VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



1329 



nations are composed of an assemblage of country in which they located themselves, 

 tribes inhabiting a mountainous country, speak- whilst these same characters tended to modify 



ing languages almost unintelligible to each 

 other, and remarkably isolated from the na- 

 tions which inhabit the countries border- 

 ing on theirs. The beauty of form and feature, 

 and the delicacy of complexion, which charac- 



their physical conformation. For the area 

 which they occupy is at once temperate, 

 mountainous, and wooded ; " in other words," 

 as Dr. Latham remarks, "the reverse of the 

 true Mongol areas." And thus, if this view 



terise individuals and families among these should be confirmed, we must regard the 





very people which has been selected as fur- 

 nishing the type of the most perfect con- 

 formation, as an improved race of a decidedly 

 inferior stock. 



The Negro type is one which is not unfre- 

 quently cited as an example of the perma- 

 nence of the physical characters of races, and 

 especially of types of cranial conformation. 

 The existing Ethiopian physiognomy is said 

 to agree with the representations transmitted 

 to us from the remotest times in Egyptian 

 pictures ; and this physiognomy, it is further 

 maintained, continues to be transmitted un- 

 changed from parent to child, even where the 

 transportation of a Negro population to tem- 

 perate climates and civilised associates (as in 

 the United States of America) has entirely 

 changed the external conditions of their ex- 

 istence. Now it is perfectly true that the 

 Negro races which continue to inhabit their 

 original localities, and maintain their barba- 

 rous habits of life, retain the prognathous 

 type ; and this is precisely what we should 

 expect. But it is not true that no modifica- 

 tion has taken place in them, either under 

 the influence of civilisation,, or from a change 

 in the physical conditions of their existence. 

 For the most elevated forms of skull occurring 

 among the African nations, are found in those 

 which have emerged in a greater/or less degree 

 from their, original barbarism;.- their civilis- 

 ation having been due to external influences 

 l8ht to tear upon them. We shal. here- 

 af ter see that there is strong evidence that 

 even the Syro-Arabian or Semitic nations 

 tribes, are well known (fig. 826.) and have may be referred to the African stock ; at 

 led to a regular consignment of the youth of any rate, there are numerous tribes in the 

 both sexes to the Turkish market, the females interior of Africa, whose affinity with the true 

 to be introduced into the harems, whilst the Negroes cannot be disputed, and which yet 

 youths are valued for their superior energy present a far superior cranial organisation ; 



taken in Paris by M. A. Colm.) 



and intelligence, and are frequently adopted 

 as sons. But these attributes are for the 

 most part confined to the families of the chiefs; 

 and they are carefully cherished by exemp- 

 tion from labour, and by seclusion from undue 



so that we must either regard the one form to 

 be the result of improvement, or the other to 

 have preceded from degeneration. In regard 

 to the transplanted Negroes, it is obvious that 

 the time which has elapsed since their re- 



exposure. The common people, who are en- movai, is as yet too short to justify us in ex- 



gaged in the cultivation of the soil, are de- pecting any considerable alteiation in cranial 



scribed by travellers as being for the most configuration. Many of the Negroes now 



part coarse and unshapely. Now from a living in the West Indian islands are natives 



careful comparison and analysis of the Ian- of Africa; and a large prep Drtion of the Negro 



guages of these races, Dr. Latham and Mr. population, both there and in the United 



Norris have independently arrived, on different States, are removed by no more than one or 



grounds (the one from the words and the two descents from their African progenitors. 



other from the grammar), at the same result ; 

 namely, that they are aptotic, or destitute 

 of inflexions, like the Chinese ; and that the 

 people must have been of Mongolian origin, 

 but separated from the common stock at a 

 very early period ; the perpetuation of the 



The climate, too, of the southern states of 

 the North American Union, as of the West 

 Indies, is not very different from that of the 

 Guinea Coast, in regard to temperature ; and 

 the low undrained character of much of the 

 soil which they are employed in cultivating, 



low development of their language being fa- still further tends to keep up the correspond- 

 voured by the peculiar characters of the ence. Still, according to the concurrent 



VOL. IV. 



4Q 



