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DR. PICKERING ON THE RACES OF MAN. The R...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Philip Bailey's Angel Would. Tho 4ngel W...
lovely imagery are abundant ; but rather as the arabesque tracery of a dreamiDg mood than as the irresistible utterance of a deeply-moved soul . lhe readers of Festus will expect to meet with similes of rare beauty like this—to quote but one" As the waves
Leap into light and vanish in a smile . but they will , we fancy , be greatly disappointed at finding this poem so inferior in scope and power to Festus . That poem was crude indeed ; but it looked like the crudeness of one who would develope into ripe fulness of power ; it was in everything a boyish work but the boyhood promised a manhood capable of great things . That promise Mr . Bailey has yet to fulfil .
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16 o & % t % ttftt % * [ Saturday
Dr. Pickering On The Races Of Man. The R...
DR . PICKERING ON THE RACES OF MAN . The Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution . By 7 Charted Pickering , M . D ., Member of the Scientific Corps , atfci « hed to the United States Exploring Expedition . John Chapman . Dii . Pickering ' s work discusses a subject of high importance in itself , and of much interest even to the general reader . It appears , here , under very distinguished auspices , as one of the results of the first scientific mission of the United States Government , and possesses , in addition , all the minor advantages of portly dimensions , fine paper , handsome typography , and some attractive illustrations .
The object which Dr . Pickering proposed to himself , in joining the exploring expedition , as far at least as the natural history of man is concerned , was «« to define the geographical boundaries " of the three , four , or five races into which systematic writers have usually divided the human family . This object , he says , " it was impossible " to accomplish , " from the materials furnished by books ; " and so he determined to supply their deficiencies by personal observation . But if the accumulated experience of a host of
intelligent travellers who have vLsited the different regions of the earth , dots not furnish sufficient materials for this purpose , the deficiency was not likely to be supplied , one would think , by the observations of a single traveller during a single expedition , in which , however great the amount of ocean traversed , only a few points of the earth itself were visited . However , Dr . Pickering thought otherwise , and his work is the best evidence that could be adduced of the
unreasonableness of his expectations . We have said that Dr . Pickering usually reasons upon insufficient datn . This arises , partly from a general superficiality of view , but chiefly from the very limited knowledge which he possesses of his subject . We do not make this chaige upon the faith of isolated passages merely , or even on account of deficiencies observable in particular sections of the work ; but because its whole tenor , from beginning to end , bears unequivocal tests to the very limited extent of the author ' s ethnographical reading . Except in a single
section , in which he writes essentially as a botanist and zoologist , his references to books are exceedingly frw , and those alluded to are chiefly such as treat of the countries visited by the expedition ; while some , even of these , he has certainly examined but imperfectly . In numerous instances , in which science possesses ample materials , he has made use only of the most trifling duta , while the care with which he has developed them clearly implies that they were the beat ho had to offer . In other cases , ho has made
statements which no one could have made who possessed the most moderate knowledge of several important varieties of man both in Asia , Africa , and America , whose peculiarities demand recognition in all ethnological reasonings of a general character . JIc seems , in fact , to have sot out on his travels with just such an acquaintance with the physical history of man as might bo picked up , incidentally , by a mere botanist or zoologist in the pursuit of his own special 8 tudy , or acquired , unconsciously , by any welleducated man in the hitbit of mixing in intellectual society , and paying attention to the current literature of the day ; consequently , his views onlar ^ o just as his journey lengthens , and at each Btago of his progress , at all events of his early progress , he . seems very fairly satisfied with the then state of his acquirements . After having visited Now K'llnud anil Australia , he is convinced that the races ui :. MM !• .: •;• , m <' , ftrtl only five . Having gone a little i ' . v }' . ¦ ¦ -, 1 ( iwcvcr , !;< : " w . is eorsjw-V- " * to admit three y // .. / . ; i . v ' : '' .: V \ . ' ' !' . <' .: > J . ' .: iw . l >> llu- jlliuliirtiVOUOSS ui ; :. ! .:. ;• ¦ : ;! .. v .. " un < l viuh : ;/ , : ( rj " couib . 'uuiiuux of J ) a-
ture . " But had he read , these combinations could not have been new to him , for they have been all repeatedly described before , and with sufficient minuteness of detail to enable a careful inquirer to form a very correct estimate of them . However , to him they were new , and they multiplied as he advanced , and so they infallibly would have done had
he continued still to advance . But as he was quite contented with >» e races at one stage of his progress , and with eight at another , so he is , finally , entirely at his ease with eleven , although the vast regions of continental Asia , Africa , and South America have been left wholly unexplored by him , a few specks here and there excepted .
The Races of Man is not , even in the loosest sense of the term , a systematic treatise on ethnography . It does not touch the philosophy of the subject ; it makes no allusion to the history of races , beyond what is implied in the bare fact of their general distribution ; nor does it attempt to describe or enumerate even the existing subdivisions of the primitive types which it recognizes . Whatever is said upon this subject is incidental , not to say accidental , wholly relative to the author ' s personal experience ,
and bearing no necessary proportion either to the intrinsic interest of the top ic under consideration , or to the existing state of knowledge in reference to it . The author presents his materials to his reader pretty nearly as they came to himself . There is no confusion , indeed , for the several groups of facts are kept apart ; but neither is there any system , properly so called . The different primitive races are described , not in the order in which he classifies them , but simply in the order in which he met them on his
journey ; they commence with the Mongol , and they terminate with the Arabian , taking in intermediate succession the Malay , the Australian , the Papuan , the Negrillo , the Zelingan , the Negro , the Ethiopian , the Hottentot , and the Abyssinian . The Malay race is the most amply described , the Mongolic takes the next grade in relative importance , and the Arabian or white race the third . The Negro , the Papuan ,
and the Ethiopian have also some space allowed to them : the others are very briefly disposed of . Under these circumstances it of course happens that many of the most singular and interesting of the uncivilized tribes of man are not so much as alluded to , even by name , while numbers of the most important nations of the world , both modern and ancient , elicit nothing more than a passing remark , and that often of -very little significance .
