(J2 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



It is admitted by Dr. Bachman, that every species of animal and plant has its 

 central birth-place, from which it spreads to certain limits, where it ceases to exist, 

 unless removed to other localities by artificial means. 



It is also claimed that the native plants, animals, and insects of America, are all 

 of species distinct from those of the other hemisphere, except where the continents 

 approach one another at the north ; and the constitutional adaptation of man to 

 every part of the world is attributed to superiority of organization. 1 



If naturalists shall be found to agree in considering the zoology and botany of 

 America as distinct from those of all other countries, and indigenous to the soil, a 

 branch of archaeological" inquiry, originally deemed a troublesome one, will be dis- 

 posed of, viz : that relating to the manner in which the inferior orders of creation 

 reached this continent. 



Dr. Bachman still pursues the discussion with unwearied industry. In addition 

 to articles in the Charleston Medical Journal, he has lately printed an examination 

 of the theories in natural history of Professor Agassiz, and has announced that he 

 is preparing for publication, a work on the skulls, the general anatomy, the color 

 of the skin, and the nature of the hair of the varieties that compose the human 

 family. 2 



Dr. Smyth's work may, in some respects, be regarded as an appendix to that of 

 Dr. Bachman, on which it leans for many of its arguments and illustrations, and 

 whose conclusions it follows in reference to the sources of American population. 



The influence of the American climate in modifying the physical character of 

 its inhabitants is a point of considerable importance in estimating the possible 

 sources of their origin. One of the most celebrated ethnological treatises which 

 this country has produced, that of President Smith, of Princeton College, was 

 based upon the doctrine of climatic influences. Although adopting the prevalent 

 opinion that the Malays, or Tartars, colonized America, and founded the semi- 

 civilized empires existing at the time of the discovery by Columbus, this author 

 believed it could be shown that a change had already begun to take place in the 

 Anglo-Saxon and other European inhabitants, both in complexion and feature; 

 and that, in the Southern States at least, if the people were thrown like the 

 Indians into a state of absolute " savageism," they would, in no great length, of 

 time, be perfectly marked with the same complexion. 3 



This supposition better accords with the views of Blumenbach, Buffon, and Zim- 

 merman, than with those of most phyisologists of a later date. Lawrence and Pri- 

 chard agree in deciding that the effects of climate and of habits of life, &c, are not 

 transmitted from parent to child; 4 and President Smith's general theory has not 



1 Doctrine of the Unity of the Unman Species, pp. 250, 2G6. 

 3 Charleston Med. Journ. of July, 1855. 



3 Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species, &c. By 

 Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D. Edinb., 1188. 



4 " In all changes which are produced in the bodies of animals by the action of external causes, the 

 effect terminates in the individual ; the offspring is not in the slightest degree modified by them.'' — 

 Lawrence's Lectures, p. 436. 



' Nothing," ?n_vs Dr. Priehard, ; seems to hold true more generally than that all acquired conditions 



