50 



affording no data for tracing back the human 

 race to their first origin. " We cannot trace 

 " the branches of any such family, nor point 

 " out the time and manner in which they 

 " divided and spread over the face of the 

 " globe." But, in pages 260 and 529, you 

 assert that history and tradition point out the 

 elevated central table-land of Asia as the ori- 

 ginal seat from which they have spread in va- 

 rious directions. 



In p. 351, you ridicule your friend BIu- 

 menbach for believing that the shape of the 

 cranium is sometimes affected by the savage 

 customs of barbarous nations, in tying bandages 

 round the heads of their children; but in p. 

 372, you entertain no doubt of the truth of such 

 representations, and you reply, " that if the fact 

 " can be established, the supposition on which 

 " any objection rests, must be unfounded." 



In numberless parts of your work, you ridi- 

 cule the science of metaphysics, and the exist- 

 ence of " immaterial agencies;" but, at the 

 conclusion, you represent physiology <c as af- 

 " fording the only light capable of directing us 

 " through the mazes of this science ;" and, at 

 p. 4*77, you mention the New Hollanders, as 

 sunk in the lowest state of barbarism, " because 

 " they are destitute of religion, without any 

 " idea of a supreme Being, and with the feeblest 

 " notions of a future state." Query. How are 

 we to distinguish these savages from your philo- 

 sophical physician, who looks upon death as 



