CLASS I. MAMMALIA: 
ORDER 1. 
BIMAN A. 
47 
of the investigation, and the leading trains of argument. Many of the allegations of those who 
maintain the unity of the human race are of course contradicted by their opponents. These 
admit that climate and situation may modify the physical as well as the moral character of races ; 
but they insist that, inasmuch as the very organizations differ in essential points — such as the 
structure of the hair and skin, the shape of the logs, the position of the pelvis, the formation of 
the skull, the volume of the brain, &c., to say nothing of the differences in moral and mental 
qualities, which have been permanent for thousands of years — they cannot thus have transformed 
one type into another. 
It has been argued for the specific unity of man, that the offspring of different species are hy- 
brids, and incapable of continuous propagation, and hence, as the various races of men are 
prolific with each other, they must be of one species. To this it is replied, in the first place, that 
some hybrids among animals are, in fact, fertile to a certain extent ; and, in the second place, it is 
asserted that the offspring of white and negro parents are so far unprolific, that if they continue 
to breed together, the race gradually becomes extinct. 
It is further maintained, that by no influence either of moral or physical condition can the Cau- 
casians be converted into negroes or the negroes into Caucasians. As the leopard cannot change 
his spots, so the Ethiopian cannot change his skin. The last was as much created wnth a certain 
type — physical, moral, and intellectual — as the other ; and this, however it may be modified, can 
never be essentially changed, unless indeed by adulterations of blood. 
'•What the negroes are now," says Martin, "they were three thousand years ago. The period 
in which the change took place eludes investigation ; nor can it be traced to the influence of 
climate or soil. A European, exposed to the fervid rays of the inter-tropics, will in-^ieed become 
swarthy, tanned, and sunburnt, but not changed into a negro. The parts of his body not exposed 
will not be affected ; his swarthiness is accidental and temporary ; and his children will be of the 
ordinary degree of fairness. But the children of negroes, born in North America or Northern 
Europe — ^thcir children and their children's children — are still genuine negroes. If the color and 
form of the negro were conditions thus acquired, such conditions would not be fixed and perpet- 
uated ; for, though like produces like — though the race-horse, breeding with the race-horse, pro- 
duces a race-horse, or the bull-dog, with its like, produces a bull-dog — still, the mere influence of 
climate, effecting, as it would seem, only superficial and transitory impressions, does not establish 
them upon the organization. No people, within the records of history, have been changed into a 
race of negroes. 
« While, however, the negro retains his fixed and distinguishing characters, he is not only sur- 
rounded by the descendants of the European colonists, retaining theirs, but by African tribes, not 
negroes, differing in tint of skin, physiognomy, hair, and general contour. The Abyssinians^, 
within ten degrees of the equator, and surrounded by negroes, have a daik olive-color, large, 
expressive eyes, and long hair. The Gallas, of the same latitudes, a nation of considerable- 
extent, have also a brown skin and long hair. The natives of Timbuctoo are not negroes. In 
Madagascar, two or three distinct races exist — a true negro race, and an olive-colored, or yellowish- 
brown race, with crisp hair, termed by Lesson Madecasses, apparently of the Papuan stock ; and, 
besides these, what appears to be an aboriginal race, inhabiting the interior, with dark skins and 
lank hair, called Virzimbers, a branch of the great Aifouro nation, which is spread over the Moluc- 
cas, New Guinea, and which also inhabits the interior of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. That 
the negroes, then, do not owe their peculiarities to the mere eflects of the heat of the torrid zone, 
need not be insisted on. The question then arises, whether their origin is to be attributed to that 
tendency to variation of form which obtains, more or less, throughout the animal kingdom, result- 
ing from circumstances which elude our scrutiny, or Avhether they are aboriginal, and in this sense 
a distinct race ? Could we pierce the darkness of antiquity, the obscure of by-gone time — could; 
we work out a history of our species, commencing with man's first existence on the globe, w^e 
might solve a question on which many are divided, and to which each party brings plausible ar- 
guments. As it is, we must on many points remain in conjecture, or with only analogy to guide 
us. One thing is clear, that no external or physical causes with which physiologists are acquainted 
can change a nation of the Celtic or the Teutonic race into the negro, the Papuan, or Aifouro, 
