350 VARIETIES OF FIGURE, 



itig to the College Museum. The tibia and fibula are more 

 convex in front than in Europeans * . The calves of the 

 leg are very high, so as to encroach upon the hams. The 

 feet and hands, but particularly the former, are llat ; the os 

 calcis, instead of being arched, is continued in nearly a 

 straight line with the other bones of the foot, which is re- 

 markably broad. " Both hands and feet terminate in beau- 

 tiful but very long, and therefore almost ape-like, fingers 

 and toes ; and they had all sesamoid bones, which are cer- 

 tainly rare in Europeans f ." " The only peculiarities,'' 

 observes Winterbottom X, " which struck me in the black 

 hand and foot, were the largeness of the latter, the thin- 

 ness of the hand, and the flexibility of the fingers and toes.'' 

 Unseemly thickness of the legs is not uncommon among 

 the Negroes ; and the feet exhibit numerous chinks and 

 fissures, which, as they occur principally in the soles, must 

 probably be referred to the effect of the burning sands. In 

 the sole of a healthy Negro, who died at Cassel, B lumen- 

 bach found the epidermis " mirum in modum crassa, rimo- 

 sa, et in multifidas lamellas dehiscens §." 



Peculiarities of form are traceable, in some instances, to 

 particular practices. "The only and very common defect 

 observable among the Calmucks (says Pallas) is curvature 

 of the thighs and legs, arising from their sitting, even in 

 the cradle, on a kind of saddle, in a riding attitude, and 

 being accustomed to riding as soon as they are able to go 

 alone II ." 



The curvature of the legs, which is found, not only in the 

 Negroes, but in the Hindoos ^, Americans**, and in many 



* Mr. White has represented the bones of the leg and foot of the Negro 

 and European in a comparative view : On the Regular Gradation, pi. 1, 



+ SOEMMERRING, ibid. 



:f Jccount of the Native Africans, vol. ii. p. 257. 



^ De Gen. Hum. Var. Nat. p. 246. note b. 



\ Snmmlungen, &c. th. I. p. 98. 



H This curvature of the leg and deficiency of the calf are represented to 

 me, by that accomplished artist Mr, Daniel, as the only faults in the Indian 

 form ; which he describes as very far exceeding that of Europeans in elegance 

 and fine proportions. 



** Chawalon, Voyage a la Martinique, p. 58. In the Pescherais of 



