage to the Pacific;
pl. 6 and 7, Man, Woman, and Child of Van Diemen's Land. Collins, Account
of New South Wales, p. 439, Portrait of a Native with the prominent jaws and
mouth of the Negro. Peron, Voyage de Décov. t. i. pl. 8-12, and pl. 17-20,
Natives of New Holland, and the adjacent islands. 'The Papuahs of New
Guinea are described by Forrest in his Voyage to New Guinea; and a figure of
a youth of this race, with jaws as prominent as those of any African Negro, is
given by Sir T, S. Rafties, in his History of Java, v. ii.
# Numerous figures may be seen in Cook's Voyage across the South Pole.
and in tho folio atlas of his Voyage to the Pacific.
392
CONCLUDING ADDRESS.
CONCLUDING ADDRESS OF THE LAST
LECTURE.
U
I HAVE now, GENTLEMEN ! performed the task assigned to
me by the BOARD OF CURATORS.
In judging of the execution of any design, it is right to bear
in mind the object and views with which it was undertaken. I
have been desirous of exhibiting to you, in the Lectures, which
are just concluded, the utility and applications of zoological
science; and have, therefore, aimed more at illustrating prin-
ciples, and the mode of employing and applying knowledge,
than at collecting or bringing forwards a great number or
variety of facts.
I selected the natural history of our species, because the sub-
ject is very interesting, because many of the points which it
involves, embracing physiological questions of the highest
importance, are closely allied to our own peculiar pursuits; and
because it has not yet received a due portion of attention in this
country.
I hope to have convinced you that the zoological study of
man, when grounded on a knowledge of his organization and
functions, and enlightened by the analogies, the contrasts, and
the various aids afforded by an acquaintance with the animal
kingdorn in general, is the only means by which a clear insight
can be gained into human nature ;-into the physical and moral
attributes, the comparative powers, the liability to change or
modification of the individual, the race or the variety, and con-
sequently into the frame, capabilities, and destiny of the species
The principles furnished by such investigations are the safest
guide in all branches of knowledge, of which man in any shape
is the object: the only guide at least that can be trusted by
those, who are determined to resort to nature for themselves,
rather than blindly adopt established doctrines, or take up the
ready-made notions and clever systems, so kindly provided for
those who are too indolent or too timid to exercise their own
observation and reason on these important topics. Such in-
quiries, I will venture to add, afford the only light capable of
directing us through the dark regions of metaphysics, the only
CONCLUDING ADDRESS.
393
clue to direct our course through the intricate mazes of morals.
Can we hope to proceed safely in legislation, in public institu-
tions, in education, without that acquaintance with the physical
and moral qualities of the subject for whose benefit they are
designed, which such investigations are calculated to supply?
I have had occasion, in the course of the Lectures, to exem-
plify the incidental elucidations, which various questions in
history, in antiquities, in the fine arts, may receive from this
quarter. Anatomy and physiology would be very inconsider-
able branches of general knowledge, if the facts which they
supply were applicable merely to the illustration and extension
of the healing art.
You may, perhaps, ask, whether these pursuits, or at least
these applications, are within that part of the territory of science
which may be marked out as the field of medicine? whether
they ought not to be deemed foreign to our immediate object,
surgical practice? They are so, if surgery be regarded as a
mere manual art, of which outward applications and operations
are the sole ends ;--if surgeons feel that they have taken a rank
higher than they can maintain, and are disposed to descend
quietly into their original condition of a subordinate mechanical
class, contented to occupy themselves, under the sufferance and
connivance of their elder medical brethren, with the few petty
matters, which they had disdained as too low and trivial for
persons of superior education.
But, GENTLEMEN! such is not the light in which the Coi-
lege of Surgeons, and, what is more important, in which the
public regards our profession. The legislature, in voting public
money to purchase the rich collection formed by an English
surgeon, and to prepare a suitable building for its safe deposit;
and the rulers of this College, in the pecuniary exertions con-
nected with the acceptance of this precious gift, in the devotion
of time and labour demanded by the necessary arrangements,
and in the institution of professorships, so well calculated to
keep alive the spirit of emulation and improvement, have recog-
nised surgery as a liberal science, and have viewed surgeons, in
the free exercise of their allotted branch of the healing art, as
an independent body, responsible in its professional proceedings
to no superior professional jurisdiction.
It is our duty, GENTLEMEN! and, I am sure, it will be not
less our pleasure, to maintain our profession in the rank thus
marked out for it by public opinion. That impartial and gene-
394
CONCLUDING ADDRESS.
rally enlightened tribunal will support and protect us so long as
our endeavours are honestly directed to advancing and perfect-
ing the theory and practice of so useful an art. Our own indi-
vidual credit, and the dignity, honour, and reputation of our
body, demand that surgeons should not be behind any other
class in the profession, either in the cultivation of all branches
of knowledge directly connected with the healing art, or in any
of the collateral pursuits less immediately attached to it. It is
only in reference to such views and such objects, that the Hun-
terian collection could have been accepted, or can be of any use
to our College. Unless rightly employed, this valuable creasure
will be an incumbrance rather than an ornament: instead of
rendering service or conferring dignity, it will make our incom-
petence and disgrace more conspicuous.
The medical character is generally received as a certificate of
into the most cultivated society. A general acquaintance with
natural knowledge is expected of us, and is absolutely necessary
to answer the appeals which are constantly made to us in con-
versation. As general information is now so much more
diffused than heretofore, our relative superiority can only be
maintained by increased exertion.
In the present day, GENTLEMEN! professional characters
are estimated fairly enough according to the proportion of their
knowledge and active talent; the efficacy of names and titles,
like the fashion of wigs and canes, is gone by, without a chance
of revival. The obsolete institutions of past ages, and inefficient
modern ones, meet alike with silent disregard.
The mighty impulse, which for the last half century has so
signally extended the boundaries of knowledge in all directions,
still actuates the human mind. The astonishing occurrences of
this eventful period raised it at times into irregular agitation :
that, indeed, has for the present subsided; but the force of the
original movement is not at all diminished ;-I think rather in-
creased. It will perhaps display itself, now that political revo-
lutions and innovations are suspended in a more vigorous pursuit
of the useful sciences, and a more active cultivation of the arts
Surgery is largely indebted to this past and present mental
activity. So much bave its principles, its doctrines, and its
practical proceedings been modified—I will venture to say im.
proved, that the magnitude of the change is noticed, even by
CONCLUDING ADDRESS.
395
the junior members of the profession. But do not suppose that
it has reached perfection ; or that it is destined to stop at its
present point. What has been hitherto effected, in the physio-
logical and pathological principles of our art, has been chiefly to
expose and remove errors, to clear away rubbish and incum-
brances, and lay some part of the foundation. It still remains
for us to erect the building. We must increase, rather than
relax our exertions.
The current of knowledge and improvement rushes on so
strongly, that they who hesitate to commit themselves to it, will
of enabling us to measure the force and rapidity of the stream.
Beware, I exhort you, of this shameful apathy, this fatal indeci-
sion; and strain every nerve to advance all branches, whether
immediate or auxiliary, of the profession you have chosen. You
will thus enjoy the greatest pleasure, which upright and honour-
able minds can receive, that of increasing the usefulness, and
thereby raising the credit and respectability of the body to which
you belong : you will prepare for yourselves, at all times, a pure
source of the rnost satisfactory reflections.
Our professional ministrations introduce us to our fellow,
creatures in the most endearing character, as instruments of
unquestionable benefit; not merely in alleviating or removing
the severe pressure of that great evil, bodily pain, and protracta
ing the approach of that awful moment, from which all sentient
beings shrink back with instinctive dread, the termination of
existence; but in soothing the acuter anguish which near rela-
tions and friends feel for each other. Consider the responsibi.
lity attached to those decisions, on which it will depend whether
a beloved wife or husband shall be saved; whether children
shall be restored to their anxious parents, or parents be pre-
served for the benetit of their offspring. On reviewing our con-
availing, the reflection that nothing has been omitted, which the
resources of our art rendered possible,-nothing neglected,
which more diligent study, and more active pursuit of know-
ledge could have supplied, will be a support and a consolation.
What must be the feelings of those, to whom this consolation
is denied ? who feel a doubt whether the fatal event has merely
exemplified the limited efficacy of art, or has been owing to their
own ignorance or incompetence ?
These matters have, however, been already treated with such
396
CONCLUDING ADDRESS.
just feeling and such persuasive eloquence, by my ingenious and
most estimable colleague,* that I desist, apprehensive that by
going on I should only weaken the effect of his forcible appeals.
My distinguished coadjutor spoke of his excursions into the
field of comparative anatomy, as if they required explanation or
apology. By making man the principal object of my Lectures,
I have imitated him in deviating apparently from the precise
course marked out by our superiors. I wish I could have pre-
sented to you as effectual an excuse as he did, in the bold and
novel views, the striking thoughts, the acute remarks, and the
beautiful languages of his interesting discourses.
I shall be satisfied, however, GENTLEMEN ! if you will accord
to me the humbler merits of industry in collecting materials,
patience in arranging, combining, and reflecting on them, fide-
lity and independence in exhibiting to you, precisely as they
appeared to my mind, the inferences and deductions that resulted
from the whole.
To the Court, to the members of this College, and to my other
hearers, I am much indebted for their patient attention to fifteen
long Lectures, during the extraordinary heats of this Bengal
summer; particularly in the oppressive atmosphere of this unven-
tilated theatre, and at a time of day, when in such seasons living
beings seem almost instinctively to seek repose.
GENTLEMEN! I thank you very sincerely; and I wish you
profession!
• Ant Carlisle, Esq.
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admiration of Europe; of their simplicity and beauty the pen is quite incapable of conveying an
adequate impression."-Sir Thomas Laiorence,
FLAXMAN'S ACTS OF MERCY.
A Series of Light Compositions, in the manner of Ancient Sculpture, engraved in imitation of the
original Drawing's, by F. C. LEWIS. Oblong folio (pub, at 21. 28.), half-bound morocco, 168. 1831
GELL AND GANDY'S POMPEIANA;
Or, the Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii. Original Series, containing the Result
of the Excavations previous to 1819. 2 vols. royal 8vo, best edition, with upwards of 100 beautiful
Line Engravings by GOODALL, COOKE, HEATI, PYE, &C., (pub. at. 71.45.), boards, 31.3s. 1621
GOETHE'S FAUST, ILLUSTRATED BY RETZSCH.
In 26 beautiful Outlines. Royal 4to (pub. at 1l. 18.), gilt cloth, 10s.6d.
This edition contains a translation of the original poem, with historical and descriptive notes
GOODWIN'S DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
A Series of New Designs for Mansions, Villas, Rectory-Houses, Parsonage-Houses; Bailitrºs
Gardener's, Gamekeeper's, and Park-Gate Lodges; Cottages and other Residences, in the Grecian
Italian, and Old English Style of Architecture: with Estimates. 2 vols.. royal 4to, 96 Plutes
(pub. at 51. 55.), cloth, 21. 12s. 6d.
GRINDLAY'S (CAPT.) VIEWS IN INDIA, SCENERY, COSTUME, AND
ARCHITECTURE: chicly on the Western Side of India. Atlas 4to. Consisting of 36 most
beautifully coloured Plates, highly-finished, in imitation of Drawings; with Descriptive Letter.
press. (Pub, at 121. 128.), balf-bound morocco, gilt edges, 81. Ss.
1830
This is perhaps the most exquisitely-coloured volume of landscapes ever produced.
HANSARD'S ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF ARCHERY.
Being the complete History and Practice of the Art; interspersed with uumerous Anecdotes;
forming a complete Manual for the Bowman. Svo. Illustrated by 39 beautiful Line Engravings,
exquisitely finished, by ENGLEHEART, PORTBURY, &C., after Designs by STEPHANOPP, (pub, at
Il. 118. 6d.), gilt cloth, 10s. 6d.
HEATH'S CARICATURE SCRAP BOOK,
On 60 Sheets, containing upwards of 1000 Comic Subjects after SEYMOUR, CRUIKSIANK, PI1%,
and other eminent Caricaturists, oblong folio, (pub. at 21. 2s.); cloth, gilt, 158.
This clever and entertnining volume is now enlarged by ten additional shects, cach containing
numerous subjects. It includes the whole of Heath's Omnium Gatherum, both Series ; Illustra.
tions of Demonology and Witchcraft; Old Ways and New Ways; Nautical Dictionary ; Scenes
in London ; Sayings and Doings, &c.; a series of humorous illustrations of Proverbs, &c. As
large and almost infinite storehouse of humour it stands alone. To the young artist it would be
fouud a most valuable collection of studies, and to the family circle a constant source of unex-
ceptionable ainusement.

CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
HOGARTH'S WORKS ENGRAVED BY HIMSELF.
153 fine Plates (including the two well-known "suppressed Plates"), with claborate Letter-press
Descriptions, by J. Nicols. Atlus folio (pub. at 501.), half-bound morocco, gilt back and edges,
with a secret pocket for suppressed plates, 71.78.
1523
HOLBEIN'S COURT OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.
A Series of SO exquisitely beautiful Portraits, engraved by BARTOLOZZI, COOPER, and others, in
imitation of the original Drawings preserved in the Royal Collection at Windsor ; with Historical
and Biographical Letter-press by EDMUND LODGE, ESQ. Published by Joun CHAMBERLAINE.
Imperial 4to (puh. at 157. 158.), half-bound morocco, full gilt back and edges, 51. 158. 6d. 1812
HOFLAND'S BRITISH ANGLER'S MANUAL; Edited by EDWARD JESSE, Esq. ;
HOFLAND'S BRITISH ANGLERS

of the principal Rivers, Lakes, and Trout Streams; with Instructions in Fly Fishing, Trolling,
and Angling of every Descr ption. With upwards of 80 exquisite Plates, many of which are
highly-finished Landscapes engraved on Steel, the remainder beautifully engraved on Wood.
Svo, elegant, in gilt cloth, 12s.
1848
HOPE'S COSTUME OF THE ANCIENTS,
Hlustrated in upwards of 320 beautifully-engraved Plates, containing Representations of Egyptian,
Greek, and Roman Habits and Dresses. 2 vols. royal Svo, New Edition, with nearly 20 additional
Plates, boards, reduced to 21.58.
1941
HOWARD (FRANK) ON COLOUR,
As a MEANS of Ant, being an adaptation of the Experience of Professors to the Practice of
Amateurs, illustrated by 18 coloured Plates, post 8vo, cloth gilt, 8s.
1838
In this able volume are shown the ground colours in which the most celebrated painters worked.
It is very valuable to the connoisseur, as well as the student, in painting and water-colour
drawing.
HUNT'S EXAMPLES OF TUDOR ARCHITECTURE ADAPTED TO MODERN
HABITATIONS. Royal 4to, 37 Plates, (pub. at 21. 2s.), balf morocco, 11. 48.
1836
Royal 4to, 21 Plates, (pub. at 1l. 18.), half morocco, 148.
1941
HUNT'S DESIGNS FOR GATE LODGES, CAMEKEEPERS' COTTAGES, ETC.
Royal 4to, 13 Plates, (pub. at 1l. 13.), half morocco, 148.
1841
HUNT'S ARCHITETTURA CAMPESTRE;
OR, DESIGNS FOR LODGES, GARDENERS HOUSES, &c., IN TIL ITALIAN STYLE.
12 Plates, royal 4to, (pub.at ll. 18.), half inorocco, 148.
1827
ILLUSTRATED FLY-FISHER'S TEXT BOOK.
A Complete Guide to the Science of Trout and Salinon Fishing. By TUFOPNI109 SOUTI, Gent.
(Ed. Curry, BARRISTER). With 23 beautiful Engravings on Steel, after Paintings by COOPEN,
NEWTON, FIELDING, LBE, and others. Svu, (pub. at ll. 118. 6d.), cloth gilt, 108. 60.
18-15
'TALIAN SCHOOL OF DESIGN.
Consisting of 100 Plates, chicfly engraved by BARTOLOZZI, after the original Pictures and Drawings
of GUERCINO, MICHABL ANGELO, DOMENICHINO, ANNIBALE, LUDOVICO, and AGOSTINO CA-
RACCI, PIETRO DA CORTONA, Carlo DARATTI, and others, in the Collection of Her Majesty.
Imperial 4to, (pub. at 107. 108.), half morocco, gilt edges, 31. 38.
1843
KNIGHT'S (HENRY CALLY) ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY,
FROM THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. With an
Introduction and Text. Imperial folio. Tirst Series, containing 40 beautiful and highly intc.
gold and colours, half-bound morocco, 51.58.
18-13
Second and Concluding Series, containing 41 beautiful and highly-interesting views of Ecclesi.
astical Buildings in Italy, arranged in Chronological Order; with Descriptive Letter-press. Im.
perial folio, half-bound morocco, 81. 58.
18+
KNIGHT'S (HENRY CALLY) SARACENIC AND NORMAN REMAINS.
To Illustrate the Normans in Sicily. Imp. folio. 30 large Engravings, consisting of Picturesque
Viewys, architectural Remains, Interiors and Exteriors of Buildings, with descriptive letter
18.10
The same, the 30 Plates Coloured like Drawings, balf-bound morocco, 81, 80.
1816
But very few copies are now first executed in this expensive manner.
KNIGHT'S PICTORIAL LONDON,
o vols. bound in 3 thick handsome vols. imperial 8vo., illustrated by 650 Vood Engravings, (nub.
at 31. 38.), cloth gilt, Il. 188.
