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Varieties of Human Race. 



Queries respecting the Human Race, to be addressed to Travellers and 

 others. Drawn up by a Committee of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, appointed hi 1839. 



[Referred to present vol. of Reports, p. 52.] 

 At the meeting of the British Association held at Birmingham, Dr. Prichard 

 read a paper " On the Extinction of some varieties of tlie Human Race." 

 He pointed out instances in which this extinction had ah-eady taken place 

 to a great extent, and showed that many races now existing are lilcely, at no 

 distant period, to be annihilated. He pointed out the irretrievable loss 

 which science must sustain, if so large a portion of the human race, count- 

 ing by tribes instead of individuals, is suffered to perish, before many in- 

 teresting questions of a psychological, physiological and philological charac- 

 ter, as well as many historical facts in relation to them, have been investi- 

 gated. Whence he argued that science, as well as humanity, is interested 

 in the efforts which are made to rescue them, and to preserve from oblivion 

 many important details connected with them. 



At the suggestion of the Natural Historical Section, to which Dr. Prich- 

 ard's paper was read, the Association voted the sum of £5 to be expended in 

 printing a set of queries to be addressed to those who may travel or reside 

 in parts of the globe inhabited by the threatened races. A Committee 

 was likewise appointed by the same Section to prepare a list of such questions. 

 The following pages, to which the attention of travellers and others is ear- 

 nestly invited, have, in consequence, been produced. It is right to observe, 

 that whilst these questions have been in preparation, the Ethnographical 

 Society of Paris has printed a set of questions on the same subject for the 

 use of travellers. It has been gratifying to perceive the general similarity 

 between the questions proposed by the French savans who compose that So- 

 ciety, and those which had been already prepared by the Committee ; but 

 the Committee is bound to acknowledge the assistance which, in the com- 

 pletion of its task, it has derived from the comprehensive character and ge- 

 neral arrangement of the Ethnographical Society's list. The following queries 

 might have been considerably extended, and much might have been added 

 to explain the reasons and motives on which some of them are founded. 

 Such additions would, however, have inconveniently extended these pages, 

 and, in part, have defeated their object. The Committee has only further 

 to express its desii'e that the Association may continue its support to the in- 

 teresting subject of Ethnography, and tliat their fellow-members will aid in 

 bringing these queries under the notice of those who may have it in their 

 power to obtain replies. Britain, in her extensive colonial possessions and 

 commerce, and in the number and intelligence of her naval officers, possesses 

 unrivalled facilities for the elucidation of the whole subject ; and it would 

 be a stain on her character, as well as a loss to humanity, were she to allow 

 herself to be left behind by other nations in this inquiry. 



It will be desirable, before giving direct answers to the questions proposed 

 in the following list, that the traveller should offer, in his own terms, a de- 

 scription of the particular group of human beings, which he may have in 

 view in drawing up his list of answers, seeing that the replies, however accu- 

 rate and replete with useful information, may fail in some particulars to give 

 a complete idea of the people to whom they relate. 



Physical Characters. — 1. State the general stature of the people, and con- 

 firm this by some actual measurements. Measurement may be applied to 



