CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. BIMANA. 43 



dark skin, and other approaches to the black varieties of men. Even whole nations, as the Ger- 

 mans, for instance, have presented a tendency to become darker. 



There is also evidence to prove that even the forms which the bones of the head assume among 

 different nations is not fixed. Among the most highly developed races, having the most perfect 

 forms of skull, we constantly see individuals with the projecting maxilla which is prevalent among 

 the lowest tribes ; while, on the other hand, individuals are often seen among the least civilized 

 races presenting forms of the skull approaching those of the most cultivated nations. Facts such 

 as these are constantly accumulating, and clearly point to the derivation of the human race from 

 one pair. 



While thus it appears that in the physical organization of mankind there are no fixed differ- 

 ences, or at least none in which the variation is greater than is shown to be the effect of climate 

 and situation upon other races, it is still a striking fact that the same psychological nature prevails 

 among all nations and tribes of the earth. However great may be the distance between the 

 degrees of intellectual and moral elevation possessed by civilized and uncivilized nations, yet there 

 is sufficient evidence to prove that in all there may be traced the same mental endowments, simi- 

 lar natural prejudices and impressions, the same consciousness, the same sentiments, sympathies, 

 propensities, — in short, a common physical nature, or a common mind. 



After an exceedingly careful survey of the various nations of the earth, Dr. Prichard remarks 

 on this point with great force : " We contemplate among all the diversified tribes who are en- 

 dowed with reason and speech, the same internal feelings, appetences, aversions ; the same inward 

 convictions; the same sentiments of subjection to invisible powers, and, more or less developed, of 

 accountableness or responsibilitv to unseen avengers of wrong -and agents of retributive justice, 

 from whose tribunal men can not even by death escape." 



This accordance in the physiological and psychical properties of all nations affords a powerful 

 argument in favor of the whole human race being but one species ; for, as Dr. Prichard observes, 

 "the physiological characters of race are liable to few and unimportant variations;" and therefore 

 when we find that in a great number of races spread over the surface of the globe no other differ- 

 ences occur, either in the average length of life, or the extreme length occasionally attained — in 

 the periods of gestation, of infancy, of puberty, and of other changes in the economy, or in the 

 habits, instincts, affections, and intellectual faculties — than may be fairly attributed to the differ- 

 ences of external circumstances, it may be safely concluded that they are all members of the same 

 family, and the offspring of one common stock. 



DIVERSITY OF ORIGIN IN THE HUMAN RACE. 



W e have thus given, very briefly, the argument chiefly derived from the learned and profound 

 work of Prichard, in behalf of the unity of the human race. The conclusion, in harmony with the 

 commonly received interpretation of the Mosaic record, which traces all mankind to one parentage, 

 that of Adam and Eve, though it has been and still is the prevailing one, is not adopted by all 

 naturalists of the present day. There are many philosophers of great eminence, and whose opin- 

 ions are always entitled to respect, who maintain that mankind were created in pairs or in nations 

 in different parts of the earth to which their descendants are constitutionally adapted, and to which 

 they have an instinctive attachment. 



The arguments to sustain this view, derived from history and various analogies with the vege- 

 table and animal kingdoms, may be thus briefly stated : It is an undoubted fact that every geo- 

 graphical division of the globe has its peculiar vegetation. Even where there is a general resem- 

 blance, there are still specific differences. Thus, although we find in America and Europe,. in the 

 same parallels of latitude, trees which bear the same names — the oak,- ash, chestnut, beech, maple, 

 &c— they are, for the most part, specifically different; and this is equally true of all other plants 

 —very few instances being found in which indigenous vegetable products of one continent are 

 identical with those of another. 



While thus the vegetable world presents the remarkable fact of special kinds of trees and plants 

 established by nature in particular localities, a similar arrangement appears to exist in regard to 

 animals. Every considerable geographical district throughout the globe seems to have its pe- 



