The plurality of the human race

by G. Pouchet

The same ideas have been resumed and defended by French anthropologists;[113] it is right, however, to remark, that Weber himself adds that varieties of every description of pelvis may be met with among the same race. That which appears certain is the fact, that in the Negro race the pelvis is, in general, sensibly smaller. This is, at least, the opinion of Camper,[114] Vrolik, Sömmering, White,[115] and Bérard,[116] who have measured a great number of them.

The facility in parturition, so remarkable among the inferior races, has therefore, as a cause, a relative smallness in the head of the fœtus, even more remarkable. For we must admit that, among these people, everything happens naturally, as among animals; it is the laborious childbirth among ourselves which is exceptional and anomalous, and which requires to be explained. This difficult and painful parturition, which we so continually see, is, doubtless, the consequence of civilisation; only it is difficult to decide what may be its immediate cause, and if this cause resides in the mother or in the fœtus. Is it the pelvis which has been made narrower in the European by some custom in our manners—by some habit of education? or must we admit—and it is a serious question—that the development of such an organ as the brain in the fœtus, is subordinate to the exercise of the functions of the same organ in the progenitors?

With the osseous system we may connect the differences of height which are so apparent. Who does not recognise that in Europe, for instance, the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans, the Norwegians, and the Albanians, are of great stature; whilst the inhabitants of the south of France, the Irish, the Spaniards,[117] and the Maltese, represent a shorter variety of the human race. The members show the most marked differences among the various races of mankind, by reason of the law which causes the modifications of organism to become more and more decided, and more and more clear from the centre to the periphery. Naturalists seek for characteristics of families and individuals in the fingers and in the teeth: it is in the extremes of an individual, in the colour of the hair or the skin, that we generally find the characteristics of species. We shall only quote in this place facts which may be the object of some particular remark.

It has been said continually that the Tartars have bowed legs, and monogenists have not failed to discover from this fact a new proof of the influences of their mode of life, so necessary in order to maintain their thesis. They discovered at first sight, in this general infirmity, a consequence of the habit of riding on horseback, without considering that the Arabs rode on horseback quite as often, and that, nevertheless, their noble bearing and straightness of limb did not suffer from it in the slightest. In tracing the source of this error, we perceive that it is a singular exaggeration of the facts stated by Pallas, who lived for so long a time amongst the Tartars. He simply says, “The sole fault in conformation which is rather frequent among them, is a bend in the arms and legs, resulting from a kind of spoon, or saddle, upon which they are always placed in their cradle, as if they were on horseback, and therefore, as soon as they learn to walk, they are obliged at every movement to accustom themselves to the position of riding.”[118] This is what Pallas says; but it is very clear that he is here speaking merely of exceptional cases, for he says higher up, “I do not remember to have ever seen a child who was a cripple. Their education, which is entirely left to nature, can only form bodies which are healthy and without a blemish.”[119] If occasionally the accounts of travellers have been exaggerated, it is not less the rule, that certain races show a conformation of the extremities very different to what it is among ourselves. Albrecht Durer has already made this remark. In the Negro, for instance, the length of the forearm is much greater than in the European. It is proportional to the height in these two races :: 107 : 100.[120]

The thumb of the Negro’s hand is also generally much less opposed to the other fingers. In certain races of mankind, the hand itself is of an extraordinary small size. This is the case among the Bosjesmans, the Chinese, the Esquimaux,[121] and the Cingalese.[122] It was the same among the races who built the grand American temples, where we find upon the stones the imprint in red of their hands.[123] The same thing has been said about the ancient population of northern Europe, who were ignorant of the use of iron, and only used weapons made of bronze.[124] But the study of the magnificent collection of Scandinavian antiquities in the Berlin Museum, has not proved to ourselves that the hilts of all these arms were as small as has been pretended.

