Essays on physiognomy. ... for the promotion and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater ; tr. by Thomas Holcroft.
- Johann Kaspar Lavater
- Date:
- 1806
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on physiognomy. ... for the promotion and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater ; tr. by Thomas Holcroft. Source: Wellcome Collection.
125/326 page 109
![iiinrds, lias prodiicecl such mimbers of defectivc UjCii. 'rvraniiy lias an intliience on llic veiy pliv- sical teni[)ciaiiicnt of sluves. d'licir noso is atpii- linc, tlicir Idrcliead iiarrow, tlu-ir hair blacky sirong, sinoolli, and plcntiful ; tlieir coinplcxioii an olive red, tlic apple of llie eye blae-k, and the white not veiy elcar. Tliey never have any beard, f’or we canuot bestow tluu naine on sotne short slragq;linii; hairs whieh s[)rout in old age; nor have cither men or uoincn the downy hair which generally appears aftcr ilic agc of puberty. In this they are distingiiislicd troiu all people on eartli, cvfji froin thcTartarsand Chinese. As in eimuehs, it is the eharaeter of their degeneraey, Jndging by the rage whieh the Americans have to niiitilatc and di^iigln•c theinselves, we should su])pose they were all diseontented with the |>rü- portions of their liinl>s and hodies. ^sut a sine:le nation has been diseovered in thi-^ fonrth quarter t)f the globe, whieh has not adopted the cnstoia of artilieially ehanging, either the form of the lips, the hollow of the ear, r>r the shape of the head, by loreing to tissiime an extraordinary and ridieu- lons llgure. There are savages whosc heads are |)vraniidal, or eonieal, with the top tei inimiting in a [loiiit. ()thcrs h ave Hat heaiU, with large foreheads, and the baek part H ittened. Tins ea|)iiee seems to lilive been tim mo>t fashionalile, at least it was the most eommon. Some Canarlians had their heads perfeetly spherieal. 'riiongh the natural form of the head really ap[)roaehes the circular, tliese sa- vages, who, by being thus disloi ted, aecpitrcd the appellation of bowl or biiUet-head, do not appear less disgusting, for having made the heail too roitud, and perveited the uiiginal purpose of iia-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029734_0125.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
