Extreme humidity, with cold and a stagnant atmosphere, produces swellings of the lymphatic glands, goitres, and cretinism. The Cretins are an insensible race, with little pretensions to the character of rational creatures, whose organs are generally relaxed. The glands of the neck are enlarged, and hang down in the most disgusting bags. They are of a yellow paleness: their limbs are pendulous; their look stupid; they cannot stand upright, nor speak; and continue in a lying or sitting posture through their whole lives. They rnust be attended, fed, and dressed like children. They are, however, reverenced as the favourites of Heaven; but are chiefly distinguished by their gluttony and lasci-viousness. This affection is not conveyed to their children; but they are usually disposed to it. Cretins are found in the defiles of all the high mountains, even the Cordelieras and the Andes.

The qualities of the air correspond with those of the ground; and, in general, fertile lands produce handsomer, more active, and more intelligent men than those which are barren. Yet the latter have more spirit, activity, and independence than the former, who are generally indolent, effeminate, and the slaves of despotism. It has been fancifully said that there is an analogy between the inhabitants of every country and its animals. Thus the Laplander is supposed to be analogous to his reindeer; the Muscovite to the bear; the Tartar to his horse; the Samoeide to the phoca, or sea-cow; the Malay to the tiger; the Negro to the ape; the Bedouin to the camel; the Indian to the cow; the Papouan to the hog; the Moor to the hyena; the Chinese to the cat; the Peruvian to the lama; the Canadian to the weasel (Virey). Perhaps the peculiar manners may, in each instance, be influenced by climate.

The nature of the food produces some change in the constitution and on the mind of man. We have spoken on this subject, as it relates to individuals, under the article Diaeta. We must now speak collectively of its effects on the different races of mankind. The great outline of distinction is between the northern and southern race; those who live principally on animal food, or those whose nourishment is chiefly taken from the vegetable kingdom. Man, we have said, is calculated for a mixed aliment, and such he uses when both can be easily procured; but the savage of the woods will not patiently wait for the growth of his corn, when he can pursue and kill the deer; and the inhabitant of the arctic circle is from necessity obliged to devour his rein deer. The inhabitants of the northern regions, who eat large quantities of animal food, are consequently robust, active, enterprising; those of the south, timid, weak, and indolent. The climate, in each case, influences the character; but we generally find, even in this country, warmth induce a dislike for animal food, and render vegetables more pleasing. It is remarked by curious observers, that food differs with the latitude. The Greenlander, the Canadian, and the Kamtschatdale eat with greediness the rancid fat of their whales; the Swede, the German, and the Englishman, use a large proportion of flesh. The Frenchman eats less of animal food, with a larger proportion of bread; the Italian his legumina, his polenta, and macaroni; the Turk his rice; the Moor his figs; the Negro his millet and durra; the South American his maize; the white African, on the shores of the Mediterranean, his dates, figs, and lotus(zi-ziphus lotus); the Malay his sago and bread fruit; the maritime races their fish; the Caffres, the Hottentots, and Arabs, principally their milk, adding occasionally the flesh of their numerous flocks; the Mongols and Calmucks the flesh of their horses, with their milk sometimes mixed with blood; the Persians and Egyptians their dates and water melons; the inhabitants of the Archipelago their figs and chestnuts; the Califor-nians the fruit of the nopal, or cactus; the Brasilians the acajou apple (anacardium occidentale); the Peruvians and Mexicans the cassada, potatoes, and yams; the Abyssinians the seeds of the sesamum; and the Cingalese the cynosurus coracanus. In Africa millet is so cheap, that it is computed a hundred men may be maintained during a whole year for less than nine pounds sterling. The form of the teeth and jaws differs with the food. The teeth of the Negro are thick, large, and distant; the muscles of mastication weak; the jaws elongated. The Tartars, a carnivorous race, on the contrary, have smaller, sharper teeth, strong jaws, and powerful muscles. The powers of digestion are strong in the higher latitudes, and the inhabitants can digest easily the fat of their whales, and the blood of their sea calves, while the Indian bramin requires aromatics to assist the digestion of his fruit and rice.

