one time supposed to be "sea-weeds." These animals are composed of numerous individuals, which, beside the life of each, share in the common life of the whole. These individuals are of two sorts, those which do not bear ovules or eggs and those which do, being exactly comparable in their functions to the leaf and the flowers of a plant. Now Professor Forbes has clearly made out that the capsules, or egg-producing bodies, are formed from the leaf-like bodies, and the evidence is of the same kind as that which exists in the vege table kingdom. On the grounds of the conclusive nature of the evidence of the value of this theory, Professor Forbes has offered a new classification of the sertularian zoophytes. This paper was read at the meeting of the British Association at York, and received the approbation of Professor Owen, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, and other zoologists and comparative anatomists.

APPLIED SCIENCE.

On the occasion of the late fatal explosion in the colliery at Haswell, Messrs Lyell and Faraday were appointed by Sir James Graham to attend at the coroner's inquest, for the purpose of affording any information in their power, and reporting also whether any means could be suggested for preventing similar accidents. The report of these gentlemen has just been published. They entirely exonerate the owners and officers of the Haswell colliery from any blame, and enter minutely into the present state of the pits. The accident, they believe, arose from an accumulation of fire-damp, in what are called the goafs of the pit. These goafs are portions of the pit which have been allowed to close up by removing the pillars or juds, and the consequent falling of the roof. At the time of the accident, men were employed in removing the juds near to a goaf, and it is probable that at this time one of the safety-lamps became injured, and set fire to the carburetted hydrogen from the goaf. The reporters recommend that attention should be paid in all coal-pits, to the getting rid of the fire-damp from the goafs. This, they believe, may be done by sinking a shaft over the goaf, and thus allowing ventilation, or by the use of an apparatus, by which the accumulated fire-damp may be sucked up from the goaf. The goaf contains the inflammable air, amongst the loose masses of rock of which it is composed; and from the mode in which it is originally formed, the fire-damp is more liable to accumulate in it that any other spot in the pit.

CHEMISTRY.

ONE of the most important and rapidly-progressing of the inductive sciences, is chemistry, especially that department of it which is occupied with investigating the elements of organic bodies. An impulse has been given to this science by the discoveries of the Dutch chemist Mulder, and the clever speculations of the German chemist, Liebig, which is every day producing, in this and other countries, important applications in medicine and agriculture. We have not space in this number more than to refer to two or three important papers. Mulder has just published an important paper, pointing out the tendency of the recent discoveries in organic chemistry, under the somewhat singular title of the 'Striving of nature after unity. In one of the recent numbers of the Journal für Praktische Chemié ;' he has also contributed a valuable paper on crenic and apocrenic acids, two important constituents of the soil, and on the existence of nitrogen in vegetable mould. (See Chem. Gazette, Nos. 53, and 54.) Dr. Lyon Playfair has also just delivered two valuable lectures before the Royal Agricultural Society, in which many important applications of organic chemistry to agriculture are pointed out. The lectures of Professor Liebig, now publishing in the "Lancet," contain an admirable development of the first principles of organic chemistry.

THE BRITISH

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

MAY 1, 1845.

ART. I. Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. By J. C. PRICHARD, M.D., F.R.S., &c. Third Edition. Vols. i. to iv.

WHILE the anatomy and physiology of man, and the study of his moral and intellectual faculties, have long been subjects of eager inquiry and research,—the natural history of mankind, the comparative anatomy, physiology, and psychology of the different races of the great human family,-may be said to have been explored for the first time during the present century, and only now begin to attract that attention which the interest and importance of the subject demand.

To investigations of the former class, man was early driven by the necessity of seeking alleviation from physical sufferings, or providing against those moral ailments with which a prevailing sense of demerit and consciousness of guilt have everywhere oppressed mankind. The study of the structure and functions of the human frame is accordingly, even now, identified with that of medicine, and with few exceptions has been investigated only by the students of that art, or of some collateral science. For the progress made in ethical and metaphysical inquiries we are in the same manner, indebted principally to the schools of theology, or to those speculations and controversies to which theological questions gave rise. The immediate relation of physiological and ethical sciences to the present wants and future destiny of man, has given, and will continue to give to them a superior attraction; the questions which they propose to solve are of direct and personal interest to every individual. Not so, perhaps, the study of man as an object of natural

history. Yet this study embraces questions of the highest interest to every inquiring and philanthropic mind-the varieties in colour, form, habits, physical and moral characters, of the inhabitants of distant countries,--the causes from which these varieties have sprung,--and the origin of the different races of mankind. If a person,' says Dr. Prichard, 'previously unaware 'of the existence of such diversities, could suddenly be made a 'spectator of the various appearances which the tribes of men 'display in different regions of the earth, it cannot be doubted 'that he would experience emotions of wonder and surprise. If 'such a person, for example, after surveying some brilliant 'ceremony or court-pageant in one of the splendid cities of Europe, were suddenly carried into a hamlet in Negroland, at 'the hour when the sable tribes recreate themselves with dancing and barbarous music, or if he were transported to the saline 'plains over which bald and tawny Mongolians roam, differing but little in hue from the yellow soil of their steppes, brightened 'by the saffron flowers of the iris and tulip;-if he were placed 'near the solitary dens of the Bushmen, where the lean and 'hungry savage crouches in silence, like a beast of prey, watching with fixed eyes the birds that enter his pit-fall, or the insects and reptiles which chance may bring within his grasp;-if he 'were carried into the midst of an Australian forest, where the squalid companions of kangaroos may be seen crawling in 'procession, in imitation of quadrupeds; would the spectator of 'such phenomena imagine the different groups he had surveyed 'to be the offspring of one family? And if he were led to adopt that opinion, how would he attempt to account for the striking 'diversities in their aspect and manner of existence?'

