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difficult to divest onuselves of the idea that they are dolls or puppets skilfully set in motion , until we have scanned them closely , heard the sound of their voices , and touched them . After we are convinced that they are really living beings , the next subject for our amazement is , that they can run about , romp , and displav the
physical energy and general intelligence that they do , — -so fragile , so slight , so insignificant , do their frames at first sight appear . The painful impression caused at first by the convex style of features , the retreating forehead and chin , associated with our ideas of mental deficiency , soon wears off ; and at length we begin to discern a species of comeliness in these little beings so unlike ourselve & Jn their structure . The hair grows luxuriantly in curls ; and this
peculiarity distinguishes them from the aborigines or Eedmen of America , in whom the hair is invariably straight . Hair of a similar character is seen in the bas-reliefs of the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum ; and a similarity between these monuments and those of the ruined cities of Central America—the faces sculptured on which bear a marked resemblance to the peculiar physiognomy of the Aztec —lays the foundation of a very ancient connection between the Old and the New "W orld .
Entertaining , then , this theory—that we behold in . the Aztec children the types of a race , whose ancient grandeur , rivalling that of Babylon and Nineveh , future excavations amid the ruins of Copan , Uxmal , Tula , and Palenque , may discover to us—it appears impossible to exaggerate the interest and curiosity which they inspire . It is with a strange awe that we stand beside an Egyptian mummy , and behold the actual mortal remains of a being who flourished three
thousand years ago—a unit in that mighty nation to which so many ages trace their learning and their arts . What , then , are we to think of the Aztecs—the actual living types of a race and civilization perhaps still more ancient ! But , alas ! they can do no more than excite our curiosity . The embalmed Egyptian is even more eloquent on the history of the past than these living links between ourselves and antiquity , who unconsciously evoke the spirit of inquiry , and urge ns on to read the riddle of their existence .
Dr . Knox , " in an able and interesting article on the Aztec and Bosjesman children , in the " Lancet" of April 7 th , thinks that the race of the former is already extinct , and proposes to explain the phenomenon of the existence of the boy and girl now in London by the physiological law of " interrupted descent . " He says : " The Aztec children , then , represent a race now extinct as a race
reproduced in those children by the law of c interrupted descent . ' Negro blood , once introduced into a family , will reappear , as we have already observed , in the descendants after some hundred years , without any new infusion . The same remark applies to other races , and especially . to the Jew and the Gipsy . There seems to be Jewish blood in those children ; but it does not follow that any number of such could reproduce the race , the necessary conditions for its existence having long ceased to be . '' AViil this theory account for the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
difficult to divest onuselves of the idea that they are dolls or puppets skilfully set in motion , until we have scanned them closely , heard the sound of their voices , and touched them . After we are convinced that they are really living beings , the next subject for our amazement is , that they can run about , romp , and displav the
physical energy and general intelligence that they do , — -so fragile , so slight , so insignificant , do their frames at first sight appear . The painful impression caused at first by the convex style of features , the retreating forehead and chin , associated with our ideas of mental deficiency , soon wears off ; and at length we begin to discern a species of comeliness in these little beings so unlike ourselve & Jn their structure . The hair grows luxuriantly in curls ; and this
peculiarity distinguishes them from the aborigines or Eedmen of America , in whom the hair is invariably straight . Hair of a similar character is seen in the bas-reliefs of the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum ; and a similarity between these monuments and those of the ruined cities of Central America—the faces sculptured on which bear a marked resemblance to the peculiar physiognomy of the Aztec —lays the foundation of a very ancient connection between the Old and the New "W orld .
Entertaining , then , this theory—that we behold in . the Aztec children the types of a race , whose ancient grandeur , rivalling that of Babylon and Nineveh , future excavations amid the ruins of Copan , Uxmal , Tula , and Palenque , may discover to us—it appears impossible to exaggerate the interest and curiosity which they inspire . It is with a strange awe that we stand beside an Egyptian mummy , and behold the actual mortal remains of a being who flourished three
thousand years ago—a unit in that mighty nation to which so many ages trace their learning and their arts . What , then , are we to think of the Aztecs—the actual living types of a race and civilization perhaps still more ancient ! But , alas ! they can do no more than excite our curiosity . The embalmed Egyptian is even more eloquent on the history of the past than these living links between ourselves and antiquity , who unconsciously evoke the spirit of inquiry , and urge ns on to read the riddle of their existence .
Dr . Knox , " in an able and interesting article on the Aztec and Bosjesman children , in the " Lancet" of April 7 th , thinks that the race of the former is already extinct , and proposes to explain the phenomenon of the existence of the boy and girl now in London by the physiological law of " interrupted descent . " He says : " The Aztec children , then , represent a race now extinct as a race
reproduced in those children by the law of c interrupted descent . ' Negro blood , once introduced into a family , will reappear , as we have already observed , in the descendants after some hundred years , without any new infusion . The same remark applies to other races , and especially . to the Jew and the Gipsy . There seems to be Jewish blood in those children ; but it does not follow that any number of such could reproduce the race , the necessary conditions for its existence having long ceased to be . '' AViil this theory account for the