REMARKS ON THE PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIVES.
The native inhabitants of Western Australia are only superior in the
scale of human beings to the Bosjemans of Southern Africa. Their
intellectual capacity appears to be very small, and their physical
structure is extremely feeble. In some respects the Australian
peculiarly assimilates to two of the five varieties of the human
race. In the form of his face and the texture of his hair he
resembles the Malay; in the narrow forehead, the prominent
cheek-bones, and the knees turned in, he approaches towards the
Ethiopian.* There is a remarkable difference between the jaws and
teeth of the Australian and those of any other existing race. The
incisores are thick and round, not, as usual, flattened into edges,
but resembling truncated cones; the cuspidati are not pointed, but
broad and flat on the masticating surface, like the neighbouring
bicuspides. This may be attributable to mechanical attrition,
depending on the nature of the food which the teeth are employed in
masticating. The upper does not overlap the under jaw, but the teeth
meet at their surfaces. This peculiarity of teeth has been noticed
by Blumenbach as a characteristic of the Egyptian mummy; but he
thinks the nature of the food not sufficient to account for it, and
imagines it to depend on a natural variety. He observes, that
"although it seemed most easy to account for this appearance by
attributing it to the nature of the food used by the Egyptians, yet
the generality of its occurrence in Egyptian mummies, and its absence
in other races, are remarkable; and it affords some probability that
the peculiarity depends upon a natural variety."** A constant
uniformity in the structure and arrangement of the teeth is an
important particular in the identification of species; and if any
human race were found to deviate materially in its dentition from the
rest of mankind, the fact would give rise to a strong suspicion of a
real specific diversity. I have examined the teeth of infants and
children, and found them in every respect similar to those of
Europeans of similar ages. Moreover, the process of degradation may
be traced in natives of different ages up to the teeth worn to the
level of the gums in the old man. I therefore consider it the effect
of attrition; but it becomes an interesting question to determine
what may be the nature of the food which produced the same character
in the ancient Egyptian and the modern Australian. Did the fathers
of science live on barks and roots, like the wretched Australian?
Although attrition may cause this singular appearance of the teeth,
the real question is, why does the lower jaw so perfectly and exactly
meet its fellow? And is this confined to these two examples?
[footnote] *The observations in this chapter were contributed by
Henry Landor, Esq., Colonial Surgeon on the Gold Coast, who resided
five years among the natives of Western Australia, and is intimately
acquainted with all their habits and peculiarities.
[footnote] **In a former chapter (13.) I have expressed an opinion
that the natives are descended from the old inhabitants of India,
which I think is exceedingly probable. It is interesting to
remember, that the ancient Egyptians are supposed to have originally
come from the same country.
There is no fixed law determining invariably the human stature,
although there is a standard, as in other animals, from which
deviations are not very considerable in either direction. Some
varieties exceed, others fall short of, the ordinary stature in a
small degree. The source of these deviations is in the breed; they
are quite independent of external influences.
In all the five human varieties, some nations are conspicuous for
height and strength, others for lower stature and inferior muscular
power; but in no case is the peculiarity confined to any particular
temperature, climate, or mode of life. The Australians, in general,
are of a moderate stature, with slender limbs, thin arms, and long
taper fingers. Although in general stature there is nothing to
distinguish one variety of man from another, yet in the comparative
length of the different parts of the human frame there are striking
differences. In the highest and most intellectual variety (the
Caucasian) the arm (os humeri) exceeds the fore-arm in length by two
or three inches -- in none less than two inches. In monkeys the
fore-arm and arm are of the same length, and in some monkeys the
fore-arm is the longer. In the Negro, the 'ulna', the longest bone
of the fore-arm, is nearly of the same length as the 'os humeri', the
latter being from one to two inches longer. In a Negro in the
lunatic asylum of Liverpool (says Mr. White) the ulna was twelve and
a half inches, and the humerus only thirteen and a half. In the
Australian, the ulna in some I have measured was ten and a half,
nine, ten, eleven and a half; the humerus was in those individuals
respectively eleven and a half, ten and a half, eleven and a half,
twelve and a half. Thus, in none of the measurements did the humerus
exceed the ulna two inches, which in the Caucasian variety is the
lowest number. In all the black races the arm is longer in
proportion to the stature than in the white. The length of the leg
of the Australian averages thirty-six inches; in one man it was only
thirty-three and a half, and the tibia of that man measured sixteen
and a half, leaving only seventeen to the femur -- a very remarkable
disproportion.
