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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1868. 



Nature is no bungler in her work, and if we 

 would seek successfully into her secrets, we 'must 

 first acknowledge that which is the foundation of 

 all her laws, viz., that if she designs anything as a 

 means to an end, that end will infallibly be accom- 

 plished ; and therefore, as we find that the multitude 

 of bugs do not incite to cleanliness in the houses 

 they infest, we may reasonably infer that that was 

 not the end for which they were created. 



E. H. W. 



THE " UNITY " CONTROVERSY ENDED. 



MR. MILTON, in the introduction to his 

 last paper, professes his desire "to serve 

 the interests of truth ; " I am therefore the more 

 surprised that he should have so greatly misrepre- 

 sented my views. Doubtless Mr. Milton finds such a 

 course conduce to the eclat of his critiques ; but it 

 is as unworthy of a scientific man as are paltry 

 quibbles about questionable grammatical construc- 

 tions, which, oven if substantiated, would not invali- 

 date a single argument or disprove a single fact. I 

 will not occupy the pages of Science-Gossip with 

 a laboured exposure of Mr. Milton's logic (?), 

 or defence of my own theories ; but will point out, 

 as shortly as possible, where he has most egregiously 

 mistaken my meaning. 



I never stultified myself bydividing mankind first 

 into three, and then into two classes, in one sen- 

 tence, as he asserts ; I intimated, clearly enough, 

 that while I considered the brown races to be white 

 races becoming black, the transition took so long a 

 time to effect, that the very state of change itself 

 afforded all the necessary permanence to constitute 

 the basis of a subdivision of mankind. Mr. 

 Milton says that when I was asked,— What is to 

 be done with races neither white, brown, nor 

 black? I made no answer. This is incorrect, as 

 he will himself see on reference to the beginning of 

 my second paper. He thinks the term "extra- 

 ordinary "peculiarities " very vague ; but I used it in 

 close connexion with the words " a dark skin," &c. 

 He considers my quotation from Professor Huxley 

 "irrelevant," because it supports my views and 

 demolishes his. He denies that he ever quoted the 

 Egyptian paintings as authorities ; yet in; his first 

 essay we find the following passage: — "They (Lub- 

 bock, &c.) were puzzled to know how it happened 

 that on monuments in Egypt, which cannot be set 

 down as later than 2,400 years before Christ, the 

 Negro appears as he is seen in our day." They cer- 

 tainly appear to be cited in this extract as acknow- 

 ledged authorities. He denies that black races arc 

 generally degraded, morally, mentally, and physi- 

 cally, as I asserted ; and instances the usual half- 

 dozen Negro celebrities in support of his denial. 

 But he omits to notice the state of the Audamauers 



and Papuans, Australians, Californians, &c. And 

 surely it is negrophilism, pur et simple, to laud the 

 Negro, as he has, at the expense of the North 

 American Indian, the Persian, and Hindu ! If we 

 compare the civilization attained by the most refined 

 Negro empires, Ashanti and Haussa, it will appear 

 perfect barbarism by the side of the ancient civiliza- 

 tion of India and Persia ; while even Mexico and 

 Peru could, in ancient times, boast great sovereigns 

 and generals ; and it is very questionable whether 

 the Milton-despised " braves," Oceola and Te- 

 cumseh, did not exhibit far greater ability, as 

 national leaders, than Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose 

 temporary successes were principally due to the 

 deadly climate of Hayti. In literature the cleverest 

 Negro is nowhere when compared with the Persian 

 poets Eerdousi and Sadi — whose compositions even 

 Sir W. Jones styled "a glorious monument of 

 Eastern genius and learning " — 'and with those who 

 wrote the sacred books of the Hindus. 



But Mr. Milton's critique bears, like the 

 scorpion, its sting in its tail. He makes out that 

 if the Gipsies did not enter England till a.d. 1427, 

 as I maintained, "there is, on 'P. A. A.V own 

 showing, still ample time for the assimilation (i.e. 

 of the Gipsy and English complexions) to have 

 taken place ; and it has not taken place." Now I 

 regret to overturn this logical triumph ; but I must 

 ask, — Where does Mr. Milton find, in my essay, 

 an estimate of the time required to change the hue 

 of nations ? And if he cannot produce the estimate 

 — and I challenge him to do so— how can he found 

 an argument upon "P. A. A.'s" own showing? It 

 is true I have cited instances of nations changing 

 colour in a comparatively short space of time ; but 

 this is a very different thing from laying down a 

 law that any given nation will, irrespective of 

 habitat, external circumstances, &c., change hue 

 in a certain period. I may safely assert that I 

 never attempted to do this. Mr. Milton's grand 

 attack therefore [fails. His scorpion stings itself 

 to death, sui generis. I referred the origin of the 

 peculiarities of the Negro race to the time when 

 Africa was an island ; and if Mr. Milton will again 

 refer to a " good map," he will find that an elevation 

 of the sea-level, sufficient to flood the Sahara, would 

 also submerge the Delta of the Nile and Isthmus 

 of Suez. Then, as to light-coloured races in Africa 

 (a totally distinct question from the former), I said 

 — Unless you can prove that the light race has dwelt 

 where it is now located as long as the surrounding 

 black races, you have not the data sufficient to prove 

 that this instance forms an exception to my theory, 

 as you suggest it does. Mr. Milton thinks that, 

 according to my theory, the Negro ought to alter in 

 America. Well, has he not become robuster and 

 longer-lived ? has he not lost, as I showed in my 

 last, the capacity for resisting African diseases? 

 If in forty years he has changed so much (for the 



