553 Classification of Animals. 



Latreille, and Dr Pritchard, to all of which he shows there are many 

 and insuperable objections, though he assigns, and we think deserv- 

 edly, the merit of the nearest approach to a correct theory of ani- 

 mal distribution, due to the last named writer, as it is founded upon 

 the Natural Geography of the Earth. His own hypothesis he pre- 

 faces with the following observations : — " Since, then, there is as 

 marked a distinction between animals of the great Continents as 

 there is between the races of mankind, by whom they are inhabited, 

 it remains to be considered whether the general distribution of 

 both are not in unison, whether their divine Creator has not, by cer- 

 tain laws incomprehensible to human understanding, regulated the 

 distribution of man and animals upon the same plan? These questions 

 lead us to the following propositions, 1. That the countries peopled 

 by the five recorded varieties of the human species, are likewise in- 

 habited by different races of animals, blending into each other at 

 their confines. 2. That these regions are the true zoological divi- 

 sions of the earth. 3. That this progression of animal forms is in 

 unison with the first great law of natural arrangement, viz. the gra- 

 dual amalgamation of the parts and the circularity of the whole." 

 Assuming, therefore, in accordance with the most distinguished 

 physiologists, that the typical or representative varieties of man are 

 five, viz. the European or Caucasian ; 2. the Asiatic or Mongolian ; 



3. the American ; 4. the Ethiopian or African ; 5. the Australian or 

 Malay, the respective divisions of the earth inhabited by them will 

 form the five zoological provinces." Their precise limits he does not 

 pretend accurately to define, as an amalgamation or blending in 

 of their contents must necessarily take place upon the confines of 

 each, but the following he considers as a near approximation to the 

 truth. " 1. the European or Caucasian range he supposes to include 

 the whole of Europe, properly so called, with part of Asia Minor 

 and the shores of the Mediterranean. 2. The Asiatic range, com- 

 prehending the whole of Asia east of the Ural Mountains. 3. The 

 American range united to Europe and Asia at its northern limits ; 

 this region comprehends the whole of the New World, but into 

 which it blends at the other extremity is not yet ascertained. 



4. In this range he includes the whole of Africa south of the great 

 desert; and the 5th or Australian province embraces the whole of 

 Australia proper, together with New Guinea and the neighbouring 

 islands, as well as those of the Pacific Ocean. The Arctic regions, 

 it will be observed, in this distribution, are not considered as form- 

 ing a zoological province, and properly so, as the genera and species 

 restricted to them, or which are not found in the temperate parts of 



3 



