HISTORICAL SKETCH. XT 



entierement k 1'avenir, suppose meme que 1'avenir doive avoir 

 prise sur lui." 



In 1813, Dr. W. C. Wells read before the Royal Society ' Aa 

 Account of a White female, part of whose skin resembles that of 

 a Negro'; but his paper was not published until his famous 'Two 

 Essays upon Dew and Single Vision ' appeared in 1818. In this 

 paper he distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, 

 and this is the first recognition which has been indicated ; but he 

 applies it only to the races of man, and to certain characters alone. 

 After remarking that negroes and mulattoes enjoy an immunity 

 from certain tropical diseases, he observes, firstly, that all animals 

 tend to vary in some degree, and, secondly, that agriculturists 

 improve their domesticated animals by selection ; and then, he 

 adds, but what is done in this latter case " by art, seems to be 

 done with equal efficacy, though more slowly, by nature, in the 

 formation of varieties of mankind, fitted for the country which 

 they inhabit. Of the accidental varieties of man, which would 

 occur among the first few and scattered inhabitants of the middle 

 regions of Africa, some one would be better fitted than the others 

 to bear the diseases of the country. This race would consequently 

 multiply, while the others would decrease; not only from their 

 inability to sustain the attacks of disease, but from their incapa- 

 city of contending with their more vigorous neighbours. The 

 colour of this vigorous race I take for granted, from what has 

 been already said, would be dark. But the same disposition to 

 form varieties still existing, a darker and a darker race would in 

 the course of time occur : and as the darkest would be the best 

 fitted for the climate, this would at length become the most pre- 

 valent, if not the only race, in the particular country in which it 

 had originated." He then extends these same views to the white 

 inhabitants of colder climates. I am indebted to Mr. Rowley, of 

 the United States, for having called my attention, through Mr. 

 Brace, to the above passage in Dr. Wells' work. 



The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, afterwards Dean of Manchester, 

 in the fourth volume of the ' Horticultural Transactions,' 1822, and 

 in his work on the ' Amaryllidaceaa ' (1837, pp. 19, 339), declares 

 that " horticultural experiments have established, beyond the pos- 

 sibility of refutation, that botanical species are only a higher and 

 more permanent class of varieties." He extends the same view to 

 animals. The Dean believes that single species of each genus 

 were created in an originally highly plastic condition, and that 

 these have produced, chiefly by intercrossing, but likewise by 

 variation, all our existing species. 



In 1826 Professor Grant, in the concluding paragraph in his 

 well-known paper ('Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' voL jriv. 

 p. 283) on the Spongilla, clearly declares his belief that species are 