1811-44
LONDON.-WILKINSON'S LONDINA ILLUSTRATA:
OR, GRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS of the most Interesting and Curious
Architectural Monuments of the City and Suburbs of London and Westminster, e.O., Monasteries,
Churches, Charitable Foundations, Palaces, Halls, Courts, Processions, Places of early Amuse-
ments, Theatres, and Old Houses. 2 vols. impl. 4to, containing 207 Copper-plate Engravings,
with Historical and Descriptive Letter-press, (pub. at 261, 58.), hall-bound morocco, 51.58, 1819-25
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOHN.
1822
LYSONS' ENVIRONS OF LONDON ;
Being an Historical Account of the Towns, Villages and Hamlets in the Counties of Surrey,
Kent, Essex, H crts, and Middlesex, 5 vols. 4to, Plates, (pub. at 101. 108.), cloth, 21. 108.
The same, large paper, 5 vols. royal 4to., (pub.at 151. 153.), cloth, 31. 38.
MARTIN'S CIVIL COSTUME OF ENGLAND,
From the Conquest to the Present Period, from Tapestry, MSS., &c. Royal 4to, 61 Plates, beau.
tifully Illuminated in Gold and Colours, cloth, gilt, 21. 128. 6d.
1842
MEYRICK'S PAINTED ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT ARMS AND AR-
MOUR, a Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour as it existed in Europe, but particularly in Eng-
land, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of Charles II., with a Glossary, &c. by SIX SAMUEL
Nusu MEYRICK, LL.D., F.S.A., &c., new and greatly improved Edition, corrected and enlarged
throughout by the Author himself, with the assistance of Literary and Antiquarian Friends,
(ALBERT Way, &c.) 3 vols. imperial 4to, illustrated by more than 100 Plates, splendidly illumi-
nated, mostly in gold and silver, exhibiting some of the finest Specimens existing in England;
also a new Plate of the Tournament of Locks and Keys, (pub.at 211.), half-bound morocco, gilt
edges, 101. 108.
1814
Sir Walter Scott justly describes this collection as “TUR INCOMPARABLB ARMOURY."-
Edinburgh Review.
MILLINCEN'S ANCIENT UNEDITED MONUMENTS;
Coinprising Painted Greek Vases, Statuca, Busts, Bas-Reliefs, and other Remains of Grecian
Art. 62 large and beautiful Engravings, mostly coloured, with Letter-press Descriptions, impe-
rial 4to, (pub. at 91. 93.), half morocco, 41. 148. 6d.
MOSES' ANTIQUE VASES, CANDELABRA, LAMPS, TRIPODS, PATERÆ,
Tazzas, Tombs, Mausolcuis, Sepulchral Chambers, Cinerary Urus, Sarcophagi, Cippi; and
other Oruaments, 170 Plates, several of which are coloured, with Letter-press, by Hore, small
8vo., (pub. at 31. 38.), cloth, 11. 58.
1814
MURPHY'S ARABIAN ANTIQUITIES OF SPAIN;
Representing, iu 100 very highly finished line Engravings, by LE KEUX, TINDEN, LANDSEBR,
G. Cookk, &c., the most reinarkablc Remains of the Architecture, Sculpture, Paintings, and
Mosaics of the Spanish Arabs, now existing in the Peninsula, including the inagnificent Palace
of Alhambra; the celebrated Mosque and Bridge at Cordova; the Royal Villa of Generalitfe ; and
the Casa de Carbon: accompanied by Letterpress Descriptions, in 1 vol. atlas folio, original and
brilliant impressions of the Platcs, (pub. at 421.), half morocco, 121. 125.
1813
MURPHY'S ANCIENT CHURCH OF BATALHA, IN PORTUGAL,
Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Vicws of the; with its history and Description, and an Intro.
ductory Discoluse on GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, imperial folio, 27 fine Copper Plates, en-
graved by Lowly, (pub. at 61. 68.), half morocco, 21. Śs.
-1795
NICOLAS'S (SIR HARRIS) HISTORY OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD
OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE; with an Account of the Medals, Crosses, and Clasps which have
buen conferred for Naval and Military Services; to:ether with a History of the Order of the
Guelphs of Hanover. 4 vols. imperial 4to, splendidly printeri and illustrated by nuinerous fine
Woodcuts of Badges, Crosses, Collars, Stars, Medals, Ribbands, Clasps, &c., and many large Plates,
illuminated in gold and colours, including full-len; th Portraits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert,
the King of Hanover, and the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex. (Pub. at 141. 148.), cloth, with
morocco backs, 51. 158. 60.
*** Complete to 1947
- the same, with the Plates richly coloured but not illuminated, and without the extra
portraits, 4 vols. royal 4to, cloth, 31. 136.6d.
“Sir Harris Nicolas has produced the first comprehensive History of the British Orders of
Knighthood; and it is one of the most elaborately prepared and splendidly printed works that ever
188uell from the press. The Author appears to us to have neglected no sources of information, and
to have exhausted them, as far as regards the general scope and purpose of the inquiry. The
Graphical Illustrations are such as become a work of this character upon such a subject; at, of
course, a lavish cost. The resources oť the recently revived art of wood-engraving have been
combined with the new art of printing in colours, so as to produce a rich effect, almost rivalling
that of the monastic illuminations. Such a book is sure of a place in every great library. It con-
tains matter calculated to interest extensive classes of readcrs, and we hope by our specimen to
excite their curiosity."- Quarterly Review.
NICHOLSON'S ARCHITECTURE; ITS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE.
3 vols. Svo, Fourth Edition, 218 Plates by LOWRY, (pub. at 31.3s.), cloth, ll. 10s.
1841
For classical Architecture the text book of the Profession, the most useful Guide to the Student,
and the best Compendium for the Amateur. An emiuent architect has declared it to be “not
only the most useful book of the kind ever published, but absolutely indispeusable to the stu-
dent."
PICTORIAL HISTORY OF PALESTINE, THE HOLY LAND, AND THE JEWS.
By JOHN KIrro, editor of the Pictorial Bible. 2 vols, super royal Svo, with above 500 finc Wood-
cuts (pub. at ll. 155.), cloth gilt, 11. 5s.
A work which no family shoud be without. It will interest the child, and irstructiue pbilo.
sopher.


CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
PICTORIAL HISTORY OF GERMANY DURING THE REIGN OF FREDERICK
THE GREAT; including a complete History of the Seven Years' War. By FRANCIS KUGLER.
Illustrated by ADOLPI MENZEL. Royal Svo with above 500 Woodcuts (pub. at ll. 8s.), cloth
gilt, 12s.
1845
PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FRANCE,
from the establislment of the Franks in Gaul to the period of the French Revolution. By G. M.
on wond (pub. at 21. 168.), cloth gilt, 11.5s.
1843
PICTORIAL HISTORY OF NAPOLEON.
By G. M. BUSSEY. 2 vols. imperial Svo, illustrated by nearly 500 bcantiful Engravings by HORACE
VERNBT (pab. at 21. 28.), gilt cloth, ll. 18.
Thomas, 1810
PICTORIAL GALLERY OF RACE-HORSES.
Containing Portraits of all the Winning Horses of the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger Stakes' diving
the last Thirteen Years; and a History of the principal Operations of the Turf. By WILDRAKE
(Geo. Tattersall, Esq.). Royal 8vo, containing 75 beautiful Engravings ot Horses, after Pictures
by COOPBR, HERRING, HANCOCK, ALKEN, &c. Also, full-length characteristic Portraits of
celebrated living Sportsmen ("Cracks of the Day") by SEYMOUR (pub. at 21. 2s.), scarlet cloth,
gilt, 188.
PICTURESQUE TOUR OF THE RIVER THAMES,
in its Western Course ; including particular Descriptions of Richmond, Windsor, and Hampton
Court. By JOAN F11ER MURRAY. Illustrated by upwards of 100 very highly-finished Vood
Engravings by ORRIN SMITH, BRANSTON, LIANDELLS, LINTON, and other epinent artists; to
which are added several beautiful Copper and Steel Plate Engravings by COOKE and others.
One large bandsome volume, royal Svo (pub. at 11.58.), gilt cloth, 108. Od.
18:15
The most beautiful volume of Topographical Lignographs ever produced.
PINELLI'S ETCHINGS OF ITALIAN MANNERS AND COSTUME,
Rome, 1910
PRICE (SIR UVEDALE) ON THE PICTURESQUE
in Scenery and Landscape Gardening; with an Essay on the Origin of Taste, and much additional
matter. By Sir Thomas Dick LAUDER, Bart. 8vo, with 60 beautiful Wood Engravings by
MONTAGU STANLEY (pub, at ll. 18.), gilt cloth, 128.
1842
setting forth the Origin, Distory, and Signification of the various Emblems, Devices, and Symbol.
ical Colours, peculiar to Christian Design of the Middle Ages. Illustrated by nearly 80 Plates,
splendidly printed in gold and colours. Royal 4to, ball morocco extra, top edges gilt, 76.78.
PUGIN'S ORNAMENTAL TIMBER CABLES,
selected from Ancient Examples in England and Normandy. Royal 4to, 80 Plates, cloth, 11. 1s.
1839
PUCIN'S EXAMPLES OF COTHIC ARCHITECTURE,
selected from Ancient Edifices in England; consisting of Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Parts at
large, with Historical and Descriprive letter-press, illustrated by 225 Engravings by LE KEUX.
3 vols. 4to (pub. at 121. 128.), cloth, il. 173. Gd.
1835
PUGIN'S GOTHIC ORNAMENTS.
90 fine Plates, drawn on Stone by J. D. HARDING and others. Royal 4to, half morocco, 31. 38. 1944
RADCLIFFE'S NOBLE SCIENCE OF FOX-HUNTING,
For the use of Sportsmen, royal 8vo., nearly 40 beautiful Wood Cuts of Hunting, Hounds, &c.,
(pub. at 1l. 89.), cloth gilt, 108.64.
1839
REYNOLDS' (SIR JOSHUA) GRAPHIC WORKS.
300 beautiful Engravings (comprising nearly 400 subiects) after this delightful painter, engraved
on Steel by S. W. Reynolds. 3 vols. folio (pub. at 361.) Lalf bound morocco, gilt cdges, 121, 12s.
REYNOLDS' (SIR JOSHUA) LITERARY WORKS.
Comprising his Discourses, delivered at the Royal Academy, on the Theory and Practice of Paint.
ing ; his Journey to Flanders and Holland, with Criticisms on Pictures ; Du Fresnoy's Art of
Painting, with Notes. To which is pretixed, a Memoir of tbe Author, with Remarks illustrative
of his Principles and Practice, by BEECHBY. New Edition. 2 vols. fcap. 8vo, with Portrait (pub.
at 188.), gilt cloth, 108.
1816
* His admirable Discourses contain such a body of just criticism, clotlied in such perspicuous,
elegant, and nervous language, that it is no exaggerated panegyric to assert, that thcy will last as
long as the Eazlish tongue, add contribute, not less than the productions of his pencil, to render
his name immortal."-Northcote.
"ROBINSON'S RURAL ARCHITECTURE;
Being a Series of Designs for Ornamental Cottages, in 96 Plates, with Dstinates. Pourth, greatly
improved, Edition. Royal 4to (pub. at 41. 4s.), half morocco, 21. 58.
ROBINSON'S NEW SERIES OF ORNAMENTAL COTTAGES AND VILLAS.
56 Platee by HARDING and ALLOM. Royal 4to, balf morocco, 21. %.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOEN.
ROBINSON'S ORNAMENTAL VILLAS.
96 Plates (pub. at 41. 4s.), hall morocco, 21. 58.
ROBINSON'S FARM BUILDINGS.
56 Plates (pub. at 21, 23.), balf morocco, 11. 113. 6d.
ROBINSON'S LODGES AND PARK ENTRANCES.
48 Plates (pub. at 21.28.), hall morocco, 11. 11s. Gd.
ROBINSON'S VILLAGE ARCHITECTURE.
Fourth Edition, with additional Plate. 41 Plates (pub.at 17. 168.), ball bound uniform, 11. 48.
SHAKSPEARE PORTFOLIO ;
A Series of 96 GBAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS, after Designs by the most eminent British Artists,
including Smirke, Stothard, Stephanoff, Cooper, Westall, Hilton, Leslie, Briggs, Corbould, Clint,
&c., beautifully engraved by Heath, Greatbach, Robinson, Pye, Finden, Englelart, Armstrong,
Rolls, and others, (pub. at 81. 88.), in a case, with leather back, imperial Svo., il..18.
SHAW AND BRIDGENS' DESIGNS FOR FURNITURE,
With Candelabra and interior Decoration, 60 Plates, royal 4to., (pub.at 31.3s.,), half-bound, uncut,
11. 113. 6d.
1838
The same, large paper, impl. 4to., the Plates coloured, (pub.at 62. 68.), hall-bound, uncut, 31.3s,
SHAW'S LUTON CHAPEL,
Its Architecture avd Ornaments, illustrated in a series of 20 highly finished Line Engravings,
imperial folio, (pub.at 31. 38.), half morocco, uncut, 12. 168.
1530
SMITH'S (C. J.) HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CURIOSITIES.
Consisting of Tac-similes of interesting Autographs, Scenes of remarkable Historical Events and
interesting Localities, Engravings of Old Houses, Illuminated and Missal Ornaments, Antiquities,
&c. &c.; containing 100 Plates, some illuminated, with occasional letter-press. In 1 voluine 4to,
half morocco, uncut, reduced to 31.
1840
SPORTSMAN'S REPOSITORY;
sentire inal paintion by the cuts by
Comprising a Series of highly finished Line Engravings, representing the Lorse and the Dog, in
all their varieties, by the celebrated engraver JOHN SCOTT, rom original paintings by Reinagle,
Gilpin, Stubbs, Cooper, and Landseer, accompanied by a comprehensive Description by the Author
of the “British Field Sports,” 4to., with 37 large Copper Plates, and nuncrous Wood Cuts by
Burnett and others, (pub. at 21. 128. 6d.), cloth gilt, 11. 1s.
STOTHARD'S MONUMENTAL EFFICIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.
147 beautifully finished Etchings, all of which are more or less tinted, and some of them highly
illuminated in gold and colours, with Historical Descriptions and Introduction, by KEMPR. Folio
(pub. at 192.), half morocco, 81. 85.
STRUTT'S SYLVA BRITANNICA ET SCOTICA;
Or, Portraits of Forest Trces distinguished for their Antiquity, Magnitude, or Beauty, comprising
50 very large and highly-finished painters' Etchings, imperial folio (pub. at 91. 98.), half morocco
extra, gilt edges, 41. 108.
1826
STRUTT'S DRESSES AND HABITS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND,
from the Establishment of the Saxons in Britain to the present time; with an Historical and
Critical Inquiry into every branch of Costume. New and greatly improved Edition, with Critical
and Explanatory Notes, by J. R. PuancuE', Esq., T.S.A. vols. royal 4to, 153 Plates, cloth, 41.48.
The Plates coloured, 71. 78. The Plates splendidly illuminated in gold, silver, and opaque colours,
in the Missal style, 201.
1843
STRUTT'S REGAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF ENGLAND.
Containing the most authentic Representations of all the English Monarchs from Edward the
Confessor to Henry the Eighth; together with many of the Great Personages that were eminent
runder their several Reigns. New and greatly improved Edition, by J. R. PLANCHK', Esq., F.S.A.
Royal 4to, 72 Plates, cloth, 21. 28. The Plates coloured, 41. 43. Splendidly illuminated, uniform
with the Dresses, 121. 128.
1812
STUBBS' ANATOMY OF THE HORSE.
24 fiue large Copper-plate Engravings. Imperial folio (pub. at 11. 48.), boards leather back,
Il. 118. 60.
The original edition of this fine old work, which is indispensable to artists. It has loug beep
considered rare.
TAYLOR'S HISTORY OF THE FINE ARTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
vols. post 8vo, Woodcuts (pub. at ll. 13.), cloth, is. 6id,
1841
"The best view of the state of modorn art."-- United States Gazette.
TOD'S ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN;
OR, THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN RAJPOOT STATES OF INDIA, (COMMONLY
CALLED RAJPOOTANA). By Lieut.-Colonel J. Tod, many years resident in Rajpootana as
Political A gent. 2.vols, imperial 4to, embellished with above 50 extremely beautiful line Engrap-
lags by FINDEN, and capital large folding maps, (pub.at 91.98.), cloth, 61.08.
1829-32
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
WALKER'S ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
Preceded by a critical View of the general Hypotheses respecting Beauty, by LEONARDO DA
Vinci, MexGS, WINCKELMANN, HUME, HOGARTU, BURKE, KNIGHT, ALSSON, and others. New
Edition, royal 8vo, illustrated by 22 beautiful Plates, after drawings from life by H. HOWARD,
by GaucI and LANE (pub. at 21. 28.), gilt cloth, ll. 18.
1846
WATTS'S PSALMS AND HYMNS,
ILLUSTRATED EDITION, completc, with indexcs of “ Subjects," « Tirst Lines," and a Table of
Scriptures, 8vo., printed in a very large and beautiful typc, embellished with 24 beautiful Wood
Cuts by Martin, Westall, and others, (pub. at 12. ls.), gült cloth, 7s.6d.
WHISTON'S JOSEPHUS, ILLUSTRATED EDITION,
Complire; containing both the Antiquities and the Wars of the Jews. 2 vols. Svo, handsomely
printed, embellished with 52 beautiful Wood Engravings, by various Artists, (pub. at 12.48.), cloth
boards, elegantly gilt, 148.
