nally so or not, we are unable to decide. In countries I have seen in London, at different times, two white negroes, the issue of black parents, that served to convince me of the truth of this theory. I had before been taught to believe that the whiteness of the negro's skin was a disease, a kind of milky whiteness, that might be called rather a leprous crust than a natural complexion. I was taught to suppose than the numberless white negroes found in various parts of Africa, the white men that go by the name of Chacrelas, in the East Indies, and the white Americans, near the Isthmus of Darien, in the West Indies, were all as so many diseased persons, and even more deformed than the blackest of the natives. But, upon examining that negro which was last shown in London, I found the colour to be exactly like that of an European: the visage white and ruddy, and the lips of the proper redness. However, there were sufficient marks to convince me of its descent. The hair was white and woolly, and which we describe by the somewhat indefinite term "The membership of mankind is that of species, very unlike any thing I had seen before. The race. We may accept the old classification of Bluiris of the eye was yellow, inclining to red; the menbach, the Caucasian, Mongolian, American, and nose was flat, exactly resembling that of a negro; Malayan, or adopt that of Prichard, the Iranic, Tuand the lips thick and prominent. No doubt ranic, American, Bushman, Negros, Papuas, and Altherefore remained of the child's having been natural principle of division in either system can be fouras, but yet no typical exactness, no unvarying born of negro parents: and the person who traced. We set aside what extremes in form and showed it had attestations to convince the most colour equally establish, and races which cannot be incredulous. From this, then, we see that the included in the above are now called Scythic, and then variations of the negro colour is into whiteness, Allophylic. Iranic is indeed a better term than Caucasian, but geographical nomenclature as the authorwhereas the white are never found to have a race ity for the exode of nations is in general an uncertain of negro children. Upon the whole, therefore, guide; for the land which gives the name, for inall those changes which the African, the Asiatic, stance Turan, has at various times been inhabitor the American, undergo, are but accidental ed by different tribes-Indo-Germanic and Finnish, but not of Mongolian origin. Language, indeed, deformities, which a kinder climate, better nour-when exhibiting a national form, is of great imporishment, or more civilized manners, would, in a tance either to trace affinity or variation in race. But course of centuries, very probably remove. race. NOTE A. Varieties of the Human Race. "So long as inquiry was limited to extremes of variation in colour, and yielded to the active sensibility of first impressions, we were taught" says Baron Humboldt, in his work entitled 'Kosmos'. "to consider races, not as differing in degree, but as differing in origin. And the unchangeableness of certain types, amid external causes the most inimical, particularly those of climate, seemed to favour this opinion. But far more forcibly, on the other hand, it appears to me, do the various degrees of colour in the skin, analogous variations in wild and domestic animals, and the information recently obtained upon productive hybrids, attest the unity of the human Many contrasts hitherto supposed to exist have disappeared, owing to the researches of Tiedemann upon the brains of Negroes and Europeans, to the anatomical investigations of Brolikk, and those of Weber upon the form of the pelvis. If we take a general view of the dark-coloured African nations over which Prichard's valuable work has shed so much information, and compare these with the races of the South Indian and West Australasian Archipelago, we see at once that dark skins, woolly hair, and negro-like features are not necessarily invariably connected with each other. Geographical inquiries as to the first country, the so-called cradle of the human race, are of a purely mythic character. We know,' says William Von Humboldt, in a yet unpublished work, 'no period in which men were not found segregrated in families.' Whether this were origi strict ethnographical study shows that great caution must in this respect be exercised; for conquest, social intercourse, the influence of a new religion, and the blending of races even but to a limited extent, have caused in both continents similar recurring phenomena; so that in languages entirely dissimilar, amid a people of widely different origin, idioms of the same derivatives have been found. And there are other disturbing causes; those, namely, of climate and descent. Whilst, however, we maintain the unity of the human race, we are met by the saddening opinion of a higher and lower order. But this may hardly be. A race