yellow or reddish h a ir; notwithstanding that, of all races, the Jews,
especially in modern times, have striven beyond any types to preserve
their blood pure from all admixture. And one may reduce the
counter-argument of some monogenists who, with Prichard, have
thrown overboard TJsher’s b. c. 4004 for “ Creation,” viz., that, who can
tell what the action of unnumbered chiliads of ^re-historic ages may
have done in changing one type into another?—to a simple rule of
three: I f 5000 years, as proved by every possible lestimony, have
done nothing, how much will any time do ?
“ Nothing, * wrote Quoy and Gaimard,6>‘ the accurate observers who sailed round the
world with Dumont d’Urville (1826-9), “ better proves the difficulty that zoology presents,
when one’s object is to well characterize a species, or a variety of species, than the diversity
of human races, admitted by naturalists. How, indeed, can distinctions, oftentimes so
fugacious, become settled upon solid bases! When, in correct zoology, one would determine
a species, it is by uniting the greatest possible number of individuals that some certainty
may be attained. How, then, catch all those delicate hues constituting that which is called
facies, through notes, drawings, and recollections weakened by the distances one has traversed,
and by the absence of the individuals one has to compare? In order to,obtain positive
results, it would be, therefore, necessary to do that which is, so to say, impossible; viz.:
unite a great number of individuals of these varieties, for the purpose of comparing them
together; and to cause oil-portraits to be made as perfect likenesses, in order to indicate the
precise shade of the physiognomy. This has not as yet been done in a satisfactory manner,
and any attempt to do it would encounter considerable difficulties dtiring the rapidity of a
nautical voyage.”
Many of the obstacles, deplored thirty years ago by such qualified
judges, to collecting an adequate series of ethnological likenesses,
continue in force at the present day; but the photographic meliorations
which Daguerre’s wonderful discovery has latterly received,
combined with the dexterous application of Colored plaster-casts to
the human bust, have already removed the more serious impediments
to future mechanical exactitude. To DumQutier675 unquestionably
belongs the merit of first practising, on a large scale, this method of
permanently securing faithful copies of Oceanic and Australian types.
Blanchard’s comments on this superb collection are worthy of careful
perusal. -
“ The physiognomies, of the inhabitants of localities visited by explorers, have been often
represented, throngh the aid of drawing, in accounts of voyages; but, in all, one may affirm
Jt’ * ese «presentations are imperfect. If there be, now and then, any which approximate
to the truth, it is, so to say, always impossible to verify them. The anthropologist can,
6,4 Vo’Ja$e * la Corvette VAstrolabe ; Zoologie, Paris, 8vo, 1830; I, chap. 1, “ De 1’Homme •”
p. 15. ’
Voyage de VAstrolabe et de la ZeUe ; Atlas, Anthropologie, Paris, fob, 1845-50- Text in
8vo, 1854, by Blanchabd. Cf. Bulletin de la Soe. Elhnol. de Paris, 1847 I pp 284-5
289-90. The original casts, exactly colored, but representing chiefly Melanian and Polynesian
races, now adorn the Galerie Anthropologique at the Jardin des Plantes. My wife
had only time to copy the tints given to each bust
therefore, have no confidence in +Tn»rr> tt
the characteristics of races; in 6 1 1 1 1 ! ® S H *
numbLlf“ “ ^
or of a Polynesian Islander ThL tT d pbysiognomy of an American savage,
of those European f t “ B j E I r e f 8* . T # °r Ie8S’ 4be “ P - s L
Hence prooeed all those likenesses of native r ^ e rep™duCe through the art of design,
ordinarily resemble Euroneans non * a • °eS’ r°m en* parts of the world, that
with yellow, brown black M D °U ri a <Jueer coatume, and besmeared (barbouilles)
done fn ord^ 11111M If necessary to be
- the head, amongst those tribes he has observed* ^ ¡ ? °f gen6ral form of
to H M i H M l i 80” e ^ i d u a l s to allow themselves
He has .ncceeded in b rSC balk a " H M M W 4° <*“• it.
majority of places touched at by the coivetteTAlLliTand S T T ’ fah,Wt“ t* °f 4116
gathered a collection of busts of the hia-hestdnt i «. Dumoutier has thus
Piaced in the - galerie a n t h r o ^ f P a r i s h ^
After showing, nevertheless, that material difficulties in the execu
tionof casts render even them somewhat faultv Z j ■ ' '
and distorting fe a tu r e s ,-and recommending that a T *
should always accompany each head-Blanchard again remarks?*6
resign one’s self to cLplrisinTtoo*^^^ ^ bee“ °bliged to These comparisons, furthermore reduce them a i + esu s o he seriously generalized!
point, it is not allowable to dweli ^ s u ^ r ilb T e ^ ^ &ffairS- A‘ *be " fi°
even until now, is the principal stock of anthropolog?«“ J f 76,7 this>
of Apollo (I think); “ dont,” as he observed, “ les c’uisses S S j S “ *bee °Pen f ’”
that the upper part of the body is magnificent. This incomrruitv h i
nation through an odd circumstance; riz. • that t h e M S K f e WeVCT’ reCeiVed exPla'
cute the work,-wishing to save hi, a Z ^ T l tbe/ a" f an 8tataai7 commissioned to exeli
white man sufficiently well made-up to stand for ^ Pr°0Ure’ at 4116 price>
looking negro-valet, then at Paris a s f t , ’ » ° ° “ blS stadi» -M « d a finehusthe
set, indeed, Phoebus’s sublime head, b u t. i S B f c f e g l 8plendid
subsequently (Oct., 1 8 5 6 ) , at the picture-gallery of the V n manner,
loved cousin, Miss C. J. Gliddon pointed otv ^ B l l Vmverselle, my well-be-
artist, of scenes in Spain - f o r r i cW s of H I °°UP °f pain4ings> ^ an English
oountry-bumpkin. Again, I have seen Chinese colored sketched o f V n lw T B
walking about Macao during the war of 1841-2 a ’ ° C6rS an *a<*ies
all obliqne, while their - Caucasia^’! fe T r e s S S r r ” " " ™
possession of my old comrade M. Prisse’s “ Oriental Album” I sh T r tt f°T
to indicate to the reader, - through any wor“ ^ 0 m K S f ! f l f “
a i s i s a i s i i i l » 2 1 ? - - ■ H n
The octavo text I happen to have; but the folio Atlas lies still S p i l l ’ ’ P' }’
things somewhere in Egypt. So much in confirmation of M Pulszkv’s ^ 0ther
[supra, pp. 96-97], -vulszky s four propositions
677 Op. cit., pp. 7-8, 47.