1816
WIGHTWICK'S PALACE OF ARCHITECTURE,
A Romance of Art and History. Imperial 8vo, with 211 Illustrations, Steel Plates, and Wood-
cuts, (pub. At 21. 128. 64.), cloth, 11. 58.
1810
WILD'S ARCHITECTURAL GRANDEUR
WCHTWICKIES PARA ARCHI
half morocco, 11.48.
1837
12 Platcs, coloured and mounted like Drawings, in a handsome portfolio (pub. at 121. 128.), impe-
rini folio, 56. 58.
WILLIAMS' VIEWS IN GREECE,
6-1 beautiful Line Engravings by MILLER, HORSDURGI, and others. 2 vols.imperial Svo, (pub.
at Gl. 68.), half bound morocco extra, gilt edges, 21. 12s.6d.
WOOD'S ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES AND RUINS OF PALMYRA
AND BALBEC. 2 vols. in 1, imperial folio, containing 110 fine Copper-plate Engravings, some
very large and folding, (pub.at 76.78.), hall morocco, uncut, 31. 138. 6d.
1827
S
Natural History, agriculture, &c.
ANDREWS' FIGURES OF HEATHS,
With Scieutific Descriptions. 6 vols. royal 8vo, with 300 beautifully coloured Plates, (pub.at
151.), cloth, gilt, 71. 108.
1845
BARTON AND CASTLE'S BRITISH FLORA MEDICA;
OR, BIISTORY OF THE MEDICINAL PLANTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 2 vols. Sro, illus.
trated by upwards of 200 Coloured Figures of Plants, (pub.at 31.38.), cloth, ll. 168.
isto
BAUER AND HOOKER'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE CENERA OF FERNS,
In wiich the characters of each Genus are displayed in the most elaborate manner, iu a scries of
magnified Dissections and Figures, highly finished in Colours. Imperial Svo, Plates, 6. 1839-42
BEECHEY.-BOTANY OF CAPTAIN BEECHEY'S VOYAGE,
Comprising an Account of the Plants collected by Messrs. Lay and COGLIE, and other Officers of
the Expedition, during the Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits. By Sir WILLIAM
JACKSON HOOKER, and G. A. W. ABNOTT, Esq., illustrated by 100 Plates, beautifully engraved,
complete in 10 parts, 4to. (pub. at 72. 108.), 51.
1831-41
BEECHEY.-ZOOLOGY OF CAPTAIN BEECHEY'S VOYAGE,
Compiled from the Collections and Notes of Captain BERCURY and the Scientific Gentlemen
who accompanied the Expedition. The Mammalia, by Dr. RichARDSON; Ornithology, by N. A.
VIGURS, ESQ.; Fishes, by G. T. LAY, Esq., and E.T. BENNETT, Esq.; Crustacea, by RICHARD
Owxx, Esq.; Reptiles, by Joun EDWARD GRAY, Esq.; Shells, by W. SOWENDY, ESQ.; and
Geology, by the Rev. Dr. BUCKLAND. 4to, illustrated by 47 Plates, containing many hudred
l'igures, beautifully coloured by Sowerby, (pub. at 51.58.), cloth, 31. 138. 6d.
1899
BOLTON'S NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SONG BIRDS,
BOLTON'S NATURE
ral Attitudes; their Nosts and Eggs, Food, Favourite Plants, Shrubs, Trees, &c. &c. New Edition,
revised and very considerably augmented, 2 vols. in l, medium 4to, containing 80 beautifully
coloured plutes (pul. at 81.8s.), balt-bound inorocco, gilt backs, gilt edges, 31. 38.
1865
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOAN.
BROWN'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LAND AND FRESH WATER SHELLS
OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND; with Figures, Descriptinns, and Localities of all the
Species. Royal 8vo, containing on 27 large Plates, 330 Figures of all the known British Species,
1845
CURTIS'S FLORA LONDINENSIS;
Revised and Improved by GEORGE GRAVES, extended and continued by Sir W. JACKSON
Hooker; coinprising the History of Plants indigenous to Great Britain, with Indexes; the
Drawings made by SYDEXILAN EDWARDS and LINDLKY. vols, royal folio (or 109 parts), con-
aining 617 Plates, exhibiting the full natural size of each Plant, will magnified Dissections of
che Parts of Fructification, &c., all beautifully coloured, (pub, at 872 48. in parts), half bound
morocco, top edges gilt, 301.
1835
SENNY-MONOGRAPHIA ANOPLURORUM BRITANNIÆ, OR BRITISH
SPECIES OF PARASITE INSECTS (oublished under the patronage of the British Associa-
tion), 8vo, numerous beautifully coloured plates of Lice, containing several hundred magnificd
figures, cloth, ll. lls. 6d.
1812
DONOVAN'S NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INSECTS OF INDIA.
Enlarged, by J. O. WESTWOOD, Esq., F.L.S. 4to. with 58 plates, containing upwards of 120 exqui-
sicely colowed figures (pub. at 6l. Gdl.), cloud, gilt, reduced to 21. 5s.
DONOVAN'S NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INSECTS OF CHINA.
Eularged, by J. O. WESTWOOD, Esq., F.L.S., 4to. with 50 plates, containing upwards of 120 exqui-
siiely coloured figures (pub. at 6l. os.), cloth, gilt, 21.58.
1842
"Donovan's works on the Insects of India and China, are splendidly illustrated and extremely
useful."--Naturalist.
“The entomological plates of our countryman Donovan, are highly coloured, elegant, and use-
ful, especially those contained in his quarto volumes (Insects of India and China), where & greut
uumber of species are delineated for the first time."-Swainson.
DONOVAN'S WORKS ON BRITISH NATURAL HISTORY.
Viz.-Insects, 16 vols.-Birds, 10 vols.-Shells, ő vols.--Fishes, 5 vols.-Quadrupeds, 3 vols.-toge-
ti:er 39 vols. Svo, containing 1198 beautifully coloured plates (pub.at G61.9s.), bds. 231.17s. The same
set of 39 vols. bound in 21, (pub. at 731. 108.), Hall green morocco extru, gilt edges, gilt backs, 301.
Any of the classes may be had separately.
DRURY'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOREIGN ENTOMOLOGY;
Whicrein are cxhibited upwards of 600 exotic Insccts, of the East and West Indies, China, New
Bolland, North and South America, Germany, &c. By J. O. WESTWood, Esq., P.L.S., Secretary
of the Entomological Society, &c. 3 vols. 4to, 150 Plates, most beautifully coloured, containing
above 600 figures of Insects, (originally pub. at 15l. 158.), half bound morocco, 6l. 16s. 6d. 1837
EVELYN'S SYLVA AND TERRA.
Barth; with Life of the Author, and Notes by Dr. A. Hunter, 2 vols. royal 4to. Fifth improved
Edition, with 46 plates (pub. at 51.58.), cloth, 21.
1925
GREVILLE'S CRYPTOGAMIC FLORA,
Comprising the Principal Species found in Great Britain, inclusive of all the New Species recently
discovered in Scotland. 6 vols. royal Svo, 360 beautifully coloured Plates, (pub, at 161. 168.), hali
piorocco, 81.8s.
i$23-S
This, though a complete Work in itself, forms an almost indispensable Supplement to the
thirty-six_volumes of Sowerby's English Botany, which does not comprehend Cryptogamous
l'lants. It is one of the most scientific and best executed works ou Indigenous Botany ever pro-
duced in this country.
KARRIS'S AURELIAN; OR ENGLISH MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES,
Their Natural History, together with the Plants on which they fecd; New and greatly improved
2 dition, by J. O. WESTWOOD), Esq., 1.L.S., &c., in 1 vol. sm. folio, with 44 plates, containing
above 400 figures of Moths, Butterflies, Caterpillars, &c., and the Plants on which they feed,
exquisitely coloured after the original drawings, bali-bound morocco, 11.43.
18-10
This extremely beautiful work is the only one which contains our English Moths and Butter-
fies of the full natural size, in all their cbanges of Caterpillar, Chrysalis, &c., with the plants on
which they feed.
HOOKER AND GREVILLE, ICONES FILICUM; OR, FIGURES OF FERNS.
With DESCRIPTIONS, many of wlich have been altogether unnoticed by Botanists, or have
slot been correctly figured. 2 vols. folio, with 240 beautifully coloured Places, (pub. at 251. 48.),
half morocco, gilt edges, 121. 12s.
The grandest and most valuable of the many scicntific Works produced by Sir William Hooker.
HOOKER'S EXOTIC FLORA,
Containing ligues and Descriptions of Rare, or otherwise interesting Exotic Plants, especially
of such as are descrving of being cultivated in our Gardens. 3 vols. imperial 8yo, coutaining 232
large and beautifully coloured Plates, (pub. at 151.), cloth, Gl. Cis.
This is the most superb and attractive of all Dr. Hooker's valuable works.
« The ‘Exotic Flora,' by Dr. Hnoker, is like that of all thic Botanical publications of the inde-
fatigable author, excellent; and it assunies an appearance of finish and perfectiou to which
weither the Botanical Magazine nor Register can extcrually lay cluin."--Loudon.

1829-31
10
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
ub. at gerai mene ele cuptions
HOOKER'S JOURNAL OF BOTANY ;
Containing Figures and Descriptions of such Plants as recommend themselves by their novelty,
rarity, or History, or by the uses to which they are applied in the Arts, in Medicine, and in
Domestic Economy; together with occasional Botanical Notices and Inforination, and occa-
sional Portraits and Memoirs of eminent Botanists. 4 vols. Svo, numerous plates, some coloured,
(pub. at 31.), cloth, ll.
1834-42
HOOKER'S BOTANICAL MISCELLANY:
. Pavelers Commation, medicine, marmelty
Containing ligures and Descriptions of Plants, which recommend themselves by their novelty,
rarity, or history, or by the uses to which they are applied in the Arts, in Medicine, and in
Domestic Economy, together with occasional Botanical Notices and Inforination, including many
valuable Communications from distinguished Scientific Travellers. Complete in 3 thick vols.
royal Svo, with 153 plates, many finely coloured (pub. at 51. 58.), gilt cloth, 21. 125. d. 1530-33
HOOKER'S FLORA BOREALI-AMERICANA;
OR, THE BOTANY OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. Hlustrated by 240 plates, complete
in Twelve Parts, royal 4to (pub, at 121. 123.), 81. The Twelve Parts complete, done up in sols.
royai 4.0, extra cloth, 81.
1929.40
HUISH ON BEES;
TUCIR NATURAL HISTORY AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT. New and greatly im-
proved Edition, containing also the latest Discoveries and Improvements in every department of
ibe Apiary, with a description of the most approved Lives now in use, thick 12mo, Portrait and
punerous Woodcuts (pub. at 108.61.), cloth gilt, 08. 60.
1944
LATHAM'S GENERAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.
Being the Natural History and Description of all the Birds (above four thousand) hitherto known
or described by Naturalists, with the Synonymes of preceding Writers; the second cularged and
improved Kuition, comprchending all the discoveries in Omithology subsequent to the former
publication, and a General Index, ll vols. in 10, 4to, with upwards of 200 coloured Plates,
lettcrcd (pub.at 262. Ss.), cloth, il. 178. 6d. Finchester, 1921-28. The same with the plates exqui-
sitely coloured like drawings, 11 vols. in 10, elegantly hi.-bound, green morocco, gilt edges, 121.12s.
LINDLEY'S BRITISH FRUITS ;
OR, FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF
FRUIT CULTIVATED IN GREAT BRITAIN. 3 vols. royal Svo, containing 152 most beau.
tifully coloured plates, chiclly by Mrs. WITBERS, Artist to the Horticultural Society, (pub.at
101. 10s.), ball-bound, morocco extra, gilt edges, 51. 5s.
1841
“This is an exquisitely beautiful work. Every plate is like a highly finished drawing, similar
to those in the Horticultural Transactions."
LOUDON'S (MRS.) ENTERTAINING NATURALIST,
Bcing Popular Descriptions, Tales, and Anecdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals, compres
hending all the Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, &c., of wlich a knowledge is indis-
pensable in politc education. With Indexes of Scientific and Popular Nanes, an Explanation of
Terms, and an Appendix of Tabulous Animals, illustrated by upwards of 400 beautiful woodcuts
by BEWICK, HARVEY, WIIDIPF.R, and others. New Edition, revised, enlarged, and corrected to
the present state of Zoological Kuowledge. In one thick vol. post 8vo, gilt cloth, 78. Gd.
1843
MANTELL'S (DR.) NEW GEOLOGICAL WORK.
THE MEDALS OF CREATION, or First Lessons in Geology, and in the Study of Organic
Remains; including Geological Excursions to the Isle of Shoppy, Brighton, Lewes, Tilgate
Forest, Charnwood Forcst, Farringdon, Swindon, Calne, Bath, Bristol, Clifton, Matlock, Crich
Hill, &c. By Gideon ALGERNON MANTELI, ESQ. LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Two thick vols. foolscap
Svo, with coloured Plates, and several hundred beautiful Woodcuts of Fossil Remains, cloth gilt,
11, 18.
1814
MANTELL'S WONDERS OF GEOLOGY,
Or a Tamiliar Exposition of Geological Phenoinena. Sixth greatly enlarged and improved
Edition. 2 vols, post Svo, coloured Plates, and upwards or 200 Woodcuts, gilt clutb, 188. 1848
ARANTELL'S CEOLOGICAL EXCURSION ROUND THE ISLE OF WIGHT,
Aud along the adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire. In 1 vol. post Svo, with numerous beautifully
executed Woodcuts, and a Geological Map, cloth gilt, 125.
1847
MUDIE'S NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS;
OR, THE FEATHERED TRIBES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 2 vols. 8vo. Nerr Edition,
che Plates bcautifully coloured (pub. at 11. Ss.), cloth gilt, 169.
1895
"This is, without any exception, the most truly charming work on Ornithology which has
Witherto appeared, from the days of Willoughby downwards. Other authors describe, Mudie
paints; other authors give the husk, Mudie the kernel. We most heartily concur with the
opinion expressed of this work by Leigh Hunt (a kindred spirit) in the first few numbers of his
right pleasant London Journal. The descriptions of Bewick, Penuant, Levin, Montagu, and
cven Wilson, will not for an instant stand comparison with the spirit-stirring emanations of
Mudie's living pen,' as it has been called. We are not acquainted with any author who so
felicitously unites beauty of style with strength and nerve of expression. he does not specify,
he paints."-Wood's Ornithologicul Guile.

PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY 1. G. BOHN.
RICHARDSON'S GEOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS,
Comprising a fainiliar Explanation of Gcology and its associate Sciences, Mineralogy, Physical
Geology, lossil Conchology, Fossil Botany, aud Palæontology iucluding Directions for formin
Collections, &c. By G. P. RiculaRDSON, f.6.3. (formerly with Dr. Diancell, now of the Billisu
Museum). Second Edition, considerably enlarged and iinproved. Que thick vol. post Svo, illus-
trated by upwards of 260 Woodcuts (pub at 108. od.), cloth, 78. 6d.
SELBY'S COMPLETE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY.
A most magnificent work of the Figures of British Birds, containing exact and faithful representa-
tions in their full natural size, of all the kuown species found in Great Britain, 383 Figures ir 2
beautifully coloured Plates. 2 vols. elephaut folio, elegantly half bound morocco (pub. at 1051.),
gilt back and gilt edges, 311. 108.
1834
“The grandest work on Ornithology published in this country, the same for British Birds that
Audubon's is for the birds of America. Every figure, excepting in a very fety instances of cx-
tremely large birds, is of the full natural size, beautifully and accurately drawn, with all the spirit
of lifc." Ornithologists Text Book.
“What a treasure, during a rainy forenoon in the country, is such a gloriously illuminated work
as this of Mr. Selby. It is, without doubt, the most splendid of the kind ever published in Britain,
and will stand a comparison, without any eclipse of its lustre, with the most magnificent ornitho.
logical illustrations of the French school. Mr. Selby has long and deservedly ranked high ag &
scientific naturalist."-Blackwood's Magazine.
SELBY'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY.
2 rols. Svo. Second Edition (pub. at 11. 18.), boards, 128.
1933
SIBTHORP'S FLORA GRÆCA.
The most costly and magnificent Botanical work ever published. 10 vols. folio, with 1000 beau-
tifully coloured Plates, balf bound morocco, publishing by subscription, and the number strictly
limited to those subscribed for (pub. at 2521.), 031.
· Separate Prospectuses of this work are now rcady for delivery. Only forty copies of the original
stock exists. No greater number of subscribers' names can therefore be received.
SIBTHORP'S FLORÆ GRÆCÆ PRODROMUS.
Sive Plantarum omnium Enumeratio, quas in Provinciis aut Insulis Græciæ invenit Jon. Sin.
TIORP : Charactercs et Synonyma omnium cum Annotationibus Jac. Edv. SarITn. Pour parts,
in 2 thick vols. Svo (pub. at 21. 2s.) 148.
Londini, 1316
SOWERBY'S MANUAL OF CONCHOLOGY.
Containing a complete Introduction to the Scicnce, illustrated by upwards of 650 mgures of
Shells, etched on copper-plates, in which the most characteristic examples are given of all the
Geuera established up to the present tiinc, arranged in Lamarckian Order, accompanied by copious
Explanations ; Observations respecting the Geographical or Geological distribution of caclı;
Tabular Views of the Systems of Lamarck and De Blainville; a Glossary of Techuical Terms, &c.
