THE HUMAN SPECIES. 21 



tomical and external characters, or the varying degrees 

 of development of the intellectual faculties, amount to 

 a body of facts, sufficient to come to a decision, are of 

 the utmost importance. The laws prescribed, when 

 similar questions are applied to the brute creation, we 

 contend, should be equally imperative, when relating 

 to man in his zoological aspect ; and if no better argu- 

 ment, or more decisive fact can be adduced, than that 

 axiom, which declares, that " fertile offspring consti- 

 tutes the proof of identity of species," we may be per- 

 mitted to reply, that as this maxim does not repose 

 upon unexceptionable facts, it deserves to be held 

 solely in the light of a criterion, more' convenient in 

 systematic classification than absolutely correct. So, 

 again, in forming an estimate of the antiquity of or- 

 ganic remains, in juxtaposition with those of man, 

 where the chemical and other conditions of the bones 

 are the same as those of the mammalia they are found 

 to accompany, they must be judged upon the same 

 principles. 



With the foregoing elements in view, we desire to 

 enter upon the chain of our researches, reminding the 

 young reader, that no transient facts, solitary examples, 

 or even allusions to names of tribes, legendary or 

 religious, are disposed of, without entering into further 

 details, but, from the necessity of remaining within 

 the restrictions imposed upon us by the want of space, 

 although many may be far from needing- a known 

 history, or they occur merely as fictions, taken from 

 physical realities, such as the mythologist, versed in 



