IJttblicaiicms of %
!p%(rjjolagiral ^wiety of fonkn.
ANTHROPOLOGY OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES.
W A I T Z.
VOLUME THE FIRST.
INTRODUCTION
TO
ANTHROPOLOGY.
DR. THEODOR WAITZ,
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARBURO, HONORARY FELLOW OF THE
ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETIES OF LONDON.
EDITED,
ttfj Numerous Muttons fcg tfje &utfjor,
FROM THE FIRST VOLUME OF " ANTHROPOLOOIE DER NATURVOLKER."
J. FREDERICK COLLINGWOOD,
P.B.8.L., F.O.S., P.A.S.L.i
HONORARY SF.CRF.TARY OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY, BY
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS,
PATERNOSTER ROW-. I
1863. V^O^Xl I H
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
Dedication ......... xi
Editor's Preface ........ xiii
Author's preface ........ 1
Introduction ........
DEFINITION AND SCIENTIFIC POSITION OF ANTHROPOLOGY.
Definition; Naturalist's view; Theologian's view; Philosopher's view;
Position of Anthropology in Germany ; Division of Anthropology
into two parts ; Physiology and Psychology of Man ; History of
Civilization ; Scope of Anthropology ; Question of Species ; Po-
sition of Ethnology ; Latham's definition of Anthropology . 3
ON THE UNITY OF MANKIND AS A SPECIES, AND ON THE
NATURAL STATE OF MAN.
Man to be studied in aggregate ; Individual and social life of Man ;
Unity, or Plurality of Species ; Limited view of Mankind ; Plu-
rality of Species and Race- Antagonism ; Parallelism of physical
and psychical qualities of Man ; Psychical life ; Cuvier's view ;
Bory de St. Vincent on the Negro type; Division of the ques-
tion 10
PAET I.
PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
The notion of Species ; Its application to the organic and inorganic
kingdoms of Nature ; Definition of Species discussed ; Cuvier's
definition ; Prichard's definition ; Unity of Species resulting from
b
CONTENTS.
Unity of Origin; Agassiz, Vogt, Giebel, and De Candolle, on
Species in Animals ; American School ; Fecundity as a criterion
of Species, Buffon ; Hybridity as a criterion of Species, F. Miil-
ler; Desmoulins on Hybridity among Cattle; Fecundity of Hy-
brids; Nott and Gliddon on definition of Species; "Race" as
applied to Mankind and Dogs; Inferences from the foregoing;
Eeversion ; Cases of Mongrels, Mestizoes, Mulattoes, etc.; Opinion
of Geoffrey St. Hilaire ; Blumenbach on Eeversion ; Geographical
distribution of Species ; Eange of Variation ; Species and Eace ;
Application of these terms to domestic animals, — Nott ; Applica-
tion to Mankind ; Variations peculiar to each Species ; Agassiz's
application to Man and Ape; other Writers referred toi Eetro-
spect ......... 17
SECTION I.
ON THE MOD!-: AND MAGNITUDE OF THE PHYSICAL CHANGES
TO WHICH MAN IS SUBJECT.
1. Climate. — Influences of Climate stated; Correspondence of Climate
with physical organization; Effects of the hygrometric state of
Atmosphere ; Effects of the barometric state ; Mailer's explana-
tion of black skin of Negro; Berthold's explanation; Foissac's
explanation ; Godron on climatic influences ; Heusinger's observa-
tions ; Facts by D'Orbigny ; Volney on Negro physiognomy ;
Blumenbach's views ; Influence of Climate on stature ; Views of
Lauvergne, Zimmerman, Geoffrey St. Hilaire ; Influence of Climate
on the sexual organs ; pn the intellect ; on fecundity ; on colour
of skin, hair, and eyes; Influence of geographical conditions on
the human frame ; Different Eaces compared ; Pruner-Bey on
climatic influence ; Complexion in different Climates ; Effects of
American Climate on German, English, etc. ; the genuine Yankee ;
Australian Climate ; Influence on Character . . .34
2. Aliment. — Effects on Body and Mind undoubted; Influence of
Wealth and Poverty; Degenerate Irishmen of Ulster ; the Bosjes-
mans ; Eice-consuming peoples ; Flesh-Eaters ; the Fiji Islanders
and other Vegetarians ; American tribes and their various dietary;
the Yakuts ; the Arabs, Bedouins, etc. ; Milne-Edwards on Nutri-
tion; French military standard; Effects of mode of life on the
skeleton; Hunters and Fishers; Malay, Japanese, and Chinese
women, effects on them of sedentary or active habits ; Social rela-
tions and castes, how they act on the Body ; Change of habit and
its effect on the Portuguese settler ; the Barabra, Kordofanese, etc. 57
3. Mental Culture. — Mental influence favourable or unfavourable to the
physical development ; Low development subject to external influ-
CONTENTS. Ill
ences ; Uniformity of uncivilized peoples ; Old Germans ; Abori-
ginal Americans ; Uniformity of Character among the Negroes ;
Individuality of the Fijians ; Effects of imitation ; in Clans of
Scotland; on the individual resident abroad; The free-born and
slave Negro ; asserted change of features in the former ; Superi-
ority of Creole Negroes ; Causes of this difference ; Effects of social
intercourse on American Negroes ; Greatest change in the Northern
States ; Mental Culture in the physiognomy of all nations ; Effects
of Cultivation on the English and German physiognomy ; on the
Sikhs ; Change in the Magyars ; the Finns and Lapps ; Shape of
Skull no criterion of Race ; Skull varies most in civilized peoples ;
Modification in the same people; Abbe Frere and Huschke on
cranial development ; the slow change of physical peculiarities ;
Importance of the mental influence ; Retrospect . . .67
4. Hereditary Transmission. — Spontaneous origin of new peculiarities;
how rendered permanent ; Breeding of domestic animals ; Breed
of Otter Sheep ; Hungarian cattle ; Mental peculiarities heredi-
tary; Transmission of accidental peculiarities; Mutilation; Change
in the dog ; Origin of Races ; Morbid peculiarities ; Family pecu-
liarities ; House of Hapsburg ; Lambert family ; Six -fingered
peculiarity ; Albinism ; White Negroes ; White individuals among
the Blackfeet and Mandans ; Hereditary deformities cited by Gosse
and Wagner ; European and savage Children compared ; Psychical
peculiarities transmitted ; Children of Polynesia ; of South Ame-
rica, Arabia, South Africa, etc. ; Evidence of Incas ; Nott and
Gliddon on innate and inherited instincts ; Mechanical and artistic
talent transmitted ; Hereditary aristocracy of the Mind ; Trans-
mission of innate and organic individual peculiarities ; Retrospect
and results 80
SECTION II.
THE CHIEF ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
WHICH DISTINGUISH THE VAEIOUS RACES.
Man and Ape compared ; Traditions in India of ape-like Men ; Nott
and Gliddon on Negro and Orang-Utang ; the Negro type of the
Soudan, Kordofan, etc. ; their thickness of Skull ; Duncan, Som-
mering, Pruner-Bey, Tiedemann, Blumenbach, Lawrence, Morton,
Huschke, and others, on Negro Anatomy ; Negro features de-
scribed; Hair of the Negro, Hottentots, Bushmen, and Austral
Negroes ; The beard ; Vrolik on the limbs of Negro ; The hand and
foot of Negro, according to Burmeister, Sommering, and Duten-
hofer ; The blood of Negro ; His skin described, and the effects of
age and climate thereon; Peculiar exhalation from the Negro
skin ; Skull of Negroes, Australians, Americans, New Zealanders,
IV CONTENTS.
and other types described ; Teeth ; Proportions of the limbs ; De-
ficiency of calf; Burmeister on the feet of Negro and Ape; Use of
the foot among jugglers of America ; Disagreeable odour of the
Negro and other Eaces ; Differences between African and Austral
Negroes ; the head of the Negro type ; the Hottentot Venus ; Cir-
cumcision of Women in Egypt, in Abyssinia, in the countries of
the Nile, among the Hottentots, etc. ; Cranial deformation ; Situ-
ation of the Ear ; Egyptian Mummies ; Abnormities of anatomical
structure ; Physiological peculiarities ; Animal heat ; Rate of
pulse ; Age of puberty and marriage ; Proportions of male to
female births ; Congenital deformities ; Mortality ; Signs of age ;
Sustentation of pain ; Physical endurance ; Amount of food ; Bodily
strength; Results of Freycinet's experiments with the dynamo-
meter ; Results of Buckton ; Endurance of savage nations ; Mus-
cular weakness of the Americans ; Endurance of the Negro ; of the
South Americans, etc. ; Duration of life ; Diseases ; Vital energy
of savage and civilized peoples compared ; Healing power ; greater
among savage than civilized nations ; Human parasites ; Acclima-
tization ; Superiority of the White Races in this capacity ; Cause
thereof; the English in India; Whites in West Indies; Negroes
in West Indies; conflicting evidence on Acclimatization; Capa-
city of blushing ; not confined to the White Races ; Formation of
speech-sounds ; Use of the hands ; Perfection of the senses ; Sense
of sight in savage nations ; its cultivation by Europeans ; Sense
of taste ; Effects of music ; Sense of smell ; in Negro and other
savages ; Negro music ; Retrospect .....
APPENDIX TO SECTION II.
ON THE ASSERTED INVIABILITY OF THE AMERICANS, POLYNESIANS,
AND AUSTRALIANS.
Rapid decay of American tribes ; by small-pox and fevers ; by tribal
wars ; by spirit drinking ; by loss of territory ; by scanty prolifi-
cacy ; by abortion and infanticide ; through early marriages ; Pro-
lificacy of North American women ; of South Americans ; Decrease
of population in Polynesia ; Statistics thereon ; Causes ; Drunken-
ness ; Infanticide ; Abortion ; Sexual excesses ; Internal wars ;
Human sacrifices ; Cannibalism ; Famine ; Venereal diseases ;
Sterility ; and psychical causes ; Decrease of the Australians ; Dis-
eases; Drunkenness; Sexual excesses; Infanticide; Negligence;
Want of nourishment ; Invasion of Europeans ; Injustice done to
the natives bv the English official . 144
CONTENTS. V
SECTION III.
THE RESULTS OF INTERMIXTURE OF DIFFERENT TYPES, AND THE
PECULIARITIES OF THE MONGRELS.
Difficulties of the question ; Influence of the parents on the offspring ;
Conflicting opinions ; Burmeister ; Buffon's views ; Mestizoes ; *
Mulattoes ; Quadroons ; Quintroon ; Tschudi and Poppig ; Danes
and Hindoos ; Opinions of Geoffrey St. Hilaire, Nott and Gliddon ;
American Mongrels ; Castelnau's statement of various cross-breeds ;
Zamboes and Cabourets ; Different degrees of constancy in inter-
mixture ; Effect of different impregnations ; Tertroon, Quadroon,
Quintroon ; Transition of Mongrels to higher races ; Value of
Mongrels in the States; Qualities of Negro in the Quintroon;
Mental and physical characters of the Mongrels ; Gobineau on the
effects of crossing ; Nott's theory objected to ; Mongrels of Euro-
peans and Australians; Effects of intermarrying; Nott on ste-
rility of Mulattoes ; Inviability of Mulattoes ; Nott on the confu-
sion of terms ; Cross-breeds of Mexico and the Phillipines ;
Permanence of type ; Mixed populations of Europe ; Evidence in
favour of unity . . . . . . . . 167
SECTION IV.
REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL THEORIES REGARDING THE UNITY OF
MANKIND.
Great improbability of permanence of type ; Wide limits of variation
in Man ; Views of Blumenbach and Prichard ; Views of Hamilton,
Smith, and Lawrence ; Hombron's theory of centres of creation ;
Human fossils ; Wilson on antiquity of Man in Scotland ; Theory
of Agassiz ; His Zoological provinces ; Difficulties of his theory ;
Hi a change of opinion ; New division ; Objections raised, and his
theory discussed ; Latham on original migrations ; Descent from
a single pair improbable ; Unity of Indo-Germanic peoples ; The
most probable theory of descent ; Climatic influence on Man and
Animals ; Natural origin of Man ; Affinity between Man and Ape ;
Fossil Apes ; Relation of Negro to White Race and Apes ; Negro
type described at length ; Forms intermediate between White and
Negro ; LUCSB and Pruner-Bey on race characters ; Other devia-
tions from typical forms ; Hair and eyes ; Grounds for Classifica-
tion; Type unchanged, as shown by Egyptian monuments j The
Jews, " white" and "black" ; Jewish crania ; Cranial variations ;
Blumenbach, Retzius, Weber, Engel, Desmoulins, and others on
Classification; Lesson, Pickering, Hamilton Smith, Hartmann,
D'Omalius d'Halloy, W. F. Edwards, on Constancy of type ; Re-
trospect and results . . . . . . .190
VI CONTENTS.
SECTION V.
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF MANKIND.
1. Anatomical View. — Division of the section into three parts ; Natural
division according to external variations ; D'Omalius D'Halloy's
basis of division ; Blumenbach's cranial division ; Lacepede and
DumeriTs addition; Cuvier's three types; Pickering, Prichard,
Latham, Bory, Desmoulins, Agassiz, Nott and Gliddon on Classi-
fication ; Hombron on Australian and Negro type ; Vater, Morton,
and Tschudi ; Retzius' system of Craniology ; Zeune's cranial
types ; Disagreement of Authors on Classification ; Difficulties of
the Cranial Classification exposed ; Value of Phrenology ; Quetelet's
measurements of the skeleton ; Reference Table of measurements
of various parts of the human frame .... 230
2. Linguistic View. — Importance of Philological investigations ; Insuffi-
ciency of the comparison of vocabularies ; Importance of gram-
matical structure in the transmission of a Language ; Analysis of
a sentence in illustration ; The structure of a perfect Language ;
American Languages Polysynthetic ; Agglutinated Languages of
Asia ; Inflected Languages ; Monosyllabic and Polysynthetic Lan-
guages compared ; Change in Structure of a Language ; Original
Unity of Language improbable ; View of Humboldt ; Max Muller's
theory ; Balbi's Summary of the Languages of the Earth ; Arbi-
trary division ; Crawford on the Malay Languages ; Relative
value of the Physical and Philological investigations in determining
the Unity or Plurality of Origin; Positive principles of Philology and
negative principles of Naturalists ; Objections to Nott and Grliddon ;
Philology alone inadequate for the determination of Race; Loss
of Languages in American Races ; Change of Language : instances
cited ; Absorption of small by greater Nations ; Romans, Arabian,
Normans, Longobards, Greeks, etc.; Parallelism between loss of
Language and the Extinction of a People; Preservation of Lan-
guages . ...... 238
3. Historical View. — Reason given for this division; History founded on
traditions ; Tradition of the Noachian Deluge ; Analogies between
Mongolian and American Peoples ; Delafield, Humboldt, Squier
hereon ; Tradition of destruction of the Earth ; Zodiacal signs of
the old and new worlds ; Conformity of Customs in Nations widely
separated ; Examples cited ; Conformities of Customs no basis for
Classification 254
CONTENTS.
PAET II.
PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION.
Introduction ; Importance of Psychology to the study of Mankind; Our
fragmentary knowledge of uncultivated Peoples ; Tendency to un-
dervalue such knowledge ; Too much reliance put upon Cranial
development; Morton's theory; Views of Engel, Lawrence, and
Prichard on Cerebral structure and Cranial form; Parchappe's
measurements of the various types ; Tables of Tiedemann ; Dis-
crepancy between his theory and his facts; Morton on Cranial
capacity ; Nott and Gliddon on Peruvian Skulls ; Morton on North
American Tribes; Huschke's measurements and comparisons;
Size of Skull no criterion of mental power ; Meaning of mental
"capacity"; No grounds for Psychical specific directions among
Mankind ; Gist of the Psychological question ; Method of investi-
gation to be pursued in following sections .... 259
SECTION I.
THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS OF MAN.
The psychical differences between Man and Brute not apparently so
great as the physical ; Importance of this inquiry ; " Perfectibi-
lity/' and its application ; The Brute capable of improvement ;
Teaching of experience, and its limit in the Brute creation ; In-
stinct : its intellectual nature ; Cases of its cultivation ; Its
cultivation in Man; Language a specific human peculiarity;
Language in the lowest Races ; Grammatical structure the distin-
guishing feature between Man and Brute; Homogeneousness of
human nature ; Obscurity of psychical life of Animals ; Characte-
ristics of Man; External psychical manifestations; Personal or-
namentation; Social character of Man; Ethical importance of
property ; Human society ; Sensuality of the Negro ; Religious
notions universal; Religion in the lowest Races; Moral ideas;
Distinct sources of Religious and Moral ideas ; Origin of Religions
explained ; Superstitions ; Distinctions between Man and Brute ;
Use of the senses; Power of speech wanting in Brutes, and
reason thereof; Individuality of Man ; Language a test of Civiliz-
ation ; Sense of the beautiful ; The lower senses of Animals, and
their limited influence on character; Psychological value of the
action of the senses 269
Vlll CONTENTS.
SECTION II.
PRIMITIVE STATE OP MAN.
Value of psychological facts in determining the Unity of Mankind ;
Differences in Mental Development among civilized and savage
nations; The possible high Antiquity of Man as indicated by
Geology ; Man nowhere found in a Primitive State : Slow growth
of Language discussed; same argument applied to Physical
Changes in Man ; Parallelism of Infancy and Savage Life ; Diffi-
culties in the way of a Scientific Investigation of the Primitive
State; the Primitive State cannot now be represented; First
Efforts of the Primitive Man dependent on External Nature;
Natural Indolence of Man ; Indolence characteristic of all unedu-
cated persons ; Vanity and ambition the levers of Civilization ;
Peyroux de la Condreniere, Klenim, and Wuttke on the Psychical
Superiority of the White Races ; Psychical effects of Cultivation ;
Self-control an acquired faculty ; Barbarism not Degeneracy ; At-
tachment to country among uncultivated nations ; Inhabitants of
the Darfur; Congo-Negroes, Kru-Negroes, Fuegians, Hottentots,
etc. ; Motives for action and physical indulgences, social enjoyment
and habit ; External life of Primitive Peoples ; Individuality of
character not so common; Vices of Primitive Peoples; Cannibalism;
Revenge ; Social relations : marriage among the barbarous ; Poly-
gamy ; Polyandry ; Chastity ; Sense of shame ; Examples quoted ;
Marital rights ; Influence of habit and custom ; Social conditions ;
Societies : clanship ; Primitive religions ; Uniformity of religious
conceptions ; Note on " Le Peuple Primitif " of Rougemont ; the
Symbolism of Colour among Primitive Peoples ; their ideas of hu-
man beauty ; Courtesy and manners ; Uncleanliness of Primitive
Peoples ; Man's nature unchangeable ; Uncultivated White races ;
Compared with savage races ; Degenerate Irish ; White settlers of
Buenos Ayres; Creoles of La Plata, of California, of Brazil, of
Goyaz ; Portuguese in Africa ; White people in Banda Islands, of
the Mauritius, etc. ; Objections met ; Cases of relapse into savage
life ; Atrocities committed by Whites, by Hindoos against English,
by American settlers; The slave trade; Moral sense; Drunken-
ness ; Position of woman : among savage peoples, among the old
German, in Greece, in Rome, among Chinese, Hindoos, Moham-
medans ; Habits of so-called savages to be found among civilized
nations ; Differences of mental power in individuals of same races;
Asserted relapse of some savage nations from an ancient civiliza-
tion ; Natural state of man not that of original purity ; Psychical
unity of mankind ; original disposition and external circumstances,
and their influence on the development of a people ; Inconstancy
of mental power ; Civilization the work of individuals, not of the
whole nation ; Mental endowment changes with the history of a
CONTENTS.
people ; Obstruction to civilization among Fuegians, Australians,
etc.; Among the Berbers, Guanches, Abyssinians, Egyptians;
Race ascendancy ; Retrospect ; Theories of KLemm, Wuttke, Eic-
thal, and Nott and Gliddon " On Psychical Distinction" . . 284
SECTION III.
ON THE VARIOUS DEGREES OP CIVILIZATION,* AND THE CHIEF
CONDITIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.
Further arguments necessary to maintain the theory of the specific
unity of mankind ; Influence of surrounding nature on develop-
ment of man ; Effects of climate ; Reluctance to labour in hot
climates ; not confined to natives ; Physical precocity ; Abundance
of natural food in torrid zone : its paucity in the frigid ; Effects
thereof in the development of man's civilization ; The tempe-
rate zones ; Temporary energy exhibited in the tropics ; Endurance
of Negro ; Mental characteristics of tropical peoples ; Americans
of the States ; Obstructions to progress ; Hunting life ; Character-
istics of the hunter ; The fisher ; Agricultural life ; Reasons for the
stationary position of the Negro ; Nomadic life ; Pastoral life in
North and South America ; Cattle breeding in America, in Africa ;
Influence of climate on the temperament ; Influence of geographi-
cal conditions ; Coast line, tidal rivers, mountains, etc. ; Negroes
of the interior and of thd coast ; Advantages of a long coast line
in the progress of civilization ; the Polynesians ; Migrations, and
their effects on progress; Great importance of migrations in
creating competition ; Effects of intermixture ; War, and its civil-
izing power ; Intermixture ; Density of population : its influence
on progress of civilization ; Agassiz ; Morton on the mission of the
" higher" races ; their doctrines opposed ; Humboldt on the unity
of man kind; The theological view of the origin of civilization ; Im-
pediments to the progress of a nation ; Effects of agricultural pur-
suits; their influence on the national character; Political conditions;
Law and government : Barthez and Passy thereon ; Acquisition of
private property, and its retention among primitive peoples ; Ad-
vantages of a despotism ; Brooke on Chinese and Malay peoples ;
Necessity of despotism to the progress of primitive peoples ; Ab-
sence of free governments in tropical climates ; Unequal distribu-
tion of property : its importance to progress ; Comparison of the
various classes of society ; Greater psychical differences among the
cultivated; their importance to progress; Highly-gifted indivi-
duals ; Genius existing in every race ; Productive countries, and
the stimulus they give to civilization ; Importance of trade ; Value
of international commerce ; injurious to the savage people ; Excep-
tions quoted ; Creation of new wants ; Barter ; Religion — condi-
tions of its advantage or disadvantage ; The origin, development,
CONTENTS.
and nature of primitive religions; Eeligions of savage nations
impede their progress ; Intensity of religious convictions in Ame-
rican tribes ; Erection of temples ; Meaning of immortality among
primitive religions ; Hero-worship; Legend of Fohi; Great founders
of religions ; their influence an element of civilization ; Natural
religions inadequate for progress ; their superstitious tendency ;
Religion the work of individuals ; The greater success of religions
of native origin ; JVEohammedan religion : its limited usefulness ;
Influence of art on civilization ; The power of knowledge ; its in-
fluence on religion; Knowledge the chief lever of civilization;
Motives for its development ; Tendency to progress not innate in
man
Civilization dependent more on historical events than on original
mental endowment ; National character — not determined by Race
alone; nor by Religious or Political institutions; Differences in
state of Civilization only those of degree ; The general value of
Civilization; Enjoyment; Labour; Happiness without culture —
Cases cited ; Improbability of a uniform Civilization ; A high state
of culture, morals, and religion incompatible with a tropical life ;
Christianity; Conclusion ...... 380
DEDICATION.
3Tijc jFounfccr of tfjc ^ntijropological Sotietg of ILonUon,
JAMES HUNT, ESQ., PH.D., F.S.A.,
F.B.S.L., F.A.S.L.,
FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS,
HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE UPPER HESSE SOCIETY
FOR NATURAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCE,
UNDER WHOSE ABLE PEESIDENCY THE AFFAIRS OF THE SOCIETY
HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED WITH UNEXAMPLED SUCCESS,
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED,
WITH FEELINGS OF THE HIGHEST REGARD AND ESTEEM,
BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND,
J. FRED. COLLINGWOOD.
EDITOR'S PEEFACE.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON was founded
early in the present year, and in its first general Circular
announced that it contemplated publishing the present
volume as the first of a long series of standard works on
Anthropological Science. After the preliminary arrange-
ments had been made, the Council and Publishing Com-
mittee of the Society conferred on me the honour of
entrusting the superintendence of this work to my hands.
My duty is accomplished, and I have now the pleasure of
introducing DR. WAITZ to the English reader.
It will be advisable, in the first place, to record here
the object of the Society in undertaking to publish trans-
lations of works on General Anthropology. The publica-
tion of a series of works on the Science of Man forms an
integral part of the object for which the Society was es-
tablished : as its programme sets forth, " The publication
of a series of works on Anthropology will tend to pro-
mote the objects of the Society. These works will gene-
rally be translations ; but original works will also be
admissible." The Society regards this measure as an
important means by which it proposes to encourage
" all researches tending to establish a de facto Science
of Man."
The responsibility of recommending Dr. Waitz's An-
XIV PREFACE.
thropologie der Naturvolker for translation rests with the
Council and Publishing Committee of the Society. I
may briefly explain the reasons which tended to its selec-
tion. The question arose, " what continental work best
represents the present state of Anthropological Science T
The unanimous reply of the Council was, that no
modern work has so well epitomised the present state
of our knowledge on the subject as the first volume of
Professor Waltz's Anthropology of Primitive Peoples.
The President of the Society thus spoke in his Intro-
ductory Address : *
" In selecting works to be translated, we shall be guided by a de-
sire to introduce books into this country, which, while being useful
to the student and teacher, will at the same time help to give the
reading public a better appreciation of the object and extent of an-
thropological science. The Council will not simply favour the trans-
lation of works, in the opinions of which they agree, but will aim at
introducing those works which best represent the prevailing opinions
respecting Anthropology on the Continent. The importation of
foreign ideas and modes of treating our science cannot fail to pro-
duce beneficial results."
It is not necessary to insist here on the unsatisfactory
nature of every systematic work on Anthropology that
has yet been published, for the infancy of the Science of
Man is a sufficient explanation. It is, however, advisable
to have the latest authorities collected in a handy volume,
which may serve as a basis for future research. The per-
sonal opinions of an author are only of secondary value
in all systematic works, for the facts are not yet collected
so as to enable anyone to pronounce decisively on some
of the vexed questions of Anthropological Science. To
the student of the Science of Mankind this work will be
invaluable. Nothing can better illustrate the present con-
* Seo "Anthropological Review," i, p. 15.
PREFACE. XV
dition of the science than the contradictory statements
contained therein ; but in the hands of travellers it may
greatly help to rectify much of our present confusion.
There has hitherto been no work in the English lan-
guage on Anthropology which could be recommended as a
text-book for travellers and students generally. Since
the time of Prichard no work has issued from the press of
this country of general utility. There have been many
special treatises, but none at all comparable to the present
volume. In America, the important and comprehensive
works of Nott and Gliddon have helped to supply a want;
but they are so violent in opinion, and there is such a uni-
versal impression that they were written "with an object,"
that their value as text-books is very much lessened.
Dr. Waitz shares with many authors, a suspicion that
these works were written to prove the distinct origin of
superior and inferior races of mankind, and at times,
perhaps, he fails to do the American authors justice.
The present work has rarely been noticed in this
country ; but in France it has been freely criticised. It
has also been well received in Germany, and Dr. Waitz's
firmest theoretical opponents have willingly admitted the
zeal, immense research, and erudition he has shown in
the collation of his materials. Neither is it written
in a narrow party spirit, but the author is candid and im-
partial, and the whole tone of his work is characteristic
of a truly philosophical mind.
With regard to my own duties as editor, I have only
to explain that the original has been followed as closely
as possible consistently with rendering a readable trans-
lation of language so thoroughly idiomatic as are the
writings of Professor Waitz. The great number of
references which the work contains has led me to depart
XVI PREFACE.
from the original in their arrangement : for the greater
comfort of the reader I have placed them at the foot,
whereas in the German they appear in the text.
The present edition has been enriched by numerous
additional notes and references from the pen of the
author, the former, as a rule, having been incorporated in
the text. I have, partly on that account and partly from
the character of the work, refrained, with two or three
exceptions, from encumbering its pages with additions of
my own. But this course will be no precedent for
the editors of future publications of the Society. In
many cases it may be the special duty of the editor to
bring the work of which he has charge up to the science
and knowledge of his day.
The table "of contents has been somewhat amplified,
and a copious index added. This was required, inas-
much as the time when the work will be continued has
not been determined on by the Society, and the pre-
sent volume is complete in itself, forming one of the
most valuable contributions, that has yet appeared, to
general Anthropology.
J. R C.
4, St. Martin's Place, London,
October 14th, 1863.
AUTHOK'S PREFACE.
THE questions raised in this work — which have for a consider-
able time been discussed in America rather as party questions,
but have in England, since the emancipation of the negroes,
become subjects of unprejudiced, serious inquiry, — have been
scarcely touched upon in Germany, until recently a contro-
versy arose, the politico-theological rather than the scientific
tendency of which, created for them a transitory attention,
without, however, leading to an exhaustive treatment of the
subject, or exciting that deep interest which it deserves. Sci-
entific problems, which seem to lie between or to embrace
the several branches into which we are accustomed to divide
human knowledge, are, amongst us, not favoured by fate. If
formerly, philosophy took charge of such orphan problems,
they are at present no longer considered, since philosophy is
gone out of fashion ; and consequently in our universities
there is neither a faculty nor a professor who takes charge of
them.
I have, nevertheless, ventured to treat upon this subject,
though I cannot justify my act by the consciousness of pos-
sessing a competent knowledge in all the sciences bearing
upon its investigation. Led to it by psychological studies, I
had from the beginning no hope of arriving at a perfect solu-
tion of a question which it were desirable should be treated by
the united powers of the zoologist and geologist, the linguist,
historian, and psychologist. But as such a happy combination
may be long in occurring, there remained but the alternative
either to leave the question in abeyance, or to try its solution
with insufficient means.
2 AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
I may be blamed for having chosen the latter course ; the
more so, as with my limited means and the want of useful
authorities, there was no hope of an exhaustive employment of
existing materials. I must, under these circumstances, leave
the book to answer for itself. If it succeed in arousing an
interest for general questions concerning man, in advancing
the knowledge of human nature, of which still, here and there,
curious notions prevail, and thus laying the foundation for
future and better works, its object will be attained.
With regard to the plan of the work, I have only to say,
that the succeeding volumes will contain ample proofs in sup-
port of the general principles advanced in the first volume.
These proofs will be found in the special descriptions of the
life of the peoples inhabiting Africa, America, and the South
Sea. The description of their external life will, as being less
characteristic and important, and also from being better known,
be treated less prominently ; whilst greater attention will be
devoted to the description of the psychical, moral, and intel-
lectual peculiarities of these nations.
An accurate citation of authorities seemed to me indis-
pensable, both for control and for my justification. I have
therefore added the year of publication to the titles of the
works quoted, so that there may be no doubt as to the editions
I have consulted. Where Prichard is mentioned, without any
addition, the third original English edition of his large work
is alluded to.
TH. WAITZ.
Marburg, 30th October, 1858.
INTRODUCTION.
ANTHROPOLOGY, as yet, occupies but an uncertain and indefinite
position among the various sciences relating to man. Accord-
ing to its name, it aspires to be the science of man in general ;
or, in precise terms, the science of the nature of man. To
the zoologist, and to naturalists in general, Man seems to be
neither more nor less than the most organized parasite of the
earth, — the highest mammal ; to the theologian he appears as a
being, by his mortal body belonging to nature ; by his spiritual
endowment rising far above, standing in strict contrast to it,
and occupying, by the Divine breath which has animated him
only, a privileged position between God and nature. Whoever
acknowledges in nature a spiritual power and an inconceivable
wisdom to which he turns with a certain religious worship,
might feel inclined to designate one part of the conflict be-
tween these two views as a mere logomachy, but only one part
of it ; for the question, whether man — at least in one aspect of
his nature — stands beyond and above, and not in nature, would
still be left in doubt, as well as the other question allied to it
with reference to the priority of spirit or of matter.
A third view, which, in a certain sense, endeavoured to re-
concile both the above theories, has only contributed to expose
the conflict between them, — it is the theory according to which
the spirit of humanity is the spirit of God himself, the same
one and absolute spirit which, unconscious of itself, creates
the world, and only reaches the end of its development in man
as the sole agent of divine self-consciousness. A self-evident
sequence of this conception is, that knowledge of God and
B2
4 INTRODUCTION.
knowledge of human nature (Anthropology) are identical, since
God, according to this theory, can have no other attributes
than those which present themselves in the history of the
mental development of man as purely human attributes, acting,
at the same time, as divine powers in the history of civilization.
We thus perceive the striking contrast between these three
conceptions relating to the human being ; for the first places
man altogether in nature ; the second does so in part ; the
third places him entirely above nature.
In this conflict of opinion — one side of which humbles the
self-esteem of man as much as another flatters him — and
considering the intrinsic interest of the subject, one might
expect anthropology to be an industriously cultivated field, and
that especially the faculties of those who assign to man so
peculiarly sublime a position, not merely upon the earth, but
in the whole universe, should be zealously directed to it. Yet
such is not the case. In Germany it is at present a common
case, that in the fields of various sciences, and even within the
same science, opposite theories grow up, without their respec-
tive propounders taking any notice of each other, or even en-
deavouring to consolidate their doctrines. The strength of party
supplies the strength of argument; the trouble of giving
scientific proofs seems unnecessary where such value is attached
to the judgment of those who, by agreeing in some funda-
mental points, represent each other with the instinctive force
of an esprit de corps. With the same kind of tact, all that
has grown upon a foreign stock is silently passed over or
eliminated, whilst that which seems homogeneous is assimi-
lated; and thus scientific life moves in individual separate
small spheres, whilst the more comprehensive and fundamental
questions are no longer discussed.
This applies also to the question of the nature of man ; but
here another circumstance occurs which has essentially con-
tributed to prevent Anthropology from acquiring its rights,
this is, the peculiarly limited conception formerly attached to
it. The old treatises on this subject make it appear merely as
an aggregate of materials which already belong to other
branches of science, and_are in Anthropology only arranged
INTRODUCTION. 5
and popularly expounded. The most important and interesting
- which comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychology
have pointed out with regard to the differential character of
man from the Animals nearest to him, constituted the chief
portion of Anthropology. Some other subjects were added, of
which either nothing is known, or which do not admit of a
scientific exposition, such as investigations into the origin of
mankind, animal magnetism, mysterious solar, lunar, terres-
trial influences, partly a heritage of the old philosophy of na-
ture which has succumbed to the progress of natural science.
Thus Steffens distinguished a geological, physiological, and
psychological anatomy. Latterly, this mode of expounding
Anthropology has been abandoned; for though the present
time is by no means quite adverse to the belief in the
supernatural and improbable reciprocal relations between na-
tural objects, admissions of this kind are very sparingly
made; hence works on Anthropology in this direction have
disappeared. Moreover, they could not, as mere aggregates
of materials belonging to other sciences, claim an indepen-
dent interest; and the superficial phrases in which they in-
dulged on a variety of subjects, such as dancing, declamation,
poetry, and love, for the purpose of embracing, according
to the German custom, every human peculiarity, were not
calculated to supply the requisite interest. One great reason
why Anthropology could not sustain itself in thia form, is
owing to the awkward position in which it was placed by
being considered and treated at one time as an empirical, and
at another time as a philosophical science ; thus assuming an
undefined and fluctuating character : here, it appeared with
abstract deductions, without any experimental basis; there,
as a mere collection of interesting experimental details, arbi-
trarily changing the mode of treatment. In opposition thereto,
it is requisite to declare in this place, once for all, that Anthro-
pology is to be considered as an empirical science, because its
subject, Man, is only known to us empirically, and hence it is
requisite to study man by the same method which is applied
lie investigation of all other natural objects.
In attempting to limit the sphere of Anthropology, and to
6 INTRODUCTION.
assign to this science a proper and well-defined position among
other allied branches of human knowledge,, our attention is
first directed to two departments of study, differing greatly in
matter and method, but which, nevertheless, in spite of their
external dissimilarity, possess this in common, — that they both
make Man the exclusive subject of their consideration, in the
investigation of his nature ; we allude to the Anatomy, Physio-
logy, and Psychology of man, on one part ; and to the History
of Civilization, on the other. Our task, therefore, is to inquire
into what has been accomplished in these fields, as regards the
nature of man, and whether the results obtained form such a
complement that from their combination the desired knowledge
may be obtained.
Anatomy, physiology, and psychology consider man as an
individual being, not indeed (like the practical physician and
pedagogue), as an examplar, but as the representative of a
genus : not with regard to particular accidental peculiarities
by which he is distinguished from other individuals of the
same genus ; but in so far as the common or generic character
of all similar individuals is represented in him, and the laws to
which, externally and internally, all these individuals are sub-
ject, appear manifested in him. But the consideration of
man, in his social relation, is foreign to these sciences ; the
whole sum of mental performances, which proceed only from a
multifarious reciprocal action of individualities, and which in
the course of centuries essentially transform the external and
inner life of society, lies beyond its sphere. And if Psycho-
logy does not altogether desist from casting a glance at this
sphere, it feels obliged to remain at the gate, and to rest satis-
fied with an historical description of certain facts, as the con-
catenation of the acting causes is too great to enable it to
reduce the course of events to psychological laws, thus finding
its progress obstructed just where the proper field of the
History of Civilization commences. The latter directs its atten-
tion exclusively to social life and its development ; and the con-
tribution which, from this point of view, it renders towards the
knowledge of human nature, is doubtless as essential as that
contributed by the natural- sciences. There remains, un-
INTRODUCTION. 7
fortunately, a considerable gap in our knowledge; for these
different branches of science stand yet, side by side, uncon-
nected, whilst they should, by combination, assist each other.
This is first shown by the relation of Physiology to Psycho-
logy. Both these sciences are usually so limited that the first
treats of physical, and the second of psychical life ; hence, the
reciprocal actions of the physical and psychical organization
remain unexplained, for an investigation of this subject fits
neither in the frame of physiology nor of psychology. And
yet, as regards the question of the nature of man, the modes
and peculiar form of this reciprocal action are of the greatest
importance. The obscurity as regards the essence of the soul,
and its connexion with the body, is not a sufficient excuse.
The disputed points might, without any great loss, remain
untouched, if the task proposed were merely to investigate the
amount of the influences of the physical organization, with its
peculiarities and periodical changes, upon psychical life ; and
the kind of reaction the body experiences from psychical
activity; to what extent they take place, and what are the
proximate and remote results.
Still larger than the gap subsisting between physiology and
psychology, is that obtaining between the physical and histo-
rical parts of our knowledge. The History of Civilization is
unquestionably developed by the collective action of four
connected groups of causes. The first is the physical or-
ganization of man. The second presents itself in the form
of the psychical life peculiar to each people, which appears
developed in all individuals belonging to it in a world agitated
by various interests, views, and feelings. Surrounding nature
forms the third. The fourth is the sum total of social relations
and connexions of individuals and circles of society, inter-
nally and externally. The History of Civilization by itself has
only for its object the representation, to the fullest extent, of the
origin and the decline of each civilization, and the ascertain-
ment of their causes. Here it becomes evident how uncon-
nected the physical part of the science of man stands beside the
historical part ; for we are as yet very far from being able, by
a philosophy of history growing out of physiology and psycho-
8 INTEODUCTION.
logy, to indicate why and wherefore the history of one people
has undergone a different process of development from that of
another people ; why one people has no history at all, and in
another the sum of mental performances never exceeds a cer-
tain limit ; and yet in every case it is the aggregate of the
physiological and psychological facts alone which contains the
essential conditions of the historical facts.
In assigning to Anthropology the task of mediation between
the physical and historical portion of our knowledge of man, it
will not merely be delivered from the reproach of being a mere
collation of borrowed materials, and thus unjustly claim the
position of an independent science ; but it will acquire a better
right to its name, inasmuch as the nature of man mainly rests
upon this, — that he steps out of his individual life, and enters
into a social connexion with others, by whom he himself arrives
at a higher and truly human development. It is at the point
of his transition from isolation into social life that Anthropology
must lay hold of man, and investigate the conditions and results
of his further development.
Let us endeavour more closely to examine this task of An-
thropology in its relation to history. In the historical con-
sideration of man, the differences of physical organization and
the influences of surrounding nature, stand in the background ;
the former, because the development of civilization is, with
some few unimportant exceptions, limited chiefly to the Cau-
casian race ; the latter, because the conformation of the human
race, however dependent it may originally in pre-historic times
have been on surrounding nature, has gradually, with progres-
sive civilization, by division of labour, intercourse and trade,
art and science, greatly emancipated itself from this depend-
ence. Whilst History endeavours to represent the various
phases of civilized life to the fullest extent, the interest of
Anthropology rests chiefly upon the general features and the
greatest differences in the various forms of human life ; for as
regards the latter science, these diversities form the most im-
portant and characteristic part, and we should have but a one-
sided conception of man, if our notion of him were only derived
from the history of civilization without taking into consider-
INTRODUCTION. 9
ation the requisite supplement arising from the study of
uncivilized nations, and of man in a primitive state. It is just
this point which anthropology has to keep in view. History
only begins where reliable traditions or writings exist, — where
a beginning of civilization has been secured, — where certain
objects are rationally pursued, — where a people by the force of
historical conditions, either influenced by the genius of indivi-
duals arising among them, or by external causes, arrive at a
certain development. Anthropology, on the other hand, em-
braces all the peoples of the earth, including those who have
no history, in order to acquire the largest possible basis ; and
endeavours partly to sketch an ante -historical picture, and
what may, in contrast to the historical development of peoples,
be termed the natural history of human society, namely, its
necessary natural formation upon a given soil, and under given
stationary external conditions.
As man appears in history neither as a living body, such as
physiology describes him, nor as a spiritual being, as conceived
by psychology, but as a combination of physical and psychical
life, he must be considered as a whole in the reciprocal action
of his physical organization and his psychical life ; for it is
only as a whole that he appears as the elementary basis of
history. There arises in the interest of history another ques-
tion, as to the extent to which the notion of man should be
applied, — whether all individuals and peoples, usually compre-
hended under that term, are of one and the same nature, —
whether they belong to one species, or whether there be not
such specific differences in the physical and psychical en-
dowments of individual stocks as would justify history in
excluding them, assigning them to zoology, and defending
their employment as domestic working animals by higher
organized beings, properly called men. To this question there
is another closely allied, which attracted considerable attention
during the last century, but which seems now almost neglected;
namely, the question as regards the primitive or natural state
of man (Naturzustand) . On glancing at the mode in which it
was formerly treated, its present neglect can scarcely surprise
us ; for in the absence of empirical materials requisite for the
1 0 INTRODUCTION.
solution of this problem,, recourse was had to mere rhetoric of
a political and religious nature, in order to establish certain
favourite notions with regard to the primitive man. Yet it is
this point which is of such great importance to the student of
the history of mankind ; and it is the very last which should
be neglected in laying a foundation for the history of humanity,
bearing always in mind that this investigation must be con-
ducted in an empirical method, and not by a deduction from
abstract notions.
The fourth theme of Anthropology is that of Ethnography
or Ethnology, the object of which is an investigation into the
affinities of various peoples and tribes. Closely allied with
it is the History of Mankind ; and it seems arbitrary whether
this branch of knowledge be considered as a separate part of
Anthropology, or belonging to Ethnology. The important
results to which, in modern times, German philology has led,
caution us against the errors still committed in determining
affinities of nations, and grouping them in families or races, by
viewing them exclusively from an Ethnological stand-point,
and neglecting the historical and other evidence.*
ON THE UNITY OP MANKIND AS A SPECIES, AND ON THE
NATURAL STATE (NATURZUSTAND) OF MAN.
Whosoever would arrive at a just conception of Man must
not consider him exclusively as an individual being, for man is,
as was well observed by Aristotle, a social being ; as an
* That the definition which Latham (" Man and his Migrations," London,
1851) has recently given of Anthropology, is confined within too narrow
limits, requires, after what has been stated, no elucidation. He distinguishes
the natural history of man from the history of civilization : the first considers
man as an animated, the second as a moral, being. The natural history of
man he divides into Anthropology, treating of the differential characteristics
of man in contrast with the brute ; and Ethnology, the doctrine of races or
varieties of mankind. By the first, the peoples are to be classified according
to their physical resemblances, and hence Hottentots, Esquimaux, the popu-
lation of Tierra del Fuego, are to be grouped together, in order to deduce the
effects of external influences ; in Ethnology, on the other hand, the peoples
must be grouped according to their affinities.
INTRODUCTION. 11
individual being lie cannot be fully understood. Anatomy and
physiology have therefore by themselves no claim to deter-
mine the nature of man; nor can they do so in combination
with psychology, which being chiefly founded on self-contem-
plation, carries us but a few steps beyond the individual man.
There is no doubt that the social life into which he enters, con-
tributes much towards teaching the individual what passes
within him, as in a mirror, and exhibits to him sensually what
he would never have been able to comprehend by mere self-
contemplation. Nevertheless, this enlarged field of observation
is still too confined to enable us to deduce from it alone the
notion of Man.
In order to extend our horizon we must direct our atten-
tion to the history of a people, and from it to the whole
history of civilization. Yet even this basis is not sufficiently
comprehensive. We require, in order to have a just conception
of the nature of man, a knowledge of all mankind; but this
knowledge cannot be obtained nor even thought of, if it
is not preceded by defining the limits of mankind, and deter-
mining the question whether all men are of one species, or
if not, within what limits the notion of species is to be con-
fined.
The question whether the individuals which we are accus-
tomed to call human beings, are all of one stock, or whether
there are ^between them permanent specific differences, is im-
portant to all sciences. Whether the knowledge of which man
is capable, is absolute for all thinking beings, or is only rela-
tive to his peculiar stand-point, still all his thinking and know-
ing is specifically human, and his only concern is that it should
be universally valid among human beings ; for every endeavour
in our researches to rise above the sphere in which nature has
confined us, resembles the attempt to fly with imaginary wings,
when it is inconvenient to put the legs in motion. All the
truths which are brought to light necessarily relate to the
nature of man, partly, since all knowledge comes of him, and
partly because all recognized truths lay claim to general assent,
requiring confirmation, not by individual and merely subjective,
but by universal human conceptions and notions. We may,
12 INTRODUCTION.
therefore, as a necessary pre-supposition of all sciences, assume
that there is a universal and unchangeable human nature ; un-
less we place ourselves upon a purely empirical stand-point,
from which ' ' universal" signifies nothing more than a relatively
high degree of probability, because at different times and under
different circumstances it is acknowledged as true by men of
different degrees of civilization.
The question of the unity of species and the nature of man
specially belongs to those branches of knowledge which treat of
the intellect. These sciences usually make the abstract ideas
on mental life, its signification and connection which they find
prevalent among peoples of different degrees of culture, the
basis of their deductions. And whence should these sciences
take their starting points for logical, psychological, ethical,
religious, and 83sthetical considerations, if not from the ideal
sphere of the people from which they have proceeded ? The
inquirer will certainly, in the reception of these ideas, not pro-
ceed without discrimination, but he will compare the history
of the development of one people with that of his own people.
This leads him finally to draw all mankind into the circle of
his investigations, since having once entered the wide field of
the history of the development of human conceptions, he can-
not avoid the conviction, that a too limited notion of man and
his intellectual nature must obstruct many of his scientific
views.
Though it has hitherto not been doubted that the same laws
of thought are applicable to all men (which is only rendered
certain by the assumption of their specific unity), it has been
frequently discussed whether all of them are capable of the
same intellectual and moral development, whether conscience
speaks to all in the same manner, whether the same religion is
adapted to the intellectual and moral conception of all. Who-
soever denies both this and the unity of the human species,
generally acquires his notion of human nature from the study
of the Caucasian race, and places his theoretical views on right,
morality, and religion, upon quite a different basis from the
disciples of the opposite theory. He obtains thus a code of
laws and morals which is only binding for one part of humanity;
INTRODUCTION. 13
for whether among the other species of man which he assumes,
there are conditions analogous to our ideas of justice and
morality, and if so, of what quality, would require a separate
investigation, which would also apply to religious and aesthe-
tical notions, etc. If there be various species of mankind,
there must be a natural aristocracy among them, a dominant
white species as opposed to the lower races who by their
origin are destined to serve the nobility of mankind, and may
be tamed, trained, and used like domestic animals, or may,
according to circumstances, be fattened or used for physiolo-
gical or other experiments without any compunction. To
endeavour to lead them to a higher morality and intellectual
development would be as foolish as to expect that lime trees
would, by cultivation, bear peaches, or the monkey would learn
to speak by teaching. Wherever the lower races prove useless
for the service of the white man, they must be abandoned to
their savage state, it being their fate and natural destination.
All wars of extermination, whenever the lower species are in
the way of the white man, are then not only excusable, but
fully justifiable, since a physical existence only is destroyed,
which, without any capacity for a higher mental development,
may be doomed to extinction in order to afford space to higher
organisms.
To such or similar conclusions, the theory of specific differ-
ences among mankind leads us. Thus there are different and
more comprehensive interests attached to the question of the
unity of the human species, than to the probably unsolvable
problem of descent from one pair or several pairs, or the con-
test about permanence or mutability of races.
On these grounds it would be an erroneous conception,
which, however, is not rare among naturalists, to think that
on physical considerations alone, for or against the permanence
of types, we can decide on unity of species j for whatever side
we take on the question of the mutability of the external man,
we should have to declare against specific differences, if it were
to turn out that they all possess the same qualities which
arrived at different degrees of development, determined only
by external circumstances and mode of life. Though some
14 INTRODUCTION.
external and internal differences may in certain tribes present
themselves as constant — which can scarcely be denied even in
people originally of the same stock — if it cannot be shown that
there is a difference in the form and mode of development of in-
tellectual life, if it cannot be shown that some, under equally
or still more favourable external conditions of development,
are detained in a lower scale than others by original weakness,
the proof of specific difference is not complete. We do not
mean to assert that whatever great and constant external diver-
sities may prevail among mankind, it still would, from a
similar mental endowment, follow that they belong to the same
species : we acknowledge in this respect the equal rights of
physical and psychological proofs, but we cannot, as is often
done, deem the latter of less importance than the former, as a
mere secondary consideration of not much account. The ques-
tion whether we have to decide for or against unity of species,
where there is a considerable constant physical difference com-
bined with equal mental endowments, or physical equality
with psychical dissimilarity, may be left in abeyance, as it has
no practical signification. Nature has seemingly relieved us
from this embarrassment, in combining almost everywhere the
same pyschical endowment with the same physical characters,
without, however (in individuals as little as in whole nations),
adopting a strict parallelism of external and internal develop-
ment as a fixed law. If such a parallelism, as some modern
authors have indicated,* cannot be shown to obtain generally in
the animal kingdom, — since the development of the organization
does not always correspond to that of the intellect, and though
even in the human race it is still doubtful whether the degrees
of intellectual development correspond to those of the body,
and specially of the brain, — there has, as yet, neither in animals
nor in man been found an instance of a combination of specific
physical equality, with a specifically different psychical endow-
ment.
Though we may be justified in classing animals, of whose
psychical life we know so little, according to their external
* Compare Volkmann, Art. "Gehirn," in "Wagner's Handworterb. der
Physiol."
INTRODUCTION. 15
organization, we cannot, in man, make our ignorance of his
inner life the ground for considering him merely in his physical
aspect. It is a distorted view which Cuvier takes* in order to
keep psychological arguments at a distance in the classification
of animals, when he says that all vital manifestations which
occur only periodically are useless in classification. The psy-
chical life of every species of animals is no doubt as constant as
physical life, though certainly less accessible to investigation.
This should, however, not make us forget that all classifications
of animals which rest exclusively on their organic peculiarities
are only provisional, and can have no absolute and universal
value, since, owing to our necessarily imperfect knowledge,
they cannot be subjected to exhaustive investigation. But with
regard to man, the mere physical organization and its muta-
tability is insufficent to enable us to decide the question of
unity of species, since the character of humanity consists, first
and foremost, in the specific development of psychical life, and
only secondarily in the physical organism as the embodiment
of this spiritual essence. Hence it is inappropriate to treat
man merely as an object of natural history, and to divide man-
kind into races or species, according to external forms, without
taking into consideration that the most striking distinctions
between individuals and peoples are to be found in mental
qualifications. When, for instance, Bory de St. Vincent f
considers it as undoubted that the Negro, in spite of his com-
paratively smaller brain, possesses the same mental capacity as
the Austrian, whom he foolishly enough calls the Boeotian of
Europe, and the same capacity as four-fifths of Frenchmen;
and when he ascribes to all his species of mankind the same
degree of perfectibility, and attributes to nine Europeans out
of ten no higher mental endowments than to the Hottentots, it
may be considered as a complete recantation of his theory with
regard to specific differences existing among mankind. Van
Amzingej; appears, up to this period, to have been' the first
author who considered a classification of mankind, founded on
* Thierreich ubersetz (Animal "Kingdom, translated), by Voigt, 1, p. 5.
t "L'Homme," 2nd edit., 1857, ii, p. 62,
j « Investigation of the Theories of the Natural History of Man," New
York, 1848.
16 INTEODUCTION.
mere physical character and irrespective of psychical endow-
ment, as unscientific.
For the above reasons our investigation respecting the unity
of mankind is divided into two parts ; the first has to examine
whether all human beings are to be considered of the same
species on physical grounds ; the second, whether or not they
are so on psychological grounds.
PAET I.
PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
THE notion of species is founded upon the fact that the typical
similarity of natural objects is preserved throughout all their
changes. Between the inorganic and organic kingdoms of
nature, there obtains in this respect only this difference : — that
the sphere of action is larger or more manifest in the organic
world, the natural laws leaving a wide margin for the produc-
tion of individual varieties, and further that the preservation of
types can only be effected by the propagation of individuals
belonging to them. Apart from this, the signification of the
term species applies equally to organic and inorganic objects ;
it designates the constancy of the assemblage of characters oc-
curring, regularly combined, in nature.
Without entering into any details with regard to the abuse
made of this term in philosophy, it may be sufficient to observe,
that species are neither mere subjective abstractions formed
only to classify the innumerable natural objects, nor are they
exemplars, which, as active principles, form the foundation of
all natural objects. They are, in fact, nothing else than empi-
rical laws of natural production ; for the constant coincidence
of similar characters must have as its fundamental cause a cor-
responding constant assemblage of natural conditions.
So long, therefore, as by the term species nothing more is desig-
nated than the typical similarity of natural phenomena, the regu-
larly recurring complex of characters, and the regular recurrence
18 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
of the same complex of causes by which that typical similarity is
maintained, the term expresses, to the exclusion of every hypo-
thesis, merely the fact as observed, and presents no difficulty
whatever. But if it be requisite, since differential characters be-
tween individuals are nowhere wanting in nature, that in the
notion of species there should be included a criterion accord-
ing to which we might decide as to the range of variation for
each type — that is to say, to determine the limits of each, or what
magnitude or qualities of the differences between individuals
might justify us in including them in the same type or not —
then the definition of the term species becomes difficult, or rather
not the definition itself, but the laying down of a rule as to the
extent of the variation for each type to which the term is to be
applied. The only positive and valid proof that a certain num-
ber of individuals belong to the same species, proceeds from the
demonstration that they have descended from the same original
stock ; and in all doubtful cases, the question of unity of species
can only be decided by analogy with those cases in which unity
of stock has been amply demonstrated. But as the extent of
this range of variation, and consequently unity or diversity of
descent can, in comparatively few cases, be decided by direct
evidence, there remains a wide room for doubt as regards
unity or difference of species. This is the more the case, as on
the one hand within the very same stock later generations ex-
hibit considerable deviations from the preceding, and, on the
other hand, these deviations, arising in the course of time, may
be so constantly transmitted that it cannot with any certainty
be maintained, that they do not possess the same absolute con-
stancy as that attributed to specific characters. These actual
phenomena are designated by the term varieties, which are
partly individual, or merely transitory, or more or less perma-
nent, in which case the term race is used. The difficulty
consists in determining the difference between species and per-
manent variety, or race.
We purpose reviewing the principal attempts made in this
direction, in order to pave the way for our investigation of the
specific unity of mankind, and learn what weight is to be at-
tached to arguments derived from natural history.
DEFINITION OF SPECIES. 19
The definition of species, as given by Cuvier,1 seems to have
been generally accepted in natural history. " To the same
species belong all such individuals which have descended from
each other or from common parents, and from those who re-
semble them as much as they resemble each other."
Prichard's definition that the term species includes separate
origin and constant transmission of organic peculiarities, is
identical with that of Cuvier. Though this definition is theo-
retically unquestionable, it contributes little or nothing to the
solution of the practical question with regard to the characters
by which individuals of the same species may be distinguished
from others belonging to a different species ; for the difficulty
to be solved is, to establish a decisive character for the great
majority of cases in which we know nothing of descent, and in
which the resemblance of the individuals is less than that gene-
rally subsisting between parents and children, and individuals
of the same stock. For such a character, definitions are re-
quired which can be confirmed or refuted by experience ; but
this, as regards common descent, excepting individual in-
stances, is not the case, for in respect to remote generations
more or less probable suppositions are only possible. To this
defect may be added another of still greater importance.
Though we may readily grant that unity of species results
from unity of descent, and though in the study of zoology and
descriptive natural science unity of descent is chiefly con-
sidered, as it treats of the propagation and history of organ-
ized beings, still it is a confusion of terms to identify the notions
of unity of species and unity of descent, which according to the
above definition is frequently done even by Prichard, who con-
siders separate descent and original differences of character as
convertible terms. In spite of this frequent confusion of
terms, he observes, very justly, that the term species should
only be applied to an aggregate of individuals, where nothing
intervenes to consider them as the descendants from the same
stock : that is to say, when we are not obliged to reduce them
1 " La reunion des individus descendus Tun de 1'autre ou de parents com-
muns, et de ceux qui leur ressemblent autant qu'ila se ressemblent entre eux."
— K£gne Animal, 2nd edit., i, p. 16.
c2
20 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
to different stocks, although for these, we must add, it remains
as yet undecided whether they have descended from one or
several, and in the latter case again, whether from perfectly
similar, or not perfectly similar pairs. Should we be inclined to
assume or consider as possible, that all, or but a few species of
animals, have descended from several protoplasts, we are already
cautioned not to confound the notions of unity of species and
unity of descent. If, then, the notion of species and the whole
sphere of its applications is not, at the outset, to be placed on a
fluctuating basis, it will be requisite to keep the reference to
unity of descent separate from it, which is necessary in order
that every thing merely hypothetical should be excluded there-
from. The notion of unity of species of a number of individuals
rests, as we have seen, in the organic and inorganic world,
solely upon the similarity of their external and internal nature,
upon the regular coincidence of the same essential characters,
by which, however, nothing, either in animals or plants, is
yet decided as to community of origin. This community of
origin is merely a probable deduction from, the actual similarity
of their nature, because propagation and transmission seem to
be the only way of its preservation. It is on this ground alone,
that organic beings, belonging to the same species, should not
exhibit greater differences than such as can be traced in
individuals of the same stock ; and yet there remains, in spite
of this, a possibility that individuals whose differences do not
exceed the limits of variation of the same stock, are not de-
scended from the same parents, nor from perfectly similar
parents ; notwithstanding which there would be a sufficient
justification for including them in the same species.
We shall, therefore, adopt the first proposition that unity of
species results from proved unity of origin ; but not the second,
which has often by zoologists been considered as inseparable
from it, namely, that separate descent, wherever it can be
traced, is a sufficient proof of difference of species. In cases of
the latter kind the process in modern times has usually been
to declare similar types, which hitherto had passed as mere
varieties, to be different species, if these types belonged either
to certain definite regions, or if apparently unsurmountable
SPECIES. UNITY. 21
obstructions prevented their migration from one region to
another.
Thus, Agassiz and others cite the Asiatic and African lion ;*
Vogt, the chamois of the Pyrenees and of the Alps ; the mouflon
in Sardinia and Asia Minor, which though they differ very
little from each other, cannot be considered as belonging to the
same stock, and are consequently not of the same species.
Giebel,2 especially, has quoted a large number of examples
which seem to prove that the assumption of single prototypes
for individual species of animals, is in many cases untenable,
partly because an existence in masses is in many cases requi-
site for the nutriment of others, partly because the migratory
capacity of many is too limited to admit of their gradual pro-
pagation over the whole regions which they at present occupy ;
such is the case as regards the mole, the beaver, many snails,
and most fresh- water animals. Gregarious animals can scarcely
be considered as having descended from a single pair. Hence,
several centres of creation have been assumed, at least for some
genera. Here it is especially necessary to distinguish unity of
descent from unity of species. This may, perhaps, be done by
assuming, whenever the facts require it, that a species consists
of ' ' homogenous species/' ' ' sub-parallel species," or " stocks,"
namely, where in individuals of an ascertained or strongly pre-
sumptive different stock, the usual limits of variation within
the same stock are not passed, and the physical and mental
development is essentially the same ; so that according to Pri-
chard's expression, " there is nothing in the way to consider
them as the descendants of the same stock ." And when he
further agrees with De Candolle, that it does not unfrequently
occur that two individuals who really belong to the same spe-
cies, whose common descent is incontestable, yet differ more in
their external aspect than others of a different species, we are
reminded of the uncertainty of all conclusions as regards unity
of stock if inferred alone from similarity of type.
1 Swainson (" Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals/'
p. 284, 1835) is inclined to assume five distinct species of lions, and quotes
other similar instances.
8 « Tagesfragen aus d. Naturgesch.," p. 69, 1857.
PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
In itself, it is of little importance what signification is given to
the term " species"; but so much depends upon it, that unity of
descent, which requires a separate proof, should not be in-
cluded in the notion of typical equality of beings. The con-
ception of species does not merely belong to zoology and botany,
but to all sciences ; the former must, therefore, if necessary,
give it a more precise definition ; but, at the same time, should
keep it free from theoretical assumptions, as it is merely in-
tended to designate the actual facts. If in modern times there
prevail an inclination to designate every variety as an original
species, ' ' which despite of all external influences remains per-
manent," and to consider this character of permanency of type,
even under unfavourable circumstances, as the sole criterion of
species,1 a definition is then given, which, in itself, is not
objectionable ; but there is then danger to overlook or alto-
gether deny the actually existing variability of type, so that the
conception of species (as is the case in Morton and his disci-
ples, of the American school), is in fact a mere definition pre-
pared in order to arrive at the intended result of a plurality of
the human species.
Like separate descent, so also has fecundity been considered
as a criterion of difference of species, founded chiefly upon the
following facts : —
In a state of perfect liberty, and under normal conditions,
animals of the same type not only pair with each other, but
usually select, by preference, such individuals of the same type
as resemble them most, especially as regards colour. Cross-
ing of different types and the production of hybrids, occur in
the free state only under abnormal circumstances, and if inten-
tionally occasioned by man, they succeed only by the agency
of artificial means. The mare must be blindfolded if she is to
be covered by the male ass ; the ass must be painted over like
a zebra to couple it with that animal, and even such means
succeed only when the individuals belong to nearly allied
species. The produced hybrids are in most cases sterile, or if
1 So Agassiz, in Nott and Gliddon, who defines species as the sum of indi-
viduals which, since it has been known to man, has always retained the same
peculiarities. — Desnioulins, " Hist. Nat. des Races Huniaines," p. 194, 1826.
HYBRIDITY. 23
not, as frequently is the case with sheep and goats, the cross
breed is not permanent, like the original types. This equally
applies to plants, though in them the return to the original
type may only occur after a series of generations, namely by
intermixture of the hybrids with individuals of the original
type. Induced by these phenomena, Buff on1 includes in the
same species, all individuals which in the free state produce
young possessing between themselves an unlimited prolificacy.
This criterion of species, although approved of by F. Miiller
and others, has recently been much canvassed. It was already
contested by Rudolphi,2 who asserted that not only were there
many hybrids produced in the natural state, but that prolifi-
cacy was the rule as regards the hybrids of mammals. Though
this assertion is manifestly far beyond the truth, still there
stands the remarkable fact that crossings between remote
species, and even between different genera, are frequently pro-
lific, (ass or horse with horned cattle, stag and cow, bear or
buck with a bitch, dog and cat, roe and sheep, swan and
goose), whilst the hybrids of more proximate species are not
so : jackal and dog, ox and buffalo, hare and rabbit,3 (as asserted
by some), resist all attempts at crossing them. We are certainly
yet a long way off from concluding, from the above individual
phenomena, the unlimited prolificacy of cross-breeds; they
serve only to draw our attention to the fact that we are, as
yet, entirely ignorant of the law upon which the success or
failure of cross-breeding depends ; but this has not deterred
some writers from the attempt to clear this gap. Thus, Bory
assigns to the hybrids of the sheep and wild ass (onager), of
wolf and dog, siskin and linnet, unlimited prolificacy, though
he cannot assert the same as regards the mule.
Desmoulins declares the herds of cattle of the United States,
beyond the Alleghanies, to be the progeny of the American
bison and European cattle, the former having a differently
formed skull and two ribs more than the latter ; and he con-
1 (Euvres in 4to, iv, p. 386 : Succession const ante d'individus semblables et
qui se reproduisent.
2 Beitrage zur Anthropol., 1812.
3 The Leporine, a hybrid of hare and rabbit, may now be seen in the gar-
dens of the Zoological Society. — ED.
24 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
siders that the hybrids form a new permanent species.1 This
is said also to apply to the domestic dog in relation to the wolf,
fox, jackal ; and also to the mulattoes, who always preserve the
same type, and should therefore be considered as a new spe-
cies ; whilst mongrels of tribes of the same stock (for instance,
of different Indo-Germanic peoples), preserve no fixed type,
but exhibit variable forms. In opposition to this, it is neces-
sary to state, that no reliable instance can be adduced of the
permanency of a hybrid race by in-breeding, least of all in
mammals; that the production of new independent types in
this manner is as yet extremely doubtful ; and that the adduced
examples, so far as they have been confirmed, can only be con-
sidered as individually extraordinary facts, which have but
little value in the attempt to lay the foundation of a new theory
of the laws of nature in the preservation of types, and so to
place the conception of species upon a different basis.
All the examples which are usually adduced to prove un-
limited fecundity of hybrids, admit of a twofold interpretation.
If (according to Vogt) wolf, dog, and fox are prolific among
themselves, and if propagation is so much easier the nearer
we approach the highest animals, it may — apart from the pro-
blematical second part of this proposition and of the doubtful
cases of dog and fox, the successful pairing of wolf and dog,
the hybrids of which propagated, in one instance, during four
generations — (A. Wagner) — be maintained that dog and wolf
do not belong to different, but to the same species. R.
Wagner accordingly lays down the proposition,2 "that where
an intermixture of hybrids is observed (which can only with
certainty be asserted of wolf and dog, camels, goat, and sheep,)
the specific differences of the parent animals is, at least with
regard to mammals, doubtful." From his collection of hybrid
cases in the animal kingdom, it appears that in point of fact
there is no certain example of fecundity (not to speak of un-
limited fecundity) of hybrids between themselves, and only
individual instances of prolific intermixture with one of the
1 Morton (" Hybridity in Animals and Plants/' p. 6, New Haven, 1847) con-
siders this as doubtful.
» Prichard, Uebers, i, 449.
HYBEIDITY. — FECUNDITY. 25
parent stock. What, indeed, would be the signification of
specific differences in nature, and how objectless would be
their permanence, if their obliteration were rendered possible
by continued production of hybrids !
Morton, the predecessor of Vogt, in this respect has endea-
voured to show that hybrids of different species are the more
prolific between themselves, the greater their capacity to be-
come domesticated. His examples refer chiefly to the hprse,
the ass, the zebra, the wolf, dog, jackal, fox, the swine, fowls ;
and it cannot be denied that, according to his examples, the
phenomena of hybridity possess a greater extension than was
formerly admitted. He concludes therefrom that, as regards
man — pre-eminently a domestic animal, — the inference from
unlimited fecundity to unity of species is not applicable ; and
his successors, Nott and Gliddon, distinguished accordingly,
among the various species of animals, those which by intermix-
ture produce none, or unprolific, or prolific hybrids as remote,
allied, and proximate species. The so-called races of mankind
are said to stand in the latter relation, as the permanence of
their organic peculiarities, as well as those of the races of dogs,
is ascertainable from the ancient Egyptian monuments. As
this last assertion leads us to the notoriously erroneous pro-
position, that there is, properly speaking, no alteration of type,
the question of hybridity itself is placed upon very slippery
ground, since the majority of domestic animals have ever been
subjects of contention as regards unity or difference of species,
and are consequently least adapted to lead to a decisive solu-
tion.
There certainly prevails in modern times an inclination to
assume a plurality of species, where formerly races only were
distinguished; and in proportion as this has been done,
fecundity alone as a decisive mark of unity of species has lost
its weight. We must not omit to state that this is especially the
case if unity of species is considered as identified with unity
of descent, in which case fecundity affords no absolute proof
for common origin, if stocks originally distinct prove themselves
productive between each other. The question would, however,
still remain, whether by distinguishing stock from species
26 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
there may not have been originally distinct parallel stocks
the same species, which in their essential character, as well as
in respect of the range of variation through which they pass,
may exhibit an unlimited fecundity between each other.
However decidedly we may oppose a theory of the origination
of new species by the production of hybrids, this much must
be admitted, that from unlimited prolificacy alone the unity of
species can hardly be inferred. On the other hand we can
scarcely agree with Holland,1 when he asserts that the theory
that individuals, however much they may differ, belong to one
species if they prove to be of unlimited prolificacy, moves in a
circle, and assumes what remains to be proved : for it is an
empirical fact that a really unlimited prolificacy nowhere oc-
curs where important differences of organization prevail ; and
an essential feature of the character of fecundity as a mark of
species lies in this, that it does not involve the unsolvable doubt
of common or separate descent, but ignores it.
Notwithstanding the variety of objections which may be
raised against unlimited fecundity as a decisive character of
species, it cannot, as has recently been said,2 be considered as
of merely secondary importance. It retains its importance,
though it is not ascertained how many generations have
proved prolific in order to arrive at the conclusion that they
belong to the same species ; and further, sterility not only
occurs between individuals of the same stock, but the extinc-
tion of some races is as clearly demonstrated as the extinction
of whole species. If recent experience has shown in the
breeding of domestic animals that different races are some-
1 " De FHomine et des Races Humaines/' p. 213, 1853.
2 Giebel (loc. cit.) has misrepresented this point, by stating, what no one
has asserted, that fecundity has been considered as the only criterion of spe-
cies ; hence he requires from the adherents to this doctrine that they should
only count such individuals to be of one species whose unlimited fecundity is
experimentally proved. It is a further misrepresentation, when he says, that
difference of species cannot be inferred from sterility, for however correct
this may be, it does not follow that fecundity should be neglected as a cri-
terion ; for it is only contended that, where minor differences of organization
exist, the specific nature of which is doubtful, sterility or prolificness may
afford important assistance in deciding the question; though it may be
granted that the decision obtained in this way is not absolute and final, it is
certainly not valueless and unimportant, unless the capacity of reproduction
is not considered as an essential character of the animal world.
Of
a a
PROLIFICACY.— -REVERSION. 27
times not indefinitely prolific, or produce malformed, defec-
tively organized young — parallels of which are found in the
intermixture of different human races — the objection is not of
any weight against unlimited prolificacy as a specific character;
for whenever this is held out as a criterion it is not asserted
that it occurs without exception among all individuals and
races of the same species, but expresses only the fact of a
merely limited prolificacy between individuals of specifically
different types. It may, however, be considered as an un-
avoidable defect in this criterion, that it cannot decide whether
there be within the same species varieties which, between
themselves, possess only a limited prolificacy, or none at all.
On casting a retrospective glance at our investigations we
arrive at the important proposition, that inferences from com-
mon descent to unity of species have an absolute certainty,
those from unlimited fecundity have a high degree of proba-
bility, whilst the conclusions as to differences of species from
separate descent or limited prolificacy are less safe.
A further mark of distinction between race and species is
also afforded by the so-called reversion; that is to say, by the
return of individuals prolific between themselves to the original
type of the parent stock, which thus proves itself permanent.
As the hybrids perish, the mere varieties revert, under certain
circumstances, to their original types, and thus show that they
have no specific existence. In cases of mongrels of two doubt-
ful types, though proving indefinitely prolific (e. g. Mulattoes
or Mestizoes), should they, by continued intermixture with
each other, return to one of the parent stocks (Negro, white,
or American), one would feel inclined to assume a difference of
species of the latter, because the transformation into a different
type failed ; we should then have obtained a better definition
of one of the criteria, fecundity ; but such a case seems not yet
to have occurred. There would still remain some doubt as to
the correctness of the conclusion, whether new characters
arising in the course of time may not under circumstances
become so fixed as to acquire a permanence equal to specific
characters, though it is a probable, but by no means proved,
supposition that all characters arising in the course of time
28 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
possess but a small degree of constancy.1 Where mongrels
intermix not among themselves but with one of the parent
type (e. g. Mulattoes with Negroes), and revert to it, it is no proof
for the specific difference of the parent stocks, since it is a well
known fact that in the intermixture of races the more numer-
ous race absorbs the less numerous.
This reversion represents only a special application of the
general rule, according to which Blumenbach has endeavoured
to determine the distinction between species and race, namely,
that all differences between individuals or groups of individuals
which may be considered as having been produced by external
influence, or have arisen in the course of time, do not consti-
tute specific differences.
Though the general validity of this rule may be readily
admitted, still its application is often very difficult and uncer-
tain. When, as mentioned by Wagner (in Prichard), the same
species of animal is met with in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Timor,
Celebes, and even in the Philippines, or in the Asiatic conti-
nent, exhibiting in all these countries constant variations, it
might be difficult to decide whether in such cases we should
assume different species or races. The fact is, that the axiom
that all individuals which only differ in variable pecularities,
belong to the same species, is only a different version of the
notion of species as an assemblage of constant characters, and
presents nothing new in relation to the distinction between
species and race. This conception of species possesses, never-
theless, the advantage of fixing our attention on the point
from the investigation of which, the definition of species, in
doubtful cases, may be expected, namely, the range of variation
for every species.
It may also be observed with regard to this last mark of
distinction, that the inferences drawn therefrom to unity of
species have greater value than when applied to difference of
species. The former must be considered proved as soon as
it is demonstrated that the greatest variations in the respective
individuals are still within the limits of those differences which
1 I. Geoffrey St. Hilaire thinks that the characters of a race are the more
constantly transmitted the older the race is.
SPECIES AND RACE. 29
arise and disappear in the course of time, or which may be
found in several generations of the same stock. The argu-
ment, on the other hand, for difference of species in any case,
has but little to support it, if the variation of the respective
types, leading to an alteration of type, cannot be demonstrated.
The proof would only be perfect if we succeeded in positively
demonstrating the immutability of the pure types after they
have for a sufficiently long time been subjected to the most
various external influences, and have given rise to a relatively
large number of mongrels of these types and their varieties, to
establish the fact that the hybrids ultimately revert to their
respective original types. If they prove prolific between them-
selves without the mongrels exhibiting a tendency to reversion,
the fixity and, consequently, the specific difference of the latter
can only be considered as doubtful. In the same manner the
continuance of the pure types under unchanged external cir-
cumstances, even if it has lasted for several thousand years, as
the Negro type in north-eastern Africa, is by itself alone in-
sufficient to establish them as specifically different.
The last argued criterion of species and race has been used
by Blumenbach (and by Prichard after him) to found upon it a
long series of conclusions drawn from analogy. They chiefly
directed their attention to the question, whether the greatest
differences exhibited by human beings are only so great and no
greater than those presented by known races of animals, so
that we might be justified in considering them as differences of
race, or whether they are analogous to specific differences
among animals. Blumenbach, who may still be considered as
a chief authority, and a cautious observer, shows plainly l that
if the same laws determine the variability of types in animals
and man, the latter necessarily constitutes but one species,
since animals of the same species exhibit, as regards colour,
hair, size, cranial form, no greater differences, produced by
climate, food, etc., than are presented by human beings.
Essentially, Blumenbach has never been refuted, though he is
now ignored by those who find his arguments inconvenient ; for
1 " De generis humani varietate nativa/' 3rd ed., p, 75, 1795.
30 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
it cannot, for instance, be refuted that the domesticated swine,
in spite of the different cranial form, belongs to the same
species as the wild boar, since in many parts of America the
imported swine have again returned to the type of the wild
boar. The considerably larger alimentary canal of the domestic
cat, compared with that of the wild cat, has, by some, been con-
sidered as a probable consequence of their food being more of
a vegetable kind, whilst others claim it as a proof of difference
of species. De Salles1 expresses the argument of Blumen-
bach in the following terms : — ' ' La domestication de Phomme,
oscillant perpetuellement entre les extremes de la civilisation
et Petat sauvage, doit avoir modifie Phomme encore plus pro-
fondement que les autres animaux domestiques." Man is
certainly, zoologically considered, pre-eminently a domestic
animal, and we cannot escape the conclusion that if the laws
of variation in animals also apply to him, the changes ex-
hibited by domestic animals in the torrid and frigid zones
must, by analogy, extend to man.
On account of this analogy Nott and Gliddon (and recently
Giebel), following Morton, have endeavoured to prove that the
various canine races must be considered as specifically distinct :
and if this be conceded (as proved by the ancient Egyptian
monuments, in which the permanence of character is exhibited,)
the prolificacy of these between themselves weakens the dogma
of the unity of the human species ; for, ' ' zoologically speaking,
mankind and canidce occupy precisely the same position."
Although this proof can hardly be deemed sufficient to shake
the conclusions from the great number of examples adduced
by Blumenbach, it has this opposed to it : — that others include
all the canidce in the same species because there exists
between them no fixed line of demarcation, the transitions of
their characters being manifold and perceptible, and their pro-
lificacy increasing by cross-breeding.2 Nott, moreover, weakens
his own argument from analogy, by observing :3 te Again and
again, in previous publications, I have alluded to the fallibility
1 " Hist. Generate des Eaces Humaines," p. 265, 1849.
2 Godron, " De FEspece et des Eaces/' p. 64, Nancy, 1848.
3 Loc. cit., p. 402.
SPECIES AND RACE. 31
of arguments drawn from analogy alone, while insisting that
no true analogies can be said to exist. Every animal f from
null/ ti> tin- ii'orm, is governed by special physiological laws. . . .
The rules current among breeders of domestic animals have
been considered as applicable to man, but the notion itself is
very unphilosophical and could never have originated with any
intelligent naturalist of thorough experience ."
This analogy has, nevertheless, been generally recognized as
a legitimate mode of argumentation. Even in the same work
from which we have quoted, Agassiz declares that it must be
considered as proved that the laws which govern the variation
of type in animals are "in the same limits and the same
degree" applicable to mankind. If we were to ask for the
proofs of this, and why the inferences of Blumenbach are
rejected, it may be long before we receive an intelligible
answer.
However clearly it may be demonstrated that the differences
between the various types of mankind are not greater than
those produced in animals by the influences of climate, food,
etc., this circumstance in favour of the unity of mankind should
not be over estimated, because the justification for such a parallel
is doubtful. Not only is the comparison of differences found in
specifically different individuals uncertain, but it is inadmissible,
because it includes the assumption that the range of variation
for all, or not very remote species, is nearly the same. De
Candolle, as quoted above, has shown that sometimes indivi-
dual varieties within the same species exhibit more considerable
diversities than different species themselves ; to which may be
added the remarks of Swainson* on the diversities which esta-
blish specific differences, that there are constant specific differ-
ences which seem much less marked than many diversities of
race. If the latter were really confined to narrower limits than
specific differences, we might possess a pretty certain and con-
venient distinctive mark between race and species ; but such is
not the case : e.g., the variability of the ape, so closely approx-
imating man, is far from being so extensive as that possessed
1 Loc. cit., pp. 275, 35.
32 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
by domestic animals and man. The range of variation of evei
species seems to be peculiar to each, and governed by specii
laws. Hence, it proves nothing when Agassiz says, the chim-
panzee and the gorilla differ no more from each other than
Mandingo and the Gruinea Negro, and both do not differ more
from the orang than the Malay or European from the Negro :
if the former are to be considered as belonging to different
species, the latter should be considered equally so. That par-
ticular laws of formation govern individual species of animals
is indicated by their different capacity for the production of
hybrids. This would be certain if Desmoulins were right in
his assertion that the diversities of various species, and their
sphere of variation, diminishes the more they approach man.
The fallaciousness of drawing conclusions from the analogy of
one species to another has recently been pointed out by
Lucas,1 who proves, by many examples, how extremely differ-
ent, quantitatively and qualitatively, is the power of resistance
in different races to external influences in regard to the trans-
formation of races. Some other instructive examples are
furnished by Giebel.2 They show that similar deviations in
different genera of animals are of very variable importance, e ' as
in one family or genus one or another organ has obtained a
particular significance for the whole organism," so that fre-
quently characters or groups of characters which are essential
to one constitute in the other no fixed specific characters, but
vary greatly.
In condensing the results of our investigation regarding the
definition of species, we have found that it designates those
types permanent which are transmitted by propagation. We
were induced to separate the questions of unity of species and
unity of descent on the ground that the same assemblage of
constant characters may belong originally to distinct stocks ;
and we could not, therefore, consider unity of descent as neces-
sary to our definition of species. If, thus, separate descent
was no valid proof for difference of species, unlimited prolifi-
1 "Traite philosophique et physiol. de 1'heredite naturelle," ii, p. 116, 1857 ;
and Nusard, ibid., ii, p. 452.
2 Loc. cit., p.
SPECIES AND RACE. 33
cacy proved an important, but not a decisive mark of distinc-
tion between species and race, and could only be considered as
a probable sequence.
Finally, reversion and its allied phenomena appeared insuffi-
cient to furnish an undoubted criterion of species and race.
And as it became apparent that such a criterion could not be
established, we hoped that the defect would be supplied by the
conclusions of analogy furnished by the comparison of various
species. This expectation was also doomed to disappointment,
as the limits of variation in different types seem to be of a greatly
diversified extent. The result, therefore, of our investigation
(which is scarcely surprising in an entirely empirical subject),
is this : that the general question as regards a decided mark of
distinction between race and species can only be answered by
the particular study of the extent of variation in individual
types ; that is to say, that in every question of unity or differ-
ence of species we are referred entirely to the study of the
individual phenomena themselves.
The investigation of the unity of mankind as a species can
only be finally completed, when the results of long continued in-
fluences of all possible external conditions in which man is able
to live, are as fully and clearly ascertained, as the results of
all possible crossings of various human types after a long series
of generations. But as our experience in this respect is very
far from being perfect, we are compelled to stop at some more
or less probable propositions, which must proceed from the
solution of the question, whether a gradual alteration of types
belonging to the same stock can be proved, and whether it be
sufficiently extensive in order to show that the greatest differ-
ences prevailing among mankind are merely variations. Next to
that the question will be, whether the cross-breeds of the various
types" by limited prolificacy, or by constant reversion to the
parent type, resemble more the hybrids or mongrels of different
races.
34 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. PART I.]
SECTION I.
ON THE MODE AND MAGNITUDE OF THE PHYSICAL
CHANGES TO WHICH MAN IS SUBJECT.
ALL permanent changes, apart from morbid phenomena, pro-
duced on man in the course of time, may, with regard to their
origin, be divided into four classes. I. Climate; n. Aliment
and mode of life ; in. Psychical influences, growth and decline
of mental culture ; iv. Deviation from the original type, result-
ing from unknown causes and transmitted more or less per-
manently.
In many cases it cannot with any certainty be determined to
which of these four classes certain phenomena belong, and
whether they may not be the results of a combination of causes.
It is still less possible exactly to ascertain in what manner such
causes have produced these changes; which is specially the case
with regard to climate.
What is termed the influence of climate, consists of the direct
and indirect influences of the temperature of the air, its degree
of moisture, pressure, and chemical composition (malaria) ; the
frequency and variations of winds ; rains, their periodicity, etc.
Though it is undoubted that a long continuance of such in-
fluences produces certain changes in the human organism, but
little is known in what mode they are effected. Nothing re-
mains then, but to state, as an ultimate fact, the coincidence of
climatic influences with certain differences in the corporeal
organization. The reason of this uncertainty is, that the effect
of the climate cannot easily be separated from that produced by
alimentation and mode of living, which generally act in com-
bination. It is known that the hygrometric state of the at-
mosphere influences respiration and perspiration, and that
the absorption of oxygen by the lungs is in inverse proportion
to the temperature of the air, and in direct proportion to the
barometric state ; it is further known that the barometric state
reaches its maximum under 32-33° lat., and is, under the
equator, subject to daily regular oscillations ; but all this only
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 35
enables us to say that, in consequence of such circumstances in
different climates, various changes are produced in the animal
economy, without our being able exactly to trace out their
origin.
These circumstances, in combination with other causes which
J. W. de Miiller1 has treated of, lend at first sight a certain
probability to the explanation of the black skin of the Negro,
namely, that in hot climates the amount of oxygen inspired is
insufficient to change the carbon into carbonic acid, and that
the unconsumed carbon is deposited in the pigment-cells of the
skin. Berthold2 gives a similar explanation, namely, that in
spite of the great development of the liver in hot climates, and
a diminished activity of the lungs, a sufficient quantity of car-
bon is not removed from the body; hence the vessels carry a
large quantity of carbon which, with an increased perspiration
is retained beneath the epidermis. It is, however, difficult to
admit that the browning of the skin in our climate in summer,
is produced by the same causes as the black colour of the
Negro, and that it would only require a greater intensity and a
longer duration to become so entirely. Nor can it be admitted,
that the tawny skin of many pregnant women and the examples
quoted by Blumenbach,3 of the black spots on certain parts of
lying-in women, as well as the tawny colour of such women
who have never menstruated, prove in any way that the colour
of the Negro is not owing to specific causes ; for the objection
would still remain, that under the tropics in East India, South
America, and one part of Africa, there live no blacks, and that
neither as regards Negroes nor other peoples, the colour of the
skin is exclusively determined by the absorption of oxygen.
Those who insist upon an explanation must rest satisfied with
that given by Foissac,4 who attributes the colour of the Negro
to the predominant vegetable diet containing much more carbon
than animal diet. This explanation offers the same difficulties
as the former, and is open to similar objections, as is also
' " Causes de la Coloration de la Peau," p. 24, Stuttg., 1853.
2 " Lehrb. der Physiol." 2 Aufl., ii, p. 325.
8 " De generis humani var. nat.," 3rd edit. p. 156.
* " Ueber den Einfluss des Klimas auf den Menschen," p. 67, Gott., 1840.
D 2
36 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART
.
another opinion of Foissac, which attributes the tawny colour
of the Polar nations to the diminished absorption of oxygen, their
blood being charged with carbon, owing to the hot summers and
the heated and smoky winter habitations. Though some of these
circumstances may have their share, it cannot be ascertained to
what cause the colour of the Polar tribes is chiefly due. Hence,
the assumption of specific peculiarities is still permissible. We
are, therefore, obliged to rest satisfied with a mere probability
regarding the causal connexion of climatic influences and ali-
mentations, with physical peculiarities ; and frequently even
probability fails us.
It is this impossibility to analyze the effects of climate and
nutrition which has induced Grodron2 to assert that climate has
but a superficial influence on plants and animals and could have
contributed but little to the differences of human races ; and
that the causes of the latter lie rather in the differences of
nutrition and modes of life : for whilst some plants and animals
thrive unchanged in different climates, the wolf and the fox retain
the same characters in the torrid or the frigid zone, like the
wild horses in South America which possess the same charac-
ters as those of the Crimea and Ukraine.
The influence of climate as a general agent cannot, however,
be called in question. We may quote the well known facts
mentioned in detail by Heusinger,2 that in cold climates, the
size, growth, sexual development, and prolificacy of animals
diminish, whilst hair and feathers grow more abundantly ; fatty
deposits are found, and the colour becomes white, whilst the
contrary occurs under the tropics. Many of our domestic ani-
mals which thrive in different climates, present the most evident
examples of these influences.
How much the human economy can adapt itself to climatic
conditions, is proved chiefly by climatic diseases and the morbid
predispositions peculiar to every climate ; and though the con-
sequences are not always a visible change of the external form,
the modifications in the vital process are undeniable. It fre-
1 " De I'Esp&ce et des Races," p. 16 and 70, Nancy, 1848.
a "Grundziige der Vegl. Physiol.," p. 211, 1831.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 37
quently occurs that strangers rapidly die in a country where
malaria prevails, whilst the natives live and apparently thrive —
facts we shall presently mention — and it seems to make no
difference whether the strangers belong to the same type or not
as the natives. We may instance the fact that the native
Peruvian thrives and remains free of pulmonary complaints at
an altitude from 7000 to 15000 feet above the level of the sea,
which, as in Quito, is frequent destructive to the white.1 Set-
ting aside extreme cases, such as a sudden change of all
essential conditions of life, nothing justifies the assertion that
man transplanted into a foreign clime must either die or remain
as he is. If man can bear the transportation into an essentially
different climate, his organism will experience certain modifica-
tions, and it is not to be expected that the change should
not be as externally perceptible as it is in many animals.
D'Orbigny2 goes so far as to assert that, in Peru, at the alti-
tude above mentioned, the trunk is changed by the influence
of respiration, the body is short but compact, whilst the in-
habitants of the damp lowlands are more slender in form.
Without entirely assenting to this view, we must admit that
external conditions, especially such as approach the limits be-
yond which man could not exist, considerably alter the physio-
logical process ; and we must not wonder if, in the course of
several generations, a corresponding change is effected in the
external form. It is as yet uncertain whether such alterations
occur within a comparatively short period and are arrested at a
certain point,3 or whether, like some wild plants changed into
varieties by cultivation, the change proceeds at first slowly and
afterwards with great rapidity — both may possibly occur under
different circumstances.
