THE EDINBURGH 



JOUENAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



AND OF 



THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



MAY, 1840. 



ON THE EXTINCTION OF HUMAN RACES. 



The following important suggestions are taken from a paper (in Longman's 

 Chronicle, December 1839) of that distinguished Philosopher and Zoolo- 

 gist, Dr Prichard, and, like every thing proceeding from his pen, deserve 

 the serious consideration of every student of Nature. 



While other branches of Zoology are diligently cultivated, no degree 

 of general attention, proportionable to its importance, is given to Ethno- 

 graphy, or the Natural History of the Human Races, and it appears de- 

 sirable to call attention to this remark. Opportunities for pursuing this 

 investigation are every day failing and disappearing for ever, a statement 

 which cannot be made with respect to other subjects in natural history 

 or general science. Perpetuity of existence, so far as our ideas of time 

 extend, belongs alike to the smallest molicules of the unorganized world, 

 and to those great masses which, revolving in the heavens age after age, 

 have offered themselves to the view of countless generations. It is quite 

 otherwise with all the productions of organic life, which exist only in a 

 series of similar individuals, destined one after another to originate and 

 decay, a destiny common alike to the lords of the creation and to the pot- 

 herbs which contribute to their daily food. But the organized world is 

 subject to another vicissitude. The tribes of which it consists have but 

 a definite existence, determined by the conditions of external nature. 

 When these have changed, it would appear that new organized tribes, 

 adapted by their physical constitution to the new state of external cir- 

 cumstances, replace the old ones. It would be interesting to inquire, 

 whether such changes have had any influence on the destiny of the 

 ancient races of men ? Certain it is, that many vast regions of the earth, 

 if not the whole or the greater part of its surface, were formerly the abode 

 of tribes which have long ago perished; and many of these races were 

 different in physical character from those which at present exist in the 

 same countries. Were the old races swept away by changes in climate 

 and local circumstances which become incompatible with the conditions 

 of their existence ? This is a question for the solution of which no satis- 

 factory data can be found. 



Although it is uncertain to wnat causes the ancient depopulation of 

 great regions of the earth may be attributed, such catastrophes appear 

 to have been of great extent. In the remotest parts of Northern and 

 Eastern Asia, remains have been discovered which prove that nearly the 

 whole of that great Continent was once occupied by human races whose 

 very names have perished. Some of these nations appear to have made 

 some progress in arts and civilization. Their tombs are found spread 

 over the countries eastward of J enisey. In these remote countries, such 

 remains are in great numbers and of magnificent construction ; they con- 

 tain ornaments and various implements of silver, gold, and copper ; there 

 are girdles of the precious metals, bracelets decked with pearls. In the 

 same tombs are fragments of earthen manufacture or porcelain. These 

 are arguments which have satisfied the learned academicians of St 

 Petersburgh, that such relics belonged to races of people long since ex- 

 tinct, who must have disappeared before the light of history dawned upon 

 these countries ; but we shall hasten to remark, that discoveries leading 

 to a similar result have been traced through the New World, from the 

 countries bordering on the Mississippi, where tombs are found contain- 

 ing skeletons of a different conformation from that of the present tribes, 

 to the high table-land of the Peruvian Cordillera, where these strangely 

 15 



formed skulls are seen which deviate so widely from the usual form of 

 human heads. Even in the islands of Polynesia, vestiges are discovered 

 which have been referred to a former race of inhabitants ; and, finally, 

 there are facts which indicate that extensive countries in Europe were 

 occupied by races of a different physical character from the present na- 

 tives, in times which preceded the arrival of Celts and Goths, and other 

 nations from the East. 



And the extermination ot numan races is still going on. Whatever 

 were the causes which destroyed the ancient tribes, we know to what 

 agency we are to attribute the similar fate of many nations who have 

 perished since, the historic age commenced. How many whole races 

 have become extinct during the few centuries which have elapsed since 

 the modern system of colonization commenced? The Guanches, the nu- 

 merous people of the Canary Islands, now exist only in their mummies. 

 It would be endless to recount the names of tribes and whole nations in 

 America who have been extirpated by the Spanish conquerors of that 

 country. The last race that was utterly destroyed was the Charreas, a 

 most singular race of people, whose moral and physical character is 

 briefly sketched by Don F. de Azara, but of whom we have no satisfac- 

 tory account. The whole country now occupied by civilized nations in 

 the New World was, three or four centuries ago, thickly peopled by 

 native tribes. A similar process of extermination has been pursued for 

 ages in South Africa, formerly the abode of numerous pastoral nations of 

 Hottentots, a peaceable and inoffensive race, who wandered about with 

 numerous flocks in a state of primitive simplicity, and whose descend- 

 ants are now found in the miserable and destitute Bushmen, condemned 

 to feed upon vermin and reptiles, and rendered savage and cruel by the 

 wretchedness which their conquerors, misnamed Christian, have entailed 

 upon them. Wherever Europeans have settled, their arrival has been 

 the harbinger of extermination to the native tribes : Wherever the simple 

 pastoral tribes come into relations with the more civilized agricultural 

 nations, the allotted time of their destruction is at hand. 



Now, as the progress of colonization is so much extended of iate years, 

 it may be calculated that these calamities, impending over the greater 

 part of mankind, if we reckon by families and races, are to be accelerated 

 in their progress ; and it may happen that, in the course of another cen- 

 tury, the aboriginal nations of most parts of the world will have ceased to 

 exist. In the meantime, if more civilized nations think it not their duty 

 to interpose and save the numerous tribes of their own species from utter 

 extermination, it is of the greatest importance, in a philosophical point of 

 view, to obtain much more extensive information than we now possess 

 of their physical and moral characters. A great number of curious pro- 

 blems in physiology, illustrative of the history of the species, and the 

 laws of their propagation, remain as yet imperfectly solved. The psycho- 

 logy of these races has been but little studied in an enlightened manner ; 

 and yet this is wanting in order to complete the history of human nature, 

 and the philosophy of the human mind. I cannot conclude this paper, says 

 Dr Prichard, without making an appeal to the members of the British 

 Association in behalf of an attempt, which has been lately set on foot by 

 individuals, prompted by the most generous sentiments, to do something 

 more than merely to record the history of the perishing tribes of the hu- 

 man family, and to take up seriously the consideration whether anything 

 can be done effectually to prevent the extermination of the aboriginal tribes. 



