The Races of J\Ien.—JI Fragment. By Robert Knox, M. D.,
Lecturer On Anatomy, and Corresponding Member of the
, National Academy of Medicine of France. 8vo. pp. 323.
American edition. Philadelphia, 1850.
The author of this unique production may be known to many of
odr readers, if for no other effort, for his translation of the Human
Anatomy of H. Cloquet. He has, however, made some little noise
in the world as a lecturer on the subjects embraced in the volume
before us ; and by the promulgation of opinions on those subjects,
Which are certainly sufficiently wild and startling, and on which he
appears to pride himself not a little.- In speaking of his dogma,
that “ human character, individual and national, is traceable solely
to the nature of that race to which the individual or nation be-
longs,” he characterizes it, very properly w’e think, as a statement
which must meet with the severest opposition. “ It runs counter to
nearly all the chronicles of events, called histories,”—a sorry re-
commendation to favor we should say,—“ it shocks the theories of
statesmen, theologians, philanthropists of all shades; nevertheless,
it is simply a fact, the most remarkable, the most comprehensive,
which philosophy has announced. Race is everything : literature,
science, art, in a word, civilization, depend on it.”	<
Such is a specimen of the author’s manner, and it is no exagge- .
ration to say, that the whole work abounds with similar categorical
affirmations,—at times plausible ; at others revolting; occasionally
supported on an admitted basis ; at others altogether aerial ; and
not unfrequently in contrast with all fact, observation, and even
common sense; strung together, too, in the most confused and dis-
cordant manner, and presenting
“A fine specimen, on the whole,
Of what the learned call rigmarole.”
It is difficult, indeed, to classify such a production. The author
himself denominates it “ a fragment.” Its fragmentary character
cannot be questioned, if the word be used to signify.“ an imperfect
part”’ but were we to assign it a place, we should sa^ it belongs
rather to another class of productions, and is more deserving of the
title “ The Races of Men—a rhapsody;'” not in the ancient and
favorable sense of the word as applicable to Homeric periods; but
in its more modern acceptation, “ a confused jumble of sentences or
statepaents, without dependance or natural connection, a rambling
composition.” But even in this point of view the work might have
possessed a claim to respectability, were it not grossly disfigured
with general and special references to persons and things, couched
in language often—it is true—forcible, but not unfrequently of the
most offensive character. What apology,, for example, can be
offered for the following scurrilous allusion to one of the most gifted
writers of this country.	>
“ Buffon concluded that animal life was not so vigorous on the
American soil as in the old world, comparing one animal with another;
this simple fact, for it is one, roused the wrath of an Anglo-Saxon,
now settled in that country, but calling himself an American ; I mean
Mr. Cooper, the novelist. True to his Saxon race, he has determined
to make out, in the face of all common sense and truth—despising the
one by his trade or calling, and being seemingly without the other;—
that the American soil nourished as big animals as ever were grown
in old France or England, or the whole world; that the buffalo was
as large as our oxen, and the turkey larger than the barn-door fowl;
what a pity he had not also added, that geese and asses of all kinds
abound,and are at least, as large as pedantic,,and as stupidly splerrin as
any the Britishers could ever boast of. This is the Mr. Cooper who
compared, through ten drawlishly-spun pages, the Rhine with the
immortal Hudson—the everlasting Hudson—that large river which
runs near the ancient city of New York, so rich in the association of
great names and stirring events. What solemn pedantry, what deplo-
rable want taste and sense, to forget the passage of the Rhine by Caesar
and Napoleon ! These are the names which give immortality to the
Rhine, not the amount of water it contains, nor its length nor breadth;
it is not the size of the Nile wh’ffih makes it live in the recollection of
nations. Do you not see in this miserable comparison of Mr. Cooper
the egotism of the Saxon peep out in all its true colors? Our rivers
are bigger than yours—prettier, deeper; our horses are faster than
yours—fatter and better; our oxen are larger than yours.—sleeker and
finer. You will excuse, I trust, these critical remarks; folly and
egotism require severe censure, whether individual or national—in
fact, these terms are identical, nations merely being aggregates of indi-
viduals.”—p. 167.
The modesty of the author is characteristically exhibited through-
out the work. “ Materials,” he says, u for a systematic history of
the races of men are wholly wanting; the great problem of human
nature has scarcely been touched on in any previous history of
race.” And again :—<c Physiologists will dispute with me the great
law I have endeavored to substitute for the effete common place of
the schools; tfie geologists will think me hasty in declaring the era
of Cuvier at an end ; the theologian—but here I stop; a reply shall
not be wanting. As to hack compilers, their course is simple: they
will first deny the doctrine to be true ; when this becomes clearly
untenable, they will deny that it is new, and they will finish by en-
grossing the whole in their next compilations, omitting carefully the
name of the author.”
