^/^^mtRQ^OLOGY LTBT^M^T 
 
% 
 
THE 
 
 PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF MAN 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD MERYON, F.R.C.S., kc. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., CORXHILL, 
 
 BOOKSELLERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES. 
 1836. 
 
LONDON : 
 fRlNTID BY 67t«A.a AND CO., 
 OLD liAILEV. 
 
v.^:?/ 
 
 M4 
 
 r 
 
 TO 
 
 NEWMAN SMITH, ESQ. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 During the leisure hours which usually attend the 
 first few years of professional life, I have sought 
 relaxation in accumulating materials for the follow- 
 ing unpretending pages, the completion of which 
 now affords me the opportunity I have fondly an- 
 ticipated, of dedicating to friendship the fruits of 
 my amusement. 
 
 Every step in my progress being debateable 
 
 ground, I may perhaps be accused of a summary 
 
 A 3 
 
 (^3G330S 
 
VI 
 
 decision on subjects which have drawn forth 
 volumes from men of well earned fame; but whilst 
 I admit the charge to be in some degree a just 
 one, I plead in extenuation a diligent considera- 
 tion of the best authorities before I ventured on 
 my speculations ; and I deprecate that misinter- 
 pretation of my meaning which should convert 
 opinions, offered with unfeigned diffidence, as in- 
 ducements to farther investigation, into the hasty 
 conclusions of prejudice, or the arrogant judgment 
 of presumption. 
 
 The subject, although hitherto much neglected, 
 presents so sublime and fascinating an aspect, and 
 promises so fairly to be successfully pursued, 
 that if I stimulate but one efficient votarv to 
 exertion in a cause which I am conscious is but 
 little enriched by the present volume, I shall be 
 amply repaid for the time which has been spent 
 in its production, independent of the gratification 
 
VI 1 
 
 which I feel hi inscribing to you my first lunnble 
 attempt at hterary composition. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 EDWARD MERYON. 
 
 Febniaru, 1836. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE CAUSES WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE OPERATED AT 
 SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS IN PREPARING THE WORLD FOR 
 THE HABITATION OF MAN. 
 
 Geological condition of the earth's surface — Probable causes 
 of the successive formations — Fossilliferous strata — De- 
 velopment of organization — The adaptation of the present 
 condition of the surface of the globe to the physical con- 
 stitution of man -P«^e 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE TRANSMUTATION Of ANIMALS. 
 
 Progressive development of animals — Their adaptation to 
 external nature — Every species endowed with distinct 
 characters — Distinguishing characteristics of man — His 
 situation on the earth -P"g^ 25 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 
 
 Classification of man — Caucasian variety — Its original posi- 
 tion in Western Asia — Its division into tribes — Probable 
 course of migration of the European nations — Mongolian 
 variety — Its recorded origin — Division, migration, and 
 the present position of the most remarkable tribes — Ethi- 
 opian variety — Its probable origin — Situation of the chief 
 nations — American variety — Source from whence it may 
 have sprung — Geographical distribution of the most re- 
 markable tribes of American Indians — Malay variety — 
 Its origin derived from the Asiatic continent — Hyper- 
 borean variety — Subdivisions — Source from whence they 
 originally migrated — Their customs indicate identity of 
 origin . . . , Page 46 
 
 CHAPTER IV^ 
 
 MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF NATURAL CAUSES. 
 
 Man's common origin — Modifications of which physical 
 man is susceptible — Modifying agents — The effects of 
 climate on the corporeal constitution of man — Probable 
 cause of the black colour of the Negro — Peculiarity of 
 temperament dependent on climate — Influence of food — 
 Examples — Application — Infiuence of light — Local ins 
 fluences — Intermixture of races insufficient in most cases 
 to change the physical characteristics of nations — Parti- 
 cular instances wherein it may have exerted a blending 
 
XI 
 
 influence — Artificial disfigurements not susceptible of 
 transmission — Influence of moral causes — All modifica- 
 tions consist in the relative development of parts, there- 
 fore not incompatible with identity of origin — Agreement 
 of diff'erent sciences in proof of the Mosaic representa- 
 tion Page 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICULAR NATIONS, AS 
 AFFECTED BY NATURAL CAUSES. 
 
 Particular instances of the modifying influence of climate on 
 European nations — Physical characteristics of the Asiatic 
 continent — Its influence on the inhabitants — Influence 
 of the tropical winds — Influence of natural causes on the 
 inhabitants of Africa — American Indians — How affected 
 by climate, food, i'kc. — Esquimaux — Influence of food on 
 the colour of their skin — Their stunted frames dependent 
 on climate — Malays — Their physical characters caused 
 chiefly by intermixture — Deduction from the above. 
 
 Page 126 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF PARTICULAR NATIONS. 
 
 Relation between the physical and intellectual constitution 
 of man — Temperament — How developed— Particular in- 
 stances — Delineations — Objections urged against the in- 
 fluence of climate — Phrenology — Brain the organ of the 
 
xu 
 
 mind — Influence of social institutions — Language — Go- 
 vernment — Religion — Science — Other agents of the so- 
 cial system — Jews — Gypsies — Albinoes — Cretins. 
 
 Fuge 178 
 
 Appendix Fuse 231 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE CAUSES WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE OPE- 
 RATED AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS IN PREPARING 
 THE WORLD FOR THE HABITATION OF MAN. 
 
 To know man unconnected with external nature, 
 is to know him but half; we should likewise 
 understand the condition of the world in which he 
 is to exist ; and when we have familiarized our- 
 selves with the evidences of its various revolutions, 
 we are the better enabled to contemplate their 
 effects, and to appreciate the many changes which 
 have been wrought on the globe's surface, wliereby 
 it has gradually assumed its present state, — a state 
 which is found to be essentially necessary to the 
 well-being of the human race. 
 
 To be thoroughly convinced of the comparatively 
 recent introduction of man on the earth, we have 
 only to refer, with impartiality and an earnest 
 desire of truth, to geological investigations, whereby 
 
 B 
 
we obtain evidence of a succession of new animals 
 which have occupied our continents and seas 
 during many ages preceding the creation of our 
 own race. Those imperishable records, drawn 
 from the bowels of the earth, are the unerring 
 monuments of the varied stages in the march of 
 time, and testify the mysterious change from a 
 state when inertia was the sole principle of the 
 universe, and the only law^s were those which now 
 govern inorganic matter, to the first dawn of orga- 
 nization and self-movements of life. 
 
 When we take into consideration the diameter of 
 the earth, which has been calculated at nearly 8000 
 miles, our highest mountains and deepest valleys 
 sink into slight inequalities ; the labour of man has 
 hitherto unfolded but little of its immensity, 
 neither have the observations of the geologist 
 extended beyond the most superficial strata, the 
 aggregate of which has been denominated the 
 earth's crust. The centre, whether cavernous, 
 fluid, or solid, we know not, nor is it essential to 
 our subject.* It has, however, been a favourite 
 
 * Professor Leslie observes, that air compressed into the 
 fiftieth part of its volume, has its elasticity fifty times aug- 
 mented ; if it continue to contract at that rate, it would, from its 
 
subject of speculation, and various theories thereon 
 have been maintained by their respective champions. 
 Notwithstanding the many discrepancies which 
 have found their way into the writings of geolo- 
 gists, there are certain facts which experience has 
 established, and on which inductions have been 
 founded. Thus, experience has shown that the 
 
 own incumbent weight, acquire the density of water at the 
 depth of thirty-four miles. But water itself would have its 
 density doubled at the depth of ninety-three miles, and would 
 even attain the density of quicksilver at the depth of three 
 hundred and sixty-two miles. In descending, therefore, 
 towards the centre, through nearly 4000 miles, the condensa- 
 tion of ordinary substances would surpass the utmost powers 
 of conception. Dr. Young says, that steel would be com- 
 pressed into one-fourth, and stone into one-eighth of its bulk 
 at the earth's centre. However, we are yet ignorant of the 
 laws of compression of solid bodies beyond a certain limit ; 
 though from the experiments of Mr. Perkins, they appear to 
 be capable of a greater degree of compression than has gene- 
 rally been imagined. But a density so extreme is not borne 
 out by astronomical observation. It might seem to follow, 
 therefore, that our planet must have a widely cavernous struc- 
 ture, and that we tread on a crust or shell, whose thickness 
 bears a very small proportion to the diameter of its sphere. 
 Possibly too, this great condensation at the central regions, 
 may be counterbalanced by the increased elasticity due to a 
 very elevated temperature. — Mrs. Somerville on the Con- 
 nexion of the Physical Sciences, page 90. 
 
 B 2 
 
earth's crust which we inhabit, is made up of a 
 succession of layers arranged around the centre, 
 indicating a successive deposition of materials ; 
 experience has moreover shown that the reciprocal 
 action of matter on matter is such, that the most 
 superficial layers pressing on those below, cause 
 their component parts to be condensed : hence it is 
 physically proved that the earth increases in den- 
 sity from the surface to the centre. All these 
 layers, however, are composed of a certain number 
 of elementary parts differently disposed in different 
 strata. According to professor Ure, these elemen- 
 tary parts consist mainly of silica, (or the matter 
 of rock crystal), alumina, (or pure clay), iron, 
 lime, magnesia, and potash. Now, inasmuch as 
 these elementary bodies enter into the composition 
 of all the layers, it has been inferred that the 
 most superficial were originally produced by the 
 detritus or destruction of the deeper seated. It 
 therefore follows that some are of more ancient 
 formation than others. Accordingly, the different 
 layers or rocks * constituting the surface of our 
 
 * The term rock is here used geologically, and applies 
 equally to layers of sand or alluvial earth, as to harder sub- 
 stances which are more commonly designated by that name. 
 
planet have been classified and divided into pri- 
 mary, transition, secondary, tertiary, &.c. Other 
 writers have made the successive periods wherein 
 these rocks were formed, the foundation of their 
 classification : thus Mr. De la Beche refers the 
 primitive rocks to the Typhonian period ; the tran- 
 sition, secondary, and part of the tertiary he classes 
 in the Saturnian period ; and that portion of the 
 tertiary which is denominated post-diluvial, he 
 refers to the Jovian period. 
 
 Two grand agents are generally admitted to 
 have been principally effective in the formation 
 and deposition of these successive series; namely, 
 fire and water. 
 
 The primitive rocks are all more or less perfectly 
 crystallized, as we see exemphfied in granite, 
 gneiss, &c. These primitive rocks, although m 
 some situations they are observed to extend, as in 
 the Alpine chain, to an elevation of twelve or thir- 
 teen thousand feet, yet at the mountain base they 
 dip in under all other strata. Thus their crystalline 
 form is an indication of their igneous origin,^* and 
 
 * Professor Jameson remarks in his notes on the formation 
 of primitive mountains, that the artificial production by 
 fusion of the minerals which compose our primitive rocks, 
 
their high elevation must have depended on some 
 subsequent volcanic violence. Independent of 
 their crystalline form, their igneous origin is further 
 proved by the fact, that most of the minerals 
 which are formed bv nature have been formed 
 artificially in our laboratories ; and as Mrs. Somer- 
 ville has remarked, '* the high temperature of 
 mines, hot springs, and above all, the internal fires, 
 v/hich have produced, and do still occasion such 
 devastation on our planet, indicate an augmenta- 
 tion of heat towards its centre; the increase of 
 density, corresponding to the depth and form of 
 the spheroid, being what theory assigns to a fluid 
 mass in rotation, concur to induce the idea that 
 the temperature of the earth was originally so 
 high as to reduce all the substances of which it 
 is composed to a state of fusion or of vapour, and 
 that in the course of ages, it has cooled down to 
 its present state." Our second proposition, namely, 
 that of volcanic violence, whereby mountains have 
 
 appears, according to Mitscherlich, to place beyond doubt the 
 theory that our primitive mountains were formerly a melted 
 mass. Laplace is also convinced of its plausibility without 
 grounding his belief upon the reasons which chemistry pre- 
 sents. 
 
been upheaved, is apparent from certain fossil 
 shells, evidently of the marine kind, which have 
 been found in strata on the tops of our highest 
 mountains : hence it is probable that as these 
 have been raised above the ocean, others have 
 been ingulfed. These primitive rocks, the lowest 
 to which man has penetrated, contain not a vestige 
 of organic remains, and therefore do not interest 
 us in our present inquiries into the march of orga- 
 nization. 
 
 The super-imposed transition rocks are semi- 
 crystalline or translucent. It is from them that 
 we obtain our statuary marbles : they are observed 
 here and there to contain the fossilized remains of 
 a few zoophytes ; but it is not until we arrive at the 
 secondary series that we observe the strata bearing 
 internal evidence of a population of animals, which 
 havino' occupied the situations of our continents for 
 a season, became extinct, making way for others 
 which were destined to share a like fate, leaving us 
 records of their existence only by the preservative 
 and agglutinating properties of the strata which, in 
 the course of their consolidation, have embedded 
 these primary creations. In tracing the successive 
 strata their fossils will point out a gradual advance- 
 
8 
 
 ment in organization, as well in plants as in ani- 
 mals, and I hope to make it apparent that each 
 preceding epoch has prepared and fitted the earth's 
 surface for the one that was to follow. 
 
 Now, admitting the high temperature of the 
 earth during the Typhonian period, the consequence 
 would be, that a considerable portion of the ocean 
 would be converted into vapour. xA.n immense 
 pressure must necessarily have been exerted by 
 this vapour on the remaining water, so as to have 
 caused it to retain a large proportion of carbonic 
 acid.^ The earth, however, gradually cooUng down, 
 a great proportion of the vapour would be gra- 
 dually condensed in the form of water, whereby 
 the atmospheric pressure would be gradually di- 
 minished, and the disengagement of a considerable 
 portion of carbonic acid would be the gradual 
 result. The high temperature of the ocean would 
 assist this latter operation. 
 
 An excess of carbonic acid renders lime verv 
 
 * If carbonic acid existed in combination with any mineral, 
 previous to the igneous fusion of our globe (supposing such 
 had ever been its condition), that carbonic acid must neces- 
 sarily have been disengaged ; for all carbonates, except those 
 of potash and soda, are deprived of their acid by heat. 
 
soluble in water ;* at the time, therefore, when the 
 ocean contained its maximum of this gas, the 
 water must have been charged with calcareous 
 matter, so that t apprehend the aqueous agent of 
 change in the inorganic world, was much more 
 active at that time than it is at the present: but 
 what is very remarkable, a smaller proportion of 
 the acid converts lime into an insoluble carbonate ; 
 hence, at the time when the atmospheric pressure 
 was reduced, and the heated ocean caused the dis- 
 engagement of the gas, the very cause which 
 effected the solution of the primitive rocks, was 
 the grand agent in depositing the transitionf and 
 secondary. 
 
 The limestone of the secondary series, reposing 
 on the transition, is so nearly related to it, that we 
 may recognize the pulverized fragments mixed up 
 with zoophytes and sea-weeds (the first dawning of 
 
 * Lime, in solution, has a strong affinity for carbonic acid, 
 and forms with it an insoluble carbonate; but on adding a 
 large quantity of the acid, the transparency of the solution is 
 completely restored, because carbonate of lime is soluble in an 
 excess of carbonic acid. — Turners Chemiscrj/, p. 444. 
 
 t Carbonate of lime or marble is the principal component 
 of the transition and secondary series of rocks. 
 
 B 5 
 
10 
 
 organization), whereby a soil was prepared for a 
 succeeding epoch. The earth and atmosphere 
 were then unfit for air-breathing animals ; — the 
 earth, because it was unproductive of sustenance ; 
 the air, inasmuch as it was necessarily influenced 
 by the primitive heat, and moreover pervaded by 
 carbonic acid gas. But this condition of the 
 earth's surface, consisting of an elaborated soil 
 from the bed of the ocean and a carbonized atmo- 
 sphere, was beautifully adapted to the advancement 
 of a prolific vegetation, the monuments whereof 
 we observe in the coal, a formation unquestionably 
 of vegetable origin.* Nature, which before had 
 supported but leafless algse and a few ferns, seems 
 at this period to have accumulated prodigious 
 powers for the development of plants, both in 
 
 * Plants absorb carbonic acid from the air, and emit oxygen 
 in return. When a healthy plant, the roots of which are sup- 
 plied with proper nourishment, is exposed to the direct solar 
 beams, in a given quantity of atmospheric air, the carbonic 
 acid, after a certain interval, is removed, and an equal volume 
 of oxygen is substituted for it. If a fresh portion of carbonic 
 acid is supplied, the same result will ensue. In like manner, 
 when the leaves of plants are immersed in water, and exposed 
 to the rays of the sun, oxygen gas is disengaged, and a pro- 
 portional quantity of carbonic acid is absorbed. — Turncr^s 
 Chemistri/, p. 787. 
 
11 
 
 numbers and size ; so that in addition to the pre- 
 existing species we find traces of equisetums, pahiis, 
 bamboos, &;c., all of such gigantic size, that the most 
 luxuriant tropical vegetation of the present day pre- 
 sents but pigmies when compared with the fossilized 
 plants which are found in coal. The leafless equi- 
 setum, commonly called horsetail, seen growing on 
 our shores, with a thin feeble stem, to the height 
 of a few inches, is recognized in coal by its striated 
 fistular stem, as a gigantic tree, which must have 
 exceeded thirty or forty feet in height. In like 
 manner the ferns, sending forth their leaves from 
 the ground by our road sides, appear carbonized in 
 the arborescent form by myriads, and bear evidence 
 of having equalled in height our stately forest trees. 
 The same huge proportions are likewise observed 
 in the fossil palms, bamboos, &;c. These are the 
 tribes of plants which have chiefly concurred to the 
 formation of coal, — tribes, which are now found 
 dwarfish in size, even when closely approximating 
 to the equator ; yet they once grew and were depo- 
 sited in these our latitudes ; so that the presumption 
 is borne out relative to the degree of heat which 
 was then greater even in polar latitudes, than that 
 now experienced in the torrid zones. This degree 
 
12 
 
 of heat would necessarily be incompatible with 
 the existence of land quadrupeds, as they are at 
 present constituted ; and accordingly, the fossilized 
 animal remains of the period to which we refer, 
 indicate no farther advance in organization, than 
 that which we observe at the present day in the 
 lowest order of fishes, and some species of mollus- 
 cous animals, whose texture could withstand the 
 high temperature of the tepid ocean. 
 
 The giant vegetation of the coal-measures must 
 have been in no small degree instrumental in 
 diminishing the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, 
 whereby it would be equally diminished in the 
 water ; so that the same cause would continue to 
 operate in the deposition of calcareous strata, 
 which, in fact, are observed coincident with, and 
 reposing on, the coal, and presenting vegetable im- 
 pressions, similar hi character to those found in 
 coal. In these limestone formations, air-breathing 
 animal remains are for the first time observed, indi- 
 cating the existence of dry land, and adding testi- 
 mony to the influence of an equatorial atmosphere. 
 These first denizens of the earth are in many places 
 so perfectly preserved, and have been so minutely 
 investigated by the late Baron Cuvier,that the natu- 
 
13 
 
 ralist may now paint an imaginary landscape of a 
 preceding epoch of our planet tenanted by huge 
 and monstrous forms, unlike any of our existing 
 species, and totally unfitted for co-existence with 
 them. These original inhabitants, were, doubtless, 
 admirably adapted to the physical condition of the 
 earth ; being huge, cold-blooded reptiles of the 
 lizard tribe, they required but a small proportion 
 of oxygen in the atmosphere for their low vitality, 
 but depended on the genial heat to compensate for 
 that kind of air which is necessary for the health 
 and vio'our of the hioher tribes. 
 
 These monstrous reptiles assisted in preparing 
 the earth's surface for an advanced stage of organ- 
 ization, by their decomposition animalizing the 
 soil, (if I may be allowed the expression,) which 
 was, moreover, elaborated from the bed of the 
 ocean, and fitted for its future inhabitants. The 
 individual members of this secondary group of 
 formations, above the coal, are found teemino- with 
 animal forms, each having some fossil almost pecu- 
 liar to itself. In the sandstone, which reposes on 
 the coal, we have, amongst other reptiles, remains 
 of large tortoises, measuring eight or nine feet in 
 length ; and as we examine the mountain limestone 
 
14 
 
 above, we find the immense Ichthyosaurus, par- 
 taking of the forms of fish and lizard, and attain- 
 ing twenty feet or more in length ; the Plesiosaurus, 
 which might also rank between fish and lizard, 
 having, instead of the large lizard head of the 
 Ichthyosaurus, a very small one, supported on an 
 extended neck, as long as its body, resembling 
 that of a swan, and with a body, adapted by its 
 fin-like limbs, to an aqueous habitation ; these also 
 are commonly found upwards of twenty feet long. 
 Besides these, fossil crocodiles are found ; and in 
 the secondary sandstone which lies between the 
 limestone and chalk. Professor Buckland disco- 
 vered the remains of a gigantic animal, half croco- 
 dile, half monitor, but so immense in its proportions, 
 that we must magnify our conception of these ani- 
 mals to the size of the largest whales, to imagine 
 them. No entire skeleton has been yet found ; but 
 from the unconnected bones which have been de- 
 scribed by the learned Professor, it is computed 
 that this vast reptile must have been sixty or 
 seventy feet long. Contemporaneous with this 
 monster was the Iguanodon, discovered by Mr. 
 Mantell, in the strata of Tilgate forest, which seems 
 to have borne a closer affinity to our present iguana 
 
15 
 
 than to any other reptiles, but so much larger in 
 size, that from a comparison of seven different parts, 
 which Mr. Mantell has given in his geology of the 
 south-east of England, it appears that the Iguano- 
 don averaged a length of seventy feet."^ I would 
 fain enumerate many other species, but as they 
 may be more advantageously studied by those 
 who may feel interested in the subject, I must 
 content myself by referring to Cuvier's elaborate 
 *' Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles." These 
 giant forms, which, prior to any anatomical inves- 
 tigation, were considered by some as indications 
 of gods or antediluvian giants of our own race, 
 and by Theophrastus as sportings of nature, gene- 
 
 * The following Table has been constructed by Mr. Mantell, 
 to assist in estimating the size of the original animal : — 
 
 Bones. 
 
 Recent Iguana, fi\e 
 feet long. 
 
 Iguaiiouoo. 
 
 Length of 
 the original 
 is indicated 
 
 by the 
 compariBon. 
 
 Teeth 
 
 
 
 Exceed the 
 recfni by 
 20 tinier. 
 18 .... 
 10 .... 
 20 
 
 15 
 
 U .... 
 lij .... 
 
 100 feet. 
 
 90 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 55 .... 
 80 
 
 Horn 
 
 J inch high. 
 0*6 inch hi^h. 
 1^ inch long. 
 Circumference c^fl 
 
 the shaft, IJ inch, i 
 Lennth of the bone i 
 
 3^ inches 1 
 
 2'8 inciies. 
 
 4j inches. 
 6 inches. 
 
 30 inches. 
 
 23 inches. 1 
 
 4 feet. j 
 
 31 inches. 
 
 Os tynipani.. .. 
 Clavicle 
 
 Femur ^ 
 
 Tibia 
 
 Claw-bone .... 
 
 
 
 
16 - 
 
 rated in the womb of the earth by its own creative 
 powers, seem to have been well adapted, at the 
 early periods in which they existed, to serve the 
 purposes which I have before suggested. Examin- 
 ing the fossilized remains of the deep deposited in 
 the intermediate periods, we shall find the same 
 huge proportions which characterised the air- 
 breathing animals, giving also additional evidence 
 that the sea at this early period must have been 
 highly charged with calcareous matter, inasmuch 
 as its inhabitants were such as were most calcu- 
 lated for such a condition ; for, in addition to the 
 myriads of zoophytes which in this early state of 
 our globe precipitated vast quantities of the carbo- 
 nate of lime into coral-rocks, the principal ocean 
 remains of that period are immense molluscous, 
 shell-bearing animals, — animals, some of which 
 were closely allied to the present shell nautilus, 
 but whose dimensions exceeded by fourteen or six- 
 teen times those now existing ; and in studying 
 these fossiliferous secondary rocks, we have at 
 every step still greater evidence that the grand 
 function of the inhabitants of the deep was to 
 secrete carbonate of lime from their fluid element, 
 so as to prepare it for a succeeding creation of 
 
17 
 
 higher orders of fishes ; hence have we enumerated 
 in our limestone fossils, trilobites, bactilites, belem- 
 nites, ammonites, orthoceratites, and an innumer- 
 able list of other mollusca, which derived their 
 covering from the carbonate of lime suspended in 
 the watei'. 
 
 The chalk formation, which is evidently a de- 
 posit by precipitation from the ocean, contains nu- 
 merous organic remains : sea-tortoises, shells of 
 Crustacea, zoophytes, and other inhabitants of the 
 deep similar in character to those before mentioned, 
 besides a genus of reptile which Mr. Conybeare 
 has named the Mosasaurus, an account of which 
 will be found in the great work of Cuvier, vol. v. 
 p. 310. Layers of boulder-stones are also observed, 
 the remains of myriads of amorphous animals, 
 which then tenanted the sea, but whose organiza- 
 tion being percolated by sand which was pre- 
 viously held in solution by the sea, they were ulti- 
 mately converted into those masses which we now 
 recognise as flints. 
 
 Such has been the general order of superposition 
 of the secondary rocks, and such the denizens 
 during their respective durations. An extended 
 enumeration of all the geological formations would 
 
18 
 
 of course be out of place here, inasmuch as my 
 only object is to prove the existence of other ani- 
 mals prior to that of our own race, and at the same 
 time to show that the earth's surface has been gra- 
 dually undergoing changes fitting it more and more 
 for our habitation. An examination of this second- 
 ary group requires no very deep powers of percep- 
 tion to distinguish, in the various members com- 
 posing it, periods of rest or quietude, and periods 
 of terrific violence and confusion ; thus, for ex- 
 ample, the coal may be given as a tranquil deposi- 
 tion ; whereas the oolitic group has been upheaved 
 by most tremendous convulsions, and we now find 
 mountain-masses raised to such altitudes as to pre- 
 clude the possibility of supposing them to have 
 been carried there by any present existing causes. 
 This turbulent disposition, in addition to the cir- 
 cumstances we have before mentioned, would be 
 very unfitted for man's abode, as well as for that 
 of quadrupeds, inasmuch as amphibious reptiles 
 only would have the power of accomodating them- 
 selves to the sudden mutations of the earth's sur- 
 face. 
 
 Thus, then, up to the chalk formations we have 
 remains only of shell- secreting mollusca, a few 
 
19 
 
 fish, vast aero-aqueous reptiles, and those plants 
 only which are enumerated by botanists as of the 
 lowest orders, and which are named the monoco- 
 tyledonous, or endogenous, in addition to the cryp- 
 togamic ferns and mosses ; nor is it until the di- 
 luvial deposits animalized and elaborated by pre- 
 existino' oroanization that we have indications of 
 the higher orders of plants and animals. 
 
 The surface of the earth thus prepared possessed 
 prodigious powers in developing a luxuriant vege- 
 tation, as proved by the existence of beds of brown 
 coal found here and there above the chalk. Im- 
 pressions of dicotyledonous plants are here ob- 
 served to make their first appearance, and it was 
 at these periods that the mammoth and mastodon, 
 the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and seve- 
 ral other of these large herbivorous animals existed 
 and perambulated our lands, until the last fearful 
 catastrophe overtook them, burying some in the 
 earth's strata and enveloping others in ice, where 
 they have been enclosed thousands of years and re- 
 main to the present day completely preserved, monu- 
 ments of the sudden destruction of a former world. 
 
 The stratified rocks wdiich we have thus enume- 
 rated are the obvious indications of a succession of 
 
20 
 
 revolutions. The universality of certain strata is 
 sufficient proof that the entire productions of cer- 
 tain eras have been overwhelmed, and marine for- 
 mations deposited above them ; others, however, 
 have been but partial, and perhaps similar to what 
 we observe at the present day in our intertropical 
 seas, where different parts are constantly under- 
 going changes from volcanic eruptions forming 
 submarine mountains, whereon the apparently in- 
 significant zoophyte may fix itself and build up a 
 coral-reef, which (like many of the South Sea is- 
 lands having a like foundation), by an accession of 
 upheaved soil and drifted germs of vegetation, ulti- 
 mately becomes fitted for the habitation of man. 
 Of the causes of these universal catastrophes it is not 
 our business to inquire : suffice it to state, that not 
 a single bone of our own species has been found in 
 the deposits which have been hitherto mentioned ; 
 and, what is somewhat extraordinary, no relics of 
 any of the monkey tribe (quadrumana) have been 
 discovered amidst the wreck of the teeming popu- 
 lation of the herbivorous quadrupeds of the dilu- 
 vium. *^ Where, then," says Cuvier, *' was the 
 human race at this period ? Did the last and 
 most perfect of the works of the Creator nowhere 
 
21 
 
 exist? Did the animals which now accompany 
 liim upon the globe, and of which there are no 
 traces among these fossil remains, surround him ? 
 Were the countries in which he lived with them swal- 
 lowed up, when those which he now inhabits, and 
 whose former population may have been destroyed 
 by a great inundation, w^ere laid dry again? These 
 are questions which the study of fossil remains 
 does not enable us to solve. Thus much, however, 
 is certain, that we are now at least in the midst of 
 a fourth succession of land animals ; that, after 
 the age of reptiles, the age of palseotheria, the age 
 of mammoths and that of mastodons and mega- 
 theria, has come the age in which the human 
 species, aided by some domestic animals, peace- 
 ably governs and fertilizes the earth, and that it is 
 only in the deposits formed since the commence- 
 ment of this age, in alluvial matters, peat-bogs 
 and recent concretions, that bones are found in the 
 fossil state, which belong all of them to known 
 and still living animals.'^ 
 
 Man, thus placed on the globe's surface, holds in 
 his constitution a close relation to external nature, 
 " limited in bulk to that happy medium combining 
 strength with convenience, and to an organization 
 
22 
 
 delicate and sensitive in the highest degree, but 
 nevertheless accommodating, and endowed with a 
 form at once peculiar, appropriate, and beautiful."* 
 Had he lived in the earlier periods of the earth's 
 history, those enormous reptiles and gigantic qua- 
 drupeds would have been his most insignificant 
 enemies ; every element would have conspired 
 against him, and in a short period of time must 
 have exterminated his race. The carbonized at- 
 mosphere would have contaminated his blood and 
 defied all the accommodating powers wherewith 
 his organization might be endowed. The noxious 
 exhalations which must then have been the orrand 
 characteristics of the damp and heated climate, 
 must of necessity have been peculiarly favouring 
 sources of an immense mortality, and, lastly, the 
 saturated waters, univ^ersally loaded with calcareous 
 matter, could be no. other than the fertile germs of 
 the most grievous diseases, of themselves prohibit- 
 ino- a lono- existence. 
 
 If, however, the world were now inhabited, as it 
 once was, by those huge herbivorous quadrupeds, 
 " man," to quote the observations of a philosophic 
 naturalist, '* would find no resting place in it. The 
 
 * Prout. 
 
23 
 
 consumption of food necessary to support such 
 creatures would be enormous. No plains would 
 be sufficiently fruitful to graze thousands of ele- 
 phants and rhinoceroses of hundreds of species. 
 The trees would be bared of their leaves, and ver- 
 dure would disappear. The earth, in fact, would 
 be as much devastated as if perpetual swarms of 
 locusts had stripped it of its clothing ; and thou- 
 sands of these devouring monsters would annually 
 perish for want of food, poison the air, and create 
 pestilence and famine. Such results, however 
 frightful, are too obvious to be denied. The pa- 
 chydermatous quadrupeds, considering their im- 
 mense size, are proportioned to the rest of the ani- 
 mal creation, throughout which we find that great 
 bulk is restricted to few individual forms, while 
 excessive minuteness is extended to countless mil- 
 lions."* 
 
 From this appeal to geology we deduce most 
 important facts relative to the condition of the 
 earth we inhabit as connected with our physical 
 constitution. That noble science points to a time 
 when, there is great reason to believe, the whole 
 
 * Swainson's Discourse on the Study of Natural History, 
 p. 234. 
 
24 
 
 » 
 
 globe was a chaotic mass in a state of igneous 
 fusion. It more plainly tells us that huge and 
 monstrous reptiles have sported in the deep which 
 at successive periods has rolled over the very land 
 we now inhabit, and clearly demonstrates that, at 
 each epoch, the great work of nature was directed 
 to the adaptation of the surface of our globe 
 for that which was to follow, till by a succession 
 of changes, its present condition fitted it for the 
 habitation of man. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE TRANSMUTATION OF ANIMALS. 
 
 Were man distinguished by his organization only, 
 it would be no difficult matter to show that he 
 stands alone, or, in other words, that his species is 
 so rigidly restricted, that whatever modifications 
 may have arisen in the lapse of time, have been 
 so superficial that they have proceeded no farther 
 than to cause slioht differences in the relative de- 
 velopment of organs. 
 
 The question of progressive development by 
 transmutation has been stigmatized as puerile and 
 too absurd to require refutation ; but a laugh is not 
 sufficient argument when we find men who have 
 deservedly acquired a high reputation in science 
 tenaciously upholding it, and fondly displaying its 
 captivating simplicity. 
 
 In Lamarck's Philosophy of Zoology we are 
 taught to believe that great changes in circum- 
 
 C 
 
26 
 
 stances have exercised considerable influence in 
 animals, and have produced similar changes in 
 their wants and actions, which having become per- 
 manent, new habits have been acquired, by which 
 means new organs have been formed. Thus it is 
 in strict accordance with his reasoning to imagine 
 a gradual advance in organization from that state 
 of mere vitality, where sensation exists without per- 
 ception, and motion without volition, till in the 
 course of ages the organs of sense have been su- 
 peradded, and instinctive faculties acquired, and, 
 finally, the irrational brute was converted into the 
 rational man. 
 
 The upholders of this theory, however, have not 
 shown what only would satisfactorily prove their 
 doctrine, namel}^, existing animals or fossil remains 
 exemplifying the actual transition from one species 
 to another. 
 
