An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : to which are added, animadversions on certain remarks made on the first edition of this essay, by Mr. Charles White, in a series of discourses delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England : also, strictures on Lord Kaims' discourse on the original diversity of mankind : and an appendix / by Samuel Stanhope Smith.

  • Smith, Samuel Stanhope, 1750-1819.
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species : to which are added, animadversions on certain remarks made on the first edition of this essay, by Mr. Charles White, in a series of discourses delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester in England : also, strictures on Lord Kaims' discourse on the original diversity of mankind : and an appendix / by Samuel Stanhope Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ticipating his wants, or for facilitating their supply. If he could indulge a moment's repose from the impor- tunity of hunger, it would be to resign the next mo- ment to absolute inaction, like a satiated beast in his den. The character of a savage is infinitely impro- vident. Nothing he abhors so much as labor, when he is not under the immediate impulse of some im- perious appetite, or passion. The American savage, who possesses many advantages above the primitive man whom we are contemplating, as soon as he is. released from the fatigues of the chace, generally gives himself up to listless and gloomy indolence. And, though he has derived from his ancestors, who probably emigrated from different regions in the old world, the rudiments of the arts of hunting and fish- ing, which might have been expected to lay a foun- dation for a further progress in improving the com- forts of his condition; yet with these rude and scanty- arts the indolent genius of savagism has been con- tented; and, during three centuries since America was first discovered by Europeans, he has not been known to advance a single step in the amelioration of his state. Even in those situations in which he has had the most favourable opportunities to observe the benefits resulting from agriculture and the me,