The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach ..
Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, 1752-1840 | Bendyshe, Thomas | Marx, K. F. H. (Karl Friedrich Heinrich), 1796-1877 | Flourens, P. (Pierre), 1794-1867 | Wagner, Rudolph, 1805-1864 | Hunter, John, d. 1809
Hial Hfl raw KHk lt-tbrnru ul (Mk w ~\i#ak SB Hnl m KMMBll ^^^^m ■ ■ mi ■■■■I I ■ #" IB HHH H Ess? HI ■H ■■■9 raKSI BM BhH HI ijlnifflfml HBmH # H H ■ I ■ H H9 M ■■1 KB BhhI ■■1 HNnffl p m ■ ■ Hh £$85 fen HG Hi <^: BBS RHffiBHMHslraraJG Hi ■11 mm mm Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/anthropologicaltOOblum ^ufclicattcmg of tfre THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL TREATISES OF BLUMENBACH AND HUNTER. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL TREATISES OF JOHANN FRIEDRICH BLDMENBACH, LATE PROFESSOR AT GOTTINGEN AND COURT PHYSICIAN TO THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN. WITH MEMOIRS OF HIM BY MARX AND FLOURENS, AND AN ACCOUNT OF HIS ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM BY PROFESSOR R. WAGNER, THE INAUGURAL DISSERTATION OF JOHN HUNTER, M.D. ON THE VARIETIES OF MAN. TRANSLATED AND EDITED FROM THE LATIN, GERMAN, AND FRENCH ORIGINALS, THOMAS BENDYSHE, M.A., V.P.A.S.L. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY, BY 'LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 1865. 52f5\D EDITOE'S PEEFACE. The Works of Blumenbach edited in this volume are the first and third or last edition of his famous Treatise On the Na- tural Variety of Mankind ; which were published in 1775 and 1795 respectively: the Contributions to Natural History, in two parts; and a slight notice of three skulls which appeared in the Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen of Nov. 1833, only remark- able for being the last printed utterance of the author. Two Memoirs of Blumenbach have been prefixed, which contain together almost everything of interest concerning the circum- stances of his life. I have also added an account of his once famous anthropological collection, written by his successor, now himself lately deceased, Professor Rudolph Wagner, one of the original Honorary Fellows of the Anthropological Society, London. Blumenbach has related in the little autobiographical frag- ment, which has been incorporated by Marx in his memoir, the causes which led to his selection of an anthropological subject as the thesis for his doctoral dissertation. It was delivered in 1775, and reprinted word for word in 1776. A second edition, enlarged by as much as would make about Vlll EDITORS PREFACE. fifteen printed pages uniform with this translation, was issued in 1781 ; and finally a third in 1795, which in arrangement and matter was almost a new work. I hesitated some time as to which of the two first editions it would be most satis- factory to give to the public; for, on the one hand, the first is obviously most interesting for the history of the science, and the additional matter contained in the second has scarce any intrinsic value in the present day; but, on the other hand, in the first mankind is divided into four races only, and the now famous division of the Caucasian, Asiatic, American, Ethiopian, and Malay races, occurs for the first time in the edition of 1781. To give them both in their entirety would have perhaps been less troublesome to myself, but certainly tedious to the reader, for not only are the Plates the same, but much the greater part of the second edition is a mere repetition. At last I determined to use the first as my text, and appended in a note the important pentagenist arrangement. Accordingly the translation has been made from the reprint of 1776, which differs in the title-page alone, and that I have taken from the copy in the British Museum. The preface To the Reader has been omitted as of no value. But this is not the case with the Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, which forms the preface to the third edition of 1795, and contains a system of natural history, with appendices giving an account of Blumenbach's Collection as it then was. The Contributions to Natural History consists of two parts ; the first of which went through two editions. The first in 1790, and the second, from which the translation is made, in 1806. The second part appeared in 1811. That part in the ori- ginal is composed of two sections ; the first upon Peter, the Wild Boy, and wild boys in general: and the second on Egyptian EDITOR S PREFACE. ix mummies. This latter essay, as may be supposed, is considerably behind the knowledge of the present day, and though in it, as well as in that written by Blumenbach in English and printed in the Philosophical Transactions of 1794, he had observed the varieties in the national character of the Egyptian mummies and artistic representations, yet the whole essay has been pronounced lately by a competent writer to be "in some sort not worthy of that great authority1." The fact that the incisors of the mummies resembled in shape the molar teeth was thought by Blumenbach to be a discovery of much greater importance than modern writers are willing to allow. I have therefore come to the conclusion that it is not worth while to edit this part of the Contributions, especi- ally as it is quite distinct by itself, and has no immediate bear- ing on general anthropology. The treatise On the Natural Variety of Mankind cannot be considered obsolete even at the present day. All subsequent writers, including Lawrence, Prichard, Waitz, &c, have ac- knowledged their obligations and proved them, especially Law- rence, by borrowing largely from it. "Blumenbach may still be considered a chief authority," says Waitz2. And his classi- fication of mankind, though avowedly neither final nor rigidly scientific, has survived a very considerable number of preten- tious improvements, and still holds its ground in the latest elementary text-books of ethnology8. "The illustrious natu- ralist, in whom, after Buffon, we ought to acknowledge the father of anthropology, has made two important advances in 1 Perier (J. A. N.), Sur Veihnogenie Egyptienne. Mem. de la Soc. de V Anthro- pologic de Pans, Tom. I. p. 443. 