New Edition, considerably enlarge and improved, with numerous woodcuts in the text, yow first
added, 8vo, cloth, 18s. The platcs coloured, cloth, 17. 168.
'1845
SOWERBY'S CONCHOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS ;
OR, COLOURED FIGURES OF ALL THE HITHERTO UNFIGURED SHELLS, complete
in 200 Shells, Svo, comprising several thousand Figures, in parts, all beautifully coloured (pub, at
151.), 7l. 108.
1841-75
SPRY'S BRITISH COLEOPTERA DELINEATED
Containing Figures and Descriptions of all the Genera of British Beetles; edited by STUCKARD,
Sro, with 94 plates, comprising 63s figures of Beetles, beautifully and most accurately drawn
(pub.at 21. 28.), cloth, ll. 18.
1810
"" The most pericct work yet published in this dcpartment of British Entomology."
STEPHENS' BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY,
12 vols. Svo, 100 coloured Plates (pub. at 211.), half-bound, sl. 88.
1828-46
Or separately, LEPIDOPTERA, 4 vols., 41.4%. COLEOPTRRÁ, 5 vols., 47. 48. DERMAPTEBA, ORTUOP.
NEUROP., &c., 1 vol., 1l. 13 AYDENOPTERA, 2 vols., 21.23.
SWAINSON'S EXOTIC CONCHOLOGY;
OR, FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF RARE, BEAUTIFUL, OR UNDESCRIBED
SHELLS. Royal 4to, containing 94 large and beautifully coloured figures of Shells, half-bound
morocco, gilt edges (pub, at 51. 58.), 21. 128. 6d.
SWAINSON'S ZOOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS:
OR, ORIGINAL FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW, RARE, OR INTERESTING
ANIMALS, selected chiefly froin the Classes of Ornithology, Entomology, and Conchology. i
vols, royal 8vo, containing 318 finely coloured plates, (pub. at 161. 168.), half-bound muorocco, gilt
edges, 91. 95.
SWEET'S FLORA AUSTRALASICA;
OR, A SELECTION OF HANDSOME OR CURIOUS PUANTS, Natives of New Holland,
and the South Sea Islands. 15 Nos. forming oue vol. royal 8vo, complete, with 56 beautifully
coloured plates (pub, at 31. 158.), cloth, 11. 168.
1927-28
SWEET'S CISTINEÆ:
OR, NATURAL ORDER OF CISTUS, OR ROCK ROSE. 30 Nos, forming one vol. Forn)
8yo, complete, with 112 beautifully coloured plates (pub, at 51. 53.), clotu, 21. 1:6. 6.1.
1973
"One of the most interesting, and hitherto the scarcest of Mr. Sweet's beautiful publications."
WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.
By Sir W. JARDINE, 18mo, many pretty Woodcuts by BRANSTON (pub. at 58.), cloth, 23. 6d.
Mith the Piatris bertujifully colournil, Smo (pub. at 78. bil.), gilt clülli, 58.
1836

n
the and una sonraphicmarikian ramples
12
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
Miscellaneous English Literature,
INCLUDING
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, POLTRY, AND THE
DRAMA, MORALS, AND MISCELLANIES.
... BACON'S WORKS.
Both English and Latin. With an Introductory Essay, and copious Indexes. Complete in
2 large vols. imperial Svo, Portrait, (pub, at 21. 2s.), cloth, it. 16s.
1838
BACON'S ESSAYS AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,
With Memoir avd Notes by Dr. Taylor. Square 12.0., with 34 Woodcuts, (pub.at 48.), ornamental
wrapper, 28. 6d.
18-10
BATTLES OF THE BRITISH NAVY,
From A.D. 1000 to 18.10. By JosErı ALLEN, of Greenwich Hospital. 2 thick elegantly-printed
vols. foolscap 8vo, illustrated by 24 Portraits of British Admirals, beautifully engraved on Steel,
aud numerous Woodcuts of Battles, (pub, at Il. 13.), cloth gilt, 14s.
1842
"These volumes are invaluable; they contain the very pith and marrow of our best Naval
Histories and Chronicles."-Sun.
« The best and most complete repository of the triumphs of the British Ilavy which has yet
issued from the press."--United Service Gazette.
BOOK OF THE COURT;
Exhibiting the History, Duties, and Privileges of the several Ranks of the English Nobility and
Gentry, particularly of the Grent Officers of State, and Members of the Royal Household, iu-
cluding the various Forms of Court Etiquette, Tables of Prcccdency, Rules to be observed at
Levces and Drawing Rooms, &c., with an Introductory Essay on Regal State and Ceremonial,
nd a full Account of the Coronation Ceremony, Dedicated by cominaud to her Majesty, 8vo.,
legantly printed, (pub. at 168.), cloth gilt, 78.
1$44
BOSWELL'S LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON; BY THE RIGHT HON. J. C, CROKER.
Incorporating lis Tour to the Hebrides, and accompanied by the Commentaries of all preceding
Editors: with uumerous additional Notes and Illustrative Anecdotes ; to which are added, Tro
Supplementary Voluncs of Anccdotes by HAWKINS, Piozzi, MURPUY, TYERS, REYNOLDS,
STEEvers, and others. 10 vols. 12ino, illustrated by upwards of 50 Views, Portraits, and Sheets
of Autographs, finely engraved on Steel, from Drawings by Stanfield, Harding, &c., cloth, reduced
to ll. 158.
ISAS
This new, improved, and greatly enlarged cdition, beautifully printed in the popular form of
Sir Walter Scott, and Byron's Works, is just such an editiou as Dr. Johnson himself loved and
recommended. In one or the Ana recorded in the supplementary volumes of the present edition, he
says: “Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful
after all. Such books forın the mass of general and easy reading."
BOURRIENNE'S MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON,
Onc stout, closely, but elegantly printed vol., foolscap 12mo., with fine equestrian Portrait of
Napoleon and Frontispiece, (pub. at 58.), cloth, 3s. 60.
1844
BRAND'S POPULAR ANTIQUITIES,
Customs, Ceremonics, and Superstitious of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; revised and con-
siderably enlarger by Sir Henry Ellis, 3 vols. square 12mo., New Edition, with 48 Woodcut
Illustrutions, (pub. at 158.), ornamental wrapper, 10s.
1844
BRITISH POETS, CABINET EDITION,
Containing the complete works of the principal English pocts, froin Bilton to Kirke White. 4 vols.
post Svo (size of Standard Library), printed in a very small but beautiful type, 22 Medallion
I'ortraits (pub. ac 21. 2s.), cloth, lös.
BROWNE'S (SIR THOMAS) WORKS, COMPLETE.
Including bis Vulgar Errors, Religio Medici, Urn Burial, Christian Morals, Correspondence,
Journals, and Tracts, many of them hitherto Uupublished. The whole collected and edited by
SIMON VVILKIN, F.L.S. 4 vols. Svo, fine Portruit, (pub, at 21. 8s.), cloth, ll. 118. 6d. Pickering, 1836
“Sir Thomas Browne, the contemporary of Jeremy Taylor, Hookc, Bacon, Selden, and Robert
Burton, is undoubtedly one of the most eloquent and poetical of that great literary era. His
thoughts are often truly sublimnc, and alway's conveyed in the most impressive language."
Chanibers.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOUN.
13
BUCKINGHAM'S AMERICA; HISTORICAL, STATISTIC, AND DESCRIPTIVE,
Viz.: Northern States, 3 vols., Eastern and Western States, 3 vols., Southern or Slave States,
2 vols.; Canada, Nova Scotia, New Bruvswick, and the other British Provinces in North America,
1 vol. Together 9 stout vols. Src, nunerous fine Engravings, (pub. at 61. 108. Od.), cloth, 21. 128. od.
1841-43
“Mr. Buckingham goes deliberately through the States, treating of all, historically and statis-
tically-of their rise and progress, their manufactures, trade, population, topography, fertility,
resources, morals, manuers, education, and so forth. His volumes will be found a storehouse of
knowledge."--Atheneum.
"A very entire and comprehensive view of the United States, diligently collected by a man of
great acuteness and observation."-Literary Gazette.
BURKE'S (EDMUND) WORKS.
With a Biographical and Critical Introduction by Rogers. 2 vols. imperial 8vo, closcly but
handsomely printed, (pub. at 21. 25.), cloth, 11. 108.
18.11
BURKE'S ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF HERALDRY; OR, GENERAL ARMOURY
OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. Comprising a Registry of all Armorial Bear-
ings, Crests, aud Mottoes, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, including the late Grunts
by the College of Arms. With an Introduction to Heraldry, and a Dictionary of Terms. Third
Edition, with a Supplement. One very large vol. imperial Svo, beautifully printed in small type,
in double columns, by WUITTINGIAN, embellished with an elaborate Frontispiece, richly illu-
minated in gold and colours; also Woodcuts, (pub. at 21. 28.), cloth gilt, 11. 58.
18.11
The most elaborate and useful Work of the kind ever published. It contains upwards of
30,000 armorial bearings, and incorporates all that have hitherto been given by Guillim, Edmond-
soil, Collins, Nisbet, Berry, Robson, and others; besides many thousand names which have never
appeared in any previous Work. This volume, in fact, in a small compass, but without abridg-
ment, contains more than four ordinary quartos.
BURNS' WORKS, WITH LIFE BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, AND NOTES
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, CAMPBELL, WORDSWORTH, LOCKHART, &c. Royal Svo,
fine Portrait and Plates, (pub. at 188.), cloth, uniform with Byron, 108. Od.
1842
This is positively the only complete edition of Burns, in a single volume, 8vo. It contains not
only every scrap which Bums ever wrote, whether prose or verse, but also a considerable number
of Scotch national airs, collected and illustrated by him (not given elsewhere, and full and interest-
ing accounts of the occasions and circumstances of his various writings. The very complete and
interesting Life by Allan Cunningham alone occupies 164 pages, and the Indices and Glossary are
very copious. The whole forms a tuick elegantly printed volume, extending in all to 8-18 pages.


vo, (pub. at 31.129.5mand published from difc. Chatham. Edited by
Alan Cunningham, comprised in only 47 pages, and the whole voluine in only 504 pages, do not
contain above two-thirds of the above."
CAMPBELL'S LIFE AND TIMES OF PETRARCH.
With Notices of Boccaccio and his illustrious Contemporaries. Second Edition. 2 rols. Svo, fine
Portraits and Plates, (pub. at ll. lls. Od.), cloth, 128.
1843
CHANNING'S COMPLETE WORKS, THE LIBRARY EDITION.
Complete to the Time of his Decease. Printed from the Author's corrected Copies, transmitted to
the English Publishers by the Author himself. O vols. post Svo, bandsomely priuted, with a fine
Portrait, (pub. at 21. 28.), cloth, 1l. 18.
18:15
"Channing is unquestionably the finest writer of the age."-Frazer's Magazine.
CHATHAM PAPERS,
Being the Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Edited by the Executors of his
Son, Jolin Earl of Chatham, and published from the Original Manuscripts in their possession.
Murray, 1938.40
"A production of greater historical interest could hardly be imagined. It is a standard work,
which will directly pass into every library.”—Literary Guzette.
" There is hardly any man in modern times who fills so large a space in our history, and of
whoin we know so little, as Lord Chatham ; he was the greatest Statesman and Orator that this
country ever produced. We regard this work, therefore, as one of the greatest value."-Edin.
burgh Review.
CHATTERTON'S WORKS,
Both Prose and Poctical, including his Letters; with Notices of his Life, History of the Rowley
Controversy, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. 2 vols. post 8vo, elegantly printed, with
18-12
“Warton, Malone, Croft, Dr. Knox, Dr. Sherwin, and others, in prose; and Scott, Wordsworth,
Kirkc White, Montgomery, Shelley, Coleridge, and Keats, in verse; have conferred lasting immor.
tality upon the Poems of Cbatterton."
“Chatterton's was a genius like that of Homer and Shakspeare, which appears not above
once in many centuries." - Vicesimus Knox.
COOPER'S (J. F.) HISTORY OF THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA, fron the Earliest Period to the Peace of 1815,2 vols. Svo., (pub, at ll. 108.), gilt cloth,
123.
1836
14
CATALOGUD OF NEW BOOKS
COPLEY'S (FORMERLY MRS. HEWLETT) HISTORY OF SLAVERY AND
ITS ABOLITION, Second Edition, with an Appendix, thick small 8vo., ine Portrait of Clarksou,
(pub. at gs.), cloth, 46. 6d.
1839
COSTELLO'S SPECIMENS OF THE EARLY FRENCH POETRY,
From the time of the Troubadours to the Reign of Henry IV., post Svo, with 4.Plates, (pub. at
108. Gd.), cloth 78.
1835
COWPER'S COMPLETE WORKS, EDITED BY SOUTHEY;
Comprising his Poems, Correspondence, and Translations; with a Life of the Author. 15 vols.
post Svo, embellished with numerous exquisite Engravings, after the designs of HARVEY, (pub.
åt 31. 15s.), cloth, 21. 58.
1835-7
This is the only complete edition of Cowper's Works, prose and poetical, which has ever
becn given to the world. Many of them are still exclusively copyright, and consequently cannot
appear in any other edition.
CRAWFURD'S (J.) EMBASSY TO SIAM AND COCHIN-CHINA.
2 vols. 8vo, Maps, and 25 Plates, (pub. at 17. 118: Gd.), cloch,.125.
1830
CRAWFURD'S EMBASSY TO AVA,
Wirl an Appendix on Fossil Remains by Prof. BUCKLAND. 2 vols. 850, with 13 Maps, Plates, and
1834
CRUIKSHANK'S THREE COURSES AND A DESSERT.
A Series of Tales, in Three Sets, viz., Irish, 'Legal, and Miscellaneous. Crown Sro. with 51
extremely clever and comic Illustrations, (pub.at Il.18.), cloth, gilt, 98.
1814
in one person, is unexampled. A title of the talent that goes to making the stories would set up
a dozen of annual writers; and a title of the inventive genius that is displayed in the illustrations
would fumisla gallery." --Spectator.
DIBDIN'S BIBLIOMANIA, OR BOOK-MADNESS,
A Bibliographical Romance, New Edition, with considerable Additions, 'lucluding a Key to the
assumed Characters in the Drama, and a Supplement, 2 vols. royal 8vo, handnomely printed,
ambellished by numerous Woodcuts, many of which are now first added,: (pub. at 82. 88.), cloth,
17. 118. Gl. Large Papor, imperial Sro, of which only very few copies were printed, ub, at 51.58.),
cloth, 31. 138. Orda
This celebrated Work, which unites the entertainment of a romance with the most valuable
infongation on au bibliographical subjects, has long been very scaroe and srla for considerable
sums--the small paper for Sl. Ss., and the large paper for upwards of:50. guineas 111
DRAKE'S SHAKSPEARE AND HIS TIMES,
Including the Biography of the Poet, Oriticisins on bis Genius and Writings, a new Chronology
of his Plays, and a History of the Manners, Customs, and Amusements, Superstitions, Poetry, and
Literature of the Elizabethan Dra. 2 yols. 4to, (above 1400 pages), with ine Portrait and a Plate
of Autographs, (pub, at 51.58.), cloth, ll. 18.
2817
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tory of this country. It comprises also a complete and critical analysis of all the plays and
l'oems of Shakspeare; and a comprehensive and powerful sketch of the contemporary litera..
turc."-Gentleman's Magazinc.
ENGLISH CAUSES CELEBRES,
OR, REMARKABLE TRIALS. Square 12mo, (pub. at 4s.), ornamental ,wrapper, 3s. 184.5
FENN'S PASTON LETTERS.
Original Letters of the Paston Family, Written during the Reigns of Henry VI., Ddward IV., and
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Edition, with Notes and Correctious, complete in 2 vols. bound in 1, square 12mo, (pub. at 108.),
cloth gilt, 78. Gd. Quaintly bound in maroon morocco, carved boards, in the early style, gilt
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1816
The original edition of this very curious and interesting series of historical Letters is a rare
bcok, and sells for upwards of ten guincas. The present is not an abridgment, as might be buy-
posed from its form, but gives the whole matter by omitting the duplicate version of the letters
written in an obsolete language, and adopting only the more modern, readable version published
by lenn.
“The Paston Letters are an important testimony to the progressive condition of society, and
come in as a precious link in the chain of the moral history of England, which they alone in this
period supply. They stand indeed singly in Europe."-Hallam.
FIELDING'S WORKS, EDITED BY ROSCOE,
CUMPLETC IN.OND VOLUME, (Toin Jones, Amelia, Jonathan Wild, Joseph Andrews,
Plays, Essays, and Miscellanies.) Medium Svo, with 20 capital Plates by CRDIK8UANK, (pub.at
1848.
Or all the works of imagination to which English genius has given origin, the writings of
Honry Fielding arc perhaps nuost decidedly and exclusively her own." Sir Walter Scott,
"The prosc Honner of human pacure."-Loril Byron.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOEN.
15
Secondo
nostre
entreprise
the foreign of ar
FOSTER'S ESSAYS ON DECISION OF CHARACTER :
On a Man's Writing Memoirs of Himself; on the epithet Romantic; on the Aversiou of Men of
Taste to Evangelical Religion, &c. Tcap. 8vo, Lighteenth Edition, (pub. at 68.), cloth, 58. 1S14
"I have read with the greatest admiration the Essays of Mr. Foster. He is one of the most
profound and eloqucnt writers that England uus produced."-Sir James Mackintosh.
