PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF RACES. 545 



men, the world over, is about 5 feet 3 inches. But this mean, like that 

 given above, results from very numerous and very diverse heights. 

 If in thought we place all men in one line according to their height, it 

 is easy to see that we should obtain a series in which the difference 

 from one to the next will not be, perhaps, the j^g-g-th of an inch. 



But this is not all. In this graduated series, the men of the same 

 race will be far from being placed together. There will be in this re- 

 spect the strangest mixture. All the Patagonians are not nearly 6 

 feet 3 inches in height, nor all the Bushmen as short as 3 feet 10^ 

 inches. Among our cuirassiers and the hundred guards of the em- 

 peror many individuals would be found with the first ; the Lapps of 

 the north of Europe and the Mincopees of the isles of Andaman in the 

 Gulf of Bengal would mix with the second. 



Now, in no other kind of animal, with numerous species and of 

 limited growth, is there any thing parallel. The domestic races alone 

 present something like its analogue. So that, by themselves, these 

 considerations drawn from the height furnish excellent proof of the 

 unity of the human species. 



The study of proportions would show us like facts and conduct to 

 similar conclusions. But I leave considerations of this kind, to pass to 

 other characters almost as striking as those of height. I wish to 

 speak of those drawn from the complexion, and first of all from the 

 color of the skin. The general coloration of the body is a well-defined 

 character ; but we need not exaggerate its value. 



If you observe several portraits representing individuals of the 

 white race, you may see that their tint is sometimes as dark as that 

 of the Guinea negro. In the portrait of Rammohun-Roy, the cele- 

 brated Bramin reformer, the fineness and regularity of his profile at- 

 test that he is of the purest Aryan blood, and his color is that of a 

 negro just a little blanched. Again, there are Abyssinians whose 

 features recall the fine Semitic type, and yet few negroes surpass them 

 in blackness. So all black men are not negroes. Reciprocally, Liv- 

 ingstone has found in the centre of Africa negroes of the color of cafe 

 au lait. 



The color of the human race varies from white, such as is seen in 

 Dutch and Danish women, to violet or yellow, to yellow-citron or 

 smoke, to copper-red or brick. By appealing to your recollections, you 

 can establish a series passing from light to dark by insensible shades 

 such as could scarcely be reproduced upon the palette of a painter. 



Recollect that some of these extremes of color are frequent among 

 domestic animals, and are sometimes much greater. With black hens, 

 it is not the skin alone that is colored. All the great interior mem- 

 branes, the sheaths of the muscles, the aponeuroses, as well as the flesh 

 of the wings, present an aspect very little appetizing. So it is sought 

 to weed them out of the poultry-yard ; and still in certain parts of the; 

 globe they are constantly produced and would evidently soon become 

 vol. n. 35 



