226 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



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 inhab- 

 ited by undoubtedly distinct species and genera of mam- 

 mals. 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 shown, 

 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 produc- 

 tions 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 Eskimos, like other Arctic animals, extend 

 round the whole polar regions. It should be observed that 

 the amount of difference between the mammals of the sev- 

 eral zoological provinces does not correspond with the de- 

 gree 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 conti- 

 nents from the mammals of the otTier provinces. Man, it 

 may be added, does not appear to have aboriginally inhab- 

 ited 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 specifically 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 in- 



' "Diversity a£ OrlglD of the Humau Eaces," in the "Christian Examiner,' 

 July, 1850. 



