even any near approximation, is sufficient to account for That the senses of man and other animals will not explain all their varied and wonderful mental phenomena; and that the superiority of man can by no means be deduced from any preeminence in this part of his construction, are truths too obvious to require further notice.

Some modern inquirers have gone beyond this general statement, and have ventured to particularize, in the brains of animals and of man, the organ or residence of each propensity, feeling, and intellectual power. I cannot pronounce on the accuracy and completeness of the mental and cerebral survey executed by Messrs. GALL and SPURZHEIM; nor pretend to judge of the exactness and fidelity with which the numerous positions are marked down in their very complete and well-filled map of the brain. They appeal to observation for the confirmation or refutation of their statements; but my observations are not numerous or varied enough for these purposes. No one can refuse to them the merit of patient inquiry, careful observation, and unprejudiced reflection. They have performed the useful service of rescuing us from the trammels of doctrines and authorities, and directing our attention to nature. Her instructions cannot deceive us: whether the views of GALL and SPURZHEIM may be verified or not, our labours in this direction must be productive, must bring with them collateral advantages. Hence they may be compared to the old man in the fable, who assured his sons, on his death-bed, that a treasure was hidden in his vineyard. They began immediately to dig over the whole ground in search of it; and found, indeed, no treasure; but the loosening of the soil, the destruction of the weeds, the admission of light and air, were so beneficial to the vines, that the quantity and excellence of the ensuing crop were unprecedented.

The diseases peculiar to man may be deemed a more fit subject for pathology than natural history; but, as these unnatural phenomena arise out of the natural organization and habit of the body, and the dispositions of the animal economy, they cannot be entirely passed over in this discussion.

While the causes of disease in general are so obscure, and the exact series of phenomena has been ascertained in so few instances, it is hazardous to set down any particular affections as belonging exclusively to man; other animals might be affected, if exposed to the same causes. Those in a wild state have very few and simple diseases, if any: domesticated ones

have several; and they are more numerous in proportion as the subjugation is more complete, and the way of life differs more widely from the natural one. The diseases of our more valuable domestic animals are sufficiently numerous to employ a particular order of men; and the horse alone has a distinct set to his own share. The miserable canary-birds seem to be equally in want of professional assistance; for, in the list of disorders to which they are subject, we find inflammation of the bowels, asthma, epilepsy, chancres of the bill, and scabs.* In man, the most artificial of all animals, the most exposed to all the circumstances that can act unfavourably on his frame, diseases are the most numerous, and so abundant and diversified, as to exhaust the ingenuity of the nosologist, and fatigue the memory of the physician. Perhaps nosological catalogues would afford the most convincing argument that man has departed from the way of life to which nature had destined him; unless, indeed, it should be contended that these afflictions are a necessary part of his nature;—a distinction from animals, of which he will not he very likely to boast.

The accumulation of numbers in large cities, the noxious effects of impure air, sedentary habits, and unwholesome employments;-the excesses in diet, the luxurious food, the heating drinks, the monstrous mixtures, and the pernicious seasonings, which stimulate and oppress the organs;-the unnatural activity of the great cerebral circulation, excited by the double impulse of our luxurious habits, and undue mental exertions, of the violent passions which agitate and exhaust us, the anxiety, chagrin, and vexation, from which few entirely escape, and then reacting on and disturbing the whole frame ;the delicacy and sensibility to external influences caused by our heated rooms, warm clothing, inactivity, and other indulgencies, are so many fatal proofs that our most grievous ills are our own work, and might be obviated by a more simple and uniform way of life. Our associates of the animal kingdom do not escape the influence of such causes. The mountain shepherd and his dog are equally hardy, and form an instructive contrast with a nervous and hysterical fine lady, and her lap-dog; the extreme point of degeneracy and imbecility of which each race is susceptible.

The observations of HUMBOLDT confirm the position, that individuals, whose bodies are strengthened by healthy habits in Buffon by Wood; v. xiv. p. 87.

respect to food, clothing, exercise, air, &c. are enabled to resist the causes which produce disease in other men. He paints to us the Indians of New Spain as a set of peaceful cultivators, accustomed to uniform nourishment, almost entirely of a vegetable nature, that of their maize and cereal gramina. “They* are hardly subject to any deformity. I never saw a hunch-backed Indian; and it is extremely rare to see any who squint, or who are lame in the arm or leg. In the countries where the inhabitants suffer from the goître, this affection of the thyroid gland is never observed among the Indians, and seldom among the Mestizoes."+

He repeats the same testimony very strongly concerning various tribes in South America, as the Chaymas, Caribs, the Muyscas, and Peruvian Indians.‡

WINTERBOTTOM § says, that he never saw, nor heard of, a case of hare-lip among the native Africans. But he adds, that ATKINS mentions a case seen by himself.

The comparison of diseases is difficult, since the study of nosology in brutes must be exposed, by its very nature, to very serious obstacles. The diseases in the following list, derived from BLUMENBACH, may be considered in all probability as peculiar to man.

Nearly all the exanthemata; at least variola, morbilli, scarlatina, miliaria, petechiæ, pestis.

