hen alone, of all the animals with which we are acquainted, can constantly and uniformly support himself in the erect posture; and whatever the ingenious and learned writer of Ancient Metaphysics has advanced in favour of so strange a hypothesis, we cannot believe that even in his earliest and rudest state of civilization man could ever have been a quadruped. We are aware that Kotzebue, in the entertaining work in which he relates his exile to Siberia, speaks of an idiot he saw on his return, that went on all fours, with as much ease as if it were his natural attitude, but we do not consider this single instance as affording a proof that such would be the attitude of man in a state of nature.

"There are (says Cuvier) several circumstances in the anatomical structure of man, which sufficiently prove that nature never intended him to walk on all fours. In this situation his eyes would be directed towards the earth; but not being possessed of the cervical ligament that is found in quadrupeds, he would not be able to support his head. His inferior extremities would be too much elevated in proportion to his arms, and his feet too short..." Man short to enable him conveniently to bend them like other animals who tread only on their toes. His chest is so large that it would impede the free motion of his arms. He could not even climb with so much facility as apes, because he has not, like them, the great toe separated from the rest; nor could he climb like the cats, on account of the weakness of his nails.

The body of a well-shaped man ought to be square, the muscles ought to be strongly marked, the contour of the members boldly delineated, and the features of the face well defined. In women, all the parts are more rounded and softer, the features are more delicate, and the complexion brighter. To man belong strength and majesty; gracefulness and beauty are the portions of the other sex. The structure essential to each will be found in the description of the human skeleton, under the article ANATOMY.

Every thing in both sexes points them out as the sovereigns of the earth; even the external appearance of man declares his superiority to other creatures. His body is erect; his attitude is that of command; his august countenance, which is turned towards heaven, bears the impressions of his dignity. The image of his soul is painted in his face; the excellence of his nature pierces through the material organs, and gives a fire and animation to the features of his countenance. His majestic deportment, his firm and emboldened gait, announce the nobleness of his rank. He touches the earth only with his extremity, he views it only at a distance, and seems to despise it. It has been justly observed, that the countenance of man is the mirror of his mind. In the looks of no animal are the expressions of passions painted with such energy and rapidity, and with such gentle gradations and shades, as in those of man. We know, that in certain emotions of the mind, the blood rises to the face, and produces blushing; and that in others the countenance turns pale. These two symptoms, the appearance of which depends on the structure and the transparency of the reticulum, especially redness, constitute a peculiar beauty. In our climates, the natural colour of the face of a man in good health is white, with a lively red suffused upon the cheeks. Paleness of the countenance is always a suspicious symptom. That colour which is shaded with black is a sign of melancholy; and constant and universal redness is a proof that the blood is carried with too much impetuosity to the brain. A livid colour is a morbid and dangerous symptom; and that which has a tint of yellow is a sign of jaundice or repletion of bile. The colour of the skin is frequently altered by want of sleep or of nourishment, or by looseness and diarrhoea.

Notwithstanding the general similitude of countenance in nations and families, there is a wonderful diversity of features. No one, however, is at a loss to recollect the person to whom he intends to speak, provided he has once fully seen him. One man has liveliness and gaiety painted in his countenance, and announces beforehand, by the cheerfulnes of his appearance, the character which he is to support in society. The tears which bedew the cheeks of another man would excite compassion in the most unfeeling heart. Thus the face of man is the rendezvous of the symptoms both of his moral and physical affections; tranquillity, anger, threatening, joy, smiles, laughter, malice, love, envy, jealousy, pride, contempt, disdain or indignation, irony, arrogance, tears, terror, astonishment, horror, fear, shame or humiliation, sorrow and affliction, compassion, meditation, particular convulsions, sleep, death, &c., &c. The difference of these characters appears to us of sufficient importance to form a principal article in the natural history of man.

When the mind is at ease, all the features of the face are in a state of profound tranquillity. Their proportion, harmony, and union, point out the serenity of the thoughts. But when the soul is agitated, the human face becomes a living canvas, wherein the passions are represented with equal delicacy and energy; where every emotion of the soul is expressed by some feature, and every action by some mark; the lively impression of which anticipates the will, and reveals by pathetic signs our secret agitation, and those intentions which we are anxious to conceal. It is in the eyes that the soul is painted in the strongest colours, and with the nicest shades. The different colours of the eyes are, dark hazel, light hazel, green, blue, gray, and whitish gray. The most common of these colours are hazel and blue, both of which are often found in the same eye. Eyes which are commonly called black, are only dark hazel; they appear black in consequence of being contrasted with the white of the eye. Wherever there is a tint of blue, however slight, it becomes the prevailing colour, and outshines the hazel, with which it is intermixed, to such a degree, that the mixture cannot be perceived without a very narrow examination. The most beautiful eyes are those which appear black or blue. In the former there is more expression and vivacity; in the latter more sweetness, and perhaps delicacy.

Next to the eyes, the parts of the face by which the physiognomy is most strongly marked, are the eyebrows, brows. Being of a different nature from the other parts, their effect is increased by contrast. They are like shade in a picture, which gives relief to the other colours and forms.

The forehead is one of the largest parts of the face; the forehead and one that contributes most to its beauty. Every body knows of how great importance the hair is in the physiognomy, and that baldness is a very great defect. When old age begins to make its approaches, the hair which first falls off is that which covers the crown of the head and the parts above the temples. We seldom see the hair of the lower part of the temples, or of the back of the head, completely fall off. Baldness is peculiar to men; women do not naturally lose their hair, though it becomes white as well as that of men at the approach of old age.

The nose is the most prominent feature of the face; but as it has very little motion, and that only in the most violent passions, it contributes less to the expression than to the beauty of the countenance. The nose is seldom perpendicular to the middle of the face, but for the most part is turned toward the one side or the other. The cause of this irregularity, which according to painters, is perfectly consistent with beauty, and of which even the want would be a deformity, appears to be frequent pressure on one side of the cartilage of the child's nose against the breast of the mother when... Next to the eyes, the mouth and lips have the greatest motion and expression. The motions of these parts are under the influence of the passions. The mouth, set off by the vermilion of the lips, and the enamel of the teeth, marks, by the various forms it assumes, their different characters; and this feature receives animation from the organ of the voice, which communicates to it more life and expression than is possessed by any other feature. The cheeks are uniform features, and have no motion, and little expression, except what arises from that involuntary redness or paleness with which they are covered in different passions, such as shame, anger, pride, and joy, producing redness; and fear, terror, and sorrow, producing paleness.

In different passions, the whole head assumes different positions, and is affected with different motions. It hangs forward during shame, humility, and sorrow; it inclines to one side in languor and compassion; it is elevated in pride, erect and fixed in obstinacy and self-conceit. In astonishment, it is thrown backwards; and it moves from side to side in contempt, ridicule, anger, and indignation. In grief, joy, love, shame, and compassion, the eyes swell and the tears flow. The effusion of tears is always accompanied with an extension of the muscles of the face, which opens the mouth. In sorrow, the corners of the mouth are depressed, the under-lip rises, the eyelids fall down, the pupil of the eye is round and half concealed by the eyelid. The other muscles of the face are relaxed, so that the distance between the eyes and the mouth is greater than ordinary; and consequently the countenance appears to be lengthened. In fear, terror, confirmation, and horror, the forehead is wrinkled, the eyebrows are raised, the eyelids are opened as wide as possible, the upper-lid uncovers a part of the white above the pupil, which is depressed and partly concealed by the under-lid. At the same time the mouth opens wide, the lips recede from each other, and discover the teeth both above and below. In contempt and derision, the upper-lip is raised to one side and exposes the teeth, while the other side of the lip moves a little, and wears the appearance of a smile. The nostril on the elevated side of the lip shrivels up, and the corner of the mouth falls down. The eye on the same side is almost shut, while the other is open as usual; but the pupils of both are depressed, as when one looks down from a height. In jealousy, envy, and malice, the eyebrows fall down and are depressed. The upper lip is elevated on both sides, while the corners of the mouth are a little depressed, and the under-lip rises to join the middle of the upper. In laughter, the corners of the mouth are drawn back, and a little elevated; the upper parts of the cheeks rise; the eyes are more or less closed; the upper lip rises, and the under one falls down; the mouth opens, and in cases of immoderate laughter, the skin of the nose wrinkles. That gentler and more gracious kind of laughter which is called smiling, is seated wholly in the parts of the mouth. The under lip rises; the angles of the mouth are drawn back, the cheeks are puffed up, the eyelids approach one another, and a small twinkling is observed in the eyes. It is very extraordinary, that laughter may be excited either by a moral cause without the immediate action of external objects, or by a particular irritation of the nerves without any feeling of joy. Thus an involuntary laugh is excited by a slight tickling of the lips, of the palm of the hand, of the sole of the foot, of the armpits, and in short, below the middle of the ribs. We laugh when two dissimilar ideas, the union of which was unexpected, are represented to the mind at the same time, and when one or both of these ideas, or their union, includes some absurdity which excites an emotion of disdained mingled with joy. In general, striking contrasts never fail to produce laughter.