FOSTER'S ESSAY ON THE EVILS OF POPULAR IGNORANCE.
New Edition, elegantly printed, in fcap. Svo, now first uniform with his Essays on Decision of
Churarter, cloth, 58.
1815
"Mr. Foster always considered this his best work, and the one by which he wished his literary
claims to be estimated."
"A work which, popular and admired as it confessedly is, has never met with the thousandib
part of the attention which it deserves."-Dr. Pye Smith.
GAZETTEER.NEW EDINBURGH UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER,
· AND GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, more complete than any hitherto published. New
Edition, revised and completed to the Present Time, by JOUN THOMSON, (Editor of the Universal
Atlas, &c.), very thick 8vo, (1040 pages), Maps, (pub.at 188.), clotlı, 123.
Erlinburgh. 1816
This comprehensive volume is the latest, and by far the best Universal Gazettecr of its size. It
includes a full account of Afghanistan, New Zealand, &c. &c.
GEORGIAN ERA, OR MODERN BRITISH BIOGRAPHY,
Comprising Memoirs of the Most Eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain from
the Accession of George the Hirst to the Demise of George the Fourth, 4 vols. swall Svo., Portraits
on steel, (pub.at il. 128.), cloth gilt, 168.
1803
GLEIC'S MEMOIRS OF WARREN HASTINGS,
First Governor General of Bengal. 3 vols. Sro, fine Portrait (pub. at 21. 55.), cloth, 11. 13. 1541
GOLDSMITH'S WORKS,
with a LrPs and NOT88. 4 vols. fcap. Svo, with engraved Titles and Plates by STOTUARs and
1845
“Can any author--can even Sir Walter Scott, be coinpared with Goldsmith for tlie variety,
many lights does lie, present to the iniagination." Athcncum.
“The volumes of Goldsmith will ever constitute one of the most precious 'wells of English un-
defiled.'”–Quarterly Revicro.
GORDON'S HISTORY OF THE GREEK REVOLUTION,
And of the Wars and Campuigns arising froni the struggles of the Greek Patriots in emancipating
their Country from the Turkish Yoke. By the late Tuomas GORDON, General of a Division of
the Greek army. Second Edition, 2 vols. Svo., Maps and Plans, (pub, at ll. 108.), cloth, 10s. Od.
1813
GELL'S (SIR WILLIAM) TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME AND ITS VICINITY.
An improved Editiou, complete in 1 vol. 8vo, with several plates, cloth, 12s. With a very large
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1816
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lasting inemorial of eminent literary exertion, devoted to a subject of great importance, and one
dear, not only to cvery scholar, but to every reader of intelligence to whom the truth of history
is an object of consideration."
GRANVILLE'S (DR.) SPAS OF ENGLAND
and Principal Sea Bathing Places. 3 vols. post Svo, with large Map, and upwards of 50 beautiful
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ISIL
GRANVILLE'S (DR.) SPAS OF GERMANY.
Svo, with 39 Woodcuts and Maps (pub. at 188.), cloth, 98.
1813
HEEREN'S (PROFESSOR) HISTORICAL WORKS,
Translated from the German, viz.-A84, New Edition, complcte in 2 vols.-AFRICA, 2 Fols.
EUROPE AND ITS COLONIES, 1 vol.ANCIENT GUERC8, and HISTORICAL TRKATISRS, 1 vol.
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*** Now and complete Editions, with General Indexcs.
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HEEREN'S HISTORICAL RESEARCHES INTO THE POLITICS, INTER-
COURSE, AND TRADES OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS OF AFRICA; including thc Car-
thaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians. Second Edition, corrected throughout, with an Index,
Life of the Author, new Appendixes, and other Additions. 2 yols. Svo (pub, ac ll. 10s.), cloth, 11. 48.
Orford, ?alboys, 1838
HEEREN'S HISTORICAL RESEARCHES INTO THE POLITICS, INTER-
COURSE, AND TRADES OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS OF ASIA; including the Persians,
Phænicians, Babylonians, Scythians, and Indians. New and improved Edition, cumulcte in 2
vols. Svo, elegantly printed (pub, originally at 21. 58.), cloth, k. 18.
18-16
“One of the most valuable acquisitions made to our historical stories since the days of Gibbon."
16
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
HEEREN'S MANUAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF
EUROPE AND ITS COLONILS, from its formation at the close of the Fifteenth Century, to its
re-establishment upon the Fall of Napoleon, translated froin the Fifth German Edition. Nov
Edition, complete in I vol. 8vo, cloth, 148.
1846
“The best History of Modern Europe that has yet appeared, and it is likely long to remain
without a rival."--Atheneum.
"A work of sterling value, which will diffuse useful knowledge for generations, after all the
shallow pretenders to that distinction arc fortunately forgotten." - Literary Gazette.
HEEREN'S ANCIENT GREECE, translated by BANCROFT ; and HISTORICAL
TREATISES; viz.:-I. The Political Consequences of the Reformation. II. The Rise, Pryzress,
and Practical Infiuence of Political Theories. III. The Rise and Growth of the Conzinental
Interests of Great Britain. In 1 vol. 8vo, with Index, cloth, 158.
1811
HEEREN'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY,
Particularly with Regard to the Constitutions, the Commerce, and the Colonies of the States of
Antiquity. Third Edition, corrected and improved. 8vo (pub. at 158.), cloth, 12s.
*.* Neo Edition, with Index.
1847
"We never remember to have seen a Work in which so much useful knowledge was condensed
into so small a compass. A careful examination convinces us that this book will be useful for our
English higher schools or colleges, and will contribute to direct attention to the better and mor
instructive parts of history. The translation is exccuted with great fidelity."Quarterly Jour
of Education.
HEEREN'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
For the Use of Schools and Private Tuitiou. Compiled from the Works of A. I. L. HEBRBY,
12mo, (pub. at 23. (a.), cloth, 28.
Oxford, Talboys, 183
"An excellent and most useful little volume, and admirably adapted for the use of schouls and
private instruction."-Literary Gecette.
"A valuable addition to our list of school books."-Atheneum.
JACOB'S HISTORICAL INQUIRY INTO THE PRODUCTION AND CON.
SUMPTION OF THE PRECIOUS METALS, vols. wird (pub.at ll. 48.), cloth 168.
1831
JAMES'S WILLIAM THE THIRD,
Comprising the History of his Reign, illustrated in a series of unpublished etters, addressed tro
the Duke of Shrewsbury, by JAMES VERNON, Secretary of State, with Introduction and Notes
by G. P. R. JAMES, Esq., 3 vols. Svo., Portraits, (pub. at 21. 28.), cloth, 188.
1811
JOHNSON'S (DR.) ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
Printed verbatim from the Author's last Folio Lèdition. With all the Examples in full. To which
are prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. One large vol. imperial Svo,
(pub. at 21. 2s.), cloth, 11. &s.
18-10
KNIGHT'S JOURNEY-BOOKS OF ENGLAND,
BERKSHIRE, including a full Description of Windsor. With 23 Engravings oa Wood, and a
large illuminated Map. Reduced to 18. 6d.
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KENT. With 58 Engravings on Wood, and a large illuminated Map. Reduced to 26. fin.
KNOWLES'S PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
A great improvement on WALKER. Royal sro (pab. at 12. 48.), cloth lettered, 98.
1845
Tbis highly esteemed and very comprehensive Dictionary coraprices 90,000 words, besides 12.000
Classical and Scripture names, being 55,000 more than are contained in the usual Editions of
Walker.
LACONICS; OR, THE BEST WORDS OF THE BEST AUTHORS.
Seventh Edition. 3 vols. 18mo, with elegant Frontispieces, containing 30 Portraits, (pub. at 158.),
cloth gilt, 78. 6d.
Tilt, 13:10
This pleasant collection of pitby and sententious readings, from the best English authors of all
ages, has long enjoyed great and deserved popularity.
LANE'S MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.
A New and enlarged Edition, with great Improvements. 2 vols. Svo, numerous Woodcuts, printed
to match Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, (pub. at ll. 88.), cloth gilt, 189.
1842
« Nothing can be more accurate than Mr. Lane's descriptions; the English inhabitants say that
reading them upon the spot, they cannot detect a single error."-Roberts.
LEAKE'S (COL) TRAVELS IN THE MOREA.
3 vols. 8vo. With a very large Map of the Morea, and upwards of 30 various Maps, Plans, Plates
os' ancient Greek loscriptions, &c. (Pub, at 21. 58.), cloth, 17. 88.
1830
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY E. G. BOHN.
17
LISTER'S LIFE OF EDWARD FIRST EARL OF CLARENDON.
With Original Correspondence and Authentic Papers, never before published. 3 vols, sro, Portrait,
(pub. at 21. 8.), cloth, 188.
1838
"A Work of laborious research, written with masterly ability"--Atlas.
LOCKHART'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO & NEW SPAIN
AND MEMOIRS OF THE CONQUISTADOR, BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO. Written
by himself, and now first completely translated from the original Spanish. 2 vols. 8vo, (pub. of
11. 48.), cloth, 123.
1844
"Bernal Diaz's account bears all the marks of authenticity, and is accompanied with such
pleasant naïveté, with such interesting details, and such amusing vanity, and yet so pardonable in
an old soldier, who has been, as he boasts, in a hundred and nineteen battles, as renders his book
one of the most singular that is to be found in any language."-Dr. Robertson in his “History of
America."

MARTIN'S (MONTGOMERY) BRITISH COLONIAL LIBRARY ;
Forming a popular and authentic Description of all the Colonies of the British Empire, and cm-
bracing the History-Physical Geography-Geology-Climate Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral
Kingdoms-Government Finance Military Defence-Commerce-Shipping-Mouetary System
--Religion-Population, White and coloured-Education and the Press-Emigration-Social
State, &c., of each Settlement. Founded on Official and Public Documents, furnished by Govern-
ment, the Hon. East India Company, &c. Illustrated by original Maps and Plates. 10 yols.
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These 10 vols. contain the 5 vols. 8vo, verbatim, with a few additions. Each volume of the above
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Vol. II.-NEW SOUTH WALES, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, SWAN RIVER, and SOUTI AUSTRALIA.
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MAXWELL'S LIFE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
3 handsome volumes 8vo. Embellished with numerous highly-finished Line-Engravings by
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il. 168. Large paper, India proofs, (pub. at 51.), gilt cloth, 31. 38.
1839-41
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publications of the day....We pronounce it free from flattery and borrabast, succinct and
masterly. .., The type and mechanical execution are admirable; the plans of battles and
sieges numerous, ample, and useful; the portraits of the Duke and his warrior contemporaries
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and manners worthy of the military genius of Horace Vernet himself."-Timcs.
MILTON'S WORKS, BOTH PROSE AND POETICAL,
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il. 58.), cloth lettered, 1l. 18.
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MITFORD'S HISTORY OF GREECE, BY LORD REDESDALE,
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and much the best editiou, 1838) 8 vols. 8vo, (pub.at 41.48.), gilt cloth, 21.128.6d.
-Tree-inarbled calf extra, by CLARKE, 41. 148. Od.
In respect to this new and improved edition, one of the most Eminent scholars of the present.
day has expressed his opinion that "the increased advantages given to it bave doubled the original
value of the work."
It should be observed that the pumerous additions and the amended Chronology, from that
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fere with the integrity of the text.
As there are many cditious of Mitford's Greece before the public, it may be necessary to observe
that the present octavo edition is the only one which contains Mr. King's last corrections and
additions (which, as stated in his advertisement, are material); it is at the same time the only
edition which should at the present day be closen for the entleman's library, being the hand
8onest, the most correct, and the most complete,
18
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
MITFORD'S HISTORY OF GREECE, (continued)
Lord Byron says of Mitford, “His is tlic best Modern History of Greece in any language, and
he is perhaps the best of all modern historiaus vhatsoever. His virtues are learning, labour,
research, and carnestness."
“Considered with respect, not only to thic wliole sciics of ancient events which it comprises, but
also to any very prominent portion of that series, Mr. Mitford's II istory is the best that has
appeared since the days of Xeüophon."-Edinb. Reviero.
MORE'S UTOPIA, OR, THE HAPPY REPUBLIC,
A Philosophical Romance; to which is added, THE NEW ATLANTIS, by Lord BXOON; with a
Preliminary Discourse, and Notes, by J. A. ST.JOIN, fcap. Svo, (pub. åt Os.), cloth, 4s. 60.-With
the Life of Sir Thomas More, by SIR JAMES MACKINTOSU,2 vols. foolscup Svo, cloth, 83. 1945
OSSIAN'S POEMS,
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Dr. Blair's Critical Dissertation, completc in 1 ncatly printed vol., 18ino, frontispiece, (pub, at
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1944
OUSELEY'S (SIR WILLIAM) TRAVELS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF THE
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PERCY'S RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY,
Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our Earlier Poets, together with
some few of later date, and a copious Glossary, coinplete in 1 vol., mcdiun 8vo. New and elegant
Edition, with bcautifully enigraved title and frontispiccc, by Stephanott, (pub. åt 158.), cloth, gilt,
Ss. Od.
15:14
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The first time, too, I could scrape a few shillings together, I bought unto mysclf a copy of these
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“Percy's Reliques arc the most agreeable scléctiou, perhaps, which exists in any language."-
Cllis.
POPULAR ERRORS, EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED,
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IS11
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Chas. Knight, 1838-4.1
PRIOR'S LIFE OF EDMUND BURKE,
With unpublished Specimens of bis Poetry and Letters. Third and much improved Edition, Svo,
Portrait and Autographs; (pub. at 1-3.); gilt clotli, Is.
1939
“Excellent feeling, in perspicuous and forciblc laugunge.*--Quarterly Review.
123.
PRIOR'S LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH,
Froin a variety of Original Sources, 2 vols. Svo, Landsomely printed, (pub. at 11. 10s.), gilt cloth,
1537
"The solid worth of this biograpiy consists in the many striking anecdotes which Mr. Prior
has gathered in the course of his auxious researches among Goldsmith's surviving acquaintances,
and the immediate descendunts of his personal friends in London, and relations in Ireland ; above
all, in the rich mass of the poet's own fainiliur letters, which he has becn cnabled to bring together
for tlic first time. No poci's letters in the world, not even thosc of Cowper, appear to us more
interesting."- Quarterly Review.
RABELAIS' WORKS, BY SIR THOMAS URQUHART,
Morreux, and OZELL; with Explanatory Notes by Duchat and others. 4 vols. fcap. Svo, (pub.
11.), cloth, 16s.
Rabelnis, although a classic in every Europican language, and atlmitted into every library, is
too indecent for the present age, and should not be put in the way of females.
" The most celebrated and certainly the most brilliant performance in the path of fiction that
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&c.”—Coleridge.
RAFFLES' HISTORY OF JAVA, AND LIFE,
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pelago. Edited by Lady RAFFLES. Together 4 vols. Svo, and a splendid quarto Atlas, containing
upwards of 100 Plytes by DANIEL, many tinely coloured, (pub, at 11. 148.), cloth, 21.8s. 1930-35
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19
RICH'S BABYLON AND PERSEPOLIS,
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with hitherto unpublished Cunciforin Inscription's. Syo. Maps and Plates, (pub.at 11.18.), cloth,
10s. 60.
Duncan, 1839
RITSON'S VARIOUS WORKS AND METRICAL ROMANCES,
As Published by Pickering, the Set, viz:- Robin Hood; 2 vols.-Annals of the Caledonians,
2 vols.--Ancient Songs and Ballads, 2 vols.-Memoirs of the Celis, I vol.Life of King Arthur,
1 vol.--Ancient Popular Poetry, l. vol.-Fairy Tales, i rol Letters and Memoirs of Ritson, 2 vols. :
together 12 vols. post Syo; (pub. at 61. 53. 6d.), cloth, gilt, 37. 88.
1827-33
Or separately as follows:
RITSON'S ROBIN HOOD, a Collection of Ancient Poeins, Songa, and Ballads, relative to that
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RITSON'S ANNALS OF THE CALEDONIANS, PICTS, AND SCOTS. 2 vols. 165.
RITSON'S MEMOIRS OF THE CELTS OR GAULS. 108,
RITSON'S ANCIENT SONGS AND BALLADS. 2 vols. 18s.
RITSON'S PIECES 01 ANCIENT POPULAR POETRY. Post Svo. 7s.
RITSON'S TAIRY TALES, now first collected; to which are prefixed two Dissertations-1. On
Pigmics; 2. On Fairics, Ss.
RITSON'S LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH RITSON, Esq., editca from Originals in the
Possession of his Nephew, by Sir HARRIS NICOLAS, 2 yols. 108.
"No library can be callcd complete in ola Englislı lore, which has not the whole of the pro-
ductions of this laborious and successful antiquary."-atheneum,
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ROBINSON CRUSOE, CABINET PICTORIAL EDITION,
Including his further Adventures, with Life of Defoe, &c., upwards of 60 fine Wood-cuts, from
Designs by Haryxy, fcap. Syo, New and improved Edition, with additional Cuts, cloth, gilt, 58. 1840
The only small cdition which is quite complete.
"Perhaps there exists no work, either of instruction or cntertainment, in the English language,
which has been more generally read, or more deservedly admired, than the Life and Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe."-Sir Walter Scott.