 The Ichthyosaurus, with its lizard head and fish- 
 like body, did most probably unite the characters 
 both of fish and reptile ; but it was a perfectly 
 distinct species, and might have been most ad- 
 mirably adapted to a former condition of the 
 earth, in which the huge monster could best avail 
 itself of all that was requisite for its existence and 
 
27 
 
 enjoyment. That condition ensured to it the 
 power of obtaining its food, whether animal or 
 vegetable, the former perhaps similar to the Ptero- 
 dactylus, which was probably formed either for 
 floatino- on the surface of the water or mountino- 
 by the assistance of its wing-like expansions into 
 the atmosphere. In like manner the Plesiosaurus 
 and vast Megalosaurus appear to have been as 
 distinct in their kinds as any species now in ex- 
 istence, and if they had been the progenitors of 
 any intermediate species, why do we not find the 
 gradual blending of the prototypes ? 
 
 But v\^e wdll take a rapid survey of existing ani- 
 mals, and see if it be more reasonable to suppose 
 that chance or necessity could have so anticipated 
 the wants of the new species it was about to form ; 
 or whether it be not the most philosophical deduc- 
 tion to acknowledge the marks of a supreme and 
 intellio;ent Power in moulding; the oro-ans which 
 are so perfectly and beautifully adapted to the 
 habits and mode of life of the animal to which 
 they belong. As we advance in our knowledge of 
 organization we see infinite wisdom exemplified 
 not only in providing certain organs in some ani- 
 mals, but also in withholding them from others. 
 
 c2 
 
28 
 
 Nature is a great economist, and whether we con- 
 template the association of organs, their structure, 
 or their endowments, we shall have equal reason to 
 believe that design is the grand characteristic of 
 living nature. 
 
 If we examine the minute infusory animalcules, 
 we see some whose texture is too delicate for the 
 fluid in which they are generated, and they have 
 therefore the power of agglutinating particles of 
 mud by means of a gummy transudation on their 
 surface. 
 
 In some zoophytes the newly formed gemmule 
 branching from its parent stem is provided with 
 cilia, whereby to swim through the deep until it 
 has found a secure resting-place, and having fixed 
 itself, the cilia being no longer required, disappear. 
 
 The air-sac contained in the gelatinous composi- 
 tion of the medusa and physalia serves to support 
 them on the surface of the ocean, along which they 
 are w^afted to collect the minute animalcules float- 
 ing near the surface ; but when the waves are 
 rufiled, their delicate structure would be endanger- 
 ed had they not the power of contracting them- 
 selves to expel their air, and so sink into the deep 
 and quiet water. 
 
29 
 
 By a little consideration we might imagine that 
 some parasitical animals, such as intestinal worms, 
 could require no respiratory organs, and so far as 
 the researches of zootomists have gone, none have 
 yet been found ; hence they most probably receive 
 their atmospheric influence from the fluids of the 
 animals on which they subsist. 
 
 We see the radiated animals, as the sea hedge- 
 hog, covered with a most curiously formed cal- 
 careous shell, armed with spines, to defend them 
 from their enemies. This calcareous coverino- 
 would, I conceive, be sufficient to subvert the 
 theory of uninterrupted succession by means of 
 reproduction. These animals are also provided 
 with teeth to grind down the pieces of shell on 
 which they feed ; the teeth being constantly 
 abraded, have the property of being very quickly 
 reproduced. 
 
 Worms are beautifully formed for their modes 
 of life ; the common earth-worm is protected by a 
 slimy transudation ; the sabella and terrebella 
 (species of sea-worms) employ this transudation 
 for the purpose of agglutinating sand and minute 
 shells into tubes or cases, wherein they exist ; 
 another sea-worm (the nais), having opened a pas- 
 
30 
 
 sage for itself in the sand, applies the glutinous 
 transudation against the walls of the passage, and 
 thereby secures it from falling in. 
 
 In the molluscous animals, which are principally 
 inhabitants of water, we are struck with the beau- 
 tiful provisions made for the function of respira- 
 tion. The branchige, which are subservient to that 
 process, being carefully protected, yet situated 
 where they may be most exposed to the air or 
 currents of water, — in some along the under part of 
 the body, as in the common barnacle, that they 
 may participate in the motions of the legs, and so 
 be constantly exposed to fresh water ; in univalve 
 animals they are placed under a mantle, and are 
 constantly irrigated by currents formed by the ani- 
 mal itself In fact, almost every animal in this 
 great and interesting class has some peculiarity 
 fitting it for its peculiar habit. 
 
 Following up the chain through the spider- tribe, 
 with their complicated apparatus, by which they 
 construct their ingenious fabric to entrap their 
 living victims : — insects, many of which are pro- 
 vided with natural instruments capable of emitting 
 sounds to guide their mates to them, whereby the 
 object of their existence is fulfilled, which is that 
 
31 
 
 of the continuation of their species ; and the Crus- 
 tacea, or lobster-tribe, which at stated times cast 
 off their calcareous shell until they have attained 
 their full development : every species possesses or- 
 gans modified peculiar to itself. 
 
 Passing on to fish, with their swimming-bladder 
 just in the situation to suspend them horizontally 
 in their aqueous element ; their fins so admirably 
 adapted to the purposes they have to serve ; their 
 back-bone made to bend with an elastic spring, 
 whereby little muscular exertion is required ; and 
 their tail beautifully formed and so placed as to 
 strike the water in the various directions required 
 by the animal's wants. 
 
 Next, the amphibious tribe, which commence 
 their career as fishes, with a fish-like skeleton and 
 gills, which are destined to be changed, the one 
 into the more solid skeleton of land animals, and 
 the other converted into lungs, which metamor- 
 phosis being completed, they leave the water and 
 become air-breathing animals. 
 
 The whole class of reptiles possesses an organi- 
 zation peculiarly adapted to their wants : serpents 
 fitted for extended locomotion ; lizards with forms 
 as modified as their instincts ; and, lastly, the 
 
32 
 
 sluggish tortoise, incapable of shunning the ap- 
 proach of larger quadrupeds, would be crushed, 
 and its race soon exterminated, were it not well 
 protected in its bony case. 
 
 We next arrive at birds, whose organization is 
 very characteristic, their teguments serving to pro- 
 tect them from the sudden changes of temperature 
 to which they are continually exposed, and at the 
 same time rendering them specifically lighter. The 
 conformation of their eyes enables them to perceive 
 objects with equal facility at all distances, and 
 every cavity is adapted to admit a rarified atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 The cetacea, or whale tribe, also possess nu- 
 merous characteristic peculiarities, both as regards 
 their external and internal organization. Their fin- 
 like extremities and horizontal tail enablins; them 
 to rise to the surface of the water for the purpose 
 of respiration, and the natural sieve at the entrance 
 of the whale's mouth are in nowise the only dis- 
 tinguishing marks of this group ; the palate, the 
 nostrils or blow-holes, the stomach, the heart, the 
 blood, the immense adipose mass lining the skin, 
 in short, every organ, nay, almost every tissue be- 
 speaks the class to which it belongs. 
 
33 
 
 Thence through quadrupeds, every species up to 
 man himself: I feel justified in affirming that all 
 are as distinct as numbers will permit, all perfect ; 
 there is no intermixing, except where man has in- 
 terposed; and where that power (which is extremely 
 limited) has been exercised, there would seem to be 
 a curse imposed on the produce, for sterility is al- 
 most universally the fate of the hybrid. 
 
 Now then, had certain wants induced a change 
 of habits, and that change of habits a modification 
 of animal form — that form progressively advanc- 
 ing, I would ask, why, in those microscopic animals 
 which are generated spontaneously in stagnant wa- 
 ter, do we find such complexity of texture where 
 we ought to expect the simple structure of the 
 monad ? or why in the gemmule of the zoophyte 
 do we find its wants provided for before habit 
 could have assisted in the formation ? What mo- 
 difying power is there in the medusa to form its 
 air-sac, and in the worm to establish its peculiar 
 gelatinous transudation ? Would any force of 
 habit deprive the parasite of its organs of respira- 
 tion, or carve out in geometrical precision the com- 
 ponent pieces which envelope the sea hedge-hog ? 
 Admitting even that all this may be accomplished, 
 
 c5 
 
34 
 
 and that habit has the power of modifying the 
 form of organs, would it also have the power of 
 transposing, as we see exemplified in the mollus- 
 cous animals, where the respiratory organs are 
 found on the head, the foot, the back, the sides, 
 or enclosed in a mantle ? or would there be such 
 provision made in the lobster tribe, whereby as 
 they increase in size they have the power of throw- 
 ing off their shell and secreting a new one, more 
 fitted for their greater magnitude ; or in the spider, 
 endowing some species with an additional number 
 of eyes, evidently adapting them for their peculiar 
 habits ? Thus the genus theridon, which inhabits 
 bunches of grapes, has eight eyes ; the common 
 house spider (aranea domestica) has four, whilst 
 the aquatic spider (aranea aquatica), beautifully 
 provided with means for the formation of an air- 
 sac, wherein it envelopes its body preparatory to 
 merging into its aqueous habitation, has but two 
 eyes. By what power are insects so beautifully 
 suited for their aerial abode, air cavities being 
 formed throughout their bodies, passing even into 
 their compound eyes? In the fish again, how 
 peculiarly adapted is every organ* to the function 
 
 * In no species of fish that I know of is the conformation 
 
35 
 
 it has to perform ! What habit can have caused 
 the wonderful metamorphosis of the frog, or en- 
 dowed the tortoise with its bony habitation ? 
 
 But these may be said to be mere modifications 
 of structure, which pass almost insensibly the one 
 into the other, and therefore some naturalists will 
 tell us that they may have been eft'ected by an un- 
 interrupted process of generation, adapting the or- 
 ganization of each species to its peculiar habits. 
 I would then ask, Would that independent power 
 of adaptation cause the lungs of birds to commu- 
 nicate with the interior of their bones, whereby air 
 is diffused throuah their osseous cavities, render- 
 ing them specifically lighter, and therefore more 
 fitted for their mode of life ? If it would, why are 
 not the bones of the bat equally permeable by the 
 atmosphere ? Or is there such generating power 
 in the animal economy that the fringe-like sieve 
 placed on the jaws of the whale could have been 
 self-created ? 
 
 In quadrupeds there are innumerable peculiari- 
 
 of the tail so beautifully adapted to the wants of the animal as 
 in the shark, which has a fin-like expansion on the inferior 
 edge of the tail, which enables it to turn suddenly on its back 
 in the water to seize its prey. 
 
36 
 
 ties in the different species, but I will content my- 
 self with one. The principal artery and nerve of 
 the arm in man, and of the fore- leg in most quad- 
 rupeds, pass superficially over the elbow-joint in 
 their passage downwards; but in the ferocious ti- 
 ger and other carnivorous animals, whose existence 
 depends on the violent struggles they are daily 
 driven to with other animals on which they prey, 
 or against which they have to defend themselves, 
 instead of thus passing over the joint where they 
 would be most exposed to pressure, pass through 
 an opening in the solid bone, and are thereby most 
 secure. Is this safeguard the effect of precon- 
 ceived wants, or was it so moulded only when the 
 predatory habits of the animal required it ? 
 
 Having thus considered a few of the peculiarities 
 of the various classes of animals, we will now pass 
 on to man himself, and, in the first place, I would 
 remark that, had he been the offspring of the 
 quadrumanous tribe, a race might as well have 
 sprung from those inhabiting the new world as 
 from those of the old ; and as it would be very 
 improbable that he would degenerate in any par- 
 ticular from his progenitors, we should have tribes 
 of men,* like the monkeys of America, possessing 
 
37 
 
 ihirtv-six teeth, instead of thirty-two. No in- 
 stance of that kind having thus far been recorded, 
 we may fairly conclude that America was not the 
 soil so favourable to organic advancement 
 
 It would be mere gratuitous speculation, to ad- 
 vance any opinion on the probability that had the 
 chimpanse or oiang been thus transformed in 
 Africa, they would have continued most to advance 
 in the clime which most contributed to their trans- 
 formation ; so that, instead of the degraded negro 
 which we find in that region, we might expect the 
 grace and beauty which characterize the European. 
 This, I say, would be unsupported by experiment, 
 and unsustained by observation ; but lest the con- 
 verse be advanced, and it should be said that it is 
 most probable he would there be found most to 
 resemble his prototype, 1 would reply, that the 
 proposition is equally untenable, and that, there- 
 fore, the only way whereby we may arrive at a 
 correct opinion is by an appeal to the physical ur- 
 banization of the two orders. 
 
 The orang outang (Pithecus Satyrus), instead of 
 gaining on man as it becomes older, appears to 
 degenerate, inasmuch as the rounded head and 
 gentle disposition of the young are replaced in the 
 
38 
 
 full-grown animal by a cranium, approaching in 
 character to that of the carnivorous quadruped, 
 with very large canine teeth, and a corresponding 
 change in the disposition, which becomes savage 
 and morose. Its extremities, compared with those 
 of man, strike the observer as being transposed, 
 having perfect hands on the posterior extremities 
 for grasping branches, and, if I mistake not, an 
 anatomical investigation will confirm the opinion ; 
 for if the hip joint be examined, it will be found 
 that the ligament which adds so much to the 
 strength of this important joint in man, connecting 
 the round head of the thigh-bone to the cuplike 
 cavity of the pelvis (the ligamentum teres), is here 
 wanting, as it is also in the chinipanse and gibbon. 
 The chimpanse, which approaches nearest to 
 man in appearance, has thirteen pairs of ribs, 
 whereas in the human skeleton we find but twelve. 
 There is, moreover, a circumstance which particu- 
 larly distinguishes us from the lower tribes ; I 
 mean in the articulation of the head with the neck, 
 which is by the middle of its base at the great occi- 
 pital hole (foramen occipitale), the plane of which is 
 nearly horizontal, w^hereby the head is maintained 
 in a state of equilibrium, a disposition admirably 
 
39 
 
 adapted for the erect position. In all the lower 
 animals this point of articulation is placed much 
 farther back on the skull ; the position, moreover, 
 of the bone of the heel (os calcis) in man, forming 
 a right angle with the bones of the leg ; the pre- 
 sence also of calves ; the great length of the in- 
 ferior extremities ; the expanded pelvis giving 
 firmness to the legs, and thereby a great extent of 
 motion to the arms ; the nates also being at their 
 maximum of development, assisting alike to sus- 
 tain him in the erect position, and allowing him to 
 rest in the sitting posture, are all peculiarities 
 which are found in man alone. European, Malay, 
 American, Ethiopian, all possess these character- 
 istics ; hence it is obvious from these few physical 
 peculiarities, possessed by man alone, that he is 
 widely separated from all other beings. We might 
 adduce many more characteristics, and were it for 
 purpose of distinguishing him from the ape tribe 
 only, there is scarcely an organ but that might be 
 offered in testimony of the proposition wherewith 
 we commenced. 
 
 Those who conceive of the Negro, as standing- 
 bet ween the ape and civilized man, are willing to 
 seize on theshghtest modifications of external form 
 
40 
 
 to confirm their opinion ; hence they forget not to 
 adduce the peculiarly formed foot of the Ethiopian^ 
 as a powerful argument in their favour. I am most 
 willing to admit the modification, and can readily 
 believe that he may be traced through the sandy 
 desert by his footmarks. But may not this depend 
 on some other cause ? Daily pacing the loose and 
 arid sand of Nigritia, is it not probable that the 
 toes would become expanded, more especially the 
 great toe, which principally serves in the act of 
 progression? But the internal structure of the 
 neoTo's foot resembles that of his fellow man, 
 whereas the quadrumanous tribe have on the pos- 
 terior extremities muscles, corresponding in num- 
 ber, situation, and uses, to those in the hand of 
 man. 
 
 Man, then, viewed relatively to his organiz- 
 ation simply, stands a distinct unconnected spe- 
 cies in the animal chain ; but when to all this, 
 his intellectual powers are superadded, we raise 
 him a prodigious height above the mere creature 
 of instinct ; and although all individuals may not 
 be endowed with the same largeness of conception, 
 the difference, I apprehend, may depend far more 
 on fortuitous circumstances than on individual 
 
41 
 
 faculties. It has been well observed, " That the 
 savage may seem little superior to the orang outang, 
 but if instruction be afforded to both, the former 
 will gradually develop the powers of our nature in 
 their noble superiority, while the latter will still 
 remain the orang outang." My business here is 
 not with Psychology, else would I attempt to 
 show^ that it is not so unreasonable to suppose that 
 peculiarity of temperament has more concern with 
 the mental powers than most men are willing to 
 admit, and that when we would realize our beau 
 ideal of a recondite philosophy, we are too apt to 
 imagine that nature exhausts her powers in the 
 creation of a gigantic mind, than to suppose that 
 the innate mental capacity is equal in many, and 
 awaits but the kindred touch of a generous inspi- 
 ration to brighten into its glorious superiority. 
 
 Placed thus at the head of the animal chain rela- 
 tive to his organization and mental attributes, man 
 becomes an accountable being to his Creator ; and 
 with respect to the relations subsisting between him 
 and his own species, he is also dependent on, and 
 accountable to his fellow men. For a protracted 
 period of his infant life he is in a state of absolute 
 helplessness, and until his delicate organs are ac- 
 
II 
 
 42 
 
 customed to the impressions of external agents, his 
 existence seems to be dragged on in pain and 
 misery ; becoming susceptible of agreeable sensa- 
 tions, he goes on advancing in the development of 
 his powers through the smiling season of youth, 
 the pride of puberty, the full plenitude of man- 
 hood and decrepit old age, when his dull senses 
 are the unerring witnesses that 
 
 " He has lived long enough : his way of life 
 Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf." 
 
 " Parvus, debilis, fatuus, omnium rerum inops 
 nascitur ; sola parentum cura diu conservatur, 
 fovetur, alitur ; paulatim crescit, pubescit, ado- 
 lescit, sapit : forma et animi et corporis viribus 
 parentes sequat ; eadem gaudet exercere munera ; 
 tandem, ingravescentibus annis communem sortem 
 subiturus.""* 
 
 The situation of man on the earth is very remark- 
 able, and has been beautifully described by Sir J. 
 Herschell, in the following passage : — *'To no other 
 warm-blooded animal has nature denied that indis- 
 pensable covering, without which the vicissitudes of 
 
 * Gregory, — Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae. 
 
43 
 
 a temperate, and the rigours of a cold climate are 
 equally insupportable; and to scarcely any has 
 she been so sparing in external weapons, whether 
 for attack or defence. Destitute alike of speed to 
 avoid, and of arms to repel, the aggressions of his 
 voracious foes ; tenderly susceptible of atmospheric 
 influences, and unfitted for the coarse aliments 
 which the earth affords spontaneously, during at 
 least two-thirds of the year, even in temperate 
 climes ; man, if abandoned to mere instinct, would 
 be of all creatures the most miserable and destitute. 
 Distracted by terror, and goaded by famine ; driven 
 to the most abject expedients for concealment from 
 his enemies, and to the most cowardly devices for 
 the seizure and destruction of his nobler prey, his 
 existence would be one continued subterfuge or 
 stratagem ; his dwelling would be in dens of the 
 earth, in clefts of rocks, or in the hollows of trees ; 
 his food worms and the lower reptiles, or such few 
 and crude productions of the soil as his organs 
 could be brought to assimilate, varied with occa- 
 sional relics mangled by more powerful beasts of 
 prey, or contemned by their more pampered choice. 
 Remarkable only for the absence of those powers 
 
44 
 
 and qualities which obtain for other animals a 
 degree of security and respect, he would be disre- 
 garded by some and hunted down by others ; till, 
 after a few generations, his species would become 
 altogether extinct, or, at least, would be restricted 
 to a few islands in tropical regions, where the 
 warmth of the climate, the paucity of enemies, and 
 the abundance of vegetable food might permit it to 
 linger." 
 
 The physical development of man is subject to 
 certain laws, which originate from innumerable 
 causes, and over which he himself possesses a 
 limited power resulting from the exercise of his 
 intellectual attributes. It is this degree of power 
 (over-rated perhaps by BufFon) which caused him 
 to exclaim, " Who knows to what degree of per- 
 fection man might arrive at both in physical and 
 moral nature?" The question has been answered 
 to a certain extent by M. Quetelet in his elaborate 
 *' Essai de Physique Sociale;" but as the immu- 
 table agents of nature are co-extensive and co- 
 efficient, with those inherent in the object of our 
 research, we must, if we desire to obtain a com- 
 prehensive knowledge of ourselves, determine the 
 
45 
 
 modifying powers of nature, as well as the pertur- 
 bative influence of man. The latter subject of 
 investigation being essentially dependent on the 
 constitution of the social state, is principally treated 
 of, and copiously illustrated by statistical tables 
 in the above treatise, which must be highly in- 
 teresting to every inquiring mind. 
 
46 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 
 
 The dispersion of mankind since the last irruption 
 of water on the earth's surface, has given rise to 
 such endless tribes, that any attempt at arrange- 
 ment must necessarily be very imperfect and un- 
 satisfactory. Certain peculiarities however, are 
 observed in different regions, and so characteristic 
 are they, that some writers have imagined that 
 several varieties of men were originally created, 
 and their characters perpetuated by hereditary 
 transmission ; others contend, that the influence of 
 external causes has been sufficient so to modify 
 the external appearance, as to produce the several 
 varieties. This however, is a question which we 
 shall hereafter examine, after giving the distin- 
 guishing marks of the individual races. 
 
 Linnaeus in his *' Systema Naturae," enumerates 
 six different varieties ; viz. wild men, Americans, 
 
47 
 
 Europeans, Asiatics, Africans, and monsters. Now, 
 the first and last of these are evidently inapplica- 
 ble ; the first, inasmuch, as they have always been 
 either idiots or impostors ; the last, because when 
 congenite, there are physiological laws whereby to 
 account for the monstrosity, and when the effect 
 of superstitious observances, they cannot be classed 
 with natural deformities. Cuvier has comprised 
 the whole human race under three great divisions : 
 the Caucasians, Mongolians, and Ethiopians. The 
 most popular classification is that of Blumenbach, 
 wherein are five varieties ; the Caucasian, Mongo- 
 lian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. Now, 
 whatever system we adopt, the division must be 
 more or less arbitrary, because the line of demar- 
 cation between different varieties is more or less 
 undefined. Were we therefore to adopt the ar- 
 rangement of Cuvier, it would be no difficult matter 
 to demonstrate such physical analogy between the 
 several races, as to justify the reduction of the great 
 divisions to three ; but as that of Blumenbach is 
 founded on geographical distribution as well as 
 physical peculiarity, it will more effectually assist 
 our investigations. 
 
 The inhabitants of the extreme northern latitudes 
 
48 
 
 however, in the European, Asiatic, and American 
 continents, bear so striking a resemblance to each 
 other, and are moreover (at least in Europe and 
 America) so different from the more meridional 
 population, that our investigations will be much 
 simplified by enumerating a sixth or Hyperborean 
 variety, in addition to those proposed by Blumen- 
 bach, which I shall now proceed to examine. 
 
 Section I. 
 Caucasian Variety. 
 
 This variety comprehends the inhabitants of the 
 whole of Europe (the Laplanders and the rest of 
 the Finnish race, excepted,) the western Asiatics 
 on the western side of the Caspian and the rivers 
 Ob and Ganges, the Northern Africans, as the 
 Barbarians, Egyptians and Abyssinians. 
 
 Their distinguishing characters are white skin, 
 red cheeks, soft long undulating hair, assuming all 
 the shades from a light brown to black, globular 
 head, straight oval face, well defined features, 
 small cheek bones, perpendicular front teeth in 
 both jaws, an arched expanded forehead, narrow 
 
49 
 
 and rather aquiline nose, small mouth with slightly 
 everted lips, particularly the lower one, and a full 
 rounded chin. 
 
 The earliest profane history we possess of the 
 European population, is from Herodotus, who 
 lived about 480 years before Christ : he travelled 
 from Halicarnassus, his native place, through 
 Greece, a part of Asia, Scythia, Thrace, Macedo- 
 nia, and Egypt, and describes the nations through 
 which he passed. At that time the extended plains 
 of eastern Europe and Asia were inhabited by 
 hordes of nomad tribes, who, having no fixed places 
 of abode, were induced on the slightest occasion 
 to invade and overwhelm the neiohbouring: tribes, 
 and consequently had existed a long time in ig- 
 norance and savage barbarism, before even an 
 attempt was made to supply the materials whereby 
 they might be traced to their individual sources. 
 
 From the most remotf^ periods it has been ob- 
 served, that periodical emigrations have taken place 
 from Asia ; and the more we extend our inquiries, 
 the more does it appear, that the whole of Europe 
 has received its population from that source. 
 
 It is said that the Vendidat* of the Persians con- 
 
 * Heeren. 
 D 
 
50 
 
 tains in its two first chapters historical records 
 which do not appear to be so allegorical as most 
 other ancient legends, and require only a geogra- 
 phical investigation to explain them. The original 
 seat of our race is there described as a delicious 
 country, named Eriene-Veedjo, which enjoyed an 
 extremely mild climate, with seven summer months 
 and five winter. Th u it continued, as created by 
 the power of Ormuzd, until the author of evil, the 
 death-dealing Ahriman, smote it with the plague of 
 cold, so that it came to have two summer months 
 only, and ten of winter. The people then began 
 to desert the paradise they at first occupied, and 
 Ormuzd created sixteen other places of benediction 
 for their reception. The first abode which Ormuzd 
 created for the exiled people, was Soghdi, whose 
 identity with Sogdiana is very apparent : next 
 Moore, or Maroo, in Khorasan ; then Bakhdi, or 
 Balkh (Bactriana), and so on to Pars itself, and 
 the boundaries of Media and India. This Eriene 
 has been referred by some writers to the Caucasian 
 district, but Heeren imagines it to have been in 
 the neighbourhood of the mountain tracts on the 
 borders of Bucharia. Now, this mountain chain has 
 but a short summer, and inasmuch as the fossil 
 
61 
 
 elephant, mammoth and mastodon are here found, 
 it is presumed that the character of the climate 
 was formerly much more genial than at present. 
 Hence Heeren concludes, that Eriene is obviously 
 the same with Iran of the present day ; and Persia 
 being fertile in those places only which are irri- 
 gated, we may understand why sixteen distinct 
 places were said to be created. 
 
 This description is evidently applicable, whether 
 we fix on the Caucasian, or the more central 
 range of Asiatic mountains as the cradle of the 
 European nations. Were we to determine the posi- 
 tion solely by the evidence afforded in the exami- 
 nation of fossilized bones, we might with equal 
 reason point to the mountain chain in Siberia or 
 Kamtchatka, as to that of Caucasus or Bucharia ; 
 for the same fossil bones of the huge mammoth 
 and mastodon are found throughout France, Ger- 
 many, and Russia, even to Siberia, Lapland, and 
 the icy regions of the Arctic ocean, as well as in the 
 mountain cham referred to by Heeren; so that, 
 however much geology may assist us in ascertaining 
 the comparative antiquity of continents, it appears 
 capable of advancing us but little in determining 
 the priority of nations. 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 It is now universally admitted, that Western 
 Asia was first inhabited by rude nomades, whose 
 wanderings were most probably confined to the 
 immediate neighbourhood of their original posi- 
 tion ; and it is reasonable to suppose, that as 
 their numbers increased, they were driven to ex- 
 tend themselves over a wider extent of territory, 
 so that any farther increase or other circumstances 
 pressing on the primitive race, would compel them 
 to invade the territory of their neighbours : and 
 thus we may trace the gradual formation of tribes, 
 who, by adopting new and more civilized modes of 
 subsistence, established new settlements, and con- 
 sequently observed new habits, till ambition arose 
 to destroy their consanguinity ; when, by a con- 
 tinued series of wars and conquests, new king- 
 doms were founded, whence the stream of po- 
 pulation has flowed on more or less interruptedly, 
 until our continents have assumed their present 
 aspect. 
 
 It is farther related, that Jerashid was the first 
 king or ruler of these nomad tribes, and he is 
 said to have introduced agriculture, which occu- 
 pation some adopted, whilst others followed their 
 original habits ; thus showing that a variety of oc- 
 
53 
 
 cupations caused the first division of tribes, rather 
 than diversity of origin. 
 
 Many learned writers, from their researches into 
 the most ancient traditions which we possess, and 
 which have been transmitted to us by the Jewish 
 writings, have imagined that the Caucasian chain 
 was the first habitation of man, and their opinions 
 would seem to derive confirmation from Hero- 
 dotus, who speaks of the most western part of 
 Asia as being well inhabited, but that from India 
 eastward, the country was one vast desert unex- 
 plored and unknown. With respect to the aflfinity 
 of names, Eriene may be as easily identified with 
 Erivan, the present capital of Persian Armenia, as 
 with Iran ; — Bakhdi with Baku, &;c. Moreover, the 
 surrounding country is in nowise unfavourable to 
 the supposition : the Scythians, for instance, would 
 extend themselves northward, between the Tanais 
 and Don, the position which the first traces of 
 history assign to them ; the Phoenicians, passing 
 southward, might follow the course of the Eu- 
 phrates into Syria, where they would be restrained 
 by the Mediterranean on the one hand, and the 
 immense desert of Arabia on the other, from any 
 other positions than those which they actually 
 
II 
 
 54 
 
 assumed ; namely, the fertile soil of Egypt to- 
 wards the south, and westward towards Greece; 
 whilst the Persians, pursuing the eastward direc- 
 tion, would be guided by the Oxus and Jaxartes 
 to the seat of empire which they established be- 
 tween the Indus, the Indian ocean, and the Arabian 
 peninsula. 
 
 There are, how^ever, strong reasons to point to 
 the mountain-chain referred to by the celebrated 
 German historian, as the cradle of mankind. The 
 Hindoos, who pretend to the greatest antiquity, 
 might thus have been the early out-branchings of 
 the primitive race. And by his views (if we can re- 
 duce all varieties of the human species to one type, 
 and so demonstrate the possibility of identity of 
 origin), we may suppose the Mongolic race to have 
 separated from its parent stem, and dispersed over 
 the eastern part of Asia ; a second following the 
 line of coast southward towards the Straits of 
 Babelmandeb into Abyssinia; whilst the European 
 branch possessed themselves successively of the 
 different countries which we are now about to point 
 out. 
 
 The mountain-chain, on the borders of Bucharia, 
 being fixed on as the primitive seat of the human 
 
55 
 
 race, Heeren remarks, that the chain of successive 
 abodes marked out the great highway of nations : 
 the nomadic hordes remained in their original 
 mountain habitations, and their dialect was the 
 Zend ; the eastern branch, following the course 
 of the Ganges, by particular inflections of their 
 dialect, gradually moulded their language into 
 Sanscrit; whilst the western stream, assuming 
 successively the names of Lydians, Medians, Ar- 
 menians, Arabians, Phoenicians, &c. ultimately 
 reached the borders of the Egsean Sea, in which 
 situation they were denominated Pelasgians, and 
 spoke the Greek language. In the meantime, 
 it is extremely probable, that the Scythians ex- 
 tended themselves northward, where they estab- 
 lished their kingdom on the north of the Caspian 
 and Euxine Seas, in the situation which Dr. 
 Prichard supposes to coiTespond with that of the 
 Ukraine, and the country of the Tartars and Don 
 Cossacks. 
 
 Now, the Jewish writings agree with the Zanda- 
 vesta, in showing that many mighty kingdoms 
 must have existed long before the foundation of 
 the Persian empire, so that the mountainous 
 country of Pars continued to be inhabited by va- 
 
56 
 
 rious tribes unequally civilized*, until Cyrus con- 
 quered Media about 536, or, according to Heeren, 
 560 years before Christ, and established the em- 
 pire which embraced all the countries between the 
 Tigris and Indus, on the one hand, and the Oxus 
 and Indian Ocean on the other. Thus organized^, 
 it retained its supremacy until the time of Darius, 
 and was divided into satrapies, when the genius of 
 war, together with a destructive licentiousness, 
 caused its downfall ; since which, many nations 
 have been founded on its ruins : but the. various 
 races who have successively held dominion, have 
 all belonged to the same original stock. 
 
 The Aramean or Semitic tribes, so called after 
 Shem, from whom they are said to have de- 
 scended, inhabited the wide tracts of land be- 
 tween the Tigris and Mediterranean, and from 
 Cappadocia on the north to the southern coast of 
 Arabia. The Phoenicians were a branch of the 
 Aramean tribes, and possessed the whole of that 
 extent of country, which we now recognize as 
 Syria: they extended themselves also over the 
 
 * The satrapies of Persia were subdivided into several 
 tribes, which Herodotus has enumerated and distinguished, 
 either as Nomads, Agriculturists, or Nobles. 
 
57 
 
 northern part of Africa, whence they crossed the 
 Straits of Gibraltar, to possess themselves of the 
 southernmost parts of Spain. 
 
 The eastern emisrants foUovvino; the course of 
 the Ganges into India, pretend, like the Chaldeans 
 and Egyptians, to priority of origin over all other 
 nations, and like them, build their claims on legen- 
 dary tales, which have been found to be incon- 
 sistent and full of irreconcileable absurdities. It 
 is extraordinary, however, that these three great 
 nations, agree in referring to a period of about four 
 thousand years from the present time, as the origi- 
 nal epoch of their respective monarchies, and this 
 agreement may, I think, be adduced to prove their 
 direct origin from one common stock. 
 
 Hi.-torical data abound, for referring most of 
 the monarchies which have at various times been 
 established in western Asia, to political and reli- 
 gious revolutions. Thus the Medes, whose coun- 
 try is said to take its name from Medai, the third 
 son of Japhet, was originally subdued by the 
 Assyrians; but in the time of Sennacherib, about 
 700 years before Christ, they regained their inde- 
 pendence. The Thracians occupied a part of Asia 
 Minor, and the greater part of the country between 
 
58 
 
 the Euxine and Adriatic; they were closely re- 
 lated with the Pelasgians of Greece, and with the 
 Scythians also, as proved by Herodotus, whose 
 writings go far to show their descent from one 
 common source : he relates that Darius, in his ex- 
 pedition against the Scythians, attacked the Getes, 
 who, believing themselves to be immortal, were 
 the bravest of the Thracians. 
 
 That these Scythian tribes were the original in- 
 habitants of the Caucasian mountains, where a 
 variety of unconnected hordes now exist, it is fair 
 to presume from Diodorus, who informs us that 
 the Scythians originally came from the neighbour- 
 hood of the Indus, and subsequently established 
 themselves on the banks of the Araxes, and 
 thence as far as the borders of the Black Sea. 
 
