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Show 230 TilE CRANIAL CHARACTERISTICS mamma]ia and birds, for example, min uti[() which, among the J nvcrtebrata, would be deemed of little note, become of decided value, and arc no longer to be neglected. Even the modifications, however slight, of a common type, now become stamped with a value, the raLio of which increases as we advance from the lower to tho higher orders. lienee, with respect to mammalia, the highest class of Vertebrata, every structural phase claims attention; and, when we advance to the high st of the highest class, viz., Man, an<l tho Quadrum ana, the naturalist lays a greater stress on minnte grades and modifications of form, than he clocs when among tho cetacea or tho marsupials; and hence, groups arc separated upon characters thus derived, because they involve marked diftcrencos in tho animal economy, and bocau~e it is felt that a modification, in itself of no great extent, loalls to most important results. Carrying out the pr.inciple of an in ·r aso in tho value of difl:crontial characters as we advance in the scnlc of being, it may be affirmed that, upon legitimate zoological grounds, tho organic conformation of roan, modelled, possibly, upon tho same ty1 o as that of tho chimpanzee or orang, but modified, with a view to fit him for tho habits, manners, and, indeed, a totality of activo oxistonco, indicative of a destiny and purposes participat <1 in neither by tho chimpanzee nor any other animal, removes Man from tho Quadrumana, not merely in a generic point of view, but from tho palo of tho Primates, to an exclusive situation. The zoological value of characters derived from structural modifications is commousuratc with the results which they involve; let it then be shown that man, though a cheiropod (handfooted), possesses structural modifications leading to most impo1'tant results, and our views arc at once justified." 71 It will thus be soon that anatomical difl:erences are valuable to the zoologist more from their permanency, than from their magnitude. "A species," says Prof. Leidy, "is a mere convenient word with which ~aturalists empirically designate groups of organized beings posscssmg characters of comparative constancy, as far as historic cxpol'ionco has guided them in giving duo weight to such cons~ ancy." 72 An organic form historically constant is, therefore, a ~1mple_ an? oxac~ ox~rossion of a species. In this constancy of a form hos 1ts typiCal 1mportance as a standard or point of departure 11 A ~encrn.llntroduction to lho Nn.tnrn.l History of Mn.mmifct·ous Animn.ls, with n particular Vlow of tho Physicn.l llistory of Man, &o. By W. C. S. Martin F L s 1 d 1841, p. 20v. ' . . . on on, 12 Proceedings of the Acndemy of Nn.turo.l Sciences, Vol. VII. p. 201. _See also o. Iotter fro~ Prof. J,. to Dr. Nott, of Mobile, published in tho Appendix to llotz's trnnsln.tion of Gobmcnu's work on the Inequality of Rnoos, &o., p. 480. OF TilE RACES OF MEN. 231 in all our attempts at classification and developing the laws of formation. Tho more shape, volume, or configuration, is secondary. Tho polar, brown, and grizzly bears difl:cr but little in their osteology; tho same is true of tho horse, ass, and zebra, aud of tho lion, tiger, and panther. By most naturalists tho horse and ass arc referred to disLinct species,-by Prof. Owen to distinct genera. Tho latter gentleman specifically separates a fossil from tho recent hors , in consequence of a slight curvature in tho tooth of tho former. According to Flourcns, the dog and fox belong to diilcr nt genera; the dog and wolf to distinct species, as also tho lion and tigcr.r.J Now the crania of tho horse and ass diftcr in their nasal bones only. 'J'ho pupil of the dog is disc-shaped; that of tho fox, elongated. Says Knox: "Tho nasal bones of the a~s difl:cr co11stanily from those of tho horse; so do those of Lho lion and tiger. The distinction extends to the whole physiognomical character of the crania in these foUl' species, and in all others. But so it is in man, chiefly in those very bones, and in tho pl1ysiognomy of the skeleton of tho face. For it is not in the comparative length or size m rely of tho nasal or maxillary bonos that tho cranium of tho Bo uioman aud tho Australian diff:cr from tho other races of men, although these difl:croncos arc no doubt as constant and real as are the anatomical diflcroncos of any two species; they difl' r in every respect, and especially do tl10y display physiognomical distinction, which tho oxporioncod eye detects at once. When fossil man shall be discovered, he, also, will be proved to have belonged to a species distinct from any that now live. By tho generic law I am about to establish, his affiliation with the existing races may and will be proved, first by tho fact of his extinction, but still more by those slight anatomical difl:croncos, which, though seemingly unimr 01'tant, arc not really so. Ilis relation to tho present or living world will be the same as tbat of tho extinct solid-ungular and carnivora to tho living- generically identical, speoifically distinct." 74 Between tho crania of the various races of men, tho same slight, but constant, and therefore important, difl:croncos can bo pointed out, in some instances oven more marked and better characterized than those which arc considered by naturalists of high distinction, as sufficient to form a basis upon whicp. to establish species. It is true that no human race possesses a bone tho more or loss in tho cranium, than the others; but it is equally true that human crania diftcr, in some instances quito remarkably, in the size and proportions of their con- 7B Op. cit., p. 111. 1• Introduction to InquiJ·ies into the Philosophy of Zoology, by Robt. Knox, M.D., &o., in London Lancet, Oot., 1855. |