OCR Text |
Show I I I 211 TilE CRANIAL CilARAOTERISTICS ple" in the Nicn.raugnan Republic,.&c. Fm~hermorc, l?t him c?ntcmplate the mcmbertl of our Natwnal Leg~sl~ture da1ly debatm~ qu stions involviug the a-ntipathies and a:ffibations of t~lC 1:accs of m n with ut the slightest notion of their trne cthnolog1callmport; lot l:im not be unmi ntlful also, of the various political parties and secret af!sociations wl1ich have sucldenly sprung up in our midst, and arc based upon ethnical p culiarities; let him behold the. C~1inaman celebrating his polytheisLie wot"sbip in the heart of a Ohnstmn community, and within the shadow of a Christian temple.; while upon Deaver IHland, ancl al>o11t , alt IJake, another institution of the East, polygamy, fl.onrisl1es in rank luxuriance. Let the American reader, I E>ay, coJitmuplatc tdl this, and in his anxiety~ kno":' th? caus?s of th fi strange phenomena, the labors of the cramoscop1st, m co~lJUUCtion with those of tho philoBophical historian will assume th01r full importance. From a long and comprehensive study of history, a European thinker/ of profouud. crttditi n, has at length, in the diversified cthnoO'raphic pc ·uliaritics of the different races of men, detected and formulcd tho cause of tho apparently mysterious revolutions and fi11al decadence of once-flourishing nations.-" Toutc agglomeration humainc, momc }_Jl'Oteg6c par la complication la plus ing{miOUSC do liens sociaux, contracte, au jour memo ou cllc so forme, et cache parmi los elements do sa vic, le principc d'une mort in6vitablc .... Oui, r6cllcrnent c'cst dans lo scin meme d'un corps social qu'existe ]a cautl do sa disso] ution; mais, queUe est cctte cause ?-La d~g~n~~ ration, fut-il r6plique; los nations meurent lorsqu'clles sont composecs d'clemcuts d~g~n~r~s. . . . . . Je pense done que lc root degen6re, s'appliquant a un pcuple, doit signifier, et signifi.e que ce peuplc n'a plus la valeur intl'inseque qu'autr fois il possedait, parce qu'il n'a plus dans ses veincs le memo sang dont des alliages successifs ont grad.ucllcmcnt modifi6 la valeur; autrcment dit, qu'avec le meme nom, iln'a pas conserve la memo race que ses fondateurs; enfin, que l'honnn de la decadence, celui qu'on appelle l'homme degenere, est un prod.uit different, au point de vue ethnique, du h6ros des grandcs epoq nos. J c vcux bien qu'il possMe quelque chose de son csscucc ; mais, plus U cl6genere, plus co quclque chose s'att{mue. . . . . . ll moul'l'a d6ftnitivcment, et sa civilisation avec lui, le jour ou l'eH~ment ethniquc primordial se trouvcra tellcmcnt sub-divis6 et noy6 dans des apports de races 6trangeres, que la virtualite de cot element n' excrcera 11lus d6 ormais d'a tion su:ffisante." U nd.oubtedly, the Science of Man commences with BuFFON and LINNJEUs-Dutfon first in merit, though second in the order of time. 21 Do Gobineo.u, op. cit., pp. 8, 88, 89, 40. OF TilE RACES OF MEN. 215 By the writers anterior to their day, but little was done for human physical history. Among the classical authors, TuuoYDID~s, the type of the G rccian historians, treated of man in his moral and political aspects only. The nearest approximation to a physical history is contained in his sketch of the manners and migrations of the early Greeks, and in his history of the Greek colonization of Sicily. The books of HmwnoTUS have more of an ethnographic character, in consequence of the account which he gives of the physical appearance of ccrt:.tin nations, whose history he records. ll!PPOORA'l'ES theorizes upon the iuflucncc of external conditions upon man. AIUSTOTLE and PLATO a!. o distantly allude to man in his zoological character. From the Romans we derive some accounts of tb p oplc of North Afri •a, of tho J 'ws and ancient Germans, and of tho tl'i bcs of Gaul and Britain. Of tl1csc, as LA'l'IIAM has appropriately ob rved, "tho Gormania of 'Tacitus is the nearest approach to proper ethnology that antiquity has supplicu." l.JINN.il.WS and Bm!'FON, in tJJCil· valuation of external characterssu ·h as color of Bkin, ll:tit·, &c.,- bestowed no attention upon the osseous frame-work. Of cranial tests, and of bony characters in gcn ral, they htcw nothing, or, knowing, consiucrcd them of no value. !Icucc, althongh l.JINN2EUS, in his Systema Naturre, brought togcth r the genera Ilomo and Simia, under the general title Anthropomor'Plta, and although BumwN, filled with the importance of human Natural History, d voted a long chapter to the varieties of the human species, yet the :first truly philosophi ·al and practical recognition of tl1o zoological relations of man appcm·s in the anthropological introduction with which the illustrious Cuvmu. commences his far-famed Regne Animal. By the publication of his Decades Oraniorum-commonced in 1790, an<l completed in 1828-BLUMENDACII early occupied the field of the com parati vc cranioscopy of the Rae s of Men. In consequence of the application of the zoological method of inquiry to the elucidation of human natural history, that work at once gave a dcciclcu impulse to tuc science of Ethnograpl1y, and for a long time exerted a considerable inilucuce on the views of subsequent writers upon this and kindred sul>jccts. Unable to satisfy the constantly increasing demands of the present day, its importance has sensibly diminished. The general br vity of the d . cription , the want of both absolute and relative measurements, ancl the defective three-quarter and other oblique views of many of the skulls, render it highly unsatisfactory to the practical cranioscopist. Moreover, the number of crania (sixty-five) possess d hy BLUMENDACH was too small, not only to establish the characteristics of the central or staudard cranial type of |