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IMPORT of COTTON WOOL into LONDON and LIVERPOOL.

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Total

1808 14,362 4955 67214,997 5167 2352 1448 2315 309 400 492

626 9281798 2034 120 324 262

Total 53,631

39,679

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1069]

Jarrold's Anthropologia.

the exertions of reflection and thought.

Anthropologia: or Dissertations on the On the contrary, we admire them, when

with incidental

Form and Colour of Man;
Remarks. By T. Jarrold, M.D. Member
of the Literary and Philosophical Society,
Manchester. 4to. pp. 261. Price £1 10
London: Cadell and Davies, 1808.

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το γαρ και γένος εσμεν, was the For we His offspring are; sublime language of Aratus, the Cicilian poet; and of Cleanthes, in his "hymn to Jupiter, "deriving man from the divinity, himself. The expression has been consecrated by St. Paul, who adopted it when pleading before the tribunal of the Areopagites, and boldly avowed, that the deity had made of one blood all nations of men, wherever dispersed on all the face of the earth." It is true, that the same Sovereign Power has distributed the various branches of the immense family of man, according to his pleasure:-the times and tides fore-allotted to each, in its order; the boundaries of the different habitations, which each was destined to Occupy. Does it follow, because these branches have widely diverged from each other, that any of them is forgotten by that Parent from whom all derived their being? or that he has left himself without a witness, a witness capable of appealing with the most direct influence to their hearts and understandings, through their very senses, and appetites? Most certainly

not: for

Εν αυτῷς γαρ ζωμεν, και κινέμεθα, και εσμεν.
In HIM we live, are moved, and exist.
Wherever exists a man, capable of
exercising rational powers (without which
he is no man) there is an evidence-not of
a capricious forsaking of his creatures,
by the Deity; but, of the steady and un-
interrupted support, which Divine goodness
bestows on the sons of Adam. Never-
theless, it seems, that some of the inge-
nious members of this great family, in
the most favoured parts of it, cannot rest
satisfied till they have degraded their own
nature to the level of the brute; or have
raised the nature of the brute to an equa-
lity with their own. So natural are the
principles of discontent, cavil, disorder,
destruction of the scale of existence, to
the heart of man! We would not be
understood as discouraging the speculations
of the well-informed, nor as cramping

well directed; and, when the purpose intended to be answered by them is honourable, we never, knowingly, deprive them of that commendation; though we ac knowledge a something not absolutely unallied to the feelings of indignation or of contempt, when we are reduced to the necessity of asking the cui bono?-what is the advantage of such tracts on such subjects and the answer is a mere blank. If the brutes were our superiors in virtue, the result of understanding and knowledge called into activity, we might be tempted to desire promotion to a more correct resemblance of them; if they were more happy than humanity might be, that envy of which they were the subjects, could scarcely be denied the character of tolerable if not of laudable.

But, the usual cause of discontent is, a narrow and confined acquaintance with things. Man has not the speed of some animals, as of the horse, though Achilles was swifter of foot than a wild roe;he has not the strength of the buli, whatever credulity attributes to the exploits of Milo of Crotona; he has no claws for defence, retractile, as those of the lion; he has no venom like the serpent, which insures the instant death of his antagonist. But he has speed enough for every desirable and honest purpose: he has strength enough, if it be well engaged: and if he be destitute of the means of spreading slaughter and mortality around him, that very destitution is in perfect coincidence with his original character as the benevolent superior of the creation.

Man, moreover, possesses as great a proportion of each separate quality, as is consistent with the welfare of the whole in combination. To augment the proportion of either, would be detrimental to the general mass.

Nevertheless, his essential distinction is a something superadded to whatever excellence, the animals around him can display. If any wish to draw a line that shall effectually distinguish man from brute, let them examine his mental faculties without prejudice; and select their instances without partiality; a condi et, which, we are sorry to say, is rare. deny not that brutes have memory, for instance, and that a certain degree of sentiment is combined with the attachment 20:4

We

of some of them towards their immediate benefactors: but this very memory fails them in the relations of consanguinity, where we should expect to find it most powerful. It never goes beyond the immediate individual. No animal regards its father: nor its mother, for any considerable length of time and its grandfather or grandmother, never. No animal looks backward, to its origin, at one remove; nor forward to the issue of its posterity. All its cares center in its immediate progeny: but it erects no dwelling, for distant descendants, nor plants oaks for the benefit of children's children. What is presented to it, it enjoys: but the intentional cultivator is man. An animal can take advantage of a fire, already kindled; but can neither kindle a fire, nor continue it, by the addition of fuel. It can form no estimate of what it does not behold, nor communicate information that shall benefit distant generations. It acknowledges no superior but brutal strength: wisdom, or benevolence, it never contemplates, and never resembles. It therefore knows no divinity, and performs no worship: yet this power is the mark of rationality; as the exertion of it is the glory of an intelligent being.