 Thus were Egypt and western Asia popu- 
 lated.* The latter has been designated the Ma- 
 gazine of the European race, which, from histori- 
 cal data and the geographical position of land and 
 water, may be presumed to have spread itself in 
 two great streams ; the Scythians on the north, 
 and the Celtse on the south of the Euxine Sea. 
 
 At the dawn of history, the Scythians were re- 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note A, 
 
59 
 
 presented as an extensive nation, occupying the 
 immense expanse of barren deserts in the north- 
 eastern parts of the European continent.* Justin, a 
 Latin historian, who Uved in the second century, 
 under Antoninus Pius, says of them, that they 
 founded the kinodoms of Bactriana and Parthia : 
 that their wives were the Amazons ; they were a 
 houseless nomad tribe, clothing themselves in 
 skins, and living on milk and honey. 
 
 Tacitus describes them as a zanthous tribe, that 
 is, as having white skin, light flaxen hair, and blue 
 eyes. As early as 1400^ years before the Chris- 
 tian era, the Scythians had penetrated over a consi- 
 derable portion of the north and west of Europe? 
 and the position assigned to them by Desmoulins, 
 is on the north-east of the Rhine, the Alps, and 
 the Danube, from Scandinavia along the borders of 
 the Euxine and Caspian, to the Indus : he divides 
 them into three tribes : — 
 
 1. Gothic Scandinavians and Germans. 
 
 2. Slavi. 
 
 3. Sarmato Medes. 
 
 1. The Goths are said to be descendants of the 
 * Herodotus. f Pinkerton. 
 
60 
 
 Teutones, a race of Scythians, whose eastern con- 
 fines united them with the Medes and Persians; 
 but when first discovered by the Romans, they 
 were in the situation now occupied by the Ger- 
 mans. Accordino; to Tacitus the ancient Gauths 
 or Goths were the inhabitants of Scandinavia, and 
 migrated under the names of Goths, Vandals, Ve- 
 sigoths, and Ostrogoths into Germany ; this Ger- 
 man branch, coming from Scandinavia through 
 Denmark, passed between the Elbe and Weser, 
 and followed the Rhine to its branches, which 
 pass into Italy. "^ The Vandals possessed them- 
 selves of the north-east of Germany, as far as the 
 Vistula ; the Vesigoths crossed the Danube, and 
 
 * Much difference of opinion exists as to the original popu- 
 lation of that part of the Italian peninsula which is now known 
 as Tuscany, but which was formerly called Etruria or Tyrrhe- 
 nia. Niebuhr inclines to the opinion that they first came from 
 the Rhsetian Alps, whence they were driven to the southern 
 side of the Po by the Gauls ; but, according to Signor Micali, 
 in a work entitled, " Storia degli antichi Popoli Italiani,'^ 
 there is great reason to believe that the first Etrurian popula- 
 tion was derived from Egypt. This opinion is grounded chiefly 
 on the Canopic vases, figures of winged sphinxes and of scara- 
 bei, which are found in great numbers in Tuscany. The Etrus- 
 can dialect supplies no data for tracing the migrations of these 
 early nations, inasmuch as it is said to bear no resemblance 
 to any language with which it has been compared. 
 
61 
 
 obtained a settlement in tJie Roman empire ; the 
 Ostrogoths fixed themselves in Italy, which the 
 Vesigoths then left, and ultimately settled in 
 Spain. 
 
 2. The Slavi were known in ancient history as 
 Sauromatae ; they were Median tribes from the 
 north of Persia. In time they reached the Tanais, 
 and in the course of centuries obtained possession 
 of all the countries north of the Euxine, whence 
 they were driven to the Carpathian mountains, 
 between which and the coast of the Baltic they 
 wandered. A learned Gothic historian* relates, 
 that the Sauromatse were divided into three na- 
 tions : 1st, Venedi ; 2nd, Antes ; 3rd, Slavi. The 
 Venedi or Wends are now known as Russian 
 Cossacks, the Antes as Russians, and the Slavi, 
 who most probably received their name when 
 they had established themselves on the borders of 
 the Euxine, subsequently migrated westward to 
 occupy Poland, part of Hungary, and the German 
 states of Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, and some 
 countries farther north towards the Elbe and Bal- 
 tic ; these last appear to be the Peucini and Bas- 
 tarnaj of Pliny, who represents them as the most 
 
 * Jornandes. 
 
62 
 
 eastern tribes of the Germans and neidibours of 
 the Dacians. 
 
 Thus it appears that Germany has in part re- 
 ceived its inhabitants from Gothic and Sclavonic 
 nations, the former possessing themselves of the 
 north and west, whilst the latter confined them- 
 selves to the east ; and we shall endeavour to show 
 that the southern states of Bavaria and Austria 
 were occupied by Celts. The inhabitants of each 
 of these divisions preserve their physical peculiari- 
 ties. The descendants of the Goths are still the 
 zanthous tribe described by Tacitus, whilst the 
 Sclavonic Germans, like the Poles and Russians, 
 have a darker complexion, a squared visage, small 
 sunken eyes, a short nose, and mouth nearly ap- 
 proaching it, and with little beard, except on the 
 upper lip ; their dialect, moreover, is said to abound 
 with Sclavonic roots. 
 
 3. The Sarmato-Medes, descendants of the an- 
 cient Scythians, occupied the most northern limits, 
 and formed the connecting links between the Fin- 
 nish, Mongolian, and European races ; they appear 
 to have remained shut up in steppes and moun- 
 tains, retaining the original habits and customs of 
 the Scythian nomads after the western emigration 
 
63 
 
 of their more civilized countrymen. The Chiung- 
 nu'*^ are said to be the descendants of these savage 
 tribes, since which they have received the denomi- 
 nation of Tartars.^ Their original country was 
 that part of Sarmatia bordering on the Palus Maeo- 
 tis and Tanais, north of the Euxine and Caspian 
 Seas, whence they issued in the 376th year, and 
 attacked successively the Alans, Ostrogoths, and 
 Vesigoths, since which they have at different times 
 made hostile incursions into Europe, and in Hun- 
 gary have left a race of men called Madjiars, like 
 them in person, viz. short in stature, with round 
 heads, low receding foreheads, small eyes placed 
 obliquely, short flattened nose, thick projecting 
 lips, almost beardless, and with short thick necks. 
 This is the description given of the person of Attila, 
 their leader, and it appears that these cliaracter- 
 istics were general throughout the ancient Huns. 
 
 The Tartars, as we have hinted at above, are 
 at the present day regarded as descendants of 
 these European Huns ; they are divided into 
 widely dispersed nations, extending from Persian 
 Armenia, as far as Siberia on the one side, and 
 over a great extent of the Russian empire on the 
 * De Guignes. f Klaproth. 
 
64 
 
 other ; and as they differ m habitation, so do they 
 also in features ; whilst some are tall, handsome, 
 and somewhat civilized, others, like the Nogais, 
 have the repulsive faces of satyrs, which, with 
 their barbarous customs and marauding disposi- 
 tion, form the type of by far the greater part of 
 them. 
 
 It appears that a branch of the first division, 
 which we have described as Gothic Scandinavians, 
 invaded the north of France during the tenth cen- 
 tury and established themselves in the Nether- 
 lands, as Belgse, or, as M. Amedee Thierry de- 
 signates them, Kimris; and about 150 years after, 
 a portion of them came into England as Normans. 
 These Kimris, or Cimbrians of some writers, have 
 been said to have descended from the Celts, but 
 without sufficient evidence. It is true that the 
 Celts are recorded to have entered into a con- 
 federation with the German inhabitants of the 
 Weser, which combined nations called themselves 
 Franks. 
 
 Various opinions have been entertained respect- 
 ing the origin of the Celtse : that they originally 
 emigrated from the east is, however, universally 
 admitted, and that they were a shorter race than 
 
65 
 
 the Germans is generally believed ; they are also 
 said to have been characterised by their tanned 
 skin and dark hairy Ijodies. Ancient historians 
 have deduced their oriirin from Gomer, the son of 
 Japhet, whose descendants settled in Phrygia, 
 whence they have spread themselves westward 
 towards Hungary on the south side of the Danube, 
 into Austria, Bavaria, Italy, Gaul on the western 
 side of the Rhine, and into Spain. They were the 
 first European race who invaded foreign lands, 
 and to them is attributed the first rude population 
 of the British Islands. 
 
 Heeren, in his Researches, remarks, that the 
 Chorasmii Uved in the plains of Kiva, south of the 
 Caspian, and had the Mycians as neig-ibours, 
 which Mycians were afterwards called Phrygians, 
 and are probably identical with the Uzes, or an- 
 cestors of the Turks ; hence, if, as has been said, 
 the ancestors of the Celts inhabited Phrygia, it 
 follows that the Celtic stream of population has 
 issued from the south of the Caspian and Euxine 
 Seas, and therefore not from the north, as some 
 writers have imagined. It is, moreover, physically 
 proved that the Celts and Pelusgians were closely 
 related ; and Aristotle remarks that the philosophy 
 
66 
 
 of the Celts passed from them mto Greece ; all 
 which circumstances tend to prove the southern 
 position of the ancient Celts. 
 
 Their first related excursion was that which took 
 place about 622 years before Christ, under two 
 nephews of King Ambegat ; one of whom, Bello- 
 vesus, with his followers, passed the Italian Alps, 
 and drove from the valley of the Po the earliest 
 inhabitants of Italy (probably branches of the Pe- 
 lasgians, who had previously crossed the Adria- 
 tic), after which they undertook several excursions 
 against the Italians, in whose country they settled ; 
 the other, under Sigovesus, followed the course of 
 the Danube, and occupied part of Dacia and lUy- 
 ria, now known as Hungary, Austria, and Bavaria. 
 Previous to this, however, it appears that hordes of 
 Germans had invaded Eastern Illyria and Thessaly, 
 by which means it is probable that the Celts and 
 Germans became united. 
 
 From Illyria they extended themselves into 
 Gallia, where they received the name of Galli 
 or Gauls, and multiplied so fast that they were 
 constantly at war with each other, whereby they 
 divided themselves into numerous nations, some of 
 which poured forth to invade other countries : thus 
 
67 
 
 under the name of Celtiberi, they occupied part of 
 Spain ; others, as we have before said, joined some 
 Gothic tribes, and called themselves Franks ; whilst 
 others, in connexion with Belgse in the north, pos- 
 sessed themselves of the British Islands. The 
 south of Spain was originally inhabited by emi- 
 grants from the north of Africa. 
 
 The Celts and Germans having thus arrived at 
 the western extremity of the European continent 
 (the former occupying France, where they were 
 denominated Gauls, and the latter as Belgae or 
 Kimris in the Netherlands), extended themselves 
 into Britain, — the Belgse most probably inhabiting 
 the eastern coast, whilst the Celts passed west- 
 ward, in which direction they were subsequently 
 driven by the invasion of foreign nations, and at 
 the present day their characters are recognized 
 in the Welsh and Irish, whose countries were 
 inhabited by Celts of the original stem. There 
 is reason to suppose that Scotland received 
 its earliest inhabitants from Britain ; these first 
 emiorants were denominated Picts. The Caledo- 
 nians, whether contemporaneous or identical with 
 the Picts is uncertain ; both nations inhabited the 
 eastern part of Scotland, and Tacitus refers them 
 
i 
 
 68 
 
 to a German origin. The western inhabitants ar- 
 rived at a later date from the north-east extremity 
 of Ireland, and were denominated Scots. [ 
 
 The course which we have now traced of the 
 European stream of population is attested by 
 historical records, affinity of dialects, physical 
 characteristics, and by the actual position of 
 the different tribes. We do not pretend, how- 
 ever, amidst the many great revolutions whereby 
 these countries have at various times been con- 
 vulsed, that each nation has universally preserved 
 the purity of its original type or the identical 
 ground of its primitive ancestors ; but we have 
 great reason for believing that extermination has 
 never been permitted to isolate any one tribe ; on 
 the contrary, we deem it probable that a careful 
 combination of historical and philological facts, 
 assisted by the sciences of physiology and geogra- 
 phy, will greatly tend to simplify the filiation of 
 nations. 
 
69 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Mo?2g olian Va riefi/ . 
 
 This variety includes the rest of the Asiatics 
 except the Malays, who inhabit the Asiatic islands 
 and the peninsula of IMalacca. 
 
 They are of an olive colour ; have strong, straight, 
 thin, black hair, scarcely ever curled ; a head 
 almost square ; a broad flattened face ; projecting 
 globular cheek bones ; the space between the eyes, 
 flat and broad ; the apertures of the eye lids, nar- 
 row and linear ; the eyes placed obliquely ; the 
 nose small and flat ; the osseous nostrils narrow ; 
 thick lips; projecting chin; large ears; and a 
 stature below that of the European. 
 
 The Mongolians themselves deduce their origin 
 from Japhet. His son Turk, say they, was their 
 first king, and w^as succeeded by Taunak, during 
 whose reign they separated themselves into the 
 four tribes or ordas of Erlat, Gialair, Kaugin, and 
 Berla, from the last of which came the celebrated 
 Timur, and some time after him Alanza Khan. 
 This latter had two sons: Tartar (signifying black), 
 and Mogul (or melancholy), between whom he 
 
70 
 
 divided his empire, and thus originated the Tartars 
 and Moguls. These two kingdoms made war on 
 each other, in which the Tartars prevailed and 
 drove the Moguls into the mountains, many of 
 which they traversed, and at length arrived at a 
 fertile plain enclosed on all sides by exceedingly 
 high mountains. Here they increased, and in their 
 turn attacked the Tartars and became a consider- 
 able nation, composed of numerous tribes, all of 
 which were tributary to the Emperor of Kitay, 
 until the time of Gengis Khan, who reduced all 
 the Moguls and Tartars into one state, with which 
 he invaded and subdued Kitay, Hindoostan, and a 
 great part of Persia. This immense empire he 
 bequeathed to his sons, in whose hands it began to 
 decline, and was afterwards divided amonost a 
 great number of petty princes, until Timur Bek 
 restored it to its former importance. '* At his 
 death, however, the empire again fell into disorder 
 and was divided into smaller states, which parted 
 again into smaller still, and were then reduced to 
 subjection, which at length brought about a divi- 
 sion into stems and hordes, and consequently a 
 complete retrogradation from the state of civiliza- 
 tion to the condition of raw uncultivated man. 
 
71 
 
 The two tribes of Tartars and Moguls which were 
 united into one state by Gengis, were again sepa- 
 rated on the destruction of his monarchy, since 
 which they have been engaged in perpetual hos- 
 tilities. The Mongoles, properly so called, com- 
 pose the one, and the Doerboen-Oiroet, or quad- 
 ruple alliance, the other ; to the latter belong the 
 Oeloet, Kho-it, Tummut, and Barga-Burat. The 
 Oeloets are identified with the Kalmucks ; remains 
 of the Kho-it are still found amono;st the Soon- 
 gares ; the abode of the Tummut is unknown. 
 The mountains in the neighbourhood of Baikal 
 are the residence of the Barga-Burat. The Mon- 
 goles comprehend the remainder of that people 
 who were driven out of China in the fourteenth 
 century, and who have since inhabited the spacious 
 regions between Siberia and China Proper." * 
 
 From this slight historical sketch it would ap- 
 pear that the Tartars and Mongols have arisen 
 from one common source, and accordingly the 
 Mongolic has been by some writers denominated 
 the Tartarian race ; but we have seen, in treating 
 of the Sarmato-Medes, that a branch of them (the 
 Chiung-nu) are considered by Klaproth and De 
 
 * Encyclopsedia Londinensis. — Art. Mogul. 
 
72 
 
 Guignes, to have been the progenitors of the Huns ; 
 hence, other writers have designated the Tartars as 
 European inhabitants of Western Asia. 
 
 It is evident that Burnes considers the Tartar of 
 Mongohc origin, for, says he, " we should be dis- 
 posed to look for the seat of Toorkmun migration 
 on the countries north-east of Bokhara, the abodes 
 of Jengis, of Timour, and their Uzbeck succes- 
 sors." Again he remarks, " The Tartar is no 
 longer disfigured by features v.liich once inspired 
 disgust. But a physiognomist would not deduce 
 from the change that the Toork of the Oxus differs 
 from his countrymen of Yarkund, (the mogliul of 
 modern writers) ; the Tartar features have not alto- 
 gether disappeared from the natives of Toorkistan, 
 as seen in the small eyes, flattened forehead, and 
 scanty beard. The inhabitant of the city is more 
 changed than the peasant, and in the Hindoo- 
 Koosh is a tribe named Tartar liuzaras, who are 
 said to be descendants of Gengis Khan's army, 
 possessing the pure Tartar features." 
 
 The investigations of historians leave us in con- 
 jecture respecting the original character of the Tar- 
 tarians ; so that they, as well as all other races, 
 exemplify the truth of a very elegant and philoso- 
 
73 
 
 phical writer.''^ ^* Nations/' says he, " exist long 
 before they feel the want of a national history, 
 and when that want is attempted to be supplied, 
 the materials have perished or are deficient." 
 There are strong reasons, however, for referring 
 them to an European source, on which account we 
 have alluded to them in the former section; but 
 inasmuch as the physical characteristics of the 
 greater part of them are so decidedly Mongolic, 
 and the countries over which they wander, being 
 those wherein the Mongolic character chiefly pre- 
 vails, (the two great grounds of Blumenbach's 
 classification), the most philosophical conclusion 
 appears to be that of assigning to them the Mon- 
 golic epithet. 
 
 Pallas supposes the primitive seat of the Mon- 
 golic race to have been in the neighbourhood of 
 the Altaic chain, which opinion receives confir- 
 mation from the researches of Klaproth, and 
 doubtless the present divided state of this great 
 race is to be attributed to the innumerable political 
 revolutions of which Asia has so frequently been 
 the seat ; so that we must refer to hostile invasions 
 
 * Douglas on the Advancement of Society in Knowledge 
 and Religion. 
 
 '^^ E 
 
I 
 
 74 
 
 and successive conquests as the causes of the 
 various states as they exist at the present day, and 
 seek elsewhere for the agencies which have ope- 
 rated on their physical aspect. 
 
 The Oeloets, or Oloth Mongols, occupy the 
 countries between the lake of Khukhu-Nor and 
 the Volga ; they consist of four tribes, who are 
 known as Kalmucks. It is probable that the Bu- 
 riates have kept possession of the mountains round 
 about the lake of Baikal from the period of their 
 first origin. The Khalka Mongols inhabit the 
 countries on the northern side of the desert of Gobi, 
 and are said to be divided into eighty-six tribes ; 
 whilst the Sharaigal or Khor-Mongols are in pos- 
 session of the countries farther to the south-west 
 towards Tangut and Tibet. The Tsakhar, or pro- 
 per Mongols, are settled on the south side of Gobi, 
 as tribes charged with the defence of the Chinese 
 empire; they have forty-nine divisions. 
 
 The eastern Mongols, inhabiting the Chinese 
 empire, and Japanese islands, resemble each other 
 so much in manners and customs, as well as in 
 language and appearance ; the physical conforma- 
 tion of each, moreover, is so decidedly Mongolic, 
 that we cannot hesitate to refer them to the same 
 
75 
 
 identical source with the other Mongols, from 
 whom they may have separated in very early ages, 
 at which time the Chinese possessed themselves of 
 the land they now inhabit, and which we have 
 already spoken of as Kitay of the Mongolians ; 
 whence it is probable they extended themselves to 
 Nipon and the other islands of Japan. 
 
 The features of these eastern Mongols being less 
 harsh, and their manners more polished than those 
 of their Kahiiuk neighbours, are circumstances 
 which w^e shall attempt to account for hereafter. 
 With these last we may include the Cochin-chinese, 
 the Siamese, Coresians, &c., who are possessed of 
 similar physical characteristics. 
 
 Section III. 
 Ethiopian Variety. 
 
 All those Africans not included in the European 
 races belong to this variety. 
 
 They have black eyes and skin; black woolly 
 hair ; a head compressed laterally ; skull con- 
 tracted anteriorly, whereby its cavity is much 
 diminished ; forehead arched ; face greatly deve- 
 
 E 2 
 
76 
 
 I 
 
 Loped; cheek-bones projecting forwards; eyes 
 prominent ; nose thick and confused with the pro- 
 minent cheeks and extended upper jaw; the osseous 
 nares, laro:e ; the alveolar arch in which the teeth 
 are planted, narrow ; the front teeth of the upper 
 and lower jaw, obliquely prominent; lips thick, | 
 
 particularly the upper one ; and a receding chin. 
 
 In speaking of the Ethiopian tribes, dwelling 
 between the European inhabitants in Northern 
 Africa, and the colony of the Cape of Good Hope 
 in the south, we are necessarily compelled to in- 
 clude nations which have not the peculiar con- 
 formation of the Negro or Hottentot, and which 
 are considered by some as descendants of the 
 Moors, who, after the conquest of Sofala, were 
 driven into these territories. 
 
 Ham, cursed by his father, and predicted to be 
 the slave of his brethren, has been recognized by 
 ancient historians in the debased Negro, who is 
 considered to be the aboriginal native of cen- 
 tral Africa. To Cush, however, is attributed the 
 origin of the peculiar variety of mankind which 
 has received the denomination of Ethiopian. It 
 appears from the Jewish writings, that they first 
 occupied the countries in the neighbourhood of the 
 
77 
 
 Indus, whence they emigrated under the name of 
 Cushites, to the land they at present inhabit, 
 which the ancient Jews called Cush, but which 
 subsequently was denominated Ethiopia. 
 
 The Ethiopians, according to Bruce, were the 
 Canaanites, who fled from the cruelty of the 
 Israelites, when they took possession of the pro- 
 mised land ; but other writers contend, that the 
 Israelites were already in Egypt when the Cush- 
 ites crossed the Straits of Babelmandeb, on their 
 way into Ethiopia. These Cushites are said to 
 have extended themselves southward from Abys- 
 sinia, and to have excavated the mountains for 
 their habitations, by which means they may have 
 been led to the detection of gold and silver in 
 their newly-acquired country, which local advan- 
 tages may have induced them to confine themselves 
 there, whereby they became the great and civil- 
 ized nation which they are represented to have 
 been. 
 
 Dr. Prichard states, that about 1400 years be- 
 fore the Christian era, Abyssinia was inhabited by 
 several distinct nations, speaking various tongues, 
 amongst whom were the Cushites, the Agaazi, or 
 Shepherds of Amhara, Agows, &c. ; these latter 
 
78 
 
 were divided into several tribes, resemblins: Eu- 
 ropeans in features, as did also the shepherds, and 
 were addicted to Paganism : these facts were col- 
 lected from the Axum chronicle ; which, moreover, 
 states, that the last-mentioned Abyssinian tribes 
 emigrated from Palestine. Hence it is not impro- 
 bable that they may have been the Canaanites 
 whose families were predestined to be spread 
 abroad, and that the Cushites finally penetrated 
 into Ethiopia as we have before mentioned. 
 
 The Ethiopians, then, properly so called at the 
 present day, people that part of the African conti- 
 nent between the Sahara and Abyssinia, on the 
 north, and Caffraria, on the south ; the western 
 coast of which, from the river Senegal to Cape 
 Negro, embracing Guinea and Congo, is inhabited 
 by Foulahs, Wulufis, Mandingoes, &:c. ; and on 
 the eastern coast several other tribes spread them- 
 selves from Sofala to about Negro Bay. That 
 portion of central Africa, known by the name of 
 Nigritia or Saudan, contains several kingdoms on 
 both sides of the Quorra, where the pure Negro 
 character is recognized ; and there is every reason 
 to believe that oases are to be found throuohout 
 the great desert, well suited to the habitation of 
 
 I 
 
79 
 
 man. CafFraria, on the south, has been penetrated 
 by European travellers, and contains the whole of 
 the countries of the Namaquas, the Hottentots, 
 and the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Cap- 
 tain Owen appears to have described the native 
 tribes in the south-east of Africa very satisfac- 
 torily. — " All the country," says he, *^ east and 
 north of the Camtoos river, was formerly inhabited 
 by a race of Negroes very distinct from Hottentots, 
 and who appear to have peopled it northward, 
 generally by the interior, whence they have spread 
 towards the coast. These Negroes were formerly 
 termed by the Arabs and Portuguese, Kaffers or 
 Koffers, the literal meaning of which is infidel or 
 pagan. When the Dutch first colonized the Cape 
 all the country beyond their settlement was called 
 the country of Kaffers ; but from Delagoa Bay 
 northward, the names of places were marked by 
 the Portuguese, according to the native phraseology, 
 whilst to the south, where none were known, the 
 coast towns received Portuguese names, whilst the 
 country is still known by the Latinized name of 
 CafFraria. These people have no fixed situation, 
 for their towns or villages, which are scattered over 
 the face of the country, and are called Kraals, by 
 
80 
 
 the Dutch, — a kraal for the cattle being an essen- 
 tial part in every KafFer village, as they are their 
 wealth and source of sustenance. The tribes which 
 inhabit these coasts do not appear to be the de- 
 scendants of the aboriginal inhabitants. A much 
 greater variety is observable in the countenances 
 and features of these people than is perceived in 
 Negro countries, being all jet black, with thick 
 woolly heads, differing in nothing but the well- 
 marked variety of features from those of the coast 
 of Guinea. The men are stout, handsome, and 
 athletic ; the women well made, but generally not 
 so well featured as the men. On all this coast the 
 custom of tattooing is universal, each tribe having 
 its distinctive mark. The chiefs of Mapoota and 
 Temby wear their heads shaved, except a large 
 tuft on the crown, which is combed out straight 
 and tucked round a pad. The Zoolos and Vatwas 
 shave the crown and leave a ring of wool round 
 the crown, which is combed, and also tucked 
 round a pad. The Zoolos inhabit the south of 
 the Mapoota ; the Portuguese call them Vatwas, 
 from the ancient term Batwa ; the Delagoese call 
 them Hollontontes. Other native tribes inhabit 
 the borders of the river Mattol, resembling the 
 
 
81 
 
 Kaffers in appearance and manners. The Temby, 
 or as the natives call it, Mahong, has several na- 
 tive tribes on its borders." 
 
 Section IV. 
 American Variety. 
 
 This variety includes all the native Americans, 
 except the Esquimaux. They are of a red colour ; 
 have black, straight, strong and thin hair ; low fore- 
 head ; broad face, with the features distinctly 
 marked ; projecting cheek-bones, more rounded 
 and arched than in the Mongolian; deep eyes; 
 prominent nose, somewhat flattened ; very large 
 bony nares ; lips extended ; their beard is thin, 
 and grows in tufts, and their features, when viewed 
 in profile, are deeply sculptured. Many tribes 
 have flattened foreheads, in consequence of a cus- 
 tom prevailing amongst them of disfiguring the 
 heads of their infants. 
 
 The numerous tribes of aboriginal Americans 
 inhabiting the vast primeval forests of the new 
 world may be truly said to be in the incapacity of 
 
 E 5 
 
82 
 
 infancy and unpliancy of old age. Innumerable 
 hordes pass their whole existence in the gloom and 
 dreariness of their forest retreats, except when 
 hunted down by an invading tribe, or otherwise 
 terrified by external causes. 
 
 It has been suggested by a learned and philo- 
 sophical writer that the American Indians may 
 have sprung from the Abrahamic source, through 
 his grandson Esau. His descendants, the Edom- 
 ites, or Idumeans, who were the red men of the 
 east, and dwelt on the borders of the Red Sea 
 (whence its name), subsequently reached the 
 shores of the Arabian Sea, and occupied its mari- 
 time stations, and consequently possessed every 
 facility of maritime colonization. The Jewish tra- 
 dition is, that they spread theu' colonies abroad ; 
 hence it is probable, that having navigated to some 
 of the South Sea islands, they may afterwards 
 have reached the American continent and thus 
 have been the progenitors of the North American 
 Indians. 
 
 Professor Barton, in his treatise on the American 
 nations, imagines that they have had a common 
 origin with those of Asia. " The language of the 
 Mexicans," says he, " has some affinity with Per- 
 
83 
 
 sian ; which Asiatic language is preservedamongst 
 many American tribes. The American Indians, 
 moreover, say, they emigrated from the west. 
 Barton has compared almost the whole vocabu- 
 lary of the native Americans, and has traced a 
 great resemblance between the different dialects of 
 all the natijons south of the Esquimaux. The 
 forms," he remarks, ^^ of several languages 
 of North and South America, bear a very close 
 resemblance. South America may by accident 
 have received inhabitants from parallel lines of 
 Asia and Africa ; but from a comparison of the 
 dialects of South America with those of Asia, I 
 cannot doubt that the South as well as the North 
 Americans are the descendants of the latter. If 
 there be analogy between the dialects of South 
 America and the South Sea Islands, there is the 
 same between those of North America and the 
 South Sea Islands ; hence the inference is, that 
 the North and South Americans, as well as the 
 Malays, have descended from an Asiatic source, 
 and have, in some degree, preserved their Asiatic 
 
 ton2:ue. 
 
 >> 
 
 In conformity with these views, it is stated that 
 when Europeans first took possession of America^ 
 
84 
 
 the western part of the continent was more densely 
 inhabited than the east. The pyramids of Mexico 
 bear evidence of the advanced stage of civilization 
 to which the most ancient people of the American 
 ace had attained, and indicate an affinity with 
 Asia. In various parts of the American continent, 
 fortifications and mounds of earth, covered with 
 ancient forest trees are found, which must necessa- 
 rily have existed for many centuries ; and it has 
 been remarked, that some of the American Indian 
 tribes retain many of the Mongolian customs ; the 
 Sioux tribe, for instance, bury their dead in caves, 
 ill the same manner as some Asiatic nations. 
 
 The red hue of the skin is with few exceptions 
 common to all the American tribes, and although 
 it may approach to brown or black towards the 
 Equator, or become paler in the colder regions of 
 the north, still the predominance of red is charac- 
 teristic of the American Indian. The Pajes are 
 considered to be endowed with the same super- 
 natural power by all tribes from Hudson's Bay to 
 Cape Horn ; equally extensive is their ignorance 
 of all things beyond the gratification of their bodily 
 appetites and the preservation of their lives ; re- 
 venge is with all the grand principle of action, and 
 
85 
 
 at no time are these wretched beings so supremely 
 happy as when satisfying their craving thirst for 
 the blood of their enemies. It does not appear 
 tliat any division can be made in consequence of 
 difference of stature, for although the Patagonians 
 are said to be of so gigantic a size, the same colos- 
 sal proportions are likewise observed in the 
 Arkansas, in some of the tribes of Chili, and in 
 those of the province of Guyana. Since, then, we 
 trace a resemblance throughout in dialect, colour, 
 passions, and superstitious observances, all sub- 
 sisting by the same profession of war and hunting; 
 architectural monuments of a more civilized race, 
 presenting themselves both in the northern and 
 southern continent, it can be no unreasonable in- 
 ference to suppose, that the inhabitants of both 
 are the out-branchings of one common stem, of far 
 more ancient date, than some modern hypotheses 
 would have us believe ; and however paradoxical it 
 may appear, that civilized men should have been 
 compelled to yield to the savage Indian, we have 
 only to turn our view towards iVfrica, where we 
 may see the degraded Egyptian, and still more 
 degenerate Negro, wandering in miserable ignorance 
 on the very spot whence science once radiated, as 
 
86 
 
 a centre to all European nations. But a civilizing 
 influence is again spreading itself over this new 
 world, and the advancement of the European has 
 caused the native to recede, and the time may 
 arrive, when the latter will be driven and confined 
 to those inhospitable regions, where climate forbids 
 the extension of agriculture to the former. The 
 white man covets the fertile lands, over which the 
 native only roams in pursuit of prey. Hence it is, 
 that the Indian tribes have been thinned, and from 
 many situations which they once possessed, they 
 have now totally disappeared. 
 
 The most considerable clans of the present day, 
 are the Iroquois, who extend themselves over a 
 great part of the centre of North America ; they 
 consist of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondages, 
 Cayugas, Sennekas, Tuscarores, Wyandots, Oney- 
 does, Chippawas, Chickasaws, Shawanoes, and 
 the Natches Kistonons : these tribes are in person 
 well proportioned, and have black hair, which 
 they cut fantastically. The Cumanches or Pad- 
 ducas, are confined to the frontiers of New IVIexico, 
 on the west ; the Pawnees inhabit the south side 
 of the Red River; the Osages, on the north-east: 
 these latter cultivate their land sliohtlv, and ex- 
 
87 
 
 tend as far as the banks of the Missouri ; the 
 Kyaways, and other tribes less known, confine 
 their wanderings to the sides of the River la Plata ; 
 the Akanzas or Kanzas, dwell on the river of the 
 same name : the Ottos and Pares are found on 
 the banks of the Missouri ; higher up the river are 
 the Mohas and Poncas ; the Aricaras and Man- 
 dans inhabit its right side ; the Scioux tribes are 
 very numerous, and are distributed along the upper 
 Mississippi. 
 
 In South America the most powerful tribes are 
 the Guaicuras in Paraguay, amounting, it is said, 
 to 12,000 in numbers ; the Cajapos and Cherentes 
 in Goyaz, averaging 8,000 each ; the IMauhes 
 16,000, and the Mundrucus, on the Topajoz, 
 18,000. To the north of the INIadeira and Amazon 
 River, there are innumerable small tribes ; and in 
 Brazil, Dr. Von Martins has enumerated 240 dif- 
 ferent clans. In Chili, are the Araucanians, the 
 Cunches, and the Huilliches. The Indian tribes 
 of South America are cruel, faithless, valorous, 
 hardy, and incapable of being reduced under the 
 laws of civil society. 
 
 Other native tribes are found about the frontiers 
 of the United States ; the Chactaws, the Chicka- 
 
88 
 
 saws, and the Illinois, on the eastern bank of the 
 Mississippi ; the Alabamas and Muskogees in 
 Georgia ; the Ootawas on Lake Erie ; the Mohe- 
 gans on the Hudson ; the Algonquins on the St. 
 Lawrence; the Cherokees in Florida, &;c. 
 
 Section V. 
 Malay Variety, 
 
 This variety embraces the natives of the islands of 
 the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including Australia, 
 as well as those of the peninsula of Malacca, on 
 the south-east extremity of Asia. 
 
