TEE UNITY OF TEE EUMAN SPECIES. 65 



Look at the drawings I have hung at the bottom of the hall. 

 These figures are part of those I employ in the course at the Jardin 

 des Plantes. 



I have brought but a small number, but they suffice to give an 

 idea of the principal varieties which the human type presents. You 

 have here individuals taken from nearly every part of the world ; 

 and this I regard as a very important point. You see that they differ 

 considerably fi - om each other in color, often also in hair, sometimes in 

 proportions, sometimes in features. 



Well, our question is, whether the differences presented by the 

 human groups from which these designs were taken are differences 

 of species, or if they indicate only differences among races that belong 

 to one and the same species. 



To answer this question, we must begin by getting a clear idea of 

 what is meant by the words species and race. In fact, the whole dis- 

 cussion turns on these two words. 



Unhappily, they have been often taken one for the other, or else 

 they have been badly defined. The discussions which have hence 

 arisen would very quickly cease, if we would study them a little more 

 closely. 



Let us see if we cannot get precise ideas without going into details 

 impossible here. 



Certainly none of you would ever confound an ass with a horse : 

 not even when a horse is small, and there are horses no larger than a 

 Newfoundland dog ; nor when an ass attains the size of an ordinary 

 horse, as, for example, our large asses of Poitou. You say imme- 

 diately, they are different species : here is a big ass and a little horse. 

 And you say the same on seeing, side by side, a dog and a wolf. 



On the other hand, all of you here would give the single name of 

 dog to animals which differ from each other, as do the bull-dog and 

 water-spaniel, the greyhound and the lapdog, the Newfoundland dog 

 and the King-Charles ; and you are right. 



However, judging by sight alone, even after detailed observation, 

 you see, between the dogs I have just named, differences of size, of 

 proportion, of color, much greater than those which separate the horse 

 from the ass. An ass and a horse of the same size certainly resemble 

 each other much more than the types of dog I have just named. 



Further, if you place side by side a black and a white water- 

 spaniel, you will not designate them bv different names. You will 

 call them both water-spaniels, although one is black and the other 

 white. 



In the case of vegetables you do exactly the same thing. A red 

 rose and a white rose are equally roses ; a pear is always a pear, 

 whether you buy two for a sous in the street, or pay three francs at 

 Chevet. 



Well, without doubt, your decision is exactly like that of the 

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