Since, then, we consider the rational and intellectual powers of man, as the true distinction of his nature, we are little affected by the question, whether his figure be matchless among animals? We believe it is: we feel its superior beauty: we acknowledge in it a grace, a finishing, which has no equal, and which need fear no rival. But, had the human frame been allied in form to that of the ox or the sheep, still possessing a mental and spiritual resident, we should have thought it entitled to a clear superiority of rank; which would have reduced the question of its configuration to little importance.

Dr. Jarrold is desirous of proving that the bodily frame of man differs from that of all animals, though some may closely resemble it; and that nature has established a decide: distinction between that race of men, which the vanity of superior civilization affects to class as the lowest, and that race of anthropomorphous animals which the lucubrations of science insist on considering as the highest. He denies that the principle of gradation applies to man and brute; and insists,

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that the interval between the two subjects is too distant to be measured by any degrees comprised in that scale. He takes an extensive view of the system connected with his subject, and considers the gradation from a mineral to a vegetable, and from a supposed vegetable to an animal. He proves that the human race is of one species: and appeals to the parts of the human figure to substantiate his sentiment. He examines the bones of the members, trunk, and head separately; the countenance and its features, the hair, the colour of the skin, and whatever else can be deemed allied to the purpose of his inquiry.

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We cannot praise the style of his volume for its fascination, or, indeed, for its correctness; and his arrangement is far from being the best that ingenuity might have devised. The general reader will recollect some facts to which the Dr. has not adverted; and some to which he alludes, though too slightly, at the close of his work, might, with greater propriety, have been introduced much earlier, and treated with greater attention.

We shall explain ourselves, by instancing the fact, that the descendants of the Portuguese settlers in Africa, are now as thoroughly black as the negroes themselves. It would have been perfectly agreeable to the Doctor's subject, and course of reasoning, if he had acquired some information on the length of time in which this change in their appearance was effected. We believe that the remark may be traced for more than a century, and consequently, that century is not to be included in the time necessary to produce this new coloration. The conduct pursued by those settlers, whether they married wholly among themselves, or, occasionally mixed with the natives, and, could they be obtained, observations on the progress and gradually encreasing intensity of their complexions, the alterations thereby produced in the health of the subjects, and the change of diseases which accompanied the change of colour, would have been very interesting and instructive. should have been glad, too, if, as Dr. J. procured the mensuration of the heights, limbs, &c. of a number of negroes, some of these African-Portuguese could have been submitted to the same accuracy. We might then have determined, whether the conformation and proportion of the bones,

We

have really been affected by climate: or whether the musculage and skin only. Other questions also might be asked; as whether these Portuguese carry their heads on the spinal pivot at the same angle of elevation as the negroes? and whether this has any effect on the formation of their skull, as derived from the weight of the brain? as the Dr. suggests, concerning the negroes. In short, this instance, with the reasonings which it might have supported, would have been in our opinion, of great importance: Dr. J. however, does little more than mention it, when about to terminate his disquisi tion.

But, though we do not find in this work, what we could wish for, and what perhaps is not to be obtained in this country, if at all, yet we shall readily acknowledge our obligations to the author, for some of his hints. His volume contains much that is commendable; and the constant reference maintained by the Dr. to the operations of Divine Providence as the great first cause, has its influence on our mind, though we trust it does not bias our opinion.

terials are employed; they are essential to the building, but independent of each other; where is the analogy, where the link, between wood and lime? in their nature they are distinct, but their assistance is mutual. Among rank, but here a new order commences, for intelligent beings we are informed there is dependance ceases: some are more perfect and more pure than man; they are our superiors, but they are not an improvement upon us; they are not linked so us; they were created for a given purpose, and would be what they are had man never existed.

Every fact in natural history that tends to elucidate a difficult question is valuable : we therefore insert an observation on the migration of birds. If it could be discovered what other birds travel to double this distance, and what others, again, exceed those, and so on, the progress of this scale might afford interesting conclusions.

That district of the county of Essex which lies between Colchester and Harwich is visited annually by large flocks of rooks; they stay about two or three months, lodging at night in the woods of the country, and then return, it is said, to the rookeries in Norfolk, a distance of at least eighty miles; be that as it may, it is certain that their residence is at a considerable distance, by the elevation at These birds are not commonly birds of paswhich they are seen when on their passage. sage, they want food, and by instinct search for it in fulfilling this first law of nature they are compelled to go to a considerable distance: but it is by instruction of the old that the young are directed.

The following paragraph is a specimen of the writer's manner: a manner liable to strong objections, whatever we think of the sentiment. The "pedestal" does not surpass the other parts of a column in execution, the Dr. meant to say "the capital;"-recollecting we suppose, Mr. Burke's "Corinthian capital of polished society." If the "assistance is mutual," of various materials employed in a building, how can they be "independent of each other" ?-A moment's reflecit tion would prove that "superior intelligences" may be "an improvement" on humanity-whether or not they are "linked to us."

