162 Mr Nasmyth on the Human Mouth. 



to have allowed man to have acted as a creature of simple 

 instinct. 



If, on the other hand, the development of his physical 

 frame and moral attributes had been of a low standard, he 

 would neither have been possessed of strength and vigour 

 adequate to contend with the peculiarities of his state of ex- 

 istence, nor have had mind to comprehend it, nor judgment 

 to regulate it. He would have been totally defenceless 

 against the violence of the elements, and the attacks of the 

 animated creatures around him, — man being naturally de- 

 fenceless, and deriving all power from the regulation and 

 direction of his rational faculties. If the origin of mankind 

 had really been that of a low and degraded scale of develop- 

 ment, even if compatible with his existence, it does not seem 

 to me that emancipation from such a state could have been 

 possible. I am therefore at issue with Dr Prichard in the 

 opinion expressed by him, that it must be concluded that the 

 process of nature in the human species is the transmutation 

 of the characters of the Negro into those of the European. 

 Such a view is not the result of my research. 



I hope to shew that there is no difficulty in supposing a 

 derivation from one original stock, and that certainly the 

 origin of the varieties in the development of the mouth must 

 have been from a perfect type. The capability of existence 

 in man in different climates is only bounded by the entire 

 circumference of the globe ; his assimilative functions are 

 omnivorous ; his powers of articulation are unlimited ; and 

 his physical capabilities combine all the possible modifica- 

 tions of the lower animals whose spheres of action are ter- 

 restrial. His mental powers are of the highest order ; and, 

 when we see that the inferior animals are endowed to so 

 great an extent with plasticity and power of accommodation to 

 circumstances, surely we cannot possibly deny to man a 

 power of individual and hereditary adaptation adequate to 

 fit him for the perfect enjoyment of such versatility. 



In regard to the form of the head, which presents the most 

 notable ethnological marks, various points have been attended 

 to, in fact, the relative proportions of every salient point. In 

 reviewing the observations which have been made thereon, so. 



