42 Remarks on M. Bory de St- Vincent's species of Man. 



genous plants, transported to a different soil — and it will be 

 seen that varieties, as apparently wide of the original stock 

 as it is possible to conceive any of the human species to be 

 from one another, are not only introduced, but perpetuated. 

 Size, and colour, and crisp hair, upon which the chief of M. 

 Bory's distinctions are founded, have never been accounted 

 as marks sufficiently discriminating to distinguish species. 

 In the instance of the dog, how many varieties in the form of 

 the head and the curl of the hair exist among domesticated indi- 

 viduals; among plants, how many varieties are found with 

 crisp leaves, originating from accidental circumstances, but 

 still by cultivation to be continued ; and, even among the 

 human race in our own country, what a marked difference in 

 the relative proportion of the bones of the head and face, be- 

 tween the inhabitants of the hills and the valleys, — between 

 the inhabitants of the sea coast and the inland peasantry, — 

 between the natives of crowded manufacturing towns and 

 those of villages. 



But we go even farther than this, and appeal to any one capa- 

 ble of making an observation, whether there be not a still more 

 marked difference between the inhabitants of the various 

 countries of Europe — between those of France and England, 

 for example : and this difference does not consist merely in 

 the points of language or dress — but in the physical configu- 

 ration of the bones of the head and face, and general contour 

 of the whole body ; and there seems to be as much reason for 

 increasing the list of species by at least two more — the Homo 

 Bifstickius, whose native country is happy England, — and 

 the Homo GaUicus of the opposite shores — as there seems to be 

 no good one for limiting the number to fifteen, when, by 

 little exertion of thought or observation, the number might 

 have been raised to fifty. In point of fact, the varieties of 

 the human species are interminably mixed and endless ; 

 and the more the different races, in different geographical 

 positions, mix together, the more is the apparent barrier be- 

 tween them broken down, so that it is impossible to draw any 

 permanent line of distinction between the individuals of this 

 widely-diversified species. 



As to M. Bory's ideas of connection between the most de- 