 The colour of their skin is tawny, varying from 
 a light brown to black : they have black, soft, 
 thick curling hair ; head moderately narrow ; the 
 forehead slightly arched ; the parietal bones pro- 
 minent: the face large and the features fully de- 
 veloped ; eyes black ; cheek bones not projecting ; 
 nose full and broad ; mouth large ; the upper jaw 
 and front teeth slightly projecting ; the chin some- 
 what receding, and not quite so narrow as in the 
 Ethiopian. 
 
89 
 
 In speculating on the first inhabitants of the 
 American continent, we have somewhat anticipated 
 the most probable events in the early population of 
 the Polynesian Islands. " History," says Dr. 
 Lang, in his View of the Polynesian Nation, " in- 
 forms us, that at a period shortly posterior to the 
 deluge, the eastern parts of Asia towards the 
 Yellow Sea, were occupied by a civilized people ; 
 and there is reason to believe, that at a period not 
 less ancient, or shortly thereafter, the Malayan 
 state and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
 were founded by a people acknowledging the same 
 parentage and speaking the same primitive tongue." 
 The same author observes, that " it is evident that 
 the South Sea Islanders are of cognate origin with 
 the Malays of the Indian Archipelago, and that 
 both are derived from the continent of Asia. It is 
 generally allowed that Java and Sumatra were the 
 earliest inhabited by the Malayan nation. Exten- 
 sive and flourishing maritime states existed before 
 Europeans visited the east, and it seems that the 
 Indian Archipelago has been traversed from time 
 immemorial both by Chinese and Malays, so that the 
 same enterprising spirit would have led to the dis- 
 covery of all the islands of the boundless Pacific. 
 
90 
 
 Maritime enterprise is the characteristic of islan- 
 ders; and where pilots may be unskilful and winds 
 changeable, the adventurous islander may be 
 carried far beyond his reckoning ; thus may we 
 account for the gradual peopling of the South Sea 
 Islands." 
 
 It has been imagined by Zuniga, that the islands 
 of the Pacific have received their inhabitants from 
 the American continent; but Dr. Lang has justly 
 objected to such a supposition, seeing that a far 
 greater difficulty is felt in determining how Ame- 
 rica was first populated. But it is moreover ob- 
 served, that their language, like that of the Chinese, 
 is composed almost entirely of monosyllabic words, 
 and that they practise many customs which pre- 
 vail both with the Asiatics and Africans ; hence 
 there is more reason for referring their origin to a 
 western source. The Malay has an aspect as 
 savage as his disposition is ferocious : treacherous 
 and deceitful to his friend, as he is implacable and 
 vindictive to his enemy ; such is the character of 
 the whole Polynesian nation ; of the true Malay 
 of Malacca, of the Rajangs of Sumatra, the Male- 
 cassas of Madagascar ; the Cingalese of Ceylon ; 
 the Nairs of Malabar ; the Biajos of Borneo ; the 
 
91 
 
 Papuas or Papoas of Celebez, New Guinea, Java, 
 and Australia, as well as of the other Malay- 
 tribes inhabitins: the numerous Asiatic and Pacific 
 islands. 
 
 The inhabitants of these groups of islands have 
 a tradition referring their original emigration from 
 the south-west. Dr. Lang also remarks at the 
 commencement of his work, that *' distinction of 
 caste is the most remarkable feature of Asiatic 
 Society, as well as that of the South Sea Islands. 
 In India there are four castes, which in the Friendly 
 Islands wherein the Polynesian system is retained 
 with its ancient and distinctive features, are closely 
 represented by a like number of castes. Idolatry 
 is common to all, and the images formed by the 
 Polynesians have a great resemblance to those of 
 Eastern Asia, and in particular to those of the 
 Burman empire." 
 
 They are generally low in stature, and have fea- 
 tures such as might be expected by an equal mix- 
 ture of Mongol and Negro, between which varieties 
 we should be disposed to place them ; for in many 
 of these islands we find the pure Negro, as well as 
 the pure Mongol. Tattooing is practised amongst 
 them, as it is with the Siamese and North Ame- 
 
92 
 
 rican Indians. To so great an extent is this sys- 
 tem carried with some tribes, that they even cut 
 and lacerate their skin to insert dyes. Captain 
 Sturt thus describes the natives w^hom he met 
 on the banks of the Morumbidgee. " The sunken 
 eye and overhanging eyebrow, the high-cheek 
 bone and thick lip, distended nostrils, the nose 
 either short or aquiline, together with a stout bust 
 and slender extremities, and both curled and 
 smooth hair, marked the natives of the Morum- 
 bidgee, as well as those of the Darhng. They were 
 evidently sprung from one common stock, the 
 savasfe and scattered inhabitants of a rude and in- 
 hospitable land. In customs they differed in no 
 material point from the coast natives, and still less 
 from the tribes on the Darhng and Castlereagh. 
 They extract the front teeth, lacerate their bodies 
 to raise flesh, cicatrices being their chief orna- 
 ment; procure food by the same means, paint in 
 the same manner, and use the same weapons, as 
 far as the production of the country will allow 
 them." 
 
 The resemblance thus traced between the na- 
 tives of Australia, is farther extended by Dr. Lang 
 to the whole of the inhabitants of the Indian and 
 
93 
 
 Pacific oceans. " The singular phenomena," says 
 he, *^ which the South Sea Islanders present to the 
 eye of a philosophic observer, is perhaps one of 
 the most difficult to account for that has ever 
 exercised the ingenuity of man. From the Sand- 
 wich islands in the northern, to New Zealand in 
 the southern hemispheres ; from the Indian Archi- 
 pelago to Easter Island near the continent of Ame- 
 rica ; an extent of ocean comprising 60 degrees 
 of latitude and 120 of longitude, exactly twice the 
 extent of the ancient Roman empire in its greatest 
 glory, the same primitive language is spoken, 
 the same singular customs prevail, the same semi- 
 barbarous nation inhabits the multitude of the 
 isles." 
 
 Section VI. 
 Hyperborean Variety/. 
 
 This race is situated in the extreme north of the 
 three continents of Europe, Asia and America, in 
 the neio-hbourhood of the Polar circles. 
 
 They are characterized by their squat body and 
 short stature, scarcely ever exceeding four and a 
 
I 
 
 94 
 
 half feet: they are of a hght oKve or tanned co- 
 lour: have stiff, black, straight hair : a squareness 
 of the head resembling^ that of the Mong-ol : a flat 
 face, with rounded projecting cheek bones, and 
 a large mouth. Their aspect is savage, yet timid, 
 and their voice extremely harsh. 
 
 In consequence of their geographical position, 
 they may be arranged under three distinct subdi- 
 visions : — 1st, The Asiatic, including the Ostiaks, 
 Tunguses, Kamtchatkans, and Samoides. 2d, The 
 Europeans, consisting of Laplanders, the inhabi- 
 tants of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; and 3d, 
 The American branches of Greenlanders, Esqui- 
 maux, and the inhabitants of Iceland and La- 
 brador. The resemblance between these tribes is 
 verv great ; they all dress alike, all use javelins, 
 bows, and arrows, as weapons, and the dialects of 
 all are said to be very similar. 
 
 That they originally sprang from an Asiatic 
 source, is now so generally believed, that my only 
 object will be to show the most probable course of 
 their successive migrations. Herodotus, in his 
 sketch of the satrapies of Asia, speaks of the Andro- 
 phagi as men-eaters or cannibals, living beyond 
 the Slavi, in the north, towards Lapland, whither 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
95 
 
 they may have extended themselves, as well as to 
 Nova Zembla, in the European division, whilst the 
 lyrcte migrated eastward in the same latitude to- 
 wards Samoieds, Tunguses, and Kamtchatka : 
 from this north-eastern point of the Asiatic con- 
 tinent, the passage across Behring's Straits, a dis- 
 tance of not more than forty-eight miles to the 
 north-west extremity of the new world, would be 
 easily accomplished. In conformity with these 
 views, it is stated that when the first Europeans 
 visited Greenland, it was uninhabited, and that 
 the Esquimaux subsequently reached it from the 
 west. ^' They are all polygamous, although living 
 in so cold a climate; the women are more ugly 
 than the men. There is no more degenerate race 
 on earth. Dogs and men disputing pel-mel the 
 half-rotten flesh of fish and quadrupeds. With 
 all this they are glorious, and think themselves the 
 happiest mortals on earth. If nature had not 
 conceded thus much, how could they have lived ? 
 When a whale is by chance washed on their shores 
 there is an universal rejoicing ; they drink pints of 
 its oil daily, and so great a love have they of their 
 country, that when transported to a more tempe- 
 rate climate, they soon die of ennui'* 
 
96 
 
 Other varieties, equally entitled to a distinct 
 classification, in consequence of their physical 
 peculiarities, might be noticed here, but as they 
 will be more particularly spoken of in a subse- 
 quent part of our work, we refrain at present from 
 any farther comment on them ; we allude to tribes 
 which are distributed throughout all quarters of 
 the globe, and still retain their original character- 
 istics ; such as Jews, Albinoes, gipsies, &:c. 
 
97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MODIFYING INFLUENCES OF NATURAL CAUSES. 
 
 Although we have in the former chapter sepa- 
 rated the whole of the human race into six va- 
 rieties, it has been for the purpose of demonstrat- 
 ing the geographical peculiarities in their strongest 
 light ; but it by no means follows, as some natu- 
 ralists have conceived, that there were several fa- 
 milies originally created to perpetuate their species 
 over the dispeopled earth ; on the contrary, the pre- 
 sent appearance of society accords with profane his- 
 tory, as far as it lends its aid, and beyond that with 
 the Mosaic records, in pointing to Asia as the sole 
 birth-place of our first parents. Those who affect 
 to disbelieve or pervert the meaning of the Mosaic 
 account, contend that the great difference which 
 appears ever to have existed, and exists at the 
 present day, between the varieties I have de- 
 scribed, indicates plurality of origins. Now this 
 
 F 
 
98 
 
 hypothesis would seem to receive great confirma- 
 tion by an actual examination of existing races, 
 and I am willing to admit that an experienced 
 observer might seize on certain physical peculia- 
 rities, even where climate has played its part in mo- 
 difying, and intermixture has confounded, whereby 
 he would be enabled to trace particular families 
 through the revolutions of time, and recognize in 
 the nations of to-day, our most ancient proge- 
 nitors. Thus the Jew possesses the same charac- 
 ters in all parts of the world ; and whether we 
 view him fair in Britain, brown in Spain, olive in 
 Syria, or copper-coloured in Egypt, he has still 
 the characteristic features of the Jew : climate 
 may have changed his colour, but that he has 
 been the same for at least two thousand years, we 
 may be certified by examining some of the ancient 
 Egyptian tombs ; amongst which, we may occa- 
 sionally recognize the Jew, feature for feature, as 
 he exists at the present day. Does it then follow, 
 that the above hypothesis is confirmed ? Such 
 has been the opinion of many eminent writers ; 
 but I conceive the very facts on which they have 
 founded their doctrine, might, if farther inves- 
 tigated, be adduced in testimony of the converse. 
 
99 
 
 Inasmuch as too many distinct groups or na- 
 tions are embraced in one variety in the classi- 
 fication of Blumenbach, it is evident that it can 
 do but little in facilitating the study of man ; it is 
 also equally evident that the sketch of eastern 
 Europe, by Herodotus, though calculated to as- 
 sist our investigations, is inapplicable to the con- 
 dition of the present age. Had all nations pre- 
 served their physical characteristics unblended, 
 the varieties which we have enumerated, might 
 serve as classes, each of which might be subdi- 
 vided into distinct orders ; but as every shade of 
 difference is observable amongst mankind, I con- 
 ceive the most direct way of arriving at a correct 
 knowledge of our fellow-creatures, is by com- 
 bining history with physiology ; and, if from the 
 study of the one, we draw the same conclusions as 
 from the study of the other, the deductions of 
 each will mutually strengthen the veracity of 
 either, and thus we may obtain an unprejudiced 
 and comprehensive view of the human race. The 
 physiological part being the especial object of this 
 portion of my subject, the great question which 
 seems to interest us, is, whether the various groups 
 of mankind have preserved in their frames such 
 
 f 2 
 
100 
 
 physical peculiarities, that notwithstanding the 
 influence of the many catastrophes, and other 
 revolutions to which nations have been exposed, 
 the distinctive characteristics are still so marked, 
 as to be perfectly compatible with historical record. 
 Now it is very apparent, that the great modifica- 
 tions which we observe in the different nations, 
 consist almost entirely in their external conforma- 
 tions ; such, in fact, as may change by the influ- 
 ence of certain causes, with which we may or may 
 not be conversant: yet it is just this degree of 
 physiological or healthy change which has been 
 the great source of many virulent and acrimo- 
 nious disputations ; whilst we daily observe patho- 
 logical changes depending on far less apparent 
 causes, striking far deeper at the root of organiza- 
 tion, and causing far greater aberrations from the 
 natural state, satisfactorily accounted for by pa- 
 thological laws : thus, we hear of whole families 
 possessing some physical peculiarities (the heredi- 
 tary nature of which is now well established) which, 
 were it not for those physiological laws to which 
 organization is subservient, might be transmitted 
 through succeeding generations, when, in lieu of 
 the superficial modifications which are now ob- 
 
 1 
 
101 
 
 served, races of men might appear on the stage of 
 existence, surpassing in monstrosity even the Hy- 
 dras, which the ingenuity of a Theophrastus im- 
 posed on the ignorance and credulity of the middle 
 ages. 
 
 That chmate has had great influence in effecting 
 the various conformations observed in different 
 races, must, at the slightest glance, be so obvious, 
 that we much doubt if there be any naturalist at 
 the present day, who will attempt to deny it ; and 
 that the Jew has been more or less affected is 
 equally undeniable, as we shall hereafter show : 
 were it not so, we should take from man one of his 
 greatest endowments ; for we conceive that to be so, 
 whereby he is enabled to accommodate himself to 
 any climate, and it is that very power of accom- 
 modation which necessarily involves a more or less 
 apparent change in his nature. I would exemplify 
 this by referring to the vegetable kingdom. The 
 flower which has the most flexible disposition is, 
 that which will most accommodate itself to cli- 
 mate ; but transplant that which tenaciously pre- 
 serves its characters, into a foreign land, and it 
 will pine away and die : the flexibility of nature 
 in the one, is the cause of its power of accommo- 
 
102 
 
 dation, whilst the sturdy unchangeable nature of 
 the other is the cause of its death. 
 
 We may further illustrate this by adducing two 
 groups of the Mongolic race, who have for ages 
 established themselves in the European continent ; 
 the one in Lapland, where they are exposed to a 
 climate as relentless as that of their own native 
 land, and tenaciously retain their Mongolic charac- 
 ter; the other in Hungary, where the climate is 
 milder, have their physical characteristics softened 
 down, except on the cold and barren mountains, 
 which are peopled by tribes retaining the traces of 
 their foreign ancestors as strongly a;'s those in Lap- 
 land. 
 
 The relation of climate to food and exposure, 
 is so intimate, that in speaking of the former, 
 we may be understood to imply the latter also ; 
 and were we to speculate on the influence of cli- 
 mate on the animal frame, we ought to consider, 
 not only the condition of the atmosphere, but also 
 the particular state of the soil and surface. 
 
 That a warmer or cooler atmosphere may cause 
 great changes in the animal kingdom, is known to 
 every one ; but man, by his intelligence, mav 
 in a great degree resist these modifications, inas- 
 much as he possesses great power in protecting 
 
103 
 
 himself against the inclemencies of the atmo- 
 sphere. There are, however, other more profound 
 alterations due to the influence of heat, whereby 
 the functions of any one system of organs may 
 predominate, and thus the diversities of tempera- 
 ment may be established. 
 
 The predatory animals of the Tropics are ill 
 adapted to bear up against the rigors of a Siberian 
 winter; nor do the animals of the Polar regions 
 seek the scorching heats of a tropical sun ; — and 
 why ? — I know of no other reason, than that they 
 are of a less flexible disposition, less changeable 
 in their nature, and therefore less capable of ac- 
 commodating themselves to foreign climes than 
 some other animals with which we are more fami- 
 liar. Hence, it would appear that our domestic 
 animals are capable of accommodating themselves 
 to external influences in proportion as they are 
 susceptible of modification. Man, therefore, who, 
 of all animals is the most capable of accommo- 
 dating himself, must of necessity be also the most 
 susceptible of modification. No other organized 
 being, either animal or vegetable, can exist over 
 the whole surface of the globe, — man alone presents 
 to us the greatest flexibility of nature. 
 
 It must appear to every impartial observer, that 
 
104 
 
 temperature plays no insignificant part in causing 
 variation of colour, but that this change is effected 
 by the scorching of the gelatine, which is the base 
 of the rete mucosum,* (as Professor Richerand 
 imagines), ill accords with the preservative powers 
 of the functions of the animal economy. I am, 
 however, willing to admit that the intense heat of 
 our tropics may so affect the mysterious operation 
 of the capillary vessels of the surface as to stimu- 
 late them to increased action, whereby the charac- 
 ter of their secretion would be changed. What the 
 precise nature of this alteration may be, I am not 
 prepared to say, but, inasmuch as the rete muco- 
 sum seems to be analagous to the uvea wherein is 
 secreted the black pigment of the eye, it appears 
 not unreasonable to suppose that it may assume 
 the same dark colour from a similar secretion .f 
 
 * The Rete Mucosum is a delicate membrane situated be- 
 tween the true skin (cutis vera) and the cuticle or epidermis, 
 and it is in this membrane that a black pigment is secreted, 
 on which the colour of the Negro depends. 
 
 f Sedes coloris satis certa est, de causis autem ejusdem, in 
 ^.thiopibus prsesertim, a longo retro tempore plurimum et 
 diversimode disputatum est. Quidam Caini alii Chamii male- 
 dicti, eorumque posterorum signum esse nigredinem putarunt. 
 Eandem ferri in sanguine .S,thiopum abundantia, transpira- 
 
105 
 
 The peculiar effect produced in some persons 
 who have taken nitrate of silver, proves that me- 
 tallic salts may be taken up by the circulation and 
 deposited in the rete mucosum : therefore may 
 not other substances be equally deposited in the 
 same membrane in consequence of an excited state 
 of its vessels ? We know that the capillaries of 
 the lungs throw off carbon which has been taken 
 up by the circulating fluid in its passage through 
 the body ; we also know that the more respiration 
 is excited, the more carbon is there thrown off. If, 
 then, the capillaries of the skin be so excited as 
 that their action shall be greatly increased, may 
 not, I repeat, that increased action tend to throw 
 off carbon, which, by being retained in the mem- 
 brane wherein these capillaries terminate, gives rise 
 to the black colour of the Ethiopian ?* 
 
 tione acidi phosphorei in reticulo mucoso praecipitatae : vero 
 globulosae sanguinis parti ad cutem appellentis, tribuit ; alii 
 alias protulerunt iiypotheses, inter quas tamenbilis prae caeteris 
 eminuit quara post lo. Principem tamen inter omnes nigre- 
 dinis causas locum tenebit clima, solis, aerisque potentia, cum 
 vitae genere. Vetus est Aristotelis, Alexandri, Strabonis 
 aliorumque sententia quam exemplis argumentis que seorsim 
 prolatis firmare conabimur. — Blumenbach. 
 
 * One great proof of this is, that chlorine has the same 
 
 F 5 
 
106 
 
 Such increased action being continued through 
 a long succession of generations, would become a 
 natural function, and therefore it would be strange 
 indeed, if the dark colour of the negro (supposing 
 it entirely dependent on temperature) were to dis- 
 appear in one, two, or even three generations, after 
 a change from a warmer to a cooler climate. Hence 
 may we explain the modifications of colour ob- 
 served in different nations, and which exist in 
 various degrees of intensity in proportion as the 
 capillaries have been more or less excited. 
 
 An ingenious hypothesis has been advanced by 
 M. Volney, respecting the physiognomy of negroes, 
 the peculiarity of which, he imagines may be the 
 effect of light and temperature. " It exhibits," 
 says he, '' precisely that contracted state which 
 our features assume when exposed to a strono- 
 light and a powerful reverberation of heat; then 
 the brows contract, the cheek-bones rise, the eye- 
 lids become partly closed, and the lips project." 
 He then asks, "must not this contraction of the 
 moveable parts have influenced, in course of time, 
 the hard parts, and even moulded the structure of 
 
 effect on the rete mucosum of the Negro as it has on carbon ; 
 namely, that of depriving it of its colour. 
 
107 
 
 the bones ?" Richerand is inclined to favour this 
 opinion; but I think when we come to examine the 
 influence of food, that will appear a more probable 
 cause for the characteristics of the Ethiopian face. 
 
 Climate may so afi:ect the animal functions as 
 to cause the diversities of temperament ; for in- 
 stance, the skin and intestinal canal sympathize 
 most powerfully with each other, so that when the 
 proper secretion of the one is increased, that of the 
 other is diminished ; now a certain quantity of 
 fluid is necessary to unite with and dilute the bile, 
 and when that quantity is too small, the biliary 
 secretion irritates more than it should do naturally. 
 Hence, the predominance of bilious diseases during 
 our summer seasons ; but if this state be con- 
 tinued, as it necessarily must, within the tropics, 
 it predominates over all other functions, and thus 
 we shall get a bilious constitution, which, in fact, 
 is synonymous with a bilious or choleric tempera- 
 ment. This is no vague hypothesis; observation 
 confirms our statement, and we have only to refer 
 to medical literature to find that bilious fevers are 
 the characteristic diseases of warm climates.* 
 
 The sanguine temperament, which is generally 
 
 * Appendix. — Note B. 
 
108 
 
 met with in cold or temperate regions, is the neces- 
 sary consequence of an excited circulation, which 
 is required to counterbalance the depressing in- 
 fluence of cold ; thus the sanguineous system is 
 that whose functions predominate in our own lati- 
 tudes, and the diseases of that system are those 
 which most prevail. 
 
 If then, temperature can so cause the diversities 
 of temperament, and those diversities can be recog- 
 nized by certain physical peculiarities, it follows 
 that temperature is a grand agent in producing 
 those distinguishing characteristics. This is a ne- 
 cessary syllogism deduced from an accumulation 
 of facts which teem thoughout the writings of 
 medical authors. 
 
 A change of climate may involve a change of 
 food, and therefore perhaps an exuberance of a 
 particular system on which the animal form may 
 in some degree depend ; fot it is a fundamental 
 law of pathology that an excessive development of 
 one organ or system of organs is accompanied 
 with a diminution of some other, so that the diges- 
 tive organs may predominate in the savage, at the 
 expense of those on which depend the nobler attri- 
 butes of civilized man. 
 
 " 
 
109 
 
 Where is the man, however careless an observer 
 he may have been, who has failed to remark the in- 
 timate relation that exists between the animal form 
 and the food on which it is maintained? Place side 
 by side, the slim Tiger and the unwieldy Hippopota- 
 mus, the slender form of the Lion with that of the 
 huge Elephant, or compare our present existing Car- 
 nivora with the by-gone herbivorous Palaeotheria, 
 and who will not acknowledge that food has a 
 more modifying influence even than temperature, 
 &.C. ? Or who can suppose that man, who of all 
 animals is most exposed to variations of food, 
 should be exempt from the consequent mutability ? 
 " Jam ab initio vita genus hue retulimus, et facile 
 esset in praesenti quoque copiosa ex plantarum 
 animaliumque regno proferre exempla, ubi nutri- 
 menti varietatem in procera humiliorive statu ra 
 agnoscere possis."* 
 
 So must man stancf^fFected by the nature and 
 quantity of food whereon he subsists. The inhabi- 
 tants within the Tropics live principally on vegeta- 
 ble food, as being less heating, whilst the natives 
 of the Polar reoions seek a more excitins; diet in 
 the half putrid flesh of fish and seals. Now, in 
 * Blumenbach, — de Generis Ilumani Varietate. 
 
110 
 
 equal quantities of animal and vegetable diets, the 
 former contains much more nutriment than th^ 
 latter ; hence the African is compelled to take a 
 larger quantity, and as the development of a part 
 keeps pace with the exercise thereof, — the bones 
 observing a proportional increase with that of the 
 muscles attached to them, — may wenot thus imagine 
 the gradual extension of the masticatory organs 
 of the Ethiopian ? 
 
 May not the physical influence of light affect 
 the colour of the integuments of the inhabitants of 
 the Polar circles ? for instance, may not the dark 
 colour of the Hyperborean depend in some slight 
 degree, not only on the direct light from the sun, 
 but also on the reflected light from the snowy sur- 
 face to which he is constantly exposed ? Hence, 
 supposing the tawny colour to have been acquired 
 in his original progenitors by the parching heat of 
 an almost vertical sun, may it not have been con- 
 tinued in the descendant by the glaring light of 
 the frigid zones ? This, however, is a point which 
 we by no means urge, since light alone is not likely 
 to affect the action of the capillaries, on which we 
 apprehend the various integu mental tints depend ; 
 but that the stimulating food of the Esquimaux may 
 
Ill 
 
 excite the vascular system, and thereby the capil- 
 laries, to increased action we doubt not. It mus^ 
 of necessity be the case, to keep up the requisite 
 degree of animal heat for the due performance of 
 all the functions, against the intense cold of the 
 Polar regions. 
 
 " If," says Professor Lindley,* " we examine 
 the surface of the globe, we shall find its vegeta- 
 tion varying according to its inequalities and its 
 differences of soil ; we shall see that the plants of 
 the valleys are not those of the mountains, nor 
 those of the marsh like the vegetables of the river 
 or of dry grounds ; it will also be seen that the 
 vegetation of all valleys, all mountains, marshes, 
 or rivers, has not a similar character in the same 
 latitudes. The flora of the granite mountains of 
 Spain and Portugal is very different from that of 
 the calcareous mountains of the same kingdoms ; 
 in Switzerland, teucrium montanum always indi- 
 cates a calcareous soil ; and the same may be 
 said of certain orchises, ustulata, and hircina, for 
 instance, in our own country. Hence it is inferred 
 that the differences in the character of vegetation 
 
 * Introduction to Botany, p. 472. 
 
112 
 
 depend upon circumstances connected with the 
 soil or atmosphere in which they grow." 
 
 The particular condition of the earth's surface 
 has also great influence on the inhabitants ; in 
 low and marshy land a sallow and unhealthy coun- 
 tenance is the prevailing characteristic, whereas in 
 higher situations a ruddy complexion is observed 
 to accompany the animation of robust health. 
 These causes acting in concert with food and 
 temperature, have long been recognised as fruitful 
 sources of the modified forms which our fellow- 
 creatures assume in different situations. 
 
 Nothing is more obvious than that these external 
 agencies have been, and still are, very powerful 
 causes of variation in the animal economy ; our 
 domestic animals are demonstrative proofs : yet in 
 no case that I am aware of has the change struck 
 so deep at the root of organization as to have 
 caused either transposition, addition, or subtrac- 
 tion of oro^ans. The oreat modifications have been 
 in form and colour. Thus, some particular parts 
 may have been more than usually developed, as 
 the tail of the sheep in Bokhara, which will some- 
 times yield fourteen or fifteen pounds of tallow.* 
 
 * Lawrence's Lectures. 
 
113 
 
 The external covering of animals may have been 
 changed from hair to wool, and vice versa. The 
 goat, which in our own country has a hairy coat, 
 in Bokhara yields the wool from which Cashmere 
 shawls are manufactured, and even the dogs of 
 Toorkistan and Thibet are said to furnish wool, 
 from which a few shawls are annually made. On 
 the contrary, sheep which have been sent to the 
 Cape of Good Hope have in a very short time 
 changed their woolly fleece for a coarse hair. That 
 food is capable of producing change is exemplified 
 in a breed of sheep peculiar to Karakool, a small 
 canton between the Bokhara and Oxus, where it 
 produces a jet black curly fleece ; but if it strays 
 from its own native pastures, the fleece will no 
 longer retain its curl.*" 
 
 Climate thus comprehensively viewed satisfac- 
 torily explains many of the peculiarities in the hu- 
 man race, which either one agent of itself would 
 have been insufficient to have produced ; hence, 
 the diversity of opinion as to the origin of varieties 
 depends on the fact that many authors have at- 
 tempted to account for all modifications as arising 
 from one single cause; those, for instance, who 
 
 * Burne's Travels into Bokhara. 
 
114 
 
 would account for the colour of the Negro by a 
 scorching effect of the sun's rays, have been foiled 
 by the dark tint of the Hyperborean ; those, also, 
 who would assign the peculiarity of the Negro's 
 face to the effect of light, would be equally foiled 
 by the European features of the Gentoo. 
 
 Another modifying cause, arising from and de- 
 pending on change of climate, is the intermixture 
 of different races. This latter cause has been most 
 active in those countries which most interest us, 
 and therefore would seem to oppose great difficul- 
 ties to the filiation of nations. One great barrier, 
 however, to such blending of races is the isolated 
 state which new colonies generally preserve in 
 foreign lands, the effect of which isolation is well 
 exemplified in the Jew. 
 
 It has been recently shown, from extensive ob- 
 servation, instituted by Dr. Edwards of Paris, and 
 published by him in a letter to M. Amedee Thierry, 
 that the intermixture of races has not so blending 
 an influence as is generally imagined, even sup- 
 posing the absence of all opposition to the amalga- 
 mation of distinct races. He has deduced certain 
 principles from his investigations into the origin of 
 some European nations, which appear applicable 
 
115 
 
 to the whole human family, and which, for the 
 purpose of illustrating my subject, I take the 
 liberty of translating, whereby it will appear that 
 the result of such intercommunion is by no means 
 unfavourable to the recognizance of ancient nations 
 in the physical characteristics of the modern. " The 
 type," says he, " of the smaller number may dis- 
 appear entirely, and give w ay to the greater ; a re- 
 sult which may take place about the fourth or fifth 
 generation." Hence he infers that the larger masses 
 would retain their characteristics, even independent 
 of a free intermixture, " much more," continues 
 he, " would they when obstacles interpose 
 themselves to prevent such amalgamation." Again, 
 in speaking of two distinct groups, equal in num- 
 bers, he asks, " What is required that they may 
 be confounded into an intermediate type ? It 
 would be necessary that each individual of the 
 one group should unite with one of the other, and 
 that each should have an equal share in the fusion 
 of the character, for slight shades do not destroy a 
 type. Such are the conditions which would be re- 
 quired ; but who can believe that they will be ful- 
 filled? We will not say that it is impossible; 
 such assertions are rarely permitted ; but we will 
 
116 
 
 say, that, in supposing the possibility of such 
 equahty, we ought never to expect it ; for who 
 can imagine that each and every individual of one 
 race should unite himself with one of the other ? 
 Such unions could proceed only from the necessity 
 of obeying the most absolute despot; such, in fact, 
 as has never yet existed." 
 
 The fruit, however, of such obedience (supposing 
 it possible) might be an intermediate type or va- 
 riety, of which no better example can be given 
 than the mulatto ; but this would not be invari- 
 able, for, as in the lower animals, we sometimes 
 find the offspring assuming the characteristics of 
 either one of its parents ; so also do we observe in 
 the human species the fruit of different varieties 
 tenaciously preserving the distinguishing charac- 
 ters of either one of his progenitors. These charac- 
 ters, however, must, if possessed by the smaller 
 numbers, sooner or later give way to the greater. 
 
 Now the intermediate variety may become a 
 permanent type in insular nations, for when the 
 germs of population are first received, numbers 
 must necessarily be small, and equal intermixture 
 therefore probable ; so that, as numbers increase, 
 the intermediate type is so firmly established, 
 
117 
 
 that it has the power of destroying or converting 
 the character of future invaders or emigrants to 
 that of its own. Thus the Polynesian tribes ex- 
 hibit all the gradations between the Asiatic and 
 Ethiopian varieties, which intermediate links are 
 not observed in either continent, where the type of 
 the most numerous w^ould have destroyed that of 
 the least ; but it is in those very insular situations, 
 where equal intermixture has been permitted to 
 exercise its blending influence ; and if here and 
 there we find the true Negro or Mongolic charac- 
 ter springing up amidst a Papuan or Cingalese 
 population, it is only an exemplification of that 
 tendency in the offspring which we have before 
 hinted at, to assume the characteristics of either 
 one of its progenitors. 
 
 Whether the disfigurements produced by art are 
 capable of being perpetuated by nature is univer- 
 sally decided in the negative ; therefore the cus- 
 tom observed by the Chinese in arresting the de- 
 velopment of the feet, and the equally barbarous 
 custom of contracting the chest by tight lacing, 
 are no more likely to become hereditary deformi- 
 ties in an enlightened posterity, than is the flat- 
 tened skull of the Carib, or the tattooed face of 
 
118 
 
 the New Zealander. But national customs have 
 stamped their impress on the human form, and so 
 universally are certain characteristics observed in 
 some tribes, that we are apt to designate as natural 
 and hereditary some peculiarities, which are never- 
 theless due to habits which have been observed 
 from the most remote periods. Thus, I apprehend, 
 in our investigations into the natural varieties of 
 mankind, it will be found that many writers will 
 adduce the bowed shin-bones as an African pecu- 
 liarity ; whereas to me it appears that their univer- 
 sal custom of squatting is a far more simple and 
 satisfactory explanation, than that it is a mark of 
 their approximation to the bow-legged quadru- 
 mana. So, again, the moveable ear of the sa- 
 vage is the effect of his perpetual watchfulness, 
 whereon his safety, nay, even his very life, may 
 depend. 
 
 Certain moral agencies may have a decidedly 
 degrading influence on the characters of nations. 
 Religious intolerance and bad government play no 
 insignificant parts in this tendency to debasement. 
 Where can we look for a more fertile source of 
 mental degeneracy than to the first-mentioned 
 cause? While death is the punishment for sow- 
 
119 
 
 ing corn or building a house, can we imagine the 
 Mahometan an intellio:ent bein£i ? or can we read 
 the lives of an Abdemeleck or a Paul, a Benedict 
 or a Macarius, and be blind to the debasement 
 which necessarily follows the extravagant infatua- 
 tion of the monk ? What melancholy effects have 
 been spread over those countries where the austere 
 rituals of enthusiastic bigotry have been practised^! 
 With respect, also, to bad forms of government, 
 we can conceive them capable of influencing the 
 physical as well as mental development of man, in 
 corroboration of which we have not only written 
 attestation, but living proof. " Despotic govern- 
 ments," says Buckingham, '* have a destroying 
 influence in keeping a low state of civilization ; 
 and though living in a fertile and productive 
 country, where the acquisition of wealth would be 
 fatal and improvement dangerous, who can wonder 
 that ignorance and barbarism are the results?" 
 Thus situated, man must and does degenerate if 
 existing for ages under the operation of the same 
 causes. How apt an illustration have we in the 
 population of Greece, which has so long groaned 
 under the yoke of Turkish despotism, that but few 
 retain the majestic carriage and chivalrous spirit 
 
120 
 
 to which their ancestors were animated in the 
 heroic ages. 
 