2 p. 29. Eng. Trl. by J. F. Collingwood. 8vo. Lond. 1863. 3 See Page D. Introductory Text Booh of Physical Geography, p. 178, Edinb. and Lond. 1863, nmo. X EDITORS PREFACE. that science, in his views on the classification of races. Although he continued to place at the head of all the characteristics that derived from colour, Blumenbach is the first who founded his classification in great part on those presented by the general conformation of the head, so different in different races, as to the proportion of the skull to the face, and of the encephalon to the organs of sense and the jaws. This progress led also to a second. It is because Blumenbach attributed a great importance to that order of characteristics ; it is because he was the first who devoted himself to determine exactly, by the assistance of a great number of observations, the essential elements which distinguished the types of man that he was also the first who made a very clear distinction of several races in which it is impossible to fail of recognizing so many natural groups. Thus it has happened that these races, after having been once introduced into science by Blumenbach, have been retained there; and we may assert that they will always be retained, with some rectifications in their charac- teristics and in their several boundaries. But are the five races of Blumenbach the only ones possible to distinguish in mankind ? And if all the five must be considered as natural groups, is it proper to place them in the same rank, and allow them all the same zoological value ? Blumenbach himself did not think this. " In the first place his five races are not the only ones whose existence he is disposed to admit; but what is very different, the five principal ones. Varietates quince principes, says Blu- menbach in his treatise On the Varieties of Mankind. He uses the same expression in his Representations. The unequal im- portance of these races in a zoological point of view, is also, at least by implication, admitted by Blumenbach. Of the five races there are three which he considers above all as the princi- EDITOR S PREFACE. XI pal races; and therefore he deals with those first. These are the Caucasian, which is not only for Blumenbach the most beautiful, and that to which the pre-eminence belongs, but the primitive race; then, the Mongolian and Ethiopian, in which the author sees the extreme degenerations of the human species. As to the other races, they are only for Blumenbach, transitional : that is, the American is the passage from the Caucasian to the Mongolian; and the Malay, from the Caucasian to the Ethiopian. These two races are put off till the last, instead of being treated of intermediately, as they ought to be, if they were not considered as divisions of an inferior rank. " It is apparent that Blumenbach was more or less aware of three truths whose importance no one can dispute in anthropo- logical taxinomy, that is to say, The plurality of races of man ; the importance of the characteristics deduced from the confor- mation of the head; and the necessity of not placing in the same rank all the divisions of mankind, which bear the common title of races, in spite of the unequal importance of their anato- mical, physiological, and let us also add, psychological charac- teristics1." This criticism taken from one of the latest essays of a most distinguished modern naturalist and anthropologist will relieve me from the arduous task of passing this work of Blumenbach in review. The Contributions as is pointed out by M. Flourens is altogether a production of a lighter kind. It contains many curious observations, and though its geological theories are long since obsolete, the chapters on anthropological collections and on the Negro may still be read with considerable interest. Lawrence has largely borrowed from the last in his lectures on 1 Is. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Classification Anthropologiqite. Mini, de la Soc. d'Anihrop. de Park, Tom. I. p. 129, sq. Xll EDITOR S PREFACE. the Natural History of Man. The history of Peter the Wild Boy has, so far as I know, never been translated into English in its entirety, but all that has been said of him and the other wild men there mentioned has been borrowed from Blumenbach. I had at one time intended to edit the Decades Craniorum, a book now become somewhat scarce. Inquiries were made by the President and Publishing Committee of the Anthropological Society as to the probable expense which would be incurred in reproducing the 65 plates of which that work is composed. The results showed that such an undertaking would be beyond the present means of the Society ; and an opinion was also expressed by some who are worthy of all attention in such a matter that more typical, characteristic, and hitherto undelineated skulls