16 Introduction. | Jan. 
gists present; and the warmest defender of the poor Negro was a 
gentleman of colour, whose remarks had a moral rather than a 
scientific bearing. It is possible that there may since have been a fair 
discussion on the subject which has escaped our notice ; but be this as 
it may, there is no reason why the question should not be fully debated 
in these pages ; and it appears to us that the discussion should be based 
not upon what is “not satisfactory” in the present state of science, 
but upon its acknowledged truths. 
For ourselves, we do not hesitate to say that we completely differ 
from much that is contained in the foregoing doctrines, and that they 
appear to us to be at variance with the opinions and evidence of the 
most advanced physiologists. If the term “ species ” be unsatisfactory, 
we apprehend that its definition has not been rendered clearer by 
those who state that there is as good reason for placing the black and 
white man in distinct species, as there is for classifying the ass and 
zebra in the same manner, ignoring the question of hybridity ; but, on 
the other hand, the admission that an intercrossing of the white and 
black races has a tendency to develope the intellectual faculties of the 
latter, and elevate the Negro to the level of the white man, seems to 
us to be pretty strong evidence that both belong to the same species, 
and partake of the same nature. 
One of the local journals (which by the way reported the pro- 
ceedings of the Association in a manner that has called forth the 
admiration of the scientific world*) did not hesitate to hint broadly, 
that the gentlemen who thus sought to degrade the Negro race, were 
the tools of the Southern Confederacy, and had been enlisted as the 
champions of slavery in England. 
With regard to man’s relations to the lower animals, and his nature 
and condition prior to the historic era, the opinions of some physiolo- 
gists are becoming more and more divergent from the views hitherto 
entertained by the community ; and stepping past the most extreme 
paleontologists of our day in this respect, a new and apparently careful 
thinker does not hesitate to present himself to the scientific world, 
and declare that he believes the fossil human remains which were 
found about six years since in the Neanderthal, near Elbertfield, to 
have constituted the framework of a being endowed with no psychical 
powers beyond those which would enable it to proyide its food and 
shelter, and possessing neither intellectual nor religious attributes. 
From the consideration of the highest born creature to that of the 
“Monad,” is but a step in the unity of animal life, and the question 
* The ‘ Newcastle Chronicle.’ 4 sie 
+ See the Report of Professor King’s paper read before the British Association , 
and his article, in the present number, on the Neanderthal Man. 
