ZOOLOGICAL DEDUCTIONS. 



305 



On referring to the accompanying map, we shall find : That the 

 races of men, could all be conveniently derived from the same two 

 centres; the one, in the East Indies; and the other, in Africa: and if 

 we could suppose separate species, this, agreeably to known laws, 

 would reconcile the geographical portion of the subject. 



The objection of the slight external differences, would not of itself 

 be sufficient. For it is found in the organic world : That species, 

 differ by peculiarities which tend merely to change the aspect ; 

 while any radical change of structure, involves the habits of life, 

 and marks out a genus or group : in other words, That specific cha- 

 racters are external, while generic characters are anatomical. 



On the other hand, a very decided change may take place in the 

 aspect, without a specific difference : as is more particularly the 

 case, in domestic animals and plants. Among these, moreover, we 

 occasionally observe, new varieties springing up at a distance from 

 the original locality. Thus, new varieties of plums, apples, and 

 pears, have made tlieir appearance in America since the introduction 

 from abroad of the parent stocks. 



Not so, however, with the human family. Notwithstanding the 

 mixtures of race during two centuries, no one has remarked a ten- 

 dency to the developement of a new race in the United States. In 

 Arabia, where the mixtures are more com})licated, and have been 

 going on from lime immemorial, the result does not appear to have 

 been different. On the Egyptian monuments, I was unable to 

 detect a change in the races of the human family. Neither does 

 written history, afford evidence of the extinction of one physical race 

 of men, or of the developement of another previously unknown. 



It is true, varieties, appear to have more permanence in certain 

 kinds of animals than in others. Thus, the breed of sheep figured 

 on the most ancient Egyptian monuments, is unknown at the pre- 

 sent day : and at least, one variety of the hullock formerly known in 

 Egypt, has in like manner become extinct. On the other hand, 

 among the many varieties of the dog, figured at Beni-Hassan, (ante- 

 rior to the Pharaonic Ages,) two have been pronounced identical with 

 the Greyhound and the Turnspit now existing. — Within my own ob- 

 servation, I have tbund no tendency in varieties, to revert in the 

 course of successive generations, to the original type. But this 

 whole subject of varieties, has received from naturalists very little 

 attention ; and when it shall be better understood, it may perhaps 

 throw light upon the origin of the races of the human family. 



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