THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 73 



tions, since the European spread over all parts of the world. Well, we 

 estimate that already one-seventieth of the total population of the 

 globe are mixtures, resulting from the cross of the whites with indige 

 nous peoples. 



In certain states of South America where the mixture began earlier 

 where the European arrived in the first days of discovery, a quarter of 

 the population is composed of cross-breeds, and in some regions the 

 proportion is more than half. 



You see, our experience is to-day as complete as possible. Unless 

 we deny all modern science, unless we would make man a solitary ex- 

 ception in the midst of organic and living beings, we must admit that 

 all men form only one and the same species, composed of a certain 

 number of different races ; we must, therefore, admit that all men may 

 be considered as descended from a single primitive pair. 



You see, gentlemen, we have reached this conclusion, outside of all 

 6pecies of dogmatic or theological consideration, outside of all species 

 of philosophical or metaphysical consideration. Observation and ex- 

 periment alone, applied to the animal and vegetable kingdom, science, in 

 a word, leads us logically to this conclusion : there exists but one spe- 

 cies of men. 



This result, I do not fear to say, is of great and serious importance, 

 for it gives to the thought of universal brotherhood the only founda- 

 tion that many people now recognize, that of science and reason. 



I hope, gentlemen, that my demonstration has convinced you. 

 However, I am not unaware of the fact, and you doubtless also know, 

 that all anthropologists are not agreed. There are among my fellow- 

 laborers a certain number of men, even of great men, who believe in 

 the plurality of the human species. Perhaps you may have come in 

 contact with them. Well, listen, then, with attention to the reasons 

 they bring in support of their view. You easily see that all these 

 reasons may be summed up in this : There is too much difference be- 

 tween the negro and the white man to permit them to belong to the 

 same species. 



Then you reply : Between the white or black water-spaniel and the 

 greyhound, between the bull-dog and the lapdog, there is much more 

 difference than between the European and the inhabitant of Africa, 

 and yet the greyhound and the water-spaniel, the bull-dog and the lap- 

 dog, are equally dogs. 



They will perhaps add : How could the same primitive man, what- 

 ever his characters might be, give birth to the white man and the 

 negro ? 



You will answer : How has the wild-turkey, of which we know the 

 origin, of which we know the grandparents, how has the wild-rabbit, 

 which we find still among us, how have they been able to give birth 

 to all our domestic' races ? 



We cannot, I repeat, explain rigorously the how and the why; but 



