38 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



called Paraska, missed the Marten, and continued my way without him. 

 How great was my joy, upon my return, after eight long hours, to find the 

 sensible animal again in the very meadow where I had lost him. If I 

 were absent from home this animal would take no food the whole day 

 long, and when I returned he showed his joy by merry leaps and caresses. 

 It ate every thing that came to table, bread, fruit, cheese, and milk, but 

 was fondest of raw flesh ; he drank wine with great relish, and plentifully. 

 This even hastened his death, for once he drank so much, that, on the 



following day, he was found dead on the floor (Abridged from Wieg- 



mann's Archiv.~) 



An Otter Hunt * * * Every minute increased his distress ; 



he could no longer keep under water, but swam up and down gasping, 

 and gnashing his white fangs above the surface, in the utmost fury of rage 

 and despair. When overtaken or met by any of the hounds, he would 

 for a second conceal himself beneath, but, being unable to remain, he 

 would again rise above, and bite and grapple with them with the deadly 

 fierceness of a Serpent. Twice in this manner he swam the length of lite 

 pool, followed by the whole pack baying at his tail, and hailed by the 



united thunder of some fifty gazers. At last S .thinking it time to 



close the scene, in order to spare his Dogs, advised every body but him- 

 self to fall back from the lower shallow. The poor wretch soon discovered 

 the deserted quarter, and made towards it. But, before he could escape, 

 he had to clamber over the top of the net, which extended across the river 

 at this point, sunk to the bottom by heavy leads, and attached to each of 

 the banks. A moment after, in making this endeavour, he was raised 

 from the stream to writhe upon the barbed spear. There he hung, 

 wriggling and twisting, and his eyes flashing the red sparks of rage, until 

 all the party had collected round him ; he was then cast into the midst of 

 the hounds, upon whom having wreaked his vengeance by the infliction 

 of some fearful gashes, and, in return, having every bone within him 

 ground and smashed almost into pulp, he, Otter-like, without a cry, without 

 a groan, returning wound for wound, and torture for torture, at length 

 yielded his life, but not, however, till his enemies had paid for it a most 

 costly price. The above is extracted from " The Sportsman ;" and onr 

 readers, we are assured, without any prompting from us, will feel indig- 

 nant at such cruel sport enjoyed at a price so agonizing and protracted. 



THE UNITY OF SPECIES IN THE DIFFERENT RACES OF MANKIND. 



M. Flourens has, within these few months, published some observations 

 in the Annates des Sciences Naturelles, December 1838, on the Natural 

 History of Man, from which (recommending them to the attention of 

 those who can refer to them) we now supply a few extracts. With his 

 introductory remarks we entirely concur. The study of Man, he ob- 

 serves, viewed in the light of Natural History, lias a peculiar importance, 

 to which no other branch of this science can pretend. The physical 

 characters which distinguish the human vases from one another, constitute 

 the circumstance of Natural History whicn has at all eras most excited 

 general attention. The astonishment of the first Portuguese who, in the 

 fifteenth century, penetrating into the interior of Africa, and there found 

 Men perfectly black, with curled hair, flat noses, and thick lips, is well 

 known. This astonishment was renewed at the epoch of the discovery 

 of the New World. Historians mention that, on the first return of Co- 

 lumbus, the Europeans could not withdraw their eyes Irom the unknown 

 plants and animals he had brought back, and, above all, from the Indians, 

 who were so different from all the Races of Men they had ever beheld. 



Rlumenbach, as is well known, fixes the number of the human races 

 at five, viz the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Negro, the American, and 

 the Malay. Cuvier, again, reduces them to three: the White or Cauca- 

 sian, the Yellow or Mongolian, and the Negro or Ethiopian, at the same 

 time confessing that neither the Malays nor the Americans can be clearly 

 referred to any of the others. More lately, Mr Prichard, regulating him- 

 self by the form of the cranium, raises the number of the human races 

 to seven, adding to Blumenbach's four, that of the Hottentots and Boschis- 

 mans. the Papuans, the Polynesians with curly hair, and the Alfourans and 

 Australians. Lastly, M. Flourens considers that he can establish ten dis- 

 tinct forms or types from the human cranium : these are the Caucasian type, 

 the Mongolian, the Negro, the American, the Malay or Javanese, the Hotten- 

 tot, the Boschisman, the Papuan, the Alfourou, and the Zealandic. The 

 Caucasian type is distinguished chiefly by the oval head, the height of the 

 cranium, the prominence of the forehead and nose ; the Mongolian type 

 by the lateral prominence of the cheek-bones, and the square form of the 

 cranium ; the Negro by the compressed forehead, flat nose, and oblique in- 

 cisor teeth ; the American by the prominence of the nose, and the width 

 between the orbits ; and the Malay by the projection which the very large 

 parietal protuberances make behind, and the manner in which the occi- 

 pital bone is abruptly flattened below these protuberances. The cranium 

 of the Hottentot evidently forms a type 'distinct from that of the Negro ; 

 it is long and narrow, but is proportionally very elevated, and by this 

 is clearly distinguished from that of the Boschismans, which is singularly 

 flattened, and as it were crushed from above downwards. The Papuans, 



carefully described by Messrs Quoy and Gaimard, and the Alfoumus by 

 M. Lesson, form two distinct types. The Papuans aie remarkable for 

 the flatness and depression of the forehead and the face ; whilst the Al- 

 fourous have a long and narrow cranium. Finally, the last of M Flouren's 

 types is the Zealandic, marked by the height and narrowness of the cranium, 

 especially in front, by the extent of the temporal fossa, and by the an- 

 terior prominence of the apophysis of the chin. 



