48 ANATOMICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND 



by Pallas, who lived for so long a time amongst the Tartars. 

 He simply says, " The sole fault in conformation which is 

 rather frequent among them, is a bend in the arms and legs, 

 resulting from a kind of spoon, or saddle, upon which they are 

 always placed in their cradle, as if they were on horseback, 

 and therefore, as soon as they learn to walk, they are obliged 

 at every movement to accustom themselves to the position of 

 riding."* This is what Pallas says ; but it is very clear that 

 he is here speaking merely of exceptional cases, for he says 

 higher up, " I do not remember to have ever seen a child who 

 was a cripple. Their education, which is entirely left to nature, 

 can only form bodies which are healthy and without a blemish."-\- 

 If occasionally the accounts of travellers have been exagge- 

 rated, it is not less the rule, that certain races show a conform- 

 ation of the extremities very different to what it is among our- 

 selves. Albrecht Durer has already made this remark. In the 

 Negro, for instance, the length of the forearm is much greater 

 than in the European. It is proportional to the height in 

 these two races : : 107 : 100.J 



The thumb of the Negro's hand is also generally much less 

 opposed to the other fingers. In certain races of mankind, 

 the hand itself is of an extraordinary small size. This is the 

 case among the Bosjesmans, the Chinese, the Esquimaux, and 

 the Cingalese. || It was the same among the races who built 

 the grand American temples, where we find upon the stones 

 the imprint in red of their hands. If The same thing has been 

 said about the ancient population of northern Europe, who 

 were ignorant of the use of iron, and only used weapons made 

 of bronze.** But the study of the magnificent collection of 



* [Although our author rather despises the idea of the legs being bowed 

 by riding, it is tolerably well known in this country that too much riding on 

 horseback, when young, and especially on large animals, is very apt to alter 

 the shape of delicate and weakly limbs. EDITOR.] 



t " Tribus Mongoles," translated by S. A. de Grandsagne, in the Memoires 

 du Museum, vol. xvii. 



J See Broca, Bulletins de la Societe d' Anthropologie, 3rd April, 1862. 



See Lawrence, Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, London, 1848,, p. 410. 



|| Davy, An Account of the Interior of Ceylon, 1821, p. 109. 



If See Daniel Wilson, in the British Review, 1851 ; and in Stephens, the 

 description of the Temple of Uxmal. 



** See Bulletins de la Societe de Geographie, 4th series, vol. x, p. 45. It 



