The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-06 00:00:00

ANTHROPOLOGY.

The Revue des Deux-Mondes pablishes an article by M.
de Quatrefages, in which that distinguished member of the
institute examines the question of the origin of mankind.
Those philosophers who are of opinion that the Bible is no
authority in scientific matters, reject the legend of Adam
and Eve as contrary to fact, and maintain that the creation
of man took place not at one period only, nor on one single
point of the globe, but at different periods and at different
places ; whence the various species of the genus man—
viz., the white, black, red, etc. This view of the question,
first advocated by La Peyriere in 1655, has been embraced
in our time, and reduced to a definite scientific theory
by the celebrated American naturalist, Agaasiz, who
has found numerous partisans especially in France and
Germany, forming a school known under the name of
polygenists, while those who hold an opinion more in ac-
cordance with Scripture are called monogenists. M. de Qaa
trefages belongs to this latter 'class, and adduces many
scientific arguments to disprove those of Agassiz. He ad-
mits, as all modern zoologists do, several centres of crea-
tion for the different brute species ; the marsupialia (such
as the kangaroo, opposum, &c.) exclusively belong to Now
Holland ; the edentate (having no fore-teeth) exclusively
to America; but the same does not hold good in the case
of man. If man be only a more developed species of the
ape family, howi he asks, can the fact be explained that
man is found in countries where there is not a single
kind of ape ? Again, the red man, whom Agassiz con-
siders to be a peculiar American type, inhabits North
America, where the European fox and beaver are found.
In South America, on the contrary, there is a yellow race
of men, who resemble the Asiatics so much, that they
at once become aware of it, and the Prince of Neu-
wied states that they call the Chinese their uncles.
There are also in the New World other races which,
without being so white as the English or Germans,
still are fairer than, generally speaking, the Italians or
Spaniards. Colour, therefore, is no sufficient reason for
supposing that the different races of men have not descen-
ded from a common stock; since climate exercises a strong
influence on the human frame and the colour of the skin ;
but a still more stringent argument in favour of unity of
descent is analogy of ;language, the evidence of which
Agassiz does not accept. As to the difficulties which
the Ocean opposed to the spreading of the human race ?
M. de Quatrefages naturally points to Behring's
Straits, and to the belt of islands which seems
to link Asia with America across the Pacific islands, inha-
bited by races all speaking dialects of the same parent
tongue, while it is notorious that with their rude canoes they
perform long voyages by sea, visiting distant islands for
purposes either of traffic or war. May not this chain of
islands have presented so many stepping-stones across the
ocean to an enterprising race. We may therefore conclude,"
says our author, not only that man belongs to a single
species, but also that it springs from a single district of the
globe, probably a district of small extent. Everything
points to Central Asia as the first cradle of man.