200 LECTURE YII. 



The liuman character of the Aztecs is clearly sho^vu by the 

 proportional length of the vertebral column to that of the 

 limbs in general, as well as from the relative proportions of 

 the limbs to each other ; the arm is proportionally shorter, the 

 leg longer. Even in its parts the arm exhibits the human 

 type, not so the leg. The thigh is remarkably small compared 

 with the leg, the length of which exceeds that of the anthro- 

 poid, and resembles that of the inferior apes. The same 

 proportion which, from the predominance of the cerebellum, 

 almost places the idiot among the apes, obtains also here as 

 regards the shortness of the thigh and the length of the leg. 



Here, therefore, we find human and animal character so in- 

 termixed, that they might be taken as the results of a hybrid 

 production. 



Let us now cast a glance at the vital phenomena of these 

 miserable beings. There are scarcely any sexual manifesta- 

 tions, the parts remaining in the infantile condition ; still there 

 are some idiots with normal generative organs. The move- 

 ments are rapid but unsteady, the walk is tripping. Many of 

 them never learn properly to use their hands. There is in 

 them a restless acti^dty ; their attention is easily excited and 

 as quickly obliterated ; memory is defective ; they are fond of 

 play, but cannot share the amusements of other children, as 

 they are unable to learn them ; they are tolerated like domes- 

 tic animals. Most of them manifest their wants by shrill sounds, 

 which their attendants understand, just as the hunter distin- 

 guishes the cries of animals and the gestures of his dogs. 

 Most of them cannot acquire articulate language. The Aztecs 

 pronounced some few words they had learned. Miiller's micro- 

 cephalus, in whom the arrest of development does not appear 

 to have been so decided as in most others, could pronounce 

 some articulate words, and even simple sentences, such as 

 " Koppe dute well !" (My head aches.) 



Leubuscher says of the Aztecs : — " They possess memory 

 for such things as greatly excited their attention, for persons 

 who have been long about them. When I measured them the 

 boy recollected earlier proceedings of this kind. . . . After the 

 lapse of eight days he well recollected the previous process, so 



