INTRODUCTION'. 77 



erties, which can be legitimately used to assist in the natural history 

 of mankind. 



This doctrine, that the varieties of man have arisen from native or 

 congenital varieties, " rests entirely," says Van Auninge, " upon 

 supposed analogy, in this respect, between domestic animals and 

 man." This doctrine would never have been adopted in any 

 country but England, where the breeding of domestic animals has 

 been carried to Buch perfection. Hut even here the analogy fails ; 

 every breeder knows " that an improved animal has a greater 

 tendency to defect than to perfection ;" there is a constant tendency 

 to deterioration. The varieties of domestic animals are produced 

 only by the greatest skill and perseverance, and are only pre- 

 served by the utmost care in feeding and general management. 

 " Breeding in and in, closely, constitutes a kind of hybrid race, 

 by enervating the procreative power. Thus the highly-bred 

 new Leicester cattle were speed Ij extinguished." How differ- 

 ent in the case of the human races! Such precautions never have 

 been taken ; yet, to make out any analogy, they oughl to have been 

 observed. How, then, can it be inferred, from analogy, that an 

 accidental human variety might have become permanent without the 

 slightest care? If it be said, with Mr. Lawrence, that the Negro 

 and the European are the two extremes of a very long gradation, 

 with innumerable intermediate stages, il may be replied, there is no 

 Buch gradation in domestic animals, whose colors change by very 

 sudden degrees, as n were by leaps ; here analogy fails again. 

 How came it, too, " that some of these changes were arrested in 

 their intermediate stages, while others proceeded to an extreme 

 black ?" History reaches far hack towards the flood, yet makes no 

 mention of such changes in man. 



Too much importance has been attached to individual examples, by 

 which almost any extravagance might be sustained. It has been 

 too hastily inferred from the " porcupine men," and such congenital 

 monsters, observed for a short period only, that accidental varieties 

 may account for the differences of the human races. 



Authors have not agreed as to what is a species ; each one 

 defining it to suit his purpose. To Prichard's definition is attached 

 what he calls a " permanent variety," which differs from a species 

 in the changes not being coeval with the tribe. Though a most 

 important point, it is, on his part, a mere assumption, for he does 

 not mention a single fact in support of it. Showing that domestic 

 animals change, and that they differ from each other as much as 

 man does from man, neither proves any relation between them, nor 

 7* 



