But although these considerations may weigh in favour of the hypothesis which supposes the human race to have proceeded from more than one origin, there are some powerful arguments which induce us to conclude that they are all the descendants of one pair. These argu ments principally consist in analogies taken from the in ferior animals, where we observe varieties produced, more considerable than those among the human race, yet all derived from a common stock. The different kinds of dogs, which are so familiar to us, differ more from each other than the European does from the African, and they seem equally disposed to be permanent, and to be unaffected by external circumstances, yet naturalists are generally agreed in referring them all to one origin. And although we are disposed, when speaking of the general fact, to remark upon the permanency of the varieties of the human race, and upon the little effect which external circumstances produce upon them, yet this is not abso lutely the case. There are some instances, where the changes produced by civilization upon man, are almost as obvious as those of domestication upon brutes, and al though it would be very difficult to conceive of the meta morphosis, as occurring in the course of only two or three successive stages, it may be conceived to take place through a sufficient number of gradations.
If we are then to admit of the possibility of this change, our next inquiry will be into the means by which it is ac complished ; and there appear to be two methods in which we may conceive of this effect, although we may doubt whether they be altogether adequate to the object, and whether there may not be some farther principle in ope ration which is still unknown to us. The two circum stances to which we refer are the effects of what is called domestication, and the tendency which there seems to be to the perpetuating any accidental variety which may oc cur in the form or organization of the body. It will be unnecessary for us to make any remarks upon the change which is produced by domestication, its power in altering both the form of the body, as well as its functions, being too well known to require illustration. Our object at present will be, to inquire whether we are warranted in extending the analogy to the human species. It is ad mitted, that we are not able to adduce any facts of so di rect and striking a nature, as applicable to man, but still we conceive that here the operation of refinement and a high state of civilization is sufficiently apparent. In those countries where the difference of habits between the higher and lower classes exists in the greatest degree, and where, from mcral and political causes, the classes are kept the most distinct, an obvious difference may be ob served in the form and organization, although the whole community may have originally belonged to the same va riety.
With respect to the other principle to which we re ferred, there are some individual facts that bear very strongly upon the question, although it perhaps may be doubted whether it be of general operation. The art, which has been carried to so great an extent in this coun try, of improving the breed of cattle, depends upon the power which we possess of perpetuating in the offspring any peculiarity in the parent. But the most curious facts
are those in which a deviation from the ordinary form or organization of an animal, which might appear purely casual, has a tendency to become hereditary. Two series of phenomena of this description have been lately brought under our notice, which may serve to illustrate the point in question ; the American family, of which an account has been written by Sir A. Carlisle, several members of which have a supernumerary thumb and toe on each ex tremity, and the individual who lately exhibited himself in London under the appellation of the Porcupine Man, in consequence of his skin being covered with hard pro cesses, several of whose relations were possessed of this peculiarity.
A curious question will here present itself for our con sideration, whether any of the varieties of the human race, as they now exist, is to be regarded as the parent stock whence all the rest are derived, and if so, to which of them we are to give this pre-eminence ? In this inquiry there are scarcely any documents derived from history ; and any conclusions that we may form from physiological considerations, must be almost entirely conjectural. Upon the whole, it would appear more probable, that the changes induced upon mankind have been in consequence of a progress from a state of barbarism to a state of refinement than the reverse ; and here we are led to suppose that va riety to be the primary one, which, through all the vicis situdes of human affairs, has remained in the most de graded state, and which, in its structure and functions, differs the most from that variety which has uniformly enjoyed the greatest degree of civilization. Upon this principle, we must regard the African as the type of the original pair, from which have sprung the Malay, the Tar tar, the aboriginal American, and lastly, the variety which at present occupies the greatest part of Europe and the western parts of Asia, and which we are entitled to re gard as the most perfect form of the human race.
It has been a favourite object with many naturalists, to establish a regular gradation among the different classes of animals, so as to form the whole into one chain, the successive links of which closely resemble each other, and carry us on from the least perfectly organized to that which is the most so, by almost insensible degrees. By this kind of gradation it has been attempted to connect the human race with some of the simix, and so far as the shape of the skull is concerned, vs e find, that if we place at one end of the series a very perfect European skull, and pro ceed through the other varieties to the African, and so on to the ourang-outang, there is actually a degree of re semblance between the two latter, with respect to some of the most remarkable features in the form of the bones. Nor is this difference altogether confined to the shape of the skull, although it is the most obviously marked in this part ; so that, upon the whole, we may be justified in the assertion, that the African constitutes a less perfect spe men of the human form than the European. How far this inferiority of form may be extended to the intellectual faculties, it does not belong to our subject to investigate.