scattered about in the different English Museums should have a preference, in case such an outlay as the publication of so many crania with their descriptions should at any time be seriously contemplated. Whilst I do not for a moment doubt the wisdom of the decision, or deny the expediency of preferring hitherto inedited materials, I still think that if the present possessors of the Blumenbachian Collection could be induced to join not only in furnishing entirely fresh drawings of the skulls contained in it, but also in publishing the very minute and accurate descriptions, certificates, and documents relating to each particu- lar one, which form by no means the least instructive portion of the inedited remains of Blumenbach, the result would not only be a great stimulus to those international exertions without which the science of Anthropology cannot hope to make the progress so much to be desired for it, but would also confer the greatest credit on the Societies which might be principally con- cerned in carrying out such an undertaking. With respect to the last utterance of Blumenbach, which has been extracted from the Gbttingen Magazine, I am indebted to Professor EDITORS PREFACE. Xlll Marx for the following information. " The Spicilegium was not printed. It had been the intention of Blumenbach to work out in greater detail the short lecture which was read at the session of the 3rd August, 1833, but he did not fulfil it. Therefore the short notice in the 177th number of the Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, for 1833, is the only communication on that point that we have of his." The Memoir of Prof. Marx has been previously translated in the Edinbur-gh New Philosophical Magazine, but many in- teresting details about the life and habits of Blumenbach were omitted. It was made great use of by M. A singular mistake has however been made by M. Flourens, both in this memoir, and in his larger book1 on Buffon, which I cannot help pointing out. The reader will probably observe that he gives as the title of Blumenbach's book The Unity of the Human Genus, which is obviously wrong. This would be of no importance ; but in the work above referred to we have this reflexion: "Nothing promotes clearness of ideas so much as precision in the use of words. Blumenbach wrote a book to prove the unity of the human species2, and entitled it On the Unity of the Human Genus; now, a genus is made up of species, a species only of varieties. Buffon writing on the same subject, and putting before himself the same object, said excellently, Varieties in the Human Specie^ Blumenbach never once gave as a title, The Unity, &c. ; and 1 Hist, des travaux et des idees de Buffon, p. 169, second ed. Paris, 1850, i'2rao. 2 De Vunite du genre hv.main et de se$ varietes, Trad. Franc. Paris, 1804. XIV EDITOKS PEEFACE. notwithstanding the elaborate ingenuity of M. Flourens as to the word genus, I have preferred to translate the Latin words humcmum genus, by the ambiguous, and as I believe correct expression, mankind. I have thought the reader would prefer for many reasons to find each of the several treatises in this volume with an exact copy of its original title-page prefixed. Those which had no title- page have still one made up of that of the periodical, and the heading prefixed to each in its original form of publication. M. Flourens had appended to his Memoir a list of some of Blumenbach's works. A much more perfect one, with notices of many of their translations, and of the different portraits and en- gravings taken of Blumenbach at various periods of his life, is to be found in Callisen (A. C. P. von), Medicinisches Schriftsteller- Lexicon, B. n. pp. 34<6 — 356. 1830. Copenhagen, 12mo. As will be observed it occupies ten pages, and therefore is far too long for insertion here, yet is still neither quite complete nor quite correct. The treatise of John Hunter, delivered in June 1775, has been added. It will be interesting to compare it with the contemporaneous effort of Blumenbach. But to enter into the question why the study of anthropology never became popular in Edinburgh, whilst it continued to be cultivated in Gottingen, would carry us beyond the limits of a Preface. King's College, Cambridge. Jan. i, 1865. CONTENTS. Editor's Preface .... Memoir of J. F. Blumenbach bt Prof. Marx „ „ „ M. Flourens On the Natural Variety of Mankind, ed. 1775 „ „ „ THIRD ED. 1795 Contributions to Natural History, Part I. „ „ „ „ Part II. Remarks on an Hippocratio Maorocephalus Index of Subjects Index of Authors page vi I 47 65 x45 277 3^5 34i An Account of the Blumenbachian Museum by Prof. Rudolph Wagner ....... 345 Inaugural Disputation on the  35, read Jesus the son of Sirach. ... Mongoz Lemur, p. 90, read Lemur Mongoz. ZUM ANDENKEN AN JOHANN FRIEDRICH BLUMENBACEL EINE GEDACHTNISS-REDE GEHALTEN IN DER SITZTJNG DEE KONIGLICHEN SOCIETAT DEE WISSENSCHAFTEN DEN 8 FEBETJAE, 1840. VON K. F. H. MARX. GOTTINGEN : DEUCK UND VEELAG DEE DIETEEICHSCHEN BUCHHANDLUNG. 