a New Zealander,—or between a Botocudo and a Tasmanian, a Mant-
chou Tartar, a Lapp, a Bechouana, or perchance a Kelt ? In every
one of these imaginary, and, anciently, geographicajly-impossible
unions, each fecund act of coition could produce but a “ half-breed
intermediate, that is, between any two races. One feels ashamed,
now that transformation of one “ species 1 j of animal into another
through the exploded power of metamorphosis, in former, days of
ignorance attributed to. climate, is rejected, as contrary to experience,
by all living naturalists (even the theological)—one really blushes to
descend to such common-plaee methods of illustration ; but the necessity
is imperious in view of the amount of perversion and mediæval
credulity still passing currently as regards the study of Man.
And when B l umen bach 119 and Ism. G-eoffroy S t. H il a ir e ,1*1 B ur-
d ach131 and L ucas, 123 B ér ar d 123 and G iro u d e B u zar e ing u es,™
■Wa lk er 135 and C h e v r e u il ,136 F lo u r en s137 and M orton, 126 V ogt™
and P r ia u l x , 130 pile up instances (among mammifera alone),
whereby the so-called laws of “ species,”, and often too of ^ genera,”
are set at naught by contradictory facts, is it not folly in ethnologists
to go on wasting their time about the. encyclopsèdic meaning of an
Anglicized foreign bisyllable, which every true naturalist of the present
day is forced to qualify with explanatory adjectives, according
to his individual acceptation of its sense ? : Voltaire pithily remarks
—“ Ce qu’on peut expliquer de vingt manières différentes ne mérite
d’être expliqué d’aucune:” — and for myself, I have long ago discarded
its use in ethnography,—substituting “ Type” when I intend
to designate men whose physical appearance stands in strongest contrast
to that of others (ex. gr. Swedes and Negritos, Chaymas and
Georgians, Kourilians and Mandaras, Taitians and Yakuts); or
“ Race ” where the distinction is not so strongly'characterized (as
HpMlj between Italians and Greeks, Jews and Arabs, Malgaches and Ma-
119 De Generis Humant varietate nativa, 1781 ; pp. 7-11.
120 Histoire générale et particulière des Anomalies de V Organisation. Paris, 1832 ; i. pp. 221-6.
121 Traité de Physiologie, trad. Jour dan, Paris; 2d vol. 1838, pp. 182-5, 261-70.
122 Traité philosophique et physiologique de V Hérédité Naturelle, Paris, 1847; i. pp. 193-209;
. ii. pp. 177-329,
123 Cours de Physiologie, Paris, 1850-55.
12i De la Génération, Paris, 8vo., 1828; pp. 124—132, 307—8.
125 On Intermarriage, London, 8vo! 1838 ;—and Physiognomy founded on Physiology, 1834.
■ 126 J rùrnal des Savants, Juin, 1846 ;' p. 357.
127 De la Longévité Humaine, Paris, 1855 ; pp. 106-161.
126 N o t t , in Types of Mankind, chap. xii. and p . 724, notes, cites ail important papers of
Dr. Morton.
129 C a r l V o g t , Hohlerglaube und Wissenschaft, Wiessen, 1855 ; p p . 59-67.
159 O sm o n d d e B e a u v o i r P r ia u l x , Quoestiories Mosaicoe, London, 1842—on “ breeding in
and in,” pp. 471-88.
lays);131 but in no case do I affirm by employment of such terms,
whilst in most eases doubting, with the illustrious Humboldts, the
common pedigree of any two of such typeSj, or races, back to a mythic
single pair called “Adam and Eve.”'.
“ Hence, then, I accept Marcel de Serres’s rule, disputing only
the accuracy of the facts through which he would endeavor to eliminate
mankind from its action—'“ generation ought, it seems, to be
considered as the type of species, and the only foundation upon which
it can be established in a certain and rational manner:”-132 guarding
it with the language of the learned Colonel Hamilton Smith,133 viz :
that, “ if no better argument, or more decisive fact can be adduced,
than that axiom which' declares, that ‘fertile offspring constitute the
proof of identity of species,’ we may be permitted to reply, that as
this maxim does not repoep upon unexceptionable facts, it deserves
to be held solely in the light of a criterion, more convenient in syste-
matic classification than absolutely cowed.”
Should these views meet with favor among fellow-students in the
Mortonian school of ethnology, it will become (save and except for
their always meritorious collection of facts) almost a work of supererogation
to inquire what individual of former sustainers of the
“ unity of the human species” deserves to be classified under the
letter B.
Thus Camper,134 Lacepède,135 Lesson,136 or Griffith,137—each a master
m mammalogy, without reference to their copyists innumerable,
—are maintamers of human unity of species on zoological grounds ;
as are likewise Walchnaér,138 Haller,138 Pitta,140 Wagner,141 Bakker,142
M M B i a h o h a b d , in D u m o u t i e r ’s Anthropologie-, Paris, 1854, pp. 18-9.
Essai sur les Cavernes à Ossements, Paris, 8vo., 3d éd., 1838 ; pp. 234, 268, 398.
atural ■History of the Human Species ; Edinburgh, 12mo., 1848 ; p. 21 ¡—compare D e s -
i I I m P P ™ Sumaines’ PP- 194-7). t o certain limits of this lav of generation.
OEuvres de Pierre Camper qui ont pour objet l'Histoire naturelle, la Physiologie et VAna-
. tomze comparée, Paris,.8vo,, 1803; ii. p. 453.
125 Histoire Naturelle de F Homme, Paris, 18mo., 1821 ; p. 183.
^ n ,v f e!>ParlS’ 1826’ it0 ' ’ *' P' 34-111 DmsEEEEY, Voy. de la Coquille, 1822-5: also,
■ - • Hace* in Complément des OEuvres de Buffon, Paris, 1828 ; i. p. 44.
ranslatmn of C u v i e r ’s Animal Kingdom, London, 4to., 1827; i. Introd. p. xi. ; and
„ Supplemental History of Man,” p. 178, seq.
138 Essai sur l’histoire d e l Espèce humaine, Paris, 8vo., 1798, p. 1 0 ;—and Cosmologie, ou
m J~ escriPUon générale delà Terre, Paris, 8vo. 1816; pp. 159-61.
1(l0 m' Physiol., p. vii. lib. xxviii. § xxii.
Agence of Climate on the Human Species and on the varieties of Man arising from it, Lon-
uon, ovo., 1812; p. 16.
iCp te S 2 S -m SChm HandhUCh der P°Pul™ anthropologie, Hempten, 8vo.,
9 ^ Z r T n T h! edkUndi9 Onderzoek nangaande dm Oorspronkenlijken slam van het Mm-
schelijk Oesiacht, Haarlem, 8vo., 1810, p. 176.