Facts, therefore, point to numerous centres of creation, wherein we
find creatures fixed, with peculiar temperaments and organizations,
which are in unison with surrounding circumstances, and where all
their natural wants are supplied. But the strongest harrier to voluntary
displacements would seem to he that of instinct — that force,
unknown and incomprehensible, which hinds them to the soil that
has witnessed their birth.
While passing these sheets through the press, we have enjoyed the
privilege of perusing The Geographical Distribution of Animals and
Plants, 16 by our valued Mend, C h a r l e s P ic k e r in g , M . D., Naturalist
to the United States’ Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes.
This is to be “ regarded as an introduction to the volume on Geographical
Distribution, prepared during the voyage of the Expedition,
and published in Volume IX. of the same compendium.
In connection with our own work, the utterance of Dr. Pickering s
views is most opportune; because, with thorough knowledge of
Egypt, derived from personal travels, and acquaintance with hiero-
glyphical researches, he has traced the Natural History of that country
from the remotest monumental times to the present day. The various
pictorial representations of Eaunse and Florae are thereby assigned to
their respective chronological epochas; and, inasmuch as they are
identified with living species, they substantiate our assertions regarding
the unexceptional permanence of types during a period of more than
5000 years. Dr. Pickering’s era for “ the commencement-of the
Egyptian Chronological Reckoning” being B. C. 4493,U we find ourselves
again in unison with him upon general principles of chronological
extension.
The gradual introduction of foreign animals, plants, and exotic
substances, into the Lower Valley of the Nile — the extinction of
sundry species once indigenous to that soil, during the hundred and
fifty human generations for which we possess contemporaneous registry
and the infinitude of proofs that such changes could not have
been effected without the intervention of these long historical ages
are themes which Dr. Pickering has concisely and ingeniously
elaborated: and although our space does not permit the citation of
the numerous examples duly catalogued by him, it affords us pleasure
to concur in the following results, viz.:
“ That the names of animals and plants nsed in Egypt are Scriptural [¿. e. old Semifish]
names. Further, in some instances, these current Egyptian names go behind the Greek
language, supply the meaning of obsolete Greek words, and show international relationship,
the more intimate the further we recede into antiquity.” 18
It will become apparent, in its place, that the philological views
now held by Birch, De Rougé,,and Lepsius, upon the primeval introduction
of Semitic elements in Egypt, are confirmed by these independent
researches of Pickering into the Natural History of Egyptian
gnimflls and plants, as we trust will be now demonstrated through
the monumental evidences of human physiology.
Let us next turn to the races of Mankind in their geographical distribution,
and see whether they form an exception to the laws which
have been established for the other orders of Mammifers. Does not
the same physical adaptation, the same instinct, which binds animals
to their primitive localities, bind the races of Men also ? Those races
inhabiting the Temperate Zones, as, for example, the white races of
Europe, have a certain degree of pliability, that enables them to bear
climates to a great extent hotter or colder than their native one;
but there is a limit beyond which they cannot-go with impunity
— they cannot live in the Arctic with the Esquimaux, nor in the
Tropic of AMca with the Negro. The Negro, too, (like the
Elephant, the Lion, the Camel, &c.,) possesses a certain pliability of
constitution, which enables him to enter the Temperate Zone; but
his Northern limit stops far short of that of natives of this Zone.
The higher castes of what are termed Caucasian races, are influenced
by several causes in a greater degree than other races. To them have
been assigned, in all ages, the largest brains and the most powerful
intellect; theirs is the mission of extending and perfecting civilization—
they are by nature ambitious, daring, domineering, and reckless
of danger -^impelled by an irresistible instinct, they visit all climes,
regardless of difficulties; but how many thousands are sacrificed
annually to climates foreign to their nature !
It should also be borne in mind, that what we term Caucasian
races are not of one origin: they are, on the contrary, an amalgamation
of an infinite number of primitive stocks, of different instincts,
temperaments, and mental and physical characters. Egyptians, Jews,
Arabs, Teutons, Celts, Sclavonians, Pelasgians, Romans, Iberians, etc.,
etc., are all mingled in blood; and it is impossible now to go back and
unravel this heterogeneous mixture, and say precisely what each type
originally was. Such commingling of blood, through migrations,
wars, captivities, and amalgamations, is doubtless one means by which
Providence carries out great ends. This mixed stock of many primitive
races is the only one which can really be considered cosmopolite.'
Their infinite diversity of characteristics contrasts strongly with the
immutable instincts of other human types.
How stands the ease with those races which have been less subjected
to disturbing causes, and whose moral and intellectual structure is
less complex ? The Greenlander, in his icy region, amidst poverty,
hardship, and want, clings with instinctive pertinacity to his birthplace,
in spite of all apparent temptations — the Temperate Zone,