more civilized, more susceptible of civilization, more ennobled by intellectual culture, may exist, but no race is originally nobler than another. All are equally destined for freedom, whether in the rude condition of savage life, or through the protection of political institutions. If there be one idea of greater import than another which pervades all history, it is that of humanity and the progress of man. To remove the prejudices which selfish feelings have caused and encouraged between men, to consider them without reference to religion, nation, or colour, but as a great brotherhood destined to the same end, the free development of intellectual power, is the lesson which all history teaches." Linnæus (A.D. 1766) was the first systematic writer who ventured to include man as a member of the Animal Kingdom. He established the order Primates, consisting of four genera; 1. Homo, 2. Simia; 3. Lemur; and, 4. Vespertilio. The genus Homo, which he characterized by the brief phrase, "Nosce te ipsum," consisted of the Homo sapiens and the Homo ferus, the latter founded on a few accidental instances of juvenile outcasts, while the former, subject to variation, culturâ et loco, was subdivided into five races; « Americanus; ß Europæus; Asiaticus; Afer; and Monstrosus; the last being composed of all the defective individuals observed among the remainder. He avoided the error of those subsequent writers who consider the races of men as so many distinct species. Yet his classification was exceedingly arbitrary, and in attempting to apportion the human race among the four divisions of an antiquated geography, he blended together a number of races, very different in their physical characters, and failed to notice the inhabitants of many extensive regions of the globe which cannot be referred with propriety to any of the principal continents. Buffon (A. D. 1766), in the excellent treatise, 'Sur les Variétés dans l'espèce Humaine,' with his usual disregard to systematic arrangement, did not propose any natural subdivision of the races. He collected the results scattered over the innumerable voyages and travels of his day, and discriminated with caution among the mass of errors and contradictions with which their writings abounded. Subsequent travellers have added more precise information for correcting and completing the valuable treatise of Buffon, which even now may be read with pleasure and advantage. Already the critical eye of Buffon distinguished the Malay from the other Asiatics, and the Tartars from the Chinese. He admitted the physical differences of the Hyperborean races, distinguished the Hottentots from the other Africans, and acknowledged the unity of the Ethiopians. Blumenbach (A. D. 1797) admitted five varieties of the human species; 1. Caucasica; 2. Mongolica; 3. Ethiopica; 4. Americana; 5. Malayana. These are little more than the old division of Linnæus, with the substitution of the Malayan variety in place of the H. Monstrosus, Linn. Our chief objection to this arrangement consists in the obvious impropriety of including the Americans and Malays, whose characters are not very decisive, in the same rank with the Caucasians, Mongolians, and Ethiopians. The Malayan division has now become insufficient to contain the numerous and varied races of the Southern Ocean. at the sides. This race has formed mighty empires in China and Japan, and occasionally extended its conquests on this side of the Great Desert. It is by no means deficient in intellectual character, but its civilization has long appeared stationary. The Ethiopian race is distinguished by black or jetty complexion, black woolly hair, compressed cranium, and broad flat nose. A long protruded heel, and a flat shin bone, often distinguish this variety of the human race. The hordes of which this variety is composed are chiefly in a state of complete barbarism. It is not very easy to refer either the Malays, or the Papuas, to any one of the three grand varieties of mankind already described. It is a question, however, whether the former people can be accurately distinguished from their neighbours on either side; the Caucasian Hindoos on the one, and the Mongolian Chinese on the other. We scarcely find in them characteristics sufficiently striking for this purpose. The American variety of mankind was originally spread over nearly the whole of North and South America, south of sixtieth degree of north latitude, though their numbers are now thinned, and their possessions curtailed by the incursions of the Caucasians. A reddish-brown complexion, long black lank hair, deficient beard, eyes black and deep-set, receding brow, sometimes from artificial compression, high cheek-bones, prominent aquiline nose, small skull, with the apex high and the back part flat, large mouth and tumid lips, with fine symmetrical frames of middle height, form their chief physical characteristics. Their colour varies much, and also their stature. In their mental character they are generally averse to cultivation, and slow in acquiring knowledge, restless, revengeful, and wholly destitute of maritime adventure. It is undeniable that the American race is tending to extinction. NOTE B.