yco THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



forms a kingdom to itself." Concerning his attitude on this and kin- 

 dred subjects, Mr. W. L. Distant remarks, in " Nature," that " it is to 

 be noted how such an eminent naturalist as our author is still opposed 

 to Darwinism, which in this section receives copious treatment, and 

 some of the grounds principally given for its rejection are to many- 

 minds who embrace it the reasons of their faith." In treating of the 

 psychological characteristics of the human species, M. de Quatrefages 

 combats some of the views advanced by Sir John Lubbock, and criti- 

 cises the common disposition to regard all sense of honesty as absent 

 in certain races, as assuming too much on insufficient data. He says, 

 on this point : " Nothing is more common than to hear travelers ac- 

 cuse entire races of an incorrigible propensity for theft. The insular 

 populations of the South Seas have, among others, been reproached 

 with it. These people, it is indignantly affirmed, stole even the nails 

 of the ships ! But these nails were iron, and in these islands, which 

 are devoid of metal, a little iron was, with good cause, regarded as a 

 treasure. Now, I ask any of my readers, supposing a ship with sheaths 

 ing and bolts of gold, and nails of diamonds and rubies, were to sail 

 into any European port, would its sheathing or its nails be safe ? " In 

 a paper on " The Crossing of the Human Races," which was published 

 in " The Popular Science Monthly " for June, 1880, M. de Quatrefages 

 took distinct ground, in opposition to the views of most of his fellow- 

 anthropologists, that mixture of stocks, where the environment is 

 favorable to its full operation and development, is for good. But he 

 bears in mind that " the aggregation of physical conditions does not in 

 itself alone constitute the environment. Social and moral condition- 

 have an equal part in it." If real marriages take place between the 

 races, he adds, and their offspring are placed upon a footing of equal- 

 ity with the mass of the population, "they are quite able to reach 

 the general level, and sometimes to display superior qualities. All of 

 my studies on this question have brought me to the conclusion that 

 the mixture of races has in the past had a great part in the constitution 

 of a large number of actual populations. It is also clear to me that 

 its part in the future will not be less considerable. . . . The people 

 of mixed blood already constitute a considerable part of the population 

 of certain states, and their number is large enough to entitle them to 

 be taken notice of in the population of the whole world." He con- 

 cludes this paper with the obervation that the facts cited in it show 

 that man is everywhere the same, and that his passions and instincts 

 are independent of the differences that distinguish the human groups. 

 Other works of M. de Quatrefages are : " Comparative Physiology ; 

 Metamorphoses of Man and Animals" (186r2) ; " The Polynesians and 

 their Migrations " (1860) ; " Report on the Progress of Anthro- 

 pology " (1867) ; " Darwin and his French Precursors " (1870) ; " The 

 Prussian Race " (1871) ; and " Crania Ethnica," an important work 

 prepared by him in connection with ]\[. Hamy. 



