94 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



nomenclature, adapted to his own compounded physical and psychical theory. 1 And 

 finally, Dr. Bachman disavows the doctrines of Smith in these terms : " While we 

 are willing to allow some weight to the argument of President Smith, who endea- 

 vors to account for the varieties of man from the combined influence of three 

 causes — ' climate, the state of society, and manner of living;' we are free to admit 

 that it is impossible to account for the varieties in the human family from the 

 causes which he has assigned." 2 



That all forms of life in this country were wanting in vigor, and generally infe- 

 rior to those of the eastern continent, was maintained by Buffon, De Pauw, and 

 the Abbe Raynal, and partially adopted by Robertson. It was indignantly repelled 

 by Jefferson, and is termed by Morton "an idle theory," and an hypothesis of 

 " closet naturalists," which there is ample evidence to disprove. An explanation 

 of the assumed fact was sought by its supporters in the supposition that this conti- 

 nent emerged from the water at a later period than the other, and had not reco- 

 vered from the effect of cold and moisture, which exerted an enervating influence 

 upon the inhabitants, whose resemblance and uniformity showed them to be more 

 recent than the people of the other hemisphere, and that time had not been 

 afforded them to become as robust as the latter. 



In curious contrast with these persuasions of the older school of European phi- 

 losophers, we have now the conviction of Dr. Lund, already cited, and of other 

 eminent geologists, that land in America must have emerged earlier than any 

 known portion of the so-called Old World; and the conclusions of Dr. Martius that 

 the natives of the New World are not in a state of primitive barbarism, but are 

 the last remains of a people once high in the scale of civilization and improvement; 

 but now worn out and perishing. Prichard, after testifying to the learning and 

 ability of Martius, and to the ample resources possessed by him for acquiring an 

 accurate knowledge of the American aborigines, avers that the structure of the 

 American languages, and the national customs and institutions, indicate habits of 

 thought and reflection, and cultivation of mind, very different from the state of 

 savages in general ; declaring, also, that attentive observers have been struck with 

 manifestations of greater energy and mental vigor, of more intense and deeper 

 feeling, of a more reflective mind, of greater fortitude, and more consistent perse- 

 verance in enterprises, and all pursuits, when they have compared the natives of 



1 An Investigation of the Theories of the Natural History of Man, by Lawrence, Prichard, and 

 others, founded on Human Analogies; and an outline of a new Natural History of Man, founded upon 

 History, Anatomy, Physiology, and Human Analogies. By William Frederick Van Amringe. New 

 York, 1848. 



Mr. Yan Amringe's classification recognizes four species, viz: the Siiemitic, comprehending the 

 Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Teutones, Slavons, and Celts; the Jai>iietic, comprising the Chinese, 

 Mongolians, Japanese, Chin Indians, and probably the EsMmaux, Toltecs, Aztecs, and Peruvinns; 

 the IsriMAELiTic, comprising most of the Tartar and Arabian tribes, and t/ie whole of the American 

 Indians, unless those mentioned in the second species should be excepted ; the Canaanitic, comprising 

 the Negroes of Central Africa, Hottentots, Caffirs, Australasian Negroes, and probably the Malays. — 

 P. 73. 



1 Doctrine of (he Unity of the Human Race, &c, p. I 1 ? 1 ?. • 