ROLLIN'S ANCIENT HISTORY,
A New and complete Edition, with engravcd Frontispieces and 7 Maps. 2 vols. bound in 1 stout
handsome vol. royal Svo, (pub. at 11. 49.), cloth, 12s.
1844
The only complete edition in a compact form; it is uniform in size and appearance with
Moxon's Series of Dramatists, &c. The previous editions of Rollin in a single volume are greatly
abridged, and contain scarcely ball the work.
ROSCOE'S LIFE AND PONTIFICATE OF LEO THE TENTH.
New and much improved Edition, edited by his Son, Thomas Roscor. Complete in 2 stout vols.
Svo, closely but very handsomely printed, illustrated by 3 tine Portraits, and numerous illus-
trative Engravings, as head and tail-pieces, cloth, 11. 4s.
1846
ROSCOE'S LIFE OF LORENZO DE MEDICI, CALLED "THE MAGNIFICENT."
New and much improved Edition, edited by his Son, THOMAS ROSCOE. Conipletc in 1 stout vol.
Svo, closely but very handsomely printed, illustrated by numerous Lugravings, introduced as head
and tail-picces, cloth, 12s.
. 18:15
“I have not terms sufficient to express my admiration of Mr. Roscoe's genius and erudition, or
my gratitude for the amusement and inforination I have received. I recommend his labours to
our country is works of unquestionable genius and uncommon merit. They add the name of
Roscoe to the very first rank of English Classical Historians."-Matthias, Pursuits of Literature.
"Roscoe is, I think, by far the best of our Historians, both for beauty of style and for deep
reflections; and his translatious of poetry are equal to thc originals."-Malvole, Carl of Orford.
ROSCOE'S ILLUSTRATIONS, HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL,
of the LIPE OY LORENZO DE MEDICI, with an Appendix of Original Documents. 8vo, Portrait
of Lorenzo, and Plates (pub. at 143.), bourds, 70., or in 4to, printed to match thic original edition.
Portrait and Plates (pub, at ll. lls. 62.), boards, 10s.
*** This.volume is supplementary to all editions of the work.
SCOTT'S (SIR WALTER) POETICAL WORKS.
Containing Lny of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake, Don Roderic, Rokeby, Ballads,
Lyrics, und Songs, with Notes and a Life of the dutlor, complete in one elegantly printed vol.
18mo, Portrait azi Trontispiece (pub, at 5s.), cloth, 3s. 6d.
1813
C2
20
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS AND POEMS.
VALPY'S CADINBT PICTORIAL EDITION, with Life, Glossarial Notes, and Historical Digests of
each Play, &c. 15 vols. foolscap 8vo, with 171 Plates engraved on Steel after designs of the most dis-
tinguished British Artists, also Fac-similes of all the known Autographs of Shakespeare (pub. at
31. 15s.), cloth, richly gilt, 21. 58.
1843
SHERIDAN'S (THE RIGHT HON. R. BRINSLEY) SPEECHES,
with a Sketch of his Life, edited by a Constitutional Friend. New and handsome library Edition,
with Portrait, complete in 3 vols. šro, (pub. at 21. 58.), cloth, 188.
1812
“ Whatever Sheridan has done, has been par excellence, always the best of its kind. Ee bxs
written the best comedy (School for Scandal), the best draina (The Duenna), the best farce (The
Critic), and the best address (Monologue on Garrick); and to crown all, delivered the very best
oration (the famous Begum Speech) ever conceived or heard in this country."-Byron.
SMOLLETT'S WORKS, EDITED BY ROSCOE.
Complete in 1 vol. (Roderick Random, Humphrey Clinker, Peregrine Picklc, Launcelot Grcaves,
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by CRUIKSIANK (pub. at 11.48.), cloth gilt, 148.
1845
“Perhaps no books ever written excited such peals of inextinguishable laughter as Smollett's."
-Sir Walter Scott.
SOUTHEY'S HISTORY OF BRAZIL.
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1817
SOUTHEY'S LIVES OF UNEDUCATED POETS.
To which are added, "Attempts in Verse," by Joun Jones, an Old Servant. Crown Svo, (pab.
at 10s. 6d.), cloth, 48. 6d.
SPENSER'S POETICAL WORKS.
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printed in 5 vols. post Svo, fine Portrait (pub. at 21. 128. 6d.), cloth, ll. 18.
1845
SWIFT'S WORKS, EDITED BY ROSCOE.
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“Whoever in the three kingdoms has any books at all, has Swift."--Lord Chesterfield.
Isis
TUCKER'S LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED.
Complete in 2 vols. Svo (pub. at 1l. 10s.), cloth, 158.
18-12
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to call the most original and profound that has ever appeared on moral philosophy."-Sir Jancs
Mackintosh.
WADE'S BRITISH HISTORY, CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.
Comprehending a classified Analysis of Events and Occurrences in Church and State, and of the
Constitutional, Political, Commercial, Intellectual, and Social Progress of the United Kingdom,
from the Iirst Iuvasion by the Romans to the Accession of Queen Victoria, with very copious
Index and Supplement. New Edition. I large and remarkably thick yol. royal 8vo (1200 pages),
cloth, 188.
1817
WATERSTON'S CYCLOPÆDIA OF COMMERCE.
MERCANTILE LAW, FINANCE, COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY AND NAVIGATION.
New Edition, including the New TARIFF (complete to the present time); the FRENCI T'ARIPP,
as far as it concerns this country; and a Treatise on the Principles, Practice, and History of
Commerce, by J. R. M'CULLOCH. One very thick, closely printed vol. 8vo (900 pages), with four
maps (pub. at ll. 48.), extra cloth, 108. 6d.
1847
"This capital work will be found a most valuable manual to every commercial man, and a
useful book to the general reader.
WHYTE'S HISTORY OF THE BRITISH TURF
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY. vols. Svo, Plates, (pub.at
Il. 88.), cloth, 128.
1840)
WILLIS'S PENCILLINGS BY THE WAY.
A uew and beautiful Edition, with additions, fcap. 8vo, fine Portrait and Plates, (pub. at 68.), extra
active and inquisitive traveller, through some of the most interesting parts of Europe. Bis
curiosity and love of enterprise are unbounded. The narrative is told in easy, fluent language,
with a poet's power of illustration."-Edinburgh Revicio,
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY I. G. BOHN.
21
Theology, Morals, Ecclesiastical History, &c.
BAXTER'S (RICHARD) PRACTICAL WORKS,
With an Account of the Author, and an Essay on bis Genius, Works, and Times, 4 vols. imperial
8vo, portrait, (pub.at 41. 48.) cloth, 21. 128. 6d.
1845
BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
New and improved Edition, carefully revised, with an enlarged Index. 2 vols. imperial 8vo, cloth,
16. 11s. 6d.
1846
"Bingham is a writer who does equal honour to the English clergy and to the English nation,
and whose learning is only to be equalled by his moderation and impartiality."- Quarterly Review,
BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.
Quite complete, with a Life and Notes, by the Rev. T. Scott. Fcap. 12mo, with 25 fine full-sized
Woodcuts by Harvey, containing all in Southey's edition; also, a fine Frontispiece and Vignette,
cloth, 38. 6d.
1844
CALMET'S DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, WITH THE BIBLICAL FRAG-
MENTS, by the late CHARLES TAYLOR. 5 vols. Ato, illustrated by 202 Copper-plate Engravings.
Eighth greatly enlarged Edition, beautifully printed on ine wove paper (pub. at 101. 10s.), gilt
cloth, 41. 143. 6d.
1847
“Mr. Taylor's improved edition of Calmet's Dictionary is indispensably necessary to every
inost rare and authentic Voyages and Travels into Judea and other Oriental countries; and com-
prehend an assemblage of curious and illustrative descriptions, explanatory of Scripture incidents,
customs, and manners, which could not possibly be explained by any other medium. The nume-
rous engravings throw great light on Oriental customs."--Horne.
CALMETS DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY BIBLE.
Abridged, 1 large vol. imperial 8vo, Woodcuts and Maps (pub. at 11:48.), cloth, 158.
1847
CARY'S TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST FOUR CENTU-
RIES, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
as set forth in the XXXIX Articles, 8vo, (pub. at 128.), cloth, 78. 6d.
Oxford, Talboys.
is no mean honour.”—Church of England Quarterly.
CHARNOCK'S DISCOURSES UPON THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES
OF GOD. Complete in one thick closely printed volume, 8vo, with Portrait (pub. at 148.), cloth,
68.6d.
1846
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but irrefragable reasoning, conspire to render this performance one of the most inestimable pro-
ductions that ever did houour to the sanctified judgment and genius of a human being."-Toplady.

CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
Containing the following esteemed Treatises, with Prefatory Memoirs by the Rev. J. S. MEMES,
LL.D., viz.-Watson's Apology for Christiacity; Watson's Apology for the Bible; Paley's Evi.
dences of Christianity, Paley's Horæ Paulina; Jenyn's Internal Evidence of the Christian
Religion ; Leslie's Truth of Christianity Demonstrated; Leslie's Short and Easy Method with the
Dcists; Leslie's Short and Easy Method with the Jewg; Chandler's Plain Reasons for being a
Christian; Lyttleton on the Conversion of St. Paul; Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles; Sher-
lock's Trial of the Witnesses, with Sequel; West on the Resurrection. In 1 vol. royal 8vo., (pub.
at 148.), cloth, 108.
1846
CHRISTIAN TREASURY.
Consisting of the following Expositions and Treatises, edited by Memes, viz.--Magee's Discourses
and Dissertations on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice; Witherspoon's Prac-
tical Treatise on Regeneration ; Boston's Crook in the Lot; Guild's Moses Unveiled Guild's Har-
mony of all the Prophets; Less's Authenticity, Uncorrupted Preservation, and Credibility of the
New Testament; Stuart's Letters on the Divinity of Christ. In l vol. royal 8vo. (pub. at 128 ),
1844
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
CRUDEN'S CONCORDANCE TO THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT,
revised and condenscd by G. H. HANNAY, thick 18mo. beautifully printed (pub. at os.), cloth,
38.50.
1844
work, omitting only prepositions, conjunctions, &c., which can never be made available for pur-
poses of reference. Indced it is all that the Scripture student can desire.”—Guardian,
DONNE'S (DR. JOHN) WORKS.
Including his Sermons, Devotions, Poems, Letters, &c., edited, with a new Memoir by the Rev,
HENRY ÅLYORD. 6 bandsome vols. 8vo, with fine Portrait after Vandyck (pub. at 37. 128.), extra
cloth, reduced to 17. 16s.
Parker, 1839
“We cannot forbear repeating Mr. Coleridge's question, Why are not Donne's volumes of Ser-
mons reprinted ?' His Life is published in a cheap form by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, and deservedly so in every respect; but why does Oxford allow One Hundred and
Thirty Sermons of the greatest Preacher of the seventeenth century—the adinired of all hcarers-
to remain all but totally unknown to the students in divinity of the Church of England, and to the
literary world in general?"- Quarterly Review, vol. lix. p. 6.
FULLER'S (REV. ANDREW COMPLETE WORKS;
With & Memoir of his Life, by his Son, one large vol. imperial Svo, Nery Edition, Portrait (pub.at
11. 108.), cloth, 11. 58.
1845
GREGORY'S (DR. OLINTHUS) LETTERS ON THE EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES,
AND DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, addressed to a Friend. Eighth Edition,
with many Additions and Corrections. Complete in I thick well-printed volume, fcap. Svo, (pub.
at 78. 60.), cloth, 58.
1816
"We carnestly recommend this work to the attentive perusal of all cultivated minds. We arc
acquainted with 10 book in the circle of English literature, which is cqually calculated to give
young persons just views of the cvidence, the nature, and the importance of revealed religion."
Robert Hall.
CRAVES'S (DEAN) WHOLE WORKS.
Now first collected, comprising Essay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelists, Lectures
on the Four last Books of the Pentateuch; Proofs of the Triuity; Absolute Predestination com-
pared with the Scripturc statement of the Justice of God; and Sermons; with Life by his Son,
Dr. R. E. GRAVES. 4 vols. Svo, landsomely printed, Portrait (pub. at 22. 168.), cloth, 17. 85, S10
GRAVES'S (DEAN) LECTURES ON THE PENTATEUCH.
svo. New Cdition (pub. at 138.), cloth, 98.
1846
HALL'S (BISHOP) ENTIRE WORKS,
With an Account of his Life and Suſferings. New Edition, with considerable Additions, a Trans-
lation of all the Latin Pieces, and a Glossary, Indices, and Notes, by the Rev. PETER HALI,
12 vols. Svo. Portrait, (pub. at 71. 49.), cloth, 51.
Oxford, Talboys, 1837-39
HALL'S (THE REV. ROBERT) COMPLETE WORKS,
With a Memoir of his Life by Dr. OLINTILUS GREGORY, and Observations on his Character as a
Preacher, by Joun TOSTER, Author of Essays on Popular Ignorance, &c., 6 vols. 8vo, Landsonely
“Whoever wishes to sce the English language in its perfection must read the writings of that
great Divine, Robert Hall. He combines the beautics of Johnson, Addison, and Burke, without
their imperfections."-Dugald Stewart.
"I cannot do better than refer the academic reader to the immortal works of Robert Hall. For
inoral grandeur, for Christian truth, and for sublimity, we may doubt whether they have their
match in the sacred oratory of any age or country.”—Professor Sedgwick.
“ The name of Robert Hall will be placed by posterity among the best writers of t.4c age, ag
well as the most vigorous dcfenders of religious truth, and the brightest examples of Christian
charity."'_Sir J. Mackintosh,
HENRY'S (MATTHEW) COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE, BY BICKERSTETH,
In 6 vols. 2to, New Edition, privted on fine paper (pub. at 91. 98.), cloth, 41. 148. Cd."
18.16
HOPKINS'S (BISHOP) WHOLE WORKS,
With a Memoir of the Autluor, ip i thick.vol. royal 8yo, (pub. at 188.), cloth, 143. The same, with
a very extensive general Index of Texts and Subjects, 2 vols. royal 8vo, (pub. at 11. 18.), cloth,
18s.
18:11
"Bishop Hopkins's works forn of themselves a sound body of divinity. He is clcar, vehement
and persuasive."-Bickerstcth.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOHN.
HILL'S (REV. ROWLAND) MEMOIRS,
By his Friend, the Rev. W. Jones, edited, with a Preface, by the Rev. JAMES SIERMAN, (Row.
land Hill's Successor, ay Mivister of Surrey Chapel.) Second Edition, carefully revised, thick
1815
HOWE'S WORKS,
With Life by CALAdy, one largc vol. imperial Svo, Portrait, (published at 1l. 168.), cloth, 12. 108.
1838
“I have learned far more from John Flowe, than from any other author I ever read. There is
an astonishing magnificence iu his conceptions. He was unquestionably the greatest of the
puritan divines."— Robert Hall.
By a Member of the Blouses of Shirley and Hastings. Sixth Thousand, with a copious Index.
2 large vols. Svo, Portraits of the Countess, Whitefield, and Wesley, (pub. at 1l. 48.), cloth, 148. 184
HUNTINGTON'S (REV. W.) WORKS, EDITED BY HIS SON,
6 vols. Svo, Portraits and Plates (published at 31. 188. Gd), cloth, 21. 58.
LEIGHTON'S (ARCHBISHOP) WHOLE WORKS;
To which is pretixed a Life of the Author, by the Rev. N. T. PRARBON, New Edition, 2 thick vols.
Svo, Portrait, (pub. at ll. 45.), extra cloth, 16s.
1846
The only complete Edition,
LEIGHTON'S COMMENTARY ON PETER;
With Life by PEARSON, complete, in I thick handsomely printed vol. Svo, Portrait, (pub. at 12s.),
cloth, 98.
, 1846
M'CRIE'S LIFE OF JOHN KNOX,
With Illustrations of the History of the Reformation in Scotland. Now Edition, with numerous
Additions, and a Memoir, &c., by Andrew Crichton. Fcap. Svo (pub. at 5s.), clotlí, 3s. Od. 1997
MAGEE'S (ARCHBISHOP) WORKS,
Comprising Discourses and Dissertations on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacri.
fice; Sermons, and Visitation Charges. With a Memoir of his Life by the Rev, A. H. KENNY,
P.D. 2 vols. Svo, (pub. at ll. 68.), cloth, 188.
1842
“Discovers such deep research, yields so much valuable information, and affords so many helps
to the refutation of error, as to constitute the most valuable treasure of biblical learning, of which
& Christian scholar can be possessed."-Christian Observer.
MANUSCRIPT SERMONS,
A Series of Sixty Luglish Sermons on the Doctrine, Principles, and Practice of Cliristianity,
adapted to the Pulpit, by a Doctor of Divinity, complete in 15 parts, small 4to, (each containing
four Sermons), Lithographed on Writing Paper to resemble MSS. (pub. at 31. 158.), 108. 6.
MOORE'S (HANNAH) WORKS,
With a Memoir and Notes, 9 vols. fcap. Syo, the Portrait and Frontispieces, gilt cloth (pub. at
21. 58.), 11. 118. 6d.
l'isher, 1840
MORE'S (HANNAH) LIFE,
By the Rev. HENRY THOMSON, Post Svo, printed uniformly with her works, Portrait, and wood
ongravings, (pub. at 12s.), extra cloth, 6s.
Cadell, 1838
“This may be called the oflicial edition of Hannah More's Life. It brings so much new and
public. Among the rest, the particulars of most of her publications will reward the curiosity of
literary readers." --Literary Gazette.