These inquiries constitute the principal object, and, indeed, the sole problem attempted to be solved by the learned Researches of Dr. Prichard. But questions, subordinate to this, and to our minds, of far higher interest and importance, present themselves in connexion with this subject. To what causes are we to attribute the vast superiority of certain races over others in physical energy, intellectual attainments, and the refinements of a highly advanced civilization? Has it arisen from the mixture of certain races? and if so, whence the deterioration of those races once unrivalled in all the arts of war and refinements of peace, now sunk in slavery and barbarism? Are the elements of a still further development of the human intellect exhausted? Are the resources of the human family inadequate to supply life for a new era in the world's history? On the other hand, are the characters, physical and moral,-the characters of degradation and inferiority which distinguish certain races, permanent, and

unsusceptible of elevation or improvement? Are there no external agencies which can unfold in them the elements of civilization, and of intellectual greatness or moral worth? Are these races destined to decay and extinction before the advancing steps and all-absorbing grasp of the modern Teuton? Or, are new mixtures of existing and hitherto hostile races to develop new features in the human character, and constitute a new and universal family which shall excel all that preceded? These are questions not of mere speculative and idle fancy; they are questions of which the operations of Providence are daily tending to a solution. They are questions, not only of curious inquiry to the philosophic mind, but of deep and solemn interest to the philanthropist and the Christian. The naturalist or the geologist in the enthusiasm which inspires him for his favourite science, crosses burning deserts or icy plains, or braves unknown seas, to discover a new weed or a new stone. If such interest is attached by him to the science which he cultivates, with what avidity should we not turn to a study which has for its object Man, the sources of his happiness and power, and the destinies of his race?

The object, as already stated, of Dr. Prichard's work, is, in his own words, to elucidate the inquiry whether all the races of 'men scattered over the surface of the earth, distinguished as 'they are from each other in structure of body, in features, and in 'colour, and differing in language and manners, are the offspring 'of a single stock, or have descended respectively from several 'original families.' This question most of our readers may perhaps deem altogether superfluous, as being already satisfactorily answered by the most ancient and most authentic of all historical records. Nevertheless, the question is one which lies within the domain of natural science, and which therefore claims a strict examination on the principles of inductive reasoning apart from all preconceived opinions or extrinsic considerations. It argues neither wisdom nor faith on the part of the Christian to turn aside from such an investigation. To do so To do so were to relinquish a vast field of vantage-ground to the enemies of Christianity, on which, if we may judge from past experience, they would not be slow to erect their engines of assault. To pursue such inquiries, on the other hand, through the pathways of scientific research, until they meet with the results derived from the impartial and enlightened examination of the Divine record, must both confirm our confidence in its authority, and expand our views of those truths which it reveals. The truths of science cannot be at variance with the truths of revelation. If they appear to be so, it is only because we have erred

in our search after the former, or in our interpretation of the latter.

The question before us affords an apt illustration of the truth of these remarks. To whatever conclusion regarding the question itself, the physiological and ethnological inquiries which it involves, may tend, or whether they warrant any positive conclusion at all, they cannot be entered upon without opening up to the inquirer new views of the goodness, wisdom, and providence of the Almighty Creator in regard to the human family. Before this question became one of scientific inquiry, while it was still one of the unexplored territories of physical research, it was a favourite field for the vain and noisy assaults of those sceptics who, in their eager haste to effect a breach in the bulwarks of Christianity, violated their own natural pride of species, and vied with each other in alternate efforts to elevate the ape to a level with man, and to degrade man to a level with the ape. All such idle speculations have been dissipated by the physical researches to which this question has given rise.

Blumenbach may be said to be the father of this study,-that of the natural history of man; his works De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa, and Decades Craniorum, being the first of any extent or accuracy on the comparative anatomy of the races of man. Dr. Prichard's work was the first which was devoted to a special examination of the comparative physiology and psychology of different races. Since the publication of those works, the different departments of this study have been ably explored and illustrated by many writers of great celebrity; and it has acquired so much interest in the scientific world, that contributions of great extent and value are daily being made to our present stock of knowledge regarding it. Dr. Prichard devotes himself in his Researches to a special inquiry in regard to the natural history of man, that, already referred to, of the origin of different races. With the exception of the illustrious author above mentioned, and our distinguished countryman, Mr. Lawrence, the mass of celebrated writers are opposed to Dr. Prichard in the conclusion at which he arrives regarding the unity of the human species and the common origin of the human family.

Although the avowed object of the entire work of Dr. Prichard is the elucidation of this inquiry, it may be averred that his whole argument is comprised in the first volume. The subsequent volumes contain a series of ethnological inquiries regarding the different races of man,-inquiries of the deepest interest, and evincing elaborate research and extensive learning, but of which it may be said that the points bearing upon the question announced as the object of the work, might be embraced and