ON SPECIES, HYBRIDS, AND VARIETIES. 167 



the lower orders of Mammalia, albinism mostly occurs only among 

 domesticated quadrupeds ; albino Elephants have been known ; and such, 

 there is reason to believe, are the white Elephants at the court of the 

 Birman empire; albino Ferrets, and Rabbits, and Mice are very com- 

 mon. Albinos, breeding together, produce Albinos ; but, if interbred 

 with the ordinary race, the peculiarity disappears in the descendants ; 

 breaking out, however, now and then, as if the tendency to it still lurked 

 in the blood. 



These, and similar instances of occasional variety, do not happen very 

 extensively ; variety on a great scale does, however, occur ; and the exact 

 nature and origin of races, as they are termed, demand attention. The 

 subject is full of perplexity. The different races of mankind, for instance, 

 to go no further than the Negro and the European, have their respective 

 distinguishing characters ; but whether races are, exactly, varieties, that 

 is, the result of a combination of causes, which have operated on different 

 offsets of one origin, or are aboriginal, and, if the latter, whether this abo- 

 riginality, which involves the creation of them as they are, destroys specific 

 indentity, so that the same species may have distinct primordial begin- 

 nings, are points of great difficulty. 



Tt may be observed, that no natural causes, with which we are ac- 

 quainted, appear to be capable of producing distinct races. With respect 

 to the Negro, for example (a term which has ignorantly been applied, in- 

 discriminately, to the whole of the black natives of Africa, as if they were 

 all one people), it has been asserted, and taken for granted, that their form 

 and colour have resulted from the heat to which they have been exposed, 

 generation after generation, which, with other minor agents, has blackened 

 their skin, thickened their lips, crisped their hair, and elongated the jaws 

 and the heel ; but these, if the true causes, would operate in like manner 

 in like circumstances. What the Negroes are now, they were 3000 

 years ago. The period, in which the change took place, eludes inves- 

 tigation ; nor can it be traced to the influence of climate or soil. An 

 European, exposed to the fervid rays of the inter-tropics, will, indeed, 

 become swarthy, tanned, and sunburnt, but not changed into a Negro. 

 The parts of his body not exposed, will not be affected ; his swarthiness 

 is accidental and temporary ; and his children will be of the ordinary 



instance on record of Albinos intermarrying; but it cannot be doubted, by such a mode, a per- 

 manent variety might be produced. Wafer describes the Albinos of the Isthmus of Darien as 

 having very weak eyes, incapable of bearing the light of day, during which season they are sluggish 

 and dull; "yet, when moon- shiny nights come, they are all life and activity; running abroad, and 

 into the woods, skipping about, like wild bucks ; and running as fast by moonlight, even in the 

 gloom and shade of the woods, as the other Indians by day, being as nimble as they, though not so 

 strong and lusty." He previously observes, that " they are not so big as the other Indians ;" that 

 " they are comparatively weak, and not very fit for hunting, or other laborious exercises, and do 

 not delight in such." Albinos are well known in Java and Ceylon, and, also, on the continent of 

 India. The Hindoos regard them with horror, and cast their bodies, after death, like those of persons 

 afflicted with cutaneous diseases, to be devoured by the wild beasts. 



