942
VOYAGE FOR. THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.
affording fpeciroens by which a better judgment may be formed of the weaknefs of thefavage nations before noticed ; which fpecimens alfo are the more adapted for this pur-pofe as the individuals on whom the experiments were made, were of fimilar ages, andof different profeilions ; merchants, military men, judges, naturaliils, phvficians,failors, &c. ; and as the experiments were made by them while under the influence ofthe fame climate.
The manual ftrength of feventeen Frenchmen gave for a mean 69,2°; that of theloins 22,i°.
SECT. V. -— Experiments on the ftrength of the Englijh.
The mean refult from fourteen experiments made on Englilhmen, gave for theftrength of the hands 71,4® ; for that of the loins 23,8°. The flight difference betweenthis refult and that of the experiments on the French , may poffibly have been occaflonedby the latter having returned from a long fea voyage, while the Englifh, who tried thedynanometer, were principally thofe refident on fhore * : other little circumftances, localor individual, might likewife have been the caufe of the difference ; whence, to drawany deduction as to the relative force front thefe experiments would be ridiculous.
SECT. VI. — General refult of experiments on the ftrength of the fa-vages of Diemen’sLand and New Holland, of the inhabitants of Timor , the French and the Englifh .
Combining the refults of the feries of experiments on the four different nations, itfollows that the manual ftrength at a mean was in the following proportions expreffed inkilogrammes and lbs. avoirdupois.
Of the people of Diemen ’s Land■-New Holland
,-Timor
The FrenchThe Englifh
The force of the loins in the undermentioravoirdupois, were
Of the people of Diemen ’s Land
-New Holland
-Timor
The FrenchThe Englifli
Hence there may be drawn as conclufions,
ift, That the inhabitants of Diemen ’s Land, the moil perfect favages, and thofewho pre-eminently deferve the name of the children of nature , are of all the weakeft.
* The only exception was the captain of a merchantman, of the name of Smith, whole manual ftrengthwas exceeded by that of Michaux alone on the part of the French , the compreffion of the inftrument bySmith giving 79, by Michaux 82 : but if Smith found a fuperior in manual ftrength, in (trengthof loinshe furpafltd all, either French or Englifh, the dynanometer giving for his draught landing on the foot ofthe inftiumetit, and pulling upward, 31 myriagrammes, while the niofl powerful among the French, Lieut .L. Freycinft, could only draw the needle to 29,5. Tr.
9 2d. That