which time Egypt had abeady existed for many centuries as a powerful
empire, borne along on full tide o f c ivilization: and, let us ask, what
trace o f an Asiatic type does the reader perceive in these hoary likenesses
? How distinct, physiologically, are these heads from the royal
portraits o f the Hew Empire I Does not the low, elongated h e a d ; the
imperfectly-developed forehead; the short., thick n o s e ; the large, full
l ip ; the short and receding chin'; with their tout-ensemble, all point to
Africa as th» primeval hirth-place o f these people ? When, too, we
lo ok around and along this, ancient valley o f the Nile at the present
day and compare the mingled types o f races, still dwelling where
their fathers did — the EelHhs, the Bishariba, the Ahyssimans, the
Nubians, the Libyans, the Berbers (though they are by no means identical
'among each other), do w e not behold a group o f men apart-born
th e rest o f human creation? and all, singularly and collectively, in-
heriting something in th eb lineaments which clusters around the type
o f ancient Egypt? A powerful and civilized race may he conquered,
may become adulterated in blood; y e t the type, when so widely
spread, as in and around Egypt, has never been obliterated, can
never he washed out. History abundantly proves that human language
may become greatly corrupted by exotic admixture—nay, even
extinguished; but physiology demonstrates that a type will survive
tongues, writings, religions, customs, manners, monuments, traditions)
and history itself.
Dr. Morton’s voluminous correspondence with scientific men
throughout both hemispheres is replete with interest, exhibiting as it
does so many charming instances o f that philosophical abandon, or
freedom from social rigidities, which eharacterixestrue devotees to
science in th eb interchanges o f thought. There is one epistle among
these that almost electrified h im * 1 on its reception,-bearing date
“Alexandria, Dec. 17, 1848.” I t is invested with the signature o f a
vovager lon g “ blanched under the harness” o f scientific pursuits;
who, as Naturalist to the United States’ Exploring Expedition, had
sailed ronnd the world, and beheld ten types o f mankind, before he
wrote, after exploring the petroglyphs o f the N i l e :
d I h a v e s e e n i n a ll e le v e n r a c e s o f m e n ; a n d , t h o u g h I am h a rd lyW " « * »
p o s it iv e l im i t t o th e ir n um b e r , I c o n f e s s , a f t e r h a v in g v is i t e d so m a n y d iff e r e n t p a r t s
g lo b e , t h a t I am a t a lo s s -where t o lo o k fo r o th e r s .” “
Qualified to judge, through especial training, varied attainments,
and habits o f keen observation that, in Natural History, are preeminent
for accuracy, the first impressions o f the gentleman from
whose letter to his attached friend we make bold to extract a fe
I sentences, (preserving their original form,) are strikingly to the p o in t.
IS H i