Scientific Inklligence — Zoology. 369 



bical words, the forms of which are almost infinite. We can at 

 once perceive that these objections of Prichard's cannot affect 

 the principle of the division of the human race upon physical 

 principles, but that they are mei'ely directed against certain at- 

 tempts to carry out this principle. Further, although the nations 

 of the Caucasian race are for the most part completely connected 

 by their language, while the Fins and Hungarians, which were 

 considered by Cuvier as belonging to this race, must, according 

 to Prichard, be separated from it on account of the peculia- 

 rities of the roots of their languages, — peculiarities which are 

 common to themselves alone ; and although,' likewise, the Tartars 

 and Tui-ks, who are also referred to this race, on account of 

 the relation of their language to that of the Jacutes, have also 

 a resemblance to the tribes of the Mongolian race, still this is 

 not a good argument against the existence of races, but it is 

 only at most a difficulty in the consideration of the Caucasian 

 race, and an objection against a peculiar mode of classification. 

 Still more groundless are Prichard's objections to the Negro 

 race, whose languages are so various; and it can hardly be re- 

 garded as a serious remark, when he says that all the separate 

 Negro tribes, viz. the woolly-haired inhabitants of the mountains 

 of New Guinea, and the Papuas of the Eastern Ocean, have 

 acquired their characters from the climate of these regions, for 

 it is known that physically distinct races preserve their physical 

 characters in the same climate. The actual existence of races 

 is proved by the indestructible distinctions of the Negro and all 

 other races. The difficulty lies only in the classification of the 

 races besides the Negro one, — a difficulty which will probably 

 never be solved, and owing to which we must limit ourselves to 

 an uncertain determination of the boundaries, by the united as- 

 sistance of the physical and moral characters, and of languages 

 and history. The conclusion of Prichard, that originally there 

 was only one stem of the human race, is, it is true, not contra- 

 dicted by the belief that, under the present relations of climate, 

 there exist various constant races of the human species; but 

 such a conclusion is not rendered more probable than it former- 

 ly was, by the interesting observations of Prichard on languages 

 and nations. — Prqfessm- Muller of Berlin. 



17. Descriptive Catalogue of the Preparations in the Anato- 



