Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon.
- Josiah C. Nott
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
106/796 (page 66)
![Facts, therefore, point to numerous centres of creation, wherein we find creatures fixed, with peculiar temperaments and organizations, which are in unison with surrounding circumstances, and where all their natural wants are supplied. But the strongest harrier to volun- tary displacements would seem to he that of instinct — that force, unknown and incomprehensible, which binds them to the soil that has witnessed their birth. While passing these sheets through the press, we have enjoyed the privilege of perusing The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants,16 by our valued friend, Charles Pickering, M. D., Naturalist to the United States' Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes. This is to be regarded as an introduction to the volume on Geogra- phical Distribution, prepared during the voyage of the Expedition, and published in Volume IX. of the same compendium. In connection with our own work, the utterance of Dr. Pickering's views is most opportune; because, with thorough knowledge of Egypt, derived from personal travels, and acquaintance with hiero- glyphical researches, he has traced the Natural History of that country from the remotest monumental times to the present day. The various pictorial representations of Faunae and Florse are thereby assigned to their respective chronological epochas; and, inasmuch as they are identified with living species, they substantiate our assertions regarding the unexceptional permanence of types during a period of more than 5000 years. Dr. Pickering's era for the commencement of the Egyptian Chronological Reckoning being B. C. 4493,17 we find our- selves again in unison with him upon general principles of chronolo- gical extension. The gradual introduction of foreign animals, plants, and exotic substances, into the Lower Valley of the Nile — the extinction of sundry species once indigenous to that soil, during the hundred and fifty human generations for which we possess contemporaneous registry — and the infinitude of proofs that such changes could not have been effected without the intervention of these long historical ages — are themes which Dr. Pickering has concisely and ingeniously elaborated: and although our space does not permit the citation of the numerous examples duly catalogued by him, it affords us pleasure to concur in the following results, viz.: That the names of animals and plants used in Egypt are Scriptural [i. e. old Semitish] names. Further, in some instances, these current Egyptian names go behind the Greek language, supply the meaning of obsolete Greek words, and show international relationship, the more intimate the further we recede into antiquity.^ It will become apparent, in its place, that the philological views now held by Birch, De Rouge, and Lepsius, upon the primeval intro- duction of Semitic elements in Egypt, are confirmed by these indepen-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21510404_0108.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
