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Show 352 CRANIAL CHARACTERISTICS. nation have gone, I have not been able to find a single aborio-inal Amcri an type of skull which, in all its essential details, could be regarded as strictly identical with any in Eul'Ope, .Asia, Africa, or Australia. Tho closest approximation between the two hemispheres, in this respect, is to bo found in tho Arctic region; and it is precisely in this r gion that tho oro-anic species of tho two worlds rosomblo each otbor most closely. Tho massive, heavy sknlls of northern temperate Asia and Europe arc represented in America by those of tho Barbarous tribes- de idcdly di:fJercnt, but nllied forms. So tho comparatively small-head d Peruvians rcpt·osent the equally small-head d llindoos, while the American Indian type, accordino- to Lieut. llabcr ham, again repeats itself in a most •urious manner in the Island of Formosa. n would thus appcat·, that upon the same general principles, of which llnmboldt availed himself in dividing tho surface of tho cat'th into isothormic zones, or that Latreille followed in layiJtg down his i nscct-roalms, or that guided Forbes in tho construction of ltomoiozoic holts of marine lifo, tho ethnogt:apher may establish, with equal propriety, lwrnoiolcepltalic zones or realms of men, whoso limits, though far from being sharply defined, are ncverthclc s sufficiently wellmarked to show that nature's idea of localization and repr scntation appertains to man, as to all tho num rous aud varied forms of life. When, at length, our trav ller reaches tho tropics, he thoro, under tho calorific and luminous i.nO.ucnco of a powerful sun, belJoldr; anirnnl and vegetable life revelling in a multiplicity of iorms. Iluman cranial types constitnte no exception to this statement. In the African and Polynesian regions of the sun, tho races or tribes of men, eli floring from each other in physical characters, arc, as we have already seen, quito numerous. The same app ar·s to be true nlso, though in a less marked degree, in northem outh America. }i'inally, then, in view of all these leading facts, whose details would here be obviously misplaced, may we not conclude tlmt ct·anial forms nrcdofinitclyrelatod to geograr hicallocality, and its atten<ln.nt eli matic conditions; and may we not, furthermore, suspect that the uni Ly of suc..:h !'orms should be sought neither in a uniformity of stl'llctural plan, nor Ill the successive development of higher from lower typos, nor even in tho organic cell, tho primordial expression of the animal and the plant, but in tlJat pervading physical principle whose plastic energy attains its maximum in tho regions overlying the thermometric equator, and under whoso controlling influence all matter- both oro-anic and inorganic- assumes a r gular a.nd definite form? b J . .A.M. PuttADNLI'lllA1 No. 597 Lombard St. ACCLIMATION, ETO. CHAPTER IV. ACCLIMA1'ION; OR, TTIE COMPARATIVE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE, ENDEMIC AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES, ON TDE RACES OF MAN. BY J. 0. NOTT, M.D. IN th~ preceding chapters, man has been viewed from opposite stand-pomts ;. and each new group of facts woulrl seem to lead more and more duccLl! to tho co~clusion, that certain distinct types of the human fam1ly arc as anmcn.t and as permanent as tho Faunas and Floras which surround them. W, e pt·?pose, in :he present chapter, to jnvcsiigatc the subject of Acclzmatwn; that 1s to say, of Races, in tJ1cir relations to Climate Hndcmic and Epidemic J?isca~cs; and if it should be made to appea; ~hat each ~ypo o~ mankmd, hke a species of animals or plants, has 1Ls appropnato clrmat? or statz'on, and that it cannot by any process, l10~evcr gradual, O!' 1~ any nllmbcr of gcn mtions, become fully I:ab1tu~tcd to those of opposite character, another strong confirmatiOn w1ll be added to the conclusion above alluded to. The study of the physical history of man is beset by numerous difficulties, such ns embarrass no other department of Zoology. Man !1as not only a physical, bLtt a moral nature; tho latter formino- an ~mportant olcrn nt in tho investigation, and exerting a pow~rful mflncnco ov r his physi ·al strncture. Tnasmncl1 as wo arc now seeking ~o asc rta~~ all th.o.sc ~g.cncics which can in any way modify the physJCal cond1t10n of Ind1v1duals or raceR, w shall, for convenience, include, under the general tonn of Olimate, 1 geographical • 1 This is a loose clcllnitioo, but we have no word in our language sufficiently comprchenstve to answer our purpose. 1'1to Fronoh employ tho term mitieu, which covers tho ground ~ully. Tho milie~ (middle) in wl.lich nn nuimal or plant is plncod, includes every modifying lllflucnco belong111g to tho locality. Tho render will therefore oxcnso mo for using nn old word in 0: new nnd arbitrary sonso. 20 |