SECT. II.] NO SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES. 319 



gard to what is considered proper or disgusting in food, we 

 would only mention that the worms found in the bamboo cane 

 are as eagerly eaten by the Brazilians as those of the palm in 

 Guiana are relished by the Whites. 1 Many Europeans relish 

 some species of lizards and large bats, and the beautiful Creole 

 women in Mauritius roast the nests and larvae of yellow wasps, 

 and also the grubs found in certain old trees, and consume 

 them as dainties. 2 



If, finally, in order to prove that there are specific differences 

 in the psychical life of nations, we refer to the great and ap- 

 parently constant differences in intellectual development, we 

 shall meet with similar objections. De Salles 3 observes with 

 regard to our modern European civilization that it was, in re- 

 gard to its intellectuality, nothing else but a rayonnement de la 

 science de la minority sur I'ignorance des masses, and Hunter 4 

 adduced as a proof that there were no specific differences 

 among mankind, a comparison of Newton with the rest of his 

 countrymen in regard to mental development. The same dis- 

 parity in mental endowment and development exists among 

 all peoples, as amongst us. Artistic and scientific genius 

 exists among Negroes and Americans, as well as amongst us ; 

 and if pre-eminent men of one people lead it from a state 

 of barbarism to civilization under favourable conditions, the 

 stability of the black races has not for its chief cause, 

 deficiency of mental qualification so much as other circum- 

 stances. When Foissac 5 points out that all great men except- 

 ing Mahomet, belonged to the temperate zone, and ascribes 

 this phenomenon to the effect of the European climate, we 

 reply, that great talents can acquire only a transitory in- 

 fluence over uncivilized peoples which have no history, there 

 being no proper field where their efforts may produce fruit. 

 Moreover, every thing shows that the most civilized peoples of 

 modern times have only gradually emerged from their original 



1 A. de St. Hilaire, " Voyage au Bresil," i, p. 433 ; Bancroft, " Naturgesch. 

 v. Guiana a. d. Engl.," p. 148, 1769 ; Schombnrgk, " Eeise in Guiana," p. 429, 

 1841. 



2 D'Unienville, " Statistique de 1'Ile Maurice," i, p. 259, 1838. 



3 " Hist gen. des races humaines," 1849. 



4 " Bisp. inaugur. de hominum varietatibus," p. 42, Edinburgh, 1775. 



5 Loc. cit., p. 246. 



