22 INTRODUCTION. 



different races, and to determine if these races are separate species, 

 or merely varieties of one species. Permanent varieties, if we 

 allow the existence of such tribes, come very mar Bpecies, and 

 may be defined as " races now displaying characteristic ]» culiarities 

 which are constantly and permanently transmitted ;" differing from 

 species in that the peculiarities are not coeval with the tribi 

 have arisen since the commencement of its existence : it is not un- 

 likely that many so called distinct species of animals and plants are 

 in reality only permanent varieties. 



It has been laid down as a law of nature, that, in order to pi 

 inextricable confusion in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the off- 

 spring of different species, or hybrids, are incapable of reproducing 

 their kind, thus making hybrid it y a test of specific character. Tins 

 has been denied by many naturalists, among others by Dr. S. G 

 Morton, of Philadelphia, whose views will be given hereafter. Ac- 

 cording to Wagner, hybrid plants are very rarely produced in a 

 state of nature ; they are very seldom fruitful among themselves ; 

 those holding intermediate places between the parent plants are abso- 

 lutely barren, while those which nearly resemble one or the other 

 parent are occasionally propagated : and plants from different varie- 

 ties of the same species are altogether fertile, while hybrids either 

 return to the original character, or become gradually less capable of 

 reproduction, and in a short time extinct. So, in animals, mules or 

 hybrids are produced among domesticated tribes ; but, except in a 

 few tribes of birds, they are unknown in a state of nature. A new 

 breed cannot be perpetuated from them, and their offspring can only 

 be continued by returning to one of the parent tribes. Warner 

 believes that nature has established the sterility of hybrid animals 

 by an organic impediment. 



If these results are true, we are forced to the conclusion that the 

 different races of men must be either incapable of mixing their stock, 

 and must ever be separate from each other, or that these races belong 

 to the same species. 



It is a fact that the most dissimilar varieties of man are capable 

 of propagating prolific offspring with each other. The Mulattoes, 

 from the mixture of the Negroes with Whites, are said to be increas- 

 ing in numbers, as well as the mixed race of the Creoles and the 

 Negroes. The Griqua Hottentots, descended from the Dutch colo- 

 nists of South Africa on one side, and from the aboriginal Hotten- 

 tots on the other, are a numerous and rapidly increasing race. The 

 Cafusos of Brazil, so remarkable for their monstrous heads of hair, 

 are known to have descended from the native Americans, mixed with 

 the imported Africans. The Papuas, with equally remarkable hair, 