A change is produced in the features of the countenance by weeping as well as by laughing. In weeping, the under lip is separated from the teeth; the forehead is wrinkled; the eyebrows are depressed; the dimple which gives gracefulness to laughter, forfeits the cheek; the eyes are unusually compressed, and bathed in tears. In laughter, tears not unfrequently appear, but they flow more seldom and less copiously.

The arms, hands, and every part of the body, contribute to the expression of the passions. In joy, for instance, all the members of the body are agitated with quick and varied motions. In languor and sorrow, the arms hang down, and the whole body remains fixed and immovable. In admiration and surprise, a similar suspension of motion is likewise observed. In love and hope, the head and eyes are raised to heaven, as if to solicit the wished-for good; the body bears forward as if to approach it; the arms are stretched out, and seem to seize before hand the desired object. On the contrary, in fear, hatred and horror, the arms seem to pull backward, and repel the object of aversion. We turn away our head and eyes, as if to avoid the sight of it; we start back as if to shun it.

For the beauty of the human form, see Beauty and Drawing.

At his birth, man is the most feeble of all animals; origin of family affection; which he has occasion for a much longer time than other animals. Hence the natural continuance of conjugal affection, and the intimate ties that bind together the parents with each other and with their children. As the father partakes with his companion in the care of educating their children, man ought more than any other animal, to live in a state of monogamy, the propriety of which is demonstrated by the nearly equal number of male and female children that on an average come into the world.

Man is formed for society, which is rendered essentially necessary to him from his natural weaknesses, and without which he would not be able to resist the wild beasts of the forest, nor procure for himself the necessaries of life: for he has no arms offensive or defensive, such as horns, claws, scales; nor anything that resembles that faculty which we call instinct, which many species of animals derive from nature herself, and by which they construct themselves habitations, or change their climate, according to the diversity of the seasons.

All gregarious animals have a certain language by which they can in some measure communicate their thoughts to each other; but man enjoys in this respect two remarkable prerogatives. 1. The faculty of articulating sounds, which no quadruped enjoys in common with him, and which must give to his language an infinite finite variety and precision. 2. An unlimited power of generalizing his ideas, and of fixing and retaining abstract notions by means of words. On this depend memory and judgement, which latter is the foundation of reason, or of that faculty of reflecting and combining ideas, which is considered as peculiar to man.

It is by means of language that man communicates to the rest of his species the observations and discoveries made by each individual, and this communication is the great source of the infinite perfectibility of the human race. The arts are the offspring of science, produced by the combination of these observations and discoveries, and by that address which results from the peculiar conformation of our hands and fingers.

By means of the arts man has learned to procure for himself subsistence, and to provide against the inclemencies of the weather in every climate of the earth. Thus, he has established himself everywhere; while the rest of the animal creation have each a determinate space, beyond which they cannot pass without the protection of man, who has transported with him the domestic kind, and has been followed in spite of himself by the parasitical tribes.

The nations who established themselves in the icy regions of the north, not finding there enough of vegetable nourishment, nor pasture sufficiently abundant for cattle, derived all their subsistence from the chase or fishing. Obliged to devote all their time to the procuring of this subsistence, and multiplying but slowly, from the destruction of the game which surrounded them, it is not surprising that among them man has made least progress in arts and civilization. Their arts were confined to the construction of huts, to the preparing of skins for their covering, and to the manufacture of spears and arrows. The inhabitants of the northern and eastern parts of Siberia, and the savages of North America, are almost the only people who are in this low state of civilization.

Other nations learned to secure for themselves in the possession of numerous herds, certain subsistence, and to find sufficient leisure to increase their knowledge; but their wandering life, in search of new pastures and more agreeable climates, kept them still within very narrow limits with respect to civilization. They, however, acquired more industry in the construction of their habitations, and learned the value of property; the natural consequences of which were riches, and an inequality of condition. The Laplanders in the north of Europe, the Tartars who inhabit the vast extent of country in the interior of Asia, the Bedouin Arabs who occupy the sands of Arabia and the north of Africa, the Caffres and Hottentots in the south of Africa, are the principal wandering tribes with which we are acquainted.

Man did not multiply to any great extent, nor rise to any great perfection in the arts and sciences, till landed property allowed him to pay attention to agriculture, by means of which the labour of one part of the community could procure subsistence for the rest, and leave them sufficient leisure to employ themselves in arts less necessary than ornamental. Lastly, the invention of money, by facilitating the transfer of commodities, brought to the highest pitch industry, luxury, and inequality of fortune, and by a necessary consequence, the vices of effeminacy, and the rage of ambition.

Man living in every climate, fearing no other animal, but having even destroyed or confined to the deserts all those who could molest him, became incomparably more numerous than any other tribe of large animals. Hence, having few other animals to combat, he soon began to make war on his own species, and he may be considered as almost the only animal that is perpetually at war with those of the same tribe. Savages dispute the forests in which they follow the chase; Nomads, the pastures where they feed their cattle; more civilized people combat for the monopoly of commerce or the prerogatives of pride and ambition. Hence the necessity of government, to regulate national disputes, and to reduce to certain rules the quarrels of individuals.

It is chiefly the features of the countenance, and the marks that colour of the skin, that serve to distinguish the varieties of the human species. Independently of particular and individual differences, the human race may be distinguished into five principal varieties, the distinctive characters of which are deeply stamped, and appear to resist even the powerful influence of climate. In fact we see, under the same parallel of latitude, and in the same country, existing together for a number of ages, the dark Hungarian or gipsy, and the fairest people of Europe; the copper coloured Peruvian, the brown Malay, and the almost white Abyssinian, in the same zone that is inhabited by the blackest people in the universe. The inhabitants of Van Diemen's land are black, while the Europeans of the same degree of north latitude are white; and the inhabitants of the Malabar coast, though placed beneath a sky much hotter than the inhabitants of Siberia, are not browner than these latter. The Dutch who colonized the Cape of Good Hope, have not, during two centuries, acquired the same colour with the Hottentots who people that country; and the Parsi remain white in the midst of the olive-coloured Hindoos.

The colouring matter seated in the mucous membrane below the skin, is not the only distinctive character that marks the varieties of the human species, as in each of them there is a peculiar form, distinguished by general and constant marks, depending on the conformation of the bones. The muzzle of the Negro; the very prominent cheek-bones of the Calmuck; the flattened skull and nose of the Caribbee Indian; the oblique eyes of the Japanese and Chinese, do not appear owing to art, like the lengthened ears or the tattooed skin of the natives of the South sea islands. The fair or red colour of the hair in Europeans; the blue or gray eyes of the north, are almost never seen, except in a few morbid cases, in any other varieties. The hair of all the rest is very black, even from infancy; sleek and thick in all the Mongol nations, the Malays, and the Americans, both of the south and north, but woolly in Negroes and Hottentots; the beard which is late and thin in all the Monguls, exists naturally throughout the American tribes, though, as among most other savage people, all the Caribbes eradicate it from their youth, which has induced a supposition that all these savage people are naturally beardless.

Mankind with respect to their varieties, have been very very differently divided by naturalists. Linnaeus makes five varieties, viz. 1. Americans; of copper-coloured complexion, choleric constitution, and remarkably erect stature. 2. Europeans; of fair complexion, languid temperament, and brawny form. 3. Asiatics; of footy complexion, melancholic temperament, and rigid fibre. 4. Africans; of black complexion, phlegmatic temperament, and relaxed fibre; and 5. Monsters; comprehending, 1. Alpini; the inhabitants of the northern mountains: they are small in stature, active, and timid in their disposition. 2. Patagonics; the Patagonians of South America, of vast size, and indolent in their manners. 3. Monorchids; the Hottentots, having one testicle extirpated. 4. Imberbes; most of the American nations, who eradicate their beards and the hair from every part of the body except the scalp. 5. Macrocephali. 6. Plagioccephali; the Canadian Indians, who have the fore part of their heads flattened, when young, by compression.

The following arrangement of the varieties in the human species, is offered by Gmelin as more convenient than that of Linnaeus. 1. White, (Hom. Albus.) Formed by the rules of symmetrical elegance and beauty; or at least what we consider as such.—This division includes almost all the inhabitants of Europe; those of Asia on this side of the Oby, the Caspian, Mount Imaus, and the Ganges; likewise the natives of the north of Africa, of Greenland, and the Esquimaux.

2. Brown: (Hom. Radius.) Of a yellowish brown colour; has scanty hairs, flat features, and small eyes.—This variety takes in the whole inhabitants of Asia not included in the preceding division.

3. Black: (Hom. Niger.) Of black complexion; has frizzy hair, a flat nose, and thick lips.—The whole inhabitants of Africa, excepting those of its more northern parts.

4. Copper-coloured: (Hom. Cupreus.) The complexion of the skin resembles the colour of copper not burnished.—The whole inhabitants of America, except the Greenlanders and Esquimaux.

