346 Morto7i's Crania Americana. 



ion are extremely partial, forming mere exceptions to the primi- 

 tive and national tint that characterizes these people, from Cape 

 Horn to the Oanadas. The cause of these anomalies is not 

 readily explained ; that it is not climate is sufficiently obvious; 

 and whether it arises from partial immigrations from other coun- 

 tries, remains yet to be decided." 



Buffon defines species — " A succession of similar individuals 

 which reproduce each other." Cuvier also defines species— 

 "The union of individuals descended from each other or from 

 common parents, and of those who resemble them as much as 

 they resemble each other." " The apparent differences of the 

 races of our domestic species," says Cuvier, " are stronger than 

 those of any species of the same genus." " The fact of the suc- 

 cession, therefore, and of the constant succession, constitutes alone 

 the unity of the species.^' Flourens. who cites these definitions, 

 concludes that " unity, absolute unity, of the human species, and 

 variety o[ its races, as a final result, is the general and certain 

 conclusion of all the facts acquired concerning the natural his- 

 tory of man.''^* 



Dr. Morton, win'le he assumes the unity of the species, con- 

 ceives that " each race was adapted from the beginning (by an 

 all-wise Providence) to its peculiar local destination. In other 

 words, that the physical characteristics which distinguish the 

 different races, are independent of external causes." 



This inference derives support from the fact adverted to by Dr. 

 Caldwell, in his " Thoughts on the Unity of the Human Spe- 

 cies." " It is," says he, " 4179 years since Noah and his family 

 came out of the ark. They are believed to have been of the 

 Caucasian race." " 3445 years ago, a nation of Ethiopians is 

 known to have existed. Their skins, of course, were dark, and 

 they differed widely from the Caucasians in many other particu- 

 lars. Tlhey migrated from a remote country and took up their 

 residence in the neighborhood of Egypt. Supposing that people 

 to have been of the stock of Noah, the change must have been 

 completed, and a new race formed, in 733 years, and probably in a 

 much shorter period."! Dr. Morton observes, that " the recent 

 discoveries in Egypt give additional force to the preceding state- 



* Flourens' article before cited, and the Edin. New Philosophic. Journ., Vol. 

 xxvii, p 358, October, 1839. 

 t P. 72. Phila., 1830. 



