THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1874. 



:n'atueal histoky of mae". 



By a. DE QUATREFAGES. 



tea n slated by eliza a. you mans. 



Y. — Intellectual Characters. 



&ENTLEMEX: I resume my discourse for the fifth time on the 

 same subject. You have already, on four different occasions, 

 studied man ; and, again, man is the subject of this lecture. 



On the preceding occasions I ran over some of the general ques- 

 tions that arise concerning the history of the human race. Depending 

 always and exclusively upon science, I have shown that this sj^ecies is 

 unique ; that all men are of the same species ; and that, in conse- 

 quence of this fact, they ought to regard each other as brothers, what- 

 ever the color of the skin, whatever language they speak, whatever 

 country they inhabit. 



This species at first occupied a very limited part of the globe. It 

 spread all over the globe at an earlier epoch than was formerly be- 

 lieved ; more recent researches have demonstrated that man existed in 

 France along with the hyena, the elephant, the rhinoceros — that is to 

 say, along with animals seen, in our day, only in distant countries. 



As man appeared at first on a restricted point of the globe, and is 

 found to-day everywhere, it is evident that he has traveled in all 

 directions from his centre of creation^ and peopled the earth by migra- 

 tion much as do the Europeans at the present time. These journey- 

 ings have exposed him to all the influences which can be encountered 

 on the surface of our planet, and he has become acclimated every- 

 where as we see him to-day. 



In the study of general questions relative to the history of our 

 species, we had to ask what was the origin of man. 



On this point I have been obliged to confess the insufficiency of 

 actual knowledge. But, if I was not able to sav whence man came, I 