-Colour of the skin in different races of men. The colouring matter is understood to reside in a membranous network of greater or less density extending over the surface of the body, called the rete mucosum. This is situated between the chorion or true skin and the cuticle. The rete mucosum, or, Duméril (A.D. 1806) instituted the order Bimanes, as it is sometimes called, the cutaneous reticle, conwhich was a most decided improvement upon the or- sists of a fine texture of vessels, containing fluids of der Primates of Linnæus, who placed intellectual different shades in the black and tawny races. It Man in the same order with the Apes and Bats. seems, however, doubtful whether any such memHe subdivided the human race into six varieties; 1. brane for the deposition of colouring fluid exists in La Caucasique, or Arabe-Européenne; 2. L'Hyper-white men, though the varieties of fair and dark boréenne; 3. La Mongole; 4. L'Américaine; 5. La Malaie; 6. L'Ethiopienne or Nègre. His arrangement coincides pretty nearly with that of Blumenbach, with the manifest improvement of separating the Hyperboreans from the Mongolians. The Baron Cuvier, in the first edition of the 'Régne Animal' (A. D. 1816), admitted only three principal varieties; 1. Blanche ou Caucasique; 2. Jaune ou Mongolique; and, 3. Noir ou Ethiopique; at the same time remarking, that he did not know to which of the above to refer the Malays, Papoos, or Americans. The Caucasian, to which Europeans belong, is chiefly distinguished by the beautiful form of the head, which approximates to a perfect oval. The skull is large and rounded, and the brow full and elevated. It is also remarkable for variations in the shade of the complexion, and colour of the hair. The skin is generally fair, but susceptible of every tint, and in some nations almost black. The hair is fine, long, and curling. In the Mongolian variety the physical characters vary considerably; but generally it is recognised by prominent cheek-bones, broad flat visage, narrow and oblique eyes, hair straight and black, scanty beard, olive complexion, and oblique skull, flattened which we observe among them would seem to require some organization of this kind; nor does this theory sufficiently illustrate the occasional instances of pied or spotted men. The human skin exhibits various shades of white, yellow, red, brown, and black. There is every possible intermediate shade between the fairest white and the deepest black, but no one gradation of colour is found in all the individuals of any nation. Generally speaking, however, we may refer all the national varieties of colour to the five following classes: 1. White, accompanied with redness of cheeks. This characterizes all the Europeans except the Laplanders, the Western Asiatics, and the Northern Africans. Considerable variety will be found to exist in the colour generally called white. The Albino possesses a skin of a reddish or a dead white colour, with yellowish white or milk-white hair, and red or very light coloured eyes. The hair over the whole body is unusually soft and white, not of the hoary colour of age, nor the light yellow or flaxen tint of the fair-haired races. It is rather that sort of colout peculiar to a white horse. These peculiarities evidently arise from a deficiency in the colouring principle, which is much the same in the skin, hair, and eyes. The latter organs are in the Albinos pecu pean fathers are in all respects like the Europeans. From Negroes and Americans spring Zambos, resembling Mulattoes, but darker. Among the dark races are sometimes found persons spotted with white. Under this head of colour, we may briefly notice the varieties in the hair, beard, and iris. liarly sensible to the stimulus of light, in consequence of the want of a black pigment, the office of which is to absorb its superfluous portions. Hence we find the eyelids of these people generally closed, and the eyes usually exhibiting some appearances of morbid phenomena. But in twilight, dusk, or even a close approach to darkness, they see remarkably well. This peculiarity exists from birth, never changes, and may be propagated by generation. Some would refer the Albino variety to disease, but this notion appears incorrect, inasmuch as most of the individuals thus characterized are observed to be perfectly strong and healthy. This variety was first observed in the Africans, but it is far from being peculiar to that race. It has, however, never occurred except in detached instances, for though it is observed to be more prevalent in some parts of the world than others, the notion of entire Albino tribes has been exploded. There is another race of men, with a remarkably fair complexion, yellow, flaxen, or red hair, and blue or gray eyes. In these persons the cutaneous capillaries are easily filled, and consequently they exhibit a general sanguineous tint, deeper and more florid in the face. The ancient and modern Germans belong to this variety, and generally the Danes, Dutch, Swedes, English, &c. Lastly, a race very extensive is found with skin of a brown-skin and hair is the same. The principal differences ish white, and dark brown or black hair. The Southern Europeans and Western Asiatics are of this character. 