SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OP MAN. 155 



When we compare man with the rest of animated 

 nature, we view him in a most elevated position, 

 and cannot refrain from the language of eulogy and 

 admiration ; but it must be remembered that this 

 very superiority is extremely dangerous, and brings 

 with it a long train of moral obligations, and that 

 when contemplated morally, man presents a very 

 different aspect indeed from that in which we view 

 him zoologically. 



Having thus far, however, briefly and imperfectly 

 considered man in comparison with other organized 

 beings, let us now proceed to compare him with 

 himself, and to advert to some of those differences 

 which exist in the various branches of the great 

 family of mankind. 



Ethics would be, not improperly, a portion of 

 this division of the history of man, but is usually 

 separated from his mere physical detail. 



VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



1. Varieties in Colour. 



The colouring matter is understood to reside in a 

 membranous network of greater or less density ex- 

 tending over the surface of the body, called the rete 

 mucosum. This is situated between the chorion or 

 true skin and the cuticle. The rete mucosum, or, 

 as it is sometimes called, the cutaneous reticle, con- 



