Another instance of the same modification is to be found in the Magyar race, which forms a large part of the population of Hun gary, including the entire nobility of that country. This race, which is not inferior in physical or mental characters to any in Europe, is proved by historical and philolo gical evidence to have been a branch of the great Northern Asiatic stock, which was ex pelled about ten centuries since from the country it then inhabited (which bordered on the Uralian mountains), and, in its turn, ex pelled the Slavonian nations from the fertile parts of Hungary, which it has occupied ever since. Having thus exchanged their abode, from the most rigorous climate of the old Continent, —a wilderness in which Ostiaks and Samoiedes pursue the chase during only the mildest season, — for one in the South of Europe, amid fertile plains abounding in rich harvests, the Magyars gradually laid aside the rude and savage habits which they are recorded to have brought with them, and adopted a more settled mode of life. In the course of a thou sand years, their type of cranial conformation has been changed from the pyramidal to the elliptical ; and they have become a handsome people, with fine stature and regular Euro pean features, with just enough of the Tartar cast of countenance, in some instances, to recal their origin to mind. Here, again, it may be said that the intermixture of the con quering with the conquered race has had a great share in bringing about this change ; but a similar reply must be returned ; for the existing Magyars pride themselves greatly on the purity of their descent ; and the small infusion of Slavonic blood, which may have taken place from time to time, is by no means sufficient to account for the complete change of type which now manifests itself. The women of pure Magyar race are said by good judges to be singularly beautiful, far surpass ing either German or Slavonian females. A similar modification, but less in degree, ap pears to have taken place among the Finnish tribes of Scandinavia. These may be almost certainly affirmed to have had the same origin with the Lapps * ; but whilst the latter re tain (although inhabiting Europe) the no madic habits of their Mongolian ancestors, the former have adopted a much more settled mode of life, and have made considerable ad vances in civilisation, especially in Esthonia, where they assimilate with their Russian neigh bours. And thus we have in the Lapps, Finns, and Magyars, three nations or tribes, of whose descent from a common stock no reasonable doubt can be entertained, and which yet exhibit the most marked differences in cranial characters, and also in general con formation, the Magyars being as tall and well made, as the Lapps are short and uncouth.
Another instance of the same kind, which is still more remarkable if it can be entirely substantiated, is the conversion of the Geor gian and Caucasian nations from the pyra midal or Mongolian to the elliptical or Indo European type. The designation Caucasian seems to have been given to the latter on the following most unsatisfactory ground. " Blu menbach had a solitary Georgian skull ; and that solitary skull was the finest in his collec tion, that of a Greek being next. Hence it was taken as the type of the skull of the more organised divisions of the species. More than this, it gave its name to the type, and introduced the term Caucasian."t Now the fact is, that the Georgian and Circassian nations are composed of an assemblage of tribes inhabiting a mountainous coun try, speak ing languages almost unintelligible to each other, and remarkably isolated from the na tions which inhabit the countries border ing on theirs. The beauty of form and feature, and the delicacy of complexion, which charac terise individuals and families among these tribes, are well known (fig. 826.) and have led to a regular consignment of the youth of both sexes to the Turkish market, the females to be introduced into the harems, whilst the youths are valued for their superior energy and intelligence, and are frequently adopted as sons. But these attributes are for the most part confined to the families of the and they are carefully cherished by exemp tion from labour, and by seclusion from undue exposure. The common people, who are en gaged in the cultivation of the soil, are de scribed by travellers as being for the most part coarse and unshapely. —Now from a careful comparison and analysis of the lan guages of these races, Dr. Latham and Mr. Norris have independently arrived, on different grounds (the one from the words and the other from the grammar), at the same result ; namely, that they are aptotic, or destitute of inflexions, like the Chinese ; and that the people must have been of Mongolian origin, but separated from the common stock at a very early period ; the perpetuation of the low development of their language being fa voured by the peculiar characters of the ' country in which they located themselves, whilst these same characters tended to modify their physical conformation. For the area
which they occupy is at once temperate, mountainous, and wooded ; "in other words," as Dr. Latham remarks, " the reverse of the true Mongol areas." And thus, if this view should be confirmed, we must regard the very people which has been selected as fur nishing the type of the most perfect con formation, as an improved race of a decidedly inferior stock.
The Negro type is one which is not unfre quently cited as an example of the perma nence of the physical characters of races, and especially of types of cranial conformation. The existing Ethiopian physiognomy is said to agree with the representations transmitted to us from the remotest times in Egyptian pictures ; and this physiognomy, it is further maintained, continues to be transmitted un changed from parent to child, even where the transportation of a Negro population to tem perate climates and civilised associates (as in the United States of America) has entirely changed the external conditions, of their ex istence. Now it is perfectly true that the Negro races which continue to inhabit their original localities, and maintain their barba rous habits of life, retain the prognathous type ; and this is precisely, what we should expect. But it is not true that no modifica tion has taken place in them, either under the influence of civilisation,. or from a change in the physical conditions of their existence. For the most elevated forms of skull occurring among the African nations, are found in those which have emerged in a greater.or less degree from their original barbarism ;: their civilis ation having been due to external influences brought to bear upon them. We shall here after see that there is strong evidence that even the Syro-Arabian or Semitic nations may be referred to the African stock ; at any rate, there are numerous tribes in the interior of Africa, whose affinity with the true Negroes cannot be disputed, and which yet present a far superior cranial organisation ; so that we must either regard the one form to be the result of improvement, or the other to have preceded from degeneration. In regard to the transplanted Negroes, it is obvious that the time which has elapsed since their re moval, is as yet too short to justify us in ex pecting any considerable alteiation in cranial configuration. Many of the Negroes now living in the West Indian islands are natives of Africa ; and a large prepartion of the Negro population, both there and in the United States, are removed by no more than one or two descents from their African progenitors. The climate, too, of the southern states of the North American Union, as of the West Indies, is not very different from that of the Guinea Coast, in regard to temperature ; and the low undrained character of much of the soil which they are employed in cultivating, still further tends to keep up the correspond ence. Still, according to the concurrent testimony of disinterested observers, both in the West Indies and in the United States, an approximation in the Negro physiognomy to the European model is progressively taking place, in instances in which, although there has been no intermixture of European blood, the influence of a higher civilisation has been powerfully exercised for a lengthened period. This is particularly the case with Negroes employed as domestic servants. Dr. Han cock, a most intelligent physician of Guiana, even asserts that it is frequently not at all difficult to distinguish a Negro of pure blood, belonging to the Dutch portion of the colony, from another belonging to the English settle ments, by the correspondence between the features and expression of each, and those which are characteristic of their respective masters. This alteration, too, is not confined to a change of form in the skull, or to a di minution in the projection of the jaw ; but it is also seen in the general figure, and in the form of the soft parts, as the lips and nose. And the writer has been informed by Sir Charles Lyell, that during his recent tour in America, he was assured by numerous me dical men residing in the slave states of the North American Union, that a gradual ap proximation is taking place in the configura tion of the head and body of the Negroes to the European model, each successive gene ration exhibiting an improvement in these respects. The change is most apparent in such as are brought into closest and most -habitual relation with the whites (as by do mestic servitude), without any actual inter mixture of races, which would be at once be trayed by the change of complexion, and by the more strongly marked indications of hybridism.