There are two Or three points in this .last quotation that
demand comment. The most ardent stickler for originality, will
not deny the claims of the author to it, both on the score of bold
assertion, and novelty of expression ; but whilst we admit this, there
are few, we think, who can or will accord with him. The world are
apt to ascribe great merit to the propounder of original views,
no mat.ter how extravagant and ephemeral they may be ; whilst
the sober, steady pursuer of science, who day by day unostenta-
tiously developes the laws of phenomena, may receive but a feeble
tribute of praise ; yet the one may be—as in the present case—a
visionary enthusiast—an original—whilst the other has all the en-
dowments of the real philosopher. The Author need not, we
feel satisfied, be alarmed at his views being wholly “ engrossed ”
in any compilation; and if his name be carefully omitted by-
writers on the subject, it will only be because his speculations
have themselves not been deemed worthy of notice.
But let us see how he deals with others, and how, he himself
disposes of facts that do not square with his ideas.
“ I have always, he remarks, doubted the fact of cannibalism having
ever existed. A patient inquiry into the history of the American race
satisfied me that the cannibalism of the New world was the pure in-
vention of the Catholic missionaries: the cannibalism of the East may,
I think, be traced to a similar source. I never met with any one who
had been present at such a banquet. In Africa no such practice exists.
The whole affair, I think, a romance, but it has served its purpose with
those who think, that the end vindicates the means.”—p. 316.
Yet it is no romance. A scientific friend attached to the United
States exploring expedition, assured us, that he has seen the Fee-
jeeman gnawing a human bone; and the authentic records of that
expedition are fatal to all of Dr. Knox’s conclusions on the sub-
ject-
The fragmentary character of his speculations on the races of
men may in part be appreciated by the following extract.
“ The races of men as they now exist on the globe constitute a fact
which cannot be overlooked. They differ from each other widely—
most widely :—but that such differences exist, and important ones too,
has not been denied ; the word, race, is of daily use, applied even to
man ■ since the war of race commenced in continental Europe and in
Ireland, no expression is of more frequent occurrence than the term
race. It is not, then a new phrase I use, but I use it in a new sense;
for whilst the statesman, the historian, the theologian, the universalist,
and the mere scholar, either attached no special meaning to the term, for
reasons best known to themselves; or refused to follow out the principle
to its consequences; or ascribed the moral difference in the races of
men to fanciful causes, such as education, religion, .climate, &c.,—and
their physical distinctions sometimes to the same hap-hazard influences
—sometimes to climate alone—sometimes to climate aided by a myste-
rious law—such as that imagined by Prichard, that the fair individuals
of any family separating themselves from the darker branches would
with each successive generation become fairer, and the darker become
darker, forgetting that this theory was refuted by the very first fact
from which he starts, and which actually forms the basis of his whole
theory—namely, that individuals having a specific tendency towards
different races are constantly being born in every family ;—or, lastly,
ascribing to mere chance and hap-hazard, as in the story of the short-
legged American sheep, the production of the permanent varieties of
man:—I, in opposition to these views, am prepared to assert that race
is everything inhuman history; that the races of men are not the
result of accident: that they are not convertible into each other by
any contrivance whatever. The eternal laws of nature must prevail
over protocols and dynasties: fraud,—that is, the law ; and brute force
—that is, the bayonet, may effect much; have effected much; but
they cannot alter nature.”—p. 13.
And again:
. What is race, and what is species? These terms are easier under-
stood than defined. That the idea of distinct species and of race is fast
passing .away from the human mind, may or may not be true ; the
old doctrine has been deeply shaken; still species and race exist for
us ; for man at least; in space, though not in time. In time there is
probably no such thing as species: no absolutely new creations ever
took place; but, as viewed by the limited mind of man, the question
takes another aspect. As regards his individual .existence, time is a
short span; a few centuries or a few thousand years, more or less:
this is all he can grasp., Now, for that period at least, organic forms
seem not to have changed. So far back as history goes, the species of
animals as we call them have not changed; the races of men have
'been absolutely the same. They were distinct then for that period as
at present. Are they commutable into each other ? Are these causes
in constant operation, slowly yet surely altering and changing every-
thing? Or does this happen by sudden cataclasms or geological
epochs? Of one thing we are certain, entire races of animalshave
disappeared from the surface of the globe; other seemingly new crea-
tions occupy their place. But is it really a new creation ? This
question we shall also discuss.
Look more narrowly into the races of men, and you will find them
to be subject to diseases peculiar to each; that the very essence of
their language is distinct; their civilization also, if they have any.
Trace the matter further, and you will find that transcendental anatomy
can alone explain these mysterious circumstances: how all embryos
should resemble each other ; how they should resemble the primitive
forms of life when the world was yet young; how deviations in form
or varieties, not intended to be permanent, should repeat primitive
forms, as proved by fossil remains; or present human or bestial forms;
or take unknown shapes, referring, no doubt, to the future : lastly, and
that is the most difficult question, how specializations should ever ap-
pear at all, and be, for a time at least, permanent. Two questions re-
main, beyond, I fear, human enquiry :—1st. The origin of life on the
globe; 2d. The'secondary laws, for they must be so, and can be no-
thing else, which create out of primitive forms, the past, the present,
and the future organic worlds, clothing tlrem with beauteous scenery.
