514 THE ADVE>;T Oi MAN IN AMEKICA. 



otherwise with the science that is occui)ied. concerning the distribu- 

 tion of animals and plants over the surface of the globe. The 

 geography of organized beings has its general laws. ^Ailich it is neces- 

 sary we should know and interrogate if Ave would solve the problem of 

 the peopling of the world. 



The first result of this study is to show that true cosmopolitism — as 

 attributed to man — does not any where exist either in the animal or in 

 the vegetable kingdom. In support of this proposition it is proposed 

 to cite some testimony. On the subject of the vegetable kingdom, 

 Candolle says: "Xo phanerogamous j)lant extends over the whole sur- 

 face of the earth. There are not more than eighteen of these plants 

 which extend over an area equal to half the earth, and no tree or shrub 

 is among those j)lauts wliich has the greatest extension." 



In my lectures upon tliis subject, I have cited the best scientific au- 

 thorities respecting the principal groups of marine animals, either of 

 salt or fresh w^ater. I have reviewed the fauna of the air, beginning 

 with the insects, and I have dwelt to some extent on fishes and rep- 

 tiles. Omitting all the rest of the birds I notice the Peregrine falcon, 

 the area of whose habitat is the most extended, occui:>ying, as it does, 

 all the temperate and warm regions of the Old and New World, but 

 does not reach the Arctic regions or Polynesia. 



Anatomatically and physiologically, Man is a mammal, nothing- 

 more, nothing less. This class interests us more than the preceding, 

 and furnishes us with knowledge more precise. Permit me, then, to 

 enter upon certain details, taking for my guide the great work of 

 Andrew Murray, which became (Classic upon its appearance. By 

 reason of their streugtli, their great power of locomotion, and by the 

 expanse and continuity of the seas which they inhabit, the Cetaceans 

 would seem to have both the greatest capacity and opportunity to 

 become cosmopolitan, but such is not the case. Each species is 

 restricted to an areamoreor less extended, from which afew individuals 

 occasionally make excursions, but always soon return to their proper 

 limit. Two exceptions hav^e been claimed to this general rule. A 

 Rorqual, with large flippers [the ''humi)back"j, and a boreal Bahenop- 

 tera ['^ finback" whale], natives of temperate and frigid seas, have been 

 found, the first at tlie Cape of G-ood Hope, the second at Java. But 

 even these are said by Van Beneden and (iervais, the two greatest 

 authorities on Cetology, to be at least doubtful; but accepting tljem 

 as true, it yet remains that neither species has ever been found in the 

 seas that border America or Polynesia. Among other animals thnn 

 the Cetaceans, there is nothing to be found approaching even a 

 narrow cosmopolitism. Here again I am to spare you details. It 

 is familiar to all, that Edentat(^s nnd I'achyderms have their respective 

 countries clearly defined, and if the horse and the hog are to-day in 

 America, it is because they were imported by Euroj)eans. 



The number of Ruminants Avhich inhabit the north of the two con- 



