46 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[February, 



may he no sppcific anatomical difference between man and man, hut 

 as the writer himself shows (p. .59), this is no reason for identity 

 when other and higher marks of distinction exist. How lie is to 

 account niiir|ihologically for tlie negro, for instance, a])penrs inex- 

 plicable, for we find the negro on Egyptian monuments three 

 thousand years old exactly as he is now ; whereas, ado))ting any 

 given ([uantity as expressing the tendency to change, the specific 

 relationsliip of the members of that race would have passed away. 

 Morphology admits of an arithmetical analysis being applied, and 

 the result is that it fails before the test. Morphology is incon- 

 sistent with a limited number of species ; for carried out arithme- 

 tically, it must be constantly ])roducing new species within the old 

 ones, and thereby breaking up the old ones ; so that, arithmeti- 

 cally, a species of negroes existing three thousand years ago, could 

 not now exist in mass. 



This is the arithmetical working of the doctrine in question ; 

 while tested by historical results, we find at any time when we can 

 apply the test, ethnographic characteristics were the same as now, 

 and there are no suflficient means to deduce all the varieties from 

 one pair. Admitting, too, the identity of the human race, it does 

 not follow that it should be an identity of blood, but it may be an 

 identity of type. 



Indeed, the same causes which have smothered other branches of 

 science, have smothered this ; and each party has been anxious to 

 set up a theory and fashion the facts to it, instead of studying the 

 facts. Tlie field for investigation is wide, but hitherto investiga- 

 tion has been cautiously eluded. If, instead of searching for facts 

 favouring morphology — and all parties hitherto, whether advocates 

 of one pair or of many, have been morpliologists — the whole facts 

 had been investigated, we should now be better able to form a 

 judgment. However many may be the facts brought forward by 

 morphologists, the one fact of continuous identity is one worth 

 them all. The identity of the Syrian and Negro of three thou- 

 sand years ago with him of tlie present day is undeniable ; but the 

 facts on this question of continuous identity have not yet been 

 gathered together. The fact of the continuous identity of other 

 animals has been proved over as long a period. 



A remarkable class of phenomena, which have led to the con- 

 fused views which prevail, are in a similar condition. These are 

 the phenomena consequent on assimilation and association, and 

 which, if at all adverted to, have been only misunderstood by the 

 morphologists. First, there is the disposition in individuals asso- 

 ciating together to acquire a likeness in countenance, as between 

 husband and wife, and as in the negroes of the United States 

 towards the Americo-English. The next are the changes which 

 take place in different ages in the physique of the same nation. In 

 this country, collections of portraits will show very curious re- 

 sults as affecting the countenance of the English of the higher 

 classes, from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the present day. A 

 third are the changes which take place conse(pient on the removal 

 of a race to another soil : thus the English born in tlie United 

 States or Australia, are tall, slim, sallow, and lose most of their 

 teeth before the age of thirty. This is only one of an extensive 

 series of facts. 



Tlie adoption of identity of type, instead of identity of blood, 

 is calculated to simplify the discussion, and is consistent with the 

 other facts. There is a relationship between the members of the 

 feline trilie, but no one has imagined that the lion and the cat are 

 of the same blood : neither is it necessary that the lion of Asia 

 and that of South Africa, though nearer in relationship, should be 

 any nearer in blood. 



The assumption of the contrary, and the doctrine as to in- 

 breeding, have had much influence in producing confused ideas. 

 The endeavour to derive each class of animals from one stock, has 

 caused violent attempts to twist facts. This is because no distinc- 

 tion is made between those operations which are temporary and 

 those wliich are permanent. vV'hile it is impossible to make a 

 Negro into a Syrian, it is quite possible to modify either : it is 

 possible, likewise, to produce cross-breeds between the tvvo, — but 

 if they are cross-bred for ever, they will never yield an Indo- 

 P'uropean. 



It is because we can produce many varieties of dogs, and make 

 the animals larger or smaller, that it is assumed all dogs are origi- 

 nally from one stock ; though the least consideration will show 

 that we cannot make all tlie varieties from any given pair, which 

 we ought to be able to do if all had the same origin. AH that the 

 breeders in this country could do, they could never make a dingo ; 

 nor before they had the variety in tlie country, could they have 

 made a newfoundland. 