1840. LIFE OF BLUMENBACH K. F. H. MARX. Though a very vivid and ineffaceable recollection of the man, who has lately departed from our circle, can never cease to dwell in us, still I may be permitted to sketch with a few strokes a picture of his occupations and his personality, and in that way to strew a flower upon the grave of him who in life was honoured by all of us, but was especially dear to myself. It was his happy lot to fulfil the office of instructor far beyond the limits of the ordinary age of man, and to direct the affairs of our society for a longer time than any one of those here present can remember. For more than half a cen- tury the most important events of this University are bound up with his memory and his name ; and the development of one of the greatest and most important branches of science is essen- tially involved with his undertakings, his accomplishments, and the efforts he made to advance it. He stood at last like a solitary column from out the ranks of those who had shared his struggles and his enterprises, and had trodden in the same path, or as an old-world pyramid, a stimulating example to us juniors, how nature will sometimes stamp her crowning seal on high mental powers, by adding to them the firmness and long continuance of the outer form. John Frederick Blumenbach was born at Gotha on the 11th May 1752. His father was a zealous admirer of geography and natural history, and lost no time in arousing a love for them in his son. It will be convenient to insert here a note in his 1—2 4 LIFE OF BLUMENBACH. own handwriting, which I owe to the kindness of the departed, upon the earliest incidents which happened to him while still under the paternal roof, and his earliest promotion on his first entrance into the great world; for it will tell a clearer tale than if I were to turn it into an historical form. "My father was born at Leipsig, and died at Gotha in 1787, proctor and professor of the gymnasium1. He owed his scientific culture to two men especially, Menz and Christ, two Leipsig professors of philosophy, and so, indirectly through him, they contributed a great deal to my own. Amongst other things, he owed to the first his love for the history of literature and for the natural sciences, to the second his antiquarian and artistic tastes. And so in this way I also acquired a taste and a love for these branches of knowledge, which I never found to stand in the way of my medical studies; to which in very early days I had addicted myself from natural inclination, and sometimes they were even in that way of great service. « J began my academical career at Jena, and there I derived nourishment for literature and book-lore from Baldinger, whilst my relation, J. E. I. Walch, the professor of rhetoric, performed the same office for me as to natural history and the so-called archaeology. I went from there to Gottingen to fill up some remaining gaps in my medical studies; and my old rector at Gotha, the church-councillor Geisler, gave me a letter for Heyne. As I was. giving it to him, I showed him at the same time an antique signet-ring, which I had bought when at school from a goldsmith. Such a taste in a medical student attracted his attention, and this little gem was the first step to the intimate acquaintance which I subsequently^enjoyed in so many ways with that illustrious man. " There resided then at Gottingen professor Chr. W. Buttner, 1 Besides the more considerable communication in the text Blumenbach has left only a few scattered notices of his life. So far as these have come to my know- ledge, I have made good use of them. He had an idea of composing his own biography, and two passages, written by him in his pocket-book, seem to point to this intention. "Many have written their own lives from feelings of sincerity rather than of conceit." — "Without favour or ambition, but induced by the reward of a good conscience." MARX. 5 an extraordinary man, of singularly extensive learning. He had at one time been famous for the great number of lan- guages he was skilled in, but had for many years given up delivering lectures, and was then quite unknown to the stu- dents. Just, however, about the time I came, the eldest son of his friend and great admirer, our orientalist, Michaelis, had then begun to study medicine ; and his father had enjoined him to do his best and get Buttner to deliver a lecture upon natural history, which in old days he could do very well, and for which he had a celebrated collection. Immediately on my arrival I also was invited to the course, and as the hour was one I had at my disposal, I put my name down, and so came to know the whimsical but remarkable Buttner. The so-called lecture became a mere conversation, where for weeks together not a word was said of natural history. Still he had appointed as a text-book the twelfth edition of the System of Nature; though in the whole six months we did not get beyond the mammalia, because of the hundred-and-one foreign matters he used to introduce. " He began with man, who had been passed over unnoticed in his readings by Walch of Jena, and illustrated the subject with a quantity of books of voyages and travels, and pictures of foreign nations, out of his extensive library. It was thus I was led to write as the dissertation for my doctorate, On the natural variety of mankind; and the further prosecution of this interesting subject laid the foundation of my anthropological collection, which has in process of time become everywhere quite famous for its completeness in its way. " In that very first winter, through Heyne's arrangement, the University undertook the purchase of Biittner's collection of coins and natural history. But in consequence of the unex- ampled disorder, in which the natural objects had been let lie utterly undistinguished from each other by this most unhandy of men, he was first of all in want of an assistant to arrange and get them ready for delivery. So Heyne said to him, 'Don't you give lectures on