RACES. i^53 



tigalions of Vrolik and "vVeber on the form of the pelvis. On 

 comparing the dark-colored African nations, on whose physical 

 history the admirable work of Prichard has thrown so much 

 light, with the races inhabiting the islands of the South-In 

 dian and West-Australian archipelago, and with the Papuas 

 and Alfourous (Haroforas, Endamenes), we see that a black 

 skin, woolly hair, and a negro-like cast of countenance are not 

 necessarily connected together.* So long as only a small por- 

 tion of the earth was known to the Western nations, partial 

 views necessarily predominated, and tropical heat and a black 

 skin conocquently appeared inseparable. " The Ethiopians," 

 Baid the ancient tragic poet Theodectes of Phase'lis,! "are 

 colored by the near sun-god in his course with a sooty luster, 

 and their hair is dried and crisped with the heat of his rays." 

 The campaign.s of Alexander, which gave rise to so many new 

 ideas regarding physical geography, likewise first excited a dis- 

 cussion on the problematical influence of climate on races. 

 " Families of animals and plants," writes one of the greatest 

 anatomists of the day, Johannes Miiller, in his noble and com- 

 prehensive work, Physiologie des Me?ischen, " undergo, within 

 certain limitations peculiar to the different races and species, 

 various modifications in their distribution over the surface of 

 the earth, propagating these variations as organic types of spe- 

 cies4 The present races of animals have been produced by 



* Prichard, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 324. 



t Oncsicritus, in Strabo, xv., p. 690, G95, Casaub. Welcker, Grie- 

 chiscke Tragodien, abth. iii., s. 1078, conjectures that the verses of 

 Theodectes, cited by Strabo, are taken from a lost tragedy, which prob- 

 ably bore the title of " Memnou." 



X [In illustration of this, the conclusions of Professor Edward Forbes 

 respecting the origin and diifusion of the British flora may be cited. 

 See the Survey Memoir already quoted, On the Connection between tht 

 Distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Islands, &c., 

 p. 65. " 1. The flora and fauna, terrestrial and marine, of the British 

 islands and seas, have originated, so far as that area is concerned, since 

 the raeiocene epoch. 2. The assemblages of animals and plants com- 

 posing that fauna and flora did not appear in the area they now inhabit 

 simultaneously, but at several distinct points in time. 3. Both the fauna 

 and flora of the British islands and seas are composed partly of species 

 which, either permanently or for a time, appeared in that area before 

 the glacial epoch ; partly of such as inhabited it during that epoch ; and 

 in great part of those which did not appear there until afterward, and 

 •whose appearance on the earth was coeval with the elevation of the 

 bed of the glacial sea and the consequent climatal changes. 4. The 

 greater part of the terrestrial animals and flowering plants now inhab- 

 iting the British islands are members of specific centers beyond their 

 area, and have migrated to it over continuous land before, during, or 

 efler the glacial epoch. 5. The climatal conditions of the area undei 



