The Negrito race presents a marked ap proximation to the physical characters of the true Negro. The skull is of the prognathous type ; the nose is flattened, the nostrils ex panded laterally, the lips thickened, and the complexion a deep brown, or even black. The character of the hair varies considerably ; for in some cases it is long and straight. (fig. 827.); and in others, crisp and frizzly ; and in others, even woolly (figs. 805, 806.). By Dr. Prichard and others a distinction was drawn between those with straight, and those with woolly hair; but the validity of this can scarcely be maintained, since it appears that the very same people may present one or the other kind of hair, according, as it would seem, to the climatic and other conditions under which they exist. The Negrito race not only inhabits the area which is more exclusively its own, but is also believed to exist in the interior of ninny of the larger island; of the Indian Archipelago ; it is not always cer tain, however, whether the people whose pre sence there is reported, are Negritoes or dark Malays. There are many indications, indeed that the Malayo-Polynesian and Negrito races are not really so distinct, as the marked dis similarity of their respective physical types, and the complete want of conformity between their languages, would make it appear. For as, on the one hand, some of the subdivisions of the former present a decided tendency to wards the prognathous character, and the depth of-complexion, which are typical of the latter, so among the latter we do find a lighter shade of skin, a greater symmetry of skull, and a considerable improvement in form and fea ture, not unrrequently displaying themselves ; as is the case, for example, with some of the Papuans, or inhabitants of New Guinea, and even occasionally with the Australian abori gines, notwithstanding that the physiognomy of the latter generally exhibits a very manifest degradation (fig. 852.) The relations of the language of the different branches of this race to each other, and to other languages, have not yet been clearly developed. They appear, however, to possess a general community of structure, with differences in the vocabulary ; and such differences present themselves very prominently among some of the languages of Australian tribes, whose common origin can not be questioned. According to Dr. Latham, they contain a considerable infusion of Malay words ; hut this is scarcely enough to establish their community of origin with the languages of the Malayo-Polynesian stock. Some other affinities have been pointed out by Dr. Prich ard ; but these, it is remarkable, are not so intimate as those which subsist between the Australian and the Tamulian of Southern India. Remote as the connection seems, this circumstance adds weight to the idea, that the native Australians are an offset from that southern branch of the great nomadic stock of Central Asia, which seems early to have spread itself through the Indian and Indo Chinese peninsula.
It is commonly believed that there is no people, excepting the most degraded of the Negroes and the Bushmen of the Cape, whose physical condition is so miserable, or whose mental development is so low, as that of the Australian aborigines ; but the testimony of those who have visited them in their native haunts, where as yet they have been uncontaminated by contact with Europeans, and have not suffered from the deprivation of the land which affords them the means of subsistence, is very decided regard to the exaggeration which has prevailed on this point. In particular it may be re marked, that, although they have less suscepti bility than exists among many other rude nations to religious impressions, yet it is cer tain that they are not destitute (as some have represented them to be) of all idea of a God ; they even seem to have a notion of a future state, and a belief in good and evil angels.
They have likewise a superstitious belief in magicians or sorcerers ; a belief which seems to attain its highest point among the nations of High Asia. Many complex and singular institutions, especially relating to the tenure of property, exist among them ; to which the nearest approach elsewhere is presented by the North American Indians.
Looking, then, to the great diversity which exists among the subordinate groups of which both these divisions consist, and their ten dency to mutual approximation, it cannot be shown that any sufficient reason exists for isolating them from each other ; and, as already remarked, there seems no medium between the supposition that each island had its aboriginal pair or pairs, and the doctrine that the whole of Oceania has been peopled from a common stock. Looking, again, to the very marked approximation which is presented by certain Oceanic tribes to the Mongolian type, and this in a locality which, on other grounds, might be regarded as having received the first stream of migration, the possibility, to say the least, can scarcely be denied, that the main-land furnished the original stock, which has under gone various transformations subsequentlfto its first dispersion ; these having been the re sult of climatic influence and mode of life, and having been chiefly influenced as to degree, by the length of time during which the transform ing causes have been in operation. At any rate it may be safely affirmed, that there is no physical peculiarity which entitles the Oceanic races to rank as a group, which must have ne cessarily had an original stock distinct from that of the continental nations.
On the whole then, the result of the ex tensive range of inquiries, of which an out line has now been given, may be stated as follows : 1. The extremest differences from each other, or from a common stock, presented by the races of Mankind, in regard alike to physical, physiological, and psychological peculiarities, are not greater in degree than those which are known to arise amongst other species of animals possessed of a similar adaptive capacity, under the influence of changes in external con ditions; and they differ only in degree, not in kind, from those of whose origin in a change of external conditions, in the case of mankind, we have adequate evidence.
2. In whatever mode the types of the prin cipal varieties are selected, they are found to be connected by intermediate or transitional gradations ; the descendants of each principal stock exhibiting, in a greater or less degree, a capability of approximation to the characters of others.
3. There is nothing in these diversities, therefore, to justify the erection of specific distinctions among the different races of Man kind ; and, whilst a probability of the unity of their original stock may consequently be said to exist, all scientific evidence points to the conclusion, that, if the original stocks were multiple, they must have had attributes es sentially the same.
4. The supposition of a number of distinct " protoplasts," one for each principal region of the globe, is not required to account for the extension of the human family over its area, and it does not afford any assistance in ac counting for the phenomena of their existing distribution ; since each principal geogra phical area contains races of very diversified physical characters, the affinity of whose lan guages makes it next to certain that they must have had a common descent.