natural history? and haven't you got any one among your pupils whom you can employ for that?" 6 LIFE OF BLUMENBACH. ' That I have/ said Blittner, and named me. ' Ah, I know him too;' so the office of assistant was offered to me, and I gladly undertook it without any fee, and found it most instructive. "Sometime after, when everything had been handed over, and the collection had found a temporary home in the former medical lecture-room, the honourable minister and curator of the University, von Lenthe, came to visit our institute, so these things too had to be shown him, and as the worthy Biittner did not seem quite fit to do it, I was hastily summoned, and acquitted myself so well, that the minister directly he got out took Heyne aside, and said, ' We must not let this young man go.' I took my degree in the autumn of '75, on the anni- versary day of the University, and directly afterwards in the ensuing winter I commenced, as private tutor, my first readings on natural history, and during the same term, in February '76, was nominated extraordinary, and afterwards in November '78, ordinary professor of medicine." Such was Blumenbach's very promising beginning. How he progressed onwards in his scientific and municipal career, how he became in 1784 member of this society, in 1788 aulic coun- cillor, in 1812 perpetual secretary of the physical and mathe- matical class of this society, in 1815 member of the library committee, in 1816 knight of the Order of the Guelph, and in the same year chief medical councillor, and in 1822 commander of the Order, all that is so well known and so fresh in everybody's recollection, that I need make no further mention of any of those particulars. Much more appropriate will it be to describe here the direction he followed himself and also imparted to the sciences, his activity as teacher, his relations to the exterior world, and, in a few characteristic outlines, the principal features of his personal appearance and character.' First of all it may fairly be asserted of Blumenbach, that he it was especially, who in Germany drew the natural sciences out of the narrow circle of books and museums, into the wide cheerful stream of life. He made the results of his own per- severing researches intelligible and agreeable to every educated MARX. 7 person who was anxious for instruction, and understood very- well how to interest the upper classes of society in them, and even to excite them. Taking a comprehensive view over the whole domain of the exertions of natural science, he knew how to select whatever could arouse or sharpen observation, to give a clear prospect of what was in the distance, and to clothe the practical necessities in a pleasing dress. This feeling and tact for the common interest, this inclination for popular exposition and easy comprehension was meantime no obstacle to his solid progress. He laboured away on the most diverse departments of his science with single and earnest application, and arrived at results, which threw light on the darkest corners. Equipped with classical knowledge, perpetually sharpening and enriching his intellect with continuous reading, and kept in lively intercourse with the first men of his day, he knew how not only to look at the subjects of his attention from new points of view, but also how to invest them with a worthy form of expression and representation. Besides, he looked upon every result either of his own researches, or those of other people, as seed-corn for better and greater disclosures. He busied himself unceasingly by writing, conversation, and instruction in disseminating them, and endeavouring to fix them in a productive soil. Thus it came to pass, that he soon came to be regarded as the supporter and representative of natural science, and collected crowds of young men about him, and by words as well as deeds continued to exercise an increasing influence upon the entire circle of study for many decades of years. Blumenbach soon became known to the Society of Sciences as an industrious student of physic, and in the meeting of the 15th January, 1774, he communicated1 the remarkable dis- covery he had made (which had been already done by Braun in 1759 at St. Petersburg) of how to freeze quicksilver. 1 Gotting. gel. Anzeigen. 1774, st. 13, s. 105—7. Blumenbach himself set little store by this experiment ; for he suspected that his friends might be too hasty in considering the fact to be proved. 8 LIFE OF BLUMENBACH. In 1784< he became member of this Society, and immediately afterwards read his first paper On the eyes of the Leuccethiopians and the movement of the iris1. It was a happy chance, that his first literary work was con- cerned with the races of men, and thus physical Anthropology became the centre of the crystallization of his activity. Few dissertations have passed through so many editions, or procured their author such a wide recognition, as that On the natural variety of mankind2. It operated as an introduction to the subsequent intermittent publication of the Decades3, on the forms of the skull of different people and nations, as well as the foundation of a private collection4. This was unique in its way ; and princes and the learned alike contributed to its forma- tion by giving everything which could characterize the corporeal formation and the shape of the skull in man. Blumenbach used to call it his " Golgotha," and though they do not often go to a place of skulls, still the curious and the inquisitive of both sexes came there to wonder and reflect. Perhaps it is worth while remarking that the theme of this earliest work of his youth was likewise that of his last scientific writing, for after the 3rd August, 1833, on the exhibition of an Hippocratic Macrocephalus before the Society, when he communicated his remarks5 thereon, he came no more before the public except to read a memoir upon Stromeyer, and to say a few never-to-be-forgotten words at the festival meeting of the centenarian foundation feast. One of Blumenbach's great endeavours was to illustrate the difference between man* and beast ; and he insisted particularly 1 De oculis Leucwthiopum et iridis niotu. Comment. Soc. E. Gott. Vol. vn. p. 29 — 62. 