 It is universally admitted that the administra- 
 tion of laws in our own country has a marked 
 effect on the morals of the population. Instances 
 of this are so numerous, that it would hardly be 
 possible to mention one law but that operates for 
 good or for bad."*^ 
 
 eeing, then, that the physical agencies which 
 we have now considered are capable of exerting 
 their influence only by increasing or diminishing 
 the development of parts, and that they cannot 
 effect a transposition, addition, or subtraction of 
 organs; seeing, also, that man universally pos- 
 sesses a determined physical conformation, in the 
 number and situation of parts, exactly alike, 
 whether we examine them in the European or 
 Mongol, American or Negro, Hyperborean or 
 Malay; seeing, moreover, that the modifications 
 of development are such as may be explained by 
 the foregoing agencies remaining in operation 
 through a long succession of ages ; finally, inas- 
 much as the moral agencies we have mentioned 
 
 * See Quarterly Review, No. 106. — Art. English Charity. 
 
121 
 
 appear sufficient to account for the different states 
 of civilization, we are necessarily compelled to ad- 
 mit (as far as these modifications are concerned) 
 the possibility of identity of origin; nor are the 
 distinguishing characteristics whereby we recog- 
 nise the different varieties, — the same to-day as they 
 were two or three thousand years ago, — in the least 
 degree capable of invalidating our conclusion, 
 because the same modifying causes are still in 
 operation ; and if it be asked (as it often has been), 
 why we do not see the Negro change by change of 
 climate, I repeat, that it would be an anomaly in 
 nature if climate could so alter the economy of the 
 organs as in one, two, or tliree generations to sub- 
 vert the nature of as many preceding hundreds ; 
 the various functions of his body may be changed 
 when he passes to a colder climate, but it does 
 not therefore follow that the organs which are sub- 
 servient to those functions should necessarily be 
 as suddenly changed in their development. His 
 nature may bend to passing circumstances ; time 
 only can change that nature. 
 
 Since, then, all the modifications of conforma- 
 tion consist entirely in the relative development of 
 organs, and not in difference of anatomical ar- 
 
 G 
 
122 
 
 rangement, it appears that such varieties may be 
 satisfactorily accounted for by those agencies 
 which we have just considered ; and as particu- 
 lar characteristics have been acquired under the 
 influence of causes which for ages have exerted 
 their modifying energies, so hkewise do we ob- 
 serve that those characteristics are tenaciously pre- 
 served through a long succession of years, the 
 above causes being no longer in operation. It re- 
 quires, therefore, no great stretch of imagination 
 to suppose that centuries only can efface those 
 marks which centuries only have produced ; need 
 we then wonder that the isolated Jew should still 
 retain his distinguishing features, or that we may 
 now recognise the same characteristics in the mo- 
 dern groups of mankind which, by the most an- 
 cient monuments, we are led to believe were pos- 
 sessed by their progenitors, notwithstanding the 
 many revolutions to which their nations have been 
 exposed. 
 
 The physiological character of nations agreeing 
 thus far with the recorded events of profane his- 
 tory, may, I apprehend, be further extended to bear 
 evidence to the Mosaic representation of the ex- 
 
123 
 
 tension of the human race, tendmg as it does to 
 prove the unity of man's species. If, moreover, we 
 refer to our geological investigations, we are led 
 to look on man as a recent inhabitant of the earth ; 
 and philology teaches us that the cradle of litera- 
 ture may be referred to Asia. All these facts go 
 far to show the correctness of Moses, as of all 
 other inspired writers in their representations of 
 the condition of our earliest ancestors : for if, in after 
 times, races of men had been found, differing ana- 
 tomically from other men, it would have been a 
 fair presumption that they differed also in their 
 origin, w^hich anatomy disproves. If also, as Dr. 
 Nares has observed, " in the uncertainty to which 
 those must have been liable, who either knew 
 nothing of Adam, or disputed the history of 
 Moses as preserved amongst the Jews ; they had 
 it manifestly at their option to make the world 
 (i. e. the scene of human existence) ten thousand, 
 or ten thousand times ten thousand years older," * 
 which age geology disproves. Again, as Dr. 
 Nares further suggests, — " If in some unexplored 
 
 * Man as known theologically and geologically. Rev, 
 Edward Nares, D.D. 
 
 g2 
 
124 
 
 regions of the earth, records might be discovered, 
 or some descendants of a pre-adamitical race be 
 found, more advanced in learning than the inhabi- 
 tants of the east, it would have followed that 
 Moses as well as St. Paul were uninspired." Now 
 were we to appeal to the history of any science 
 capable of enlightening us on this subject, we 
 should be borne out by an unconditional attesta- 
 tion from either that no such records, and that no 
 such descendants exist or have existed. History, 
 as well as the philological sciences, attest the one, 
 while geography and the science of geology con- 
 firm the other. 
 
 It is this beautiful accordance of the sciences 
 with the sacred history of mankind, which is the 
 most consolatory and ennobling to the mind of the 
 observer. Consolatory, inasmuch as it strengthens 
 his faith in the revealed doctrines of Christianity : 
 ennobling, because it enables him to view compre- 
 hensively and impartially the most sublime results 
 which science has unfolded, liberating him from 
 the shackles of ignorance and superstitious bigotry, 
 free to roam whithersoever the most ardent ima- 
 gination may lead him, restrained only by reason. 
 
 ff 
 
 1 
 
125 
 
 the noblest attribute of man, which, when thus 
 used may truly lead to the most exalted ideas, 
 and is conducive to that largeness of conception 
 which alone should characterize *' the lord of the 
 creation." 
 
126 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICULAR NA- 
 TIONS, AS AFFECTED BY NATURAL CAUSES. 
 
 It has been a matter of complaint, that general 
 statements, unsupported by particular instances, 
 have been too much relied on by writers, in treat- 
 ing of the modifying agencies contained in our 
 last chapter, and therefore, their principles have 
 been assumed as speculative and unphilosophical ; 
 we shall now endeavour to avoid this charge by 
 proceeding to the application of the foregoing 
 principles. 
 
 The genial chmate of Southern Europe secures 
 to its inhabitants a spontaneous supply of the pro- 
 ductions of nature, and imposes on them no 
 further motives for exertion than to acquire such 
 wealth, as shall be the means of satisfying their 
 naturally voluptuous dispositions. Thus the phy- 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
127 
 
 sical character is softened down, and so combined 
 are the organs which phrenology has assigned to 
 intellectual endowments and the Ucentious pas- 
 sions, that the rounded skull of the Turk, Italian, 
 and Spaniard, with their symmetrical and harmo- 
 nious features, which intoxicate and enchant the 
 senses, are dependent on external circumstances, 
 which, having exerted their influence through a 
 lono- succession of ages, have doubtless been the 
 causes of these moral and physical attributes 
 which we now recognise in those favoured climes. 
 It is there that the olive and vine are among the 
 spontaneous productions, and the richest and most 
 delicious fruits abound ; game is plentiful, and the 
 rivers teem with fish; and there it is that licentious- 
 ness and sensuality prevail. The climate and fertile 
 soil are favourable to the physical development, and 
 accordingly the Turk, and the Greek, the Austrian* 
 
 * In Austria the religion inculcated by the monks may 
 have something to do with the debased morals and sensuality 
 of the inhabitants. This province may also be adduced to 
 exemplify the modifying influence of mountainous districts; 
 althouo-h the Austrians are generally a robust and handsome 
 race, yet on the mountains, there is a race denominated Goitres, 
 in consequence of an enlargement of the thyroid gland, in 
 the fore part of the neck, to which those inhabitants are pecu- 
 
128 
 
 and Italian, the Spaniard and Portuguese are noted 
 for their form and size. Perhaps to these natural 
 advantages may be attributed the debased morals, 
 which have not been improved by the despotic 
 subjugation in which most of these countries have 
 been held. 
 
 The verdant levels of Southern Hungary, in the 
 east, fertilized by the waters of the Danube, have 
 in a similar manner stamped their impress on the 
 inhabitants, except where marshy districts prevail, 
 and there, an uiihealthy sallow complexion is 
 found ; whereas towards the barren mountains in 
 the northern parts of that kingdom, the ancient 
 Huns still possess the iron features of their Mon- 
 golic ancestors. 
 
 There is no striking peculiarity in the physical 
 development of the inhabitants of North-Eastern 
 Europe, nor should we be led to expect any, from 
 the characteristic flatness of Russia, except towards 
 
 liarly subject, — on what depending, is not yet satisfactorily 
 ascertained ; but inasmuch as it is rarely observed, except in 
 mountainous districts, it is fair to presume that either the 
 mountain or valley (perhaps the latter) may favour its deve- 
 lopment. It appears in the mountains of Asia and America, 
 also in Switzerland, Savoy, and Tyrol, where it is called Goitre. 
 In Derbyshire it is common, and is called Derbyshire neck. 
 
 . 
 
129 
 
 the Ural Chain, where the icy climate is observed to 
 stamp the natives with the hard Tartar features ; 
 it is also stated by Soemmerring, that the orbits in 
 the Russian skull are somewhat contracted. 
 
 Lapland is a huge congeries of frightful and 
 stupendous mountains ; its soil is barren as its sky 
 is rentless ; wolves, foxes and bears are the chief 
 animals that subsist on those desolate shores ; and 
 as a coarse unwholesome food has been observed 
 to arrest the full development of the body, so 
 here in Northern Europe, as in the parallel lati- 
 tudes of Norway and Sweden, have we an exem- 
 plification of its effects combined with that of cli- 
 mate, in the stunted ill-shaped frames and harsh 
 features of the miserable inhabitants. Iceland, in 
 the same latitudes, is a similar country of barren 
 rocks, covered throughout the year wdth perpetual 
 snow, which have assimilated the natives to their 
 own rude features. 
 
 Central Europe is the temperate region of the 
 earth ; there all extremes of temperature are modi- 
 fied, which, with other causes have tended to the 
 advancement of civilization : ao;ricultural know- 
 ledge has kept pace, and is now capable of afford- 
 ing subsistence to a dense population. As the in- 
 
 G 5 
 
130 
 
 habitants have increased, they have become more 
 civilized; social ties have gradually become 
 stronger ; nearly all the depressing influences of 
 our winter climate have been arrested by man's in- 
 telligence in protecting himself against the incle- 
 mencies of the atmosphere, and thus, man, like an 
 exotic plant, has received an artificial cultivation, 
 by which means the grace and beauty, which ap- 
 pear to be of spontaneous growth in Thrace and 
 Macedonia, are equally developed in the more 
 western climes of Germany, France, and our own 
 island,* unmixed with the licentiousness which 
 
 * Mirabeau, in his Letters, suggests, that the cloudy atmo- 
 sphere of England is as favourable to the complexion as to 
 green lawns and all kinds of verdure. " English beauty,^' 
 says he, "possesses more brilliancy than attraction. At a 
 distance, you are struck with the dazzling whiteness; but if 
 you approach, you wish for more vivacity, more animation. 
 In the blood which circulates through those fine veins, there 
 is more calmness than voluptuousness, more tenderness than 
 love." Certain it is, that the moisture of the air in England 
 affords a freshness and richness of pasture that is nowhere 
 found in Southern Europe, but whether it has the effect attri- 
 buted to it by Mirabeau admits of some doubt : it is certainly 
 a fact that many fenny districts are noted for the female 
 beauty they contain, as is also Ireland, which, though more 
 mild and temperate, is at the same time generally more humid 
 than England. 
 
131 
 
 is so universally diffused throughout the inhabi- 
 tants of the warmer latitudes in the south-east. 
 
 The Swede is robust from exposure to a bracing 
 atmosphere: his wants being more numerous for 
 protection against atmospheric inclemencies, than 
 those of the southern inhabitants, give an impulse 
 to industry, which is the national character. Where- 
 as, in Germany, where the atmosphere is more 
 temperate, and the soil more fertile ; and in France, 
 where the climate is equally salubrious, and the 
 land as productive, physical necessities being 
 therefore less pressing ; science has taken the place 
 of voluptuousness in the Turk, and of the igno- 
 rance and almost barbarism of the Laplander. 
 
 In no part of the world can we more unequivo- 
 cally contemplate the effects of climate on the 
 physical as well as moral character of man, than 
 throughout the Asiatic continent ; there it is that a 
 single mountain range is observed to separate a 
 country enj oying a perpetual summer, from regions 
 of eternal snow, and as suddenly to sever a tropical 
 vegetation from that of a more temperate or even a 
 polar climate. It is there that the Imaus, sending 
 its craggy rocks to the clouds, disunites the rude 
 and repulsive Kalmuck from the well formed and 
 
132 
 
 somewhat handsome Armenian, and forms the line 
 of demarcation between races of civilized men and 
 uncultivated barbarians. 
 
 Perhaps our subsequent remarks on the Asiatics 
 will be better understood, and more satisfactorily 
 received, preceded by a brief description of the 
 vast continent they inhabit. Stretching from Na- 
 tolia to East Cape, it extends over a tract of country 
 equal to about one hundred and sixty-five degrees ; 
 whilst from its nothernmost point at Nova Zembla 
 in the Arctic Ocean, to the extremity of Malacca, 
 within a degree of the equator ; it necessarily con- 
 stitutes by far the largest portion of the old world. 
 Bounded on the north by the icy ocean, and on 
 the south by the Indian Archipelago, its eastern 
 shores are washed by the great Pacific, and its 
 western confines are formed by the Red Sea, Medi- 
 terranean, and Euxine ; its north-west boundary, 
 extending from Nova Zembla to the Caspian, is 
 made up partly by the Ural mountains, and partly 
 by the Volga river. Thus spread out from the 
 equator, to near the eightieth degree of northern 
 latitude, it may easily be supposed to contain 
 every variety of soil, which it actually does; and 
 that its climate is as varied, we shall soon be 
 satisfied. 
 
133 
 
 Central Asia consists of an extensive plateau of 
 land, supported by immense precipitous rocks 
 at a prodigious height above the surrounding coun- 
 tries, which it overlooks in all directions. In these 
 elevated regions, the principal rivers of Asia have 
 their sources. Thus we find the Lena on the 
 north, the Jaxartes on the west, the Ganges on the 
 south, and the Amoor on the east, carrying down a 
 rich soil to fertilize the land below, which stretches 
 out in all directions, forming Siberia, Lower Tar- 
 tary, Persia, Hindostan, the Burmese empire, 
 China, Mandshuria, &c. 
 
 This headland of Asia has received the denomi- 
 nation of Grand Tartary, which, in consequence of 
 its elevation, maintains a perpetual winter, although 
 within a few degress of the equator ; a proximity, 
 which, in all other equal parallels of latitude on 
 the globe's surface, is extremely hot. Although 
 some valleys are observed to be covered with a 
 fertile soil from the neighbouring hills, yet in many 
 places the soil is barren to a prodigious extent, and 
 presents frightful deserts covered with a moving 
 sand, where only the hardiest trees can exist. The 
 Kalmucks, Eluts, and most other Mongols, lead 
 a purely pastoral life in those valleys which the 
 
134 
 
 mountain streams have clad with a somewhat fer- 
 tile soil ; they care Httle for agriculture, but rely 
 in a great measure on the spontaneous productions 
 of the earth ; moving from place to place, as their 
 provisions fail them, or as their flocks require fresh 
 pasture. This kind of life, although the best 
 adapted to the perfection of the bodily senses, as 
 it is also for the robust health which these people 
 enjoy in the highest degree, is nevertheless attri- 
 butable to the absolute form of government, and 
 intolerant religion, which have also kept them in a 
 low state of civilization. A more illiterate race can 
 hardly be found. The muscular system, then, is 
 most exercised, and consequently most developed ; 
 and as we have before said, that the bones observe a 
 proportional increase with the muscles attached to 
 them, may we not thus account for the broad frame- 
 work of the Mongol, as well in the broad flat face 
 and elevated cheek-bones, as in the expanded chest 
 and muscular extremities which characterize these 
 people ? It is true, we may not quite so easily 
 say why their eyes observe so oblique a position ; 
 but that it depends on the relative development of 
 parts we doubt not, and may therefore receive as 
 satisfactory an explanation as many peculiarities 
 
135 
 
 in other nations : e. g. the sunken eye of the Ame- 
 rican, the difference in the cranial development of 
 different European nations, 8cc. Their colour is 
 obviously the effect of exposure, since their con- 
 cubines, who are confined in harems, and protected 
 from the inclemencies of the atmosphere, are said 
 to be perfectly white. 
 
 Lower Tartary is that country lying on the north 
 of Mount Taurus, (the mountain range which the 
 ancients assigned as the barrier between the civi- 
 lized and uncivilized worlds), and stretches from 
 the high table-land of Grand Tartary to the 
 shores of the Caspian. The Tartar tribes have 
 the same roaming propensities as their more eastern 
 neighbours, and like them are sunk in ignorance 
 and barbarism. Vast sandy deserts form a consi- 
 derable portion of their country, as they do of 
 Grand Tartary ; and the Tartar tribes of Toork- 
 mania are described by Burnes, as resembling the 
 Kirgizzes, w^ho inhabit the more elevated plains of 
 Pamere. ''The Toorkmun," says he, "has a 
 skull like a Chinese, a flat face, and projecting 
 cheek bones. These characters are strongly marked 
 in the repulsive Nogais who inhabits the inhospit- 
 able regions on the northern side of Hindoo-koosh ; 
 
136 
 
 whilst the Kaffirs, a Persian tribe, who live on the 
 mountains to the north of Cabool, but on a south- 
 ern aspect, and therefore under the influence of a 
 more genial climate, have European features. 
 Siberia, descending from Grand Tartary to the 
 Arctic ocean, by its inclination towards the Polar 
 regions, is deprived of that genial influence of the 
 sun, which Lapland in equal parallels of latitude 
 slightly possesses. This atmospheric difference is 
 occasioned by the high table-land of Asia, which 
 intercepts the fervent heat of Hindostan and the 
 Burmese empire from extending its influence to 
 these Arctic regions. Thus, supposing the nucleus 
 of Asia, at some former time, to have been sud- 
 denly upheaved by volcanic violence, the climate 
 which previously permitted the mammoth to ex- 
 tend its wanderings in these northern latitudes, 
 would as speedily be converted into an eternal 
 winter ; and the soil which formerly supported the 
 huge herbivorous quadruped, would cease to yield 
 any further support than the lowest vegetation, 
 such as the lichens whereon the reindeer now 
 feeds. The native tribes, who appear to have mi- 
 grated, at some former time, from the more south- 
 ern regions, consequent on the severity of their 
 
137 
 
 climate, and want of food, are now become a 
 shorter race than the other descendants of their 
 common progenitors, thus clearly showing the in- 
 fluence of climate, and unwholesome diet, in their 
 stunted frames, their rude features and wiry hair. 
 Indeed, so apparent is this, that the northern inha- 
 bitant may be distinguished by his stature, kc. ; 
 e. g. the Samoides and Tunguses are short and 
 ugly ; whereas, the Buriati and Yatuki are taller 
 and somewhat better favoured. Illiterate, like all 
 other Tartars, they are compelled to seek protec- 
 tion against the severity of their climate, by 
 digging holes in the earth for their habitation ; 
 hence are they a more degenerate race than the 
 Toorkmuns, who, in their independence, boast that 
 they rest neither under the shadow of a tree nor 
 a king. 
 
 The inhabitants of Kamtchatka and of the 
 Aleutian Islands, though equally illiterate, are less 
 stunted in their frames than the Samoides or 
 Tunguses. Equally exposed to the chilling blasts 
 from the Arctic ocean, yet have they the advan- 
 tage of the equalizing influence of the Pacific, 
 which, although capable of modifying in a slight 
 degree the icy coldness of Siberia, is still insuffi- 
 
138 
 
 cient to favour vegetation, or render agriculture of 
 any avail ; the inhabitants are consequently igno- 
 rant, and possess the harsh features of their equally 
 barbarous neighbours, though exceeding some of 
 them in stature. The Japanese, who inhabit more 
 southern latitudes, are still higher in stature ; and 
 although for the most part possessing the yellowish 
 colour of the Chinese, their women of distinction, 
 who are entirely protected from the weather, are 
 perfectly white. In these islands the influence of 
 climate is very apparent in the inhabitants, who 
 are stout, well formed, and have good features, in 
 the plains, where vegetation is favoured and the 
 air refreshed by sea breezes ; whereas on the craggy 
 heights of Niphon the harsh Tartar face and stunted 
 frame show full well, that w^hatever may be gained 
 by their southern position is lost by the prodigious 
 heights and barren soil. 
 
 China and Hindostan, descending from Grand 
 Tartary towards the south, in the same manner as 
 Siberia does from the north, receive the fierce rays 
 of a vertical sun ; and as we have seen that the 
 high table-land forms a barrier to the fervent heat 
 of the south, so also does it shelter these tropical 
 regions from the chilling cold of the north. The 
 
 I 
 
139 
 
 descending: rivers which in Siberia are almost unin 
 terruptedly choked with ice and snow, in the south 
 are loaded with mud and earth, whereby the vast 
 plains which surround the centre of Asia appear 
 to have been formed ; the alluvial soil thus spread 
 out over these immense plains by the periodical 
 overflowing of the rivers, is thereby rendered by 
 nature prodigiously fertile, which, as is observed 
 in China, is capable of supporting a dense popu- 
 lation. 
 
 In tropical regions, the influence of the winds 
 may, I apprehend, be shown to affect the physical 
 characteristics of the human race. Throughout 
 these regions an easterly wind is observed to pre- 
 vail, which, by passing over the great Pacific, is 
 cooled down, and thus softens the climate of south- 
 eastern Asia and similarly affects the native tribes. 
 The Chinese and Cochin-Chinese have not the 
 harsh features which the inhospitable regions of 
 Tartary have impressed on the Kalmuck, nor are 
 they black like the Hindoos ; on the contrary, some 
 of the mountaineers have been observed as fair 
 as Europeans. The same wind, however, passing 
 over the Eastern Peninsula carries with it an ac- 
 cumulation of heat absorbed by the earth from 
 
140 
 
 the Burman empire, and shows its influence in 
 the Andamans and Hindoos. The capillary system 
 is thus naturally excited, its functions predominate, 
 and these people are perfectly black. 
 
 The above statement relative to the Chinese 
 must, however, be received with some limitation ; 
 as in the north for instance, the Madshurs, though 
 possessing the tall and well shaped forms, which we 
 should rather expect in the rich and fertile plains 
 surrounding the Amoor, have nevertheless the Tar- 
 tar features strongly marked. As the soil and 
 climate differ, so also do the inhabitants ; those on 
 the mountains possessing the Tartar features in all 
 their rudeness, while those in the valleys, living 
 under the influence of a more genial climate, are 
 less rude in features and a finer race. We have 
 already stated that to explain the peculiarity of the 
 Mongol features is not easy; such is also the 
 case with the Chinese, a branch of this people; 
 but the more we contemplate them, the more forci- 
 bly must it appear that these harsh features were 
 originally acquired in more inauspicious regions, 
 the proximity of which is still felt, in those which 
 they now inhabit. 
 
 India, less elevated than China, and unlike it, 
 entirely protected by the high lands from Siberian 
 
141 
 
 blasts, receives both the fervent rays of a vertical 
 sun, and the heated winds from the more Eastern 
 Peninsula; while Northern Hindostan appears sen- 
 sibly influenced by the icy coldness of the moun- 
 tain torrents, and by the atmospheric currents from 
 Grand Tartary. Vegetation here assumes its 
 greatest dimensions, and the native animals, like 
 the climate wherein they exist, present themselves 
 in the like extremes. The largest serpents conceal 
 themselves in the mangrove thicket, while the huge 
 elephant roams in the vast teak forests. Nature is 
 here lavish of her productions, and affords an abun- 
 dant supply of fruits and vegetables whereon the 
 native Hindoo, remarkable for his stature, luxu- 
 riates in sloth, ignorance, and idolatry. Such 
 are their general characteristics ; but even these 
 vary according to the variation of their climate : 
 while both assume the extremes in Mysore, both 
 are equally modified in the northern divisions of 
 Lahore and Delhi. While the southern native is 
 known by his Ethiopian blackness, the northern 
 in many places retains the hue of his Bactrian an- 
 cestor. In no tribe is this influence of climate 
 better illustrated than in the Cashmerian, who is 
 separated from the Hindoo by the Bember, on the 
 Indian side of which we find a heated climate, a 
 
 L 
 
142 i 
 
 tropical vegetation, and a dark skin ; whereas in the 
 vale of Cashmere the climate is mild, the botany 
 as instantly changed for that of the temperate zones, 
 which being luxuriant, affords nourishment to a 
 tall, stout and finely developed race, who are 
 neither black like the Hindoos, nor have they the 
 repulsive features of the Tartars on the heights 
 above them. 
 
 Persia possesses a double character, in conse- 
 quence of being intersected by mount Taurus, on 
 the north of which the cold winds at times com- 
 municate an intense degree of cold ; while on the 
 south, the parching winds from Hindostan derive 
 an additional fervency from the drifting sand, 
 communicating a degree of heat which in many 
 places is not felt beneath the equator. The Afghans, 
 who reside in the valley of the Indus, though rude 
 and warlike, to which they have been constrained, 
 are said by Burnes to resemble Jews, and as we 
 might expect from their fertile plains, they are 
 a tall well made people ; whereas the Kaffirs, 
 though possessing European features, are a shorter 
 and more barbarous race like the Koords, a tribe 
 of Persian mountaineers inhabitino; the borders of 
 Armenia. The Usbeks of Bokhara, on the con- 
 
143 
 
 trary, are said by Burnes to be hardly recognized 
 from the Toork or Tartar. 
 
 Arabia combines also the double character of a 
 lonesome desert, with fertile valleys interspersed 
 here and there, so as to enable the rude tribes to 
 traverse the apparently unbounded extent of bar- 
 ren plain. Surrounded by the Tehama, a moun- 
 tain chain as barren as the plains below, the de- 
 scending rivers carry down nothing but sand, 
 which, instead of fertilizing the land, like the 
 Indus and the Ganges, often threatens to inundate 
 those fertile spots which nature has permitted to 
 continue ; hence the roaming propensities of the 
 Arabs depend on the very nature of their country, 
 and their tribes abound according to the abundance 
 of oases. Like most other Asiatic countries, the 
 extremes of climate meet in Arabia without blend- 
 ing ; for while in the valleys the chief object of 
 the natives is to seek protection from the heat, the 
 Arab on the mountain is equally solicitous, in the 
 acquisition of furs for protection from cold. In 
 the most fertile districts the tribes are very numer- 
 ous and live close together, which in the Houran 
 is observed, as well as a taller and more comely 
 race than those who by inhabiting sterile countries. 
 
144 
 
 as the desert or Suez, are more distant and of 
 more stunted growth. "The Arabs of the Houran," 
 says Buckingham, " are divided into numerous 
 tribes, most being nomades ; others, partly no- 
 mades and partly agriculturists. The Arabs in- 
 habiting the valley of the Jordan have flatter 
 features, darker skin, and coarser hair than any 
 other tribes, owing apparently to the constant and 
 intense heat of that region. In some families, 
 negro features, with black skin and crisped hair, 
 are perceived ; yet it is asserted that they are pure 
 Arabs, and that a negress has never been known as 
 wife or slave amongst tbem, while at Assalt, situ- 
 ated at a considerable elevation above the sea, the 
 inhabitants have a florid complexion and auburn 
 hair." The Bedouin Arabs are generally tall and 
 well made, on the banks of the Euphrates, whose 
 waters deposit a fertile diluvium, but in the desert 
 of Suez they are a smaller and more feeble race. 
 This relation between climate and physical deve- 
 lopment is traced throughout the whole tribe of 
 Arabs, from the confines of Persia to those of 
 Morocco, and as they are exposed to a greater or 
 less intensity of heat, so also do they vary in their 
 colour. The Sheikhs, even in the most desert 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
145 
 
 places are taller than the lower grades, whose 
 average height is scarcely above that of the in- 
 habitant of Siberia. 
 
 The Caucasus being the most temperate region 
 of Asia, appears, in accordance with our previous 
 observations, the most favourable for the perfect 
 development of man. Nature has there clad the 
 valleys with a luxuriant vegetation, game and fish 
 are plentiful, and fruits of the most delicious kind 
 are of spontaneous growth. The inhabitants, as 
 Sir G. Chardin has described them, are valiant, 
 robust and jovial : the women are adorned by 
 nature with graces no where else to be found ; but 
 voluptuous in the extreme. Circassia also, on the 
 northern declivity of the Caucasus, is equally mild 
 and fertile, and is peopled by tribes, pre-eminently 
 beautiful, both as regards that form and delicacy 
 of complexion, for the preservation of which they 
 are so studiously careful. 
 
 In exemplification of our assertion, in the former 
 chapter, that it may have required the continued 
 operation of climate through a long succession of 
 ages, to have brought about particular modifica- 
 tions, it affords us no small degree of pleasure in 
 appealing to the elaborate treatise lately published 
 
 H 
 
146 
 
 by Dr. Kirby. The passage to which we particu- 
 larly refer, is however derived from Dr. Buchanan, 
 who says, " At Cochin there are two classes of 
 Jews, the white and the black Jews. The latter are 
 supposed to have arrived in India soon after the 
 Babylonian captivity, at least, they have that tra- 
 dition amongst them, which seems confirmed by 
 the fact that they have copies only of those books 
 of the Old Testament which were written previously 
 to the captivity. The white Jews emigrated from 
 Europe to India in later ages. Now here is a sin- 
 gular fact, that in the lapse of so many ages, a 
 white or tawny race has become black." It ap- 
 pears that Mr. White has endeavoured to account 
 for this fact, by stating, that the Jews have gained 
 proselytes in every country in which they have 
 resided, and being at liberty to marry those prose- 
 lytes, this would produce mixed breeds. But, as 
 Mr. Kirby justly remarks, "though the Jews, in 
 our Saviour's time, would compass sea and land to 
 gain one proselyte, this has not been their charac- 
 ter since the destruction of Jerusalem, and we 
 never hear now of their making proselytes. Indeed, 
 these black Jews of Cochin seem to have been | 
 settled there long before any white ones came to 
 
147 
 
 that place." Hence, we say again, that it would 
 be an anomaly in nature, if climate could so alter 
 the economy of our organs, as in one, two, or three 
 generations, to subvert the nature of as many pre- 
 ceding hundreds, and therefore the question, " why 
 do we not see the Ethiopian at once change his 
 skin with chano-e of climate?" which has so often 
 been proposed by physiologists, is absurd. 
 
 We have yet to speak of another portion of the 
 Asiatic continent, which, when we consider its 
 inhabitants, appears to have exerted considerable 
 influence in modifying the physical character of 
 man; but that the peculiarities of the Malay de- 
 pend more on the intermixture or amalgamation of 
 varieties, we have greater reasons for believing, 
 from their geographical position, their historical 
 records, and the resemblance they bear both to the 
 Mongolian and the Ethiopian. Our remarks, 
 therefore, on the Malay inhabitants of the penin- 
 sula of Malacca, will be postponed until we come 
 to speak of the Polynesian nations. 
 
 " He who wishes to examine the influence of 
 climate," says Heeren, " on the nature, and par- 
 ticularly on the outward figure and colour of man, 
 will find Africa the only quarter of the globe, 
 
 H 2 
 
148 
 
 which offers him an unbroken chain from almost 
 the highest to the lowest grades of civilization. 
 Neither Europe nor Asia contain continents which 
 reach to the equator ; in America various causes 
 concur to weaken the influence of climate; besides 
 which, European policy has taken so much pains 
 since its discovery, to exterminate and corrupt the 
 aboriginal tribes, particularly the better and more 
 cultivated, that the philosopher is deprived of the 
 materials most worthy of, and which would best 
 repay his attention. Australia and the newly dis- 
 covered islands of the South Sea, are only so 
 many links of a chain, every where torn asunder. 
 Africa, on the contrary, forms of itself one im- 
 mense whole ; one continent, which, ansing under 
 the temperate zone, stretches, without losing much 
 of its width, across the line, and finally tapers off, 
 almost to a point, in the temperate zone of the 
 Southern Hemisphere. This vast tract is every 
 where sown with nations, which, like the various 
 kinds of corn before the introduction of husban- 
 dry, have sprung up in various shapes, under the 
 fostering hand of nature alone, and ripened to- 
 wards civilization. The inhabitants of the north- 
 ern coast differ but little from Europeans in colour 
 
149 
 
 and form ; but the difference gradually becomes 
 more striking as we approach the equator; the 
 colour darkens, the hair becomes more woolly, the 
 profile undergoes a remarkable change, and man 
 at last becomes altogether a Negro. Beyond the 
 equator, the figure and swarthy colour of this un- 
 happy race are again lost in successive gradations. 
 The Caffres and Hottentots seem to have, from 
 what we know of them, much of the Negro nature, 
 without being completely Negroes/' 
 
 The prevalent east winds of the tropics, which 
 we have spoken of, as affecting the colour of the 
 Asiatics, may, with greater reason, be adduced as 
 an active agent in that of the African. While it 
 communicates the coolino- influence of the o-reat 
 Pacific to south-eastern Asia, it carries with it 
 an accumulation of heat from the three southern 
 Asiatic peninsulas to Eastern Africa, and increas- 
 ing in ardour as it traverses the deserts of Libya 
 and Bahiouda, concentrates its unmitigated fer- 
 vency on the more western parts of Africa, which 
 receive in addition the ardent rays of a vertical 
 sun. 
 
