104 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



peculiarity. A good authority, Rengger, 1 states that he has 

 many times observed, that Europeans acquire on their acclimati- 

 zation in Paraguay a stronger, more disagreeable and negro- 

 like odour, and that in consequence of this change in the 

 activity of the skin, they are, like the Indians and the Negroes, 

 less molested by the mosquitos. They attack, indeed, ac- 

 cording to Humboldt and Bonpland, equally Indians and 

 Europeans, but the consequences of the stings, and the swell- 

 ings which ensue, as well as the pain, are slighter in the former. 



According to Unanue 3 , the sweat of the European and 

 African is an alkaline reagent, that of the aboriginal Indian, 

 acid ; but this acid reaction, he adds, may be removed by a 

 continuous animal diet, just as the alkaline peculiarity of the 

 sweat of the Negro may be reduced by vegetable diet. The 

 sweat of the Spanish Creoles is either alkaline or acid, accord- 

 ing to their diet. 



It cannot be our intention to deny by these remarks the 

 greater resemblance of the Negro to the ape in comparison 

 with the European, but simply to point out that the resem- 

 blance has been greatly exaggerated. Sometimes, peculiarities 

 which he shares with the higher races merely in a higher 

 degree, have been pointed out as specific animal resemblances, 

 at other times our ignorance of the physical characters of the 

 other races has been used at the expense of the Negro, for it is 

 as yet quite undecided whether among the peoples of the 

 Malay, American races, &c., there may not prevail similar pro- 

 portions in the forms of the pelvis, hands and arms. The neces- 

 sary measurements to decide these points are yet wanting. 



In further considering the most striking anatomical dif- 

 ferences between peoples and races, we would also observe 

 that the Negroes of the South Sea (Austral Negroes, Negritos, 

 Negrillos) are distinguished from African Negroes by a more 

 striking negro-physiognomy (it has been designated as an 

 exaggerated or caricatured negro-physiognomy), and by a 

 shorter stature. They are on the average about four feet eight 



i " ft, nach Paraguay," p. 244, 1835. 2 Loc, cit., p. 108. 