2 De generis humani nativa varietate. ist ed. 1775. 3 The first decade of his collection of skulls of different nations with illustrations appeared in 1 790 in Vol. x. of the Comment. Soc. &c. The last under the title, Nova Pentas collectionis sum craniorum diversarum gentium tanquam complementum priorum decadum exhibita in consessu societatis 8 Jul. 1826. Comment, recentior. Vol. vi. p. 141 — 8. Comp. Gott. gel. Anz. 1826. st. 121, s. 1201 — 6. 4 Comp. his paper On anthropological collections in the second edition of his Bcitrdge zur NaturgescJiichte 1806. Th. 1. s. 55 — 66. 5 Gott. gel. Anz. 1833, st. 177, s. 1761. [Edited in this volume. Ec] MARX. 9 upon the importance of the upright walk of man, and the vertical line. He asserted the claims of human nature, as such, to all the privileges and rights of humanity, for, without deny- ing altogether the influence of climate, soil, and heredity, he regarded them in their progressive development, as the imme- diate consequences of civilization and cultivation. Man was to him "the most perfect of all domesticated animals." What he might become by himself in his natural condition, without the assistance of society, and what would be the condition of his innate conceptions, he showed in his unsurpassable description of the wild or savage Peter von Hameln1. How the osseous structure of the skull will approximate nearer and nearer to the form of the beast, when unfortunate exterior circumstances and inferior relations have stood in the way of the development of the higher faculties, might be seen in his collection from the cretin's skull, which, not without meaning, lay side by side by that of the orang-utan; whilst, at a little distance off, the surpassingly beautiful shape of that of a female Georgian attracted every one's attention. At the time when the negroes and the savages were still considered as half animals, and no one had yet conceived the idea of the emancipation of the slaves, Blumenbach raised his voice, and showed that their psychical qualities were not inferior to those of the European, that even amongst the latter them- selves the greatest possible differences existed, and that oppor- tunity alone was wanting for the development of their higher faculties2. Blumenbach had no objection to a joke, especially when it injured no one, or when the subject in hand could be elucidated thereby, and with this view he wrote a paper on Human and Porcine Races3. ' 1 Beitr. zur Naturg. Th. II. s. i — 44. 2 Gotting. Magazin, 1781, st. 6, s. 409 — 425, On the capacities and manners of the Savages. 3 Lichtenberg and Voigt, Magazin fiir das neueste aus der Physilc, B. VI. Gotha, 1789, st. 1. s. 1. 10 LIFE OF BLUMENBACH. Man always was and continued to be his chief subject, not from a transcendental point of view, which he gave up to the philosophers and theologians, but man as he stands in the visible world. Not only did he contribute essentially to his better comprehension and treatment, but it was not very easy for any one to surpass him in practical knowledge of men. Natural history, not the description of nature, was the aim he placed before him. With Bacon he considered that as the first subject of philosophy. He understood how to indicate the peculiarity of the subject with a few characteristic strokes; and showed also how the inner1 properties, relations, and attributes of the individual were connected with each other, and their connexion and position to the whole. With this view he busied himself actively on organic and also on animal nature. Nor was he a stranger to the study of geology and mineralogy, as is clear from De Luc's letters2 to Blumenbach, besides what he himself communicated about Hutton's theory of the earth, and his paper on the impressions in the bituminous marl-slates at Biegelsdorf3. The name of Blumenbach must certainly be recorded amongst those who have signally contributed through the research and discovery of the traces of the old world to the history of the condition of our earth and of its earliest inhabi- tants. He, too, it was who, long before any others, prepared a collection of fossils for the illustration and systematic know- ledge of the remains of the preadamite times4. 1 He worked long at a History of Natural History, but he never gave any of it to the public. That he had reflected on the possibility of a Philosophy of Natural History may be seen, amongst other proofs, by a letter to Moll in his Communica- tions, Abth. r. 1829, s. 60. 2 Magaz. fur das neu. aus der Physik, B. vili. st. 4. 1793. Comp. Gott. gel. Anz. 1799, st. 135, s. 1348. 3 In Kohler's bergmannisch. Joum. Freyberg, 1791, Jahrg. iv. B. I. s. 151 — 6. Blumenbach proved that though they were the marks of a mammal, they were not those of a child, and therefore no anthropoliths. 