19 
much greater degree by the reflection that, if the analogy on 
which "it is founded were traced out far enough, this race 
ought, when transported from its native soil, to revert to its 
primordial elements, and become assimilated with that more 
ordinary type of mankind from which, according to this theory, 
it must have been eliminated. 
36. (V.) What then remains ? There is only one other 
theory to be considered; viz., that which refers the origination 
of the Negro to 
The Operations, not of Methodical, but of Natural 
Selection, after an unexpected appearance of certain 
Congenital Varieties among some of the Hamitic race at 
A REMOTE ERA OF THE WORLD. 
37. I have already spoken of the occasional appearance of 
congenital varieties among animals and birds. The same 
thing occurs among men. We cannot understand it or explain 
it. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that, according to 
some mysterious laws of nature, certain abnormal features 
occasionally make their appearance at the birth of particular 
individuals. Nay, more. Such peculiarities may be here- 
ditarily transmitted, even through marriages with others of 
the ordinary type. Upon these two grounds of observation, 
each properly supported by authentic facts, I shall endeavour 
to show that we are furnished with data, on which we may 
fairly and reasonably base a theory of the origin of the Negro 
race, without being under any necessity for attributing it to a 
separate creation, or for extending the chronology of mankind 
to millions of years instead of thousands. 
38. As to the tendency of human nature to reproduce 
general family likenesses through successive generations, the 
fact is so well known that writers often allude to it. Mon- 
taigne, in one of his essays, asks, How can nature carry on 
these resemblances with so irregular a progress, that the son 
shall be like his great-grandfather, and the nephew like his 
uncle? And as with family likenesses, so with diseases. 
That diseases both of mind and body are transmitted here- 
ditarily, is a melancholy truth only too common in the expe- 
rience of every medical practitioner. With regard to gout, it 
is stated that, in hospital cases, fifty per cent, result from this 
cause ; while in private practice the percentage is even greater. 
So with cancer, consumption, insanity, which, with many other 
complaints, continually run in families. Nay, more. They 
often make their appearances at about the same period of 
life.f Human nature, therefore, having this decided tendency 
* Montaigne, book ii. ch. xxxvii. 
t See Essay on Hereditary Diseases , by Dr. J. Steinam. 1843. 
c 2 