In the view I take of the subject, no chain can be traced as the order of nature; her works are never incomplete; the present is not an improvement on the past, for she is not instructed by experience, nor does she depress and humble by marks of inferiority; her object is to benefit. A column is not built, of which man is the pedestal, surpassing the other r parts only in execution, utility is the basis of her plan: the whole circle of nature is reciprocally beneficial: there is dependance without rank, usefulness without honour: one vast whole is constituted, of which the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. In erecting a house, various ma

:

On the immediate subject of his inquiries, Dr. J. observes

is an excellent quality misapplied, when To aim at superiority is natural to man; future good is not the object.

the first of human beings: the Chinese look The American Indians think themselves down with contempt almost on other nations; they, and they alone, are great: Europeans presume that the Africans are an inferior race of men, but although they are agreed in thus thinking of the Africans, they have not determined which among themselves is the greatest. The Swiss, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Englishman, each sets up his claim at superiority, and treats with disdain the pretensions of the other. Even unlettered nations, beyond the confines of Europe, besides the Indians of America, fancy themselves great. The Tartar, the Arab, are vain of their imagined excellency; they are fierce in war, and they are ignorant of their neighbouring nations, and hence fancy in

themselves an innate superiority. To mix the blood of a Tartar chief with a Persian, would pollute it.

The same principle runs through the world; there is a consciousness of greatness in every man. He ought to prize the feeling as one of the noblest his nature is capable of, and to lament its perversion; for when directed to wrong objects, it produces the worst of consequences. Compare Panorama, Vol. V. p. 675.

We approve of the comparison instituted between the anatomy of different nations of men, and wish it had been carried further. The result of a number of measurements of the length of the arms of negroes, compared with those of the same member in Europeans,

Establishes the general fact of the superior length of the fore-arm of the African; it also marks a difference between those Europeans measured by Mr. W. and those by Serjeant Brunton; for, on casting up the different columns, I find this to be the result: -A Scotchman, six feet in height, has, ou an average, a fore-arm twelve inches long; an Englishman, supposing the measures of Mr. W. a standard for the nation, of six feet high, has a fore-arm eleven inches and a half; but the fore-arm of an African, of the same height, is twelve inches and a half in length. Thus the Scotchman is the midway between the Englishman and the negro.From hence we learn, and to the sculptor the information must be interesting, that in a well-proportioned person, the fore-arm is to the height of the person, as 1 to 6; in other words, the fore-arm is one inch long to every six inches of stature.

But that part of the monkey which is most characteristic of the genus, is the length of the hand. Now it happens, that the hand of a Scotchman, according to the observations I have been able to make, is longer than that of an African. The longest hand of an African I ever measured, was that of Henry of Leith; a man six feet in height, whose hand, from the wrist to the extremity of the middle finger, measured eight inches and a half. By turning to the measure taken by Serjeant Brunton, it will be seen, that it is not so long as some of those he had measured. Thus,

on the doctrine advanced by Mr. White, the Scotch are no further removed from the genus simia than the Africans. I do not know how

I could better refute the theory of that get tleman, than by such evidence as this.

This subject is capable of further elucidation. Laplanders should be measured, as one extreme of the human race in shortness; and because they live as far north, as man can subsist [From the

best delineations that we have seen of them, (and we have seen modern ones, apparently very correct) we incline to think, that they would be found longarmed.]-Patagonians, also, as a tall race, living as far south as their continent extends. The Hottentots may be thought no perfect specimen of African comeliness; yet something might be learned from them; and the Caffries, who are praised by Mr. Daniel as models of manly beauty, should also be examined, in order to do this enquiry justice. We need not say, that other members, as the legs, &c, should be included in such examination.

Speaking of the countenance and its parts, our author pays great attention to the eyes, and their sockets. But it never seems to have occurred to him, that the eye being the member most sensibly affected and influenced by light the degree of force with which the light of the sun impinges on it, by reflection from objects, the power of the rays admitted by the pupil, and the degree of elevation of the luminary itself, may affect the eye, and thereby the manner of carrying the head. The quantity of light in activity daily at the equator, is very great; the desire of shade by the, eye is in proportion; the manner of looking, also, is differeat by night, by twilight, and by day.

The eye-sockets of negroes, of monkeys, of sheep, of birds, and of fishes, are very similar to each other; they are round; and thus the fact is established, that in this respect the negro and the ape resemble each other. But there is another fact, which cannot fail of being interesting: the children of Europeans, in short, of those very persons who plume themselves on their superiority over the Africans, resemble them also; any pers son, who has seen the skull of an infant, must have been struck with the roundness of the eye-sockets. Thus the resemblance is brought home, and the children of Europeans are placed in the same connexion with animals that negroes are. It is true, this resemblance continues no longer than the years of infantry; afterwards they become less round; but why so? It is because the nature of the child is altered, is it essentially less like a negro than it was? Certainly not. the brain, in infantry it is soft and pliant The upper part of the eye-socket supports similar to the other bones of the system, and yields on pressure, and thus their form is accounted for. Where the pressure is small, the roundness which is commom at birth to both Europeans and Africans, and I migla add, to the whole animal creation, is bat

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