4 The fossil genus Oxyporus, which is found in amber, and was represented by Gravehoorst in Monographia Coleopterorum Micropterorum, Gotting. 1806, 8vo. p. 235, exists also in Biumenbach's collection. Speaking of the last, that author says, "I wish Blumenbach would give us a description of the numerous insects preserved in amber, which he possesses, and compare them with the allied insects of the present day. His well-known genius for natural history, so long and so MARX. 11 In 1790 he wrote Contributions to the Natural History of the Primitive World1. He devoted two papers before the society to the remains with which he was acquainted of that oldest epoch, principally from the neighbouring country2. He also expressed an opinion upon the connection of the knowledge of petrifactions with that of geology, thinking by that means a more accurate knowledge of the relative age of the different strata of the earth's crust might be obtained3, and he was the first who set this branch of study going. On the occasion of a Swiss journey he drew particular attention to those fossils, whose living representatives are still to be found in the same country, to those whose representatives exist, but in very dis- tant regions of the earth, and to those of which no true repre- sentative has yet been found in the existing creation4. Later on he elucidated the so-called fossil human bones in Guada- loupe5. His views on opinions of that kind, as also on more compre- hensive considerations, such as On the gradation in nature6, or, On the so-called proofs of design7, generally like to abide within the limits of experience, and the conclusions which may fairly justly famous, might furnish us "with some well-weighed and sound hypothesis on the origin and formation of amber." 1 Mayaz. ib., B. VI. st. 4, s. 1 — 17. 2 Specimen archaeologies telluris terrarumque imprimis Hannover unarum, i8or. In clen Comment. Vol. XV. p. 132 — 156. Spec, alteram 1813. Vol. ill. recent. P- 3—24- 3 On the succession in time of the different Earth-catastrophes. Beitr. zur Naturg. 2nd ed. 1806, Th. 1. s. 113 — 123. One of the most competent judges on this subject, namely, Link, in his work The Primeval World and Antiquity eluci- dated by Natural Science, which he dedicates to his teacher, says in the preface, that the representation of the primeval world, as quite different from that of the pre- sent, is due to the science of Blumenbach and Cuvier. To the same effect Von Hoff, who is well entitled to a voice in this matter, expresses himself (Tlioughts on BlumenbacKs Services to Geology. Gotha, 1862, s. 3.) : "Amongst naturalists Blumenbach is the first who assigned to a knowledge of petrifactions its true position in the foundation of Geology. He considered them as the most necessary helps to that study. He asserted with determination, that from a knowledge of petrifactions, and especially from an acquaintance with the different position of fossils, the most important results for the cosmogenical part of mineralogy might be expected." 4 Lichtenberg and Voigt's Mag. &c. 1788, B. v. s. 13—24. 5 Gott.gel. Anz. 1815, st. 177, s. 1753. 6 Beitr. zur Naturg. 2nd ed. 1806, Th. 1. s. 106 — 112. i Ib. s. 123. 12 LIFE OP BLUMENBACH. be deduced therefrom. Brilliant hypotheses, subtle and imagi- nary combinations, phantastic analogies, were not to his taste. If it can be said of any scientific work of modern times, that its utility has been incalculable, such a sentence must be pronounced on Blumenbach's Handbook of Natural History1. Few cultivated circles or countries are ignorant of it. It con- tains in a small space a marvellous quantity of well-arranged material, and every fresh edition2 announced the progress of its author. Still in spite of the effort after a certain grade of perfection the skill is unmistakeable, with which only the actual is set forth ; and with which by a word, or a remark, attention is directed to what is truly interesting, agreeable, and useful, and an incentive given to further study. Not only did Blumenbach well know how to set out the whole domain of this study in a simple, easily comprehensible and transparent way, so as to utilize it for instruction; but he also, by bringing to its assistance allied occupations, obtained new points of view, and enlarged its boundaries. His Contributions to Natural History3, and his ten numbers of Representations of Subjects of Natural History 4, have by interesting translations, prudent selection, and accuracy in hand- ling the subjects, done profitable service in the extension and foundation of this science. He took special pains to throw light on doubtful questions, and to clear up overshadowing and difficult undertakings in natural history from old monuments of art5, and the traditions of the poets6. He looked on the migra- 1 It appeared first in 1779. 2 The publishers alone issued 12, the last in 1830, not including the re issues and the translations into almost all civilized languages. 3 The first part appeared in 1790, the second in 181 r. They contained the fol- lowing essays: Part I. On variability in creation. A glance at the primeval world. On anthropological collections. On the division of mankind into five principal races. On the gradation in nature. On the so-called proofs of design. Part 11. On the homo sapiens ferus. On the Egyptian mummies. 4 1796 — 1810. 5 Specimen hist. not. antique? artis operibus illustr. eaq. vicissim illustr., 1S03. Comment. Vol. xvi. p. 169 — 198. 