ETHNOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 



381 



" we need not despair of one day meeting with 

 the signs of man's existence in the [Norfolk] 

 forest-bed, or in the overlying strata [the 

 " fluvio-marine"]. Yet, Lyell himself, speaking 

 of the possible discovery of traces of man in the 

 Norfolk forest-bed, had said that such a fact 

 " would carry back the antiquity of man to a dis- 

 tance of time probably more than twice as great 

 as that which separates our era from that of 

 the most ancient of the tool-bearing gravels yet 

 discovered in Picardy, or elsewhere. But even 

 then," such is Lyell's conclusion, "the reader 

 will perceive that the age of man, though pre- 

 glacial, would be so modern in the great geolo- 

 gical calendar (see table of fossiliferous strata, 

 preceding), that he would scarcely date so far 

 back as the commencement of the post-pliocene 

 period." 



At the conclusion of the paper, Mr. Charles-, 

 worth and others remarked that the facts on 

 which M. Desnoyers proceeded appeared mea- 

 gre ; and they suggested caution in regard to 

 going beyond what was already admitted. Mr. 

 Christy thought that if we could carry the evi- 

 dence back to the fossil aurochs (bison), there 

 would seem to be no reason why it might not 

 be carried back also to the Elephas meridion- 

 alis. 



The Question of the Variability of Man. 

 On this subject, Mr. Crawfurd remarks that, 

 although Lyell adopts the theory of the unity 

 of the human race, as best according with the 

 hypothesis of transmutation of species, yet 

 neither he nor any one else has ventured to 

 point out the primordial stock from which the 

 many existing varieties proceed. He declared 

 the Ethiopian of Egyptian paintings 4,000 years 

 old to be exactly the Ethiopian of the present 

 day ; and that the skeleton of an Egyptian 

 mummy of that date does not differ from that 

 of a modern Copt. The people of a Persian 

 colony, first settled in Western India 1,000 

 years ago, and refraining from intermixture 

 with the natives, are not now distinguishable 

 from their countrymen at home. The human 

 skeletons of the Belgian caverns, of times coer- 

 val with the mammoth and other extinct mam- 

 malia, do not depart in a marked way, either 

 in skull or limb, from the modern standard of 

 certain living races. Again, the human skele- 

 tons of the Swiss lake-dwellings, computed by 

 some to be 12,000 years old, differ in no respect 

 from those of the present inhabitants of Switz- 

 erland. The author proceeds to argue, as he 

 regards the case, the impossibility of distant 

 migrations in early times, thus forbidding that 

 change of conditions which would, upon the 

 single-stock theory, be necessary to the nume- 

 rous and marked human varieties actually ex- 

 isting. And he then adds that if, in a given 

 location, in 4,000 years, or supposing this the 

 age of the Belgian race contemporary with the 

 mammoth in 100,000 years, the change is zero, 

 then, if we multiply such periods by any num- 

 ber whatever, it must still be zero. 



On this subject of variability of man, M. 



Broca says : The periods [of man on the earth] 

 are no longer counted by hundreds or thou- 

 sands, but by myriads of years ; and we know 

 that our 5,000 years of history are but a short 

 episode in the life of humanity. The types 

 which we are enabled to study appear to us 

 permanent : can we say that they are so ? 

 Multiply the 4,000 years, during which the 

 ethnic types of the Egyptian monuments ap- 

 pear to have undergone no discernible change, 

 by 10, and what then? 



Speaking in relation to the variability of man 

 before the British Association, Prof. "Wilson 

 said that we have now an illustrative instance 

 showing the development of a new variety of 

 men. The Pilgrim Fathers took to America 

 all the characteristics of Englishmen : about 

 200 years had passed, and what with the influ- 

 ence of climate, food, and perhaps admixture 

 of Indian bl<5od (?), the American race had 

 grown out of the old stock. Those who chal- 

 lenged Lyell's doctrine of derivation from a 

 single primitive stock, should bear this fact in 

 mind. If 200 years had been sufficient to de- 

 velop the New Englander, what changes might 

 not thousands upon thousands of years, under 

 similarly altered conditions, effect? 



Intelligence of the Primitive Eaces. A wri- 

 ter in the " Anthrop. Review," remarks on this 

 subject that mere rudeness of workmanship in 

 the implements left us by the supposed ante- 

 historical peoples does not necessarily lead to 

 the conclusion that they were physically or 

 morally inferior to succeeding races. It is 

 doubtful, in case a number of the intelligent 

 people of the present time were cast away on 

 a desert island, without means of procuring a 

 supply of metals, whether they could by per- 

 cussion and friction manufacture objects better 

 adapted to their purposes than the rude imple- 

 ments of the ante-historical races. 



As, then, we cannot form a judgment from 

 the works alone of the primitive peoples, we 

 must search for other indications of their men- 

 tal capacities. Now, it is generally admitted 

 that mental superiority is in proportion to the 

 development and complexity of structure of 

 the brain ; and the capacity for improvement 

 is in a like ratio. Moreover, the interior of the 

 skull gives a fair index of the size and confor- 

 mation of the brain. Hence, thus far at least 

 [though on this point Prof. Waitz in his recent 

 work demurs], leading anthropologists have 

 adopted the particular shape of the cranium as 

 the great mark of distinction between races. 

 Then, from the observations of their general 

 smallness of skull, large development of the 

 jaws, and other abnormities of cranial confor- 

 mation, the inference would appear not to be 

 premature that the original races were inferior 

 to the. succeeding immigrants [said, doubtless, 

 in reference to the countries of Western Eu- 

 rope] ; and that the primitive race is now ex- 

 tinct in Europe, having shared the fate of the 

 gigantic animals with which it was contempo- 

 raneous. 



