994 OF THE BRANCHES OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 



belonging to a different sect among the Mussulmans, and commonly living 

 apart from them. In like manner, even the Negro head and face may be- 

 come assimilated to the European, by long subjection to similar influences; 

 thus, in some of our older West Indian Colonies, it is not uncommon to meet 

 with Negroes, the descendants of those first introduced there, who exhibit a 

 very European physiognomy ; and it has even been asserted that a Negro 

 belonging to the Dutch portion of Guiana may be distinguished from an- 

 other belonging to the British settlements, by the similarity of the features 

 and expression of each to those which respectively characterize his masters. 

 The effect could riot be here produced by the intermixture of bloods, since 

 this would be made apparent by alteration of color. But not only may the 

 pyramidal and prognathous types be elevated towards the elliptical ; the 

 elliptical may be degraded towards either of these. Want, squalor, and 

 ignorance have a special tendency to induce that diminution of the cranial 

 portion of the skull, and that increase of the facial, which characterize the 

 prognathous type ; as cannot but be observed by any one who takes an ac- 

 curate and candid survey of the condition of the most degraded part of the 

 population of the great towns of this country, but as is seen to be pre-emi- 

 nently the case with regard to the lowest classes of Irish immigrants. 1 A 

 certain degree of retrogression to the pyramidal type, is also to be noticed 

 among the nomadic tribes which are to be found in every civilized com- 

 munity. Among these, as has been remarked by a very acute observer, 2 

 "According as they partake more or less of the purely vagabond nature, 

 doing nothing whatsoever for their living, but moving from place to place, 

 preying on the earnings of the more industrious portion of the community, 

 so will the attributes of the nomade races be found more or less marked in 

 them; and they are all more or less distinguished for their high cheek-bones 

 and protruding jaws ;" thus showing that kind of mixture of the pyramidal 

 with the prognathous type, which is to be seen among the lowest of the 

 Indian and Malayo-Polynesian race. 



838. Next to the characters derived from the form of the head, those 

 which are founded upon the form of the pelvis seem entitled to rank. These 

 have been particularly examined by Professors Vrolik and Weber. The 

 former was led by his examinations of this part of the skeleton, to consider 

 that the pelvis of the Negress, and still more that of the female Hottentot, 

 approximates to that of the Simise in its general configuration ; especially in 

 its length and narrowness, the iliac bones having a more vertical position, 

 so that the anterior spines approach one another much more closely than 

 they do in the European ; and the sacrum also being longer and narrower. 

 On the other hand, Prof. Weber 3 concludes, from a more comprehensive 

 survey, that no particular figure is a permanent characteristic of any one 

 race. He groups the principal varieties which he has met with, according 

 to the form of the upper opening into oval, round, four-sided, and wedge- 

 shaped. The first of these is most frequent in the European races ; the sec- 

 ond, among the American races; the third, most common among the Mon- 

 golian nations, corresponds remarkably witli their form of head ; whilst the 

 last chiefly occurs among the races of Africa, and is in like manner conform- 

 able with the oblong compressed form usually presented by their cranium. 

 But although there are particular shapes which are most prevalent in each 

 race, yet there are numerous individual deviations, of such a nature that 

 every variety of form presents itself occasionally in any given race. 



1 Seethe Dublin University M:ISJ:I/JMP, No. xlviii. 



2 Mr. Henry Malicw, in London Labor nncl the London Poor, p. 2. 



J Die Lehro von den Ur- und Kaceiiforrnoii der Scluiedel und Beckon des Men- 

 schen; Dii.sseldorf, 1830. 