The observations of M. Flourens, as tending to show the variations of 

 the crania among the several races of mankind, are doubtless possessed 

 of much interest ; but, considered as a system for classifying the families 

 ,of the human race, they are eminently defective, and open to some ob- 

 jections, which a more careful attention to the labours of his predecessors 

 on this subject might have spared him. Indeed, this could not fail to be 

 expected, as M. Flourens has attempted to arrange the races simply ac- 

 cording to the forms of the crania, omitting all other considerations, such 

 as language, stature, hair, or colour, and we have elsewhere shown (Ani- 

 mal Kingdom, vol. I. p. 144) that the characters of any one particular 

 structure are not sufficient of themselves to establish the differences of 



races. In which of these races would M. Flourens place the CaffVes 



a race of men very different from the Negroes ? or does he confound the 

 Esquimaux (Hyperboreans) with the Chinese ? The term Zealandic, by 

 which M. Flourens probably means the Polynesian, is no improvement in 

 the nomenclature of Virey, Bory St Vincent, or J. B. Fischer, whose la- 

 bours in the subject have been so singularly unnoticed by M. Flourens. 



His concluding remarks seem to imply that the distinction between 

 genus and species, as applied to Man, possesses much of a conventional 

 character. 



I cannot, he says, conclude this article without adverting to the much 

 controverted question, — Whether the different races of men form a single 

 species ; and if, forming different species, they constitute what is called 

 in Natural History a genus 1 A simple glance at the correct definition of 

 the word species will remove all difficulty on this point. Buffon de- 

 fines species to be " a succession of similar individuals which repioduce 

 each other." Cuvier defines it " the union of individuals descended from 

 each other or from common parents, and of those which resemble them 

 as much as they resemble each other." Now, both of these definitions 

 are complex, uniting two distinct facts, viz. the fact of reproduction or suc- 

 cession, and the fact of resemblance. The fact of resemblance, however, 

 is completely subordinate to that of succession ; and Buffon and Cuvier 

 agree in this. " The comparison of the resemblance," says Buffon, " is 

 only an accessary idea, and often independent in the other." " The ap- 

 parent differences of our domestic species," says Cuvier, " are stronger 

 than those of any savage species of the same genus." The fa«t of the 

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

 unity of the species. Then, unitu. absolute unity of the human species, 

 and variety of its races as a final result, is the general and certain conclu- 

 sion of all the facts acquired concerning The Natural History of Man. 



LONDON EGG-HATCHING EXHIBITION. 



We have taken frequent opportunities of alluding to this truly interesting 

 exhibition, and now avail ourselves of some curious particulars commu- 

 nicated by an intelligent correspondent in a recent Number of Cham- 

 bers' Edinburgh Journal. The superintendent of the oven politely ex- 

 hibited a compartment in which the eggs were chipping. Some had 

 chipped the day before, others that day, and some would not be chipped 

 till the morrow ; in a few cases we observed the beak of the chick boring 

 its way through the shell, and getting itself emancipated. When the 

 little creatures are issued into the world, they are not immediately removed 

 out of the oven, but are allowed to remain for a few hours till they be- 

 come dry ; they are then removed, and put into the glass-case on the 

 table at the end of the room. This case is very shallow, and the glass 

 cover can be easily pushed aside, to permit the superintendent handling 

 them if required. They are here for the first time fed, though not for 

 twenty-four hours after being hatched; the material scattered amongst 

 them is small bruised grits, or particles little larger than meal ; these they 

 eagerly pick up without any teaching, their instinctive desire for food be- 

 ing a sufficient monitor. After the brood has been kept in the glass-case 

 (which is partially open) for two or three days, and been thus gradually 

 accustomed to the atmosphere, they are removed to one of the divisions 

 in the railed inclosure on the floor. Here hundreds are seen running 

 about, uttering peepy cries, picking up grits, or otherwise amusing them- 

 selves, all being apparently in as lively and thriving a condition as if trot- 

 ting about in a barn-yard. At six in the evening they are put to bed for 

 the night in the coops, twelve together in a coop ; these coops are small 

 wooden boxes, lined with flannel, and furnished with a flannel curtain in 

 front, to seclude, and keep the inmates as warm and comfortable as it 

 under the wing of a mother. At six or seven in the morning, they are 

 again allowed to come forth into the court-yard. 



This exhibition, trifling as it may appear to some, is highly deserving 



