DISTRIBUTION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 609 



in the instance of the plica polonica, which afflicts the Sarmatic race on and near the 

 banks of the Vistula, from which the German residents are in a great measure free. But 

 this proves no specific difference between the two, but only shows, that, to acquire a 

 predisposition to certain local complaints is a work of time, and will probably appear in 

 new settlers after the lapse of centuries. There is a well-marked variety in the constitu 

 tion of nations, and in their liability to certain given disorders ; but the difference between 

 the torpid American and the irritable European is not greater than the common varieties 

 of constitution which meet us within the bounds of the same family, and which render its 

 different members peculiarly subject to different complaints. The conclusion to which 

 these considerations point that of the identity of mankind as a species is strongly 

 supported by the fecundity of the offspring of parents of different races. Hunter and 

 other naturalists have advanced it as a law, that if the offspring of two individual animals 

 belonging to different breeds is found to be capable of procreation, the parent animals, 

 though differing from each other in some particulars, are of the same species ; and if the 

 offspring so engendered is sterile, then the races from which it descended are originally 

 distinct. This is a position to which there are many exceptions ; but it is undoubtedly 

 true, that the energy of propagation is very defective in the product of a union of differ 

 ent species. Tried by this test, the inference is in favour of a common nature belonging 

 to all mankind ; for the mixture of originally far-separated human races has repeatedly 

 resulted in a numerous population, physically equal, and in many instances superior, to 

 either branch of the ancestral stock. 



It has suited the views of some interested parties in time past, who have their repre 

 sentatives at present, to pronounce certain tribes of men to be distinct species from the 

 whites, constituted upon a type physically and mentally inferior to that of the Caucasian 

 nations. This assumption has been embraced in order to excuse the aggressions of the 

 latter upon the persons and property of the former. Especially has the negro been sub 

 ject to this treatment; and mental incapacity has been inferred from his retreating fore 

 head and depressed vertex. But this favourite doctrine of the slave-owner has been 

 amply refuted by the heroes, politicians, and legislators among the emancipated black 

 population of Hayti, by members of the same race, in other districts, when under cul 

 tivation, displaying a power of intellect, and loftiness of moral character, which would 

 reflect honour upon any of the whites, and by the testimony of travellers, that, apart 

 from cultivation in his native wilds, the negro is capable of all the benevolent and social 

 feelings of our nature, and merely developes the effect of unfavourable circumstances. 

 The latter varying in nature and degree, will account satisfactorily for every case of 

 physical and mental deterioration presented by the human races the Australians, 

 Fuegians, and Bosjesmans ; for many an example has occurred of Europeans, brought 

 under their influence, undergoing a marked degeneration. 



A variety of evidence, psychical and moral, physical and philological, rebukes the 

 ancient boast of Attica, that the Greeks descended from no other stock of men, the first 

 occupants of the country springing out of the soil, an opinion held by the populace, but 

 not the creed of the philosophers. One of the most distinguished anatomists of his day, 

 who cannot be suspected of any prejudice upon the question, Mr. Lawrence, draws this 

 induction from an extensive series of facts and reasonings "that the human species, like 

 that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig, and others, is single ; and that all the differences 

 which it exhibits, are to be regarded merely as varieties." In what particular spot the 

 location of the primal pair was situated, and what race now makes the nearest approxi 

 mation to the original type, are points of some interest, but of no importance, and 

 are now involved in an obscurity which it is impossible to remove. That the primi 

 tive man occupied some part of the country traversed by the Tigris and Euphrates, 



