1850.] 



31 



Dr. Morton said analogical reasoning, based upon the known changes which 

 occur among the lower animals, would lead us into error if applied to Man. For 

 instance, the Reindeer of Lapland do not change in the slightest particular after 

 long domestication. The Peacock, also, has not varied during thousands of 

 years, unless some few tints originally perfectly blue may have become green- 

 ish. Other instances of this kind might be enumerated. 



Again, some animals in a very short time, in two or three generations, become 

 entirely changed in color, as the Guinea pig and the turkey. Sometimes even 

 the anatomical structure undergoes material changes under the influence of do- 

 mestication ; for instance, in the common pigeon, {Columba livia,) the sheep and 

 the dog. He particularly directed attention to the fact that some animals in the 

 u<ild state undergo remarkable changes ; the Black squirrel and the Red squirrel 

 for instance, while some other species of the same genus are unchangeable. 



Some animals are not less remarkable for being liable to change than others 

 are remarkable for resisting every impression from vicissitude or difference of 

 climate and other causes. For instance the Bengal tiger, Felis Tigris, is pre- 

 cisely the same in every tint, whether inhabiting the frozen shores of Lake 

 Baikal in'Siberia, or the jungle of Ceylon. The greatest extremes of climate 

 appear alike congenial to this animal. 



In the north western province of Delhi, Bishop Heber saw a shaggy Elephant; 

 and he states that in the course of one or two winters, dogs brought from Europe 

 become woolly in that region, and even horses undergo a similar change ; but 

 this tendency does not extend to the human race, for the inhabitants are remarka- 

 ble for the length and straightness of their hair. 



Dr. Morton also adverted to the fact that the wool of sheep becomes long and 

 hairy in Guinea, where human hair is naturally woolly. 



From these and many other facts he inferred that causes which produce changes 

 in the lower animals cannot change man. 



Differences in modes of life have been considered productive of changes in man. 

 But if we examine the aborigines of America, from Canada to Terra del Fuego, we 

 seek in vain for a woolly head ; men are found with skins lighter or darker in 

 color, but all are Indians in every characteristic, and this throughout a range of 

 10,000 miles. He questions whether any one ever saw a true Indian who could 

 be mistaken for a being of any other race. 



In Europe we trace families through many generations, either living in the 

 extremes of affluence or of misery, yet never does one race merge into another 

 nor does a new race rise up among them. 



Mr. W. B. Hodgson, Consul of the United States at Algiers, states there is a tribe 



of white men supposed to be derived from the lost tribes of Israel, now existing in 



the heart of the Negro territory ; yet they have acquired no negro peculiarity, 



but are remarkable for all the characteristics of the white race skin, hair and 



form. This is one of many similar examples. 



Again ; how does it happen that no Negro has ever been born as an accidental 

 variety, among the Caucasian, Mongolian or other races ? 



It is vain to seek for the origin of Negro races in morbid change. No morbid 

 change tends to perpetuity, but, on the contrary, it wears out sooner or later. 



Dr. Morton conceives that there is a constant tendency in nature to restore and 

 preserve a primitive type. A black man and white woman, or a black woman 



