42 MAMMALIA. 



Varieties of the Human Species [a). 



Although the promiscuous intercourse of the human species, wliich pro- 

 duces individuals capable of propagation, would seem to demonstrate its 



{j^ (o) Notivithstanding the high character of Cuvier, as a founder of classes, yet 

 the arrangement established by Blumenbach of the varieties of the human species 

 has been universally adopted. In this classification the varieties are five, viz. — 



I. The Caucasian, which comprehends the ancient and modem inhabitants of 

 Europe, the Western Asiatics, or those of this side of the Caspian Sea, and of the 

 rivers Obi and the Ganges, together with the Northern Africans. The characters of 

 this race are as follows: — The head is nearly the figure of a globe; the forehead is 

 high and expanded; the cheek bones are without prominences; the nose is narrow 

 and slightly aquiline; the face is oval and straight; the mouth small, with lips 

 slightly everted; the skin is white, and the cheeks florid; the hair is long, soft, and 

 shining, and varies in colour, from a nut-brown to the deepest black. — There are 

 thirty-eight crania of this variety in the Hunterian Museum, London College of 

 Surgeons. (See F/afe I. Mammalia, Fig. 1. The portrait of Jusuf Aguiah 

 Efendi, a Turk, and once Ambassador from the Sublime Porte at the Court of 

 London). 



IL The Mongolian, commonly called the Tartarian, takes in the Finnish tribes in- 

 habiting the colder parts of the north of Em-ope, such as the Laplanders and Esqui- 

 maux, and also the Asiatics not included in the Caucasian variety, so that it com- 

 prehends the Chinese, but not the Malays. The head approximates to a quadrilateral 

 figure; the face broad and flattened, so that the parts appear to run into each other; 

 the nose is small and flat, and the space between the eyes flat and broad; the cheek- 

 bones are rounded and projecting; the aperture made by the eye-lids is narrow, and 

 its line extends towards the temples, the internal angle of the eye being depressed 

 towards the nose, and the upper eye- lid being at that angle continued into the lower 

 one by a rounded sweep; the skin is pale olive, and the hair is tliin, black, stiff, 

 and straight. — There are nine crania of this variety in the Hunterian Museum. 

 (See Plate 1. Mammalia, Fig. 2. The portrait of Feodor Iwanowitsch, a Cal- 

 muck, who was sent, when young, by the Empress of Russia to the Hereditary 

 Princess of Baden; was educated at Carlsruhe, and became a famous engraver at 

 Rome). 



II L The ^Elhio/jinn, consists of all the Africans not included in the Caucasian divi- 

 sion, and these partake more or less of the negro character. The front of the head 

 is compressed laterally, and looks as if the forehead were removed, being, in this 

 respect, a perfect contrast with the globular form of the head of the Caucasian va- 

 riety. The entire cranium is contracted anteriorly, its cavity is considerably les- 

 sened; the foramen magnum, and the condyles at its circumference, are placed 

 farther back towards the occipital region; there is great developement of the face, and 

 great prominence of the jaws, particularljr of their alveolar margins and teeth, the 

 upper incisors are oblique; the chin recedes, and the zygomatic arch projects to- 

 wards the front; the skin is brown, black, and sometimes yellow, and the hair is 

 deep black, crisp, and curly. — There are ten crania of this variety in the Hunterian 

 Museum. (See Plate I. Mammalia, Fig. 3. The portrait of J. J. E. Capitein, 

 a negro, who received holy orders in Holland). 



IV. The Americati, includes all the inhabitants of the vast continent of Nortli and 

 South America, excepting those of the northern part of the continent, and some of 

 the islands, paiticularly the Caribbee. The cheeks are broad, but the malar bones 

 are more rounded and arched than in the ^Mongolian race; the forehead is small and 

 low; the orbits of tlie eye are unusually deep, and the nasal cavity is very large. 

 The Caribs were in the habit of lowering the forehead by employing artificial pres- 

 sure on the head in early infancy; hence, in this community, the characteristic 

 feature of the American variety, the low forehead, is much more strikingly marked 

 than in any other class of Americans. — There are five crania of this variety in the 

 Hunterian Museum. (See Plate I. Mammalia, Fig. 4. The portrait of Thay 

 Endaneega, a chief of the Mohawks, or Six Nations). 



\ . The Malay, embraces the whole of the natives of the numerous Asiatic islands, 

 and of those of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand, New Holland, &c. Their head is 