5. Tawny: (Hom. Fusca.) Chiefly of a dark blackish-brown colour; having a broad nose, and harsh coarse straight hair.—The inhabitants of the southern islands, and of most of the Indian islands.

Buffon enumerates six varieties, 1. The polar or Lapland race; 2. The Tartar or Mongul; 3. The southern Asiatic; 4. The European; 5. The Ethiopian; and 6. The American. For an account of these varieties see Buffon's Natural History by Smellie, and Herder's Outlines of the Philosophy of the History of Man.

Virey, the disciple of Buffon, distributes man into five varieties, 1. The Celtic race, containing most of the Europeans. 2. The Mongul and Lapland. 3. Malay. 4. The Negro and Hottentot; and 5. The Carib. For his description of these varieties, with portraits illustrating them, see his Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain, tom. i. p. 129.

Of all the divisions which we have seen, we consider that given by Cuvier, in his Tableau Elementaire de l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux, as the least exceptionable; and as it is very concise, we shall here give a translation of it. Cuvier's enumeration is as follows.

The white race, with oval visage, long hair, pointed nose; to which belong the polished natives of Europe, which appears to us the most comely of all the varieties, is also far superior to the rest in strength of genius, in courage, and activity. The Tartars, properly so called, from whom the Turks are descended; the Circassians, and other people about Mount Caucasus, who are the fairest of the human race; the Persians, the native inhabitants of Hindoostan, the Arabians, the Moors who inhabit the north of Africa, and the Abyssinians, who appear, as well as the Jews, to be derived from the Arabians, belong to the same race with the Europeans. These nations are larger and fairer in the north, their hair is there fair, their eyes blue; whereas in the south they are dark, and often very brown, and their hair and eyes are black. There are intermixtures of these colours in the more temperate regions.

All the north of the two continents is peopled with Lapland men that are very dark, with flat visage, black hair and eyes; with a body thick and extremely short. To this belong the Laplanders in Europe, the Samoiedes, Otiacs, Tchutchki in Asia; the Greenlanders and Esquimaux in America. The inhabitants of Finland resemble these almost in every circumstance, except that their height equals that of the European. The Hungarians and several wandering tribes of Asia, have a similar form, and similar language and manners with the Fins.

The Mongul race, to which belong most of the Mongul people we call Tartars, as the Monguls, the Mantcheoux, the Calmucs, &c. and who have extended their conquests from China to Hindoostan, and are even advanced as far as the frontiers of Europe, is characterized by a flat forehead, a small nose, prominent cheek-bones, black hair, very thin beard, small oblique eyes, thick lips, and a colour more or less yellow.

The Chinese and Japanese, and the Indians beyond the Ganges, to whom we give the name of Malays, appear to hold a near resemblance to the Monguls. The islands of the South sea, and the great continent of New Holland, are inhabited by original Malays. Those who live nearest the equator have the skin almost as black as the Negroes. Such are, among others, the Papons.

The Negroes inhabit all the coasts on the south of Africa from the river Senegal to the Red sea. Besides the blackness of their skin, they are distinguished by their flat nose and forehead, their long muzzle, prominent cheek bones, and frizzled hair. They are blacker than the inhabitants of Guinea, and have the nose excessively long. Those of Congo are the most comely. Towards the tropic of Capricorn they become a little paler, and take the name of Caffres. Almost all the inhabitants of the eastern coast of Africa are of this subvariety. The Hottentots form another subdivision, which is found in the most southern point, and they have cheek-bones so prominent, that their visage appears triangular. Their colour is a brown olive.

It is supposed that the interior parts of Africa, which are very hilly, are inhabited by a race of white men like Abyssinia.

America was peopled with men of a copper coloured hair, with long and coarse hair, who, according to most travellers, generally want the beard, and even the hair on the body. Others assure us that they eradicate these. It is also said, that the fanciful form of their heads heads arise from the compression they undergo in infancy. This race comprehends the savage nations of America, and the remaining inhabitants of Mexico and Peru. It is towards the southern point of this continent that we find the tallest race of men in the universe; but their height, which the earlier travellers represented as gigantic, scarcely exceeds six feet. These are the people so celebrated under the name of Patagonians.

All these different varieties of men can intermix and produce children, who hold a mean between the forms and colours of their parents. These intermixtures can again mix with the original races, and the produce approaches to these races according to the degree of mixture. All these progenies are prolific as well as their fathers and mothers.

It appears that there are sometimes born in the different races of our variety, subjects of a milky white hue, which is the effect of disease, and this colour is accompanied with feebleness of body and weakness of sight. Some travellers have believed that these men form entire nations, which they have called Dariens in America, Dondos or Albinoes, in Africa, and Chackeras in India. See Albinoes.

The different colours which distinguish the varieties of the human species, reside not in the cuticle, but in the mucus and reticular membrane which is immediately below it.

Blumenbach remarks, that some late writers seem doubtful whether the numerous distinct races of men ought to be considered as mere varieties, which have arisen from degeneration, or as so many species altogether different. The cause of this seems chiefly to be, that they took too narrow a view in their researches, selecting, perhaps, two races the most different from each other possible, and, overlooking the intermediate races that formed the connecting links between them, compared these two together; or, they fixed their attention too much on man, without examining other species of animals, and comparing their varieties and degeneration with those of the human species. The first fault is, when one, for example, places together a Senegal negro and an European Adonis, and at the same time forgets that there is not one of the bodily differences of these two beings, whether hair, colour, features, &c., which does not gradually run into the same thing of the other, by such a variety of shades, that no physiologist or naturalist is able to establish a certain boundary between these gradations, and consequently between the extremes themselves.

The second fault is, when people reason as if man were the only organized being in nature, and consider the varieties in his species to be strange and problematical, without reflecting that all these varieties are not more striking or more uncommon than those with which so many thousands of other species of organized beings degenerate, as it were, before our eyes.

We cannot here enter into the merits of the question, whether, considering the varieties of the human species which we have described, all these could have originated from one pair, as related in the Mosaic history. To those who affect to disbelieve the Mosaic account, it may be sufficient to reply, that to the almighty power of the Divine Being it was not more difficult to change and modify the descendants of one man and one woman, in order to adapt them to the different regions of the earth which they were destined to occupy, than to create at the first five or fix pairs placed in different situations, to be the progenitors of the nations that we now see inhabiting the globe.

On the nature and causes of the different colour of the skin, that characterizes the varieties of the human species, see the article Complexion. On this subject we shall here add a curious comparison between the human race and swine, by Professor Blumenbach, intended to refute the second error into which he considers writers have fallen, in treating of the varieties of man.

More reasons, says he, than one have induced me to make choice of swine for this comparison; but, in particular, because they have a great similarity, in many respects, to man; not however, in the form of their entrails, as people formerly believed, and therefore studied the anatomy of the human body purposely in swine; so that even, in the 17th century, a celebrated dispute, which arose between the physicians of Heidelberg and those of Durlach, respecting the position of the heart in man, was determined, in consequence of orders from government, by inspecting a sow, to the great triumph of the party which really was in the wrong. Nor is it because in the time of Galen, according to repeated assertions, human flesh was said to have a taste perfectly similar to that of swine; nor because the fat, and the tanned hides of both, are very like to each other; but because both, in general, in regard to the economy of their bodily structure, taken on the whole, were unexpectedly, on the first view, as well as on closer examination, a very striking similitude.

Both, for example, are domestic animals; both omnivora; both are dispersed throughout all the four quarters of the world; and both consequently are exposed, in numerous ways, to the principal causes of degeneration arising from climate, mode of life, nourishment, &c.; both, for the same reason, are subject to many diseases rarely found among other animals than men and swine, such as the stone in the bladder; or to diseases exclusively peculiar to these two, such as the worms found in meal-fed swine.

Another reason, continues he, why I have made choice of swine for the present comparison is, because the degeneration and descent from the original race are far more certain in these animals, and can be better traced, than in the varieties of other domestic animals. For no naturalist, I believe, has carried his scepticism so far as to doubt the descent of the domestic swine from the wild boar; which is much the more evident, as it is well known that wild pigs, when caught, may be easily rendered as tame and familiar as domestic swine; and the contrary also is the case; for if the latter by any accident get into the woods, they as readily become wild again; so that there are instances of such animals being shot for wild swine, and it has not been till they were opened, and found castrated, that people were led to a discovery of their origin, and how, and at what time, they ran away. It is well ascertained, that, before the discovery of America by the Spaniards, swine were unknown in that quarter of the world, and that they were afterwards carried thither from Europe. All the varieties, therefore, through which this animal has since degenerated, belong, with the original European race, to one and the same species; and since no bodily difference is found in the human race, either in regard to stature, colour, the form of the skull, &c., as will plentifully appear, which is not observed in the same proportion in the swine race, this comparison, it is to be hoped, will silence those sceptics who have thought proper, on account of these varieties of the human species, to admit more than one species.

