OCR Text |
Show I I , I 432 TlTF. 1\fONOGENJSTS AND perceived in nature nothing but the reflex of their own mcn~a] assumption; an<1, as a consequence, have seized only upon analogtCs coll firmatory of ilicir own sentimental bins; discarding altogcth_c~·, or] aving out of sight, those natural and historical facts that IDlhtatc against it. ] or most and highest, if not perhaps the earliest, among those, At..'tn<l two contemporaries, Blumcnbach71 and Zimmermann; the former of whom is j usLly acknowledged to be tho founder of authropol gical sci nco, as well as of cranioscopy. The latt_cr _may be rcckollcd among the first who established correct pnne1plcs of animal geographical distribution. It is not, however (as usually supposed), in his large Decades Cr·ani01·um, that Blumcnbach gave free utterance to his opinions. TheRe arc contained in sundry duodccimos, some of which have pas d through three improved editions. Those that I first read hclono-cd once to Cuvicr, and were indicated to me by tho nccomplishcd Librarian of the Museum d' H~stoir·e Naturelle, my friend M. Lcmcrcicr. 'l'hc following extract sums up his argument upon human "Unity," 72 which he had previously formulated into a doctrine-" Unica saltem est totius generisltumani Species." His opening Acntcncc sufficiently establishes the mental preoccupations I have Aigualizcd above. "Ardua qnidom, sed cum ad vindicandam Sacri codicis fidem, tum ob lucem quam universro gcnoris humani imo ct rcliquro naturali historiro impettit, utilissima ct dignissima disquisitio. Malitia quidom, negligentia ct novitatis studium postcriol'i opinioni fnvob<Lnt. Plurcs crim humani gonoris species indo a JuLIAN! Impcratoris tcmporihus (Opera, p. 192) iis egrogie arridebant [i. r.., Symon Tyssot, cO'I\Ood in king James' version) for "man," viz: A-DaM and A ISh: whil~t again the femn.lo "' TS/mli, just formed out of "tho-rod-man's" rib, doe~ not recoi vo tho name of K/miUaTI (life) -vtllgo.ric!l KhaVo.U, an(l still more vnlgarly "Eve" in .English-until Chttp. III, v. 20. See some mythological analogies in 'l'!jpes of Jl("nkind, pp. 608, 678. n With exquisite tnsto, my friend, Mr. J. Barnard Davis, has resuscitated the portrait of tho iJiuslrious German, an I, flo.nked on o. metlniiion by that of his successor Dr. Morton, it adorns tho.t beautiful and tJ·uly-scientific work, Crania Britannica, J,ondon, 1 81iG; tho first docaclo of which I owo to its author's kind regnrd. Appertaining properly to tho 1ptcialii/Js of our oolhtboro.tors Dr. Meigs and Prof. Loiuy, I rof1·ain from comment.~ on n groat book which, vindicating tho rights of All!ltomy to priority of respect in ti1e study of mankind, will do good service in rescuing ethnology from a too-exclusive reliance upon Philology,-aa understood, I mean to say, by Anglo-Germo.n monogonists; but not when, ns in M. MAunv's ohnpter I of this volume, it i:s shown how porfcctly truo philology attains to tho same philosophical results as all other sciences bearing upon mnn. 1 ~ nr.umlNDAOH, De Ge7Jeris Ilumani varietale nativa, Gottingoo, li81; pp. 31, 47,-this hoing U1e 2d edition of a paper prinle1l I) years previously; and aftol'Warus considerably enlarged and altered in a llrl o•lition, Oot.lingoo, li06. TilE POLYGENISTS. and Voltaire J quorum Sacri codicis fidem suspcctam rcddcro in torerat. Facilius pon·o crat CEthiopcs aut Amcricoo imbcrbcs incolas primo statim intuitu pro divcrsis speci bus habere, quam in corporis humani structuram inquircre, anaiomicos ct Hincrum numcrol:los auctores consulcre, horumque fidem aut lovitatem studiose pcrpondcro, e naiul'alis histol'iro univcrso ambitu paraUcla confcrro oxcmpla, tumquo dcmum judicium fene variotatis caussas scrntari. Ita v. c. famosus illo T!IEOPIIRAS1'US PARACELSUS (lcpidum caput!) prim us ni fhllor capcre non potuit quomodo Ame?·icani73 ut reliqui hominis ab Adamo genus ducerc possunt, idcoque ut brevi so expcdiret ncgoiio duos Adamos a Doo croatos statuit, Asiaticum alterum, altcrum Americanum (JJe pltilosoph. occulen. l. I)." From the profound "Theology of Nature" by my venerable friend M. Ilercule Straus-Durckhoim,'4 whose long researches in comparative anatomy, at the Jal'din des Plantos, vindicate Creative Power from vulgar anthropomorphous assimilations, I loam that:-" As concerns zoology, it was natural thnt tho first classifiers-among whom LrNN.JEus, who is with reason considered the tl'uo founder of Rcienco, beyond all distinguished himself-wore equally unable to employ other than exterior characteristics; and therefore, soon perceiving that these data were insufficient, the successors of LrNNJBus, and of BuFFON, adhered to seeking the veritable principles of this science in tho study of the Anatomy, and of the l'hysiology of animals, which alone could make th m known. It is thus that DAUBENTON, collaborator of BUFFON, and BLUMBNDACH, pupil of the illustrious LrNNJEus, were the first to cling to tho study of those two seiences, in order to make them tho basis of Zoology; a study which our celebrated Cuvum afterwards brought to a very high degree of perfection in his Ler;ons d'Anatomie comparee: that work which forms, since its publication in 1805, the fundamental basis, not merely of all wol'ks of Anatomy and comparative physiology that have subsequently appeared, but likewise that of all treatises on Zoology, properly so- called, which dis nss tho classification of animals. * * * It was he (LINN1EUS) who crcat d nomcnclatul'c and 18 It is to a Jewish Rabbi, neverthclcHs, us might havo bce11 oxpoctcd, t!u-.t orthouoxy owes the best proofs of tho colonization of America by lineal dosocuunut.s of Ado.m and Eve. In 1650, It. Mofl!lsseh printed his "Spes Israelis," in which, following the monstrous fttblcs of li10NTJ>SJNI, be discoverod true Indian Jews upon the Cordilleras! (BABNAOK, llist. and Relig. of the Jews, tranRI. Taylor; London, fol. 1 i08; pp. 470-87). The Hebrows, however, havo settled in muny parts of Amm·ica ~incc; over preserving their distinctness from all moos, white, nog1·o, abo1·iginal Indian, or Siuiro-mongol: t.ho most curious inst.ance being cited by Davis (Crania Britunuica, p. 8, note) in the Iaraelitish colony at Antioquia, ncar DogotU.. 14 TMologie de la Natu1·e, Paris, 8vo, 8 vols. (chez l'unteur, Ru~ des Fossj)s-Saint-Victor, 14) -1852; HT, pp. 247-8. 28 |