Volney4 says, that the Negro physiognomy resembles a face
acted upon by the light of the sun and heat, exhibiting over-
hanging eyebrows, half-closed eyelids, raised cheeks, and pro-
jecting jaws. We cannot subscribe to the explanation given
1 " Stevenson, Kr., in Arauco/' ii, p. 174, 1826.
2 "L'Homine Americain," i, pp. 96, 113, 1839.
3 " Lyell, " Elements of Geology/' 7th ed., ch. 37.
4 " Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte," i, p. 70.
38 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
by Stanhope Smith1 of the peculiarities of the Tatar, namely,
that severe cold had the effect of contracting the eyebrows and
eyelids, closing the mouth, and raising the cheeks, which has
produced the short broad face, and the harshness of features.
Blumenbach2 has cautiously admitted an influence of climate
upon the features but not upon the facial bones, and maintains
that the latter become modified by the activity of the facial
muscles, as shown lately by Engel.3 We do not, therefore,
agree with the censure pronounced on this work by Barthes.4
Much less doubtful is the influence of climate on stature, and
the more rapid or slower development of the body. Many
travellers have compared the Esquimaux with the inhabitants of
Tierra del Fuego and found them resembling, though they live
at such a distance from each other. This external resemblance
has induced many to assume a special race of " Hyperboreans/'
which includes all the Polar nations of the northern hemi-
sphere.5 We must, from the as yet unproved relationship of
many of these peoples, infer a certain levelling influence of
climate, as all of them are of short massive stature. This
applies also to the Peruvians inhabiting high altitudes, who
are, moreover, distinguished, as has been often observed in
other nations inhabiting cold climates, by a considerable size of
the head. Thus, the Hindoos inhabiting the hot plains are
distinguished from those of the mountainous regions by smaller,
less-projecting foreheads, without, however, exhibiting any in-
tellectual inferiority.6 Lauvergne,7 on the other hand, incor-
rectly asserts, that in families who, from mountainous countries,
migrate to the plains, the head becomes after a few generations
1 " On the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure," p. 106 : New
Brunswick, 1810.
a " De gen. hum. var. nat.," p. 212.
3 " Das Knochengeriist des Menschlichen Antlitzes, 1850 ; Untersuch. uber
Schadelformen, 1851. L. Fick ("The Causes of the Forms of the Bones,"
1857), has endeavoured to prove that muscular activity has no such influence
upon the shapes of the bones, though the growth of the bones depends upon
the forms of the soft parts surrounding them.
4 " Nouv. Elemens de la sc. de 1'Homme, ii, p. 132, 1806.
5 Lacep&de, Dumeril, Virey, Bory.
6 Broc. in Lucas, ii, p. 465.
7 " Les Forcatf," p. 315.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 39
more developed, which is generally the case with the progress
of civilization.
Zimmermann1 concludes, from the high stature of the Pata-
gonians and the old Germans, whose country was then colder
than now, that the highest stature belongs to the colder regions
of the temperate zone, whilst Blumenbach2 thinks stature in-
creases on approaching the tropics. To both these assumptions
it may be objected, that the short inhabitants of Tierra del
Fuego live very near the Patagonians, the Laplanders near the
Fins and Swedes, and similar examples shew that in this re-
spect all that can be asserted is, that the greatest development
of man and domestic animals seems to occur in the temperate
zone.
I. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who shares Zimmermann's opinion,3
mentions as a known fact, that the peoples possessing the
shortest stature inhabit nearly all the most northern part of the
northern hemisphere. His own tables, however, which must
not be altogether confided in, as is plainly shewn from his
numerous exceptions, indicate the nature of this assumed fact.
Since (as he himself observes) near such peoples of high stature
there live other peoples of short stature, we must admit that
descent is of more decided influence than climate, though the
latter is not without its due effect. The animals, about the
size of which 4n relation to climate Greoffroy lays down a series
of axioms,4 differ in this respect. Some species grow smaller
in warm climates, others in cold climates.5
A sufficiently well-known and constant effect of climate (in
support of which, we shall quote a number of facts), is the
rapid or tardy development of the sexual organs. This develop-
ment is, like stature, also dependent upon nutrition and mode
of life; whence many deviations may be explained from the
rule that sexual maturity occurs earlier in warm, and later in
cold climates. This influence also extends to the intellect.
1 " Geogr. Gesch. des Menschen und der vierftiss. Thiere," 1778.
2 " De gen. hum. var. not.," p. 93.
3 " ATin. des Sci. Nat./' p. 702, 1832 ; Froriep's Notizen, No. 818, p. 54, 775
1833.
4 Froriep's Notizen, 1832.
5 Swainson, p. 275.
40
PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Among the Arabs, the boys exhibit the same demure behaviour
as adults.1 Little children are more intelligent than those of the
same age amongst us, though probably not for the reason given
by Brehm,2 that they are entirely left to themselves and that
in their helplessness they learn early to use their physical and
mental powers. Negro children learn to run about much earlier
than the children of Europeans.3 The children of the natives
of Nukahiwa swim alone in the water when they are scarcely a
year old ;4 and in Tahiti they often learn earlier to swim than
to run.5 R. Schomburgh equally found that the children of the
Zuramatas in Guiana, learn to use their physical and intellec-
tual powers much earlier than European children. That this
precocity is no peculiarity of the race is proved by its being also
found among the white Creoles in the West Indies, and among
the Brazilians.6 In the same latitude and climate, the time of
puberty occurs earlier among Negros and Mongolians than
among Europeans ;7 this is partly the result of mode of life, and
partly an inherited peculiarity which changes but slowly in the
course of several generations. A well-known instance of the
permanence of race peculiarity is afforded by the Jewish girls
in Central Europe. They arrive at maturity, and grow old, at
an earlier period than the daughters of the peoples among
whom they live.
A similar influence of climate is assumed with regard to
fecundity. That it must be very great among the Negroes in
Africa, may be inferred from the enormous losses which Africa
has suffered (without any perceptible diminution of its popula-
tion) by the agency of the slave-trade. On the other hand, the
extinction of the aboriginal Americans has been attributed to
delicient fecundity of the race, a subject we shall treat of in the
sequel. In this place we may observe, that Quetelet8 has some
1 Hoskin's " Travels in Ethiopia," p. 179, 1835.
2 " Eeiseskizzen aus Nordost Africa," i, p. 56, 1855.
3 Des Marchais, " Voyage en Guinee," p. 282, Amst., 1731.
4 " Wise Los Gringos," p. 138, 1850.
5 Tyermann and Bennett, " Journal of Voyages and Travels," i, p. 360, 1831.
6 Rendu, " Etudes sur le Bresil," p. 19, 1848.
7 Lacepede, " Hist. Nat. de THomme," p. 109, 1839.
* " Ueber den Mftnsclien," p. 67, 1838.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 41
doubts whether, under similar circumstances, the North or the
South is more favourable to fecundity. The greatest fecundity
known, combined at the same time with great demoralization,
is that of Guanaxuato in Mexico, — in the year 1825, it exhibits
the proportion = 1 : 16*08.
Macauley1 speaks of a Negress at Santiago, in Haiti, who
produced seven children in three years, and thirteen in six de-
liveries. Twice she gave birth to triplets, and three times to
twins. Another Negress was surrounded by two hundred de-
scendants. To have one hundred grandchildren is not con-
sidered extraordinary.
The influence of climate upon the colour of the skin is not
contested, but in many respects is yet unexplained. That it
does not alone depend on geographical latitude and the mean
temperature, has been often observed and proved by Humboldt
as regards the population of America; nor are the blackest
people of that continent found under the equator.2 This holds
equally good with regard to the Polynesians, of whom Beechey
says, that the blackest people inhabit the Vulcan, and the
lighter the Coral Islands. The inhabitants of the Marquesas,
Navigation, Friendly, and Society Islands form a series,
varying from light to dark shades. The inhabitants of New
Zealand and the Sandwich Islands are still darker;3 also the
inhabitants of Easter Island.4 But in the same latitude with
the Polynesians as well as at a little distance from them, there
live large numbers of tawny dark-brown peoples, among whom,
again, the natives of Van Diemen's Land are darker than the
New Hollanders, who live nearer the equator (Peron) . The in-
habitants of the East and West coast of South Africa are very
dark. Three hundred English miles in the interior, there are on
both sides of this part of the world two regions inhabited by
lighter coloured peoples. The natives of the central part are,
1 " Haiti, ou, Renseignements authentiques sur 1'abol. de 1'esclavage," pp.
167, 171, 176, Paris, 1835.
2 This had already been noticed by Columbus, who was surprised to find
the colour of the native Americans under the equator lighter, than in the
northern regions. — Herrera, Hist. General, xiii, p. 12, 1730.
8 Hale, " Ethnography and Philol. of the United States Expl. Expedition,"
p. 9, Philadelphia, 1846.
4 Forster, " Bemerk. auf seiner Keise urn die Welt," p. 211, 1783.
42 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
however, again perfectly black.1 The dark colour of the Ainos
on the .Kurile Islands, is in remarkable contrast to the climate
they inhabit.
From these and similar facts, it may be inferred that the
colour of the skin is not so much owing to climate as to descent.
Humboldt,2 who found no difference in Peru among the in-
habitants of the Cordilleras and those of the hot plains, ascribes
to it, like Ulloa, great durability among the Americans, and con-
siders the influence of climate in this respect, as trifling. This
is also the case with regard to the colour and the quality of
the hair ; and, although less constantly, as regards the iris, be-
tween which the parallelism is unmistakable, inasmuch as the
dark tint of the skin is accompanied not merely with a dark
iris and dark hair, but also with a proportionate tendency in
the latter to curl, which circumstance had already been pointed
out by Blumenbach. The white race alone contains peoples of
florid complexion, light hair and iris, and in this lies a prool
for the greater influence of descent over climate.3
One of the most interesting examples of this kind is exhibited
by the Berbers in North Africa — blue eyes, fair skin, and red
beard, are very common among some Kabyles ;4 high stature,
white skin, and light hair, are especially found among the
Chaouias in Auras.5 These characters, by which they were often
considered as the descendants of the Vandals, are possessed
by them chiefly in the mountainous parts; it therefore again
becomes doubtful, what in this case belongs to climate and
what to the purity of blood. Several instances in favour of the
theory that the colour of the skin is more determined by
descent than by climate, may be found in Humboldt.6 The
1 Livingstone, " Missionsreise u. Forschungen," 1858.
2 " R. in die Aequinoctialg. ed. Hauff," ii, p. 55.
3 The author of an interesting article on " Human Hair in Morgen-Blatt,
1855, No. 14, says, — " The dark colour of the hair of the Irish and Celts must
long ago have vanished, in consequence of intermixture with the neigh-
bouring fair-haired tribes, or the dark -coloured Celts must have become fair,
since they inhabit parts of Europe which contain the light-haired nations,
namely, those north of 48° latitude.
4 Prevost, " Nouv. Ann. des Voy.," i, 126, 1848.
s Guyon, ib., ii, p. 390, 1848; compare also M. Wagner, "Reisen in Algier,"
ii, p. 56, 1841.
6 " Neu Spanien," i, p. 117.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 48
Mexicans, for instance, are much darker than the aboriginals
of the hottest parts of South America ; and the Gruaicas1 are
much lighter than the Indians by whom they are surrounded,
although they seem to share the same mode of life. Maehlen-
pfordt2 observes with regard to the Mexican Indians, that they
are as brown in the cold mountainous regions as in the south
and hot valleys, and that the covered parts of the body are fre-
quently of a darker colour than the unprotected parts. The
only parts which are constantly of a lighter colour, are the
palms of the hand, and the soles of the feet. Desmoulins3 sup-
ports his theory, that the pure races retain their peculiarities,
by the Kohillas, a colony of the Affghans north of the Granges,
who are said even now to possess the same physical characters
as the Icelanders — white complexion, blue eyes, fair hair,
European physiognomy. His authority for this is Niquet, who
adds, that they see badly in bright day light, which creates the
suspicion that he speaks of Albinos. Moreover, the Affghans
exhibit all shades of colour; in the western table-land, they have
an European clear complexion ; in the east of the Indus, they
are darker, and even black.4 The colour of the skin cannot in
some cases be satisfactorily explained either by reason of descent
or the influence of climate ; it must then be dependent on other
influences. The Portuguese Creoles, in Java, i. e., the cross-
breds of the Portuguese and natives, who have propagated on
the Island for centuries, are much darker in colour than the
Javanese themselves.5
Uncivilized nations preserve, at least under common condi-
tions, not only the type generally, but also the colour of their
skin and hair. This is specially shown by the Fulahs, who,
though of a different stock, have preserved their peculiarities
among the Negroes. Thus Burckhardt6 was able to recognize
the descendants of the Bosnian soldiers, who, sent by Sultan
Selim (1420), settled in Nubia, and who by their brown colour
1 Humboldt and Bonpland, « Reise," iv, p. 495.
2 " Schilderung der Rep. Mejieo," i, p. 204, 1844.
3 " Hist. Nat. des Races Humaines," pp. 21, 162, 168.
* Pilchard, iv, p. 91.
5 Pfyffer, " Skizzen v. d. Insel Java," p. 67, 1829.
6 " Reisen in Nubien, p. 194, 1820.
44 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET I.
and features betrayed their northern origin. Rafalowitsch1
also asserts that he recognized them by their fair skin in Derr,
lower Nubia. But when Duprat' asserts that Berbers, Arabs,
Turks, and Jews in North Africa have perfectly preserved
their characters in spite of the perfect equality of the condi-
tions in which they live, we must observe that this is scarcely
correct, and that there is no general equality of conditions, in
as much as Duprat considers the Moors who chiefly inhabit
cities to be unmixed Arabs. That upon the Mauritius, as
D'Unienville asserts,3 the Creole- and Mozambique-Negroes,
Malgasches, Malay s,Telingas,Malabars, and Bengalese, are easily
to be distinguished as they have preserved their peculiarities,
does not prove anything against the influence of climate, since
it differs but little from that of their native country ; and from the
constant renewal of all slave populations, climate has hardly
been of sufficiently long continuance to have produced a change
in them, whilst, on the other hand, every individual tribe is dis-
tinguished from the others by language, manners, and modes
of life.
No doubt many instances furnish us with evidence that
peculiarities of bodily formation which have persisted through
many generations are but very slowly altered ; but they are
not sufficient to invalidate the opposite doctrine, that in several
peoples of the same origin the physical characters have altered
by the influence of climatic conditions in combination with
extensive changes in diet and mode of life. Though there is
no regular increase in the darkness of the skins on approaching
the equator, still it can be proved that colour, like many other
physical peculiarities, depends partly on local conditions be-
sides geographical latitude. The facts, however, are not alto-
gether free from contradiction, so that definite rules on the
effect of climate can only be obtained from more extensive
observation.
Mountaineers are usually of a lighter colour and more vigor-
ous than those of the same tribe inhabiting the valleys. The
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. . .45
Hindoos in the cold mountainous regions,, especially in the Hi-
malayas, are white and have frequently blue eyes, the beard and
hair of the head are sometimes curly, brown, or red. The
Siah-Posh, or Kaffirs of Hindukuh, who speak a language
allied to the Sanskrit, are of European whiteness ; the inhabi-
tants of Cashmir are brown.1 The Hindustani are tall, vigorous,
warlike, light coloured ; the Bengalese in their damp and mild
climate, short, weakly, timid, and black.2 Those who consider
the colour of the skin as permanent, must attribute it, in regard
to the Hindoos, to intermixture with the dark aboriginal inhabi-
tants of India.3 The institution of castes may, perhaps, support
this explanation. A remarkably striking contrast is exhibited
by the fine vigorous Tudas in the high healthy parts, in com-
parison with the miserable Curumbars, inhabiting the un-
healthy lowlands. If the Abyssinian, whose olive coloured
skin becomes usually lighter during the rainy period, approach-
ing that of the European, descend from the highlands into the
valleys, he becomes of a dark brown. Analogous changes are
observed in the hair and wool of animals.4 The inhabitants
of Enarea in the low and marshy parts are perfectly black, and
have the features and the woolly hair of Negroes, whilst those
of the mountainous parts of Enarea and Kaffa are not even so
dark as the Neapolitans ;5 and .though this may, according to
Combes et Tamisier,6 be going too far, there still exists an im-
portant difference. The natives on the banks of the Zambesi are
very dark and negro-like, but the colour of the mountaineers is
like that of coffee and milk mixed. In harmony with these facts
is the remarkable circumstance that the proper and well-marked
Negro type is only found in hot low countries, whilst the in-
habitants of highlands mostly deviate from it, and are both
physically and intellectually superior. Hombron (p. 282) en-
deavours to prove that the Polynesians become in unhealthy
1 Elphinstone, Alex. Burnes, Prichard, iv, pp. 91, 209.
2 " Lassen Ind. Alterthumsk.," i, p. 404.
3 Hombron, " Zoologie. zu D. d'Urville Voy. au Pole Sud," 164. Omaluis
d'Halloy.
4 Lefebvre, " Voy. en Abyss.," iii, p. 299, 1845.
* Bruce, " Quellen des Nils," ii, p. 309, 1790.
6 " Voy. en Abyssinie," iv, p. 285, 1838.
46 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
parts uglier and more like the Malays. Winterbottom,1 who
asserts that lean people of dark colour become of a lighter colour
on growing fat, found the inhabitants of the unhealthy coasts
of Sierra Leone, darker than those who live inland. Thus we
also hear of the Arowakas, in Guiana, that whilst some of them
resemble in complexion the Spaniards and the Italians, those
living in the unhealthy low parts near the sea are nearly as
dark as the lighter coloured Negroes.2 In this way it may,
perhaps, be explained why the Chiriguanas, in the old missions
of Piray, are of dark brown colour (color morenos), but those
who remained heathens, their women specially, are nearly as white
as the Spaniards.3 The former may, under the direction of
the missionaries, have cultivated the soil, the latter may have
lived in the forests protected from the sun.
From these and other instances it has been inferred that hot
and damp countries favour the darkening of the skin.4 The
frequency of bilious diseases, which occur on changing the
residence from high dry lands to low marshy grounds, has been
often observed. Further confirmations of the fact are found
when we notice the change of colour which Europeans experi-
ence in other parts of the world, and especially under the
tropics. Even the traveller who remains there but a short
time loses his colour. ' ' When I arrived at Grhadames," says
Eichardson,5 " I had a rosy colour, now I am like these yellow
men." The covered parts, however, preserve their original
colour, as has been proved in the case of the French soldiers
in Algiers. On the other hand, it is stated of the North-
American Indians that the covered parts are not lighter in
colour than the naked.7 This is also asserted of the natives
of Mexico and Peru.8
1 "Machr. v. d. Sierra Leone," p. 240, 1805.
2 " Journal of the Royal G-eogr. Soc.," ii, p. 229, according to Hilhouse.
3 " Viedma in de Angelas, Coleccion de Obras y Documentos," B Aires iii
§ 9, ad. 50, 1836.
4 Jarrold, " Anthropologia ; or, on the Form and Colour of Man/' p. 188,
1838. Heusinger, " Grundriss der Anthropol.," p. 87, 1829.
5 « Trav. in the Great Desert of Sahara," i, p. 265, 1848.
6 Lay, James, " Account of an Exped. to the Kooky Mountains under M.
Long., Philad.," i, p. 285, 1823.
T Humboldt and Bonpland, " Eeise," ii, 250.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 47
These cases can, however, hardly be considered as pecu-
liarities of race; for the European in Java, as well as in the
West Indies and Africa, soon loses his red cheeks, and experi-
ences other changes if he remains for a long time exposed to a
tropical climate. Whoever lives for a long time in Guinea,
and is much exposed to the sun, becomes almost copper-
coloured.1 Raffenel2 goes so far as to assert that people of
the Caucasian race who are for a considerable time exposed to
a tropical sun gradually assume the colour of the Negro, there
being well-authenticated instances of pure Arabs who had
become under such circumstances blacker than those accounted
very dark among Negroes. And if, as we are informed, the
Portuguese colonists of Cachaux, in West Africa, have become
black mulattoes,3 and those of Cape Verd, the coast of Guinea,
in Quilimane,4 in Batavia, Ternate, Bombay,5 in Larentuka
(Mores), and in Dilli (Timor),6 have after a series of gener-
ations become black or nearly so, it cannot altogether be
ascribed to intermixture with the natives. Even Pruner,7 — who
is not partial to the doctrine of the great influence of climate
on the organization of man, and who considers the structure of
the skeleton in the various races as unchangeable, — states from
his own observation, that the European acclimated in Egypt,
acquires after some time a tawny skin, and in Abyssinia a
bronzed skin, he becomes pallid on the coast of Arabia, cachectic
white in Syria, clear brown in the deserts of Arabia, and ruddy
in the Syrian mountains; whilst the hair does not merely
become darker, but acquires a softer texture, with a tendency
to curl. Aii interesting gradation of all shades down to the
negro-black is exhibited by the Jews. West of Tomsk, in the
Barabinsky Steppes, they have a clear skin and light hair,8
which is uncommon in England and Germany. In Spain,
Portugal, Syria, the East Indies, and Congo, they exhibit
i Monrad, " Gemalde der K. v. Guinea," p. 371, 1824.
» " Nouveau Voy.," i, p. 272, 1856.
3 Durand, " Voy. en Senegal," an. x, i, p. 169.
4 Owen, " Narr. of voy. to explore the shores of Africa," i, p. 290, 1833.
6 Forrest, " Voy. to New Guinea," p. 36, 1779.
6 Olivier, " Land und Seereisen in Mederl. Ind.," ii, p. 266, 1829.
7 " Die Krankheiten des Orients," p. 83, 1847.
a Simpson, " Narr. of a Journey Bound the World," ii, p. 410, 1847.
48 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I
different shades.1 Though it may be that the Jews, banishec
by John II, 1492, from Portugal, may, as Sprengel2 asserts.
have intermixed with the Negroes of St. Thomas, this must
not be considered as the sole cause of their altered complexion.
Though it appears that in the same people, if they live in
various degrees of latitude, the colour of the skin usually
increases in darkness on approaching the Equator, e.g., in the
Chinese, who from Pekin to Canton present all shades from
light to deep copper colour; the Arabs, from the Desert to
Jemen, from olive colour to black ; the Australians about
More ton Bay, coal black; but 10° south copper coloured:3 —
still, we must not lose sight of the important exceptions,
lately also pointed out by Livingstone, to the assumption that
the blackness of the skin increases with heat and moisture.
An apparent exception is offered by the white race in South
America : the Europeans near to the Equator in the hot and
damp Guayaquil, have a fair complexion, clearer even than
that of the Spaniards in their native country, and blue eyes
and light hair are common among the women. This may
perhaps be explained by the ladies taking particular care of
their complexion. In the unhealthy spots of these parts, as
Panama, Portobello, Carthagena, the Spanish Creoles do not
present the fair hair and fresh colour so frequently seen in
Guayaquil.5 It may also be observed, that the Spaniards in
Chili are white, and of a fresher colour than in their own
country, but the Portuguese in Brazil are of a lead colour or
yellow.6 It is still more striking, that whilst in Carthagena
there may yet be seen fair or red-haired women, in Santa Fe,
which is much colder, only dark complexions with black hair
are found.7 The same condition with regard to colour is
stated of the Indians of Peru, by Tschudi.8 Zarate9 also
1 " Prichard," iv, p. 597.
2 " Vom Ursprung des Negerhandels," p. 32, 1779.
3 Dunmore Lang, " Cooksland in JST. E. Australia/' p. 380, 1847.
4 Stevenson, ii, 108. Basil Hall, "Extracts of a Journal written in Chili,
Peru, and Mexico," 3rd, Edit., ii, p. 109, 1824.
5 Ulloa, " Voy. de 1' Am. merid." 1, 145, Amst. 1752.
6 Frezier, " Reise nach dcr Sudsee/' p. 88, 1718.
7 Mollien, " Voy. dans la rep. de Colombia," ii, p. 132, 1824.
8 "Peru Reiseskizzen," ii, p. 359, 1846.
9 " Hist, de la Decouverte du Perou/' i, p. 41, 1724.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 49
asserts that in Peru, mountaineers possess a lighter colour than
the lowlanders; whilst Tschudi says, the colder the climate
the darker the colour. In Puna dark red-brown ; in Sierra
considerably lighter, nearly of a rusty red ; darker on the
coast, and straw-yellow in the forests*
The example of the native Peruvians, who are dark brown
in the Andes, though they have but two rainy months in the
year, has induced D'Orbigny to declare a hot and moist climate,
provided the country affords sufficient shade, as favourable to
whiteness of skin \ and he cites, as a proof, the light-corn-
plexioned Yuracares (Antisana) compared with the Quichuas
and Aymaras. Thus Dobrizhofier1 saw in the forests of
Paraguay, Indians of European white colour, whilst the Paya-
guas, who live almost entirely upon the water and are much
exposed to the weather, are darker at least than the
Guaranis.2 Gumilla3 has made the same observation, which
is confirmed by Humboldt and Bonpland.4 To these may be
added Eschwege,5 who says that the lower classes of Portugal
and Spain, especially the fishermen, who are much exposed to
the weather, possessed the same colour as the Indians of Minas
Geraes, which is deepened in the latter by their uncleanliness.
Hence A. de St. Hilaire6 declares that the colour of the Brazil
Indians is merely the result of the climate and their uncleanli-
ness. Hombron again states, that the mountaineers of New
Guinea and the Philippines, although living in damp, thick
forests, are not less black than the New Hollanders ; but he
also observes, that the blackest negroes somewhat lose their
black colour after a few years' residence in warm and damp
colonies. That heat and moisture alone do not produce a
yellowish brown skin, is shown by several Polar nations, and
the majority of North American Indians, among whom again
the natives of the greater part of the north-west Coast exhibit
a remarkable exception in their white skin.
1 " Geschichte der Abiponer," ii, p. 18, 1783.
2 Demersay, "Bulletin Soc. Geogr.," i, p. 17, 1854.
'* Hist. nat. civ. et g. de 1'Orenoque," i, p. 2, 1758.
4 " Reise," iv, p. 495.
5 " Journal v. Brasil," i, p. 85, 1818.
6 " Voy. dans I'mterieur du Bresil," i, p. 426, 1830.
50 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. ]
As in many of these instances there exists such a striking
and unexpected diversity of colour, which is not to be accounted
for by any great difference either of diet or descent, there are
no means of explaining the contradictions, excepting by the
different modes of life, and the modes of protection against the
influence of climate.
This is of special importance in countries where great heat
is combined with sudden alterations of temperature, or of
dampness and dryness. Want of protection against the influ-
ence of climate in such cases appears greatly to favour the
darkening of the skin. Continued confinement to the house,
as is well known, blanches the skin. This also takes place in
healthy persons in winter, whilst the warm sun in the spring,
combined with out-of-door exercise, darkens the complexion.
Numerous instances, both in Europe and in other parts, show
that fishermen and navigators exposed to all changes of the
weather, are always of darker complexion than the rest of the
population. If Belcher1 observed the contrary in the Canary
Islands and among the Malays in the Bajows, and that the
Sandwich Islanders and the Tahitians had been of a lighter
colour before the missionaries forbade them to fish (?) and to
bathe, he stands alone in the erroneous assumption, just as
D'Orbigny and Troyer,2 who assert what has not been confirmed
by any voyager, that among nations of brown or dark brown
skin, the exposed face is of a lighter colour than the protected
parts, and that the higher classes in the Sandwich Islands have
a darker complexion than the lower classes. There are, no
doubt, peoples among whom the males differ in colour from
the females, without our being able to trace a difference in
descent or in mode of protection. Among the natives on the
Pilcomayo, the females are said to be as white as the Spanish
women;3 among the Coroados and Puris, the males have a
much darker colour, while the females are yellow and capable
of blushing.4 But though such instances are at present in-
1 "Narr. of the Voy. of H.M.S. Samarang," ii, p. 94, 1848.
2 " Bullet, de la Soc. Ethnol.," 22 mai, 1846.
3 Erbaul, " Geschichten der Chiquitos," Wien, p. 447, 1729.
4 Burmeister, " R. nach Brasilien," pp. 246-260, 1853.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 51
explicable, they do not invalidate the general rule, that the
colour of the skin and the whole external aspect are essentially
influenced by habits of life, comfort or misery, and particularly
by the want or sufficiency of protection against heat, cold, and
moisture. This is confirmed among all races.
Though we find among all the castes of the Hindoos light
and dark individuals of all shades, the lower castes are mostly
darker, the Brahmins mostly of a lighter colour, so that in
comparison with the rest of the population they appear white
even in Mahratta, the Deccan, and Calcutta. A wandering
tribe of Rajpoots, the Bengari, who travel through the country
as corn merchants,1 are much darker and more vigorous than the
rest of their tribes (Lassen). The women and girls of the
Hassanieh Arabs in East Africa, who are very careful of their
complexion, are of a light bronze colour, and differ in this re-
spect so much from their dark-brown husbands, that one is in-
clined to consider them of a different tribe.2 Many women in
El Obeid (Kordofan) who protect themselves from the sun, are
not darker than brunette European women. Among the
yellow-brown Mongolian race in China and Japan, the work-
men are brown ; high-born ladies nearly white ; and upon the
Luchu Islands the colour alternates from dark brown to white.3
In Bony (Celebes), many women are very white.4 The most
striking diversities of colour and hair are found among the
Fins, unless we are able to explain it by intermixture. The
black-haired dark Laps and Woguls are nearly allied to the
fair Fins, the black-haired but clear complexioned Magyars,
and the red-haired Ostiaks. L. v. Buch considers the protec-
tion against the influence of climate, wholesome food, warm
clothing, and good habitation, among the Fins, and the want
of them among the short Laps, as the chief causes of these
phenomena. Many peoples of the South Sea, especially of the
Society, Sandwich Islands, and New Zealand, offer so con-
siderable a difference in complexion, that one is often inclined
to assume a mixture of different races ; which supposition is
1 Ritter, " Erdk./' v, p. 687. 2 Brehm, i, p. 331.
3 Prichard, iv, 519.
4 Olivier, " E. in Niederlandisch Indien," ii, p. 175, 1829.
E 2
52 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
not supported by linguistic data, and has been generally
abandoned. At any rate, such a theory must be much limited,
and is in Polynesia only applicable to the Tonga and Samoa
Archipelago ; hence the great differences of colour and physi-
cal conformation upon most of the above groups of Islands
must be considered as the result of external conditions.
From the preceding facts there seems to result, that the
colour of the skin, though not always in proportion to latitude
and mean temperature, is essentially influenced by climate;
that the extent and mode of this influence is chiefly regulated
by habits and mode of life ; that next to these, descent has the
greatest influence ; and that food has also its share in the pro-
duction of colour, though in a subordinate degree. It is further
shown that hot and damp countries, unprotected by forests,
and a mode of life which exposes the organism to climatic in-
fluences, strongly favour the darkening of the skin. Frequent
and great alterations of temperature, especially sudden changes
from wet to dry, brown the skin in every climate and in every
race, if the body is much exposed and unprotected.
We must not, however, expect that the European in America
or Africa, or the Negro in America, should, after a few cen-
turies, or perhaps ever, assume the type of the aborigines ; for
where diet and habits of life, and the whole care for body and
soul differ so essentially between immigrants and aborigines,
the former can only veiy gradually approach the latter, specially
where there is a constant influx of immigrants. This assimila-
tion can only be effected as far as the influence of climate is
alone concerned. The following observations are interesting
in this respect.
The Germans who in the last century emigrated to Penn-
sylvania, and to the banks of the Mohawk, differ at present *
considerably from the German type ; and, between the Yankee
and the Englishman the difference is said to be still greater.
" Pale, a somewhat darker colour, smoothness and softness of
features, strike the stranger. The effect of the climate is more
decided in the central and southern than in the northern parts, ]
and more striking in the plains near the sea than in the vicinity
of the Appalachian mountains, and also among the working
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 53
classes more than among the higher classes. The colour of the
inhabitants of New Jersey below the cataracts, is much darker
than that of the Pennsylvanians, as their country is flatter and
covered with stagnant waters. Along the south coast of Mary-
land and Virginia, the colour is deeper. The inhabitants of
the lowlands of Carolina and Georgia, especially the poorer and
working classes, are but little lighter than the Trokeese. They
are mostly so thin and lean tljat their limbs appear dispro-
portionately long. The hair is thicker and stiffer than in the
European, and does not readily curl. The stiffness increases
with every generation."1
The American as compared with the Englishman is lean, al-
though he grows fat after a long sojourn in Europe. There
obtains, however, in this respect, a difference between north
and south. The Virginian (the West Virginian excepted)2 is
tall, slender, and lean ; the New Englander shorter, and has
mostly a round face ; both, it must be observed, are of the
same stock. " The genuine Yankee," says Carpenter,3 {< may
be distinguished from the Englishman by the sharpness and
angularity of his features. There is an excess of breadth be-
tween the rami of the lower jaw, giving to the lower part of the
face a peculiar squareness in contrast to its oval form in the
Englishman, and which tends to assimilate the Anglo-American
to the aborigines of the country/' It has long been observed
that the English immigrants in North America are more vigor-
ous workmen than their descendants.4 It may be observed that
the flesh of our domestic animals seems there to be less nutri-
tious and of less flavour, and that the breed of cattle is inferior.5
Beside, the leanness, the stiff shaggy hair are also characteristics
of the American ; the curly hair of the European becomes
straight in America (Jarrold),*so that the American is, gene-
1 Stanhope Smith, " On the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and
Figure," p. 68, New Brunsw., 1810 ; and Imlay, " Nachr. v. d. west Lande
der N. A. Freistaaten," im Magaz. der Keisebesch., ix, p. 126 : Vater, " Unters.
iiber Americas Bevolkerung aus. d. alten Continente," p. 71, 1810.
* Kriegk in " Luedde's Zeitschrift fur Erdkunde," i, p. 484.
3 Todd's " Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol.," p. 1330.
4 Johnston, "Notes on North America," 1851.
5 Franz, " Anweisung zur Vervollk. der Viehzucht, p. 105 ,• and Clemens*
in der " Deutschen Vierteljahrschrift," ii, p. 78, 1849.
54 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
rally, in caricature, represented with a long neck and long hair.
The latter is, in comparison with the soft silky hair of the
Englishman, evidently an approach to the American Indian.
The long neck is connected with a weaker development of the
glandular system, to which must be added the nervous irrita-
bility of the American. These peculiarities have been connected
with the dry west winds which predominate in the United
States ; notwithstanding nearly double the quantity of rain
which falls there, in comparison with most European countries,
drought frequently injures the harvest.1 Other causes con-
tribute to this change, such as the restless activity of the
Yankee, and his love of spirituous liquors. The American is
also said to have a voice of less metal, and his eyelids are
said to be shorter, than those of the European.2
Whilst in New South Wales, as in North America, the child-
ren of European parents are apt to become tall and lean,3 there
is a tendency among the European colonists at the Cape to
grow fat ;4 which reminds us of the large fat tails of the Cape
sheep, and the fat hips of the native women. The white Creoles
in the West Indies, have also a disposition to grow fat ; they
are tall and well-made, and distinguish themselves from the
Europeans by the flexibility of their limbs. Their pale yellow
complexion and their precocity have already been mentioned.
Their eyes are deep-seated, usually of grey, black, or dark-
brown colour. The skin generally feels cool.5 Some authors
(Yater), mention the prominency of their cheek-bones, which
is denied by others. Nott ascribes to them, besides their pale
complexion, no peculiarities which distinguish them from the
whites. With regard to this assertion, it must be considered
that most Europeans, the English especially, only go to the
West Indies to acquire wealth and then return to their native
country. Joseph Brown6 mentions that the same parents, who,
1 Williamson, " Observations on the Climate of America/' New York, 1811.
2 Jarrold, p. 135.
3 Lesson, " Voy. Medical autour du M., 1829," p. 110; and Majoribanks,
" Travels in N. S. Wales, 1847," p. 217.
4 Barrow, "B. durch die inneren Gegenden des Siidlich. Afr., 1801-55," ii, p. 121 .
•"• Bryan Edwards, " Hist, des Colonies Anglaises dans les Indes occ." p. 175,
Paris, 1801.
6 " Cyclop, of Pract. Med.," ii, p. 419.
SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 55
in the West Indies produce children of West Indian colour and
physiognomy, produce in Europe, children of European colour
and physiognomy. The white Creoles in Peru originating from
the North of Spain lose their ruddy complexion in the second
generation, the whiteness of the skin becomes sallow.1 Red hair
and blue eyes disappear from the family in succeeding genera-
tions. (Sucle retroceder en las generaciones siguientes sacando
el pelo roxo y ojos azules del tronco de su familia. Uanne,
obser. sobre el clima de Lima. Madrid, 1815, p. 106.)
The changes which the Negroes undergo in America will be
treated of in the sequel, as they are not so much owing to the
climate as to the change of habit, diet, and their intercourse
with a more intellectual race. Here it may be merely observed
that though some instances have been quoted2 of Negroes
who, transplanted to the north, have become gradually lighter,
and ultimately white, they are isolated cases, like that men-
tioned by De la Salle,3 of a French lady whose hair changed in
the East Indies from dark brown (perhaps dyed ?) to a bright
red. As regards the Botokudes, among whom in their own
country there are white men with red cheeks, although they
live under 20° south lat., it scarcely can excite surprise that
they become in Europe white in winter, as mentioned by
Prince Max.4 Blumenbach, and Hunter before him,6 believed
that it takes a longer time for a Negro to grow white than for
a European to become black. Skin affections must be taken
into consideration before admitting the above cases as proofs
either way. A morbid affection was probably the cause in an
instance related by Anderson,5 of a Negro whose black shining
skin became in a very cold night of a pale ash-grey colour.
Prichard r speaks of Tuaryks, who, when living alone in an oasis,
became gradually, as regards hair and features, negro-like ;
but the metamorphosis has been lately invalidated by Barth,
1 El bianco algo se quiebra.
2 Blumenbach, " De gen. hum. var. nat.," p. 60.
8 Voy. autour du M. sur la Bonito," ii, p. 281, 1845.
4 " R. nach Brasil," ii, pp. 4, 66.
* " Diss. de Hoininurn Variet.," p. 38, 1775.
6 " E. in Siidwest-Afr.," 1
7 Chap, iv, p. 600, according to Hodgson.
56 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
in as much as the Negroes were in former times much more
numerous in North Africa than now, and that intermixture
between Negroes and Tuaryks occurs frequentlyin the southern
districts of the latter.
The influence of climate upon temperament and character has
been as much exaggerated as that upon the physical constitution.
According to Falconer,1 a hot climate greatly increases sensi-
bility, and predisposes to sensual excesses, revenge, thought-
lessness, inconstancy, and cowardice; whilst a cold climate
produces the opposite qualities. He also endeavours to show
that climate has an influence upon laws, religion, and politics.
Travellers, Werne for instance, have observed in themselves
and other persons that the temporal residence in a tropical
climate produces a great irritability of temperament which
disappears again in Europe. Something similar is also found
here and there among immigrants who are already acclimatized.
" A morbid irritability is general in this country (Port Natal) ;
this is more the case in the bay, that is, around d' Urban, than
here (Pietermaritzburg), so that the more sober Maritzburgers
are astonished at nothing that happens down the country, un-
less something rational is effected."2 These effects appear,
however, to be merely transitory and of a local nature. Gener-
ally we may assume that the continued influence of a hot
climate produces a relaxed state, diminishing bodily and mental
activity, or, as Poppig says,3 that it leaves man physically and
morally more inert than a temperate climate. It is not always
the case that people living under a serene sky are more joyous
and more inclined to sports and dancing than those enveloped
by mists and clouds. In North and South America, as well as
in the South Sea, there are found under the same climatic,
conditions, unsocial and morose nations, as well as cheerful and
social peoples. While Egyptians and Hindoos are patient and
unimpassioned, the Esquimaux and Tschuktch are of an
irritable, cheerful, and elastic nature. The present Chileno
(says Poppig) does not possess that characteristic irritability
1 " Remarks on the Influence of Climate/' 1781.
2 Bleek, in Petermann's " Geogr. Mittheil." p. 369, 1856.
3 R. in Chili, Peru, and the Amazon River, ii, p. 180, 1835,
SECT. I.] ALIMENT. 57
and inconstancy which the prejudice of the north ascribes to
the south, but he appears calm and discreet.
The important influence of diet upon the body, and indirectly
upon the mind, has never been doubted (a resume of the varieties
of food used by many nations may be found in Foissac) -1 Be-
sides the quantity and the quality of the articles of diet, there
must also be taken into consideration the amount of labour
requisite to procure them. It is only when man can procure
digestible food in sufficient quantity without too much physical
exertion that the body can become properly developed. Hence
alimentation is closely connected with habits of life.
That wealth and poverty exercise a decided influence upon
growth and mortality has been proved by Quetelet. Geoffroy2
has endeavoured to show that generally among the mammals
there is a remarkable harmony between bodily size and the
food assigned to them by nature. The consequences of hunger
and of the consumption of large quantities of food not suffi-
ciently nutritious by itself, potatoes specially, may be ascer-
tained in the large towns and manufacturing districts of our
modern civilized states. Ireland offers the most striking
example of this kind. In 1641, and following years, Irishmen
were driven out of Ulster and the south of Down into the
forest by the English. When they were again found, at a later
period, they seemed quite altered, only five feet two inches high,
big bellied, bandy legged, features distorted, open mouthed,
and projecting teeth.3 Similar instances are found in other
parts of the world, showing the effects in whole tribes.
The Bosjesmen are, as is proved by their language, a Hot-
tentot tribe driven by their enemies into a stony, sterile tract,
and kept confined to it. Their country is even deficient in
spring water and rain. If the chase with bow and arrow is
unproductive they search for roots, ants, locusts, snakes, and
lizards to satisfy the cravings of hunger. The degeneracy of
1 " Ueber den Einfl. d. Klimas," p. 20, 1840.
3 Edin. New Philos. Journal, April to July 1833 ; Froriep's " Notizen,"
No. 818, 1833.
3 Prichard, " Uebers," ii, p. 373; Dublin Univ. Mag., No. 48, p. 658.
58 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET I.
tlieir bodily condition, as compared with that of their allied
tribes, and their approximation to the brute creation, which
Lichtenstein has so vividly described, justifies us the more in
attributing it to their miserable mode of existence, since the
Bosjesmen on the Zuga river, and in the north-east of the
Ngami lake, who do not suffer from want, are strong and well
made, looking much better than those of the south in the
desert who speak the same language.1
In the same manner it can be shown that all peoples which
we find physically and morally in the lowest scale of humanity,
live in the deepest material misery. To this class belong the
aborigines of Tierra del Fuego and Australia. The former
inhabit a wild and rocky mountain-coast, which even obstructs
free motion, so that they are obliged to pass the greater por-
tion of their lives in their huts or in their boats ; hence their
crooked thin legs.2 They suffer much from hunger and cold.
Notwithstanding their miserable appearance, it is highly proba-
ble that they belong to the powerful tribe of the Araucanians,
with whom, in respect of their bodily formation, D'Orbigny
classes them, whilst in their manners they resemble the Pata-
gonians, so unlike them in body. Attention has been directed
to the external resemblance of the people of Tierra del Fuego
to the Esquimaux, so that it may be imagined that climate and
mode of life induce a certain resemblance of physical forma-
tion. Australia is deficient in water and large wild animals.
Among the tribes of the natives those who are badly nourished
stand physically and mentally lowest. On proceeding from
Port Jackson northwards to Port Macquarie, Clarence, Moreton,
and Rockingham Bay, Port Essington, the natives are found
to be physically and mentally superior.3 Those who live in the
eastern part of the interior are frequently exposed to hunger,
and feed but sparingly on kangaroos, whilst those who dwell
on the banks of the Lynd and Mitchell rivers, and near the
1 Livingstone, Journal of the Royal Geog. Soc., xxi, p. 23, and xxii, p. 164.
2 Wilkes's " Narrative of U. S. Expedition," i, p. 124, PMlad., 1845.
3 Hodgson, " Reminiscences of Aust.," p. 254, 1846 ; King, " Narrative of
a Survey of the Intertropical and W. Coasts of Aust.," i, p. 1827, 203 ; Leich-
ardt, "Tageb. einer Landreise in Aust.," p. 415, 1851.
SKCT. I.] ALIMENT. 59
g^ulf of Carpentaria, have fish in abundance, and are not so
imid as the former, being more inclined to trade.1 The
iborigines of Australia Felix are physically and intellectually
superior to those of New South Wales.2 Though it has hitherto
lot been doubted that the peoples of Australia are all of the
-umo stock, there are great differences found among them,
A hi eh must chiefly have been produced by food and mode of
ifo. The disproportionately long arms and legs of the natives
of New South Wales are not general ; in the north-west tall
nuscular men are found.3 There exist, especially on the Dari-
ng, great differences in features and colour.4 Among some
:he hair is straight, among others curly or woolly.5 Besides the
commonly small forehead, there are observed in the west and
ho interior, receding foreheads.6 In the region of Port
-Stephens foreheads of European shape are sometimes seen.7
Similar differences are observed with regard to the shape of
:he nose.
. It has been asserted that a nation feeding much on animal
bod is more vigorous, and bolder, more passionate and less
docile, and becomes physically and mentally better developed
Imn by a vegetable diet. This general assertion has been
-efuted by Foissac,8 and it must not be forgotten, that the
orimary condition of bodily and mental health is not merely
;he nutritious quality of aliments, but their suitableness to the
wants of the organism, which depends partly on the climate,
.f for the preservation of the same physical force in winter,
und in cold climates, a rich substantial animal diet is requisite,
he inhabitants of the torrid zone preserve the same force with
it small quantity of vegetable food. Even the workman in
3enguela is satisfied with a handful of Maniok meal;9 the
1 Leichardt, p. 250.
2 Byrne, " Twelve Years Wanderings in the British Colonies," i, 365, 1848.
3 Grey, "Journal of Two Expeditions in Australia," i, p. 232, 1841.
4 Mitchell, " Exped. into the Interior of Eastern Australia," i, p. 211, 1838.
5 Hale, Wilkes, Hodgson, Dampier, " Nouv. voy. autour du m. 1701," ii,
.). 141.
6 Stokes, " Discoveries in Australia," i, p. 89, 1846 ; Sturt, " Narr. of an
Sxped. into Central Aust.," ii, p. 135, 1849
7 Dawson, " The Present State of Australia," p. 339, 1830.
8 " Ueber den Einfl. des Klimas," p. 197, 1840.
0 Tunis, " Die Portugies. Besitzungen in Siidwest Air.," p. 36, 1845.
60 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Kra-negro remains muscular in his laborious exertions, with a
purely vegetable diet, chiefly rice, which is also the case with
the inhabitants of Yarriba.1 The English are less able to bear
the moist heat of tropical climates than the Portuguese,
Spaniards, and even the French, because they cannot easily
give up their animal diet and spirituous liquors. In Brazil
alone the Portuguese seem to form an exception; they live
there on meat, fish, and spirituous liquors, apparently without
injury. The Esquimaux requires for his meals considerable
quantities of animal food, fat, blubber, etc. ; but a large con-
sumption of indigestible aliment gives so much work to the
digestive organs as to interfere with the development of the
intellectual faculties, though it may not be so injurious as the
consumption of large quantities of non-nutritious aliments.
However true it may be that the desire for a quantity of
substantial food prevails more in cold and temperate climates,
there are still exceptions to this rule. The Negroes of the
Gold Coast are great gluttons, and even Europeans who visit
this region preserve their good appetite.2
If the comparison be confined to the English with the Irish,
the European with the rice consuming Hindoo or Japanese, or
even with the Chinese who eat flesh sparingly, it certainly
would appear that an animal diet is favourable to the develop-
ment of the character and the intellect. The case, however, is
altered if a more comprehensive view be taken. The South-
African nations cannot do for any length of time without
animal food.3 The Hottentots and Kaffirs, who, like the peoples
of cold climates, consume fat and tallow in large quantities,4
differ a good deal in character and activity. On the arrival of
the Dutch at the Cape, in the seventeenth century, they found
the Hottentots peaceable, intellectually inert, but good-natured,
and yet they were then like the warlike Kaffirs of the present
day, a pastoral people, living chiefly on the milk of their cattle.
1 Koler, "Einige Notizen iiber Bonny/' p. 57, 1848; Lander, "E. zur Er-
forsch. des Niger/' i, p. 81, 1833.
2 " Allg. Historie der Eeisen," iv, p. 127.
3 Liechtenstein, " E. im Siidl. Africa," i, p. 110, 1811.
4 Thunberg, "E. durcli e. Theil v. Europa, Afr. u. Asien," i, p. 175, 1792;
Gardiner, " Narrative of a Journey to the Zulu Country," p. 175, 1836.
ZCT. L] ALIMENT. 61
Buraets, and many other Siberian nomadic tribes, are
hort and weakly through living entirely on animal food
Pallas) . On the other hand, the greater portion of the South
islanders, living almost entirely on vegetables and fish, are
ntellectually gifted, and many of them very warlike.1 The
nost savage, and at the same time the most gifted people, the
•'ij'i islanders, live almost entirely on vegetables, chiefly yams.
Fhe inhabitants of New Caledonia are large, well-proportioned,
md more vigorous than those of the New Hebrides. The
Vfohav-Indians, on the Colorado, in North America, are of
ithletic structure, though living exclusively on vegetable food.2
From these examples, which might easily be multiplied, we
are not inclined to consider with Lesson (128), the vegetable
iiet of the inhabitants of Ualan (Micronesia) as the cause of
/heir effeminacy and peaceful disposition, nor to consider any
necessary connexion of that kind, as do Grerdy and Lucas.3
The capacity of thriving on any kind of sufficient alimentary
substances appears, besides the climatic conditions, to depend
on the habitude of the organism which seems to be transmitted
to the offspring. It may further be observed, that the Euro-
jean is, with regard to vegetable food, more favourably cir-
cumstanced than the inhabitants of other quarters of the globe,
in as much as proper preparation renders his vegetables more
nutritious and digestible than the maize of the native Ameri-
can, the millet of the African, and the rice of the Asiatic,
which, to afford the same nourishment, must be consumed in
arge quantities, producing a less advantageous effect on body
and mind.
Further proofs of the great influence of aliment and mode of
life on man are furnished by the American Indians. Though
it is undoubted that the Indians west of the rocky mountains
belong to the same stock as those in the East (the Indian
tribes in the interior of the Oregon region resemble very much
those who formerly were in possession of the eastern part of
the United States) ; yet, both mentally and physically are they
1 Moerenhout, " Voy. aux lies du gr. Ocean," i, p. 120, 1837.
2 Sitgraves, in " Bullet. Soc. Geog./' i, p. 379, 1855.
3 Loc. cit., ii, p. 474.
62 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAKT T.
inferior to the Indians of the East. Their resources are more
limited, and their diet poorer.1 All fishing peoples of these
parts are weaker than their allied tribes ; less enterprising, as
they have not the habit of sustained activity requisite for hunt-
ing. The Takhalis or Carriers in the north of New Caledonia ;
the fishing tribes on the Columbia ; the Upper Californians on
the coast, are shorter and more delicate than the inhabitants of
the interior living by the chase.2 Among the weakest and most
miserable human beings may be enumerated the Paiuches, on
the northern Colorado and in the region of the Salt Lake.3 The
Schoschonies live in an almost desert tract, with but little game ;
(buffaloes are only found in the neighbourhood of the Rocky
Mountains) they grow fat at the time of salmon fishing, but be-
come again emaciated in winter and spring.4 The size of the
Esquimaux differs according to the richness of the tract they
inhabit.5 The American Indian seems generally to have no
tendency to grow fat ; there is, however, an exception as re-
gards the Moxos in South America, who lead a more protected
and secure life, being agriculturists and navigators besides
fishers and hunters. (D'Orbigny.)
There is scarcely a people among whom more striking differ-
ences are found accordingly as they are nourished, than among
the Jakutes. Those who live in the meadows on the south
side of the mountains are five feet ten inches to six feet four
inches in height, well-formed and vigorous ; whilst those in the
north are only of middle stature, and of an unhealthy aspect.6
A similar difference is found among the nomadic people, the
Reindeer-Tschuktsh and the Tschuktsh tribe settled on the;
coast, above whom the former claim a superiority.7 The Arabs
differ much in their habits, and their physical peculiarities vary
accordingly, as shown in Egypt. In the colder regions they
are clear complexioned (yellow in the Hedschas, white in
1 Hale, p. 199.
2 Farnhain, " Travels in the Californias," p. 364, New York, 1844.
a Ibid., p. 376.
4 Wyeth, Schoolcraft, " History of the Indian Tribes," i, p. 206.
5 Seemann, " R. urn d. W.," ii, p. 53, 1853.
6 " Billings, K. nach d. Nordl. Gegendenv.russ. Asien, n. Am.," p. 122, 1803.
7 Ibid., p. 233 ; Wrangell, " Statist, und Ethnog. Nachrichten iiber d. russ.
Besitzungen im Am.," p. 59, Petersburg., 1839.
Si :< T. I.] ALIMENT. 63
Algeria and Aleppo, says D'Escayrac,1 ) in Mecca yellowish-
brown, and have neither the eagle nose nor the fine features of
the Bedouins ; in Jemen the noses are straight like the Greek
nose. In Hauran (south of Damascus) the Arabs are mostly
of short stature, small face, thin beard ; whilst the Fellahs are
taller and more robust, beard strong, but their eyes are less
piercing. This difference must be considered as the effect of
mode of life, as it was not appreciable before the sixteenth cen-
tury.2 The Bedouins in the middle of the desert have, Negro-
like, almost woolly hair. In Nubia, south of Dongola, there are
Arabs of a shining black colour, who do not intermix with the
Negroes.3 The Sheighias in Nubia, are of a shining black,4 and
considered to be the finest men in the East, not excepting even
the Turks.5 Hoskings,6 however, calls them dark brown, and
observes, that they have sometimes larger nostrils and thicker
lips than Europeans, perhaps the result of intermixture with
the Negroes.
That the size of the body depends essentially on nutrition
has been proved by various instances quoted by Milne Ed-
wards.7 This is shown by the statistical information on stature,
furnished by the districts of Paris and the various departments
of France. The French military standard confirms the results
obtained. Before 1 789, the standard was five feet one inch, for
cavalry five feet three inches. Though, from 1816 the mean
height of the French was somewhat raised during the peace,
still the standard had to be lowered in 1818 to four feet nine
inches ; in 1830 and 1848 it was again lowered, as the requisite
number of recruits could not be obtained of the legal stan-
dard.8 That the development of the trunk is essentially affected
by the activity of the muscles, is shown by the measurements
of Quetelet, of Europeans, Kaffirs, and Ojibbeways, compared
1 " Die Afric. Wiiste u. das Land. d. Schwarzen/' p. 185, 1855.
s Hitter, " Erdk.," xv, p. 990.
3 Priehard, iv, p. 590. ,
4 Waddington and Hanbury, " Journal of a Visit to some parts of Ethio-
pia," p. 122, 1822.
3 Ibid., p. 194.
6 " Travels in Ethiopia," p. 128, 1835.
7 "Elemens de Zoologie," p. 254; compare also I. Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
" Ann. des Sc. Nat.," 1832 ; Froriep's " Notizen," 1833.
8 " All. Zeitg./' No. 22, 1852.
64 PHYSICAL INVESflGATION. [PART I.
with those of Negro slaves.1 The mode of life has also ai
important influence on the form of the pelvis. Whilst th<
Malay and Japanese women have a comparatively large peb
and parturiate with facility ; the Chinese women have often
narrow pelvis, which may perhaps be ascribed to their sedentai
life, as, even among the neighbouring Japanese and Mala^
ladies of high rank, difficult labours occur.2 Whether then
obtains in Europe a similar difference, as a rule, between th(
inhabitants of cities and of the country, might not be an un-
interesting subject of inquiry.
The influence of aliment and mode of life is more strikingh
exhibited where, in addition to a difference of habit, there ob-
tains a difference of social relations, and a separation of the
various classes of the population. By their combined action,
they produce among men originally from the same stock, a
gradual inequality both in their internal and external characters.
To this may be ascribed the striking differences among the
Finnish nations, as well as those existing between the castes
and ranks in India and Polynesia. We have already spoken of
them, but they deserve repetition, since besides aliment and
mode of life, social relations combine with them. On one side,
there is the nobility in the consciousness of superiority ; in
Polynesia, from a belief of their being in direct communication
with the gods, the aristocracy are almost worshiped : on the other
side, the people are conscious of having been born to servitude,
or as is the case with some castes, are reckoned unclean during
their whole existence. Similar relations existed in the old
Inka Empire. The aristocracy were as in Polynesia, and as the
highest caste in India, in possession of all knowledge, which, on
their being exterminated by the Spaniards, disappeared with
them. Analogous differences between the aristocracy and the
common people are found everywhere. Among the Kurds along
the Turco-Persian frontier, the traveller easily distinguishes the
caste of peaceable agricultural labourers by their nearly Grecian
physiognomy, from the higher caste of warriors.3 The latter
1 " Bullet, de 1' Acad. des Sc. de Belgique," tome xx.
2 " Allg. Medic. Centralztg./' No. 6, p. 37, 1853.
3 Prichard, iv, p. 68.
SECT. I.] MODE OF LIFE. 65
have stern angular features, and staring grey or bluish eyes.
There exist also linguistic differences between the two castes—
that of the labourers approaches more the Persian dialect than
that of the warriors ; hence, a diversity of stock is not impro-
bable.1 Among the Bechuanas of Littaku, the higher ranks
are distinguished by a clearer complexion, higher stature, and
European features.2 Among the Chinese who have for several
generations lived in affluence, the peculiarities of the Mongolian
race grow fainter and the features become nobler.3 The free
Indians of Ecuador are mostly better made and have finer
features and a lighter colour than those employed by the
whites as shepherds and agricultural labourers. The former
are, in many parts, so white and have such good features, that
they seem only by their dress to differ from the Europeans.4
How much the necessity of adopting different habits of life
influences the development of internal and external character-
istics, is shown by the inhabitants of Wojjerat in the south-east
of Tigre. They are said to be the descendents of Portuguese
soldiers, who settled there in the sixteenth century. Combes
and Tamisier5 doubt it, but Poncet in his travels, in 1698,
says of them, they are easily known, and they were the so-
called white Abyssinians.6 In the temperate climate of this
mountain region, surrounded by many savage nations, and
forced by them to many wars in order to preserve their in-
dependence, they have become a proud athletic race, more
powerful than the majority of the aborigines. They form, in
this respect, a contrast to the Portuguese descended from
merchants, who, in the East Indies, in unhealthy regions, have
by a dissipated life, become weaker even than the natives of
these parts.7 The Fulahs in the south of Bornou, surrounded
by natives who are less civilized, are still herdsmen, without
that desire for conquest and reform which distinguishes the
1 Kitter, " Erdk.," ix, 570.
2 Philip, " Researches in South Africa," ii, 128, 1828.
3 Epp, " Schilderungen, axis Hollandisch-Indien," p. 168, 1852.
4 Villavicencio, " Geogr. de la rep. del Ecuador," p. 167, Nev/ York, 1858.
5 " Voy. en Abyss.," iv, p. 319.
6 " Allerhand lehrreiche briefe v. d. mission de ges. Jesu ad. d. neue Welt-
Bot.," iii, p. 100, Augsburg, 1726.
' Salt, " Voyage to Abyssinia," p. 274.
0(3 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
western Fulahs, and have, excepting their small features, hands
and feet and the high forehead, little resemblance to the Fulahs
of the west.1 Generally speaking, the different aspect of the
Fulahs in the interior of Africa corresponds closely with the
degrees of civilization and the social relations in which they
live, and cannot be explained by an assumed intermixture with
the Negro-race. Between the inhabitants of the southern and
northern King's-Mill-Islands (Mikronesia), there exists equally
a great difference both externally and in character, and there is
no reason to suppose that they are of different stocks. The
latter live in peace, and have abundant food, which is not the
case as regards the former.2
The argument in favour of the power of such conditions fur-
nished by the Barabra in Nubia, is however exposed to many
objections, the Barabra are described as of a shining black, but
otherwise not at all negro-like. They have thin, curly, but not
woolly hair, a pointed nose with large nostrils, a large mouth, and
but moderately thick lips. Nevertheless, they speak, according
to Eiippel,3 a Negro language, which with its dialects extends
over the whole country from Dongola to Kordofan. This
language prevails also in Darfur ;4 and it seems, therefore, as
Cooley,5 following Ibn Khaldun, observes, that the people of
the Barabra are of Negro descent, like the native population
of Kordofan and Darfur; but that in consequence of agri-
culture, trade, and a higher civilization, the features have
gradually improved, which is also asserted of other negro
tribes as the effect of the introduction of Islamism.6 Opposed
to this view, is the circumstance, that the Nubians have
been described by the ancient Arab geographers as a fine
race of men, not at all negro-like;7 and that particularly
the present province Berber had been conquered under
the fourth Kalif after Mohammed by Abadja Arabs, who
came from Jemen, and the present Barabra are said to
1 Barth., " Reisen u. Entdecktmgen," ii, p. 476.
2 Wilkes, "Narrative of the U.S. Explor. Exped.," v,p. 107, Philad., 1845.
3 " R. in Nubien, Kordofan," p. 126, 1829.
4 Burckhardt, " R. in Nubien," p. 486, 1820.
.-> "Negroland of the Arabs," p. 118, 1841.
fi Compare Prichard, ii, p. 342.
< " Isthakri," p. 21. ; " Cod. Goth. Idrisi trad. p. Jaubert," i, p. 25.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTURE. 67
have descended from intermixture.1 Their country manifestly
is one of those where an extended intermixture of Negroes
with Abyssinian and Arabs took place.
Finally, it may be noticed that Lepsius2 designates the
Kundschara language as predominating in Darfur and the
greater part of Kordofan, a language which is a foreign Negro-
idiom, while the Nuba language may perhaps be considered
as belonging to the Caucasian (Semitic?) language. Rus-
seger,3 and also Brehm,4 appear to be of the same opinion in
considering the Barabra as belonging to the Ethiopian (Abys-
sinian) peoples from their linguistic similarities.
Many of the preceding instances have taught us what im-
portant changes in the organism may be effected by a combi-
nation of diet, physical culture, and social condition. But as
these are chiefly connected with an entire change in habits,
there occurs in most cases a corresponding change in mental
development. In now considering the effects of psychical in-
fluences, it must be observed, that a separation of the particular
influence which each individual agent exercises is impracticable;
for in the great majority of physical changes produced by the
continued action of psychical influences, nutrition and mode of
life are acting in the same direction. An abundance of the
necessaries of life, combined with a feeling of security and a
permanent social condition, are usually connected with a
relatively high degree of mental culture, which reacts
favourably on the development of the body. On the other
hand, hunger, uncleanliness, and misery, produce gradually an
obtuseness of intellect, loss of energy, and when combined
with an oppressed social condition, may contribute to arrest
bodily development in a people.
The lower the mental development of a people, the more
subject is it to external natural influences. These may act
directly upon the organism, or indirectly. If all conditions of
1 Hbskins, p. 200.
2 " Bericht iiber d. verb, der Preuss. Akad./' p. 382, 1844.
3 " E. in Europa, Asien, u. Afr.," ii, p. 192, 1843.
4 Chap, i, p. 72.
F 2
68 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
life are of a simple kind, and if activity is exclusively directed
to satisfy physical wants, there will be a great external resem-
blance in individuals ; for a feeble exertion of the mind, and
a uniform expression of mental emotion, impress upon the
physiognomy and the whole body the stamp of uniformity,
exhibiting but little variety. A greater difference between
individuals is only found in more highly developed nations.
. Just as the Romans found the old Germans very much like
each other, so it is with the civilized European who looks at
so-called savages for the first time. This, no doubt, may in
most cases arise from, merely taking a superficial view. Thus
Kendall1 says of the Mexican women, that they appear to
strangers very like each other, because they wear the same
dress, have black hair, dark piercing eyes, and very regular
features. The expression of Ulloa,2 that he who has seen one
American has seen them all, has been much criticised. Molina
considers it as a great exaggeration, and observes, that the
error arose from similarity of colour; that all the tribes he
had seen exhibited different features, and that a Chilese, for
instance, was not less distinguishable from a Peruvian, than a
German from an Italian. Hale also observes, that no two
European nations differ from each other, in external aspect, so
much as the Indians above, from those below the great
Cataracts of Columbia. It is unnecessary to accumulate proofs
that great differences between various tribes of America do
exist. The fact, however, stands thus : that whilst peoples
may be easily distinguished from each other, there exists a
very great resemblance between the individuals belonging to
the same people. The great uniformity of external aspect of
the aboriginal Americans has also been noticed by Humboldt
and Morton, the latter excepts only the Esquimaux. The
features of the Botokudes are as various and diversified as
among Europeans.3 The Indians on the Orinoco form another
exception.4 It has been observed by many travellers, that it
p.
4 Humboldt und Bonpland, " R. in d. Aeq./' iii, p. 493.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTURE. 69
is difficult to distinguish in America males from females by
the features of the face. Pickering1 asserts this of the Mon-
golian race in general. This applies also to many Negro
tribes. Huschke2 observes, that the differences in the capacity
of the cranium between the sexes is least in the Negro, and
increases gradually up to the European. De Hell3 found a
great resemblance in the individuals of the Mongolian tribes
on the Caspian Sea. D'Orbigny, as Humboldt did before him,4
says the same of the aboriginal South Americans ; thus per-
manence of type is, according to them, partly owing to the
non-intermixture of the various tribes. It cannot be doubted
that this great physical resemblance chiefly arises from deficient
expression of psychical individuality, owing to the low state
of mental culture. Among barbarous nations, says Humboldt,5
we find rather a tribal than an individual physiognomy. Though
these phenomena may perhaps not exactly be considered as a
brute resemblance, still it has been remarked that even among
pur domestic animals there is a greater difference in external
expression than among the same animals in a savage state*
This difference may be the consequence of psychical develop-
ment acquired in their relation and dependence on man.
Koler, it is true,6 ascribes to individuals of a Negro tribe the
same diversity of features as among Europeans ; but this
is, excepting in mixed nations, incorrect, as there is no doubt
that a uniformity of mental qualities exists among the same
tribe. The slave dealer in Upper Egypt (Schendy) merely
inquires after the native place of the slave, and not after his
character, because long experience has shown him the im-
portance of descent to be greater than that of individual
character ; thus, the Nubas and Gallas are considered as very
faithful, those of Northern Abyssinia as treacherous and
malicious, those of Fertit as savage and revengeful.7 Though
" Races of man," p. 15, 1849.
Sehadel, Him u. Seele, p. 48.
" Trav. in the steppes of the Caspian."
" E. in die aequinoctialg.," ed. Hauff., ii, p. 15.
" Neuspanien," i, p. 116.
" Notizen iiber Bonny," p. 91, 1848.
Katte, "E. in Abyssen./' p. 131, 1838; Burckhardt, pp. 423/447.
70 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Burmeister1 speaks of great individual differences of physio-
gnomy among Negroes, this is to be understood chiefly of
national features, as individuals of different Negro peoples came
under his inspection in Brazil. Among the Polynesians, and
especially among the most gifted of them, the Fiji Islanders,
the individuals of the same tribe exhibit as great differences in
features as the inhabitants of any part of Europe.2
Though the uniformity of external aspect, which predomi-
nates among uncultivated nations, must be considered as partly
owing to the influence of the mental state upon the body, we
must not lose sight of another source from which such a uni-
formity arises. An assimilation of features and movements
from involuntary imitation may arise, not only among single
families, but among large communities, just like many lin-
guistic expressions and other habits, and such will be especially
the case if they lead a more secluded life. In the clans of
Scotland, for instance, these family resemblances are very
striking.3 An assimilation may also be observed in a single
individual who has lived for a series of years among a foreign
tribe, and having adopted their manners and mode of life, has,
to some extent, become one of them. Something of the kind
was observed in Giitzlaff, when he returned after a long resi-
dence in China. In America, especially, Europeans have
been found among the Indians, whom they greatly resembled
after a long residence among them. Similar cases have also
occurred in New Zealand and Australia,
An analogous effect of the reaction of intellectual life is also
seen in the circumstance that the free-born Negro children in
Sierra Leone have better features, more intelligent eyes, and a
nobler deportment and form than their liberated parents.4 The
same difference has been observed between the maroon and
slave Negroes in Jamaica.5 " The blacks cannot now be
treated as formerly ; they now think, hear, and see as well as
1 " Geol. bilder,/' ii, p. 101.
2 Hale, loc. cit., pp. 10, 48.
3 Jarrold, " Anthropologia ; or, Diss. on the form and colour of man," p.
112, 1858.
4 Norton, " A residence in S. Leone," p. 278, 1849.
6 Pallas, " Gesch. der Maroncn neger auf Jam.," p. 148, 1805.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTURE. 71
the white, they have become more intelligent than they were,
and will soon become still more so," said a Negro of Jamaica
to Lewis.1 The same difference between the free and the
slaves among the Guaranis in Paraguay, Corrientes, and Boli-
via, has been observed by D'Orbigny and Broc.
It is asserted that whenever in the West Indies a Negro is
found occupying a superior position, he generally presents
some Caucasian features, such as a longer or more hooked
, resembling the Jewish physiognomy.2 In whatever way
thesi- cases may be explained, they, at least, show that the
bodily formation of the Negro has not that absolute per-
manence which some would ascribe to it ; and though one might
be inclined to confine their change of type within narrower
limits than higher races, those who, like Nott, deny any change
of the Negro in Am erica, are evidently in the wrong.
Concerning mental qualifications we possess some sufficient
and confirmed data. Stevenson3 observed several times that
the Negroes born in Peru possessed better mental capacity than
those newly imported from Africa. He says nothing of physical
differences, excepting that the Creole-Negroes are stronger
and more athletic. According to Tschudi,4 the newly imported
Negroes are less lively than the Creole-Negroes, but patient
and more faithful than the former. The greater capacities of
the Creole-Negroes have been confirmed by the documents
which the Commission of the French Chamber of Deputies re-
ceived from the colonies in 1839. De Lisboa5 agrees in this
view, adding the observation, that these higher capacities
must not be considered as a consequence of education, in
which the Creoles are entirely deficient ; hence the low state of
mental capacity in Africa must be the result of social condition.
Froberville also,6 who considers the physical and moral sensi-
bility of the Negro as considerably more obtuse than that of
the white, speaks of the striking intellectual difference between
the African parents and their children born in the colonies.
1 " Journal of a resid. among the negroes of the West Indies," p. 84, 1845.
2 Day, " Five years residence in the West Indies," i, p. 141, 1852.
8 Loc. cit., pp. 179, 198.
4 Loc. cit., i, p. 154.
" " Bullet, de la soc. Ethnol." p. 54, Janv. 1847.
• " Bullet, de la soc. Geogr.," ii, p. 326, 1847.
72 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
It is, besides, well known that Negroes born in America fetch
higher prices than those newly imported, a fact which speaks
plainly in favour of the superiority of the first. Such differ-
ences of mental capacities cannot be entirely unaccompanied
by external changes, there being such a parallelism between
physical and psychical life, that no great change can take place
in the latter without re-acting upon the former, and giving it
expression. Though such physical changes may not be de-
monstrated to any extent in the Negroes of America, it must
be taken into consideration that it required a constant new im-
portation of African Negroes to supply the slave population,
and that comparatively there are but a small number of slaves
whose ancestors have lived for many generations in America.
The cases in which the latter circumstance exists belong mostly
to the South of the United States, West Indies, and South
America ; as statistics have shown that Negroes thrive less in
the New England states, though it may be going too far to
maintain that climatic conditions render it impossible for them
to perpetuate themselves in that quarter.
D'Orbigny1 maintains that the type of the Negroes born in
America is easily distinguished from that of the newly im-
ported in whom it is more pronounced. Lyell (second journey)
learned from many physicians in the slave states of North
America, that the Negroes who had much intercourse with
Europeans (independent of sexual intercourse), approach them
gradually in shape of skull and form of body (in the course of
several generations), and connects this with Dr. Hancock's
observation, that even among the Negroes of Gruinea a greater
mental cultivation changed in course of time the general
physiognomical expression, that the lower jaw and the shape
of skull became modified. That such a difference is ob-
served between the domestic and the plantation slaves (the
latter preserving their original type), has already been observed
by Prichard, who quotes Wisemann to that effect. Supported
by such cases Ward2 asserts that the Negroes in the course of
200 or 300 years had in some parts of America, without inter-
1 Loc. cit., p. 143. 2 « Natural hist, of mankind/' p. 157, 1849.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTUEE. 73
mixture with other races, partially lost their thick lips and
projecting lower jaw, and their original peculiarities had been
lessened under the influence of improved physical and moral
conditions. Williamson1 confirms this improvement of the
Negro character, specially as regards the Negroes of Long
Island; and Lavaysse2 speaks of a better physical and intel-
lectual condition of the Creole-Negroes, as founded upon the
general experience of the planters. Stanhope Smith3 says ex-
pressly that he does not speak of Mulattoes, but of pure
Negroes, and observes that the well cared-for domestic slaves
in America lose gradually their specific disagreeable odour ;
that their hair becomes less crisp, and grows in the third
generation to the length of several inches. He states an in-
stance, confirmed by many observers, of a Negro who without
any disease had become white and straight haired. In New
Jersey specially there are Negroes to be found with straight
noses, well-formed foreheads, and straight incisors.4 These
instances, although they may not be considered as perfectly
impartial observations, are too numerous, too definite, and too
free from any suspicion as to their sources, to be rejected off
hand. Two other circumstances are noteworthy j first, that the
greatest changes in the Negroes occur in the North of the
United States, whence it follows that the climatic conditions
have not been without their influence ; secondly, that just the
third generation is mentioned as that in which the metamor-
phosis becomes appreciable, the same generation of which
Philip5 maintains that in the South African missions the shape
of the crania of the children deviates from its original form, and
commences to improve; and also Mallat6 asserts, that in the
third generation the tamed Negrito, of Manilla, becomes modi-
fied, and approaches in form and character the Tagales.
Whether we are sceptical or not as to these instances, their
coincidence is remarkable, and worthy of further investigation.
1 " Observations on the climate of America," p. 42, New York, 1811.
2 LOG. cit., pp. 139, 141.
s Loc. cit., p. 265.
4 Loc. cit., p. 91, 115, 170
5 " Itesearches in S. Africa,** ii, p. 129, 1828.
e « Les Philippines," i, p. 45, 1846.
74 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Similar instances of a greater or less metamorphosis of the
physical type by altered conditions of civilization, occur also
among us ; only that in many of such cases it cannot be shown
with certainty how far intermixture between several peoples
has occasioned it ; and this uncertainty becomes greater, inas-
much as the variations in civilization occur in consequence of
the intercourse of these peoples.
If we were in possession of exact representations of the
physical aspect of individuals of the same people at different
periods, we might, by comparison, infer how far the external
characters of a people correspond to the progress or retardation
of its intellectual culture. De Salles remarks very justly, that
all uncultured nations possess, in comparison with civilized
nations, a large mouth and somewhat thick lips. Zimmer-
mann1 has directed attention to the great differences between
the ancient and modern Germans, and endeavoured to explain
them from changes of the climate and mode of life ; but their
spiritual culture must also have greatly contributed to the
physical changes. The high stature, the light or red hair, the
blue eyes, and the clear complexion which they possessed at
the time of the Romans, have not, it is true, been lost by them, i
but have become less general. We find in Jarrold2 the analo-
gous assertion, that in the time of Henry VIII, red hair pre- 1
dominated in England, and that at the commencement of the *
fifteenth century, grey eyes were more general, and dark eyes '
and hair unfrequent. He also mentions, that the cheek bones
of the English were then more prominent, as they are at pre-
sent towards the north. This reminds us of the strong features
presented by the old German painters, showing that our own I
physiognomy has not always been the same. More refined
manners, mental emotions, and a diminished firmness of cha- '\
racter appear to have softened the rigid, hard, and angular
features.
As a further proof of the influence of intellectual culture on
physical form, may be quoted the instance of the Sikhs, a re-
ligious sect, formed in 1469 by Kanaka, and which has since
1 " Geogr. gesch. des Menschen," i, p. 54, 1778.
2 Loc. cit., pp. 155, 216.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTURE. 75
lived in an isolated state. Originally Hindoos of the Punjab,
they are now strikingly distinguished from their nearest allied
tribes, somewhat in the same degree as the Hindoos from the
Chinese, by extremely regular features and an oval face.1 They
wear long beards,2 and are said to resemble in face and deport-
ment, more than any other Asiatic people, Europeans, with the
single exception of the inhabitants of Cashmeer.3
The cases of the Osmanli-Turks and the Magyars are more
difficult to deal with. The improved shape of the skull and of
the features of the former in comparison with their allied tribes
in Asia, has been ascribed to the handsome women of the
harem ; and the physical improvement of the Magyars, who at
their arrival in Europe were of extreme ugliness, to their inter-
mixture with Germans and Sclavonians. There are in European
Turkey, about 700,000 Turks scattered among 15,000,000 of
other tribes (Schafarik) ; and as the influence of the harem
cannot have extended to the whole people, it is very probable,
as is proved by historical evidence, that intermixture has
largely taken place, less among the lower than among the
higher classes, the language of the former containing less
Arabian, Persian, and European elements than the written
language and that used in conversation among the higher
-es.4 That theory has most in its favour which assumes
that both intermixture and intellectual progress have contri-
buted to improve the physical conformation of the Osmanlis.
This, perhaps, is also the case as regards the Magyars. They
differ at present very much from Finns, yet their language is
Finnish, though some Indo- Germanic elements are found in it
(Pott) . Where they have remained less mixed and less culti-
vated, in some remote, chiefly mountainous parts, they possess
the ungainly primitive type. The flat lands exhibit the transi-
tions to a nobler type ; they are conjoined in Szegedin. The
peasants in Cumania and Jazygia are specially distinguished
by handsome regular features.5
1 Prichard, iv, p. 240.
2 Malcolm, " Asiatic Researches," xi, p. 259.
8 Pavie in " Mem. de la soc . Ethnol./' i, p. 263.
« Schleicher, " D. Spr. Europas," 1850.
5 Eey in "Nouv. ann. des voy.," ii, p. 113, 1849.
76 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
W. F. Edwards1 describes, as peculiarities frequently occur-
ing in Hungary — globular head, low receding forehead, oblique
eyes, short flat nose, thick projecting lips, flat occiput, weak
beard,2 short stature. This form is manifestly very different
from that of the Finns, nor can it be compared with that of the
Lapps. It is almost a caricature of the Mongolian type ; for the
Finns have short conical crania, flat temples, and globular occi-
put ; the skull of the Lapps is smaller and thinner.3 One is
certainly inclined to doubt the theory of the absolute perman-
ence of types, and to adopt rather an extensive change in the
form of the crania by climate and intellectual pursuits, when it
is seen that Eetzius is obliged to deny the affinity between
Finns and Lapps, on account of the difference in shape of skull.
The Finns were, in former times, the free owners of the soil ;
their monuments and their poetry testify of a high culture in
past times ; while the Lapps ever have been, and still are,
miserable nomads. Might not the physical differences be
considered as having gradually arisen ? The Karele has an
oval skull ; the Savolax, a round one. The Tavastlander, a
squarish-round skull, and yet the Finnish speaking Karele, we
are told, is no Finn, but has lost his own language and appro-
priated another, merely because his head is oval.4 Yet the
Croats and Dalmatians do not show the Sclavonian type; whilst
the old Egyptian type is still detected in the Fellahs ; and the
Greek type has been preserved in Greece, specially in the Morea
(Pouqueville), notwithstanding the great admixture of foreign
blood.5
There are other instances, very difficult to be explained from
intermixture alone. "We do not, therefore, consider that the
linguist is justified in conceding so much in this respect to the
anatomist and zoologist as Pott has done, who assumes6 that
intermixture has produced an essential change in physical
1 " Des caracteres phys. des races hum./' p. 73, 1829.
2 The Magyars at this time have fine long beards, which are the objects of
particular care.
3 Retzius in " Muller's archiv./' p. 109, 1845 ; compare also Hueck, " De
craniis Estonum," p. 10, 1838.
4 Eetzius, loc. cit., p. 394, 1848.
5 Edwards, loc. cit., p. 101.
6 " Die ungleichheit menschl. Kassen," p. 147, 1856.
SECT. I.] MENTAL CULTURE. 77
formation among the Magyars, Osmanlis, Finns, and Samojeds,
while they have preserved their language — that " an exchange
of body" with foreign tribes has taken place without an ex-
change of soul ; whilst on the other hand, the Romanic nations
were compelled to adopt the Latin as their language without
any great injury to the essential peculiarities of their corporeal
structure. Without considering such a theory as absolutely
impossible, we should still require more stringent proofs to
support it ; for intermixtures of great extent which alter the
physical type of a people can scarcely be thought of, unless
the language should experience a corresponding change.
Where foreign races, as the Chinese in the East Indian Archi-
pelago, bring no women with them, and can only ally them^
selves with native women, it cannot be wondered at that the
mongrels belong to one type according to language, and to
another according to race (at Java for instance, according
to De Jong) j1 but such instances are among the rare excep-
tions. Though it is plainly shown, how among the Komanic
nations the language of the conquerors replaced that of the
'Conquered, the change which the Latin underwent corre-
sponds to some extent with the physical metamorphosis by
which the Celts in Gaul became the French of the present
day, and the Iberians became Spaniards. How much must be
ascribed to intermixture, or to many other causes, can be hardly
; ascertained. We are far too ready to ascribe it to the first
• cause simply because it affords a convenient explanation.
When, for instance, the Finns are considered as originally a
Mongolian people, which has improved its physical type by in-
itermixture with the white race (Castren), the theory is objec-
itionable on account of the linguistic development and its
: inflections, which certainly cannot be ascribed to the engrafting
of Indo-Grermanic elements upon a Mongolian foundation.
With regard to the Magyars and Osmanli-Turks, it must be
; admitted, that the admixture of foreign elements has contri-
buted to the change of their physical type, the extent of which
Eeisen nach dem Vorgeb. der guten Hoffnung," ii, p. 373, 1803.
78 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [?ART I.
always depends on the degree of resistance to external and in-
ternal influences possessed by various races.
The shape of the cranium is now by many naturalists con-
sidered as an infallible criterion of race, and yet those who
have devoted the greatest attention to the subject admit that
the individual differences in the form of the cranium become
greater in proportion to the higher intellectual development of
a nation.1 According to Engel,2 there are but few deviations
in the cranial structure among uncultivated nations, but many
among civilized nations. We have already stated that this
fact is, with some exceptions, generally correct; and if we
repeat it here it is on account of the admission that the form
of the cranium is liable to changes. Though Edwards3 is of
opinion that the effect of civilization amounts to very little as
regards its influence upon physical development, because
among the same people the most different degrees of culture
are found in connexion with the same physical type — an axiom
which denies that mental capacities are indicated by the shape
of the cranium — we must bear in mind that to support such an
opinion we would require a more exact division of national
types than we at present possess. We find, however, instances
which seem to prove that the form of the skull is by no means
as constant as is usually asserted. Eetzius, himself, found that
the female skulls belonging to the higher and middle classes in
Sweden are generally smaller than those of country people,
and he considers this to be the consequence of a different
mode of life and occupation. Latham4 inserts a table from
Wilson's "Archaeology and Pre-historic Annals of Scotland,"
in which it is shown that the cranial capacity of the ancient
Scots was less than at a later period, which he is inclined to
consider as the result of civilization. With regard to Negroes,
the old skulls of Negroes dug out in New York were, accord-
ing to Dr. Warren, much thicker, and betrayed, phrenologi-
cally considered, much less mental capacity than the skulls of
a recent date.5 All this leads us to the view taken by Miiller
1 Eetzius, loc. cit., p. 205, 1848. 4 " Man and his migrations," p. 63,
2 " Unters iiber schadelformen," p. 121. 1851.
3 Loc. cit., p. 30. 6 " Quarterly Review," June 1851.
Sl-:.« ; this however is not constant, and is sometimes found
among Mongols.4 Duncan5 says that in Dahomey skulls with-
out any longitudinal or transverse sutures are by no means
rare. According to Sb'mmering,6 the capacity of the skull is
absolutely less, and all the dimensions of the head smaller,
than in the European ; the efferent nerves are thicker and the
brain harder and smaller in proportion (Monroe, Pruner,)
decidedly as in apes. This has been generally denied by
Tiedemann,7 but has in other respects been confirmed by him
in his representation of the cerebrum (Tab. v.) of a Bush-
woman, which in regard to development and convolutions is
not less inferior to that of the Negro than that of the latter to
the European. That the convolutions in the Negro brain are
less numerous and more massive than in the European (in
whom they also vary) appears certain.8 The similarity of the
Negro brain to that of the ape is limited to this ; for the
cranial capacity of the Negro is not (as Blumenbach, Lawrence,
1 "Nat. hist, of the var. of man," p. 471, 1850.
2 Plainer " Die Krankheiten des Orients," p. 64, 1847.
3 Hamilton Smith, " Nat. hist, of the human species," p. 190.
4 Hollard, " De I'homme et des races hum.," p. 251, 1853.
s " Journey in West Africa," ii, p. 246, 1848.
6 " Ueber d. korperl. Verschiedenheiten des Negers vom Europaer," p. 51,
1785.
7 « D. Him des Negers," 1837.
8 " Burmeister Geol. Bilder," ii, 123.
94 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
and Morton, in Cran. Amer., have maintained) less than that of
all other races.1 The coronal region is arched in the Negro, but
the forehead is often less developed than in the European
woman (Huschke) . The Negro brain thus possesses the type of
the female and the child's brain, and approaches that of the
superior apes. This does not agree with what Sommering
states, viz. that the transition from the occiput to the back is
flatter in the Negro than in the European, nor with Burmeister,
that the Negro possesses a shorter and less projecting occiput.
The latter has endeavoured to explain from this circumstance
the backward position of the occipital foramen, which is denied
by Prichard, and declared by Latham as not constant, whilst
Hollard admits a slight difference in this respect, and so does
Arnoux,2 observing, however, that the particular form of the
Negro required such, but does not in any degree prevent the
erect posture of the head.
The superficies of the face, which is usually described as
small, is nevertheless, in proportion to the surface of the
cranium, larger than in the European (Sommering, Lawrence).
Whilst in the European the forehead, the nasal region, and
mouth and chin, form equal sections of the face, there is in the
Negro a considerable increase in the lower part (Burmeister) .
The facial angle is little above seventy degrees, and the pro-
jecting jaw gives to the face a snout-like appearance. The
small laterally-compressed skull gives ample space to the tem-
poral muscles, from the great development of which in length
and breadth the lateral compression of the skull has been
explained. The forehead is small and globular, its surface
uneven and knotty (Blumenbach) . The eyes, — the sockets of
which, according to Prichard, are not larger than in the Eu-
ropean, but described as larger by Sommering, — are narrow,
black, and protuberant, mostly with a yellow conjunctiva
(Pruner), frequently exhibiting blood-vessels.3 The cheek-
1 See Tiedemann, W. Hamilton, Parchappe, " Rech. sur 1'encephale," and
Huschke, Schadel, Him, und Seele, 1854 ; the latter of whom gives 37'57 ounces
of brain in 54 cases ; for the Malay, only 36'41 in 98 cases.
2 "Bullet. Soc. Ethnol.," 1847.
3 Clapperton " Tageb. der zweiten R. ins innere v. Afr.," p. 184, 1830.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 95
bones are prominent, and the thick flat nose, with wide
rils, projects, together with the jaws, from the face. The
ethmoid bone is much developed. To this has been ascribed
the great development of the sense of smell in the Negro, but
it must be remarked that this occurs only exceptionally among
Negro people. The nasal cavity is like the buccal cavity, more
ious than in the European ; the nasal cartilage is deficient
in development.1 The lips (especially the upper lip) are puny,
and on that account very different from those of the ape ; their
colour varies from a dirty rose colour to that of cherry red, and
from dark red to tawny (Sommering), or is brown externally
and red internally. The upper jaw is stretched, directed for-
wards, the tongue thick and large, the palatine arch larger and
longer than in the European. The space for the teeth is said
to be very large, so that the hindmost molar tooth can be more
developed. There are sometimes six molars, the incisors are
not perpendicular, the superior especially are long and inclined
.forwards. The whiteness of the teeth, which has been con-
sidered as a peculiarity of the race, appears to be produced by
rubbing them with vegetable fibres, chalk, etc.2 There are
also regions where many bad and decayed teeth are seen,
for instance, in Nyffe. The Negro has no inter-maxillary
bone, but only, as the European in childhood, a rut which
marks it. The chin is small, but broad and receding. The
masseter, as well as the temporal muscles, are much developed.
The external ear projects out of the head, is small, but not, as
in the monkey, broad and flat (Burmeister) ; it is more equally
rounded than in the European (Pruner), and as generally
among the inferior races the helix is said to be flatter, but the
trfiyiiH and the lobule smaller (Yollard, p. 99). The voice of the
Negro is low and hoarse in the males, but acute and shriek-
ling among the women (H. Smith).
The hair of the Negro, which does not gradually, as in the
European, diminish towards the temple and the neck, ceases
1 Dutenhofer, " Ueber die Emancip. d. Neger.," 1855.
2 W. Miiller, " Die A-fr., Landschaft Fetu," 1676 ; Lander, " Eeise zur Er-
•forschung des Niger," iii, p. 94, 1833 -, Eaffenel, " Voy. dans 1'Afr. occ.," p. 198,
1846 ; Hecquard, " E. a. d. Kuste u. in d. innere v. West-Afr.," 1854.
96 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. PART I.]
abruptly like a wig (Sommering). In some spots it is entirely
wanting, so that among the Hottentots, Bushmen, and Austral
Negroes of the South Sea, it grows in separate tufts.
