5 492 Zoology : its present Phasis 



mean a collection of men clearly and unmistakeably descended from 

 the English, they again from the Scandinavian; by Celtic race we 

 mean a body of men who have never altered in time, nor under any 

 circumstances ; we say the same of the Coptic race, for whose per- 

 petuity, continuous fecundity and uninterrupted descent from the 

 earliest of recorded times we have monumental proofs of an incontest- 

 able character; nay, what is more, there exists not in the land of 

 Egypt any intermediate race, so that Cuvier might have selected the 

 Copt, just as fittingly as the sacred ibis and the crocodile, as a proof 

 that species or Tace was fixed and unalterable, at least for the trifling 

 space of 4,600 years, that being the extent to which he carried his 

 view. There is, there can be, no occasion, then, to alter the meaning 

 of the term : race means species. What is the meaning of breed? 



That individuals vary in form, in proportions, within certain limits, 

 is what must be known to all the world ; that these varieties have a 

 tendency to heredlte has also been long known. The tall produce the 

 tall, — the short, the short; but to these laws, — 1st, tendency to 

 variety, 2nd, tendency to heredite, — there ought to be added a third, 

 which naturalists and theorists are apt to forget, and even to affect to 

 ignore ; it is the tendency to return to the type of the race, or to perish 

 altogether. When the variety proceeds to a certain point, the indi- 

 vidual becomes either non-viable or ceases to be productive. Hence 

 the type prevails and is perpetual ; varieties perish or cease at least to 

 appear. It has been explained on the principles of the transcendental,* 

 as being a perpetual struggle between the laws of generalization or of 

 unity and the laws of specialization, and until some better reason be 

 assigned there is no occasion to view it otherwise. But still there re- 

 mains the question, Are such varieties or breeds perpetual ? We think 

 not, unless an artificial means be resorted to in order to maintain 

 them. It has been said that they may be maintained by domesticity, 

 but this is wholly artificial : as we know not from how many species 

 these domestic animals spring, and that the action of domesticity never 

 ceases, so it is impossible to say whether men be experimenting on 

 races or their varieties. Who could tell the result of a union of the 

 Asiatic and African elephant, and whether or not there would be any 

 product ? what form the product would assume ? whether or not it 

 would prove a fertile hybrid, to a certain extent ? All such are ques- 

 tions which can be answered in no other way but experimentally. 

 The most remarkable instance of the influence of climate and the re- 

 moval of the slavery of domesticity over animals, would be the return 

 of the domestic pig to the wild boar and of the domestic sheep to the 

 argali, when abandoned to themselves in the wilds of America; 

 but these assertions are far from being proved. In Zoology all is ex- 

 perimental or the direct result of positive observation. Who could 

 explain or imagine why the pigeon should invariably lay two eggs at 

 a time ? that these should as invariably be male and female ? and that, 



* Knox, in 'The Races of Men aud in 'The Artistic Anatomy.' London: 

 Renshavv. 