2. The second grand variety in human colour is yellow or olive. This characterizes all the Mongolian tribes, and, generally speaking, most of the natives of Upper Asia. 3. Is the red or copper colour, which in various shades is prevalent over the entire American continent, and chiefly confined to it. 4. Brown or tawny. This in lighter or darker variations belongs to the inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca, and is extended through most of the islands of the Pacific ocean. The structure and properties of the hair are closely allied to those of the skin, and it derives the means of its growth, and probably its colouring matter from the cutaneous vessels. Each hair may be traced through the cuticle and surface of the cutis to a bulb partly in the chorion, and partly in the cellular membrane. This bulb consists of a thick outer covering, in which the root of the hair and a vascular pulp by which the root is secreted, are contained. There is a close analogy between the skin and hair. The latter, in the Albino, as before observed, is short and white. A light complexion and thin skin, are usually accompanied with fair or red hair, and darker hair usually belongs to a dark colour and thick skin. In the coloured varieties of the human race, the hair is black and always coarser than that of Europeans. In the spotted negroes the hair growing out of a white patch on the head, is white, a presumptive proof that the colouring matter of the in the hair are four. 1. Brownish, deviating into yellow or red, or into black. It is copious, long, and soft, and characterizes the natives of the temperate climates of Europe, and somewhat stronger and darker, and belongs to the Eastern Asiatics and Northern Africans, and the Celtic and Slavonic races in Europe. 2. Black, strong, straight, and thin. This character of hair belongs to the American and Mongolian varieties. 3. A softer black, thick, and curled, is found among the South-sea islanders. 4. Black and crisp, in all the negro tribes. It may be proper to notice here that the hair of the African has been ascertained to bear no resemblance to wool except in appearance, and that it has all the charac 5. Black, in an amazing variety of shades, characters of true hair. terizes all the African continent, the northern and southern parts excepted, New Holland, Van Dieman's land, New Guinea, New Hebrides, and some other islands of the South sea. It is mingled with the ordinary colour of the natives in Brazil, California, and India. It is not to be supposed that these different colours, thus generally described, prevail each of them uniformly in all the individuals of the race; on the contrary, there are considerable gradations, and even tribes have been found among the Americans, and individuals are constantly produced in each respective race with characteristics approaching to those of some other. Children born from an intermixture of different races hold generally a middle station between the two. Thus the Mulatto forms a medium between the African and European. The colour will be more or less dark according to the complexion of the European father or mother. The cheeks are not ruddy, and the hair is black and curled, but less short than the negroes. The iris is always dark. From the Europeans and Mulattoes proceed what are called Tercerons. These generally resemble Europeans. The hair has nothing of the woolly curl, the skin has a slight brown tint, and the cheeks are red. The offspring of these last and the Europeans are not to be distinguished from our own race. An opposite course will reduce the Mulatto offspring to the characters of the negro, and by intermixture with the latter, the fourth generation will be perfectly black. From the native Indians and the Europeans are born Mestizos. They are much lighter than the Mulattoes, and often not distinguishable in colour from Europeans. The small beard, hands, and feet, and the obliquity of the eyes, mark their Indian blood. The offspring from them and Euro The above divisions hold good generally, but we find, as in colour, so in hair, many individual exceptions in the different races. As great differences are observable in the various races in point of beard, as of hair generally. Most individuals of the dark races are remarkably deficient in this particular. The Mongolians have much less beard than the Europeans, and it grows later. The Calmucks have