MORE'S (HANNAH) SPIRIT OF PRAYER,
I'cap. 8vo, Portrait, (pub. at 68.), cloth, 48.
Cudcll, 1843
MORE'S (HANNAH) STORIES FOR THE MIDDLE RANKS OF SOCIETY,
And Tales for the Common People, 2 vols. post Svo, (pub. at 14s.), cloth, 9s.
Cadell, 1830
MORE'S (HANNAH) POETICAL WORKS,
Post Svo, (pub. at 83.), cloth, 38. 61.
Cadell, 1829
MORE'S (HANNAH) MORAL SKETCHES OF PREVAILING OPINIONS AND
MANNLRS, Foreign and Domestic, with Reflections ou Prayer, post Svo., (pub, at 98.), cloth, 48.
Cadell, 1830
24
CATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS
MORE'S (HANNAH) ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER AND PRACTICAL
WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL, post Svo., (pub, at 10s. 6d.), cloth, 58.
Cadell, 1837
MORE'S (HANNAH) CHRISTIAN MORALS,
Post Svo, (pub. at 103. I.), cloth, 5s.
Cadell, 1836
MORE'S (HANNAH) PRACTICAL PIETY ;
Or, the Intluence of the Religion of the Hcart on the Conduct of thc Life, 32mo, portrait, cloth,
28. 6d.
Cadell, 1840
The only complete small cdition. It was revised just before her death, and contains much
improvement, which is copyright.
MORE'S (HANNAH) SACRED DRAMAS,
chiefly intended for Young People, to which is added “Sensibility," an Epistle, 32ino, (pus. at
28. 6d.), gilt cloch, gilt edges, 2s.
Cadell,
This is thic last genuine edition, and contains some copyright editions, which are not in any
other.
MORE'S (HANNAH) SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS;
Wich Ballads, Tales, Hymns, and Epitaphs, 321no, (pub. at 28. 62.), gilt cloth, gilt edges, 1s. 6d.
Cadell,
PALEY'S WORKS,
IN ONE VOLUMK, consisting of his Natural Theology, Moral and Political Philosophy, Evidences
of Christianity, Hore Pauline, Clergyman's Companiou in Visiting the Sick, &c. 8vo, handsomely
printed in double columns, (pub, at 10s. 6d.), cloth, 5s.
1842
PICTORIAL DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY BIBLE,
Or, a Cyclopædia of Illustrations, Graphic, Historical, and Descriptive, of the Sacred Writings,
by reference to the Manners, Customs, Rites, Traditious, Antiquities, and Literature of Eastern
Nations, 2 vols. 4to. (upwards of 1430 double-column pages in good type), with upwards of inno
illustrative Woodcuts (pub. at 21. 108.), extra cloth, ll. 53,
1846
POOL'S (MATHEW) ANNOTATIONS UPON THE HOLY BIBLE,
Wherein the Sacred Text is inserted, and various Readings annexed, together with the Parallel
Scriptures; the more difficult Terms in cacu Verse are explained, seeming Contradictions recon-
ciled, Questions and Doubts resolved, and the whole Text opeued, 3 large vols. imperial Svo, (pub.
at 31. 15s.), cloth, 31. 38.
1946
Cecil says, “if we must have commentators, as we certainly must, Pool is incomparable, and I
had almost said, abundant or himselt,' and the Rev. E. Bickersteth pronounces the annotations to
be judicious and full. It is no mean praise of this valuable work that it is in the list of books
recommended to clergymen by Bp. Tomline. It is likewise recommended by Gilpin, Drs. E.
Williams, Adam Clarke, Doddridge, Forne, and the learned in general.
SCOTT'S (REV. THOMAS) COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE,
With the Author's last Corrections and Improvements, and 84 beautiful Woodent Illustrations
and Maps. 3 vols. inperial Svo (pub. at 41. 48.), cloth, 21. 58.
1997
SCRIPTURE GENEALOGIES,
Contaiuing 38 beautifully executed Lithographic Drawings, of all the Genealogies recorded in
the Sacred Scriptures, according to every Family and Tribe; with the line of our Saviour Jesus
Christ observed from Adam to the Virgin Mary, by J.P. Morris, Esq., royal 4to, (pub. at 11.11s.60.),
cloti, gilt, 78. Gd.
SIMEON'S WORKS,
Includiug bis SKELETONS OP SERMONE AND HORA HOMILETICÆ, or Discourses digested into
one continued Serics, and forming a Commentary upon every Book of the Old and New Testa.
went: to which are aunexeil an improved edition of Claude's Essay on the Composition of a
Sermon, end very comprehensive Indexes, edited by the Rev. TIOMAS HARTWELL HORNS %1
vols. Svo (pub. at 101. 108.), cloth, 71. 78.
The following miniaturc editions of Simeon's popular works are uniformly printed in 32mo, and
bound in cloth:
THE CHRISTIAN'S ARMOUR, 9d.
TIIE EXCELLENCY OF THE LITURGY, 9d.
THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 9d.
HUMILIATION OF THE SON OF GOD: TWELVE SERMONS, 9d.
APPEAL TO MEN OF WISDOM AND CANDOUR, 9d.
DISCOURSES ON BEHALF OF THE JEWS, ls. Gd.
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recommended as a Biblical Cominentary, well adapted to be read in families." -Lorondc8.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY A. G. BOHN.
25
SOUTH'S (DR. ROBERT) SERMONS :
To which are annexed the chief heads of the Sermons, a Biographical Memoir, and General Index,
vols. royal Svo, (pub. at 12. 48.), cloth, 188.
1844
STURM'S MORNING COMMUNING WITH GOD, OR DEVOTIONAL
MEDITATIONS TOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR, translated from the German. New
Edition, post 8vo, cloth, 58.
1947
TAYLOR'S (JEREMY COMPLETE WORKS,
With an Essay, Biographical and Critical, 3 large vols. imperial 8vo, portrait, (pub, at 31. 158.),
cloth, 31. 3s.
1836
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC OF ONGAR) NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM.
Tenth Edition, fcap. Svo, cloth, 58.
1845
"It is refreshing to us to meet with a work bearing as this unquestionably does, the impress of
bold, powerful, and original thought. Its most strikingly origiðal views, however, never trans-
gress the bounds of pure Protestant orthodoxy, or violate the spirit of truth and soberness; and
yet it discusses topics constituting the very root and basis of those furious polemics which have
shaken repeatedly the whole intellectual and moral world."-Atheneum.
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) FANATICISM.
1843
Third Edition, carefully revised. Foolscap Sro, cloth, 6s.
"It is the reader's fault, if he does not rise from the perusal of such a volume as the present a
wiser and a better man." Ecclectic Review.
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) SATURDAY EVENING.
Seventh Edition. Foolscap 8vo, cloth, 5s.
1844
""Saturday Evening,' and Natural History of Enthusiasm,' are two noble productions."-
Blackwood's Magazine.
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT,
Or conciso Explanations, alphabetically arranged, of thic principal Terms employed in the usual
Branches of Intellectual Philosopky. Seventh Edition. 12ino, cloth, 43.
1845
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY,
AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE OXFORD “TRACTS FOR THE TIMES." Tourth Edi-
tion, with a Supplement and Indexes. 2 vols. 8vo, (pub. at 11. 45.), cluth, 183.
1844
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) LECTURES ON SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY.
8vo, (pub. at 48. Gd.), cloth, 38.
1841
TAYLOR'S (ISAAC) HOME EDUCATION.
Fourth Edition. Foolscap 8vo, (pub. at 78. Od.), cloth, 58.
1842
TOMLINE'S (BISHOP INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE,
OR ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. Containing Proofs of the Authenticity and
Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures ; & Summary of the History of the Jews; an Account of the
Jewish Sects; and a brief Statement of the Contents of the several Books of the Old and New
Testaments. Nineteenth Edition, elegantly printed on fiue paper. 12mo, (pub, at 58. 6d.), cloth,
33. 6.
1845
« Well adapted as a manual for students in divinity, and may be read with advantage by the most
experienced divine."-Marak's Lectures.
WADDINGTON'S (DEAN OF DURHAM) HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE REFORMATION. 3 volg. 800 (pub. at 12 108.).
cloth bds., ll. 18.
WADDINGTON'S (DEAN OF DURHAM) HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
DURING TIL REFORMATION. 3 vols. 8vo, (pub. at 1l. lls. 61.), cloth bds., 188. 1841
WILBERFORCE'S PRACTICAL VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY.
With a comprehensive Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. T. Price, 18mo, printed in a large
handsome type, (pub, at Os.), gilt cloth, 28. Gd.
1815
WILLMOTT'S (R. A.) PICTURES OF CHRISTIAN LIFE,
Icap. Svo, (pub, at 6s.), cloth, 38. Oll.
Hatchard, 18:11
:
26
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ATLASES.--WILKINSON'S CLASSICAL AND SCRIPTURAL ATLAS,
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1842
WILKINSON'S GENERAL ATLAS.
New and improved edition, with all the Railroads inserted, Population according to the last
Census, Parliamentary Returns, &c., imp. 4to, 46 maps, coloured, (pub, at 1l. 168.), halt bound
morocco, 11.58.
1842
is
An enlarged Edition, containing all the words of the Quarto Dictionary. Thick Spo, neatly
bound (pūb. at 148.), 98.
BENTLEY'S (RICHARD) WORKS.
Containing Dissertations upon the Epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and
the Tables of Esop; Epistola ad Jo. Millium; Sermons; Boyle Lecture; Remarks on lirce-
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DYCE. 3 vols. Svo, a beautifully printed Edition, (pub. at ll. 1$3.), cloth, 17. 18.
1836-38
BIBLIA HEBRAICA, EX EDITIONE VANDER HOOCHT.
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Loud. Duncan. 1840
CORPUS POETARUM LATINORUM.
Edidit G. S. WALKBR. Complete in one very thick vol. royal 8vo, (pub. at 31. 2s.), cloth, 188.
This comprehensive volume contains a library of the poetical Latin classics, correctly printed
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DAMMIL LEXICON GRÆCUM, HOMERICUM ET PINDARICUM.
Cura Duncan, royal 4to, per edition, printed on fine paper, (pub. at 57. 58.), cloth, 17. 18. 1912
“An excellent work; the merits.of which have been universally acknowledged by literary cha.
racters.' Dr Dibdin.
CAELIC-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-GAELIC DICTIONARY.
With Examples, Phrascs, and Etymological Remarks, by Two MEMBERS OF TUE HIGILAND
SOCIETY. Complete in one thick vol. Svo. New Edition, .containing many more words than the
Quarto Edition," (pub. at ll. ls.), cloth, 12s.
1845
HERMANN'S MANUAL OF THE POLITICAL ANTIQUITIES OF GREECE,
Historically considered, translated from the German, Svo, (published at 158.), clotlı, 108. Gd.
Oxford, Talboys, 1836.
"Hermann's Manual of Greek Antiquities is most important."—Thirlwall': 'Hist. of Grecoe,
vol. i. . 413.
LEMPRIERE'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY.
MINIATURE EDITION, containing a full Account of all the Proper Names mentioned in Ancient
Authors, and much useful information respecting the uses and babits of the Greeks and Romans,
new and complete edition, BLEGANTLY PRINTED IN PRABL NPR, in one very thick vol. 18mo,
(pub. at 78. 6d.), cloth, 48. 62.
1845
LEE'S HEBREW GRAMMAR,
Compiled from the best Authorities, and principally from Oriental Sources, designed for the Uge
of Siudents in the Universities. New Edition, enriched with much original matter. Sixth
Thousand, Svo, (published at 123.), cloth, 88.
London, Duncan, 184
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOHN.
22
LEE'S HEBREW, CHALDEE, AND ENGLISH LEXICON.
Compiled from the best Authorities, Oriental and European, Jewish and Christian, including
BUXTORF, TAYLOR, PARKUUNST, and GESENIUS; containing all the Words, with their Iniece
tions, Idiomatic Usages, etc. found in the Hebrew and Chaldee Text of the Old Testament;
with numerous corrections of former Lexicographers and Commentators, followed by an Epyliali
Index, in one thick vol. 8vo. Third Thousand, (pub. at 12.53.), cloth, 158.
Lord, 1814
LIVI HISTORIA, EX RECENSIONE DRAKENBORCHII ET KREYSSIG;
Et Annotationes CREVIERII, STROTUIT, RUPERTI, RASCUIG et aliorum; Animadversiones NIE-
BUURII, WACHSMUTUII, et suas addidit TRAVERS TWISS, J. C. B. Coll, Univ. Oxon. Socius et
Tutor. Cuin Indice amplissimo, 4 vols. Svo, (pub. at 'Il. 188.), cloth., 11.88.
Oxford, 1841
This is the best and most useful edition of Livy ever published in octavo, and it is preferred
in all our universities and classical schools.
NIEBUHR'S HISTORY OF ROME,
Epitomized, (for the use of Colleges and Schools,) with Chronological Tables and Appendix, by
TRAVRRS TWINS, B.C.D., complete in 2.vols, bound in 1, Svo, (pub.at ll. ls.), cloth, 108.6d.
Oxford, Talooys, 1837
« This edition by Mr. Twiss is a very valuable addition to classical learning, clearly and ably
embodying all the latest efforts of the laborious Niebuhr."--Literary Gazette.
OXFORD CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY,
Irom the earliest Period to the present Time; in which all the great Events, Civil, Religious,
Scientific, and Literary, of the various Nations of the World are placed, at one view, uuder the
eye of the Reader, in a series of parallel columus, so as to exhibit the state of the whole Civilized
World at any epoch, and at the same time form a continuous chain of History, with Genealogical
Tables of all the principal Dynasties. Complete in 3 Sections, viz:--1. Ancient History. II, Middle
Ages. III. Modern History. With a most complete Index to the entire work, folio, (pub.at 11.16s.),
har bound morocco, 11. 18.
The above is also sold, separately, as follows:--
THE MIDDLE AGES AND MODERN HISTORY,
2 parts in 1, folio, (pub. at 1l. 2s. Oil.), sewed, 168.
MODERN HISTORY,
Folio, (pub. at 12s.), sewed, Ss.
RITTER'S HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY,
Translated from the German, by A. J. W. MORRISON, B.A., Trin. Coll., Cambridge. 4 pols. 8vo,
now completed, with a General Index, cloth lettered (pub.at 31. 48.), 21. 2s.
Oxford, 1846
-Tuk FOURTH VOLUME may be bad separately. Cloth, 16s
" An important work; it may be said to have superseded all the previous histories of philo-
sophy, and to have become the standard work on the subject. Mr. Johnson is also exempt from
the usual faults of translators."Quarterly Review.
CHOMANN'S HISTORY OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE ATHENIANS,
Translated from the Latin, with a complete Index, Svo, (published at 108. Oil.), cloth, 5s.
Cano. 1838
A book of the same school and character as the works of Iceren, Bocchk, Schlegel, &c.
SOPHOCLES, LITERALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE.
With Notes. Syo, 4th improved Edition, (pub. at 158.), cloth, 9s.
Oxford, Talboys, 1842
ELLENDT'S GREEK AND ENGLISH L.EXICON TO SOPHOCLES,
Translated by Cary. Svo, (pub. at 12€.)cloth, Gs. Od.
Oxford, Talboys, 1841
STUART'S HEBREW CHRETSOMATHY,
Designed as an Introduction to a Course of Hebrew Study. 3rd Edition; Svo, (pul. at 148.), cloth,
9s.
Oxford, Talboys, 153-1
This work, which was designed by its learned author to facilitate the study of Hebrejv, has had
a very extensive sale in America. It forms a desirable adjunct to all Hebrew Graninars, and is
sufficicnt to complete the system of instruction in that language.
TACITUS, CUM NOTIS BROTIERI, CURANTE A.J. VALPY.
Editio nova, cum Appendice. 4 vols. Svo, (pub, at 21. 168.), cloth, 11.58.
The most complete Edition.
TACITUS, A NEW AND LITERAL TRANSLATION,
Svc. (pub.at 198.), cloth, 108.6d.
Oxford, Talboys, 1939
28
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Translated from the German, by the Rev. ARTIUR JOINSON, M.A., Professor of Auglo-Saxon in
the University of Oxford. In one thick closely printed volume, Svo, (pub. at 148.), boards, 93.
Oxford, Talboys, 1832
"A work which marks out all the leading epochs in philosophy, and gives minute chronological
information concerning them, with biographical notices of the founders and followers of the
principal schools, ample texts of their works, and an account of the principal editions. In a word,
to the student of philosophy, I know of no work in English likely to prove half so useful."-Hay-
ward, in his Translation of Goethe & Haust.
TERENTIUS, CUM NOTIS VARIORUM, CURA ZEUNII,
Cura GILES: acced. Index copiosissimus. Complete in one thick vol. 8vo, (pub. at 16s.),
cloth, 88.
1837
WILSONIS SAMLING
WILSON'S (JAMES, PROFESSOR OF FRENCH IN ST. GREGORY'S COL-
LEGE), FRENCH-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH FRENCH DICTIONARY, containing full
Explanations, Definitions, Synonyms, Idioms, Proverbs, Terms of Art and Science, and Rules of
Pronunciation in each language. Compiled from the DICTIONARIES OP TIE ACADEMY, BOWYER,
CHAUDAUD, GARNER, LAVEAUX, DES CARRIEBES AND FAIN, JOHNSON AND WALKER. I large
closely printed vol. imperial 8vo, (pub. at 21. 23.), cloth, 11. 8.