With regard to stature, the Patagonians, as is well known, have afforded the greatest employment to anthropologists. The romantic tales, however, of the old travellers, and even the more modest relations of English navigators, have been doubted by other travellers, who on the same coast fought in vain for such children of Anak. But even admitting everything said of the size of these Patagonians, there is not among them nearly such an excess of stature as that observed in many parts of America among the swine originally carried thither from Europe; and of these we shall mention particularly those of Cuba, which are more than double the size of the original Europeans.

The natives of Guinea, Madagascar, New Holland, New Guinea, &c., are black; many American tribes are reddish brown, and the Europeans are white. An equal difference is observed among swine in different countries. In Piedmont, for example, they are black. When I passed, says our author, through that country, during the great fair for swine at Saleng, I did not see a single one of any other colour. In Bavaria, they are reddish brown; in Normandy they are all white. Human hair is, indeed, somewhat different from swine's bristles, yet, in the present point of view, they may be compared with each other. Fair hair is soft, and of a silky texture; black hair is coarser, and among several tribes, such as the Abyssinians, Negroes, and the inhabitants of New Holland, it is woolly, and most so among the Hottentots. In like manner, among the white swine in Normandy, as I was assured by an incomparable observer, Sulzer of Bonneburg, the hair on the whole body is longer and softer than among other swine; and even the bristles on the back are very little different, but lie flat, and are only longer than the hair on the other parts of the body. They cannot, therefore, be employed by the brush-makers. The difference between the hair of the wild boar and the domestic swine, particularly in regard to the softer part between the strong bristles, is, as is well known, still greater.

The whole difference between the cranium of a negro and that of an European, is not in the least degree greater than that equally striking difference which exists between the cranium of the wild boar and that of the domestic swine. Those who have not observed this in the animals themselves, need only to cast their eye on the figure which Daubenton has given of both.

I shall pass over, says Blumenbach, less national varieties which may be found among swine as well as among men, and only mention, that I have been assured by Mr Sulzer, that the peculiarity of having the bone of the leg remarkably long, as is the case among the Hindoos, has been remarked with regard to the swine in Normandy. They stand very long on their hind legs; their back, therefore, is highest at the rump, forming a kind of inclined plane, and the head proceeds in the same direction, so that the snout is not far from the ground. I shall here add, that the swine in some countries have degenerated into races which in singularity far exceed every thing that has been found strange in bodily variety among the human race. Swine with solid hoofs were known to the ancients, and large herds of them are found in Hungary, Sweden, &c. In like manner the European swine, first carried by the Spaniards, in 1509, to the island of Cuba, at that time celebrated for its pearl fishery, degenerated into a monstrous race, with hoofs which were half a span in length.

From these facts our ingenious author concludes, that it is absurd to allow the vast variety of swine to have descended from one original pair, and to contend that the varieties of men are so many distinct species.

No part of the natural history of man can be more interesting than that which describes the progressive human life, improvement and decay of human life, from the cradle to the grave. This subject has been treated of in a most animated manner by Buffon, and we shall here give an abridgement of this part of his work.

Nothing (says M. Buffon) exhibits such a striking infancy picture of our weakness, as the condition of an infant immediately after birth. Incapable of employing its organs, it requires affluence of every kind. In the first moments of our existence, we present an image of pain and misery, and are more weak and helpless than the young of any other animal. At birth, the infant passes from one element to another; when it leaves the gentle warmth of the tranquil fluid by which it was completely surrounded in the womb of the mother, it becomes exposed to the impressions of the air, and instantly feels the effects of that active element. The air acting upon the olfactory nerves, and upon the organs of respiration, produces a shock something like that of sneezing, by which the breath is expanded, and the air admitted into the lungs. In the mean time, the agitation of the diaphragm presses upon the bowels, and the excretions are thus for the first time discharged from the intestines, and the urine from the bladder. The air dilates the vesicles of the lungs, and after being rarefied to a certain degree, is expelled by the spring of the dilated fibres reacting upon this rarefied fluid. The infant now respire, and articulates sounds or cries.

Most animals are blind for some days after birth. Infants open their eyes to the light the moment they come into the world; but they are dull, fixed, and commonly blue. The new-born child cannot distinguish objects, because he is incapable of fixing his eyes upon them. The organ of vision is yet imperfect; the cornea is wrinkled; and perhaps the retina is too soft for receiving the images of external objects, and for communicating the sensation of distinct vision. At the end of 40 days, the infant begins to hear and to smile. About the same time it begins to look at bright objects, and frequently to turn its eyes towards the window, a candle, or any light. Now likewise it begins to weep; for its former cries and groans were not accompanied with tears. Smiles and tears are the effect of two internal sensations, both of which depend on the action of the mind. Thus they are peculiar to the human race, and serve to express mental pain or pleasure, while the cries, motions, and other marks of bodily pain and pleasure, are common to man and most of the other animals. Considering the subject as metaphysicians, we shall find that pain and pleasure form the universal universal power which sets all our passions in motion.

The size of an infant born at the full time is commonly 21 inches; and that fetus, which nine months before was an imperceptible bubble, now weighs ten or twelve pounds, and sometimes more. The head is large in proportion to the body; and this disproportion, which is still greater in the first stage of the fetus, continues during the period of infancy. The skin of a new-born child is of a reddish colour, because it is so fine and transparent as to allow a slight tint of the colour of the blood to shine through. The form of the body and members is by no means perfect in a child soon after birth; all the parts appear to be swollen. At the end of three days, a kind of jaundice generally comes on, and at the same time milk is to be found in the breasts of the infant, which may be squeezed out by the fingers. The swelling decreases as the child grows up.

The liquor contained in the amnios leaves a viscid whitish matter upon the body of the child. In this country we have the precaution to wash the new-born infant only with warm water; but it is the custom with whole nations inhabiting the coldest climates, to plunge their infants into cold water as soon as they are born, without their receiving the smallest injury. It is even said that the Laplanders leave their children in the snow till the cold has almost stopped their respiration, and then plunge them into a warm bath. Among these people, the children are also washed thrice a day during the first year of their life. The inhabitants of northern countries are persuaded that the cold bath tends to make men stronger and more robust, and on that account accustom their children to the use of it from their infancy. The truth is, that we are totally ignorant of the power of habit, or how far it can make our bodies capable of suffering, of acquiring, or of losing.

The child is not allowed to suck as soon as it is born; but time is given for discharging the liquor and slime from the stomach, and the meconium or excrement, which is of a black colour, from the intestines. As these substances might foul the milk, a little diluted wine mixed with sugar is first given to the infant, and the breast is not presented to it before 10 or 12 hours have elapsed.

The young of quadrupeds can of themselves find the way to the teat of the mother: it is not so with man. The mother, in order to suckle her child, must raise it to her breasts; and, at this feeble period of life, the infant can express its wants only by cries.

New-born children have need of frequent nourishment. During the day, the breast ought to be given them every two hours, and during the night as often as they awake. At first they sleep almost continually; and they seem never to awake but when puffed by hunger and pain. Sleep is useful and refreshing to them; and it is sometimes considered as necessary to employ narcotic doses, proportioned to the age and constitution of the child, for the purpose of procuring them repose. The common way of appeasing the cries of children is by rocking them in the cradle; but this agitation must be very gentle, otherwise a great risk is run of confusing the infant's brain, and of producing a total derangement. It is necessary to their being in good health, that their sleep be long and natural. It is possible, however, that they may sleep too much, and thereby endanger their constitution. In that case, it would be proper to take them out of the cradle, and awaken them by a gentle motion, or by presenting some bright object to their eyes. At this age we receive the first impressions from the senses, which, without doubt, are more important during the rest of life than is generally imagined. Great care ought to be taken to place the cradle in such a manner that the child shall be directly opposite to the light, for the eyes are always directed towards that part of the room where the light is strongest; and if the cradle be placed sideways, one of them, by turning towards the light, will acquire greater strength than the other, and the child will squint. For the first two months, no other food should be given to the child but the milk of the nurse; and when it is of a weak and delicate constitution, this nourishment alone should be continued during the third or fourth month. A child, however robust and healthy, may be exposed to great danger and inconvenience, if any other aliment is administered before the end of the first month. In Holland, Italy, Turkey, and the whole Levant, the food of children is limited to the milk of the nurse for a whole year. The savages of Canada give their children suck for four, five, six, and sometimes even seven years. In this country, as nurses generally have not a sufficient quantity of milk to satisfy the appetite of their children, they commonly supply the want of it by panada, or other light preparations.

The teeth usually begin to appear about the age of dentition, seven months. The cutting of these, although a natural operation, does not follow the common laws of nature, which acts continually on the human body without occasioning the smallest pain, or even producing any sensation. Here a violent and painful effort is made, accompanied with cries and tears. Children at first lose their sprightliness and gaiety; they become sad, restless, and fretful. The gums are red, and swollen; but they afterwards become white, when the pressure of the teeth is so great as to stop the circulation of the blood. Children apply their fingers to their mouth, that they may remove the irritation which they feel there. Some relief is given, by putting into their hands a bit of ivory or coral, or of some other hard and smooth body, with which they rub the gums at the affected part. This pressure, being opposed to that of the teeth, calms the pain for a moment, contributes to make the membrane of the gum thinner, and facilitates its rupture. Nature here acts in opposition to herself; and an incision of the gum must sometimes take place, to allow a passage to the tooth. For the period of dentition, number of teeth, &c. see Anatomy, No. 27.

