NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 201 



pian or a Mongolian."* This language sounds like the echo of the words of 

 Molina and of Humboldt. " I laugh in my sleeve," said the former, " when 

 I read in certain modern writers, supposed to be diligent observers, that all 

 the Americans have the same appearance, and that when a man has seen 

 one, he may say that he has seen them all." "A Chilian does not differ less 

 in aspect from a Peruvian, than an Italian from a German. I have seen 

 myself Paraguaynos, Cujanos and Magellanos, all of whom have their pecu- 

 liar lineaments which are easily distinguished from those of the others. "f 

 And Humboldt, too, an eye witness like Molina and D'Orbigny, tells us "that 

 those Europeans who have sailed on the great rivers Orinoco and Amazon, 

 and have had occasion to see a great number of tribes assembled under the 

 monastical hierarchy in the missions, must have observed that the American 

 race contains nations whose features differ as essentially from one another, 

 as the numerous varieties of the race of Caucasus, the Circassians, Moors and 

 Persians, differ from one another." " What a difference between the figure, 

 physiognomy, and physical constitution of the tall Charibs, who ought to be 

 accounted one of the most robust nations on the face of the earth, and the 

 squat bodies of the Chayma Indians of the province of Cumana. What a 

 difference of form between the Indians of Tlascala and the Lipans and the 

 Chichimecs of the northern part of Mexico. "J 



Blumenbach recorded his conviction that "in the American variety of 

 mankind, as in others, countenances of all sorts occur. "$ Both Lawrence|| 

 and Prichard, also distinctly recognized the differences exhibited by the abo- 

 riginal Americans. 



" Perhaps the degree of resemblance to a common type subsisting between 

 the nations of America," says Prichard, " may admit of comparison with 

 that which is to be traced between the different nations of Europe or among 

 the races of Africa, or those of the northeastern parts of Asia. It is not 

 universally prevalent in the same degree, but there appears to be in every in- 

 stance some approximation to it; yet there can be no doubt tbat the resem- 

 blance has been in general much exaggerated. It will be easy to prove that 

 the American races, instead of displaying an uniformity of color in all cli- 

 mates, show nearly as great a variety in this respect as the nations of the old 

 continent; that there are among them white races with a florid complexion 

 inhabiting temperate regions, and tribes black or of very dark hue in low and 

 intertropical countries, that their stature, figure and countenances are almost 

 equally diversified." " The nations of South America have in general flatter 

 faces, and many of them a shorter and broader shape of body than the North 

 Americans. In these respects the southern people are more like the Tura- 

 nian nations than the northern tribes."^" 



In another work he remarks : "Anatomists have distinguished what they 

 termed the American form of the human skull; they were led into this mis- 

 take by regarding the strongly marked characteristics of some particular 

 tribes as universal. The American nations are spread over a vast space, and 

 live in different climates, and the shape of their heads is different in different 

 parts."** 



According to Dr. Barton, a writer named Postel "is said to have been the 

 first ' who made such a difference between the two Americas, by means of the 

 Isthmus of Panama, that the inhabitants of those two continents have no- 



*L'Homme Amerkain (de l'Amerique Meridionale), considered sous ses rapports physiologique s 

 et moraux. Paris, lS39.t. 1, p. 123. 



t Saggio Sulla Storia Naturale del Chili. Bologna, 1810. p. 336. 



% Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. New York, 1811, vol. i. p. 107. 



gDe Generis Ilumani Varietate Nativa, Edit. Tertia, Gottingse, 1795, p. 316. See also the Anthro- 

 pological Treatises of Johann Friedrich ISlumenbaeh, translated by Thus. Bcndyshe, London, 

 1865, p. 273. 



|| Op. cit, pp. 221, 223, 224, 247 and 248. 



\ Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, 4th Edit, London, 1841, vol. 1, p. 269. 



** The Natural History of Man, 4th Edition, London, 1855, vol. 2. p. 495. 



1866.] 



