108 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



as a peculiarity of the race, but the consequence of their 

 mode of living. 



There must yet be mentioned the natural foramen in the 

 humerus, or intercondyloid perforation which receives the 

 olecranon, in the extinct inhabitants of the Canary Islands 

 (the Gruanches). It occurs also among the Hottentots, but 

 is not a constant character. 1 This abnormity is not unfre- 

 quently found in Grermany. We must not therefore put the same 

 high value upon this as Desmoulins, 2 who considers the union 

 of the nasal bones of the Bushmen as a specific quality. 



From the preceding synopsis of the greatest deviations 

 which can be found in the anatomical structure of the various 

 races, it is clear that we may confine ourselves to the com- 

 parison of the Negro with the European in fixing the maximum 

 of the differences existing between the races as regards bodily 

 structure ; but the case is altered when we institute a similar 

 comparison from a physiological point of view. 



In reviewing the physiological peculiarities of the various 

 human races we must bear in mind the known axiom, that all 

 beings belonging to the same species present the same arrange- 

 ment of the animal economy. This harmony extends to 

 animal heat, the frequency of the pulse, the commencement of 

 puberty and the duration of sexual capacity, the duration and 

 frequency of gestation and the number of young, the mean 

 duration of life, the periodical changes of the organism, bodily 

 strength and diseases. On instituting a comparison between 

 the white and the other races with regard to physiological 

 functions and qualities, it will be easily shown that there is no 

 question here of permanently specific, but merely of acquired, 

 differences, which are explicable by external or internal con- 

 ditions, arising from civilization, more or less refined modes of 

 life, exercise, intelligence, and the nature of surrounding 

 media. The greatest energy of physical life is generally 

 found, as indeed may be expected, among peoples in a primitive 

 state ; but the longer duration of life, a more extended power 



1 T. Miiller, "Archiv.," p. 336, 1834; De Salles, "Hist. gen. des races 

 hum.," p. 204, 1849 ; Hollard, " De 1'U.omme et des races hum./' p. 251, 1853. 



2 Pp. 297, 303. 



