reach of human foresight. "We have already hinted at the mysterious
disappearance of many great races and nations of antiquity.
"When the inferior types of mankind shall have fulfilled their destinies
and passed away, and the superior, becoming intermingled in
. blood, have wandered from their primitive zoological provinces, and
overspread the world, what will be the ultimate result? May not
that Law of nature, which so often forbids the commingling of species,
complete its work, of destruction, and at some future day leave the
fossil remains alone of man to tell the tale of his past existence upon
* earth ?
C H A P T E R II.
GENERAL REMARKS ON TYPES OF MANKIND.
We propose to treat of Mankind, both zoologically and historically;
and, in order that we may be clearly understood, it is expedient that
we should define certain terms which will enter into frequent use as
we proceed.
TYPE.—The definition of H. Cassini, given in Jourdan’s Dietion-
naire des Termes, is adopted by us, as sufficiently precise:
“ Typical characters are those which belong only to the majority of natural bodies comprised
in any group, or to those which occupy the centre of this group, and in some sort
serve as the type of it, but presenting exceptions when it approaches its extremities, on
account of the relations and natural affinities whieh do not admit well-defined limits
between species.”
In speaking of Mankind, we regard as Types those primitive or
original forms which are independent of Climatic or other Physical
influences. All men are more or less influenced by external causes,
but these can never act with sufficient force to transform one type
into another.
SPECIES. — The following definition, by Prichard, may be .received
as one of the most lucid and complete: -^Sfe
“ The meaning attached to the term species, in natural history, is very definite and intelligible.
It includes only the following conditions: namely, separate origin and distinctness
of race, evinced by a constant transmission of some characteristic peculiarity of organization. A
race of animals or of plants marked by any peculiar character which it has constantly displayed,
is termed a ‘ species’ ; and two races are considered specifically different, if they
are distinguished from each other by some characteristic which the one cannot be supposed
to have acquired, or the other to have lost, through any known operation of physical causes;
for we are hence led to conclude, that tribes thus distinguished have not descended from
the same original stock.
“ This is the import of the word species, as it has long been understood by writers on
different departments of natural history. They agree essentially as to the sense which they
appropriate to this term, though they have expressed themselves differently, according as
they have blended more or less of hypothesis with their conceptions of its meaning.”
“ VARIETIES,” continues Prichard, “ in natural history, are such diversities in individuals
and their progeny as are observed to take place within the limits of species.
“ PERMANENT VARIETIES are those which, having once taken place, continue to be
propagated in the breed in perpetuity. The fact of their origination must be known by
observation or inference, since, the proof of this fact being defective, it is more philosophical
to consider characters which are perpetually inherited as specific or original. The term permanent
variety would otherwise express the meaning which properly belongs to species. The
properties of species are two: viz., original difference of characters, and the perpetuity of
their transmission, of which only the latter can belong to permanent varieties.
“ The instances are so many in which it is doubtful whether a particular tribe is to be
considered as a distinct species, or only as a variety of some other tribe, that it has been
found, by naturalists, convenient to have a designation applicable in either case.” 23
Dr. Morton defines species simply to be. “ a primordial organic
form.”21 He classes species, “ according to tbeir disparity or affinity,”
in the following provisional manner: —
“ REMOTE SPECIES, of the same genus, are those among which hybrids are never
produced.
“ ALLIED SPECIES produce, inter se, an infertile offspring.
“ PROXIMATE SPECIES produce, with each other, a fertile offspring.”
GROUP. — Under this term we include all those proximate races,
or specie’s, which resemble each other most closely in type, and whose
geographical distribution belongs to certain zoological provinces; for
exainple, the aboriginal American, the Mongol, the Malay, the Negro,
the Polynesian groups, and so forth.
It will he seen, by comparison of our definitions, that we recognize
no substantial difference between the terms types and species—permanence
of characteristics belonging equally to both. The horse, the ass,
the zebra, and the quagga, are distinct species and distinct types: and
so with the Jew, the Teuton, the Sclavonian, the Mongol, the Australian,
the coast bTegro, the Hottentot, &c.; and no physical causes known
to have existed during our geological epoch could have transformed
one of these types or species into another. A type, then, being a pristine
or primordial form, all idea of common origin for any two is excluded,
otherwise every landmark of natural history would be broken down.
It has been sagaciously remarked by Bodichon: —
“ That when a people writes its history, time, and often space, have placed them very
far from their origin. It is then composed of diverse elements, and its national traditions
are altered: there happens to it that which occurs to the man who has arrived at adult
age—the remembrance of his early years has seized upon his imagination more than upon
his mind, and incites him to cast over his cradle a coloring, brilliant, but deceptive. Thus
some pretend they are descended from Abraham, others from AEneas, some from Japhet,
some from stones thrown by Deucalion and Psyche: the greatest number from some god
or demigod — Pluto, Hercules, Odin.” 26
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