Although essentially differing from the wool of animals, it
much resembles it. Its curl is, according to Henle, owing to
its elliptic form. It is harder, more elastic and shining than
that of the European. It is usually not longer than three
inches, which is not owing to being cut, for all Negroes in
Brazil like long hair (Burmeister) . This natural shortness of
the hair is said not to be general. Many Negro tribes regu-
larly cut their hair, and, if frequently combed, it is said to
reach, on the coast of Guinea, the length of a foot.1 Dandolo2
saw among the Bakkara on the White Nile a couple of very
black Negresses with enormous heads of hair like a wig, half a
metre in circumference. It seems however doubtful whether in
these instances, pure Negroes are meant. The beard is mostly
very scanty, and grows only in advanced age ; whiskers are
generally wanting, hence the pride of the Moors living among
the Negroes, who by their beards exhibit their Arab descent,3
and the high value put, in Ashantee, upon a strong beard.4
Chest and body are but little, arms and legs not at all, covered
with hair.
The relatively thick and strongly developed neck of the
Negro, shorter by an inch than that of the European, com-
bined with a less curved vertebral column, enables him to carry
easily burdens upon the head, so that the Fantis for instance
prefer, in carrying stones, to place the wheelbarrow upon the
head.5 The chest is larger and more arched than in the
European. The pelvis is narrower, more conical, all its
diameters are smaller, hence the belly is more pendulous.
Vrolik6 has shown its similarity to that of the ape. With
regard to the limbs, White has drawn attention to the greater
relative length of the forearm in the Negro. In the European
1 Isert, " Neue E. nach Guinea/' p. 164, 1790.
2 Viaggio in Egitto, " Nel Sudan e Mil.," p. 271, 1854.
3 M. Park, " Voy. dans 1'Interieur de 1'Afr., Paris," an viii, i, 247.
4 Bowdich, " Mission von S. Coast nach Aschante," p. 391, 1820.
5 Duncan, loc. cit.
6 " Consid. sur la diversite des bassins," 1826.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 97
the proportion of the female arm is =12:9:6; in the male
= 12,5:10,5:7; in the Negro woman =12:10:7; in the
Negro =12,8 : 9,6 : 7,5 ; hence the hands appear in the Negro
as long drawn with a relatively small breadth. The Negro has
fine white nails, but which feel hard like wood (Burmeister) .
Daniell1 says on the other hand that, according to his measure-
ments, the fingers and the hands only are longer than in the
European, but not the arms.
The skin between the fingers reaches higher up in the Negro
than in the European.2 The leg is, on the whole, longer, but
the flat foot, which is but little arched, the ankle being but
one and one-third by one and a half above the ground, reduces
it in such a manner, that the leg appears short. The upper part
of the thigh is not full, the Negro generally being not prone to
become fat. The knees are somewhat bent, the calves weak, as
if laterally compressed. Bandy-legs are frequent, probably in
consequence of the mode in which the mothers carry their
children on the back. On account of the weakness of the
legs, the Negro is said to be very sensible to a blow on the
shinbones.3 The heel of the Negro is longer and broader and
the foot longer than in the European, a peculiarity which is
also said to belong to Mulattoes even after they have become
white.4 The toes are small, the first smaller than the second,
and separated from it by a free space (Burmeister). The
sesamoid bones are more numerous in the Negro than in the
European (Sommering). Duttenhofer5 states that a Negro
can stand for hours upon the extreme edge of one or both
feet, a task we should imagine most painful for him considering
the flatness of his feet.
As regards the blood of the Negro, various statements are
to be found in Sommering. Primer describes it as black and
pitchy; Foissac6 and Omboni7 deny a difference in colour of the
1 " L'lnstitut," ii, p. 88, 1846.
2 Van der Hoeven.
3 Day, " Five years resid. in the W. Inlies," ii, p. 98, 1852.
4 Day, loc. cit., i, p. 51.
5 Loc. ct., p. 83.
6 Loc. cit.
? «• Viaggi neU. Afr., occ. Mil.," p. 159, 1845.
H
98 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Negro blood from that of the European. T. W. de Miiller1
observes that in hot climates the arterial blood of white and
coloured men also resembles venous blood, in consequence of
the greater quantity of carbon contained in it ; and it has been
asserted that the predominance of the latter induces mental in-
dolence. The choleric and phlegmatic temperaments only are
said to prevail among Negroes. The greatly developed genitals
exhibit frequent turgescence. The glandular system is much
developed (Primer) . The stomach has a rounder shape (Som-
mering) .
The skin affords to the Negro a greater protection agains
the rays of the sun than to the European, as, exposed to the
sun for a longer time, it is not blistered; it is also per-
ceptibly thicker on the whole body than that of the European
it is always cool and velvety to the touch. With regard to th<
latter point, the savage natives of Central Africa are said to
form an exception, as their skin becomes wrinkled and chapped.2
It is more or less black according to the deposition of the pig-
ment, which (according to an analysis not entirely to be relied
upon), consists of nine-tenths of carbon to one-tenth iron and
fat (De Muller), and is found in the common cells of the
mucous layer of the epidermis, and not in special pigment cells,
whilst the dermis of the Negro is like that of the European.3
This pigment, which is wanting in the Negro foetus, is also
deposited in the mucous layer under the nail,4 and in the mem-
branes of the brain (De Muller), exceptionally, though rarely, also
on the gums and the velum palati,5 and upon the tongue (Primer) .
The palms only, and the soles of the feet, are of a lighter
colour, the first, frequently of European whiteness (Burmeister) .
According to Flourens' former opinion there was said to exist
between the epidermis and dermis an organ absent in the white,
which contained the colouring matter ; he has, however, now
adopted the prevailing opinion that there is no difference in
1 LOG. cit., p. 45.
2 D'Escayrac die Air. Wiiste und das Land der Schwarzen, p. 186, 1855.
3 Kolliker, " Microscop. anat."
4 Beclard, "Anat. generale," p. 309.
5 Arnoux, " Bullet, soc. ethnol.," p. 52, 1847.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 99
the structure of the skin between white and black men, a depo-
sition of pigment also taking place in the former, though in
lesser quantity. Kolliker observes that no microscopically
visible pigment is found where the skin is white ; but he adds
that it can be detected in the skin of Europeans of brown or
dark complexion. Krause1 says that freckles and brown moles
in the skin of Europeans are in structure like the epidermis of
the Negro;2 and that the skin of the white in hot climates
experienced an analogous change. The colour of the Negro
differs in various nations ; further, that the colour of the skin
can therefore not be considered as a specific difference from other
races, as it is chiefly dependent on external conditions. This is
supported by other considerations, chiefly by the fact, that the
Negro becomes lighter in advanced age;3 and that the women,
during the years of menstruation, when the carbon is removed
by other means, are said to be lighter than the men (de
Miiller). It is finally also to be borne in mind that new-born
Negro children are of a light grey colour, and that in the
northern parts of the Negro region the children become only
perfectly black in the third year (Pruner). Camper4 saw a
Negro child that at birth was of a reddish colour, then became
first black around the nails and the nipples, on the third day
the genitals became coloured, and on the fifth and sixth day
the whole body. Children born in the cold season take a
longer time in becoming black. The children of the Arabs in
the south, even where they have not intermixed with the
Negroes, but have their colour, exhibit at birth a copper
colour ;5 whilst those of the American race are at birth of a
yellowish-white or reddish-brown colour.6 Those of the native
Australians in the environs of Adelaide are immediately after
birth of a yellowish-brown, and only become dark at a later
period.7
1 Art. Haut., in Wagner's handworterb., p. 15, 123.
2 Compare Simon in Miiller's " Archiv.," p. 167, 1840.
3 Carne's " Journ> of a voy. to the West Coast of Africa," p. 372, Boston, 1852.
4 " Kleine Schriften.," i, p. 24, 1782.
5 D'Escayrac, loc. cit.
6 Prinz Max., loc. cit., p. 103, 1839.
7 Koeler in monatsb. der ges. f. Erdk., iii, 44.
H2
100
PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
[PART I,
The frizzly hair developes itself as gradually as the colour
the skin. In the suckling the hair is of a chestnut brown, and
of a silky texture (Burmeister) . The skin exhalation has in
the negro a peculiar, disagreeable odour, which, however, is
but little perceptible in some individuals, whilst in others it is
smelt at a distance. This odour is particularly strong among
the Balantes and Bissagos,1 and among the Negroes in th(
south of Sierra Leone, the Ibos, Papaws, Mokos, etc.5
It corresponds to the odour emitted by the black feathers oi
birds and the black hair of the dogs in Guinea (Foissac) .
From the preceding description of the Negro-type, in which
we have preferred to let every author speak for himself, il
cannot be doubted that there is a certain resemblance betwe<
the Negro and the Ape, although the distance between them is
sufficiently great to discard any idea as to their relationship.
We must add here a few more observations to shew that th(
differences between the Negro and European are less importanl
than they appear at first sight.
The singularly thick skull which is considered as one of the
characteristics of the Negro race is not exclusively peculiar to
it. We need not mention that it is frequently occurring in
mental diseases, and Herodotus ascribes such thick skulls to
the ancient Egyptians. The natives of Van Diemen's Land
break wood on their heads (Labillardiere) .3 This is also the
case among the Penhuenches in South America, and many
Indians in Brazil.4 The skulls of the Australians are said to
be much thicker than those of Europeans.5 Herrera mentions
that the Spanish conquerors were not able to split the skulls of
the aborigines of Cuba and Haiti with one stroke of the
sword. Ulloa6 says that the skulls found in old American
graves are about six to seven inches thick. Polack7 found the
1 Arnoux, loc. cit., p. 215.
» K. Clarke, " S. Leone," p. 51, 1846.
3 Labillardiere, " Eel. du voy. & la rech. de la Perouse," An. viii, ii, p. 54 ;
Melville, " The present state of Australia," p. 348, 1851.
4 Poppig, " Eeise," i, 466 ; Spix und Martius, " Seise," p. 696.
6 Dawson, " The present state of Aust.," p. 66, 1830.
6 " Physikal. und hist. Nachr.," ii, 99, 1781.
7 " New-Zeal., being a narrative of travels," i, p. 214, 1838.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 101
same thickness in a New Zealand skull. The remarkable
thickness of the skulls of the Zulu Kaffirs, who do not properly
belong to the Negro tribe, is considered by Delegorgue1 to be
the consequence of exposing the unprotected head to the heat
of the sun. In France also, remarkably thick skulls were dug
out in many places,2 and the Bretons are distinguished by the
same peculiarity, and frequently fight with their heads like
Negroes.3
Oblique prominent front teeth do not, according to Sandifort,4
exclusively occur among Negroes, but are seen, though in a
less degree, among Kaffirs, Aboinese, Cingalese, Japanese,
etc. Even among Europeans, laterally compressed skulls with
oblique incisors, are not so very rare.5
With regard to the length and proportions of the arm :
Jarrold6 has proved by measurements that the forearm of the
Scotch (twelve inches to six feet length of body) is intermediate
between the Negro (twelve and a half inches to six feet length
of body), and the Englishman (eleven and a half inches
to six feet length), and that the length of the hand is pro-
portionately large in the former ; hence also in this respect the
resemblance of the Negro to the monkey is not specific.
The deficiency in the calves are in Sennaar and Taka as often
found among the Arabs as among the Negroes.7 Brehm8 has
observed the same among the Nomades of East Sudan, and
assigns as a cause that they are accustomed to sit on the heels,
by which the thigh rests on the calves. Moreover the pecu-
liarity is not general among the Negroes.
Burmeister has pointed out the resemblance of the foot and
the position of the toes of the Negro to that of the ape.
It has indeed been often noticed that the large toe is fre-
quently used by Negroes as a thumb ; but however seductive it
1 "Voy. dans I'Afr. australe," ii, p. 219, 1847.
2 Serres, in "1'Institut.," ii, p. 123, 1853.
3 Lenormant, " Nouv. ann des voy.," i, p. 110, 1848.
4 " Tabulae cranioruni," Lug. Bat., 1838.
5 Loc. cit., p. 62.
6 K,. Wagner, " Naturgesch. des Menschen," ii, p. 219, 1831.
7 Werne, " Feldzug von Sennaar nach Taka," p. 58, 1851.
8 Loc. cit., p. 76.
102 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
may be to dwell upon this point, it can easily be shown that
there is not much in it after all, for the same peculiarity has
been observed not merely in the Australians,1 who often, to
conceal their spears, drag them along between the toes,2 but
also in the Indian on the Orinoco3 and in Yucatan, where the
natives pick up money with their feet, and throw stones with
them.4 The jugglers at the court of Montezuma performed
their extraordinary tricks with the feet: some of these performers
Cortez took to Spain, where such feats are only performed with
the hands.5 The Marquesas islanders, the Malays of Luzon and
Samar, and some inhabitants of Sumatra, also use their feet,
and specially the first and second toes, to raise light objects.6
Such facts may have induced Bory7 to maintain that the oppo-
sable thumbs on the lower extremities of the ape cannot be con-
sidered as a specific difference between it and man, mentioning
at the same time that this peculiarity is possessed in the same,
or even in a higher, degree by the gum-gatherers of Marrensin,
(Dep. desLandes), in consequence of much climbing. At any
rate, the resemblance in this respect of the Negro to the ape
must be abandoned. How much the use of the limbs is due to
training is shown by the Bayaderes in the East Indies. Already
in the course of the first year the mother of the future Baya-
dere at Java bends the limbs of her child cautiously in every
direction. The Bayadere is able to bend the last phalanx of
the fingers separately, forwards and backwards, to make
the back of the hand* as concave as the palm, and even to
place the whole hand back upon the forearm. Her toes possess
the same flexibility and capacity for grasping as the fingers,
and the vertebral column is flexible in every direction.8
1 Mitchell, " Three Expeditions, i, p. 303, 1838 ; Howitt, " Impressions of
Austr. Felix," p. 284, 1845 ; Hodgson, « Eeminisc. of Austr," p. 245, 1846.
2 King, " Narr. of a survey of the coasts of Austr./' i, p. 370, 1827.
s Gillii, " Nachr. vom Lande Guiana," p. 252, 1785.
4 Waldeck, " Voy. dans la prov. d' Yucatan," p. 65, 1838.
5 " Gomara in " Historiad. prem. de Ind.," p. 342, Madrid, 1852.
6 Langsdorff, " Bemerk. auf einer Eeise um die Welt," i, p. 151, 1812 ;
Mallat, " Les Philippines," ii, p. 38, 1846 ; de Pages, " Eeise um die Welt,"
p. 175, 1786; Marsden, "Sumatra," 1788; Eengger, "Naturgesch. derSaugeth
von Paraguay," ii, p. 376.
7 " L'Homme," i, p. 45, 1827.
8 Gumprecht, "Ztschft. f. allg. Erdk.," ii, p. 118, 1854, nach dem Tageb.
eines officiers.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 103
The disagreeable odour of the Negro has also been considered
as a specific peculiarity. But besides the great differences ex-
isting in this respect among the Negroes themselves,1 the native
American also emits a peculiar though not so strong an odour
(Catinca), as Blumenbach has also mentioned with regard to
the Caribs and other natives. It is transmitted by the Negro
and American to the Mulatto and Mestizo.2 The Araucanians
especially, who live on animal food, have an extremely dis-
agreeable odour, which is in Chili known by the name of
" soreno."3 Hearne, on the other hand,4 assures us that nothing
of the kind is perceived in the North Indians, with proper clean-
liness, and Oviedo y Valdes5 says of the Indians of Panama,
that they only smell disagreeably like the Negro when they
omit washing for a couple of days. Say6 attributes the odour
of the skin exhalation of the Indians chiefly to the substances
which they rub in, observing at the same time that the odour
of the white is disagreeable to them. If, as is asserted, the
natives of Luzon can distinguish the clothes of their masters
by their smell 7, and the Australians are equally able to do so,8
it results that not only has the skin exhalation of the white
race, but that every individual has a specific odour, which is in
fact proved by the capacity of the dog to trace his master. A
practised dealer in hair is said to be able to distinguish German
hair from French hair, and even Irish, Scotch and English hair.9
Though it may be incorrect what Kretzschmar asserts10, that
whilst the Hottentots emit an intolerable odour, the Bushmen
and the Kaffirs are free from it, it still results that the disagree-
able odour of the Negro is not to be considered as a specific
1 The skin exhalation of the Huallenga in Taka, who belong to the Bischaris,
is equally disgusting (Werne, " Felzug von Sennar nach Taka/' p. 228, etc.,
1851).
2 Humboldt, " Neuspanien," i, p. 192.
3 Lesson, " Complement des ceuv. de Buffon," ii, 163.
4 " E. von Prinz Wallis fort, z, Eismeer," p. 257, 1797.
5 Ternaux, "Recueil de docum. sur 1'hist. des possess, espagnoles dans
I'Am.," p. 130, 1840.
6 In James, " Ace. of an exped. from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mount.,
Philad.," i, p. 285, 1823.
7 Mallat, loc. cit., ii, p. 38.
8 "Australia felix," p. 127, BerL, 1849.
9 Morgenblatt, no. 110, p. 316, 1855.
10 " Sudaffr. Skizzin," p. 207, 1853.
104 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
peculiarity. A good authority, Rengger,1 states that he has
many times observed, that Europeans acquire on their acclimati-
zation in Paraguay a stronger, more disagreeable and negro-
like odour, and that in consequence of this change in the
activity of the skin, they are, like the Indians and the Negroes,
less molested by the mosquitos. They attack, indeed, ac-
cording to Humboldt and Bonpland, equally Indians and
Europeans, but the consequences of the stings, and the swell-
ings which ensue, as well as the pain, are slighter in the former.
According to Unanue3, the sweat of the European and
African is an alkaline reagent, that of the aboriginal Indian,
acid ; but this acid reaction, he adds, may be removed by a
continuous animal diet, just as the alkaline peculiarity of the
sweat of the Negro may be reduced by vegetable diet. The
sweat of the Spanish Creoles is either alkaline or acid, accord-
ing to their diet.
It cannot be our intention to deny by these remarks the
greater resemblance of the Negro to the ape in comparison
with the European, but simply to point out that the resem-
blance has been greatly exaggerated. Sometimes, peculiarities
which he shares with the higher races merely in a higher
degree, have been pointed out as specific animal resemblances,
at other times our ignorance of the physical characters of the
other races has been used at the expense of the Negro, for it is
as yet quite undecided whether among the peoples of the
Malay, American races, &c., there may not prevail similar pro-
portions in the forms of the pelvis, hands and arms. The neces-
sary measurements to decide these points are yet wanting.
In further considering the most striking anatomical dif-
ferences between peoples and races, we would also observe
that the Negroes of the South Sea (Austral Negroes, Negritos,
Negrillos) are distinguished from African Negroes by a more
striking negro-physiognomy (it has been designated as an
exaggerated or caricatured negro-physiognomy), and by a
shorter stature. They are on the average about four feet eight
i " ft, nach Paraguay," p. 244, 1835. 2 Loc, cit., p. 108.
SECT. II.] NEGRO TYPE. 105
pr nine inches high, without our being able to assign want of
food or misery as the cause of it. They are, excepting the
Bushmen (which, on the average, are about four feet high)
(Lichtenstein), the shortest race on the globe. The giant and
pigmy races of which old travellers speak have vanished, and
thus it will probably be with the tailed men.1 The appendages
having, as in Sumatra, proved to be pieces of dress made of
bark or skins, which were hanging down behind.
The Hottentots and Bushmen, though differing from the
Negroes (especially in the form of the head and physiognomy),
possess the chief peculiarities of the Negro type. Thunberg2
describes the vertebral column of the Hottentots as strongly
curved inwards. The upper thighbone of the Bushmen resem-
bles more that of the ape than that of Europeans. Cuvier, in
his minute description of a Bushwoman, has, independent of
other peculiarities belonging to the negro-type, drawn attention
to the smallness of the ear, and a deficiency in the posterior
pdge, resembling the ear of the ape, and compares the fat
cushions upon the hips of the Hottentot women to similar for-
mations in some female monkeys, as in the Mandrill and
Pavian, whilst Desmoulins combats this analogy. Fatty
cushions upon the hips are also observed in Negresses
(Pruner) in Congo, Mandara, among the Makuas and Kaffirs,
and even among the women of the Southern Tuaryks, where
they have intermixed with the blacks.3 This peculiarity is also
met with among the Nubian and also the Somali females.4
Among some Negroes these appendages are considered a par-
ticular beauty. The women about Cape Coast wear cushions5
on this part, which reminds us of a recent European fashion.
Finally, we may mention the much talked-of Hottentot apron,
1 Compare Castelnau, " Renseignements sur I5 Afr. centrale," 1851, and
Tremaux in " Bullet, soc. geogr.," i, p. 139, 1855.
2 " R. durch eines Theil. v. Eur., Afr., und As./' ii, p. 168, 1792.
3 Omboni, p. 161 ; Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, " Narr. of trav. in
Afr.," 2nd ed., p. 201, 1826; Bunbury, "Journal of a resid. at the Cape,"
p. 159, 1848 ; Barth, " R. und Entdeckungen," i, pp. 328, 599.
4 Burton, "First footsteps in East Afr.," p. 108, 1856; Comber, " Voy. en
Egypte, en Nubie, etc.," ii, p. 215, 1846.
4 Cunka — Huntley, "Seven years service on the Slave Coast," i, p. 70,
1850.
106 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
which however cannot be described as a monkey formation.
It consists of a prolongation of the prceputium clitoridis and of
the nymplice, which has first been described as peculiar to the
Bushwomen, in a memoir by Peron andLesueur, 1805. Obser-
vations on this subject by Miiller may be found in his Archiv.,
1834,p.319. A similar excrescence hasbeen noticed by Sonnini,1
and before him by Thevenot in Egypt and Abyssinia, where girls
are circumcised. This certainly cannot be considered as a proof,
for although the circumcision of girls prevails among many tribes
in Africa, especially in Sennaar and the surrounding regions2
in Congo, among some of the Betschuana tribes,3 it probably
refers only to the clitoris, which, according to Werne,4 is com-
pletely extirpated in Bellad- Sudan.
That this operation should be exclusively confined to the
Mohammedans in East Africa (as stated in "Nouv.ann.des voy.,"
1835, iii, 172), is scarcely probable. It is also practised among
the Susus and Mandingos in the West.5 The women of Pata-
gonia are said to have an uncommonly large clitoris (Foissac),
but no circumcision is practised. Nor can we, from the cir-
cumcision of the nymphse (which is common in the countries
on the Nile from the first cataract), conclude that there exists a
similar formation in these parts as in the Hottentot women.
Bosmann6 however relates of the women of Wydah, that they
can be circumcised like the Hottentot women; and Adams7
reports that in Dahomey the nymphae are artificially elongated.
Clarke also8 observes that the women of Popo are distinguished
by uncommonly large nymphae and a large clitoris. A similar
artificially-produced deformity among the Mandan women is
described by Prince Max.9 Among the women of the Bushmen,
i " R. in Ober und Nieder &g." p. 300, 1800.
* " Bellad Sudan."
3 Cailliaud, " Voy. & Meroe," ii, p. 278, 1826; Donville, " Voy. au Congo/
i, pp. 66, 108, Stuttg., 1832 ; " Delegorgue," ii, p. 561.
4 Feldzug von Sennaar, "Nach Taka," p. 201.
5 Matthews, "B. nach S. Leone," p. 72, 1784.
6 Viaggio in Guinea, trad, dal Franz., Ven.," iii, p. 88, 1752.
7 "Remarks on the country east from C. Palmas to the R. Congo," p.
15, 1823.
8 " S. Leone," p. 49, 1846.
9 " E. in N. Am.," ii, p. 107.
SECT. II.] PERUVIANS. EGYPTIANS. 107
a double membrane, as above described, is sometimes seen ;
two cases of this kind are reported in Meyer.1
As one of the most important deviations from the normal
form may be mentioned the os incce on the occiput of the old
Peruvians, discovered by Tschudi, which, in form of a rectan-
gular triangle, occurs in ruminants and carnivora.2 It appears
however not to be a fixed peculiarity of race.3 Zeune4 saw such
a bone in the skull of an adult Kalmuck woman and on that of
a Java woman. Hence it appears only to be an individual
abnormal formation. Before the times of the Incas there existed,
according to Morton,5 in Peru, a half civilized people with long
and narrow skulls, with a low receding forehead and a facial
angle of sixty-seven degrees, and a capacity of only seventy-
five cubic inches. Though the American race is, independent
of artificial pressure, distinguished by a low forehead,6 still the
above description of the form of the skull, if it were natural, as
Morton originally considered, would be a most remarkable
abnormity ; but Morton himself has given up that notion.7
It is further noteworthy that in the old Egyptian monuments,
as Winckelmann has pointed out, the ear is situated rather
higher up than usual. Dureau de la Malle thought recently
that he could detect the same peculiarity in several mummies
and in some Jews.8 Czermak9 found nothing of the kind in
the mummies examined by him. Morton's investigations10 led
also only to a negative result. He considers the difference as
unimportant, and that the cartilage merely may have been
larger and reached higher up. Nott and Gliddon consider it
as founded on error. Though this deviation is as yet unde-
cided, that, observed by Blumenbach, that the incisors of the
mummies resembled in shape the molar teeth, is not considered
1 "R. in Siid-Afr.," pp. 116, 164, 1843.
2 Miiller's Archiv., p. 107, 1844.
8 Blake on " Peruvian skulls," Ethno. Trans., 1862. — ED.
4 " Ueber Schadelbildung," p. 15, 1846.
s " Cran. Am.," 102.
6 Humboldt, " Neusspanien," i, p. 154, 1809.
7 " On the Ethnography and Archaeology of the Am. Aborig." p. 18, 1846 ;
and Schoolcraft, " Hist, of the Ind. tribes," ii, p. 325.
8 " Revue Encyclopedique" and Lit. Gazette, June 23, 1832.
9 " Sitzungsbericht d. Wiener Akad.," ix, p. 427, 1852.
10 "Cran. .Egypt.," p. 26.
108 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
as a peculiarity of the race, but the consequence of their
mode of living.
There must yet be mentioned the natural foramen in the
humerus, or intercondyloid perforation which receives the
olecranon, in the extinct inhabitants of the Canary Islands
(the Gruanches). It occurs also among the Hottentots, but
is not a constant character.1 This abnormity is not unfre-
quently found in Grermany. We must not therefore put the same
high value upon this as Desmoulins,2 who considers the union
of the nasal bones of the Bushmen as a specific quality.
From the preceding synopsis of the greatest deviations
which can be found in the anatomical structure of the various
races, it is clear that we may confine ourselves to the com-
parison of the Negro with the European in fixing the maximum
of the differences existing between the races as regards bodily
structure ; but the case is altered when we institute a similar
comparison from a physiological point of view.
In reviewing the physiological peculiarities of the various
human races we must bear in mind the known axiom, that all
beings belonging to the same species present the same arrange-
ment of the animal economy. This harmony extends to
animal heat, the frequency of the pulse, the commencement of
puberty and the duration of sexual capacity, the duration and
frequency of gestation and the number of young, the mean
duration of life, the periodical changes of the organism, bodily
strength and diseases. On instituting a comparison between
the white and the other races with regard to physiological
functions and qualities, it will be easily shown that there is no
question here of permanently specific, but merely of acquired,
differences, which are explicable by external or internal con-
ditions, arising from civilization, more or less refined modes of
life, exercise, intelligence, and the nature of surrounding
media. The greatest energy of physical life is generally
found, as indeed may be expected, among peoples in a primitive
state ; but the longer duration of life, a more extended power
1 T. Miiller, "Archiv.," p. 336, 1834; De Salles, "Hist. gen. des races
hum.," p. 204, 1849 ; Hollard, " De 1'U.omme et des races hum./' p. 251, 1853.
2 Pp. 297, 303.
SECT. II.] ANIMAL HEAT. 109
of acclimatization, a lesser destruction of life by diseases, and
greater muscular strength, is found among civilized nations,
owing to their protecting themselves from injurious influences
of all kinds, in combination with superior nutrition and regular
exercise.
The mean animal heat and the frequency of respiration do
not materially differ under the tropics and the polar regions.
Some indeed have maintained that the first is in the torrid
zone less by 2 — 3° ; others (Davy) that in Ceylon it is higher
by 2° ; this however has not been confirmed. Grmelin, Ross,
and Parry found under 74° N. lat. no difference in this re-
spect.1 That Livingstone2 found the thermometer under his
own tongue rise to 100°, and among the natives only 98°,
affords no certain proof of a constant difference between the
blood heat of the Negro and the European. The difference
may have been the sequel of his fever or the effect of other
circumstances. Nor has the pretended quicker pulse of the
Southerns been confirmed. Among some North American
tribes the pulse is only 64, which is perhaps connected with
the rarity of fevers among them.3 Prichard4 refers this cir-
cumstance to a deficient energy of the animal functions, since
also the menstruation of the women among many Indian
peoples is said to be but scanty,5 and puberty of the girls
occurs later, from the eighteenth to the twentieth year, the
capacity to produce children ceasing with the fortieth year.
These phenomena are however far from common among the
American race, for the period of puberty among girls com-
mences in the fourteenth year among the Potowatomis, in the
fifteenth and sixteenth among the Sioux.6 Among the Dela-
wares and Iroquois the girls marry at fourteen,7 and in the
torrid zone, marriages are earlier effected among the natives of
1 Foissac, p. 15.
2 Loc. cit., p. 166.
8 Say in James, loc. cit., p. 260.
4 Chap, i, p. 133.
5 Lahontan, " Nouv. voy. dans 1'Am. sept.," ii, p. 154, La Haye, 1703 ; and
Rengger, "Natgesch. der Saugeth v. Paraguay," p. 11.
6 Keating, "Narr. of an exped. to the source of St. Peter's E.,"i, p. 434, 1825.
7 Loskiel, " Gesch. d. Miss, unter den Ind./' p. 72.
110 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
America than elsewhere, namely from ten to thirteen years.1
In ancient Mexico, however, the girls used to marry when sixteen
to eighteen years old, and the men from twenty to twenty-two,2
the law of the old Inca empire prescribing for the former the age
of eighteen to twenty, and for the latter from the twenty-fourth
year.3 If, despite the cold climate, the puberty of the girls
commences among the Mongols, Kalmucks, Samoieds, Lapps,
Kamtschatkals, Jakutes, Ostiaks, etc., about the twelfth or
thirteenth year, — (it may be of interest to ascertain how this is
among the Magyars,) — the animal diet of these peoples and
the heat of their huts may perhaps contribute to it, as in
those of the Esquimaux it is said to rise to 28 degrees,
whilst in the open air it sinks to — 28 degrees.4 Puberty
occurs rather late in the Fiji Islands, namely, in girls about the
fourteenth, and in boys about the seventeenth or eighteenth
year.5 Uncommonly early, on the other hand, in the tempe-
rate region of New Zealand, where the girls frequently marry
when eleven years old.6 Among the aboriginal Americans the
period of puberty seems, as among other races, essentially to
depend on climate and mode of life. This circumstance has
however, among others, been used to support the assertion
that they are a weakly race, deficient in vital power, and that
they would have become extinct even if the white immigrants
had not contributed to their destruction.7 This renders neces-
sary a closer investigation of an assertion assuming such an
essential difference of organization between the American and
other races ; but in order not to interrupt our investigation too
much by details, we shall treat of it in an appendix to this
section.
It has been statistically proved that in Europe the propor-
tion of male to female births is =106 : 100, and there seems in
all climates to prevail a similar preponderance of boys over
1 D'Orbigny, Strangewa/s " Sketch of the Mosquito Shore/', Edin., 1822.
2 Clavigero, " Hist, of Mex. translated by Cullen," vi, p. 38, 1787.
3 Gurcilasso, " Hist, des Yncas," iv, c. 8, Amst., 1737.
4 Parry " Second voy.," p. 502.
s Wilkes, iii, p. 93.
6 W. Brown, " New Zealand and its aborigines," p. 38, 1845.
' De Pauw, " Rech. sur les Americains," Martins and others.
SECT. II.] BIETHS. Ill
girls, excepting under particular circumstances. Hofacker1
ascribes it to the preponderating influence of the male, who in
Europe is, on the average, five to six years older than the
female. It is also said that the number of male births increases
with the advancing ages of both parents. A regular prepon-
derance of female births, which Quetelet2 quotes of the white
population in the Cape of Good Hope, is rare. Nothing of the
kind exists among the same stock in Europe, a fact which
proves that such proportions are not fixed peculiarities, but
depend on particular local influences.
Among the Indians in Central America male and female
births nearly balance each other, but among the Whites and
Mulattoes of these parts, among the Ladinos, the former are
exceeded by the latter in the proportion of 2:3, or at least
of 4 : 5.3 In Yucatan the proportion of women to men is,
according to some authors, =2 : 1 ;4 in Cochabamba, in South
America, the number of women to that of men is said to
reach the incredible proportion of 5 : 1 .5 In Granada, the
capital of Nicaragua, even the casual observer is struck with
the numerical preponderance of the females over the males.6
The same proportion, though in a lesser degree, is found in
Goyaz, a city in Brazil,7 and is said to prevail throughout
Venezuela, and particularly in Cumena, where, it is asserted,
there are seven females to one male.8 The preponderance of
the female population of Buenos Ayres, as asserted by some
authors, is, according to Caldcleugh,9 unfounded. Elsewhere
it is asserted, that in Buenos Ayres the male births outnumber
the female births by twenty-three per cent., which seems
equally erroneous. Immigration only appears to cause in that
1 " Ueber die Eigensch. welch, s. b. Menschen und Thieren vererben."
2 " Ueber den Menschen," German by Eieke, 1838 ; " Journal Asiat.," Jul.,
1826 ; and Sadler, " The law of population/' ii, 371.
3 Galindo, " Journal E. Geogr. Soc.," vi., p. 126.
* Stephens, " Begebenh. auf. e. E. en Yucatan," p. 171, 1853.
5 " Bullet, soc. geogr.," i, 209, 1855.
6 Eeichardt, " Nicarag.," p. 88, 1854.
7 Castelnau, " Exped. dans 1' Am. du Sud," i, 328, 1850.
8 Otto, " Eeiserrinnerungen in Cuba," p. 237, 1843.
9 " Travels in S. Am./' London, i, p. 184, 1825.
112 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
region a preponderance of males.1 According to Castelnau,2
the males preponderate among the Whites, the reverse being
the case among the Indians, Mulattoes and Creole Negroes.
With regard to Mexico, Franz Mayer3 states, from recent
official sources, that more girls than boys are born in Vera
Cruz, Oajaca, Puebla, Mechoacan, Guanajuato, Jalisco, the pre-
ponderance diminishing gradually in the order cited. On the
other hand, there are more boys than girls born in Upper Cali-
fornia, New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, Cohahuila, New Leon.
Hence he lays it down as a general proposition, that away from
the equator the preponderance of girls gradually declines, and
altogether ceases further North, when there is a turn in the
contrary direction. Tamaulipas specially exhibits a constant
preponderance of male births. In Africa, on the Gold Coast,
the females preponderate only on the coasts, not in the in-
terior.4 There are also numerous instances to the contrary.
The excess of males over females occurs more frequently than
the reverse. Among the Jews in Berlin the proportion of
female to male births is = 100 : 208 ; among the Jews in
Livorno =100 : 120; and in the Prussian dominions generally
=100 : 111.5 A similar striking excess of male births, =4 : 3,
occurs in New Russia, in the governments, Jekaterinoslanw,
Cherson, Bessarabia, and Tabriz.6 In Galega, north-east of
Madagascar, the French Government has authorized polyandry
among the Negroes, the number of male births being too
large.7 In Tahiti there is equally a preponderance of males.8
In Upper California a much less number of girls is born than
boys, or the mortality must be greater among the former than
amongst the latter. This preponderating number of males has
for its consequence the decrease of the population, with the
exception of the Mission San Luis-Eey.9 The same cause has
1 " Zeitsch. f. allg. erdk. n. folge," iv, p. 143.
2 Loc. cit., i, 138.
3 " Mexico," ii, p. 46, Hartford, 1853.
4 Wilson, " Western Afr." p. 181, Lond., 1856.
5 Burdach, " Physiol.," i, p. 532 ; Hoffman in Quetelet, p. 56.
6 Fechner's " Centralbl.," p. 368, 1853.
7 Laplace, " Voy. aut. du monde," ii, 119, 1833.
8 " Journal K. Geogr. Soc.," iii, p. 174.
9 Coulter, in "Journal E. Geogr. Soc.," v, p. 67.
SECT. II.] CONGENITAL DEFORMITIES. 113
partly effected the depopulation of Australia, though it cannot
be considered as the only one, and can hardly be looked upon
as a sign of deficient vitality in the organization of the natives.
The number of females still decreases in Australia.1 In the
known districts of Australia the proportion of males to females
among the natives is =3 : 2 ; that of adults to children, only
=5 : 2. The mortality among the children is enormous, the
greater proportion of them do not outlive the first month.2
Sturt, however,3 observes, that among the smaller tribes in the
interior, there is an excess of women in the proportion of 2:1,
or even greater. This has also been asserted by others.4
Congenital deformities are rarer among most savage peoples
than among civilized nations; and it is now generally ac-
knowledged that the views of Ulloa, Robertson, and others,
who would explain this fact by infanticide, are erroneous.
At the time of the conquest there were already in Peru, in
regions subject to sudden alterations of temperature, many
cripples and blind.5 In the environs of Leon there were ob-
served many one-eyed individuals — ostensibly in consequence
of the great dust. Such persons were rarely met with in
Nicaragua.6 Captain Landolphe7 saw, during his lengthened
travels on the African coasts and in America, only one de-
brmed Negro. Brehm also has confirmed the rarity of deform-
ties among Negroes in East Sudan ; but singularly enough,
le considered it as a resemblance to brutes, since more refined
and intellectual labours are the source of many diseases. Ellis8
observes of Tahiti, that deformities had been rare in former
:imes, but are more frequent now; there are specially many
aunchbacks in the Society Islands.9 Pickering10 speaks of
1 Eyre, " Journals of exped. into Central Austr.," ii, p. 417, 1845.
2 Fechner's Central blatt., pp. 29, 208, 1853 ; Westgarth, in " Journal of
:he Ind. Archipelago," Dec. 1851.
3 " Narr. of an exped. into Central Aust.," ii, pp. 77, 136, 1849.
4 D'Urville, " Voy. de 1' Astrolabe," i, p. 495, 1830.
5 Gemara, p. 276.
6 Oviedo, " Hist. gen. y nat. de Ind.," xlii, c. 4.
7 " Mem. cont. Fhist. de ses voy. p. Quesne," i, p. 137, 1823.
8 " Polynes. Kesearches," i, p. 80, 1832.
9 " Lesson Compl. des CEuvr. de Buffon," ii, p. 214.
10 " The races of man," 1849.
114 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
many innate deformities in Polynesia. New Zealand, however,
seems to form an exception.1 In North America, also more
rarely in Brazil, cripples were in modern times found in greater
numbers.2 The natives there are said to be now more subject
to diseases than formerly.3 It seems, therefore, that the
sanitary condition of savage nations has deteriorated by their
intercourse with civilized nations, partly in consequence of new
diseases, and partly from changes in dress and mode of life
which they gradually adopted, especially where missionaries
effected such a transformation of their habits.
The signs of age generally, though not always, present them-
selves later among savage than among the civilized nations.
As deficient protection against the influence of climate and hard
work depress the body, we cannot wonder that, for instance,
the North- American Indians look old at 40, and their women,
who perform most of the labour, present the look of old age
even at an earlier period.4 Similar instances are found among
all races.
But it says much for their vital energy, that grey hair and bald-
ness, though they occur, appear but rarely, and only in old
age.5 The teeth also remain sound until old age ; they become
worn, but rarely carious. Thus it is among the aboriginal
Americans, among the New Zealanders, and other Polynesians6
and among the Bushmen.7 Teething does not seem to torment
the children. Marco Polo wondered at the enduring power
possessed by the Tartars in sustaining bodily labour. Similar
descriptions have been given of the aboriginal North Americans,
who in their hunting and war expeditions support hunger,
thirst, heat, cold, and wet, and the most fatiguing marches,
with unexampled endurance. To this must be added continuous
fasting, and, among some peoples, self-inflicted pain from reli-
1 Polack, " New Zealand/' ii, 273, 1838.
2 " Prince Max. E. in N. Am./' i, 461 ; James, ii, p. 112.
3 Hekewelder, "Nachr. v. d. Gesch. d. Sitten der ind. Volkersch.," p. 388, 1821.
4 West, " Substance of a journal of a resid. at the Red R. Col.," p. 112, 1824.
5 Keating, i, p. 156; D'Orbigny, i, p. 128; Gilii, 247; Tschudi, ii, p. 361.
6 D'UrviUe, loc. cit.
7 Burchell, ii, p. 221.
SECT. II.] BODILY STRENGTH. 115
gious scruples, during which it is a point of honour not to
exhibit the least sign of pain. The women who, in order not
to give birth to cowards, sustain the labours of parturition with
the .same firmness, retiring to the forests when their time
approaches, bathe in the river immediately after their delivery,
and return to their labour with the new-born children on their
backs. Thus it is among the Sioux, whilst the wives of the
Potowatomis protect themselves from cold during ten days
after delivery;1 but this, as well as difficult parturition generally,
is to be considered as an exception.
This capacity for great physical efforts which we find in such
a high degree among the North Americans, is usually combined
with great digestive powers, which, owing to continued fasting
and frequent over-feeding, acquires among savage peoples an
unexampled energy. That this is merely the result of habit and
not a peculiarity of race, is proved by similar performances
among the ancient Greek athletes and many Arabs. The
camel drivers who perform the journey from Cairo to Suez,
which lasts above thirty hours, remain without food during
all that time, and many an Arab boasts of being able to con-
sume a whole sheep at one meal.2 The Bedouin Arabs during
their journeys through the desert, take only daily two draughts
of water and two morsels of baked flour and milk. Six
Bedouins are said to consume no more than one European; but
when they find plenty of provisions they become voracious.3
We quote a few examples : Eyre's attendant, a native Austra-
lian named Wylie, consumed in one night 6J pounds of boiled
meat (not including the bones), and could on the average
consume nine pounds daily.4 Simpson5 gives a still more
remarkable instance of two Jakutes. A Guarani consumes a
small calf in a few hours.6 Ross7 speaks frequently of the
scarcely credible gluttony of the Esquimaux. Every Green-
1 Keating, i, p. 130.
2 D'Escayrac, p. 128 ; Bayard Taylor, " E. N. Centr. Africa," p. 369, 1855.
3 Bitter, Erdk., xiii, pp. 315, 525.
4 Eyre, ii, 34.
5 " Narr. of a Journey round the world," ii, 309, 1847.
6 Dobrizhoffer, " Abiponer," i, p. 281.
7 "Narr. of second voy.," p. 447, etc., Lond., 1835.
i2
116 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I
d
Is
lander consumes on the average, besides eggs, mussels, an
vegetables, annually about 645 pounds of fish and 784 pound
of meat and lard. Strong young men consume daily, during
several months, from 10 to 12 pounds of meat, and a consider-
able quantity of biscuits.1 An Arowake, on the other hand,
lives in the field for three weeks, or even a month, on 1 0 pounds
of Kassava bread.2 Lichtenstein speaks of the enormous
voracity and power of abstinence of the Bushmen. One of
them is said to have lived for a fortnight on water and salt.3
Like the Kaffirs, they are said to grow fat again in a few days.
When a famine threatens, it is usual among the Kaffirs not to
eat every day.4 Richardson5 relates extraordinary cases of the
capacity of the Tibbos to sustain hunger for a great length of
time, and then to satisfy their appetite with food scarcely fit to
eat. Here may also be mentioned the large consumption of a
fatty clay by the Otomaks on the Orinoco.6 Among other
peoples the consumption of large quantities of putrid fish seems
to be attended with no injury. Among the Takhalis, or
Carriers, in North- West America, such substances form favourite
dishes, which are kept until they acquire the desired degree of
putridity. The Koujages, of Kadjak, cook their berries with
bear excrements, and relish this as a condiment, even when
they have a sufficiency of other food. They bury boiled
pieces of whale in the earth until it becomes putrid, when it is
considered a dainty dish.7 Such a corruption of taste would
lead us to suppose a continuous derangement of the digestive
faculty, yet we do not hear that the health of these peoples
suffers from it.
With regard to muscular power, Peron was the first who
performed experiments with the dynamometer and in wrestling.
It resulted therefrom that the natives of Van Diemen's Land were
inferior in this respect to the Australians, and these again to
1 Etzel, " Greenland," p. 374, Stuttg., 1860.
2 Hilhouse, " Journal E. G. S.," ii, p. 232.
Thompson, " Trav. in S. Afr.," i, p. 99, 2nd edit., 1827.
Delegorgue, i, p. 134.
" Narr. of a mission to central Afr.," ii, p. 45, 1853.
Heusinger, " Geophagy."
Holmberg, " Ethnogr. skizzen fiber die Volker des. Buss." p. 89, 1855.
SECT. II.] BODILY STRENGTH. 117
the Timorese, but all of them were considerably weaker than
the Europeans.1 He points out, that though the Timorese are
amply provided with food, they lead in a hot climate an inactive
life, and become weak from want of bodily exercise, whilst the
weakness of the first-named nations arises from want of proper
nourishment and a frequent change from extreme physical
efforts to an apathetic repose. Freycinet2 has continued the
experiments with the dynamometer, and has arrived at the
following results : —
Kilogrammes.
White Creoles from lie de France lift on the average . 64'4
Frenchmen in the same locality .... 6O3
Sandwich Islanders ..... 66'2 and 58-3
Mozambique Negroes . . . . . 57' 1
Malgasches . . . . . . 56'9
Natives of the Carolines ..... 54'2
New Zealanders, twenty to twenty-five years old . . 51*4
Timorese and Papuas ..... 40*0
Australians ...... 45-6
The results communicated by Buckton3 differ from the
above : —
Mean Strength of the Arms. Mean Strength of the Hips
12 Tasmanians . , 50'6 kilogr . . — myriagr.
17 Australians . . 50'8 „ . . 10*2 „
56 Timorese . . 58'7 „ . . 11-6 „
17 Frenchmen . . 69-2 „ . . 15-2
14 Englishmen . . 71'4 „ . . 16'3
With regard to the New Zealanders, it is stated4 that
they can, on the average, lift 367 pounds avoirdupois.
Foissac5 has justly recommended caution in coming to
any conclusion from such experiments, as they can only be
decisive when performed on individuals of the same nature and
the same practice in physical efforts. This is proved by the
fact, that the American Hercules, Cantfield, exhibited with the
1 Peron, " Voy. de decouv. aux terres Australes," ii, p. 417, 2nd edit., 1824.
2 " Voy. autour du m.," ii, p. 714, 1827.
3 " Western Australia," p. 91, 1840.
4 " Journal E. Geogr. Soc.," xiii, p. 92.
5 Page 41.
118 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
dynamometer no more physical strength than an Ojibbeway
chief.1 We should also require, observes Hamilton Smith/ ex-
periments to be performed in running, spear-throwing, etc., to
form a judgment on the proportion of bodily strength in
different nations.
We should also examine the power of endurance, as well as
the amount of individual momentary performances. The ma-
terials at hand are not sufficient to come to any conclusion in
this respect ; still it is not without interest to state some of the
more important results obtained.
Per on3 found that the natives of Van Diemen's Land excelled
the Europeans in running. This frequently occurs among
savages, since their safety and subsistence in war and the chase
often depends on their fleetness. The American deer in the
open prairie is sometimes caught by the Indians, which how-
ever is rarely the case with the Moose deer and the Bison.4
Similar fleetness is ascribed to the Lapps and Tunguses. T. E.
Alexander5 speaks of two Namaquas, father and son, who,
armed merely with a knife, gave chase to zebras, and outran
them. And Moffat6 asserts that among the Barolongs there
are some who on foot can keep up with the giraffe. Hottentot
Kaffirs and Bechuanas are less muscular than the English and
the Dutch colonists at the Cape, but possess greater endurance.7
The short thin Hottentot excels, according to Alberti,8 the
Kaffirs in lifting weights, and even a White colonist at the
Cape, celebrated for his strength, was not equal to the Kaffirs
in running and throwing spears, manifestly the consequence
of more or less practice, and independent of peculiarity of race.
Peron has collected many instances to prove the physical
weakness of the native Americans. On closely examining them
it will be found that they chiefly rest upon the rapid decay of
1 Quetelet, loc. cit., p. 155.
2 " Natural hist, of the human species," p. 165, Edinburgh, 1848.
3 Loc. cit., ii, p. 85.
4 J. Tanner, " Memoires trad. p. Blosseville/' i, p. 201, 1835.
5 " Exped. of discov. into the Interior of Air.," ii, p. 261, 1838.
6 " Miss, labours in S. Afr.," p. 260, 1842.
7 Hoodie, " Ten years in S. Afr.," i, p. 43, 1835 ; Burchell, ii, p. 439.
8 "Descr. des Caffres," Amst., 1811.
SECT. II.] BODILY STRENGTH. 119
the Indian population. Under the oppression of the con-
querors, the native population rapidly perished, chiefly in
South America, where they were forced to work in mines. It
became then necessary to import Negroes, who could endure
the labour, and hence it was concluded that the American
Indian is, compared with the Negro, a weakling. Just the con-
tntry is asserted by Frezier1 and Helms,2 that only the Indians,
not the Negroes, can support the heavy labour in the mines.
Both are correct under proper limitation. Negroes cannot stand
heavy work in mountainous regions ; their skin becomes dis-
coloured, the complexion assumes an ash-grey tint, they sicken
and die.3 Wilson,4 by no means an unprejudiced writer, asserts
that the sugar planters in the hot regions of the interior of Mexico
had found it impossible to have their plantations cultivated by
Negroes or Zamboes, as neither of these races were viable in
these parts. The power of endurance of the Negro under a
tropical sun, without injury to his prolificacy, is a known fact ;
but it has not been taken into consideration that the Negro
' easily becomes reconciled to a state of slavery, for which the
Indian seems unfit; depressed by it, the latter sinks into a
state of melancholy, and thus perishes rather from psychical
than physical causes. This opinion has been confirmed by
Von Sack.5 A number of facts proves that y the Indian is not
deficient in physical power for heavy labour. The South
American tribes, especially, exhibit all the characters of physical
strength; some of them are of athletic structure (D^Orbigny).
Even the natives of Tierra del Fuego have proved to be
so physically strong, that one of them is sometimes a match
for two English sailors.6 The Hapiris working in the mines of
Chili, who, according to some, are not Indians of pure descent,
but are considered as such by Tschudi,7 possess extraordinary
1 " Neueste E. nach der Sudzee," p. 353, 1718.
2 " Trav. from B. Ayres to Lima," pp. 16, 37, 2nd edit., 1807.
:l Skinner, " Voy. au Perou," Paris, 1809.
4 " Mexico," p. 311, N. York, 1855.
•"' " Beschr. einer E. nach Surinam," i, p. 87, 1821.
G King and ITitzroy, " Narr. of the Survey, voy. of the Adv. and Beagle,"
p. 415, 1839.
7 Chap, ii, p. 117.
120 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
physical strength. Their usual burden (stated by Tschudi to
amount only to 50-75 pounds), which they bring up twelve times
daily from a depth of 450 feet, exceeds in weight 200 pounds.1
The Indian porters in Peru carry on their straps, chests weigh-
ing above 100 pounds.2 The journey from Pasco to Lima,
fifty leagues, is performed by the Indian on foot within three
days.3 Tschudi relates similar feats of the march of Indian
troops in war. ' { Wherever the experiment has been made, it
has been shown that the Indian is capable of sustaining a
higher degree of physical effort than the strongest European."4
The Indians of Quito can, during the greater part of the day,
carry a vessel upon the back containing twelve to sixteen
gallons of water.5 The Indians of Caracas carry on their jour-
neys, burdens of about 200 pounds.6 Captain Head7 says,
"In the mines of South America I saw Indians work with tools
which were too heavy for our miners, and carry burdens which
no Englishman could have carried. I appeal to such travellers
who have been carried by them across the snow, and ask them
whether they could have performed the same service to the
Indians, and if not, it seems certainly strange that a civilized
man should despise the physical power of a fellow man upon
whose shoulders he rides " On proceeding northwards we
hear that the Indians in Central America perform five to six
leagues with a burden of six arrobes,8 and that the Indians
of Mexico bring up from the mines from 13 to 16 J arrobes
upon their shoulders.9 It must however be noticed that the
miners in Zacatecas are not pure Indians but Mestizoes, who
1 Darwin, " Naturalists voyage/' ii, p. 113, 1844; Andrews, "Journey from
B. Ayres to the prov. of Cordova," etc., i, p. xxi, 1827.
2 Poppig, " Reise," ii, p. 313 ; Weddel, " Voy. dans le Nord de Bolivie,"
p. 305, 1853.
3 Proctor, " Narr. of a Journey across the Cordillera, p. 314, 1825.
4 W. Parish, " B. Ayres and the prov. of the La Plata," p. 291, 1838 ; and
Molina, " Essai sur 1'hist, nat. du Chili, p. 314, 1789.
5 Stevenson, ii, p. 176.
6 Semple, " Sketch of the present state of Caracas," p. 79, 1812.
1 "Rough Notes taken during some journeys across the Pampas," p. 113,
2nd edit., 1826.
8 Legendre in d'Urville, " Voy. au Pole, Sud.," x, p. 291, 1841.
9 Ward, " Mexico in the year 1827," ii, p. 201, Wehn., 1828.
SECT. II.] BODILY STRENGTH. 121
are more nearly allied to the Whites than the natives.1 Accord-
ing to Lahontan2 and Perrin du Lac/ the natives of North
America are less strong but more enduring in their efforts,
than Europeans. Kengger4 says the same of the Indians
of Paraguay, and Weld5 says that Englishmen excel the
aborigines of North America in short races, but are beaten
by them in long distances. Individual instances of great bodily
strength are found among them. Two Ojibbeways proved
themselves considerably more powerful than two Belgians of
the same age.6 The Osages belong to the most powerful tribes
of the North Americans ; they can perform per day sixty miles
on foot.7 Roger Williams states that the Indians of New Eng-
land travel in one day from eighty to one hundred miles, and re-
turn home the following day.8 The performances of the runners
whom the native rulers of Mexico and Peru employed are well
known. The so-called postillions in Peru perform on foot from
twenty to thirty Spanish leagues.9 That the, beard is but
weak among the Americans proves, after these cited instances,
nothing against the physical strength of their constitution.
Besides, they share this peculiarity with the Mongols and
Negroes, and with many South- Arabs.10 Among the peoples of
the Mongol race, the powerful organization of which has never
been doubted, the inhabitants of the island Quelpart are con-
sidered the strongest ; they can lift heavier weights than the
English sailors.11 Among the Esquimaux there are also in-
stances of great strength; for, to overpower one of them, a
number of English sailors were requisite in a case related by
1 Lyon, " Journal of resid. in Mex.," i, p. 87, 1828 ; Burckardt, " Aufenhalt
in Mex.," i, p. 152, Stutt., 1836.
2 Loc. cit., ii, p. 94.
8 " R. in den beiden Louisianen," ii, p. 29, 1807.
4 " Naturgesch. der Saugeth. in Paraguay," p. 12, 1830.
5 " E. durch d. Staaten, in N. Am. Magazin," xx, p. 470.
6 Quetelet, " Bullet, de Tacad. des sc. de Belg., 1'Institut.," ii, p. 78, 1846.
7 Nuttall, " Journal of trav. into the Arkansas territory," p. 821, Philad.,
1821.
8 Hutchinson, " Hist, of Massachusetts," i, p. 411, note, 3rd edit., Boston,
1795.
9 Temple, " Trav. in Peru," i, p. 269, Lond., 1830.
10 Pickering, " The races of man," p. 225, 1849.
11 Belcher, "Narr. of the Voy. of H.M.S. Samarang," i, p. 350, 1848.
122 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Beechey.1 With regard to the Malays and Polynesians we hear
of the Macassars, that they can perform journeys of forty to
fifty miles per day with heavy burdens.2 Labillardiere3 states
that the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands (Tonga Archi-
pelago) were inferior to the French sailors in wrestling, but
Cook found the Tonga Islanders in boxing and wrestling
superior to his crew.4 Wilkes5 relates cases of a Tonga
Islander who swam about in the sea from noon till the next
morning, and of a woman from the Sandwich Islands who re-
mained in the water for thirty hours. Cheever6 relates similar
cases. The great physical power of the Sandwich chiefs is
frequently mentioned by Jarves.7
It has been asserted that the mean duration of life is longest
in the temperate zone, and diminishes on approaching the
tropics. As we have no statistical accounts of uncivilized
nations we must rest satisfied with some stray notices, from
which it would appear that there exists no peculiarity of race in
this respect. The mean duration of life may be shorter among
the Australians than among Europeans, in consequence of
privation, but still they reach frequently seventy years and up-
wards.8 It has been frequently denied that the American
Indians arrive at a very advanced age, but it is now admitted,
as proved by many instances.9 Amerigo Vespucci relates in a
letter in Bartolozzi,10 that he had seen a family consisting of son,
father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grand-
father. Leri says of the natives of Brazils (Tupinambas,
Tamoyos), that they are subject to fewer diseases than the
Europeans, and reached an age from 100 — 120 years, and
Pigafetta11 asserts that they reach 140 years. Prince Max12
1 " Narr. of voy. to the Pacific/' p. 553, 1831.
2 " Eel. de la oaptivite du Cap. Woodard dans Tile de Celebes," p. 147, 1805.
3 Chap, ii, p. 176.
4 Mariner, " Tonga islands," ii, p. 314, 1818.
5 " Narrat. of the TJ. S. exped.," iii, p. 31 ; and iv, p. 45, 1845.
6 "Life in the Sandwich islands," p. 123, 1851.
7 " Hist, of the Sandwich islands," p. 77, 1843.
8 Grey, " Journals of two exped. in Austr.," ii, p. 247, 1841.
9 Burmeister, loc. cit., p. 250, 1853.
10 " Eicerche storiche sulle scoperte d'Am. Vesp."
n « Premier voy. autour du in.," an. ix, p. 16, Paris.
12 " E. nach Brasil," ii, p. 107.
SECT. II.] DURATION OF LIFE. 123
saw an Indian who could remember 107 years. Stevenson1
has traced similar cases in the parish registers.2 Men of dark
complexion, Negroes and Indians, reach, in spite of their
unwholesome diet, even under the tropics, a very advanced
age.3 Poppig4 is of opinion that only men of colour and
Indians reach such an age. It seems therefore exceptional
that in South America the Indians on the Orinoco are described
by Gilii (p. 250) as weakly, sensitive to changes of tempera-
ture, subject to many diseases, and frequently to an early
death. It is very remarkable that on the hot coast of Vera
Cruz many instances of extraordinary longevity are met with.
In 1831 there were in the village Cosoliacac, among 1,595 souls,
40 whose collective ages amounted to 3,407 years, and in 1830
a woman died aged 136.5 As regards the Malays, we find that
Lichtenstein gives instances of their reaching, at the Cape,
ages of 107 — 120 years. Among the natives of the Philip-
pines there are many centenarians ; men 80 years of age are
seen working vigorously in the fields.6 Foissac also has col-
lected instances of old age among Polynesians and Negroes. A
woman at Cape Coast Castle lived to see the fifth generation.7
In the Island of St. Thomas, Negroes have reached an age of
110 years.8 According to the census of the United States of
1850, instances of advanced age from 80 to 100 occur more
frequently among the free coloured population, and still more
so among the Negroes than among the White population.
Among 3 millions of slaves there were 1,400 from 100 years
upwards, while among the Whites there were but 800 instances
of the kind among 20 millions.9 Among the Negro slaves in
Cuba grey hair and other signs of age appear very late, and
1 "R. in Arauca, CHI.," i, p. 267, 1826.
2 Compare also Tschudi, ii, p. 360; Spix & Martins, p. 1152; Dobrizhoffer,
ii, pp. 51, 281 ; Rengger, " Naturg. den Saugeth v. Paraguay," p. 12 ; Azara,
loc. cit. ; Clavigero, " Hist, of Mex.," Lond., 1787, Append, v, p. 1 ; Sigaud,
" Du climat et des maladies du Bresil," p. 448, 1844.
Humboldt and Bonpland, " R.," iii, p. 86.
"R./'i, p. 208.
Muehlenfeldt, " Schilderung der Rep. Mejico," ii, p. 47, 1844.
Mallat, p. 114.
W. T. Mviller, "Die Afric Landscliaft Fetu," p. 280, 1676.
8 Omboni, p. 262.
9 Petermanns, " Mittheilungen," p. 134, 1855.
124 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
one in 900 reaches the age of 100 years.1 Even among
the Hottentots instances of great age frequently occur.
Moody2 mentions a case of one who, from his recollections of
former governors of the colony, could not be less than 150
years old.
It is not our intention to give here a synopsis or history of
the diseases peculiar to different tribes and climates. It will
be sufficient for our subject to show that there appear to be no
diseases exclusively peculiar to either of the races of man,
although the frequency and mortality of many of them differ in
various nations, according to individual predisposition, diet,
climate, and medical treatment. Even Nott, who appears to
have availed himself of every circumstance to prove that the
various races suffer from different specific diseases, was obliged
to content himself with the existence of different predisposi-
tions. Thus at first, he thought to find a proof for the specific
difference of the Negro from the European in the circumstance
that Negroes and the coloured population enjoy almost an im-
munity from yellow fever, so fatal to the White not yet
acclimated in the south-western parts of North America. He
has, however, now partly abandoned this opinion,3 and admits
that Indians and their mongrels in New Orleans and Florida
are as much subject to the attacks of yellow fever as the Whites
from the North of Europe. He still however maintains that
the liability to contract yellow fever differs essentially in the
Negro and the WTiite. We must object that this does not
depend upon a peculiarity of race, but upon the influence of
climate, for as regards the acclimated Whites in the West
Indies, the French refugees, for instance, who fled from St.
Domingo to the Continent, the yellow fever was no more
injurious to them than to the Negroes.4 An opposite example
is furnished by the Negroes of the third and fourth generation,
who, after having been acclimatized in North America had
returned to Africa, when they became subject to the same
1 Graf Gorz, " E. urn die Welt/' ii, p. 44.
2 Loc. cit., i, p. 288.
3 " Indigenous races/' p. 392, Philad., 1857.
4 Stanhope Smith, p. 281.
SECT. II.] DISEASES. 125
climatic diseases as other unacclimatized individuals.1 The Black
and the White suffer equally from dysentery and intermittent
fevers in the south of the United States. A disease very simi-
lar to yellow fever (Matlazahuale) carries off a great number of
Indians in Mexico, whilst the Whites and the Creoles suffer
little from it ;2 but also in this case we are rather inclined to
ascribe it to mode of life and other external circumstances,
than to a specific difference of races. That Negroes and
American Indians are not less subject to the most various
mental diseases than Europeans, is expressly pointed out by
Sigaud.3 That savage nations, exclusive of destructive con-
tagious diseases, generally enjoy better health than civilized
nations, has been often asserted. Thus many of the old
travellers relate of the North American Indians, that they fre-
quently die only of old age, preserving the full use of their
senses, and exhibiting in the most advanced age no signs of
decay of the vital functions. This is also reported of the
Arabs in Africa.4 The Congo-Negroes are, according to
Cavazzi,5 more rarely sick than the Europeans. The Kaffirs
are described as the impersonation of health,6 there being but
one species of putrid fever which causes great devastation
among them.7 It is to the rarity of disease among savages
that we attribute the belief general among them, that maladies
are something supernatural or produced by magic. This
greater rarity, which however is not so easily proved, may
arise from the fact, that savages become by their mode of life
more hardened against external influences, and that they in-
stinctively adapt themselves to the natural conditions in which
they live, and hence enjoy physical health. The civilized man,
on the other hand, follows a great number of pursuits which
are not compatible with the preservation of health, and if
he remain healthy withal, it is because he economises his
strength.
1 De Salles, p. 263.
2 Foissac, p. 128.
3 " Du Climat et des m. du Bresil," p. 347.
4 M. Wagner, "E. in Algier," ii, p. 52, 1841.
5 " Beschr. der Konigr. Congo, Mat. und Angola," p. 168, 1694.
6 Kretzschmar, p. 188.
" " Baseler Missions Mag.," iii, p. 72, 1852.
126 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
The great vital energy of savage, compared with civilized,
nations, is shown by the relatively greater healing power of
nature (vis medicatrix naturae) possessed by the former. The
experiments made in this respect extend to all races. Leigh1
relates the case of an Australian whose temporal bone had been
fractured by a blow, and the temporal artery divided, and of
another whose ulna and radius had been fractured in a terrible
manner, that the first took part on the following day in some
public meeting, and that, though worms appeared in the arm
of the second, the recovery in both took place without any
operation or even dressing. Similar cases are to be found in
Barrington3 and Dawson.3 Though but one in four recover
from the operations of the extirpation of the penis and the
testicles, which are performed on Negroes by the slavedealers
in East Sudan,4 many examples prove that nature's healing
power is as great here as among other Negroes. This extends
also to the white races living in Africa, although Russegger5
points out that in the hot climate of tropical Africa, wounds heal
very slowly in the European, especially during the rainy period.
Others however maintain that in the tropics, e. g. at Trinidad,
wounds heal rapidly even in Europeans.6 W. Earl7 ascribes
the natural healing power among the Malays to their vegetable
diet, which prevents violent inflammation. Petit8 reports a
series of his own observations in Abyssinia, that those who are
punished by having hands or feet cut off, as well as the chil-
dren or adults who are emasculated or have the whole ge-
nitals extirpated, do not generally die from the operation,
although the wounds are entirely left to the healing power of
nature. Parkyns9 relates similar instances. To the Moors,
Chenier10 ascribes that great innate healing power and insen-
1 " Reconnoitering Voy. in S. Austr.," p. 173, 1839.
2 « Hist, of N. S. Wales/' p. 250, 1810.
3 " The present state of Austr.," p. 317, 1830.
4 Brehm, i, p. 202.
5 " E. in Eur., As., u. Afr.," ii, p. 2, 1843.
6 Ausland, p. 576, 1858.
7 " Eastern seas," p. 43.
8 Lefebvre, " Voy. en Abyss.," iii, 369, 1845-.
9 " Life in Abyss.," ii, p. 268, 1853.
10 "Rech. hist, sur les Maures," iii, p. 205, 1787.
SECT. II.] HEALING POWER. 127
sibilty to pain, which has been so often attributed to the native
Americans. Rengger1 is also of that opinion, whilst many
modern observers ascribe to the native Americans a highly sen-
sitive and nervous constitution.2 The case resembles that of
tin? Bedouin Arabs, who consider it a point of honour to exhibit
no sign of pain.
With regard to the native Americans, a relatively greater heal-
ing power of nature has been observed among the Blackfeet, the
Indians of Paraguay and the Abiponians;3 and of native Mexicans
we hear that they heal wounds which would be mortal to Eu-
ropeans by merely washing them with brandy.4 Malays also
frequently recover from injuries which would prove fatal to
Europeans.5 Of twelve Tonga Islanders whose arms were cut
off in the rudest manner, one only died from loss of blood and
another from grief.6 Similar cases of Marquesas Islanders are
reported by Marchand.7
These examples prove that the healing power of nature is
greater among savage than among civilized peoples. We
must not however close these observations without mentioning
another circumstance which has been made use of to establish
the specific difference between the races of man, especially
between the black and the white. It has been asserted that
the lice of the Negroes are not only black and smaller than in
Europeans, but that they do not exist in the former, whilst the
European louse perishes in the Tropics.8 Both these assertions
seem to have been first made by Oviedo,9 which he qualifies by
adding, that European vermin is rarely preserved, whilst that
of the Indians only attacks some children of the whites born in
America. As Peters10 proves to a certainty, that the European
1 " Naturgesch. d. Saugeth," p. 12.
2 Ausland, p. 1146, 1857.
3 Prince Max., " E. in N. Am.," i, p. 581 ; Kengger, " Naturgesch. der
Siiugeth. von Paraguay," p. 12 ; Dobrizhoffer, ii, p. 54.
4 HeUer, " E. in Mex.," p. 58, 1853.
5 Crawford, "Hist, of the Ind. Archip.," i, p. 31, Edinb., 1820; Harris,
Collect, of voy.," i, p. 743.
6 Mariner, "Tonga Isl.," ii, p. 251.
7 " Neueste R. u. d. Welt," i, p.
p. 144, Leipzig.
3 Duttenhofer, " Die Emancip. der Neger,," p. 33, 1855.
9 " Sumario de la nat. hist, in Historiad. prim, de Ind.," p. 508, Madr., 1852.
10 " Monat. der Ges. f. Erdk. N. Folge," i, p. ON.
128 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
louse does not perish under the equator,, there is no occasion to
dwell further on this point. It is scarcely necessary to observe,
that the domestic swine, though not specifically different from
the wild hog, has a parasite which is wanting in the latter :
the colour of these animals changes with the colour of
the skin, on which account Sommering1 did not consider the
pediculus nigritarum as of a different species from the Eu-
ropean louse. It seems also certain that both the head louse
and the p. pubis of Negro nurses passes to white children.2
Quandt3 is at any rate incorrect when he asserts, that the fleas
and lice of Indians and Americans did not infest Europeans.
Neither do the various species of intestinal worms exclusively
infest one race, though one species may more or less predomi-
nate in any people. Thus in England, Holland, and Germany
the tcenia solium prevails ; in Switzerland and in Russia,
down to Konigsberg, bothriocephalus latus ; in the south-east
of France both prevail ; in Abyssinia and among the Hottentots
tcenia predominates.4
Another proof of the physical superiority of the white has
been brought forward, namely, their capacity of being acclima-
tized in every zone. This, however, can only apply to the inhabit-
ants of the temperate zone. If it be confirmed that the Sandwich
Islanders, who live under the 20° N. lat., become excellent
sailors, and can better support a cold climate than even the
sailors of Boston, as mentioned by Duhaut Cilly,5 then the
perhaps merely theoretical assertion of Jarrold, that the Negro
is, by the structure of his skin, better protected against climatic
influences, and can alike thrive in every climate, is hardly correct.
That savages cannot support the influence of climate as well as
civilized people is mainly owing that the latter accommodate
themselves to the climate by care and corresponding changes
in their mode of life, which the uncivilized neglect. HenCe it
has been asserted that it is merely by the force of his intellect
that man can subsist in every clime. This seems to be con-
1 " Ueber die korperl. Verscht. des Negers v. Europ.," p. 8.
2 Bachmann in Smith, " The Unity of the hum. races," p. 184, 1850.
3 " Nachr. v. Surinam," p. 221, 1807.
4 Owen, " Lect. on Comp. Anat. of the invertebrate animals."
5 " Voy. autour du monde," ii, p. 302, 1834.
SECT. II.] ACCLIMATIZATION. 129
finned by the fact, that the English who cannot give up animal
food and spirituous liquors, are less able to sustain the heat of
the tropics than the more sober Spaniards and Portuguese,
whose dark skin and general habits render them better adapted
to a tropical climate. The circumstance that (according to
Ulloa and Humboldt) persons of and above middle age best
support transplantation to a tropical climate, and reach an ad-
vanced age, of which the Batavia Courant1 cites many in-
stances, may perhaps be explained by greater attention paid
in mature age to the general health. Zimmermann2 has,
in opposition to the view, that the capacity of man for acclimati-
zation is increased by his intellectuality, cited the example of
the Polar nations, who can sustain themselves, despite the
small protection against climatic influences. This, however,
proves nothing in favour of their capacity for supporting other
climates without injury. We must further bear in mind
that the incapacity of bearing a rapid change from one cli-
mate into one essentially different, is quite distinct from the
incapacity to sustain a gradually progressing acclimatization,
which must necessarily have taken place during the migrations
of so many tribes through different degrees of latitude.
Though the circumstances above mentioned, contribute in
many instances to exhibit the capacity for acclimatization to
be less in savages than in Europeans, we must still be cautious
in coming to any conclusion in this respect. We cannot, there-
fore, entirely agree with Humboldt, 3 when he attributes to the
American Indians a lesser degree of capacity for acclimatization
'than to the Europeans, on the ground that the working in mines
ds so destructive to the former from the great changes of tem-
perature. In some mines the temperature is 6° higher than
e mean temperature of Jamaica and Pondicherry, so that we
•may question whether Europeans could without injury sustain
such a heat and a sudden change to a low temperature, without
injury. It is besides remarkable, when we learn that the
mortality among the miners of Mexico is not much greater
* July 13, 1830.
2 " Geogr. Gesch. des Menschen," i, p. 53, 1778.
3 " Neu-Spanien," i, p. 161.
130 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
than among the rest of the population. Latterly, the opinion
has gained ground, that the white races possess no particular
privilege with regard to the capacity of acclimatization ; but
only so far has this view been adopted, that a general capacity
to become acclimatized in all zones belongs to no race. The
more important facts in support of this view are here subjoined.
The American race which inhabits all climates, refutes the
privilege which has been assigned to the white race ; but it
presents, like other races, the phenomena that sudden transplan-
tation into other conditions, causes mortality, unless proper pre-
cautions are taken. It is, therefore, not the absolute adaptation
of every race to a peculiar climate or the incapacity of maintain-
ing itself in a foreign climate, which causes its decay, but the
abrupt change of external conditions. Thus, the Icelander
who settles in Copenhagen, becomes liable to, and frequently
dies of, consumption.1 Indians who leave the mountainous
parts of Peru to settle on the coast, or inhabitants of the coast
who settle in the mountains, perish.2 The Indian of the
Savannah, when transplanted to the damp air of the primitive
forests, dies of pulmonary disease, just as the inhabitants of the
forests and the hills when they are obliged to settle in the open
Savannah.3 The mortality attending such forced transmigra-
tions, called forth those edicts which were formerly published
against this practice in Spanish America. The European, far
from supporting the sudden change from one climate to another,
finds the tropics as injurious to his health as the Negro finds
the northern regions. The Arab and the Copt sicken like the
European, in East Sudan, whilst the black displays there his
full vital energy.4 There are many districts in Africa where
strangers, and especially Europeans, can neither live nor become
acclimated, whilst the natives enjoy good health. Such is the
case in some parts of the Darfur, the greater portion of
Kordofan, Fernando Po, and Zanzibar. The military in Kor-
dofan consists exclusively of blacks. It seems, however, from
1 Clemens, " Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift," ii, p. 89, 1849.
2 Proctor, " Narr. of a journey across the Cordillera," p. 299, 1825.
3 Schomburgh, " R. in Brit. Guiana," ii, p. 126, Lpz., 1847.
4 Werne, "Exped. z. Entd. der Q. des W. Nil," p. 47, 1828.
SECT. II.] ACCLIMATIZATION. 131
what Pallme1 says of their sad condition, that the reason is not
so much because of the sanitary state of the troops, but rather
that the blacks are more easily managed.2 In St. Felipe de
Benguela all white women either miscarry, or bring forth weakly
children who die during the first few months.3 The country
around the N'gami lake seems to be uninhabitable for the
white, on account of the fevers ; the natives alone can support
it.4 The climate of other countries in the tropics is likewise
injurious to Europeans, though in a less degree than the
African climate. According to Bryson,5 the mortality of English
soldiers in the East Indies is annually 15. per cent. ; in the West
Indies 18.1 ; in Africa 58.4. Of 100 European soldiers in
East India there live, if well taken care of, and exclusive of
such who are carried off by wars, after 5 years, 70 ; after 10
years, 45 ; after 15 years, 25 ; and after 20 years, only 10.6
In the presidency of Bengal the mortality of the English Euro-
pean soldiers reaches annually 1 in 13.55; among the natives,! in
56 ; in the presidency of Madras, 1 in 26 of the former and 1 in
47' 7 of the latter.7 To prolong his life in the West Indies, the
European requires great care and rest ; violent efforts are most
injurious tnere as well as in Gruiana.8 Reichardt, however,
maintains that the debility and sickening of the Europeans in
onany tropical countries, and especially in Central America,
are wrongly ascribed to the climate : they are rather the indi-
rrect consequences of slavery, indolence, sensual gratification,
and an irregular mode of life.9 The incapability of French
•soldiers to perform more than half the amount of bodily labour
hot climates, has been established by Coulomb at Mar-
1 " Beschr. von Kordofan," p. 122, 1843.
2 Mohammed el Tounsy, "Voy. au Darfour," p. 295, Paris, 1845 ; PaUme,
" Beschr. v. Kordofan," pp. 7, 117, 122, 1843 ; Guillain, "Docum. sur 1'hist. la
-geogr., et le comm. de Air. Orient.," ii, pp. 1, 93, 1856 ; Allen and Thomson,
" Narr. of the exped. to the K. Niger," ii, p. 198, 1848.
3 Spix and Martins, " Keise," p. 669.
4 Livingstone, " Journal K. Geogr. Soc.," xxi, p. 20.
5 " Report on the climate and princ. diseases of the Afr. station," p. 178.
6 Ausland, p. 968, 1855.
7 Dieterici, Uber d. Sterblichkeitverh. in Europa, Abh. d. Berl. Akad. 1851,
p. 732 : Compare M'Culloch in Quetelet, p. 624.
8 Graf. Gortz, "Keise," ii, p. 290.
9 Nicaragua, p. 280, 1854.
K2
132 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
tinique.1 In consequence of the enormous mortality among
the recruits who descend to the coast from the Mexican plateau
(on one occasion there died 272 out of 300 in three months)
it was resolved to employ acclimatized Negroes and men of
colour for the garrison of St. Juan d'Ulloa.2 A. de St. Hilaire3
also observes that the blacks and men of colour supported the
climate of Villa Boa much better than the whites. Pruner
again (p. 68) assumes it as a fact, that the white race cannot
perpetuate itself in the greater part of Negro regions. With-
out slaves, says Koler,4 the fertile tropical valleys would be
unproductive and deserted, as white men cannot labour there
in the open air. Further proofs may be found in Nott and
G-liddon,5 who deny the capacity of the white to become
acclimated in all Malaria regions, as well as that of the Negro
in the West Indies. Dowding6 calls attention to the fact, that
in the whole of the West Indies the whites constitute at
present but five per cent, of the population, and consequently
the blacks and men of colour will in a short time be the sole
occupants of these islands. We cannot, however, admit that
incapacity for acclimatization under the tropics is peculiar to
the white race, since individuals of any race seem inviable in
regions in which they are not acclimatized, even in those parts
from which they originally sprung.
Though the injurious influences of tropical climates affect
the Negro less (and as it seems in a different manner) than the
European, he is nevertheless not less exposed to injury than the
white on suddenly changing his climate. Wilson,7 who, from
a twenty years residence on the Gaboon and in C. Palmas, has
arrived at the conviction that the noxiousness of the climate of
these regions had been exaggerated, states, that coloured peo-
ple coming from the United States suffer as much from the
climate as the whites, though the former accommodate them-
1 Peron, " Voy. de decouv. aux terres Aust.," ii, p. 427, 1824.
2 Humboldt, " Neu-Spanien," iv, p. 408.
• Voy. au sources du E. S. Francisco/' ii, p. 71, 1847.
'• Notizen iiber Bonny," p. 156, 1848.
• Indigenous races of the earth," p. 357.
: Religious Partizanship, Africa in the West," Oxf. 1854.
Western Afr.," p. 511, 1856.
SECT. II.] ACCLIMATIZATION. 133
selves sooner to its influence. Negroes from dry countries,
such as Bornou, Hausa, or the Sahara, die soon after their
arrival in Sierra Leone. Their acclimatization seems as diffi-
cult as that of Europeans,1 which is scarcely surprising, when
we hear of the winter cold in Bornou, where before sunrise the
thermometer sometimes sinks to +4?° c.2 In Khartoum the
natives are said to suffer as much, and even more, from the
climate than Europeans ;3 this is, however, an exceptional case.
In Senegambia fevers not dangerous to the natives usually kill
the white.4 In the West Indies the Negro exposes himself with-
out injury to rain, which would cause a fever to the white.5
The Negro can bear the rays of the sun upon a bare head.6
It is even said that during the rainy season, which is the most
dangerous for the European, he enjoys better health than
during the dry season. This is reported of the Negroes in
Senegambia, in Ruffi, and on the Niger, of the Ibus and of those
in Iddah, on the Prince's Island, St. Thomas and Annabon, on
the southern part of the west coast of Africa.7 The rainy
months in Angola, October and November, are for the Eu-
ropean the healthy, and for the natives the unhealthy, season.8
Upon the Island St. Thomas, June, July, and August are
favourable to Europeans, and the reverse to the natives, who,
though they suffer less from the prevailing diseases, are by no
means exempt from them.9
On the coast of Guinea, the rainy season so injurious to the
white, is, according to Roemer,10 not less so to the Negroes. In
I Sierra Leone the month of July is dangerous to the blacks, and
1 Koelle, " Gramm. of the Bornu lang.," p. 8.
2 Earth, iv, p. 12.
Eussegger, " Eeise," ii, pp. 2, 38.
Eaffenel, " Voy. dans 1' Afr. ou.," p. 322, 1846.
Day, " Five years' resid. in the W. Indies," i, p. 37, 1852.
Werne, " Feldz. nach Taka," p. 134.
Brunner, " E. n. Senegambier," p. Ill, 1840 ; Schoen and Crowther,
"Journals of the exped. up. the Niger," p. 166. 1842; Allen and Thomson,
i, p. 325 ; Boteler, " Jour. E. G. S.," ii, p. 275 ; Des Marchais, " Voy. en
Guinee," iii, p. 9, 1731 ; Tarns, " Die Portug. Besitz. in siid West Afr.," 1845.
8 Livingstone, ii, p. 65.
9 Des Marchais, loc. cit., iii, pp. 9, 5.
10 " Nachr. v. d. Kiiste Guinea," 1769, p. 10.
134 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
August to the whites.1 Brehm however denies the different
effects of seasons upon different races in East Sudan.2
Though, according to the above statements, it is scarcely
probable, as asserted by Werne,3 that Negro soldiers are less
able to bear the fatigue of a campaign in hot countries than the
white, it is not less certain that Negroes cannot without diffi-
culty support a cold climate. The Negro is sensitive to even
moderate changes of temperature.4 Callie and other travellers
relate that on such occasions they complain bitterly of cold ;
we must, however, bear in mind the scanty covering which they
use. This must also be taken into consideration when Richard-
son5 mentions that the Negroes seem not so well to support the
hot winds in Sahara as the Arabs and the Moors, in addition to
the fact, that in North Africa the change of temperature is
sometimes very great, being on some occasions so low, that
French soldiers have been frozen to death. The Kaffirs, who
were some years since exhibited in Europe, did not show any of
that sensitiveness to cold which the real Negro is said to possess.
This sensitiveness is, however, not exclusively peculiar to the
Negro ; the Bisharis have the same peculiarity,6 and the in-
habitants of Fezzan, habituated to a high temperature, are
accustomed, in inquiring about each other's health, to say,
' ' I trust you don't feel cold/'7 A great susceptibility of change
of temperature is a usual consequence of residence under the
tropics, and is not confined to the Negro.8 The Negro is said to
become insane in cold climates; this, however, is not unfrequently
the result of his being transported to other countries. Selberg9
found among the Ashantee Negroes imported into Java, several
suffering from insanity. In the New England states of North
America, the Negroes, it is said, would become extinct were it
1 Fraissinet, " Nouv. ann. des voy.," ii, p. 293, 1855.
2 Brehm, i, p. 218.
3 " Feldz. Nach Taka," p. 67 ; he contradicts himself p. 168.
4 M. Park, " Voy. dans Tint, de 1'Afr.," viii, pp. 1, 55.
5 " Trav. in the gr. desert of Sahara," ii, p. 437, 1848.
6 Bay. Taylor, "E. nach Central Afr.," p. 151, 1855.
7 Ledyard et Lucas, "Voy. en Afrique pr. Lalleniant/' p. 116, 1804.
8 Humboldt, " R. in die JEquinoctial," i, p. 254.
9 " Reise nach Java," p. 45, 1846.
SECT. II.] BLUSHING. 135
not for fresh importations. Knox1 asserts the same thing of
the Anglo-Saxon race in America.
The capacity of Hushing has often been considered as a
peculiarity of the white man, and has been denied to other
races, and especially to the Negro. Blushing, however, is not
merely seen in Mulattoes, and in delicate women of the black
race (Lawrence, Lectures, p. 240), but also in Negroes.2 Monrad3
asserts that Negresses become darker when influenced by the
sense of shame. The Australians also blush.4 Though the
blushings of dark-complexioned peoples must not be taken
exactly in the same sense as these phenomena among the
whites, still a certain change, a deepening of the colour,
in consequence of some emotions, is perceptible in the former.
We are, therefore, surprised to find that Both5 denies this
capacity altogether to the Abyssinians. D'Orbigny observes
that the native Americans also blush, though not very percep-
tibly on account of their complexion. According to Spix
and Martius,6 the change of colour resulting from emotions is
confined to educated Indians, who have much intercourse with
the whites. The Kalmucks are said not to become red from
shame, but pale from fear and terror.7 The common changes
of colour in the face have also been observed in the inhabitants
of Tahiti, Marquesas, and New Zealand.8
It deserves to be mentioned as a striking peculiarity in the for-
mation of speech-sounds, — the cause of which some have sought
for in the organs themselves, — that the Negroes have no r, the
Australians no sy and that in Polynesia, the Fiji and Navigation
islands excepted, the hissing sounds are wanting. The dialect
of Eimatara, Eurutu, Tubuai, and Raivavai seems to have the
1 " The races of man," 1850.
2 Dupuy, " Journal of a resid. in Ashantee," p. 149, 1824 ; Golberry, " E.
durch d. West Afr.," ii, p. 307, Lpz. 1803.
» " Gemalde der. k. v. Guinea," p. 60, 1824.
4 Barrington, " Hist, of N. S. Wales," p. 10, 1810.
5 Wagner, " Gesch. der Urwelt," p. 269, 1845.
6 " Journey," p. 376.
7 Bergmann, ii, p. 54.
8 Forster, " Bermerk auf. s. E. um d. Welt," p. 204, 1783; Kotzebue,
" Neue E. um die W.," i, p. 73, 1830 ; Melville, " Vier Monate auf d. Mar-
quesas," i, 166, Lpz. 1847 ; Mundy, " Our Antipodes, or resid. in the Austr.
col.," ii, p. 127, 1852.
136 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
least number of consonants of any language, possessing only
seven — m, n, ng, p, r, t, v,1 whilst the languages of the Sahap-
tin family in North America possess at least nine of them — h,
k, I, m, n, p, s, if w. Hueck2 says that the Esthonians, like
the Hottentots (W. v. Humboldt) are incapable of forming
the hissing sounds from the narrowness of the hard palate,
which perhaps also exists in other Finnish tribes. The pe-
culiar click of the Hottentots, which led many travellers to
consider their language as a mere chirping, deserves also men-
tion. Thunberg3 and Levaillant4 have only been able to dis-
tinguish three, but Van der Kemp distinguished six of these
sounds.5 But as such clicking sounds have passed from the
language of the Hottentots into some words of the Amakosa
Kaffirs, and even into the language of the natives of Port Natal,6
we can scarcely reduce the cause of this phenomenon to a pecu-
liarity in the organs of speech. That this peculiarity is not
an innate peculiarity of race, but merely a habit, is proved
by the circumstance, that the Hottentot children who have
passed their childhood among the white colonists, can on their
return home as little acquire these difficult sounds as the mis-
sionaries.7 Information regarding the quality of voice in most
peoples, independent of the formation of speech sounds, is
almost entirely wanting. It is scarcely doubtful that in this
respect similar differences exist, as have been recently observed,
among ourselves — namely, that among country people, even
among men, the voices are high ; but in the cities there are
more low voices, and that the former seem gradually to
diminish. That the voice of the Negro is rather low and
hoarse, and that of Negresses high and shrill, has already been
mentioned. The Kaffirs have generally deep bass voices
which are rarely found among the Hottentots.8
1 Hale, " Ethnogr. and phil. of the U. S. expl. exped.," p. 142, Philad. 1846
2 " De craniis estonum," p. 9, 1838.
3 " Iteise," ii, 61, 1792.
4 " Erste Eeise," p. 289, 1790.
5 Lichtenstein, " Reise," ii, p. 605.
6 Thunberg, loc. cit. ; Lichtenstein, i, 637 ; Colenso, " Ten weeks in Natal,
p. 60, Cambridge, 1855.
7 " Eheinische missionsberichte," p. 54, 1851.
8 Moodie, "Ten years in S. Afr./' ii, p. 257, 1835.
SECT. II.] USE OF THE HANDS. 137
With regard to the use of the hands, it rarely occurs among
savage nations that they can use both hands with equal skill,
as is said to be the case with the Indians of Yucatan.1 As far
as we know, the right hand is everywhere preferred to the left.
In Great Bassam (Guinea coast) the right only is used in feed-
ing, whilst the nails are allowed to grow long on the left hand,
which is used for unclean occupations.2 The word " mara,"
(left) signifies in the Vei-language also cc wrong, unjust/'3 In
the Zulu language right and left have a similar signification.4
The natives of Senegambia, as well as those of the Darien
isthmus, use only the right hand for eating.5 The word
" molemmi" (left-handed) occurs as a name among the Beshu-
anas ;6 it also applies to the ancient Peruvians,7 whence we may
conclude that the right hand is used among them preferentially.
