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species ; for instance, who shall dare to decide between the 

 Asiatic Buffalo, the European Aurochs, and Cuvier's extinct 

 species, as the undoubted wild original of the varieties of our cat- 

 tle ? Whence the necessity of reducing all varieties to a single 

 stock, endowed with great powers of variation, especially when 

 there are several wild species each equally entitled to be consid- 

 ered the original ? It seems to me that the simplest view of the 

 case is the best, viz : that these varieties are the result of the 

 mingling of many species, guided by the wants or caprices of man. 

 In other words, I believe that no one wild original can lay claim 

 to the origination of the varieties of our cattle, of our sheep, of 

 our goats, of our dogs, of our barn-yard fowls — and, to carry the 

 opinion to the legitimate consequences, that no one species of 

 Man can lay claim to the paternity of all the human varieties. 



The reasons for this opinion have been often stated to the 

 Society, and need not be repeated here ; some new observations 

 will only be added in confirmation. And yet, with this belief in 

 the diversity of origin of our domesticated animals and the hu- 

 man races, it seems to me that Hyhridity is a true test of specific 

 difference. It is an axiom with some, that different species will 

 not produce fertile offspring, and hence, to them, the fact of the 

 production of such offspring proves that the parents belong to 

 the same species. On the contrary, Dr. Morton makes different 

 degrees of Hybridity, the offspring being more prolific according 

 to the nearness of the species ; thus making Hybridity no test 

 of specific difference. Of these two opposite opinions I prefer 

 the first. By a flybrld race, I do not understand an offspring 

 prolific for a few generations, and then gradually dying out, or 

 feebly supported by crossing with the original stocks, — but a race 

 capable of propagating itself, without deterioration, or without 

 any assistance from either uf the parent stocks. Such a race, I 

 maintain, the world has never seen, and never will see, under the 

 present laws of animated nature. You may take any part of the 

 animal scale, from a barn-yard monster to a Mulatto, and the 

 fact is the same — they cannot hold their own; they must and 

 do return to one or the other of the primitive stocks, or must die 

 out, unless crossed by the pure originating blood. 



The subject which suggested these remarks is the sterility and 



