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tion and apparently in blood. This fact explains many things 

 which seem to be contradictory. 



All this is general, but illustration and application are not far to 

 seek. That the key to distinctions between classes, as well as races, 

 is to be found in the bodily frame, and is now in the hands of 

 those who study it, is, I believe, beyond doubt. Will somebody 

 learn to use it ? 



Upon this communication Mr. Ward remarked that he had been 

 struck by the analogy which it suggested between the geographical 

 distribution of the human races and that of the lower animals and 

 of plants. It seemed that in the one case as well as in the other 

 the physically inferior types predominated in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, and particularly in South America and Australia. Africa, 

 however, constituted an exception, so far as animals and plants were 

 concerned, and he raised the question whether this might not be 

 due to the fact that geologically that continent properly belongs 

 with Europe and Asia, with which it was connected until quite 

 recent times, and whether the size of land areas did not have 

 something to do with the degree of development made by the life 

 inhabiting them ; he also queried further whether this might not be 

 in turn due to the relative length of time during which such dev- 

 elopment has been going on, presuming that it might have begun 

 much earlier on the great northeastern continent. He spoke of the 

 oft-repeated remark made by geologists and naturalists that America 

 is really the Old World, and said that, in so far as life at least was 

 concerned, the reverse must be the case, if, by the age of a fauna is 

 meant the length of time it has been developing, as measured by 

 the degree of advancement attained. From that point of view 

 Australia would be the youngest continent, after which would fol- 

 low South America, then North America, making the Old World 

 in fact old zoologically and phytologically as well as anthropologi- 

 cally. That the human races, notwithstanding their superior migra- 

 tory power, had retained certain of the same geographical peculi- 

 arities that characterize the lower forms of life, he thought quite 

 probable. 