This is also the case among the Malays, especially among the
higher classes. Ladies of high birth use only the right for
eating and saluting (Crawfurd) . The Macassars eat with the
hand and wash themselves with the left.8 From the ques-
tion of the Pelew Islanders, put to Captain Wilson, as to
which arm he used, it appears that they have a different use for
each arm.9 Among the North American Indians there are but
few left-handed.10 Hottentots and Bushmen appear only to be
able to use one of their hands with skill.11
As regards the perfection of the senses, civilized man is gene-
rally inferior to the savage, with exception, perhaps, of the
sense of taste, which is exercised in the variety of aliments,
whilst the savage merely satisfies his appetite. As the whole
existence of the uncivilized man depends in many cases on the
use of his senses, he directs his attention to minute circum-
1 Waldeck, " Voy. pitt. dans la prov. d'Yucatan," p. 66, 1838.
2 Hecquard, p. 46.
8 Koelle, " Outline of a grammar of the Vei," p. 199.
4 Doehne, " Zulu Kaffir Dictionary," p. 228, 1857.
5 Raffenel, " Nouveau voy.," i, p. 53 ; Wafer, loc. cit., p. 127.
6 BurcheU, ii, p. 368, 1822.
' Ausland, p. 205, 1858.
8 "Rel. dela capt.du Capit. Woodard dans 1'isle de Celebes," p. 150, 1805.
9 Keate, " Account of the Pelew Isl.," p. 230, 1789.
10 Say in James, " Account of an exped. from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
Mountains," i, p. 284, Philad. 1823.
11 They are almost Manchot. Arbousset et Daumas, "Eel. d'un voy au
N. E. du Cap de B. Esp.," p. 479, 1842.
138 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I
stances, and combines them with other indications. T
possess, observes Leichardt1 of the Australians, an extraordi-
nary local memory ; peculiarly shaped or grouped trees, broker
branches, and many other minute marks, seem to be impressec
upon them like a photograph, all of which seems to be the result
of concentrated attention. Schiel2 received from a Delaware
Indian, descriptions of countries which the latter had not visited
for eighteen years, and yet they were found perfectly correct.
The European, however, after from three to four years' prac-
tice, is also enabled to see twice as far as before, but he rarely
acquires the skill in trailing possessed by the natives.3
Kretzschmar4 observes, that the Dutch boors at the Cape are
almost as skilful as the Hottentots in this respect. Many
interesting examples of this kind are related of the Bedouin
Arabs, who are able to discern objects at a much greater
distance than the Europeans.5 They pursued without err-
ing the tracks of men and animals among thousands. The
Mongrels performed the same feats as the pure races. The
Grauchos in South America possess the same skill in tracking as
the pure Indians.6 A Hottentot Mongrel discovered at a
distance of more than 1,000 metres the movement of the
head of a gazelle concealed in grass.7 And McCoy8 says, that
the practised white does not show less aptitude in following
the trace of animals or of the enemy than the North American
Indians. Much of what Daumar9 states of the high per-
fection of the senses of the Suafes, the inhabitants of the
district Suf, is manifestly exaggerated. It can scarcely be
doubtful whether we are in such cases to assume an ori-
ginally acuter power of perception in uncivilized nations, or
an acquired vigour of the senses. Both are perhaps combined,
1 " Tageb. einer Landreise in Austr.," 1851.
2 " R. durch d. Felsengeb.," p. 97, 1859.
3 Hodgson, « Eeminisc. of Austr./' p. 249, 1846.
" Siidafrikanische Skizzen," p. 327, 1853.
Bitter, "Erdk.," x, 1099; Riley, " Schiksale u. E. un der Wesk. von
Afr.," p. 37, 1818 ; D'Escayrac, " D. Afr. Wiiste u. d. Land d. Schwarzen,"
p. 287, 1855 ; Werne, " Feldz. nach Taka," p. 122.
Capt. Head, " Bough Notes," 2nd ed., p. 257.
Delegorgue, " Voy. dans 1' Afr. Aust.," i, p. 135, 1847.
" Hist, of Baptist. Ind. missions," p. 344, Washington, 1840.
" La Sahara Algerien," p. 193, 1845.
SECT. II.] THE SENSES. 139
(this is also the view of Rengger,1 who states that the Indians
can distinguish the kind of wild beasts by the noise in the bush,
and a mounted horse from an unmounted one by the tramp-
ing of the hoof), for it has been observed, that in many animals
continued exercise of the senses through several generations,
gradually produces a corresponding improvement of the same.
An example of this kind is furnished by the Dajakes, among
whom such as lead a nomadic life have smell and sight very
acute, which is not the case with those who are agriculturists.2
That the inhabitants of the desert, like their camels and horses,
perceive water at a considerable distance, is well known. Even
Europeans acquire this power,3 and it is scarcely surprising
that, after a long-continued dryness of the air, a higher
degree of moisture should produce a peculiar sensation. In
Australia, where Leichardt could observe nothing of this kind
in men or animals, Mitchell4 heard a native use the expres-
sion, " the wind smelled of water ;" and he found that his dogs
discovered water more readily than the natives, and the latter
more readily than the Europeans.
Sight and hearing are very acute among the Hottentots and
Bushmen (Burchell) ; the latter see objects with the naked eye
for which we require a telescope.5 This is also the case among
the Australians,6 many Polynesians, New Zealanders, the in-
habitants of the Paumotu- Archipelago, who perceive ships at
much greater distances than Europeans;7 and among most
hunting tribes of the Mongolian race. The Papuas of New
Guinea are also said to possess acute sight and hearing ;8 their
sense of taste seems, however, very obtuse, if it be true what
Freycinet9 relates, that one of them swallowed the whole con-
tents of a pepper-box, not only without experiencing any in-
1 " Naturgesch. de Saugeth. v. Paraguay," p. 10.
2 Kessel, " Bullet. Soc. Geogr.," ii, p. 514, 1852.
3 Burckhardt, " E. in Nubien," p. 286, 1820; Le Vaillant, Erste E., p. 348.
4 " Journal of an exped. in Tropical Austr.," p. 264, 1848.
5 Liechtenstein, ii, p. 320.
6 Turnbull, E. um d. Velt im Mag. v. Eeisebeschr., p. 36, Berlin, 1806 ;
Cunningham, " Two years in New South Wales," ii, p. 13, 1827.
7 Moerenhaut, "Voy.," i, p. 172.
8 Lesson, " Voy. Med.," p. 204, 1829.
9 " Voy. autour du m.," ii, p. 23, 1827.
140 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART
convenience, but finding the taste excellent. Some soun<
which are agreeable to one people produce very unpleasant
sensations in others. The inhabitants of Bouka (Solomon's
Islands) were enchanted by the sounds of the violin, which
caused the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land to stop their
ears.1 Fiddles and flutes produced no impression whatever
upon the Esquimaux.2 Beshuanas, who for the first time
heard a missionary sing, began to shed tears.3 This applies
to other sensations. The Indians of tierra firma, when
Columbus came to them, found the odour of brass very
pleasant.4 The Esquimaux in Prince Regent Bay, who eat
raw putrid flesh, rejected with disgust, biscuit, salt meat, and
spirituous liquors.5
The sense of smell is described as well developed among the
native Americans. Azara6 speaks of the great acuteness of
sight and hearing among the Charruas, and Dobrizhofler,7 tells
extraordinary things of the sight of the Abiponians. It de-
serves to be further investigated as an abnormal fact, that most
Indians of the northern parts of the United States seem to be
unable to distinguish green from blue, and that the western
tribes have only one term for these two colours.8 Among the
languages of Central America, green and blue are also desig-
nated in the Quiche, Pocouchi, and Cacchiquel dialects by the
same term, namely, " rax."9 The acuteness of smell in this
race is still more remarkable; so that the Caribs and Peru-
vians can distinguish the white, the Negro, and the American
by the smell, and have different names for the various odours,10
like the Bedouins, who track strayed camels by the smell.11 The
eastern neighbours of the Botocudes, the Machacares, though
1 Labillardiere, ii, p. 50.
2 Seeman, " R. um d. Welt/' ii, p. 67, 1853.
3 Livingstone, i, p. 192.
4 Herrera, " Hist, gen.," i, pp. 3, 11.
5 J. Ross, " Entdeckungreise um Baffin's Bay ausz.," pp. 46, 52, 54, 1820.
6 " Voy. dans 1'Am. merid.," ii, p. 9, 1809.
7 Loc. cit., ii, p. 24.
8 Kohl, « Kitscbi-Gami," i, p. 25, 1859.
9 Ximenes, " Hist, del origen de los indios de Guat.," ed. Scherzer, p. 15,
note.
10 Labat, " Nouv. voy. aux lies de 1'Am.," i, p. 157, 1724; Humboldt, "Neu-
Spanien," i. p. 245.
11 Burckhardt, p. 300.
SECT. II.] THE SENSES. 141
no longer savages, but reclaimed Indians (Indios mansos),
distinguish by the smell in the abandoned huts the particular
tribes of Indians to which they belonged.1 In North America
the Indian prisoners have in former times been employed by
the whites to track the enemy, which they did chiefly by the
smell. Colonel Church, who distinguished himself by his
bravery against the Indians during the first settlement of the
Europeans, observes, in his history of the war against the
Indian chief Philipp, that the sense of smell of a native is
but little inferior to that of a bloodhound.2 Their sense of
smell is said to be so acute, that they cannot bear the strong
odour of musk or the like, and they protest that no odour is
so agreeable to them as that of the various kinds of food.3
It seems, therefore, a strange exception, that the Potawatomis
are inferior in this respect to the whites.4 Also among the
tribes of Lower Columbia taste and smell are obtuse, but sight
and hearing acute.5 In the Negro,6 the olfactory, optic and
trigeminal nerves are much developed, yet the sense of sight
is but moderate; but the hearing is more acute and better
developed than in the Egyptian. This should caution us against
assuming, as has often been done theoretically, great acuteness
from the size of any organ of sense. Thus the considerable
development of the ethmoid bone and the organ of smell in
the Negro has been considered as an approximation to the brute;
opposed to which Jarrold observed, that the Negro did not use
his sense of smell to a greater extent than other races, and that,
despite the large development of the organ, he effects less
by his smell than the native American. Though the approxi-
mation, in this respect, to the brute may be admitted on ana-
tomical grounds, it is inadmissible from a physiological point
of view. The inhabitants of Kordofan are certainly able, when
they pursue fugitive slaves, to trace, like hounds, the tracks of
1 Feldner, " Reisen durch Brasil," ii, p. 146, 1828. Compare, " Memoirs of
the Hist. Soc. of Pennsylvania," iii, p. 128.
2 Drake, «' The book of the Indians, biogr. and hist.," Boston, 1845. "
3 Heriot, " Trav. through the Canadas," p. 152, 1807.
4 Keating, "Narr. of an exped. to the source of St. Peter's E.," i, p. 136, 1825.
5 Parker, "Journal of an explor. tour beyond the Rocky Mountains,"
p. 242, 1838.
6 Pruner, " Ztschrft. der morgenl. Ges.," i, p. 132.
142 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
individuals among a thousand.1 Similar feats are related of
the Negroes in the Colonies, especially on the occasions of the
wars with the Maroons ; yet these performances, in which it is
questionable whether sight or smell play the chief part, are,
according to what has been stated above, not so extraordinary
that they must be attributed to a peculiar gift, nor do they
occur in Africa more frequently than elsewhere. B. Edwards3
asserts,that the smell and taste of the Negro are dull, but sight
and hearing acute. Labat3 says, on the other hand, that
Negroes detect snakes by smell. That their other senses are
very acute is confirmed by Dallas.4 The children of the natives
of Bonny are said to remain blind for ten days after birth.5
That the ear is well developed is proved by his love for music,
united to a good perception of rhythm and time ; his capacity
for the perception of melody is said to be less.6 The music of
the Negroes is certainly often not much more than a horrid
noise : still a musical ear cannot be denied to them, as the flute
and horn music in Ashantee, the music of the Mandingoes,
especially in Kuranko, also that in Benin and Dahomey, is
described as agreeable and harmonious. In Dahomey they un-
derstand how to employ thirds, fifths, and the full chord in mu-
sic.7 We must also bear in mind, that a great portion of the
popular music in the United States comes from the Negroes,8
and that slaves hire themselves of their masters to gain
money as musicians. Negro melodies are inserted in Bush.9
If the Maroon Negroes in Jamaica have a particular horn- sig-
nal for calling any individual,10 there is a still more extended
use made of musical signals on the Cameroons. Information
1 Eussegger, " Eeise," ii, pp. 2, 151.
2 " Proceedings of the Governor of Jamaica in regard to the Maroon
Negroes," p. 39, 1796.
3 " Voy. aux lies de i'Amerique," ii, p. 35.
4 " Gesch. der Maronen-Neger auf Jamaica," p. 149, 1805.
5 Froschel, in " Monatsb. der Ges. f. Erdk. N. Folge," vi, p. 108.
6 Hamilton Smith, " Nat. hist, of the hum. spec.," 1848.
-7 Bowdich, " Mission nach Aschanti," 1820 ; Dupuy, ' ' Journal of resid. in
Ashantee," p. 106, 1824 ; Hecquard, " E. an. d. k. v. West. Afr.," p. 121, 1854 ;
Laing, " Voy. dans le Timmani, Kouranko," p. 187, 1826 ; Bosnian, " Viaggio
in Guinea," iii, p. 278, Ven. 1752; Dalzel, "Gesch. v. Dahomey," p. 34, 1799.
Pickering, " The races of man," p. 185, 1849.
" Wanderungen zw. Hudson u. Mississ.," i, p. 254.
10 Dallas, Inc. cit,
SECT. II.] THE SENSES. 143
is communicated by them and a kind of conversation carried
on in this manner.1 This is also done on the Gold coast2 and
in the Bissagos-Archipelago. Royal proclamations are pub-
lished in this way.3 Finally, as regards the sense of touch in
the Negro, Hamilton Smith describes it as very acute. The
Fanti-Negroes discriminate different impressions : they use the4
middle finger to weigh gold, and prefer this mode to actual
weighing.4
We believe we are justified in concluding, from the above
instances, that the varied powers of the senses do not rest
upon a different endowment of individual races, but depend
on the different occasions which call them forth, according to
the habitual mode of life of the peoples. In endeavouring to
give at the end of this section an account of the results ob-
tained by our investigations, we must confess that they are not
perfectly satisfactory. The comparison of the Negro with the
ape on the one hand, and with the European on the other, has
shown that there are certain anatomical differences prevalent
among mankind. Though these are neither as numerous
and important as has been represented, in order to assign to
the Negro an intermediate position between the European and
the ape, and though the various peculiarities which distinguish
different races cannot be considered as fixed barriers between
them, they are still sufficiently great to leave it doubtful whether
they lie within or beyond the sphere of changes produced on
the physical nature of men in the course of time. In order to
decide this question, a further investigation will be necessary,
which we reserve for the fourth section. With regard to the
physiological comparison between the various races of man-
kind, we may state that its results are favourable to the theory
of the unity of mankind ; for everywhere have the various
differences which we have mentioned proved to be not fixed,
but fluctuating, and dependent on changes of external and
internal conditions.
1 Allan and Thomson, ii, p. 307.
2 Cruikshank, " Achtzehnjjihr. Aufenthalt auf d. Goldk.," p. 283.
3 Durand, " Voy. au Senegal," an. x, pp. 213.
4 G. A. Robertson, " Notes on Africa," p. 168, 1819.
144
APPENDIX TO SECTION II.
ON THE ASSERTED INVIABTL1TY OF THE AMERICANS,
POLYNESIANS, AND AUSTRALIANS.
THE facts we have collated appear sufficiently to prove that
none of the uncivilized peoples are deficient in viability. There
remains, however, one circumstance in favour of an opposite
doctrine, which is, the rapid decay of several races and their
apparently approaching extinction. We shall, therefore, have
to investigate whether the causes of their extinction consist in
a defect of their organization, or whether the fact must not be
attributed to accidental circumstances. The tribes of which we
shall have to speak are the aboriginal Americans, Polynesians,
and Australians.
The rapid diminution of the aboriginal population of America
is established by the official census, and can thus admit of no
doubt. In some regions the diminution may have been only ap-
parent. When we have the statement, that all the peoples which
the first immigrants found in Louisiana and Mississippi, have
almost entirely disappeared, and even their names forgotten, it
may be explained by some misconception. The names of small
tribes have frequently, by travellers, been given to repre-
sent whole nations, whilst the names are often those of chiefs
and their families. The old travellers exaggerated the numbers
of the peoples by seeing themselves on their arrival surrounded
by a crowd of natives, who had merely collected on the spot
from considerable distances either to see or to drive away the
wonderful strangers. Hence the old estimates of the native
population of America and Polynesia are evidently erroneous.
There can, however, be no doubt that the aboriginal population
has diminished in a most remarkable degree, which we in the
first place attribute to destructive diseases.
SECT. II.] DISEASES. 145
The American Indians may, possibly before the arrival of the
whites, have been visited by pestilential epidemics, but it is
chiefly after the arrival of the whites that epidemics of various
kinds, and especially the small-pox, have raged among them.
No race seems to have suffered so much from the small-pox as the
Americans, whilst the Negroes have at all times been little
liable to this epidemic. On the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and
upon the Antilles, which were first visited by the whites, the
small-pox first appeared, and contributed much, perhaps most,
to the depopulation which took place in the large West Indian
islands. In the northern parts of the continent they appear to
have spread (about 1630) a few years after the arrival of the
first settlers, and the natives knew well to whom they were
indebted for this fatal gift. In New England the natives
thought that the whites carried the small-pox poison in bottles
for the destruction of the Indians — a fable which was encour-
aged by the settlers in order to make themselves feared. Thus
Dobrizhoffer quotes the expression of the Indians of South
America : "The whites are truly good people; they have given us
a rich compensation in the small-pox for the gold and silver
they have carried off." The following statements, by no means
complete, may give some idea of the devastation caused by
small-pox. Of the North Indians nine-tenths perished by it.1
The Mandans were, with few exceptions, carried off in 1837;
the Blackfeet diminished from 30,000 or 40,000 to 1,000. Si-
milar devastations occurred among the Crow Indians, Minatar-
rees, Camanchees, and Eiccarees ; among the latter many killed
themselves after recovery, from grief at being disfigured.2 The
Omahas lost two-thirds of their tribe.3 The Indians in Cali-
fornia did not fare better (Schoolcraffc) ; in the Missions one-
half are said to have perished.4 In South America the fate of
the natives does not seem to have been less hard. Small-pox
epidemics raged among the Indians of Paraguay and Gran
Chaco,6 among the Puelches (D'Orbigny), the Corroados, the
1 Hearne, " E. v. Prinz Wallis-fort bis z. Eismeer," p. 168, 1797.
2 Schoolcraft, " Hist, of the Ind. tribes."
3 Washington Irving, " Astoria," p. 119, 1838.
4 Wilkes, " U. St. Expl. Exped.," v, p. 172, 1845.
5 P5ppig, " E.," ii, p. 452.
146 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Caribs on the Maranon, and in the whole northern part
of Peru.1 On the Upper Orinoco, small-pox is almost un-
known.2 According to Molina3 the Indians of Chili had at
that period suffered little of small-pox ; they must, however,
have known its fatal issue, as that author states that they set
fire to the huts in which they suspected a patient attacked by
the small-pox, so that he might be burned. Falkner,4 however,
states positively that the Araucanians have been visited by this
pestilence. In Guiana, the villages Taruma, Atorai, and the
Taurai- Indians have disappeared together; and small-pox,
measles, and the fear of being bewitched by the Kanaima, have
nearly annihilated them. The number of the Macoushis dimi-
nishes daily, like that of the Wapisiana and Amaripa, to whom, in
regard to language, belong the Atorai.5 Other diseases
besides the small-pox, such as measles, contributed to the
decay of the natives. Two-thirds of the aborigines of the
Oregon district perished by fevers and the small-pox.6 Small-
pox and measles raged in the Mosquito country.7 The want
of physicians and the perverse modes of treatment to which the
patients were subjected, contributed not a little to the fatal
issue of these diseases.8 The so-called upper Chinooks were in
the year 1823 reduced by fever from 10,000 to 500, that, as
frequently happens among the North American Indians, the
living did not suffice to bury the dead.9
It deserves mentioning,10 that the mere contact of different
races, though in perfect health at the time of their meeting,
frequently produces destructive diseases from which the inferior
race, or the aborigines who are visited by the strange race,
1 V. Eschwege, " Journal v. Brasil/' i, p. 206, 1818 ; Labat, " Nouv. voy.
aux isles de FAm.," ii, p. 122, 1724; "Allerhand lehrreiche biief v. d. miss.
d. Ges. Jesu.," i, p. 60, Augsburg, 1726 ; Ulloa, " Voy. bist. de 1'Am. merid.,"
i, p. 349, Amst. 1752.
2 Humboldt and Bonpland, " Eeise," iv, p. 26.
3 " Essai sur 1'hist. nat. du Chili," p. 23, 1789.
4 " Beschr. v Patagonien," 1775.
5 Schomburgk, "Jour. E. G. S.," xv, p. 26.
6 De Smet, "Missions de 1' Oregon," p. 19, 1848.
7 "Bericht Tiber d. Unters. des Mosquito," p. 21, 184-5 ; Young, " Narr. of
a resid. on the Mosquito shore," 2nd ed., pp. 24, 73, 1847.
8 John Dunn, " Hist, of the Oregon territory," p. 115, 1844.
9 Wilkes, v, 140; HaU, 215.
10 Dai-win, German by Dieffenbach, ii, p. 214.
SECT. II.] DISEASES. 147
suffers most. Thus Humboldt1 observes, that the great
epidemics of Panama and Callao occurred after the arrival of
European ships in Chili. Fever, cholera, etc., destroyed the
natives in the South Sea after the arrival of Europeans. The
belief that the whites import all diseases is general in the south,
the Gambier islands, Rapa, Raivavai, Tubuai, Rurutu, Raro-
tonga (Moerenhout), and even among the inhabitants of Pit-
cairn (Beechey), in Tahiti.2 In Rarotonga a destructive pesti-
lence broke out immediately after some trading between the
natives and the crew of an apparently healthy European ship,
(Williams.3) This opinion also prevails in Celebes, where Brooke
was on that account prevented from landing.4 The Boers of
the Cape, who under Potgieter visited Algoa Bay, are said to
have introduced in that part a croup-like disease, with which
they were not themselves affected.5 The belief that the Whites
brought with them a virus, which they let loose upon the
natives, prevailed all through New England, caused probably
by the circumstance that shortly after the stranding of a French
ship near Cape Cod, there broke out among the Indians, in
1616, a destructive pestilence, which so depopulated the coast
for a distance of several hundred English miles, that the survi-
vors were unable to bury the dead.6 Assuming the correctness
of the above statement, we cannot subscribe the mystical and
especially in America, popular theory, that the aboriginal
race of the new world would, even without drunkenness, war, or
imported diseases, have become extinct by the approach of
civilization as f ' from a poisonous breath, because nature has
devoted it to destruction ; "7 that its organization is originally
defective, carrying within it the germ of death.8
There can be no question that, under favourable circumstances,
severely visited peoples may recover their losses, as happened
in Europe. Such was the case with the Crees in North
1 " Neu Spanien," iv.
2 Turnbull, " R. um d. Welt./' p. 266, 1806.
3 Baseler, " Missions-Blatter," p. 100, 1838.
4 Brooke, "Narr. of events in Borneo and Celebes," 2nd ed., i, p. 48, 1848.
5 Livingstone, ii, p. 307.
6 Drake, " Hist, and antiq. of the city of Boston," p. 30, 1854.
7 Poppig, Art. " Indier," in Ersch und Gruber.
8 Martius and Dieffenbach, iiber die Neu-Zealander.
L2
148 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
America -1 also with the Winnepegs ;2 with Apaches, who re-
covered again a portion of their country from the Mexicans ;8
and in a still greater degree with the Sauks, who used to
adopt their prisoners in their tribes.4 After the decima-
tion of the population in earlier periods in Greenland by
destructive epidemics, it now increases at the rate of one per
cent, in North Greenland, and from two to three per cent, in
South Greenland.5 The Winnebagoes, or Winnepegs, have
from the year 1812 to 1820 increased from 3,500 to 5,800 souls.
As with the Menomonies so with them, the females outnumber
the males by one-third, and the number of children is in both
tribes proportionately much more considerable than among the
Indian tribes who have intermixed with the whites. The
Cherokees likewise considerably increased in number before
they were compelled to leave the country.6 According to Ols-
hausen,7 who opines that, the number of Algonquins has rather
increased since the arrival of the whites, the number of Chero-
kees is said to have grown, since 1760, from 12,000 to 30,000,
and that of the Choctaws from 16,000 in 1772, to 25,000.
However oppressed the natives of Guatemala8 are by the
Spaniards, they increase so rapidly, that the latter begin to
fear them. Wells9 observes, that in recent times the Blacks
and Mulattoes in Honduras zealously watch and resist the im-
migration of white Americans, as they hope shortly to be the
sole masters of the country ; but Squier10 says, ' ' All observers
agree that the whites decrease in Central America, not merely
relatively, but absolutely, whilst the pure Indians increase
rapidly, and the cross-breds, the Ladinos, gradually approach
the Indian type." Tschudi11 expressly contradicts the assertion
of Weigl and Martius, that the natives began to decay on
1 Simpson, " Narr. of a journey round the world," i, p. 87, 1847.
2 Schoolcraft, loc. cit., ii, p. 535.
3 Kendall, " Narr. of an exped. across the prairies," ii, p. 67, 1845.
4 Keating, i, p. 225.
5 V. Etzel, " Greenland/' p. 376, 1860.
6 Morse, " Report on Ind. affairs/' append., pp. 48, 59, 375, 152.
7 " Dass Mississipi Thai.," i, p. 300, 1853.
8 Gage, " Voy. dans la nouv. Espagne/' ii, p. 68, Amst. 1771.
9 " Explor. and adv. in Honduras," p. 197, 1857.
10 " Die staaten von Central Am.," German by Andree, p. 28, 1856.
» Chap, ii, p. 369.
SECT. II.] CAUSES OP EXTINCTION. 149
account of the approach of civilization. The extinction of the
Maynas is sufficiently explained by the ravages of disease.
Dobrizhoffer1 shows that the number of the Abiponians had
actually increased after infanticide and polygamy had been
abolished. In Lima the Indians have, from 1793-1820, in-
creased from 3,600 to 5,000, and a proportionate increase is
observed in the whole country ; a diminution in taxation, the
abolishment of forced labour, and a better treatment in general,
afford the only explanation for these phenomena.2 Moreover,
we hear of considerable diminution in the number of other
races, without attributing it to an original want of vitality.
As well-known instances we may mention the Jakutes and
Aleutes, who are greatly oppressed, the Jukagires and Kam-
schatdales.3 The Aleutes perish by brandy, famine, excesses,
and, it may be added, by a systematic system of extermination
on the part of the Kussians. Numerous suicides and sexual
excesses promote the extinction of the Kamschatdales.
Another principal cause which leads to the extinction of the
aborigines of America is their mode of life and their relations
to each other. Many of these tribes gather no provision for
the winter, but consume their stock, so that they are often
exposed to the greatest privations. Whenever an opportunity
offers they cause the greatest devastation among the game, and
thus deprive themselves of resources for the future. The
Indians on Hudson's Bay even believed that the deer increased
in proportion as they killed them.4 As among many Asiatic
tribes, so in America, the custom prevails of burying or burn-
ing the property of the deceased with him. Among the Sioux
the funeral nearly swallows up the property of the deceased, so
that the survivors are in distress (Schoolcraft). In the ancient
half civilized states of America, as in Mexico and Peru, re-
ligious worship included an immense number of human sacri-
fices, which were also practised by other tribes related to the
1 Chap, iii, p. 140.
2 Caldcleugh, " Trav. in South Am./' ii, p. 68, 1825.
3 Billings, " E. nach d. nordl. Gegenden v. Russ. As. und Am.," p. 121,
1803 ; Wrangell, " Statist, und Ethnogr. nachr. iiber d. russ. Bes. in Am.."
p. 218, 1839.
4 Ellis, " E. nach Hudson's-Meerb.," p. 196, Q-ott., 1750.
150 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Aztecs, and extended to Panama.1 Without entering into
any further details, we may also mention the many internecine
wars which the Indians have ever carried on between themselves.
From the slightest of all causes, sometimes from mere sus-
picion of having been bewitched, or from the revenge of an
individual who induced his tribe to espouse his cause, wars
have ensued, and have become so habitual, that many tribes
are incessantly at war. Though these wars have not been
generally very bloody, still some were exterminating in their
consequences.
. Thus the Coppermine Indians were nearly exterminated
by the Dog-rib Indians (Hearne) ; the Moquis by the Navahoes
(Schoolcraft) ; the Osages were, by their numerous enemies,
reduced within ten years by one-half.3 The remainder of the
conquered tribe is not unfrequently absorbed by the conquerors,
and the name of the former disappears from history. In this man-
ner the Creeks are said to have gradually absorbed the re-
mainders of fifteen other tribes. Thirdly must be mentioned
the wars of the Indians with the whites. It will here be
sufficient to notice but a few of the principal facts, as we shall
have to treat of them in detail in another place. It is well not
to lose sight of them in considering the question, whether the
European man possesses, in comparison with other races, the
character of humanity in a higher degree.
It is an historical fact, that the Natches, the Shawanoes, the
Delawares, Potowatomies, Seminoles, Kaskaskias, and several
other formerly powerful tribes, have, chiefly by the wars with
the whites, been either exterminated, or brought so near to ex-
tinction, that they no longer exist as nations. Even at this
day the Indians in the gold districts of California are hunted
like wild beasts ; and recently in Mexico, Indians and white
Americans have been hired, and were paid for the scalps of the
Apaches. In consequence of some suspicion that other people
were killed on account of the prize-money, the practice is now
1 Ternaux, " Eecueil de docum. sur 1'nist. des possess. Espagnoles dans
1'Am.," p. 115, 1840.
2 Nuttal, " Journal of trav. into the Arkansa ten-it./' p. 172, Philad., 1821 -,
Gregg ; " Karawanenzuge durch d. West. Praeriesen/' ii, p. 189, "• «^s
SECT. II.] TEIBAL WARS. 151
discontinued.1 Among the so-called heroes of old Kentucky
and Virginia there were man-hunters, who, as regards cruelty
and barbarity against the aborigines, did not yield to the
Dutch Boers on the Cape. Even Schoolcrafb, the official his-
torian of the Indians of the United States, feels compelled to
admit thus much, though he would willingly ascribe the cruel-
ties of which the aborigines have been the victims to the
earlier expeditions of the Europeans to America, when dreams
of glory and thirst for gold drove the Christians into distant
lands, and when heathens were scarcely considered as men, and
were treated like beasts. It is sufficient to mention the incur-
sions of Velasquez, d'Ayllon, Narvaez, De Soto, Menendez,
Pizarro, Cortes, to point out the vast misery and the enormous
losses which the aborigines suffered from the whites. The
history of the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the extermination
of the peaceable population of the West India islands, the
oppression of the Spanish governors in Yucatan (where the
Indians were only employed as beasts of burden), the extermina-
tion of the Indians in Popayan Chiquitos by mining labour,2
have, by the old historians of these countries (among whom we
would refer the reader to Ternaux),3 been preserved by docu-
mentary evidence, which fills, unquestionably, one of the
darkest pages of human history.
Whilst the hostile collision of the Indians with the Europeans
caused their wholesale destruction, peaceful intercourse with
the whites was not less injurious to them. Careless of the
future, the aborigines of North America readily disposed of
large tracts of lands.4 In most cases they were largely im-
posed upon, and the consequences were always distressing. To
1 Kendall, ii, p. 62.
« The assertion of Azara (ii, p. 240), that the number of Indians in South
America had increased where there are no mines, and when only employed in
agriculture, is doubtless too general. Seemann (" E. um die Welt," i, p. 211,
1853), is open to the same objection, in maintaining that the number of In-
dians had everywhere increased where they have kept themselves pure, but
had diminished wherever they intermixed with the Whites and Negroes ;
though it must be admitted that such an intermixture may have contributed
to their diminution, as in proportion as intermixture progresses, the number
of aborigines of pure descent decreases.
3 " Voy. Eel. et Mem. originaux," p. 312, etc. ; Eecueil, p. 46, etc.
4 Drake, " The book of the Indians," iii, p. 14, etc., 9th edit., 1845.
152 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAKT I.
mention only one instance, the Creeks in less than forty years
disposed of a territory of about twenty-eight millions of acres ;
and though other lands were assigned to them, these belonged
to the whites as their creditors. The chiefs only, when they
assisted in cheating their own tribes, were on such occasions
well cared for.1 The natives were frequently driven from their
fertile districts into marshy, unproductive spots. Since 1840
they were all assigned to the region beyond the Mississippi, on
the western boundary of the United States. Many of them
perished during these transmigrations, and in their new settle-
ments they either found other tribes already located, or were con-
fined to narrow districts. Want of space brought them into col-
lision with neighbouring tribes, as peoples living by the chase
require extensive districts. The whites also introduced the use
of brandy, and made them drunkards. Many perished in this
way, as they were not, like the Arabs of Algiers, restrained
from this vice by love of money.2 Far from considering in-
toxication as hurtful or disgraceful, they considered it merely
as a means of enjoying a short period of bliss. It was only
when the dreadful consequences became generally manifest that
some chiefs (of the Kickapoos, Creeks, Cherokees, for instance)
tried to stem the current. Whenever the Indians received
ready money for lands, it was spent in spirituous liquors.
Though at a later period the sale of brandy to the Indians was
forbidden, it continued, and it was only since 1848 that a
complaint of an Indian chief against a brandy merchant was
attended to (Schoolcraft). Even the good intentions of the
whites proved injurious to the Indians. The Spanish mis-
sions in California had them captured for the purpose of con-
verting them. Many of them died in their new localities.
The missions having been abandoned, the Indians returned
to their forests. Yet, notwithstanding all these facts, the
white American is still surprised that the Redskins do not
become civilized, and consoles himself with the thought that
Providence has doomed them to destruction; and German
scholars have subscribed to that opinion.
1 Featherstonhaugh, " Excursion through, the Slave States," ii, p. 306, 1844.
2 M. Wagner, " Reise," ii, p. 32.
SECT. II.] PROLIFICACY. 153
The scanty prolificacy of the native women has also been
mentioned as a principal cause of the decay of race, and
this phenomenon has been attributed to an original defect of
organization. The small fecundity of the native women of North
America had already been noticed by Lafitau,1 and has been
confirmed as regards some tribes of the present day. Among
the Winnebagoes in 1842, women had on the average but one
child; in Oregon, two (Schoolcraft). The causes of these pheno-
mena are not given with the statements ; but in other instances
the explanation is of a kind as to exclude the idea of an original
organic defect of the race. Among the Knisteneux, abortion
and infanticide, especially of girls, is frequent (Mackenzie) . In
South America two children is the average number ; and Azara2
observes, that women get rid of the others by abortive draughts.
The Guaycurus andLenguas, who generally only bring up one
child, are, in consequence of this practice, approaching ex-
tinction.3 Among the Botocudes, w_ho are said sometimes to
have many children, infanticide and abortion are less frequent.
•Rengger4 observed nothing of this kind among the Guaranis,
but noticed it among the Payaguas, who by small-pox, drunken-
ness, and abortion, had been reduced to two hundred souls.
Quandt5 saw in Surinam a native woman with five children.
Schomburgk6 considers it as a rare instance of prolificacy that
an Indian possessed nine children by three of his wives. In
Brazil an Indian woman has rarely more than four children.7
Among the Potowatomies, artificial abortion is not often resorted
to, but the children are, as among other Indian tribes, suckled
for a long period, sometimes to the fourth or fifth year ; even
one child aged twelve has been seen to suckle. In several
parts of Mexico, specially in Panuco, the custom also prevailed
of suckling the children up to the twelfth year8. In South
America this custom prevails among the Guaraunos and other
1 "Moeurs des Sauv. Americains," i, p. 590, 1724.
2 " Voy. dans 1'Am. mend.," ii, pp. 59, 179, 1809.
3 Eschwege, " Journal v. Brasil," ii, p. 274, 1818.
4 " E. nach Paraguay," p. 133, 1835.
5 " Nachr. v. Surinam," p. 254, 1807.
6 "E. in Guiana," p. 375, 1841.
7 Freyreiss, " Beit. z. Kenntniss v. Brasil," p. 118, 1824.
8 Gomara, loc. cit., pp. 438, 440.
154 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION.
tribes only up to the fourth year of the child, but after thu
with young animals — a monkey, dog, or opossum.1 Sterility
of the women is frequent.2 Heckewelder and Lahontan \
mention that in ancient times the natives did not marry before
the thirtieth year, as it weakened the body, rendering it unfit
for war. All this is now changed. Too early marriages seem
to have contributed to weaken the race and to render the
marriages less prolific, a circumstance already known to Aris-
totle.4 Schomburgk5 attributes the decay of the Tarumas in
Guiana to the deficiency of women, and to the circumstance
that girls marry before the period of puberty. With regard to
South America, D'Orbigny observes, that the women, though
never sterile, have only from two to three children on the
average. Burmeister, however,6 attributes the diminution of
the number of the people to early deaths and feeble productive-
ness. With regard to the first statement we certainly find
that the Cholones, for instance, on the upper Huallaga, scarcely
reach the fortieth year, have rarely more than two children, and
are frequently childless; but these inhabit an unhealthy region,7
and this must be considered as an exceptional case.
From the preceding facts it must be inferred, that the
sterility of the American race, wherever it occurs, is owing
to a variety of causes among the different tribes. The preva-
lence of artificial abortion renders this sterility more apparent
than real. Among some tribes the sexual appetite seems to be
proportionably weak in the men ;8 hence the Indian women
have intercourse with the Negroes, whilst the men consider
it beneath their dignity to cohabit with a Negress,9 a circum-
stance which may, perhaps, be connected with the small de-
velopment of the genitals among the Gruaranis, Coroados, etc.10
1 Schomburgk, in " Monatsb. der Ges. f. Erdk." iii, p. 208.
2 Keating, i, p. 131.
3 LOG. cit., ii, p. 130.
4 Illustrative cases in Lucas, " Traite de 1'heredite," ii, p. 460.
5 " Journal E. Greogr. Soc.," xv, p. 45.
e «Reise,"p. 250.
7 Poppig, ii, p. 322.
8 Rengger, " Naturgesch. der Siiugeth."
9 Spix and Martius, " Eeise," pp. 369, 376.
10 Rengger, p. 2 ; Eschwege, i, pp. 126, 230.
5ECT. II.] PROLIFICACY. 155
rhe last circumstance is, however, not general : it is, for in-
tance, not observed in the Puris,1 nor are there any observa-
ions that it influences the productiveness of these peoples.
)n the other hand, the great abuse of spirituous liquors, and
he misery of the natives, the frequent want of means of sub-
isti'iice, the heavy labour imposed upon them by the whites,
nay clearly be enumerated as the causes, the combination of
vhich has produced the apparent weakness of the race. How
leceitful this appearance is may be proved by the example,
hat also in South Arabia many marriages are unproductive,
ilthough polygamy is not prevalent among the mass of the
)0pulation. In America, also, there are not wanting instances
vhich contradict the above assertion. The women on the
lorth-west coast are very prolific.2 Among the North Indians
t is considered exceptional if the number of children amounts
mly to five or six.3 Among the Chippeways the average
lumber of children is four ; sterility is considered a disgrace,
)eing looked upon as the consequence of incontinency.4 Among
:he Sioux sterility is rare : from three to eight children is the
isual number, and no one remains unmarried.5 The Mandans
lave often as many as ten children, but, in consequence of the
ong period of suckling and the heavy labour of the women,
ess prolific marriages are frequent.6 Say7 found among the
Kansas instances of three children born at one birth, and
amilies of thirteen children. An instance of an Indian who
lad fourteen children by one wife, is also given.8 Hecke-
svelder9 knew among the natives a converted Indian family with
hirteen, others with six to nine, children ; the usual number
was from four to five. Among the Omahas, who have mostly
Tom four to six children, and sometimes from ten to twelve,
1 Eschwege, i, p. 163.
2 Portlock and Dixon, " E. um d. Welt," p. 213, Berl. 1791.
3 Hearne, " E.," p. 262.
4 Keating, ii, pp. 152, 165.
5 Schoolcraft, iii, p. 238.
6 Prince Max, " E. in N. Am., ii, p. 129 ; and " Brasilien nachtrage und
'iusatze," p. 99.
7 James, " Ace. of an exped. from Pittsburg to the E. mountains," i, p. 124,
L823.
8 Ausland, p. 997, 1857.
9 "Nach. v. d. Gesch. der Ind. Volkersch." p. 389, 1821.
156 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET I.
sterility is rare, and proceeds, when it occurs, probably from
the male, as the women are frequently prolific with other men.]
Gumilla2 has made the same observations as regards the South
American women. An Osage chief had thirty-seven children by
his four wives.3 A. Vespucci found in 1497 Venezuela thickly
populated about the region of Cape Paria ; the women were
then excellent breeders.4 Labat5 also speaks of the great pro-
lificacy of the Caribs. Humboldt and Bonpland6 mention the
great fecundity of the Gruaraunos and the Indians in the mis-
sions distant from the Orinoco. Of some tribes it has already
been observed, that they have not lately decreased, but in-
creased. Finally, it may be mentioned, that Jefferson7 states,
that Indian women who marry European traders, and are
relieved of their hard labour, properly settled and well fed,
produced as many children as European women : in some cases
they have brought up from six to twelve children. Rengger's
statements8 with regard to the G-uarani women are to the same
effect. West9 confirms them by observing, that Indian women
married to Europeans breed better than with the men of their
own stock, though they suffer more during delivery. There
can be no doubt that the principal reason of their being more
prolific is the improved mode of life. Thus among the Bedouin-
Arabs the prolificacy is less than among those who are settled ;
five children are considered among the Towaras upon the Sinai-
peninsula as a very large family ;10 and among the Lapps and
Tunguses more than three to four children are rare.11
More obscure in many respects than the gradual decay of
the native population of America, is an analogous phenomenon
in the South Sea and Australia. Here one might feel more
inclined to assume a defective vitality of the race, since one of
1 Say, in James, p. 237.
2 " Hist. nat. de 1'Orenoque," ch. lii, 1758.
s Ibid., ii, p. 251.
Collection de los Viages y descubrimientos," iii, p. 209, 1829.
Nouv. voy. aux lies de 1'Am.," ii, p. 109, 1724.
E. in d.
. Aequinoctialg.," i, p. 469; and iv, p. 31.
Besckr. v. Virginien," in Sprengel's Beitr. viii, p. 263.
E. nach Paraguay," p. 133, 1835.
Substance of a journal during a residence at the Eed E.," p. 54, 1824.
10 Eitter, " Erdkunde," xiv, p. 953.
11 Scheffer, " Lapland," p. 334 ; Georgi, p. 266.
SECT. II.] DECREASE OF POPULATION. 157
the chief causes of the depopulation of America is absent in
Polynesia, and has not caused very extensive devastations in
Australia, namely, the oppression of the whites and the inter-
course with them. There is, however, one circumstance which
did not so much prevail in America, but seems very effective
in Australia, namely, the great mortality among children.
The extinction of a people once healthy and vigorous cannot
be explained by a denial of viability, or an original defective
organization, or by the assumption of some mysterious cause ;
we must investigate and search for natural agencies, though
we may be obliged to confess that our endeavours to trace
them have hitherto not been perfectly successful.
The decrease of the population in Polynesia, concerning
which Meinicke1 has furnished valuable statistical accounts, does
not proceed in equal proportions in all the islands. The merry
inhabitants of the Tonga and Friendly islands produce many
children, and their number is increasing;2 and in Tikopia every
family has three to eight children.3 On the other hand, the
' population decreases in the islands of the Samoa Archipelago,
on the Glambier islands, in New Zealand, where Crozet4 found
in 1771, in the island bay, twenty villages, each having about
four hundred inhabitants. Though these may have withdrawn
into the interior,5 it remains still a vain attempt of Shortland6
' to show that the decrease is merely apparent and not real. If
it be true that in the village Te Aro, containing seventy men
and forty -two women, there are but twenty-four children,7 and
if similar proportions, as we understand, occur in other places,
Fox8 is perfectly justified in assuming a yearly decrease of at
least 4 per cent. Power9 is of opinion that if the decrease
continues pari passu, the country will be depopulated about
1 "D. Siidseevolker und d. Christenth." p. Ill, 1844.
2 Pickering, p. 83 ; Quarterly Beview, Dec. 1853 ; Erskine, " Journal of a
cruise among the islands of the W. Pacific," p. 161, 1853.
3 Gaiinard, in d'Urville, " Voy. de 1' Astrolabe," v, p. 309, 1830,
4 " N. Eeise durch d. Sxidsee," p. 27, 1783.
6 Dieffenbach, " Trav. in New Zealand," ii, p. 14, 1843.
6 " The Southern districts of New Zeal.," p. 40, 1851.
7 " On the British colonization of New Zeal, by the Committee of the Abo-
rig. Protect. Soc.," p. 52, 1846.
8 "The six colonies of New Zealand," p. 53, 1851.
9 " Sketches in N. Z.," p. 119, 184-9.
158 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
1870. Taylor,1 an author well acquainted with the country
and the people, has recently denied the progressive mortality
of the natives, and cites facts against it.2 Peace, appropriate
clothing, diet, and mode of life, may possibly lead to an im-
provement in this respect.
With regard to Tahiti, where, according to the natives, the
diminution of the population had already commenced before the
arrival of the whites,3 Yincendon-Dumoulin and Desgraz4 have
endeavoured to show that the decrease was about one-third
from 1770 to 1814, and that from 1814 to 1825 the number of
the population remained stationary. In estimating the ancient
population, we must not take Forster's account5 as a basis,
when it states that he found in Tahiti a fleet of 159 large double
canoes and seventy smaller ones ; some of the former with 144
rowers, for it is probable that of this fleet a comparatively small
portion only belonged to Tahiti, and the greater part to the
large neighbouring islands. The Spanish account of 1778
estimates the population of Tahiti at 15,000 to 16,000.6 Wilson*
states that, according to a moderate estimate, the population
of Tahiti was in 1797 about 16,000. It is only subsequent to
this period that we learn that the population in 1804 amounted
only to 5,000.8 This is probably a great exaggeration, caused
perhaps by the circumstance that about that period many
young persons were carried off. According to Kotzebue,9 the
population amounted in 1824 to about 8,000, which is about
the same number as given by the missionaries in 1813. This
agrees with Wilkes's statement,10 that the population in 1839
was about 9,000; to which he adds, that for thirty years
previously the births and deaths had been about equal. Though
1 " New Zealand and its inhabitants," p. 256, 1855.
2 Compare however, " E. der Novara," iii, p. 128.
8 King and Fitzroy (" Narr. of the Surv. Voy. of the Adv. and Beagle," ii,
p. 520, 1839) are probably in error in stating that destructive diseases only
broke out after Cooke's arrival at Tahiti.
4 « lies Taiti," p. 288, 1844.
5 " Sammtl. d. Ebschr.," xxi, p. 328.
6 G. Forster's " Sammtl. Schriften," iv, p. 211.
7 " Missionsreise in d. stille Meer," Magz. v. E., xxi, p. 333, 1800.
8 Turnbull, " E. um. d. W.," p. 259, 1806.
9 « Neue Eeise," i, p. 97, 1830.
10 " U. St. Expl. Exped.," ii, p. 49.
SECT. II.] DECEEASE OP POPULATION. 159
Lesson1 states that but few old people could be found in Tahiti,
and that the number in 1830 amounted only to 500,2 we cannot
but conclude that the decrease of the population commenced
about the beginning of the present century, after the Europeans
had settled in Tahiti, when within ten years it diminished
from 15,000-16,000 to 8,000-9,000, after which time the num-
ber appears to have remained stationary. According to the
census of the French officials it amounted in 1848 to 8,082 ; in
1854, to 5,988 .3 Different proportions prevail in other islands
of the archipelago. At Borabora, where one birth annually is
reported to thirty-two inhabitants, the proportion of births to
deaths is 5 : 6.4 At Raiatea, on the contrary, the population of
which, consisting in 1830 of about 1,700, stand morally and
physically higher than that of Tahiti, the number has been
much increased.5
Very decided and well authenticated is the progressive de-
population of the Sandwich islands; regarding which Vancouver6
stated, that in 1 792 a perceptible diminution of the population
commenced after Cook's arrival. Exact information dates only
from modern times, though all prove that the decrease still
progresses.
The annual diminution is calculated to be about 8 per cent.7
The census for 1832 was 130,313 ; for 1836, 108,579 ; for 1850,
84,165. In the year 1848 there were 7,943 deaths and 1,478
births ; in 1849, 4,320 deaths and 1,422 births.8 In 1853 the
population amounted only to 71,019; births, 1,513; deaths,
8,026 : 5-6,000 of these died of the small-pox ;9 hence it is an
erroneous assertion of Bennet,10 that the Sandwich Islanders
are a very healthy people, and free from such fatal diseases
as befal the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands. It is remark-
1 " Compl. des (Euv. de Buffon," ii, p. 281.
2 " Journal, E. Geogr. Soc.," iii, p. 174.
3 " E. der Novara," iii, p. 197.
4 Steen Bille, " Bericht iiber d. E. der Galathea," ii, p. 363, 1852.
5 " Journal E. Geo. Soc.," iii, p. 179.
6 " E. nach der Sudsee," i, p. 139, BerL, 1799.
7 " Morning Chronicle," May 1, 1850.
8 " Details regarding individual islands," in Virgin., i, p. 267.
9 " Baseler Miss. Mag.," iv, p. 98, 1854.
10 " Narr. of a whaling voy. round the globe," i, p. 242, 1840.
160 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
able that this decay of population is so differently distributed in
the various islands ; nay, that districts in the same island differ
in this respect. It is therefore probable, that the chief causes
of this progressive decay must be sought for in local conditions,
and not in an organic defect of the race. Whilst in Hawaii
and Oahu, where in 1840 there were 61 births to 132 deaths,
the decrease is certain and large, it seems only apparent in
Maui. At Atowai or Kawia, where, among 5,541 adults, there
were only 65 women who had more than two children, a mis-
sionary found in one district the proportion of deaths to births
to be 3 : 1. In other districts, however, the decrease of the
population was only about 1 per cent. ; in some it was sta-
tionary, or slightly increasing ; thus at Onihau or Niihau the
increase of the population was 4:3.
In proceeding to an investigation of the causes of the above
phenomena, and bearing in mind the epidemics which ap-
parently break out at the first intercourse of uncivilized peoples
with higher developed tribes, we must leave it to the judgment
of others whether this would account for the decay of so many
South Sea peoples; for it does not apply to all of the Polynesian
stock, nor can we assent to the plausible supposition of an
original defect of organization.
In ancient times, and before the first arrival of Euro-
peans in the South Sea, the peculiar habits of the Polyne-
sians had already contributed to diminish the population.
Drunkenness and gluttony prevailed among the higher, and
infanticide among the lower classes of society in many of the
Polynesian islands. Only such tribes as the New Zealanders,
who seemed ignorant how to prepare intoxicating liquors, did
not at first seem to relish the spirituous liquors introduced by
the Europeans ; the rest were ruined by it, especially after
they had learnt from the whites the art of distillation. Infanti-
cide, artificial abortion, and sexual excesses, without the least
perception of any moral wrong in this respect, diminished the
population, and produced a weakly race. In the Sandwich
Islands a family never brought up more than two or three
children, the rest were strangled or buried alive.1 Two-thirds
1 Ellis, " Polynes. Res.," iv, p. 327, 1832.
SECT. II.] CAUSES OP DEPOPULATION. 161
of all children born are said to have thus perished.1 To this
must be added internal wars, combined with cannibalism and
human sacrifices, for where men eat each other, the gods are
generally bloodthirsty, and receive their share. With regard
to the devastations caused by wars, we shall mention but one
fact, viz., that, at the conquest of the western part of the Pau-
mota Islands, thirty-eight islands were depopulated, and their
inhabitants slain or carried into slavery.2 Moreover, those who
possessed the most fertile islands of Polynesia entirely neg-
lected agriculture, and ruined themselves by the greatest prodi-
gality at their feasts, consuming all provisions, so that the
lower classes died by famine.
The introduction of Christianity in the South Sea islands
removed many of these sources of destruction, others were
mitigated so that this progressive decay was arrested. The
bloody wars, cannibalism, human sacrifices, and infanticide dis-
appeared almost entirely ; and it must be denounced as a
calumny inspired by party spirit, that French navigators, to
serve the interest of their Government and their faith, have
endeavoured to spread the opinion, that the depopulation of the
Sandwich islands can only be explained by the severe laws and
the system of intimidation established and practised by the
influence of Protestant missionaries ; that the women fled to
the forests to kill their illegitimate children in order to escape
punishment.3 We must, on the contrary, acknowledge that
the missionaries are entitled to credit for their endeavours to
improve the physical and moral condition of the islanders,
though their activity cannot be said to have proved beneficial
in all respects. Their severity appears to have produced the
concealment of many vices and crimes, and the sudden change
of the habits of life which were at once and with great strictness
forced upon the natives, sometimes may have proved injurious.
There can, however, be no doubt that, on the whole, the material
condition of the South Sea peoples, which alone concerns us
1 Stewart, " Journal of a residence in the Sandwich Islands," p. 250, 1828.
2 Wilkes, i, p. 343 ; Hale, p. 35.
3 Laplace, " Campagne de circumnavigation," V, p. 470, 1841 ; Du Petit-
Thouai's, " Voy. autour du monde," i, p. 389, 1840; de la Salle, " Voy. autour
du monde sur la Bonite," ii, p. 198, 1845.
M*
162 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
here, lias been improved ; and this presents a fresh difficulty in
the explanation of a progressive decay.
In order to understand this, we must remember that, at the
time of the arrival of the Europeans in the South Sea (as
Moerenhout, and especially Meinicke, have proved), there pre-
vailed already an extreme dissolution of social relations,
morals, and religion, among the chief nations of Polynesia.
This apparent break up of society, the result of long-continued
excesses, was much promoted by the arrivals of the Whites.
The enervated race of the Tahitians, and the weakened inhabi-
tants of the Sandwich islands, had then much to suffer from
the new diseases imported by the Europeans. Next to influ-
enza, great destruction was caused by syphilis constantly
imported by 15,000 to 20,000 seamen, chiefly whalers, who
landed in Honolulu and Lahaina.1 Many of these diseases
became fatal from the small protection afforded by the scanty
dress and defective habitations of the natives. In New Zealand,
Dieffenbach considers that the decay is chiefly owing to a
change of dress and habits of life, so that scrofula and its allied
affections have spread among children.3 This also applies to
the Society islands of Raiatea. The population of Burutu, say
Tyermann and Bennet,3 had, a few years ago, been reduced by
fever from 6,000 to 314. The sterility of the women and the
mortality among the children, are no doubt closely connected
with the decrease of the population. Both phenomena are very
common in the Sandwich islands.4 According to the mission-
aries only half of the marriages are prolific.5 The great
mortality of the children in the Society Islands, where infanti-
cide has been replaced by artificial abortion, is" said to be
greatly owing to an improper alimentation. The number of
children, which in Tahiti is not large, rarely in the Marquesas
exceeds two to one woman.6 In Samoa, the number of children
1 Virgin, i, p. 269.
2 Fox, loc. cit., p. 55.
3 "Journal of voy. and trav.," i, p. 497, 1831.
4 Wilkes, iv, pp. 77, 94.
Hines, "Oregon, its history," p. 210, Buffalo, 1851.
6 Krusenstern, " R. um d. Welt," i,
, p. 198, 1810; Melville, "VierMonate
auf. d. Marq.," ii, p. 125, 1847. Langsdorff (i, p. 152) asserts that twins are
not rare.
SECT. II.] CAUSES OF DEPOPULATION. 163
is limited by the long continued suckling, sometimes up to the
sixth year, or several children are suckled at the same time.1
In New Zealand, where the proportion of females to males is
small, because many girls are killed immediately after birth,
a woman has rarely more than two or three children.2 Perhaps
the trade in preserved ornamented heads may have contributed
something to the diminution of the population.3 Psychical
causes also appear to have injuriously affected the physical
prosperity of the peoples, such as the feeling of powerless-
ness and certain destruction by the Whites, and the loss of
authority of the chiefs among their own people4 — a circumstance
which also contributed to the decay of the Americans, who are
absolutely unfit for slavery.
The peoples in the Sandwich islands were in former times
much oppressed by their own chiefs. The taxes were enormous,
and the labour imposed upon them excessive, so that they were
compelled to neglect agriculture to cut sandal-wood and perform
other work. Many of them ran away ; infanticide and famine
raged among them;5 and even in recent times a progressive
poll-tax unfavourably influenced the increase of the popula-
tion.6 About a thousand individuals annually leave their
native country, proceeding to California, Columbia and other
parts of South America.7 The aborigines of Australia, the
inhabitants, at least, of the known parts of that continent, also
approach rapid extinction. A tribe of about three hundred souls
is said to have diminished within six years to four individuals.8
The causes of these phenomena are similar to those already
stated. The chief of them are diseases communicated to them by
European settlers, to which must be added infanticide and great
mortality among the children, the small proportion of women,
inebriety in the vicinity of the colonies, and sexual excesses.9
1 Wilkes, ii, p. 138.
2 Dieffenbach, ii, p. 33 j Pickering, p. 82.
3 Quarterly Review, p. 192, June 1854.
4 Fox, p. 56.
Jarves, " History of the Sandwich Islands," p. 368, 1843.
Walpole, " Four years in the Pacific," ii, p. 245, 2nd edit., 1850.
Simpson, "Narr. of a journey round the world," ii, p. 15, 1847.
Baseler Miss. Mag., iv, p. 96, 1854.
Eyre, " Journals of exped. into central Austr.," ii, p. 320, 1845.
M2
164 * PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Small-pox carried off in some parts, particularly in New South
Wales not long after the year 1 788, the sixth to the third part
of the natives ; though taught by experience they left off the
cold water cure, and applied a more appropriate mode of treat-
ment.1 Small-pox also caused great devastations in the interior,2
as well as the measles and syphilis.3 Even the clothing fur-
nished by the colonists often proved injurious to them ; from
having become accustomed to woollen coverings they felt the
want of them when again deprived of these articles.
Infanticide, especially of girls, is frequent : hence the propor-
tionately small number of women.4 This proceeds partly from
superstition, partly from the desire to escape the trouble of rear-
ing them, and sometimes from revenge against the faithless
father, especially if he be an European. The great mortality
of the children seems also to be caused by the negligence of
the parents, and inappropriate diet. Turnbull asserts that
three-fourths of the children do not attain the fourth year.
Grey5 does not think that the mortality is great, though
much greater than in Europe ; he remarks, also, that suckling
is continued until the third year. He knew 41 women whose
children amounted to 188. The average number of children in
a family is, according to Eyre, about five, of which two only
are brought up. There are, however, instances of a woman
having nine children.6 This is corroborated in other races.
The inhabitants of the North African desert are equally distin-
guished by their small number of children, about two on the
average.7 It is more rare to find a Hottentot woman with six,
than the wife of a colonist with twelve, children.8 When, how-
ever, well-treated and rendered comfortable, the Hottentot
women are very prolific, both in their intercourse with the
1 Wilkes, ii, p. 184 ; Baker, " Sydney and Melbourne/' p. 148, 1845 ; Bennet,
" Wanderings in N. S. Wales," i, p. 154, 1834.
2 Mitchell, " Three exped.," i, p. 216, 1838.
3 Darwin, " Naturalists' Voyage," ii, p. 213, 1844; Eyre, ii, p. 380.
4 « Austr. felix," p. 131, BerL, 1849.
5 " Journals of two exped. in Austr.," ii, p. 251, 1841.
6 " Austr. felix," p. 130.
7 Eichardson, " Trav. in the Sahara," ii, p. 427, 1848.
8 Burehell, «-* E. in d. Innere von Siidafrika," ii, p. 175, 1822.
SECT. II.] CAUSES OP DEPOPULATION. 165
Whites and their own people.1 The fecundity of the Indian
women is equally increased by better nourishment and diminu-
tion of labour.2 A Chippeway woman is mentioned who had
fourteen children all grown up. From these instances we are
justified in concluding that sterility is not a peculiarity of the
race, but is caused by external circumstances.
How much the natives have suffered from the invasion of Eu-
ropeans is expressed in the following words of a native : — " You
Whites/' said an Australian, "ought to give us Blacks, cows and
sheep, for you have exterminated our opossums and kangaroos ;
we have nothing to live on, and are hungry."3 Though in some
parts the natives no longer live by hunting kangaroos,4 it still
is in other parts their principal resource for subsistence.
They are in the habit of burning down the grass for the
growth of a fresh crop for the pasture of these animals,
who are driven off by the cattle of the colonists, and the
natives disappear from the spot. At present the aborigines
possess no right to the country, or rather they never had any ;
at any rate, England has never acknowledged such a right.
The land belongs to the Crown, which practically means that
the natives, being English subjects, may be punished for their
crimes, whilst the Whites are generally acquitted by their coun-
trymen.5 This becomes intelligible when we find that the
natives can neither be valid witnesses in a court of law, nor are
allowed to bear firearms.6 Latterly, however, they have in New
South Wales at least been admitted as witnesses, but in so
limited a degree, that their oppression is but little mitigated by
the favour accorded.7
An attempt has been made to justify the great injustice done to
natives owing to their atrocity, which is greatly exaggerated.
>rding to the " Papers on Aborigines of Australian Colonies,
1 Moodie, " Ten years in S. Afr.," ii, p. 350, 1835.
2 Schoolcraft, iv, p. 350.
3 Bennet, i, p. 327.
4 Hodgkinson, " Aust. from P. Macquarie to Moreton Bay," p. 223, 1845.
5 Instances in Eyre, ii, p. 176 ; and in Du Petit-Thouars, iii, p. 204. There
a criminal process in which the jury for a long time refused to condemn
culprits who were guilty of an unprovoked murder of twenty-eight
natives.
6 Howitt, " Impressions of Austr. felix," p. 199, 1845.
7 Eyre, ii, p. 493 ; " Austr. felix," p. 143.
166 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
printed for the House of Commons, August, 1844," p. 318, there
were in the district of Port Phillip, since its first occupation,
eight Whites killed by the natives and forty-three natives by the
Whites.1 If the natives wish to continue their mode of life,
they must quit the region, join other tribes, or become beggars
and robbers, which indeed they have become. A general war-
fare between them and the Whites in Portland Bay and other
districts was the consequence.2 That it is impossible to live
with or near them in peace has been often refuted. A settler
has frequently succeeded in gaining over the friendship of the
natives, so that even in critical times he was not molested by
them.3 This is also proved by the success of the settlement
of Moorunde on the Murray in 1841. The natives, who at
first were inimical, became, in consequence of the kindly treat-
ment of the colonists, friendly and serviceable.4 Eyre obtained
on this occasion a great authority over them, by which Sturt's
expedition into the interior was facilitated. Dawson also knew
how to gain them over in Port Stephens, and describes them
as peaceable and serviceable. With one man only he was un-
successful.5 All others proved docile when well treated, and
especially when the principle is adopted of not limiting their free-
dom more than is absolutely requisite for public safety.6 Most
of the settlers found it more suitable to their dignity to exhibit
everywhere their superiority, as the Whites did in America.
The natives were shot down whenever they showed themselves ;
cruelties were committed on women and children.7 The natives
had most to suffer from runaway convicts, and it may be
imagined how much a penal colony must have injured the
native population, — for New South Wales was one up to 1843,
Van Diemen's Land up to 1852, and West Australia has be-
Eyre, ii, p. 156.
Baker, p. 154.
Hodgson, " Eeminiscences of Australia," p. 81, 1846.
Eyre, ii, p. 461.
Dawson, " The present state of Austr.," p. 265, 1830. -
Compare on this subject the extract from the " Australian," Oct. 14, 1836,
by Dumont d'Urville, " Voy. de 1' Astrolabe/' i, p. 489.
7 Wilkes, ii, pp. 186, 256 ; Lang, " Account of N. S. Wales," i, p. 37, 3rd
edit., 1840; Clutterbuck, "Port Phillip in 1849," p. 62; Byrne, "Twelve
years wanderings in the British Colonies," i, p. 368, 1848.
SECT. III.] INTEKMIXTURE OP EACES. 167
come one recently. The English Government has repeatedly
in official documents acknowledged the wrongs done to the
native's/ and expressed the intention of repairing the injury.
If it were true that the colonists have contributed but little
to their destruction, and that the main cause, as has been
as-erted, lies in their own mode of life,2 then it is inconceivable
why they have not long become extinct, since there has not been
an essential change in their mode of life. The official protec-
torate, which, however, seems to have borne but little fruit,
was instituted in consequence of the crimes committed against
the natives by the Whites. In several parts of Australia a
larger number of natives are said to have been poisoned when
it became known that they would for the future be protected
against oppression.3 In many parts of New South Wales
they made no secret of it, as Byrne4 states from his own
experience, but even boasted that the natives have been got rid
of by arsenic.
SECTION III.
THE RESULTS OF INTERMIXTURE OF DIFFERENT TYPES,
AND THE PECULIARITIES OF THE MONGRELS.
Before proceeding to the question of the unity of the human
species, we have yet to consider a series of phenomena which,
though not so decisive as was formerly believed, still possess
more than a secondary importance, namely, the results of inter-
mixture and the character of the cross-breeds. These will show
that we are not compelled to assume a specific difference between
human races. The practical difficulties of fixing the results of
intermixture are, no doubt, very great ; still they do not much
affect the principle laid down.
I1 See the document in Tegg's " N. S. Wales' Pocket Almanack" for 1841,
147, Sydney.
2 Schayer in " Monatsb. d. ges. f. Erdk. N. Folge," ii, p. 226.
3 Eyre, ii, p. 176.
* Loc. cit., i, p. 275.
168 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
The pains taken to fathom the mode in which the peculiar
bodily organization is transmitted from parent to offspring
have hitherto been unsuccessful. There has not been wanting
a number of theories, but not one has proved itself unexcep-
tional and trustworthy. Thus it frequently happens among
animals and human beings that the offspring resembles the
male parent in hair, colour, constitution, diseases, malformation
and idiosyncracies. As collateral relations (cousins, uncles,
and nephews) frequently exhibit the same peculiarities with-
out having received them direct from their parents, we are
led to suppose that these phenomena obey a law (the so-called
relapse — that is to say, the reproduction of the peculiarities of
remote ancestors in the descendants, — has by Grirou been con-
sidered as a general law, by which he endeavoured to explain
all the differences of children from their parents), the compre-
hension of which would require a profounder knowledge of the
dependence of the development of the germ than we at present
possess.
Sometimes the father, at other times the mother, has been
considered as possessing an exclusive influence on the peculiari-
ties of children. Again it has been asserted that the father
influenced the psychical, and the mother the physical, constitu-
tion of the offspring; or again, that they influence separate
parts of the system. Thus, according to Sturm and Grirou, the
young in domestic animals resemble the father in the form of
the head and the chest, and the mother in the formation of the
pelvis and the posterior part, a view which Blumenbach felt in-
clined to adopt also as regards man. Some were of opinion
that, where one child took after one parent, it was both phy-
sically and psychically. Others considered the influence of the
father paramount, not a few that of the mother, so that the
sons resembled the father, and the daughters the mother, a
case which, however, is frequently reversed. There was, in fact,
no theory which had not its supporters.1 We quote the follow-
ing interesting observation of Burmeister,2 " Generally speaking,
the first child exhibits physically the finest organization, and
1 See Lucas, " Traite de Fberedite," vol. ii.
3 Loc. cit., ii, p. 162.
SECT. III.] INTEEMIXTUEE OP EACES. 169
presents intellectually, more than the others, either the pecu-
liarities of the father or of the mother ; and it is to be noticed
that the first-born son takes more after the mother, and the
first-born daughter more after the father. Gradually the chil-
dren become more robust, physically stronger, frequently
plainer and more plump ; the qualities of both parents become
more mixed, and a decided repetition of the parents or grand-
parents becomes rarer."
It deserves to be noticed that the cases in which the influence
of the father predominates are not so frequent as contrary
instances. The influence of the mother on the intellectual
nature of the offspring seems so predominating, that Buffon
considered it as exclusive : hence the vulgar expression
( ' motherwit," not " fatherwit." The head of the cross-breed,
however, takes chiefly after the father.1 The physical qualities
of the father generally predominate among cross-breeds.2 This
is the case among the Mestizoes in the Philippines, whether
the father be a European or a Chinese ;3 among the Mulattoes
on the Sandwich islands.4 The Negro produces with a white
woman a more Negro-like child than the white man with a
Negress.5 Among the children of Mulattoes — themselves, with
few exceptions, descendants of white fathers and Negro
mothers, — the white blood predominates,6 so that the children
even of a Mulatto woman and a Negro possess the colour of
the mother. Primer says that the offspring of a Negro and a
white woman, though rarely viable, approach the European type
sooner than that of a Negress and a white man. Burmeister
considers the Negro character as predominating in Mulattoes.
The boys have the hair often frizzly, then it becomes perfectly
Negro-like; among the girls it is frequently straight. The
shape of the head resembles more that of the Negro than that
of the European; the forehead is low, the occiput short. The
cranium generally is small, the beard stronger than in the
1 Heusinger, " Vgl. Physiol.," p. 250.
2 Spix and Martius, " Reise," p. 1183.
3 Mallat, ii, p. 134.
4 Bennet, " Narr. of a whaling voyage/' i, p. 240, 1840.
5 Nott and Gliddon, " Types of mankind/' p. 373, 1854.
6 Lyell, " Second voyage."
170 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Negro, the stature on the whole more elegant, especially the
hands and feet, which latter are, however, rather flat. It may
also be noticed, that among Mulattoes sprung from Negroes
and Indian women on the Rio das Pedras (Paranahyba), the
Indian character predominates, namely, dark colour, broad
chest and shoulders, short neck, large angular head, bushy
hair, rather thin lips, well-shaped legs.1 Poppig2 describes
the Mestizo — generally the child of an Indian woman and a
white man — as resembling more the Indian. The Portuguese
Mulattoes also, at Ceylon, who are more numerous than the
Dutch, resemble in stature, shape of skull, and features, more
the Cingalese than Europeans.3 Stevenson4 states, from his
own observation, that the father influences the colour of the
Mestizo more than the mother. He also observes that the
Peruvians call the children of a white woman and a Negro
Mulatto, Zambo Mulatto, Quadroon ; whilst those of a white
man and a Negress, Mulatto woman, or Quadroon, are called
Mulatto Quadroon Quintroon, by which he endeavours to prove
that the mongrels of a white man approach the European
type a generation before those of a white woman. Tschudi,5
however, considers this an error, and states that the designa-
tion is the same whether the mongrels proceed from the father
or the mother.
Lucas6 has by many examples proved that the characters of
mongrels are not constant ; sometimes those of the mother, at
other times those of the father predominate. The Danes pro-
duce with Hindoo women, children of European type and vigour;
but such is not the case with other European nations (Rush) . The
mongrels of Europeans and Mongols constantly exhibit the
type of the mother (Klaproth) ; those of Europeans and Hot-
tentots always exhibit the character of the father (Le Vaillant) .
With regard to the latter, Burchell7 remarks, that the children
1 A. De St. Hilaire, " Voy. aux sources du R. S. Francisco/' ii, p. 253, 1847.
2 Loc. cit., i, p. 201.
3 Schmarda, " R. um d. Erde," i, p. 482, 1861.
4 " Eeise in Arauco," i, p. 180.
5 « Peru," i, p. 161, 1846.
6 Loc. cit., ii, p. 3.
7 Loc. cit., ii, p. 185.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OF RACES. 171
of a white woman by a Hottentot are taller, whiter, and of
more European features than those of a Hottentot woman and
a European. The latter are brown, thick-set men, with hair
less crisp than that of the Negro, flat nose, hollow cheeks, no
beard, and but few hairs on the upper lip.1 According to
Sparraian,2 their bones and muscles are more developed than
in Hottentots.
Since it results that there is no certain rule with regard to
the greater resemblance of mongrels to either of the parents,
we must try whether other facts may not throw some light on
this question. Some authors have taken as a starting point,
the greater or less differences of types. If the difference be
important, the mongrel represents the intermediate type ;3 and
this intermediate form is, according to I. Geoffrey St. Hilaire,
constant. On the other hand, when the parent stocks are less
distinct, the mongrel approaches constantly one of the types of
either parent. In the intermixture of the Negro and the Euro-
pean, which Geoffroy considers as specifically distinct, inter-
mediate types are constant results. Nott and Gliddon agree
in this view, but add that the cross-breeds of different species
of men do not, in respect of characters, all obey the same law ;
for while Europeans and Negroes produce an intermediate type,
others (Europeans and Americans) produce types resembling
either of the parents.
With regard to animals, for instance, mongrels of wild and
tame hogs, dogs, cats, birds, take either after the male or
female. We may admit that in man the Mulatto type
appears to be constant, but this applies chiefly to the first
generation ; as by a continued admixture of new elements of
the white or black race, a variety of forms is produced, as
shown by the following examples. The third child of a three-
quarter white woman by a Mulatto (half-breed), had the colour
of the father; the other children were lighter in colour than
the mother. A Mulatto woman bore to a Negro two children
1 Arbousset et Daumas, " Eel. d'un voy. au N. E. du Cap de B. Esperance,"
p. 20, 1842.
2 « E. nach d. K. d. g. H.," p. 261, 1784.
3 Edwards, " Des caracterea phy. des races humaines/' p. 21, 1829.
172 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET I.
of her own colour, and eleven others who were even blacker
than the father. A Negress bore to a Mulatto, nine or ten
black children and two or three of the colour of the father
(Nott and Gliddon). In the same family may be seen Mu-
latto children with crisp, or with light, straight hair (Bur-
meister). A Negro in Berlin had by a white woman seven
Mulatto girls, and four white boys.1 Lucas2 relates three
similar cases : a white woman had by a Negro a black child, a
Mulatto, and a white boy. Campbell3 mentions a similar case.
When d'Abbadie4 states, that among the red race in Abys-
sinia, black children are seen, and that among the Negroes of
these regions red and black individuals are seen in the same
tribe, they are probably mongrels, of which the type is incon-
stant.
With regard to the mongrels of the American race, we
equally observe a great variation in external appearance. The
Mestizo-mongrels of white men and American women — recog-
nized in Mexico by their yellowish, weak beard, and somewhat
oblique aperture of the eyes5 — have in Quito small foreheads and
coarse hair, small, pointed nose, and good beards ; some of them
have a fair skin and light hair, others are as dark as the
Indians ;6 they are mostly well formed, yet easily recognizable
by their low foreheads and great leanness.7 In the central
parts of Peru, on the contrary, of Herculean frame, and a
whiter colour, frequently with a yellowish tint.8 In Chili they
are often taller but less compact than the Indians : still they
are broad-shouldered, with a short neck, short arms, small
hands and feet; and in this as well in hair, cheek-bone, flat
nose with large nostrils, resemble the Indians.9
In Concepcion they are as white as the Spaniards ; some of
1 Siebold, " Journal f. Geburtsh." vii, p. 2.
2 Loc. cit., i, p. 213.
3 " E. in Siid.-Afr.," p. 360, 1816.
4 " Bullet. Soc. Geogr., ii, p. 45, 1855.
5 Muhlerpfordt, i, p. 261.
6 Ulloa, " Voyage/' i, p. 228.
7 Stevenson, ii, p. 177.
8 Unanne, " Observ. sobre el clima de Lima," p. 106, 1815.
9 Poppig, i, p. 201.
SECT. 1II.J INTERMIXTURE OP RACES. 173
them are quite fair.1 The stiff hair which they preserve to the
second and third generations is, according to Ovaglie,2 the only
mark which there distinguishes the Mestizoes from the pure
Spaniards. Among the Sertanejos of Pernambuco the children
of the same parents are rarely all of the same colour, and the
difference is in some cases so great, that a doubt might arise as
to their legitimacy if the phenomenon were less general.3 In
Paraguay, where the intermixture between Spaniards and In-
dians has been more general, there are but few indications of
Indian blood either in the higher or lower ranks ; the features
appear here more English than in any other part of Spanish
America. In the huts of the poor, children are frequently seen
with elongated faces, and light or red hair, as among the
Scotch.4 The North-American Indians, as is often asserted,
produce, especially with the Scotch, a powerful race of cross-
breeds.5 The Mestizoes, originating from the peoples at the
mouth of the Columbia river, exhibit but few peculiarities of the
Indians ; they have mostly a light skin, frequently light hair
and blue eyes.6 The mongrels of Europeans and Greenlanders
have, as a rule, a European physiognomy, which, however,
varies much, the hair being mostly dark, sometimes light ; the
complexion fair. Psychically they resemble more the Esquimaux,
chiefly because they are brought up by Esquimaux mothers,
though they are more active, clean, and orderly.7
Castelnau8 makes the following statement concerning the
Mulattoes of Minas Greraes : —
1 . The child of a white man and an Indian woman resembles
the mother : it has stiff hair and oblique eyes.
2. The child of an Indian and Negress, the Cabouret or
Zambo, has crisp hair, oblique eyes, and a dark bronzed skin.
3. That of the Indian and the Cabourette has straight
1 Ulloa, ii, p. 34.
2 " Hist, relatione del regno di Cile, Eoma," p. 96, 1646.
3 Koster/p. 238.
4 Ausland, p. 977, 1856, according to Mansfield, " Paraguay, Brazil, and the
Plate."
5 Kohl, "Kitschi-Gami," ii, p. 206.
6 Parker, "Journal," p. 160, 1838.
' V. Etzel, " Greenland," p. 339, 1860.
8 "Exped.,"i, p. 205, 1850.
174 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
or slightly crisp hair, oblique eyes, and the colour of the
Indian.1
4. The child of the Indian and the cross-breed of No. 3 re-
sembles entirely the Indian, and is considered equal to him
before the law.
5. The child of a white man and a Mestizo is of a light
copper colour, has stiff hair and oblique eyes.
6. The offspring of a white man and a cross-breed No. 5 is
white, but has frequently black hair and somewhat oblique
eyes.
7. The child of a white and mongrel No. 6 entirely resem-
bles the white.
The Zamboes or Cabourets (Mulattoes of Negroes and native
American women, called in Peru Chinos) are of a dark bronze
colour, and have crisp hair and oblique eyes (Castelnau), whilst
in other parts their hair is less crisp than that of the Mulattoes,
and they possess the nose and mouth of the Negro, but the fore-
head, cheeks, and eyes of the Indian.3 Their physiognomy is
much more African than American. The cheek bones are not
very prominent, the nose is broad but turned up, the lips thick,
but not puffy, the hair half crisp, sometimes merely at the
ends, the colour of the skin dark copper or coffee-brown, body
slender, but muscular. They are thus described by Schom-
burgk,3 in Guiana, where they are only found in small num-
bers, as (which is also the case elsewhere) Indians do not readily
intermix with Negroes, whom they despise. The Zamboes, in
the south of the United States, present sometimes crisp hair,
with copper-coloured skin, and all other Indian characteristics,
and sometimes the coarse hair of the Indian upon the head of
a Negro with a black skin. There is here no intermediate type
produced by intermixture, but there is produced an irregular
agglomeration of the characteristics of the parents.4 To them
belong also the Cafusos, whose enormous wigs have been de-
scribed by Spix and Martius.5 The hair rises to 1-1 J feet, and is
1 Compare K. Schomburgh, ii, p. 385.
2 Tschudi, i, p. 169.
3 " R. in Brit. Guiana," i, sq. i, pp. 74, 385.
4 Forey in Schoolcraft, iv, p. 359.
5 " Reise," p. 215.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OP RACES. 175
curled at the point. The face of the Cafuso resembles more
the Negro than the American, but the thick lips are not turned
up ; the legs are weak, the muscles of the chest and arms are
powerfully developed. A similar enormous growth of the hair
is also seen among the Cocamas on the lower Huallaga,1 so
that they may be considered as belonging to the Zambo race.
It is also observed among the Fiji Islanders, who, on other
grounds, are considered as mongrels of Polynesians and Austral
Negroes ; and it is also probable that the Arab tribe in Taka,
among whom Werne2 observed the same peculiarity, has an
admixture of Negro blood.3
On reviewing the examples cited, we find the principle con-
firmed, that the pure races exhibit a more uniform, and the
mixed races a variegated, type, and this variation increases as
the intermixture progresses.
When, therefore, we hear of a people which, despite a low
state of intellectual culture, exhibits a variety in features, nose,
lips, as, for instance, among the Tschuvashes,4 we shall not be
wrong in considering it as of mixed origin. With regard,
however, to the axiom of Geoffroy, we can only admit that the
product of the crossing between the white and the black man
is usually an intermediate type, whilst variety .and inconstancy
of physical form is again exhibited in subsequent generations
by the intermixture of the mongrels. The principal types of
mankind appear to possess different degrees of constancy in
their intermixtures. Next to the Negro type, the Mongolian
appears to possess considerable constancy.5 The characteristics
of the Hottentots exhibit a similar tenacity. The first altera-
tion in their cross-breeds is that of colour, then of the hair, then
follows an alteration of the form of the nose, and, finally, in
the shape of the eyes.6
1 Poppig, " E.," ii, p. 450.
2 " Feldz. nach Taka," p. 89.
3 In East Africa there are also the Danakil, distinguished by their wig-like
hair (Harris, " Highlands of Ethiopia," i, p. 337, 2nd edit., 1844 ; Pickering,
p. 206.)
4 Kornheim, in Erman's " Archiv," iii, p. 74.
5 Eitter, " Erkunde," iii, p. 386.
6 Schmarda, " E. urn d. Erde," ii, p. 32, 1861.
176 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
The first impregnation seems to exert in cross-breeds, both in
animals and in man, an important influence on physical forma-
tion. A mare which has first produced a mule produces subse-
quently indifferent colts ; a sow first crossed by a wild boar,
a bitch with a dog of a different race, Subsequently produce
young resembling the first. Thus it has often been observed,
that the children of a second marriage resemble those of the
first husband.1 With regard to cross-breeds of various races,
instances are recorded of Negresses who, after having first
given birth to Mulatto children, had subsequently children by
a Negro, which, however, resembled the father of the first.2
That Negresses, after having had Mulatto children, no longer
conceive by a Negro, as has been asserted, is an error. This
applies also to Strzelecki's assertion,3 that the native women of
a great part of North America, as well as those of Polynesia,
Australia, and Yan Diemen's Land, were sterile with men of
their own stock after having once been impregnated by Euro-
peans. That he is wrong as regards the Australian women has
been shown by Thompson.4
In proceeding now to the chief question, namely, the com-
parison between mongrels and the original types as regards
unlimited prolificacy, we may assume as a demonstrated fact,
that however many types of mankind we may assume, all of
them (as far as our present knowledge extends) are prolific
between each other, and produce by intermixture certain inter-
mediate types which exhibit in various degrees the characters
of the parents. By crossing, it may be generally asserted, the
lower type is improved by a higher type, as, for instance, the
Negro into the Mulatto, the American Indian into the Mestizo;
and this improvement progresses when the connection of the
cross-breeds with individuals of a higher type is continued : thus
from Mulattoes spring Tertroon, Quadroon, Quintroon. This
improvement of the race corresponds to the deterioration of the
1 Instances of this kind in Lucas, and in Latham, " Man and his migra-
tions," p. 65.
2 Harvey in Nott and Gliddon, p. 396.
3 " Descript. of N. S. Wales," p. 347, 1842.
4 Fechner's " Centralbl.," 1853; Todd, "Cyclop.," p. 1365; and "Munch.
Gel. Anz.," p. 197, 1852.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OF RACES. 177
race by pairing the mongrel with an inferior race, for instance,
in the Zambo, the offspring of the Negro and Mulatto (this
name is sometimes given to the offspring of the Negro and the
native Indian). The transition of the mongrels of lower races
into higher, and viceversd, succeeds, in a less number of genera-
tions, the more they approach the original type. In the Society
Islands, where there are but few mongrels, they are said to
assume the European type in the second or third generation.1
The American Indian produces with a Zambo woman (Cabou-
rette), in the second generation, a mongrel resembling the
pure Indian ; the white with a Mestizo woman, one who assumes
the type of a white in the third generation ; in four generations
Mulattoes may become white, in five generations they may
become black.2 Thus the Quintroon is in law considered
as a White in the United States. In Dutch Guiana the Quad-
roons are in the same conditions.3 The Mestizo is considered
equal to a Negro-tertroon, so that his offsprings are Quad-
roons. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that these state-
ments refer only to physical conformation, and not to the intel-
lectual capacities of the mongrels, and under the supposition
that the mongrel, in order to pass into another race, should
uninterruptedly intermix with that race.
On comparing the results of intermixture between various
human types with those of the crossing of animals, we obtain
analogous results. In some cases three generations have been
found sufficient to replace the old race by a new one; and, after
the fourth generation, no relapse to the old race is any longer
expected. According to Burdach, six uninterrupted impreg-
nations of an inferior race by a higher one are required in
sheep and horses ; according to others, twelve ; and, according
to Morel and Yinde, a continuous impregnation is requisite.4
1 Bennet, " Narr. of a whaling voy.," i, p. 149, 1840.
2 Serres' assertion, that in an intermixture of a higher with a lower race, the
first parts with at least two-thirds of its character to the mongrel, has not
yet been confirmed by facts ; and this assertion seems to be a mere sequence
of the theory, that the higher races are destined to absorb the lower ones,
and to rule them.
3 Fechner's " Centralbl.," p. 288, 1853, according to Castelnau.
4 V. Sack, "Beschr. e. E. nach Surinam," i, p. 84, 1821.
5 Chambon, " Traite de 1'education des moutons," ii, p. 278.
178 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
Elyse"e Lefebvre and Grirou maintain that crossing with an in-
ferior race should be avoided, for fear of deterioration. This opi-
nion is borne out by the fact, that in the transition of the Negro-
mongrel into the white, there remain for a long time some indi-
cations of Negro descent. The peculiar odour of the Negro
is said to be still perceptible in the Quintroon. The cornea of
the Tertroon Mestizo (and, perhaps, in later generations) is
somewhat yellowish.1 The violet colour of the nails near the
insertion, and the bluish ring round the eyes, as well as the
peculiar shape of the heels and feet, remain for a long time in
the Negro mongrels.2 The darkening of the skin in Hindoo
mongrels in advanced age, and the dark colour of the genitals
in the former, as well as in the American Mestizo, is a pecu-
liarity which, even after many generations, indicates the source
they have sprung from.3 When, therefore, Nott, as a genuine
American, believes he can detect in every case an admixture of
Negro blood, even in Quintroons, we may admit all this with-
out adopting his hypothesis, that the Mulattoes become extinct
after a few generations, and before they can perfectly assume
the type of the white race.
In the United States they are exceedingly acute in the recog-
nition of these minute distinctions, for the fashion, in opposition
to the law of the land, proscribes any one in whose veins there
is a drop of Negro blood, whilst in Brazil no stigma is attached
to mixed descent. Whoever shares the Negro prejudices of the
North Americans must certainly feel inclined to assume distinct
species among mankind, and consider that a trace of Negro
blood, however slight, renders man, morally and intellectually,
inferior to the pure white ; while, according to Nott and Grlid-
don, a few drops of European blood produce a decided modi-
fication in the moral and physical character of the Negro.
There can be no doubt that the Mulatto is more gifted than the
Negro, though impartial observers still doubt whether the
greater intelligence of the Mulattoes, who are, on this account,
preferred for domestic service, is the consequence of an im-
1 Labat, "Nouv. voy. aux lies de 1'Am./' i, pp. 2, 40, 1724.
2 Day, " Five years resid. in the W. Indies," i, p. 51.
3 D'Orbigny et Troyer, " Bullet. Soc. Ethnol.," Mai 22, 1846.
SECT. III.] INTEEMIXTUEE OP EACES. 179
provement of the race, or of a superior education, and of more
intercourse with the whites.1 In French West India (Gua-
deloupe) nearly all the trades are in the hands of Mulattoes,
and some of them are rich.2 They have in 1830 recovered
again their civil rights, which the code noir of the year 1855
had given them, but later decrees had deprived them of. Their
intelligence and activity render them hateful to the Creoles.3
In Peru many Mulattoes study theology ; most physicians in
Lima belong to this caste.4 In the northern parts of Brazil
(Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranham), they form a large and active
portion of the population.5 In every rank of society, among
lawyers, physicians, statesmen, and scholars in Brazil, there
are Mulattoes who distinguish themselves by talent and intelli-
gence ; they seem also to possess great capacity for the fine arts,
so that men of colour are there received in the best society.
Many Mulattoes pass there for whites, and occupy the same
position, after their documents have declared them as such.6
A. de St. Hilaire7 is of opinion that the Mulattoes in Brazil
excel the white in intellect and talent, though they are morally
inferior, and share with the Negro the fickleness of character.
The Mestizo, who stands nearer to the white by a generation,
is inferior to the Mulatto, the latter being more active than the
former; thus it is in Brazil, Peru, and Mexico.8 Koster9 alone
maintains that they possess greater courage and more self-
esteem than the Mulattoes, and are, consequently, less subor-
dinate to the white than the latter. The Mestizo is less
vigorous, often indolent and undecided ; still he is gentle, com-
passionate, easily excited, but of a changeable disposition, and
without valour. The Mexican Mestizoes possess great intel-
lectual endowments ; they have a ready wit, are quick of appre-
1 Lyell, " Second voyage/' p. 266.
2 Granier de Cassagnac, " Voy. aux Antilles," i, p. 255, 1843.
3 Oelsner-montmerque, d. Creole, e. Vorlesung, p. 23, 1848.
* Tschudi, i, p. 167.
5 Kendu " Etudes sur le Bresil," p. 30, 1848.
* De Lisboa, " Bullet, soc. ethuol.," p. 58, Jan. 1847.
7 Loc. cit., ii, p. 52.
8 Spix and Martius, p. 607; Tschudi, i, p. 165; Humboldt, " Neu-Spa-
nien," i, p. 184.
9 "R. in Brasilien," p. 553, 1817.