 These causes having; from the earliest times been 
 in operation, it requires no great stretch of imagi- 
 
150 
 
 nation to speculate on the most probable eft'ects. 
 Constantly exposed to a heated atmosphere, those 
 minute vessels of the skin denominated capillaries 
 are as constantly exhaling an abundant secretion. 
 Now as profuse perspiration is invariably attended 
 with great exhaustion, the necessity of taking an 
 abundant supply of aliment becomes more urgent 
 among the Africans than among other tribes 
 hence, the vegetative functions predominate over 
 all others; and accordingly the extended jaws 
 and powerful masticatory muscles, on which de- 
 pend the peculiarity of the Negro face, are those 
 organs which are most exercised and therefore 
 most developed. Having already offered an ex- 
 planation of the black colour of the Negro, we 
 will now endeavour to show that we are borne out 
 in our explanation by the actual appearance of the 
 several tribes which inhabit the African continent. 
 One more remark, however, in testimony of 
 those which have preceded. It has been stated 
 that the vegetative functions predominate in the 
 Negro, and the intellectual in the European. Now 
 as the latter by moderate exercise may strengthen 
 his mental endowments, and by overworking, 
 cause them to give way ; the former likewise, when 
 
151 
 
 so situated, that his predominating functions are 
 moderately exercised, hves long in the enjoyment 
 of perfect health, but when living in the parching 
 atmosphere of Nigritia, where they are too actively 
 performed, they soon give way, and thus the Negro 
 becomes prematurely old. 
 
 Northern Africa, though in many places a wil- 
 derness of sand, is nevertheless interspersed with 
 spots of astonishing fertility, rendered so by the 
 periodical overflow "of the rivers, which, like those 
 of Asia, deposit a diluvium sufficiently productive 
 for an unlimited increase of population ; the cli- 
 mate, moreover, being somewhat modified by the 
 influence of the Mediterranean, and towards the 
 west by the streams from Mount Atlas, is rendered 
 more temperate than any other part of the conti- 
 nent, except during those periods w^hen the hot 
 south winds blow from the Sahara, at which times 
 the heat is intense. The Arab is tawny from the 
 action of the sun, as is also the ]Moor, except when 
 protected from the sun's rays, under which cir- 
 cumstances the skin assumes a yellowish colour, 
 even in the desert, whilst those who are more ex- 
 posed are perfectly black. 
 
 In those favoured localities where the alluvial 
 
152 i 
 
 soil has not yet been overwhelmed by the drift sands 
 from the great desert, the fertility is so great that 
 the earth demands no farther tillage than barely 
 turning it for the seed, and so leaving it until har- 
 vest ; in the Mahomedan countries, even that pro- 
 cess is dispensed with, and the only husbandry 
 is that effected by nature and the Nile ; hence the 
 indolent disposition of the Arab, while the despo- 
 tic government under which he subsists is an ef- 
 fectual barrier to any farther advancement in civi- 
 lization. 
 
 The same causes of indolence are in operation 
 throughout Nigritia, which, like the Delta of the 
 Nile, is watered by the periodical overflow of the 
 Senegal and Niger ; after which, all kinds of tro- 
 pical fruits spring up in spontaneous luxuriance, 
 and afford an ample supply of food for the sup- 
 port of the inhabitants, who require little or no 
 clothing, and, therefore, have they few or no mo- 
 tives for exertion. They are perfect Negroes in 
 form and colour, having woolly hair, a small head 
 and large face, with extended jaws, thick lips, &c., 
 all which characters seem to be exhibited in pro- 
 portion to the intensity of their climate ; thus, 
 while the Abyssinians are of a dark olive colour, 
 
153 
 
 the inhabitants of Bournu and Houssa are de- 
 scribed as black, and the Jaloffs on the western 
 coast as of the deepest black. Those Foulahs 
 who are screened from the action of the parching 
 east winds, by the mountain chain on the south of 
 Soudan, are said to have thin glossy hair, instead 
 of the w^ool which is observed in most other Negro 
 countries, while their carriage is more graceful, 
 assuming in fact an appearance intermediate be- 
 tween the Negro and Moor, as v/ell in stature as in 
 all other physical endowments. 
 
 " In central Africa/' says Douglas, *' heat and 
 moisture, the two great instruments of vegetation, 
 are most abundant, and the mountains, and the 
 sides of the lakes and rivers, are the most over- 
 grown with vegetation and teeming with life." 
 Little is known of central Africa, excepting those 
 portions of it which border on the coasts; through- 
 out these, the inhabitants, being exposed to the 
 ardent rays of a vertical sun, present the true 
 Negro characters, as well in the two great western 
 divisions of Guinea and Congo, as in the eastern 
 divisions of Zanguebar, Ajan and Adel. The 
 Portuo:uese describe a race of half-white savag-e 
 
 people, who live perpetually in the dark recesses 
 
 H 5 
 
154 
 
 of the forests beyond the Mahalasely, but this 
 description has not been corroborated by modern 
 travellers ; the time, however, we trust, is not far 
 distant, when, (judging from the zeal and perse- 
 verance which our scientific societies now evince,) 
 we may see depicted and read of, in the travels of 
 scientific men, localities, which as yet remain 
 blanks in our maps, and then, indeed, may we 
 hope to verify the assertion of Heeren, — that in 
 no quarter of the globe can the influence of cli- 
 mate on the nature, figure and colour of man be 
 so satisfactorily examined as in the African conti- 
 nent. 
 
 Southern Africa, by jutting into the temperate 
 regions of the Southern Hemisphere, acquires also 
 the vegetation peculiar to the temperate latitudes. 
 Man also, as presented to us in the tribes of CafFres 
 and Hottentots, is sensibly modified. 
 
 '' The Hottentots under different names, were 
 once spread over the territory now called Cape 
 Colony, and at the present day may be considered 
 as generally within its limits, though they have 
 been driven from the southern parts by the Euro- 
 pean colonists. The Hottentot presents some 
 varieties both in physical appearance and moral 
 
 
165 
 
 character ; but in Iiis lowest state he is one of the 
 most indolent, helpless and dirtiest of the human 
 family ; his form, though spoken of by some travel- 
 lers as not positively ugly, would appear from the 
 best accounts to be revoltino* to our ideas. His 
 hair is black, sometimes brownish, very short and 
 woolly ; his profile is hideous, and remarkable for 
 the prominence of the lips, over which the nose 
 is flattened, displaying the open nostrils ; the foot 
 is so singularly formed that he can be traced by 
 his marks. The colour of the skin is dark brown- 
 ish, not black. The CafFres differ from the Hot- 
 tentots and Negroes. Their nose approaches to 
 an arched form ; yet they have thick lips, and 
 curly hair, but less woolly than the Negro. Their 
 colour is blackish grey, and they are generally 
 well made and of rounded limb. They extend 
 from Natal, on the southern coast of Africa, into 
 the interior, probably as far as the Tropic, but it is 
 not possible to fix their limits with any precision."* 
 That portion of Caffraria visited by Captain 
 Owen, is spoken of by him as abundantly fertile ; 
 and in his description of the natives, he says, 
 " They were handsome, strong and tall Negroes, 
 
 * Penny Cyclopaedia, Art. Africa. 
 
156 
 
 with habitual freedom strongly marked in their 
 gait and carriage." The Hollontontes are also 
 described by him as fine Negroes, tall and robust, 
 and warlike, with a certain appearance of inde- 
 pendence in their persons. 
 
 From the foregoing statements it must appear, 
 as we have before observed, that, although climate 
 alone may not have effected the various conforma- 
 tions observed in different races, yet that it has 
 had very considerable influence. Where the heat 
 is most oppressive, there the colour of the skin is 
 darkest ; where the climate is most temperate and 
 soil most fertile, there the tribes are the finest 
 and tallest. The hair, moreover, is observed, 
 generally speaking, to be woolly or not, according 
 to the influence of climate ; appearing black and 
 straight in the Moors, Berbers, and Arabs, as also 
 in some tribes of Foulahs ; universally woolly in 
 the Negro of Negroland ; woolly in some Hotten- 
 tots, frizzled and even straight in others, as is also 
 the case with regard to the CafFres. 
 
 The neighbouring tribes of Madagascar, enjoy- 
 ing a climate modified by the surrounding sea, as 
 well as by a vast mountain chain and the cold 
 mountain torrents, inhabit a land whose hills are 
 
 I 
 
157 
 
 crowned with an ever verdant forest, and whose 
 plains afford an abundant pasture for slieep and 
 oxen. Were we to enumerate the vegetable pro- 
 ductions of this island, we should go through the 
 whole list of tropical fruits. The inhabitants, who 
 call themselves Madecasses, are in general well 
 shaped and above the middle size.* Black, olive, 
 tawny, and copper colour are pretty equally ob- 
 served ; the olive colour, however, predominates. 
 They seem to be a mixture of Malays, Arabs, and 
 Africans ; the apparently true posterity of the 
 primitive inhabitants are tall, having black eyes 
 and crisped hair, like the natives of the Malabar 
 coast of Africa ; but historical records exist both 
 with the olive and tawny races relative to their 
 first arrival at Madagascar, which events appear to 
 have been of comparatively recent occurrence ;'!' 
 hence we should hardly expect them to have ac- 
 quired the hue and other physical characteristics 
 of the orio-inal inhabitants. 
 
 Having thus passed in review the tribes of Afri- 
 ca, and having, we hope, proved that climate may 
 have so affected the natives by its continued in- 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Londinensis. — Art. Madagascar. 
 t Ibid. 
 
158 
 
 fluence through a long succession of ages, we 
 would now refer to sacred history, from which it 
 may be collected that Ethiopia was peopled by 
 the descendants of Ham, on which race a curse 
 was imposed that they should be servants unto 
 their brethren. Now, as the chmate towards 
 which they were directed has been shown to keep 
 up an excited state of the vegetative organs and 
 functions, and a corresponding debasement of the 
 intellectual, may we not reasonably suppose that 
 the prophecy has been worked out by their ch- 
 mate forbidding any great advancement in in- 
 tellect ? 
 
 To the same source, also, we refer for an ex- 
 planation of the peculiar characteristics of the 
 Americans, the progenitors of whom are referred 
 by Turner, in his Sacred History of the World, to 
 the Edomites, or Idumeans, who were also deno- 
 minated the Red Men of the East. 
 
 We do not here assert that the red colour of the 
 Idumeans was originally acquired by the influence 
 of climate, for certain agencies may have been in 
 operation, with whose action we may for ever re- 
 main in profound ignorance; hence, in a climate like 
 that of America, infinitely diversified by the im- 
 
 I 
 
159 
 
 mense extent of its geographical position, it would 
 be in vain to attempt an explanation of the univer- 
 sal red colour of the native tribes by assigning it 
 to that cause ; but that it has had its effect in mo- 
 difying such colour, who will presume to deny ? 
 Writers of the highest authority, in speaking 
 of the Americans, state, that those who live in 
 high countries are fairer than those who inhabit 
 low ; and that the inhabitants of the torrid zones, 
 though of the red tinge, which marks those w^ho 
 occupy more temperate regions, nevertheless ap- 
 proach nearer to black. Form and disposition 
 are by all acknowledged to be equally influenced 
 by local situation and certain moral causes (of 
 wJiich we hope to give satisfactory instances), 
 and nowhere more so than in those situations 
 where the climate, soil, and vegetation change 
 their characters suddenly, as in the neighbourhood 
 of the high mountain chains. 
 
 Now the mean temperature of the atmosphere, 
 though pretty nearly equal in equal parallels of 
 latitude in the old and new worlds, is very unequal 
 in particular seasons : thus, at the 40th degree of 
 northern latitude the mean temperature of the year 
 in the old world averases about 63° of Fahren- 
 
160 
 
 heit's thermometer ; that of the new is about 54'", 
 the difference being only nine degrees. But the 
 mean summer heat of Philadelphia, which is 
 situated at 39° 56' N. lat., is the same as that of 
 Rome at 41° 53' N. ; but in winter it resembles 
 that of Vienna at 48° 13' N, Again, the mean 
 summer heat of Quebec, 46° 47' N., exceeds that 
 of Paris, 48° 50' N. ; but its winter is colder than 
 that of St. Petersburg, 59° 5& N. These parti- 
 culars I quote from " Lindley's Introduction to 
 Botany," to show that the American has ever been 
 exposed to atmospheric influences, which no other 
 inhabitants of the earth have been, and therefore 
 that it might, a priori^ be supposed that his colour 
 should differ from that of all others. Even Euro- 
 peans in the United States have been observed to 
 change somewhat in complexion. 
 
 But Professor Lawrence states, that neither heat 
 nor cold produces any permanent sensible change 
 of colour, for the proof of which he refers to the 
 American Indians, who live under the equator, 
 and are nevertheless of a copper colour. To this 
 we would reply, that the rigorous cold of the frigid 
 zones extends its influence to the tropical regions, 
 which being, moreover, cooled down by the easterly 
 
161 
 
 winds from the Atlantic, are comparatively tem- 
 perate as compared with the accumulated heat tu 
 which the African continent in equal latitudes is 
 exposed. 
 
 Surrounded on all sides by the great oceans, 
 and protected in the centre from the sun's rays by 
 interminable forests, except where the immense 
 fresh- water lakes, which form no insignificant part 
 of the northern continent, give rise to an abundant 
 evaporation, America derives an additional pecu- 
 liarity from these circumstances, in possessing an 
 extremely moist climate, the influence of which 
 has necessarily been exerted on the vegetable king- 
 dom, and, according to our foregoing principles, it 
 must have been felt in animals ; why not, there- 
 fore, in man?* I remember to have read, that 
 the earth makes plants ; the earth and plants 
 make animals ; and the earth, plants, and animals 
 make man. 
 
 In hot and moist regions, where a rank vegeta- 
 tion prevails, and that principally of poisonous 
 drugs, reptiles and rapacious quadrupeds are the 
 chief denizens ; and if the nature of man be capa- 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note C. 
 
, 
 
 162 
 
 ble of bearing up against such a destructive cli- 
 mate, he is observed to be barbarous and cruel ; 
 whereas in temperate climes, where fruits and 
 herbs, mild in their character and of a wholesome 
 and mitritious nature, abound, the more quiet ani- 
 mals share with humane man the produce of the 
 soil. So it is in America. " The Californians," 
 says Dr. Prichard, " inhabiting a low maritime 
 country, which, more than any other part of the 
 world, resembles the climate of Africa, are black ;" 
 this evidently depends on its western position, and 
 consequent exposure to the east and south-east 
 winds from the tropics passing over a great ex- 
 tent of land. ** Those Americans of the Table- 
 land of Mexico, which is moderately high'' (and 
 therefore temperate) " are of an intermediate hue, 
 and those in the north, behind Nootka, are white." 
 The climate and soil of those regions in the ex- 
 treme north of the American continent are cold 
 and barren, which circumstances conspire to arrest 
 that full development which the inhabitants of 
 more temperate regions attain. The Esquimaux 
 are described by artic navigators as short in sta= 
 ture and of a tawny colour. The first peculiarity 
 we have accounted for, and now with reference to 
 
163 
 
 the colour. We have already stated that the ac- 
 tion of the capillary system, or the heat-generating 
 power,* must of necessity be excited in icy cli- 
 mates, to counterbalance the depressing influence 
 of cold. We have also stated that the inhabitants 
 of the tropics live principally on vegetable food, as 
 being less heating, whilst the natives of the Polar 
 regions seek a more stimulating food in the half 
 putrid flesh of fish and seals. According to Sir 
 John Ross, '^ the abundant use of oil and fat 
 meats, which the Esquimaux consume to an enor- 
 mous extent, is the true secret of life under the 
 arctic zone." This stimulating diet, then, is ad- 
 mirably adapted to increase the power of generat- 
 ing animal heat, and to supply that fuel from 
 within which, in equatorial climes, is supplied 
 from without. The same organs are thus called 
 into action by diflferent causes and to produce 
 diflerent effects ; in one case, by an external heat, 
 to favour a free transpiration of watery fluid, which 
 is separated from the blood in the form of sweat, 
 to cool the Negro ; in the other, by an internal 
 heat, to promote a rapid circulation of blood 
 throughout the cutaneous system, and thereby to 
 * Vide Appendix, Note D. 
 
164 
 
 generate heat in the Esquimaux. Is it, therefore, 
 unreasonable to suppose that the same action in 
 both cases should be productive of the same effect 
 in the tegumental covering ? I think not, but con- 
 ceive it a most rational way of accounting for the 
 tawny hue of the hyperborean. This will be more 
 apparent by an actual examination of the northern 
 tribes ; thus, the European Finns, like the Green- 
 landers and the native tribes on the shores of La- 
 brador and of Hudson's Bay, who subsist on the 
 same heating diet, have the same swarthy com- 
 plexion. It is generally believed that Greenland 
 was peopled by European tribes from Iceland, 
 who, in consequence of the severity of the climate 
 and unfruitfulness of the soil (those plains only 
 excepted which border on the coast), are short in 
 stature, possess the tawny complexion, the broad 
 faces, thick lips, and flat noses of the Esquimaux, 
 who are indisputably of Asiatic origin. 
 
 As the fertility of the soil and heat of climate in- 
 crease towards the south, so also does the stature 
 of the Americans. " The North American tribes 
 are generally above the middle size, and of a 
 slender shape." ^ The Cherokees of Florida, 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. i. p. 616. 
 
165 
 
 which is rendered temperate by its vicinity to the 
 Atlantic, are tall, fine, well made men, as are 
 also the Akansas of Louisiana and the Indians of 
 Mexico, but differing in colour, as we have pre- 
 >'iously seen, according to the elevation of their 
 habitations. 
 
 In our survey of the American tribes it will ap- 
 pear that, in most instances, temperature has had 
 but little influence beyond that of modifying the 
 colour of man ; except on the Esquimaux, who 
 are exposed to a climate, the icy coldness of which 
 forbids a greater development than the stunted 
 frames observed throughout those northern tribes. 
 In a country so vast as that of the new world, it 
 must appear evident that natural barriers exist to 
 prevent the unlimited extension of certain species, 
 both in the animal as well as vegetable worlds ; 
 and, as we have already shown, that these natural 
 productions have had great influence on the physi- 
 cal as well as moral constitution of man, we can 
 nowhere illustrate the operation of such causes so 
 satisfactorily as in the immense continent which 
 we are now considering. 
 
 " The food of different tribes is extremely va- 
 rious. Maize, beans, pumpkins, and mandioc are 
 
i 
 
 166 
 
 raised by some tribes ; natural fruits, berries, bul- 
 bous roots, and bananas are gathered by others. 
 Those who dwell on the sides of rivers live on fish : 
 in the plains, buffaloes, horses, and sheep are 
 killed ; in the forests of Brazil monkeys, pigs, ar- 
 madilloes, pacas, agoutis, and tapirs are the fa- 
 vourite food ; but birds, turtles, deer, and coati 
 are also taken, and, in an emergency, the Indians 
 do not scruple to feed on serpents, toads, lizards, 
 the lan^ae of insects, and other disgusting sub- 
 stances. Clay is even taken as food by some 
 nations near the Orinoco. And a great proportion 
 of the tribes in Brazil, in the basin of the Orinoco, 
 and some in all parts of America, indulge in the 
 horrid banquet of human flesh. ""^ 
 
 In Melville Island, where the mean temperature 
 of the year is nearly at 2° below zero, Fahrenheit, 
 mosses and lichens form a great proportion of the 
 vegetable productions of the earth. The amylaceous 
 character of these plants f renders them fit for the 
 support of the rein-deer, an animal most essential 
 to the well-being of the native in those regions, 
 furnishing him, while living, with the means of 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 t DecandoUe. 
 
167 
 
 transport, and when dead, with food and clothing. 
 It is there also that the polar bear seeks its food 
 on the amphibious phoca, which in its turn is sus- 
 tained on fish. These animals, being less easily 
 captured than the domesticated herbivorous quad- 
 rupeds of temperate regions, supply, at the best 
 but a precarious meal to the Esquimaux, who, 
 under the additional influence of an unaenial cli- 
 mate are necessarily a diminutive race. 
 
 On the rockv mountains, saxifrage and stunted 
 grass support the mountain goat, on which the na- 
 tive savage is nourished, and who, from the paucity 
 of his food, is equally stunted in his growth. 
 
 Fertile valleys lie between the mountain ridges, 
 bv which Canada is intersected, difFerino- in the 
 character of their vegetation according to their 
 situation. Those in the north towards Hudson's 
 Bay being covered with balsamic pines and larches 
 of gigantic size, afford shelter for bears and tribes 
 of hunting Indians. The next change is charac- 
 terized by majestic poplars and robust oaks, which 
 join with walnuts, hickories, magnolias, and the 
 sugar maple (which pours out its saccharine sap), 
 in forming the vast primeval forests of the Cana- 
 dian plains. Towards the south, immense prairies 
 
168 
 
 afford luxuriant pastures to buffaloes, stags, elks 
 and bisons, which appear in immense herds, fur- 
 nishing an abundant supply of food to man, whose 
 species is observed to increase progressively in 
 size, as his habitation approaches towards the ever 
 verdant Florida and Louisiana, where maise seems 
 to be the natural produce of the American soil, as 
 rice is of that of Asia. 
 
 The gigantic forest-trees of America serve the 
 purpose, now, of favouring the increase of game, 
 on which the native Indians are in part sustained, 
 and appear destined to afford, hereafter, materials 
 for the ingenuity of civilized man, who, if we 
 might venture on the prognostication, seems ar- 
 riving at an equal state of mental maturity, to de- 
 velope in colossal greatness those improvements 
 which are now dawning in miniature in our own 
 country. 
 
 The southern continent differs in no less degree 
 in the character of its vegetation. " The Cordil- 
 leras divide the southern continent of America, 
 from the latitude of 19 to that of 52 degrees, into 
 three immense plains, which on the west are shut 
 up by the enormous ridge of the Andes, but are 
 all open on the east, and towards the Atlantic 
 
169 
 
 ocean. The most northern is the valley of Orinoco, 
 consistino- of savannahs or level tracts covered 
 with reedy herbage and scattered palms. The 
 next is the plain of the Maranon, which is entirely 
 covered with dense, impenetrable forests. The 
 third and southernmost valley is the Pampas, a 
 dead flat of most prodigious expanse, clothed, like 
 that of Orinoco, with a coarse, rank herbage, and 
 abandoned to the occupation of countless herds of 
 wild cattle."* 
 
 The Carib tribes, who derive their denomination 
 from the shores which they inhabit, are said to be 
 tall. Now as the valley of the Orinoco is pro- 
 ductive of a rich pasturage, from which herds of 
 the wild ox and other herbivorous quadrupeds ob- 
 tain an abundant nourishment, which animals are 
 readily captured by the practised hand of the na- 
 tives with the unerring lasso, we cannot be sur- 
 prised at the stature of these Indians. It is true 
 they inhabit a tropical country, but their climate 
 is comparatively temperate, which may, perhaps, 
 be accounted for in some degree by the influence 
 of the equatorial current, which, according to Lyell, 
 " has its source in the Indian ocean, under the in- 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 I 
 
170 
 
 flueiice of the trade winds ; and which, after 
 doubling the Cape of Good Hope, inclines to the 
 northward, along the western coast of Africa ; then 
 crosses the Atlantic near the equator, and is lost 
 in the Caribbean Sea, where its waters are cooler 
 by 3*" or 4° Fahr. than those of the ocean under 
 the line."* 
 
 The heat of the tropical coast of South America 
 is thus modified, as is also the coldness of the 
 eastern shores of North America, where the influ- 
 ence of this equatorial current is observed in the 
 vegetation, which retains the tropical character 
 much farther north on the shores of the Atlantic, 
 than in the centre or on the western shores of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 The Guajaribos in their aerial abodes on the 
 Andes about the source of the Orinoco, are a set 
 of ferocious cannibals, dwarfish in size, of barbar- 
 ous habits and fair complexions, all which pecu- 
 liarities may depend on their elevated habitation. 
 
 The hot and sandy mountains of Peru, are in- 
 habited by short and squat tribes, of a tawny 
 colour. 
 
 The plain of Amazonia is characterized by the 
 
 * Lyell's principles of geology. 
 
171 
 
 gigantic vegetation which the moist heat of the 
 Brazilian climate is calculated to produce. Lofty 
 forest trees raise their towering heads and cover 
 these regions to an immense extent, forbidding the 
 development of herbage or underwood, except the 
 virulent euphorbium or the drastic croton. In 
 the dreary retreats of these vast forests, the silence 
 of which is rarely broken, except by the panther 
 or jaguar, a few miserable tribes exist on game 
 and the farinaceous root of the mandioc ; hence 
 are they low in stature ; but towards Paraguay, 
 where the Campos give herbage to herbivorous 
 animals, the native Indians attain a higher stature, 
 and are less barbarous. 
 
 Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, the one moun- 
 tainous and hilly, the other an unbroken level, 
 have each a rich and productive soil, the vegetation 
 of which assumes the form of herbage, wherein 
 rodent animals and deer abound, as does also game 
 of every decription. The Indian tribes are distin- 
 guished by their tall and vigorous forms. 
 
 The same observations are equally applicable to 
 the immense pampas of Patagonia and La Plata. 
 The average height of the Patagonians is estimated 
 at about six feet three inches. 
 
 i2 
 
172 
 
 " Chili and Araucania possess a genial climate 
 on the western slope of the Andes. Extremes of 
 temperature are rarely felt in these regions, and 
 the soil is moderately productive. The native 
 tribes are strong, muscular, well built, and of a 
 moderate stature.""* According to Iluniboldt, 
 crowds of tapirs, lama, alpaco, and guanaco, 
 are found in Chili and Peru ; but extend neither to 
 Mexico on the one hand, nor to Brazil on the 
 other. 
 
 The natives of Terra del Fuego are low and 
 ugly;f their climate is ungenial, and the soil is 
 said to be unproductive. 'f 
 
 In this review of the American tribes, from Mel- 
 ville Island to Cape Horn, it has, I hope, been 
 satisfactorily proved that the variation in stature, 
 from that of the Esquimaux, whose average height 
 is barely five feet, to that of the Patagonian, who 
 is the acknowledged giant of the globe, is in no 
 respect incompatible with those laws which regu- 
 late the functions of the human economy, and on 
 the due performance of which, health so intimately 
 depends. 
 
 We have, lastly, to speak of those tribes, who, 
 
 * Penny Cyclopaedia. f Cook. 
 
173 
 
 under the general denomination of Malays, inhabit 
 the numerous islands in the Indian and Pacific 
 Oceans, and which are known to us as the Austral- 
 asian and Polynesian nations. In these it is, that 
 we have an exemplification of the intermixture of 
 different varieties ; they also show the modifying 
 power of climate ; for while we recognize the 
 Negro and Caucasian characteristics blended in 
 Australasia, Polynesia presents us with the blended 
 character, modified by the peculiarities of climate 
 to which the various groups have been exposed. 
 
 '* Negro-like men, with curly hair, occupy the 
 south-western islands, and may, perhaps, have de- 
 scended from the analogous race in the Moluccas 
 and other East Indian islands. They are savage, 
 ferocious, and suspicious. 
 
 *' This race is found in New Holland and Van 
 Diemen's Land ; New Guinea, New Britain, and 
 the adjacent groups sometimes called Soloman's 
 Islands ; New Georgia and the Charlotte Islands ; 
 the New Hebrides, including Tanna, Mallicollo, 
 and others ; New Caledonia, and the Feejee Is- 
 lands. 
 
 " The remaining; islands of the South Sea, from 
 New Zealand on the west, to Easter Island, con- 
 
174 
 
 tain a race of much better organization and quali- 
 ties. In colour and features, many of them ap- 
 proach to the Caucasian variety ; while they 
 are surpassed by none in symmetry, size, and 
 strength." ^ 
 
 It is in the Malayan peninsula that we begin to 
 recognise the influence of intermixture in blending 
 the varieties of the human species. The Ethiopians 
 in the early ages, and the Arabs about the thir- 
 teenth century, were maritime nations, and appear 
 to have mio:rated from their native shores to the 
 islands of the Indian Ocean, until, as it is sup- 
 posed, they readied Sumatra, whence, at succes- 
 sive epochs they appear to have sent out, to 
 Malacca on the one hand, and to the eastern islands 
 on the other, tribes, which we have above desig- 
 nated as Australasians and Polynesians. 
 
 The fertility of Malacca has generated a natural 
 indolence in the natives, who care not to cultivate 
 their land, but depend on the spontaneous produce 
 of the mangostana and sago-tree for the means of 
 subsistence ; hence, they are an enervated race, 
 possessing in treachery and cunning, what they 
 lose in physical strength. 
 
 * Lawrence's Natural History of Man, p. 491. 
 
175 
 
 The corporeal characteristics appear in more 
 pleasing features in those islands where a tempe- 
 rate climate is combined with a productive soil, 
 yet in all the tribes of Australasia, the digestive 
 functions seem to predominate at the expense of 
 the intellectual. " The natives," says Sturt, " of 
 the interior of New Holland, which presents a 
 seeming interminable flat, wherein reeds and the 
 polygonum are the chief vegetable productions, 
 are of the lowest description of human beings/^ 
 Whereas, the natives of the banks of the Darling, 
 who have the advantage of a plentiful supply of 
 fish, as well as resources in the woods, wherein 
 they hunt the kangaroo and emu, are a clean 
 limbed, well conditioned race. The Haraforas of 
 New Guinea partake of the Negro character in 
 their thick lips, woolly hair, and black skin. 
 Whereas, in the New Hebrides, the colour of the 
 skin is less dark, and the features are more regular 
 and pleasing. And in New Zealand the natives 
 resemble the Spaniards of our northern hemisphere 
 in the olive colour of their skin, and their stature. 
 It is thus, as we advance from the equator to the 
 temperate latitudes, that a finer race is observed ; 
 e. g. in Borneo the Batta is short and ebon black. 
 
f 
 
 ^ 
 
 176 
 
 in Soloman's Isles, less dark, and taller, and in 
 New Caledonia, an intermediate race between that 
 of the New Hebrides and of New Zealand. 
 
 '* The natives of some of the islands of the 
 South Sea," says Lawrence, "are hardly to be 
 distinsfuished in countenance and head from Euro- | 
 peans, while others approach as near to the Ne- 
 groes. The Marquesas, the Society, Friendly, and 
 Sandvvich islanders, might be almost arranged 
 under tlie Caucasian variety ; while the natives of 
 New Guinea, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, 
 New Britain, and Louisiade, &c., have strong 
 claims to be admitted into the Ethiopian division." 
 
 It is with unfeigned diffidence that the foregoing 
 attempt at an explanation of the various modifica- 
 tions observed in the physical constitution of the 
 human race, is submitted to the reader. Much of 
 the m-fitter contained herein, has already been ad- 
 vanced by most judicious and scientific writers, i 
 whose great practical skill and accurate judgment 
 may have induced them to stop short in a course 
 wherein my imagination may perchance be accused 
 of leading me astray. I am fully sensible that 
 there are many peculiarities observed in the great 
 family of mankind, which my theory would fail 
 
177 
 
 satisfactorily to account for. The natural flatness 
 of the Carib's forehead is one, the sudden change 
 between the Patagonian and the inhabitant of 
 Terra del Fuego may be another, and I .am well 
 aware that many others may be urged with more or 
 less show of reason ; but as these even admit of 
 explanation by similar causes, and with no great 
 degree of inconsistency, I approach my conclu- 
 sion the more confidently, as I conceive that the 
 same natural causes may be adduced as the grand 
 agents in the advancement of society to civilization, 
 and therefore to knowledge and wisdom. 
 
 We conclude, then, that the natural and spon- 
 taneous productions of the earth may have been 
 co-active and co-efficient with other causes whicli 
 we have mentioned in modifying the physical cha- 
 racteiistics of the human species, and it now re- 
 mains to show, that the moral constitution of man 
 has been in no less degree affected by the same 
 agencies ; or in other words, '* that the nature of 
 the country acts previously to all other influences, 
 and is moulding the mind before the legislator can 
 form his institutions.''^ 
 
 * Douglas. 
 I 5 
 
178 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL CONDITIONS OF PARTICULAR 
 
 NATIONS. 
 
 The relation between corporeal structure and the 
 external agents to which it is exposed being es- 
 tablished,! would extend the relation yetfartherand 
 show, that as the body is affected by the influence 
 of certain physical causes, so also is the mind by 
 the constitutional peculiarities of the body. In 
 the whole range of the sciences, we cannot find a 
 more interesting and more extended subject for 
 observation, one that is more ennobling or promises 
 more fairly to be successfully pursued, than that 
 whereby the following problem, proposed by a 
 writer of great judgment and imagination, may be 
 solved : *' The physical man being given, to de- 
 termine the character and extent of his capacity, 
 
 i 
 
179 
 
 and to assign, consequently, not only the talents 
 he possesses, but those he is capable of possess- 
 ing." — Are we then to consider it probable, as a 
 philosopher has hinted, that the moral man lies 
 concealed in the physical man, and that the de- 
 velopment of both depends on what at first sight 
 may appear fortuitous circumstances, but which 
 in truth are dependent on unchangeable laws ? 
 One great objection against the assumption, may 
 appear in the fact, that no two individuals are ob- 
 served to correspond exactly in their constitutional 
 endowments, although exposed to exactly the same 
 external influences. This objection, however, is 
 more apparent than real, for in resolving the pro- 
 blem of intellectual capacity, we should dismiss 
 from our minds individual peculiarities, and en- 
 deavour to seize on the o^eneral characters of na- 
 tions ; the result of which research will clearly 
 show in the assemblage of indi\dduals, a disposi- 
 tion to assume a certain corporeal conformation and 
 corresponding functions, the association of which 
 with certain mental peculiarities, give rise to a de- 
 termined constitution, which is denominated tem- 
 perament. 
 
