[49]. This and the other illustrations in this chapter are taken from Prichard, “Natural History of Man.”
[50]. Meiners was so struck with the repulsive appearance of the greater part of humanity that he imagined a very simple system of classification, containing only two categories—the beautiful, namely the white race, and the ugly, which includes all the others (Grundriss der Geschichte der Menschheit). The reader will see that I have not thought it necessary to go through all the ethnological theories. I only mention the most important.
[51]. Prichard, op. cit. (2nd edition, 1845), p. 112.
[52]. Prichard, p. 116.
[53]. Ibid., pp. 117–18.
[54]. Carus, op. cit., from which the following details are taken.
[55]. There are some apparently trivial differences which are, however, very characteristic. A certain fullness at the side of the lower lip, that we see among Germans and English, is an example. This mark of Germanic origin may also be found in some faces of the Flemish School, in the Rubens Madonna at Dresden, in the Satyrs and Nymphs in the same collection, in a Lute-player of Mieris, &c. No craniological method can take account of such details, though they have a certain importance, in view of the mixed character of our races.
[56]. Job Ludolf, whose data on this subject were necessarily very incomplete and inferior to those we have now, is none the less opposed to the opinion accepted by Prichard. His remarks on the black race are striking and unanswerable, and I cannot resist the pleasure of quoting them: “It is not my purpose to speak here about the blackness of the Ethiop; most people may, if they will, attribute it to the heat of the sun and the torrid zone. Yet even within the sun’s equatorial path there are peoples who, if not white, are at least not quite black. Many who live outside either tropic are further from the Equator than the Persians or Syrians—for instance, the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope, who, however, are absolutely black. If you say that blackness belongs solely to Africa and the sons of Ham, you must still allow that the Malabars and the Cingalese and other even more remote peoples of Asia are equally black. If you regard the climate and soil as the reason, then why do not white men become black when they settle down in these regions? If you take refuge in ‘hidden qualities,’ you would do better to confess your ignorance at once” (Jobus Ludolfus, Commentarium ad Historiam Æthiopicam). I will add a short and conclusive passage of Mr. Pickering. He speaks of the regions inhabited by the black race in these words: “Excluding the northern and southern extremes, with the tableland of Abyssinia, it holds all the more temperate and fertile parts of the Continent.” Thus it is just where we find most of the pure negroes that it is least hot ... (Pickering, “The Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution.” The essay is to be found in the “Records of the United States’ Exploring Expedition during the Years 1838–42,” vol. ix).
[57]. Prichard, p. 124.
[58]. Neither the Swiss nor the Tyrolese, nor the Highlanders of Scotland, nor the Balkan Slavs, nor the Himalaya tribes have the same hideous appearance as the Quichuas.