MAMM EA, in botany, a genus of the Polygamia Monoecia, or Dioocia class and order. Natural order of Guttiferx, Jus sieu. Essential character : calyx one leafed, two-parted ; corolla four-petalled ; berry very large, four-seeded. There is but one species, viz. M. Americana, Arne. rican inammee, which is a lofty, upright, handsome tree, with a thick spreading elegant head ; it has a long tap root, which renders it difficult to transplant ; the leaves are oval, quite entire, extreme ly shining, leathery, firm, with parallel transverse streaks, on short- petioles from five to eight inches in length ; peduncles one-flowered, scattered over the stouter branches ; flowers sweet, white, an inch and half in diameter ; the calyx is often trifid, with a five-petalled corolla. It is a native of the Caribbee islands, and the neighbouring continent.
MAN. The natural history of man is yet in its infancy ; insomuch that we can not pretend to give any thing like a com plete view of the subject. The descrip tion and arrangement of the various pro ductions of the globe, have occupied nu merous observers in all ages of the world; and every insect and plant of common occurrence has been described with mi nute accuracy, while the human subject alone has been almost entirely neglected. It is only of late that the natural history of man has begun to receive its due share of attention ; and we shall venture to assert, that, whether we regard the in. trinsic importance of the questions that arise, or merely advert to the pleasure of the research, no subject will be found more deserving of minute investigation. Much of the following sketch is derived from Blumenbach, " De Ceneris llnmaHl Varietate Nativa." Ed. 3d, (lotting. 1795; to which we refer the reader for more detailed information. He may also con stilt the " Decades Craniorum " of the same author ; Camper, " Traite des Dif ferences Iteeles," &c. 4to. ; Buffon, in his large work on " Natural History ;" Hunter, "Disp. Inaug. de Hominum Va rietatibus, earumque Causis ;" Zimmer man, " Geographische Geschichte der Menschen, &c." and Ludwig, " Grun driss der Naturgeschichte der Menschen The differences which exist between inhabitants of different regions of the globe, both in bodily conformation and in the faculties of the mind, are so striking, that they must have attracted the notice even of superficial observers. There are two ways of explaining these : first, by referring the different races of men to different original families, according to which supposition they will form, in the language of naturalists, different species; or we may suppose them all to have de scended from one family, and account for the diversity which is observable in them, by the influence of physical and moral causes ; in which case they will only form different varieties of the same spe cies.
Before, however, we enter upon this discussion, it will be necessary to dispose of a previous question, viz. what are the characters which distinguish man from all other animals ; those which constitute him a distinct genus ? Several writers, who have pleased themselves with de scribing what they call a regular grada tion or chain of beings, represent man only as a superior kind of monkey ; and place the unfortunate African as the con necting link between the superior races of mankind and the orang-outang; they deny, in short, that he is generically dis tinguished from monkeys. Such an opi nion might reasonably be expected from the slave-merchant who traffics in human blood, and from a West Indian Negro driver, who uses his fellow-creatures worse than brutes ; but we should not think of finding it defended by the natu ral historian ; and we shall not hesitate to assert, that it is as false philosophically, as the moral and political consequences, to which it would lead, are shocking and detestable. We set out with this posi tion ; that man has numerous distinctive marks, by which, under every circum stance of roughness and uncivilization, and every variety of country and race, he is separated, at a broad and most clear ly defined interval, from every other ani mal, even of those classes which, from their general resemblance to the human subject, have been called anthropo-mor plums. We cannot, indeed, by any means coincide with those moderns, who have indulged their imagination in painting a certain continuity or gradation of created beings ; and who fancy they have disco vered great wisdom of the Creator, and great perfection of the creation, in this respect ; that nature makes no leaps, but has connected the various objects of the three kingdoms with each other, like the steps of a staircase, or the links of a chain. The candid and unprejudiced observer must allow, that in the animal kingdom there are whole classes, as birds, and par ticular genera, as the cuttle-fish, which can not find a place in such a scheme of ar rangement, without a very forced and un natural introduction : and, again, that there are certain genera, as th e coccus,where the two sexes are so differentfrom each other, that the male and female must be sepa rated, and occupy different parts of the scale, in this artificial plan of gradation.