232 EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



nected with the principle of development. It points out that 

 the brain of one of the most favoured specimens of humanity, 

 after completing the series of animal transformations, passes 

 through the characters in which it appears in the Negro, the 

 American, and the nations of Northern and Eastern Asia 

 (sometimes comprehensively called Mongolian), and finally 

 assumes that perfect character which it bears in the superior 

 nations comprehensively called Caucasian by Cuvier. The face 

 partakes of these alterations. " One of the earliest points in 

 which ossification commences is the lower jaw. This bone is 

 consequently sooner completed than the other bones of the 

 head, and acquires a predominance, which, as is well known, 

 it never loses in the Negro. During the soft pliant state of 

 the bones of the skull, the oblong shape which they naturally 

 assume approaches nearly the permanent shape of the Ameri- 

 cans. At birth the flattened face, and broad smooth forehead 

 of the infant, the position of the eyes rather towards the side 

 of the head, and the widened space between, represent the 

 Mongolian form ; while it . is only as the child advances to 

 maturity, that the oval face, the arched forehead, and the 

 marked features of the true Caucasian become perfectly de- 

 veloped." 1 It appears; in short, that wading characters 

 of the various races of mankind are simply representations of 

 particular stages in the development of the .uighest or Caucasian 

 type. The Negro exhibits perina-Viently the imperfect brain, 

 projecting lower jaw, and slender bent limbs of a Caucasian 

 child some considerable time before the period of its birth. 

 The aboriginal American represents the same child nearer 

 birth. The Mongolian is an arrested infant newly born. In 

 harmony with these views is the opinion now beginning to be 

 announced by ethnologists, that some nations have passed in 

 the course of ages through the three leading forms of skull, 

 beginning with what is called the prognathous, a narrow shape 

 of the head with a prominent jaw, proper to savage tribes ; 

 afterwards advancing to a pyramidal form, which is usually 

 found among nomadic or pastoral races, in conformity with 

 their assuming that mode of life ; and finally exhibiting in a 

 comparatively civilized state an arched form of skull. 2 



On the whole, it results from inquiries into what is called 

 the physical history of man, that conditions, such as climate 



1 Lord's Popular Physiology, explaining observations by M. Serres. ; 

 2 See Dr. Prichard's Natural History of Man. 