N2
180 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
tension, and possess a lively imagination ; those, however,
sprung from white mothers are said to be more vicious than
the children of the Indian women.1 They excel the Euro-
pean in agriculture, cattle breeding, and mining labour.2 The
Mestizo in Peru is, according to Poppig, not so robust as the
Mulatto, and often indolent. Tschudi justly draws attention to
the fact, that talents among the Indians and mongrels have no
field for display, oppressed as they are by the White. Accord-
ing to Poppig,3 the mongrel population, with its innate vices,
and their hatred against the pure races from which they have
sprung, is an everlasting canker of society and political life in
South America, as all the shades of the mongrels are hostile to
each other and to the pure race. Like the Mulatto, the Mes-
tizo is considered as having inherited all the vices of his
parents, without any of their virtues ; with the pride of the
White, which he carries to excess, he combines the laziness,
apathy, thoughtlessness, and inconstancy of the Indian ; he is
dissipated, ambitious, and cowardly, very tyrannical to the
Indian, as the Mulatto is to the Negro ; he possesses, however,
great imitative talent.4 The coloured population in British
Guiana at present frequently rival the Europeans as mechanics
and artists.5 A very favourable description is given of the
capacities and the character of the Mestizoes in Paraguay.6
The half-breds in Oregon resemble the father in their mental
activity, but frequently exhibit something of the wild pas-
sionateness of their mother. Quick to learn, well-spoken, and
of courteous manners, they are, nevertheless, without any edu-
cation, and have, moreover, constantly before them the evil
example of their parents. They are given to swearing, drink-
ing, and other excesses ; excellent hunters, skilful navigators,
brave and courageous in battle, open and generous of cha-
racter, without cunning and hypocrisy; they submit to no
1 Muehlenpfordt, i, p. 260.
2 Sartorius, " Mexico," p. 156, 1859.
3 Loc. cit., i, p. 193.
4 Ibid., ii, p. 146.
5 E. Schoniburgk, i, p. 47.
6 Gumprecht, " Zeitschr. f. Erdk./' ii, p. 29.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OP 1UCES. 181
wrong, being themselves careful not to offend others.1 The
Zarnbo excels the Negro Indian in energy, stature, and vigour;3
but we rarely meet with such a favourable description of their
characters, as that given by A. de St. Hilaire3 of the Zamboes
on the Paranahyba. He describes them as peaceable agricul-
turists, providing for all their wants ; they spin and weave,
make their own pottery, are well-dressed, and live in comfort-
able circumstances. Sarmiento4 also attributes to the Zamboes
of the Argentine republic, talents and progressive civilization.
But elsewhere they are in very bad repute, on account of their
indifferent character, though we must bear in mind that almost
all of them are illegitimate children. The Cocamas are said to
be courageous, warlike, and lovers of freedom.5 The so-
called "Black Caribs" of St. Vincent, who once murdered
the colonists of that island without any provocation, were
Zamboes. In Lima all the great criminals are, according to
Tschudi, Zamboes, who are also in Caraccas considered as the
worst class of the population. By far the most profligate of
all mongrels in Peru are those of Negroes and Mestizoes, or of
Negroes and Mulattoes.6 This applies also to the Zamboes in
Nicaragua.7 Like the cross-breeds of the Dutch and Malay
women in Batavia, the Hindoo mongrels of Europeans are weak
in body and mind.8 The mongrels of Europeans and New
Zealand women are described as healthy and muscular,9 but
neither bodily nor intellectually do they seem superior to the
children of the natives ; the latter are open and free with
strangers, the former are bashful, and conceal themselves
behind their mothers.10
Various theories have been founded upon the phenomena
resulting from the crossing of different types. Grobineau has en-
1 E. Cox, " The Columbia river," iii, p. 298, 3rd edit., 1832.
2 Lavaysse, " E. nacli Trinidad," p. 357, 1816.
3 " Voy. aux sources du E. S. Francisco," ii, p. 254, 1847.
4 " Nouv. Ann. des voy.," p. 302, 1853.
* Poppig, ii, p. 401.
6 Stevenson, " E.," i, p. 200.
7 Squier, " Trav. in centr. Am.," ii, p. 153, 1853.
8 Graf Odrtz, " E. um d. Welt," iii, p. 405.
9 Polack, " New-Zeal.," ii, p. 276, 1838 ; Schmalda, loc. cit., ii, p. 200.
10 Savage, " Some account of N. Zeal.," p. 92, 1807.
182 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
deavoured to establish the one, that the crossing of different types
invariably induces a physical and moral degeneration, and im-
plants the germ of certain decay, whilst Serres considers cross-
ing as an essential means of improving the race, and rendering it
vigorous by the infusion of fresh blood from a different stock :
he is even inclined to believe that in a perfect intermixture of the
chief types is a solution of the problem of the development of
humanity. Nott, who thinks to have demonstrated the exist-
ence of various human species, endeavours also to prove that
mongrels possess little viability, and only a limited prolificacy,
and are incapable by themselves of founding a new type, since
they have no permanent vitality without re-crossing with
one of the parent stocks. It will presently be shown that
this theory is as little consonant with the facts as the pre-
ceding.
Whatever view we may adopt with regard to the unity of the
human species, it would be idle to expect that the mongrels of
the various types should be equally viable and vigorous, since
there are peoples apparently unmixed who are more or less
strong or weak, according to their constitution, mode of life,
and climate. Corresponding differences are found in mongrel
races. In some cases the mongrels of different stocks are more
prolific and vigorous than the stock from which they issued.
The Kuruglis (mongrels of Turks and Moors) excel their
Turkish fathers in strength and beauty of form.1 Arabs and
Ethiopians (Abyssinians and their allied tribes) produce a fine
race, viable in all warm climates.2 From the intermixture of
Europeans with the natives of the Philippines there frequently
issue finer children than those produced by the marriages of
Europeans between themselves.3 D'Orbigny is of opinion,
that, by the intermixture of various Indian tribes of South
America, healthier and more gifted individuals are produced ;
but he does not think that such is the case when Europeans
ally themselves with the natives of those regions. The mixed
populations of Paraguay, existing in a similar healthy con-
1 M. Wagner, " E. in Algier," iii, p. 293, 1841.
2 Pruner, p. 71.
3 Mallat, ii, p. 40.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OP RACES. 183
dition,1 after a few generations, excel the Spaniards of these
parts. In the state of Buenos Ayres the coloured race
has certainly, since 1778, been reduced from one-third of
the whole population to one-fourth. The cause of this
seems to be their lesser fecundity and greater mortality in com-
parison with the Whites. It must not, however, be under-
stood that the coloured population die off in the above propor-
tion, as the diminution is also owing to their fusion with the
white population, into which they are gradually absorbed.2 In
Peru, where only the coloured population and the Indians
attain a great age,3 the Cholos (mongrels of Mestizos and
Indians) are said to excel all other classes of the population in
bodily strength, activity, and talent ; yet their education is very
indifferent.4 We may now mention a series of opposite in-
stances. The mongrels of Europeans and natives of Northern
Australia about Port Essington do not appear to thrive.5 Are
they, perhaps, like other mongrel children in Australia, killed ?
In the country of the Fulahs in Africa the Toucouleurs, the
descendants of the immigrant Pules (Peuls) and the Negroes,
are physically and mentally superior to the latter, but there are
found among them, especially in Futa-Torro, many stammerers,
blind, hunchbacks, idiots, etc.6 The children produced by
Arabs with the women of Darfur are weakly, and have but
little vitality.7 It has already been stated that the children
of a white woman by a Negro are rarely viable ; Serres even
asserts that they are rarely prolific. The marriages between
the French and Indian women of the north of the United
States are, on the whole, very productive, and the children,
despite the Indian mode of life, take more after the father
than the mother, the girls particularly so. If such cross-breeds
intermarry, the girls predominate in their offspring ; the chil-
1 Brackenridge, "E. nach Sud.-Am." ii, pp. 74, 152, 1821, according to
Azara, Funes, and Passos.
2 " Zeitschr. f. AUg. Erdk. N. Folge," iv, p. 141.
3 Poppig, p. 208.
4 Brackenridge, "E. nach Sud-Am.," ii, p. 167, 1821.
« Macgillivray, " Narr. of the voyage of H.M.S. Eattlesnake," i, p. 151, 1852.
6 Mollien, " E. in d. Innere v. Africa," p. 174, 1820 ; Eaffenel, " Voy. dans
1'Afr. occ.," p. 51, 1846.
7 Mohammed-el-Tounsy, " Voy. au Darf p. Jomard," p. 277, 1845.
184 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
dren are frequently stunted and deficient in vitality — this, at
least, is the prevailing belief in that country.1
Some of these cases remind us of the axiom of Buffon, that,
from the connexion of near relations, morbid affections, idiotcy,
blindness, and dumbness arise. It does not yet seem to be
ascertained how it stands with regard to domestic animals. In
the breeding of blood horses the stallion is made to cover his
own descendants. On the other hand, it is asserted that all
races of animals are entirely deteriorated in the second and
third generation by the coupling of near relations ; and such is
also the case with man.2 We know that in many ancient and mo-
dern nations, marriages between brothers and sisters, even be-
tween parents and their children, frequently took place without
a deterioration of the race. Such alliances were made among
the Assyrians, Egyptians, Athenians, Persians, some peoples of
India (before, and even after, the introduction of Buddhism),
the Druses, Mingrelians, the royal family of the Sandwich
Islands. This also appears from some legends of American
Indians and other nations. Garcilasso3 narrates that the chil-
dren of Manco Capac intermarried, and that this was the custom
in the royal family of Peru, to keep the race pure. They jus-
tified the custom, inasmuch as the moon was both the sister
and the wife of the sun. The Inca always married his eldest
sister. According to Acosta,4 only the last Incas did so.
Among the Coroados marriages between the nearest blood
relations occur frequently.5 As proofs of the destructiveness
of such connexions, the Irish in South Carolina are cited, who
for a long time have only intermarried between themselves.6
The Dutch colonists at the Cape are in the same condition ;7
Lichtenstein8 had already noticed the frequent presence among
them of deaf and dumb, idiots, etc. Davis9 says also of the so-
1 Kohl in Ausland, p. 57, 1859.
2 Lucas, ii, p. 904.
3 " Hist, des Yncas," i, pp. 2, 25.
4 " Hist. nat. e morale delle Indie/' vi, c. 12, Venet., 1596.
5 Eschwege, " Journal v. Brasil," i, p. 121, 1818.
6 Nott and Gliddon, p. 408.
7 Kretschmar, " Siid-Afr. Skizzen," p. 163, 1853.
8 " Reisen," i, pp. 101, 211, 346.
9 "El Gringo," p. 146, N. York, 1857.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OP RACES. 185
called Pueblos Indians in New Mexico, that they degenerate
because the inhabitants of the same village only intermarry.
We believe we are justified in concluding from the pre-
ceding facts, with regard to sexual intercourse and the quality
of the offspring, that there exists, both in individuals of the
same stock, as well as between different nations, not exactly
antipathy, but still incompatibility, which, though not explica-
ble as to its origin, is sufficiently established; and, in spite
of this, we are not competent, from the sterility or decay of
certain races, to infer a difference of species of mankind as its
cause. Such a conclusion is inadmissible, on the ground that
there are not a few peoples sprung from the same stock, ac-
counted as deficient in vitality, who perpetuate themselves in
full health. For this purpose, we shall examine the contested
prolificacy of Mulattoes,1 as far as it seems founded on facts.
It has been asserted that the Mulattoes would become extinct
if they could be cut off from any infusion of new blood from
the parent stocks.2 Mulattoes of the same degree are said to
be rarely prolific.3 Nott, especially, has, in his work " On
Hybridity," dwelt on the sterility of Mulattoes, which had
already been noticed by Etwick and Long,4 in order to establish
their defective vitality. He has, it is true, subsequently aban-
doned the view, that, of all men, the mean duration of life is
least in the Mulatto ; and he now only maintains that the Mulat-
toes in the north of the United States proceeding from English-
men possessed less vitality than those of the south sprung from
dark-complexioned races, such as the Spaniards, Portuguese,
etc. Nott's present theory regarding Mulattoes is, that they
are less capable of sustaining physical labour than the Europeans
and Negroes ; that the women are very delicate, have many
miscarriages, and are subject to many chronic diseases.: that
1 With regard to the axiom of Geoffrey and Nott, quoted above, as to the
sterility of Mulattoes, it is interesting to compare Wiegman's observation,
that in plants hybrids are sterile which present an intermediate type between
two species ; whilst those which partake more of one or the other species, can
be propagated by seeds.
2 Van Amringe, " Investigations of the theories of the nat. hist, of man ;"
Knox, "The Races of Man," 1850; Ham. Smith, "Natural history of the
human species," 1848.
3 Day, " Five years residence in the West Indies," i, p. 294, 1852.
4 " History of Jamaica."
186 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
they are bad breeders, that the children die young ; and, finally,
that the Mulattoes, like the Negroes, are little liable to yellow
fever. As to the latter point, we have already shown that it
chiefly depends upon acclimatization, and not upon peculiarity
of race. With respect to the weakness and mortality of the
Mulatto children, it is not yet proved whether or not it is to be
attributed to the race, and the fact itself is not yet established.
Bachman1 knew Mulatto families in Carolina and New York
who, without any infusion of new blood, were prolific through
five generations, and are still so. Lewis2 expressly denies the
sterility of the Mulattoes in Jamaica, and says they are as pro-
lific as the black and the white, but they are generally weakly,
and their children do not exhibit strong vital powers ; hence
Mulatto women prefer marrying Whites, so that the Mulattoes
are obliged to marry black women. Hombron3 remarks, on the
sterility of various races, that the white and the native Ameri-
can women present the greatest prolificacy ; then come the
Negro and the Negress, then Negro and the American woman ;
Mulattoes and white women, as well as Mulattoes between
themselves, are also very prolific. Mulattoes moreover form,
in the northern provinces of Brazil, such a large portion of
the population, that their prolificacy cannot be doubted. The
vigorous inhabitants of the Fiji Islands are also, by their
language and physical constitution, proved to be a mixed
people, sprung from Polynesians and Austral Negroes. The
people of the Griquas in South Africa have come from inter-
mixture of Hottentots, Dutch, and Negroes.4 The Dutch and
Hottentots at the Cape intermarry between themselves, and
but rarely with either of the parent stock ;5 and yet we hear
nothing of their sterility ; on the contrary, the offsprings are
described as very vigorous. The Rhenish Missionary Journal6
contains a case of a mongrel who was the father of twenty-four
children by one wife.
1 In Smyth, " Unity of the human races/' p. 196, 1830.
2 " Journal of a residence among the Negroes in the W. Indies," p. 55, 1845.
1850.
5 Barrington, "Account of a voyage toN. S. Wales," p. 189, 2nd edit., 1810.
6 Page 296, 1850.
SECT. III.] INTERMIXTURE OF RACES. 187
It is certainly much more easy to assert the sterility of Mu-
lattoes than to refute it by the few observations we possess on
this subject. Wherever sterility occurs it appears rather as an
isolated fact, the local nature of which does not admit of its
being laid down as a general rule. Thus we must consider it as
a local phenomenon that the mongrels of Negroes, Indians, and
Whites in Panama are very prolific between each other, but can-
not easily rear their children, whilst families of pure blood are
less prolific, but bring their children up.1 The progeny of
the Chinese by Malay women in the East Indian Archipelago
are said to die early.2 According to Dr. Yvan, the children of
the Dutch and Malay women in Java (Lipplapps) are said to be
only productive to the third generation. They are well de-
veloped up to the fifteenth year, when they remain stationary ;
in the third generation chiefly daughters are born, and these
remain barren.3 But all this is an exceptional local phenome-
non, for elsewhere these mongrels remain prolific.4 As a
parallel to the sterility of mongrels may be mentioned the
assertion, that the children of Europeans in Batavia become
frequently sterile in the second generation.5
Setting aside the Mulattoes, it has frequently been asserted
that mongrels of every kind can only perpetuate themselves by
an infusion of fresh blood from the parent stock, not having
between themselves an unlimited prolificacy. That children of
mongrels are produced in great numbers is already proved by
the variety of names given to them in South America :—
Choles, children of Zamboes ; Kaskes, children of Mulattoes ;
Tente en el ayre, children of mongrels of the same degree,6 etc.
The significance of these terms7 is given by Blumenbach and by
1 Seemann, " R. u. d. Welt," i, p. 314, 1853.
2 " Ztschft. der morgenl. Ges.," vi, p. 573.
3 Graf Gorz, Reise, iii, p. 288.
4 Quatrefages, " Revue des deux mondes," Mars, p. 162, 1857.
s Steen Bille, " Bericht iiber d. E. de Galathea," i, p. 376, 1852.
6 Ulloa, "Voy.," i, p. 28, 1752.
7 As an illustration of this confusion of terms, the following will serve : —
In the "West Indies the native Whites are called Creoles ; in Brazil, the
Blacks who are born there (Steen Bille says, the Blacks only are called so
in Brazil). In Peru, the children of Whites and Mestizoes are called
Creoles. In Russian America, the Mestizoes are generally designated as
Creoles (Erman's " Archiv," ii, p. 461) ; and in East India, the term is used
188 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART
*
le.
VollgrafF.1 A continued admixture of fresh blood of one ele-
ment, without a corresponding addition on the other side, would
be a sure means of destroying the type, and reducing the
people to its original, that is to say, the character of the mon-
grels could not be preserved under such circumstances. Hence
those who consider a fresh infusion as indispensable are obliged
to deny the capacity of mixed peoples to perpetuate them-
selves.
In addition to the preceding instances of mixed populations
which subsist independently, we would also mention those of
Mexico and the Philippines, possessing partly an undoubted
mixed population of Spaniards and natives; of Nicaragua,
which, besides 10,000 whites, 15,000 Negroes, and 80,000
Indians, has a Mestizo population of 145,000 souls;2 the
province S. Paulo, with a thoroughly mixed population ; and
Paraguay, where the Mestizoes (mongrels of Spaniards and
Ghiaranis) intermarry, and the progeny of which forms the great
mass of the so-called Spanish population ;3 New Granada, pos-
sessing a mixed population sprung from Spaniards, Indians,
and Negroes, in which the Spanish blood is greatly predomi-
nating, but, in spite of their designation as whites, are not free
from Indian and Negro blood ;4 Caraccas, where the mixed popu-
lation form the majority,5 and we do not hear anything of de-
fective vitality, diminution, or decay. We learn, on the con-
trary, that the Mestizoes in New Granada, as well as in the
in the same sense (Pfyffer, " Skizzen v. d. Insel. Java," p. 67, 1829). The
Mulatto is called Pardo in Brazil ; in Buenos Ayres, Mestizo ; who again in
Brazil is called Mamaluco. The child of a Negro and Mulatto is, in Peru
and the West Indies, called Zambo ; elsewhere the mongrel of the Ameri-
can and Negro race has the name of Chino; Caboglo in Surinam; Ca-
riboco in Brazil (A. de St. Hilaire, ii, p. 271). Unanne (" Observ. sobre el
clima de Lima," p. 105, 1815) enumerates all the crossbreeds found in Peru,
with their names. " Quadroon" is the child of a white man and a mulatto
woman ; " Tertroon" does not seem to be applied in Peru. The child of a
Negro and Chino is also called " Zarnbo," like that of a Negro and Mulatto wo-
man; the child of a Negro and Zambo is called " Zambo prieto." The names ap-
plied to crossbreeds in Mexico are given by Muehlenpfordt (i, p. 200) and Gr.
A. Thompson (" Narr. of official visit to Guatemala," p. 523, 1829.)
1 " Ethnognosie und Ethnologie," i, p. 233.
2 Scherzer, " Wanderungen durch d. Mittelam. Freist," p. 125, 1857.
3 Azara, " Voy. dans 1'Am. merid.," ed. Walckenaer, ii, p. 265, 1809; see
Demersay, "Bullet, soc. geogr." i, p. 5, 1854.
4 Mollien, "Voy. dans la Eepubl. de Colombia," i, p. 150; ii, p. 160, 1824.
5 Semple, " Sketch of the present state of Caraccas," pp. 53, 105, 1812.
SECT. III.] PERMANENCE OP TYPE. 189
southern part of Chili, greatly increase, and are described by
Poppig as very prolific.
These facts are sufficient to weaken the argument of a specific
difference between the two principal races of mankind, as
founded upon the pretended sterility of mixed races. They
refute, at the same time, the theory that mixed races can
only perpetuate themselves by re-crossing with the parent
stocks. That mixed tribes, by a continued re-crossing with
individuals of a parent stock, revert to it after a few gene-
rations, cannot be adduced as a proof of the immutability of
an original type, as the few foreign elements disappear. Poppig,
however,1 says, that it is in the American colonies a well known
fact, that mixed tribes, abandoned to themselves, revert again
to the original type (to which ?) . If this be so, it can only be
considered as an exceptional case, which certainly cannot serve as
a general rule, considering the large number of mixed popula-
tions which are self-subsistent. When, further, W. F. Edwards2
thinks that he can recognize the types of the original races in
the mixed population of France, Switzerland, and Italy, sup-
porting M. Serres* assertion of the absolute permanence of
original type, we must bear in mind that this is merely a sub-
jective theory without any anatomical proofs, and that we are
ignorant as to these original types. Nott and Grliddon go
much farther ; they are not merely of opinion that all original
types are still to be found, but that the type of the skull long
outlives the history and civilization of a people, it being inca-
pable of alteration, and is constantly reproduced until again it
predominates. We should, therefore, not be surprised were
they to assert, with regard to the mixed population of Paraguay
which is said so much to resemble the English, that it is not a
mixed type, but the genuine old Iberian form of the Spaniards
which now reappears in South America. Cautious observers,
Schomburgh for instance,3 confine their remarks to the ef-
fect that some peoples, in their intermixtures with others,
preserve their peculiarities for a longer, others for a shorter
1 Art. " Indier," in Ersch und Gruber, p. 359.
2 « Mem. de la soc. ethnol.," i et ii.
3 " Bullet, soc. geogr.," ii, p. 63, 1851.
190 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
time. Although among some, these peculiarities disappear after
a few generations, they are in others preserved after a long
series of generations. The latter applies to the so-called
" Indians" at Hayti, especially as regards the women. They
have symmetrical forms, an olive-coloured delicate skin, large
black eyes, and very fine heads of hair. This reminds us of
the assertion supported by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, that the cha-
racters of an animal race are more constant and permanent in
proportion as the race is older, and more changeable the younger
the race is.
The intermixture of the various types is one of the chief
agents in the changes produced in mankind. Whoever is in-
clined to consider the principal races as specifically different,
doubts the vitality and unlimited prolificacy of mongrels ; but
still he explains the changes of type from intermixture, because
the theory of a specific difference would be untenable if climate,
civilization, etc., could by themselves produce that change.
With regard to this dilemma, in which the defenders of specific
differences find themselves, we would further observe, that it
is inconsistent to deduce all changes of types merely from
intermixture, as the assertion of the permanence of specific
characters would thus partly be refuted. From whatever point
of view we may consider the results of the intermixture of
different types, we are entitled to maintain that on the whole
they are more in favour of the unity of mankind than for the
opposite theory.
SECTION IV.
REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL THEORIES REGARDING THE
UNITY OF MANKIND.
We have hitherto been engaged in enumerating the most im-
portant facts bearing upon the question of the unity of man-
SECT. IV.] UNITY OF MANKIND. 191
kind, and in investigating their scope. In endeavouring to
render an impartial account of the inferences to which these
facts lead, we first observed a gradual mutability of the phy-
sical type, owing partly to external and partly to internal
agents. The degree and extent of this mutability, though by
no means slight, is nevertheless, in comparison with the great
differences existing between various races, not so strongly
marked as to decide the question, whether these differences
are to be considered as having specific value. We may, how-
ever, say, that the theory which assumes permanent specific
differences in mankind, appears to us less probable than the
opposite theory; and further, we venture positively to deny
the existence of permanency of type in the human form, it
being a phenomenon which could only arise from a long conti-
nued influence of climate, mode of life, external relations, and
defective mental culture, etc.
There seems to exist this essential difference between man
and animals, — that the mutability of his physical form has a
wider circle than that of the latter. It must not be objected
that man being, according to his organization, an animal, such
an assumption is gratuitous, inasmuch as the natural laws for
the development and changes of the animal economy must be
the same for both. It is in the first place undeniable that the
same human races can successively live in different climates,
and that the whole mode of life and external conditions to
which the same race may be subject, may be essentially altered,
— not so those of animals ; and that the same race of men may
pass through various degrees of culture, — which is not the case
with animals. If accordingly a wider sphere, with regard to all
these circumstances, is granted to man, it is not in contradic-
tion to the laws of nature that the limits of the mutability of
his nature are less confined than those of animals. Though
we could not entirely assent to the proofs for the unity of the
human race adduced by Blumenbach and Prichard derived
from analogy, namely, that the differences of human races are
less considerable than those found in animals which undoubtedly
belong to the same species ; still we agree with Prichard when
he says, that the external differences of men are not so great
192 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
as we might expect from the great differences of climate and
civilization.
These views have, in modern times, been opposed by theories
which are at present very popular, not so much in consequence
of their novelty, as of their apparently logical sequence and
their connexion with materialistic views. They are based on
the view we have just repudiated, that man as a physical
being must, with regard to his body and its changes, be in the
same condition as animals, and that it is mere fancy to deny
his perfect equality as a physical being, and his subjection to
the same laws as animals. Man, they maintain, like animals,
undergoes but unimportant changes from the influence of cli-
mate: like them, man is only changed by intermixture;
and as in the animal kingdom new species arise by hybri-
dity (as asserted by some, without the intervention of the
Creator), so does it happen by the crossing of various species
of men.
Among the men holding these extreme views may be men-
tioned Hamilton Smith.1 Lawrence2 had already maintained
that the type of human races is perpetuated in all climates,
and only changes by intermixture ; to which Smith adds, that
each of the chief races is only perpetuated in their original
native country, whilst the descendants of other races would
there perish without intermixture, but that from such inter-
mixture there issue, as among many animals of various species,
intermediate types indefinitely prolific, provided there be a
continued infusion of fresh blood from either of the parent
stocks. He points out the extinct Paltas3 on the Titicaca lake,
with naturally flattened and receding skulls, the remnants
1 ' ' Natural history of the human species," Edinb., 1848.
3 " Lectures," p. 448.
3 The mention of the Paltas, on the Titicaca, by H. Smith, is probably
founded in error. Mention is certainly made of a chieftain, in the south,
named " Palta," about the time of Valdivias (1550), among the Araucanians
(Ovaglie, " Hist, relatione del regno di Cile," p. 187, Roma, 1646) ; but the
people called Paltas existed only in the south of the state of Quito, due north
of Loja, near Tumebamba. They are mentioned together with the Canares
and Chaparras, but nothing is said about their cranial shape, or other pecu-
liarities (Cieza de Leon in " Historiad. prim, de Indias," pp. 401 and 409, 1852 ;
Gomara, ibid. ; compare, also, Herrera, " Hist, gen.," v, and of later writers ;
Velasco, " Hist, del reino de Quito," iii, pp. 2, 15.
SECT. IV.] NEGRO TYPE. 193
of very inferior tribes of abnormal form, as the Cagots,
Tschuwasches, and some others, the Cumbrie-Negroes on
the Niger, reduce'd to slavery by their neighbours, the extinct
Guanches of the Canary Islands and the Ompizes (Yazimbres ?)
of Madagascar, in order to support the theory that there are
remnants of human races older than the present, — a race which
was once surrounded by a different flora and fauna than ours,
and which was spread over the globe before the extinction of
some species of animals. The Papuas (Austral-Negroes ?)
especially, are said to belong to this most ancient population,
and date, perhaps, from an earlier period of the history of our
planet. This latter point has been descanted upon by Hom-
bron.1 He assumes, in every part of the globe, several central
points of creation, and makes man see the light of the world
in three successive periods of creation. In fixing the latter,
and the selection of the peoples, he seems very unfortunate.
According to him the Samoiedes, Lapps, and all black people,
were created first ; then came the Mongols, Americans, Egyp-
tians, and Berbers; European humanity was created last.
He who feels inclined to assign different periods of creation
to the chief types of humanity, will necessarily consider the
Negroes as the most imperfect and oldest species, and connect
his colour with the greater quantity of carbon contained in the
air of primeval times.
On depriving these bold theories of their varnish, we would
first draw attention to the fact that it is, under all circum-
stances, very difficult to ascertain whether human tribes sunk so
low are to be considered as originally defectively organized ; and
that especially incase of their extinction the question cannot be
decided one way or another. Where particulars are wanting,
both theories are equally tenable. Among the peoples men-
tioned by Smith, the Cumbries are unquestionably a Negro tribe,
(universally despised and oppressed, but nothing shows that they
specifically differ from other Negroes ; by Paltas is probably de-
signated the old Peruvian people with abnormal skulls, the shape
of which was by Morton first considered as original, but subse-
1 D'Urville, " Voy. au Pole Sud. Zoologie," i, p. 184.
194 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
quently acknowledged as an artificial deformity. The Guanches,
whose skulls resemble those of the ancient Egyptians, belong
probably to the so-called Caucasian race ; they were a semi-
civilized people, in which the nobility were distinguished
from the people ; even monotheism, and some astronomical
knowledge, are ascribed to them by old Spanish authors.1 As
to the rest of the peoples mentioned, exact information is
wanting, with exception of the Papuas, and there exists not
the slightest ground for considering these older than the rest
of mankind.
The assertions maintained at different periods, and lately in
America, that human bones have been found in tertiary forma-
tions, accompanied by fossil remains, which justified the in-
ference of the existence of man at a period when the surface
of the earth had not yet assumed its present contour ; they were,
until recently, without confirmation, and are still by geologists
received with considerable caution. A. Maury,2 however, and
also Nott and Gliddon,3 endeavour to prove that the finding of
fossil human bones and implements is unquestionable; in oppo-
sition to which the author of the Essay in the " Deutsche
Vierteljahrschrifb"4 only assumes its probability.5 With regard
to the Guadaloupe skeletons, it may be stated that, in conse-
quence of purely local conditions, the process of petrifaction
proceeds in that island very rapidly, and therefore these
skeletons cannot be adduced as a proof of a remote exist-
ence of the human race ; nor is the circumstance, that bones
of the mammoth are found intermixed with arrowheads, in
favour of this theory. Littre6 merely states that the exist-
ence of man in an earlier geological epoch has become less
improbable than before by the excavations of Boucher de
1 Humboldt und Bonpland, " E. in die -^Equinoctial-Gegenden," i, pp 153
283; Golbeny, "E. durch d. Westl. Afr.," i, p. 35, 1803 ; Webb et Berthelot,
" Hist. nat. des lies Canaries ; Berthelot, in " Mem. de la soc. Ethnol.," i,
et ii ; Hodgkin, in " Nbuv. ann. des voy.," iii, p. 375.
2 "Des ossemens humains enfouis dans les roches," 1852 : Sprint, in "1'In-
stitut," ii, p. 41, 1854.
3 " Indigenous races of the earth," 1857.
4 Chap, ii, p. 213, 1838.
5 Compare Cuvier " Umwalzungen der Erdrinde," German by v Nogger-
rath, i, p. 118, 1830.
6 " E6v. des deux mondes."
SECT. IY.] HUMAN FOSSILS. 195
Perthes ; and it must certainly be admitted that the probability
of this view is annually increasing.
Dr. Lund,1 who is said to have discovered human fossils in
not less than eight different localities (in Minas Greraes), infers
that the population of America is more ancient than that of
the Old World. Usher relates2 that, in the excavations for the
gas works at New Orleans, a human skeleton had been found at
a depth of 16 feet under the cypress forests, the skull of which
he considers as belonging to the American race, and the age
of which he calculates at 57,000 years. Several of such pre-
tended undoubted cases are quoted. Boucher de Perthes3 has
excavated so-called antediluvian antiquities, stone hatchets,
intermixed with fossil bones of extinct animals. Nilssohn,4
distinguishes three ancient races in Scandinavia, one of
which is pre-historic ; and Wilde5 in Ireland, and Wilson6
in Scotland, described several kinds of pre-Celtic skulls.
Although we may pass over and leave to geology the investiga-
tion of the theory of the existence of man in an earlier geolo-
gical epoch, still we may admit a very high antiquity of the
human race. We maintain, however, that at present there
exists no proof of an earlier race now extinct, nor of the
existence of the human race before the present geological
epoch. Though it could be proved that Scotland possessed a
population before the arrival of the Celts, or that the American
race was 57,000 years old, nothing is yet gained for the asser-
tions of H. Smith.
Neither can the remains of old buildings, the object and
origin of which is unknown to present generations of the respec-
tive countries, be adduced in support of the above theories ;
for it has repeatedly happened that uncivilized nations have
taken possession of a territory, without preserving the history of
its former inhabitants any more than their own. And thus the
1 " Nouv. aim. des voy.," i, 363, 1845.
2 Nott and Gliddon, p. 338.
3 « Antiq. Celt, et Antediluv.," Paris, 1849.
4 " Keports of the British Association," p. 31, 1847.
5 " Lecture on the Ethnology of the ancient Irish," 1844 ; Davis, " Crania
Britannica."
6 " Archaeol. and pre-historical annals of Scotland," Edinburgh, 1851.
02
196 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
assertion, that before the present human race there existed
one resembling the ape, supported by the mystical doctrine of
the spontaneous extinction of lower human types, remains
without the least scientific proof. Two other assertions of
Smith still require investigation, namely, that each of the
principal types of mankind (European, Mongol, and Negro),
can only perpetuate themselves in their native country, and
that each must be considered as a distinct species, from which
new types issue by intermixture. ^e shall best consider
these views in connection with those of another naturalist.
Agassiz has given a peculiar support to the theory of the
specific differences of the chief types through the influence of
climate.1 His mode of treating this subject is in the main not
original, but is similar to that of Swainson2 who, without him-
self deciding on the unity of mankind, assumes six zoological
provinces, apparently agreeing with the regions occupied by
the various races. They are the following: 1. Europe with
Asia Minor, and the coasts of the Mediterranean; 2. Asia be-
yond the Ural ; 3. America (all these three with three, the latter
with a fourth, problematical subdivision in the extreme south) .
4. Africa south of Sahara, the third subdivision of which
(South Africa and Madagascar) passes into the 5th. Australia
(with New Holland as centre) ; 6. the north of the old and new
world. The corresponding human races would be : the Cauca-
sian, Mongolian, American, the Negro, the Malay, and the so-
called Hyperborean. Agassiz has the following observations
on this theory.
The boundaries of the zoological and botanical provinces,
correspond generally with the distribution of the so-called races
of mankind. But the species of animals and plants is originally
different in each of these provinces ; and even in those where
the differences are but slight, no common descent can be
assumed if they belong to different provinces, because no
species passes across its limits into another province, but (as
can be proved by many examples) keeps within its native soil.
Hence we must assume, not one but several centres of creation
1 " Christian Examiner," Boston, July 1850, and in Nott and Gliddon.
2 " Treatise on the geography and classification of animals," London, 1835.
SECT. IV.] CENTRES OP CEEATION. 197
from which the creatures have spread over the earth,-
many as there are zoological and botanical provinces : and
there obtains the same analogy for the human race as for the
rest of organized beings.
The chief idea upon which this theory rests has, before
Agassiz, been promulgated by Desmoulins,1 namely, the idea
that various centres of creation must be assumed for the
animals of different parts of the world, as migrations into
regions where they cannot exist are out of the question.
Though man undoubtedly possesses a greater capacity for mi-
grations, still his analogy to other organic beings renders it
very probable that, like them, he originally proceeded from
various centres of creation.
We leave it to zoologists and botanists to say whether this
theory of the natural limitation of these provinces can be
carried out as strictly as Agassiz imagines ;- whether it is not
rather a scheme which, like many others, does violence to the
facts. It is easily perceptible, that if there be no exact limits
of the provinces, that is to say, if with regard to some animals
it must be admitted that they have migrated from one part
into another, the analogy to man, who unquestionably pos-
sesses the greatest capacity of locomotion, either does not apply,
or at least loses much of its importance. When we learn that
some European reptiles are also found in the whole of Asia,
even in Japan, whilst all the reptiles of the New World are
entirely different from those of the Old World ;2 and further,
that the genuine typical forms of the animal world of America
differ as much from those of the Old World as the Australian,
one might be led from analogy to infer the separate origin of the
European, American, and Australian man : but when it is con-
sidered that many birds and mammals of the Old World are
also found in North America, this probability as regards man
again disappears. We shall, however, in order to give to
this new theory every chance, not insist upon this, but consider
the question from another point of view. We shall examine
whether the existing principal types of mankind correspond,
1 " Hist. nat. des races hum./' 1826.
2 Schlegel, " Essai sur la pliysiog. des serpens," 1837.
198 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
with some degree of exactness in the localities which they
occupy, with the zoological and botanical provinces assumed
by Agassiz.
We meet at the outset with the peculiar difficulty of laying
hold of Agassiz's opinions, as he has frequently changed them.1
Whilst in 1845 he asserts the unity of mankind as a species,2
we find him in 1850 distribute eleven or twelve, in 1853
(Nott and Grliddon), eight, human species in as many zoolo-
gical and botanical provinces ; and it appears as if he made
this last change chiefly to make these provinces better agree
with the existing chief types of mankind. The twelve pro-
vinces of 1850 are the following: — one arctic; three of the
temperate zone in Europe, Asia, and America, the latter in
two divisions, the one to the east, the other to the west of the
Rocky Mountains ; three tropical provinces, the one of the
Atlas, exclusive of the Nile valley and the Cape of Grood Hope,
the second in Asia south of the Himalaya, including the Sunda
Islands, the third in America ; the eighth province forms New
Holland with Van Diemen's Land ; then follows, as a province
of doubtful independence, Polynesia ; the throe remaining pro-
vinces belong to the temperate zone of South America, the
Cape of Good Hope, and the south Polar Circle^ But in 1853
he makes the following division': — 1. Arctic province; 2. Asia;
3. Europe to the north of the Caspian Sea, in the south to the
Indus, inclusive of the northern edge of Africa ; 4. America ;
5. Africa; 6. India; 7. Australia and New Guinea; 8. Poly-
nesia. We shall chiefly keep in view the first distribution in
making some observations from an anthropological stand-
point.
1 He endeavours in vain to show, in his essay in the " Christian Examiner/'
that his opinion as to the unity of species is not in conflict with his theory of
difference of origin; for however we maybe inclined to agree with him andMeigs
(in Nott and Gliddon, p. 350), that the question of unity of species is to be
separated from that of unity of origin, still the separation has hitherto been
very little attended to by zoologists, who mostly consider that the affirmation
of the first question implies that of the second. In Germany, Eberhard
(" Die Menschenracen," p. 36, Koburg, 1842) seems to have been the first
who considered that the question of unity of origin from one pair, should be
entirely separated from that of unity of species. He himself is of opinion
that every species has originally appeared in several varieties.
2 Smith, " Unity of the human races," p. 349, New York, 1850.
SECT. IV.] THEORY OF AGASSIZ. 199
The north-polar nations have frequently been considered
as a distinct race. This can, however, only be maintained when
we simply keep in view their corporeal shape, and the peculiari-
ties of their habits and customs. Forster has already, in his
History of the Voyages to North America,"1 shown the im-
)ropriety of grouping together the Lapp and Samoied, and
considering them of the same stock as the Esquimaux. As
there is even now a large group of Samoied peoples in the
south, extending to the sources of the Jenissei, their undoubted
affinity to other Asiatic nations, decidedly indicates their origin
from central Asia. Who, moreover, could assume that they
sprung up in their cold climate, unless the Creator had gifted
them with thick fur, like the ice-bear, that they might not be
frozen to death before they had learned to build huts, etc. ?
If it be objected that the climate of the polar regions had
been warmer in former periods, there must be assumed a gra-
dual acclimatization, which is denied by all those who, like
Agassiz, believe that the chief types of mankind are limited
to the climatic conditions and zones in which they were born.
The polar nations thus manifestly do not originally belong to
their present localities.
This may also, on historical and linguistic grounds, be
proved with regard to the Indo-Germanic nations of Europe.
They have not sprung up in their present localities, but are
immigrants from the south-west of Asia. If the Mongols,
Tunguses, and their allied tribes, are considered as a family,
the original cradle of which was in the temperate region of
Asia, their province now extends, in the south, to the sources
of the two large Chinese rivers, and in the north, to the Polar
Sea. Where, then, is that climatic limitation of individual
human species ? Where is it in America, the separation of
which, in three divisions, according to the zones, is ethnogra-
phically perfectly arbitrary ? Further, New Holland and Van
Diemen's Land are not connected, anthropologically considered,
and the province of the south pole is uninhabited. To this
must be added, that the Austral-Negroes and Papuas live in
1 Vol. iii, p. GO, Berlin, 1791.
200 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I
the immediate vicinity of nations which are related to the
Malays, whilst the latter extend to Madagascar ; and that the
tropical province of Asia contains the four most distinct human
stocks inhabiting the globe (Caucasian, Mongolian, Malay,
and Negro races), with some probability considered as their
cradle. There can, therefore, be no question of such a sepa-
ration of the families of mankind in zoological and botanical
provinces, which may, perhaps, more properly apply to Africa,
the northern shorelands of which present a flora and fauna
distinct from the regions south of the Atlas, whilst similar
differences are presented by the Nile valley and the Cape.
With these districts correspond, as great ethnographic divisions,
the Berbers, who belong to the Caucasian race, the Negroes,
the Egyptians, the Abyssinians, and the Hottentots. In all
other parts of the globe, it is scarcely necessary to say, there
is no correspondence of the numerous subdivisions in special
faunas and floras of Agassiz, with the groups of nations in-
habiting these parts, and his subdivisions have no anthropo-
logical signification.
But what tells against the whole hypothesis of Agassiz, and
should at the outset have prevented its adoption, is the circum-
stance that the cradle of mankind can only be imagined to
have been situated in a warm climate; otherwise the first
human beings must have perished in a climate where artificial
protection and certain kinds of knowledge were requisite to
obtain nutriment in sufficient quantity. To this must be added
the improbability that, with the great capacity for locomotion
possessed by man, and the wants he is subject to in a state of
nature, the parent stocks of each human species should have
remained in their original country from the period of their first
appearance on the globe until the historical period, — an im-
mense space of time. While extensive emigrations contradict
such a fixed abode, we find, on the other hand, in many
parts of the globe, men of perfectly distinct types living in
close vicinity, — facts very unfavourable to the above theory.
If it be correct, we need not assume any migrations of
peoples; just as Desmoulins considers the Indo-Grermans as
autochthons in the countries of Scandinavia to the Caspian
SECT. IV.] DESCENT FROM A SINGLE PAIE. 201
Sea and the Indus ; the Finns as autochthons on both sides of
the Ural ; the Turks as autochthons on the Altai and in the
north-west of Thibet.
Though the above theories are inadmissible, we must be careful
not to fall into the opposite error of deriving all human races from
one spot, — the paradise usually placed in south-western Asia, —
and attempting to indicate the course of their original migra-
tions. We can only speak of the relatively oldest migrations,
without asserting whether or not the countries to which they
emigrated were already populated before their arrival. Liiken1
has committed this error; nor has Latham, cautious as he
usually is, remained free from it. It is under the influence
of such ideas that he makes the Austral-Negroes and the
Par/uas occupy their present districts in remote times ; makes
the Australians migrate across Timur from south Asia into New
Holland; lets the Polynesians and Micronesians follow them
in the South Sea from the present Malay regions, and is much
inclined to consider all these different stocks identical in
their origin. He deserves consideration, however, when he
observes,2 that primary migrations of peoples are always pro-
bable where we — as, for instance, with the Hottentots, Lapps,
Celts in Ireland — have extreme localities before us which are
very remote from the supposed centre and starting point of
the migration.
As it was formerly traditionally assumed that mankind de-
scended from one pair, it was but natural to look for the cradle
of humanity, to inquire how the original stocks became divided,
and what roads they took when they left their original dwelling
place to search for new localities. In modern times many au-
thors have attempted positive counter-proofs. Eudolphi3 has
pointed out the difficulties under which the assumption laboured,
that the distribution of mankind over the globe had only pro-
ceeded from one spot. These difficulties are manifestly nowhere
so great as in the South Sea ; and yet even there it can be
satisfactorily shown that they are not unsurmountable. Not
to become tedious, we would here only mention that Japanese
1 " D. Einheit des MenschengescnL," 1845.
2 " Man and his migrations," p. 157, 1850.
3 " Beitrage zur Anthropol./' p. 150, 1812.
202 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
are frequently mentioned as having been cast away in the
South Sea. Thus they came, by a long involuntary sea-voyage,
1690, to Manilla,1 in 1832 to Oahu,2in 1833 to Point Grenaille,
H° north of the mouth of the Columbia river;3 and Humboldt
has shown that to proceed from Asia to America, without pass-
ing beyond the 55th degree of N". lat., did not require more
than a sea-voyage of twenty-four to thirty-six hours.4 Still
more decisive is the agreement of language, tradition, manners,
and religion prevailing in Polynesia, from the Sandwich islands
to New Zealand ; so that the assumption of a different descent
of these island populations cannot be admitted. Thus the dif-
ficulties of migration cannot be adduced as a proof in favour
of the theory that mankind have originated in one particular
spot.
On the other hand, the positive proofs in favour of the de-
scent of humanity from a single pair are scanty in the extreme.
Without wishing to enter into any discussion with those who
have faith in the narration of the Old Testament, the assump-
tion of a single pair appears to us very improbable, as nature
would scarcely hang the existence and preservation of any
species on so slender a thread as a single pair of human beings.
It is true that the ground against descent from a single pair
rests only on a teleological, and not on a physical or physio-
logical basis, still it is the principal ground which presents
itself. Though the possibility of the descent of mankind from
a single pair may be admitted by the analogy of many domestic
animals imported into America, which have greatly multiplied
from one or a few pairs,5 there is nothing gained by it for
its reality as regards man. Smith and others endeavour
to show that the theory of descent from a single pair is prefer-
able to the opposite assumption, inasmuch as we should not,
without absolute necessity, multiply causes, and because one
miracle is more acceptable than many ; but it is clear that a mul-
1 G. Careri, " Voy. autour du naonde," v. p. 64, 1719.
2 Bennet, " Narrative of a whaling voyage/' i, p. 242 ; Jarves, " Hist, of the
Sandwich islands," p. 27 ; Wilkes, v, p. 260.
3 Wilkes, iv, p. 295.
4 " Neu-Spanien," ii, p. 273 ; compare also, " Hist, de la geogr. du Nouveau
Continent," ii, p. 607, 1836.
5 Giebel, " Tagesfr. aus d. Natgesch.," 1857.
SECT. IV.] DESCENT PROM A SINGLE PAIE. 203
tiplication of agents is something different from a great com-
plication of acting causes ; and that, as regards miracles, science
cannot concern itself about the degree of admissibility, but
about a suspension of the natural laws which is in conflict with
science ; for a miracle, as such, has no degrees. On the other
hand, it may be readily admitted that it is but a weak argu-
ment when Agassiz, from the analogy of bees and other
inferior social animals, endeavours to render the descent of
mankind from a single pair highly improbable ; for as Smith1
justly observes, this analogy can neither be extended to all
animals, nor is it at all applicable to highly organized beings.
They are completely in error who, adopting the views of
Agassiz, assume as many original types of mankind as there
are typically different peoples on the globe. It is permissible
to assume, that men have appeared in masses in various centres
of creation, and that the peoples of the globe have descended
from several stocks, whose descendants have intermixed. It
might even be difficult, from the known facts, to deny the pro-
bability of such a supposition or to refute it : the more is it
necessary to be cautious in extending the theory to the solution
of the difficult question with regard to the origin of man. By
adopting it we escape, no doubt, many difficulties ; but none is
solved, especially the question, whether the pairs which ori-
ginated in a centre of creation, simultaneously or successively,
were of the same species or not. An indefinite multiplication
of human species is inadmissible on account of the resemblances
found among many and very remote peoples, to explain which
we must either have recourse to paradoxical accidents or to
common descent. Common structure of language, and a great
number of common radicals, render the unity of the Indo-Ger-
manic peoples unquestionable. It may further be considered as
proved that, with the transition of a people from a state of
nature into the civilized state, the typical uniformity of the
corporeal form is gradually diminished, and gives place to
greater variety ; there is, therefore, every reason to assume a
less number of original types than at present exist.
Finally, it has been clearly ascertained that numerous mi-
' Loc. cit., p. 356.
204 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
grations of peoples have taken place, consequently they cannot
all have originated in the localities they now occupy. But the
principle that man can only have originated in a warm climate
where all the conditions for his preservation exist, is in conflict
with the multiplication of regions considered as the cradle of
mankind, at least until it is proved that the age of humanity
reaches beyond the present geological epoch.
On recapitulating the results of our investigation, we may
admit that though, in some respects, Agassiz's theory cannot
be refuted, it is considered, as a whole, too special and specu-
lative to be accepted. The principle which may be assented to
in this theory is, that in the hot zone there may have been
several spots in which men originated, and from which they
spread. In taking into consideration the circumstance that
neither the African, nor the Austral-Negroes and New Hol-
landers, perform sea-voyages, that they possess only miser-
able boats scarcely fit for river and coast navigation, that there
is no indication of their having been navigators or traders at
remote periods, we feel little inclined to assume that the black
populations of the South Sea are immigrants from Africa.
Whoever, on the other hand, assumes only a single region as
the cradle of mankind, looks for that region in south Asia,
whence the Negro races spread in a north-easterly and north-
westerly direction. Again, he who assumes several cradles of
humanity, would be obliged, on account of the little capacity
for immigration possessed by Negro peoples, to look for them
in south Asia, Africa, and New Gruinea. The latter theory,
namely, the assumption of several cradles of humanity, though
incapable of positive proof, is mainly supported by the facts of
differentiation between the chief types by climate, and the re-
semblance of the African and Australian Negro to the ape.
To determine the scope of the first fact, the climatic sepa-
ration of the chief types, is difficult, as it is not yet sufficiently
ascertained; for peoples of essentially different types frequently
live in close vicinity (compare the examples quoted in the se-
quel) ; and however certain it may be that the Whites cannot
perpetuate themselves as a people in all Negro regions, and
that acclimatization, in sudden transitions from one climate
SECT. IV.] INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 205
into another, usually fails, it is still merely a hazardous asser-
tion that Europeans cannot thrive in any country where the
Negro prospers. It is equally rash to maintain that a gradual
acclimatization of a white people, which from century to cen-
tury progresses from north to south, into a negro region is
impossible. The strictness with which Knox1 defends the
differences of races by climate is inadmissible ; he goes so far
as to maintain that all immigrants into a foreign climate can
only be preserved by a constant infusion of fresh blood from
their native country. We hear, however, nothing of a rapid
extinction of the Creoles in the tropical colonies, as might be
expected if this theory had any foundation. The limitation of
animals to certain climates, which was invoked as an analogy,
is not so general as to be applied to man, for most domestic
animals can thrive in nearly all climates, though they do not
attain in them the same size and vigour. The fox lives in the
cold north as well as in the hot south ; the home of the tiger
extends from India to Siberia. Man seems, indeed, in his
transitions from one climate to another, to resemble domestic
animals, with this difference, that he bears these changes better
in proportion as he is civilized. As in foreign climates races
of animals degenerate, approaching the type of the native ani-
mals, even without intermixture ;2 so does man, unless essential
differences in nutriment, mode of life, and cultivation of the
immigrants, from that of the natives, prevent it.
As a race of animals cannot long maintain itself in a foreign
climate against the native race without constant infusion of
fresh blood from the parent stock, but is absorbed by it — be-
cause the mass of intermixing elements finally decides the
type of the mongrels, and climate gradually produces the re-
semblance of the foreign tribe to the native, — so a small number
of foreign immigrants remains without influence upon the type
of the mongrels, whilst a sufficiently large number influences
the type of the progeny.
The second point, the resemblance of the Negro to the
ape, is a fact which is estimated differently according to the
1 " The races of man."
2 Lucas, ii, p. 311 .
206 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
stand-point of the inquirer. It has been connected with
the theories on the origin of man, and the ape has been con-
sidered as the ancestor of man, which is the doctrine of
those who assume a development of animal species : it may
be that this transformation was limited to periods of great
geological changes, or that it was slowly progressive in the
course of time by continuous accommodation to external cir-
cumstances.1
Although one would not feel inclined to attach much value to
this theory in preference to that of the permanence of species,
it still appears important, from the analogy in which it stands to
a scientific theory of nature and human life. The gradual de-
velopment of the earth, and of higher forms from lower forms,
apparently without any manifestation of new creative power,
appears to force upon us that view of the origin of man, whose
history seems to show that the higher forms and the develop-
ment of external and internal life have proceeded from lower
forms, and which in course of time they maybe destined to super-
sede. Certain as it is that man has somewhere, and at some
period, appeared on this earth, it is equally certain that all
scientific analogies tend to show that he originated in a natural
way. It must, however, as candidly be admitted, that all analo-
gies indicating the transformation of the ape into a man are as
yet wanting to experimental science ; nor can we at present
scientifically render an account of the natural origin of man,
though science is justified in assuming it. But is the investi-
gator bound to establish theories in the absence of facts ?
Certainly not ; the love of truth, on the contrary, forbids it.
It is certainly very disagreeable to many to be bound to con-
fess that their wisdom is at an end ; but logic, and a real sci-
entific interest, require such a confession where facts are
wanting. If a theory can only be supported by a general ana-
logy and not by definite grounds, whilst there is opposed to it
a wide field of conflicting possibilities, its foundation is weak
indeed, and there remains in its favour but a scanty probability
that it may be as we are inclined to expect.
1 Lamarck and his followers. I. Geoffrey St. Hilaire.
SECT. IV.] AFFINITY BETWEEN MAN AND APE. 207
The question as to the affinity between man and the ape, ap-
pears as idle at present as that of the original colour of the first
pair, whom Lacepede1 describes, like Hunter and Link, as
black, on account of the greater heat of past periods. Buffon
and Blumenbach describe them as white, De Salles and others
describe them as brownish-red. We would here observe, that
the assertion of such relationship (of the ape and man) is, for him
who assumes a corresponding progressive improvement of the
physical form with the progress of civilization in the human
race, an interesting hypothesis ; whilst he who decides for the
permanence of individual human types and different species of
animals, with respect to their external and internal constitution,
must ascribe to the effects of external influences an unlimited
power for the transformation of the ape into man. De Salles2
observes therefore very justly, (f Affirm er la force creatrice des
milieux pour un type primitif, c'est a plus forte raison admettre
la modification secondaire de ce type quand ? expatriation a
change les milieux, c'est-a-dire Pair, la lumiere, Thumidite ou
secheresse, la nourriture, Pelevation au-dessus du niveau de la
mer." But it has not prevented the committal of this gross
eiTor : — the so-called races of man are said to represent fixed
types, but little changeable by climate, mode of life or mental
culture y and yet they are to have originated in consequence of
changes of external conditions during the various periods of
the history of the globe.3 Finally, it may be observed, that if
man descended from the ape, it is clear that, like the ape, he
originally belonged to a tropical climate.
Though fossil apes have been found in regions which now
possess a temperate climate, as Gascony, still the contempo-
raneous existence of man remains as yet to be proved ; and if
it were proved, it would render the assumption necessary that
man existed upon the earth before the present division of the
climates. At any rate, it must be conceded that, by the dis-
covery of fossil monkeys, the existence of fossil human bones
has been rendered less improbable.
1 " Ages de la nature," i, p. 255, 1830.
- " Hist, generale des races hum.," p. 31, 1849.
3 Compare, as an example of such false reasoning, the essay on human
races in the " Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift," ii, p. 170, 1838.
208 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
On the other hand, the fact of the resemblance of the Negro
to the ape is made use of to prove that mankind is to be di-
vided into different species. The Negro presents in this case
not merely the most striking example of a deviation of form,
but also a type apparently constant. Hence many, in inves-
tigating the pedigree of man, would have the Negro still more
ape-like than he really is : we must therefore be cautious not
to exaggerate that resemblance. That the Negro manufac-
tures tools, and learns from experience to subject nature to
his wants, that he establishes communities, that he possesses
an artificially constructed language, and religious ideas, is un-
doubted. Still it is undeniable that, if differences of species
are to be assumed, the Negro and the White present the most
striking examples. Yirey considers these two alone as speci-
fically different. It is, therefore, worth while to investigate
this question, for which purpose we shall closely examine the
Negro type, and the modifications which it presents.
Keeping in view the peoples which inhabit Africa, between
the tropics, it has already been observed, that the proper
Negro type is only found in the region between Senegal and
Niger, and in some parts of Senaar, Kordofan, and Darfur.
In the first place, the whole large family of the South African
peoples, reaching from the equator to the Hottentots, do not
present that type in its purity, though Prichard justly observes,
that the gradual transition which we find in bodily form from
the proper Kaffirs on the north-east boundary of the Cape
Colony, to the natives of Mozambique, and from these again
to the natives farther north, compels us to consider these
peoples as of the same stock as the Negroes. The proper
Kaffirs possess more arched and European-shaped skulls, and
less projecting lower jaws than the Negroes ; the hair is short,
coarse, bushy, less woolly than in the Negro, the cheek-bones
are more arched outwards ;*• the lips full, not like the Negroes ;3
the nose but little flattened, sometimes arched ; the colour
varying from light brown to black ; hence Barrow3 says that,
1 Le VaiUant, " Erste R.," p. 356, 1799.
2 Kay, " Travels in Kaffraria," p. 110, 1833.
3 Vol. i, p. 203.
SECT. IV.] NEGRO TYPE. 209
but for the colour, the Kaffirs might be taken for Europeans.
Throughout Africa, south of the equator, true Negroes are
found only in Mozambique, and in Congo in the interior
of the country, where the nose is perfectly flattened, and the
lips are enormously protruding ;T whilst towards the mouth of
the river the Negro peculiarities appear modified.2 On ascend-
ing the Gaboon, the physical form is found gradually to ap-
proach the Caucasian type.3 From information received by the
Portuguese governor, Saldanha, the Muluas inhabiting the in-
terior of the country are said to be handsomer and more
civilized than the inhabitants of the coast.4
The chief peoples of East Africa to the north of the equator
do not represent the peculiar Negro type, from which they de-
viate still more than the South Africans. Setting aside the
Abyssinians and their kindreds, there are the Tibboo, who are
described as tall, colour not perfectly black, eyes sparkling,
lips full, nose small, but not turned up, short but not frizzly
hair.5 Among those of Kisby, the nose is thick and fleshy,
with wide nostrils ; in Ghinda, on the frontier of Bornou, they
have sharp, intelligent features, high forehead, prominent eyes,
flat nose, and large mouth.6 The inhabitants of Haussa have,
it is true, woolly hair and a black skin, but their features are re-
gular, with a general resemblance to the European. The Kanori
differ from the Haussaua by their broad faces, open nos-
trils, and thick bones.7 Among the native peoples of Adamaua,
the Battas are the most numerous j their lips are but little
protruding, they are well-shaped, and possess regular features.8
The Bornouese are less black than the inhabitants of Haussa,
and have high foreheads, but thick Negro-noses, and round
laughing faces with fat cheeks.9 The Mandaranes have less
1 Omboni, " Viaggi nelT Afr. occ.," p. 161, 1845.
2 Owen, " Narr. of voyage to explore the shores of Africa," ii, p. 283, 1833.
3 Hecquard, " K. an. d. K. in d. Innere von West-Afr.," p. 7, 1854.
4 Bowdich, " Account of the discoveries of the Portuguese," p. 17.
* Hornemann, " Tageb. seiner R.," p. 125, 1802.
6 Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, " Narrative of travels," i, pp. 25, 52,
2nd edit., 1826.
7 Earth, " Eeisen und Entdeck.," ii, p. 183.
8 Ibid., p. 613.
9 Denhain, loc. cit., p. 140 ; Kichardson, " Travels in the Great Desert of
Sahara," i, p. 264, 1848.
210 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
flattened faces than the former, frizzly hair, large sparkling
eyes, high but flat foreheads, and somewhat hooked noses.1 In
the district of Marghi, the peculiar Negro type is not met with :
the features are fine and regular, lips no more than full, fore-
head high, colour of a shining black or of a coppery tint.2
On the other hand, the dirty black and bony Mussgu are, ex-
cepting their high foreheads and bushy eyebrows, entirely
Negro-like. The inhabitants of Baghirmi are well grown,
more muscular than the Bornouese, the nostrils are not widely
open, and the women have remarkably regular features. In
Wadai, where Mohammed-el-Tounsy3 mentions a large number
of different peoples, without describing them, each of which
is said to have its peculiar physiognomy and language, there
live, according to Barth, both Negro and Arab tribes. The
Nuba, as the inhabitants of Kordofan call themselves, possess
woolly hair and very thick lips, not the small flat noses of
the inhabitants of the southern mountains of that region, but
well proportioned.4 The mountaineers have less prominent
cheek-bones than the Negroes proper, the skin is often of
a chestnut colour, and they are generally well made. The
old Arab writers (Icthakri, Idrisi) expressly distinguish the
Nubians from Negroes (whom later authors confound), and de-
scribe them, especially the women, as smooth-haired, with
small lips and mouths, which corresponds in the main with the
description of modern travellers as regards the Nubians beyond
Kordofan. The physical form of the Gallas sometimes ap-
proaches the European type, and it is not yet decided to which
they properly belong'.5 But in their district, and in that of the
Abyssinians, some small tribes of a genuine Negro-type are
met with, — the Shangallas,6 the Doba,7 and the Doko.8 The
1 Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, p. 201.
2 Earth., loc. cit., ii, p. 465.
3 « Voy. au Ouaday," pp. 245, 253, 1851.
4 Riippell, " Ecise in Nubien," p. 141, 1829.
5 Rochet d'Hericourt, "Voy. dans le royaume de Choa," p. 269, 1841;
Primer, p. 63 ; Lefebvre, Petit et Quartin-Dillon, " Voy. en Abyssinie," iii,
p. 289, 1845.
r> Bruce, " Eeise," ii, pp. 433, 537, 1790.
< Salt, " Voy. to Abyssinia," p. 275, 1814.
8 Harris, " The highlands of ^Ethiopia," iii, p. 63, 2nd edit., 1844 ; compare
Johnston, " Travels in S. Abyssinia," ii, p. 383, 1844, and d' Abbadie in " Nouv.
aim. des voy." i, p. 261, 1845.
SECT. IV.] NEGRO TYPE. 211
whole mountain region on the Blue Nile and the Tpmat, from
Fassokl south to the Grallas, is inhabited by Negroes, who
differ, however, from the Shillook and Dinka on the White Nile,
being of a finer stock than these.1 On the White Nile, from
6° to 7° N. lat., the Negro-type disappears gradually towards
the south, and among the southern Dinka peoples, so little
marked is it "that the greater part of Europeans would
resemble them if they were painted black."2 The Negro-type
is accordingly, in East Africa, confined to but few small
peoples.
On now turning our attention to the Negro regions proper,
between the Senegal and the Niger, we find that there prevails
as little, as in other parts of Africa, the same physical type in
perfect uniformity, though on the whole, the typical forms of
the Negro race are greatly predominating. The Jolofs between
the Senegal and the Gambia are of a dark, shining black colour ;
hair, lips, and nose are Negro-like, but not very decidedly
marked;3 the nose is but moderately flat, the lips not very
thick;4 figure and features frequently noble and regular.5 The
brownish-black Mandingoes have more oval faces than the Ne-
groes proper ; the forehead is less prominent, larger, and more
receding, especially among the Fulahs; the head is rather
pointed towards the crown, the nose is very broad, and the
upper lip very large.6 Some of the Mandingo tribes are
not so well made, they have thicker lips and flatter noses
than others; this applies to the Susus, as compared with
the Bullams and Timanis.7 The Fulahs, who look down
upon the Negroes,8 and consider themselves as Whites com-
pared with them,9 do not everywhere exhibit the same colour
and type. In the west, they are usually reddish-brown, have
flat noses, but not very woolly hair, a broader forehead, and a
1 Kusseger, " Eeise," ii, pp. 562, 762.
2 Werne, "Exped. zur. Entd. der Q. des Weissen Nil," p. 241. 1848.
3 Golberry, " Keise durch d. Westl. Afr.," i, p. 51, 1803.
4 Park, " Voy. dans Tint, de 1'Afr.," an. viii, i, p. 24.
5 Mollien, " Eeise in d. Innere von Afr./' p. 41, 1820.
6 Golberry, ii, p. 114; Duncan, " E. in West- Afr.," p. 15, 1848; Eaffenel,
" Voy. dans FAfr. occ.," p. 394, 1846.
7 Matthews, " Eeise nach S. Leone," p. 94, 1789.
8 M. Park, i, p. 92.
9 Lander, " Eeise z. Erforsch. des Niger," ii, p. 278, 1833.
P2
212 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
larger facial angle than genuine Negroes, small lips and oval
face.1 Barth2 describes them as an intermediate race between
Negroes, Arabs, and Berbers, and observes, that the men, up
to the twentieth year, are often very handsome, but subse-
quently assume an apish physiognomy, which destroys the
Caucasian features. The Jambures, in the country of the Por-
tuguese settlements on the S. Domingo, the Casamanza, and
R. Grande, are perfectly black, but have neither flat noses nor
thick lips ; their features approach those of Europeans.3 The
inhabitants of Cazegut (Bissagos-Archipelago) have agreeable
features, and have neither flat noses nor thick lips.4 The
Krus and Grebos have a particularly well-shaped chin; the
facial angle is larger, the head more oval, and not so arched as
in the Negro.5 A pleasing roundness of features and an oval face
are characteristic of the Odshis ; pointed and hooked noses are
not common amongst them, but flattened noses and thick pro-
truding lips are rare.6 This is also the case among the natives of
Apollonia.7 In Aquapim the head is partly globular, the nose
broad, lips thick ; occasionally it happens that the head is long,
the nose pointed, the lips small, nearly European ; the last form
prevails chiefly among the Ashantees,8 among the higher ranks
of which not only fine women are seen, but regular Grecian faces
are frequently met with.9 These characters are also to be found
in the higher classes of Dahomey, where some members of the
reigning family " are nearly of Moorish aspect, and not so black
as genuine Negroes."10 The Mahis in the north of Dahomey
have long, and high crowned and posteriorly developed heads, so
characteristic of the genuine Negro-type, a shorter chin, but
less thick lips than the Dahomians, and an almost European
nose.11 The Negroes of Yarriba possess only moderately thick
1 M. Park, i, pp. 26, 91 ; Raffenel, p. 263.
2 " Reise und Entd.," p. 505.
3 " Bullet, soc. geogr.," i, p. 152, 1846, according to Lopes de Lima.
4 Durand, " Voy. au Senegal, an. x," i, p. 185.
* Allen and Thomson, " Narr. of the Exped. to the R. Niger," i, p. 124, 1848.
e " Baseler Miss.-Mag.," i, p. 53, 1856.
7 Meredith, " Account of the Gold Coast," p. 61, 1812.
8 " Baseler Miss.-Mag./' iv, p. 241, 1852.
9 Bowdich, " Mission nach Ashantee," p. 422, 1820.
10 Duncan, i, p. 238 ; Forbes, " Dahomey, and the Dahomians," pp. 17, 50,
Paris, 1851.
» Duncan, ii, p. 273.
f T J-L
Th
4O,,-
SECT. IV. J NEGRO TYPE. 213
lips, and their nose approaches the aquiline form j1 those of
Iddah, on the Niger, have more rounded features, thinner
lips than the Ibus, and large receding foreheads.2 The
natives of Accono-Coono, under 6° 30', have not such coarse
Negro features, and are handsomer, and look more intelligent
than the southerns of Omun, resembling in this respect those
of Iddah.3 In the same way, we learn that almost every-
where the decided Negro-type diminishes in these parts from
the coast inland. The Edeeyahs (Adiahs) of Fernando Po
have longer hair, more silky than woolly, round face, cheek-
bones not so high, narrower nostrils, thinner lips, and a finer
mouth than their neighbours on the continent ; the colour
varies from deep black to copper-colour, but the physiognomy
is the same in all.4
The preceding rather dry enumeration, which might have
been rendered more minute, of a great number of variations in
shape, was necessary to show how valueless is that asserted
fixity of the Negro type. Taken generally, it rests upon
fancy, for this type in its purity is limited to comparatively
few peoples; and, moreover, there prevails a great number
of other types, which may be partly considered as tran-
sitions to the European form, and partly as deviations and
modifications of Negro peculiarities, without any approach to
other races. That such transitions, between the Caucasian and
Negro-type, are not wanting, has been shown in the quoted
examples, and has been pointed out by various travellers.
The traveller from Cairo up the Nile to Nubia and Senaar,
finds himself, on account of the small gradations by which
the Egyptian passes in the Negro, embarrassed to decide
where the white race ceases and the black race commences.5
.e transitions are imperceptible ; it is only near Assuan that
there is a sudden change from the Egyptian to the Nubian
type.6 On progressing from Tunis towards the south, there is
1 Clapperton, " Tageb. der zweiten E.," p. 382, 1830.
2 Allen and Thomson, i, p. 325.
3 Becrofb, in " Journal Eoy. Greo. Soc.," xiv, p. 272.
4 Allen and Thomson, ii, p. 194 ; " Nouv. ann. d. voy.," ii, p. 281, 1845 ;
Boteler, " Narrative of a voyage to Africa and Arabia," ii, p. 423, 1835.
6 " D'Escayrac d. Afr. Wiiste und d. Land der Schwarzen," p. 184, 1855.
e Dandolo, " Viaggio in Egitto," p. 182, 1854.
214 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
also a regular and gradual transition of features and colour
into the Negro-type perceptible, especially in Tozar ; " and if
it were possible to bring from these countries an ethnological
collection to Europe, the greatest sceptic would feel convinced
that time and locality alone are the causes of these fluctuating
differences."1 We attach, however, but little weight to this
gradual fusion of both types which presents itself to the tra-
veller, since it can scarcely be doubted that North and Central
Africa contains a great number of mixed populations. It is,
however, more important to observe that the whole South
African family, where we have no reason to suppose a sufficient
admixture of northern elements, form, with regard to their
cranial development, a well-defined intermediate link between
the black and the white races.
Whilst admitting that a considerable number of African
peoples, even the inhabitants between the Senegal and the Niger,
owe their deviations from the pure Negro type to an admixture of
elements from a higher race ; still it remains clear, that on the
one hand these mongrels do not become extinct, as is usually
the case in the hybrids of some species of animals, nor lose
the acquired type by reversion, but preserve it : and that on the
other hand, the attempt to explain all considerable deviations
from the pure Negro type, which occur generally among African
peoples by intermixture, may be supported by preconceived
theories, but not by actual facts. It would not be difficult to
indicate as great a number of different types in other parts
of the globe. We shall, however, confine ourselves to a few ex-
amples, which plainly show that these types are nowhere so per-
fectly distinct as to be considered as specifically different.
Races decidedly different, dwell, no doubt, in many places near
each other in the same climate ; for instance, on the Senegal,
Moors and Negroes ; in many of the Polynesian islands and in
the South Sea, Malays and Polynesians, beside Negro-like
populations ; in Europe, Lapps and Scandinavians, etc. This
shows that climate alone can hardly change in a very great de-
gree the type of a people, that it may be one of the agents,
1 Davis, " Evenings in rny tent," ii, p. 3, 1854.
SECT. IV.] INTERMEDIATE FOEMS. 215
but standing alone it has not a decidedly marked influence.
But in spite of that striking difference in form which we
meet with in several regions of the earth, each of the chief
forms which comes in contact with another becomes mingled with
it by a series of gradations, each bearing a peculiar local stamp,
just as we might expect from the peculiar external and internal
conditions in which these individual tribes live. The Finnish
peoples are, as regards the corporeal form, such an intermediate
link between the Mongolian and Caucasian races, just as the
Hindoos have been considered as intermediate between the
former and the Malay race. The Tchuktchi and Korjaks, the
Esquimaux and some West American nations, whose cranial
form approaches the Mongolian, stand between Asiatics and
Americans, and the Esquimaux themselves (who, on the Atlantic
are easily distinguished from the American Indians), are gradu-
ally mingled with them on the coast of the Pacific. Botocudes
felt so surprised at the sight of the Chinese that, from their re-
semblance to them, they called them their uncles.1 From the
Mongols and the Tunguses to the Samoiedes2 there is a natural
transition in respect to language and physical and geographical
relation ; and this is also the case from the Samoiedes to the
Amos, and from these to the Esquimaux.
That a definite limitation of some chief forms cannot be
maintained, is moreover shown by the fact that some peoples,
though very remote from each other and manifestly uncon-
nected, present great resemblances. The Californians greatly
resemble the Negroes of Guinea, New Guinea, and the New
Hebrides, in shape of head and face, — their hair, however, is
not woolly. All travellers are struck with the slight external
differences existing between Europeans and the Marquesas
islanders. The head of the Tahitian might be taken for Eu-
ropean were it not for the wide nostrils and large lips.3 Some
New Zealanders have perfectly European skulls, whilst the
features approach those of the North American Indians (Dieffen-
3h). The Hottentots, on account of their colour, shape of
1 Hollard, p. 197, after St. Hilaire.
2 Neumann in A. Wagner, "Gesch. d. Urwelt," p. 311, 1845.
3 Lesson, in " Complement des ODUV. de Buffon," ii, p. 206.
216 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAKT I.
skull and face, have by many been included in the Mongolian
race, though they are separated from it by their woolly hair
growing in single small bunches. The Georgians and Tscherk-
esses possess perfect Grecian skulls ; yet their language forbids
the idea of their consanguinity to the Indo- Germanic nations.
According to Tschudi,1 the cranium of the Aymaras approaches
nearly that of the Guanches.
A further objection, of considerable weight, against a fixed
separation of the chief types, and consequently against the
assumption of specific differences, is afforded by the fact that
individuals who, in their external character, deviate consider-
ably from the parent stock, exhibiting that of a foreign tribe,
occur in all parts of the globe. It has already been mentioned,
that laterally compressed skulls and oblique incisors, are fre-
quently found in Europeans. Oblique eyes, projecting lower
jaw, small square foreheads, crania elongated upwards or back-
wards, prominent cheek-bones, appear in families the Germanic
origin of which is undoubted. Lucae2 has given a sketch of
such a skull3 which much resembles the macrocephalous
Asiatic of Blumenbach.4 There is, further,5 the skull of a
Hessian criminal, of the Marburg collection, which in form
entirely agrees with that of the Peruvian skulls, as regards the
flattened forehead, strongly developed occiput, and flattened
coronal region ; and finally,6 there is a skull which in many
respects reminds us of the Mongolian formation. Pure Arabs
are sometimes, in their native country, perfectly black. The
prognathous form of the face, with a light complexion, is seen
in many Egyptians. Thick lips and flat noses are met with in
European nations ; for instance, among the Slavonians. Even
woolly hair is seen in some instances in northern nations ; but
a single character, observes Pruner, establishes no decided
mark of distinction, they must all be combined. However
much we might agree with him in this respect, we find in it a
confession that race-characters do not constitute specifically
fixed differences : hence it seems to us illogical, when he says,
1 Midler's, " Archiv," p. 98, 1844. 4 Decas, i, tab. 3.
2 Schadel, abnormer form. 5 Table vi.
3 Table iii. 6 Table xvii.
SECT. IV.] DEVIATION FROM TYPE. 217
" that it is impossible that one race-character should pass into
another without intermixture." Another explanation in favour
of the specific difference of races has been attempted by
Giebel.1 He asserts that Negro resemblances, or other devia-
tions from the Caucasian form which now and then present them-
selves in Europeans, are so superficial that they do not much
affect the Caucasian type. He, however, refutes himself2 by
declaring in another passage, that such analogies of form,
wherever they do occur, affect all the proportions of the body.
Other individual deviations from the original type have been
mentioned by Liiken3 and Weerth4. They refer to the inha-
bitants of Carinthia and Styria ; the Chinese and South Sea
islanders, who in many instances approach the European forms,
whilst Chinese physiognomies are said to be frequently met with
in Poland (Schadow, Polyklet) ; the Tartars, who by their pro-
jecting lower jaws, pointed chin, and long teeth, differ con-
siderably from the Mongol type, which is also the case with
Kalmucks. Among the latter, Pallas observed fine figures, and
individuals with fair hair. Even among theTunguses,who repre-
sent so decidedly the Mongol type, there are found some indivi-
duals with a European physiognomy, light blue eyes, straight or
curved nose, brown hair, and strong beard.5 Seemann6 met with
an Esquimaux, of the tribe of Hotham Bay, remarkably Negro-
like, and another who had a strikingly hooked Jewish nose.
The Slavonians present a very remarkable example of great
differences among allied nations. They are dark in the
south-east of their districts ; the Poles present a different
aspect ; the Eussian peasants have often light brown or
red hair • so that these peoples differ externally from each
other more than from some other Indo-Germanic nations.
Deviations in colour, eyes, hair, are particularly numerous.
Some of these deviations have been considered as the result of
disease. Not wishing to repeat the facts already mentioned,
1 " Tagesfr. a. d. natgesch.," p. 55, 1857.
2 Page 105.
3 " D. Einheit des Menschengeschl.," p. 15, 1845.
4 " D. Entw. der Mensehenrassen," p. 17, 1842.
5 Prichard, iv, p. 410.
6 " Eeise urn d. Welt," ii, p. 53, 1853.
218 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
we would only add the following. — Red hair is frequently
noticed among Negroes and Mulattoes;1 also among the
Papuas2 in the South Sea, where Quiros was struck by it ;3
in Tahiti, New Zealand, and elsewhere;4 in Timor,5 among
the Esquimaux,6 among the Esthonians and Wotjakes,7 among
the Hindoos and the Arabs of Yembo, more rarely in Cey-
lon, Cochin-China and Tonkin.8 Especially remarkable are
the great differences exhibited by the peoples of the table-land
above Dilli (Timor). Some of the natives have a dark yellow
colour ; the parts exposed to the sun are covered with light-
brown patches ; the hair is straight and thin, its natural colour
reddish, or of a dark chestnut-brown. There are also found in
Timor all intermediate shades of the skin, from dark yellow to
black or chocolate-brown ; and the hair from red and straight
to the short and woolly hair of the Papuas.9 Red hair and
variously coloured eyes are also met with among the Congo-
Negroes and the Bushmen.10 Brown eyes are very common in
Bonny.11 Among the Akoos (Yarriba), the iris is light-brown or
dark chestnut, sometimes dark sea-green.12 Even at Madagas-
car there are blue-eyed women.13 Scarlett14 saw in Peru a per-
fectly black Negro-boy with light blue eyes, whose mother had
one eye black and the other blue. Kabyles with red hair and
blue eyes are mentioned by Bruce15 and others, and Blumen-
bach quotes similar instances. Barbot states that the wives
of the Gralibis (Caribs) in Guiana have mostly blue eyes ;
and Wallis found in Tahiti people with brown, red, and
1 Marcgrav, Lopez, Winterbottom, etc.
2 Sonnerat.
3 1605, according to Torquemada, " Monarquia Indiana/' v, c. 66, 1723.
4 Forster, Wallis, Marion, and Duclesmeur.
5 Van Hogendorp.
6 Charlevoix.
7 Gmelin.
8 Blumenbach, " De gen. hum. v. n.," pp. 165, 169 ; De Salles, «' Hist. gen.
des races hum.," p. 246, 1849, according to Desmoulins.
9 W. Earl, " The native races of the Indian Archipelago," p. 179, 1853.
w Lopez, " Warh. Beschr. des K. Congo," p. 5, ed. de Bry., 1597 ; BurcheU,
ii, p. 225.
11 Koler, p. 89.
12 K,. Clarke, " Sierra Leone," p. 149, 1846.
13 Eochon, " Eeise nach Madag. in Mazin v. Eeisebeschr.," viii, p. 24.
w " South America and the Pacific," ii, p. 166, 1838.
15 Vol. i, p. 27.
SECT. IV.] DEVIATION FROM TYPE. 219
flaxen hair. In Nutka, there are men with brown and light
li.iir.1 Among the Cayawas or Cayowas, near the sources of
the Rio Branco, a tributary of the Paraguay, there are fair-
complexioned individuals with light hair, who seem to be of pure
blood ;2 and Velasco3 says of the Graes people on the Marafion,
that their hair is as fine as that of Europeans. Pickering4 is
therefore wrong in maintaining that, excluding Albinoes, flaxen
hair, red hair, and blue eyes, are only met with in the white
race. With regard to the colour of the skin, there are also
among the Pehuenches strikingly white Indians who have the
colour of a German peasant.5 Thus the Spaniards found in
Macapana when they conquered the country, young Indian
girls who had been brought up in seclusion, white as Euro-
peans, which was also the case in Santa Fe.6 Among the
Aguanos and Barbudes, on the Huallaga river, the males were
sunburnt, but the women were as white as the Spanish females,
some of them even had red hair (according to the reports of
the Jesuits in the seventeenth century) .7 To the Araucanians
belong the much whiter Boroanos, living between the rivers
Imperial and Tolten, 38J°-39° S. lat.;8 they are considered,
by Molina,9 perfectly to resemble northern Europeans in figure
and colour. However much he may elsewhere10 insist upon it
that they are neither Albinoes nor cross-breeds, still, as we shall
show in the sequel, the view that they are Mestizoes (an opinion
recently adopted also by Smith11), is much more probable.
Ancient historical documents, referring to that country, leave
no doubt on the subject.
After these examples, we may expect that a closer examina-
tion of individual peoples will make us acquainted with still
greater deviations from their original type, than those who as-
1 Roquefeuil, " Journal d'un voy. aut. du monde," ii, p. 189, 1823.
2 Castelnau, ii, p. 395.
3 In Ternaux, " Recueil de documents," p. 288.
4 " The races of man," 1849.
5 Poppig, " Reise," i, p. 463.
6 P. Simon, " Noticias de las conq. de Tierra Firme," i, pp. 2, 4, 1627.
I Rodriquez, " El Maranon y Ainazonas," iii, c. 3, Madrid, 1684.
8 Poppig, " Reise," vol. i.
9 " Essai sur 1'hist. nat. du Chili," p. 313, 1789.
10 See his " Saggio sulle storia civile de Chile," p. 10, Bologna, 1787.
II " The Araucanians," p. 293, New York, 1855.
220 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
sume a fixed specific form are inclined to admit. In the face
of the above facts, the only alternative for such as contend for
a plurality of human species, is to multiply them still more.
We have already indicated the difficulties of such an alternative,
for such it is ; we would therefore only add, that the same rea-
sons may be urged against the assumption of a hundred or
more species, as against the assumption of only two species.
In members of the same family, diversities are as frequently ob-
served as in individuals of a foreign stock ; and in individuals of
the same stock, without intermixture, differences such as are
exhibited by distinct races. However few may be the tribes
included within one species, there will always be found diver-
sities amongst them, among their families and individuals, as
great as the differences exhibited by the assumed number of
species ; on which account they cannot be considered as specific
distinctions.
He who assumes only as many species of mankind as there
are principal forms of cranial and bodily shape, at most from five
to seven, will in the end find himself obliged to abandon his
theory. He obtains specific characters fluctuating as much be-
tween extreme limits as the individual who assumes but one
species of man, and he is therefore obliged to admit, like the
latter, the great influence of external agents. At any rate, it
is perfectly arbitrary to consider certain principal forms as spe-
cifically different which are partly extreme forms (as the
Negro-type), partly intermediate (the American type), and
subordinate types. " The break up of one principal form
into physically and morally distinct families of man, is not
much more explicable than the races themselves."1 If it be
contended, with regard to the first, that they have become de-
veloped in the course of time by the agency of external and
internal forces, there is no reason to deny it as regards the
latter. If minor differences of each species could arise in this
manner, it only requires sufficiently long periods and appro-
priate conditions to produce greater differences. There is not
even any necessity to adduce a frequently expressed assump-
1 " Deutsche Vierteljahi-sclirif't/' ii, p. 247, 1838.
SECT. IV.] GROUNDS FOR CLASSIFICATION. 221
tion, that at a remote time the human organism was more
plastic under external agencies, just as every individual and
every people has a juvenile period before their transition from
the natural to the civilized state, in which they are more
plastic than at any later period.
„ We conclude, therefore, that there are no fixed and definitely
limited forms which can be considered as specific differences ;
but that if the human species is zoologically to be brought
under some chief divisions, it is a mere classification furnished
to us by striking analogies. Lesson1 observes very justly,
" On ne devrait en effet adopter les distinctions de races ou
d'especes2 que com/me des moyens artificiels destines d preciser nos
idees dans V etude de I'homme, et d le rendre plus facile" J.
Miiller3 expresses himself in a similar sense when he says, t ' that
a rigid division of mankind is impossible. The given forms
differ in typical peculiarities; but there is no certain scien-
tific principle for fixing the limits specifically. It might
be more proper to distinguish all peoples as constant and
extreme forms of variations, than to distribute them into
races. This seems impossible, nor does science require
such a division ; to attempt it leads unavoidably to an arbi-
trary assumption." Tartars and Finns will always occupy
an unknown position between the Mongolian and Caucasian
race ; Papuas and Alfurus between Malays and Negroes, etc.
The impossibility of a rigid separation is confirmed by an expe-
rimental study of race-characters, and also by the fact that
only small collections of skulls exhibit decidedly different
forms ; whilst large collections fill up the gaps between them,
showing continued transitions from one form into every other.
If, in order to oppose the argument founded upon the
above facts, many originally different human species are
assumed in that part of Africa situated between the tropics,
all difficulties are removed, inasmuch as such assumptions
1 " Voyage medical autour du monde," p. 156, 1829.
2 As regards species, this is an error, though it is true with respect to races.
The question in relation to the first has been awkwardly treated, for they
have disputed whether species were created or were only by us introduced in
nature. Species are, no doubt, objective realities, not merely thoughts or
models according to which nature acts.
3 "Handbuch der Physiol.," ii, 114.
222 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
cannot be refuted until it is definitely stated which tribes
constitute these different species. The American school, fol-
lowing Morton, which assumes that men have been created in
masses of peoples, entertains this opinion, and would rather
not admit any influence of external conditions upon the phy-
sical peculiarities of mankind ; there are, it asserts, no races,
but only an indefinitely large number of species of man.
Vogt, who has propagated this doctrine in Germany, is even
of opinion that individual nations are not to be considered of
mixed origin, because the known mongrel types of the Mulat-
toes, Mestizoes, etc., are not exactly found in them, and that
consequently, hundreds of originally different stocks must be
assumed; all which only acquires its validity by the erroneous
supposition, that types are perfectly unalterable by external
influences. Let us, therefore, subject that assertion of an
absolute immutability of race-types to a closer investigation.
The chief, if not the only, proofs are derived from the old
Egyptian monuments and the Jews. Blumenbach1 recognized
upon the first, three different human types : that of the Negro ;
a second, which he calls the Indian type ; and a third, which is
said to be produced by the influence of the Egyptian climate,
a relaxed flabby form, short chin and prominent eyes. At a
later period, Morton2 distinguished Pelasgic, Semitic, and Negro
skulls among those of the old Egyptians. B. Taylor3 still
more decidedly points out upon the old Egyptian monuments,
the distinguishable forms of Negroes, Persians and Jews.
Others, especially Mariotte, believe they can recognize in pic-
tures, above 5,000 years old, the type of the Fellahs of the
present day.4
Nott and Grliddon5 have in this manner endeavoured to
prove the immutability of some chief types and consequently the
permanency of all : they assert that, as far as history reaches,
1 " De gen. hum. var. nat.," p. 188.
2 " Crania ^Egyptiaca."
3 " Eeise nach central Afrika," pp. 97, 447, 1853.
4 The various results of the anthropological relations of ancient Egypt
have been collated by Courtet de Lisle in " Nouv. ann. des voy.," ii, p. 299,
1847.
5 " Types of mankind," 1854.
SECT. IV.] TYPE UNCHANGED. 223
these forms have always existed; whilst de Salles, following
Lepsius, maintains that skulls of an earlier period than the fifth
and sixth centuries B.C. no longer exist in Egypt, and well
observes that the present Fellahs ought not to present the old
Egyptian type, if types be permanent, as in Egypt so many in-
termixtures had taken place : the former1 endeavouring to prove,
that the Nubians had already inhabited their present localities
3,500 years ago, as shown by pictures representing the out-
lines of the face, and beards. Cranial measurements are not
mentioned, but every one knows what a difference in external
aspect is produced by a different head-dress in the same indi-
viduals, as may be seen in the pictures of the inhabitants of
Tierra del Fuego in the work of King and Fitzroy.2
All that can legitimately be inferred from the old Egyptian
monuments, amounts to this — that the most striking race-cha-
racters have essentially, and for a long period, persisted as we
see them at present, and that under the same conditions they
remain unaltered. Even the believer in the agency of ex-
ternal influences, would be surprised, if in Africa where Ne-
groes existed in remote times, there were no skulls found
resembling the skulls of living Negroes ; and there is hardly a
thinking man who would assert that 3-4000 years ago the civi-
lized nations of antiquity and the Negroes who were always
treated by them as slaves, did not then possess the cranial type
which they now exhibit.
In order to prove the permanence of type, and the importance
of climate, the Jews have been instanced, whose national physi-
ognomy is depicted upon the ancient monuments of Egypt.
Even in Malabar, where it was formerly believed that in the
course of time they had assumed the type of the Hindoos, they
have, according to Buchanan and other travellers, remained
essentially unchanged, for only the so-called white Jews in that
region are of pure blood, whilst the black Jews are Hindoos or
Hindoo-mongrels.3 In order properly to appreciate this fact we
must bear in mind that by this people religion and habits have
1 " L'Institut./' ii, p. 40, 1846.
2 " Narrative of the voyage of the Adventure and Beagle."
