proposed species of the Genus Homo. 37 



and views of the author, and, above all, the perfect independence 

 of its execution," are, according to the narrator in the Bulle- 

 tin, the chief features of this new production ; and the sum- 

 mary sketch of it which has been published, is (to use the 

 phraseology of the same writer) " a kind of trial balloon, ,, 

 launched with the view of seeing how the wind sits for his 

 " great work." Another French philosopher, M. Virey, had 

 formerly separated the human race into two species ; * more 

 lately still, M. Desmoulins, with, it is said, a praiseworthy 

 disregard of antiquated notions, and a " freedom from all pre- 

 judices which had hitherto restrained naturalists," raised the 

 number of species to eleven ; and now M. de Bory, determin- 

 ed not to be outdone even by the very great men we have 

 named, extends the number to fifteen ! 



But before proceeding to enlighten our countrymen by the 

 characters or names of these fifteen species, we would beg 

 leave to ask M. Bory, if he has any clear idea of what is ge- 

 nerally understood among naturalists by the term species ? If 



* The most cogent reason for considering the African Negro as a dis- 

 tinct species, different from all the other inhabitants of the globe, was. 

 furnished to M. Virey, by M. Latreille, the celebrated entomologist. It 

 is — shall we say it ? — that the Louse found on the heads of negroes is 

 black, while that found on the heads of civilized Europeans is white ! 

 (See Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. vol. xv. p. 152.) But if the said Pedicularian 

 tribes be found, on investigation, to accommodate their complexion to the 

 colour of the skin on which they lodge, this argument will have little 

 weight in dooming the children of Ham to perpetual servitude as an in- 

 ferior species. It may be worth M. Virey's trouble to examine if the Pe- 

 diculus on heads in the south of France be not a brunette, compared with 

 the fat and fair fraternity on the scalps in England. But if this pedicula- 

 rian argument have any weight at all, we must go still farther ; and as 

 M. Bory seems to consider the Hottentots as the link in the chain which 

 connects man with apes, we shall put it in his power to draw the connec- 

 tion closer, by the communication of a fact from Blumenbach. That ex- 

 cellent naturalist asserts, from his own knowledge, that the human pedicu- 

 lus is also found on the Simia troglodytes, and on the Cercopithecus panis- 

 cits ! How far M. Bory may be successful in tracing the descent of some 

 of his varieties from the ancient and no doubt respectable family of the 

 Simias, we have no curiosity in learning — protesting as we do, on the part 

 of the people of England, that in this particular we dissent from conclu- 

 sions so disgusting to humanity, and so degrading to sciencv. 