Endless, but defined variety of forms, adorn the earth, the air, the
waters; the scheme of creation, in fact, so far as man’s feeble reason
can judge ; not the object of creation; not the object of man’s creation,
which, though wonderful, is not more so than that of any other form;
not then the object of man’s creation as an intellectual being ; this has
been revealed to us by divine minds. But I must view this last ques-
tion also as an anatomist and physiologist, confining my remarks to
man merely as a material being; the most perfect, no doubt, that ex-
ists. In woman’s form I see the perfection of Nature’s works; the
absolutely perfect; the beautiful, the highest manifestation of abstract
life, clothed in a physical form, adapted to the corresponding minds of
her race and species.”—p. 34.
In regard to the origin of man, we have the following vague
apostrophe
“ The origin of man is a myth, which each race interprets in its own
way, formules after the fashion of its own intellectual bearing; re-
touches as it makes progress, in arts, literature, and science: that is, in
civilization.
I mean not here to discuss these myths. The Jewish myth seems to
have been a purely material one; philosophic, and sublimely simple,
it offers no details. The Coptic and Hindoo was spiritual and lofty,
but debased by shocking obscenities ; the minds of the races were not
equal to the perception of the perfect and the beautiful. The Scandi-
navian myth was coarse and brutal; material in its essence : the
hideous representations of the Deity in India, China, Mongolia, and
Polynesia, indicate the sad character of the minds of these raqes,
The precise geological period when man appeared on the earth, has
not been determined; nor what race appeared first; nor under what
form. But it is evident that man has survived several geological, eras.
On these points all is at present conjecture ; but as man merely forms a
portion of the material world, he must ofnecessity.be subject to all the
physiological and physical laws affecting life on the globe. His pre-
tensions to place himself above nature’s laws, assume a variety of
shapes: sometimes he affects mystery:. at other times he is grandly
mechanical. Now, all is to be done through the workshop, in a little
while, the ultimatum (what is the ultimatum aimed at ?) is to be gained
through religion: and thus man frets his hour upon, the stage of life,
fancying himself something whilst he is absolutely nothing. For him
worlds were made millions of years ago, and yet according to his
own account he appeared, as it were, but yesterday. Let us leave
human chronology to the chronicler of events; it turned the brain of
Newton.”—p. 323.
His speculations in regard to the various races of man, are singu-
larly fantastic,; but we have no space, even had we the inclina-
tion to follow him. It may be sufficient to cite his—what he ad-
mits to be—“ brief and hasty and imperfect sketch of the dark
races.”
“No one seems much to care for them. Their ultimate expulsion
from all lands which the fair races can colonize seems almost certain.
Within the tropic, climate comes to the rescue of those whom Nature
made, and whom the white man strives to destroy ; each race of white
men after their own fashion : the Celt, by the sword 5 the Saxon, by
conventions, treaties, parchment, law. Th.e result is ever the same—
the robbing the colored races of their lands and liberty. Thirty years
ago a military rhazia, composed of English soldiers, Dutch boors, and
native Hottentots, devastatated the beautiful territory of the Amakoso
Kaffirs. We reached the banks of the Kei, and the country of the
noble Hinsa, where wandered the ‘ wilde’ of Nature’s creation. All
must disappear shortly before the rude civilization of the Saxon boor—
antelope and hippopotamus, giraffe and Kaffir.”—p. 210.
And he elsewhere adds ;
li If there be a dark race destined to contend with the fair races of
men for a portion of the earth, given to man as an inheritance, it is
the Negro. The tropical regions of the earth seem peculiarly to be-
long to him; -his energy is considerable: aided by a tropical sun, he
repels the white invader. From St. Domingo he drove out the Celt;
from Jamaica he will-expel the Saxon ; and the expulsion of the. Lusi-
tanian from Brazil, by the Negro, is merely an affair of time.”—p.
306.
Should the “ fragment” ever be followed by another chip of the
same block, we trust that the author will endeavor to be guided by
more system in his mode of expounding his views. He appears, in-
deed, to have been impressed with the imperfect order in which the
“ lectures” before us have been arranged. “The greatest difficulty,”
he says, “ I have experienced in the drawing up of these lectures,
whether as lectures delivered to public audiences, or written as they
now are for publication,, has been to decide on the arrangement best
calculated to submit my views briefly,yet intelligibly, to the public.
After various trials I have decided on the following : it may not
be the best; it is not systematic ; it is not methodical; but it seems
to me adapted to a very'numerous class of readers, who, though
highly educated, are yet not scientific. To place the great physi-
ological principles regulating human and other living beings before
them in an intelligible form, has been of course my main diffi-
culty ;” (p. 25) And again, “ In presenting the first complete
edition of my Lectures on the Races of Men to public criticism,
I have weighed most anxiously the form of publication, and the
order or method to be followed in arranging the lectuies. It has,
indeed, been my great difficulty.”