The foot varies not less. The Negro races of the Oceanic Islands, and of Africa, appear to show an exaggerated development of the heel-bone. MM. Quoy and Gaimard have especially remarked it among the inhabitants of Vanikoro. In fact, there is hardly anybody who will forget, when once he has seen it, the special aspect of the instep in the Negro, ridged with numerous folds commencing from beneath the ankle. This is, besides, a particular mark, which is far from showing itself, as may be well believed, among all people who walk without foot-covering. The foot of the Nubians, and especially that of the females, shows quite different characteristics. The five metatarsi seem to rest their whole length upon the ground, without being shaped by the instep; their anterior extremities are slightly diverted, the toes having the same spaces between them, so that the foot is flat, but otherwise than by the faulty conformation to which we give this name among ourselves. This structure is, besides, perfectly represented in all Egyptian statues without exception, and more sensibly, indeed, if we compare with those which are in the galleries of the British Museum, a fragment of a colossal foot,[125] found also in Egypt, at Alexandria, but evidently of Greek or Roman origin; the toes are close together, the great toe alone being separated, the upper part of the foot being arched, as among Europeans.

This resemblance between all the Egyptian statues and the foot of the inhabitants of Upper Egypt, or Nubia, cannot be an accidental circumstance. It is, besides, a veritable problem in anthropology, to determine its value in accordance with the monumental iconography of the ancient Egyptians. M. A. Maury has determined with precision the authority of the portraits—almost all alike—which cover the walls of the temples. We ourselves, when visiting the famous cavern of Abou-Simbel, were far from finding all that the writings of certain anthropologists and partisans of Egyptian art, such as Gliddon, Nott, etc., had promised us. Doubtless, one can perfectly distinguish certain types,[126] that is indisputable;[127] but to desire to find a people in each portrait,—Scythians, Arabs, Philistines, Lydians, Kurds, Hindoos, Jews, Chinese, Tyrians, Pelasgians, Ionians, etc.,—is it not to give too great an influence to the Egyptian artists, who were copyists without skill, and but clumsy inventors? Egyptian art, whatever may have been said of it, has always been very much farther from being a copy of nature than Grecian art; the one tended to the ideal, the other tended to transform it. Certain trees which we see thrown down in the bas-relief of the great temple of Karnak, are assuredly pure imagination. It may have been the same with many other subjects to which a scientific value has been given.

Let us return to anatomical differences, and to that which has, since antiquity, most vividly struck the masses, as well as serious investigators. We are going to speak about those colours in the skin of man which run through almost the whole of the chromatic scale, from dead white to the deepest brown.[128] There is no system which has not been thought of in order to explain these differences, even up to the influence of Noah’s curse.[129]

Unfortunately, we are wanting in those histological and chemical researches which are necessary in order to form the bases of a complete history of the colours of the skin in the human race.[130] We can merely say, that the recent works upon certain morbid states, such as Addison’s disease, and others which may approach it, by making us acquainted with the pathological circumstances under which the European with a white skin becomes almost as black as a Negro, and by identical anatomical modifications, have nearly proved that atmospheric phenomena have not the influence which monogenists give to them, and that the first origin of the colour of the epidermis in the human race resides rather in the depths of the organism, inaccessible to celestial radiation.[131]

The varieties which the pilous system presents is the chief point, and equal at least in importance to those of the cutaneous system. If we think that a classification of races, based simply upon the characteristics of the hair, as has been proposed,[132] would leave much to be desired, and would be far too artificial, we do not doubt, however, but that the pilous system can furnish indications of great value when they have been combined in a wise manner with other characteristics, as Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire has done.[133] Doubtless, the colours of the hair, from flaxen to black, and from brown to red, are innumerable in France, and as generally so in countries where the mixture of races has been carried as far as possible; but it must be remembered that among a purer population, less mixed with foreign blood, the constancy of characteristics taken from the hair is remarkably great.[134] Besides, the differences which present themselves do not relate merely to colour; the hair of a race of men may be either smooth, or woolly, or crisped, for in general these two latter terms are wrongly and indifferently used, when they ought really to point out two particular and distinct states. It is thus that the inhabitants of Lower Nubia, for instance, who have a very deep shade of colour, possess curled hair, truly woolly, and quite different to that of the Negro, whose hair is really crisped.[135] Other characteristics may be demanded from the length of the hair, from its transverse section,—the figure of which may vary considerably,—from its flexibility or its quantity; in fact, even from its manner of being placed in the head, the arrangement of which upon the scalp has never been properly studied, and which may, perhaps, vary with the different races of mankind. In fact, human hairs, like that of many mammalia, are not placed at equal distances the one from the other; they approach each other in little groups. This is especially seen in the nape of the neck, and among the Negro race much more so than among the Europeans.