Dr . Pickering makes no express statement of the principles which guided him in recognizing different races of men . As far as can be inferred from the tenor of the work , his method is simply this : When he finds a whole people , or a marked section of a people , presenting a general uniformity in physical structure , and strikingly differing in this respect from the other races with which he is acquainted , he concludes them to be distinct and primitive , and he feels strengthened in this conclusion if he finds it
borne out by differences in language , habits , and social condition . But he does not fully explain what he means by a distinct or primitive race . We certainly understand him , from the general tenor of his remarks , to be an advocate for a plurality of origins in the human family , though he no where expressly affirms this doctrine . Indeed he does not allude to it at all , as far as we remember , except in two instances , and then in the briefest manner possible . In the first of these he asserts that the
characteristics of race are independent of climate , and in the second he says that he sees no alternative between the admission of eleven races , and the admission of only one . This avoidance of the fundamental question of Ethnology may have been the result of caution ; but it may also have proceeded from those tendencies , whatever they are , whichhave impressed the whole work with a character of vagueness and want of completeness . Moreover , the mode by which , in practice , ho endeavoured to distinguish
races , though wanting in precision , is fundamentally correct , and it led him , as already observed , to recognize eleven essentially distinct types of man . Four of these belong to the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans , namely , the Papuan , Negrillo , Australian , and Malay ; the three former nearly black , the last brown . By the Papuan he means the tall , bearded , oceanic negroes ; and by the Negrillo , the diminutive , beardless , woolly-haired race of the Indian Archipelago , usually termed Papuas . The former race was met "with at- ilio Peejco Isles ,
respecting which several interesting details are given ; with the latter his personal acquaintance was very slight . He speaks very positively of the existence of an Australian type , though he seems much puzzled by the conflicting accounts given of the natives of this part of the world by different writers . The matter , however , is very simple . Australia and Van Diemen ' s La nd really contain several races , which in
some places are much mixed , m others , relativ ely pure . Systematic writers being ignorant of , or not ¦ willing to recognise this fact , have found contradiction or confusion in accounts which are perfectly accordant , when we remember that they refer to different localities and different tribes ; though the common designations of Australia and Australian may happen to be applied to all of them . And the same may be said of other countries and races .
Our author ' s ideas of the Malay race are extremely erroneous . This race , according to him , stretches over the Indian and Pacific Oceans , from Madagascar to the coasts of California and Mexico , and even , he conjectures , to the West Indies ; while , in another direction , it extends from New Zealand to Saghalien , including the Japanese empire . Nothing can account for such , a generalization , but deficient knowledge . This vast sweep contains many broadly contradistinguished varieties of man ; very tall and
very short races ; very dark and comparatively fair races ; wholly beardless and profusely-bearded races , most of which , to say the least , Dr . Pickering would , infallibly , have recognised as distinct , had he been brought into extensive personal relation with them in certain localities . Similar remarks are applicable , with still greater force , to his Mongolian type , which is made to embrace not only the nations of Siberia and the Chinese Empire , but those also
of both Americas , with the reservation already made of the coasts of California and Mexico , and a few other spots . By carrying out , with even moderate consistency , his own principles , these regions alone would have furnished him with more primitive types than he recognizes in the whole of humanity . As to Africa , we agree -with him in recognizing as primitive an Ethiopian or Nubian race , which we consider to have formed the substratum of the population of
Ancient Egypt . Every one will admit a Negro race I and the Hottentot is , in certain respects , even more distinct than the Negro itself . We cannot say much for his Abyssinian race- India also presents too many varieties in its primitive population to tome within the range of a single type . Under the title of Arabian race are classed , apparently , all the nations of fair complexion and Caucasian forms , whether of Europe , Asia , or Northern Africa , together , of course , with the descendants of Europeans in America and
elsewhere . This generalization is quits on a par with those we have already criticised , and though not so glaringly inaccurate , upon a superficial view , is equally opposed to facts when rigidly scrutinized . As to the races of Europe , indeed , the most important upon the earth in every possible respect , they might almost as well be said to be ignored , as recognized by the few trifling , and almost incidental remarks with which they are disposed of . Having concluded his specific account of what he regards as the original
races of man , as well as of their general distribution , a few short chapters are taken up with such topics as The Geographical Progress of K nowledge "" Migrations by Sea "— " Migrations by Land" — " Origin of Agriculture " - & c . & c . They present nothing demanding special remark in the present case . The last 100 pages of the work are devoted to the consideration of the introduced plants and animals of America , Polynesia , Equatorial Africa , and
Egypt . The idea involved in the enquiry is decidedly valuable , and somewhat novel also ; but , as here developed , it leads to no results whatever . Still this section presents several interesting and suggestive facts , and may bo consulted with advantage by the practical ethnologist . The author , too , is obviously far more at home in it than in the other portions of the work , especially in the part devoted to Egypt , which exhibits both reading and research ;
but all that is of any ethnological significance might have been compressed into a very few pages ; tho rest belongs to pure botany and zoology . Those who are accustomed to tolerate tho loose , vague , unscientific manner in which tho natural history of man is usually treated , even by great writers , will be disposed to nsfifjn to rliis work n pomewhnt higher rank among works of .-.. ciciieo than can possibly be allowed
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 11, 1850, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11051850/page/16/
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