When children are allowed to cry too long, and too often, ruptures are sometimes occasioned by the efforts they make. These may easily be cured by the speedy application of bandages; but if this remedy has been too long delayed, the disease may continue through life. Children are very much subject to worms. Some of the bad effects occasioned by these animals might, according to Buffon, be prevented by giving them a little wine now and then, for fermented liquors have a tendency to prevent their generation. Though the body is very delicate in the state of infancy, it is then less sensible of cold than at any other period of life. The internal heat appears to be greater. The pulse in children is much quicker than in adults, from which we are certainly entitled to infer, that the internal heat is greater in the same proportion.

Till three years of age, the life of a child is very precarious. In the second or third following years it becomes more certain, and at five or seven years of age a child has a better chance of living than at any other period of life. From the bills of mortality published at London, it appears, that of a certain number of children born at the same time, one-half of them die the three first years; according to which, one-half of the human race would be cut off before they are three years of age. But the mortality among children is not everywhere so great as in London. M. Dupre du Saint-Maur, from a great number of observations made in France, has shewn that half of the children born at the same time are not extinct till seven or eight years have elapsed.

Among the causes which have occasioned so great a mortality among children, and even among adults, the smallpox may be ranked as the chief. But luckily the means of alleviating the effects of this terrible scourge are now universally known by inoculation, and still more by the introduction of the cowpox.

Children begin learning to speak about the age of 12 or 15 months. In all languages, and among every people, the first syllables they utter are ba, ba, ma, ma, pa, pa, taba, abada; nor ought this to excite any surprise, when we consider that these syllables are the sounds most natural to man, because they consist of that vowel, and those consonants, the pronunciation of which require the smallest exertion in the organs of speech. Some children at two years of age articulate distinctly, and repeat whatever is said to them; but most children do not speak till the age of two years and a half, or three years, and often later.

The life of man and of other animals is measured only from the moment of birth; they enjoy existence, however, previous to that period, and begin to live in the state of a fetus. This state is described and explained under the article ANATOMY, No. 113. The period of infancy, which extends from the moment of birth to about 12 years of age, has already been considered.

The period of infancy is followed by that of adolescence. This begins, together with puberty, at the age of 12 or 14, and commonly ends in girls at 15, and in boys at 18, but sometimes not till 21, 23, and 25 years of age. According to its etymology (being derived from the Latin adolecentia), it is completed when the body has attained its full height. Thus, puberty becomes adolescence, and precedes youth. This is the spring of life; this is the season of pleasures, of loves, and of graces; but this smiling season is of short duration. Hitherto nature seems to have had nothing in view but the preservation and increase of her work; she has made no provision for the infant except what is necessary for life and growth. It has enjoyed a kind of vegetable existence which was shut up within itself, and which it was incapable of communicating. In this first stage of life, reason is still asleep; but the principles of life soon multiply, and man has not only what is necessary to his own existence, but what enables him to give existence to others. This redundancy of life can no longer be confined, but endeavours to expand and diffuse itself.

Thus far we have followed Buffon in his animated sketch of the progress of human life; but here we must leave him for a while, as we consider the picture he has given of the approach of puberty and its corresponding circumstances to be less calculated to serve the purposes of scientific information, than to gratify idle and vicious curiosity, and rouse those passions which seldom require much excitement. The subjects of the procreation of the human species, of pregnancy and parturition, are strictly medical, and are treated of in sufficient detail under their proper heads in this work. Perhaps we shall be accused, by some of the philanthropists of the present age, of being too satirical in omitting so important and interesting a part of the natural history of man; but we had rather incur the imputation of negligence, than introduce into an article that is intended for general readers anything that may offend the nicest delicacy.

Soon after the age of puberty the body of man attains its full stature. Some young people cease to grow after 15 or 16; while others continue to increase in height till 20, or even 23. During this interval they are usually very slender, but by degrees the limbs fatten, and assume their proper shape; and before the age of 30, the body has generally attained its greatest perfection with regard to strength, comeliness, and symmetry. Adolescence is considered as terminating at the age of 20 or 25, and at this period (according to the usual division of man's life into ages), youth begins. This continues till the age of 30 or 35.

The stature of man varies considerably in different climates, and under different circumstances. Authors are by no means agreed as to what should be considered the medium height of the human body. Buffon states it at from five feet or five feet and an inch, to five feet four inches, making the medium height about five feet two inches. Haller on the contrary, reckons the true medium height of men in the temperate climates of Europe to be about five feet five, or six inches. In general, women are several inches shorter than men. It has been remarked by Haller, that in mountainous countries, such as Switzerland, the inhabitants of the plains are commonly much taller than those of the higher situations. It is difficult to ascertain with precision the actual limits of the human stature; but we may remark that in surveying the inhabited parts of the earth, we find more remarkable differences in the stature of different individuals of the same nation, than in the general height of different nations. In the same climate, among the same people, and often even in the same family, we find some individuals that are far above the medium standard, and others as far below it. The former we call giants, and the latter dwarfs. See GIANT and DWARF (A).

(a) In addition to the relations of gigantic men given under GIANT, we shall here present our readers with Blair's The body having acquired its full height during the period of adolescence, and its full dimensions in youth, remains for some years in the same state before it begins to decay. This is the period of manhood, which extends from the age of 30 or 35 to that of 40 or 45 years. During this stage, the powers of the body continue in full vigour, and the principal change which takes place in the human figure arises from the formation of fat in different parts. Excessive fatness disfigures the body, and becomes a very cumbersome and inconvenient load.

Physiologists give the name of old age to that period of life which commences immediately after the age of manhood and ends at death; and they distinguish green old age from the age of decrepitude. But in our opinion such an extensive signification of the word ought not to be admitted. We are not old men at the age of 40 or 45, and though the body then gives signs of decay, it has not yet arrived at the period of old age. M. Daubenton observes, that it would be more proper to call it the declining age, because nature then becomes retrograde, the fatness and good plight of the body diminish, and certain parts of it do not perform their functions with equal vigour.

The age of decline is from 40 or 45, to 60 or 65 years of age. At this time of life, the diminution of the fat is the cause of those wrinkles which begin to appear in the face and some other parts of the body. The skin, not being supported by the same quantity of fat, and being incapable, for want of elasticity, of contracting, sinks down and forms folds. In the decline of life, a remarkable change takes place also in vision. In the vigour of our days, the crystalline lens, being thicker and more diaphanous than the humours of the eye, enables us to read letters of a very small character at the distance of eight or ten inches. But when the age of decline comes on, the quantity of the humours of the eye diminishes, they lose their clearness, and the transparent cornea becomes less convex. To remedy this inconvenience, we place what we have to read at a greater distance from the eye; but vision is thereby very little improved, because the image of the object becomes smaller and more obscure. Another mark of the decline of life is a weakness of the stomach, and indigestion, in most people who do not take sufficient exercise in proportion to the quantity and quality of their food.

At 60, 63, or 65 years of age, the signs of decline become more and more visible, and indicate old age. This period commonly extends to the age of 70, sometimes to 75, but seldom to 80. When the body is exhausted and bent by old age, man then becomes crazy. Crazeins therefore, is nothing but an insane old age. The eyes and stomach then become weaker and weaker; lameness increases the number of the wrinkles, the beard and the hair become white; the strength and the memory begin to fail.

After 70, or at most 80 years of age, the life of man is nothing but labour and sorrow; such was the language of David near 3000 years ago. Some men of strong constitutions, and in good health, enjoy old age for a long time without decrepitude; but such instances are not very common. The infirmities of decrepitude continually increase, and at length death concludes the whole. This fatal term is uncertain. The only conclusions which we can form concerning the duration of life, must be derived from observations made on a great number of men who were born at the same time, and who died at different ages.

The signs of decrepitude form a striking picture of weakness, and announce the approaching dissolution of the body. The memory fails, the fibres become hard, the nerves blunted; deafness and blindness take place; the senses of smell, of touch, and of taste, are destroyed; the appetite fails; the necessity of eating, and more frequently

Blair's account of O'Brien, the Irish giant, who exhibited himself at London and Edinburgh a few years ago, and died very lately. He pretended to be nearly nine feet high. We infer this account the more readily, as it exactly agrees with what we ourselves observed when O'Brien was in Edinburgh.