small and poor mustachios, and very little hair on the body. The Burats are nearly beardless, so are the Tungooses and other hordes of Eastern Siberia. The Chinese resemble the Mongolian tribes in this particular; but contrary to their practice the latter encourage the growth of the beard. The custom of exterminating the beard and hair on the body is common among many of the dark nations; but this would not have been attempted and could not be executed if nature had furnished them in this article so plentifully as she has done the Europeans. There has been much controversy whether the native Americans have beards or not; it is now completely ascertained that they have beards, but weak and imperfect, and that the practice of exterminating them is general. The genuine negroes have very little beard or growth of hair over the body. But the South-sea islanders are by no means deficient in these excrescences. An analogy similar to that between the hair and skin exists between the latter and the iris of the eye. New-born children in Europe have generally light eyes and hair, and both gradually darken in those of dark complexion. In old persons, as the hair turns gray, the eye loses a portion of its colour. In the Albino there is an entire deficiency of proper colouring matter, so that the iris has a reddish hue from the colour of the blood in the capillaries. The same Q sympathetic variations in the skin, hair, and eyes are also observable in other animals. a large and smooth convexity, a little flattened towards the temples. There is a general softness, The principal colours of the human eye are blue, harmony, and proportion in the entire contour of the passing to grayish in the lighter tints, a sort of ob-head. Some differences in the formation of the skull scure orange, a kind of middle tint between blue and have been observed in different nations of the Cauorange, sometimes very green in red-haired persons; casian race: in the Turks, for instance, a singular and lastly, brown, verging to hazel on the one side, globularity of this part has been remarked; and in and black on the other. To these the reddish eye the Poles and Russians a considerable contraction of of the Albino may be added. These varieties occur the orbits. But we have not sufficient information constantly in individuals of the same race and family. on this subject to lead us to any definite conclusions. Sometimes they are confined to particular tribes of In the Mongolian variety the head is of a square the same nation. The Gothlanders of Sweden are form, with the forehead low and slanting. The described with light hair and grayish eyes. The orbits are large and open, and the superciliary arches Finlanders with yellow hair and brown eyes, and the elevated. Laplanders with both black. Blue eyes with yellow hair have always marked the Germanic tribes. Blue eyes with black or dark hair form a combination not uncommon among the tribes of Koordistan, and others of the Caucasian race, who inhabit elevated situations in Asia. The iris is dark in all the coloured varieties, but in the negro it is so black as to be distin-derfully narrowed off, and the face widened below: guished with difficulty from the pupil. NOTE C.-Characteristic features of the different races of men. No two persons are ever met with possessing precisely the same sort of features; yet there are certain generally characteristic countenances belonging to the different races of mankind, and even to particular nations. To enter into all the minute variations would be endless, but they have been reduced by Blumenbach to the five following, which include all the leading traits: 1. An oval countenance, with the features moderately inter-distinguished; high and broad forehead; nose aquiline, or slightly convex or prominent; cheekbones not prominent; small mouth and lips slightly curved; chin full and well rounded. This face is most consonant with our ideas of beauty, and is characteristic in greater or less degrees of perfection of the Caucasian tribes. 2. Broad and flattish face; parts ill-distinguished from each other; space between the eyes flat and broad; flat nose; projecting cheeks; narrow and oblique eyelids, and chin rather prominent. This is the Mongolian face. In the Ethiopian variety the front of the head is laterally compressed and considerably elongated, so that the length of the whole skull from the teeth to the occiput is great. It forms a complete contrast to the globular head of some Europeans, and to the square head of the Calmucks. The forehead is won the frontal bone is shorter, and it and the parietal less excavated than in the European. The temporal ridge is higher; the compression of the front of the skull arises from the strength of the temporal mus cles; the foramen magnum is larger and farther back, and the apertures for the nerves are larger; the bony substance is hard, and the whole weight of the skull more considerable; the