1042 OF THE HUMAN FAMILY, AND THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS. 



certain of those groups of languages whose distinctness can be traced back his- 

 torically for the longest period. It is evident, then, that philological inquiry 

 must be looked to as one of the chief means of determining the question of 

 radiation from a single centre or from multiple centres ; and it is a remarkable 

 fact, that the linguistic affinity and the conformity in physical characters fre- 

 quently stand in a sort of complemental relation to each other, each being the 

 strongest where the other is weakest ; so that by one or other of these links of 

 connection, a close relationship is indicated between all these families of nations, 

 under which the several races appear to be most naturally grouped. 



2. General Survey of the Principal Families of Mankind. 



1050. The distribution of the Races of Mankind under five primary varieties, 

 according to their respective types of cranial conformation, as first proposed by 

 Blumenbach, is still so commonly received, notwithstanding the distinct proof 

 which has been given of the fallacious nature of its basis, that it will be de- 

 sirable to explain his terms, and at the same time to show how far the informa- 

 tion subsequently acquired has tended to modify his arrangement. The first of 

 these varieties, which is considered to be distinguished by the possession of the 

 oval or elliptical type of cranial conformation, was designated Caucasian by 

 Blumenbach, on two grounds ; first, because he considered the Caucasian people 

 (Georgians and Circassians) as presenting its physical characters in the great- 

 est perfection ; and second, because it was supposed that the Caucasian range of 

 mountains might be regarded as the centre or focus of the races belonging to it. 

 Neither of these ideas, however, is correct : for whilst the oval form of cranium 

 is presented with fully as great beauty and symmetry by the Greeks, it seems 

 now to be almost certainly determinable by the evidence of language, that the 

 Georgian and Circassian nations are really of Mongolian origin, and consequently 

 have no direct relation of affinity with the other nations usually ranked as belong- 

 ing to this variety; and the evidence of history and tradition, so far from pointing 

 to the Caucasian range as the original centre of radiation of the race, accords 

 with that of language in assigning its locality much nearer to Central Asia. It 

 would be most desirable, therefore, that some other designation should be sub- 

 stituted for that given by Blumenbach; were it not that the present state of 

 our knowledge requires the entire abandonment of his doctrine, that the races 

 agreeing in this type of conformation are mutually connected by community of 

 descent. For, even within the limits of Europe, we find at least two nations 

 the Turks, and the Magyars or true Hungarians whose crania are character- 

 istically oval, and which are yet undoubtedly of Mongolian descent ; and al- 

 though some allowance must be made, in regard to the change which has taken 

 place among the former, for the influence of intermixture with other races, yet 

 there is no reason to believe that any such influence has operated among the 

 Magyars, whose blood seems to have been transmitted with remarkable purity 

 from the time when they settled in Hungary about ten centuries since. In Asia, 

 we find this type presented not merely by the Indo-European races, but also by 

 the Syro- Arabian, and by the larger proportion of the inhabitants of Hindostan ; 

 yet the Syro- Arabian races are more nearly related to the African stock ( 1052), 

 than to that from which most of the present inhabitants of Europe have sprung ; 

 and there is good reason to believe that the great mass, if not the whole, of the 

 existing inhabitants of India, are of Mongolian descent ( 1054). It will be 

 necessary, therefore, to consider the nations which present the so-called Cau- 

 casian type of cranial conformation, under several distinct heads. No uniformity 

 exists among them in regard to color ; for this character presents every inter- 

 mediate gradation between the fair and florid hue, with light, red, or auburn 

 hair, of the Northern European, to the jet-black of many tribes in Northern 