 The time is gone by, when physiologists con- 
 
180 
 
 ceived with Hippocrates ^ and Galen, f that pecu- 
 liarity of temperament depended on an excess of 
 one or two of the supposed elements, from which I 
 
 they imagined the human body to be formed. 
 Fire, air, earth and water, were the four principles 
 on whichthey founded their hypothesis, — a visionary 
 system which would now be looked upon as worthy 
 the stricture of that writer who imputes to a class 
 of ph} siologists an attempt to measure the human 
 mind by the scale of a Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
 
 * Corpus quidem hominis haec in se habet, sanguem, pitui- 
 tam,bilem duplicem, flavam et atram. Corporis quidem natura 
 haec est, haec languet, doletve, haec convalescit et valet, tunc 
 enim potissimum valet, cum haec pariter temperala vigent, 
 dolet autem, languetve, cum quid horum plus, minusve in 
 corpore sit, commistumque caeteris non sit, &c. HippocratU 
 de Hominis Natura — Liber vigesimus quartus. 
 
 f Ac quod multifariam quidem dicatur, humidum, siccum, 
 calidum et frigidum corpus in proximo desinitum est libro, 
 demonstratum praeterea est, novem esse temperamentorum 
 differentias, unam quidem quae mediocris sit et eucratos, quam ,i| 
 
 etiam temperatam vocamus. Reliquas omnes intemperatas 
 quatuor simplices, unica scilicet in quaque poUente qualitate, 
 calore, frigore, siccitate, vel humiditate : quatuor ab his 
 diversas, in quibus utriusque oppositionis altera qualitas ex- 
 viperat, dico autem duas oppositiones, altera quae est calidi et 
 frigidi, altera quae est frigidi et sicci, &c. Galeni de Tempe^ 
 ramentis Liber acundus. 
 
181 
 
 But we have observed that the infinite diver* 
 sities of temperature, humidity and electric con- 
 ditions of the atmosphere, have modified the phy- 
 sical development of the human race, and we 
 have suggested some of the means, whereby such 
 modifications have been effected : it is, moreover, 
 an old adaoe, that "the body and mind exercise a 
 mutual influence over each other ;" hence, there is 
 no such great absurdity in attributing, in some de- 
 gree at least, the intellectual capacity of nations 
 to the temperature and other peculiarities of their 
 climate. 
 
 The depressing influence of an icy atmosphere, 
 while it contributes to the stunted development of 
 the body, is also the cause of that obtuseness both 
 in physical sensibility and mental powers, which 
 characterize the inhabitants of those inhospitable 
 countries towards the poles. Thus the assumption 
 of Dupaty, that the outward corporeal man is the 
 true model or shell of the intellectual man within, 
 is fully verified in them. Their barren soil is ill 
 adapted to call forth the cravings of ambition, and 
 their nature forbids any advance in civilization. 
 The generation of animal heat is the grand func- 
 tion of the body, as the acquisition of a stimulat- 
 
182 
 
 ing diet is that of the mind : hence, the Hyper- 
 borean is excluded from all those temperaments, 
 which physiologists have devised for the classifica- 
 tion of the human family ; and if in addition to 
 those already enumerated, the Gastric were super- 
 added, it would appear no inappropriate designa- 
 tion for the constitutional peculiarities of this vora- 
 cious tribe. 
 
 The history of an individual is the history of 
 the whole race, — his entire mind is applied to 
 ward off the sufferings to which the temperature 
 of his climate exposes him ; and being thus pro- 
 tected, he lives on in happy ignorance and barbarous 
 independence, equally dwarfish in mind and body. 
 
 In hot climates, on the contrary, where the vege- 
 tative functions predominate over all others, the 
 biliary secretion is naturally excited, and for rea- 
 sons which we have before stated, an irritable con- 
 stitution is generated, and is characterized by a 
 certain sensibility to external impressions. The in- 
 active life to which the natives of tropical coun- j 
 tries are constrained by the warmth of their cli- 
 mate, favours the development of the bilious 
 temperament, the attributes of which, in those 
 regions, are fraud, perfidy and fanaticism. Hence, 
 
 J 
 
183 
 
 the grand cause of the moral degradation and op- 
 pression, in which almost all the equatorial nations 
 are living; and that they continue so, is the inevit- 
 able consequence of their infatuation and indo- 
 lence, too weak either to conceive the means or 
 adopt the measures for relieving themselves from 
 their galling yoke. 
 
 We doubt not that some peculiar circumstance 
 may be in operation, whereby the like temperament 
 is engendered in our own latitudes ; but inasmuch 
 as it is modified in its physical characters, so also 
 is it in its moral faculties (the sanguine tempera- 
 ment is more or less mixed up with it). Men of 
 this disposition are dissatisfied with the common 
 pleasures of society ; ambition, enterprise and in- 
 tense emotions are necessary to their existence, as 
 evinced by the eagerness with which they are 
 sought after. '' Profound dissimulation and ob- 
 stinate constancy," says Richerand, "are the most 
 eminent qualities of the bilious. No one ever 
 combined them in higher perfection than that 
 famous Pope, who after slowly travelling on to- 
 wards the pontificate, went for twenty years, stoop- 
 ing and talking for ever of his approaching death, 
 and who, at once proudly rearing himself, cried 
 
184 
 
 out, ' I am Pope !' petrifying with astonishment 
 and mortification, those whom his artifice had 
 deceived into his party." 
 
 Shakspeare has well delineated the bilious tem- 
 perament in the character which Csesar is made to 
 pronounce of Caius Cassius : 
 
 " If my name were liable to fear, 
 I do not know the man I should avoid 
 So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much : 
 He is a great observer, and he looks 
 Quite through the deeds of men : he loves no plays 
 As thou dost, Anthony ; he hears no music ; 
 Seldom he smiles ; and smiles in such a sort, 
 As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit 
 That could be moved to smile at any thing. 
 Such men as he be never at heart's ease 
 Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, 
 And therefore are they very dangerous." 
 
 Now if the tropical winds, of which we have al- 
 ready spoken, could so affect the physical charac- 
 teristics of man, the same causes ought, according 
 to our previous reasoning, to influence the intel- 
 lectual capacity;* and we doubt not that this 
 operation is sufficiently apparent in the mental de- 
 velopment of the native tribes of south-eastern 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note E. 
 
185 
 
 Asia. Thus the Burmans do not appear to have 
 their mental energy so affected thereby as the 
 Chinese, Hindoos, Arabs, or Africans, all of whom 
 we conceive to be exposed to an enervating climate, 
 which favours the development of a similar tem- 
 perament, and which admits of various degrees of 
 civilization according to the social systems which 
 have been established in those nations. Hence, the 
 Burmese is less superstitious than the Chinese ; the 
 Chinese is less idolatrous than the Hindoo ; the 
 Hindoo is less intolerant than the Arab ; while the 
 poor Negro stands lowest in the scale of mental 
 capability. 
 
 The corporeal impress of the above temperament 
 manifests itself in the dark colour of the skin, 
 black hair, and moderate plumpness, combined 
 with which there is generally a hard wiry pulse. 
 
 In temperate countries where the action of the 
 circulating system is rendered active by an in- 
 vigorating atmosphere, the sanguine temperament 
 generally prevails. A fair and ruddy complexion, 
 with bluish eyes, auburn hair, an enlivened coun- 
 tenance, firmness of muscle, and moderate plump- 
 ness, are the physical characteristics of this tem- 
 perament in its greatest purity ; as goodness, gene- 
 
- 186 
 
 rosity, intensity of feeling, and sincerity are its 
 mental attributes. As it is the peculiar fate of 
 this constitution of body, to experience the ex- 
 tremes of acute suffering in disease, so also it has 
 the counterbalancing enjoyment of feeling that 
 energy, gaiety, and healthful vigour which the 
 buoyant and elastic mind only can duly appreciate. 
 The man of this temperament 
 
 '* Hath a tear to pity, and a hand 
 Open as day for melting charity ; 
 Yet notwithstanding being incensed, he's flint. 
 As humorous as winter, and as sudden 
 As flaws congealed in the spring of day." 
 
 He has a mind capable of comprehending the 
 most sublime truths, and suddenly seizes on them 
 as it were by intuition, while those of less bodily 
 vigour attain to them, only by profound and long 
 continued meditation. The character of Lorenzo 
 de Medici is a fine illustration of the sanguine 
 temperament ; it is depicted by Mr. Roscoe, " as 
 exhibiting the most remarkable instance of depth 
 of penetration, versatility of talent and compre- 
 hension of mind. Of the various occupations in 
 which Lorenzo engaged, there is not one in which 
 he was not eminently successful ; but he was more 
 
187 
 
 particularly distinguished in those whicli justly 
 hold the first rank in human estimation. The 
 facility with which he turned from subjects of the 
 highest importance, to those of amusement and 
 levity, suggested to his countrymen the idea that 
 he had two distinct souls in one body. Even his 
 moral character seems to have partaken, in some 
 degree, of th^ same diversity ; and his devotional 
 poems are as ardent as his lighter pieces are licen- 
 tious. On all sides he touched the extremes of 
 human characters, and the powers of his mind 
 were only bounded by that impenetrable circle, 
 which prescribes the limits of human nature." 
 
 The bilious and sanguine temperaments being 
 thus established, we are naturally led to inquire if 
 the various external ag-encies to which man is ex- 
 posed, and the habits which he may have adopted 
 do not become apparent in the modifications of 
 such temperaments, in the same manner as they do 
 in his corporeal development. On this subject 
 most physiologists agree that while the bilious 
 may be transformed into the choleric, on the one 
 hand, and the melancholic on the other, so likewise 
 the sanguine is observed to assume the charac- 
 teristics of the nervous and of the lymphatic. 
 
188 
 
 The climate of high Tartary and the habits of 
 the Mongols have combined a full muscular de- 
 velopment, and strongly marked features, with 
 their dark skin and black hair, which are the 
 characteristic marks of the choleric temperament. 
 Impetuosity is associated therewith, as the grand 
 principle of action ; sedition is their nature, and 
 history has ever confirmed it. The life of Attila may 
 be advanced as a type of the choleric tempera- 
 ment. Possessed of all the physical attributes, he 
 was governed by an irresistible ambition : his un- 
 daunted pride goaded him on to a brother's mur- 
 der. A doubtful provocation was with him a 
 sufficient incitement to pour forth his furious 
 wrath, in attestation, as it were, of his unenviable 
 title of " Flagellum Dei." 
 
 The melancholic temperament is considered by 
 many writers to be engendered by diseased action 
 in the system, which they conceive to be brought 
 about by excessive grief, immoderate application, 
 and other causes which exert a depressing influ- 
 ence on the body ; such as continued exposure to 
 a noisome atmosphere, sedentary habits, &:c., all 
 of which have, unquestionably, the power of pro- 
 ducing the effect in question. " Unquiet meals 
 
 I 
 
189 
 
 make ill digestions." But that it is also a natural 
 production, every man will admit who attentively 
 considers the constitutional peculiarities of the 
 American Indian. 
 
 The skin of the melancholic assumes a swarthy 
 and unhealthy hue ; the hair becomes straight ; 
 the features are acutely marked, and have an un- 
 easy appearance ; the pulse is slow and contracted . 
 Corresponding with such torpidity, there is a dis- 
 position to seriousness and reflection ; a sullen 
 calmness marks every action, and a gloomy suspi- 
 cion every look ; the sensibility to external impres- 
 sions is very obtuse. 
 
 Now let us refer to the American Indian. He 
 lives often in the gloom and moisture of an almost 
 impenetrable forest. His skin is swarthy, his hair 
 lank, his habits are indolent, his functions torpid ; 
 he is very insensible to pain. His taciturnity is 
 proverbial. He is suspicious and revengeful. 
 What characters besides these can we look for in 
 the melancholic ? Some writers have inferred, 
 that the indolence of the native Indian depends on 
 the abundance of the necessaries of life which his 
 country contains ; and this opinion might be enter- 
 tained with reason, were it not that some nations 
 
190 
 
 are compelled to live on the most disgusting and 
 filthy substances, and are nevertheless as indolent 
 as those who inhabit those situations on which 
 nature has been more lavish of her favours. 
 
 The natural development of the above tempera- 
 ment, uninfluenced by education, may doubtless 
 be seen in most of the tribes which have just been 
 mentioned ; but, as modified by the complicated 
 state of civilized life, a host of distinguished me- 
 lancholies might be adduced, amongst which Jean 
 Jacques Rousseau is not the most inconspicuous. 
 His confessions, written with tremendous fidelity, 
 trace the gradual development of the melancholic 
 temperament from a constitution which we should 
 be disposed to consider as, primarily, an amalga- 
 mation of the bilious and sanguine. 
 
 The infirmities ascribed by Dr. Madden to the 
 author of the Rambler are pre-eminently those 
 of the melancholic temperament; seriousness, me- 
 lancholy, and despair were the three great features 
 of Johnson's character. The melancholic is finely 
 depicted by the above writer. *' It is," says he, 
 " a plague of the sense, a convulsion of the soul, 
 an epitome of hell ; and if there be a hell upon 
 earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's 
 
191 
 
 heart ! No bodily torture is like unto it ; all- 
 other griefs are swallowed up in this great Euri- 
 pus. I say of the melancholy man, he is the 
 cream and quintessence of human adversity." 
 
 It is generally observed in the low and damp 
 countries of Europe that the human body assumes 
 a rounded form ; not so much from a full develop- 
 ment of muscle, as from the great bulk of cellular 
 tissue which surrounds and covers the muscles. 
 In such individuals the lymphatic system is so 
 abundantly charged with watery fluid, that the 
 fleshy parts are considerably softened, and the 
 blood, necessarily influenced by such serosity, is 
 transmitted throuoh the vessels with diminished 
 energy ; hence the pale white skin w^hich accom- 
 panies the torpid action of the vital organs, and 
 with which there is also a corresponding torpidity 
 of the mind and body. Such are the peculiarities 
 of the lymphatic temperament. Persons of this 
 constitution are indolent and slothful, preferring 
 ease and quiet to any violent or manly exercise ; 
 and are incapable of conceiving, much more of ex- 
 ecuting, any great action, so as to distinguish them- 
 selves amongst their fellow men. Their senses are 
 obtuse; their memory is treacherous; they are. 
 
192 
 
 moreover, prone to such corporeal ailments as de- 
 pend on a diminished energy of the vital organs, 
 from which the sanguine are comparatively free. 
 Men of this temperament have never immortalized 
 themselves either in literature, arts, or war. 
 
 ^' The nervous temperament," says Richerand, 
 " is not so much a natural constitution of the body, 
 as the first stage of disease. This temperament, 
 like the nervous affections which are the result of 
 it, has never shown itself but among societies 
 brought to that state of civilization in which man 
 is the farthest possible from nature. The Roman 
 ladies became subject to nervous affections only in 
 consequence of the depraved manners which marked 
 the decline of the empire. These affections were ex- 
 tremely common in France during the eighteenth 
 century, and in the times preceding the fall of the 
 monarchy." 
 
 It is an undeniable fact, that the artificial life of 
 a highly civilized state has the effect of generating 
 in many of its members a highly irritable and ex- 
 citable constitution. The muscles being small, 
 the body is thin, acutely sensible to external im- 
 pressions, and its actions are performed with quick- 
 ness and vivacity. Inconstancy and caprice are 
 
193 
 
 two great characteristics of the man who is en- 
 dowed with the nervous temperament. Both Vol- 
 taire and Pope partook of it. 
 
 The Philosopher of Chatenay had a physiog- 
 nomy indicative of his disposition. " It is said to 
 have partaken of the eagle and the monkey ; to 
 the fire and rapidity of the former animal, he united 
 the mischievous propensities of the latter. With 
 strong perceptions of moral excellence and eleva- 
 tion, he was little and mean in conduct, a victim 
 to petty passions and caprices ; never at rest either 
 in mind or body ; never tranquil or sedate."* 
 
 The morbid sensibility, caprice, and irritability of 
 Pope were evidently the consequence of disordered 
 functions of the body, which produced a certain 
 influence on the nervous system, whereby his con- 
 stitutional peculiarities grew with him from his 
 youth up, and in manhood showed full well " how 
 hard it is to hide the sparks of nature ! " 
 
 Although we may occasionally find all the at- 
 tributes of one temperament embodied in a single 
 individual, yet in most countries (especially the 
 most civilized), such purity of character is seldom 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Londinensis. 
 K 
 
194 
 
 or ever observed. There is generally, however, a 
 predominance of some one : thus, in our own coun- 
 try, and most others of northern Europe, the san- 
 guine is the most characteristic, and appears com- 
 bined with the nervous, the bihous, the choleric, or 
 the lymphatic ; in southern Europe the bilious pre- 
 dominates, and is similarly modified by combina- 
 tions with the sanguine, the melancholic, the ner- 
 vous, and choleric ; in Holland the lymphatic pre- 
 vails, &c. Hence the observation of Richerand is 
 pretty near correct regarding physiologists delineat- 
 ing the pure temperaments. " They have," says 
 he, " imitated the artist, who united in the image 
 of the Goddess of Beauty a thousand perfections 
 which he saw separate in the most beautiful women 
 of Greece." 
 
 The evidence for the difference of intellectual 
 capacity is as complete as that upon which we 
 believe in the difference of corporeal structure, and 
 that the former is greatly influenced by the latter 
 is equally apparent. It follows then, that the 
 corporeal and mental affections are intimately re- 
 lated, and that the development of both receives 
 its first impulse from certain natural causes. Dis- 
 eases, moreover, are disposed to assume certain 
 
195 
 
 peculiarities, according to the temperament of" tlie 
 individual in whom they occur. 
 
 The nature and quantity of food taken by indi- 
 viduals of different countries, is co-efficient with 
 the infinite diversities of atmospheric influences in 
 modifying the mental capabilities of nations. It 
 has been already observed, that the Negro is com- 
 pelled to take large quantities of vegetable food to 
 support the excessive cutaneous transpiration ; 
 hence, the digestive functions predominate at the 
 expense of the intellectual. The Hyperborean 
 is also driven to devour largely of animal mat- 
 ter for the purpose of withstanding the de- 
 pressing action of cold, so that the same functions 
 predominate as in the Ethiopian. The inhabitants 
 of southern Europe live principally on fruits and 
 vegetables, the acescent nature of which favours 
 the development of the bilious temperament ; 
 whereas, in the more temperate parts of Europe, 
 man requires but a moderate proportion of a 
 mixed diet, which gives energy to all the vital 
 organs, so that the functions of the brain are no 
 longer subjugated by those of 'the stomach ; 
 science, therefore, holds supreme dominion through- 
 out these countries. 
 
 K 2 
 
196 
 
 I am fully sensible of the objections which have 
 been raised against this theory of climate, and 
 appreciate the judgment of Professor Lawrence in 
 combatting this doctrine ; but inasmuch as his 
 principal objections are answered in the preceding 
 pages, I may be pardoned for considering them 
 not the most cogent. "Why," says he, "have 
 the white races invariably, and without one excep- 
 tion, raised themselves to at least some consider- 
 able height in the scale of cultivation ; while the 
 dark, on the contrary, have almost as universally 
 continued in the savage and barbarous state ? If 
 we suppose that at any remote era, all mankind in 
 all quarters of the globe, were in the latter con- 
 dition, 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 Ame- 
 rica, why have they advanced uninterruptedly to 
 their present exalted pitch of culture, while the 
 
 I 
 
197 
 
 latter remain plunged in their original rudeness 
 and io'norance ?" 
 
 The learned professor admits, that " all dark 
 coloured men are not inferior in moral and intellec- 
 tual endowments, to all those of the white divi- 
 sion ;" and that '* loss of liberty, bad government, 
 oppressive laws, neglected education, fanaticism, 
 and intolerance in religion, will plunge into igno- 
 rance, degradation, and weakness, nations capable 
 of the highest culture, and most splendid moral 
 and intellectual achievements." 
 
 If, therefore, any or all of these causes be in 
 operation, as in many nations they have been, and 
 are so still, the various degrees of civilization to 
 which the different nations have advanced, is, I 
 apprehend, satisfactorily accounted for. Phren- 
 ology, moreover, shows a great balance in favour 
 of those organs, which are supposed to minister to 
 intellectual endowments in the European, while the 
 contrary is the case in most savage nations. 
 
 But we may adduce still higher authority in 
 answer to the professor's question, why Europeans 
 have advanced uninterruptedly in knowledge, while 
 the tribes of Asia, Africa, and America remain 
 plunged in ignorance ? The best history we pos- 
 
198 
 
 sess of the early ages, (I mean the Bible), dis- 
 tinctly affirms that our earliest progenitors had 
 arrived at an advanced state of knowledge, the an- 
 cestors of the Israelites only excepted. Heeren, also, 
 in his historical researches into the politics, inter- 
 course, and trade of the principal nations of anti- 
 quity, has satisfactorily shown that the reason 
 why certain tribes have arrived at a high state of 
 civilization, whilst others have been kept back, has 
 depended in most instances on accidental circum- 
 stances ; e. g. the Medes and Bactrians acquired 
 by agriculture and commerce, {the highways of 
 ivhich crossed their territories,) riches, and power, 
 whilst others, shut up in steppes and mountains, 
 kept their original habits and manners. Again, 
 — " the Phoenicians were constrained to become 
 commercial and sea-faring people from their posi- 
 tion. Phoenicia, covered with lofty mountains and 
 forests, supplying the material in the construction 
 of the Phoenician fleet ; the rocky shores broken 
 up by the waves, formed islands, on which cities 
 were established, which, like Tyre and Sidon, were 
 highly favourable to the trade and navigation of 
 the Phoenicians." 
 
 Civilization has evidently been greatly influenced 
 
199 
 
 by such natural causes as tend to facilitate or im- 
 pede the intercommunion of different nations. A 
 continued line of unbroken coast (such as is ob- 
 served in many islands in the Indian Ocean, sur- 
 rounded by coral reefs, which, although built up 
 by what we might at first be disposed to term 
 insignificant zoophytes, form, nevertheless, the 
 foundation of islands) opposes impenetrable bar- 
 riers to civilization, inasmuch as the inhabitants 
 are deprived of those advantages which would 
 necessarily arise from an miinterrupted communion 
 with other nations. The case, however, is widely 
 different with those countries, the coasts of which 
 are intersected by rivers or bays, equally inviting 
 for trade or shelter, and which have already shown 
 their influence in the moral character of nations on 
 the American continent. 
 
 We infer then, that climate and its innumerable 
 modifying attendants have determined the capacity 
 of the human mind, while the natural physical 
 causes which we have subsequently noticed, and 
 others of like influence, have given a primary im- 
 pulse or check to civilization ; advancing it on the 
 one hand to that state which in most European 
 nations has ever proved the pabulum of science, 
 
200 
 
 and restraining it on the other, so that the moral 
 and intellectual qualities of man have received an 
 abortive development in consequence of the over- 
 whelming influence of indolence and ignorance, 
 forbidding the exercise of reason or the manifesta- 
 tion of a tendency towards improvement. Such 
 are the natural causes which operate on the deve- 
 lopment of the intellectual man. 
 
 But the phrenologist will tell us, that there is 
 nothing in temperament ; that the natural consti- 
 tution of the mind depends solely on the particular 
 development of the brain ; that the cerebral mass 
 is divisible into numerous distinct organs, which 
 perform totally different functions, and are endowed 
 with perfectly different attributes ; that the respec- 
 tive faculties, sentiments, and propensities of the 
 human mind owe their extraordinary manifestation 
 to a redundant growth of those organs ; and that 
 their relative size (which may be seen and felt 
 through the bony parietes, serving alike for protec- 
 tion and covering to the brain) is an unerring indi- 
 cation of the mental faculties. 
 
 The huge mass of evidence which has been ad- 
 duced in support of the science of phrenology, and 
 the manifold objections which have been urged 
 
201 
 
 against it, would be out of place in a work of this 
 kind, nor should we have ventured on such dis- 
 putable ground, had not the subject unavoidably 
 obtruded itself as an opponent to the views we 
 have adopted. 
 
 Now, if the numerous faculties, sentiments, and 
 propensities depend on the organs attributed to 
 them, and if it be admitted (as it universally is) 
 that the mental disposition coincides with the cor- 
 poreal constitution, it would be necessary that the 
 brain should be the first organ developed in the 
 foetus, in order that it should determine the pecu- 
 liar development of the body ; but the very reverse 
 is actually observed ; the body or trunk is the part 
 first formed, and on its constitution appears to 
 depend that of the brain. 
 
 Again, if the brain were separable into distinct 
 phrenological organs, each being subservient to a 
 particular function, some sensible boundary or 
 division ought to be observed around each organ ; 
 it would, moreover, be only in conformity with all 
 other parts of the body, if the increased exercise 
 of any one cerebral organ were sensibly manifested 
 by increased vascularity ; but we neither observe 
 such boundaries in the cerebral mass, nor has any 
 
 k5 
 
202 
 
 physical sign of a higher degree -of vitahty been 
 witnessed consequent on excessive exercise. 
 
 " The main principle of phrenology," says Dr, 
 Prichard,* " is the assumed fact that these proper- 
 ties and structures are every where co-extensive 
 with each other. Now, if the proof of the depen- 
 dence of such properties upon corresponding cere- 
 bral structures, is the universality of the connexion 
 or the co-extensive existence of the structures and 
 functions, we may expect that this relation will be 
 shown to prevail through all departments of ani- 
 mated nature. Those who maintain this arrange- 
 ment to be so fundamentally interwoven with the 
 very constitution of living beings, are bound to 
 show that the observation is limited to no particu- 
 lar department ; but that, wherever certain physical 
 endowments are undoubtedly displayed in animals 
 of whatever tribe, corresponding organs really 
 exist in the cerebral or nervous structure belonging 
 to that tribe. Should it, on the other hand, appear 
 that similar manifestations of animal life, of in- 
 stinct, appetency, feeling, or tendency to action, 
 exist in any two tribes for example, and that, in 
 one, organs are discovered to which they may be 
 * Cyclopsedia of Practical Medicine, Art. Temperament. 
 
203 
 
 thought referable, while corresponding organs are 
 totally wanting in the other, the very foundation 
 of the doctrine will be shaken ; the universality of 
 the law on which chiefly our admission of its 
 claims is demanded, will be broken, the co-exten- 
 sive relation of properties and structures can no 
 longer be asserted ; and we shall require some dis- 
 tinct proof arising out of every particular example, 
 before we can be expected to admit the asserted 
 relation in single instances." 
 
 In connexion with the above, it may be briefly 
 stated, that the science of comparative anatomy is 
 unequivocally adverse to the theory of the phren- 
 ologist. In every class of animals which may be 
 examined for the purpose of elucidating the sub- 
 ject, species will obtrude themselves, at direct va- 
 riance with the assumption of this connexion be- 
 tween function and its peculiar organ. It testifies, 
 moreover, that the psychical powers and propensi- 
 ties of the low^er animals, are dependent rather on 
 their general physical condition, than on the inor- 
 dinate development of any cerebral organ. 
 
 Let it not be imaoined that w^e regard the brain 
 in any other light, than as the organ of the mind. 
 Its being so carefully protected from external inju 
 
204 
 
 ries ; the beautiful provision made for its receiving 
 an abundant and continuous supply of blood ; the 
 means adapted to check the impulse of that blood 
 so that the delicate structure of the organ may not 
 be injured ; its immediate connexion with the 
 nerves which communicate with the organs of 
 sense, yet the greater part of the mass itself being 
 insensible ; every nervous fibre from the most re- 
 mote part of the body converging as it were to one 
 focus, which is the brain ; are the most powerful 
 arguments that can be urged for its being the seat 
 of those vital phenomena which we designate 
 mind. But we by no means subscribe to the fanci- 
 ful division of the psychical organs, or the opinion 
 that the relative size of such respective parts de- 
 termines the powers of the mind. The science to 
 which we have already appealed, the investigations 
 of many celebrated physiologists, and the texture 
 of the brain itself, (which is continuous, and as 
 far as the fibrous part is concerned, uniform), stand 
 equally in opposition to the cherished theory of 
 the phrenologist. Is it not then more reasonable 
 to infer that the whole cerebral mass participates 
 in every mental phenomenon, than to adopt the 
 phrenological theory which has its foundation laid 
 
205 
 
 in a school-boy phantasy, and its superstructure 
 exhibiting the fanciful carvings out of that terra 
 incoonita which we call brain, together with the 
 modus operandi of each of its integral parts ? 
 Besides, the very principle on which Gall has 
 founded his hypothesis, is altogether erroneous. 
 That portion of the nervous matter which is distin- 
 guished by its grey colour, is said by him to be 
 the first formed, and to be the matrix of the white 
 or fibrous ; whereas, it has been demonstrated, 
 that the order of formation is exactly the reverse, 
 and that some animals even have no grey matter 
 at all in their nervous system.''^ This is an impor- 
 tant fact, and may be the means of greatly assist- 
 ing the investigations of physiologists, in the 
 functions of this intricate part of organization. 
 
 Far be it from our intention to identify the intel- 
 lectual powers with that higher attribute which 
 raises man incomparably above his fellow-denizens. 
 We have too often witnessed death-bed scenes, to 
 be insensible to that principle which seems to 
 
 * The nervous system of asterias is composed of while 
 matter only, as is that also of the embryo-chick in its early state. 
 In all mammifera, even up to man, the white matter always 
 precedes the grey in its formation. 
 
206 
 
 Teconcile the dying man to his impending fate by 
 its apparent desire to quit its mortal tenement : 
 but this subject is irrelevant to our work. 
 
 In conclusion, let us glance over a few of the 
 most important causes which originate in the social 
 state, and which appear to have exerted consider- 
 able influence in the development of the intellec- 
 tual faculties. The field thus laid open to us, is so 
 boundless, that no single individual, even by the 
 most assiduous application, can ever hope to 
 attain a correct and just comprehension of its 
 manifold bearings. We have, therefore, substantial 
 grounds for craving indulgence in our attempt to 
 delineate its most prominent features. 
 
 Of these, the development of languages is by 
 no means the most insignificant, — on the contrary, 
 it must necessarily have exerted greater influence I 
 in advancing civilization, than most other social 
 causes. What the language may have been which 
 v/as spoken by our first parents, we have no means 
 of judging, although various attempts have been 
 made by tracing the derivation of words in the 
 four most ancient languages we know of, to their 
 primitive roots. Lawrence remarks, in his Lectures 
 on Man, that " as the earliest efforts of the infant 
 
 * 
 
207 
 
 are merely sounds of one syllable, so the first 
 adult children of nature stammered out their mean- 
 ing 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." Of this, 
 however, there can be no satisfactory proof, al- 
 though it may at first appear rational enough to 
 suppose that the earliest articulate language was in 
 imitation of '* those different sounds, which nature, 
 in her animate and inanimate form is constantly 
 presenting to our ears." Hence, say the advocates 
 of this hypothesis, as the monosyllabic language 
 represents the cry of nature, so also must it have 
 been that which was spoken by our first pro- 
 genitors. Historical data might likewise be ad- 
 vanced in support of such supposition, inasmuch 
 as the most widely diffused languages (especially 
 in Asia) are monosyllabic, and those, we have 
 every reason to suppose, the most ancient. We 
 may in this way imagine, as Turner has suggested, 
 " the earliest colonies, when dispersed into little 
 masses of separated population, kept in this state 
 apart from each other, and made to remain so by 
 the rise of dissimilar words or forms of speech 
 
i 
 
 208 I 
 
 i 
 
 peculiar to each community ; which went on to 
 increase instead of lessening, as the numbers of 
 mankind were multiplied." 
 
 Others, (contending that the savage and uncul- 
 tivated condition of mankind which has usually 
 been designated the state of nature, is in reality a 
 state of degradation from the first social condition 
 which was a high degree of mental culture, and 
 that, therefore that condition should be regarded 
 as the state of nature), infer therefrom that a poly- 
 syllabic language might have been originally spo- 
 ken. On this one point all agree, — that there exists 
 an intimate relation between the language and the 
 intellectual attainments of every community. 
 
 Dr. Lang, in his view on the Polynesian nations, 
 has established a threefold division of the lan- 
 guages of the world, viz. the eastern or Mongolic, 
 the western or Caucasian, and the southern or 
 Ethiopic. In the first, which are all monosyllabic, 
 are mcluded the dialects of Eastern Tartary, the 
 Chinese, the Indo-Chinese, the Malayan, and the 
 Indo-American ; now these prevail in the very 
 countries where ignorance and barbarism are the 
 most characteristic features of the inhabitants. 
 Yet it may be said that the Chinese are a highly 
 
209 
 
 civilized people; true, — but that civilization is more 
 the result of an intuitive knowledge that the sta- 
 bility of their country depends on their union ; it 
 is the civilization of bees which owe their safety 
 and quiet to their constant vigilance and union in 
 defence of their common home. It is impossible 
 that a nation can make any advance in literature, 
 when it requires the application of a life's time to 
 arrive at a complete knowledge of the words 
 which compose the language, exceeding, as the 
 Chinese are said to do, eighty thousand in number. 
 To this, therefore, we attribute the stationary posi- 
 tion of the Chinese in mental cultivation. 
 
 In the second or polysyllabic, are included the 
 Sanscrit or mother tongue of India, the Persian, 
 the Celtic, the Teutonic and Pelasgic, or the stem 
 of the Greek and Latin languages. These latter 
 are all characterized by their poetic fullness and 
 copiousness, admit of representing ideas the most 
 varied without ambiguity, and are, therefore, highly 
 favourable to the advancement of science, which 
 is actually observed in every stage in the different 
 countries, where these languages in their various 
 forms and modifications have been introduced. 
 
 The third or Ethiopic division, contains the 
 
210 
 
 dialects of the Africans or south-eastern Negroes, 
 and those of the Papuans or south-western Ne- 
 groes, or the aborigines of Australia, Van Dieman's 
 Land, and New Guinea, 
 
 The Aramean or Semitic branch has been set 
 apart by Schlegel in his Philosophy of History, as 
 the tri-syllabic division of languages, from which 
 he infers, that the Hebrew can never be regarded 
 as the root whence all other tongues have sprung. 
 The kindred dialects of the ancient Hebrew are 
 the Arabic, the Chaldean, the Phoenician, the 
 Egyptian, and the Assyrian languages. 
 