1941
XENOPHONTIS OPERA, CR. ET. LAT. SCHNEIDERI ET ZEUNII,
Accedit Index, (PORSON AND ELMBLRY'S EDITION), 10 vols. 12mo, handsomely printed in a large
type, done up in 5 vols. (pub. at 41. 10s.), cloth, 18s.
1841
on The same, large paper, 10 vols, crown 8vo, done up in 5 vols., cloth, 17.58.
Novels, Uworks of Fiction, Light Reading.
AINSWORTH'S TOWER OF LONDON.
An Historical Romance, illustrated by GEORGE CRUIKSLANK, Thick medium 8vo. New Edition,
with 95 highly-finished Etchings on steel, and fine wood Engravings (pub, at 158.), cloth, richlý
gilt, 10s. 6.
1845
Of this very elegant and popular volume ilfteen thousand copies have already been sold.
AINSWORTH'S WINDSOR CASTLE.
An Historical Romance, illustrated by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK and Tony JOHANNOT. Medium
8vo, fine Portrait, and 105 Steel and Wood Engravings, gilt cloth, 10s. 6d.
1843
BREMER'S (MISS) NOVELS AND TALES, BY MARY HOWITT:
Viz. Home-Neighbours-President's Daughter-Nina-Every Day Life, a Díary-Strife and
Peace-A- lamily--Tralinnan-Axeland Anna-Tales. Together 11 vols. post 8vo, comprising
14 Novels and Tales, being the whole of the Author's publislied Works; with an authentic
Portrait of Miss Bremer. (Pub. at 5l. 158. 60.), handsomely printed on fine paper, extra gilt cloth,
uniform, 12. 16s.
1813-15
"By far the best translations of these charming fictions, and the only authentic ones."
Miss Bremer's Novels are also sold separately as follows:
THE HOME: OR, FAMILY CARES AND FAMILY JOYS. Second Edition, revised
2 Folg. post 8vo, (pub.at ll. 18.), cloth, 78. 6d.
1843
THE NEIGHBOURS, A STORY OF EVERY-DAY LIFE. Translated by MARY HOWITT.
Third Edition, revised. 2 vols. post Svo, (pub. at 188.), cloth, 78. 6d.
1843
THE PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER, AND NINA. Iyo Novels, translated by Mary HOWITT.
3 vols. post 8vo, (pub.at ll. 118. 6d.), cloth, 108. 6d.
1943
NEW SKETCHES OF EVERY-DAY LIFE, A DIARY ; together with STRIFE AND
PEACE. Translated by Marr LOWITT. 2 vols. post 8vo, (pub. at Il. 18.), cloth, 78. 6d. 1844
TRALINNAN: AXEL AND ANNA; THE H- FAMILY; AND OTHER TALES. Trans-
lated by MARY HOWITT. 2 vols. post 8vo, with a Portrait, (pub. at 18. 18.), cloth, 78. 6d.
1844
A New Family Album of Endless Entertainment, consisting of a Series of Tales and sketches by the
most popular Authors, with numerous clever and humorous Illustrations on Wood by CRUIK.
BIANR and SEYMOUR.' Also, CRUIKSHANK'S ODD VOLUME, OR BOOK OF VÅRILTY.
Illustrated by Two Odd Fellows-SEYMOUR and CRUIKSIANR, Together 4 vols, bound in 2.
Foolscap 8vo, (pub. at 21. 185.) cloth gilt, 108. 6d.
1845
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY H. G. BOHN.
AY
HOWITT'S (WILLIAM) LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JACK OF THE MILL.
A Fireside Story. By WILLIAM HOWITT. Second Edition. 2 vols. foolscap 8vo, with 46 Illustra-
tions on Wood, (pub. at 158.), cloth, 73. 6d.
1845
HOWITT'S WILLIAM) WANDERINGS OF A JOURNEYMAN TAILOR,
THROUGH EUROPE AND THE EAST, DURING THE YEARS 1824 TO 1810, Trans-
lated by WILLIAM HOWITT. Foolscap 8vo, vith Portrait, (pub. at 6s.), cloth, 38. 61.
1844
HOWITT'S (WILLIAM) CERMAN EXPERIENCES.
Addressed to the English, both Goers abroad and Stayers at Home. One vol. foolscap Syo, (pub.
at 6s.), cloth, 33. Gd.
1814
JOE MILLER'S JEST-BOOK.
Being a Collection of the most excellent Bon Mots, Brilliant Jests, and Striking Anecdotes in the
English Language. Complete in one thick and closely but elegantly printed volume, foolscap
12mo, Frontispiece, (pub. at 48.), cloth, 38.
1840
JERROLD'S (DOUGLAS) CAKES AND ALE.
A Collection of Humorous Tales and Sketches. 2 vols. post Svo, with Plates by GEORGE CRUIK-
SIANE, (pub. at 158.), cloth gilt, 8s.
1842
LEVER'S ARTHUR O'LEARY: HIS WANDERINGS AND PONDERINGS IN
MANY LANDS. Edited by HARRY LORREQUER. Cruikshank's Ney Illustrated Edition. Con.
plete in que vol. 8vo, (pub, at 128.), cloth, 98.
1945
LOVER'S LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND.
Both Series. 2 vols. foolscap 8vo. Fourth Edition, embellished with Woodcuts by HARVEY,
(pub. at 158.), cloth, 68.6d.
** 1831
LOVER'S HANDY ANDY,
A Tale of Irish Life. Medium 8vo. Third Edition, with 24 characteristic Illustrations on Steel,
(pub. at 138.), cloth, 78.6d.
1845
LOVER'S TREASURE TROVE; OR, L. S.D.
A Romantic Irish Tale of the last Century. Medium 8vo. Second Edition, with 26 characteristic
1846
Illustrations on Steel, (pub, at 148.), cloth 98.
MAN-O'WAR'S-MAN. BY BILL TRUCK, SENIOR,
BOATSWAIN OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF GREENTICI. Complete in a thick closely printed
volume, foolscap Svo, (pub, at 68.), gilt cloth, 48.
Blackwood, 1813
" These sea-papers are among the best we ever read. They give an animated picture of life on
board a man-of-war."--Literary Gazette.
MARRYAT'S (CAPT.) POOR JACK,
Illustrated by 46 large and exquisitely beautiful Engravings on wood, after the masterly designs
of CLARKSON STANFIELD, R. A. One handsome volume, royal 8vo, (pub. at 148.), gilt clotlı, 9s.
1840
MILLER'S CODFREY MALVERN, OR THE LIFE OF AN AUTHOR.
By the Author of "Gideon Giles," "Royston Gower," "Day in the Woods," &c. &c. 2 vols in 1,
Svo, with 24 clever Illustrations by Puiz, (pub. at 138.), cloth, 68. 6d.
1843
“This work has a tone and an individuality which distinguish it from all others, and cannot be
read without pleasure. Mr. Miller has the forms and colours of rustic life more completely under
bis control than any of his predecessors."-Athenæum.
MILLER'S GIDEON GILES THE ROPER.
A Tale of English Country Life. With 36 etched Illustrations. Svo, (pub. at 138.), gilt cloth, 58. 6.1.
1841
PICTURES OF THE FRENCH.
A Series of Literary and Graphic Delineations of French Character. By JULES JANIN, BALZAC,
CORDENIN, and other celebrated French Authors. One large vol. royal Svo, illustrated by upwards
of 230 buinorous and extremely clever Wood Engravings by distinguished Artists, (pub. as ll. 5s.),
cloth gilt, 12s.
18-10
This book is extremely clever, both in the letter-press and plates, and has had an immcnse ruu
in France, greater even than the Pickwick Papers in tlus country.
TROLLOPE'S (MRS.) LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
The Factory Boy, medium sro. with 24 steel plates, (pub. at 128.), gilt cloth, 6s. 6d.
1810
TROLLOPE'S (MRS.) JESSIE PHILLIPS.
A Tale of the Present Day, medium 8vo, port. & 12 steel plates (pub, at 123.), cloth gilt, 68. 6d. 1844
30
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Juvenile and Elementary Books, Gymnastics, &c.
BINGLEY'S USEFUL KNOWLEDGE,
Or, a familiar Account of all the various Productions of Naturc, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal,
systematically arranged, which are chiefly employed for the use of Man, illustrated by Plates and
150 Wood-cuts, and intended as a work both of lustruction and Reference. Sixth Edition, revised,
enlarged, and altered to the existing state of science, by D. Coork&, of the British Museum, 2
vols. Post Svo, (pub. at 168.), cloth, 10s. Od.
Trade edition, 13:12
DRAPER'S JUVENILE NATURALIST,
Or Country Walks in Spring Summer, Autumn, and Winter, square 12mo, with ciguty beautifully
executed Voodcuts, (pub. at 78. 6d.), cloth, gilt edges; 48. 60.
1848
ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF MANNERS AND ETIQUETTE,
Comprising an improved edition of Chesterfield's Advice to his Son on Men and Manners; and
Tar YOUNG MAN'S OWN BOOK; & Manual of Politeness; Intellectual Improvement, and Moral
Deportment, 24mo, frontispiece, cloth, gilt edges, 28.
1843
HOWITT'S (MARY) CHILD'S PICTURE AND VERSE BOOK,
Commonly called “Otto Speckter's Table Book;" translated into English Verse, with French and
German Verses opposite, forming a Triglott, square 12mo, with 100 large Wood Engravings, (pub.
at 10s. 6d.), extra Turkey cloth, gilt edges, 58.
18-15
This is one of the most clegant juvenile books ever produced, and has the novelty of being in
three languages.
LAMB'S TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE,
Designed principally for the Use of Young Persons, (written by Miss and Cúarles Land), sixth
edition, embellished with 20 large and beautiful Wood-cut Engravings, from designs by HARVEY,
fcap. Svo, (pub. at 78. 6d.), cloth, gilt, 58.
1813
"One of the most useful and agrecable companions to the understanding of Shakspeare which
have been produced. The youthful reader who is about to taste the charms of our great Bard, is
strongly recommended to prepare himself by first reading these elegant tales."-Quarterly Review
L. E. L. TRAITS AND TRIALS OF EARLY LIFE.
A series of Tales addressed to Young People. By L. L.L. (M188 LANDON). Fourth edition, fcap.
2815
Svo, with a beautiful Portrait Engraved od Steel, (pub. at 58.), gilt, cloth, 38.
LOUDON'S (MRS.) ENTERTAINING NATURALIST,
Being popular Descriptions, Tales, and Anccdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals, com-
prchending all the Quadrupcds, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, &c., of which a knowledge is
indispensable in Polite Education ; illustrated by upwards of 400 beautiful Woodcuts, by BEWICK,
HARVEY, WHIMPER, and others, post Svo, gilt, cloth, 78. 6.
1843
MARTIN AND WESTALL'S PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE BIBLE,
The letterpress by the Rev. HOBART CAUNTER, 8vo, 144 extremely beautiful Wood Engravings,
by the first Artists, (including reduced copies of MARTIN's celebrated Pictures, Belshazzar's
Teast, The Deluge, l'all of Nineveh, &c.), cloth gilt, gilt cdgcs, reduced to 128. Whole bound
morocco, richly gilt, gilt edges, 18s.
1840
A most elegant present to young people.
PERCY TALES OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND;
Stories of Camps and Battle-Fields, Wars, and Victories (modernized from Holinshed, Froissart,
and the other Chroniclers), 2 vols. in 1, square 12mo. (Parley sizc). Fourth Edition, considerably
improved, completed to the present tinc, embellished with 10 exceedingly beautiful Wood
Engravings, (pub. at 98.), cloth gilt, gilt edges, Gs.
1946
This beautiful volumc has enjoyed a large share of success, and deservedly.
PINNOCK'S COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY
AND HISTORY, for the use of Schools and for Private Tuition, in 1 thick vol. 18mo, with
numerous Maps, Views, and Costumes, fiuely Lugraved on Steel, (fortieth thousand), roan, 58. 6d.
1845
PINNOCK'S COMPREHENSIVE CRAMMAR OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY
AND HISTORY, for the usc of Schools and for Private Tuition, 18mo, with Mans, Vieys, and
Costumes, fincly Bograved on Steel, new edition, (pub, at 58. Od.), roan 48. Od.
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY ÉL. G. BOHN.
g1
'
PINNOCK'S COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF SACRED CEOGRAPHY
AND HISTORY, for the use of Schools and for Private Tuition, 18mo, with Maps, Views, and
Costumes, finely engraved on Steel, new edition, (pub. at 58. 6u.), roan, 48. 8d.
18-15
PINNOCK'S COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
with Exercises ; written in a familiar style, accompanied with Questions for Examination, and
Notes Critical and Explanatory, intended for the use of Schools, 12ino, (pub. at 58. 60.), roan,
48. Gd.
18.15
STRICKLAND'S (MISS) EDWARD EVELYN,
A Tale of the Rebellion of 1745; to which is added, “The Peasant's Tale," by JEPYERYS TAYLOR,
foolscap Svo, two fine Plates, (pub. at 5s.), cloth gilt, 2s. Gd.
18-13
By the popular Author of the Lives of the Qucens of England.
WOOD-NOTES FOR ALL SEASONS (OR THE POETRY OF BIRDS),
A Series of Songs and Poems for Young People, contributed by BARRY CORNWALL, WORDS.
WORTH, MOORE, COLERIDGE, CAMPBEI.I., JOANNA BAILLIE, ELIZA COOR, MARY HOWITT, Mrs.
HEMANS, HOGG, CHARLOTTE SMITH, &c., fcap. 8vo, very prettily printed, with 15 beautiful Wood
Engravings, (pub.at 38. 6d.), cloth, gilt edges, 2s.
1842
YOUNG ENGLAND'S LITTLE LIBRARY ;
A Collection of Original Tales for Children, in Prose and Verse, by MRS. 'ALL; MRS. HOWITT,
ALBERT SMITH, MR. GASPEY, the Author of the “New Tale of a Tub," and other Authors, hand-
somely printed in small 4to, illustrated with upwards of 80 very large and clever Engravings on
Wood and Stone, moral and humorous, (pub. åt 108. Od.), cloth, gilt edges, Os. Od.
1844
YOUTH'S (THE) HANDBOOK OF ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE,
In a Series of Familiar Conversations on the most interesting Productious of Nature and Art, and
on other Instructive Topics of Polite Education. By a Lady (Mrs. PALLISBR, the Sister of Capt.
Marryat), 2 vols. fcap. 8vo, Woodcuts, (pub. at 158.), cloth, gilt, 6s.
1819
This is a very clever and instructive book, adapted to the capacities of young people, on the plan
of the Conversations on Chemistry, Mineralogy, Botany, &c.
Music and Musical Works.
THE MUSICAL LIBRARY,
A Selection of the best Vocal and Instrumental Music, both English and Foreign. Edited by W.
AIRTON, Esq., of the Opera House. S vols. folio, comprehending more than 400 pieces of Music,
beautifully printed with mctallic types, (pub. at 41. 48.), seved, 17. 118. od.
The Vocal and Instrumental may be had separately, each in 4 vols. at !68.
MUSICAL CABINET AND HARMONIST.
A Collection of classical and popiuar Vocal and Instrumental Music; comprising Selections from
the best productions of all the Great Masters; English, Scotch, and Irish Melodies; with many
of the National Airs of other Countries, embracing Overtures, Marches, Rondos, Quadrilles,
Waltzes, and Gallopades; also, Madrigals, Duets, and Glocs; the whole adapted either for thć
Voice, the Piano-forte, tõe Harp, or the Organ; with Pieces occasionally for the Flute and Guitar,
under the superintendence of an eminent Professor. 4 vols. small folio, comprehending more than
300 pieces of Music, beautifully printed with metallic types; (pub, at 21. 2s.), sewed, 165.
The great sale of the MUSICAL LIBRARY, in consequence of its extremely low price, has induced
the Advertiser to adopt the same plan of selling the present capital selection. As the contents
arc quite different from the Musical Library, and the intrinsic mcrit of the selection is equal,
the work will no doubt meet with similar success.

MUSICAL GEM;
A Collection of 300 MODERN SONGS, Duits, GLEES, &c., by the most celebrated Composers of
the present day, adapted for the Voice, Flute, or Violin; (edited by JOÁN PARRY), 3 vols. in 1,
Svo, with a beautifully engraved Titic, and a very richly iluminated Frontispiece, (pub.at ll. 1s.),
cloth, gilt, 105. Od.
1345
The above capital collection contains a great number of the best copyright pieces, including
some of the most popular songs of Bralau Bishop, &c. It forms a most attractive volume.
32
OATALOGUE OF NEW BOOKS.
Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy, Chemistry,
Physiology, &c.
BARTON AND CASTLE'S BRITISH FLORA MEDICA.
Or History of the Medicinal Plants of Great Britain, 2 vols. Svo, upwards of 200 finely coloured
figures of Plants, (pub.at 31. 38.), cloth, 11. 168.
1845
An exceedingly cheap, elegant, and valuable work, necessary to every medical practitioner.
BATEMAN AND WILLAN'S DELINEATIONS OF CUTANEOUS DISEASES,
4to, containing 72 Plates, beautifully and very accurately coloured under the superintendence of
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Edinburgh, 1851
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1845
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1844
LIFE OF SIR ASTLEY COOPER,
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1843
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36
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1845
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1845
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1847
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1848
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1843
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1837
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1839
n
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38
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*]838
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1848
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