Similar facts are observable in the Oceanic, or Papuan tribes, which include a great variety of population, but which are supposed, from affinity of dialects and correspondence of physical characters, to belong mostly, if not entirely, to one race. Those of the Low Islands are thought, by Hassel, to belong to the Malay race, and to resemble the Society Islanders. Capt. Beechy thinks they belong to the Papuans. Here then we perceive, as in other cases, a transition state uniting these two families which will justify their being united in one, as by Cuvier, Morton, and others. sides, it is now well ascertained that the Malays came from the Islands to the Continent about the twelfth century. The Sandwich Islanders are dark brown. The Tahitians are lighter. In the Mendana Islands the natives are very little darker than Europeans, and very finely formed. It is said they would not suffer in comparison with the finest models of ancient sculpture. The natives of the Friendly Islands are dark brown, muscular, and many of them well formed and handsome. Those of the Fejees are much darker, and approach more to the Negro type, though they are not Negroes. Those of the Navigators' Islands are of gigantic form, and nearly white. Those of the Marquesas have a fair skin, hair of varying shades, and a form said to be the finest in the world.

A similar comparison might be instituted upon the other races of men, but we shall content ourselves with the simple statement made by Dr. Morton in regard to our Aborigines, in which he is fully corroborated by others, viz. that remarkable varieties of complexion are found among them, "from a decided white to an unequivocally black skin." Dr. N. has quoted this observation, and, with Dr. Morton, argues that these diversities cannot be the effect of climate. We readily grant that climate alone cannot account for them, but he has based his argument all along upon the position that no physical causes could produce them, while in this instance he specifies but a single cause. We consider the facts of this case to be equivalent to a demonstration of actual change "from decided white to unequivocal black," for there is here little probability in the supposition of a mixture of races. We can therefore solve the problem in regard to varieties of color among the races of men. The change is possible, and results from natural causes, although we may not know their number, their due combination, or

the conditions of the system and habit in man, prerequisite to their effect. It will not suffice, therefore, to adduce cases where whites have been long exposed, even for many generations, to climates where such changes have been consummated, without an essential alteration of complexion.

"Much of this, or all," says Wiseman, "may be true, but what does it prove, when placed by the side of facts I have quoted? Why, only that the operation of causes is yet unknown to us; that we cannot discover the law by which nature acts; that there are two series of facts, each true, but neither confuting the other. I wish only to show that the observation of modern philosophers tends to demonstrate that such a change may have [and has] taken place, not that it must take place. One instance is sufficient to prove the first assertion, whereas it might require some thousands to demonstrate the second." (Lectures, p. 139.)

Change of Form. This subject is partly elucidated under the preceding head, especially in the case mentioned by Buckingham. The following case of the effect of climate upon the hair, is derived from Mr. St. John's Travels.

"My own beard, which in Europe was soft, silky, and almost straight, began immediately after my arrival at Alexandria, to curl, to grow crisp, strong and coarse; and before I reached Essouan resembled hare hair to the touch, and was all disposed in ringlets about the chin. This is no doubt to be accounted for by the extreme dryness of the air."

Bruce or Buckhardt, we think, mentions the same effect on his own hair.

"Capt. Tuckey, speaking of the natives of Congo, says that they 'are evidently a mixed nation, having no national physiognomy, and many of them perfectly south European in their features. This, one would naturally conjecture, arises from the Portuguese having intermarried with them, and yet there are very few mulattoes among them.' This observation completely overthrows that conjecture, even if admissible on other grounds; for an entire nation's physiognomy could never have been entirely changed by a few settlers. In the general observations on Capt. Tuckey's voyage, collected from the scientific men and officers who accompanied him, we are informed that 'their features, though nearest to those of the Negro tribe, are neither so strongly marked nor so black as the Africans in general.'" Wiseman, p. 136.

Long, in his History of Jamaica, and Edwards, in his History of the West Indies, have both remarked, that

"The skulls of the white settlers in those countries differ sensibly in shape from those of Europe, and approach to the original American configuration." Ib. 140.

According to Burckhardt, the wandering Arabs of the Hauran,

"Ever exposed to hardships and the fatigues of a roaming active life, are slightly shaped, and have a small face and thin beard. The sedentary Arabs are stout and large, have a strong beard, but want the keen looks of their brethren of the desert. Yet there can be no question but that these two classes are in reality only one nation, speaking the same language, and inhabiting the same climate. What then causes the difference between them? No doubt their different modes of life, for till the age of sixteen no difference can be perceived between them." Ib. 141.

"The Selluks of Haha," says Jackson,

"Are physiognomically distinguished from the Arabs of the plains, and even from the Selluks of Susa, though in their language, manners, and mode of living, they resemble the latter." Ib. 141.

In some of the Polynesian Islands, the higher ranks are so much taller and handsomer than the rest of the people, as to appear of a different race. Volney says the same of the Bedouins.

