70 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



Burmeister 1 speaks of great individual differences of physio- 

 gnomy among Negroes, this is to be understood chiefly of 

 national features, as individuals of different Negro peoples came 

 under his inspection in Brazil. Among the Polynesians, and 

 especially among the most gifted of them, the Fiji Islanders, 

 the individuals of the same tribe exhibit as great differences in 

 features as the inhabitants of any part of Europe. 2 



Though the uniformity of external aspect, which predomi- 

 nates among uncultivated nations, must be considered as partly 

 owing to the influence of the mental state upon the body, we 

 must not lose sight of another source from which such a uni- 

 formity arises. An assimilation of features and movements 

 from involuntary imitation may arise, not only among single 

 families, but among large communities, just like many lin- 

 guistic expressions and other habits, and such will be especially 

 the case if they lead a more secluded life. In the clans of 

 Scotland, for instance, these family resemblances are very 

 striking. 3 An assimilation may also be observed in a single 

 individual who has lived for a series of years among a foreign 

 tribe, and having adopted their manners and mode of life, has, 

 to some extent, become one of them. Something of the kind 

 was observed in Giitzlaff, when he returned after a long resi- 

 dence in China. In America, especially, Europeans have 

 been found among the Indians, whom they greatly resembled 

 after a long residence among them. Similar cases have also 

 occurred in New Zealand and Australia, 



An analogous effect of the reaction of intellectual life is also 

 seen in the circumstance that the free-born Negro children in 

 Sierra Leone have better features, more intelligent eyes, and a 

 nobler deportment and form than their liberated parents. 4 The 

 same difference has been observed between the maroon and 

 slave Negroes in Jamaica. 5 " The blacks cannot now be 

 treated as formerly ; they now think, hear, and see as well as 



1 " Geol. bilder,/' ii, p. 101. 



2 Hale, loc. cit., pp. 10, 48. 



3 Jarrold, " Anthropologia ; or, Diss. on the form and colour of man," p. 

 112, 1858. 



4 Norton, " A residence in S. Leone," p. 278, 1849. 



6 Pallas, " Gesch. der Maroncn neger auf Jam.," p. 148, 1805. 