"I visited this Iridian (says Mr Blair,) on the 5th of May 1804, at No. 11 Haymarket. He was of a very extraordinary stature, but not well formed. As he would not suffer a minute examination to be made of his person, it is impossible to give any other than a short description of him. He declined the proposal of walking across the room, and I believe was afraid of discovering his extreme imbecility. He had the general aspect of a weak and unreflecting person, with an uncommonly low forehead; for as near as I could ascertain, the space above his eye-brows, in a perpendicular line to the top of his head, did not exceed two inches. He told me his age was 38 years, and that most of his ancestors, by his mother's side, were very large persons. The disproportionate size of his hands struck me with surprise, and in this he seemed to make his principal boast. He refused to allow a cast to be made of his hand, and said it had been done many years ago; but as I have seen that cast at Mr Bacon's, I am convinced the size is much too small to represent his present state of growth. All his joints were large, and perhaps rickety; his legs appeared swollen, misshapen, and I thought, dropical; however, he did not like my touching them. The feet were clumsy, and concealed as much as possible by high shoes. His limbs were not very stout, especially his arms, and I judged that he had scarcely got the use of them; for, in order to lift up his hand, he seemed obliged to swing the whole arm, as if he had no power of raising it by the action of the deltoid muscle. He certainly had a greater redundancy of bone than of muscle, and gave me the impression of a huge, overgrown, fleshy boy; his voice being rather feeble as well as his bodily energies, and his age appearing under that which he affirmed. Indeed I find he gave a different account of himself to different visitors. The state of his pulse agreed with the general appearance of his person, viz. feeble, languid, and slow in its motions. With regard to his actual height, I felt anxious to detect the fallacy he held out of his being nine feet! Upon extending my arm to the utmost, I reached his eye-brow with my little finger; allowing his height to have been two inches and one-fourth above this, it could not be more in the whole than seven feet ten inches; so that I am persuaded the common opinion, founded on the giant's own tale, is greatly exaggerated." Philosophical Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 356. frequently that of drinking, are alone felt; after the teeth fall out, mastication is imperfectly performed, and digestion is very bad; the lips fall inwards; the edges of the jaws can no longer approach each other; the muscles of the lower jaw become so weak, that they are unable to raise and support it. The body sinks down; the spine is bent outward, and the vertebrae grow together at the anterior part; the body becomes extremely lean; the strength fails; the decrepid wretch is unable to support himself; he is obliged to remain on a seat, or stretched in his bed; the bladder becomes paralytic; the intestines lose their spring; the circulation of the blood becomes slower; the stroke of the pulse no longer amounts to the number of 80 in a minute as in the vigour of life, but are reduced to 24 and sometimes fewer; respiration is slower; the body loses its heat; the circulation of the blood ceases; death follows; and the dream of life is at an end.

Nothing can be more humiliating to the pride and vanity of man than a comparison of the state to which his body is reduced by death, with that which it exhibits in the prime and vigour of youth. Let us contemplate a female in the prime of youth and beauty. That elegant voluptuous form, that graceful flexibility of motion, that gentle warmth, those cheeks crimsoned with the rosy of delight, those brilliant eyes darting rays of love, or sparkling with the fire of genius; that countenance enlivened by fancies of wit, or animated by the glow of passion, appear united, to form a most fascinating being. A moment is sufficient to destroy the illusion. Sense and motion cease without any apparent cause; the body loses its heat; the muscles become flat; and the angular prominences of the bones appear; the lustre of the eye is gone; the cheeks and lips are livid. These, however, are but preludes of changes still more horrible. The flesh becomes successively blue, green, and black. It attracts humidity, and while one portion evaporates in infectious emanations, another dissolves into a putrid fumes, which is also dilated. In a word, after a few short days there remains only a small number of earthly and saline principles. The other elements are dispersed in air, and in water, to enter again into new combinations.

Man has no right to complain of the shortness of life. Throughout the whole of living beings, there are few who unite in a greater degree all the internal causes which tend to prolong its different periods. The term of gestation is very considerable; the rudiments of the teeth are very late in unfolding; his growth is slow, and is not completed before about 20 years have elapsed.—The age of puberty, also, is much later in man than in any other animal. In short, the parts of his body being composed of a softer and more flexible substance, are not so soon hardened as those of inferior animals. Man, therefore, seems to receive at his birth the seeds of a long life; if he reaches not the distant period which nature seemed to promise him, it must be owing to accidental causes foreign to himself. Instead of saying that he has finished his life, we ought rather to say that he has not completed it.

The natural and total duration of life is in some measure proportioned to the period of growth. A tree or an animal which soon acquires its full size, decays much sooner than another which continues to grow for a longer time. It is true that the life of animals is eight times longer than the period of their growth, we might conclude that the boundaries of human life may be extended to a century and a half.

On the subject of longevity, and the general circumstances on which it depends, we have already treated under the article Longevity, and have there given a list of a great number of persons who have been celebrated for the length of their lives. To this list we shall add a few more names in the note below (b); but on the general subject of longevity, we shall

(b) William Lecomte, a shepherd, died suddenly in 1776, in the county of Caux in Normandy, at the age of 110. Cramers, physician to the emperor, saw at Temeswar two brothers, the one aged 110, and the other 112, both of whom were fathers at that age. St Paul the hermit was 113 at his death. The Sieur Iwan Horwaths, knight of the order of St Louis, died at Saar-Albe in Lorraine in 1775, aged almost 111. He was a great hunter. He undertook a long journey a short time before his death, and performed it on horseback. Roseine Iwiwaroufska died at Minsk in Lithuania at the age of 113. Fockel Jonas died in the year 1775, aged 113. Mark Jonas died at Vilejoc in Hungary, aged 119. John Niethen of Bakler in Zealand lived to the age of 120. Eleonora Spicer died in 1773, in Virginia, aged 121. John Argus was born in the village of Lafuia in Turkey, and died in 1779, at the age of 123, having six sons and three daughters, by whom he had posterity to the fifth generation. They amounted to the number of 160 souls, and all lived in the same village. His father died at the age of 120. In December 1777, there lived in Devonshire a farmer named John Brooke, who was 134 years of age, and had been fifteen times married. The Philosophical Transactions mention an Englishman called Ecclestone, who lived to the age of 143. Another Englishman, named Effingham, died in 1757 at the age of 144. Niels Jukens of Hansefest in Denmark died in 1764, aged 146. Christian Jacob Drakemberg died in 1770 at Archusen, in the 146th year of his age. This old man of the north was born at Stavanger in Norway in 1624, and at the age of 130 married a widow of 60. In Norway some men have lived to the age of 150. John Rovin, who was born at Szatlova-Caratz-Batcher, in the bannat of Temeswar, lived to the age of 172, and his wife to that of 164, having been married to him for 147 years. When Rovin died, their youngest son was 99 years of age. Peter Zorten a peasant, and a countryman of John Rovin, died in 1724 at the age of 185. His youngest son was then 97 years of age. The history and whole length pictures of John Rovin, Henry Jenkins, and Peter Zorten, are to be seen in the library of S. A. R. Prince Charles at Brussel; and engravings of Rovin and Zorten, with a short account of them, are given in Sir John Sinclair's "Code of Health and Longevity." Professor Hanovius at Dantzig, mentions in his nomenclature an old man who died at the age of 184; and another, then alive, had attained the extraordinary age of 186. For other instances, see Sir J. Sinclair's work above mentioned. shall add nothing to what has been said under that head, except the portrait of a man defined for longevity, drawn by the celebrated Hufeland.

He has a proper and well proportioned stature, without being too tall. He is rather of the middle size, and somewhat thick set. His complexion is not too florid; at any rate, too much ruddiness in youth is seldom a sign of longevity. His hair approaches rather to the fair than the black; his skin is strong, but not rough. His head is not too big; he has large veins at the extremities, and his shoulders are rather round than flat. His neck is not too long; his belly does not project, and his hands are large, but not too deeply cleft. His foot is rather thick than long, and his legs are firm and round. He has also a broad arched chest, a strong voice, and the faculty of retaining his breath for a long time without difficulty. In general, there is a complete harmony in all his parts. His senses are good, but not too delicate; his pulse is clear and regular. His stomach is excellent, his appetite good, and digestion easy. He eats slowly, and has not too much thirst, which is always a sign of a rapid consumption. He is serene, active, susceptible of joy, love, and hope, but inflexible to the impressions of hatred, anger, and avarice. His passions never become too violent. If he gives way to anger, he experiences an unusual flow of warmth, a kind of gentle fever, without any overflowing of the gall. He is fond of employment, particularly calm meditation, and agreeable speculations; is an optimist; a friend to natural affections, and domestic felicity; has no thirst after honours or riches, but is satisfied with his lot.

