THE HUMAN SPECIES. 1G7 



EXISTENCE OF MAN AS A GENUS, OR AS A SINGLE SPECIES. 



Although the existence of Man upon the face of the earth, 

 to a very remote period, cannot be denied, it still remains a 

 question, in systematic zoology, whether mankind is wholly 

 derived from a single species, divided by strongly marked vari- 

 eties, or sprung successively or simultaneously from a genus, 

 having no less than three distinct specii s, synchronizing in 

 their creation, or produced by the hand of nature at different 

 epochs, each adapted to the peculiar conditions of its period, 

 and all endowed with the power of intermixing and reproduc- 

 ing filiations, up to a certain extent, in harmony with the 

 intermediate locations, which circumstances, soil, climate, and 

 food, necessitate. Of these questions, the first is assumed to 

 be answered in the affirmative, notwithstanding the many diffi- 

 culties which surround it ; and a very recent author, of un- 

 doubted ability, has gone so far as to conclude that man neces- 

 sarily constitutes but one single species. The inference, at 

 first sight, appears to repose almost wholly upon authority 

 without physiological assent, excepting when- physiology itself 



again upon an assumed conclusion. Now, with n 

 to the second proposition, notwithstanding an unnecessary 

 multiplication of species successively adopted by other philo- 

 sophical physiologists, it cannot be denied that, by their hy- 

 pothesis, many phenomena, most difficult of explanation, are 

 solved in a comparatively natural way, and so far deserve 

 more implicit confidence. For the first, scientifically taken, 

 reposes mainly upon the maxim in natural history, which 

 declares, " That the faculty of procreating a fertile offspring 

 constitutes identity of species, and that all differences of struc- 

 ture and external appearance, compatible therewith, are solely 

 the effects resulting from variety of climate, food, or accident ; 



