XIV NOTES BY THE EDITORS 



At the Charleston meeting of the American Association, the question of 

 the unity of the human race was brought up, and has since received con- 

 siderable attention. The investigations of Prof. Agassiz have led him to 

 the following conclusion as expressed to the Association. As a general 

 proposition, he would side with those who maintain the doctrine of the 

 unity of the race, if by the unity of the race be meant nothing more than 

 that all mankind were endowed with one common nature, intellectual and 

 physical, derived from the Creator of all men, were under the same moral 

 government of the universe, sustained similar relations to the Deity, and 

 were alike appointed to retribution and immortality beyond the grave. It 

 was quite a different question, whether the different races were derived 

 from the same common human ancestors. For his own part, after giving 

 to this question much consideration, he was ready to maintain that the dif- 

 ferent races of men were descended from different stocks, and he regarded 

 this position as fully sustained by Divine revelation. The Jewish history 

 was the history, not of diverse races, but of a single race of mankind ; but 

 the existence of other races was often incidentally alluded to, and dis- 

 tinctly implied, if not absolutely asserted, in the sacred volume. 



An able work in opposition to the above views has been published dur- 

 ing the past year, by Dr. Bachinan, of Charleston, and numerous essays 

 of considerable merit have also appeared on the same side. On the other 

 hand, some productions have been published, which it would have been 

 better both for the credit of the authors and the liberality of the age had 

 they remained in oblivion. The question, it appears to us, is wholly a 

 scientific one, and must be met as such. The results of investigations as 

 yet unpublished and unknown to the public are, in our opinion, stronger 

 in support of Prof. Agassiz's views than any yet brought forward, but 

 whether conclusive or not the public will have an opportunity of deciding. 

 The recent researches of Prof. Owen, Dr. Neil, and Mr. P. A. Browne of 

 Philadelphia, tend incidentally to the same end. 



Besides the foundation which has bsen already laid by the Smithsonian 

 Institution for an extensive collection of philosophical and chemical appa- 

 ratus, and for a museum, several other institutions and societies in this 

 country have within a recent period added greatly to their collections. A 

 valuable donation of casts of Himalaya fossils has been made to the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, from the English East India Company. 

 This collection is peculiarly rich in Pachydermata. especially mastodons and 

 elephants, and will add a number to the species of both these genera. A 

 museum of natural history has been founded at Charleston, S. C., and from 

 the extensive donations already made to it by Messrs. Holmes, Tuomey, 

 Bachman, Ravenel, and others, bids fair to become one of the most ex- 

 tensive in the United States. The extensive collections of Prof. Agassiz 

 have also been placed in the Lawrence Scientific School, at Cambridge. 

 This collection in some respects is the most complete in existence, and in 



