THE HUMAN SPECIES. 125 



SPECIES OR TYPICAL FORMS OF MAN. 



WHETHER we take the three typical forms in the light 

 of distinct species, or view them simply as varieties of 

 one aboriginal pair, there appear, immediately, two 

 others intermediate between them, possessing the modi- 

 fied combination of characters of two of the foregoing, 

 sufficiently remote from both to seem deserving, like- 

 wise, the denomination of species, or at least of normal 

 varieties, if it were not, that the same difficulty ob- 

 trudes itself between every succeeding intermediate 

 aberrance. Hence, from the time of Linnaeus, who 

 first ventured to place Man in the class Mammalia, 

 systematists have selected various diagnoses for sepa- 

 rating the different types or varieties of the human 

 family ; such as, the form of the skull, the facial angle, 

 the character of the hair, and of the mucous membrane. 

 But the skeleton and internal structure may not have 

 been sufficiently examined, in all conditions of exis- 

 tence. 



It does not appear, that a thorough research has yet 

 been made in the successive cerebral appearances of 

 the foetus, nor of the character the brain of infants 

 exhibits, immediately after parturition, in each of the 

 three typical forms. M. de Serres, indeed, has led the 

 way, and already, according to him, most important 

 discoveries have resulted from his investigations ; for, 

 should the conditions of cerebral progress be more 



