REVIEWS. 
237 
The author subsequently reverts to Mr. Darwin and his theory ; and we 
shall not fail to give the reader an opportunity of participating in the interest- 
ing association. 
Having enunciated the principle that varieties present gradations as they 
recede from the specific type, or that a “ species” is composed of different 
varieties blending into one another, the author now proceeds to apply this 
principle to the human race. 
He shows that the most dissimilar types of mankind are brought into 
relationship by intermediate varieties, just as in the case of the pigeon ; that on 
the continent of Africa, where we find the pure negro race on the one hand, 
and the white on the other, there are also intermediate tribes which present 
the distinctive features of both, and which form a connecting link between 
them. 
That these two types (the black and white) only constitute varieties, the 
author finds in every way probable, not only in consequence of the presence 
of intervening groups, which form a transition from one to the other, but 
because intermarriages of these races are frequent and fertile — a phase of the 
subject which he treats more fully in a subsequent part of his work. 
He next examines the nature and extent of the variations presented by the 
vegetable and animal races, as well as by man ; showing, first, that the two 
former are characterized by greoi anatomical and physiological (and in animals 
psychological or mental) differences ; and then that races of men also exhibit 
similar differences, but that the extent of such differences is much greater in 
• animals which are acknowledged as varieties only, than in any known races 
of man. 
To establish his position in this respect, he brings forward a mass of 
evidence, referring to the great difference in the size of certain animals of 
the same species, as compared with the height of different races of men, and 
selecting extreme cases as illustrations. Passing on to the alleged relation- 
ship, which has been found to exist between the human species and the ape, 
in consequence of the close resemblance between the skeleton of the aboriginal 
Australian and that animal ; he remarks that such doctrines may be very 
convenient for our settlers in justifying their treatment of the natives, as 
though they belonged to the animal races ; but he quotes several well-known 
travellers, to show that many of these degraded aborigines possess all the 
perfect attributes of Europeans. 
He says also (on the authority of Dawson, Cunningham, &c.), that indi- 
viduals brought to England had been educated to become true gentlemen, but 
that “ owing to the prejudice of colour exhibited toivards the negro in all colonies, 
especially in English ones,” it was no wonder that when these “ gentlemen ” 
returned to Australia, they fell back into their pristine barbarism. He thus 
seeks to show that the most degraded races of men are susceptible of being 
educated ; and that they present the characteristic features of varieties, 
inasmuch as they may relapse into their original condition. 
Many of the author’s statements concerning our Australian colonies are 
curious and instructive, as coming from one who writes without feeling or 
prejudice ; for example, whilst endeavouring to show that in every respect 
widely different races may become approximated, he says, “ In Australia the 
white man falls in the scale of civilization at the same time that the negro 