3 Nott and Gliddon, p. 118.
224 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
in every region of the world been preserved with unexampled
tenacity, that their whole domestic economy and degree of
civilization have remained everywhere the same, that they have
in every region lived in a state of oppression which forced them
to a closer connexion between themselves, and to preserve their
peculiarities. Wherever they existed, be it in Europe among
Christians, or in Africa among the Moors, their fate was the
same; they lived as an excluded caste, whose only resource was
to obtain wealth in order to secure a certain degree of power and
position. No wonder if their cranial type as well as their cha-
racter remained on the whole unchanged. The uniformity of
their skulls is, however, not yet exactly ascertained. Sandifort1
gives the following proportions of length, height, and breadth
of two Jewish crania = 190 : 226 : 148 and = 190 : 190 : 130,
indicating considerable variations in that people which is ge-
nerally quoted as an instance of constancy and uniformity of
the cranial development.
There is no want of instances which plainly show that the
sphere of variation in individual peoples or races ; when closely
examined, is as great as that of the whole human race ; and
these proofs have been chiefly furnished by those whose studies
have been directed to the cranial structure of various races.
M. I. Weber2 has distinguished four principal types of crania,
with which the shape of the pelvis corresponds. The oval skull
of the European, the round one of the American, the cuneiform
of the Negro, the square-shaped of the Mongol. Among the
examples for the second form, he gives that of an European, a
Jew, and a Kalmuck ; among the third form, an European and
a Bugis ; the last form he found also in Europeans and Kaffirs.
There occur, therefore, in every race, cranial shapes foreign to
it, and consequently there are no perfectly fixed marks of race.
This also applies to the shape of the pelvis. Even all the Kal-
muck skulls which Weber examined did not possess the square
Mongol, but rather a globular form. Blumenbach3 also men-
1 " Tabulse craniorum."
2 " Die Lehre von den Ur-und Racenformen der Schiidel und Becken des
Menschen," 1830.
3 " Decas craniorum," iii, p. 6.
SECT. IV.] CRANIAL VARIATIONS. 225
tions the skull of a Lithuanian which perfectly resembled that
of a Congo-Negro, and Godron1 mentions a Negro skull of a
perfectly European shape. That Retzius2 found the old Swed-
ish skull corresponding with the present shape proves but little
for the constancy of forms, when it is considered that great
variations in this respect prevail among the same people. "I
have," says Prince Max,3 " compared a whole series of genuine
Mandan skulls, and found great differences as regards the re-
ceding forehead and the flattening of the skull." Some have
perpendicular, others receding foreheads.4 Engel,5 who assumes
twelve chief types, seems by his measurements to confirm the
observations of Weber. He includes in his third form, besides
Germans and Tschechs, also Magyars, a Javanese, a Guanche,
and a Bedouin. In his sixth form there are, besides Tschechs and
Germans, the skulls of several Negroes, a Hottentot, a Malabar,
a Bengalese, a New Zealander. In his tenth chief form the
skull of a Negro child, an American Indian, etc. If Engel6 is
further of opinion that there are race-types, and even caste-
types of crania, which, however, are not inherited, but chiefly
depend on the nature of aliment, and the thickness of bone,
that is to say, on the addition of osseous matter received by
the skull, we might expect that the thickness of the cranial
bones should be unexceptionally analogous to the cranial forms,
which, however, is not confirmed by the facts.
The attempts of a natural division of mankind rest princi-
cipally upon the supposition that the chief types possess a
high degree of constancy, and this enables us to ascertain the
affinity of varieties which constitute the great divisions of man-
kind.7 The weakness of the basis upon which these attempts
1 " De Fespece et des races," p. 106, Nancy, 1848.
2 Mullens " Archiv," p. 94, 1845.
3 " Eeise in N. Am.," i, 235.
4 Ibid., ii, 106.
5 Unters. iiber Schadelformen," 1851.
6 Page 120.
7 In a more rational way than we are accustomed to find in the American
school, Meigs (in Nott and Gliddon, " Indigenoiis races," etc., pp. 223, 349)
observes, that not only is every cranial type subject to change by climate,
but similarity of its type proves as little a common origin as variation proves
a different origin. We are, then, entitled to ask with some surprise, what
this school contends for, if it admits that the skull is no certain mark of
descent ?
226 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
are founded, becomes apparent at once on comparing them
with, each other, when we find as many different classifications
as there are authors ; so that we cannot help agreeing with
Hollard1 when he says, that zoologists generally agree as to
animal species and their characters, but are always at logger-
heads with regard to the number and types of human races,
which they sometimes wish to establish as distinct species.
That, with respect to affinities of peoples, the external habitus
alone is not sufficient to enable us to classify them, is proved
by the gross errors committed by authors who have trusted to
its constancy. Thus, for instance, we find in Desmoulins that
the first human species consists of Indo- Germans, Finns, and
Turks; the sixteenth are the Semitics, the first branch of
which is made to consist of the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Jews,
Moors, and Abyssinians ; whilst the Etrusco-Pelasgi constitute
the second, and the Celts the third branch of the Semitics.
In America, two species are said to exist, — the Caribs forming
one, and the Guaranis the other. Broc, who also classifies
according to physical characters, places the Hindoos among the
Mongols and Malays. Bory2, following the same principles,
includes in his first species, the Georgians in the Caucasus, the
Pelasgi, Celts, Germans, Slaves; with regard to the Aztecs,
he seems doubtful whether they belong to the hyperborean or
Mongolian species ; the Gypsies in Spain he considers as Ma-
lays. He further distinguishes three species of Americans ;
the first of which reaching from the land of the Esquimaux to
Guiana, whilst the third only embraces the Patagonians. Such
absurdities show indirectly, and better than anything else, how
we should appreciate this pretended constancy of physical type
as a criterion of affinity of race.
We may, perhaps, be reproached for having selected the
least reliable authorities in order to arrive at a certain result
from the perversity of their assertions. We shall therefore ex-
clude them, as well as the eccentric views of H. Smith and
others, and only refer to such as are known as careful ob-
servers and cautious investigators, but who, trusting to the
1 " De I'homme et des races hum.," p. 263, 1853.
2 " L'Homnie," 2nd ed., 1827.
SECT. IV.] CONSTANCY OP TYPE. 227
perfect constancy of the cranial form, felt justified in inferring
from it affinities of races. Lesson1 declares not only the Ma-
lays as a mixed people of Hindoos and Mongols, the Micro-
nesians as Mongols, who had arrived later in the South Sea
than the Polynesians ; but the latter as manifestly the descend-
ants of Hindoos, and the Austral-Negroes and Papuas, as the
progeny of African Negroes. Junghuhn2 considers, judging
from the skull, the Balinese as genuine Battas, with which the
Alfurus of the East Indian Archipelago as well as the Bugis
and Macassars are allied, whilst he believes that the Malays
are not related to them, but form a separate race. Pickering3
groups together the Malays, Siamese, Burmese, Cochin Chinese,
and Japanese, and does not hesitate to include also in that
group Californians, Mexicans, Creeks, and Cherokees. Ketzius4
believes, on account of the resemblance of the cranial forma-
tion, in the affinity of Turanian, Scythian, and Sarmatian
families with the Pelasgi ; whilst, on the same ground, he is
inclined to consider the Finnish- speaking Kareles, as allied to
the Arabs. Though Hartmann5 has endeavoured to render it
probable that the Kareles are not Finns, but a foreign people
who had formerly lived on the Ladoga lake, it is quite certain
they are not Arabs. D'Omalius d'Halloy6 groups the Lapps with
the Samoiedes on account of their cranial shape. W. F. Edwards7
declares the Magyars to be partly Slavonians and partly Huns.
Nothing can more plainly prove that the corporeal and cranial
type may be the same in peoples of different stocks, and may
differ so much in peoples of the same stock, than the fact, that a
skilful observer is unable to recognize to which the individuals
belong. Certainly, those who believe in the absolute perma-
nence of types judge differently. They consequently exhibit a
singular acuteness in the detection of mixed types. Thus
1 " Voy. Med./' pp. 157, 163, 185.
2 " Die Battalander," p. 282, 1847.
3 Pages 105, 134.
4 Miiller, "Archiv," p. 392, 1848.
5 •« Abh. der K. G. der Wiss. v. Stockholm," 1847.
6 " L'Institut.," ii, p. 5, 1840.
7 "Des caract. phys. des races hum., 1829," in "Mem. de la Soc. Ethnol.,"
i, p. 71.
Q2
228 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION, [PART I.
Bory1 recognizes in Mexico, in spite of the number of pro*
ceding intermixtures, still the type of the Americans, and the
diversities of the inhabitants of the west coast from the other
native Americans; and Nott and Gliddon2 recognize, upon
some of the oldest monuments of Egypt, already a very mixed
people. We are almost tempted to ask them, How they know
that God has not originally created some mixed types ?
The proper definition of physical characters of races and
peoples is as yet deficient in scientific precision. The practised
eye generally decides on resemblance and dissimilarity. Hence
there has slipped in a sort of mysterious augur-wisdom in our
science, — a knowledge resting more upon feeling and a kind of
artistic intuition than upon fixed rules, — upon an indefinite
something which was only manifested to the connoisseur. Thus
the door was opened to quackery which does not fail to make
itself felt. An investigation of the facts leads us to the infer-
ence, that as it certainly cannot occur to any ethnographer to
separate in the lands of the Moors, the Berber, Gothic, Phoeni-
cian, Roman, Greek elements, etc., according to cranial shape,
or to distinguish in Greece the Slavonian and Hellenic elements,
it is certain that the absolute permanence of the physical type
is nothing but a prejudice, possessing no scientific title what-
ever to serve as a basis for the assumption of a plurality of
human species.
Whatever number of principal types of mankind may be
assumed, if they are considered as specifically different, it be-
comes always requisite with regard to the peoples belonging to
these original types to admit either a relatively considerable
mutability of the type by external and internal influences, — as
every people has its own peculiarities, — or else to admit an in-
termixture of species. In the first case, the power of these in-
fluences is strictly limited by the assumption of species, — limits,
the fixing of which is purely arbitrary : in the second case, in
which all changes are reduced to intermixture alone, we add to
the great improbability contained in the assertion, that nearly
1 Vol. i, p. 274. 2 page 233.
SECT. IV.] RESULTS. 229
all the peoples of the earth were true mongrels, a second
one : that all these mixed types possess a persistent vitality
without any infusion of fresh blood from the stock they have
sprung from ; and further, that their own types are pre-
served without any reversion to that of the parent stock, by
which the assumed specific differences are neutralized and ren-
dered illusory.
It is unquestionable that, among the causes which induce
permanent changes of type, intermixture is the most potent,
and that in comparison with this agent other influences seem
less important. Though this circumstance renders the suppo-
sition of several originally different races in some degree pro-
bable, it still remains, in by far the greater number of cases,
impossible to determine whether an intermixture of different
elements has taken place at all, and how far it has progressed.
Intermixture, moreover, as we have seen, is not the sole agent.
We can, therefore, scarcely go further than this, — that every-
where, and especially when in an uncivilized state, a number
of human beings, possessing the same habits and modes of
life, will, by continued intermixture of the individuals between
themselves through a series of generations, if they live in a
state of seclusion, acquire in the course of time a nearly uni-
form external type, whatever may have been the original
elements.
The whole result of the preceding investigation may there-
fore be summed up to this effect : — that the known facts not
only permit the assumption of the unity of the human species,
but that this view presents less difficulties than the opposite
theory of specific differences ; because any number of species
assumed, appears equally arbitrary. But as the principal argu-
ments in favour of unity of species rest upon the mutability of
the human organism by internal and external influences, the
limits of which are unknown to us ; and as in the absence of
any exact information as to the length of time they were
in action, we cannot decide whether the power of these influ-
ences was sufficient to produce the existing differences, the
question of unity of species remains an open one. Even
if it were satisfactorily proved that the magnitude of the
230 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
changes which a human family may in course of time undergo,
equalled the differences between the Negro and the European,
it would still remain uncertain whether, in fact, the one de-
scended from the other. The question as regards unity of
species might then be considered as answered ; but not unity
of descent. We possess scarcely any facts which may serve
as a basis for the solution of the latter question ; and in what-
ever way it may be decided, the solution can only claim some
degree of probability.
SECTION V.
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF MANKIND.
It needs no justification if, in passing from the physical to
the psychological investigations concerning the unity of the
human species, we offer some few remarks on the starting
points from which the classification of mankind has been at-
tempted. Though we do not pretend to settle the dispute
between naturalists and linguists, in regard to the value which
they attach to their respective arguments, still the following
remarks may, perhaps, assist in removing several prejudices
which, founded upon a one-sided conception, have obstructed
a proper estimation of some important points.
In the various attempts which have been made towards a
classification of the human species, the main object which has
been kept in view was not merely a general grouping of the races
according to their resemblance, but a division of the peoples
according to their descent. This object was the more naturally
followed, inasmuch as the possibility of a common descent was,
in all classifications of mankind, either tacitly or expressly
assumed. Such a division of mankind, resting upon commu-
nity of descent, may be formed from three different points of
view, which we may term — the physical, the linguistic, and
the historical stand-points. The results obtained by no means
agree. The. physical and linguistic grounds for a certain clas-
SECT. V.] CLASSIFICATION. 231
sification are frequently in conflict; and so it often happens
that one of these arguments is considered as of inferior import-
ance,— a partiality which is frequently exhibited by naturalists
who were, and still are, the principal expounders of the theories
of human races.
A classification of mankind according to affinity, may be
said to rest on a sure basis, if inferences from authenticated
historical data warrant it j but these do not reach so far back in
time as the inferences which may be drawn from linguistic and
anatomical data, and moreover, the former extend only to a
small portion of the globe. The historical stand-point, there-
fore, occupies the background ; though it acquires a secondary
value where we find a conformity in manners, traditions, archi-
tecture, works of art, etc., which conformity could not easily
have been accidental.
The study of languages may afford more certain indications.
If the grammatical structure, the speech-sounds, and a large
number of radicals, agree in the languages of two or several
peoples, their relationship may be considered as proved. There
only remains against this assumption, the possible and some-
what rare circumstance of a people losing their own lan-
guage and changing it for another, — a case which must not be
assumed without positive proofs. Though a difference in lan-
guage does not necessarily lead to the inference of a distinct
origin of the respective peoples, still their assumed affinity is
thereby reduced to an incalculably remote period.
Although the anatomical arguments may without difficulty be
applied to the classification of the whole human species, they
can scarcely claim more than a general grouping according to
external resemblance. The proofs, as regards affinities of hu-
man races on anatomical grounds are, as we have shown, un-
certain, partly because the methods of cranial measurement
have not yet reached the desirable degree of perfection, and
chiefly because it is as yet very doubtful whether there are
constant anatomical differences, not merely between the large
groups of peoples, but also within individual nations.
We shall now enter upon the special consideration of the
above mentioned three principal points of view.
232 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
The old attempts, with regard to the natural division of the
human race, were chiefly founded on the visible differences ex-
hibited by human beings, such as the colour of the skin and the
quality of the hair.1 It was, however, soon found that these pre-
sented too many deviations to allow great importance to be at-
tached to them. Thus the colour of the skin is not sufficiently
constant in the same people ; and the changes it presents from
one family of peoples into another, are uncertain. Generally
speaking, dark colour of the skin is found in combination with
black hair, and a black or brown iris ; on the other hand, fair
complexion is combined with light or red hair, and a light
brown, blue, or greenish iris. The second combination is
generally, though not exclusively, peculiar to the northern or
white race. If to this be added, that the hair of the Negro
frizzles in consequence of the elliptical form of its diameter,
we obtain a division of mankind into tribes of light complexion
and straight hair, into tribes of dark complexion and straight hair,
and, finally, into families of dark complexion and frizzly hair.
This basis of a division according to colour and hair, has
recently been abandoned. Only D'Omalius d'Halloy2 still con-
siders colour and hair as decided distinctions of race. He
includes the Finns and Turks in the white race ; and in the
brown (Malay), the Hindoos, as a mixed people of white Arians
and black aborigines, the Abyssinians, and the Fellahs.
Though he may be wrong in attributing greater constancy to
the colour of the skin than to the peculiarities of the skeleton,
it must be admitted that with many individuals of mankind it
would remain doubtful as to which family they belong, if the
colour and the hair did not furnish us with certain indications.
A greater degree of constancy is now generally attributed to
the shape of the skull. It is agreed, that it presents a basis
for a natural division; and this mark of distinction becomes
the more important as it gives some indications with respect
to past generations.
With regard to the principal cranial types, from which the
rest may be considered as deviations, we find that Blumenbach,
1 See Blumenbach, " De gen. hum. var. nat.," p. 296, 3rd edit.
2 " L'Institut.," ii, p. 86, 1844.
SECT. V.] SHAPE OP SKULL. 233
the founder of this theory, designates the Ethiopian1 and Mon-
golian forms as the extremes between which the Caucasian
occupies the centre, the American being placed between the
latter and the Mongolian, and the Malay between the Ethiopian
and the Caucasian. The various races, distinguished by
Blumenbach, are placed in the following order : — Negro,
Malay, Caucasian, American, Mongolian ; so that the White,
assuming the unity of the human race, appears as the medium
or normal type of humanity. On taking, however, into con-
sideration not merely the shape of the skull, but other ana-
tomical differences, there can be no doubt that the White and
the Negro form the extremes ; the latter, on account of his
resemblance to the ape, which nearly disappears in the white
man.
Blumenbach' s division into five races is either too large or
too small, manifestly corresponding with the geographical
scheme of five parts of the globe. Lacepede and Dumeril
added a sixth variety, — the so-called Hyperborean race of the
polar regions; whilst Yirey2 considers the Hottentots and
Papuas as the sixth chief variety, and the Negro and the
White as distinct species. The facts, however, would lead
either to the adoption of the three principal types, according
to Cuvier, namely, the Mongol, the Negro, and the Caucasian,
named by some writers after Shem, Ham, and Japhet, or
to assume a considerably larger number. Prichard, Smith,
and Latham, are inclined to adopt the former division ;
Pickering assumes eleven, Bory fifteen, Desmoulins sixteen,
and Agassiz and Nott an indefinite number, of species. Hom-
bron3 assumes, even in Australia, the population of which
was hitherto considered by all ethnographers as belonging to
one family, a number of distinct species, and declares the in-
habitants of Van Diemen's land to be also of a distinct species.
1 It is scarcely necessary to mention that the term " Ethiopian" is as im-
proper as the term Caucasian, which Blumenbach used simply because the
skull of a Georgian woman seemed to him as the best representative of this
type, without any intention on his part to express thereby an opinion as to
the cradle of these peoples. We shall, however, abide by these designations,
as they are generally adopted.
2 " Hist. nat. du genre hum.," i, p. 318, 1834.
3 " Zoologie," i, p. 312, etc., in Urville, " Voy. au Pole Sud."
234 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
If the Malay and American be added to the three chief forms
adopted by Cuvier, we can scarcely avoid adding the Austra-
lians, Austral Negroes (Negrillos), the Papuas, and the Hot-
tentots. Nor will this be sufficient. All the intermediate
tribes between the Negro and the white, namely, the Kaffirs,
Nubians, Gallas, Abyssinians, and Berbers, have an equal claim
to consideration. This applies also to the Battas, the cranial
form of whom is intermediate between that of Europeans and
Malays.1 With the Mongolian type there is further associated
the so-called Hyperborean type, though the assumption of a
separate polar race presents many difficulties, as already shown
by Yater,2 and indicates a considerable deviation. But least
of all can the aboriginal Americans be comprehended in
the division ; for, whatever Morton and his school may assert
as to the similarity of the cranial type in all the varieties of
South and North America, it is shown by their own researches
that differences of shape are as considerable there as in those
parts in which they are considered as fundamentally different.
Some are long-headed, some short-headed,3 others, again, are
round-headed ; the present Peruvians have small square skulls,
with a compressed occiput.4 Tschudi5 has pointed out three
essentially distinct cranial forms of the original inhabitants of
Peru. It could be easily shown, that, having proceeded thus
far in the division of mankind, there can be no halting place ;
but we must go further, and adopt an unlimited number
of types. It would be necessary to assume fixed differences
between nations to whom, on historical and linguistic grounds,
we cannot ascribe a separate descent. We thus become con-
vinced, that, from a mere anatomical point of view, nothing
certain can be inferred as to the consanguinity of races ; and
that it is therefore, in every respect, advisable to adopt the
above three chief types, which, moreover, as we have already
shown in their intermixture with others, exhibit the greatest
persistence.
1 " Junghuhn d. Battalander," ii, p. 6.
2 Mithridates, iii, p. 317.
3 Retzius, Miiller's " Arckiv," p. 503, 1855.
4 Morton, " Cran. Am./' pp. 65, 115.
5 Miiller's " Archiv," p. 98, 1844.
SECT. V.] SHAPE OF SKULL. 235
To Retzius belongs the chief merit of having laid the foun-
dation of an ethnographic craniology. Proceeding from the
principle, that the psychical individuality of a people is ex-
pressed by the development of the brain as indicated by the
skull, he distinguishes first dolichocephalic and brachycephalic
crania, the former shape depending on a considerable develop-
ment of the posterior lobes of the brain, and the latter on their
comparative shortness, which causes them in some instances to
be more developed in breadth. The functions of the posterior
lobes are considered by Ketzius as very important. To this
general division Retzius adds a secondary classification, accord-
ing to the form of the face, as follows : —
1. Gentes dolichocephalse orthognathae,
2. Gentes brachycephalae orthognathae,
3. Gentes dolichocephalae prognathae,
4. Gentes brachycephalae prognathae.
The two first are only found in Europe. In Asia all the four
shapes are met with in almost equal proportions. The third
and the fourth are the predominating types in the South Sea.
In Africa the third type predominates, though the first form
also occurs in that part, as well as the second type in the South
Sea. In America the third and fourth forms alternate, in-
cluding, to a less extent, the second type, so that the
greatest variety and intermingling of types is to be found.
From the details given by Retzius,1 it clearly results that no
consanguinity can be established between the peoples exhibit-
ing the same cranial types. Thus in Europe there belong to
the brachycephalce orthognathce the Turks, Lapps, Slaves,
Basques ; in Asia the Samoiedes, Burates, Affghans, Persians.
To the brachycephalce prognathce in the East Indies and the
South Sea belong the Tahitians, Malays, Papuas ; to the doli-
chocephalce prognatlwe in Africa, Negroes, Hottentots, and
Kopts, etc.
Zeune2 distinguishes three extreme cranial types : high skulls
1 Mailer's " Archiv," p. 271, 1848.
2 " Ueber Schadelbildung," 1846.
236 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
(Europeans and Asiatics in the west and south of these parts,
as far as India) ; broad skulls (Mongols and many Malay peo-
ples) ; long skulls (Negroes) . These three chief types are also
found in the New World: the first among the Natchez and
Choctaws ; the second among the Caribs and Macusis ; the
third in Peru, among the Huancas and Incas ; so that we have,
on the whole, six chief divisions. Between the above extreme
types there are intermediate forms, probably the result of in-
termixture. Thus the Turks, Slaves, Magyars, Finns, Lapps,
and many Malay peoples, are intermediate between the Mongol
and Caucasian ; the Papuas, Alfurus, and Hottentots, between
the Mongol and Negro-type ; the latter originating, perhaps,
from intermixture between Negroes and Malays.
The preceding synopsis of the chief attempts of classifications
shows one fact very clearly, namely, the disagreement of all
authors who have treated of this subject, both in principle and
execution, whenever they pass beyond the three chief types
which distinguish the Negro, the Mongol, and the European.
This disagreement either proves that the subject is indefinite,
or that science is as yet not sufficiently advanced to give a de-
cisive answer.
It cannot be our intention to depreciate the meritorious*
efforts as regards the investigation of the cranial race-theory.
It is highly probable that there exists in every people a national
form of skull, to establish which would be of great ethno-
graphic interest. There is, however, no question that the in-
ferences of identity of tribe from an identity of skull, or of
consanguinity from a similar cranial shape, are as doubtful as
the conclusions to a different stock from a deviating cranial
form ; for similar types are presented by peoples living at the
most remote distances from each other, who cannot, without a
far-fetched hypothesis, be presumed to be allied ; whilst, on the
other hand, great varieties of cranial forms are found among
peoples whose consanguinity is undeniable. Finally, the varia-
tion of shape in individual national types is as yet too little
known to determine which form is within or without the sphere
of that particular type.
How cautious we should be in concluding from cranial mea-
SECT. V.] SHAPE OP SKULL. 237
surements to consanguinity of tribe, is shown by Hueck,1 who
found the measurement of Esthon skulls mostly agreeing with
that of two Tartar skulls, although they are generally different
in form. Zeune observes, that, according to Ketzius, the Scan-
dinavians have long-heads, the Slaves short-heads; yet he found
the skull of a Swede to be shorter than those of two Kussian
female skulls. The Avar skull found near Grafenegg in Aus-
tria has, by Tschudi,2 been considered as of Peruvian origin, on
account of its similarity to those of the Huancas; whilst Meyer3
asserts, that the skulls of the latter are perfectly identical with
the microcephalse found in the Crimea. No further commen-
tary is necessary to show what confusion would result if the
cranial shape were assumed to be an absolute mark of race.
The question may here be asked, why the skull has been pre-
ferentially selected to determine the race — do the other parts
of the skeleton exhibit a less degree of constancy ? Hardly ;
but the skull was not only the most accessible, but the most
characteristic part, from its supposed relation to the psychical
qualities of man, however obscure this relation may yet be, for,
as to the fables of phrenology, these have been rejected by
German science. There can be no doubt that the skull has
been too exclusively considered as a permanent mark of race,
and it has become necessary no longer to neglect other physical
characters, for it is only in their entirety that they can afford
any satisfactory clue as to the peculiarities of each race. Which
of these peculiarities is the more or less important will only be
determined after a long series of investigations. A fair be-
ginning has been made by Quetelet, whose measurements have
extended to the proportions of individual parts composing the
body. He has arrived at the result,4 that in the European race
the proportions of the body are constant, and that the measure-
ment of but few individuals is necessary to find the normal pro-
portions ; he considers it, moreover, as probable that the human
body is, in its forms and proportions, more definite than any
1 " De craniis Esthonum," p. 9.
2 Mailer's " ArcMv," p. 277, 1845.
3 Ibid., p. 510, 1850.
1 "Bullet, de 1'Acad. des Sc. de Belg.," xv, P. i, p. 580; P. ii, p. 16; xvi,
P. ii, pp. 11, 17; xvii, P. i, p. 344; P. ii, pp. 38, 95.
238 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
other production of nature. Among the American race, putting
aside the greater breadth of the chest and the smaller feet,
there is a great resemblance of proportions with those of the
finest European forms. Among the Chinese the deviations are
not very considerable, excepting with regard to hand, foot, and
length of arm, which are generally smaller in them than in the
European; the female hand is, however, distinguished by a
greater size. Schultz,1 on the other hand, asserts, that he
found considerable differences in the proportions of parts among
Russians, Letts, Tscherkesses, Tschuwashes, Negroes, and
Jews.
We subjoin a short table of measurements possessing an
anthropological interest : —
1. — Cranial Measurements. Ketzius, in Mailer's "Archiv," p. 84, 1845.
(Swedes, Slaves, Finns, Lapps), ibid., p. 498, 1855. (Pampas Indians), in
" Nouv. Ann. des voy.," iii, p. 119, 1847. (Abyssinians, Basuto-Kaffirs),
Van der Hoven, in Mailer's " Archiv," p. 433, 1844. (Slavonians), Philipps,
in Schoolcraft, " Hist, of the Ind. Trib.," ii, p. 385. (North Am. Indians),
Robt. Clarke, " Sierra Leone," p. 48, 1846. (Various Negro peoples), Hushcke,
Schiidel, Hirn, and Seele.
2. — Measurements of Cranium and the most important parts of the Body.
Freycinet, " Voy. aut. d. m.," 1827 (Papuas, Sandwich Islanders, Australians,
etc.). Sandifort, "Tab. Cran.," 1838 (Greenlanders, Romans, Amboineese,
Kaffirs, Hottentots, Bushmen, North Americans, Singalese, Chinese, Japanese,
Papuas, Australians, Kolusches, Guanches, Turks, Negroes, Javanese, Jews).
Hueck, " De Cran. Esth.," 1838 (Esthonians, Lapps, Tschuktshes, Kalmucks,
Tartars, Letts) . Lesson, " Voy. aut. du m./' 1829 (Mozambique Negroes, Papuas,
Alfurus, Polynesians). Schultz et Quetelet, loc. cit. (Ojibbeways, Neapolitan
giant, American Hercules, Chinese, Kaffirs, Negroes, European soldiers).
Duttenhofer, " Ueber die Emancip. der Neger," p. 77, 1855 (Negroes), Bur-
meister, " Geol. Bilder," ii, Negroes ; Thomson, in " Brit. & For. Med. Chir.
Eeview/' p. 489, 1854 ; and Fechner's " Central-Blatt," p. 417, 1854, New Zea-
landers. Wilkes, " United States Exploring Expedition," v, p. 539, 1845 (Poly-
nesians). Flinders, "Voy. to Terra Australia," i, p. 68, 1814 (Australians).
More important and certain results have been obtained from
philological investigations.
It probably would never have occurred to a zoologist to
group the Indo- Germanic, Semitic, and other tribes in the same
family. The anthropologist could only wait for and appro-
1 Froriep's " Neue Notizen," xxxv, p. 164.
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 239
priate the results obtained in this way. When, therefore, the
naturalist, in opposition to the linguist (as is frequently done)
speaks of the absolute constancy of cranial types, and signifi-
cantly points to those cases in which whole nations have
changed their language, it looks not merely like ingratitude,
but like envy.
The natural forms of intellectual life seem to be subject to
as many changes as the mental peculiarities of individuals ;
hence it was believed that a greater constancy of type is to be
found within the sphere of physical organization. The appear-
ance may possibly be deceitful, and more extensive investiga-
tions may exhibit an equal uniformity in the mental as in the
physical organization. Philology gives a certain probability to
this idea, for not only may we from the language of a people
draw some correct inferences as to its intellectual state, as
Crawfurd1 has done with regard to the original state of civiliza-
tion of the Malays, but, generally speaking, the linguistic pecu-
liarities are the most important of those of intellectual life ;
because, on the one hand, they are in their origin as inde-
pendent of conscious reflection as of the influence of external
circumstances ; and because, on the other hand, they are trans-
mitted and appropriated by later generations, and thus exhibit,
in all essential points, a high degree of constancy. Whatever
is created by the conscious will is subject to multifarious
changes by further reflection, but not that which, like the form
and structure of language, is transmitted by unconscious imi-
tation, which is thus withdrawn from reflection.
These general psychological considerations show the great
importance of linguistic researches in relation to the consan-
guinity of peoples. We shall, therefore, endeavour to specify
the claims of philology to be heard on this question.
The two chief points which are to be considered in compara-
tive philology are the grammatical structure of a language, in-
cluding the articulated sounds, and its vocabulary. According
io the present state of science, both of them must correspond
to infer a genealogical relationship of languages. Comparisons
* » " History of the Indian Archipelago," 1820.
240 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
of vocabularies, formerly so much in vogue, are now deemed
insufficient, as these comparisons were without method, pro-
ceeded from no fixed principle, and the estimation of the pre-
vailing differences of words was quite arbitrary. Even in lan-
guages where the resemblances of many words are unmistake-
able, it cannot be decided from them alone, whether they have
been transmitted or merely borrowed, whether they are the
consequence of a genealogical relationship, or of an exchange
or communication from one language to another originally dis-
tinct, but which subsequently came in contact. Many of these
vocabulary resemblances may also be accidental, and produced
by identical original invention. The extent and degree of the
resemblance of individual words must also be taken into con-
sideration, as well as their signification, especially such as
designate common things indispensable to peoples even in
a low state of cultivation ; for these are not so much altered
in an exchange of languages as those belonging to things found
only among peoples more civilized. But all this does not in-
validate the general principle, that word comparisons alone are
insufficient to decide upon the affinity of languages.
It seems, then, that, in judging of the affinity of languages,
greater importance is attached to grammatical structure than
even to the resemblance of the roots of a language. Equality
of original invention with regard to the structure of language
among perfectly distinct races is, on account of the great com-
plications and great variety of grammatical proportions so
improbable that it nearly amounts to an impossibility. It
appears, therefore, requisite that two languages should, on
comparison, agree to some extent in both the chief elements
before we can decide on their affinity. We shall endeavour to
point out the reasons which justify us in inferring the consan-
guinity of peoples from the quality of the grammatical struc-
ture of their languages.
When a language is transmitted from one generation to an-
other, not merely the words, but their mode of connexion, as
sentences, is also transmitted and appropriated by unconscious
imitation, and thus becomes fixed. The latter point is not
sufficiently appreciated, though it is quite clear that we do not
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 241
think in words, but in whole sentences ; hence, we may assert,
that a living language consists of sentences, not of words. But
a sentence is formed not of single independent words, but
of words which refer to each other in a particular manner,
like the corresponding thought, which does not consist of single
independent ideas, but of such as, connected, form a whole,
and which determine each other mutually; hence the great
importance of the relations of words which are afforded by
grammatical structure. We shall illustrate this by somo
examples.
In the sentence, "Tie will to-day in the night watch his
enemy in order to kill him," the chief idea, to which all
others are added, is the action of watching. The sensible
image of this action can be immediately conceived and repro-
duced by us. The action of watching is first defined, as in
this case, a future action, and this future is defined as occurring
to-day. The external circumstances are further to be defined
(in the night), the subject and the object of the action (he —
enemy), and the relation of the subject to the object (his
enemy) ; then the object of the action, which is expressed in
the form of a second action (kill), the object of this second
action, and the relation of the same to the object of the first
action, a relation of identity (him — his enemy) . Consequently,
the above sentence — on leaving out all indications of the rela-
tions of the individual ideas which connected them, and instead
of the pronoun ' ' he" place the name of a person — would be
expressed thus, —
" Watch (future — to-day) — night — Cajus — enemy — kill —
enemy."
Such a sentence, consisting of unconnected words, which
would compel the listener to seek for himself all the relations
of these ideas, would certainly be better than no speech at all,
as it might be understood in spite of its obscurity. The appa-
rent imperfection would also be greatly lessened if there were
some fixed rules by wh^ch the relation of the words might be
recognized; such as that the governing always precedes the
governed, the chief idea always the subordinate idea, and so
forth. In such a state are the asynthetic, monosyllabic Ian-
242 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
guages, which, like the Chinese, in the absence of all separa-
tion of the parts of speech, express the relations by the position
of the words. To these languages belongs, probably, the idiom
of the Yebus in the west of Benin (d'Avezac) ; whether, also,
that of the Othomi in Central America is as yet doubtful.1
A language is, undoubtedly, more perfect in proportion as
all the relations of the individual ideas occurring in a sen-
tence may be easily recognized. The means of effecting this
are innumerable; such as the formation of the particular
word-forms added to substantive words designating a certain
modification of the sense of the latter : for instance, the future,
the past, the negation, the possibility of an action ; the varia-
tion in the sounds occurring in the words modifying their
sense and relation to others ; the combination of several words
in one word, etc.
The American languages, which are called polysynthetic,
are so characterized that they usually consist of an agglomera-
tion of independent words : thus, in the Sahaptin, hi-tau-tuala-
wihnan-kau-na, means, he travels past in a rainy night ; hi, he;
tau, refers to something in the night ; tuala, to something that
is done in rain ; wihnan, from wihnasa, to travel on foot ; kau,
from kokauna, to pass by ; na designates the aorist and the
direction (Hale) . In the Dakota, b a, as a prefix of the verb
or adjective, designates that the action has been effected by
cutting ; bo, by shooting or blowing ; ka, by striking ; na, by
pressure or by the foot ; pa, by pushing ; ya, by the mouth
(Biggs). In a similar manner do the so-called agglutinated
languages, to which the Tartar, Turkish, and Finnish idioms
belong, express the relations of the chief idea to the subordi-
nate ones, by adding relatively substantive words to the un-
changed root of the word which designates the chief idea in a
sentence ; so that compound words are formed, in which the re-
lations of the chief idea are amalgamated. The Magyar language
has thus, for instance, twenty post-positions which can be com-
bined with the substantive noun. From sevmek (Turkish), " to
love," may be formed sev-dir-ish-e-mc-mek, to love mutually,
1 Pott, p. 256.
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 243
cannot be forced ; dir gives to the word a transitive, ish, a re-
ciprocal, me, a negative, signification ; e, indicates impossibi-
lity. Nevertheless, according to the opinion of linguists, the
poly synthetic languages of America must not be placed in the
same class with the agglutinated languages of Asia, as their
chief characters greatly differ (Pott). The peculiarity of each
of those last mentioned languages, depends on what and how
many secondary ideas are incorporated with the chief word,
and by what means this is effected (prefixes, infixes, suffixes,
changes of sound) ; and finally, what secondary ideas and re-
lations remain unexpressed.
The ideas of action rarely arise in our minds without
some definite relations to persons, things, time, place, etc. If
these relations are designated by changes in the word itself, by
sounds which per se have no definite sense, the language is
said to be an inflected language : amabis, loving, with relation
to the second person as the subject of action, and the future.
This principle of expressing the relations of the chief idea to
secondary ideas by changes in the chief word may, in every
individual language, be more or less completely carried out, by
which a great variety of languages becomes possible, occupy-
ingacertain intermediate position between the inflected, agglu-
tinated, and poly synthetic (incorporating) languages. Thus
many American languages, which Grallatin1 considered as in-
flected languages (which is denied by Pott), have a great
number of tense and modes. The Selish has two futures,
(I shall, I will), an optative (I should), a reflective, reci-
procal modus, a modus of object (I go in order to), etc. The
Cherokee has still more.2 In the Sahaptin languages, nearly
every part of speech may be conjugated, — "Man," I am a
man, thou art a man, etc. ; " over," I am over it, thou art
over it, etc.
We do not pretend to have given a characteristic of the
chief types of language ; we merely endeavoured to show, by
some striking examples, the great influence of the type of a
1 " Transactions of the American Ethnological Society," ii, p. 23.
2 Worcester, in Schoolcraft, " " History of the Indian tribes," ii, p. 446.
E 2
244 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
language upon the ideal world ; for it is clear, that regulation
of the latter greatly depends upon the former. Entirely asyn-
thetic, monosyllabic languages, allow our individual ideas,
which correspond to individual words, to stand in independent
juxtaposition, merely indicating some rude distinctions between
chief and secondary ideas. In contrast with them, poly syn-
thetic languages force us to grasp the whole idea, and inti-
mately to connect the secondary ideas with the chief idea, to
take in at one glance the whole situation, not piecemeal and
successively. That they prevent the dismemberment of ideas
in a greater degree than the former, is proved by many sub-
stantive nouns in these languages, like "hand," "father,"
" son," occurring, not separately, but always in connexion with
a possessive pronoun. It is of the greatest importance, for
the regulation of the mass of our ideas, how many and what se-
condary ideas our language induces us to connect as integral
parts with the chief idea to which they refer, or what may be
added as relatively independent parts. It is not less important
whether, as in inflected languages, the relations are expressed
by particles which, separated from the chief word, have no
distinct signification. These grammatical forms of the mother
language become habitual to us before we arrive at reflection ;
for what language presents combined in one sound, we conceive
together, and what it presents in a separate form, we conceive
as relatively separate.
These elementary habits in connecting individual ideas, be-
long to the most important special laws to which the concep-
tion of man is subject ; and on account of the power which
they exert in the elementary construction of our ideas, an
essential change of the structure of a language in a people,
which continues as a people, is highly improbable. There is
no doubt that a gradual change in the grammatical structure
of a language is possible ; and if it be probable that all
merely grammatical words (forms) were originally words of
independent signification, and that even the syllables of inflec-
tion sprung from originally independent words, which were
merely added to the chief word, — then there exists between the
types of language as little an absolute constant difference as
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 245
between the chief types of the corporeal form; but such a
possibility of an original unity of languages is, as Pott1 ob-
serves, far indeed from being proved.
The idea of an original language of the whole human race,
so much discussed in the last century, is by science now con-
sidered as a chimera.2 Neither would it amount to a proof of
the unity of mankind, if among languages of different gram-
matical structure, such as the Chinese and Sanscrit, there
were found a number of similar roots.3 W. von Humboldt
has remarked, that though the three chief types of the known
languages may be considered as an ascending scale of the devel-
opment of language, it can neither be proved, nor is it probable,
that they have originated among themselves. Nevertheless,
Max Muller has recently advanced the latter theory. According
to him, the first stage of the development of language is a
juxtaposition of independent words (family stage) ; the second
is characterized by an incorporation of relations in the govern-
ing word (nomadic stage — agglutination) ; the third changes
the governing word to designate the relations (political stage —
amalgamation). This interesting scheme has not met with
approval among philologists, and has been especially opposed
by Pott, who assumes a plurality of originally distinct lan-
guages. Though philology may not be absolutely opposed to
the origin of the human race from one pair,4 there is at pre-
sent no prospect of supporting it by proofs, as Bunsen and
Muller have attempted.
One might be inclined to adopt this view on considering,
that the light which philology has hitherto thrown on the
affinity of peoples extends to but a small portion of the earth,
and in casting a glance at the summary of Balbi5 of the lan-
guages of the globe. He assumes 860 languages, which he
thus classifies : —
i. Asia, with 153 languages in seventeen families : Indo-
Germans, Tamules, Semitics, Georgians, Caucasians, Tunguses
• l " Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges.," p. 405, 1855.
2 Martin, " Essai sur 1'origine du Lang./' p. 32, Paris, 1835.
3 Scnleicher, " D. Sprachen Europas," p. 29, 1850.
4 " Die Ungleickheit menschl. Rassen," pp. 202, 242, 272.
5 " Atlas Ethnographique," Paris, 1826.
246 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
(with Mongols, Turks, Samoiedes, and Finns), Zenniseis,
Kuriles or Ainos, Jukagires, Korjakes, Kamschatdales, Polar-
Americans in Asia, Japanese, Koreans, Tibetians, Chinese,
Indo-Chinese. The latter and the Caucasians are probably
to be subdivided in several families (Pott) .
ii. Europe, with 53 languages in seven families : Iberian,
Basque, Rhastian-Etruscan, Illyrian-Albanese, Indo-Germanic
(Greeks and Latins, Celts, Germans, Lithuanians and Slavo-
nians, Gypsies), Finns (Lapps, Esthonians, Magyars), Semitics,
Turks.
in. Africa, with 114 (according to Kolle, with 150-200)
languages, among which the Berber and the Kongo family (the
South African language) are the most extended.
iv. Oceania, with 117, in three families : Malays and Poly-
nesians, Melanesians (black nations), and Australians.
v. America, with 423 languages, which, excluding California,
separate in North America in thirty-two different stocks. In
South America, Rivero and Tschudi have estimated the number
of languages from 280-340, of which four-fifths are radically
different.
It is scarcely necessary to caution the reader against the
authenticity of the above data, when we consider that the de-
finition of what must be considered as a distinct language is
rather arbitrary. The numbers are, however, hardly too high.
When we take into consideration the many languages spoken
in a comparatively small space, owing to the want of inter-
course or complete isolation of small tribes, in various regions
of the globe, we would rather be inclined to assume a higher
number of radically different languages on the globe than
Balbi did. The maximum of different languages appears to
prevail in Central America, and thence northwards on the
western coasts from California to the land of the Esquimaux,1
in Asia, in the Caucasus, in Africa, in the south of Abyssinia,
in Wadai (where there are twenty), in Bornou (where there are
thirty), and in Andamana, where Barth2 has distinguished some
thirty distinct languages. The island Timor possesses, accord-
1 Hale, p. 197.
2 " Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges./' vi, p. 412.
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 247
ing to Crawfurd, no less than forty different languages; the
number is also said to be very considerable in Ende and Flores,
ell as in the interior of Borneo ; and even upon the small
islands of the South Sea, inhabited by blacks, four or five dif-
ferent languages are not unfrequent. In every part of the world
there is a large number of different languages met with, in
regions which may be supposed to have been the passage-roads
during the migrations of peoples. Either upon these roads,
or at a moderate distance from them, smaller or larger masses
seem to have halted, and permanently settled.
It yet remains for us to say a few words with regard to the
relation of the physical and the linguistic proofs of division in
Anthropology. Where both agree as to the affinity of races,
there can be no difficulty; this, however, is not often the
case. If the points of view are different, two cases may
occur: either anatomy or philology is in favour of affinity.
The first case can scarcely surprise us, when within each
of the great natural divisions of mankind, we find languages
of a radically different type (for instance, among the Chinese
and Mongols, Germans and Basques) ; for we must bear in
mind that the above division includes nations, the physical differ-
ences of which are still sufficiently great to render the assump-
tion of their having originally sprung from the same stock not
absolutely demonstrable ; whilst, on the other hand, though ori-
ginally from the same stock, an early and complete separation
is the only assumable ground for a radical difference of lan-
guage. If this conflict between anatomy and philology is, in
such a case, merely apparent, it becomes real and unsolvable,
when languages, clearly ascertained to be related, are found
among peoples whose physical characters are widely distinct,
unless such phenomena can be explained by intermixture, or
an exchange of language, or both together.
Cases' of the latter kind cannot be decided by general rules ;
and for such, a careful investigation of the particular conditions
is requisite. It may, however, be assumed, that language
generally affords a safer guide than the physical character of
a people, for the following reasons. In the first place, the
typical peculiarities of languages appear to be proportionally
248 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
less changeable, whilst we have shown that the physical pecu-
liarities are more so ; thus, originally different stocks acquire
a resemblance to each other in the course of time, whilst ori-
ginally similar stocks become dissimilar. Again, where peoples
within historical times have met and influenced each other,
words have gradually passed from one language into an-
other, just as they may, without foreign influence, undergo a
change or disappear altogether \ but never has the gramma-
tical structure of a language accommodated itself to a new one,
but rather the whole language has disappeared, and has been
supplanted by the new one ; for such a change of the structure
of a language would presuppose a transformation of ideas and
the mode of connecting the elements of thought, which we
deem next to impossible. This is confirmed by thieves' and
vagabond dialects, which always borrow their grammatical
structure from a language ready made, whilst the words are
newly-formed and mutilated. Thus, the jargon spoken in
Oregon, in the region of Fort Vancouver, consists of words
belonging to the English, French, Nootka, Chinook, and other
languages.
Another ground for the principle laid down is, that the
scientific method at present applied in comparative philology
possesses a higher degree of authenticity, and offers better
guarantees for its results than the methods of physical anthro-
pology and craniology. As a proof of this may be mentioned,
the greater unanimity of linguists with regard to the results
of their science in comparison with the disputes among natu-
ralists as to the theory of races.
Moreover, the positive principles on affinity of nations laid
down by philology, claim greater reliance than the negative
ones supported by naturalists. We have seen that even great
resemblance of the physical characters of two peoples affords
no positive proof for their real affinity ; whilst philology may,
in many instances, adduce an undoubted proof to that effect.
We are therefore bound to declare against all those authors,
who, like Nott and Grliddon,1 assert, in relation to the Berber
1 " Types of Mankind/' p. 205.
SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 249
tribes, that affinity of language proves nothing in favour of
unity of origin, since, as is the case with the Jews, a frequent
exchange of language takes place. There are certainly examples
of this kind, but they present the important peculiarity that,
without exception, the people which loses its language and
exchanges it for another, has ceased to live as a people, has
been absorbed by the other, whether conqueror or conquered,
and forms with it an amalgam, from which the adherents to
the doctrine of the permanence of physical types are less able
to extract the composing elements, if the linguists fail to do
so. We are ready to admit that though the proportion of an
intermixture of different nations may be manifested to the
linguist by the comparative number of foreign elements in-
troduced in a language, as for instance, the Malay, which
possesses 5 per cent. Arab and 16 per cent. Sanscrit words;
still the quantity of linguistic elements does not always cor-
respond to the quantity of foreign blood, so that philology
cannot give a decided opinion as to the genealogy of peoples
strongly intermixed, any more than natural history is able
to do.
When small remnants of a scattered people lose their lan-
guage among nations of different stocks, such instances can-
not be adduced as a proof that exchanges of languages are
of frequent occurrence, and that language offers no certain in-
dication as to the affinity of nations. Thus, the few hundred
Bosnian soldiers who, in 1420, were sent by Sultan Selim
into lower Nubia, where they settled, have not preserved their
language. The scattered Hottentots in the Cape Colony,
which are of mixed blood, speak only Dutch.1 Many Chinese
born in Manilla speak only Tagal;2 the Chinese in Banjer-
massing, and many other parts of Borneo, speak only Malay.3
The small tribe of the Brothertons (Algonquin-Indians) have
adopted the English as their language,4 which may be ex-
plained by the circumstance that they are composed of the
1 Napier, " Excursions in South Africa," i, p. 181, 1850.
2 Virgin, " Erdumsegl. der F. Eugenie ubers. v. Etzel," ii, p. 195, 1856.
3 " Kheinische Missionsber.," p. 67, 1853.
4 Schoolcraffc, " Algic Researches, New York," i, p. 27, 1839.
250 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
remnants of several tribes, Mohicans, Narragansetts, Pequos,
Nanticockes, etc., who had no language in common j1 many
Germans in the United States have done the same. The
Spaniards in the mining districts of Peru exchange their native
language for the Quichua,2 especially in Cuenca, and other parts
of Ecuador.3 Among the inhabitants of Zamboanga, in Min-
dano, the number of which does not exceed 7,000, a corrupt
Spanish has established itself, consisting of Spanish and native
words mixed up in various combinations by different individuals.4
Nor can such instances be adduced against language as indi-
cative of race, in which a population, consisting of heteroge-
neous elements, finally adopt the language of the dominating
caste, as happened with the Negroes at Haiti, who adopted the
French. Negroes of various African nationalities, brought as
slaves into America, everywhere speak the languages of their
masters, though in a mutilated manner. In Brazil they speak
Portuguese f in the Mauritius (He de France), French.6 In the
English West Indies they speak the well-known Negro-English;
there is also found the Negro-Portuguese, or so-called Jew-
language, in Surinam.7 In the Danish colonies, a language
prevails consisting of words chiefly Low- German, with the
omission of all inflexions.8 In a similar condition, as regards
language, is the present population of the Marian islands, or
rather of Guaham, for the other islands are now deserted. It
consists of a mixture of the original natives (who, under
the oppression of Quiroga, are said to have diminished to
2,000), some immigrants from the Carolines, imported natives
from the Philippines, and also Mexicans.9 According to
1 Schoolcraft, " History of the Indian tribes," v, p. 506, note 2.
2 Pickering, " The Eaces of Man," p. 277, 1849.
3 Seeman, i, p. 209.
4 Trad. Lay in " The Claims of Japan and Malaisia upon Christendom,"
ii, p. 113, New York, 1839.
5 Koster, Eeise in Brasil," p. 574, 1817.
6 Example of a narration in one of the dialects of Negro-French may be
found in Freycinet, " Voyage autour du monde," i, p. 407, 1827.
7 " Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges.," xi, p. 324.
8 Oldendorp, " Gesch. d. Miss, auf St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. Jan.,
p. 424, 1777; and Wullschlagel, "Gramm. und Worterb. des Neger-En-
glischen."
9 Chamisso, Bemerk. in " Ansichten auf einer Entdeckungsreise," p. 78,
1821; Kotzebue, "Entdeckungsreise," ii, p. 129, 1821; De Pages, "Eeise
urn d. Welt," p. 143, 1786.
SECT. V.] CHANGE OF LANGUAGE. 251
Mallat1 they speak Spanish, and have adopted many Spanish
customs ; but according to D'Urville,2 the imported population
do not speak Spanish, but the language of the natives, — the
Chamorro. In America, also, the Spanish has frequently re-
placed the languages of the natives, especially in S. Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Costa Eica, the original languages of which are
unknown. These phenomena do not, however, appear to be
so general as Latham asserts ;3 but are limited in Nicaragua to
certain districts, are more frequent in S. Salvador, and occur
also in some villages in Honduras.4
As in these cases the exchange of language may be explained
from extensive intermixture of the natives with the Spaniards,
so also among the Guayqueriers, a branch of the Guaraunos
on the coast of S. Margaretha, who now all speak Spanish, and
differ much in external appearance from individuals of their own
stock.5 This likewise applies to the populations of Baradero,
Quilmos, Calchaguy, and S. Domingo Soriano, on the river
Negro, who not having been by the Jesuits united in commu-
nities, have preserved their liberty, and pass now as Spaniards,
whose language and customs they have adopted in consequence
of intermixture ;6 also to the inhabitants of Chiloe, whose ori-
ginal language is almost entirely forgotten and replaced by the
Spanish.7 With regard to the Changes, who reach from
Huasco to Cobija, the accounts are contradictory. According
to some they are Indians, according to others they are the de-
scendants of Spaniards, who in the olden time had settled
there; their language seems to be a corrupt Spanish; they
dress like the lower classes of Chili, and have had, as is asserted,
little intercourse with the Spaniards.8 The Indians of the
environs of Rio Janeiro have also almost entirely lost their
1 " Les Philippines/' i, p. 342, 1846.
2 " Voyage de 1' Astrolabe," v, p. 277.
3 " Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," xx, p. 189.
4 Scherzer, " Wanderungen durch d. mittel am Freistaaten," pp. 165, 402,
348; 1857.
5 Humboldt und Bonpland, i, p. 467.
6 Azara, " Voy. dans 1'Am. merid.," ii, p. 217, 1809.
7 King and Fitzroy, i, p. 278.
8 De la Salle, " Voyage autour du monde sur la Bonite," ii, p. 13, 1845 ;
St. Cricq, " Bullet. Soc. Geog.," ii, p. 304, 1853 ; Philippi, in Petermann's
"Geogr. Mittheil.," p. 56, 1856.
252 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I
language, and speak Portuguese.1 It is, undoubtedly, an
exaggeration that one million of the aborigines of America
have exchanged their native for an European, language.2 The
natives of unmixed blood have scarcely done so in a single
instance ; only mixed populations, in a state of slavery, have
allowed the language of the rulers to be forced on them.
Thus we often see small tribes absorbed by stronger ones ;
by ceasing to exist as a people, they adopt the language of the
more powerful tribe. Ancient Rome, which had absorbed so
many foreign elements, presents a striking example. It has
already been mentioned, that many American Indian nations
have absorbed a number of minor tribes. It occurs, however,
occasionally that a people absorbed by another may still pre-
serve its language, like the Yuchi, incorporated by the Creeks ;
perhaps the circumstance that the women of the Caribs possess
a different language than the men, may result from a similar
event. In such cases, much depends on the will of the con-
queror, and the tenacity with which the conquered keep to the
peculiarities of their race, — a quality which different tribes
possess in a different degree. The caste of the serfs among
the Bracknas, in the north of Senegal, are the Zenaghas, — a
Berber tribe which, by its masters the Assani, had the Arabian
language forced upon them,8 like several Kabyle tribes of the
province Constantine, who have adopted this language.4 Thus,
many scattered Yindjha peoples in the East Indies have ex-
changed their language for a filial language of the Sanscrit.
On the other hand, that the conquerors lose sometimes their
language to the conquered, is instanced by the Normans in
the tenth century, and the Longobards.
In all these cases, in which a people has lost its language, it
has by intermixture ceased to exist as a people ; and neither
the consideration of physical types, nor philology, can give any
clear indication of its existence, unless supported by special his-
torical documents. It must be an extremely rare case in which,
1 Von Eschwege, " Journal v. Brasil," ii, p. 16.
2 Humboldt und Bonpland, v, p. 774.
3 Leo Afrieaiius, "Bossi e Negri delle Nigrizia occ. Torino," i, p. 112, 1838.
4 M. Wagner, " Eoise in Algier," ii, p. 11, 1S41.
SECT. V.] CHANGE OP LANGUAGE. 253
according to Pott's assumption,1 the Parthian, i. e. the Scythian
conquerors of Iran, found themselves, by losing the gramma-
tical structure of their own language, which was replaced by a
very simple one, — that of the Pehlwi, which belongs to the
Iranian languages. Thus, in Sicily, the non-Greek peoples
forgot their own language in consequence of intermixture of
the natives with the Sikeliotes, and the forced transportation
of whole communities ; the whole island became a Greek ter-
ritory, and remained so to the middle ages.2 Where, however,
such a case is not proved by history, we are not justified in
adducing such rare exceptions in support of assumed theories.
Such an error is committed by Berthelot,3 in asserting that the
present inhabitants of the Canary islands are still, physically
and morally, the ancient Guanches, having only lost their lan-
guage ; though he confines himself merely to some similarity of
both in customs and mode of life, and describes two different
types of Guanche mummies, without even maintaining that
they are the types of the present natives. Retzius commits a
similar error,4 in stating that the Kareles have lost their
own language and appropriated the Finnish, because they
possess oval heads, while the Savolax is globular-headed, and
the Tavastlander square-headed. Such assumptions, without
historical evidence, are inadmissible. Pott says justly,5 "If
colonies are to be able to suppress languages, or essentially to
alter them, they must possess a lasting power which must be
concentrated in important cities, otherwise they will, with their
own language, perish in the mass of the subjected peoples."
In contrast to the phenomenon of the loss of a language of a
people, or rather, as is most generally the case, of the extinction
of the same as a people, together with its language, stands the
not less frequent phenomenon of individual languages which
sustain their independence. The Spanish language in Manilla
has, in spite of the secured possession of the Spaniards, made
in that part as little progress as the English language in the
1 Art. " Indogerm. Sprachstamm," Ersch. u. GK, p. 52.
2 Niebuhr, " Rom. Gesch.," i, 174.
3 "Mem. de la Soc. Ethnol./' i, p. 146.
4 MiOler's " Archiv," p. 395, 1848.
5 Loc. cit., p. 81.
'
254 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
East Indies. The Malay in Singapore, and the Sowaheili on
the east coast of Africa, have remained the dominant languages,
notwithstanding the long rule of the Arabs over that region.
The Arab language, though in a corrupt state, has maintained it-
self in Malta ; and notwithstanding their dispersion, the Gypsies,
and in many places the Jews, have preserved their languages.
The historical point of view which may serve as a guide in
the division of mankind and their affinity, can hardly be sepa-
rated from linguistic considerations, since the peculiarities of
language present the chief evidence which throws light on the
history of a people ; and the knowledge of historical develop-
ment remains imperfect and fragmentary in proportion as the
linguistic data are defective. We have, nevertheless, ventured
upon the separation of the linguistic and historical stand-points,
partly because it was our endeavour to explain the relation
in which the first stands to the physical theory of the division
of mankind, with which it is frequently in conflict, and partly
because, with regard to the great majority of peoples, there
exists no history ; so that, in the absence of all historical docu-
ments, we are limited to their language and the reports of
travellers, which, though frequently very meagre, are still im-
portant as the only sources we possess.
The historical consideration, in as far as it differs from the
linguistic consideration, is, in most cases, compelled to remain
satisfied with the comparison of the traditions of peoples, their
religious ideas, their festivals, funeral ceremonies; then their
chronology, architectural remains, tools, clothing, ornaments,
and arms ; and their social and family life.
From these ethnographic data, conclusions of comprehensive
scope have been hazarded ; migrations and affinities, and even
the descent of mankind from a single pair, or at any rate, an
original cradle of the human race, has been inferred from the
tradition of the flood,1 prevalent among so many distant nations.
1 According to the views of Cuvier and Buckland, the universality of the
traditions of the Flood may be explained by a corresponding universal revolu-
tion in the crust of the earth 5-6,000 years ago. Other geologists flatly deny
the universality of such a revolution (see Jameson, zu Cuvier' s " Umwalzun-
gen der Erdrinde, deutsch von Noggerath," ii, p. 191, 1830). The flood tra-
SECT. V. HISTORICAL ANALOGIES. 255
We must here observe, that analogies in either of these
points, taken individually, afford no proof whatever in favour
of affinity, and even similarities in several points possess only
a secondary importance ; for partly may they, under similar
conditions, spontaneously arise in peoples who had always lived
in a state of separation ; and partly may they have been the
result of a short intercourse between two different peoples.
How cautious we ought to be, and how just the principle is,
that all such analogies can only be considered as secondary
arguments in favour of affinity, will be seen by the following
examples : —
The analogies existing between Asiatic and American peoples
have been collated by Delafield.1 Most of these peculiarities
prove nothing, as they concern things which are frequently
met with among uncivilized nations of the most remote regions.
Whilst the Mongolian type nearly approaches the American
(Bradford), the structure of their respective languages differs
essentially.2 The chief points of resemblance are the follow-
ing. The Schamanism of the Mongol tribes, based on fire-
worship,3 finds its counterpart in the religious ideas and cere-
monies of most of the Indian tribes of North America. A.
von Humboldt has noticed striking similarities of the old
buildings, and the religion of the Aztecs to that of the Tartars
and Tibetians. Squier4 has pointed out the resemblance of the
old temples of Yucatan to those of Buddha in India.
The doctrine of a periodical destruction of the world and of
its reconstruction, prevails in Tibet and India, as well as in old
Mexico ; the first destruction was effected by earthquake, the
second by fire, the third by a storm, the last by water. The
ditions among some peoples, may be explained from the fact of shells being
found inland in great numbers, whence they concluded that inundations 'had
taken place at some period. Among other nations, that which appears as an
ancient tradition is manifestly of modern Christian origin, by its similarity
to the Mosaic records, and other accidental circumstances. The first was the
case among the Greenlanders (Cranz, " Historie v. Greenland," i, p. 262,
2 Aufl., 1770) ; the second was found among the Namaquas (Moffat, " Mission
Labours in South Africa," p. 126, 1842).
1 " Inquiry into the origin of the Antiquities of America," Cincinnati, 1836 ;
Bradford, "American Antiquities," New York, 1841.
2 Pott, " D. TJngl. menschl. Rassen," p. 257.
3 Erman's " Archiv f. wissl. Kunde v. Eussland," viii, p. 213.
4 "The Serpent Symbol," New York, 1851.
256 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I.
parallels of Humboldt refer to the chronology of the ancient
Mexicans and some Indian peoples. The zodiacal signs of the
Mongols are arbitrarily selected names of animals, the same
as serve for designating the years : mouse, ox, leopard,
hare, crocodile, serpent, horse, sheep, ape, fowl, dog, swine.
The Mandshus, Japanese, and Tibetians have, instead of the
leopard, crocodile, and sheep, the signs tiger, dragon, and
goat. The days of the months of the Mexicans have partly
the same names, — hare, serpent, ape, dog ; instead of the leo-
pard, crocodile, and fowl, they have the signs of the ocelot,
lizard, and eagle ; the other five animals of the first series
were unknown to them. Of the moon-calendar of the Hindoos,
seven signs are met with in Mexico, — serpent, tube, razor,
sun-orbit, dog-tail, house. What may be inferred from these
facts is simply this, that an Asiatic origin of many elements
of civilization in Mexico, is not less probable than numerous
immigrations into North-western America from Asia, as we
shall prove in the sequel. On such grounds, no proof of the
descent of Americans from Asia can be inferred. But what
under other circumstances might be considered as trivial,
namely, that Coxcox, of the Mexican legerld, corresponds to
Noah and his ark, and that even the green twig in the beak of
the bird is not wanting, acquires in this case some importance,
combined as it is found there with the analogy of baptism
with water. Still these coincidences do not necessarily lead
us to a definite conclusion, though they afford indications which
deserve to be further investigated.
When we merely find conformity of customs like the follow-
ing,— genealogy by the female line ; burying the arms, and
other valuable property, with the deceased; cutting off the
flesh from the bones of corpses, and worship of the dead;
referring all diseases to evil spirits ; treatment by magic, pecu-
liarities which the Madagascans possess in common with
many American tribes, — there is no necessity for inferring
either affinity or intercommunication. But when we find in
Madagascar a peculiar construction of bellows in use, formed
like a double pump, it may serve as a subsidiary argument that
the population of Madagascar is descended from the Malays, for
SECT. V.] HISTORICAL ANALOGIES. 257
the very same kind of bellows is in use in Sumatra,1 in the Lutu
islands (Wilkes), in Borneo, among the Dajaks,2 in Mindanao,3
in Timor,4 and in Dory in New Guinea.5 How little resemblances
of domestic arrangements signify by themselves, is shown by
King,6 who during his survey of York Sound on the Eoe river
in Australia, did not find two huts built perfectly alike ; and
Simpson,7 who saw in a camp of Flat-heads in North America,
tents of every possible construction. The same mode of pro-
curing fire, by whirling a thin piece of wood in the hole of a larger
piece, prevails in Australia, North and South America, among the
Kaffirs and Bushmen,8 also in the Carolines and Aleutes ; whilst
in Kadak, and in the Sandwich Islands, a small piece of wood
is placed in the groove of a larger piece, at an angle of 30°,
and rubbed against it.9 The Algonquins, in North Ame-
rica, strike fire by means of two stones.10 The remarkable
custom which Xenophon ascribes to the Tibarenes in Asia
Minor, that at the birth of a child the father goes to bed and
is attended to, is of such a kind that, if it be found among
different nations, one would, on account of its singularity, feel
inclined to assume that an intercommunication must have
taken place. This, however, becomes impossible, when we
learn that the custom prevails, not merely in West Yunnan
(M. Polo), in Bouro,11 but also in Africa, in Cassange,12 among
the Basques in Biscaya,13 and most frequently in South America,14
1 Marsden, " Sumatra," p. 347, Berlin, 1788.
2 Brook, in Keppel, " Expedition to Borneo," p. 75, 1846.
3 Dampier, " Nouv. voy. autour du monde," ii, p. 9, Amsterdam, 1701.
4 Peron, " Voyage de decouv. aux ter. Aust.," 2nd edit., atlas, pi. 46, 1824.
5 W. Earl, " Native races of the Indian Archipelago," p. 76, 1853.
6 " Narrative of a survey of the coasts of Austr.," i, p. 431, 1827.
7 " Narrative of a journey round the world," i, p. 143, 1847.
8 Alberti, " Desc. phys. et hist, des Caffres," p. 36, Amst., 1811 ; Campbell,
" Eeise in Sud-Afr.," p. 37, Weimar, 1823 ; Barrow, " Eeise durch d. inneren
G. des Siidl. Afr.," i, p. 281, 1801.
9 Chamisso, " Entdeckungsreise," p. 154.
10 Lafitau, " Moeurs des Sauvages Americains," ii, p. 242, 1724.
11 Ausland, p. 1046, 1855.
12 Zuchelli, " Miss. u. Keisebesch. nach Congo," p. 166, 1715,
13 Eougemont, " Le peuple primitif," ii, p. 420, 1855.
11 The unanimity of travellers forbids our considering this custom as a
fiction. The caiise seems to be a peculiar superstition. Among the Caribs
it is said to rest upon this, — that the husband is not allowed, at the birth of
a child, to kill any large but only small game, as birds, etc., — perhaps, in
order that the wife might not be obliged to overtask her powers in the
258 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART !
namely, among the Caribs,1 in the Pearl Island, near Cartha-
gena,2 on the Ucayale,3 on the Solimoes, among the Juris,4 01
the Tapajoz, among the Mundrucus,5 and among the Abi-
ponians.6
These examples prove how cautious we should be in arriving
at conclusions when we find merely conformities in such and
similar things, as they offer no secure basis by themselves for
inferring the affinity of peoples.
preparation of larger animals, hence the husband passes the greater part of
the day in his hammock (Quandt, " Nachr. v. Surinam," p. 252, 1807). Among
many peoples we hear of a continuous fasting of the husband on such occa-
sions, among the Conibos on the left bank of the Ucayale, among the Indians
on the Orinoco (St. Cricq, " Bui. Soc. Geogr.," p. 289, 1853; Gilii, p. 274). Ac-
cording to Labat (" Nouv. voy. aux iles del' Am.," ii, p. 123, 1724), this fasting
lasts, among the Caribs, thirty to forty days, but only takes place at the birth
of the first son, and is thus a religious custom.
1 Fennin, "Descr. de la col. de Surinam," i, p. 81, Amst., 1769; Lavaysse,
" Eeise nach Trinidad," 1816, denies it.
2 Allerhand, " Lehrreiche Briefe, v. d. Miss, der Ges. Jesu/' i, p. 56, 1726.
8 Tschudi, " Peru," p. 235, 1846.
4 Spix and Martius, p. 1186.
6 Ibid., p. 1339.
6 Dobrizhoffer, "Gesch. d. Abiponer," ii, p. 273, 1783.
259
PAKT II.
PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION.
IP the examination of the physical peculiarities of the races
of mankind had irresistibly led to the result, that the question
as regards the unity of mankind must be answered in the
negative, we might have been relieved of the necessity of in-
quiring into the psychical endowments of the various races ;
or we might have simply endeavoured to ascertain whether the
specific physical diversities corresponded to the differences in
psychical manifestations. But the psychological investigation
becomes highly important, if not indispensable, for the solu-
tion of the chief question when we find that, though anatomy
and physiology furnish us with stronger grounds in favour of
the unity of mankind, as a species, than the arguments ad-
duced for the opposite theory, they are of such a nature
that they cannot be considered as decisive. Again, however
conclusive the physical arguments in favour of unity might be,
they would lose their validity if it could be established, that
there existed permanent psychical differences, presenting im-
passable barriers to the development of individual races.
The psychological aspect of the question has not, it is true,
been entirely overlooked; but its importance has either not
been sufficiently estimated, or it has been treated with a
superficiality that would surprise us, if "the reason why"
were not so clear. If it be somewhat difficult to arrive
at a just estimation of the mental capacity of individuals
s2
260 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
known to us, it is still more difficult to estimate the psy-
chical capacity of whole nations or races : the judgment is, in
such cases, generally subjective. Individual nations occupy at
different periods, different scales of development ; and though
from the actual performances we may arrive at an estimation
of the faculties which produced them, they would seem to
vary at times. In addition to these difficulties, there is the
circumstance, that the external and internal causes, which in
one people effect the transition from a primitive to a civilized
state, are as much hidden from us as the causes which pre-
vented the development of another people and apparently
fixed it in the position which it once occupied. All this pro-
duces an inclination to cut the matter short, by assuming a
different endowment for individual races, — an assumption ren-
dered probable by the description of the chief features of the
thoughtless Negro, the restless nomadic American, the cannibal
south-islander. The primitive man stands in such striking
contrast to the civilized man, that the latter in his vanity con-
siders the former as specifically different ; that he himself once
occupied a similar position, he does not seem to take into any
serious consideration .
The reports we possess of the mental condition of uncultured
nations are numerous enough, but far from sufficient to enable
us to form a correct estimate of their inner life. Fragmentary
as these reports are, we derive from them no information as to
the mode of thinking and feeling peculiar to these nations, nor
as to the intellect manifested in many ways which, super-
ficially considered, appear frivolous or atrocious. Hence, re-
ligion, customs, and legends of such peoples, have hitherto
been treated as mere curiosities ; but no pains have been taken
to understand them so as to deduce from them proper infer-
ences with regard to psychical peculiarities, or a proper charac-
teristic of the uncivilized man.
There is another circumstance which deserves notice, namely,
that hitherto the problem of unity of species has been almost
exclusively treated by naturalists, who considered the psycho-
logical side of the question either as foreign to the main sub-
ject, or as of secondary consideration. If the question was
INTE.] CKANIAL CAPACITY. 261
mooted at all, it was under tlie assumption that the psychical
peculiarities of nations corresponded with their physical charac-
ters, especially with the structure of the skull ; in short, these
things were treated with a levity not unusual among physio-
logists when speaking of psychology. From the external re-
semblance of the Negro to the ape, the internal resemblance
was deduced without much ado. The cranial capacity was,
however, chiefly relied upon to measure the mental capacity.
Morton, especially, has endeavoured to establish that the
mental capacity of nations or races is always proportional to
the volume of the head ; and though, as we shall show, the
contrary results from what he endeavours to prove, his asser-
tions have been generally assented to.1 In Germany, the
same views were previously held. Recently, however, Engel2
observed that there were considerable doubts whether the
mass of the brain differed in crania of different types ; or
whether the contraction of the skull in one direction was not
compensated by an expansion in another; and whether the
various cranial shapes had any influence on cerebral activity.
Though we may fully acknowledge the importance of the fact
that the Indo-Germanic and Semitic nations, which have ever
been, and still are, the representatives of civilization (from the
Semitic races the three chief theistical religions have emanated),
either excel, or at any rate do not yield, in cerebral develop-
ment to any other race ; and assuming even as probable the
assertion of Lawrence,3 that the great diversities in the mental
development of nations can only be explained from innate dif-
ferences of cerebral structure ; still the axiom, that the shape
and capacity of the skull indicates the proportion of mental
capacity, remains unproved. ' ' Why," asks Prichard, pointedly,
" have the Georgians, despite their Greek crania, never been
mentally distinguished? Why has Greek and Roman civili-
zation yielded before the Germanic ? Why, we may ask, has
it at all declined, since the cranial shape and the cerebral struc-
1 See Hamilton Smith, p. 159 ; P. de Remusat, " Revue des deux Mondes,"
4me livre, 1854.
2 " Untersuchungen iiber Schadelformen," p. 124.
3 " Lectures," p. 416, 3rd edit., 1823.
262 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET II
ture have remained unaltered?" On consulting history, we
may easily find other examples showing the overthrow of
nations who were once highly civilized, possessed of beautifully
formed crania, by peoples of inferior mental capacity, and less
developed skulls. Notwithstanding the incontestable supe-
riority of the white man above the other races, the Turks and
the Magyars have entered Europe, obtained great conquests,
and become permanently settled. The larger cranial capacity
of the white race could not prevent it.
Turning to Parchappe's measurements,1 we find the races stand
in the following order, according to the volume of the head : —
Caucasians, Negroes, Mongols, Americans, and Malays. The
first is distinguished by the greatest length of the head, and
the greatest development of the forehead and occiput ; in the
Negro, the length is the same ; it is less in the Mongol and
the American, and considerably less in the Malay. Lawrence,
on the other hand, places the Malay, with regard to cranial
capacity, between the European and the Negro, and the Ame-
rican between the European and the Mongol.
In the tables of Tiedemann,2 the mean capacity of the
skull is : —
Cases. Ounces.
For the European - 135 - 40f
„ American - 31 - 40£
„ Mongol - 43 - 39f
„ Malay - - 77 - 38^
„ Adult Negro - - 48 - 37^
„ Asiatics and Africans of the white race 39 - 37f-
It is singular enough that these mean values, derived from
Tiedemann's data, are opposed to the axiom which he has
deduced from them, namely, that the brain of the Negro
is not smaller than that of the European; just as Morton's
measurements are in opposition to the results which he
infers from them. Morton says,3 that the mean cranial
capacity in the European amounted to 87 cubic inches;
1 " B-echerches sur 1'encephale."
2 " D. Him des Negers/' 1837.
3 " Crania Americana," p. 260.
INTE.] CRANIAL CAPACITY. 263
in the Mongol, 83 ; Malay, 81 ; American, 80 ; Negro, 78 ;
but at a later period,1 after further measurements, Morton
changed the order,2 so that the Malay comes immediately after
the Caucasian, with 85, the Negro with 83, the Mongol with
82, and the American with 79, cubic inches of brain ; and ac-
cordingly the American race (which is confirmed by Meigs, in
Nott and Gliddon3), is, in this respect, the least favoured. He
is thus frequently in conflict with his own assertions, that cra-
nial capacity corresponds with mental endowment. The old
Peruvians and Mexicans, the only American nations which had
arrived at a high degree of cultivation, possessed a cranial
capacity of 76 and 79 cubic inches.4 Nott and Gliddon5 give
to this so-called ' f Toltecan family,"6 on the average only
76 '8 cubic inches. An old, half-civilized people in Peru had
only 73, and the higher ranks of the old Peruvians 75, cub. in.;7
that is to say, as much as the Hottentots and the Alfurus, — the
result of 155 measurements, — whilst Morton gives to the bar-
barous nomadic nations of America, as the mean results of
161 measurements, 84 cub. in. ;8 to the Creeks, Iroquois, and
Esquimaux, 87 and 88 cub. in. ; i. e.} as much as to Europeans,
but much less to the more gifted Cherokees \ to the Hindoo 75,
and to the Negro 78 cub. in.9 In order to sustain his axiom,
he adds, as a good phrenologist, that the barbarous Indian
tribes, by defending their liberty, have proved themselves to be
better endowed than the slavish Peruvians and Mexicans ; and
Philipps,10 as well as Nott and Gliddon, skilfully evade the
question by the assertion, that in barbarous nations the lower
1 Silliman'a " Am, Journ. of Science," 2nd series, ix, p. 247.
2 Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 450.
3 " Indigenous races, of the Earth," 1857.
4 "Crania Americana," p. 261.
5 "Types of mankind," p. 446.
6 Morton frequently speaks of Toltecan skulls he had before him. It must
be mentioned that he designates by " Toltecans," very inappropriately, we
think, all the ancient South and North American cultivated nations indis-
criminately.
7 Schoolcraft, " History of the Indian Tribes," iii, p. 239.
* Nott and Gliddon, 82-4 cub. in. In opposition to Morton, Warren main-
tains that, from the measurements of the crania in his collection, the old
civilized nations of America were distinguished from the barbarous by larger
foreheads and superior cranial shape (Prescott, " History of the Conquest of
Mexico," 2nd edit., 1844.)
9 " Crania Americana," pp. 173, 195, 247.
10 In Schoolcraft, iii, p. 331.
264 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
faculties of the occipital region are predominating ; whilst the
anterior part of the brain — the intellectual portion — is not so
much developed as in the Peruvians and Mexicans. How-
ever, it unfortunately happens that the latter, in spite of their
cultivation, had low receding foreheads ; and that, as regards
the savage tribes of America, a flattened, small developed occi-
put, has, by Morton himself, been considered as typical. As
another contradiction, may be mentioned, that the old Egyp-
tians had only 80 cubic inches,1 and must accordingly, like the
Hindoos, old Peruvians, and Mexicans, have possessed less
brains than the barbarous nations which lived in their vicinity.
By the way, we may mention, that according to Tiedemann's
and Morton's tables,2 the difference between the mean cranial
capacity of the Englishman and Irishman amounts to 9 cubic
inches, and that between the Irishman and the Negro only to
4 cubic inches.
Huschke3 has recently made numerous measurements, and
found that, though in all races relatively large and small skulls
occur, the size of the cranium increases from the lower to
higher races, among whom the largest crania are met with.
But even his special data do not support his general propo-
sitions. They are as follows : —
MEAN RESULTS OF CRANIAL CAPACITY.
Ounces. Cases.
Male Europeans - 40'88 - 441
„ Americans - - 39'13 - 31
„ Mongols - 38-39 - 46
„ Negroes - - 37-57 - 54
„ Malays - 36'41 - 98
It may be immediately seen that this series does not agree
with any of those quoted, but that it proves as little the pro-
position, that cranial capacity and mental qualifications are cor-
responding ; for the gifted Malay has, according to the above
1 Mean results of 55 cases, Silliman, loc. cit. ; Nott and Gliddon, " Types,"
pp. 280, 432, 450.
2 Quoted by Bachmann, in Smyth, " The unity of the human races," p. 262,
1850.
3 Schadel, Hirn, und Seele, 1854.
3 " Crania Americana," p. 260.
INTE.] CRANIAL CAPACITY. 265
table, the least quantity of brain, and the Mongol less than
the American. One might feel inclined to set aside the first
objection, as Huschke has done,1 namely, that the cranial capa-
city of the Hindoo, which according to him only contains 27
ounces of brain, is to that of the European only =2:3.
This he explains from the circumstance that the Hindoo, on the
average, is only 4 feet high, whilst the European is 6 feet, and
that therefore the brain is proportional to the size of the body.
This explanation is unsatisfactory, for the Hindoo is, on the
average, 5 feet 2 inches high ;2 nor is it all applicable to the
Malay, who is not on the average smaller than the Mongol.
Another difficulty is, that the old Egyptians possessed, next
to the Hindoos, the smallest skulls of all Caucasian races
(Huschke). That some American nations have uncommonly
large heads, was proved by the fact, that the hats fabricated in
Paris for the natives of Canada and New Orleans during the war
of liberation, were all too small for them. The inhabitants of
Tierra del Fuego, the Esquimaux, and the natives of Yan Die-
men's Land, have all, with a compact structure, uncommonly
large heads, which seems to be the case with all inhabitants of
cold regions, Caucasians included, in comparison with the in-
habitants of warmer climates.3 Virey4 observes, that the
Russian possesses a more capacious skull than the Swede ; the
Kalmuck and Tartar; a larger cranium than the civilized Euro-
pean; but the Laplander is particularly distinguished by a
greatly developed cranial structure. Desmoulins has also
pointed out the disproportion existing in the Mongol, and
especially in the so-called Hyperborean race, between the size
of the head and mental qualification. Finally, instances are
not wanting which prove that the same or similar intellectual
and moral dispositions coexist with different cranial formations ;
and vice versd, different dispositions with the same or similar
cranial shape and capacity. We see one and the same people,
in the course of its history, proceed from barbarism to civiliza-
1 Page 49.
2 Lassen, " Ind. Alterthumskunde," i, p. 402.
3 Parchappe, loc cit., p. 51.
4 " Hist. nat. du genre humain," i, p. G6, 1834.
266 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
tion, and again relapse from its high state, and its capacities
decline ; but as the cranial shape (as is usually assumed),
remains the same, the assertion that the intellectual faculties
are dependent on it, is not even consonant with the doctrine
of the immutability of race-crania. We are thus compelled to
renounce the doctrine that the capacity of the cranium indi-
cates the amount of mental endowment.
Having disposed of this preliminary question, and shown
that the size of the skull presents us with no criterion for
the peculiarities of intellectual life, we must endeavour to in-
dicate the path we ought to pursue in these investigations.
As, in physical respects, all men may be considered as be-
longing to the same species, if it can be proved that the
greatest physical differences occurring among them, are not
more considerable than such as may have arisen in the
same people in the course of time ; so may we, in psychical
respects, count all as belonging to the same species, if it can
be shown that the greatest differences of their mental develop-
ment and their intellectual and moral culture, are not greater
than the differences of the degrees of civilization which the
same people passes through in its history. Here the question
is not either to prove or to refute that at present, e. g. an
individual Negro, or the Negro race generally, is capable of
the same intellectual performances as an European civilized
people; for nations are as much dependent on the historical
basis of their vital development as individuals, and it is impos-
sible that peoples passing through different stages of develop-
ment should be capable of the same intellectual performances.
But if by the term capacity be designated — what alone should
be designated by it — not the possible performances at any
given time, but such as are possible to the living generation
under the most favourable circumstances; then it becomes
clear, not only that the capacities of a people may change in
the course of time, but that the judgment, as regards the
unity of mankind, depends on the solution of the question,
whether, under favourable circumstances, in the course of
time, all nations and tribes are capable, or not, of reaching the
same degree of mental development.
INTR.] GIST OP THE PSYCHOLOGICAL QUESTION. 267
Though we may all agree that the capacity of the Negroes
is at present far inferior to that of the White race, — and who
would not admit this ? — nothing can be deduced from this ad-
mission in favour of the assumption, that there exist specific
psychical differences among the races of man.
Like our preceding physical investigation, the results of the
present inquiry will depend on the solution of the question
relating to the greatest differences existing in the various races
as regards mental development, and the greatest changes
which in this respect take place among the same people.
If we find in the same stock, or in different peoples at dif-
ferent periods, or at the same period in different nations, psy-
chical diversities which equal or approach the generally exist-
ing differences, the latter cannot be considered as specific.
This also holds good when the differences of individuals, apart
of course from morbid phenomena (idiocy, etc.), approach that
maximum. The intellectual development of individuals is
doubly important for our investigation; partly because the
most and the least gifted of every people gauge the limits of
its intellectual capacity, and thus furnish us with an indi-
cation whether or not we have to do with specific differ-
ences; and partly in as far as the most gifted may, under
favourable circumstances elevate the people to which they
belong, to a higher degree of civilization, and (what is insepa-
rable from it) to a higher degree of mental capacity.
It is easy to see, that for the solution of this question a per-
fect and special description of the intellectual life, and all its
peculiarities of barbarous nations, is requisite, as its affirmation
or negation can only be obtained by contrasting their chief
features with the most striking performances of civilized
nations in their historical development. Reserving the details
for the sequel, we will consider here the psychological problem
generally.
We may start from the assumption that, as in the life
of individuals, so also in that of nations, all cultivation is
something secondary, resting upon a gradual progress to a
better state than was the primitive or natural state of mankind.
This natural state, marked by the absence of all cultivation,
268 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
we must imagine to have been the original condition of every
race ; and though we would not designate it as an utterly
barbarous and degraded state, we must consider it as a mode
of human existence in which all intellectual and moral forces
were yet undeveloped. But though we are compelled to pro-
ceed from the assumption, that all peoples have passed through
a period so absolutely uncultured, that originally they were
psychically -equal, there yet remains a possible supposition that
some — owing to superior predispositions, perhaps in conse-
quence of an innate specific impulse — have more easily, and
from slighter external influences, worked their way out of
that original state, than other peoples who not 'only were un-
able to effect this, but who were also unable to appropriate the
elements of foreign civilization.
Keeping the latter point in view, our first task must be to
find out the specific characters of man generally, i. e., those
which distinguish him from the brute, in order to learn whether
or not these characters pertain to all races and individuals.
The second question, then, will be, whether within these cha-
racters, which constitute the psychical essence of man, there
exist permanent differences which compel us to view the races
of mankind, not as varieties of one species, but as species of a
genus. In attempting a solution of this question, we shall —
availing ourselves of existing materials — have to sketch a
picture of the natural state of man, which, free from philoso-
phical theories, must be founded on our actual knowledge of
mankind. In order finally to arrive at a correct estimation of
the differences between the various stocks in mental develop-
ment, we shall have to take into consideration the circum-
stances which induce man to leave the natural state ; whereby
we may learn whether the existing differences in development
are the result of specific differences in mental endowment,
or the consequence of different surrounding media, mode of
life, contact with other nations; in short, of differences of
their historical events, or possibly of the combination of
both.
SECT. I.] PERFECTIBILITY. 269
SECTION I.
THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS OF MAN.
We deemed it superfluous, in treating of the physical cha-
racters of man, to enter into any details as regards the differ-
ences which distinguish man from the brute, as they are too
well known. With regard, however, to his psychical life,
the differences are not so patent ; for even now we meet with
authors who, perhaps judging from their own experience,
consider that the mental life of the lower races is not superior
to that of the ape. The witty saying of Beaumarchais, " Boire
sans soif et faire V amour en tout temps, c'est ce qui distingue
Vhomme de la b£te," has been defended in all seriousness, even
by those who, unprejudiced, have merely judged from the im-
pressions produced upon the European by a perfectly unculti-
vated people. From the various judgments passed on so-
called savages, it is no idle question to inquire into the essential
differences which separate man from the brute, as these marks
of distinction form the common basis for the mental life both
of the savage and the civilized man.
It is not sufficient for this object to find a term by which
this specific difference can be designated so as to be generally
acceptable. Various formulae of the kind have been given, and
we may assent to some without preferring any in particular.
When we attribute to man, exclusively, reason or perfectibility,
and deny them to animals, the question must be, in what sense
we take these significant terms. Moreover, this perfectibility,
which is so often described as a general criterion of humanity,
is, by some authors, denied to the inferior races; whether
rightly or wrongly will be shown by the historical consideration
of individual tribes and their mental characteristics. We are
thus induced to lay aside general notions, and to keep to par-
ticulars. Moreover, it is difficult to doubt that some animals,
though they have no history in our sense, possess a certain
perfectibility, such as the dog and the horse. There is no
doubt that it is not by the spontaneous impulse of these animals,
270 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
but by the influence of man, that they leave the natural state
and reach a higher degree of mental culture. To convince
ourselves that these animals are really capable of such a mental
improvement, we need only compare the Arabian horse with
its wild parent stock. Constantly in intercourse with its
master and his family, it is cared for like a member of the
family, and, like a near relation, the animal takes an interest in
all that concerns the family : it learns to understand human
actions and occurrences; and that it sometimes acts spon-
taneously and seemingly sympathizes with the misfortunes and
joys of the family, has been supported by many examples.
Can we, then, deny perfectibility to these animals, or doubt
that their sphere of thought is capable of enlargement beyond
what appears its natural limits ?
We must, then, search for more decided differences between
man and the brute than such as are designated by the term
' ( perfectibility," and we must look for them in the perform-
ances peculiar to mankind. This investigation will, at the
same time, teach us the circumstances and relations upon
which the character of perfectibility, exclusively attributed to
man, rests.
That man learns from experience, is one of the most im-
portant but not a specific peculiarity. Common observation
of our domestic animals sufficiently shows that they also profit
by experience, frequently in a very short time, and the lesson
thus acquired lasts for life. Elephants, who have once and
decisively experienced the superiority of man, are usually
docile afterwards. Wild horses, caught with the lasso, use
every effort to set themselves free, but once tamed they prove
docile for ever. Monkeys who have once burned their lips in
swallowing hot liquids, afterwards wait with patience until
they are cooled j1 but this profiting of former experiences does
not seemingly pass beyond a certain point. Thus monkeys
are frequently caught by means of pots placed into the earth,
filled with maize, through the narrow neck of which they are
able to introduce the empty hand, but unable to withdraw it
1 Bennet, " Wanderings in New South Wales," ii, p. 158, 1834.
SECT. I.] TEACHINGS OP EXPERIENCE. 271
when filled. Now, though we would not deny that the un-
civilized man, overcome in a similar manner by sensual desire,
does not reap all the fruit of his experience ; still, it would be
difficult to catch men in so simple a manner as are the
monkeys.