The Caffres, though having woolly hair, have the forehead, and prominent nose of Europeans. The same is true of the Jaloffs, who have fine features and thin lips. Many of the tribes on the west side of the continent have the skull less compressed than in the true Negro type, and the forehead elevated. On the eastern coast, they have the skull compressed, and the forehead depressed. In Van Dieman's Land, we find tribes with the forehead compressed and depressed, nose much widened, and with woolly hair. In the interior of New Guinea and New Holland, we find tribes of similar features and black skin, thus far corresponding with the Negro, but with their hair smooth and black. On the coast of the two latter, the natives have a high forehead, nose a little flattened, and the face tolerably regular, and are probably a different race. The Hottentots have the nose immoderately large, and the top of the head flattened. The Bosjemans are doubtless of the same original stock, but have a singular hump on the loins. This appendage being peculiar to them, must be the effect of some natural cause, to whatever race the Bosjemans are referred. The following description of the Hottentots is from Mr. Barrow's work on South Africa.

"The person of a Hottentot, while young, is by no means devoid of symmetry. They are clean-limbed, well-proportioned, and erect.

Their hands, their feet, and all their joints, are remarkably small. Their cheek-bones are high and prominent, and with the narrow pointed chin form nearly a triangle. The nose is, in some, remarkably flat, in others considerably raised. The color of the eye is a deep chestnut; and the eye-lids, at the extremity next the nose, instead of forming an angle, as in Europeans, are rounded into each other exactly like those of the Chinese, to whom, indeed, in many other points, they bear a physical resemblance that is sufficiently striking. Their teeth are beautifully white. The color of the skin is that of a yellowish brown, or a faded leaf, but very different from the sickly hue of a person in the jaundice, which it has been described to resemble: many, indeed, are nearly as white as Europeans. Some of the women, when young, are so well formed, that they might serve as a model of perfection in the human figure. Every joint and limb is rounded and well-turned, and their whole body is without an angle or disproportionate protuberance. Their hands and feet are small and delicately turned; and their gait is not deficient in easy and graceful movements. Their charms, however, are very fleeting."

In more advanced life, these people rank among the ugliest of the human race. Two important considerations are derivable from this description. First, to whatever race they belong, the Hottentots exhibit very striking deviations in form and color from their type; and second, we have here an illustration of a common change of form, even in the same individual, from great symmetry to the most repulsive ugliness, effected by the regular and gradual operation of physical causes. Similar remarks might, perhaps, be properly made upon the Cretins of the Alps and Pyrenees, than whom a greater change in physical confirmation from their true type, can hardly be found in the whole human family.

Among the American tribes, there is much diversity of form as well as color. The Indian of North-America generally has the head elongated, forehead compressed, and a projecting aquiline nose; while many of those of SouthAmerica have a head more approaching to spherical, forehead wide, and a nose somewhat flattened and depressed at the root. There is also a great difference in size between the stout Carib and the dwarfed Chayma. The Chipewayan Indians, north-east of Lake Athabascow, have remarkably broad faces and projecting cheek bones. The Copper, Hare and Dog-Ribbed Indians, have some resemblance to them. The natives on Prince William's Sound are distinguished by larger heads, broad flat faces, and hooked noses.

In the Mongolian race, there is a wide difference in feature and general size between the Esquimaux and Tartars, though they may be connected by intervening tribes. In

the Alentian Islands, between the North-West Coast and Kamschatka, the natives partake of the features of both. The Hungarians and the Östiaks of the Obi are very different, morally and physically, and yet have an evident affinity from physiognomy and language. The Tchutchis, in the north-east of Asia, are said by Pennant to be of robust and fine form, yet their language is very similar to that of the Esquimaux, and they are supposed by Dr. Morton to have emigrated from this continent. The Esquimaux have been deemed by some to be Mongolians, by others to belong to the American race, which would seem to afford evidence of their resemblance to both. The Mongolians themselves have been said strikingly to resemble our Aborigines. Ledyard, in a letter to Jefferson, written from Siberia, says:

"I shall never be able, without seeing you in person, and perhaps not then, to inform you how universally and circumstantially the Tartars resemble the Aborigines of America."

M. Antemony, who, in the last century, accompanied the Russian embassy to China, says:

"From all that I have heard and read of the inhabitants of Canada, there is no people that more resembles the Tunguses." *

In the Caucasian variety, equally striking differences are presented in the Hindoo, Scythian and Arabian branches. Mr. Lawrence says, "that the tribes among the Caucasians are more numerous than in any other." Again, "whether we consider the several nations, or the individuals in each, bodily differences are much more numerous in the highly civilized Caucasian variety than in either of the other divisions of mankind." t

We have now gone over Lecture I. in detail, with the intention of omitting no essential part of our author's argument, as well for the purpose of escaping any imputation of an attempt at evasion, as of examining his qualifications for the task he has assumed, although the various topics of discussion are thereby brought forward in a disconnected and

The inhabitants of Canada may perhaps refer to the Esquimaux. We may here observe, that we have read Dr. Morton's remarks on the Mongolian theory, who strongly argues against it, but we must state, although the opinion of such as we can have but little weight against the decision of so able and distinguished an Ethnographer, that we are not yet satisfied with the evidence against it.

+ Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man. pp. 442-475.