EFFECTS OF WANT AND DEGRADATION. 



Fig. 293. Fig. 294. 



587 



Negro. 



French. 



much as they are of indiscriminate oc- 

 currence. It may perhaps be maintained in a general way, 

 that in the less advanced tribes, as in the female Hottentot, 

 there is an approximation to the form exhibited by the simiae, the iliac 

 bones being more vertical, and the whole structure characterized by its 

 length and narrowness. Professor Weber, who has examined this sub- 

 ject with care, concludes that no particular figure of the pelvis is a char- 

 acteristic of any one race. 



The remarks which have been made respecting variations of complex- 

 ion, as exhibited in different climates, might almost be re- The physical 

 peated as respects variations of the form of the skull, origi- a^^inthe* 1 ' 

 nating in difference of physical circumstances ; for as the skull, 

 complexion varies in different temperatures, so does the figure of the 

 skull in different social conditions. The elliptical skull, which beyond 

 all doubt is that which belongs to man in his most civilized state, may 

 be deteriorated and degraded even to the lowest prognathous form. 

 Want and squalid misery will produce this result. Igno- its degradation 

 ranee, mere animal life, social degradation, lead to its ap- b 7 want - 

 proach in varied degrees. Even in the large European cities we recog- 

 nize the incipient stages of it in those classes who follow a precarious 

 life the projecting jaw, the retreating forehead, the mouth habitually 

 open, or the lips parted so as to show the teeth. Mr. Thackrah, in his 

 work on the Effects of Arts, Trades, etc., on Health and Longevity, says, 

 " I stood in Oxford Road, Manchester, and observed the stream of oper- 

 atives as they left the mills at twelve o'clock. The children were almost 

 universally ill-looking, small, sickly, barefoot, and ill-clad. Many ap- 

 peared to be no older than seven. The men, generally from sixteen to 

 twenty-four, and none aged, were almost as pallid and thin as the chil- 

 dren. The women were the most respectable in appearance, but I saw 

 no fresh, fine-looking individuals among them. Here I saw, or thought 

 I saw, a degenerate race human beings stunted, enfeebled, depraved." 

 Under the opposite circumstances, where life is maintained in indolence 