organs of sense are more developed, and the narrow forehead and protruded muzzle give to the negro head the appearance of a decidedly animal character. Some of the South African tribes vary a little from the negro conformation of skull. In the head of a Bushman, given by Blumenbach, the cranium is less compressed, the orbits and cheek-bones are wide, and the jaws not prominent. There are other differences, but we scarcely know sufficient of these tribes to class them under any given variety. The origin of the Hottentots, Caffres, Bushmen, and their subdivisions, found at the extremity of South Africa, is quite unknown. They exhibit characters strongly approximating to, and discrepancies equally deviating from, their negro neighbours. The American head is thus characterized; broad cheek-bones, depressed forehead, deep orbits, and the nasal cavity generally large. 3. Broad, but not flat visage; prominent cheek- The Esquimaux and Greenlanders, who seem to bones; short forehead; eyes deeply fixed; nose flat- form a link between the Americans and Mongolians, tish, but prominent. Such is the American face. have broad cheek-bones, large jaws and face, flat4. Narrow face, projecting below; narrow, retreat-tened nose, the cranium sufficiently ample, but dising, and arched forehead; prominent eyes; thick nose and lips, &c. Negro face. 5. Face not so narrow as the last, rather projecting downwards; bottled nose, and large mouth. Malay countenance. Placing these variations of the human countenance thus beside each other, the difference appears very striking. But we must repeat of the characters of countenance above described, as of those of colour, that they are by no means to be found the same in all the individuals of each respective race; on the contrary, individual deviations from the given type are numerous. Among the African and American nations, many persons are found with features as regular and as handsome as any Europeans. The same is more especially true of the South-Sea Islanders. Among ourselves how many have the characteristic features of other races! It may be observed, however, that rather less deviation from the characteristic model is observable in the Mongolian than in the other varieties. Though even there there is considerable difference, if not in form, at least in expression of features. As for example, between the Calmuck and the Chinese. From the features we naturally proceed to the skull. This, in the Caucasian variety, is more fully developed in the upper and front parts, these forming tinguished by a posterior elongation. The Carib tribes are conspicuous for a most remarkable depression of the forehead, which defect, like others of the Americans, they increase by arti ficial means. The hinder parts of the skull greatly preponderate; the face is large and muscular; the nasal bone neither small nor flat; the cavity is large, and the jaws and teeth exhibit mamfestations of great strength. The general characters in this respect attributed to the Malay variety are, a moderately-narrowed cranium slanting at the interior and upper part; face large, and jaws prominent. But, indeed, the numerous nations comprehended, with not much philosophical precision, under this variety, exhibit very various and opposing characters; some are not distinguishable in the formation of this part from Europeans, some partake of the Mongole, and many of the negro type. In truth, the above division of skulls is somewhat arbitrary, and though sufficient for general purposes, is by no means universally applicable. Camper was the first anatomist who distinguished and described in an accurate manner the differences of form which have been discovered on comparing the skulls of different races; he invented a technical method by which he imagined he could display in a single measurement the essential difference of skulls as to form and capacity, not only in reference to | here to observe, that every day's experience must various nations of men, but likewise to the inferior have shown us miserable instances of this kind species of animals; this method he thus describes :The basis on which the distinction of nations is produced by nature or affectation; calamities founded may be displayed by two straight lines, one that no pity can soften, or assiduity relieve. of which is to be drawn through the meatus audi- Passing over, therefore, every other account, torius to the base of the nose, and the other touching I shall only mention the famous instance quoted the prominent centre of the forehead, and falling thence on the most advancing part of the upper jaw-by Father Malbranche upon which he founds bone, the head being viewed in profile. In the angle produced by these two lines the distinctions are found to exist in different nations and species of animals. The heads of birds display the smallest angle, and it always becomes of greater extent in proportion as the animal approaches more nearly