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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



We first became acquainted with the 

 genius of Dr. Robert Knox in 1852, 

 through a work issued in that year, 

 entitled " Great Artists and Great Anat- 

 omists : a Biographical and Philosophi- 

 cal Study." It was a small book, but 

 unique and racy to a remarkable de- 

 gree. Full of erudition, bold, sarcastic, 

 witty, heterodox, and abounding in 

 acute suggestions, it combined fresh 

 biographical glimpses of such men as 

 Cuvier, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, Da Vinci, 

 Angelo, and Raphael, with an original 

 and philosophical treatment of the art, 

 the literature, and the science of the 

 epochs in which these great characters 

 lived. The humor, freedom, and pun- 

 gency of this little Irochure induced us 

 to look further into the writings of this 

 author, and we found in " The Races of 

 Men " a book rich in information, and 

 written in the same vivid and fascinat- 

 ing style. The relations of anatomy to 

 art was a favorite subject with Dr. 

 Knox, and he contributed much toward 

 its development. He published (also 

 in 1852) "A Manual of Artistic Anat- 

 omy, for the Use of Sculptors, Painters, 

 and Amateurs," with illustrations by 

 Dr. Westmacott. This work contains a 

 great deal of information, set forth in 

 the author's peculiar style ; and tlie 

 third part of the volume gives an inter- 

 esting analysis of beauty, a theory of 

 the beautiful, and an exposition of the 

 author's views on the objects and aims 

 of art. The bias of the anatomist, how- 

 ever, is perceptible, as he is disinclined 

 to recognize poetry, music, and the 

 drama, as belonging to the fine arts, 

 shows little favor to architecture, and 

 holds that sculpture alone is entitled to 

 the rank of high art. The most brill- 

 iant lecturer of his time in England, he 

 applied, in 1841, for the vacant position 

 of anatomical lecturer to the art- 

 students of the Scottish Academy ; but, 

 though strongly backed, he failed as 

 Sir Charles Bell had previously thrice 

 failed in his application for the profess- 

 orship of anatomy to the Royal Acad- 



emy in London. Knox failed, though 

 supereminently the man for tlie place, 

 because an incompetent rival, Mr. James 

 Miller, surgeon, offered his services 

 gratuitously a consideration which, 

 with the canny Scotch, outweighed all 

 others. Of course, Mr. Miller, at the 

 end of the year, asked for his predeces- 

 sor's salary, and, after due manipulation 

 and management, obtained it. It was 

 such miserable chicanery and trickiness 

 in education by which " mediocrity gets 

 intrenched and consolidated and found- 

 ed on adamant," that roused the indig- 

 nation of Dr. Knox, and led to those 

 scathing denunciations of official and 

 conventional stupidity that did so much 

 to stir up animosity against him. He 

 would call a spade a spade, which, in a 

 state of society despotically ruled by 

 etiquette, was an unpardonable sin. 



We hare referred to Dr. Knox's 

 work on the " Races of Men," and prob- 

 ably the most powerful cause of that 

 unpopularity that was turned so fatally 

 against him in the hour of his calamity 

 was his early and uncompromising ad- 

 vocacy of the most advanced views 

 upon this subject. He was one of the 

 eminent founders of the modern science 

 of anthropology. Ethnological ques- 

 tions had been systematically entered 

 upon before his time, but the core of the 

 inquiry had hardly yet been reached. 



The dissertation of Blumenbach " De 

 Generis Huraani Varietate Natura " 

 (1775), was the first great treatise on 

 the races of men, and formed the text- 

 book of Cuvier, Lawrence, Pritchard, 

 Nott and Gliddon, Latham, Waitz, 

 Morton, Pickering, and others. Dr. 

 Knox became an early and independent 

 student of the great problem of the 

 human races, and its comprehensive in- 

 vestigation was a controlling object of 

 his life. He sought to give a new di- 

 rection to the study of race. He aimed 

 at a knowledge of man in his scientific 

 completeness, geographical, historical, 

 and physical, and as a foundation of 

 such knowledge he wished to have a 