We must not, however, estimate too lightly what animals
really learn from experience. The mysterious word f ' instinct"
conceals, in the psychical life of animals, more intellectuality
and less mechanism than is usually assumed. We would ad-
duce as a proof the important fact, that the known phenomena
which we are accustomed to ascribe to an instinctive fear of
man, are probably the result of experience, — be it from a tra-
dition unknown to us, — from a kind of instruction given by
the parents to the young, or that later generations have by
nature become more cautious and shy, whilst their progenitors
became so by experience. We are led to this view by the
conduct of animals in countries which were never inhabited by
man. All kinds of birds, says, Darwin,1 not excluding birds
of prey, are, on the Galapagos islands, perfectly tame, — all
may be approached so near as to be struck or caught. Accord-
ing to Cowley and Dampier (1684), they seem formerly to have
been still more confiding. Even on the Falkland islands,
where there are falcons and foxes, the same observation has
been made. It is, however, different as regards birds of pass-
age, who have acquired experience in other countries. On
Possession Island (Victoria Land), the penguins appeared in-
clined to obstruct the progress of the crew of Capt. Boss.3 In
Kordofan, the birds are less shy if the sportsman appears in a
dress different from that worn in the country.3
On comparing man with the brute in this respect, the
teachings which he derives from experience, are not only more
comprehensive, but they exercise a deeper influence on the
whole formation of his external and inner life, and enable him
to occupy a dominating position even in the lowest state of
civilization. Just as the civilized man conquers the savage,
1 " Naturalists' Voyage/' chap. xvii.
2 " Voyage in the Southern and Antarctic regions," i, p. 189, 1847.
3 Pallme, « Beschr. v. Kordofan," p. 153, 1843.
272 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
so does the latter overpower the brute, not so much by phy-
sical as by mental force. He uses their instincts in a variety
of modes to deceive them, imitates their sounds, catches them
by baits, and hunts each species according to its peculiar
habits.
As this accommodation to circumstances and their skilful
use shows, even in the most savage nations, a decided supe-
riority above the brute creation, so it is not less exhibited in
the subjection of nature to human objects. Protection against
the influences of the climate by dress and habitation, manu-
facture of tools, and instruments for fishing, hunting, etc., the
preparation of food, are found among every people on the
globe ; in all which we find a far greater use of experience
than is found in the most gifted animal. What has formerly
been related of the natives of the Marian Islands, namely, that
they were unable to light a fire, has been proved to be fabulous.
At Fakaafo only (Union Islands, north of the Samoa Archi-
pelago), where the inhabitants live entirely on cocoa-nuts and
pandanus, no trace of cooking or firing has been found,1 but
they seem scarcely to have any use for it.
Next to the teachings of experience, must be mentioned the
important privilege of the designating or representing faculty
by which man gives fixity to and regulates his thoughts, and
exchanges them with others. Whilst animals possess but im-
perfect means of communication, and consequently every indi-
vidual leads, if not externally yet internally, an isolated life,
we see man in every stage of his development constantly en-
deavouring to give expression to his emotions by sensible
images and sounds. In this kind of activity, as Schleiermacher
observed, is manifested an essentially human peculiarity. Ori-
ginally he finds a certain relief by giving audible and visible
expression to his feelings. This is not the place to enter into
any particulars as regards the origin of language ; all that we
here require is, to point out the possession of language, and
its use as a specific human peculiarity.
It is now generally admitted, that even the most barbarous
1 Wilkes's " Narrative of United States' Expedition," v, p. 18, 1845.
SECT. I.] MAN AND BRUTE. 273
nations possess a language with a more or less regular gram-
matical structure. Though it be more than probable that
animals possess some means of intercommunication, their per-
formances in this respect have only a very distant resemblance
to language. Nature has limited most of them to the produc-
tion of but few sounds and gestures.
Deficient in ideas, animals can only give expression as re-
gards their concrete condition. Human language presupposes
not merely definite individual conceptions of separate qualities,
but of their relations to each other, so to say, an articulation
of ideas by which alone a designation by grammatical forms
becomes possible. However low a language may be in its
development, it could neither express thoughts nor render
them intelligible, if in the ideal world of the speaker, as well
as in that of the listener, such a regulation of thought did not
exist ; and this is one of the proofs that the psychical condition
of man, however uncultivated he may be, is specifically dif-
ferent from that of the brute. But inasmuch as the possession
of a language of regular grammatical structure forms a fixed
barrier between man and the brute, it establishes at the same
time a near relationship between all peoples in psychical re-
spects, agreeing as they do in the most essential peculiarity of
intellectual life, namely, in the power of arranging the rela-
tions of substantive separate ideas so as to give them a definite
oral expression. In the presence of this common feature of
the human mind, all other differences lose their importance,
and make us more inclined to consider them as merely differ-
ences in degree ; the more so as there are peoples who, despite
their mental degradation, possess a language by no means
undeveloped as regards grammatical structure. We agree,
therefore, with Pott,1 ' ' If theology feared that an original dif-
ference of language, which linguists assume, would involve
the original unity of the human species (which by no means
follows), the science of language restores to theology the psy-
chical unity of mankind, compared with which the physical
unity must yield in importance."
1 " Von der Ungleichh. menschl. Eassen," p. 243.
274 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
ies
el-
el-
This is amply proved by the reports on the mental qualities
of uncivilized nations, furnished by a great variety of travel-
lers. Everywhere we find essentially the same type of intel-
lectual activity : the same motives for action, the same mental
emotions, the same passions, the same mode of irritation, asso-
ciation, etc., are observed in the savage as in the civilized
European, without any distinction of race ; and as soon as we
can appreciate the motive for action, we find, even in the most
ape-like Negro, a homogeneous human nature.
There is much in the inner life of animals which will, per-
haps, ever remain unintelligible to us. What may be their
motives for action, what determines their conceptions and
associations of ideas, especially their mechanical instinct, is
scarcely known to us, for it is very doubtful whether the in-
stinct which impels them rests upon some obscure conceptions
or upon something specific. But in the presence of human
beings we are never in the same dilemma. However great the
difference between their mental culture and ours, we may, if
time and opportunity are favourable, learn to understand all
their actions, and we are thus justified in assuming in the
human species, only differences in culture.
Next to speech must be mentioned some other specific dif-
ferences which distinguish man from the brute, namely, the
use of a number of external signs expressive of the relations
in which persons permanently or temporarily stand to each
other; salutation; the signs of veneration or contempt, of
peace and friendship, or the reverse; of agreement or dis-
agreement, etc. Further, the distinctive marks of rank in
clothing, head-dress, ornament, and other marks on the body.
Thus, a shorn head frequently marks the slave in Africa; an
artificially compressed head, in America, distinguishes the free
man; scars of certain forms, and in certain spots, generally
distinguish the tribes among Negro peoples. The tattooed
figures in the South Sea seem originally to have had the same
object in view.
Another comprehensive class of marks deserves mentioning,
such as ornamentation of external life, having little reference
to the material well-being. This is found even among the
SECT. I.] CHARACTERISTICS OP MAN. 275
rudest nations, and is really specifically human. However
poor and miserable, man finds a pleasure in adorning himself.
He adorns his person, his instruments, etc., with the greatest
industry, and even supports, as in tattooing, great physical
pain for this object. What impels him is simply the pleasure
to be beautiful in his own eyes and to be admired by others,
and so he bepaints and bedecks himself, and all that belongs
to him. Variegated colours and their grotesque combination,
musical sounds and their variations, are agreeable to him ; he
finds a certain satisfaction in depicting by lines and colours
what has interested him ; he constructs musical instruments,
and thus he beautifies his life, the mere attempt of which
raises him, on account of the intellectual basis upon which
it rests, far above the scale occupied by the most gifted
animals.
A third chief peculiarity of man must be mentioned, — his
social character, with which his capacity of speaking stands in
intimate relation. Aristotle called him, on account of this
character, not a gregarious, but a political being. Men asso-
ciate together, not merely under the guidance of an individual,
as is the case with many animals, but their association in tribes
and families is more consistent. The individuals are not so
isolated as animals belonging to the same flock ; but the ex-
change of thought by language leads them to more intimate
relations between each other, — to greater sympathy. True,
not everywhere do human beings, living together, form a state,
the nature of the country and the dispersion of the population
frequently prevent this, as in Australia; but nowhere are
peculiar social customs absent, whilst the habits of gregarious
animals seem to be everywhere the same : everywhere we find
practical ideas of property and right. The small value attached
to property by savage nations, must not induce us to think
that they know nothing of property. Common property of a
tribe or family is acknowledged everywhere, where peoples
come in contact : property in the soil, which a stranger must
not enter without the permission of the proprietor, seems to
be sometimes more fixed among savage nations than we are
inclined to believe. Private property is nowhere wanting
T2
27(3 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
when individuals may have to dispute the possession of any
goods ; but such disputes exist everywhere.
The ethical importance of private property is founded upon
this, that it enlarges the sphere of activity in the individual,
and secures his future. This enlargement of his sphere only
becomes important to man, because he looks into the future,
and wishes to protect himself against possible future evils.
Property can thus only belong to those who do not, like ani-
mals, live merely in the present, but who look forward into the
future. In order that property should be respected, it must
be distinguishable. Again, in order that it should fulfil its
object, property must be transferable, which is only possible if
the will to transfer and that of accepting it can be communi-
cated by intelligible signs. But all these presuppositions,
which constitute the essence of property, prove again the un-
surmountable barrier which separates the rudest nation from
animals.
Though all peoples do not possess a regular common-
wealth, they nevertheless form a society in which there are
certain gradations, which ultimately develop themselves into a
distinction of ranks. Human society everywhere has some
common interest in opposition to the private interests of tho
individuals composing it. A common external enemy, or
a common misfortune by natural agencies, would suffice to
call forth such a common interest. One or more individuals
acquire authority, and are either feared or respected. Such
relations are wanting in no human society, and have but a dis-
tant resemblance to the rivalry shown among some animals,
and to the influence which leaders of the gregarious ani-
mals acquire.
Among the social peculiarities, there is also to be mentioned
a specific feature, the attachment to his country, family, and
people, owing partly to the personal relations of individuals.
This attachment does not exist in animals, deficient as they
are in individualization : an animal can easily be separated
from one flock and attached to another ; whilst for man, how-
ever uncivilized he may be, such a separation from a locality, —
where by language, personal intercourse, and a thousand habits
SECT. I.] CHARACTERISTICS RELIGIONS. 277
his being has taken root, — is always painful, making him feel
that for his happiness he requires not merely human society in
general, but some definite individuals by whom he is under-
stood. It is the great misery to which the Negro is exposed
which renders it possible that he nearly forgets this human
desire, rejoicing merely in a sensual existence, and finding
his happiness in eating and drinking, idling and sleeping.
But such facts as these, which can only be explained by an
entire perversion of the natural human relations, by no means
prove that the character of humanity is absent in the Negro.
It is chiefly language which separates and unites mankind, by
impressing the national character upon the individual, and the
peculiar mode of thinking and feeling belonging to his stock,
drawing thus closer the bonds which unite the individuals as
a whole. The power of public opinion, to which also the un-
civilized man is subject, shows how sensible he is to the
applause or censure of his fellow-men.
"We have now considered the specific psychical activity of
man in three directions : — in availing himself of surround-
ing natural phenomena for his own objects, profiting largely
by experience; in giving outward expression to his internal
feelings either by language or other visible signs ; in his
social relations with their concomitant rights and property,
leading to certain gradations in society, and to a closer
attachment to his own people. Though we find here the
elements from which science, art, and morality gradually
arise ; there is yet another principle, leading to a higher spi-
ritual development, namely, the religious element. This is
nowhere entirely wanting ; and though it may manifest itself
in the crudest form, its influence can be traced in the history
of every people.
It has been asserted, that there are peoples among whom
there is not a vestige of religion ; and, on the other hand, that
all known peoples have their gods. A strict investigation has
established that the first assertion is false, and the second not
true. All depends on what is meant by religion and religious
worship, otherwise the contest about the universality of this
principle is merely a play upon words. Though it may be
278 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
admitted, as indeed it is the truth, that there are some savages
among whom hitherto religious ideas — taken in a restricted
sense, a belief in divine beings — have not been found, it must
be noticed, that they are generally those peoples of whom our
knowledge is very scanty, and that on becoming better ac-
quainted with them, religious sentiments have been detected,
as is sufficiently indicated by certain superstitious ceremonies.
We would here only mention a few such instances. It has been
asserted, that the inhabitants of the Arru Islands neither be-
lieved in G od nor a future life j1 yet they possess carved images
of men and beasts, who protect their habitations from evil
spirits.2 The Dajaks, on the Lundu river, in the north-east of
Borneo, have neither priests, nor temples, nor images ; still,
they have omens and augurs,3 and traces of old Hindoo worship
have also been found among them. Neither images nor any
religious worship have been met with in New Caledonia ;4 still,
the natives have their tabus, magic, and magicians. Thus,
Anderssen5 could find nothing approaching religious worship
among the Ovambos ; yet, he observes, very justly, that on
nearer acquaintance we shall find that they, too, have some
idea, though a very crude one, of an invisible power.
It is certain that all peoples do not believe in a God who
directs everything in the world ; but if by religious belief be
understood the conviction of the existence of invisible mys-
terious powers which, in various modes, influence the pheno-
mena of nature, so that man and his fate is dependent on their
favour, we may safely assert, that every people possesess a kind
of religion. No doubt, in peoples standing in the lowest
scale of civilization, this religion is merely a belief in spectres,
still, the religious element is recognizable. Moral ideas appear
not originally allied with these religious views. Thus, we find
that the Kamtschadales consider only the transgression of
their superstitious customs as sin ; to pierce coal with a knife,
to scrape off the snow from the shoes, etc., they consider as
1 Cooke Taylor, " Natural History of Soc.," i, p. 167, 1840.
2 Kolff, " Voyage of the Brig Dourga," translated by W. Earl, p. 159, 1840.
3 Brooke, " Narrative of events in Borneo and Celebes," i, p. 23, 2nd ed., 1848;
Journ. E. G. S., xxiii, p. 78.
4 Lascazas, in " Nouv. ann. des Voy.," i, p. 332, 1855.
5 " Eeisen in Siidwest Afrika, Deutch," von Lotze, i, p. 214, 1858.
SECT. I.] ORIGIN OP RELIGIONS. 279
very wrong, and attribute to it diseases, whilst the coarsest
vices appear to them venial. Moral ideas flow from an essen-
tially different source than religion, but both are associated
when man reaches a higher degree of civilization. We must
also consider as erroneous, the opinion that morality and
religion have grown out from a common root, namely,
conscience.
Though man may be considered as the lord of the creation,
his dominion is by no means a secure one ; the less so the
lower he stands in psychical development : his wishes and
aims are not fulfilled, his plans are frustrated, misery and want
overtake him. Whose fault is this ? who effects it ? These
are the questions which occur both to the savage and the
civilized man. The first answer which man returns to his own
questions is generally to the following effect : — There is an
inimical power which wills my misfortune, — a wicked being
which, with invisible power, leads me to destruction. The
belief in spirits is extended to all nature, the course of which,
though apparently uniform and regular, still appears to the un-
civilized man as incalculable. Man sees in the natural sensible
phenomena something more than material forces; he sees in
them supernatural powers and a supernatural connexion, — he
spiritualizes nature. We find all uncultured peoples in this
condition ; and though they may be deficient in definite ideas
of a God and fixed forms of worship, the religious element, so
far from being absent, influences their whole conception of
nature.
Temples are not everywhere erected to higher powers, nor
images nor sacrifices made ; but, in great need, invocations of
such powers, and attempts to appease their wrath or malice are
nowhere wanting. Their habitations are usually imagined to be
on high mountains, or in inaccessible places. Dreams, un-
common occurrences, disease, and even natural death, are
ascribed to the influence of spirits. The fear of the dead, and
the honour shown to them, among all uncultured nations, are
partly connected with the belief that the departed souls return
to the earth, and like other spirits, reappear in an animal form
to plague the living. This is essentially the essence of the
280 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
religious ideas which we found developed with remarkable
uniformity among savage peoples.
In recapitulating the sum of specific human peculiarities, we
find that the general question, as regards the psychological basis
upon which the differences between man and the animal rest,
consists of a series of special questions, as follows : How does
it come to pass, that man gains so much more from experience
than the brute ? that he is capable of giving expression to his
ideas ? that he has the sense of beauty ? that he looks into
and cares for the future ? and that, finally, he believes that
there is a spiritual world beneath the material world ?
The last of these questions is the most easily answered.
As man has wishes, pursues certain objects, and recognizes
that he has a will which regulates his actions, he attributes
all this to external nature, whenever he is hindered by it
in the attainment of his objects. He can only conceive the
course of nature from the analogy to his own actions ; so that
all natural phenomena whose powers he experiences, are con-
sidered by him as acting and willing beings. With regard to
the specific peculiarity, that man looks into and cares for the
future^ it may be observed, that the faculty is altogether em-
pirical, for all expectation of what is to come depends on the
recollection in what order and sequence events occurred in
the past.
To what extent an individual is capable of profiting by
experience, chiefly depends on the correctness with which he
has conceived past phenomena, and the mode in which he com-
pares them with present circumstances. Particular circum-
stances may contribute to present the past to us in a more or
less vivid light, but the essential conditions always remain, —
the mode and the strength of the original conception. We
must therefore assume that there is an original difference
between man and the brutes in the mode of conception, and
consequent recollection of external phenomena.
We must here point out that the natural requirements of man
for the preservation of his life and protection against the
elements, are more various and more difficult to be procured,
and require greater mental efforts than those of animals, and
SECT. I.] DISTINCTIONS OP MAN AND BRUTE. 281
that consequently he is driven to thousands of expedients by
which he is both taught and psychically developed. By his
upright walk, nature seems to have destined him to take a
comprehensive view of surrounding objects; whilst the pos-
session of " the instrument of instruments," as Aristotle calls
the human hand, equally indicates his capacity for a higher
mental development.1 All these are, no doubt, important at-
tendant circumstances, contributing in a high degree to the
preservation of man's capacity to learn from experience, as
compared with that of brutes ; but these are merely subordinate,
not fundamental conditions. Little would it avail man that
his wants are more multifarious than those of brutes, that
nature grants him less, that he must use his own exertions,
and that his necessities stimulate him to use his senses and his
natural instruments, if he were not enabled to do so by his
greater powers of perception and recollection of individual
phenomena and their relations.
That there exists in this respect a very great difference be-
tween man and the brute, is established by many facts. When
in a state of liberty, animals appropriate only clear conceptions
of the few things relating to their food and mode of life.
Everything else passes by them unnoticed, though they pos*
sess equally acute, and in some respects stronger, senses. But
all their senses are not developed in an equal degree ; thus the
sense of smell is more developed, the selection of their food
being chiefly dependent on its exercise. Man, on the other
hand, requires all his senses for the satisfying of his wants ;
hence, not one of them acquires such a predominance as
we see in most animals. If to this development of all the
senses be added, a better memory for received impressions, a
larger basis for a higher psychical development becomes mani-
fest. Having thus disposed of one great distinctive feature
between man and the brute, as regards his capacity to profit
by experience, we shall now investigate two other specific cha-
racters,— individualization, and the power of speech.
1 Buffon maintains, that the greater intellect of some men, in comparison
with others, may be explained from the more extended use of the hands made
by the former in early childhood.
282 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
With regard to the power of speech, we have already indi-
cated that its essential psychological condition — of which
alone we treat in this place1 — consists in the possession of an
articulated ideal world, of such a nature, that single con-
ceptions corresponding with relatively substantive objects, are
kept separate, whilst their constantly changing relations to
each other are clearly distinguished by us. But the fulfilment
of this condition depends again on the original mode of con-
ception of things, and on the degree of distinctness with which
what has been conceived is again reproduced. If the percep-
tion is imperfect and one-sided, the conceptions, which can
only reproduce the perceptions, are equally so ; and this is the
reason why animals are incapable of speech. They are not
deficient in the conception of individual things relating to their
vital necessities, but these are comparatively few in number ;
all other impressions of the senses produce only a confused
aggregate, and the distinction of the relation of individual im-
pressions cannot be accomplished. In man, all senses are
equally called upon to receive impressions from the external
world; he thus acquires separate conceptions of separate
objects, and their relations to each other, by which speech be-
comes possible.
On the same conditions, but more intimately, depends the
more distinctive individuality by which man is separated
from the brute. Speech, and the personal relations induced
by it, influence the individualization of characters. It is by
means of language that individuals enter into various and more
intimate relations to each other; the experiences which they
gather in their intercourse give a particular impress to each
individual, varying according to the variety of his connexion
with other individuals who have contributed to its develop-
ment. We have already had occasion to observe, that the
language of a people testifies to the degree of civilization, and
that its grammatical structure decisively influences the psy-
chical peculiarity ; it separates the national characters of peoples,
and frequently acts upon the development of individuals.
1 It is scarcely necessary to observe, that we do not explain here the origin
of language, but merely the psychological condition for its possibility.
SECT. I.] DISTINCTIONS OP MAN AND BRUTE. 283
This enlarged individualization within the human species, rests
upon a richer vital development, founded upon a peculiar con-
ception of the results of experience.
There is only one specific peculiarity mentioned by us which
cannot apparently be traced to the same foundation ; namely,
the sense of the beautiful, so that man does not remain satis-
fied with merely providing for his physical wants, but orna-
ments his body, and what belongs to him in various ways. It
may be that such attempts are not made where an individual
lives in perfect isolation, that they are founded on vanity and
desire of distinction above others ; still, the problem is not
solved by it. The impression produced on the mind by music
belongs to this, like other sensual perceptions which do not
merely supply vital necessaries. The agreeable sensations and
pleasurable feelings of which animals are capable, seem to be
much less various, and almost exclusively confined to the gra-
tification of the lower senses (smell and taste). We are not
far wrong, if we consider this limitation to the gratification of
the lower senses as one of the chief causes of the psychical
inferiority of animals.
When we consider how decisive, for the mode of our con-
ceptions of things and their remembrance, is the interest we
take in a particular object, and how this interest determines
the degree of intensity and direction of our attention, we must
feel inclined to trace back the differences existing between man
and animals, in their original modes of conception and the
strength of memory, to an original difference in the interest
taken by different creatures. The interest in an object is pro-
portional to the pleasurable feeling experienced or expected from
it. In man, there are many perceptions of the higher senses
allied to such pleasurable feelings, which induce him to pay
greater attention to their development and impressions ; whilst
the pleasurable feelings of animals, being chiefly limited to the
gratification of the lower senses, induces a defective apprecia-
tion of things, and prevents a higher intellectual development.
We shall not attempt here to decide the difficult fundamental
psychological question, whether the original mode of concep-
tion decides the form of psychological life ; as the differences
284 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
between man and brute only concern us in this place, it may
be sufficient to have shown that essential differences do exist,
which influence the progressive elevation of the former, and
the stationary condition of the latter.
SECTION II.
PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN (NATURAL STATE).
We have examined the specific characters of humanity, and
traced them to their psychological basis. But though it has
been shown that its essential characters belong, without excep-
tion, to all races, it has been left undecided whether there may
not be special peculiarities which must be regarded as specific
differences between various subdivisions of mankind.
This question has been but superficially considered by op-
posing parties. On one side we hear the uncivilized nations
of Africa, America, Australia, etc., designated by the stereo-
typed expression, " irreclaimable savages"; and on the other
hand, the unity of mankind and the origin from a single pair,
is deduced from the fact, that all nations possess languages of
a certain grammatical structure, that all possess similar notions
of supersensual things, and religious sentiments. There is no
doubt that these great psychological facts deserve the utmost
consideration, and are undervalued by the opponents of the
theory of the unity of mankind. We agree, therefore, with
Smyth in maintaining1 that these psychological facts are as
much opposed to the assumption of specific differences, as the
physical phenomena which are adduced are in favour of that
assumption. But in all this the doubt yet remains, whether,
within the chief characters, there may not be permanent dif-
ferences which may compel us to divide mankind into various
species.
To solve this question, we shall pursue the same path we have
hitherto followed : we shall examine the greatest differences in
1 " The Unity of the Human Races/' p. 249, 1850.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN. 285
the psychical phenomena of mankind. To attain this object,
we must first of all direct our attention to the primitive or
natural state of man from two points of view : first, whether
we find man, at least approximately, in a natural condition,
and in what condition we find him.
As all civilization is something secondary, and is only de-
veloped in course of time, it is clear that the natural (uncivilized)
man must, wherever we find him and whatever may be
his qualifications, appear so dissimilar to us as regards his
psychical life, as to lead us to assume between him and our-
selves specific differences which do not exist. Again, we find
so great a difference in mental development between the civi-
lized Europeans and the so-called savages of other parts, that
we are inclined to attribute it to a radical natural difference.
The question is, whether we are justified in coming to that
conclusion, or whether the greatest actual differences in the
development of psychical life are only the result of a, fluctuating
difference in culture.
The period when man first appeared on this globe, and was
in his actual primitive or natural state, cannot be determined.
For many reasons it is highly probable that a very long period
of time must have elapsed before the commencement of the
historical epoch. Some chronological calculations have been
deduced from geological data. The period which has elapsed
between the present time and that of the coal formation, has,
from the progressive cooling of the mean temperature of the
earth, been calculated from 5-9,000,000 of years. From
the recession of the falls of Niagara (annually from one to
two feet), Lyell concludes that the formation of the val-
ley of that river, which is more recent than the diluvial
formation, reaches at least 35,000 years back. Though it
cannot be proved that the age of man extends beyond the
diluvial formation, there is still less reason to consider him
younger, as at the diluvial period all essential conditions for
the existence of man were present, and since that period no
considerable changes have occurred on the surface of the globe.
It seems, therefore, that we may imagine the age of mankind
to reach somewhere between the rather remote limits of 35,000
and 9,000,000 of years.
286 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
There is another circumstance, namely, that man has no-
where been found in an actual primitive state. Everywhere we
find him in possession of some artificial instruments, generally
of war, a minimum of clothing, etc. But in all these things, as
well as in their mode of life, savage tribes have been found so
stationary, that they have been considered incapable of pro-
gress, and yet the progress they have actually made from a
primitive state is already considerable ; for it is just these pri-
mary inventions, seemingly nowhere absent, which are the
most difficult, and require a long time before they are accom-
plished. To those especially, who assume that mankind spread
gradually from a certain spot over the whole globe, the period
requisite for such a purpose must appear a very long one
indeed ; for we never see nations voluntarily leave their dwel-
ling places, unless pressed upon by natural phenomena or
enemies. Almost all migrations proceed very slowly; and
hence in all parts of the earth, the peoples who had occupied
the land from time immemorial, looked upon themselves as
natives of the soil they inhabit. Among the oldest civilized
nations known to us, the Egyptians for instance, their in-
ventions date from a period for which history furnishes us
with no chronological standard. More than inventions and
migrations, languages, and the physical peculiarities of the
various races, indicate the great antiquity of mankind. It is
exceedingly improbable that a language of a complicated struc-
ture should have issued from the mouth of man when he first
appeared ; it approaches to a psychological impossibility. The
slowness with which a child learns to speak is a proof of it, and
yet the child has nothing to invent, but only to appropriate.
Children learn the grammatical forms very gradually; these
forms cannot have been produced at once, for that which is
expressed by them, the relations of individual conceptions,
cannot have at once been present to man. From the uncon-
scious or involuntary basis upon which language no doubt
rests, we must conclude that it was not constructed in a short
time or sprung into life at once. We should further take into
consideration the great lapse of time which the branching off
and substantive development of individual languages derived
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE STATE OP MAN. 287
from the same stock, must have required. The break up of an
original into several filial languages may in some cases have
proceeded more or less rapidly ; but from the circumstance that
the mass of radically different languages is so large compared
with the probable original cradles and stocks of mankind, we
are justified in assuming the age of mankind upon the globe to
reach back for a long series of thousands of years, especially
when we consider that language is only propagated by tradi-
tion from generation to generation, and that it is seldom that
great changes in a language are produced within a short lapse
of time. What has just been stated in regard to language
applies also to physical types, which everywhere exhibit a high
degree of fixity, and are at any rate only changeable within
long periods. Whether we derive the intermediate gradations
between the extreme types from long continued climatic or
other influences, or from intermixture of originally and essen-
tially different types, everything points to a past period which
cannot be measured by our historical standard.
There is, then, no hope of finding man anywhere in an actual
primitive or natural state. Whence, then, are we to derive our
notions of such a state ? To this question three answers may
be given, which we shall have to examine separately. What
man is by nature must be exhibited by the human child, which
proceeds immediately from nature ; we must, then, empirically
study the so-called savages, whose state, though not absolutely
primitive, more or less approaches it.
There is much to be said against judging of the primitive con-
dition of man from the condition of infancy. Infancy is a rapidly
passing stage of development of the individual, with which we
may, perhaps, compare the youthful state of mankind, but can-
not exactly parallelize it. Deficiency of experience and of
mental development are common to both, but in this there
prevail so many differences, that for our object very little can
be inferred. We need only be reminded that the primitive man
neither possesses the undeveloped physical organization of the
child, which renders the latter so helpless, nor is he, like the
child, led to a higher development by example and imitation.
Moreover, the child is already born with the peculiarities be-
288 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
longing to his stock, and possesses, as we nave already seen,
at the beginning of his life, certain physical and psychical cha-
racters hereditarily acquired, which prevent us from considering
him as the representative of a primitive state. From this it
would appear, that not only cannot we take infancy as the
standard of the primitive condition of mankind, but that the
latter can nowhere be found ; and it is folly to search for its
characters, partly because man at all times must have learned
from tradition through his parents, without which supposition
we cannot think of him, and also because he must everywhere
have exhibited the typical character of his stock, and not
merely the general peculiarities of humanity.
The discussion of this point becomes difficult as we find our-
selves on the limits of our experimental knowledge. Since we
cannot obtain from science any clue as to the origin of man, it
must remain undecided whether there ever have been men who
have grown up without any traditional instruction from others,
and whether they have not at all times possessed, besides the
general characters of humanity, also certain separate peculiari-
ties of stock. But all these doubts are, for our question, only
of subordinate interest. We might even admit that the " na-
tural man" is a mere fiction, and has never anywhere existed
in reality, like a circle or an ellipse in a geometrical sense, and
which, like all abstract notions, possess an individual existence,
without at all impairing their value in a scientific investigation.
We wish here to obtain a clear idea how we must think of man
as he was before, and independent of, all cultivation, and it is for
this object quite indifferent whether there have ever been indi-
viduals perfectly corresponding to that state which we term the
natural state. That man at his first appearance upon the earth,
and immediately after it, must have approximated to that state
seems pretty evident from the absence of cultivation, which we
were obliged to assume.
From what has been stated, it is clear that this primitive
state is neither represented in children, nor in those individuals
who, born of civilized parents, have grown up in an isolated
state in forests, and have been found again in an adult
age. Such persons have formerly been described as real na-
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE STATE OP MAN. 289
tural men, though there is no doubt that they were only
degenerated.
What man is when divested of all cultivation, is a question
which has been frequently asked and differently answered. It
is difficult to realize this abstraction, but much easier to con-
vince ourselves that it does not lead to an idea of a paradisiacal
state of innocence and bliss, the result of uncorrupted human
nature founded upon a happy harmony of slender knowledge,
few desires, and the absence of all passions. There is no doubt
the natural man does not possess the refined concealed vices of
a corrupt society, from the sight of which Rousseau's sickly
imagination shrunk, and caused him to indulge in a dream of
the original goodness and purity of mankind; but what he
certainly does possess are the ugly features of external and in-
ternal crudity, the necessary attendants on an entire absence
of intellectual and moral culture.
On imagining man deprived of everything which is the
effect of cultivation, he represents merely the product of the
power which called him into life, resembling an individual of
perfectly neglected education, upon whom experience, in-
struction, or example have exercised no influence, and who
consequently is inclined neither to good nor evil, having not
yet learned to distinguish between them. The first thing which
would strike us as characteristic, would be his perfect depend-
ence on surrounding media, his whole inner life would be their
product. The primitive man first becomes that which the cir-
cumstances in which he is placed make of him. The aliment
afforded him by nature, the mode by which he can obtain it,
the protection he requires against external agents, the inven-
tions requisite to supply his wants, — all are taught by nature
which surrounds him, and which thus determines his mode of
life. The instruments he makes, the skill he acquires, the mag-
nitude of the efforts requisite to attain his objects, and the
degree of development of his psychical activity, will at the out-
set mainly depend on the external media in which he is placed.
No sooner, however, has he supplied his pressing necessities,
than his physical and mental efforts cease.
This latter circumstance is a highly important point, ex-
290 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
hibiting a chief feature in the character of the uncultured man
— his remarkable indolence. The cause is not exactly that,, in
the natural state, man is forced to make great efforts to support
himself, so that rest affords great enjoyment. The true cause we
apprehend to be that man by nature shuns every kind of
labour ; that he undertakes none which is not absolutely re-
quisite for his well being. Though his indolence may have
brought him to want, notwithstanding his experience may have
enabled him to foresee his fate, he concerns himself little about
the future, but he hopes for the best. Indolence and thought-
lessness, in an incredible degree, are characteristic of perfectly
uneducated human beings, and it requires but little knowledge
of the lower classes, even in Europe, to perceive that indolence
is enjoyment to man in the natural state, and not merely in
consequence of moral degeneracy. If we could for a short time
remove the motives of vanity and ambition from the civilized
world, even he who has the most lofty ideas of human nature,
would soon find that indolence is the ideal of most people.
It is nothing but poetical fancy which endows the primitive
man with a desire for intellectual progress ; the habit of
indolence induces him to remain in his actual condition.
He never from internal impulse and without any external
agency, desires to become civilized, just as the lower classes in
Europe abandoned to themselves desire nothing of the kind so
long as their material interests are not suffering ; and yet they
have before their eyes the results of a higher civilization : hence
the comparatively slow progress of humanity. " The world
would look quite different," observed Hume, ' ' if man possessed
by nature a little more love for useful activity ; for his indolence
seems to keep him fixed for a long time at every stage of his
development."
Peyroux de la Coudreniere1 appears to have been the
first to promulgate the theory that the white race alone is
psychically active, and possesses by nature that peculiar desire
of knowledge which Aristotle ascribed to man generally,
and that consequently all higher culture of other races can
1 " Mem. sur les sept especcs d' Homines," Paris, 1814.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE STATE OP MAN. 291
only be explained by its being communicated to them by the
white race. He found many disciples, among whom, in Ger-
many, we would mention Klemm1 and Wuttke,2 who assume
permanent differences between active and passive human races.3
A closer examination of the peculiarities of mankind renders
such a division very doubtful.
However much we may be inclined, at the first glance, to
lament that man in a state of nature exhibits at every stage
such inertness and disinclination for progress, our judgment
undergoes a material change on a closer investigation. It is
just in proportion as the higher desires are absent, that the
gratification of the lower propensities becomes possible, and
the simplicity and small extent of the conditions upon which
the contentment of man in a primitive state depends, render
his life enjoyable. His inner life, it is true, moves in a very
limited circle ; but it is undisturbed by that feverish desire for
an improvement of his condition which torments the more
developed man. The inner contest in man arises chiefly from
his desire after a higher development; it only becomes pos-
sible with the growth of higher desires which are not easily
satisfied. Thus far it is true to designate the progress to civi-
lization as the source of mental distress ; but we must not con-
clude from it that the natural state of man is the ideal of Para-
dise, the loss of which we have to lament; for it is only in
proportion as man is removed from the primitive state that his
physical, intellectual, and moral development is accomplished.
Besides these two chief characters of the primitive man, —
his perfect dependence on external media, and his indolence, —
there is another feature, the licentiousness of his egotistical
desires, and the absence of steadiness and plan in all his
actions. Restraint and self-control are nowhere engrafted
upon man by nature; they must be learned, and are but
slowly acquired. This is shown in the intercourse with
others, even as we see it in children and persons brought up
"AUge. Culturgesch."
2 " Gesch. des Heidenthums."
3 In a similar sense, Carus distinguishes night, day, and dawn men (Ne-
groes, Europeans, Mongols, and Americans).
u2
292 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
without any control. Endeavouring to subject others when-
ever they come in conflict with his own interest, every indi-
vidual leads originally an isolated life. However repulsive
these characteristic features of the primitive man may be, they
are not manifestations of malignity, but as in the child and the
perfectly uneducated the result of capricious desires. The
absence of steadiness in the pursuit of a certain object, the
action from sudden impulses, render the uncultivated savage
unintelligible to the civilized man, so that he judges him in a
variety of ways.
If the correctness of the preceding characteristic of the pri-
mitive man be admitted, then we are justified in designating
the majority of the uncultivated nations of the globe as primitive
peoples (Naturvolker — peoples in a state of nature), because
though not exactly in a primitive or natural state, they still
occupy a scale of development which pretty nearly approaches
it ; for all the peculiarities which we attributed to the primitive
man are found among them, and all agree in this respect. To
consider, on the other hand, all uncultivated nations as dege-
nerate, as fallen from a previous elevation, would be to assume
that culture was the primitive, and barbarism the secondary
state of man.
We shall now compare the more prominent empirical in-
formation we possess of uncultivated nations, in order to see
whether our characteristics of the natural state of man be
correct.
The inhabitant of the north does not emigrate to the south
to improve his condition, nor does the inhabitant of the south
desire to exchange his climate for a more favourable one. In
spite of the many diseases to which, for instance, the inhabi-
tants of Darfur are subject, they love their country, have no
wish to emigrate, but desire to return when they have left
it.1 It is reasonable to suppose that this attachment to their
native country, even among nomadic nations, may partly arise
from their ignorance that there are finer climates, more abound-
ing in natural products. This is not always the case. With
1 Moliainined-el-Tounsy, " Voy. au Darfour," p. 296, Paris, 1845.
SECT. II.] UNCULTURED PEOPLES. 293
all the misery a people may endure, it generally considers its
own country as the best in the world, and its manners and cus-
toms as the most preferable. Cavazzi1 gives a graphic descrip-
tion of the Congo-negroes, who, after having emigrated, return
like the Kru-negroes to their native country, there to enjoy
what they may have acquired. This sentiment seems general
among negro nations ; and especially in such parts of Ame-
rica as are visited by Europeans, the natives have the firm
belief that the Whites have only left their homes in search for
happier climates. We are, indeed, told of an Abiponian who
worked hard for his passage to Buenos Ayres in order to gra-
tify his desire of seeing the world.2 Du Pratz3 also speaks of
a native whom a similar desire drove into the world ; but such
cases form rare exceptions. From the inhabitant of Tierra del
Fuego to the Hottentot, man in the natural state remains con-
tent with his lot though living in the greatest misery, while it
is difficult to find among the civilized nations of Europe one
people which is similarly contented. Hence the following ex-
pression of an experienced man becomes intelligible : " There
are positions in which a thinking man feels himself inferior to
a child of nature, in which he begins to doubt whether his firm
convictions are little better than high sounding prejudices."4
This at any rate is certain, that every race, as Strzelecki ob-
serves,5 has its own ideas of happiness : the restless striving of
the civilized man appears to the uncultivated man as childish,
whilst the enjoyment of an apathetic rest — the ideal of the
latter — would be extremely irksome to the former.
The principal motives for action among uncultivated nations
may be reduced to three : physical well-being, chiefly directed
to the gratification of the appetites, sexual enjoyment, and in-
dolence, in consequence of a reluctance to every kind of labour ;
social enjoyment, effected partly by subjecting the members of
family to the will of one man, and partly by obtaining greater
power over others; and, thirdly, habit, the power of which
1 " Beschr. v. Congo, Matamba, und Angola," p. 76, 1694.
2 J. P. and W. P. Robertson, " Letters on South America," iii, p. 186, 1843.
3 " Hist, de la Louisiane," 1758.
4 Cowper Eose, " Four Years in Southern Africa," p. 173, 1829.
5 " Description of New South Wales," p. 343.
294 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET II.
influences all actions, and to a great extent perpetuates physical
and moral misery. Some are inclined to add a fourth motive
which actuates the uncultivated man — the superstition peculiar
to an eudaemonistic religion ; but this group of efficient motives
belongs to the first class ; for it is clear that his physical well-
being alone influences his religious ideas, and secures their
power over him.
The external life of uncultivated nations does not admit of a
description common to all, being different according to the
different circumstances producing it. Some of them are
hunters, others fishers, root diggers, berry collectors, or they
carry on these occupations alternately according to the seasons.
Dress, habitation, domestic furniture, arms, and the arts whicli
they exercise, all depend on their modes of life j but with
regard to their inner life, we find among them everywhere a
remarkable uniformity. There have been frequently assumed,
says Hugh Murray,1 far greater diversities in the degrees of
cultivation among uncivilized nations than really exist; per-
manent differences have been described which are unimportant,
or do not exist at all.
The individual character among uncivilized nations is not
so decided as among the cultivated. Want of self-control,
improvidence, intemperance, indolence combined with perse-
verance in the pursuit after actual necessaries, and ornament-
ation of the person, are general characters.
Gluttony, drunkenness, and sexual excesses, are the most
generally spread vices. Next to licentious festivities, savage
passion is displayed in the chase. When there is abun-
ance of game, the hunter exhibits, like a soldier in battle,
the greatest rage ; he finds delight in killing and de-
stroying the game indiscriminately and uselessly. Hence
hunting tribes require a great space, and are frequently in
want, as they do not economize their provisions. The hun-
dredth part of the game killed by the Zulus, observes Dele-
gorgue,2 would have been more than sufficient for him and
all his companions. There are peoples who suffer annu-
1 "Enquiries respecting the Characters of Nations/' Edinb., 1808.
2 Vol. i, p. 430.
SECT. II.] CHAEACTERISTICS. MARRIAGE. 295
ally from famine, and nevertheless neglect to lay in provisions
or to cultivate the soil for their support. A characteristic trait
proving utter carelessness for the future is mentioned by
Labat,1 namely, that the Caribs sell their hammocks cheaper in
the morning than in the evening. The great indolence and
thoughtlessness which renders uncivilized nations so disin-
clined to improve their miserable condition, has led to the con-
clusion, that they are utterly incapable of effecting anything
which requires industry and perseverance. That such a conclu-
sion is unwarrantable is proved by the surprising patience
which they evince in manufacturing their furniture and dress
with the simplest tools. As instances, may be mentioned that
the Indians of Peru sometimes spend two years in weaving a
blanket,2 and devote five to six hours to paint their bodies.
The Bosjesmen are especially distinguished by their perseve-
rance, when once they are roused from their lethargy. ' ' Nothing
can induce them to leave the track of game, nor will any diffi-
culty deter them from an enterprise once resolved upon/'3
Such firmness of purpose is, however, rare among uncultivated
nations, as they are commonly very changeable in disposition.
Without being absolutely malignant and treacherous, uncul-
tured peoples soon become faithless, crafty, and deceitful,
especially when they feel themselves secure ; and this not so
much from self-interest, as from a momentary impulse, which
irresistibly leads them to gratify their desires. That this is
taking a just view is proved by many examples in which rob-
beries and assassination by savages have been prevented by
changing their current of thought in drawing attention to
some artificial trick, or by some other entertainment. If
Dentrecasteaux (1792), and other writers of that period,
describe uncultivated nations, e. g., the inhabitants of Van
Diemen's land, as peaceable children of nature, it is partly
owing to the then prevailing opinion that all corruption belongs
to the civilized state, partly, it may be owing to the circum-
stance that some navigators treated the aborigines kindly,
1 " Nouv. Voy. aux Isles de 1' Am.," i, pp. 2, 18, 1724.
2 Ulloa, " Voy. historique," p. 336, Amst., 1752.
3 Lichtenstein, " Eeise im Siidl. Afr.," ii, p. 319, 1811.
296 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
made them many gifts, and met with kindness in return.1 In
modern times, however, the above view as regards uncivilized
nations has undergone a great change, many writers now con-
sidering man in a state of nature little better than the ape ; and
it would be difficult to decide which of these views is the
most erroneous.
Taking into consideration the characteristic qualities of un-
civilized nations, we must be prepared to find great abnormities
in moral respects, not merely in individual actions but in the
fixed habits of life. There is no doubt that cannibalism, in-
fanticide, and similar deeds, have been and are still practised
without any consciousness of their criminality. Though it
may originally have been either revenge or misery which led to
cannibalism, — as related of the Zulu people of Immithlanga
(Intlangwein), that famine first drove them to eat their own
children, since which time they commenced regularly to devour
their prisoners of war,2 — anthropophagy in time became a
habit.
In like manner may be explained the many instances of
moral degradation exhibited by uncivilized peoples. The
principle of revenge seems to be universal among them.
Blood for blood is a strict duty, and a ransom paid by the
murderer to the nearest kinsman is only accepted where pro-
perty has acquired a higher value, and where wealth gives
power. " The most sacred duty of the Australian is to avenge
the death of his nearest relation ; until he has accomplished
this he is mocked by the old women — his wives, if he be
married, would soon leave him. If unmarried, no girl speaks
to him ; his own mother would constantly cry and lament at
having given birth to so degenerate a son ; his father would
treat him with contempt."3 It is well known that similar
views exist among the natives of North America. "There
seems to be a complete absence of moral sentiment among the
1 Latterly this view has been abandoned, and only a faint echo of it ap-
pears in Schomburgk's statement (" Eeise in British Guiana/' ii, p. 240, 1847),
that the feelings for morality and virtue are nicer among Indians than
among ourselves.
2 Gardiner, "Narrative of a journey to the Zulu country," p. 185, 1836.
3 Grey, " Journals of two Expeditions in Australia," ii, p. 240, 1840.
?T. II.] POLYGAMY. POLYANDKY. 297
3groes of East Sudan, who not merely excuse theft, murder,
id treachery, but consider these actions as praiseworthy in
man. They first learned under the Turkish rule to distinguish
murder frpm justifiable homicide in war. Lying and deceit-
fulness are considered as marks of mental superiority, and those
who suffer death on the gallows are buried with the same
honours as the rich merchant or the Sheik."1 It is, however,
a remarkable fact, showing that there is a natural moral feeling
among even the rudest nations, that, e. g., the Australians in
the region of Port Essington, when they are detected as thieves,
offer no resistance f and that in the Sandwich Islands the
discovered thief returns the stolen property without reluctance.3
We must now turn to the social relations of uncultivated
peoples. In marriage and family life we find two characteristic
features — the enslaved state of woman as the weaker being, and
polygamy. The male is independent, as he has to defend and
support his family. The female is despised and considered as
merchandise. How little chastity is esteemed is evinced by
the language of the Bosjesmen not distinguishing girl from
wife.4 In the north of Peru a girl is more courted if she has
had many lovers before marriage,5 which is also the case in
Wydah.6 Sexual excesses committed by girls before marriage
are of little importance; continence is only required of married
women. It has even been asserted that chastity among Negroes
only means that pregnant and menstruating women should ab-
stain from illicit intercourse.7 Of the absence of romantic love
there can under such circumstances be no question, although
it may not be entirely wanting among some uncultivated nations.
Generally speaking there prevails, in consequence of early gra-
tification of the sexual passion, an unaffected and passionless re-
lation between the sexes, which must not, as Delegorgue has
suggested, be attributed to a greater natural gentleness of un-
1 Brehm, " Reise-skizzen aus Nordost-Afrika," i, 162, 175, 1855.
2 Jukes, " Narrative of the surveying voy., of H.M.S. Fly/' i, p. 354, 1847.
» Wilson, " Missionsreise in das stille Meer," Mag. v. Eeiseb., xxi, p. 291.
4 Liechtenstein, i, p. 192.
5 Ulloa, " Voy. de 1'Am. merid.," i, pp. 343, 1752.
6 Des Marchais, "Voyage en Guinee," Amsterdam, 1731.
7 Smith, "Trade and Travels in the Gulph of Guinea," p. 249, 1851.
298 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
cultured nations in comparison with that of the civilized
European.
The woman belongs to the man who has purchased her from
her parents ; he can therefore discard, lend, exchange, or sell
her. The power of the husband over his wife seems to be
greatest on the Fiji Islands, where the women among the
common people are not merely articles of commerce, but are
frequently killed and eaten by their husbands without their
being punished for it.1 The wives of the father sometimes
pass to the son as an inheritance. The wife only, not the
husband, can commit adultery. Polyandry, though, as Wuttke
observes,2 opposed to the notions of uncultured peoples about
marriage, is not only cogitable as a matter of necessity, but is
also practised from political or religious motives.3 Polygamy,
on the other hand, proceeds from the estimation of the female sex
among uncultured peoples, and can scarcely have been the con-
sequence of the overplus of females caused by war ; though it
may be admitted that a greater mortality of the males, as for in-
stance, is caused in Greenland by a dangerous and noxious mode
of life,5 may have contributed to establish the custom. It is
chiefly the result of woman being considered as property and a
beast of burden capable of being applied to useful labour. An-
other circumstance which leads to polygamy is the early fading
of woman (in the Bast Indies girls marry at the age of twelve,
and are old between twenty-five and thirty), whether it be in
consequence of the climate, or of being overworked. Among
some African nations women are considered unclean during the
whole period of lactation, during which all intercourse with
the other sex is strictly forbidden. It has been asserted that
1 Wilkes, iii, p. 192.
2 " G-eschichte der Heidenthums," i, p. 184.
3 Dessalles' description (" Hist, gen des Antilles/' i, p. 197, 1847) of poly-
gamy and polyandry among the Caribs in the West India Islands, is unre-
liable. Polyandry, however, is found as a permanent custom among the
Avanoes and Maypures in South America (Huniboldt and Bonpland, " Eeise,"
iv, p. 477) ; also in Ladakh, in the highland of Thibet, in the alpine state of
Sirmore, although the inhabitants of the latter region seem to be Hindoos
(Bitter, "Erdk.," iii, pp. 623, 752, 880). The arrangement is, that several
brothers have but one wife between them. In Ladakh, the eldest brother
must support the children. One ground of the custom may be, that the sup-
port of a wife is expensive.
4 Cranz, i, p. 218.
\ II.] SENSE OF SHAME. 299
iere polygamy exists conjugal fidelity is very lax. This is
ly true so far, that it chiefly exists among uncultivated or
f-civilized nations; but it can scarcely be said that polygamy, as
jh, favours licentiousness. That polygamy frequently causes
sensions among the women and disturbs domestic peace
be true, but is far from being so general as asserted,
long the Zulu and other Kaffir tribes (by no means the only
iples) there prevails no jealousy among the women: the
$t wife tries to gain so much as to enable her husband to
irchase a second and a younger wife. Her authority is then
increased and her labour lightened. The women, in fact, pre-
fer polygamy to monogamy, as the love for their husbands is,
from being purchased, rarely a personal affection.1
It seems, thus, that polygamy is not so generally injurious
to family peace as is frequently assumed. Its social danger
lies in this, that, supposing the sexes equal in number, there
must be left a great many men unmarried, which may give
rise to other vicious habits.
It can scarcely have been a feeling of shame which originally
induced man to cover his nakedness. The New Zealander
covers his body merely to protect himself from the cold, and by
no means to conceal his person.3 Just as the half- civilized
Guanches were quite naked, not on all, but on some of the
Canaiy Islands, so the Puris are to this day, men and women ;
also the Patachos, Botocudes, etc.3 This is also found to be
the case upon a small island near Apollonia ; only when they go
on a journey they cover themselves, and then scantily.4 Especially
where business requires it, there is not the least reluctance to
expose the person. Caillie5 saw in Bambarra, laundresses walk
about quite naked before strangers. It is therefore surprising
that the laws of the Susus (Mandingo people) condemn him to
slavery who looks at women bathing,6 whilst in Yucatan both
1 Steedinan, " Wanderings and Adventures in South Africa/' i, p. 240, 1835;
Delegorgue, i, p. 154 ; ii, p. 231.
2 Crozet, " Reise durch d. Siidsee," p. 70, Leipz., 1783.
3 Prinz Max, zu " Wied R. nach Brasil," i, pp. 136, 286, 333, 1820.
4 Boudyk, " Voyage a la cote de Guinee," p. 158, 1853.
5 " Voyage a Temboctu," ii, p. 115, 1833.
fi E. Clarke, " Sierra Leone," p. 33, 1846.
:
f
300 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
sexes bathe together.1 Some Indians on the Orinoco, where
both sexes go about naked, were at first ashamed to wear
clothes,3 as it seemed to them indecent to appear before
strangers unpainted.3
The original motives, however, of painting and tattooing the
body could hardly have been to cover nakedness from a feeling o
shame ; the former was resorted to for ornamentation, the latter
to mark the tribe or the family. The disinclination to wear
clothes is pretty general among uncivilized nations. The feeling
of shame, if it exist, extends only to the presence of strangers,
particularly Europeans ; it is only before them that the women
of Timor veil the bosom, and the Indian women of Brazil wear
a cest.4 This applies also to the Australian.5 If dress were the
result of a feeling of shame, we should expect it to be more in-
dispensable to woman than to man, which is not the case.
Among many African tribes the males only cover the body.6
Among some of these tribes married women go about naked,
but not unmarried girls.7 In Australia, also, girls before
marriage wear an apron, which is laid aside afterwards.8
Among the Gruanches the reverse takes place.9 The latter
custom arises generally from a better moral tone, the dress of
girls being used as a mere stimulant. In Akra the girls, as
distinguished from married women, go about perfectly naked ;
and among some Sererer tribes the want of clothing is a mark
of virginity.10 There remains, however, an unfavourable ex-
planation, namely, that a girl is permitted to exhibit her
charms, but the wife is the property of the husband, at whose
command she must dress. To appear naked before another
1 Heller, <• Eeise in Mexico," p. 217, 1853.
2 Gumilla, " Hist, de FOrenoque," chap, vii, 1788.
3 Gilii, "Nachr. v. Gruiana," p. 253, 1785.
4 Spix und Martius, "Eeise/' p. 370; Peron, "Voyage de Decouv.," 2nd
edit. ; Freycinet, iv, p. 18, 1824.
a Barrington, "History of N. S. Wales," p. 37, 1810; Eyre, "Journals of
Expeditions into Central Australia," ii, p. 216, 1845 ; Hind, in " Journal of
Eoy. Geogr. Soc.," i, p. 40.
6 Earth, " Eeisen u. Entdeck.," ii, p. 473.
? Ibid, p. 467.
8 Barrington, loc. cit., p. 23.
9 Webb et Berthelot, " Histoire nat. des lies Canaries."
10 Zimmermann, " Vocabulary of the Akra language," pp. 190, 253 ; Boilat,
" Esquisses Senegalaises," p. 104, 1853.
SECT. II.] MARITAL RIGHTS. SHAME. 301
person passes here and there, as a mark of submission. In the
kingdom of Melly all the slaves were formerly obliged to be
quite naked, and all the women had thus to appear before the
Sultan.1 There are peoples among whom the males only are
dressed;2 but even where the women go about quite naked, as
among the Chevas and Tumbucas on the Zambesi, it does not
affect their chastity.8 On the Orinoco, where the mission-
aries on exhibiting marima shirts say, that clothes grow upon
the trees, the males are seemingly more ashamed of their
nakedness than the females.4
The influence of habit and custom is very great in these
matters. The following examples are not uninteresting. On
the Marquesas they are not at all ashamed to go about naked, but
it is considered indecent not to bind up the prepuce.5 In New
Zealand and many islands of the South Sea the males are
ashamed to lay aside the suspensory.6 The Fellah women
(which also happens in other Mahommedan countries) have no
hesitation in exposing every part of the body except the face.
The Tubori women in Central Africa go about quite naked,
wearing only a narrow strap, to which is attached a twig hang-
ing down behind ; they feel greatly ashamed if by chance the
twig falls off.7
In passing from sexual and family relations to the social
condition of uncivilized nations, but little can be said that is
generally characteristic. Families generally live near each
other independently under their own chief, gradually forming
little societies, without any form of government, until internal
dissensions or external attacks compel them to unite and sub-
mit to the sway of one or more individuals who have proved
their prowess or their wisdom. Such peoples may, however, re-
main for a long time without any organization, oscillating be-
1 Ibu Batuta, " Journal Asiatique," i, p. 221, 4me serie.
2 Koelle, " Polyglotta Afr.," p. 13.
3 " Ausland," p. 262, 1858, according to Monteiro.
4 Humboldt, " Eeise in die .33quinoctialg.," iv, p. 101 : iii, p. 95, ed. Hauff.
5 Langsdorff, " Bemerk. auf. e. " Eeise urn. die Welt," p. 137, 1812 ; Lisi-
ansky, " Voyage round the World," p. 85, 1814 ; Eoquefeuil, " Journal d'un
Voyage autour du monde," i, p. 303, 1823.
6 D'Urville " Voyage de 1* Astrolabe," ii, p. 482.
7 Vogel, in Peteranann's " Mittheilungen," p. 138, 1857.
302 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
tween a state of perfect independence and one of despotism.
It is an erroneous view to consider this oscillation among rude
nations as degrees of social development, instead of attributing
it to its natural cause.
The disputes occurring between indviduals are either ad-
justed by a third party who interposes his authority or who is
chosen to act as arbiter, or what is more usual among primitive
nations, the interested party is left to find his own remedy.
Among many such peoples, ordeals are instituted to decide the
matter. The disputes among individuals frequently involve
whole families and tribes in feuds ; but it is chiefly supersti-
tion or hunger and miseiy which lead to wars.
The religious ideas of primitive peoples have already been
touched upon in a general sense. They are based upon a per-
sonification of striking natural forces on which man believes his
fate depends, ascribing any misfortune to the action of inde-
pendent spirits. Ungrateful as man generally is when in luck,
he sees, even when in a primitive state, nothing in the success of
his plans but the usual course of nature or the result of his
sagacity. Thus originally his view of nature which coincides
with his religious ideas is about this — that among the spirits
which direct nature and the fates of man, the evil spirits are
either exclusively active, as is asserted of the Indians of Carac-
cas, who only believe in a wicked original being,1 or so far pre-
dominant that the good spirits are made subordinate. Though
the existence of the latter is not altogether denied, they are
but little attended to either in thought or prayers, worship
or sacrifice, since they are already by their nature friendly to
man. All these spirits, are of course, conceived as analogous
to the nature of man.
The religion of the primitive man is thus throughout — a
crude polytheism2 without poetry, even without mythology, or
1 Depons, in " Magaz. v. Merkw. Reisenbeschrift," xxix, p. 143.
2 Rougement, however (" Le People Primitif," 1855), considers mono-
theism as the original religion imparted to man by an original revelation,
and that pantheism formed the transition to polytheism. He endeavours to
trace this primitive monotheism in the confused legends of uncultured
peoples, by ascribing a cosmogonic meaning to these myths. It is unques-
tionable that some of the most remote peoples frequently agree in this re-
spect. Thus, the flood legends are almost universally found in America,
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE RELIGIONS. 303
rather a gloomy unconnected belief in spectres and spirits, des-
troying all faith in the natural course of phenomena. Even
these religions have been considered as stages of development,
which is, however, not confirmed by experience. Wuttke1
^•nates the deification of natural objects as the first stage
of natural religion, manifesting itself in the worship of the
elements, plants, animals; the second stage is Fetishism; the
third demon-worship, Schamanism. All this is much too arti-
ficial, an idle logical scheme with which the facts do not cor-
respond. The belief in spirits among the Negroes, which
is usually designated Fetishism, though in many respects differ-
ing from that of the Australian and American, is not essentially
distinct. The principle, the whole conception of nature, the
relation of man to the spiritual world, is pretty much the same ;
and we are astonished at this uniformity among nations so dis-
tant— an uniformity tending to show that in this respect in
what constitutes the kernel of mental life they all belong to
the same species.
In order to complete this general description of the psychical
life of primitive nations, we must consider their sense of the
beautiful. The great difference in taste is so universally ac-
knowledged, that we may expect but little that is generally
applicable, since individuality, mode of life, surrounding nature,
which does not necessarily prove that the traditions relate only to one great
flood. There is certainly a charm in giving a symbolical signification to the
traditions of uncultured peoples, and thus rendering them rational and in-
teresting; but it is, in most cases, a futile undertaking, for the following
reasons : — 1. We know but a few fragments of these traditions. 2. The
legends are so variable among uncultured peoples, that scarcely two indivi-
duals relate them alike. Some of these are evidently invented by individuals
whose object, perhaps, is to acquire some influence. 3. A close examination
of the religious opinions of uncultured peoples forbids us, in most cases, to
ascribe a cosmogonic meaning to their insipid traditions. 4. It is as psycholo-
gically impossible that there should exist a tradition of the primitive history
of mankind, as that an individual should recollect his own birth, or the first
events of his life. 5. As regards the agreement of certain legends, they
may possibly point to some early connexion of the respective peoples,
but nothing as to common descent (we may, for instance, ask whether
immigrants, say Buddhists, had once come from Asia to Mexico ? but not
whether the old Mexicans originated in East India or China?). Many of the
traditions have only an apparent resemblance ; and others may be explained
from the circumstance that mankind were, in many regions, as regards the
natural forces, placed in the same conditions, and led to the invention of
similar traditions.
1 " Gesch. des Heidenthums/' i, p. 50.
304 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
the historical fate of a people, are more influential in this respect
than upon moral development. Even the symbolism of colour
differs among individual peoples, though here and there we
meet with an interesting conformity. The colour of mourning
at the death of near relations is yellow in some Asiatic regions,
and among the Quiches in Guatemala;1 brown among the
Persians ; blue among the Turks ; white among the Chinese,
Anamese, and Siamese ;2 the colour is dark blue in Elmina ;3
dark blue and black among the Quichuas.4 The Australian
when in mourning paints his body white, or draws merely a
white line across his forehead, nose, or cheeks.5 The Omahas
also use white paint when in mourning;6 whilst among the
natives of North America black is generally the colour of
mourning, and red the colour of war. Among the Mandingoes
in the region of Sierra Leone white is the symbol of peace.7
Among the Ashantees and other negro peoples white is the
colour of joy, and they paint themselves white on their birth-
days.8 Priests, ambassadors, and warriors are dressed in
white among the Yebus.9 Persons who have gained a suit, or
been acquitted of some crime, dress in white in some parts of
Africa. The natives of Elmina, in opposition to the belief of
other negro tribes, imagine the good god to be of white, and
the bad god to be of a black colour.10 Among the inhabitants
of Tierra del Fuego white is the colour of war, red that of
peace and friendship.11 Yellow, the favourite colour of the
Malays and the lowest Hindoo castes,12 is at the same time the
colour of priestly clothing among the Birmese.
1 Ximenes, " Hist. del. Orig. de los Indies," p. 214, ed. Scherzer.
2 Virey, " Hist. nat. du genre humain," iii, p. 86.
3 Boudyck, p. 180.
4 Tschudi, " Peru," i, p. 353, 1846.
5 Baker, " Sydney and Melbourne," p. 150, 1843.
6 James, " An Account of an Expedition to the Rocky Mountains," i, p. 282,
1823.
7 Matthews, " Reise nach Sierra Leone," p. 89, 1789.
8 Halleur, " D. Leben der Neger West-Afrikas," p. 31, 1850.
9 D'Avezac, "Notice sur le pays et le peuple des Yebus," in Mem. dela
Soc. Ethnol., ii, p. 70.
10 Boudyck, " Voyage a la cote de G-uinee," p. 179, 1853.
11 King and Fitzroy, " Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of the Adventure
and Beagle," ii, p. 177, 1839.
12 Crawford.
SECT. II.] IDEAS OF HUMAN BEAUTY. 305
Even in the estimate of human beauty there is the same disa-
greement. Crawfurd1 maintains that the views of the Malays cor-
respond in this respect with our own ; and it has otherwise been
assumed that the ideal of beauty is the same among all peoples.
This, however, is quite erroneous. Desmoulins2 is no doubt too
rash in his conclusions from the deviations which the sculp-
tured portraits of the Chinese and old Mexicans exhibit from
the Greek ideal ; for although right in the main, it is question-
able whether these portraits were intended to represent the
beautiful. We are assured that the Negroes, who generally
imagine the Devil to be white, consider a black shiny skin,
thick lips, and flattened noses as the type of beauty ;3 and that
the Tahitians, among whom " long-nose" is considered as a
word of insult, for the sake of beauty compress the forehead
and the nose of the children.4 The artificial deformation of
the head among so many American nations also indicates a
difference in the ideas of personal beauty, Ap Australian
wo'man had a child by a white man : she smoked it and
rubbed it with oil to give it a darker colour.5 A yellow, not a
white girl is considered a beauty in Java.6 To have white
teeth, " like dogs," instead of black coloured teeth is consi-
dered ugly and disgraceful, just as the natives of North
America consider vegetable food as beastly aliment. A servant
of the king of Cochin China spoke with contempt of the wife of
the English ambassador (1821) that she had white teeth like a
dog and a rosy colour like that of potato flowers.7 And even
a recent European traveller8 assures us that whoever is once
accustomed to the grotesque painted visages of the Indians,
considers unpainted countenances unmeaning and ugly.
Ideas of courtesy and manner differ still more than those
of beauty and ugliness. Among peoples who live chiefly in a
1 " History of the Indian Archipelago," i, p. 22, 1820.
2 " Histoire naturelle des races humaines," p. 229, 1826.
3 Moore, " Travels into the inland parts of Africa," p. 93, London, 1730.
4 Bang and Fitzroy, ii, p. 527.
5 Barrington, loc. cit., p. 32.
6 Pfeyffer, " Skizzen von der InselJava," p. 41, 1829; Selberg, " Eeise nach
Java," p. 182, 1846.
7 Laplace, " Voyage autour du nionde," ii, p. 463, 1833.
8 Kohl, " Kitchi-Gaini," i, p. 29.
306 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II
state of war, the forms of salutation are merely tlie resull
of distrust of strangers, as among the American Indians
Australians, the Danakils in Africa.1 As curiosities may here
be mentioned that among the Malays civility requires the heac
to be covered, the back turned, and the eyes cast down.2 In
Sumatra, it is uncivil to mention one's own name. In Java
and the Eastern Carolines, one must not stand upright
nor sit down in the presence of high personages. It is rather
peculiar that the Arowakes in conversing do not look at each
other, as they say dogs do so.3
We must finally mention as characteristic, the general ab-
sence of all cleanliness among uncultured nations, — one of the
first conditions of beauty in the eyes of the civilized man. This
is not always owing to mere neglect, for dirt is sometimes a
protection against cold. It is rare that this uncleanliness pro-
ceeds from principle, as in Hamaruwa on the Benuwe (Tchadda) ,
where the wives of the Fulahs are cleaner than the men who,
as warriors or conquerors, despise cleanliness and ornaments.4
How much all judgment on these matters depends on habit and
custom is proved by the Sandwich islanders, who collect and
eat their own lice, but feel disgust at eating from a plate in
which a fly has been drowned.5
We have endeavoured to illustrate the natural state of man
from two different points of view — first, by inquiring how we
may imagine him independent of all experience and of. all cul-
tivation ; secondly, what experience teaches us of the psychical
life of such peoples as approach nearer the primitive, than
the civilized state. The answers to these two questions bear
such a great similarity that we may, on the whole, designate
the uncivilized nations — namely, those of whom it cannot be
proved that at any time they occupied a higher stage of devel-
opment,— as primitive peoples (Naturvolker) . We are the more
justified in doing so, as the traces of that condition which we
have assumed to have been the original state are still to
1 Johnston, " Travels in South Abyssinia/' i, p. 154, 1844.
2 Crawfurd, i, p. 98.
3 " Quandt. nachr. v. Surinam," p. 267, 1807.
4 Crowther, in Petermann's, " Mittheilungen," p. 225, 1855.
5 Stewart, " Journal of a residence in the Sandwich Islands," p. 156, 1828.
SECT. II.] UNCULTIVATED WHITE RACES. 307
be found among civilized nations, for by cultivation the nature
of man may indeed be improved, but can never be changed.
The facts we have to adduce in support of the correctness of
our estimate of the natural state, admit yet of another point of
view of still greater importance. They prove incontestably
that the greatest differences in the development of intellectual
life, have no specific importance, but are fluctuating, forming
nowhere fixed limits between the degrees of civilization, that
they run into each other in the most complicated way, so that
on psychological grounds we cannot divide mankind in various
species.
The civilized European is accustomed to look so much down
upon the so-called savage, that he deems it an insult to be
compared with him ; and yet, even in the midst of civilization
we find the traces of customs, manners, and modes of thinking,
which, like the relapse of civilized men into a savage state,
prove their intimate connection.
The assumption of Prichard that the oldest inhabitants of
civilized Europe were in no way superior to the present inhabit-
ants of Africa can neither be proved nor refuted in our ignor-
ance of pre -historical times ; the decision must depend on our
conception of the primitive state of man. This theory acquires
probability from the circumstance, that even now, as we are as-
sured, there are communities in Ireland, and even in the heart
of France, the civilization of which is scarcely higher than that
of many Negro tribes, and that a comparison of the free Negro
population in the larger cities of the United States, especially
of New York and Philadelphia, with that of the above-men-
tioned Irish districts, turns to the advantage of the free
Negroes.1 Stephens2 has observed, that the sight of the Rus-
sian peasants and a comparison of them with the Negroes in
the Greek and Turkish army, has compelled him to abandon
the theory of the superiority of the white race — and Stephens
is an American ! What in such cases has been effected by social
oppression has in other cases been the result of isolation, and
the want of intercourse with the civilized world, combined with
1 " Quarterly Review," p. 29, December, 1849.
2 " Incidents of Travels in Greece, Turkey, and Eussia."
308 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
the influence of surrounding nature. What would have become
of the transmarine colonies of the tough and almost indestruct-
ible English without a constant reinforcement of civilized men
from the mother country ? In spite of all progressive tendency
ascribed to the white race, we answer unhesitatingly, it would
either have perished or returned to barbarism. These results
are everywhere constant, where intercourse or the influx of
fresh forces is for a sufficient length of time interrupted.
In the plains of Cordova and San-Luis (Argentine Republic)
the pure Spanish race predominates, the young females are
frequently of a white rosy colour and delicate structure, yet
living in a state of isolation the Spaniards have not exhibited
greater activity and a stronger tendency to civilization than
the aborigines of that country. The German and Scottish
colony south of Buenos Ayres, with their flourishing and neat
villages, form a decided contrast to the former.1 The white
settlers south of Buenos Ayres are scarcely less rude and bar-
barous than the Indians. Criminals and the scum of all nations
who take refuge among them instruct them in all that is
wicked. Many cruelties and devastations are committed by
these lawless men over whom the Indian chiefs have no author-
ity.2 The Creoles of the La Plata States are almost as godless
and dirty as the Indians. To construct wind-mills is beyond
their mechanical talent, and notwithstanding the great fertility
of the soil, there is no garden to be seen on the high road from
Buenos Ayres to Barranquitos. Except in the villages there
is no cultivation of the soil. To catch lice is the chief amuse-
ment of the women, who offer them to strangers as dainties ;3
they are dirty beyond measure; they are even deficient in
curiosity.
A similar description is given of the inhabitants of Tucuman.4
The Indians of Rioja are simple-minded sober men, whose dis-
putes never lead to bloodshed; they are more industrious and per-
1 Sarmiento, loc. cit.
2 Garcia, in De Angelas, p. 12 ; " Collection de obras y docurnentos," iii, 1836.
3 Dobrizhofler, " Gesch. der Abiponer," ii, p. 445, 1783 ; Renger, " Reise
nach Paraguay," p. 393, 1835.
4 Miers, " Travels in Chile and La Plata," i, pp. 28, 30, 314, 1826 ; Andrews,
" Journey from Buenos Ayres through Cordova," etc., i, p. 187, 1827.
SECT. II.] UNCULTIVATED WHITE RACES. 309
severing than the Spanish Creoles, and their festivals never exhi-
bit the same coarseness which distinguishes those of the Creoles.1
Many of the common utensils and tools of the Chilise, carts,
looms, ploughs, are extremely clumsy, scarcely better than
those of the Indians ; the axe2 is chiefly used, the saw but little.
They are outdone by the superior agriculture of the Arauca-
nians.3 They are very cleanly in their persons ;4 they bathe
several times daily, and by their cleanliness in the villages, the
Indians of the tropics in America contrast with the immigrant
South-Europeans.5 In the vicinity of Talcahuano (Chili)
D'Urville6 found such miserable dirty huts, that they could
scarcely stand comparison with the habitations of the Poly-
nesians. Helms, after describing the indolent habits of the
Creoles of South America,7 adds : " The Indians are the only
industrious class in this country ." The colonists in the Llanos
of Caraccas are too lazy to dig a well, though they know that
they could find the finest springs at a depth of ten feet. Even
at this day, there may be found in New Spain, flourishing
Indian villages and a well cultivated soil near miserable villages
of white Creoles.8 Ploughs are there in use, made of wood
without any iron, and are always drawn by oxen, never by
horses ;9 and the Spanish Californians, whom Simpson10 has
described as lazy and degraded, still avail themselves of a
miserable plough and the canoe of the Indians. In Brazil the
structure of bridges is neglected even on the high road from
Bio Janeiro to Yilla-Eicca, and agriculture is carried on accord-
ing to the model of the Indians. The forest is burnt down ;
they sow, reap, and abandon the land after a few harvests.11
The Brazilian peasant, especially in the central and northern
1 French, " Journal, Royal Geogr. Society," ix, p. 398.
2 Gardiner, " Visit to the Ind. on the frontier of Chili," pp. 155, 163, 1841.
3 Genoux, in " Bullet. Soc. Geogr.," i, p. 150, 1852.
4 Stevenson, " Reise in Arauco," i, p. 5, 1826.
5 Poppig, " Reise in Chile and Peru," ii, pp. 352, 354, 1835.
6 " Voyage au Pole Sud," iii, p. 47.
7 " Travels from Buouos Ayres, by Potosi, to Lima," pp. 15, 36, 2nd edit.,
1807.
8 W. Thompson, " Recollections of Mexico," p. 1, 1846.
9 Duflot de Mofras, " Exploration de TOregon des Calif," p. 17, 1844.
10 " Narrative of a Journey round the World," 1847.
11 A. de St. Hilaire, " Voyage dans I'mterieur du Bresil," i, p. 191, 1830.
310 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. |
provinces of the empire, is both lazy and proud ; he despises !
labour as dishonourable; he cares little for habitation and ;
dress, suffering rather from wet and cold ;] his religious ideas, •
his belief in wood-spirits and other spectres, is as absurd as that
of the Botocudes.2 The children of the Portuguese settled in
the Sertajo grow up indolent and become prodigal; their
farms fall into decay. Ignorance and superstition, belief in
witchcraft, spectres, and amulets, are universal ; they have lost
all the dignity of human nature, and only pass from their
apathy to the grossest sensuality. Though pacific and hospit-
able, they are devoid of any intellectual or moral activity.
Women and gambling form the sole objects of interest;
and there are here some few Portuguese refugees who have
forgotten religion, the knowledge of the use of money, and
even of salt.3
In Groyaz it is not much better ; the colonists are enervated
by early excesses ; concubinage is so common among them
that a married man is an object of mockery. Poverty is pre-
valent ; their indolence is remarkable ; fraud, especially falsi-
fication of the gold, is general. Something similar may be
found in other mining, and gold districts.4 The thirst
for gold and labour is succeeded by wealth and prodi-
gality; then succeed enervation, misery, poverty, and all
vices. There has for a long time existed in the islands Fer-
nando Noronha, a Portuguese criminal colony. No trace of
agriculture is visible there, nor is any amelioration of their
miserable condition thought of. The people smoke, gamble, or
lie in their hammocks ; they have but a miserable ferry boat, so
that Webster5 exclaims in astonishment : " is it possible that
these people are the progeny of the seafaring Portuguese, who
were so eminent as navigators ?" In Africa, the condition of
the Portuguese is equally miserable. On the west coast, where
they settled in the sixteenth century and have intermixed with
1 Rendu, " Etudes top. med. et agron. sur le Bresil," p. 24, 1848.
2 Prinz Max, " Eeise nach Brasil," ii, p. 59, 1820.
3 A. de St. Hilaire, loc. cit., ii, p. 304.
4 A. de St. Hilaire, " Voyage aux sources de la riviere San Francisco," i,
pp. 127, 173, 218, 316, 373; ii, pp. 75, 243, 1847.
5 " Narrative of a voyage to the South Atlantic Ocean," ii, p. 23, 1834.
SECT. II.] UNCULTIVATED WHITE RACES. 311
the Negroes, and are pretty numerous, they live in forests ;
and it is their influence which obstructs the progress of the
Liberia Republic among the Negroes.1 The indolence of the
Portuguese on the east coast of Africa nearly equals that of the
Negroes; their chief object is an existence which may be
attained by the least possible effort.2 The horrors of their
dominion and their own degeneration are described by Om-
boni.3 In Angola, they have introduced no other agricultural
implement but the hoe ; and maniok, which affords but small
nutriment, is still the chief vegetable aliment.4 The condition
of the Europeans in the Banda Islands is but little better.5
Nearly all the Spanish and Portuguese colonies rival each other
in proving how little these nations are able to spread civilization
in other regions, since separated from their native country they
are not even capable of preserving the culture they have
brought with them. The English and the French have in this
respect proved more successful ; but this superiority can only
partly be ascribed to the superiority of the original stock, and
to the care of the government of their mother- countries to keep
up the intercourse of the colonies with the civilized world.
Nevertheless, we learn that in the Mauritius, for instance, the
population of which is chiefly French, the condition of agricul-
ture before the advent of the English (1810), was as bad as in
the Spanish colonies : ploughs were scarce, and the fields were
not manured.6
. It may be objected that several of the instances cited re-
ferred to mixed populations and not to pure Europeans. Still,
it must be admitted that even in these cases the European
blood, despite the improvement of the race which is usually
ascribed to its infusion, has not proved its efficiency in raising
the breed one step above the condition of the aborigines ; and
that even in such cases where there was no intermixture, or a
1 Foote, " Africa, and the American flag," p. 72, New York, 1854.
2 Owen, " Narr. of a voyage to explore the shores of Africa," ii, p. 13, 1833.
3 " Viaggi neU. Afr. occ.," p. 100, Milano, 1845.
4 Livingstone, ii, p. 72.
5 Kogel in Ausland, p. 1066, 1857.
6 D'Unienville, " Statistique de 1'He Maurice," i, p. 305, 1838.
312 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
very slight one, the degeneracy of the population was nearly
the same. The assertion that the European alone is capable of
taking the initiative in civilization, and that the impulse
thereunto is a peculiarity of the race, must, after the quoted
facts, be considerably modified, for they prove at least that
the white man is not much less dependent on external cir-
cumstances in his progress towards civilization than the
black man. This is plainly shown when we consider man in
his individual capacity.
The savage, though he may have lived for some time in
civilized society, is generally but superficially changed. Young
Australians brought up by Europeans have escaped to the woods
when grown up j1 and similar instances are related of North
American Indians. In order not to draw erroneous conclu-
sions from such cases, we must consider that these individuals
could not fail to observe that they played but a sorry part
among the Whites ; perhaps, also, an instinctive impulse drove
them again to seek their freedom. Civilization is a state
which the uncultivated man, be he European or African, resists
with all his power, according to the law of inertia ; but it does
not irresistibly lead to the conclusion that savage peoples are
irreclaimable. If, on the one hand, the savage does not take
freely to civilization, though surrounded by it, we find, on the
other hand, that the civilized man, living among savages, re-
lapses after a short time into a state of barbarism, which, on
that account, we must consider as the primitive state of man.
In New Zealand, there are many such degenerate Europeans,
whose character and mode of life resemble those of the natives.2
Numbers of such instances are to be met with in Australia and
North America; nor was it in many cases necessity, but a pre-
dilection for a roaming life ; it was free choice which made
these men return to barbarism. Towards the end of the
last century it very often happened that some Whites were
1 Braim, " History of New South Wales," ii, p. 240, 1846.
2 Mundy, " Our Antipodes," ii, p. 124, 1852 ; Polack, " New Zealand : being
a Narrative," i, p. 52, 1838; "Die Neuseeliinder nacli d. Engl.," p. 258, 1833.
Kay, in " Caffraria," p. 400, 1833.
SECT. II.] UNCULTIVATED WHITE RACES. 313
adopted by Indian tribes.1 Froebel3 says that in Mexico,
where the natives frequently kidnap individuals, there are
many instances of their perfect naturalization among the
savages. There are said to live in the valley Simbura, at
some distance from Carimango in the province Loxa in Ecuador,
Spaniards of pure blood sunk into a complete state of barbar-
ism, possessing a degenerate language, without a trace of
historical tradition.3 Europeans perfectly degenerate, in fact
cannibals, like the natives, have been found by Lery4 among the
Tupinambas, and latterly they have been met with on the Fiji
islands,5 as a parallel to which may be mentioned that the
habit of eating human flesh spread in the thirteenth century,
first in consequence of a famine, among all classes of the
Egyptian population.6 How much civilization and degeneracy
depend on external circumstances has been repeatedly proved.
Before the breaking out of the war with the Iroquois (1685),
says Charleroix,7 the French were entirely unprotected, and
constantly surrounded by pressing dangers ; nevertheless they
lived like savages, in perfect carelessness, nor made they any
attempt to discipline and combine their forces. Careless and
improvident, says Irving,8 of a hunting expedition through the
prairies, as hunters generally are, they feasted continually,
without any thought of laying in a provision for the following
day. Does the savage act otherwise ? As regards moral dis-
positions, it can still less be maintained that the white race
possesses any great advantage above other races. The atroci-
ties we see committed by savages (and sometimes by our-
selves) in cold blood, without the least scruple, and their
insensibility to all moral relations, has something so repulsive
for the civilized man, that he feels inclined to assume that they
1 Baily, "Journal of a Tour in 1796," p. 770, Ausland, 1856; Wilkes,
" United States Exploring Expedition," iv, pp. 357, 360; v, p. 143.
2 " Eeise dnrch den Wester der V. St." '
3 Tschudi, " D. Kechua-Sprache," i, p. 8. According to Velasco, " Hist,
del reino de Quito," iii, pp. 2, 15, 17, who, perhaps, followed Alcedo.
4 " Reise in Brasil iibers," p. 258, 1794.
5 "Ausland," p. 936, 1857.
6 Abd Allatif, bei Humboldt und Bonpland, " Keise," iv, p. 373.
7 " Ges. v. Neu-Frankreich," p. 286, in Allg., " Hist, der Keisen."
8 Ausflug auf die Prairien.
314 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
are specifically different beings. We, however, soon learn that
such a theory is not tenable on these grounds.
We need not refer to the atrocities of the miserable Arnauts
in the war of Mohammed Ali,1 nor to the Turko-Russian
war, and the late rebellion of the Hindoos against the English,
for, independently of the low degree of civilization of these na-
tions, the exasperation of the struggle may, to some extent,
excuse them. Let us grasp the life of the European apart from
such extraordinary impulses, and in a state where he is
not kept in bounds by the law. How the Russo-American
Company behaved to the Aleutes, and even their own people,
may be learned from Langsdorff;2 the former were treated
much worse than slaves. Though sick, they were worked to
death; the moribund were put into damp huts, and provided nei-
ther with firewood nor proper victuals. The Europeans living
in Khartoum, on the Nile, belong to a variety of nations, and are
described as civilized ; but R/usseger, Brehm, and all other
travellers, unanimously describe them as the most worthless and
unscrupulous men in the world, living as slave dealers, without
any law, and given to all possible vices.
The worst in such cases is, that with the decline of morality
the moral sense itself gradually degenerates. The frontier
peasants at the Cape find nothing morally wrong in the razzias
which, without any provocation, they undertake against the
Bosjesmans, though they would consider it a heinous sin thus
to treat Christians.3 This reminds us of the Bosjesman who
knew nothing of the difference between good and bad actions,
adding, after some hesitation, that it was right in him to steal
the wives of other men, but wrong in others to steal his
own wife. The oft-praised pioneers of the West of North
America acted in a similar manner towards the Indians, and
their moral judgment in this respect was the same as that of
the Dutch peasants. The backwoodsmen of Old Kentucky are
brought up in the hatred of the natives, and shoot them down
1 Werne, " Feldzug Von Sennaar nach Taka," p. 116, 1851.
2 Vol. ii, pp. 63, 80.
3 Thompson's " Travels and Adventures in South Africa," i, p. 396, 2nd
edit., 1827.
SECT. II.] MOEAL SENSE. 315
without the least scruple, though they are generally humane
towards the White. No doubt some of them have grievously
suffered from the massacre of their families by the Indians.
They accordingly look upon the Indians as wild beasts, and treat
them as such.1 Thus we perceive that the European acts in
such cases entirely on the principle prevalent among savages,
namely, that vengeance, if it cannot reach the guilty, may be
taken on the tribe to which he belongs ; for instance, the
Bedouin Arab makes the Turk responsible for the Turk, the
Frank for the Frank, the black for the black.2 We need
scarcely refer to the morality of the slaveholders in the United
States. The Catholic missionaries in Congo looked with horror
upon the slave trade carried on by Protestants, but had no ob-
jection that Congo negroes should be kidnapped by Catholics
and carried into Catholic countries.3 In our own time even
we find the moral judgment very elastic, and just adapted to
the prevailing practice ; habit makes us so familiar with this,
that only striking deviations become perceptible. Thus we
read that in Java the seducer of another man's wife is judged
very indulgently, the husband only being ridiculed ; whilst the
seduction of another man's housekeeper is considered a very
reprehensible act, for which the offender is excluded from all
society.4 Some hundred years back there prevailed in Europe
quite a different morality. Slave trade, cruelties of every kind
against non- Christians, were considered as perfectly justifiable.
We may mention, by the way, that Edward III. of England
forbade his " right noble lords and right honourable ladies" to
carry on piracy and highway robbery, not on the grounds of
justice and morality, but simply because these acts injured the
revenues of the crown, and deterred foreign merchants from
visiting the country.
The natives of America have often been reproached with an
incorrigible vice of drunkenness peculiar to the red race, and
which leads them to certain destruction. This may also be as-
1 Hoffman, " A Winter in the Far West," ii, p. 30, 1835.
2 D'Escayrac, " Die Afrika Wiiste und d. Land der Scliwarzen," p. 170, 1855.
3 ZuchelH, " Merkw. Miss. u. Eeisebeschr. nacli Congo," p. 226, 1715.
4 Selberg, loc. cit., p. 168.
316 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
serted as regards many other uncivilized nations. We see
nothing in this but the irresistible power which sensual gratifi
cation exercises on man in a state of nature, careless of the
future and unconscious of the degrading consequences of the
vice. Without laying much stress on the efforts made by some
Indian chiefs to stem the progress of this vice, we would
mention that Europeans also perished in masses in consequence
of their drunken habits. Among the lowest class of the Cape
colonists there are but few who are not drunkards.1 The
greater number of the first white settlers on the Derwent river
in Van Diemen's Land were prematurely cut off in consequence
of this vice, and Ross2 asserts that half of the deaths were di-
rectly or indirectly the result of drunkenness.3 Braim4 denies
that drunkenness is at present prevalent in New South
Wales, but Byrne5 asserts the contrary. In Sydney, says
Majoribanks,6 there are from two hundred to three hundred
wine vaults, and there are consumed ten times as much spi-
rituous liquors as in other places ; for every adult spends on
the average about £20 per annum on this article. As regards
the natives of America, the Araucanians are considered the
most decided drunkards, but D'Urville7 observes that the
Chilise differ very little from them in this respect. The old
Germans are somewhat differently judged, at least in Ger-
many ! At their drinking-bouts, when individuals frequently
gambled away their personal liberty, there still reigned "a
youthful dignity and force," and " this still life differs infinitely
from the brutish stupor in which other savages indulge when
they are satiated with fighting and plundering."8 Butcheries,
cruelties, treachery, cunning, breaches of faith, were frequent
among them, from the exasperation caused by the Roman wars,
and yet they are represented to us as men in whom even at that
1 Moodie, " " Ten Years in South Africa/' i, p. 53, 1835.
2 " Hobart Town Almanac," 1831.
3 Laplace, and eminent per-
sons only are considered as immortal, as man is believed here-
after to continue to play the same part as during his lifetime.
The future is looked upon as a counterpart of the present : the
master remains a master, the slave a slave ; the common man
is considered too powerless to continue his existence. Such
men, therefore, who were pre-eminently distinguished in life,
and especially where distinctions in rank are well denned, be-
come gods after their decease, and a hero-worship becomes
gradually the chief element of religion, when, for instance, as in
Polynesia, the nobles and the priests alone claim a divine origin
and a relationship with the gods. The deified chiefs become
then confounded with the ancient gods, so that it is sometimes
difficult to distinguish the latter from the former. Thus Nden-
1 " Magaz. v. merkw. Keisebescrift." xxiii, p. 47.
SECT. III.] RELIGIOUS NOTIONS. 373
gei, the highest god of Fiji islanders, was, it is said, ori-
ginally a man, and wandered about in the islands. The
worship of deceased chiefs is very general in other islands
of the South Sea, and constitutes an important element in
religion.
