. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology. Anatomy; Physiology; Zoology. 1358 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. ficient reason ; and if this be the case, another link of transition exists, which, with those previously named, brings the two groups into such relations, that their separation cannot be justified. By Dr. Latham, accordingly, the Syro-Arabian or Semitic race is ranked with the African under the general designation Atlantidce. IV. AMERICAN NATIONS.—The aboriginal inhabitants of America have been considered by some ethnologists as a department of the human family very distinct from the inhabit-
. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology. Anatomy; Physiology; Zoology. 1358 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. ficient reason ; and if this be the case, another link of transition exists, which, with those previously named, brings the two groups into such relations, that their separation cannot be justified. By Dr. Latham, accordingly, the Syro-Arabian or Semitic race is ranked with the African under the general designation Atlantidce. IV. AMERICAN NATIONS.—The aboriginal inhabitants of America have been considered by some ethnologists as a department of the human family very distinct from the inhabit- ants of the Old World ; and attempts have been frequently made to define them as a race by physical characters. But these attempts have been founded upon a very imperfect acquaintance with the nations peopling this vast continent; for, taken in the aggregate, they are by no means uniform either in phy- sical qualities, in intellectual endowments, moral character, or grade of civilisational development; nor is the line of distinction between them and the rest of mankind nearly so obvious or strongly marked as is usually imagined. Thus the native Americans have been described as " red-men; " but there are tribes equally red, and perhaps more deserv- ing that epithet, in Africa and Polynesia; and the American nations are by no means all of a red or copper hue, some being as fair as many European people, others being brown or yellow, and others nearly, if not quite, as black as the Negroes of Africa. Again, it has been attempted by anatomists to dis- tinguish the American races by a certain con- figuration of skull and form of features ; and Fig. 845. even Dr. Morton, in his splendid work en- titled " Crania Americana," has given his authority in support of the opinion, that such distinctive characters are to be found " in the squared or rounded head, the flattened and vertical occiput, the high cheek-bones, the ponderous maxillae, the large quadrangular
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