FCETAL HEAD. 177 



lago, and have occupied almost all those of the Southern Ocean. 

 On the largest of the former, especially in the uncultivated and 

 savage parts, we find other men, who have woolly hair, black 

 complexion, and negro visage, and who are all extremely bar- 

 barous. The most known are the Papuas, a name by which 

 they may be generally denominated. 



" It is not easy to refer either the Malays or Papuas, to any 

 one of the three great races; but can the former be plainly dis- 

 tinguished from their neighbours, the Caucasian Hindoos on one 

 side, and the Mongolian Chinese on the other? We must con- 

 fess that we do not find them to possess sufficient characteris- 

 tics to enable us to answer this question. Are the Papuas ne- 

 groes, who formerly straggled along the Indian Ocean? We 

 have neither drawings nor descriptions sufficiently clear to re- 

 ply to this question. 



" The inhabitants of the north of the two continents, the 

 Samoiedes, the Laplander^, and the Esquimaux, sprung, ac- 

 cording to some authorities, from the Mongolian race. Agree- 

 ably to others, they are but a degenerate offspring of the Scy- 

 thian and Tartarian branches of the Caucasian race. 



" It is impossible to refer, satisfactorily, the Americans them- 

 selves to either of our races of the old continent; and yet they 

 have not characteristics precise and constant enough to con- 

 stitute a distinct race. Their copper-coloured complexion is 

 not sufficient; their hair, which is generally black, and their 

 scanty beard, would lead us to refer them to the Mongolians, 

 did not their well marked features, and their moderately pro- 

 minent noses, oppose such an arrangement; their languages 

 are as innumerable as their tribes, and we have yet been un- 

 able to discover either any analogies among them, or with 

 those of the ancient world."* 



SECT. VIII. OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FCETAL HEAD. 



The foetal head, in the very early stages of gestation, forms 

 an oval vesicle, constituting the greater part of the bulk of the 



* On this subject, see also Lectures on the Physiology, Zoology, and Natural 

 History of Man, by W. Lawrence. London, 1822. 



Dictionnaire des Sciences Med. tome XXI. Paris, 1817. 

 Histoire Naturelle de L'Homme, par Lacapede. Paris, 1821. 

 Blumenbach de Variet. Gen. Hum. Nat. 1794 abo Decades, 17901814. 