Of the hemorrhagies, epistaxis; hemorrhoides, menorrhagia. Nervous affections. Hypochondriasis; hysteria; mental affections properly so called, as mania, melancholia, nostalgia; properly also satyriasis, and nympho-mania. Cretinismus.

Cachexia. Rachitis? scrofula? lues venerea. Podagra, lepra and elephantiasis.

Local diseases. Amenorrhoea? cancer? chlorosis; hernia congenita? The various kinds of prolapsus, particularly that congenital one of the urinary bladder. Herpes; tinea capitis.

The two kinds of lice that infest our species, have not been found on any other animal. Whether the human intestinal worms are all distinct species, peculiar to man, I do not know. I recapitulate the characters of man, discussed in the six pre* Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain; v. i. p. 152, The offspring of an European and an American.

+ Personal Narrative, iii. 233. Account of the Native Africans; ii. 224. A monkey at Amsterdam contracted a local ulcer from the contagion of small-pox, but had no fever. Blumenbach, De g. h. var. nat. p. 59.

Monkeys perish in these climates of affections very much resembling scrofula. The lymphatic glands, lungs, and other viscera are diseased; usually tuberculated; and the bones are often affected.

ceding chapters, that the proofs of his constituting a distinct and separate species may be brought together in one view.

1. Smoothness of the skin, and want of natural offensive weapons, or means of defence.

2. Erect stature; to which the conformation of the body in general, and that of the pelvis, lower limbs, and their muscles in particular, are accommodated. 3. Incurvation of the sacrum and os coccygis; and consequent direction of the vagina and urethra forwards.

4. Articulation of the head with the spinal column by the middle of its basis, and want of ligamentum nucha.

5. Possession of two hands, and very perfect structure of the hand.

6. Great proportion of the cranium (cerebral cavity) to the face (receptacles of the senses and organs of mastication.)

7. Shortness of the lower jaw, and prominence of its mental portion. 8. Want of the intermaxillary bone.

9. Teeth all of equal length, and approximated: inferior incisors perpendicular. 10. Great development of the cerebral hemispheres.

11. Great mass of brain in proportion to the size of the nerves connected with it. 12. Greater number and development of mental faculties, whether intellectual

or moral.

13. Speech.

14. Capability of inhabiting all climates and situations; and of living on all kinds of food.

15. Slow growth; long infancy; late puberty.

16. Menstruation; exercise of the sexual functions not confined to particular

seasons.

SECTION II.

ON THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.

CHAPTER I.

Statement of the Subject; Mode of Investigation; the Question cannot be settled from the Jewish Scriptures; nor from other historical Records. The Meaning of Species and Variety in Zoology; Nature and Extent of Variation. Breeding as a Criterion of Species. Criterion of Analogy.

THE differences which exist between inhabitants of the different regions of the globe, both in boldly formation and in the faculties of the mind, are so striking, that they must have attracted the notice even of superficial observers. With those forms, proportions, and colours, which we consider so beautiful in the fine figures of Greece, contrast the woolly hair, the flat nose, the thick lips, the retreating forehead and advancing jaws, and black skin of the Negro; or the broad square face, narrow oblique eyes, beardless chin, coarse straight hair, and olive colour of the Calmuck. Compare the ruddy and sanguine European with the jet-black African, the red man of America, the yellow Mongolian, or the brown South Sea Islander: the gigantic Patagonian, to the dwarfish Laplander; the highly civilized nations of Europe, so conspicuous in arts, science, literature, in all that can strengthen and adorn society, or exalt and dignify human nature, to a troop of naked, shivering, and starved New Hol

landers, a horde of filthy Hottentots, or the whole of the more or less barbarous tribes that cover nearly the entire continent of Africa. Are these ali brethren? have they descended from one stock? or inust we trace them to more than one? and if so, how many Adams must we admit ?

The phenomena are capable of solution in either of these ways: we may suppose that different kinds of men were originally created; that the forms and properties, of which the contrast now strikes us so forcibly, were impressed at first on tae respective races; and consequently that the latter, as we now see them, must be referred to different original families, according to which supposition they will form, in the language of naturalists, different species. Or, we may suppose, that one kind of human beings only was formed in the first instance, and account for the diversity, which is now observable, by the agency of the various physical and moral causes to which they have been subsequently exposed; in which case they will only form different varieties of the same species.

The question belongs to the domain of natural history and physiology: we must be contented to proceed in our examination in the slow and humble, but sure method of observation. It will be necessary to ascertain carefully all the differences that actually exist between the various races of men; to compare these with the diversities observed among animals; to apply to them all the lights, which human and comparative physiology can supply; and to draw our inferences concerning their nature and causes, from all the direct information and all the analogies, which these considerations may unfold.

In the first place we must dismiss all arguments à priori, as entirely inapplicable to the subject. One philosopher tells us, that nature does nothing in vain; that she would not give herself the trouble to create several different stocks, when one family would be sufficient to colonise the world in a short space of time. Another, with equal speciousness, dilates on the absurdity of supposing that immense regions should remain for ages an unoccupied and dreary waste, while the offspring of a single pair was slowly extending over the face of the earth; or that such an admirable variety of islands should display their charms in vain, till a shipwreck or some other casual occurrence might supply them with inhabitants. He shows how much more consonant to the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity it would be, for the earth to have teemed from the first moment of its pro