writer has been accomplished, if he has succeeded only so far as to suggest reasons why we should trust our Maker, and appeal directly to Himself for the enlightenment and purity we need, this work will not be worthless.

But there is more than we can see,

And what we see we leave unsaid.

APPENDIX.

THE NEGRO.

WHATEVER the place of the negro may be in nature, his displacement in fact has disturbed the conscience of all Christendom. Those who dislike his colour have yet used him for their profit, and completed their injustice by denying his claim to be deemed quite a man, and would decide the question by measuring their brains with his. The result, however, is not so favourable to the self-measurers as they fancied it ought to be. Thus, Tiedemann states, as the sum of his observation, that 'the brain of the negro is, upon the whole, quite as large as that of European and other human races; the weight of the brain, its dimensions, and the capacity of the skull prove this fact.'*

But Blumenbach's, Knox's, and Lawrence's conclusions do not quite accord with those of Tiedemann. Presuming that these anatomists took equal care with him to avoid error, all we can infer from their facts is, that the negro crania and cerebra which they examined were inferior specimens. The same variety of conclusion would arise if several anatomists were to measure a certain number of English skulls and brains taken from different parts of this country. Those of the Yorkshire peasantry, for instance, would considerably exceed in volume those from Dorset and Devon. As in this case we should be justified only in supposing that the cranial capacity of Englishmen differed, so are we to conclude from the

* Philosophical Transactions, 1836.

diversity of statement by the several anatomists named, that some negro brains and skulls are equal in capacity to those of some Europeans, and others not. That the educated classes have larger heads than the uncultivated, is a fact observed by hatters.

M. Carl Vogt* estimates the capacity of the negro skull after Drs. Aitken Meigs and Morton. The method adopted was filling the skull with small shot, and ascertaining the measure in cubic centimètres. Of negroes in general 76 skulls were measured, and the average volume gives the cubic number 1347-66, according to Meigs, and 1361 according to Morton. If we compare these numbers with those numbers representing the average measure of 341 skulls of Americans in general, we find the negroes have the advantage, the Americans being only 1315 17. Negroes born in Africa have, according to Dr. A. Meigs, larger skulls than negroes born in America. It appears, therefore, that the domestic 'institution,' slavery, degrades man even more than mere savageness and the wild licence of ignorance and vice.

Even if, then, with Dr. Hunt,† we assume that the researches of Dr. Morton, of America, and those of his successor, Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, are the most satisfactory extant, we obtain a very good place for the negro's cerebral development. Dr. Meigs found that, in this respect, the negro is next best to the European, and takes precedence of the ancient civilised races of America, the present Hindoo, and the Egyptian of all periods. Pruner-Bey says his own experience with the external measurements did not yield essentially different results.‡ It follows, then, that, as respects cranial capacity, the negro is at least quite as well formed for civilisation as the founders of Indian refinement, the builders of Mexico and Yucatan, or even those of Memphis, Thebes, and the Pyramids, to whom the Greeks acknowledged themselves indebted.

* See the table of cranial capacity in various races in Vogt's Lectures on Man, p. 88.

+ P. 13. On the Negro's Place in Nature.

Ibid.

Tiedemann, again, did not find the negro's brain to resemble that of the Oran-ûtan more than the European's, except in its greater symmetry; and it remains to be proved, that a brain out of due proportion is better adapted for its functions than one with equal sides; the oddity of form, in fact, being more probably suited to manifest that eccentricity of genius which is allied to madness.

Those who desire to see all that science and ingenuity can accomplish in tracing similarity of design in the structure of brains and skulls, may consult Huxley and Carl Vogt, but all they will learn will merely show that deviations in development are modifications of the general plan on which skulls and brains are constructed. They will see that there are essential differences between the skull and brain of the negro and those of the highest anthropoid ape. And, in fact, neither the negro's brain nor that of any race supposed to be inferior to the negro, such as the Hottentot and the Australian, presents any real approximation to the cerebral formation peculiar to the ape. * And what is true in respect to the brain is also true in respect to every organ, part, and function, for the whole body is normally in keeping with the brain and skull. Much stress has been laid on the situation of the opening through which the spinal cord is united with the brain. It is asserted to be further back in the negro, and thus rather more towards its position in the ape. It is not true if we measure the true base of the skull; it is only apparently so, from the greater projection of the upper jaw in the negro, which has no more to do with the real base of the skull than a long nose has. But the test is in the pose or the position of the cranium upon the vertebral column or backbone. The skull of the negro is balanced on that column as perfectly as the European's. The joint-surfaces are in both precisely in the centre of gravity: this is not the case in any creature but man, because he alone is formed to walk erect, and every part of his framework is constructed accordingly.

* See Mr. W. J. Marshall on the Anatomy of Bushman's Brain,' in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1863.

Shall we say that the negro is more like an ape because his jaws are somewhat more prominent than the European's in general ? Even some Englishmen enjoy almost an equal prominence of jaw, and, but for conventional notions of beauty, it is a great advantage, since they are mostly blessed with sounder and more lasting teeth in consequence. One of the penalties of over-refinement in the choice and preparation of food, together with other conditions of inordinate civilisation, has been to diminish the development of the jaw, and thus to cause the crowding of the teeth, leaving no space for their due growth and allowing particles of food to rest between them, which, together with their pressure on each other, occasions that prevalent curse of Europe, the dolor of decayed teeth. In short, our deficiency of jaw is our defect, if not a proof, of our bodily degradation. Hence the complaint that the very instruments of mastication, so essential to the initial process of converting food into life-blood, so often fail to fulfil their design, or seem intended only to test our patience and promote the profits of the dentist.

The foot of the negro being, in many instances, somewhat longer than the European's, as well as flatter, and having sometimes a more projecting heel, has been described as thus more resembling the foot of the ape. This is an entire fallacy. There is but slight analogy between any human foot and the ape's posterior paw. True, there is the same number of bones in both, and both have five sets of phalanges or rows of bones, but these phalanges in the ape constitute a thumb and four fingers, and not proper toes as in man. The ape cannot stand erect because he cannot bring his back paws flat on the ground; he has no sole to his so-called foot; and, while standing on the ground, rests entirely on the outer sides or edges of his hinder paws. In that position he is quite out of his proper place. He is formed for an arborial life, and the instrument called his foot is, in fact, constructed rather to serve as a hand. That which partially corresponds to the great toe in man is in the ape a powerful thumb, exactly adapted to oppose the four posterior fingers in grasping; and this dissimilarity extends to the muscles as well as the bones.