CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. BIMANA. 
43 
dark skin, and other approaches to the black varieties of men. Even whole nations, as the Ger- 
mans, for instance, have presented a tendency to become darker. 
There is also evidence to prove that even the forms which the bones of the head assnme among 
different nations is not fixed. Among the most highly developed races, having the most perfect 
forms of skull, we constantly see individuals with the projecting maxilla which is prevalent among 
the lowest tribes ; while, on the other hand, individuals are often seen among the least civilized 
races presenting forms of the skull approaching those of the most cultivated nations. Facts such 
as these are constantly accumulating, and clearly point to the derivation of the human race from 
one pair. 
While thus it appears that in the physical organization of mankind there arc no fixed differ- 
ences, or at least none in which the variation is greater than is shown to be the effect of climate 
and situation upon other races, it is still a striking fact that the same psychological nature prevails 
among all nations and tribes of the earth. However great may be the distance between the 
degrees of intellectual and moral elevation possessed by civilized and uncivilized nations, yet there 
is sufficient evidence to prove that in all there may be traced the same mental endowments, simi- 
lar natural prejudices and impressions, the same consciousness, the same sentiments, sympathies, 
propensities, — in short, a common physical nature, or a common mind. 
After an exceedingly careful survey of the various nations of the earth. Dr. Prichard remarks 
on this point with great force : " We contemplate among all the diversified tribes who are en- 
dowed with reason and ^speech, the same internal feelings, appetences, aversions ; the same inward 
convictions ; the same sentiments of subjection to invisible powers, and, more or less developed, of 
accountableness or responsibility to unseen avengers of wrong and agents of retributive justice, 
from whose tribunal men can not even by death escape." 
This accordance in the physiological and psychical properties of all nations affords a powerful 
argument in favor of the whole human race being but one species ; for, as Dr. Prichard observes, 
" the physiological characters of race are liable to few and unimportant variations ;" and therefore 
when we find that in a great number of races spread over the surface of the globe no other differ- 
ences occur, either in the average length of life, or the extreme length occasionally attained — ^in 
the periods of gestation, of infancy, of puberty, and of other changes in the economy, or in the 
habits, instincts, affections, and intellectual faculties — than may be faii'ly attributed to the differ- 
ences of external circumstances, it may be safely concluded that they are all members of the same 
family, and the offspring of one common stock. 
DIVERSITY OF ORIGIN IN THE HUMAN RACE. 
We have thus given, very briefly, the argument chiefly derived from the learned and profound 
work of Prichard, in behalf of the unity of the human race. The conclusion, in harmony with the 
commonly received interpretation of the Mosaic record, which traces all mankind to one parentage, 
that of Adam and Eve, though it has been and still is the prevailing one, is not adopted by all 
naturalists of the present day. There are many philosophers of great eminence, and whose opin- 
ions are always entitled to respect, who maintain that mankind were created in pairs or in nations 
in different parts of the earth to which their descendants are constitutionally adapted, and to which 
they have an instinctive attachment. 
The arguments to sustain this view, derived from history and various analogies with the vege- 
table and animal kingdoms, may be thus briefly stated : It is an undoubted fact that every geo- 
graphical division of the globe has its peculiar vegetation. Even where there is a general resem- 
blance, there are still specific differences. Thus, although we find in America and Europe, in the 
same parallels of latitude, trees which beal- the same names — the oak, ash, chestnut, beech, maple, 
&c. — they are, for the most part, specifically different ; and this is equally true of all other plants 
— very few instances being found in which indigenous vegetable products of one continent are 
identical with those of another. 
While thus the vegetable world presents the remarkable fact of special kinds of trees and plants 
established by nature in particular localities, a similar arrangement appears to exist in regard to 
animals. Every considerable geographical district throughout the globe seems to have its pe- 
