Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    30/796 (page 24)
    American diploma, and desired him to possess the honors of the University of Edinburgh, then but little passed beyond the zenith of its glory. After spending the summer at his uncle's house, he went to Edinburgh, where he heard the last course of lectures, deli- vered by the chaste and classical Gregory. The American schools not being recognized by the University as ad eundem, he found him- self obliged to attend the full term of an under-graduate. This would have left him ample leisure as far as his mere college studies were concerned; for the youth who had graduated with approbation under the tuition of Wistar, Physick, and James, and their compeers, could not have fallen far short of the requisitions of any other Medical Faculty in Christendom. But his time was not spent in idleness. He sedulously cultivated his knowledge of the classical tongues, hitherto imperfect, and he devoted himself to the study of French and Italian, both of which languages he learned to read with facility. He also attended with great interest the lectures of Professor Jameson on Geology, thus confirming and reviving his early fondness for that branch of science. After his return to America, he presented to the Academy a series of the green-stone rocks of Scotland, and a section of Salisbury Craig near Edinburgh, collected by himself at this time. In October 1821, he visited Paris, and spent the winter there mainly in clinical study. The next summer was devoted to a tour in Italy and other portions of the continent, and in the fall he returned again to Edinburgh, where, alter attendance upon another session, he re- ceived the honors of the doctorate. His printed thesis* may be taken as a fair exponent of his mental condition and calibre at this period. It is very like himself, and yet with a difference from him as we knew him later in life. It is quiet and indeed even simple in tone, without affectation and without any of the declamation in which young writers are so apt to indulge. Its style is clear and sufficiently concise, and as a piece of Latinity it is correct and graceful. It takes up the subject of bodily pain, and considers it in regard to its causes, its diagnostic value, and its effects, both physical and psychical, leaving very little more to be said with regard to it. But it is evident through- out that the essay is the production of one who is more ambitious of the reputation of the litterateur than of the savant; who writes,—and that probably marks the distinction, — with his face turned to his auditory rather than to his subject. The sentence marches some- times with a didactic solemnity almost Johnsonian, while the fre- quency of the poetical references and quotations,—Latin and Italian as well as English, — and the facile fitness with which they glide into * Tentamen Inaugurate de Corporis Dolore, etc.— Edinburgh m.d.cccxxiii.