VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS. ' 939
departure from Europe , was one which fliil further excited the intereft and zeal ofnaturalifts.
Regnier, by the invention of the dynanometer # , had recently opened a wider field torefearches of this kind. Without being perfect, no doubt, without being capable ofminutely afcertaining the precife degree of ftrength, this inftrument neverthelefs pre-fents very clofe approximations, and at any rate, indicates the comparative force appliedwith more exactitude, as I have experienced in three years’ practice, than could at firft:be expected. This inftrument I had the advantage of carrying firft abroad and ofemploying among the people of the fouthern hemifphere: I neglected nothing to pro-fit by it as largely as poffible ; and if from circumftances I have been prevented fromgiving to my experiments the latitude that could be wifhed, at leaft have I renderedvaluable thofe which I made by their minute precifion.
SECT. I .—Experiments on the Savages of Diemen's Land.
On Diemen’s Land and the contiguous ifland Maria, exifts a race of men entirelydiffering from that by which the continent of New Holland is peopled. In ftature theindividual of this race is fimilarto Europeans , but difiimilar in his extraordinary con*formation. With a large head, efpecially remarkable by its length from the chin tothe finciput, he has broad fhoulders, flurdy loins, and the thighs generally mufcular,but at the fame time almoft every one has the extremities flender, long, and weak, witha big belly, falient and formed like a balloon. In other matters, thefe people are defti*tute^of chiefs, properly fpeaking, of laws, of regular government, and of arts of anykind ; and are without any notion of agriculture, or of animals domefticated for fervice;they wear no cloaths, have no fixed abode or fhelter but what is afforded by wretchedfcreens made of bark to defend them from the cold fouthern blafts ; nor have they anyother arms but the club and the fpear. Conftantly a wanderer amid the forefts oralong the fhores of the fea, the inhabitants of thefe regions undoubtedly poffeffes everycharaCteriftic of uncivilized man, and pre-eminently merits the diftinCfion of the childof nature. Still, how widely does he differ, either regarded in a moral or phyfical pointof view, from thofe delufive portraits of him, the offspring of fancy and enthufiafm,which fyftem-makers have drawn, and placed in competition with man in focial life!
With men fo brutal as we found thefe to be, our communications, if not rare, were•difficult and accompanied by danger ; and, as will have been feen, the chief of ourinterviews with them terminated, on 'their part, in hoftile aggreffions.
If our general communications with them was fo fpare, our dy nano metrical obfervationswere ftili more fo. Hence, fpite of exertion, have I been enabled on thefe Aores toobtain but few data, and thofe incomplete, as I was unable to induce any of the inha-bitants to try the ftrength of their loins. However, as all my experiments were madeor individuals of the ftrongeft conftitutions, and as their refults were clear and fimilar,we may fearlefsly apply them generally to the individuals of this firft race: now theferefults uniformly exhibit a want of ftrength truly extraordinary. For, though my ex-periments were repeated on the molt vigorous clafs of the population, that betweeneighteen and forty years of age, no Diemenefe was found capable of making the needleadvance beyond 6o°, and twelve obfervations on different individuals gave for amean 50,6°. We Ihall prefently fee the difference between this and the mean of ex-periments made on Europeans .
* The defcription and ufe of this instrument, illuftrated by a plate, may be feen in Vol. i. p. 399. ofthe Philofophical Magazine. Tr.
© d 2 SECT.