6 Sp. hist. not. ex auctor. class, prceserlim poetis illustr. eosq. vie. illustr., 1815. Comm. recent. Vol. in. p. 62—78. Comp. Qott. gel. Am., 1815, st. 205, s. 2033 — 2040. MARX. 13 tions of animals and their appearance at different times, and their wide dispersion in enormous numbers as a great, but not necessarily insoluble riddle ; and he contributed his mite also to the future solution of this weighty question1. Blumenbach was blamed somewhat here and there for fol- lowing with little divergence the artificial classification of Linnseus. But this conservatism was not the consequence either of convenience, or want of knowledge, but from the conviction that the time for a natural system was not yet come. That he felt the want of such a system is plain, because as early as 1775 he sketched out2 an attempt at a natural arrangement of the mammalia, according to which attention is paid not to single, or a few, but to every outward mark of distinction, and the whole organization of the animals. His communications, On the Loves of Animals3, and On the Natural History of Serpents4, display not only the critical, but the judicious observer. Manifold interest attaches to his re- marks on the kangaroo5, which he kept for a long time alive in his house, on the pipa6, and on the tape-worm7. Blumenbach was thoroughly penetrated with the truth, that we are only then in a proper position to understand the appear- ances of the present, when we attempt to clear up as far as possible their condition in the beginning, and from early times down to the present. He considered archaeology and history not only as the foundations of true knowledge, but also as the sources of the purest pleasures. He was not afraid of being reproached with encroaching upon foreign ground8, for he knew his own moderation: nor did he shrink from the trouble of seeking and collecting, for he had too often had experience 1 De anini. colon, sive sponte migr., sive casu aut studio ab horn, aliors. transl., Comm. recent. , Vol. V. p. ioi — 116. Comp. Gott. gel. Anz., 1820, st. 57, s. 561—68. 2 Gott. gel. Anz. st. 147, s. 1257 — 1259. 3 Gott. Magaz. 1781, s. 93 — 107. 4 Magaz. fiir das n. aus der phys.. B. v. st. 1, 17SS, s. 1 — 13. 5 lb. 1792, B. vii. st. 4, s. 19 — 24. 6 Gott. gel. Anz. 1784, st. 156, s. 1553—1555. 7 lb. 1774, st. 154, s. 1313— 1386. 8 He approved of Seneca; "I often pass into the enemy's camp, not as a deserter, but as a spy. " 14 LIFE OF BLUMENBACH. that though the roots of a solid undertaking may be bitter, the fruit may be sweet. Besides he knew well how, by keeping at a distance from useless distractions, and by internal collec- tiveness and regulated arrangement of work, to bring together in one much that lay widely separated. Some years after he had written his paper On the Teeth of the Old Egyptians, and on Mummies1, he had an opportunity during his stay in London on the 18th February, 1791, of opening six mummies, and derived considerable reputation from his communication2 to Banks on the results he obtained there- from. He took his part also in the opinion3 pronounced by the Society of Sciences of that day on Sickler's new method of unfolding the Herculaneum manuscripts, which he had invented. He showed that our granite answers to the syenite of Pliny*. He possessed a collection of ancient kinds of stone to illustrate the history of the art of antiquity, on which account his opinion was often consulted on the determination of doubtful antiques, for example, those given out as such made of soap-stone5. He had himself, principally with a view to natural history and the varieties of man, a collection of beautiful engravings and pictures, and set great store besides on the woodcuts in old works which give representations of animals6, for in that way the proper position of observing the art of that time is easily arrived at. And so also he endeavoured to become better acquainted with "the first anatomical wood-cuts," and drew attention to them, when otherwise they would have remained quite unnoticed7. After a careful comparison of the objects of ancient art, with 1 Gbtt. Mag. 1780, Jahrg. 1. s. 109 — 139. 2 Philos. Trans. 1794. [The original MS. of this paper is in the library of the Anthrop. Soc. of London. Ed.] His letter to Sir Joseph Banks was printed in the third edition of the De Generis Hum. v. n. 1795. The subject is thoroughly treated of by him in the Beitr. zur Naturg. Th. II. s. 45 — 144. 3 Gbtt. gel. Anz. 1814, st. 200, s. 1993. 4 lb. 1819, s. 1208. Blumenbach gave his views before in the second part of the edition of Natural History in 1780, on the proper distinction of the kinds of stones employed by the ancients. 5 Gbtt. gel. Anz. 181 1, s. 2050. 6 Gbtt. Magaz. 1781, st. 4, s. 136 — 156. 7 Baldinger, Neues Mag. fur Aerzte, 1781, B. ill. s. 135 — 140. MARX. 1 5 which he was acquainted, his opinion1 was that we ought to be chary in our praise of the anatomical knowledge of the artists of antiquity, but that their accuracy in the representation of characteristic expression had not been sufficiently appreciated. In the history of literature Blumenbach emulated his origi- nal and pattern, Albert Von Haller, whose acquaintance he had made when studying at Gottingen, by sending to him at Berne a book2, on the suggestion of Heyne, which Haller had men- tioned in one of his works as unknown to him, and which he had picked up at an auction3. Later in the day he often fur- nished him with many additions and supplements to the already published volumes of the Practical Medical Library*. 