7802.] 
my Obfervations refpecting the Bodily 
Conformation, and Mental Capacity, of 
the Negroes, may ferve to warn mankind 
againft the firft error, and, at the fame 
time, to refute it, I fhail here offer a few 
remarks to refute the falfe conclufion, 
which might be formed from a carelefs 
comparifon of the degenerations among 
the human race with the varieties among 
“other animals, and for that purpofe fhall 
draw a comparifon between the human 
race, and that of fwine.” 
After ftating his reafons for choofing 
{wine as the moft fuitable obje&t of this 
comparifon with man—as, that both are 
domettic animals, both omnivora, both 
difperfed throughout the four quarters of 
the world, and both expofed, confequently, 
to the principal caufes of degeneration, 
both fubje& to many difeafes rarely, if 
ever, found among other animals than 
men and fwine, &c.—-he goes on thus :— 
«¢ Ajl the varieties through which this 
animal has degenerated, belong, with the 
original European race, to one and the 
fame fpecies ; and fince no bodily diffe- 
rence 1s found in the human race, either 
in regard to ftature, colour, the form of 
the cranium, &c. which is not obferved 
in the fame proportion among the {wine 
race, while no one, on that account, ever 
doubts, that all thefe different kinds are 
merely varieties that have arifen from de- 
generation through the influence of climate, 
&c. This comparifon, it is to be hoped, 
will filence thofe fceptics, who have 
thought proper, on account of thefe vari- 
eties in the human race, to admit more 
than one fpecies.”” 
The Profeffor then arranges his Obfer- 
vations on the Differences in the Human 
Race under three heads; 1. In regard to 
Stature. 
nature of the Hair. 3. In regard to 
the form of the Cranium. From the laft 
head, I extract the following paflage:— 
s¢ The whole difference between the cra- 
nium of a Negro, and that of an Euro- 
pean, is not in the leaft degree greater, 
than that equally ftriking difference which 
exifts between the cranium of the wild 
boar, and that of the domeftic fwine. 
Thofe who have not obferved this in the 
animals themfelves, need only to caft their 
eye on the figure which Daubenton has 
given of both. I fhall pafs over lefs na- 
tional varieties, which may be found 
among fwine as well as among men, and 
only mention, that I have been affured by 
Mr. Sulzer, that the peculiarity of having 
the bone of the leg remarkably long, as 
is the cafe among the Hindoos, has been 
Blumenbach.—Circumftance in Indian Painting. 
2. In regard to Colour, and the © 
S81 
remarked with regard to the fwine in 
Normandy.—* They ftand very long on 
their hind legs (fays he, in one of his 
letters) ; their back, therefore, is higheft 
at the rump, ferming a kind of inclined 
plane ; and the head proceeds in the fame 
direction, fo that the fhout is not far 
from the ground.’—TI fhal! here add, that 
the fwine, in fome countries, have dege- 
nerated into races, which in fingularity 
far exceed every thing that has been found 
ftrange in bodily variety among the hu- 
man race. Swine with /olid. hoofs were 
known to the ancients, and large herds of 
them are found in Hungary, Sweden, &<. 
In the like manner, the European fwine, 
fir carried by the Spaniards, in 1509, to 
the ifland of Cuba, at that time celebrated 
for its pearl-fifhery degenerated into a 
monftrous race, with hoofs which were 
half a [pan in length.” 
Iam afraid the preceding extracts will 
by no means give the full force to Profef- 
for Blumenbach’s Obfervations: but as 
I am unwilling to trefpafs farther upon 
the limits of your Magazine, I dare not © 
enlarge. I am happy, however, to fay, 
that tranflations of both the Profeffor’s 
papers are inferted in the third volume of 
the Philofopbical Magazine; and to thefe 
I refer with confidence, having no doubts 
as to the effects they will produce on the 
mind of every ingenuous inquirer after 
truth. 
OLINTHUS GREGORY, 
Cambridge, 
Nov. 4, 1802. 
iene i eel 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
TAVING lately infpe€ted a number 
of very fplendid and highly-finifhed 
pictures, in the collection of a friend, 
reprefenting various Deities of Hindofan, 
Emperors, Queens, and celebrated War- 
riors ; I was furprifed to find that the In- 
dian artift (for thofe pi€tures were all the 
produétion of Bengal pencils) had encir- 
cled the head of every facred and™Jluftri- 
ous perfonage with a golden glory, exaatly 
fuch as our Scripture-painters diftinguith 
their Saints with, and fuch as we perceive 
in the illuminated miffals ufed in the Ro- 
mifh Churches three or four centuries ago. 
Wow, whether the fame idea ftrack the 
European and the Afiatic artift, or whe- 
ther the one borrowed it from the other, 
and with which it originated, would af- 
ford, in my opinion, a curious fubje&t for 
inguiry. P.Q. 
Of, 6, 18026 - 
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