Thus in the proportion of their limbs, the Australian ranks far below
the European; nay, even below the Negro, and approaches far nearer to
the simiae than any of the other races of mankind. Perron, in his
voyage, made an estimate of the average strength of the arms and
loins of the Australian, and of some French and English; this is the
result in French measures: --
ARMS. LOINS.
Kilogrammes. Myriagrammes.
Australian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.8 . . . . . . . .10.2
Natives of Timor . . . . . . . . . . . 58.7 . . . . . . . 11.6
French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69.2 . . . . . . . .15.2
English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.4 . . . . . . . .16.3
Thus in whatever manner the capacity of the race is tested, its
inferiority is strikingly exhibited. We shall find, when examining
the skull, that the coronal suture falls on the temporal instead of
the sphenoid bone, which is one of the strongest marks of the simiae,
and does not occur in other human skulls.
I have no desire to place the Australian lower in the scale of
intelligence than he is fairly entitled to rank, but I cannot shut my
eyes to facts; and if his organization is in conformity with his
inferiority, there he must rank, in spite of the wishes of his
warmest friends. At the same time I agree with the most enthusiastic
philanthropist that no attempt should be left untried to amend his
condition, and bestow upon him the blessings which Providence has
lavished upon us; but I cannot help fearing the result will be
disappointment. A fair comparative experiment says Mr. Lawrence, has
been made of the white and dark races of North America; and no trial
in natural philosophy has had a more unequivocal result. The native
races have not advanced a single step in 300 years; neither example
nor persuasion has induced them, except in very small numbers and in
few instances, to exchange the precarious supply of hunting, and
fishing for agriculture and the arts of settled life.
The colour of the skin is chocolate, and resembles the Malay,
although perhaps a little darker. The colour of the skin is, of
course, greatly dependent upon the nature of the climate and the
constant exposure of the surface of the body to the sun; the parts
under the arms are of a brighter colour than those more exposed. We
find in human races, as in vegetation, that every successive level
alters its character; thus indicating that the state of the
temperature of high regions assimilates to high latitudes. If,
therefore, complexions depend upon climate and external conditions,
we should expect to find them varying in reference to elevation of
surface; and if they should be actually found to undergo such
variations, this will be a strong argument in favour of the
supposition that these external characters do in fact depend upon
local conditions. The Swiss in the high mountains above the plains
of Lombardy have sandy or brown hair. What a contrast presents
itself to the traveller in the Milanese, where the peasants have
black hair and almost Oriental features! The Basques, of the tracts
approaching the Pyrenees, says Colonel Napier, are a strikingly
different people from the inhabitants of the low parts around,
whether Spaniards or Biscayans. They are finely made, tall men, with
aquiline noses, fair complexions, light eyes, and flaxen hair;
instead of the swarthy complexion, black hair, and dark eyes of the
Castilian. And in Africa what striking differences of complexion
exist between the Negro of the plains and of the mountains, even
whilst the osteology is the same, therefore I pass over the hair and
skin of the Australian as parts too much subjected to the influence
of climate to afford means of legitimate deduction. It is the general
opinion that these natives are not a long-lived race. The poverty of
their food may account for this, together with the want of shelter
from the vicissitudes of the climate. The care taken by civilized
man to preserve health is, by increasing susceptibility, the
indirect cause of disease; the more rigid is the observance of
regimen, the more pernicious will be the slightest aberration from
it; but a total disregard of all the comforts of regular food, and
efficient shelter, the habit of cramming the stomach when food is
plentiful, and of enduring long abstinence when it cannot be
procured, has a far more baneful effect upon the human constitution
than all the excesses of the white man. As man recedes from one
hastener of destruction, he inevitably approaches another:
"Gross riot treasures up a wealthy fund
Of plagues, but more immedicable ills
Attend the lean extreme."
