LECTUEE I. 13 



whicli were formerly included in the panther type, run into a 

 variety of forms, wliich differ, more or less, in tlie number and 

 arrangement of the spots, the length and hairiness of the tail, 

 the variations in the dental system and the skull ; in short, by a 

 variety of marks known only to the minute observer, which, 

 however, enable the inquirer with more or less certainty to 

 detei'mine whether they are merely accidental variations or 

 permanent forms. Let us confess at once, that, in all wild 

 animals, the estimation of these variations, and their conse- 

 quent classification, depends much on the predilections of the 

 observer, so that what one declares to be a species another takes 

 to be only a variety. The accumulation of facts leads generally 

 to the result, that some decidedly different forms are laid down 

 as species, round which the less differing forms are grouped as 

 varieties. Though the validity of many species is still dis- 

 cussed, and though many definitions of species have been given 

 without any satisfactory result, still these discussions stimulate 

 the progress of science. 



It is somewhat different as regards the science of man : here 

 was a field in which the result at which science was to arrive was 

 prescribed. One Adam, one ancestor, one Noah with three sons as 

 secondary ancestors — these were the premises forced upon scien- 

 tific inquiry, without the assumption of which the naturahst was 

 unceremoniously sent to a place we need not mention. In the 

 former case we had to do with philosophers, who in their acade- 

 mical gowns only talk to a select audience, but here we had 

 against us the whole clergy, with their faithful sheep and butting 

 rams — a state of things which can only be appreciated from expe- 

 rience. Do not think that I only speak from my own experience. 

 Dr. Morton, an eminent name among naturahsts, an es- 

 teemed physician of Philadelphia, devoted himself to the study 

 of American craniology. After many years study he arrived 

 at the conclusion that the human family consisted of distinct 

 species, and could not possibly have descended from the same 

 Adam, and this result he published. A parson, the Rev. Dr. 

 Bachman, in Charleston, took great ofience at this. As is the 

 custom with priests, Bachman first writes a friendly letter 

 to Morton, informing him that, being of a different opinion, it 



