other as low down as the middle of the nOse. This is well
known to be common to the Chinese.
6. Mr. Burchell observés", that the hands and feet are remarkably
small in the Hottentot.
7. It is further remarked by Dr. Knox, that the whole
figure of the Bushman displays the finest symmetry : their
stature is very diminutive; he conjectures four and a half feet
to he the average height of the males.
8. The Bushmen, according to Dr. Knox, have uncommon
powers of vision. He says, “ the acuteness of their sight
almost exceeds belief. I have found it to be equal to that of
most Europeans when aided by excellent hand-telescopes. ’ ’
We may compare this with the observation of Pallas on the
extensive vision of the Kalmuks.*
The representation which I have inserted of a cranium of a
Bushman will serve to point out to the eye, the analogy, which
is undoubtedly very great; between the shape of the head: in
the Hottentot and Turanian races. I shall not draw thè'inference
that the South African nation has any near connexion
in lineage or descent with the Kalmuks ; but it may pfd worth
while to observe, that the physical and moral condition ièi'the
two races is very similar, and that the external circumstances
under which they have existed from immemorial time have
been nearly the same. Both are nomadic races, wandering
with their herds through deserts remarkable for the wide expansion
of their surface, their scanty herbage, the dryness
of the atmosphere, and almost perpetual drought. Both races
feed upon the milk and flesh of their horses as well as of their
oxen. No countries can be more similar than are the vast
steppes of central Asia, and the karroos of southern Africa.
The principal difference of the Kalmuk and the Bushman
races is the texture of the hair, which in the latter is Woolly.
In both it is scarce and rare, and therwoolly tufts which cover
the head of the Hottentot, differ much from the thick wool
of the"intertropical Negro tribes.
On the comparison o fjh e south African race with the
northern Asiatics, my readers may find further observations in
* Dr. Knox’s Memoir.
the work of M. Desmoulins, which was written subsequently
to the Memoir _of Dr. Knox.
S e c t io n VI.—O f artificial Modifications o f the Form o f the
Cranium.-—Elongated Skulls from Titicaca.
It was once a general'opinion that national varieties in the
shape of the head werei produced, in a great »part >at least, by
artificial means; that the flat UoSes andvdepressed features of
tbfr Negffees have acquired thisy>f©rin.,from the contrivances.
used in infancy to improve their beauty, 5 according',to the national
taste. One writer, Barbot,. supposed that the Negro
children carried continually on the backs of . the females, get
their hoses flattened by striking them continually against the
shoulders of their mothers. The opinion that varieties’of form
are to be attributed to art is <as old ns the time of Hippocrates,
wfro relates'that the Macroeephali,{, a people < on the jcoa^t of
the Euxine, were accustomed to ^lengthen- by bandages the
heads of young children, supposing.'length- of the head to
be a.sign of courage, until that shape which art had first produced
became naturally prevalent in the race1; a - fact which
Hippocrates connected with his thebryof generation .-in,
In opposition to the opinion of those who ascribed the flatness
of the features of Negroes to artificial compression, it,
was observed by Buffon, that the -peculiarity of the .race is
already perceptible in -young children. - This observation was
confirmed by Blumenbach, who has given an engraving of the
skull of a Negro infant, and by Soemmerring who, declares
that the shape of the African craliium may be distinctly recognised
in the foetus as early - as the middle period ofrgjfsC
tation. i
Modem writers, on the other hand, have doubted the fact,
that any such modification can be produced in the shape of
the head. . In opposition to this prejudice; Blumenbach has
taken pains, to collect a great number of testimonies, by,which
it is fully proved that many barbarous nations, and particularly
those of the New World, have very generally' followed
the custom alluded to. In particular itridiSps that the native