1036 OF THE HUMAN FAMILY, AND THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS. 



place to place, preying on the earnings of the more industrious portion of the 

 community, so will the attributes of the nomade races be found more or less 

 marked in them ; and they are all more or less distinguished for their high 

 cheek-bones and protruding jaws/ ' thus showing that kind of mixture of the 

 pyramidal with the prognathous type which is to be seen among the lowest of 

 the Indian and Malayo-Polynesian races. 



1043. Next to the characters derived from the form of the head, those which 

 are founded upon the form of the pelvis seem entitled to rank. These have 

 been particularly examined by Professors Vrolik and Weber. The former was 

 led, by his examinations of this part of the skeleton, to consider that the pelvis 

 of the Negress, and still more that of the female Hottentot, approximates to 

 that of the Simiae in its general configuration ; especially in its length and 

 narrowness the iliac bones having a more vertical position, so that the anterior 

 spines approach one another much more closely than they do in the European ; 

 and the sacrum also being longer and narrower. On " the other hand, Prof. 

 Weber 1 concludes, from a more comprehensive survey, that no particular figure 

 is a permanent characteristic of any one race. Pie groups the principal varieties 

 which he has met with, according to the form of the upper opening whether 

 oval, round, four-sided, or wedge-shaped. The first of these is most frequent in 

 the European races ; the second, among the American races ; the third, most 

 common among the Mongolian nations, corresponds remarkably with the form 

 of their heads ; whilst the last chiefly occurs among the races of Africa, and is 

 in like manner conformable with the oblong compressed form usually presented 

 by their cranium. But though there are particular shapes which are most 

 prevalent in each race, yet there are numerous individual deviations, of such a 

 nature that every variety of form presents itself occasionally in any given race. 



1044. Other variations have been observed by anatomists, in the relative 

 length of the bones, and in the shape of the limbs, between the different races 

 of Man j but these also seem to have reference to the degree of civilization, and 

 to the regularity of the supply of wholesome nutriment. It is generally to be 

 observed that the races least improved by civilization, like the uncultivated 

 breeds of animals, have slender, lean, and elongated limbs; this may be especially 

 remarked in the natives of Australia. In nearly all the less civilized races of 

 Men, the limbs are more crooked and badly formed than the average of those 

 of Europeans ; and this is particularly the case in the Negro, the bones of whose 

 legs bow outwards, and whose feet are remarkably flat. It has been generally 

 believed that the length of the forearm in the Negro is so much greater than 

 in the European, as to constitute a real character of approximation to the Apes. 

 The difference, however, is in reality extremely slight; and is not at all compara- 

 ble with that which exists between the most uncultivated races of Men and the 

 highest Apes ( 5). And in regard to all the peculiarities here alluded to, it 

 is to be observed that they can only be discovered by the comparison of large 

 numbers of one race with corresponding numbers of another ; for individuals 

 are found in every tribe possessing the characters which distinguish the major- 

 ity of the other race. Such peculiarities, therefore, are totally useless as the 

 foundation of specific characters; being simply variations from the ordinary 

 type, resulting from causes which might affect the entire race, as well as indi- 

 viduals. The connection- between the general form of the body, on the one 

 hand, and the degree of civilization (involving the regular supply of nutriment) 

 on the other, is made apparent, not merely by the improvement which we 

 perceive in the form, development, and vigor of the frame, as we advance 

 from the lowest to the most cultivated of the Human races; but also by the 



1 " Die Lehre von den Ur- und Racenformen der Schaedel und Becken des Menschen ;" 

 Dusseldorf, 1830. 



