Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-02-03
CITY ano County gnteIlrgents.
Tho Lecture by Mr.. IIIgginson,

The Lecture by Mr.. nigginsOn.
T. w. Higginson gave an interesting lecture
in the Lyceum course, last evening, taking for
his subject the comparative effects of barbar-
ism and civilization on the physical man. He
noted mans progress, by historic ages, all the
way up from the wretched, degraded creatures
found in the interior of Borneo to the regal
condition of Socrates and Shakspeare-the one
continuous progress from this depth up to the
great historic aces of the world, past and pre-
sent-the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Jew, the
beautiful Greek, the heroic Roman, the keen
Arab, the graceful Italian, the proud Spaniard,
the sad Portuguese, the frank Northerner, the
wise German, the strong Englishman, and the
American, that latest-born child of God-in-
yentor of many new things, but himself in his
temperament, the newest of them all,-the
American, with his flesh made Of ice, and his
veins made of lava.
While civilization made this progress, there
was yet distrust that civilization implied
physical decline; and that error Mr..
Higginson combatted, demonstrating the
physical inferiority of the savage race, and the
shaowness of the assertion that barbarism
represents muscle, and civilization only mind.
The decline of the savage race commenced be-
fore civilized men ever saw them. The same
diseases which haunt civilization, are found
among savages The first question that is asked
of a civilized man who visits them is, whether
he is a doctor or not. They all want medicine,
and if he has not the rgh medicine, they will be
thankful for the wrong. The first missionaries
to the South Sea Islands found humpbacks and
dropsical legs there before them. Lewis and
Clark found Indians suffering from fever, dys-
entery, rheumatism and paralysis, and Indian
women in Mysteries, as much as though they
were in good society. The stoutest savage
races suffer more from opthalmia than almost
any other. They have worse eyes than If
they were professors, and they have not even
the melancholy satisfaction of wearing spec
tacIes Civilization enabled those who come
under its influence to endure the extremes of
heat and cold even better than the natives.
This fact was mentioned by Dr. Kane and by
several African travellers.
Mr.. Higginson then took up the question of
the comparative strength and size of civilized
and savage men, and quoted largely from a
series of interesting statistics published in the
18th volume of the journals of the London
Statistical Society, the results of the investi-
cations made by Dr. Thompson, of the list
regiment, among the New Zeaanders-a race
just emerging from barbarism, cannibals with
in one generation with the taste of their friends
aud relations not yet off their lips, and there
fore excellent subjects for the experiments
His experiments commenced by examining
into their hight. He measured 146. Their
average hight was feet inches. The aver
age hight of 800 young men in the University
of Edinboro' was 5 feet 8 inches-one inch
more and of so students at Cambridge, 5 feet
inches. His 40 New Zealanders showed an
average weight Of 40 lbs He weighed sew.
era hundred of his soldiers, and found their av
erage weight to be 142 lbs. and he ascertained
that the average weight of 2648 soldiers, taken
in England, was 149 pounds. The question of
weights, therefore, was settled in favor of the
civilized race. In measuring the chest, he
found the average breadth Of the chest of the
New Zealanders was 35 36-100. He measured
600 ofhs soldiers, and found it IS 71-100-an
average difference of half an inch in favor of
the civilized race. The strongest man among
the New Zcalanders lifted weight of APO
pounds; that tapered down to $50. His
strongest English soldier lifted 507 pounds
and this went down to $50. The average
weight lifted by the New ZealanderS was 367
pounds ; of the English, 422 pounds. One Of
these estimates, it will be observed, come up
to one half of the weight now lifted by our ath-
letic DR.. Winshp. On all these points, then,
the advantage lies with civilization.
The lecture abounded in illustration and
was listened to with marked attention and
pleasure on the part of the audience. in the
latter portion of the lecture, Mr.. II. spoke
hopefully of the future of American health
and strength.