DISTRIBUTION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



607 



nomena of external variation ; but surely it would be a matter of surprise if it did not 

 exist, considering the variation of external circumstances arctic cold and tropical heat 

 flowery savannahs and arid deserts civilisation and barbarism liberty and oppres- 

 sion scantiness of food and an abundant supply nutritious diet and a feebly support- 

 ing fare the feeling of security and the sense of danger. 



If the existence of varieties of structure and complexion offers no argument against the 

 common nature and origin of the millions of mankind in the slightest degree valid, their 

 identity as a species is strongly supported by adverting to the general laws of their 

 animal economy. These have reference to the manner of their birth, the period of gesta- 

 tion, the duration of life, and the casualties in the form of diseases to which they are 

 subject; and, in all these respects, a general coincidence proclaims the unity of the human 

 population of the globe. As to longevity, it is the case indeed that the barbarian tribes 

 are shorter-lived than the cultivated races ; but this is owing to the physical hardships 

 under which they suffer, and to ignorance of the appropriate remedies to use under the 

 assail ments of sickness, freedom from the former and the knowledge of the latter being 

 possessed by all civilised nations. Facts prove that, in circumstances favourable to ex- 

 treme longevity, the Europeans, the most polished communities, have no pre-eminence 

 over the tribes of Africa, among the least advanced in the social scale. Mr. Easton 

 of Salisbury gives the following instances of advanced age from the Europeans and 

 Asiatics : 



Apollonius of Tyana 



St. Patrick 



Attila - 



Leywarch Hew - 



St. Coemgene 



Piastus, King of Poland - 



Thomas Parr 



In A. D. Aged 



99 130 



491 122 



500 124 



500 150 



618 120 



861 120 



1635 152 



In A. D. Aged 



Henry Jenkins 

 Countess of Desmond - 

 Thomas Damme 

 Peter Torton - 

 Margaret Patters 

 John Rovin and Wife - 

 St. Mongah or Kentigern 



1670 

 1612 

 1648 

 1724 

 1739 

 1741 

 1781 



169 



145 



154 



185 



137 



172 and 164 



185 



In juxtaposition with this list, we may place the following observation of Humboldt 

 relating to the native Americans : " It is by no means uncommon," he remarks, " to see 

 at Mexico, in the temperate zone, half-way up the Cordillera, natives, and especially 

 women, reach a hundred years of age. This old age is generally comfortable ; for the 

 Mexicans and Peruvian Indians preserve their strength to the last. While I was at 

 Lima, the Indian, Hilario Sari, died at the village of Chiguata, four leagues distant from 

 the town of Arequipa, at the age of one hundred and forty-three. She had been united 

 in marriage for ninety years to an Indian of the name of Andrea Alea Zar, who attained 

 the age of one hundred and seventeen. This old Peruvian went, at the age of one 

 hundred and thirty, a distance of from three to four leagues daily on foot." 

 Dr. Prichard, from various sources, collected a variety of remarkable instances of Negro 

 longevity, of which the two following are samples : 



December 5th, 1830, died at St. Andrew's, Jamaica, the property of Sir Edward Hyde 

 East, Robert Lynch, a negro slave in comfortable circumstances, who perfectly recollected 

 the great earthquake in 1692, and further recollected the person and equipages of the 

 Lieutenant-governor Sir Henry Morgan, whose third and last governorship commenced 

 in 1680, viz. one hundred and fifty years before. Allowing for this early recollection 

 the age of ten years, this negro must have died at the age of one hundred and sixty. 



Died, Feb. 17th, 1823, in the bay of St. John's, Antigua, a black woman named 

 Statira. She was a slave, and was hired as a day-labourer during the building of the 

 gaol, and was present at the laying of the corner-stone, which ceremony took place one 

 hundred and sixteen years ago. She also stated, that she was a young woman grown 



