MAN. 



vages, where they have not been confin- 

 ed by dress. 



The lobulus is increased and elongated 

 considerably by artificial means in some 

 of the South Sea islanders, and in other 

 instances. 



Many travellers have remarked, that 

 the breasts are long and pendulous in 

 several savage tribes, particularly in Af- 

 rica and the South Sea islands ; but some 

 of the accounts are undoubtedly exagge- 

 rated, and the circumstance does not in 

 any case seem common to a whole tribe 

 or nation. The cause seems to consist in 

 long continued suckling, and in the ha- 

 bit of suckling the children at the back 

 of the mother. In some cases artifi- 

 cial means of elongating these parts 

 are employed, from peculiar notions of 

 beauty. A large and swoln state of the 

 breast altogether was observed formerly 

 in the Eg)ptians; and the Portuguese 

 women of modern days are said to be re- 

 markable in the same way. 



Negroes are particularly famous for 

 their organs of generation : and specimens 

 preserved in anatomical cabinets seem to 

 justify their celebrity for the size of these 

 parts ; but it is doubtful whether this be 

 a general character. The Hottentot wo- 

 men possess large nymph ae, which cover 

 the opening of the vagina, and have given 

 rise to some absurd reports of travellers. 



The legs of the Hindoos are said to be 

 particularly long, and those of the Mon- 

 guls short : it has also been stated, that 

 the constant practice of riding renders 

 them crooked in the Calmucks. In the 

 Negro they are curved, so as to render 

 the individual knock-kneed ; and the calf 

 is remarkably high : they are also dis- 

 tinguished by the broad and flat form of 

 the foot. 



Although we cannot assign any satis- 

 factory reasons for all these varieties, 

 there is none which does not exist in a still 

 greater degree in animals of the same 

 species. What differences in the figure 

 and proportion of parts do we observe in 

 the various breed of horses ; in the Ara- 

 bian, the Barb, and the German ! How 

 striking the contrast between the long- 

 legged cattle of the Cape, and the short- 

 legged of England 1 The same differ- 

 ences in the legs are seen in swine. The 

 cows have no horns in some parts of Eng- 

 land and Ireland ; in Sicily, on the con- 

 trary, they are very large. We should 

 also mention here a breed of sheep with 

 an extraordinary number of horns, as 

 three, four, or five, occurring in northern 

 countries, and accounted a rn^re variety, 



COTIS polycerataj ; the Cretan breed of 

 the same animal, with long, large, and 

 twisted horns ; the Solidungular swine, 

 with undivided hoof, as well as others 

 with three divisions of that part; the five- 

 toed fowl [Gftliut pentadactylusj ; the 

 broad-tailed sheep of T;ivtary, Thibet, 

 &.C. in which the tail grows so large, that 

 it is placed on a board, supported by 

 wheels, for the convenience of the ani- 

 mal; and the rumpiess fowl of America, 

 and particularly Virginia ( Gallus Ecauda- 

 titsj), which has undoubtedly descended 

 from the English breed. 



Stature. No part of our subject has 

 been more disgraced by fables and hy- 

 perbolical exaggeration, than the present 

 division. Not to mention the pigmies 

 and giants of antiquity ; the bones of dif- 

 ferent large animals, ascribed to human 

 subjects of immoderate stature, even by 

 such men as Buffon, sufficiently prove 

 our assertion. The accuracy of modern 

 investigation has, however, so completely 

 exposed the extravagance of such sup- 

 positions, that we are relieved from the 

 necessity of a detailed consideration. All 

 the remains of antiquity, which afford us 

 any inferences on the subject of stature, 

 such as mummies, human bones, and par- 

 ticularly teeth taken from the oldest bu- 

 rial places and urns, armour, &c. concur 

 in proving, that the ancients did not ex- 

 ceed the moderns in this respect. Yet 

 amongst the latter there are obvious na- 

 tional differences. Of European nations 

 some parts of Sweden and Switzerland 

 are distinguished for tallness, as Lapland 

 is in the contrary respect. The Abipons 

 in the new world are of large size, and 

 the Esquimaux small; but neither are 

 very remarkable: and there is no such 

 difference between any two modern na- 

 tions, but what admits of easy explana- 

 tion from the common causes of degene- 

 ration, and the analogous phenomena fur- 

 nished by the natural history of other ani- 

 mals. 



The Patagonians, or Tehuels, which 

 occupy the south-east part of the extre- 

 mity of South America, seem to be the 

 tallest of the human race ; but their 

 height has been much exaggerated. Piga- 

 fetta, who accompanied Magalhaens on 

 his voyage round the world, asserted that 

 they were twice as tail as Europeans, and 

 the accounts of subsequent navigators 

 have been very contradictory. They seem, 

 in truth, to be a tall, though not gigantic 

 race, and to possess a muscular frame. 

 According to Wallis, Bougainville, and 

 Carteret, the ordinary height may be six 



