580 COMPARISON OF THE SKELETON. 



some, if it were not for a slight thickness of the lips and spreading of 

 the nostrils, the countenance would be European. The men are de- 

 scribed as "tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped." Many of the 

 children have flaxen hair ; and sailors, who are generally competent 

 judges of such matters, universally yield a tribute of admiration to the 

 prettiness of the women. Captain Bligh attributed the mutiny in his 

 ship to that interesting cause. 



We may next consider variations in the form of the skeleton. 



Here, more particularly in the classification of the forms of skulls, I 

 Comparison adopt the division introduced by Dr. Prichard, from whose 

 of skeletons, work, above alluded to, the following passages are extracted : 



" In all other races, compared with Europeans, the limbs are more 

 crooked and badly formed. In the negro the bones of the leg are 

 eg ' bent outward. Soemmering and Lawrence have observed that 

 the tibia and fibula in the negro are more convex in front than in Eu- 

 ropeans ; the calves of the legs are very high, so as to encroach upon the 

 hams ; the feet and hands, but particularly the former^ are flat ; the os 

 calcis, instead of being arched, is continued nearly in a straight line with 

 the other bones of the foot, which is remarkably broad." 



" It was observed by White, and has been generally believed, that 

 the length of the forearm is so much greater in the negro than 



The arm. . & 



in the European as to constitute a real approximation to the 

 character of the ape. Facts, however, prove but a very slight difference, 

 and by no means greater than the varieties which are every day to be 

 observed on comparing many individuals of any race or nation. On the 

 other hand, the difference between adult apes and men in the length of 

 the extremities is so great as to render all such comparisons very remote, 

 and of very doubtful importance with respect to any ulterior conclusion. 

 According to Mr. Owen, the arms of the orang reach to the heel, or at 

 least to the ankle-joint, while in the chimpanzee, or troglodyte, they ex- 

 tend below the knee-joint. This is a most decided and widely-marked dif- 

 ference between the most anthropoid apes and the uncultivated races of 

 men. Yet even the slightest approach to the former shape would be a 

 curious circumstance ; if it could be fully established, it would tend, with 

 other facts, to imply that the savage races of mankind have somewhat 

 more of the animal, even in their physical conformation, than the more 

 cultivated races, or those whose improvement by civilization may be 

 dated from a very remote era in the history of the world." 



"It has been a general opinion, since the time pf Soemmering, that 



The foramen *^ e head of the negro is placed so much farther backward on 



magnum of the the vertebral column as to occasion a material difference in 



the figure of the whole body. It was observed by Dauben- 



ton that the foramen magnum is placed in quadrupeds behind the centre 



