11^ Comparathe View of 



quivocally black skin." He shews, also, by numerous autho- 

 rities, that " climate exerts a subordinate agency in producing 

 these diversified hues." The tribes which wander along the 

 burning plains of the equinoctial region, have no darker skins 

 than the mountaineers of the temperate zone. " Again, the 

 Puelches, and other inhabitants of the Magellanic region, be- 

 yond the 55th degree of south latitude, are absolutely darker 

 than the Abipones, Macobios, and Tobas, who are many de- 

 grees nearer the equator. While the Botocudys are of a clear 

 brown colour, and sometimes nearly white, at no great dis- 

 tance from the tropic ; and, moreover, while the Guyacas, 

 under the line, are characterized by a fair complexion, the 

 Charruas, who are almost black, inhabit the 50th degree of 

 south latitude ; and the yet blacker Californians are 25 de- 

 grees north of the equator." " After all," he adds, " these 

 differences in complexion are extremely partial, forming mere 

 exceptions to the primitive and national tint that character- 

 izes these people from Cape Horn to the Canadas. The cause 

 of these anomalies is not readily explained ; that it is not cli- 

 mate, is sufficiently obvious ; and whether it arises from par- 

 tial immigrations from other countries, remains yet to be de- 

 cided." 



Bufibn defines species — " A succession of similar individuals 

 which reproduce each other." Cuvier also defines species — 

 " The union of individuals descended from each other or from 

 common parents, and of those who resemble them as much as 

 they resemble each other." " The apparent differences of the 

 races of our domestic species,*' says Cuvier, " are stronger 

 than those of any species of the same genus." " The fact of 

 the succession, therefore, and of the constant succession, con- 

 stitutes alone the unity of the species.'^ Flourens, who cites 

 these definitions, concludes that " unity, absolute unity, of the 

 human species, and variety of its races, as a final result, is the 

 general and certain conclusion of all the facts acquired con- 

 cerning the natural history of man r''^ 



Dr Morton, while he assumes the unity of the species, con- 

 ceives that " each race was adapted from the beginning (by 

 an all-wise Providence) to its peculiar local destination. In 



* Flourens's article before cited, and the Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 358, October 1839. 



