Hoffman QP29 .B613 1795
 

 JOHANN FRIEDRICH BLUMENBACH ( 1752-1840)

    Johnann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, who had a lifelong interest in anthropology, and he is regarded as the father of scientific anthropology. His De generis humani varietate nativa , published in1775, marked the beginnings of physical anthropology, in which he proposed the five divisions of mankind, which have been the basis of all subsequent racial classifications. His system has survived to the present with little modification.
     His work with an extensive skull collection, served as the basis for Collectio craniorum diversarum gentium (1790–1828), which established craniometric study.
    His treatise, Institutiones physiologicae, was published in 1786. Charles Caldwell translated it in 1795 as Elements of Physiology, because he felt that earlier translations were inadequate. This was the first translation to be published in the United States.

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