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the individual and his strength, by means of the dynamometer, they made from 25 to 28 different measurements, chiefly of the head, and of other parts of the body and limbs. But Drs. Scherzer and Schwarz have striven, by a more complex and complete system of observation and measurement, to gain an image of the size and form of the individual, and of all his parts;— thus not merely to subserve the purposes of the anatomist, the physiologist and the ethnologist, but those of the artist also. Their more ambitious object of obtaining, in this way, to a natural classification of human races, is an evidence of laudable zeal; but we can hardly hope that their labors can do more than contribute towards the solution of this difficult problem. Although, it ought to be mentioned, that the late Baron Humboldt, a short time before his death, expressed his great satis faction with the system of measurements of Drs. Scherzer and Schwarz; by which, he thought, we may at length arrive at a safer result in distinguishing and determining human races than by any other means.

After recording the age, weight, height, strength, color of the hair and eyes, and number of the pulsations of the radial artery, they divide their measurements into three sections, those of the head, the trunk, and the extremities; and of these they take no less than 70 different dimensions in all, by means of different in

struments.

Their external measurements of the head are the most complete that have ever been employed. They embrace the face as well as the other parts of the head, and by means of a perpendicular line with plummet, and a small metre scale, they are able to ascertain pretty correctly the profile of the countenance. The number of their different measurements of and about the head, consisting of superficial distances, diameters, circumferences, &c. amounts to 31, those of the trunk to 18, and those of the extremities to 21.

When the frigate "Novara" reached Sydney, these gentlemen printed an account of their system of measurements, "for private circulation" among men of science, which is preceded by a number of ingenious observations. In these, they dwell upon the ease with which travellers intuitively discriminate the different nations and tribes of mankind; and yet the difficulty in some selected individuals and cases to carry out this diagnosis, especially when the eye is deceived by a substitution of dress and express great confidence in a more minute examination by a systematic method of measurements. They insist with equal confidence that nature must recognize a definite plan by which man's different types are formed and distinguished; and conclude that we should dedicate the same amount of study and inquiry to the systematic arrangement of our own species, as has

long been applied to thousands of species of the vegetable and animal kingdoms.

In the course of these introductory remarks they mention their examination of the Chinese inmates of the prison at Hong Kong. Among these they found persons belonging to the Hakka Tribe, with stout and vigorous constitutions, fine, well-shaped, aquiline or long and straight noses, and a form of the eyes not resembling the specific obliquity of other Chinese. As criminals, they had been deprived of their tails, and Drs. Scherzer and Schwarz affirm that they had such a resemblance to the figures of some Europeans of the lower class, that, by a change of dress, they might pass amongst us without being recognized. They also mention how successfully Gützlaff, Medhurst, Huc and others have travelled the Empire in a Chinese dress without detection. And, no doubt, there are individuals so capable of assuming, and, as it were, substituting, the manners and expressions of others that the ordinary and slight attention which is paid to persons on a journey and among numbers, does not suffice to discriminate them.

Still, the rule must run counter to such a confusion; or the statement of the Austrian voyagers could not be true-that an anthropologist on the Island of Java is able, at first view, to classify most of the Malay tribes inhabiting the larger and smaller Islands on the Indian Archipelago, without ever mistaking. And the very remarkable account of the Abbé Huc proves that if there are differences among the races of men too subtle to be detected by the eye, yet they are not the less certainly appreciable. He informs us that he and his companion successfully eluded the detection of the unsuspecting or inattentive Chinese, but that to the Chinese dogs they always stood at once revealed as Europeans, by their peculiar smell. "The dogs barked continually at us, and appeared to know that we were foreigners.' This is not the proper time to refer to the distinguishable odors of the different races of mankind, which travellers allude to. Huc said he could easily distinguish those of the Negro, the Malay, the Tartar, the Thibetan, the Hindoo, the Arab and the Chinese. Indeed, it is the same, with those having a delicate sense of smell, as to the French and other European races. And with respect to the fact of the penetrating and offensive scent attached to man, more especially to civilized man, Mr. Galton and others, who have traversed desert countries teeming with wild animals, give distinct and prominent testimony-which testimony is, in truth, not very complimentary to us.

We have been informed, on the authority of one who has seen much of the North American Indians, that they describe an odor to them peculiarly disgusting as being attached to the Jews. A fact, which, if correct, is little accordant with the ex

traordinary hypotheses which would derive the Indians themselves from the lost tribes.

Finally, it may be mentioned, that by a recent communication from Dr. Scherzer we are informed that during the cruise of the 'Novara," about 200 individuals of different races, but of about the same age, males and females, were subjected to measurement. The whole number of measures taken amount to nearly 12,000. Dr. Scherzer adds, that he does not consider these observations sufficient, but merely as a commencement of a system of thorough metrical examination;-that the paper on measurements has been translated into different languages, and copies of it left in the hands of physicians, and other men of science, in the different places and islands visited by the expedition, who promised to complete the observations on the aborigines, and to forward the results to Europe;-that the measurements already effected embrace those made on Negroes, Malays, Mongols, Papuans and Indians;-and that the greatest number were taken on individuals in the Nicobar Islands, Batavia, where natives of almost all the islands of the Indian Archipelago were met with; Manilla, Hong Kong, Sydney (Austral negroes), New Zealand, Tahiti (where were aborigines of New Caledonia and Norfolk Island), Chili and Peru.

