183 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



ON THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES 



AND A SKETCH OF SOME OF THE MORE 



REMARKABLE RACES. 



Cuvier, as we have seen, has divided the human 

 species into three grand varieties, the Caucasian, 

 the Mongolian, and the ./Ethiopian ; to these Blu- 

 menbach and others have added two more, namely, 

 the American, and the Malay. 



It has been already remarked that these or any 

 other divisions of the human species into varieties, 

 are, in a great measure, arbitrary ; that the indi- 

 viduals comprised under each of them are so far 

 from being all alike, that they exhibit various 

 and sometimes strongly contrasted modifications; 

 that in each variety we find numerous individual 

 approximations to some other ; that every tribe and 

 nation has characteristics of face and form that 

 might almost entitle it to class as a separate 

 variety, and yet that all agree so far, as evidently 

 to constitute but one and the same species, and to 

 be referable to one common origin. 



We propose, therefore, in addition to what has 

 been already advanced on the subject of the three 

 great varieties, to add a succinct description accom- 

 panied with portraits of some of the minor races, 

 which seem to stand next in order from their num.- 



