Dr Hodgkin on the Progress of Ethnology, 135 



to different parts of South Asia, where they have been blended 

 with numerous other races in various proportions. 



Malays have been transported to the Cape, there to be 

 mixed with Europeans and Caffres, Hottentots and Negroes. 

 The Hill Coolies of Asia have been conveyed to Australia, 

 the West Indies, Mauritius, and Demerara ; and, in a few in- 

 stances, the Chinese, so long immovably attached to his na- 

 tive lands, has been induced to emigrate to a greater or less 

 distance, and is perhaps already cultivating tea in America. 



And lastly, there is scarcely a spot inhabited by man in 

 which the proofs of the libidinous propensities of the white 

 man do not exhibit the result of the intermixture of the 

 European variety with those of every shade of colour, and of 

 every diversity of cranial development. The interesting re- 

 sults of this synthetical process are not confined to physical 

 characters. It is often asserted that they are to be seen in in- 

 tellectual and moral qualities, though no systematic inquiry 

 has been attempted in this direction. 



Very great changes must likewise be effected in language 

 through the same process, and these philosophical experiments 

 are well worthy the attention of those who are engaged in 

 the general investigation of language. 



Lest it be thought that I exaggerate the interest which be- 

 longs to the inquiries included in ethnology in its most com- 

 prehensive sense, I will merely ask your attention to the fol- 

 lowing short quotations. Lawrence observes in his Lectures 

 on Man, " It is only of late years, and principally through 

 the labours of Blumenbach, that the natural history of man 

 has begun to receive its due share of attention, and I have no 

 hesitation in asserting, that, whether we regard the intrinsic 

 importance of the questions tliat arise, and their relation to 

 the affinities, migrations, and history of nations, or advert 

 merely to the pleasure of the research, no subject will be 

 found more worthy of minute investigation." 



It is of the greatest importance, in a philosophical point of 

 view, to obtain much more extensive information than we now 

 possess of the physical and moral characters. A great num- 

 ber of curious problems in physiology, illustrative of the his- 

 tory of species, and the laws of their propagation, remain as 



