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just the reverse has taken place. There is, perhaps, some ground for the 
latter reproach ; hut at the same time its justice can hardly invalidate the 
doctrine of evolution, as applied to plants and animals, which rests upon the 
observation of the phenomena of distribution of organisms in space and time, 
and by no means upon the success of the attempts that have been made by 
Darwin, Wallace, and others, to explain how the observed phenomena may 
have been brought about by secondary causes. The geographical distribu- 
tion and geological succession of the species of plants and animals present 
certain general peculiarities which require to be accounted for ; the theory 
that new forms (species) have always come into existence by the modifica- 
tion of the offspring of pre-existing organisms, seems to furnish the only 
scientific method of accounting for the observed facts ; and the failure of 
Mr. Darwin, or of Professor Hackel, to explain all the steps by which the 
process has been accomplished cannot legitimately shake the theory. 
These general biological questions occupy the first two sections of M. de 
Quatrefages’s book, and after dismissing them he proceeds directly to the 
consideration of his main subject. The third section treats of the antiquity 
of man, and gives the evidence proving the existence of human beings at 
remote periods of the existing epoch ; and, secondly, those more scanty indi- 
cations of their having lived in Tertiary times. M. de Quatrefages is inclined 
to accept the evidence which carries back man in some localities to the 
Miocene, and seems to think that there is no reason why he should not have 
had a still higher antiquity. In succeeding books the author proceeds to 
discuss the original localization of the man, the course of his migrations in 
peopling the earth, and the phenomena attending his acclimatization in the 
various parts of it, all, of course, strictly in accordance with monogenistic 
views. Next, he considers what was the nature of the primitive man, as to 
which, it must be confessed, he not unnaturally leaves us considerably in the 
dark ; but he maintains that the original formation of distinct races took 
place under the sole influence of the conditions of life and heredity, to be 
afterwards modified to a certain extent by intercrossing. 
These general and more or less theoretical matters occupy about half the 
book ; in its second half M. de Quatrefages treats first of the earliest races of 
which we have any reliable remains ; and, secondly, of the characters, phy- 
sical and psychological, of existing races. With regard to the latter he 
enters into no detailed examination of the different races of man ; but dis- 
cusses those characters and peculiarities, whether of mind or body, which 
serve for the distinction of races, and, of course, indicates in a general way 
the particular races in which these peculiarities occur. It is a treatise on 
the principles of ethnology, and not a formal classification of the races of 
man. 
In taking leave of this very good book, we cannot but express our regret 
that the publishers do not exercise greater care in the selection of a translator 
for such works. In the present volume we find passages which are evidently 
not correctly translated ; and the. qualifications of the translator for dealing 
with such a book may be inferred from the fact that in one place he has 
given “ Indian pig ” as the equivalent of the French “ Cochon d’lnde ; ” in 
another “ mean Miocene ” as the translation of Miocene moyenne , and 
in another ascribes the preservation of the history of the Norse inter- 