The results obtained by the extensive series of measurements thus procured, will shortly be published to the world, in the vol umes now in preparation at Vienna, The History of the important Voyage of the "Novara," a popular illustrated work, from the Journals of the Commanders, Commodore Wüllustorf and Dr. Scherzer, may be expected to be issued from the Imperial printing office, in Vienna, to be followed by an English translation, in the early part of the present year. It is proposed that this shall be succeeded by a number of other volumes on distinct subjects. 1. Those on nautical, astronomical, meteorological, magnetical, and other observations relating to Physical Geography, by Commodore Wüllustorf. 2. Geology, by Dr. Hochstetter. 3. Zoology, by Messrs. Frauenfeld and Zelebor. 5. Ethnography, by Dr. Scherzer. 6. Statistics and Natural Economy, by the same. 7. Medicine, (Pathological and Pharmacognostical Researches,) by Dr. Schwarz. And, lastly, 8. an Album selected from nearly 2,500 sketches made by Mr. Sellery, the artist of the expedition. Whenever this grand programme, which will have the best wishes of men of science in all countries, shall have been completed, the rich results of the first Austrian Circumnavigatory Expedition, placed as it has been in able and well instructed hands, will, we have no doubt, vindicate the national character in a new and much nobler field of enterprise; and give to that country a far more lasting and more dignified fame than any she has hitherto required.

Note.-Such is the inconvenience resulting from the use of a variety of metre scales, and such a number of methods of measurement, frequently taking quite different points for measures bearing the same name, as in the case of the skull especially, that the distinguished Professor Von Bær, of St. Petersburg, has just proposed a Congress of Anthropologists, to determine upon one uniform scale and to establish one system. By this means, all the results of measurements of the human body would be rendered of universal applicability.-Nachrichten über die ethnog. craniol. Sammlung zu St. Petersburg. S. 81.

ART. XXIX.-Report of Assistant Charles A. Schott, on the latest results of the Discussion of the Secular Change of the Magnetic Declination, accompanied by tables showing the declination (variation of the needle) for every tenth year from the date of the earliest reliable observations, for twenty-six stations on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts of the United States.

[Published in this Journal by permission of the Treasury Department, and communicated by Prof. A. D. BACHE, Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey.]

In accordance with the Superintendent's letter of January 21, 1859, I have prepared a set of tables for practical use, giving the secular change of the magnetic declination and showing for every tenth year, from the date of the earliest reliable observations to the present time, the magnetic declination (commonly called the variation of the magnetic needle) for stations on or near the northeastern coast of the United States and also for some stations on our southern and western coasts-as derived from my several discussions of the secular change in which have been included the latest data in possession of the Coast Survey. For the eastern and southern coasts, the following papers may be referred to: Coast Survey report for 1855, Appendix No. 48, pp. 306-337; Coast Survey report for 1858, Appendix No. 25, pp. 192-195, and Appendix No. 26, pp. 195197. For the western coast, Coast Survey report for 1856, Appendix No. 31, pp. 228-235 may be consulted.

In general the secular change of the declination appears to be of a periodic character, but in no instance has a whole cycle been completed on either coast. Its length therefore remains necessarily in a great measure uncertain, and the tentative analytical process so far followed has for its main object the proper representation of all reliable observations made at any one station, so as to furnish the means of interpolation and also to enable us to calculate the magnetic declination for any required place and date, within the limits of the discussion. In the in

vestigation of 1855 a linear function was used in the discussion which does not involve the duration of the period, and on this account the results were, in regard to time, of rather limited extent (see remark on p. 337 of Report for 1855). For the western coast stations, I still prefer to retain this form of the discussión. Subsequently, by means of the knowledge gained in that discussion, an attempt was made to substitute a circular function, directly involving a period or periods, the length of which, as well as all other numerical co-efficients in the formula for the secular change, has been determined by applying the method of least squares. The use of a circular function-commenced in 1858 with two stations, is now extended to eighteen, within the limits stated above, and it has been applied to some stations in Canada, the southern coast of the United States and Central America, in order to furnish material for the generalization of the law, so far as ascertained, in reference to epochs and rates of change. A secondary period within the first was traced at several stations, its length, however, being much more variable and uncertain, was found fluctuating between one-half and one-fifth of the primary period, while its amplitude was on the average fifteen times smaller than that of the primary wave for stations forming group 1, or within the geographical limits of Portland, Burlington and Williamsburg. This smaller amplitude was found nearly constant and equal to 0°·4.

To make the present paper more complete it contains also the record of all observations used in the discussion not heretofore published in the Coast Survey reports.

As long as the cause producing the secular change remains altogether unknown, it is not safe to trust too far to the continuation of the law thus empirically derived, and in the following tables no value, deduced by the formula, has been inserted antecedent to the first observation by more than ten years. The tabular values may therefore be regarded in the light of a strict interpolation between actual observations, and since the analytical treatment will equalize and remove, in a measure, accidental errors of observation, they may be considered as certainly more trustworthy than any single observation, particularly in cases where the number of observations available for the discussion exceeds half a dozen, properly distributed in relation to time. The probable error of any single representation will be found in the second table. For all ordinary use by the surveyor (or navigator) the tabular values are sufficiently precise, when greater accuracy is required the annual inequality of the declination and the diurnal variation for the time required must be taken into account; the former correction will probably not exceed, in any case, one minute, and the latter may amount in summer, in maximo, to minus or plus six minutes, and in winter to

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