Indeed, so averse is nature to these artificial varieties, whether 

 of animals or plants, that it is only by constantly bringing fresh 



stock that the varieties can be kept up. Hence has arisen the 

 doctrine, that in-breeding causes deterioration and extinction ; 

 whereas the truth is, that it is only in-breeding of artificial varie- 

 ties which produces such results, for natural varieties may be in- 

 bred for ever. Had not in-breeding been a law of nature, the off- 

 spring of the first pairs or individuals of animals and plants could 

 not have propagated, and could not now have existed. 



Tlie breeder has nature always totliwart him : instead of giving 

 the expected half-blood, she will often repeat the grandsire; and if 

 the attempt be persevered in, the Bakewell sheep liecome extinct 

 or degenerate, the dahlia becomes single, and the cyder graft un- 

 productive. Porcupine men, albinos, spotted Africans, dwarfs, 

 giants, and six-fingered people, have been known for several gene- 

 rations, but they have never become permanent varieties ; nor have 

 all or a majority of each generation, even when in-bred, been en- 

 dowed with the parental alinormity. 



When properly examined, there is no scientific evidence to show 

 that an Indo-European and a Negro have any identity of blood. 



On the speculation whether man, being the last created animal, 

 must remain so, Mr. Fergiisson inclines to give an answer in the 

 aflirmative ; but we do not perceive the relevance of his remarks, 

 except that in which he says that it does not appear necessary that 

 a new animal should be created, because man being endowed with 

 the functions of progress, he is enabled to do what in all other in- 

 stances it required a distinctly new species to effect. 



Upon the question of progress, Mr. Fergusson admits of a pro- 

 gressive tendency, though not a uniform one; and he gives a diag- 

 ram, in which in a curved and knotted line one end is in advance 

 of the other, though some intermediate points are retrograde from 

 others. Adopting tliis progress in the creation of animals, he 

 considers it as particularly developed in the history of mankind, 

 because man possesses within himself the power of progress. 



By e-xplaining himself in this way, the writer guards against the 

 idea that progress being continuous is uniform, and is prepared to 

 admit, in history for instance, that very advanced periods may have 

 been succeeded by others in which society has been in a very low 

 state, until another rally has taken place. This will be found 

 very important in the ethnographical discussions. 



Mr. Fergusson applies to art his two attributes of the division 

 of employment and progress. The first, he insists, is not only the 

 moans by which anything in art can be accomplished, but it is, at 

 the same time, tlie cause why there should be not only two or three 

 arts or forms of art, but thousands, to suit the various idiosyncra- 

 cies to which they must adapt themselves, to fulfil the purposes for 

 which they were given to man. Their aim, he s.-iys, may be, and 

 perhaps should be, only one; but to accomplish this object, their 

 forms must be as various as the intellects to which tliey address 

 themselves. The one only means, he holds, by which man ever did 

 anything great, either in the useful or fine arts, is by this aggrega- 

 tion of experiences. 



In his Si.xth Section, the writer comes to the classification of 

 arts. His introduction describes mankind as capable of becoming 

 one vast animal, extending over the whole globe of the earth, and 

 living for an indefinite period of time. Hitherto, men have lived 

 only in detached fellowships of a few hundreds of thousands or 

 millions, and with an average political life of not more than a 

 thousand years; but Mr. Fergusson asserts that the tendency now 

 is to larger commonwealths, and consequently longer periods, with 

 of course corresponding accessions of greatness and power. Of 

 this the present movement of races — the English, the French, the 

 High Dutch, the Slavonic, the Italian, and tlie Scandinavian — are 

 strong and undeniable indications; and they must result in com- 

 monwealths, as much beyond the miglity states of modern Europe 

 with their ten, twenty, or thirty millions, as these are beyond the 

 townships or shires which achieved fame in the brightest days of 

 Greece. It is to this tendency that we are to look as giving a 

 stimulus to the artist, and a field for the exertion of his powers. 



Mr. Fergusson divides the arts into tliose which may be exer- 

 cised by any one individual, which he names Anthropics : and those 

 wliicli have reference only to great bodies of men, and which he 

 names Politics. In tlie latter lie puts Medicine, or medical police; 

 iMorals, or moral police or government; and Religion, or ecclesias- 

 tical police. 



Anthropics are divided thus : first, those resulting from muscu- 

 lar power — Technics ; next, those from the developments of sense 

 — ^Esthetics ; and tliird, those dependent on the power of speech 

 — Phonetics. Mr. Fergusson here purposely uses the term JEsthe- 

 tics in a special sense. 



In defining the Technic arts, the writer says they arise from the 

 peculiarity that man, though he has all the limbs and organs of 

 other beasts, seldom uses them for any useful purpose without the 