M. Daubenton has given a table of the probabilities of the duration of life, of which the following is an abridgement. Of 23,994 children born at the same time, there will probably die,

| Duration | Number | |----------|--------| | In one year | 7998 | | Remaining 1/2 or 15,996 | | | In eight years | 11,997 | | Remaining 1/2 or 11,997 | | | In 38 years | 15,996 | | Remaining 1/2 or 7998 | | | In 50 years | 17,994 | | Remaining 1/2 or 5998 | | | In 61 years | 19,995 | | Remaining 1/2 or 3999 | | | In 70 years | 21,595 | | Remaining 1/2 or 2399 | | | In 80 years | 22,395 | | Remaining 1/2 or 599 | | | In 90 years | 23,914 | | Remaining 1/2 or 79 | | | In 100 years | 23,992 | | Remaining 1/2 or 2 | |

It thus appears, that a very small number of men indeed pass through all the periods of life, and arrive at the goal marked out by nature. Innumerable causes accelerate our dissolution. The life of man consists in the activity and exercise of his organs, which grow up and acquire strength during infancy, adolescence, and youth. No sooner has the body attained its utmost perfection, than it begins to decline. Its decay is at first imperceptible, but in progress of time the membranes become cartilaginous, and the cartilages acquire the confluence of bone; the bones become more solid, and all the fibres are hardened. Almost all the fat wastes away; the skin becomes withered and scaly; wrinkles are gradually formed; the hair grows white; the teeth fall out; the face loses its shape; the body is bent, and the colour and confluence of the crystalline humours become more perceptible. The first traces of this decay begin to be perceived at the age of 40, and sometimes sooner; this is the age of decline. They increase by slow degrees till 60, which is the period of old age. They increase more rapidly till the age of 70 or 75. At this period craziness begins, and continues always to increase. Next succeeds decrepitude, when the memory is gone, the use of the senses lost, the strength totally annihilated, the organs worn out, and the functions of the body almost destroyed. Little now remains to be lost, and before the age of 90 or 100, death terminates at once decrepitude and life.

The body then dies by little and little; its motion gradually diminishes; life is extinguished by successive gradations, and death is only the last term in the succession. When the motion of the heart, which continues longest, ceases, man has then breathed his last; he has passed from the state of life to the state of death; and as at his birth a breath opened to him the career of life, so with a breath he finishes his course.

This natural cause of death is common to all animals, and even to vegetables. We may observe that the centre of an oak first perishes and falls into dust, because these parts having become harder and more compact, can receive no further nourishment. The causes of our dissolution, therefore, are as necessary as death is inevitable; and it is no more in our power to retard this fatal term than to alter the established laws of the universe. In whatever manner death happens, the time thereof is unknown. It is considered, however, as at all times terrible, and the very thoughts of it fill the mind with fear and trouble. It is notwithstanding our duty frequently to direct our thoughts to that event, which must inevitably happen, and by a life of virtue and innocence to prepare against those consequences which we so much dread.

As in women the bones, the cartilages, the muscles, and every other part of the body, are softer and less solid than those of men, they must require more time in hardening to that degree which occasions death. Women of course ought to live longer than men. This reasoning is confirmed by experience; for by consulting the bills of mortality, it appears, that after women have passed a certain age, they live much longer than men who have arrived at the same age. In like manner, it is found by experience, that in women the age of youth is shorter and happier than in men, but that the period of old age is longer, and attended with more trouble.

It is not our business here to consider those circumstances which are calculated to preserve health and prolong life. Many of these are mentioned in the medical articles; and those who wish to make this subject their particular study, have now ample materials provided for them, in Sir John Sinclair's "Code of Health and Longevity."

Isle of Man, an island in the Irish sea, lying about seven leagues north from Anglesey, about the same distance west from Lancashire, nearly the like distance. distance south-east from Galloway, and nine leagues east from Ireland. Its form is long and narrow, stretching from the north-east of Ayre point to the Calf of Man, which lies south-west at least 30 English miles. Its breadth in some places is more than nine miles, in most places eight, and in some not above five; and it contains about 160 square miles.

The first author who mentions this island is Caesar; for there can be as little doubt, that, by the Mona of which he speaks in his Commentaries, placing it in the midst between Britain and Ireland, we are to understand Man; so that the Mona of Tacitus, which he acquaints us had a fordable strait between it and the continent, can be applied only to Anglesey. Pliny has set down both islands; Mona, by which he intends Anglesey, and Monabia, which is Man. In Ptolemy we find Monaeda, or Monaida, that is, the farther or more remote Môn. Orofius styles it Menavia; tells us, that it was not extremely fertile; and that this, as well as Ireland, was then possessed by the Scots. Beda, who distinguishes clearly two Menavian islands, names this the northern Menavia, following the epithet of southern upon Anglesey. In some copies of Nennius, this isle is denominated Eubonia; in others, Menavia; but both are explained to mean Man. Alured of Beverley also speaks of it as one of the Menavian islands. The Britons, in their own language, called it Manau, more properly Main au, i.e. "a little isle," which seems to be Latinized in the word Menavia. All which clearly proves, that this small isle was early inhabited, and as well known to the rest of the world as either Britain or Ireland.

In the close of the first century, the Druids, who were the priests, prophets, and philosophers of the old Britons, were finally expelled by Julius Agricola from the southern Mona; and we are told, that they then took shelter in the northern. This isle they found well planted with firs; so that they had, in some measure, what they delighted in most, the shelter of trees; but, however, not the shelter of those trees in which they most delighted, viz. the oaks: and therefore these they introduced. No histories tell us this; but we learn it from more certain authority, great woods of fir having been discovered interred in the bowels of the earth, and here and there small groves of oaks: but as these trees are never met with intermixed, so it is plain they never grew together; and as the former are by far the most numerous, we may presume them the natural produce of the country, and that the latter were planted and preserved by the Druids. They gave the people, with whom they lived, and over whom they ruled, a gentle government, wise laws, but without a very superstitious religion. It is also very likely that they hindered them, as much as they could, from having any correspondence with their neighbours; which is the reason that though the isle is mentioned by many writers, not one of them, before Orofius, says a word about the inhabitants. A little before this time, that is, in the beginning of the fifth century, the Scots had transported themselves thither, it is said, from Ireland. The tradition of the natives of Man (for they have a traditionary history) begins at this period. They style this first discoverer Mannan Mac Lear; and they say that he was a magician, who kept this country covered with mists, so that the inhabitants of other places could never find it. But the ancient chronicles of Ireland inform us, that the true name of this adventurer was Orifinianus, the son of Alladius, a prince in their island; and that he was named Mannanan, from his having first entered the island of Man, and Mac Lir, i.e. "the offspring of the sea," from his great skill in navigation. He promoted commerce; and is said to have given a good reception to St Patrick, by whom the natives were converted to Christianity.

The princes who ruled after him seem to have been of the same line with the kings of Scotland, with which country they had a great intercourse, afflicting its monarchs in their wars, and having the education of their princes confided to them in time of peace.

In the beginning of the seventh century, Edwin king of Northumberland invaded the Menavian islands, ravaged Man, and kept it for some time, when, Beda assures us, there were in it about 300 families; which was less than a third part of the people in Anglesey, though Man wants but a third of the size of that island.

The second line of their princes they derive from Orri, who, they say, was the son of the king of Norway; and that there were 12 princes of this house who governed Man. The old constitution, settled by the Druids, while they swayed the sceptre, was perfectly restored; the country was well cultivated and well peopled; their subjects were equally versed in the exercise of arms and in the knowledge of the arts of peace: in a word, they had a considerable naval force, an extensive commerce, and were a great nation, though inhabiting only a little isle. Gutted the son of Orri built the castle of Ruffyn, A.D. 962, which is a strong place, a large palace, and has subsisted now above 800 years. Macao was the ninth of these kings, and maintained an unsuccessful struggle against Edgar, who reduced all the little sovereigns of the different parts of Britain to own him for their lord; and who, upon the submission of Macao, made him his high-admiral, by which title (archipiralai, in the Latin of those times) he subordinates that monarch's charter to the abbey of Glastonbury.

After the death of Edward the Confessor, when Harold, who possessed the crown of England, had defeated the Norwegians at the battle of Stamford, there was amongst the fugitives one Goddard Crownan, the son of Harold the Black, of Iceland, who took shelter in the isle of Man. This isle was then governed by another Goddard, who was a descendant from Macao, and he gave him a very kind and friendly reception. Goddard Crownan, during the short stay he made in the island, perceived that his namesake was universally hated by his subjects; which inspired him with hopes that he might expel the king, and become master of the island. This he at last accomplished, after having defeated and killed Fingal the son of Goddard, who had succeeded his father. Upon this he assigned the north part of the island to the natives, and gave the south to his own people; becoming, in virtue of his conquest, the founder of their third race of princes. However he might acquire his kingdom, he governed it with spirit and prudence, prudence, made war with success in Ireland; gained several victories over the Scots in the Isles; and, making a tour through his new-obtained dominions, deceased in the island of Ilay. He left behind him three sons. A civil war breaking out between the two eldest, and both of them deceasing in a few years, Magnus king of Norway coming with a powerful fleet, possessed himself of Man and the Isles, and held them as long as he lived; but, being slain in Ireland, the people invited home Olave, the youngest son of Goddard Crowman, who had fled to the court of England, and been very honourably treated by Henry the Second. There were in the whole nine princes of this race, who were all of them feudatories to the kings of England; and often referred to their court, were very kindly received, and had pensions bestowed upon them. Henry III. in particular, charged Olave, king of Man, with the defence of the coasts of England and Ireland; and granted him annually for that service 40 marks, 100 measures of wheat, and five pieces of wine. Upon the demise of Magnus, the last king of this isle, without heirs male, Alexander III., king of Scots, who had conquered the other isles, seized likewise upon this; which, as parcel of that kingdom, came into the hands of Edward I. who directed William Huntercumbe, guardian or warden of that isle for him, to restore it to John Baliol, who had done homage to him for the kingdom of Scotland.

