A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients | Page 2

&c. Authore _Edvardo Tyson_, M.D. R.S.S.
JOHN HOSKINS, _V.P.R.S_.

The Pygmy described in this work was, as a matter of fact, a
chimpanzee, and its skeleton is at this present moment in the Natural
History Museum at South Kensington. Tyson's granddaughter married
a Dr. Allardyce, who was a physician of good standing in Cheltenham.
The "Pygmie" formed a somewhat remarkable item of her dowry. Her
husband presented it to the Cheltenham Museum, where it was
fortunately carefully preserved until, quite recently, it was transferred
to its present position.
At the conclusion of the purely scientific part of the work the author
added four Philological Essays, as will have appeared from his
title-page. The first of these is both the longest and the most interesting,
and has alone been selected for republication in this volume.
This is not the place to deal with the scientific merit of the main body
of Tyson's work, but it may at least be said that it was the first attempt
which had been made to deal with the anatomy of any of the anthropoid
apes, and that its execution shows very conspicuous ability on the part
of its author.
Tyson, however, was not satisfied with the honour of being the author
of an important morphological work; he desired to round off his subject
by considering its bearing upon the, to him, wild and fabulous tales
concerning pigmy races. The various allusions to these races met with
in the pages of the older writers, and discussed in his, were to him what
fairy tales are to us. Like modern folk-lorists, he wished to explain,
even to euhemerise them, and bring them into line with the science of
his day. Hence the "Philological Essay" with which this book is
concerned. There are no pigmy races, he says; "the most diligent
enquiries of late into all the parts of the inhabited world could never
discover any such puny diminutive race of mankind." But there are
tales about them, "fables and wonderful and merry relations, that are
transmitted down to us concerning them," which surely require
explanation. That explanation he found in his theory that all the
accounts of pigmy tribes were based upon the mistakes of travellers
who had taken apes for men. Nor was he without followers in his
opinion; amongst whom here need only be mentioned Buffon, who in
his Histoire des Oiseaux explains the Homeric tale much as Tyson had
done. The discoveries, however, of this century have, as all know,
re-established in their essential details the accounts of the older writers,

and in doing so have demolished the theories of Tyson and Buffon. We
now know, not merely that there are pigmy races in existence, but that
the area which they occupy is an extensive one, and in the remote past
has without doubt been more extensive still. Moreover, certain of these
races have been, at least tentatively, identified with the pigmy tribes of
Pliny, Herodotus, Aristotle, and other writers. It will be well, before
considering this question, and before entering into any consideration of
the legends and myths which may possibly be associated with dwarf
races, to sketch briefly their distribution throughout the continents of
the globe. It is necessary to keep clearly in view the upper limit which
can justly be assigned to dwarfishness, and with this object it may be
advisable to commence with a statement as to the average heights
reached by various representative peoples. According to Topinard, the
races of the world may be classified, in respect to their stature, in the
following manner:--
Tall 5 ft. 8 in. and upwards. Above the average 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 8 in.
Below the average 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. Short Below 5 ft. 4 in.
Thus amongst ordinary peoples there is no very striking difference of
height, so far as the average is concerned. It would, however, be a great
mistake to suppose that all races reaching a lower average height than
five feet four inches are, in any accurate sense of the word, to be looked
upon as pigmies. We have to descend to a considerably lower figure
before that appellation can be correctly employed. The stature must fall
considerably below five feet before we can speak of the race as one of
dwarfs or pigmies. Anthropometrical authorities have not as yet agreed
upon any upward limit for such a class, but for our present purposes it
may be convenient to say that any race in which the average male
stature does not exceed four feet nine inches--that is, the average height
of a boy of about twelve years of age--may fairly be described as pigmy.
It is most important to bear this matter of inches in mind in connection
with points which will