The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
1. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe, as
determined by the evidence of Physical Conformation._--The really
scientific portion of these anatomical reasons consists in a single
fact; which was as follows.--Blumenbach had a solitary Georgian skull;
and that solitary Georgian skull was the finest in his collection: that
of a Greek being the next. Hence it was taken as the type of the skull
of the more organized divisions of our species. More than this, it
gave its name to the type, and introduced the term _Caucasian_. Never
has a single head done more harm to science than was done in the way
of posthumous mischief, by the head of this well-shaped female from
Georgia. I do not say that it was not a fair sample of all Georgian
skulls. It might or might not be. I only lay before critics the amount
of induction that they have gone upon.
2. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe as
determined by the evidence of language._--Here I can only give a
sample of the philology which would connect the Georgian with the
Indo-European tongues. It consists in the proof that the Georgian
numerals are the same as the Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Gothic, Slavonic,
and Lithuanic.
English. Georgian. Mingrelian.[38] Suanic.[38] Lazic.[38]
_One_ erthi arthi es`gu ar.
_Two_ ori shiri jeru dzur.
_Three_ sami sumi semi dshumi.
_Four_ othchi otchi wors`tcho atch.
_Five_ chuthi chuthi wochus`i chut.
_Six_ ekhwssi apchs'ui usgwa as`.
_Seven_ s'widi 'sqwithi is`gwit s`kit.
_Eight_ rwa ruo ara ovro.
_Nine_ zehru c`choro c`chara c`choro.
_Ten_ athi withi je`st wit.
One=_Es`gu_, Suanic=_êka_, Sanskrit; _jek_, Persian, the ἑκα- in
ἑκά-τερος, and ἕκ-αστος, Greek.
One=_erthi_, Georgian; _arthi_, Mingrelian; _ar_, Lazic. Here the forms
are different from the Suanic _esg`u_, and have a different origin.
_Esgu_ is a true cardinal, just as _one_ is a true cardinal. The
Georgian, Mingrelian, and Suanic forms, are not originally cardinal,
but derivative from the ordinal, just as would be the case in English,
if, instead of saying _one_, _two_, &c., we said, _first_, _second_,
&c. Now the root of the ordinal cardinal of the Georgian, Mingrelian,
and Lazic _ar_, is the πρ- in the Greek, πρῶ-τος, the _p-r-_ in the
Lithuanic _pir-mas_, the _fr-_ in the Mœso-Gothic, _fr-ums_, and the
_pr-_ in the Sanskrit _pr-atamas_; the initial _p_ having been lost,
just as the initial _s_ in the Sanskrit _sru_,=to _flow_, is lost
in the Greek ῥέω, and the Latin _ruo_. Hence, _arti_=, by _rati_
metathesis, just as the Lithuanic _pirmas_=the Latin _primus_. The _t_
is the τ of πρῶ-τ-ος.
Two=_Ori_, Georgian; _dva_, Sanskrit; δι-, Greek; _duo_, Latin, &c.
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