20 INTRODUCTION. 



The general shape of the head is square ; the forehead low, but 

 broad ; the back of the head flattened ; the top elevated ; the face 

 much developed; the orbitar and nasal cavities large, indicating, 

 according to some, a corresponding acuteness of sight and smell ; 

 the jaws are very strong. 



Their curious modes of deforming the skull will be better 

 described when speaking of Dr. S. G. Morton's " Crania Ameri- 

 cana." He maintains that the ancient skulls from Peru, from the 

 tombs of Mexico, and from the mounds of the Mississippi and Ohio 

 valleys, present the same characters as the existing Indian tribes ; 

 and that this race is as aboriginal to America, as is the Mongolian 

 to Asia, or the Ethiopian to Africa. 



5. The last variety mentioned by Blumenbach and Lawrence is 

 the Malay, inhabiting the Asiatic and Polynesian Islands. 



The color of the skin in the true Malay is lipht brown, or tawny ; 

 sometimes, as in the Tahitians, very light. The hair is black, lonjr, 

 soft and abundant, — in the Tahitians almost yellow ; thick beards 

 are not uncommon. The eyes are moderately separated ; the nose 

 prominent, but broad and thickest at the end ; in the words of Law- 

 rence they are " bottle-nosed ;" the mouth is large, the lips thick ; 

 the face broad and largely developed ; the jaws prominent ; the fore- 

 head low and slanting. It is truly an amphibious race, and its home 

 may be said to be on the water ; its extended migrations by sea have 

 been traced, as Dr. Pickering maintains, even to the western coast 

 of North America. 



Those who believe in the origin of mankind from a single pair 

 must, of course, account for the changes man has undergone since 

 Adam. 



Climate has been generally brought forward to explain the differ- 

 ences in color, and even the varieties of form. Blumenbach gives 

 three arguments, of which Lawrence,* who quotes them in his work, 

 says, " That so able a writer could find no better proofs in support of 

 his opinion, only shows how completely unfounded that opinion is." 

 After many examples, Lawrence gives the following conclusions : 

 That the differences of the human races are analugous in kind and 

 degree to those of the breeds of the domestic animals, and must be 

 accounted for on the same principles. That they are first produced 

 in both instances as native or congenital varieties, and then trans- 

 mitted to the offspring. That the state of domestication is the most 

 powerful predisposing cause of varieties in the animal kingdom. 



* Lectures on the Natural History of Man: by William La^vrence, 

 F. R. S. 12th Edition. London, 1844. 