The natural drink of the human race is water; but every nation is eager to attain a state of intoxication. In the north only it is most easily and safely borne. In the south it produces madness; and Mahomet and Zoroaster have consequently forbidden, by the most positive precepts, the use of fermented liquors. The inhabitants of the south calm their too great sensibility and activity by cooling and acid, or by narcotic, drinks. The tea of eastern Asia, the coffee of Arabia, and the beer of the northern nations, in which they infuse the agaricus muscarius, are of the latter kind: the opium and the ban-gue of India are similar in their effects, and employed in the same way. The cooling, diluting drinks temperate the too great heat of the warmer regions, while the narcotics check the too great irritability, though they leave the nervous system more peculiarly susceptible of irritation, till the excitability is wholly destroyed.

Having traced the varieties of the human race in every circumstance and situation likely to influence them, we must more particularly attend to minuter distinctions. The chief of these is sexual. Man has, in general, superior stature, larger and stronger muscles, a larger brain, stronger bones, a deeper voice, a browner and a more hairy skin. Women have long, fine, and flexible hair, a delicate white skin, soft flesh, a rounded form, a soft voice, a lively sensibility, though often irregular, and a very irritable system of nerves. The body of a man is larger and more expanded above, that of a woman below, the waist: each is thus adapted to their several offices. The infant resembles a woman in its constitution and characters: a woman beyond the change of life comes nearer the man. A woman has the sanguine complexion, the nervous irritability, and the weak muscles of the child. She is also variable, credulous, subject to the influence of imagination, and to nervous diseases. Man is proud, naturally harsh, firm, and independent. Woman, soft, gentle, gaining by address rather than violence, yielding to conquer. Though we should not consider, observes M. Virey, the females divided into as many races as man, yet we shall find considerable variations in the beauty of women. In the north they are fairer than the men, and their dazzling whiteness often becomes insipid. All the southern women are brunettes, more or less poignant; but the most beautiful of the sex inhabits the temperate climes of Europe and of Asia. The most beautiful French women are found about Avignon, Marseilles, and in the ancient Provence, formerly peopled by a Greek colony of Phocaeans. The most beautiful Spanish women are found, it is said, about Cadiz; the most agreeable Portuguese in the city of Guinama-rez. Beautiful women are found in many parts of Italy: the Sicilian and Neapolitan women, descended from the ancient Greek colonies, are also charming. The Albanese are well made; the Chian women delightful; those of the AEgean Archipelago are fair, lively, and agreeable; and, like all the Greeks, have large and very beautiful eyes." The Circassian, the Mingrelian, the Cashmi-rian, and the Georgian women are, however, admitted to be the most perfect models of the female form, though surrounded by the most ugly races of mankind, the Calmucks and the Nogais Tartars, whose women are equally disgusting, though the air, the situation, and manner of living, are the same. The race is, however, essentially different. The female slave merchants of the east assert, that the women are always plain where the ground is sterile, and the water bad. The Persians, it is said, were a mean ugly race, until meliorated by the beautiful slaves of Cashmire and Georgia. The common people still continue to possess little dignity or beauty. The manners of women are dignified and correct where they are less numerous than men, as in the northern regions; less so when they are more numerous. In the latter polygamy usually prevails, which has been occasionally considered as a cause, and sometimes as the effect, of a greater proportion of females. It is asserted, that, among a stronger race of men, the proportion of male children is greater; but this is by no means certain: and it is more probable that the extraordinary female population of the east is an unexplained effect of polygamy. In Cairo we find one sixth more of women than of men; in India one fifth; in some countries of Asia, one fourth; at Bantam and in the islands of the eastern ocean, there arc said to be six women to one man. In Thibet the proportion is probably reversed; since we are informed, by the latest travellers, that a woman has usually many husbands, on whom she revenges the injury her sex sustains in the harems of Turkey.