NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 477 



bodily mutilations which are found so strangely to exist in 

 common among races widely separate on the earth. Much 

 caution indeed is needful in dealing with these indications. 

 There is the same liability to deception here as in the case of 

 etymology, where ingenuity so often deceives itself by a 

 shadow of resemblance. But pursued with discretion and 

 the multiplication of authentic facts, this method of research 

 becomes fruitful of curious results ; and, like those branches 

 of the enquiry to which we are now hastening, gives yet 

 more abundant promise for the future, aided as it is by 

 numerous facilities, unknown and unsurmised heretofore. 



We have dwelt thus long on preliminary parts of the 

 subject, under the conviction that many, even of those con- 

 versant with other sciences, scarcely appreciate the entire 

 scope of that under our review. We come now to the two 

 main sources of knowledge regarding the natural history of 

 Man, viz. human physiology and human language ; lines of 

 argument distinct in themselves, yet parallel in direction, 

 and mutually giving force to every conclusion in which they 

 occur. Through these channels alone can we proceed up- 

 wards when history and tradition alike desert us. Even 

 admitting that certainty is unattainable, we may yet reach 

 a degree of probability well warranting the attempt, a timid 

 abandonment of which would be treason against all true 

 philosophy. 



Human physiology ranks as the highest department of that 

 great science of organic life which has made such astonishing 

 progress of late years, compassing conclusions and results 

 which would once have been deemed impossible to human 

 research. The closer study of comparative anatomy the 

 improved use of the microscope the increased resources of 

 chemical analysis the wider sphere of actual observation 

 and greater exactness in the collection and comparison of facts 



