268 Professor Flower [April 13, 



the sources of the Nile, and tho southernmost parts of Asia, and 

 the characters they assign to them, indicate an actual knowledge of 

 the existence of the two groups of small people which still inhabit 

 these regions, the history of which will form the subject of this 

 lecture. The evidence which has convinced M. de Quatrefages, and 

 which, I have no doubt, will sufiBce for those who take pleasure in 

 discovering an underlying truth in all such legends and myths, or in 

 the more grateful task of rehabilitating the veracity of the fathers of 

 literature and history, will be found collected in a very readable form 

 in a little book published last year in the ' Bibliotheque scientifique 

 contemporaine,' called ' Les Pygmees,' to which I refer my hearers 

 for fuller information upon the subject of this discourse, and 

 especially for numerous references to the literature of the subject, 

 which, as the book is accessible to all who wish to pursue it further, 

 I need not give here. 



It is still, however, to my mind, an open question whether these 

 old stories may not be classed with innumerable others, the offspring 

 of the fet'tile invention of the human brain, the potency of which as 

 an origin of myths has, I think, sometimes been too much underrated. 

 I shall, therefore, now take leave of them, and confine myself to giving 

 you, as far as the brief space of time at my disposal admits, an account 

 of our actual knowledge of the smallest races of men either existing, 

 or, as far as we know% ever having existed on earth, and which may, 

 therefore, taking the word in its current though not literal sense, bo 

 called the " pygmies " of the species. 



Among the various characters by which the different races of men 

 are distinguished from one another, size is undoubtedly one of con- 

 siderable importance. Not but what in each race there is much in- 

 dividual variation, some persons being taller and some shorter ; yet 

 these variations are, especially in the purer or less mixed races, 

 restricted within certain limits, and there is a general average, both 

 for men and women, which can be ascertained when a sufficient 

 number of accurate measurements have been recorded. That the ])vq- 

 vailing size of a race is a really deeply-seated, inherited character- 

 istic, and depends but little on outward conditions, as abundance of 

 food, climate, &c., is proved by well-know^n facts. The tallest and 

 the shortest races in Eurojie are respectively the Norwegians and the 

 Laj^ps, living in' almost the same region. In Africa, also, the diminu- 

 tive Bushmen and the tallest race of the country, the Kaffirs, are 

 close neighbours. The natives of the Andaman Islands and those of 

 many islands of the equatorial region of the Pacific, in which the 

 conditions are similar, or if anything more favourable to the former, 

 are at opposite ends of the scale of height. Those not accustomed to 

 the difficulties both of making and recording such measurements will 

 scarcely be prepared, however, to learn how meagre, unsatisfactory, 

 and unreliable our knowledge of the stature of most of the races of 

 mankind is at present, although unquestionably it has been consider- 

 ably increased within recent years. We must, however, make use of 