But it seems there was still remaining a lady named Aubrica, who claimed this sovereignty, as cousin and nearest of kin to the deceased Magnus. This claimant being able to obtain nothing from John Baliol, applied herself next to King Edward, as the superior lord. He, upon this application, by his writ which is yet extant, commanded both parties, in order to determine their right, to appear in the king's bench. The progress of this suit does not appear; but we know farther, that this lady, by a deed of gift, conveyed her claim to Sir Simon de Montacute; and, after many disputes, invasions by the Scots, and other accidents, the title was examined in parliament, in the seventh of Edward III., and solemnly adjudged to William de Montacute; to whom, by letters-patent, dated the same year, that monarch released all claim whatsoever.

In the succeeding reign, William Montacute, earl of Salisbury, sold it to Sir William Scroop, afterwards earl of Wiltshire; and, upon his losing his head, it was granted by Henry IV. to Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland; who, being attainted, had, by the grace of that king, all his lands restored, except the isle of Man, which the same monarch granted to Sir John Stanley, to be held by him of the king, his heirs and successors, by homage, and a cast of falcons to be presented at every coronation. Thus it was possessed by this noble family, who were created earls of Derby, till the reign of Queen Elizabeth; when, upon the demise of Earl Ferdinand, who left three daughters, it was, as Lord Coke tells us, adjudged to these ladies, and from them purchased by William earl of Derby, the brother of Ferdinand, from whom it was claimed by descent, and adjudged to the duke of Atholl.

This isle, from its situation directly in the mouth of the channel, is very beneficial to Britain, by lessening the force of the tides, which would otherwise break with far greater violence than they do at present. It is frequently exposed to very high winds; and at other times to mists, which, however, are not at all unwholesome. The soil towards the north is dry and sandy, of consequence unfertile, but not unimprovable; the mountains, which may include near two-thirds of the island, are bleak and barren; yet afford excellent peat, and contain several kinds of metals. They maintain also a kind of small swine, called porris, which are esteemed excellent pork. In the valleys there is as good pasture, hay, and corn, as in any of the northern counties; and the southern part of the island is as fine soil as can be wished. They have marl and limestone sufficient to render even their poorest lands fertile; excellent flate, ragstone, black marble, and some other kinds for building. They have vegetables of all sorts, and in the utmost perfection; potatoes in immense quantities; and, where proper pains have been taken, they have tolerable fruit. They have also hemp, flax, large crops of oats and barley, and some wheat. Hogs, sheep, goats, black cattle, and horses, they have in plenty; and, though small in size, yet if the country was thoroughly and skilfully cultivated, they might improve the breed of all animals, as experience has shown. They have rabbits and hares very fat and fine; tame and wild fowl in great plenty; and in their high mountains they have one airy of eagles and two of excellent hawks. Their rivulets furnish them with salmon, trout, eels, and other kinds of fresh-water fish; on their coasts are caught cod, turbot, ling, holibut, all sorts of shell-fish (oysters only are scarce, but large and good), and herrings, of which they made anciently a great profit, though this fishery is of late much declined.

The inhabitants of Man, though far from being unmixed, were perhaps, till within the course of the 18th century, more so than any other under the dominion of the crown of Great Britain; to which they are very proud of being subjects, though, like the inhabitants of Jersey and Guernsey, they have a constitution of their own, and a peculiarity of manners naturally resulting from a long enjoyment of it.—The Manks tongue is the only one spoken by the common people. It is the old British, mingled with Norse, or the Norwegian language, and the modern language. The clergy preach and read the common prayer in it. In ancient times they were distinguished by their stature, courage, and great skill in maritime affairs. They are at this day a brisk, lively, hardy, industrious, and well meaning people. Their frugality defends them from want; and though there are few that abound, there are as few in distress; and those that are, meet with a cheerful unconstrained relief. On the other hand, they are choleric, loquacious, and as the law till lately was cheap, and unencumbered with solicitors and attorneys, not a little litigious. The revenue, in the earl of Derby's time, amounted to about 2500l. a-year; from which, deducting his civil list, which was about 750l. the clear income amounted to 1800l. At the same time, the number of his subjects was computed at 25,000.—The sovereign of Man, though he has long ago waved the title of king was full in- verified with regal rights and prerogatives: but the distinct jurisdiction of this little subordinate royalty, being found inconvenient for the purposes of public justice and for the revenue (it affording a commodious asylum for debtors, outlaws, and smugglers), authority was given to the treasury, by stat. 12 Geo. I. c. 28, to purchase the interest of the then proprietors for the use of the crown: which purchase was at length completed in the year 1765, and confirmed by stat. 5 Geo. III. c. 26, and 39; whereby the whole island and all its dependencies (except the landed property of the Athol family), their manorial rights and emoluments, and the patronage of the bishopric and other ecclesiastical benefices, are unalienably vested in the crown, and subjected to the regulation of the British excise and customs.

The most general division of this island is into north and south; and it contains 17 parishes, of which five are market towns, the rest villages. Its division with regard to its civil government, is into six lordships, every one having its proper coroner, who is in the nature of a sheriff, is intrusted with the peace of his district, secures criminals, brings them to justice, &c. The lord chief justice Coke says, "their laws were such as scarce to be found anywhere else." In July 1786, a copper coinage for the use of the island was issued from the Tower of London.—There is a ridge of mountains runs almost the length of the island, from whence they have abundance of good water from the rivulets and springs; and Snaefield, the highest, rises about 380 yards. The air is sharp and cold in winter, the frosts short, and the snow, especially near the sea, lies not long on the ground. Here are quarries of good stone, rocks of limestone and red freestone, and good slate, with some mines of lead, copper, and iron. The trade of this island was very great before the year 1726; but the late Lord Derby farming out his customs to foreigners, the influence of these farmers drew on them the resentment of the government of England, who, by an act of parliament, deprived the inhabitants of an open trade with this kingdom. This naturally introduced a clandestine commerce, which they carried on with England and Ireland with prodigious success, and an immense quantity of foreign goods was run into both kingdoms, till the government in 1765 thought proper to put an entire stop to it, as already mentioned, and permitting a free trade with England.

On the little isle of Peele, on the west side of Man, is a town of the same name, with a fortified castle. Before the south promontory of Man, is a little island called the Castle of Man: it is about three miles in circuit, and separated from Man by a channel about two furlongs broad. At one time of the year it abounds with puffins, and also with a species of ducks and drakes, by the English called barnacles, and by the Scots claters and folan geese.

Few men of extraordinary talents have appeared in this island; perhaps, because few occasions have offered for calling them forth. The Rev. J. Stowell is an exception, master of the free grammar-school at Peele, who possessed the strongest powers of mind, was benevolent to the poor, free from pedantry, and forcibly illustrated all his precepts by his example.

The women in the isle of Man are not remarkable for elegance of form or delicacy of features. The practice of her domestic duties, and the regulation of her domestic affairs, constitute the employment of the Manx wife; and if not so refined as the dames of more polished nations, she is perhaps as happy.

Landed property is very much divided in the island, there being scarcely six men who have estates above £500 a year.

The internal scenery of the isle of Man is far from being beautiful, of which the chief cause is the want of wood; and the rivers are so small as to add little to the richness of the views. The Manx are fond of dancing, and dance well. Two balls in the year are given at Castletown; one on the king's birthday, the other on the queen's, and there are frequent private dances. At Ramsey, during the winter of 1801, a society of ladies and gentlemen was formed, which met three evenings in the week for the purpose of reading Shakespeare, and such a number of copies were procured, that each character of the drama was supported, by a separate individual.

The inhabitance of this isle (the number of which is estimated at 40,000) are of the church of England; and the bishop is styled Bishop of Sodor and Man. He has no vote in the British house of peers. This bishoprick was first erected by Pope Gregory IV. and for its diocese had this isle and all the Hebrides or Western islands of Scotland; but which were called Sodoroe by the Danes, who went to them by the north, from the Swedish Sodor, Saar or Oar islands, from which the title of the bishop of Sodor is supposed to originate. The bishop's seat was at Ruthin, or Castletown, in the isle of Man, and in Latin is entitled Sodorensis. But when this island became dependent upon the kingdom of England, the Western islands withdrew themselves from the obedience of their bishop, and had a bishop of their own, whom they entitled alfo Sodorensis, but commonly Bishop of the Isles. The patronage of the bishoprick was given, together with the isle, to the Stanleys by King Edward IV., and came by an heir-female to the family of Athol, and, on a vacancy thereof, they nominated their designed bishop to the king, who dismissed him to the archbishop of York for consecration.—By an act of parliament, the 33d of King Henry VIII., this bishopric is declared in the province of York.

Man-of-war Bird. See Pelicanus, Ornithology Index.