On the UnUy of the Human Species. 27 



facts under their ej'es daily, will profit by the advantage of 

 their position, and enlighten us on a point so important in the 

 history of humanity. 



When we compare at once, and witliout any intermediate 

 series, the skin of the white man with that of the black or 

 the red man, we are tempted to assign a distinct origin to 

 each of these races ; but if we pass from the white man to 

 the black or the red, through all the intermediate varieties, 

 it is no longer the difference, but the analogy, which strikes 

 us. 



The researches of which we have given an outline are far 

 from being entirely new, but they lose nothing on that ac- 

 count of their merit and importance. In fact Aristotle, that 

 great genius of ancient times, had stated, long before Cam- 

 per, that the black colour of the skin in Negroes and Moors, 

 was probably produced by the rays of the sun. This opinion, 

 erroneous though it be, does much less violence to the truth, 

 than the idea adopted by Pliny, on the authority of ancient 

 writers. This naturalist mentions, as a certain fact, that 

 the waters of a river in Thessaly had the property of stain- 

 ing the skin of men and animals black, and making the hair 

 frizzle. Thus, according to him, the pai'ticular characters of 

 certain human races had their origin in a circumstance, a 

 belief in which nothing could authorize. 



Such absurd or imperfect notions are widely removed from 

 the present state of science ; but we may perceive in them the 

 germ of this essential fact, that the colouring matter exists 

 more or less in all the races, and that external agents can 

 render it more or less apparent. 



The comparative anatomy of the skin affords, then, by the 

 complete and universally prevailing analogy in the structure 

 of this organ, a direct proof of the common origin of the hu- 

 man races, and of their primitive unity. 



Thus, the European, with his gi'aceful and elegant forms ; 

 the Negi'o, characterised at once by the colour of his skin 

 and the peculiar contour of his head ; the American Indian, 

 with a red skin and herculean form ; and, lastly, the Chinese, 

 with a yellow tint and oblique eyes ; are all derived from the 

 same stock, and form a single chain, of which Adam consti- 

 futed the first link. 



