ANTHROPOLOGY. 



physiological peculiarity is a truly racial one. As 

 a consequence of the early advent of puberty, we 

 may say that women many at much earlier ages 

 amongst aboriginal races in hot climates, than they 

 do in the higher races inhabiting temperate lati- 

 tudes, and this as a rute tends to lessen their pro- 

 lificacy. The fecundity of different races varies. 

 That of the Negroes seems to be far above the 

 average ; indeed, it is difficult to understand how, 

 if this were not the case, Africa could have sur- 

 vived the drain on her population, caused by the 

 devastation, horrors, and barbarities of the slave 

 trade. The greatest fecundity known is asso- 

 ciated with the most abject demoralisation, and 

 is that of Guanaxuato, in Mexico. The North 

 American Indians, on the other hand, are not a 

 prolific race. The same may be said of the natives 

 of Australia, and the islands in the South Seas. 

 The scanty prolificacy of many aboriginal tribes 

 may be due to the severe labours imposed on 

 women, the practice of abortion so common in 

 savage races, and the custom of long suckling, to 

 which reference has already been made in our 

 remarks on prognathism. 



The proportion of male to female births has been, 

 by some, held to differ in different races. In Europe 

 it is as 106:100, there being in European races 

 a preponderance of male births ; due, say some, 

 to the fact, that in Europe the male is generally 

 five or six years older than the female at the time 

 of marriage. Quetelet says that at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, amongst the colonists, the female 

 births preponderate a remarkably exceptional 

 circumstance. In Central America, among the 

 Indians, male and female births are as nearly as 

 possible equal. In Yucatan, the proportion of 

 women to men is said to be 2:1; and in Cumena 

 it is asserted there are seven women to every man 

 in the district. Some authorities think it may 

 turn out that there is a general law that the further 

 you go from the equator the preponderance of 

 female births gradually declines, and when you 

 go far enough north, the preponderance is reversed. 

 It is said, however, that on the Gold Coast, the 

 preponderance of female births only prevails on 

 the coast, and not in the interior. In Australia, 

 on the other hand, Sturt says the smaller tribes in 

 the interior have an excess of women, in the pro- 

 portion of 2:1, or even more (Narrative of an 

 Expedition into Central Australia). The Jews 

 are remarkable for the great excess in the male 

 births as compared with the female, it being in 

 Berlin as 208 : 100 (Waitz, Int. Anthrop. vol. i. p. 

 112), and as 100:111 in Prussia generally. 



The mean animal heat and frequency of the 

 respiration vary hardly at all in different races. 

 Gmelin, Ross, and Parry found even in 74 lat 

 north that the heat of the body was as great as it 

 is in warm climates. Dr Livingstone, however, 

 found that the heat of his body, taken by ap- 

 plying the thermometer to his tongue, was xocr ; 

 whilst the same instrument registered only 98 

 when applied to the Negroes amongst whom he 

 was living. 



We have referred to the peculiarly offensive 

 odour characteristic of the exhalations of the skin 

 in the Negro. This has been by some dwelt on as 

 one proof of the specific distinctness of the African 

 from the other races of mankind. Chemical ex- 

 amination of the sweat of the Negro does not shew 

 it to be different from that of the European; 



indeed, both are alkaline ; whereas it is said the 

 sweat of the aboriginal Indian is acid, though it 

 can be rendered alkaline by continuous animal 

 diet Again, not only do the Negroes vary amongst 

 themselves in regard to intensity of skin-odour, 

 but some American Indians, e.g. the Araucanians, 

 who live on animal food greatly, manifest a similar 

 peculiarity. Rengger even says that Europeans, 

 when acclimatised in Paraguay, have a peculiarl) 

 rank skin-odour, and in consequence are, like 

 Negroes, less liable to be pestered with mosquitos. 

 Then we may remark that it is probable that every 

 individual, white or black, has a distinctive skin- 

 odour, and if our senses were as keen as those of 

 dogs, we should, like them, be able to distinguish 

 it in every instance. There is no good proof 

 that the pulse beats quicker in southern races 

 than in northern. Congenital deformities are 

 rarer amongst savage than among civilised races. 

 It is alleged that the capacity for blushing is 

 peculiar to white races that Negroes have it 

 not. But in Mulatto women, it has been proved 

 that where the complexion is delicate, blushing 

 is seen ; and Monrad, quoted by Waitz, in his 

 Introduction to Anthropology, p. 135, asserts that 

 Negresses become darker when under the influence 

 of a sense of shame. The idea that blushing is 

 peculiar to white races, seems to have originated 

 in careless observation ; for the slight deepening of 

 colour that occurs in dark-skinned races when 

 influenced by a sense of shame is not so easily 

 noticed. As regards the senses, it seems clear 

 that savage races have them developed in greater 

 perfection than the higher races. However, it 

 would appear there is one exception, viz. the 

 sense of taste, which in inferior races is but 

 poorly developed. The savage who gluts himself 

 with food for no other purpose than to quench the 

 cravings of an animal appetite, is not a gourmand. 

 The inferior races have, in the struggle for exist- 

 ence, to rely more on their senses than have the 

 civilised ; hence they have them by use developed 

 into wonderful acuteness. The power of 'fol- 

 lowing the trail,' possessed by savage hunters is 

 well known. The Bedouin can discern objects at 

 infinitely greater distances than the European. 

 Rengger says that Indians can distinguish a rider- 

 less horse from a mounted one by the difference 

 in the sounds made by its hoofs afar off. Then 

 the Bushmen a race very low in the scale of 

 civilisation have the sense of sight so highly 

 developed, that travellers assert they can see 

 things with the naked eye which white men would 

 need a telescope to perceive. Illustrative of what 

 we said about the high state of development of all 

 the senses except taste in the inferior races, we 

 may mention that Freycinet tells a story of a 

 Papuan of New Guinea who actually swallowed 

 up the contents of a pepper-box, and thought it 

 very pleasant to taste yet the Papuans are said 

 to possess the most delicate and acute senses of 

 sight and hearing. 



PSYCHICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



As yet, the materials for a complete science of 

 comparative human psychology hardly exist ; yet 

 from what we do know of the subject, the 

 direct drift of its teaching is to strengthen the 

 position of those who maintain the unity of man- 

 kind, the psychical differences between different 

 races being clearly accounted for by the recorded 



