r JBt'ctumarj) of &mmatctr $atur*. 405 



their abodes, and almost exterminated ; 

 others he has forced to share his labour ; 

 and others he uses for his food, his clothing, 

 or his pleasure. The only other part of the 

 human structure which it is now necessary 

 to notice is the brain, whose size in propor- 

 tion to the rest of the nervous system far 

 surpasses that of any other animal. This 

 may be at once seen by observing the pro- 

 portion which the cranium, or rather the 

 cavity containing the brain, and the face, 

 bear to each other. In many cases also it 

 may be estimated by what is called the 

 facial angle of Camper, which is found by 

 drawing a line from the most prominent 

 part of the forehead to that of the upper 

 jaw-bone, and observe the angle which it 

 forms with another line drawn through the 

 meatus auditorius externus to the base of the 

 nose, or (the head being held in a vertical 

 position) with a horizontal line. In Man 

 the facial angle is in the average of Euro- 

 peans 80o . in some children it is a right 

 angle, but in some negroes is not more than 

 703. in the adult chimpanzee (which ap- 

 proaches in this respect nearest to Man) the 

 facial angle is only 3.5, and in the orang or 

 satyr 30. In other animals it is still less, 

 except when it is increased by the promi- 

 nence of large frontal sinuses, or by the 

 comparative shortness of the jaws. In 

 regard to its structure the human brain 

 exceeds all other in development of its 

 cerebral hemispheres, in the number and 

 development of parts, in the depth and 

 number of its convolutions, and in the quan- 

 tity of its medullary matter in proportion 

 to the cortical. 



" In the economy of the human body there 

 are peculiarities not less marked than those 

 in its structure. Perhaps the most charac- 

 teristic is the ability which Man enjoys of 

 living on almost any part of the globe, and 

 of thriving alike in either extreme of natural 

 temperature. Thus the Greenlanders and 

 Esquimaux have reached between 70 and 

 80 of north latitude, while the negro of 

 Africa and the red man of America live 

 under the equator. But even Europeans, 

 accustomed to a temperate climate, can bear 

 either of these extremes of cold and heat, as 

 has been sufficiently proved by the nume- 

 rous instances in which those who have gone 

 on the Arctic expeditions have been obliged 

 to winter in high northern latitudes ; and, 

 on the other hand, by the slight degree in 

 j which European settlers in the hottest parts 

 of Africa are influenced by the temperature. 



" In adaptation with his ability to inhabit 

 almost every climate, Man can subsist on 

 the most varied food. In the northern re- 

 gions, where the earth is covered through 

 the greater part of the year with snow, and 

 vegetables of any kind can be procured only 

 in the smallest quantity, the Esquimaux and 

 Samoides subsist as well on animal food 

 alone as the European does on the most 

 carefully mixed diet : and on the other 

 hand, the inhabitant of the torrid zone is 

 not more inconvenienced by his daily sub- 

 sistence on the cocoa-nut, banana, yam, 

 rice, and other farinaceous and acid vegeta- 

 bles. In the temperate climates, where ani- 



mal and vegetable food can be procured with 

 equal facility, Man is truly omnivorous ; 

 towards the poles animal food or fish be- 

 comes more exclusively his diet ; and to- 

 wards the equator his food is chiefly com- 

 posed of vegetables : and there is no doubt 

 that in each case that food which is most 

 universally adopted is that which is best 

 adapted for the health of the inhabitants. 



" There is not a proof in the whole history 

 of animals that any species or individual has 

 ever made an advance towards an improve- 

 ment, or an alteration in its condition : 

 whether solitary or living in herds, the habits 

 of all remain the same ; all of the same 

 species appear endowed with the same fa- 

 culties and dispositions, and each is in mental 

 power the same throughout his life. Con- 

 trast with these the progress of Man. In his 

 origin weak, naked, and defenceless, he has 

 not only obtained dominion over all the 

 animate creation, but the very elements are 

 made to serve his purpose. Of the earth 

 he has built his houses, and constructed 

 weapons and the implements of art ; he uses 

 the wind to carry him in ships, and to prepare 

 his food ; and when the wind will not suit 

 him, he employs fire and water to replace or 

 to resist it. By artificial light he has pre- 

 vented the inconveniences of darkness ; he 

 has stopped and made rivers, and has forced 

 deserts, marshes, and forests alike to bear 

 his food ; he has marked out and measured 

 the course of the celestial bodies, till he has 

 discovered from them the size and form of 

 the earth that he himself inhabits." 



With regard to the proportions of the 

 human figure, we have no exact knowledge ; 

 for the beauty of the best statues is better 

 conceived by observing than by measuring 

 them. Those of antiquity, which were at 

 first copied after the human form, are now 

 become the models of it ; nor is there one 

 Man found whose person approaches to those 

 inimitable performances that have thus, in 

 one figure, united the perfections of numbers. 

 It is sufficient to say that, from being at first 

 models, they are now become originals ; and 

 are used to correct deviations in that form 

 from whence they are taken. We must 

 not, however, pretend to give the propor- 

 tions of the human body as taken from these, 

 there being nothing more arbitrary. Some, 

 for instance, who have studied after models, 

 divide the body into ten times the length of 

 the face, and others into eight. Some even 

 pretend to assert that there is a similitude 

 of proportion in different parts of the body : 

 thus, that the head is the length of the face ; 

 the thumb the length of the nose ; the space 

 between the eyes the breadth of an eye ; the 

 breadth of the thigh, where thickest, double 

 that of the thickest part of the leg, and 

 treble the smallest ; that the arms when 

 extended are equal to the length of the figure; 

 and that the legs and thighs are half the 

 length of the body. All this, however, is 

 extremely arbitrary ; and the excellence of 

 a shape, or the beauty of a statue, results 

 from the attitude and position of the whole, 

 rather than from any determined measure- 

 ments, begun without experience, and sanc- 

 tioned by caprice. It may in general be 