I have observed that the natives mix the gum of certain trees with
the bark, and masticate both together. This is attributed to the
difficulty of masticating the gum alone; but I am persuaded that it
has another cause also, and that it arises from that experience of
the necessity of an additional stimulus to the digestive organ which
has taught the Esquimaux and Ottomacs to add sawdust or clay to their
train-oil. It arises from the fact that (paradoxical as it may
appear) an animal may be starved by giving it continually too simple
and too nutritious food; aliment in such a state of condensation does
not impart the necessary stimulus, which requires to be partly
mechanical and partly chemical, and to be exerted at once on the
irritability of the capillaries of the stomach to promote its
secretions, and on the muscular fibres to promote its
contractions.
I shall now point out the difference between the Australian skull
and those of some other races, without giving a description of skulls
in general, which would unnecessarily lengthen these observations.
"Of all the peculiarities in the form of the bony fabric, those of
the skull are the most striking and distinguishing. It is in the
head that we find the varieties most strongly characteristic of the
different races. The characters of the countenance, and the shape of
the features depend chiefly on the conformation of the bones of the
head."
The Australian skull belongs to that variety called the prognathous,
or narrow elongated variety; yet it is not so striking an example of
this variety as the Negro skull. If the skull be held in the hand so
that the observer look upon the vertex, the first point he remarks is
the extreme narrowness of the frontal bone, and a slight bulging
where the parietal and occipital bones unite. He also sees
distinctly through the zygomatic arches on both sides, which in the
European skull is impossible, as the lateral portions of the frontal
bone are more developed. The summit of the head rises in a
longitudinal ridge in the direction of the sagittal suture; so that
from the sagittal suture to that portion of the cranium where the
diameter is greatest the head slopes like the roof of a house. The
forehead is generally flat; the upper jaw rather prominent; the
frontal sinuses large; the occipital bone is flat, and there is a
remarkable receding of the bone from the posterior insertion of the
'occipitofrontalis' muscle to the 'foramen magnum'. It is a peculiar
character of the Australian skull to have a very singular depression
at the junction of the nasal bones with the nasal processes of the
frontal bone. This may be seen in an engraving in Dr. Pritchard's
work. I have before described the teeth, and mentioned the
remarkable junction of the temporal and parietal bones at the coronal
suture, and consequently the complete separation of the sphenoid from
the parietal, which in European skulls meet for the space of nearly
half an inch. Professor Owen has observed this conformation in six
out of seven skulls of young chimpanzees, and Professor Mayo has also
noticed it in the skulls he has examined. But although this is a
peculiarity found in this race alone, it is not constant. I have a
skull in which the sphenoid touches the parietal on one side, whilst
on the other they are separated a sixth of an inch; and in the
engraving, before referred to, the bones are slightly separated, but
by no means to the extent that they are in European skulls. The
super and infra orbital foramina are very large, and the orbits are
broad, with the orbital ridge sharp and prominent. All the foramina
for the transmission of the sensiferous nerves are large, the
auditory particularly so; while the foramen, through which the
carotid artery enters the skull, is small. The mastoid processes are
large, which might be expected, as their hearing is acute. The
styloid process is small; in monkeys it is wanting. The position of
the 'foramen magnum', as in all savage tribes, is more behind the
middle transverse diameter than in Europeans; but this arises in a
great measure, though not entirely, from the prominence of the
alveolar processes of the upper jaw. Owing to constant exposure to
all seasons, the skulls of savages are of greater density, and weigh
heavier than those of Europeans: --
Avoirdupois.
lb. oz.
Skull of a Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 11 1/2
" Negro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0
" Mulatto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 10
" Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 1/2
" Gipsy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0
" Australian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 12 1/2
Upon an examination of the foregoing points of diversity, it is
unquestionable that the Australian skull is inferior in development
to the European, and the capacity of the cranium of much less.