 These divisions correspond so minutely with the 
 intellectual state of the different nations, that any 
 comment on the connexion would be totally super- 
 fluous ; we cannot, however, refrain from remark- 
 ing the great probability, that if a minute investi- 
 gation into the various inflections and modifica- 
 tions of the different languages were instituted, a 
 relationship might be established between the par- 
 ticular forms which they have assumed, and the 
 nature of the country in which they may be said 
 to be indigenous, and, therefore, between them and 
 the peculiarity of the prevailing temperament and 
 corresponding civilization of the inhabitants. The 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
211 
 
 languages of the north, says Douglas, "are those 
 of want; the languages of the south, those of 
 pleasure ; the civilization of each took the same 
 bent, — that of the northern nations was to ward 
 off inconveniences, that of the southern nations 
 tended directly to enjoyment; the first sought 
 shelter in secure recesses from the inclemency of 
 the sky, the other admitted the sun and air into 
 their temples and dwellings, and their whole life 
 was transacted amid the freshness of nature, and 
 in the eye of heaven. The plastic and presiding 
 spirit of symmetry shed its influence over the ser- 
 vices of religion and the minutest details of ordi- 
 nary occupation — over the proportions of their 
 temples, and the shapes of their commonest uten- 
 sils ; and the pitcher which was to bring water 
 from the spring, was worthy, in its form, of a foun- 
 tain consecrated to the Naiads." 
 
 From the earliest period of sacred history, the 
 social condition of the human race has ever re- 
 quired the establishment of laws for government 
 and protection. From these first institutions, the 
 various forms of civil rule have emanated, and 
 have contributed to the happiness and well being 
 of man, in proportion as they have been found con- 
 
212 
 
 genial with his peculiar nature. The manifold 
 bearings and remote influences of particular forms 
 of government, lead the mind, by an unavoidable 
 chain of inquiry, to circumstances the most re- 
 mote and apparently the most incongruous ; hence, 
 it would be an almost endless labour to trace out 
 the mutual relations existing between government 
 and all other institutions of the social state ; for 
 as the condition of the one is determined by the 
 form of the other, so also does the moral state 
 re-act on its first cause, whereby it assumes every 
 variety in its nature, according to the peculiar con- 
 stitution of the nations which are subject to it. 
 
 It is now pretty generally admitted, that the 
 four great nations of antiquity, the Chinese, the 
 Hindoos, the Egyptians, and the Persians, mani- 
 fested a disposition towards the monarchical form 
 of civil rule, which in every community where it 
 has been established, has appeared to favour the 
 development of the higher faculties, and to bind 
 man to man by the security it affords, the liberty 
 which attends it, and the tendency it displays to 
 progressive improvement in all its institutions. 
 Hence, monarchy has ever been the animating 
 principle of intellect and science. The civilization 
 
213 
 
 of the Chinese is most decidedly poHtical, and 
 discloses a system of ethics to which the ascen- 
 dancy of their social state owes its preservation 
 through the long train of anarchy and sedition to 
 which that nation has ever been exposed. 
 
 The ancient Hindoos, though influenced more 
 by religious than political institutions, attained a 
 high position amongst the nations of antiquity by 
 their pre-eminence in jurisprudence. Influenced, 
 evidently, by the nature of their country, which 
 has ever forbidden the vigorous and energetic exer- 
 cise of unassisted reason, they have exhibited the 
 powers of imagination in greater force than most 
 other nations, and have exemplified their character 
 in the observance of castes, which are as intimately 
 bound up with their political, as with their reli- 
 gious tenets ; and it was only at the decline of the 
 Indian monarchy, that the inhabitants of the coun- 
 try degenerated into a race of Brahminical zealots. 
 
 The ancient Persians, during the continuance of 
 their monarchy, from the time of Cyrus to that of 
 Darius, made rapid strides in civilization, wherein 
 they were assisted by their di-syllabic language. 
 Their commercial intercourse with other nations 
 was widely extended, and their political supremacy 
 
' 214 
 
 universally acknowledged ; but influenced by the 
 same natural causes as their more eastern neigh- 
 bours, they exhibited the same tendency to degene- 
 rate into mysticism and ignorance, which w^as 
 greatly accelerated by the downfall of their mo- 
 narchy. 
 
 The Egyptian civilization exemplified itself 
 during its monarchical form of government, not so 
 much by its power and military fame, as by the 
 great advances the inhabitants of that country 
 made in the physical sciences. 
 
 The Semitic nations, whose form of government 
 was pre-eminently monarchical,* lived long in the 
 enj oyment of a high state of mental cultivation ; 
 and the monarchies of Europe introduced by the 
 Goths in more recent times, have ever proved the 
 sanctuaries of science. It is from the reio'n of 
 Augustus only that Rome dates its brightest as- 
 cendancy in literature, and the same effects have 
 
 * The monarchy here alluded to, is that, which was es- 
 tablished by Saul in the year of the world 2909, and which 
 was continued by his successors over the Israelites until the 
 year 3283. The despotic influence subsequent to this, is 
 well exemplified in the Jewish nation for upwards of 600 
 years, from the time of Cyrus till the destruction of their city 
 by Titus. 
 
215 
 
 followed from the establishment of all European 
 monarchies, each manifesting a modification in its 
 intellectual culture, according to the natural agen- 
 cies by which it has been influenced. 
 
 Schlegel remarks of the republican form of 
 government, that it is, or tends to be, the govern- 
 ment of reason, and although an unconquerable 
 hatred towards all kings has ever been deeply- 
 fixed in many republics, yet, as the same author 
 observes, " such republican states as those of 
 Greece, founded on faith in the sanctity of heredi- 
 tary rights, on ancient laws and customs, and at- 
 tachment to ancestral manners, are to all essential 
 purposes of a kindred nature with a monarchy," 
 the same tendency to improvement is manifest in 
 such social institutions, where, also, full scope is 
 given for the exercise of the higher faculties and 
 virtues as exemplified in the highly civilized state, 
 to which many republican nations have arrived. 
 Who doubts that the republican and independent 
 state of ancient Phoenicia, was the cause of an 
 enlightened population and widely extended colo- 
 nies ? or that the w ithering influence of despo- 
 tism has since caused a corresponding degradation 
 in modern Syria ? The Grecian states, as we have 
 
216 
 
 before observed, were as greatly influenced in the 
 improvements in the arts of civilized life by the 
 form of government, as by the natural causes con- 
 sequent on its local position ; nor can we fail to 
 recognize, in the Roman republic, the animating 
 spirit of that moral energy, by which that people 
 was so pre-eminently distinguished. 
 
 Despotism, on the contrary, is every where ac- 
 companied with degradation ; the worst and most 
 boisterous passions are roused into action under its 
 blighting influence ; and man, even in the same 
 parallels of latitude, where he was once distin- 
 guished by his moral and intellectual endowments, 
 under the fostering care of a liberal government, 
 is now degenerated into an ignorant and slothful 
 state of barbarism. The modern Hindoos, who 
 exist under a despotic yoke, present to our view a 
 sad picture of their ancestors, debased to a slavish 
 faith in mystical ordinances : the same fate has 
 been observed in the Persians, as well as the 
 Egyptians, Abyssinians and Moors, whose govern- 
 ments are purely despotic. The despotism of the 
 Dutch has evidently had an unfavourable influence 
 on the morals of the inhabitants of the Molucca 
 Islands, and similar eff^ects have ever followed the 
 
217 
 
 tyrannical rule of all European despots. We may 
 at least collect from the foregoing remarks, that 
 that form of government which most effectually 
 secures the general welfare even at the expense of 
 individual interests, and whose tendency is tow^ards 
 improvement, as well in the arts of civilized life 
 as in the progress of literature, is the form most 
 adapted to the happiness of man ; and the adoption 
 of this may be adduced as one great cause why 
 European nations have almost invariably been letl 
 to a high state of civil and intellectual culture. 
 
 Religion, more than any other social institution, 
 has ever exerted the twofold tendency of linking 
 some nations together in the spirit of peace, and of 
 rousing a warlike disposition in others. 
 
 The polytheism of the Hindoos has from the 
 earliest times been a fertile soil for the imagina- 
 tion, which in its various forms has characterized 
 the followers of the Brahminical faith. Transmi- 
 gration is the key-stone of the arch which has for 
 more than three thousand years been the support 
 of a religion which is so interwoven with their 
 social division into castes, that the souls of their 
 illustrious ancestors are recognised in the bodies 
 of their existing Brahmins. Such superstitious 
 
 L 
 
\ 
 
 218 
 
 conceptions, mixed up as they are with an obscure 
 mythology, are but httle calculated to favour the 
 development of the intellectual faculties. The tem- 
 porary ascendancy of Hindoo literature was ac- 
 companied with a philosophical polytheism ; but 
 the excitino; cause beino; removed, the natural 
 tendency was quickly apparent in the degeneracy 
 of the inhabitants. 
 
 The Arabs, who once directed their adoration 
 towards the Caaba at Mecca, have since the time 
 of Mahomet exemplified the hostile disposition of 
 their unitarian faith. Characterized by the most 
 degrading and sensual passions, their successive 
 conquests have exerted an overwhelming influence 
 on the Asiatic, Malay, and African states, to which 
 their persecuting invasions have extended. Maho- 
 metanismis but on a bare level, in its civilizingr ten- 
 dency, with the Fetish adoration of stocks and stones, 
 which, throughout Nigritia, is blindly observed by 
 the slavish martyrs to magical rites. Shamanism, 
 like the other false religions to which we have 
 alluded, has, like them, been highly unfavourable 
 to the advancement of science. 
 
 " The American savages, like the Africans, had 
 no great or fixed system of superstition ; but rude 
 
219 
 
 as they were, they were more thoughtful {front 
 their peculiar temperament) ^ and had a deeper im- 
 pression of a future state. The spirits of the de- 
 ceased ancestors peopled a world of shadows, and 
 the great spirit, mindful of the living and departed, 
 extended his care over both. When their tribes 
 assumed the consistence of a state, the sun re- 
 ceived an established worship at Natchez and at 
 Peru ; and the mythology of Mexico was modelled 
 after the same principles as the polytheism of 
 Egypt and ancient Europe."* 
 
 The idolatry of the Goths and Celts, like that 
 of the Greeks and Romans, which consisted in an 
 adoration of the elements and the apotheosis of men, 
 seems to have impressed these different nations with 
 the peculiar colouring of their civilization, which, in 
 thought, word, and deed was purely mythologicah 
 Christianity is the bond of peace and love. 
 " Government founded on Christianity," says 
 Schlegel, " is on that account hmited, and is 
 consequently in its very nature abhorrent either of 
 tyranny, despotism, or faction. Christian govern- 
 ment, moreover, inclines strongly towards mo- 
 narchy, where the sacred person of the king, the 
 
 * Douglas, Op. cit. p. 199. 
 
 l2 
 
220 
 
 spirit of his administration, confidence in his per- 
 son, attachment to the hereditary dynasty, which 
 form the basis, the animating principle of the social 
 system, is the peculiar feeling." In speaking of 
 the influence of religion, the same author observes, 
 that, " of the eight or nine countries in which 
 Protestantism has obtained a firm footing, and 
 acquired a permanent existence, there are three in 
 particular where it has been attended with mighty 
 historical effects, and where the originally destruc- 
 tive conflict of hostile elements has given birth to 
 three new and momentous phenomena in the his- 
 tory of mankind. These are, in Germany, the re- 
 ligious pacification, which forms the basis of her 
 future prosperity, stamps the peculiar character of 
 the German nation, and designates its future moral 
 destiny : in England, the highly valued, or, as it is 
 there called, the glorious constitution of 1688> 
 whose mere outward form, or dead letter, has been 
 an object of desire to so many other nations : 
 lastly, in France, the revolution in philosophy, 
 produced by the indirect influence of Protesta}itism, 
 and the combination of so many Protestant, or 
 semi-Protestant elements, and which gave birth to 
 a frightful political revolution, which, after a short 
 
221 
 
 intervenient period of military despotism, has been 
 succeeded in its turn by a mighty epoch of moral 
 and social regeneration, which, indeed, has not yet 
 been consummated, which is still in a state of 
 precarious and convulsive labour, but is even on 
 that account the more entitled to the historian's 
 attention." 
 
 We trust enough has been said to prove that 
 religion has exercised an immense influence on the 
 civilization and literature of the great community 
 of mankind ; and while its effects have been cha- 
 racterized by intolerance, barbarous cruelty, and 
 persecution on the one hand, the noble faculties 
 which stamp the divine impress on civilized man, 
 are evidences of its operation on the other. How 
 these great causes have been themselves influenced 
 by all other social agencies is a question which is 
 altogether irrelevant to our subject, and we confess 
 ourselves wanting in the ability to approach so vast 
 an inquiry ; but we doubt not that the numerous 
 channels of religious opinion, like the waters of a 
 river which are tainted by the confluent streams, 
 communicate the characters they have received 
 from the prejudices of the nations which compose 
 
222 
 
 them, to the great streams, whose directions or 
 tendencies we have attempted to point out. 
 
 In the determination of the moral and intellec- 
 tual qualities of man, many other modifying causes 
 might be adduced. One example we give, to show 
 how science may have re-acted on itself by the 
 means it has acquired for the prolongation of hu- 
 man life: the efforts which have been directed to- 
 wards the attainment of this great object have been 
 attended with far greater success than is generally 
 imagined. It is ascertained by the most accurate 
 statistical tables that can be constructed, that in 
 the great community of England, France, and 
 Germany, the average term of mortality was for- 
 merly one in thirty people annually, whereas at 
 present it is not more than one in thirty-eight, by 
 which it is computed that the number of deaths 
 throughout these countries is reduced from 1,900,000 
 to less than 1,200,000; hence 700,000 lives 
 annually owe their preservation to the social 
 ameliorations effected in those three countries 
 only. 
 
 To those who may be desirous of extending their 
 inquiries into the effects of the social system as it 
 is now constituted, the elaborate work which has 
 
2-23 
 
 lately emanated from the pen of M. Quetelot will 
 afford the most perfect information. The facul- 
 ties, sentiments, and propensities of civilized man 
 are there reduced to a state almost amounting to 
 mathematical demonstration. From his investiga- 
 tions it would appear that the intellectual faculties 
 are alone progressive, and that all other attributes 
 of man which are not founded on science are essen- 
 tially stationary, and their laws of development 
 immutable. Now, as the moral sentiments are 
 necessarily influenced by the advancement of sci- 
 ence, it follows that the development of the one is 
 in direct ratio to the development of the other; so 
 that, as the faculties expand, new sentiments are 
 acquired, and a new world unveils itself as the 
 physical man is lost in the splendid endowments 
 of the intellectual. Finally, the propensities either 
 towards virtue or vice are equally attributable to 
 the social state : great events are accompanied 
 with great actions; and, with respect to vice, M. 
 Quetelet has deduced from the most extensive ob- 
 servations, that the same number of crimes are 
 annually re-produced with such constancy, that it 
 is impossible to escape observation ; even those 
 crimes which at first sight appear likely to be least 
 
224 
 
 dependent on human foresight, such as murders, 
 seeing that they are generally committed from 
 spontaneous strife, and apparently owing to the 
 most fortuitous circumstances. Nevertheless ex- 
 perience shows that not only murders occur in like 
 numbers, but even that the same proportions are 
 observed in the instruments with which they are 
 committed ; much more, then, must crimes which 
 are perpetrated consequent on forethought be re- 
 produced with regularity, because the same causes 
 are in constant and unvarying operation. In con- 
 sequence of crimes being thus annually committed 
 with such frightful regularity, it is inferred that 
 the cause resides in the constitution of our social 
 organization, or, in other words, that society pre- 
 pares the crime, and that the guilty transgressor is 
 but the instrument which executes it. This is a 
 degrading picture of humanity ; but inasmuch as it 
 bears with it the consolatory assurance of a dimi- 
 nution of crime in proportion as our social institu- 
 tions advance towards perfection, it admonishes 
 the legislator relative to the solemn duty which is 
 imposed on him, and points out to the subject the 
 means of assisting in the great work of social 
 amendment, which will be most effectually ac- 
 
225 
 
 complisbed by diffusino- throuo-h all grades ol 
 society every means of intellectual improvement. 
 
 We have, finally, to make a few observations on 
 some other varieties in the great family of mankind 
 besides the six which have been delineated in a 
 former part of this treatise ; the most paradoxical 
 of which are the Jews, who appear to present a 
 stumbling-block to all speculations on the modify- 
 ing agents which we have alluded to. 
 
 The fact of their having so tenaciously retained 
 their physical characteristics in all countries 
 through the lapse of a long series of years, is 
 undeniably a most important and extraordinary 
 circumstance ; yet that it should be one of the 
 " opprobria physiologia) " is not so clearly esta- 
 blished. We have already observed that a white 
 and a black race of Jews are found in Cochin ; 
 this, then, shows that climate has exerted its in- 
 fluence on their colour. It has been observed, 
 moreover, that the social condition of man may 
 have great influence over his physical characters, 
 
 L 5 
 
226 i 
 
 * 
 
 and this influence appears to be well exemplified 
 in the Jews. Blindly attached to certain habits 
 and customs which their forefathers have handed 
 down to them, they have ever adhered thereunto 
 with unshaken constancy and fidelity, and although 
 at the present day they are scattered abroad 
 throughout all nations, and have everywhere been 
 oppressed and persecuted (until lately that France 
 has allowed them the rights and privileges of citi- 
 zenship, and other European nations tolerate and 
 protect them), they have ever kept, and still continue, 
 in an isolated state, with all the prejudices of their 
 ancestors, and with the vain expectation of their 
 forthcoming Messiah. With such immutable at- 
 tachment to the same observances and opinions, 
 it seems not so surprising as at first sight appears, 
 that they should also retain some physical charac- 
 ters of their progenitors. The degrading tendency 
 attributed to despotism and persecution in the 
 foregoing pages can scarcely be expected to in- 
 fluence the Jew, who, although in all places the 
 subject of such rigorous treatment, is nevertheless 
 isolated from the community of which he forms a 
 part, in manners and customs, in religious opinions 
 
227 
 
 and observances, in his usual habits of thoiiglit, 
 in food, and in every thing except cHmate, that is 
 capable of modifying the moral and physical 
 man. 
 
 The peculiar tribes who, under the denomination 
 of Gypsies, have spread themselves abroad through- 
 out all the nations of the old world, and have 
 preserved their original bodily peculiarities with 
 various degrees of purity, according to the coun- 
 tries in which they live, deserve some notice here. 
 They themselves refer their origin to Egypt ; but 
 as they are looked on by Egyptians as foreign 
 to them as they are by us, and as their habits are 
 entirely different, their language, moreover, having 
 no affinity with that of the Coptic, but bearing a 
 great resemblance to the dialect spoken on the 
 banks of the Indus, it is now generally believed 
 that they originated from that source. They first 
 appeared in Germany, at the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, and have since that time gradually 
 diffused themselves over Europe. These roving- 
 tribes are noted only by their thievish propensities, 
 their indolent dispositon, and their uncultivated 
 understanding. 
 
 Two races next present themselves, whose pecu- 
 
228 
 
 liarities unquestionably arise from local circum- 
 stances ,* we allude to Albinoes and Cretins. 
 
 The Albino or Leucsethiope, is characterized 
 by a perfectly milk white skin, white silky hair 
 and rose coloured eyes, although the countries in 
 which he is generally found are those which we have 
 noticed as favouring the development of the black 
 colour. This fact, however, may be adduced in con- 
 firmation of our views relative to the black colour. 
 It has been stated that the capillary system in tropi- 
 cal countries is most energetic in its functions, and 
 like all other systems of organs, when preterna- 
 turally excited, it is the more exposed to morbid 
 action. The intellectual as well as the physical 
 powers of man (like an overworked machine) when 
 overstrained, rapidly give way, and so it appears 
 to be with the functions of the capillaries ; hence, 
 it is generally in equatorial countries, as in Africa; 
 the Isthmus of Darien, Brazil, Sumatra, New 
 Guinea, (fee, that Albinoes are common. Their cor- 
 poreal constitution is feeble, and a corresponding 
 weakness is observed in their intellectual capacity. 
 Their eyes are so sensible, that at mid-day they 
 are incapable of bearing the sun's rays, and it is 
 only towards night that this crepuscular race can 
 
229 
 
 venture out. Too feeble to oppress, they are them- 
 selves the objects of oppression. Voltaire imagined 
 that a nation of Leucaethiopes existed in the centre 
 of Africa, whose corporeal as well as mental de- 
 generacy established a class of beings, well fitted 
 to fill up the void between man and animals. The 
 idea is too preposterous to be entertained ; Alban- 
 ism evidently depends on the non-secretion of the 
 pigmentum nigrum, to which secretion, coloration 
 is unquestionably entirely owing. 
 
 Cretins are characterized by large heads, large 
 eye-lids, thick lips, flabby flesh, a yellow cadaver- 
 ous hue, and short stature. With this physical de- 
 formity, there is great obtuseness of sensibility and 
 of intellect. The dreadful disease, of which the 
 foregoing characters are the eflect, is endemic, and 
 confined exclusively to those valleys which are 
 surrounded on all sides by extremely high moun- 
 tains ; hence, Cretins are common in the Alpine 
 valleys. Various opinions have been entertained 
 relative to the cause of Cretinism. Some authors 
 attribute it to the water which is almost entirely 
 the produce of melted snow\ The great objection 
 to this opinion is, that the mountaineer who de- 
 pends on the same source, is never known to ex- 
 
230 
 
 hibit symptoms of the disease ; on the contrary, 
 the elevated situations are the most effectual in re- 
 storing persons affected with incipient Cretinism. 
 It has also been observed that where Cretins abound 
 in the valley, the morbid characters disappear 
 gradually as they inhabit higher situations on the 
 mountains' side, so that a graduated scale may be 
 observed, both in corporeal deformity and in intel- 
 lect, from the valley upwards. Messieurs Sans- 
 sure, Fodere and Esquirol attribute Cretinism to 
 the atmosphere, which is said to contain less 
 oxygen, and a larger proportion of carbonic acid 
 and other deleterious gases in those confined 
 valleys. This opinion is not free from objections ; 
 it is, however, satisfactorily ascertained, that within 
 the present century, Cretinism is less frequently 
 seen than formerly, and there is every reason to 
 believe that as the Alpine inhabitants advance in 
 civilization and knowledge, the progress of their 
 intelligence will be marked by a still greater dimi- 
 nution, if not total disappearance, of this dreadful 
 malady. 
 
231 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. Pa^e 58. 
 
 r 
 
 o' 
 
 PiiOFESSOR Lawrence has with great learning deter- 
 mined, as far as osteological proof can determine, the 
 Caucasian origin of the Egyptians. " It is now," says 
 lie, " clearly proved, yet it is necessary to repeat the 
 truth, because the contrary error is still found in the 
 newest works, — that neither theGallos (who border on 
 Abyssinia,) nor the Bosjesmen,nor any race of Negroes, 
 produced that celebrated 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 religion." Nat. 
 Hist, of Man. — In a subsequent passage he states that 
 " 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 Eu- 
 ropeans, in the fourteenth century, belonged to the 
 Caucasian variety. My friend, W. P. Jorden, Esq., 
 has kindly furnished me with the dimensions of the 
 heads of ten mummies which he found at Quorneh, 
 Thebes, when he visited that place on the 29th of 
 
232 
 
 October, 1831 ; the different measurements of which 
 fully justify the conclusion of the Caucasian origin. 
 Mr. Wilkinson, in his work on Egypt, thus expresses 
 himself respecting the ancient Egyptians : '* It will 
 not be without benefit to those who still adhere to the 
 notion that the Egyptians were black, to observe the 
 distinction maintained in the colour of the faces of the 
 Negro, Ethiopian, and eastern captives represented at 
 Aboo Simbel, and to compare them with that of the 
 Egyptians, who are here, as on every other monument, 
 of a red complexion, not even approaching the copper 
 hue of the Ethiopians." Now as these representations 
 relate to Rameses IT. who ascended the Egyptian throne 
 1355 years before the Christian era, which was upwards 
 of eight hundred years from the foundation of the mon- 
 archy by Menes, which monarchy was preceded by a 
 long continued hierarchy ; the Egyptians may have 
 acquired their characteristic hue at the time alluded 
 to by Wilkinson, and yet have been the descendants of 
 the tribes which originally migrated from Asia Minor. 
 This supposition is strengthened by the character of 
 the countries, in the course of their migration, which 
 must necessarily have been an uninterrupted tract of 
 luxuriant pastures, as proved by the situation of those 
 cities whose ruins are now the chief monuments of the 
 high state of civilization to which the inhabitants had 
 risen, as well as of their advancement in the arts and 
 sciences. It is probable that they were incited on- 
 ward by the increased supply of natural productions, 
 which allured them forward at every step, till arriving 
 
233 
 
 at that situation where, (as Douglas so eloquently 
 expresses himself,) "The Nile itself does the work of 
 the plough and the harrow, manures the ground, covers 
 the seed, and leaves but the work of harvest for the 
 husbandman, and is the true Ceres and Triptolemus 
 of antiquity, the first indicator of culture, the inventor 
 of tillage, and the bestower of corn." Here they 
 founded their immortal cities, and here would they be 
 most exposed to the demoralizing influence of dege- 
 nerate tribes from Arabia on the one hand, and 
 Ethiopia on the other. By this means we may reason- 
 ably account for the moral, as well as the physical 
 characters of their descendants, as exemplified in the 
 modern Copts. 
 
 NoteB. Pao-e 107. 
 
 o 
 
 The influence of climate in predisposing the human 
 body to certain forms of disease, must be obvious to 
 every careful observer, and is often made to cover 
 our ignorance in accounting for the occurrence of 
 endemics and epidemics. What, for instance, is more 
 common than to attribute to atmospheric influence the 
 prevalence of any particular aflfection ? — sometimes 
 we grant, with great reason, e. g. marsh miasma is 
 known to cause fever, and when tropical heat is com- 
 bined therewith, that affection is generally complicated 
 with bilious disease. With equal evidence may the 
 
234 
 
 affection known by the nature of tropical dysentry be 
 attributed to the same cause. Local inflammations 
 are of very frequent occurrence in those situations 
 where the sanguine temperament prevails. In cold, 
 damp countries, where the lymphatic temperament 
 prevails, all morbid actions of the body assume an 
 indolent chronic form, — this has long been noticed 
 in Holland. Cutaneous diseases are extremely common 
 amongst those nations where the capillary system of 
 the integuments is most active, and in our own 
 latitudes those diseases are generally the result of 
 exposure to the ardent heat of the sun's rays. But 
 when diseases, like the scourge which has lately 
 visited our own island, occur with equal violence on 
 the banks of the Ganges, and on those of the Volga, 
 on mountains, and in valleys, in a damp atmosphere, 
 and in that which is dry, in summer and in winter, ob- 
 serving no laws which are known to affect other dis- 
 eases, yet gravely accounted for by men whose habits 
 of philosophical contemplation should guard them 
 against such unfounded assumptions : we can hard- 
 ly suppress the idea that they, like Ralpho, — 
 
 Feel the pulses of the stars. 
 
 To find out agues, coughs, catarrhs. 
 And tell what crisis does divine 
 The rot in sheep, or mange in swine. 
 
 It is not our intention to deny the influence of 
 atmospheric causes in predisposing to this disease, but 
 certainly no data exist for referring it to that cause so 
 unequivocally as some medical writers have done. 
 
235 
 
 Note C. Page 161. 
 
 It would be highly interesting to ascertain the exact 
 relation which exists between the animal and vegetable 
 worlds, more especially between the nature of the 
 latter and that of man. It has already been observed, 
 that in those situations where a luxuriant vegetation 
 prevails, man acquires his greatest development, — 
 that where the spontaneous productions of the soil are 
 characterised by an edible, bland and nutritious nature, 
 man is inoffensive and humane ; but that where such 
 productions are rank and acrid, he is savage and bar- 
 barous. The analogy, we apprehend, may be ex- 
 tended yet farther. In the Polar regions, where a 
 stimulating diet is required to maintain a high degree 
 of animal heat, the elaborated juices of the principal 
 part of the vegetable productions are of a stimulating 
 and resinous character : — e. g. the Kawie of New 
 Zealand, the gigantic pines and the larch of the 
 northern parts of America. That part of vegetation 
 which may be said to be almost exclusively tropical, 
 is characterised by certain properties which appear to 
 depend on evaporation of the inert watery portion of 
 the juices, whereby an acrid or aromatic secretion (as 
 local circumstances may determine,) remains. In 
 moist and unhealthy situations, the acrid and 
 poisonous plants are found, e. g., the poisonous 
 umbelliferse of Africa, the stalagmitis, the euphorbium 
 and croton of South America, and the upas of Java ; 
 
236 
 
 even the juice of the bread-fruit tree is said to have a 
 poisonous juice, when growing in unhealthy situations; 
 but in healthy localities the aromatic principle pre- 
 vails, as in the nutmeg of Malacca, the cinnamon of 
 Santa Fe, and the guava of India. It is also in the 
 above regions that the capillary system of man 
 exudes an abundant transpiration, which has a more 
 acrid odour than that which is secreted in more 
 temperate latitudes. In temperate zones, where man 
 is robust and vigorous, the oak, velonia, betula, 
 walnut, and such like trees of robust nature are found. 
 Many of these, it is true, extend to the tropics, and 
 far towards the poles. Our object, however, being to 
 show the most apparent analogy between man and 
 plants, we can scarcely find more apt illustrations 
 than in the moist localities of the hot and temperate 
 regions. Heat and moisture combined, favour the 
 growth of acrid and succulent plants ; damp and 
 temperate countries produce bland succulent plants, 
 such as the butomus, and many orchises of America, 
 and the cellular mosses which are so abundant in 
 damp situations of Europe. Now the melancholic 
 temperament bears about the same relation to the 
 choleric, as does the lymphatic to the sanguine ; both 
 are characterized by increased humours. In America, 
 (especially in the hot and moist parts of it, where the 
 rank vegetation prevails,) the melancholic appears in 
 the purest characters ; and in the moist countries of 
 Europe, as in Holland, the lymphatic temperament 
 characterises man. There are yet other circumstances 
 
237 
 
 wliich modify both vegetation and man. In highly 
 civilized countries, where the former is maintained in 
 an artificial state, and is consequently of a more irrita- 
 ble nature, the latter is characterised by his tendency 
 towards the nervous temperament, and displays great 
 susceptibility to external impressions. 
 
 Note D. Pao;e 163. 
 
 o 
 
 The power of generating animal heat in cold cli- 
 mates seems to depend in some degree on the organs 
 of respiration as well as on those of digestion; hence 
 although a heating diet may favour the accumulation 
 of heat, yet the quantity of air respired would seem 
 to have almost an equal influence. Dr. Edwards has 
 determined by experiment that animals confined at a 
 low temperature, consume more air than those confined 
 at a high temperature, and therefore that in all ani- 
 mals there is a correlative proportion observed between 
 the quantity of heat produced and air consumed by 
 respiration. Thus an inhabitant of a hot climate 
 being suddenly transported to a cold one, his power 
 of o:eneratino: heat would be too feeble ; whence an 
 excited respiration would be produced. On the other 
 hand, an inhabitant of a cold climate, transported to 
 a hot one, heat would be generated too ^quickly ; 
 whence the salutary effect of a free transpiration, 
 which is observed in those Europeans who bear up 
 
238 
 
 well against the heat of the tropics. There is thus 
 a sympathetic action kept up between the integumen- 
 tal covering and the mucous membrane lining the air 
 cells in the lungs, as we have also shown to exist be- 
 tween the skin and the mucous membrane of the in- 
 testines, and which is also observed between the skin 
 and the kidneys. It is this sympathy, we apprehend, 
 which renders the nature of man so accommodating 
 to those external physical agencies against which the 
 lower animals of less flexible dispositions are unable 
 to combat. Man will often pass with impunity, from 
 hot to cold climates, his lungs being capable of resist- 
 ing the atmospheric influence consequent on such 
 change, whereas the lower animals, as we daily see 
 exemplified in monkeys, which are exposed to similar 
 changes, are affected with pulmonary disease and die. 
 Few quadrumanous animals are examined after death 
 in this country wherein a tuberculated state of the 
 lungs is not detected. We have also good reason for 
 believing that a stimulating diet affects the capillary 
 system of the integuments, and that heat is generated 
 as well at the tegumentary extremities of the vascular 
 system as in the lungs. Sir J. Ross states, that when 
 a person has fed on the stimulating flesh of bears for 
 a few days, his cuticle peels off, and he is better able 
 to sustain extreme cold. This phenomenon must of 
 necessity depend on an excited state of the capillaries, 
 the first step towards coloration. 
 
239 
 
 Note E. Page 184. 
 
 Schlegel identifies in his Philosopliy of History, the 
 four principal nations of antiquity with four of the 
 preponderant elements of the human mind, referring 
 the peculiar character of each state to the modes of 
 life and constitution of the inhabitants. 
 
 The four great mental endowments enumerated by 
 him, are reason, imagination, understanding and will. 
 The Chinese, whose primitive philosophy was based in 
 a system of ethics deduced from sacred tradition, dis- 
 closed a tendency towards the exercise of unassisted 
 reason, which developed itself in the worship of a 
 Deity and the formation of a monarchy : in which 
 social state they existed till Chi-ho-angti, by a blind 
 adoration of nature instead of nature's God, laid the 
 foundation of that erroneous system of idolatrous 
 paganism which has since existed. The operations of 
 the human mind in the ancient inhabitants of the 
 Western Peninsula showed themselves in the mystical 
 faith of Polytheism as manifest in the doctrine of 
 transmigration ; Brahma, Vishnoo and Siva are the 
 Deities wherein the primitive Hindoos indulged their 
 illusive imagination, which was and is still, so predomi- 
 nant, that our author has attributed it to them as a 
 fundamental constituent of their character. The third 
 mental endowment enumerated, has been made.the cha- 
 racteristic attribute of the ancient Egyptians. Possessed 
 of an organization adapted to the perception of Iju- 
 
240 
 
 man science, tlieir understanding displayed itself in 
 the ffisrantic strides which that nation made in the 
 physical sciences; while the Hebrews constitutionally 
 preserving and combining therewith great patience and 
 resio-nation, manifested an immense development of 
 the fourth element of mind (will) in their perception 
 of divine truths. Now as the primitive history of these 
 four nations exemplify the agency of local circum- 
 stances in modifying the intellectual capacity, we deem 
 the above highly important as ilhistrating the agree- 
 ment of physiological reasoning with historical facts. 
 
 PUlNTtD BY STF.WAUT AM) CO., OLD BAILEY. 
 
 
^l^ 
 
 ^^' 
 
 7 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY 
 
 This publication is due on the LAST DATE 
 and HOUR stamped below. 
 
 RB17-307n-10,'73 
 (R3381sl0)4188 — A-32 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 
 ^1