5484 Zoology : its present Phasis 



world ; he defines species to be " the re-union of individuals descended 

 from each other or from common parents, and of those resembling 

 them as much as they resemble each other." In a matter so difficult 

 as the definition of species this definition is comprehensive enough, 

 and answers most purposes, but, on analysis, it presents some 

 difficulties, and it has therefore been proposed to limit the definition 

 of species simply to the test which Horace long ago gave us, which 

 the common sense of mankind proclaims and even demands as an in- 

 violable law, namely, to the character of resemblance solely ; others 

 have proposed the leaving out resemblance and confining the defini- 

 tion to continuous uninterrupted descent or reproduction. It has 

 been said that the idea of resemblance is an accessory idea;* but 

 how accessory ? The idea of reproduction, on the other hand, is said 

 to be a fundamental idea. Would it not be more to the purpose to 

 call the first the sole practical, the second the experimental? If, on 

 the field of an unknown land, we meet an animal of the bovine or 

 equine kind, ovine or porcine, would not the most illiterate, if expe- 

 rienced, be in a position to say whether the animal was identical or 

 not with others he had already seen ? But it may be said, the ques- 

 tion still remains, as mere resemblance is deceptive, how are we to 

 prove this unknown animal to be of the same species as the already 

 known ? To answer this question the scientific man resorts to the 

 method of experiment : if he observes this new kind of ox or horse to 

 breed freely and continuously with those already known, then it is held 

 to be of the same species. Now, notwithstanding its seemingly strong- 

 position, nothing can be more fallacious than this experiment. Man- 

 kind is generally viewed as composed of varieties, and not of distinct 

 species or races, yet these varieties, as they are called, have never 

 permanently mingled so as to give rise to a hybrid race. In this 

 view, then, they cannot all belong to the same species : the supporters 

 of the theory may, however, be disposed to concede this, and we must 

 look, then, for another argument, not against the reality of the test by 

 reproduction, but against the misapplication of the doctrine. All the 

 races of sheep are said to breed freely with each other, and therefore 

 are of one species. We confess to great doubts on this point: so with 

 the horse and the ox. Race is said to be artificial, species natural: 

 it must be admitted, however, that some races strongly resemble the 

 natural, — have a wonderful power of endurance and of resistance to all 

 external circumstances; the Negro is precisely what he was when the 

 Egyptian tombs were hewn on the banks of the Nile, some four or five 

 thousand years ago. If there be a hybrid breed of men on the earth 

 it is the modern Turk, and they are fast becoming extinct. The test 

 by reproduction is no doubt the scientific tester excellence; but, in 

 a practical point of view, the test by resemblance is much superior, — 

 not by the resemblance of the interior, of the skeleton, for example, but 

 by the dissemblance or resemblance of the exterior. In as far as the 

 skeleton is concerned, the ass and horse obviously resemble each other, 



* Fleurens. 



