1300 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



applied this method of measurement, the facial 

 angle of the average of European skulls is 

 80 b , whilst in the ideal heads of the Grecian 

 gods it is increased to 90 ; on the other hand, 

 in the skull of a Kalmuck he found it to 

 be 75, and in that of a Negro only 70 ; 

 and applying the same system of measure- 

 ment to the skulls of Apes, he found them to 

 range from 64 to 60. But these last mea- 

 surements were all taken from young skulls, 

 in which the forward extension of the jaws, 

 which takes place on the second dentition, 

 had not yet occurred. In the adult Chim- 

 panzee, as we learn from the measurements 

 of Prof. Owen, the facial angle is no more 

 than 35, and in the adult Orang only 30; 

 so that instead of the Negro being nearer to 

 the Ape than to the European, as Camper's 

 estimate would make him, the interval be- 

 tween the most degraded human races and 

 the most elevated Quadrumana is vastly 

 greater than between the highest and lowest 

 forms of humanity. It must be borne in mind 

 that the facial angle is so much affected by 

 the degree of prominence of the jaws, that it 

 can never afford any certain information con- 

 cerning the elevation of the forehead and the 

 capacity of the cranium ; all that it can in 

 any degree serve to indicate, is the relative 

 proportion between the facial and cranial 

 parts of the skull. The small size of the face 

 of Man, compared with that of the cranium, 

 is an indication that in him the senses are sub- 

 ordinated to the intelligence. Accordingly we 

 find that he is surpassed by many of the 

 lower animals in acuteness of sensibility to 

 light, sound, &c. ; but he stands preeminent 

 in the power of comparing and judging of 

 his sensations, and of drawing conclusions 

 from them as to their objective sources. 

 Moreover, although none of his senses are 

 very acute in his natural state, they are all 

 moderately so ; and they are capable of being 

 wonderfully improved by practice, when cir- 

 cumstances strongly call for their exercise. 

 This seems especially the case with the tactile 

 sense (see article TOUCH, p. 1177), of which 

 man can make greater use than any other 

 animal, in consequence of the entire freedom 

 of his anterior extremities, although there are 

 many which surpass him in their power of 

 appreciating certain classes of tactile impres- 

 sions. So, again, Man's nervo-muscular power 

 is inferior to that of most other animals of 

 his size; the full grown Orang, for example, 

 surpasses him both in strength and agility ; 

 and the larger Chimpanzee, according to the 

 statements of the negroes who have en- 

 countered it, is far more than a match for any 

 single man, and is almost certain to destroy 

 any human opponent when once within his 

 grasp. The absence of any natural weapons of 

 offence, and of direct means of defence, are 

 remarkable characteristics of Man, and dis- 

 tinguish him not only from the lower Mam- 

 malia, but also from the most anthropoid 

 Apes ; in which it is obvious (both from their 

 habits and general organisation) that the 

 enormous canines have no relation to a car- 



nivorous regimen, but are instruments of war- 

 fare. On those animals to which nature has 

 denied weapons of attack, she has bestowed 

 the means either of passive defence, of con- 

 cealment, or of flight ; in each of which Man 

 is deficient. Yet, by his superior reason, he 

 has not only been enabled to resist the at- 

 tacks of other animals, but even to bring them 

 into subjection to himself. His intellect can 

 scarcely suggest the mechanism which his 

 hands cannot frame ; and he has devised and 

 constructed arms more powerful than those 

 which any other creature wields, and defences 

 so secure as to defy the assaults of all but 

 his fellow men. 



The power of adaptation to varieties in 

 external condition, which renders Man to a 

 great extent independent of them, is one of 

 the most remarkable peculiarities of his 

 economy. He is capable of sustaining the 

 lowest as well as the highest extremes of 

 temperature and of atmospheric pressure. In 

 the former of these particulars he is strikingly 

 contrasted with the anthropoid apes ; the 

 Chimpanzee being restricted to the hottest 

 parts of Africa, and the Orang outan to the 

 tropical portions of the Indian Archipelago'; 

 and neither of these animals being capable 

 of living in temperate climates without the 

 assistance of artificial heat, even with the aid 

 of which they have not hitherto survived their 

 second dentition. So, again, although Man's 

 diet seems naturally of a mixed character, he 

 can support himself in health and strength 

 either on an exclusively vegetable diet, or, 

 under particular circumstances, on an almost 

 exclusively animal diet. It is in thus adapt- 

 ing himself to the conditions of his existence, 

 in providing himself with food, shelter, wea- 

 pons of attack and defence, &c., that man's 

 intellectual powers are first called into active 

 operation ; and when thus aroused, their 

 development has no assignable limit. The 

 will, guided by the intelligence, and acted on 

 by the desires and emotions, takes the place 

 in man of the instinctive propensities which 

 are the usual springs of action in the lower 

 animals ; and although, among the most ele- 

 vated of these, the intelligent will is called 

 into exercise to a certain extent, yet it never 

 acquires among them, the dominance which 

 it possesses in man. The capacity for intel- 

 lectual progress is a remarkable peculiarity of 

 man's psychical nature. The instinctive 

 habits of the lower animals are limited, and 

 peculiar to each species, and have immediate 

 reference to their bodily wants. Where a 

 particular adaptation of means to ends, of 

 actions to circumstances, is made by an indi- 

 vidual (as is frequently the case, when some 

 amount of intelligence or rationality exists), 

 the rest do not seem to profit by it ; so that, 

 although (as will be shown hereafter) the in- 

 stincts of particular animals may be modified 

 by the training of man, or by the education 

 of circumstances, so as to show themselves 

 after a few generations under new forms, 

 no elevation in intelligence appears ever to 

 take place spontaneously, no psychical im- 