The adoption of eminent men among the gods becomes, for
the transformation of religious ideas, important in many re-
spects. If man can only imagine higher beings in his own
image, idol worship is easily established, especially if deceased
persons are worshipped as gods. Nearly all idols resemble the
human form, and even the three feet long, irregular-shaped
coral piece which, on the King's-Mill Islands, is every month
covered with cocoa leaves, and worshipped as the image of the
highest god,1 has some resemblance to the human shape. The
reception of human individuals among the gods becomes par-
ticularly important in relation to their teachings, which we find
in every mythology. They are either considered as incarnations
of a god, or as the sons of the highest god, born of a human
mother, or a virgin, and miraculously conceived.2 They be-
1 Hale.
2 This point recurs under various forms, of which we shall cite a few
examples. The legend of the birth of Fohi, in China, runs thus : — Three
nymphs descended from heaven to bathe in a river. They had scarcely
entered it when the lotus plant appealed upon the garments of one, with its
coral fruit. The consequence was that she became pregnaijt, and gave birth
to a son, who became a founder of religion, a warrior, and lawgiver. Father
Tachard relates the legend of the birth of Codom, as follows : — Many, many
years ago, a virgin in a state of ecstasy, left the society of men, and haunted
the most solitary places of the forest, expecting the advent of a god long
predicted. One day, when she knelt down to pray, she became pregnant by
the sunbeams. On the shores of a lake, between Siam and Camboya, she
was delivered of a boy, whom she placed in the leaves of a lotus. She was
then translated to heaven ; but the boy was found by a hermit, and became
a great sage and performer of miracles. Archer, in Corea, is also said to be
the son of a virgin impregnated by the sun. Huitzilipochtli, in Mexico,
was born by a woman who caught in her bosom a featherbaU which descended
from the heavens (Clavigero, "History of Mexico," vi, p. 6). In a legend of
the Apaches, rain caused a supernatural conception : in Tahiti, it was the
shadow of a leaf of a bread-tree which Taaroa passed above Hina (Ellis,
" Polynes. Resear.," i, p. 326, 1832) ; the mother of the first Mandan chief
conceived by eating the fat of a bison cow (Prinz Max, loc. cit). Other similar
instances are related in Ausland, 1856, T. G. MuUer, etc. The Chibchar
equally attribute a supernatural birth to their heroes (P. Simon, " Noticias
de las Conq. de Tierra Firme," ii, p. 13; in Kingsborough, viii). Hence it
clearly results that E. Schomburgk (" K. in Guiana," ii, p. 320) wrongly sup-
poses Christian admixtures in the Indian traditions, which, like those of the
Maipures and Warraus, speak of the supernatural conception and birth of
one of their heroes.
374 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
come then the mediators between gods and men, and the
benefactors of the latter as the founders of a new religion, the
inventors of important arts, the founders of agriculture and
social order, and the promoters of civilization. Squier1 gives
as examples, Buddha in India, Fohi in China, Zoroaster in
Persia, Osiris in Egypt, Odin in Scandinavia, etc. In the New
World belong to this category, Quetzalcoatl in Mexico ; Manco
Capac in Peru, the founder of Cuzco, sent by the sun ; ana-
logous heroes we find among the Muyscas in Yucatan, in Nica-
ragua, and even among the Natchez ;3 Hiawatha among the
Iroquois, the founder of their confederacy ; Manabozho among
the Algonquins ; Tamoi among the Guarayos.3
It is by the influence of such heroes that religion becomes
an element of civilization, whilst in its natural form it directly
or indirectly impedes it. In order to promote culture, it re-
quires a transformation, which, like all psychical progress, is
not so much determined by the influence of external natural
forces, or by social relations and historical events, as by the
influence of pre-eminently gifted individuals, who no doubt,
to be successful in their endeavours, require a susceptible and
productive field in their own people. No natural religion
seems in itself to possess the germ of a higher development
conducive to civilization. The mass of superstition which
these religions" contain suffocates thought ; and the exclusive
predominance of evil spirits, whilst the benevolent beings are
little heeded, deprives them of any beneficial effect which religion
should exercise upon moral conduct. It is only in a higher
stage of cultivation when man becomes the master of nature,
and his moral sense is developed by means independent of a
religious source, that he is led to the worship of a good prin-
ciple. Even the question as regards the variety of surrounding
phenomena, and the origin of the world, is not originally raised
by man; the idea of a creation does not immediately occur
to him, but remains for a long time dormant, or at least
confused.
1 " Serpent Symbol ;" and Kougement, " Le peuple primitif," ii, p. 108.
2 Du Pratz, " Hist, de la Louisane," ii, p. 324, 1758.
3 D'Orbigny, « L'Homme Amer./' iii, pp. 12, 23, 1839.
SECT. III.] RELIGIOUS NOTIONS. 375
Just as the establishment of a well organized community is
not the work of the multitude but of gifted individuals who,
either with or without the consent of the people, place them-
selves at their head, — so can religions be only created by in-
dividuals, and imposed upon the masses. As such religions
are frequently opposed to old prevailing religious notions, their
introduction among peoples in a low state of culture are the
more successful if they supply a want, or if their representative
is in the possession of sufficient personal authority. If the
new doctrines are of native growth, they will, however much
they may be opposed to the ancient faith, find their points of
attachment in the psychical life of the people, and take root,
which can be scarcely expected if they are imported by a
people whose history, civilization, and social conditions, differ
widely. Islamism and Christianity offer instructive examples
in this respect. The first spread in Africa imperceptibly, as it
was more intelligible to the Negro, and is more compatible
with his culture, so that even in Abyssinia it gains on Chris-
tianity; whilst large sums have been spent, and great and
noble efforts made, to promote the latter, with but little
success.
Next to the historical condition, civilization will depend on
the comparative purity of the new religion. A religion may
be said to be the purer the less it prevents the development of
knowledge, and the more its principles coincide with those of
morality. Where faith extends to subjects accessible to know-
ledge, it becomes superstition, and prevents the progress of
knowledge, not merely by establishing false principles as fixed
doctrines, but by investing these doctrines with a sacred cha-
racter so as to render them unassailable. If the religion con-
tains immoral elements, it corrupts the motives of man, con-
firms him in his errors by placing before him bad ideals, and
directs him into paths which estrange him more or less from a
higher cultivation.
It is difficult to exactly determine the influence of certain
religions on civilization, inasmuch as all peoples at different
periods fuse their religious doctrines with other elements of
their psychical life, and either abandon or modify the old doc-
376 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
trines. Thus neither the Mohammedan nor the Christian re-
ligion has at all times and in all regions produced the same
effects. The Mohammedan religion has made the Arabs a
people of great historical importance by giving them unity,
and rousing their enthusiasm for common enterprises, whilst
it was unable to secure its conquests of Babylon and Egypt.
This religion is, nevertheless, such an incubus on intellectual
and moral progress, that its professors will always remain in-
ferior to Christian peoples. Whoever professes a belief in
Allah and the Prophet is acknowledged as a brother. The
monotheism of the Mohammedans loses its moral force by
their God being only the God of the faithful, to whom He has
given the world. Their notion of God does not include the
world as a whole, and all mankind as one family ; but only a
God of the faithful, all the rest being considered as God's
enemies, which may be killed or reduced to slavery, and to
fight against whom is meritorious. The doctrine of immorta-
lity promises sensual enjoyments to the faithful. The belief in
predestination may impart submission to fate, but it deadens
at the same time every effort, mental and corporeal. " JTis the
will of God," is among Mohammedans not merely an expres-
sion of religious faith and resignation, but of superstition.
The permission of polygamy, in connexion with the doctrine
that women possess no souls and do not enter heaven, leads
to an undignified position of the female sex. The prohibition
to make images of men and animals, prevents any attempts in
the plastic arts. To use knives, spoons, or forks, is considered
irreligious by the Arabs in Africa ; and the faith in the sanctity
of the Koran, which gives rise to a number of superstitious
customs, explains why the Arabs in Africa are but little
superior in intellectual culture to many heathen peoples.
Moreover, the Koran contains many contradictions, by incul-
cating fanaticism against all infidels, and in teaching tole-
ration. Submission to authority is not inculcated as a re-
ligious duty. The Turks, the Syrians, Egyptian Arabs,
though they utter witji their tongues the most beautiful moral
sentences, possess, in fact, but little piety, compassion, or
SECT. III.] KNOWLEDGE AND ART. 377
honesty, as they believe they fulfil every duty by their prayers
and ceremonies (Burckhardt) .l
Art usually attaches itself to religion, by supplying the re-
quisites of worship sensibly to represent the religious ideas.
The creations of plastic art and poetry frequently give a type
to religious notions. This applies both to the forms of indi-
vidual gods and to the traditions attached to them. It
is in this way that gradually a series of less varied mytho-
logical persons and legends issue from the original mass
of superstition. At the same time, the first attempts at
plastic delineations, as we find among rude nations, are used
as communications of remarkable events, to which is allied
the development of picture writing. Despite these import-
ant contributions of art to the progress of culture, we do
not consider them as the chief causes which determine civiliza-
tion as a whole. However great the influence of the arts may
be on the forms of life which a high civilization presents,
they must, in the inferior stages of development, be rather
considered as the products than as the springs of culture, and
are hardly capable of effecting the elevation of a people ; be-
cause the really beautiful can neither be produced nor enjoyed
by rude nations, and since the formation of taste becomes only
important for the masses in proportion as the sense for the
beautiful is already developed.
On the other hand, the progress of knowledge must be
considered as the second principal cause to which civiliza-
tion owes its development and duration. Its effects in this
direction are so great that it cannot possibly be over-esti-
mated ; for knowledge penetrates all the ramifications of life
and makes them dependent on itself, so that the intellectual
development of a people is the standard of its civilization.
To what a degree the material welfare of a people depends
on its intellectual development lies on the surface. Surrounded
by abundance and favoured by nature, we see many peoples
1 Among those authors who have by experience acquired a knowledge of
life in Mohammedan countries, D'Escayrac may be mentioned as an eloquent
eulogist of the Mohammedan religion (" Die Afr. Wueste und das Land der
Schwarzen"). An impartial review of the lights and shadows of Islamism
will be found ill " Zeitschrift f. d. Kunde des Morgenlandes," iii, p. 352.
378 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
of the tropics lead a miserable life, helplessly exposed to alter-
nate changes, and careless of the future. They support them-
selves in the most simple and uniform manner from what
nature voluntarily offers, or they cultivate the soil with the
rudest implements. Their preparation of food is defective, and
the aliments are frequently unwholesome. The protection
against climate by dress and habitation is neglected ; nor does
the savage take any measures to secure himself against any
external evils.
" Knowledge is power." This is shown by the subjection of
nature to the aims of man, and by the application of its re-
sources to social wants. In proportion as man studies his own
nature, the scope and inclination of his desires and passions,
and the general interests of society, in the same proportion
can he succeed in establishing and developing a fixed social
condition. In order to overcome the difficulties and dangers
which beset social life, a knowledge of the means capable of
effecting it must be attained. Here, as everywhere, knowledge
must precede the power, unless the development of what
already exists is abandoned to mere chance. In order to
secure the basis of all social order, the institution of private
property, a certain self-control is requisite, which can only rest
upon the consciousness, that the limitation of arbitrary power
is better than general insecurity.
It is the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge which
enables us to distinguish right from wrong, and which gives
tongue to conscience. Whether this knowledge be in many
cases merely traditional, and the conception of morality be
only acquired, it is not less true that conscience speaks ac-
cordingly. The crude or fine distinctions which conscience
makes, its perversity and defects, its singularities, have all their
source in the theoretical conception of the condition of man.
But on account of the reciprocal effect of all branches of human
knowledge, there is full reason to expect that the knowledge of
morality and its application will not lag behind where all others
become developed, there being a parallelism in the progress
of all.
Hence religion experiences a decided reaction from the pro-
SECT. III.] INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE ON RELIGION. 379
gress of knowledge. Although a progressive knowledge of na-
ture does not at once destroy the spiritualisation of the sensible
world, it gradually limits it. Diseases are no longer considered as
the effects of evil spirits, the number of which is gradually
lessened, until reduced to one devil. The local gods, also, are
considerably reduced. The remaining gods, formerly spectral
and capricious, are now differently conceived ; they are more
spiritualised, and are endowed with a more specific character,
their actions have more design, they receive a symbolical sig-
nification, so that a connected mythology is established which
promotes the plastic arts. The more man is enlightened by the
torch of knowledge, and perceives that the ethic-aesthetical in-
terests form the centre of his destination, the more his gods,
either from analogy to himself or to his ideals, acquire an
ethic-aesthetic signification, until at length their number no
longer corresponds with his improved notions of the unity and
design of the world, and he abandons polytheism.
These illustrations must suffice to show that it is essentially
the development of knowledge which is the moving power, all
other forces being secondary. Nevertheless, it cannot be
denied that it is attended by some injurious effects. In every
branch, of human science, ignorance is first replaced by a series
of errors which surround certain truths. Though many of
these errors may, separately, be harmless enough, they become
highly dangerous when they affect the passions of man. The
danger and destructiveness of knowledge grows in proportion
to its superiority above others. Kefined wickedness is fre-
quently the result of intellectual development. Knowledge
itself may rouse the passions, by leading to disputes, giving
rise to vanity and over-weening pride. Again, every new fact
is over-valued, transferred by false analogies to other pheno-
mena, and prematurely made the basis of general theories.
Old theories oppose, with the power of inertia, the acknow-
ledgment of inconvenient facts or arguments ; and it is often
that some false theory seizes the masses after it has been com-
pletely refuted : hence the extreme errors between which
knowledge in its progress frequently seems to oscillate.
The motives for the development of knowledge lie rarely
380 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
in theoretical interests ; for these are only manifested in any
strength among civilized nations, and even among them it is
not so much the desire of knowledge, but the striving after
honour and power. Then comes the habit of mental exertion in
solving the questions conducive to the progress of knowledge.
There is no impulse among rude or primitive peoples to ob-
tain knowledge, which, according to Aristotle, is innate in
human nature. It is the practical wants and misery which
overcome the natural psychical indolence of man, and induce
him to overpower the natural forces. In the course of our in-
vestigation, we have had frequent occasion to insist upon this
point, and it has always been shown that in the primitive man
there is no tendency to progress. The modern idealistic
doctrine of the necessary development of the human mind out
of itself, is a fiction, which may natter man's vanity, but which
is contradicted by actual facts. There can be no doubt that it
is man's thought which produces and preserves civilization ;
this thought, however, does not originate by itself, nor does
it move by itself, nor is it the function of one mind, but is
the combined activity of all individuals living together, pro-
duced by surrounding media, and nourished and matured by
the historical events which befall them.
We are far from pretending to have given a history of the de-
velopment of mankind from the primitive state to that of civiliza-
tion, or even a general outline of what may be termed the natural
history of human society. The attempt to solve this interest-
ing problem would only lead to the same result as obtained
by the so-called philosophy of history, namely, the establish-
ment of a model theory, which, considering the great variety
and manifold concatenation of the conditions on which the
civilization of nations depends, can have no claim to general
application. We have therefore confined ourselves to investi-
gating the general motives which lie at the foundation of, and
promote culture. Whether the result of such investigation,
for the elucidation of the psychological causal connexion as
regards civilization, be great or small, this much has been
SECT. III.] NATURAL CHARACTER. 381
proved, that the various degrees of culture in various peoples
depend in a much greater degree on the mode of life, the his-
torical events, and other elements, than on their original
mental endowment, which, however, does not exclude the
latter, and which possibly, also, may have its influence. The
latter supposition is possible, but cannot be demonstrated.
The whole course of our investigation has rendered it more
probable that barbarism and civilization prevail among all
peoples of the earth, and that powerful impulses are required
to change their conditions ; but that as regards the further
development of already partially civilized peoples, there is this
circumstance in their favour, that in consequence of the civi-
lization already acquired, the progeny inherit better predis-
positions than those possessed by their progenitors. And yet
we find that even in the higher stages of civilization, it is by
single individuals only that the progress in science, art, re-
ligion, and social economy is really effected. Even among the
rudest nations, such genial natures are not wanting : there is
no specific difference of mankind in this respect ; but they
rarely produce more than a transitory effect.
The question has been frequently asked, in what consists the
national character of a people ? The preceding investigation
has shown that it depends on so many conditions that an exact
analysis is extremely difficult. That it is not the race alone
which determines it, is proved by there being different nation-
alities within the same race. It is therefore probable, as
observed by Hugh Murray,1 that the mental peculiarities of
peoples are generally more flexible and changeable than the
physical characters of the race, and are transmitted with a
less degree of constancy. Though it may be admitted, that
peculiarities of race exercise an indirect influence upon the
national character by the tradition of manners and laws, it
cannot be generally asserted that the political or religious in-
stitutions determine it, for among primitive peoples we find
the latter very similar, and yet the national characters differ
widely. These are developed, and become permanent by the
1 Loc. cit., p. 149.
382 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
combined simultaneous or successive effects of all the factors
of the physical, social, and psychical life of the respective
peoples ; and hence it is easily explained that each of these
factors, though it may be found in two or several peoples, in
consequence of its combination with others which either sup-
port or oppose its action, may produce very different effects.
As every event and every experience acts differently upon the
same individual in different periods of life, and according to
different circumstances, so have the same events different
effects upon the various peoples. The same climate, the same
social position, political constitution, and religion, may produce
very different effects on the national character, according to
the different periods of development of the peoples ; and it
may thus occur that what essentially determines the national
character in one people may be powerless in another, or pro-
duce quite different effects.
From our investigation of the psychological nature of man,
we have obtained a result, which, though not strictly proved,
admits of but little doubt, namely : — that there exists an ex-
tremely gradual variability in the mental development of peo-
ples, which justifies us in considering the greatest differences
in the states of civilization as merely different in degree ; that
the conditions for mental development are essentially the same
in all races ; and that there is no sufficient reason to assume
specific differences among mankind. Are we then, if human
nature is everywhere the same, to suppose that the object of
its development is one and the same ? Are we to imagine that
the object of the history of humanity is an essentially uniform
civilization akin to our present European civilization, which
may once prevail over the whole globe ? These are questions
which we will just touch upon in concluding our investigations.
Whoever entertains the conviction, that the transition from
a primitive to a civilized state neither increases the sum nor
the intensity of enjoyments, but only their variety, may put
the same value on the various phases of human life, or what
amounts to the same thing, consider the values of barbarism
and civilization as merely subjective notions. Everyone is
pleased with the world in which he moves, and with the fate
SECT. III.] BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. 383
nature prepares for him ; hence the civilized man desires no
change in his mode of life, nor does the primitive man desire
to emerge from the state of nature. Nature acts equitably to-
wards both ; the more our capacity for enjoyment, and the greater
its intensity, the more the capacity for suffering increases,
as pleasure and pain flow from the same source, — from the
possession and loss of the same goods. All the modes of
life in human society are equal in the amount of gratification
which they afford to man ; it is better to abstain from com-
paring their relative value, and to consider them merely
collectively as a grand spectacle in the changes and evolutions
in which they take a part.
We might certainly regret the restlessness with which the
civilized man strives to improve his position, the efforts which
he makes to pursue his object, and the sufferings and the de-
privations which he encounters in his pursuit. The desire for
a deeper signification of human life would thus be an error, —
a mournful product of a perverted culture, — the thirst after
intelligence, neither better nor nobler than the thirst for water.
The history of mankind would thus only exhibit the melan-
choly spectacle in which, notwithstanding the greatest efforts,
there would only be obtained the common object which na-
ture attains in every animal, namely, a constant sum of en-
joyment.
The wonderful design in the construction of separate parts
contradicts, however, the idea of viewing the world as an aimless
combination of forces. The natural laws sufficiently indicate
that the object of nature is not merely the production of the
greatest possible sum of enjoyment : although the sum of en-
joyment may not be increased by civilization, yet the mode of
enjoyment is essentially altered by it. The great value of
civilization above the primitive state lies chiefly in this, that
it places human life upon a different foundation from that in
which it took root. In the natural state it was the indivi-
dual interest which, in the form of the instinct of self-preser-
vation and sensual enjoyment, acted exclusively on man, whilst
in the civilized state the general interests begin to predo-
minate. Enjoyment is in its nature confined to the individual ;
384 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
but psychical advantages have the tendency to become common
right.
The progress of civilization in every stage of development
of human society, is mainly effected by labour and the renun-
ciation of immediate enjoyment, for the latter merely consumes
and produces nothing. It is on this account that civiliza-
tion does not increase enjoyment. The prevalence of labour
is above all characteristic of civilization ; the object of labour
is first to make man the master of nature, to overcome it, and
to make it subservient to his wants, in order to gain leisure
and force for his psychical life, and to secure his existence
from the dangers of natural forces. The performances of phy-
sical efforts are determined by mental labour, and they become
more perfect in proportion as the knowledge of nature extends.
But whilst man gradually renders himself more independent
of the influences of natural forces, his mental independence
grows simultaneously, he becomes master of himself, and learns
to shape his individual and social life. The variety and ex-
tent of his performances thus grow in every direction.
His mental efforts gradually predominate over the physical ;
but they are not made as having an object in themselves,
or as referring only to individual interest, but in order
that they may benefit the world, that is to say, all the members
of human society, partly by lessening the pressure of external
circumstances on the present generation, and partly for the
benefit of generations to come. Thus civilization is an
incessant labour of all for every individual, not alone for his
enjoyment, but for fitting him for an intellectual life, — a
labour which can only have its full effect by the coalition
of all the external and inner forces of individuals, but which,
on this account, at first includes only small and gradually larger
circles of society, until at length it connects all humanity by
closer moral bonds.
It is in this sense that we look upon civilization as the uni-
versal destination of mankind. This is the development which
nature designs for man, in which all human beings participate,
though the parts which they take in it may greatly differ. We
need not investigate here how far the present European civi-
SECT. III.] HAPPINESS WITHOUT CULTURE. 385
lization corresponds with our abstract notions. If its dark
side, which we are too much accustomed to look upon as
necessarily evil, is overlooked or under-estimated, and the
theory is indulged that all the countries on the globe may
become assimilated in manners and morals to Europe, doubts
may arise whether such a consummation is indeed so much to
be wished for. No one, it is true, now gives any credence to
the idyllic descriptions of a golden age ; yet the information
given by many travellers of the condition of some primitive
peoples is too well authenticated to be entirely rejected as
fabulous.
Capt. Woodes Rogers, and other travellers of the seventeenth
century, describe the natives of Port Natal — who at a later period
were almost entirely exterminated by the Zulus — as a people
of innocent manners, kind and hospitable to strangers, and as
living in a state of ideal happiness. The inhabitants of Chiloe,
who neither have nor require physicians and lawyers, living
with the Indians (to whom, since 1829, they have ceded
their country), in peaceful vicinity, are said to be in a similar
blissful state : murder, robbery, debts, are not heard of; drun-
kenness is only seen among the foreign sailors ; doors are
not barred; general confidence and honesty prevail.1 The
patriarchal happy life of the colonists of the small island
Pitcairn (in the South Sea), now transferred to Norfolk Island,
is too well known.2 To this may be added what Father Garces
(as communicated by Humboldt), narrates of his visit to the
Indians in the vicinity of Casas Grandes, south of the Rio
Gila (1773). They were peaceable agriculturists, cultivated
maize, cotton, and gourds, extremely gentle, and living to-
gether in the greatest concord. The missionary pointed out
to them the advantages of a mission, when they would have
an alcalde to administer full justice. The chief replied, " We
neither steal nor quarrel, what occasion have we for an alcalde ?"
East of Surabaya, in Java, in the Tengger mountains, in the
1 Blanckley, in " Journal of the Royal Geogr. Society," iv, p. 351.
2 Beechey, "Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific," 1831; Bennet, "Narra-
tive of a whaling voyage round the globe," i, p. 44, 1840; Moerenhout,
" Voy. aux lies du grand Ocean," ii, p. 283, 1837.
C C
386 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
vicinity of the so-called Sandy Sea, there live in about forty
villages, the remnants of a people which still profess the old
Hindoo religion. They are taller and more robust than the
other Javanese.1 The position and the structure of their
houses, in the midst of which stands the sanctuary of bricks,
which no stranger must touch, are entirely different from any-
thing else on the island.3 The chiefs of every village and his
assistants are elective. Four priests, intelligent, but otherwise
uneducated men, are the keepers of important documents, and
the sacred books, written on lontar-leaves, describing the
origin of the world, the attributes of the deity, and the forms
of worship ; they perform the marriages, and sing the hymns.
" The people universally declare that adultery, theft, and other
crimes are never committed amongst them, and that conse-
quently there is no punishment for them. If an individual
commit any wrong, he is reprimanded by the chief of the
village, and this rebuke is considered a sufficient punishment
for an inhabitant of Tengger. The authorities of the country
confirm this. They are almost exempt from crime, generally
peaceable, frugal, and industrious ; gambling and opium are
unknown." The whole population amounts to about 1,200
souls. They live, without exception, in the fairest and richest
region of Java. Their language is the present Javanese.
Proud of their independence and morality, they do not inter-
mix with the people of the low-lands.
In contrasting these examples with the laziness and vulgarity
into which small communities of civilized Europeans have sunk,
when far removed from their native country, we are not merely
cautioned against the assumption of specific differences between
the white and coloured races : but the question obtrudes itself,
whether, after all, it would be so very beneficial for all races to
partake of our European civilization ; or whether there are not
certain states of culture, which, though differing widely from
ours, may not excel it in their moral aspect by the sum of hap-
piness and well-being they afford.
If we admit that instances of this kind refer exclusively to
1 Jukes, " Narrative of the Surveying Voy. of H.M.S. Fly," ii, p. 80, 1847.
2 Stamford Raffles, " History of Java," i, p. 329, 1817.
SECT. III.] UNIFORM CIVILIZATION IMPROBABLE. 387
small populations living in a state of seclusion, we must infer
from it that if the main object of human life is happiness and
well-being, a break up of nations into small independent com-
munities would be requisite to attain the proper end of the
human race. If, further, it be granted that in all the adduced
examples a strikingly low psychical condition and a deficiency
of mental efforts is clearly manifested, then it may, with
regard to our European civilization, be asserted, that it is just
to this circumstance that we must attribute the essential cause
of the undisturbed happiness of these men, and of man in
general, provided that security against external danger, un-
corrupted morals, and a consoling faith free from the coarsest
superstition, are added to it. But it assumes a very different
aspect when we consider the ideas of civilization and develop*
ment as the destination of humanity.
A superficial glance at the great differences of peoples, and
the mighty influences of natural conditions and climates which
preserve these diversities, is sufficient to convince us of the
little probability that a uniform civilization will ever prevail
among all peoples of the earth. Just as the animal and
vegetable world offers, in the various degrees of latitude,
a diversity which will continue so long as the present
condition of our planet remains; so nature seems inclined
to preserve a similar diversity in the physical and psychical
characters of mankind. It would, however, be unjust to infei*
from this, as has often been done, that some peoples are by
nature intended for civilization, and others for barbarism*
Every civilized society, be it large or small, clearly shows that
for its existence and development a division of labour, a variety
of occupation, are requisite, — all equally necessary, though of
unequal intrinsic value. These extremely varied perform-
ances must tend to a common object : what individuals are to
the state, individual peoples must be to mankind, as a whole \
as the former by their special callings supply the wants of the
society in which they live, so all separate peoples must gradu-
ally take their special positions and functions in regard to
mankind at large. For this reason the isolation of small com-
munities, or larger nations, however happy they may be in
c c 2
388 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II.
undisturbed enjoyment, cannot last ; for it is their destination
sooner or later to be drawn within the vortex of general inter-
course, and to be made in some way, by their labour, to con-
tribute to the end and aim and development of society.
Even after this shall have been effected as regards all the
peoples of the earth, it is not to be expected that the great
differences between the various kinds of labour required by
civilization will disappear. Setting aside all minor differences,
and keeping in view the" chief object of labour, we find that
it is physical, social, or intellectual, accordingly as it is
directed to physical well-being, the preservation of social order,
or the promotion of knowledge. In every people which par-
takes of civilization, these chief divisions of labour will be
represented by different classes, though it does not follow that
this is effected in every people in the same manner. Though in
every people the group of social arrangements remains gene-
rally the same, since social order is not easily transferred from
one people to another, we find that some have more regard for
the material, and others for the psychical, development of the
respective peoples. Thus, among some peoples material,
among others mental, labour would predominate, and each
would partake of the productiveness of the rest. In tropical
countries the material products, in temperate climates psy-
chical productiveness, would predominate.
A high degree of intellectual development, deep thought,
and a refined morality seem scarcely compatible with the men-
tal prostration which life in the torrid zone produces in the Eu-
ropean as well as in the native. Human art will hardly ever
overcome the power of these natural obstructions. Christianity,
exclusively directed to the moral elevation of man, finds there
for its spiritual doctrines a very infertile soil. An expe-
rienced author intimately acquainted with India, Montgomery
Martin, asserts, that no Indian has ever become a true Christian,
whilst all picturesque religions which much engage the imagi-
nation, and possess an eudsemonistic colouring like Mohammed-
anism, is more homogeneous to the nature of the inhabitants of
the tropics, and more intelligible and satisfactory to them than
is Christianity. For this reason, and taking into consideration
SECT. III.] SCOPE OF CHRISTIANITY. 389
the successes hitherto obtained by the various missions, it ap-
pears doubtful whether Christianity will ever, not merely in
name, but in spirit, enter the hearts of mankind all over the
globe. Our European civilization is, on the whole, too artificial
and abstract immediately to attract uncivilized nations : such
peoples must first pass through a long series of transitional
stages before our culture becomes accessible to them. In order
to arrive at it, the vital power and energy of a people must
neither have degenerated into idleness and sensual enjoyment,
nor have been exhausted by misery and distress ; a happy
combination is requisite to enable it gradually to encounter
difficulties raised by nature and man, but in such a manner,
that its power of resistance and its external and internal re-
sources should be adequate, so that the people may emerge
from the struggle physically and morally strengthened.
Where the necessary transitional stages, which a primitive
people has to pass through to arrive at a higher development,
are wanting, it will, after a short apparent elevation, relapse
again into the original state, and, as so frequently occurs when
primitive and civilized peoples come in contact, the former will
unavoidably perish. Civilization may then continue to spread
in the habitable world, but it will crush these peoples, for a
sudden transition from the natural state to Christianity and
European civilization is opposed to the laws of nature. The
attempt to effect it resembles the attempt of the ignorant
pedagogue, who expects by one powerful effort suddenly to
transform the character of his pupil. Civilization must pro-
gress slowly, or it will retrograde; the history of revolutions
yields the same results in this respect as the history of the
missions.
END OF VOLUME THE FIRST.
INDEX.
Abipones, 140, 149, 258,
293
Aborigines, rights, 165
Abyssinians, 45, 210, 325,
326
Acclimatization, 199 ; of
white, 125
Acosta, 184, 370
Adair, 371
Adams, 106
Adiahs, 213
Adultery, 325
Africa, 257, 369
Agassiz, 21, 22, 32, 196,
203, 233, 351
Age, signs of, 1 14
Agriculture, 336, 353
Aguanas, 219
Ainos, 42
Alberti, 118
Albinism, 85
Aleutes, 149, 257, 314, 339
Alexander, 118
Alfurus, 221
Algoa Bay, 147
Algonquins, 148, 249, 257,
374
Algerian Arabs, 152
Aliment and mode of life,
34
Allen and Thomson, 131,
133, 143, 212, 213
Allerhand, 258
Amboyna, 365
America, 257
Americans, 144, 238, 242,
255, 306
American lean compared
with Englishman, 53
American school of an-
thropology, 351
American school, 22
American Indians, 61, 145
Amerigo Vespucci, 122
Amock, running, 332
Analogies between na-
tions, 255
Anamese, 304
Anatomy a branch of an-
thropology, 6
Ancient buildings, 195
Andersson, 278
Angola, 311
Animal heat, 109
Anatomical differences in
man, 90
Ancon sheep, 82
Anderson, 55
Andrews, 308
Anthropology discussed in
America as a party
question, 1 ; scarcely
yet touched upon in
Germany, 1; comprises
the labours of the zoo-
logist, geologist, lin-
guist, historian, and
psychologist, 1 ; defini-
tion of, 3 ; formerly re-
stricted to the differ-
ences between man and
animals, 5 ; formerly in-
cluded such natur-
philosophical subjects
as the origin of man-
kind, animal magnet-
ism, etc., 5 ; sometimes
treated empirically,
sometimes philosophi-
cally, 5 ; its empirical
definition the one ad
hered to in this work,
5 ; includes the ana-
tomy, physiology, and
psychology of man on
the one side, and the
history of civilization on
the other,6 ; its relations
to history, 8
Anthropophagy, 296
Antiquity of man, 194, 285
Apaches, 148,150,373
Ape, man compared with,
91
Ape and negro, a certain
resemblance between,
100
Appendix to Section II, 144
Apron of Hottentot wo-
men, 105
Aquapim, 212
Arab children swim, 88
Arabs, 61, 63, 115, 218,
254, 332, 339
Arabs of Sennaar, 101
Araucafios, 103, 146, 309,
316
Arbousset and Daumas,
137, 171, 186
Archer, 373
Argentine republic, 308
Aristotle, 10, 281, 380
Aristocracy, hereditary, of
the mind, 89
Arnauts, 314
Arnoux, 94, 98, 100
Arowakas, 46
Arowaki, 115, 306
Arm islands, 278
Arsenic used to poison
aborigines, 167
Artistic talents trans-
mitted, 89
Ashantees, ]42, 212, 304
Assuan, 818
Atavism, 168
Athens, 317
Atmosphere, hygrometric
state of, 34
Australians, 58, 100, 102,
103,116,135, 140, 144,
176, 204, 233, 257, 296,
297, 300, 304, 306, 312,
325, 334, 357
Author's preface, 1
Avare skull, 239
Axe, 309
Aymaras, 216
Azara, 123, 140, 151, 183,
251, 345
Aztecs, 255
392
INDEX.
Bachmann, 82, 128, 186,
264
Baghirmi, 210
Baily, 313
Baker, 164, 166, 304
Balbi, 245
Baldness, 114,
Baltos, 234
Banana, 331
Bancroft, 319
Banda Islands, 311
Banjarmassing, 249
Baptism, 256
Barabra, 66
Barbot, 218
Barrington, 126, 135, 186,
300, 305
Barrow, 54, 208, 257
Barth, 66, 105, 133, 209,
210, 212, 246, 300
Barthes, 38, 357
Bambarra, 299
Baseler, 147
Baseler, Miss, 163
Basques, 257
Bayaderes, 102
Bayard Taylor, 115
Beauty, ideas of human,
305
Beaumarchais, 269
Beard in Negro, 96
Bechuanas, 65, 137, 140,
369
Beclard, 98
Becroft, 213
Bedouins, 63, 156
Bedouin Arabs, 115, 138,
315
Beechey, 122, 147
Bees, 203
Belcher, 50, 121
Bellows, 257
Benguela, food of work-
men in, 59
Benin, 142, 242
Bennet,159,165,169,177,
202, 270
Bennett, 86, 87, 164
Benuwe, 306
Berber, 66
Berbers, 325
Bergmann, 135
Berthelot, 253, 326 ; Webb
and Berthelot, 194
Berthold, 35
Billings, 62, 149
Birmah, 85
Birmese, 304
Bissagos Archipelago, 143
Blackfeet, 145
Black peoples created first
193
Blake, Carter, 107
Bleek, 56
Blindness, hereditary, 85
Blind Children, 142
Blue Nile, 9.11
Bluish ring round eyes of
Mongrels, 178
Blood of Negro, 97
Blumenbach, 28, 29, 30,
35, 38, 39, 42, 55, 107,
168, 191, 207, 218, 222,
224, 232, 234
Blushing, 135
Bodily strength of various
nations, 121
Boers, 147, 151
Bogota, 83
Bonny, 142
Borabora, 159
Borneo, 365
Bornou, 209
Boroanos, 219
Boors at Cape, 138
Borlat, 300
Bory, 15, 23, 38, 102, 226,
228, 233
Bosjesman, 57, 295, 314,
334
Bosnian soldiers, 249
Bosnian soldiers in Nubia,
43
Bosnians, 106, 142
Botanical Provinces, 196
Boteler, 133, 213
Botocudos, 55, 68, 140,
153,215,299,310
Bothriocephalus, 128
Boucher de Perthes, 194
Boudyk, 299, 304
Bowka, 140
Bowdich, 96, 142, 209, 212
Bradford, 255
Bracknas, 252
Brackenridge, 183
Brandy sold to Indians,
152
Brachycephalic, 235
Brass, odour of, 140
Brain of Ape, 91; of Negro,
93
Brain, 312,316
Brazil, 111
Brazil, mulattos in, 179
Brazilians, 250, 300, 319,
322
Brazilian society, 178
Brahmin children highly
gifted, 89
Brehm, 40, 51, 101, 113,
125, 134,297,318,326
Bretons, 101
Bridges, 309
Broad skulls, 236
Broc, 38, 71, 226
Brook, 257
Brooke, 147, 278, 359,
366
Brothertons, 249
Brown, Joseph, 54
Brown, W., 110
Bruce, 45, 210, 218, 326
Brunner, 133
Buccal cavity in Negro, 95
Buchanan, 223
Buckland, 254
Buck goat, 82
Buckton, 117
Buddha, 374
Buenos Ayres, 111, 293,
308, 345
Buffalo, 319
Buffon, 23, 169, 184, 207,
281
Buildings, ancient, 195
Bullams, 211
Bunbury, 105
Burchell, 114, 137, 139,
164
Burckhardt, 43, 69, 139,
140, 377
Burdach, 88, 112,177
Buriats, feeding on animal
food, are weakly, 61
Burmeister, 50, 70, 93, 94,
95,96,97, 101,122,154,
168, 172, 238
Burton, 105
Burutu, 162
Busb, 142
Bushmen, children preco-
cious, 88
Bushmen, 105, 108, 114,
137, 139, 257, 325
Bushwomen, cerebrum of,
93
Byrne, 59, 166, 167, 316
Cabouret, 173
Cafusos, 174
Cagots in Spain, 86, 193
Cailliaud, 106
Caillie, 134, 299
Caldcleugh, 111, 149
California, 62, 145, 213
California, Upper, 112
Callao, 147
Camanchees, 145
INDEX.
393
Camel, 338
Camel drivers, 115
Campbell, 172, 257
Canary Islands, 253, 299
Cannibalism, 296
Canttield, 117
Cape, 314
Cape Cod, 147
Caraccas, ] 20, 309, 348
Careri, 202
Carians, 348
Caribs, 100, 146, 218, 258,
295, 371
Carimango, 313
Carmthia, 217
Carli, 318
Carne, 99
Carohies, 257
Carpenter, 83
Carrier Indians, 116
Carsange, 257
Carthagena, 258
Carus, 291
Castelnau, 105, 112, 173,
219
Castien, 77
Catholic missionaries, 315
Catinca, 103
Cattle in the United States,
23
Caucasians, 318
Causes of civilization, 341
Cavazzi, 125, 293
Cayowas, 219
Cazegut, 212
Celebes, 5], 147
Celts, 343
Ceylon, 218
Chamisso, 250, 257
Chambon, 177
Chamois of Pyrenees and
Alps, 21, 251
Change of colour produced
by age, 99
Changes, 251
Chaptal, 341
Characteristics of man,
275
Charleroix, 218, 313
Charruas, 140
Chastity, 297
Cheever, 122
Chenier, 126, 317
Cheras, 301
Cherokees, 243, 371
Chibchas, 373
Children swim in Polyne-
sia, 87
Chile, 146, 172, 257, 309
Chimpanzee and Gorilla;
their differences, 32, 91
Chinook, 146
Chinos, 174
Chinese, 238, 242, 245,
304, 317
Chinese in East Indian
Archipelago.
Chippeways,155, 164, 337
Chiriguanas, 46
Choles, 183, 187
Cholores, 154
Chonos children swim, 87
Christians, 369
Christianity, 325
Chronology, 285
Church, Col., 141
Cieza de Leon, 192
Circumcision of girls, 106
Civilized man inferior sen-
sually to savage, 137
Civilization, degrees of,
328
Civilization stationary, 325
Clapperton, 94, 105, 213
Clarke, K., 100, 106, 218,
238, 299
Classification of man, 10
Classification of mankind,
230
Clavigero, 110, 123, 370,
373
Clemens, 130
Click of Hottentots, 136
Climate, 34
Clutterbuck, 166
Cobija, 251
Cochin China, 218, 305
Cocamas, 175
Codom, 373
Cohabitation between Ne-
gros and Indians, 154
Colenso, 136
Colour of first pair, 207
Colour and hair distinc-
tions of race, 232
Colour of skin influenced
by climate, 52
Colour, deviations in, 217
Columbia, Indians of, 62
Columbus, 41, 140
Combes and Tamisier, 45,
65
Copenhagen, Icelander in,
130
Concep9ion, 172
Congenital deformities,113
Congo negros, 209, 218,
293
Conjunctiva in negro, 94
Conquistadores, 151
Constancy of types, 225
Consumption of food, 115
Convolutions in negro
brain, 93
Cook, 369
Cooley, 66
Coppermine Indians, 150
Coral islands, 344
Cordilleras, Indiansof, 354
Cordova, 308
Corea, 373
Coreal, 85
Corroados, 145
Cortez, 369
Costa Rica, 251
Coultner, 112
Courson, 340
Courtesy, ideas of, 305
Courtet De Lisle, 79, 222
Cowley and Dampier, 271
Cox, R., 181
Coxcox, 256
Cradle of mankind, 200
Cranial capacities, 261
Cranium, shape of, 78
Cranium, deviations in, 21
Cranz, 255, 298
Crawfurd, 127, 131, 238,
239, 304, 306, 359, 365
Crees, 147
Creeks, 150, 152
Creole, 205, 319
Creoles, 308
Creoles in West Indies
become fat, 54
Crows, 145
Crowther, 306
Crozet, 299
Cruicksbank, 143, 367
Cuba, 100
Cumbrie negros, 193
Cunningham, 139
Curumbars, 45
Cushions on hips of fe-
male Hottentot, 105
Cuvier, 15, 19, 194, 234,
254
Cuzco, 3, 74
Cynocephalus, 92
Czermak, 107
D'Abbadie, 172
Dahomey, 93, 106, 142,
212
Dajakes, 92, 139, 257
Dakota, 242
Dallas, 70, 142
Dalzel, 142
Dampier, 59, 257, 358
Danakils, 175, 306, 318
394
Dandolo, 96, 213
Danish colonies, 250
Darfur, 183, 208, 292
Darien, 137
Darien, Isthmus of, 85
Darnell, 97
Darwin, 120, 146, 164, 271,
345
Daumar, 138
Dauphine, 321
D'Avezac, 242, 304
Davis, 184, 214
Dawson, 59, 100, 126, 166
Day, 71,97, 183, 178, 185
De Barras, 326
Decandolle, 21,31
Deccan, 134, 325, 343
Definition of species, 17, 18
De Jong, 77
De Hell, 69
Delafield, 255
Delagoa Bay, 367
De la Salle, 55, 251
Delaware Indian, 138
Delawares, 109
Delegorgue, 107, 116, 138,
294, 297, 299
De Lisboa, 71, 179
Deraersay, 49, 189
Denham, 105, 209, 210
Denham, Clapperton, and
Oudney, 209, 210
Density of population, 349
D'Entrecasteaux, 295
Depons, 302
Derwent river, 315
De Salles, 30, 74, 108, 125,
207, 223, 298, 319, 352
D'Escayrac, 63, 98, 99
115, 138, 213, 315, 377,
Des Marchais,4<>, 13"3, 297
Desmoulins, 23, 32, 43,
108, 196, 226, 233, 265,
305
Desgraz, 1 58
De Pages, 102, 250
De Pauw, 110
De Smet, 146
Development of nations,
266
Deviation from type, 34
Devil, the negro, white,
305
Dieffenbach, 157,163,215
Diet of various nations, 60
Diet, influence on the
body, 57
Dieterici, 131
Diseases of man, 124
Diseases, 145
INDEX.
Disinclination for labour,
330
Distinctions 'between man
and brute, 270, 274
Dobrizhoffer, 115, 123,
140, 145,149,258, 308
Dohne, 137
Doko, 210
Dolichocephalse, 235
D'Omalius d'Halloy, 227,
232
Dory, 257
Douville, 106
Dowding, 132, 327
D'Orbigny, 37, 49, 69, 71,
72, 110, 114, 119, 135,
178, 374
D'Orbigny and Troyer, 178
Durand,47, 143,212
Dureau de la Malle, 107
D'Urville, 113, 114, 186,
193,233, 251, 301, 309,
316, 366
Dutch, 249, 365
Dutch Guiana, 177
Dutch and Hottentots, 186
Duttenhofer, 95, 127, 238
Drake, 147, 151
Drunkenness, 315
Duclesmour, 218
Duhaut Cilly, 128, 317
Dumeril, 38, 233
Dumont d'Urville, 166
Duncan, 13, 96, 212
Dunmore, 48
Dunmore Lange, 320
D'Unienville, 44, 311, 319
DuPetit-Thouars, 161, 165
Dunn, 146
Duprat, 44
Dupratz, 293, 374
Dupuy, 135, 142
Duration of life, 123
Duvernoy, 91
Dynamometer, 116
Ear, lobule of, 86
Ear of Bushmen, 105
Ear in Egyptians, 101
Earl, W., 126, 218, 257,
343
East Indies, 298
East Indies, mortality in,
131
Eastern Carolinas, 306
Eberhard, 198
Ecuador, 250, 313
Edeeyabs, 213
Edward III of England,
315
Edwards, W. R, 76, 189,
227
Edwards, B., 142
Edwards, W. A., 332
Edwards, 76, 171
Effects of climate, 333
Egypt, 340
Egyptian monuments, 25
Egyptians, 326
Ehrenberg, 92
Eichthal, 328
Elphinstone, 45
Ellis, 113, 149, 160
Elmina, 304
Enarea, 45
Engel, 38, 78, 225, 261
English stand tropical
heat worse than Spa-
niards, 129
Epp, 65, 317
Erboul, 50
Erskine, 157
Eschwege, 49, 145, 153,
155, 184, 252
Esquimaux, 115, 121, 140,
215,217,218
Esquimaux and Fuegians
resemble each other, 38
Esquimaux consume fat,
60,62
Esthonians, 136, 218
Ethnography, 10
E'hnology, 10
Etruscans, 348
Etzel,V., 116, 173
European, colour varies
according to climate, 47
Experience, teachings of,
271
External characters, 226
Extinction of tribes, 163
Extremities of ape, 91
Eyes, deviations in, 217
Eyre, 113, 115, 163, 164,
165, 166, 167, 300
Face of ape, 91
Fakaafo, 272
Falconer, 56, 355, 359,
363
Falkland Islands, 271
Falkner, 146
Fantees, 369
Fanti Negroes, 143
Farnham, 62
Featherstonhaugh, 152
Fechner, 112, 113, 176,
177, 238
Fecundity,greatest known,
41
INDEX.
395
Fecundity no proof of com-
mon origin, 25
Feldner, 141
Fellahs, 301, 318
Fermin, 258
Fernando Noronha, 310
Fernando Po, 213
Fetishism, 303
Fevers, 124
Fick, 38
Fiji, 313
Fiji Islands, 186, 298
Fiji Islanders, 110, 373
Fingers, skin between, 71
Finnish nations, 04
Finns, 221, 253
Finns, their type, 76
Fire, how produced, 257
Fishers, 336
First appearance of man,
285
Fohi, 373, 374
Foissac, 35, 57, 50, 82, 97,
109, 117, 123, 125,319,
330
Foote, 311
Foramen magnum of ape,
91
Forearm in Negro, 96
Forey, 174
Forrest, 47
Forster, G., 158
Forster, 85, 135, 158, 199,
218
Fox, 41, 157, 162, 1U3, 205
Fleetness, 118
Flinders, 238
Frankenheim, 322
Franz, 53
Franz Mayer, 112
Frederic I. of Prussia, 84
French, 309
Frere, Abbe, 79
Freycinet, 117, 134, 139,
238, 250, 300
Freyreiss, 153
Frezier, 119
Friendly Islanders, 159
Fronto-temporal union in
Negro and Mongol, as
in Chimpanzee, 93
Frobel, 313
Froriep, 39, 238
Froschel, 142
Fulahs,43, 65, 211,306
Funes, 183
Gaboon, 209
Gaes,219
Gage, 149
Gaimard, 157
Galapagos, 271
Galindo, 111
Gallas, 210, 211
Gallatin, 243
Gambia, 157
Garcia, 308
Garcilasso, 110, 184, 370
Gardiner, 60, 296, 309
Gascony, 207
Gauchos, 138, 345
Gernara, 113
Genitals, 154
Genitals in Negro, 98
Genitals (dark) in Mon-
grels, 178
Genius in every race, 301
Genoux, 309
Geoffroy and Nott, 185
Geoffroy St.Hilaire. 1,206
Geoffroy, 57
Geographical distribution
of human race, 196
Georgians, 216,261
Gerdy and Lucas, 61
Germans, 316, 320
Germans in Pennsylvania,
52
Giebel,21,26,30, 32,202,
217
Gillii, 102, 123, 258, 300,
359
Giron, 88, 168
Gmelin, 109, 218
Gobineau, 181, 347
God, belief in, 278
God, knowledge of, and
knowledge of human
nature (Anthropology)
identical, 4
Godron, 30, 225
Golberry, 135,194,211
Gold Coast, 142
Gomara, 102, 153
Gorilla, 92
Goiz, 124,131,181,187
Gosse, 87
Gouron, 36
Goyaz, 310
Grafenegg skull, 237
Granier de Cassagnac,
179
Grammatical structure,
240
Gran Chaco, 145
Grebos, 212
Greece and Rome, 317
Greek army, 307
Greek athletes, 115
Greenland, 148, 298
Greenlander, 115
Gregg, 150
Grey, 59, 122, 296
Grey hair, 114
Griquas, 186
Guadeloupe, 179, 194
Guam, 250
Guanches, 108, 193, 216,
253, 300, 325, 326
Guanaxuata in Mexico, 41
Guarayos, 374
Guarani, 115, 156
Guatemala, 148
Guatemala, 304
Guaycunas, 153
Guiana, 140, 174, 319
Guiana children, 4
Guinea, 133
Guillain, 131, 326
Gum gatherers of Maren-
sin, 102
Gumilla, 49, 156, 300
Gumprecht, 102, 180
Gunda, 209
Giitzlaff, 70, 349
Guyon, 42, 86
Guyot, 331
Gypsy, 254
Hair, dealers in, 103
Hair in Negro, 100; devia-
tions in, 217
Haiti, 100, 250
Hale, 41, 59, 62, 70, 136,
242, 246, 373
Halleur, 304
Hamamwa, 306
Hamilton, W., 94
Hancock, 72
Hands, use of, 137
Hapiris, 119
Hapsburg, house of, 84
Harthann, 221
Harvey, 176
Harriers in Mexico, 82
Harris, 85, 175,210
Haussa, 209
Hawaii, 160
Hiawatha, 374
Hayti Indians, 190
Head, 120, 138, 345
Head, Negro carries bur-
dens on, 96
Hearne, 145, 150, 155
Hecquard, 95, 137, 142,
209
Heel of Ape, 91
Hekewelder, 114, 155
396
INDEX.
Heller, 300
Hellespont, 342
Helms, 119, 309
Heusinger, 36, 46, 81,
116, 169
Hereditary transmission,
81; blindness, 85
Herrera, 41, 100, 140, 192
Hessian skull, 216
Heteerse, 317
Hexadactylous abnormi-
ties, 85*
Hilhouse, 116
High skulls, 235
Hind, 300
Hindoo mongrels, 178,223
Hindoo rebellion, 314
Hindoos, 38, 51, 218, 304,
317
Hines, 162
Hips of female Hottentot,
105
History; its relations to
Anthropology, 8
History of civilization, de-
veloped by the action of
four groups of causes —
man's physical organi-
zation, the psychical
life peculiar to each peo-
ple, surrounding nature,
and social relations, 7
History of mankind, 10
History of civilization, a
branch of Anthropolo-
gy, 6
Hobbes, 369
Hodgson, 55, 58, 59, 138,
166
Hodgkinson, 1(55
Hofacker, 111
Hoffman, 112, 315
Hogs, lice of, 128
Hollard, 26, 93, 94, 95,
108,215,226, 341
Holmberg, 116
Hombron, 45, 49, 186,
193, 233
Homicide, 297
Honduras, 148
Hoof, in Hungarian cattle,
uncloven, 82*
Hornemann, 209
Hoskin, 40, 67
Hoskins, 326
Hoskings, 63
Hotham Bay, 217
Hottentot, female, hips of,
103
Hottentots, 37, 124, 136,
137, 139, 164, 186, 249,
293, 325, 337, 345
Hottentots, consume fat,
60
Howitt, 165
Hoven, 238
Huallaga, 154, 175
Huasco, 251
Hudson's Bay, 149
Hueck, 237, 238
Human hair, 42
Humanity: its spirit, equi-
valent to the spirit of
God himself, 3
Humboldt, 41, 46, 69, 129,
132, 134, 140, 147, 156,
179, 202, 298, 318, 333,
338
Humboldt and Bonpland,
68, 103, 107, 123, 146,
194, 251, 252, 255, 331,
369
Humboldt, William von,
245
Hume, 290
Hungary, 327
Hunter, 207, 344
Hunting life, 335, 339
Huntley, 105
Huschke, 69, 79, 94, 238,
264
Hutchinson, 121
Hybrids, 22
Hygrometric state of at-
mosphere, 34
Hyperboreans, 38, 199
Ibn Batuta, 301
Icelander in Copenhagen,
130
Icthakri, 210
Idrisi, 210
Itnlay, 53
Immithlanga, 296
Incas, 184, 370
Indians of the Cordilleras,
354
Indios Mansos, 140
Indo-German nations, 199
Indolence, 295
Infanticide, 163
Infanticide bears no re-
lation to congenital de-
formities, 113
Influence of knowledge on
religion, 379
Influence of respiration
on the form of man, 37
Instinct, 2 71
Intercondyloid perfora-
tion, 108
Intermaxillary bone of
ape, 91 ; of Negro, 95
Intermixture of race, 171
Intermixture induces
change of type, 229
Intermixture of types, 167
Inviability, 144
Iran, 253
Ireland, 307
Irreclaimable savages, 284
Iroquois, 109, 374
Irving, 313
Isert, 96
Islamism, 375
Jakutes, 62, 115, 129, 149
Jamaica, 129
Jambures, 212
James, 103, 137, 156, 304
Jameson, 254
Japanese, 256
Jargon, the Chinook, 248
Jarrold, 46, 53, 54, 70, 74,
82, 101, 128, 141
Jarves, 122, 163, 202
Java, Bayaderes of, 102
Java, 77, 305, 306, 315,
318
Jefferson, 156
Jew, 254
Jewish crania, 224
Jews, 223, 249 ; com-
plexion of, 47 ; banished
from Portugal, 48 ;
in Berlin, 112
Johnston, 53, 210, 306,
318, 326
Jolofs, 211
Jukagires, 149
Jukes, 297
Junghuhn, 227
Juris, 258
Kabyles of N. Africa, 42
Kabyles, 218
Kaffirs, 125, 136, 208, 257
Kalmucks, 135
Kamschatdale, 149
Kamschatdales, 278, 339
Kangaroos, 165
Kanori, 209
Kansas, 155
Kareles, 76, 227, 253
Kaskes, 187
Katte, 69
Katte, V., 325
INDEX.
397
Kay, 208, 312
Keate, 137
Keating, 109, 114, 115,
141, 148, 154, 155, 337
Kentucky, 151, 314
Kendall, 68, 148
Keppel, 257, 367
Kessel, 139
Khartoum, 133, 314
King, 102, 257
KingandFitzroy,87,119,
158, 251, 304
Kingsborough, 373
King's Mill Islands, 373
Klaproth, 170
Klemra, 291,328
Knee in Negro, 97
Knight, 82
Knisteneaux, 153
Knox, 135, 185, 205
Kogel, 92, 311
Kohl, 140, 173, 184, 305
Koler, 60, 69, 99, 132, 218
Kolff, 278
Kolle, 133, 137
Kolliker, 98
Kordofan,51,14l,208,271
Korjaks, 215
Kornheim, 175
Kortiira, 348
Koster, 173, 179,250
Kotzebue, 135, 158, 250
Koujages, 116
Kretschmar, 103, 125, 138,
184
Kriegk, 53
Kruraan, food of, 60
Krus, 212
Kru Negros, 293
Krusenstein, 162
Kurds, 64
Kuruglis, 182
Labat, 140, 142, 146, 156,
178, 258, 295
Labillardiere, 100, 122, 140
Labour, disinclination for,
330
Lacepede, 38, 40, 207, 233
Lad in os, 148
Lafitan, 153, 257, 318
Lahontan, 109, 121, 154
Laing, 142
Lamarck, 206
Lambert, the porcupine
family, 85
Lancerote, 326
Lander, 86,211
Landolphe, 113
Langsdorff, 83, 102, 162,
301,314
Language of conqueror re-
placed thatof conquered,
77
Languages, 239
Laplace, 112, Kil, 305, 316
Lang, J66
Lapp, 199
Lapps, 118, 156, 227
Latham, 80, 176, 201, 233,
251,342,344; man and
hismigrations, 10; limits
of the Negro region, 93
Lascazas, 278
Lassen, 265
Laundresses, 299
Laurence, 135, 261
Lauvergne, 38
Lavaysse, 73, 181,321
Lawrence, 94
Lay, Tradescant, 250
Lay, James, 46
Leg in Negro, 97
Ledyard and Lucas, 134
Lefebvre, 45, 126, 210
Legendre, 120
Leichardt, 138, 139, 368
Leigh, 126
Leleges, 348
Lenguas, 153
Lenormant, 101
Leo Africanus, 252
Lepouse, He, 23
Lepsius, 67, 68, 223
Leri, 122
Lery, 313
Lesson, 54, 61, 103, 113,
139, 159, 215, 221, 227,
238, 333
Le Vaillant, 136, 139, 170,
208
Lewis, 71, 186
Liberia, 311
Lice, 127
Lice-eating, 306
Lichtenstein, 60, 88, 105,
116,136, 139, 184, 295,
297
Life of primitive peoples,
335
Lifeguards of Prussia, 84
Lima, 49
Link, 207
Lion of Africa and Asia, 21
Lip of house of Haps-
burg, 84
Lipplaps, 187
Lips of Negro, 95
Lisiansky, 301
Lithuania, 225
Littre, 194
Livingstone, 42, 48, 58,
109, 131, 133, 140, 147,
311
Llama, 338
Llanos, 309
Loango, 358
Lobes of the brain, class-
ification founded on, 79
Logan, 343
Long, 184
Long skulls, 236
Longevity, 123
Longobards, 252
Lopez, 218
Louisiana, 144
Lower Columbia, 141
Loxa, 313
Lucae, 216
Lucas, 32, 81, 82, 83, 88,
168, 170, 172, 176, 184,
205
Liiken, 201,217
Lund, 195
Lutu, 257
Luzon, 102, 103
Lyell, 37, 72, 82, 169, 179,
215, 333
Lyon, 121
Mac Cann, 345
McCox, 138
M'Culloch, 131
Macauley, 41
Mackenzie, 153
Machacares, 140
Macgillivray, 183
Macousis, 146
Macrocephali, 216
Macrocephalffi, 237
Macapana, 219
Macassars, 157
Madagascar, 112, 218
Madagascans, 256
Magua, 357
Maguas, 149
Magyars, 75, 242
Mahaf, 212
Majoribanks, 316
Malabar, 223
Malatza, 223
Malays, 123, 137, 254, 256,
304, 306, 332, 238, 339
Malcolm, 75
Mallat, 123, 182, 251
Mallat, 73, 102, 10-3, 169
Malta, 254
Man and brute, 273
398
INDEX.
Man, zoologically speak-
ing, the highest mam-
mal, 3 ; theologically
speaking, occupying a
position between God
aud nature, 3 ; charac-
teristics of, 275; ap-
pears in history a com-
bination of physical and
psychical life, 9 ; primi-
tive state of, 9 ; specific
characters of, 269
Mankind, classification of,
230
Manilla, 249, 253
Manco Capac, 184. 374
Mandans, 155
Mandingos, 142, 211, 299
Mandingo and Guinea
negro, their differences,
32
Mankind, cradle of, 201
Maniok, 311
Manabozho, 374
Mandans, 373
Maranon, 146, 219
Martius, 318
Mandshus, 256
Mariner, 127
Marchand, 127
Mandaranes, 209
Mandans, 145
Mandan women, 106
Marquesas islanders, 102
Marital rights, 301
Marrensin, gum gatherers
of, 102
Marsden, 257
Matebeles, 360
Maximilian zu Wied, 99,
106, 122, 127
Martin, 243
Marian Islands, 272, 250
Marion, 218
Martius and Dieffenbach,
147
Marcarave, 218
Marchand, 321
Marghi, 209
Mariette, 222
Marriage, 297
Marquesas, 135, 301
Martius, 148
Maroon Negros, 142
Maroons, 142
Mauritius, 250, 311
Maury, A., 194
Matthews, 106,211, 304
Marriages, prolific, 162
Mariner, 122
Marsden, 102
Maximilian zu Wied, 68,
86,155,225
Melvill, 100
Melly, 301
Meigs, 198
Meyer, 107, 237
Mexico, 313 ; high eleva-
tion, 82 ; mortality in,
132
Meinicke, 162
Measles, 164
Meigs, 225
Melville, 135, 162
Mechanical talents trans-
mitted, 88
Mental and physical qua-
lities, transmission of,
81; endowments, 323;
development, 67
Mental condition of na-
tions, 260
Mestizoes, 27, 187, 169,
172, 177, 5L9; in Para-
guay, 180
Meredith, 212
Mexico, 112, 188, 255;
miners of, 129
Mexican, 332
Mexicans, 370
Micronesia, 65
Micronesians, vegetarian,
61
Middle-aged persons ac-
climatise best, 129
Milne-Edwards, 63
Miers, 308
Mindanao, 257, 358
Migrations, 346
Minas Geraes, 173, 195
Mindans, 250
Miners, 120 ; of Mexico,
129
Minatarrees, 145
Mississippi, 144
Miserable boats, 204
Mitchell, 59, 139, 164
Military standard in
Fiance, 63
Mithridates, 234
Monro, 93
Molina, 68, 120, 146
Mollien, 189
Mongrels, 27, 138; viability
in, 182; peculiarity of,
167 ; in Peru profligate,
181 ; in New Zealand
healthy, 18 L
Mohammed el Touney,
292
Mongols, 121, 199, 215
Mongolians, 255
Moarenhout, 61, 139, 162
Moffat, 118
Moluccas, 92, 365
Montezurna, 102
Montevideo, 345
Moral sense, 315
Mortality percentages, 131
Morton, 22, 24, 30, 87, IP 7,
222, 234, 261, 262, 263,
351
Morel and Vinde, 177
Mourning, colours of, 304
Moors, 224
Morse, 148
Mollien, 48, 86, 183,211,
348, 354
Mofras, Duflot de, 309
Mofiat, 255
Monrad, 47, 135
Mohammed el Tounsy,
131,183,210
Moore, 305
Moors, 317
Moodie, 118, 136, 165,316,
345
Mouflon of Sardinia and
Asia Minor, 21
Moral bearing of the doc-
trine of polygamy, 12 ;
degradation, 296
Moody, 124
Moquis, 150
Mosquito, 146
Moxos, 62
Mohammedans, 317, 360,
369
Mohammed Ali, 314
Mozambique, 209
Muhlenfordt, 43, 172, 180,
188
Muhlengeldt, 123
Muller, 98, 106, 107, 108,
216, 221, 225, 227, 245,
253, 334, 336
Miiller, F., 23
Muller, W. T., 123
Muller, W., 95
Muller, J. G., 320
Muller, W. T., 369
Muller, W. de, 35
Mulatto more gifted than
Negro, 178
Mulattos, 27, 135, 171;
sterile, 187
Murder, 297
Munclrucus, 258
Mundy, 135, 312
Mussgu, 210
INDEX.
399
Mutilations transmitted,
80
Murray river. 166
Murray, Hugh, 294, 381
Muyscas, 374
Nails of mongrel breed,
178
Napier, 249
Nakedness, 299
Nasal bones of Bushmen,
108
Natural objects, worship
of, 303
Natahoes, 150
Naturvolker, 292, 306
Nature, healing power of,
126
Naturzustand, 9, 10
Nolengei, 372
Nicaragua, 374
Negritos, 73, 104
Negros, spotted, 86
Negrillos, 104
Negros, 183, 337
Negro, 222, 257; resem-
blance to ape, 205; mon-
grels, 311 ; his black
skin, 35 ; mental capa-
city of, 15; lighter in
advanced age, 99 ; type,
between tropics, 93 ;
physiognomy, 37
Negros, and mulattos, 218
Negros, 109, 208, 211,
225, 250, 296, 326, 339
Negros, longevity of, 123
Negro Portuguese, 250
Negros, mortality of, 133 ;
in New England States,
134 ; cannot pronounce
the R, 135
Negros born in America,
72 ; improve by contact
with Europeans, 72
Negro type not fixed, 213
Negro English, 250
Negro capacity, inferior
to white, 267
Negro children run about
early, 40
Negros, free, 307
Negro most resembles
ape, 92
Negro and ape compared,
143
Negro and ape, a certain
resemblance between,
100
New South Wales, child-
ren become tall and
lean, 54
New Russia, 112
New Zealanders, 114, 215,
299, 312, 366
New Holland, 199
New England States, 134
Newton, 319
New Guinea, 365
New-born Negros light
grey, 99
Niagara, 285
Nicaragua, 215, 331
Nilsson, 195
Niebuhr, 253
Newmann, 213
Niger, 213
Niquet, 43
New Spain, 309
New Zealand, 135, 162,
218, 301
New Zealanders, 114, 306
Nile, the ascent of, 213
Nikobars, 357
Nerbudda, 92
Nerves, thicker in Negro,
93
New peculiarities, spon-
taneous origin of, 80
New Granada, 348
New Caledonia, 278
New Zealand, mongrels
healthy, 181
Nott and Gliddon, 22, 24,
25, 30, 88, 172, 184,
188, 189, 195, 198,222,
225, 228, 248, 263
Nott, 124, 182, 184, 223
Norton, 70
Noah, 256
Normans, 252
Natches, 374
Northern, 333
Nubia, 63, 213, 326
Nukahiwa, children of, 40
Nusard, 32
Nutka, 218
Nuttall, 121
Odin, 374
Odour of Negroes dis-
agreeable, 100, 103
Odshis, 212
Oelsner, Montmerque, 179
Ojibbeways, 121
Oldendorp, 250
Old Testament, 202
Olivier, 47, 51
Olshausen, 148
Omahos, 145, 155
Omboni, 97, 105, 123, 209,
311
Ompizes, 193
Onihou, 160
Oregon, 146, 248
Original equality of races,
351
Orinoco, 102, 116, 146,
300, 301, 357
Orinoco, Indians on, 68
Orthognathse, 235
Osage, 121, 156
Os Incffi, 107
Osiris, 374
Osmanli Turks, 75
Othomi, 247
Otomaks, 116
Otter sheep, 82
Otto, 111
Oudney, 105
Ovaglie, 173, 192
Ovambos, 278
Oviedo y Valdez, 103
Oviedo, 113, 127
Owen, 47, 91, 209, 31 1,367
Owen, Richard, 128
Pain, exhibition of, 127
Pallas, 217
Paraguay, 145, 173
Paranahyba, 170
Parry, 109, 110
Parchappe, 94, 265
Pallme, 131, 271
Panama, 147
Park, M., 96, 134, 211
Paiuches, 02
Papuas, 139, 343
Passy, 357
Passes, 183
Patachos, 299
Patagonians, 106
Pavie, 75
Painting and tattooing,
300
Palmo, 92
Parallelism in the animal
kingdom, 14
Painted Indians, 305
Pampas, 345
Paraguay, Europeans in,
104 ; cattle in, 82
Papuas, 193,221; in South
Sea, 218
400
Parchappe, 262
Parkyns, 126
Parker, 141, 173
Parthian, 253
Parish, 126
Pecari, 83
Pediculus, 128
Pedras, Kio das, 170
Pehlwi, 253
Pehuenches, 100, 219
Penguins, 271
Pelasgi, 222, 348
Peron, 41, 116, 117, 118,
132, 257, 300
Perrin du Lac, 121,335
Pelvis of ape, 91
Petit, 126, 210
Petermann, 123
Peters, 127
Pelvis, size of, 64
Peuls, 183
Pernambuco, 173
Peru, 146, 338; Indian, 295
Peru, 172, 250, 369, 370
Peruvian skulls, 107, 216
Peruvian thrives at 7000
to 15,000 feet above the
sea, 37
Peruvians, 137, 140; their
variable complexion, 49
Petit, 126
Pfyffer, 43, 188
Philippines, 169, 188
Philip, 65, 73
Philipps, 238, 263
Physical and mental qua-
lities, transmission of,
81
Philippi, 251
Philip, 141
Philological investiga-
tions, 238
Phrenology, its fables re-
jected in Germany, 237
Physical changes to which
man is subject, 34
Physiology, its relations
to psychology, 7
Physical investigations, 17
Physiological differences
in man, 90
Pitcairns Island, children
swim, 87
Pickering, 113, 173, 227
Pigafetta, 123
Pickering, 121 , 142, 157,
188, 219, 233, 250, 344,
349
Pigment of Negro skin,
98
INDEX.
Pisang, 331
Plough, 309
Pitcairn, 147
Peyroux de la Condre-
niere, 290
Polyandry, 228
Physiology, a branch of
anthropology, 6
Peron and Lesueur, 106
Polynesians, their differ-
ence of colour, 41
Polack, 100, 114, 184,312
Polo, M., 257
Pondicherry, 129
Poppig, 56, 87, 100, 120,
123, 145, 147, 154, 170,
172, 175, 180, 181,183,
219, 307, 309
Population, density of, 3
Population, 157
Portlock and Dixon, 155
Portuguese Creoles-, their
complexion, 48
Portland Bay, 166
Polltax, 163
Port Essington, 366
Pouqtieville, 76
Pott, 273
Pri chard, 261
Potawatomis, 141
Precocity of children, 40
Port Natal, 56
Power, 157
Preserved heads, 163
Prescott, 263
Pfeyffer, 305, 318
Polynesians, 114
Polynesia, 64, 157 ; no hiss-
ing sound in, 135
Plato's Eepublic, 317
Polar nations, 129
Political conditions, c61
Polygamy, 153, 325; moral
bearing of the doctrine,
12
Port Essington, 297, 343
Port Stephens, 166
Polyklet, 217
Polynesians, 144, 160, 343
Porcupine family, 85
Portuguese, 170, 310; de-
generated, 65
Pott, 76, 243, 253, 255
Potawatomis, 115, 153
Protestant missionaries,
intimidation imputed to
them, 161
Property, 276
Primitive state of man, 9
Proportion of male to fe-
male births, 110
Protoplasts, 20
Protestant slave trade, 315
Prognathffi, 235
Proctor, 120, 130
Proyart, 86, 358
Pruner,47,91,93,94, 144,
169,181,210,216
Pre-Celtic population of
Scotland, 195
Prichard, 19, 24, 28, 29,
48, 51, 55, 57, 63, 64,
66, 72, 75, 81, 95, 109,
208, 217, 307
Primeval Language, 245
Prince Kegent's Bay, 140
Psychical influence, 4
Psychical unity, 321
Psychology a branch of
anthropology, 6
Psychical qualities trans-
missible, 83
Psychological investiga-
tion, 259
Presort, 42
Puberty, time of, 40
Puberty of girls, 110
Pueblos, 184
Puelches, 185
Puris, 155, 299
Quadroon, 170, 176
Quandt, 128, 153, 258
Quartin Dillon, 210
Quatrefages, 187
Question of the unity of
mankind, 11
Quetelet, measurements
of, 63
Quetelet, 40, 57, 111, 118,
121,237
Quetzalcoatl, 374
Quiches, 304
i Quichuas, 250, 304
Quintroon, 170
Quioga, 250
Quirus, 218
Quito, 120, 172 ; eleva-
tion of, 37
Raffenel, 47, 86, 95, 133,
173, 183,212
Eaces, intermixture of,
171
Raiatea, 156, 399
Rainy months, 133
Rajpoots, 51
Rathke, 87
Raratonga, 147
INDEX.
401
Ren du, 2 10
Rengger, 102, 104, 109,
121, 123, 127, 189, 158,
154, 156, 308
Redskins, 152
Reptiles, wide distribution
of, 197
Reeke, 111
Religious notions, 369
Religion of primitive man,
302
Remusat, 261
Resiniers of Aquitaine,102
Respiration, 109
Retzius, 76, 78, 225, 234,
235, 238, 253
Reversion to original type,
27
Reversion no criterion of
race, 33
Rey, 75
Riccarees, 145
Richardt, 111
Richardson, 116, 164, 209
Riggs, 242
Riley, 138
Rioja, 308
Rio Janeiro, 251, 309
Ritter, 38, 51, 63, 65, 115,
138,156, 175,332
Ritter, C., 340
Rivero and Tschudi, 246
Robertson, G. A., 1 13, 143
Robertson, G. P. and W.
P., 293
Rochet d'Hericourt, 210,
326
Rochon, 218
Rodriguez, 219
Robillas,43
Romanic nations, 77
Romer, 1
Roquefeuille, 219, 301
Rose Cowper, 293
Ross, 109, 115, 271, 316
Ross, ,T., 140
Roth, 135
Rougemont, 257
Rousseau, 289
Rudolpbi, 23, 201
Ruppell, 66, 210, 325
Rush, 88, 170
Russegger, 126, 133, 142,
211
Russian peasants, 307
Russo - American Com-
pany, 314
Sack, v., 177
Sadler, 111
Sahantin, 242
St. Peter's River, 337
St. Crica, 251, 258
St. Hilaire, S. Geoffroy,
1, 63, 171
St. Hilaire, A. de, 49, 132,
170, 179, 309, 319
St. Thomas, 133
Salt, 65, 210
Samoa, 157
Samoa Archipelago, 272
Samoiedes, 199,215,227
Sandwich islanders, 159,
lf.0, 306
Sandwich islands, 297
Sandifort, 101, 224, 238
San Luis, 308
S. Salvador, 251
Sanscrit, 245, 252
Sarawak, 366
Sarraiento, 181, 308
Sartorius, 180
Savage, civilized man in-
ferior sensually to, 137
Savage, 181
Savolax, 76, 253
Say, 103, 109, 137, 155,156
Scarlett, 88, 218
Scalphunting by White
Americans, 150
Schamanism, 255, 303
Scherzer, 189, 251
Schlegel, 197
Schleicher, 75, 249
Schendy, 69
Schiel, 138
Schultz,238
Schoffer, 156
Schoolcraft, 14, 62, 107,
145, 148, 149, 150, 151,
164, 238, 243, 263
Schomburgk, Sir R., 37,
40, 96, 130, 146, 153,
154, 174, 180, 189, 290,
312, 319
Scbon and Crowther, 133
Schoschonies, 62
Schadow, 217
Scherzen, 167
Schmaida, 170, 175, 181
Scruple, 348
Scythian, 253
Sea voyages, 204
Seemann, 15, 62, 140, 187,
217
Selberg, 305, 315, 330
Selisk, 243
Semitic-Phoenician, 348
Semitic, 222
Semple, 184, 188, 348
Senaar, 208, 213
Senaar, Arabs of, 101
Senegambia, 133, 137,367
Sentences,construction of,
241
Senegal, 214
Senses, perfection of, 137
Sense of shame, 299
Sense of smell in Negro,
95
Sertanejos, 173
Sertajo, 310
Sererer, 300
Serres, 79, 101, 177, 182,
183
Sesamoid bones, 97
Sexual excesses, 297
Shape of the skull, con-
stant to a certain ex-
tent, 232
Shangallas, 210
Sheighias, 63
Shorthand, 157
Siah-Posh, 45
Siamese, 304
Siberian tribes, 110
Sicily, 253
Siebols, 172
Sikeliotes, 253
Sikhs, originally Hindoos,
74
Siland, 125
Silliman, 263
Simbura, 313
Simon, Pedro, 219, 373
Simon, 99
Simpson,47, 148, 163, 257,
336
Singapore, 254
Sioux, 109, 115, 149, 155,
335
Sit graves, 61
Skeleton of Negro heavy,
93
Skin of Negro, 98
Skinner, 119
Skull, form of, 78
Skull, deviations in, 217
Skull of Negro thick, 93
Slaveholders and slave-
dealers, 92
Slaveholders, 315
Slaves well cared for lose
their specific odour, 73
Smell, sense of, 140
Small- pox, 164
Small-pox poison, 145
Smith, Hamilton, 118,
142, 185, 192, 2fil
D D
402
INDEX.
Smith, 98, 226, 233, 297
Smoking a baby, 305
Smyth, 186, 264, 284, 320
Society, 276
Sokotra, 32(5
Solimoes, 258
Solomon's Island, 140
Sommering, 93, 94, 96, 97,
128
Sonnerat, 218
Sonnini, 106
Soreno, 103
Soudan, East, 296
South America, 257
Sowaheili, 254
Spaniards, 250
Sparrman, 171
Sparta, 317
Spanish Creoles, their
complexion, 4s
Spanish conquerors, 151
Species, signification of,
22
Species, diversity of, 220
Species neither subjec-
tive abstractions, n<-r
exemplars, 17 ; defini-
tion of, 17
Specific differences among
mankind, 13
Speech sounds, 135
Spix and Martius, 123,
131, 135, 154, 169, 174,
179,154,258,300
Spontaneous origin of new
peculiarities, 80
Spotted Negroes, 86
Sprengel, 48
Spurzheim, 88
Squier, 148, 181, 255, 331,
371
Stanhope Smith, 38, 53,
73, 124, 352
Stature of man, acted on
by climate, 39
Stephens, 111, 307
Stevenson, 37, 48, 71, 120,
123, 170,172, 181,309
Steen Bille, 159, 187, 357
Stewart, 161, 306
Steedman,299
Steffens distinguished a
geological, physiologi-
cal, and psychological
anatomy, 5
Stokes, 59
Strap and twig garment,
301
Strzelecki, 176, 293
Sturm, 83, 168
Styria, 217
Subdivisions of species, 21
Suckling, 163
Sumatra, 102, 257, 306
Sunda Islands, 92
Surinam, 250
Susus, 21.1, 299
Swainson, 21, 31, 39, 196
Sweat, 104
Sydney, 316
Syphilis, 162, 164
Tachard, 373
Taenia, 128
Tagal, 249
Tahitians, 305
Tahiti, 112, 135, 147,158,
218, 373, 388
Tailed men, 92
Talcahuano, 309
Tamatoa, 369
Tarns, 59, 133
Tanner, 118
Tapajos, 258
Tapeworms, 128
Taaroa, 373
Tartars, 221, 225
Tasmanians inferior to
Australians, 116
Tavastlander, 76, 253
Taylor, 134, 158
Taylor, B., 222
Tchuktchi, 215
Tchadda, 306
Teeth of ape, 91 ; of Negro,
95
Temperament transmis-
sible, 82
Temple, 120, 121
Tente en el ayre, 187
Testament, Old, 202
Tertroon, 176
Tegg, 167
Ternaux, 103, 150, 151,
219
Tertiary formations, 194
Teutons, 343
Thar, 83
Thickness of Negro's skull
not exclusively peculiar
to him, 100
Thompson, 116, 176, 390,
314, 369
Thunberg, 60, 105, 136
Thomson, 85, 238
Thevenot, 106
Thighs of ape, 91
Thigh in Negro, 79
Thumb, toe of Negro used
as a, 107
Thompson, G. H., 188
Tibarenes, 257
Tiedemann, 93, 94, 262
Tierra del Fuego, 58, 119,
223, 293, 304, 325, 334
Tierra Firme, 14
Time of puberty, 40
Tibet, 255
Tiger, 205
Timor, forty languages in,
247
Tibboo, 209
Timani, 211
Timorese, 117, 218, 257,
300
Todd, 53, 176
Toe of Negro used as a
thumb, 101
Toes in new-born children,
87
Tozar, 214
Tomat, 211
Tonkin, 218
Torquemada, 218
Toucouleurs, 183
Towaras, 156
Transmission, hereditary,
81
Tropical provinces of Asia,
200
Tremaux, 105
Tropics in East India,
South America, and one
part of Africa, do not
contain blacks, 35
Troyer, 50
Tschittagong, 92
Tscberkesses, 216
Tschudi,48, 107,114,119,
123, 148, 170, 174, 179,
180,216, 234,237,258,
304, 313
Tschego, 91
Tschuvasches, 175, 193
Tschumbulpur, 92
Tschuktsb, 56, 62
Tumbucus, 301
Turnbull, 138,139,147
Tunguses, 118, 156, 215,
217
Turkish nations, 242
Turkish army, 307
Turkish rule, 297
Turks, 304, 318, 342
Tupinambis, 122, 313
Turkey, 327
Tucuman, 308
Tuboris, 301
Turco-Russian wur, 314
INDEX.
403
Tupinambis, 313
Types, constancy of, 225
Types of languages, 247
Tyermann and Bennett,
40, 162, 369
Tyrrheni, 348
Ualan, 333
Uanne, 55
Ucayale, 258
Ulloa, 42, 68, 100, 113,
146, 172, 173,187,295,
297
Ulster, degeneration of
Irish, when expelled
from, 57
Unanue, 104, 188
Uncultured peoples, 292
Unity of the human
species, 167
Unity of mankind, 143
Unity of mankind as a
species, 10
Unity of species, 20
Upper jaw, 95
Usher, 195
Van Amzinge, 15, 185
Vancouver, 159
Vancouver fort, 248
Vandals, their descendants
in North Africa, 42
Van Diemen's Land, 140,
199, 295
Van Biemen's Land, na-
tives of, 100
Van der Hoeven, 97
Van der Kemp, 136
Van Hogendorp, 218
Vater, 53, 234
Vei, 137
Velasco, 192, 219
Venezuela, 111
Venezuela, 156
Vertebral column of ape,
91
Vespucci, 156
Viability in mongrels, 182
Victoria Land, 271
Villavicencio, 65
Vincendon-Dumoulin, 158
Vindjha, 252, 334
Violin, sound of, 140
Yirey, 38, 208,233, 265,304
Virginia, 151
Virgin, 162, 249
Wilde, 195
Vis medicatrix naturae, J 26
Williamson, 54, 73, 83
Vocabularies, 240
Wilson, 112,119,132,158,
Vogel, 301
195, 297, 358
Vogt, 15, 21, 24, 222
Wilson, Professor Daniel,
Voice, 136
78
Volkmann, 14
Winnepegs, 148
Vollgraff, 188
Winckelmann, 107
Volney, 37
Williams, Roger, 121
Von Gliimer, 321
Winterbottom, 46, 218
Von Sack, 119
Wise, 40
Vrolik, 96
Wisemann, 72
Worcester, 243
Wojgerat, 65
Waddington and Hanbury ,
Wotjakes, 218
63
Worms eaten, 319
Wadai, 210
Wrestling, 116
Wafer, 85
Wrangell, 62, 149, 356
Wagner, M., 152, 182, 252
Wuttke, 291,303, 328
Wagner, A., 24, 28
Wydah, 106
Wagner, K., 24, 87, 101
Wyeth, 62
Wagner, 125, 135
Wallis, 218
Waldeck, 103,137
Xenophon, 257
Wagner and Scherzer, 331
Ximenes, 140, 304
Ward, 72, 120
Wallschagel, 250
Walpole, 163
Yankee type, 52
Warm climate, 201
Yarriba, 212, 218
Wars of extermination
Yarriba, food of inhabit-
justifiable, 13
ants of, 60
Washington Irving, 145
Yebus, 242, 304
Webster, 310
Yellow fever, 124
Weerth, 217, 339
Yembo, 218
Weber, 225
York Sound, 257
Weber, M. J., 224
Yucatan, 102, 111, 137,
Werne, 56, 101, 103, 130,
255, 299, 374
133, 134,138,175,211,
Yunnan, 257
314, 318, 326
Yvan, 187
Webb and Berthelot, 300
Web-footed abnormities,
85
Zambo, 170, 173
Weigl, 148
Zambos, 181
Weld, 121
Zacotecas, 120
Wells, 148
Zambezi, 301
West Indies, 250; mor-
Zarate, 48
tality in, 131
Zenaghas, 252
West, 114, 156
Zeune, 107, 235
White, 96
Zimmermann, 30, 74, 129,
White, acclimatization of,
300
128
Zoological provinces, 196
Whites, 330
Zoroaster, 374
White teeth, 305
Zuchelli, 315
Wilkea, 58, 59, 66, 122,
Zulu Kaffirs, 101
145, 146, 158, 161, 162,
Zulu, 137, 296
163, 164, 166,202,238,
Zulus, 294, 299, 360
272
404
ERRATA.
Page
15 line
1 note ... for Voigt read Vogt
26 „
9 ... ... „ HoUand „ Hollard
36 „
13 ... ... „ 2 (reference) „ 1 (reference)
40 ,
10 ... ... ,, Schomburgh „ Schomburgk
64 ,
8 from bottom „ Inka „ Inca
95 ,
5 „ „ VoUard „ HoUard
100 ,
7 „ „ Penhuenches „ Pehuenches
106 ,
2 ... ... „ A monkey „ An ape
106
in note 3 at foot „ Donville „ Douville
107
„ 1862 „ 1863
111 „
7 from bottom „ Cumena „ Cumana
123
in note 9 at foot „ Petermanns „ Petermann's
131
in note 8 at foot „ Gortz „ Gorz
134 „
8 from top „ CaUie „ Caillie
134
in note 1 at foot „ Fraissinet „ Freycinet
140 „
9 from top „ Firma , Firme
140
in note 2 „ Seeman
, Seemann
141 „
9 from top „ Philipp
, Philip
143
in note I at foot „ Allan
, AUen
153 „
11 from top „ Knisteneux
, Knisteneaux
171 „
14 „ „ Geoffrey
, GeoiTroy
172
in note 8 at foot „ Unanne
, Unanue
186 „
8 from top Bachman
, Bachmann
188 „
6 in note
Unanne
, Unanue
195 „
13 from top
Nilssohn
, Nilsson
204 „
12
Hot
, Torrid
218
237 „
in note 1
11 from top
Marcgrav
Microcephalee
, Marcgrave
, Macrocephalae
238 „
19
Hushcke
, Huschke
250
in note 3
Seeman
, Seemann
301 „
17 from top
Mahommedan
, Mohammedan
302
in note
People
, Peuple
371 „
10 from bottom
Squire
. Squier
373
in top line
insert the before Fiji
373 „
7 from bot. in note
Cliibchar „ Chibchas
374
in note 2 at foot
Louieane „ Louisiane
T. RICHARDS, PKINTEK. 37, OT. QUEEN STREET.
THIRD LIST
FOUNDATION FELLOWS
t:t 0f
(Corrected to December 1st, 1863.)
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
OFFICEES AND COUNCIL FOE 1863,
JAMES HUNT, ESQ., Ph.D., F.S.A., F.K.S.L., Foreign Associate, of the
Anthropological Society of Paris, Honorary Fellow of the Ethnological
Society of London, Corresponding Member of the Upper Hesse Society
for Natural and Medical Science, etc.
CAPTAIN EICHAED F. BURTON, H.M. Consul at Fernando Po, etc.
SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON, BART, D.C.L., LL.D., F.G.S., etc.
THE DUKE OF ROUSSILLON.
.Secretaries,
C. CARTER BLAKE, ESQ., F.G.S., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological
Society of Paris, etc.
J. FREDERICK COLLINGWOOD, ESQ., F.R.S.L., F.G.S.
f^onorarg jForetgn &ccretarg.
ALFRED HIGG1NS, ESQ.
treasurer*
RICHARD STEPHEN CHARNOCK, ESQ., F.S.A., F.R.G.S.
Council.
THOMAS BENDYSHE, ESQ., M.A.
WILLIAM BOLLAERT, ESQ., F.R.G.S. Corr. Mem. Univ. Chile, and
Ethno. Socs. London and New York.
S. EDWIN COLLINGWOOD, ESQ., F.Z.S.
GEORGE DUNCAN GIBB, ESQ., M.A., M.D., F.G.S.
HENRY HOTZE, ESQ., C.S.A.
J. HUGHLINGS JACKSON, ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.P., Professor of Physiology
at the London Hospital Medical School.
J. NORMAN LOCKYER, ESQ., F.R.A.S., M.R.I.
EDWARD PICK, ESQ., Ph.D., F.E.S.
W. WINWOOD READE, ESQ., F.R.G.S., Corr. Mem. Geographical Society
of Paris.
GEORGE E. ROBERTS, ESQ.
CHARLES ROBERT DES RUFFIERES, ESQ., F.G.S., F.E.S.
WILLIAM TRAVERS, ESQ., M.R.C.S.
WILLIAM SANDYS WRIGHT VAUX, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L.,
President of the Numismatic Society of London.
GEORGE WITT, ESQ., F.R.S.
THIRD LIST
OF THE
FOUNDATION FELLOWS
OF THE
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
The names with * before them are those of Fellows who have com-
pounded for their Annual Subscription.
Those Fellows to whose names the ^[ is attached, have contributed
Papers.
f Members of Council.
J These Fellows are also Local Secretaries*
Adlam, William, Esq. 9 Brook Street, Bath.
Aitkin, Thomas, Esq., M.D. District Lunatic Asylum, Inverness.
Armitstead, T. B., Esq. Padnoller House, Nether Stowey, Bridgewater.
Arundell, Rodolph, Esq. 14 Montagu Place, Montagu Square, W.
Atkinson, Henry George, Esq., F.G.S. 18 Upper Gloucester Ptacet
N.W.
Austin, William Baird, Esq., M.D. St. Andrew's, Fife.
Avery, John Gould, Esq. 40 Belsize Park, N.W.
Babington, William, Esq. Cameroons River.
Bailey, John, Esq., B.A. Hampton.
Baker, J. P., Esq., M.R.C.S. 6 York Place, Portman Square, W.
Barr, W. R., Esq. Park Mills, Stockport.
Barr, Joseph Henry, Esq., M.R.C.S. Ardwick Green, Manchester.
Beale, John S., Esq. 17 Padding ton Green, W.
Beavan, Hugh J. C., Esq., F.R.G.S. 13 Blandford Square, Regent's
Park; and Grajton Club, W.
Beardsley, Amos, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. The Grange, near Ulverstone,
Lancashire.
Beddoe, John, Esq., M.D., F.E.S., Foreign Associate of the Anthro-
pological Society of Paris. Clifton.
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