the human figure. In one species of the ape tribe, the head has a facial angle of 42 degrees; in another of the same family, the facial angle contains 50 degrees; next to this is the head of an African negro, which, as well as the Calmuck, forms an angle of 70 degrees; whilst in the heads of Europeans it contains 80 degrees. On this difference of 10 degrees in the facial angle the superior beauty of the European depends; while the high character of beauty in some ancient works of statuary, as in the head of Apollo and the Medusa of Sisocles, is given by an angle of 100 degrees. CHAP. XII. OF MONSTERS. HITHERTO I have only spoken of those varieties in the human species that are common to whole nations; but there are varieties of another kind, which are only found in the individual, and being more rarely seen, are therefore called monstrous. If we examine into the varieties of distorted nature, there is scarcely a limb of the body, or a feature in the face, that has not suffered some reprobation, either from art or nature; being enlarged or diminished, lengthened or wrested, from its due proportion. Linnæus, after having given a catalogue of monsters, particularly adds, the flat heads of Canada, the long heads of the Chinese, and the slender waists of the women of Europe, who, by strait lacing, take such pains to destroy their health, through a mistaken desire to improve their beauty. It belongs more to the physician than the naturalist to attend to these minute deformities; and indeed it is a melancholy contemplation to speculate upon a catalogue of calamities, inflicted by unpitying Nature, or brought upon us by our own caprice. Some, however, are fond of such accounts; and there have been books filled with nothing else. To these, therefore, I refer the reader; who may be better pleased with accounts of men with two heads, or without any head, of children joined in the middle, of bones turned into flesh, or flesh converted into bones, than I am. It is sufficient his beautiful theory of monstrous productions. A woman of Paris, the wife of a tradesman, went to see a criminal broke alive upon the wheel, at the place of public execution. She was at that time two months advanced in her pregnancy, and no way subject to any disorders to affect the child in her womb. She was, however, of a tender habit of body; and, though led by curiosity to this horrid spectacle, very easily moved to pity and compassion. She felt, therefore, all those strong emotions which so terrible a sight must naturally inspire; shuddering at every blow the criminal received, and almost swooned at his cries. Upon returning from this scene of blood, she continued for some days pensive, and her imagination still wrought upon the spectacle she had lately seen. After some time, however, she seemed perfectly recovered from her fright, and had almost forgotten her former uneasiness. When the time of her delivery approached, she seemed no ways mindful of her former terrors, nor were her pains in labour more than usual in such circumstances. But what was the amazement of her friends and assistants when the child came into the world! It was found that every limb in its body was broken like those of the malefactor, and just in the same place. This poor infant that had suffered the pains of life even before its coming into the world, did not die, but lived in an hospital in Paris, for twenty years after, a wretched instance of the supposed powers of imagination in the mother, of altering and distorting the infant in the womb. The manner in which Malbranche reasons upon this fact, is as follows: the Creator has established such a sympathy between the several parts of nature, that we are led not only to imitate each other, but also to partake in the same affections and desires. The animal spirits are thus carried to the respective parts of the body, to perform the same actions which we see others perform, to receive in some measure their wounds, and take part in their sufferings. Experience tells us, that if we look attenhomo generari. Vide etiam, Johnstoni Thaumatomuliebri humano seminis commixtione possit verus graphia Naturalis. Vide Adalberti Disquisitio Physica ostenti duorum puerorum unus quorum dente aureo, alter cum capite giganteo Biluæ spectabantur. A man without lungs and stomach, Journal de Scavans, 1682, p. 301; another without any brain, Andreas Caroli Memorabilia, p. 167, an. 1676; an 1 Linnæi Syst. vol. i. p. 29. Monorchides ut minus other without any head, Giornale di Roma, anno fertiles. 1675, p. 26; another without any arms, New Me 2 Vide Phil. Trans. passim. Miscellan. Curioss.moirs of Literature, vol. iv. p. 446. In short, the Johan. Baptist. Wenck. Dissertatio Physica an ex variety of these accounts is almost infinite; and pervirilis humani seminis cum brutali per nefarium coi-haps, their use is as much circumscribed as their tum commixtione, aut vicissim ex bruti maris cum variety is extensive. |