CJiup. VII. The Races of Man. i6g 



Our naturalist would then perhaps turn to geographical dis- 

 tribution, and he would probably declare that those forms must 

 be distinct species, which differ not only in appearance, but 

 are fitted for hot, as well as damp or dry countries, and for the 

 Arctic regions. He might appeal to the fact that no species in 

 the group next to man, namely the Quadrumana, can resist a low 

 temperature, or any considerable change of climate ; and that 

 tlie species which come nearest to man have never been reared 

 to maturity, even under the temperate climate of Europe. He 

 would be deeply impressed with the fact, first noticed by Agassiz,' 

 that the different races of man are distributed over the world in 

 the same zoological provinces, as those inhabited by undoubtedly 

 distinct species and genera of mammals. This is manifestly the 

 case with the Australian, Mongolian, and Negro races of man ; in 

 a less well-marked manner with the Hottentots; but plainly 

 with the Papuans and Malays, who are separated, as Mr. Wallace 

 has shewn, by nearly the same line which divides the great 

 Malayan and Australian zoological provinces. The Aborigines 

 of America range throughout the Continent ; and this at first 

 appears opposed to the above rule, for most of the productions of 

 the Southern and Northern halves differ widely : yet some few 

 living forms, as the opossum, range from the one into the other, 

 as did formerly some of the gigantic Edentata. The Esquimaux, 

 like other Arctic animals, extend round the whole polar regions. 

 It should be observed that the amount of difference between the 

 mammals of the several zoological provinces does not correspond 

 with the degree of separation between the latter ; so that it can 

 hardly be considered as an anomaly that the Negro differs more, 

 and the American much less from the other races of man, than 

 do the mammals of the African and American continents from 

 the mammals of the other provinces. Man, it may be added, 

 does not appear to have aboriginally inhabited any oceanic island ; 

 and in this respect he resembles the other members of his class. 



In determining whether the supposed varieties of the same 

 kind of domestic animal should be ranked as such, or as spe- 

 cifically distinct, that is, whether any of them are descended from 

 distinct wild species, every naturalist would lay much stress on 

 the fact of their external parasites being specifically distinct. 

 All the more stress would be laid on this fact, as it would be an 

 exceptional one; for I am informed by Mr. Denny that the most 

 different kinds of dogs, fowls, and pigeons, in England, are 

 infested by the same species of Pediculi or lice. Now Mr. A. 

 Murray has carefully examined the Pediculi collected in different 



' ' Diversity of Oiigin of the Human Races,' in the ' Christian 

 Examiner,' July 1850. 



