The republic., 1851-08-07
From The Philadslphia Bulletin.
The Unity OF the Race.

favor Of a unity of the race to be found in the
Methodist Quariay Revieto for July, TO which also
we call our correspondents attention. The writer
in the Reuittc has made able analysis of the ar
guments OF Prichard, Bachman and Smyth; and
we would recommend the article excellent
introduction to the study OF any one or OF all the
treatises in question. The reviewer examines the
matter psychologically, ethnologically. and phio-
logically, and believe that every impartial and
comprehensive mind will be convicted by his
guments.
We remember that we promised, on former oc-
casion, to bring forward some of the proofs, from
natural history, of the unity of the race and we
now avail ourselves of this opportunity to redeem
the pledge. IL Is on the proofs from natural his
tory indeed, that the battle is to be fought. after
all. We may deduce, from the similarity OF lam
guages, that any spoken tongue has descended
from common origin, and thus produce an argu-
ment in favor Of the unity of the race; /; bat until
we can show that the diversities in the human
race, great they are, are no greater than exist
in other animals acknowledged TO have sprung
from common stock, cannot conclusiyely es-
tablish what we desire. The argument from natu-
raj history is therefore, the most important csall
At the outset of the discussion 1t 10 proper to
state the important point that In natural history,
where animals ANAL lgamate, il is proof that they
belong TO common stock. The law of organic
life is that each creature shall propagate its own
kind, and not any other. Hybrids are al0nost un-
known in the wild state and, though the art of
man produces mules, he cannot, it is well known,
continue the species. But the different races of
man amalgamate, and, in this amalgamation, re-
tain the power OF reproduction. The West India
islands furnish conclusive proof of this. In Jamai-
ca, Cuba, and other Islands there exist every va
rety of color, from the sable African to the olive
complexioned Spaniard-from the descendant of
the original Indian to the newly arrived emgrant
from Great Britain. These marry and intermarry
without limit, and are productive, irrespective of
color. Negro, mulatto, quadroon, and white, all
retain their fertility, however they mingle their
blood. Unless man, therefore, is exception to
the animal kingdom, which it would be absurd to
assert, this power of reproduction in the mixed
races proves him TO belong to one species; and the
diversites OF color to be accounted for by var
ties OF climate, food, and mode OF lfe perpetuated
for centuries. The question is-Can they be thus
accounted for ?'
We think they can. Among animals of lower
type, for instance, diversites have been produced
by similar, or even less powerful causes. In 1871
eve, in Massachusetts, gave birth to male lamb
with longer body and shorter legs than common,
and moreover with the fore legs crooked AS this
peculiarly OF form renders the animal incapable
OF leaping fences it resolved to perpetuate the
variety, if possible. The experiment succeeded,
and hence the breed of other sheep. A race of
swine, with soid hoofs, propag gated, from an
accidental birth, in Hungary; and recently the
same description has appeared on the Red river, in
our own country, without any assignable cause.
Again, when the Europeans settled this country,
they introduced here the domesticated animals,
and, of these escaping, wild horses hogs, and
other beasts became common. The ordinary swine
has become, in the mountains of Paramos, like the
wild boar of the Pyrences-the bristles giving place
to fur with under coat of wool; the snout has
heightened, the forehead has become vaulted, the
hind legs are not 30 short and other anatomical
changes have occurred Thus also the wild dog of
the Pampas has lost the bark OF its domesticated
ancestry, and howls like wolf; while the wild cat
no longer initiates the voice of its original parents.
We might multiply instances, indeed, almost
without limit but n few more, we think, will be
sufficient for the argument The wild horse of &
South America is covered with long shaggy fur.
and is of uniform chestnut color. The wild sheep
of the Andes has, after it's first year, hair like
goat, instead Of the fleece of the primitive stock.
The goat, in turn has lost her large ears and pro-
duces two or three kids annually. In gallinacious
fowls variety has arisen, called rumpless, which
wants from one TO six of the vertebrr of the tail.
All these changes the result of climate, food,
and diversites of life wide scale. But even on
a smaller scale striking changes perceptible.
The sheep of Tartary, when removed to the steppes
of Siberia, lose their posterior of fat The
African sheep becomes large like goat, and ex-
changes its wool for hair. The Wallachian sheep
puts ON large, perpendicuar, spiral horns, and in
like manner becomes clothed with hair. The wild
horses of eastern Siberia differ perceptibly in ana
tomica structure from the tame ones of civilized
life. In fact the dog, and horse have each suf
fered alterations, from climate culture, and other
causes, which, to an ignorant mind, would be con-
elusive proof of diversity Of origin Yet the lap
dog of the lady and the mastiff of st. Barnard
descended from one common stock; 30 are the tiny
Surat OK and the gigantic Durham COW; and SO,
too, are the shaggy Shetland pony and the
nous Flanders mare.
We might stop here. The difference between
the Caucasian and African vast it is is less than
that between st. Charles spaniel and a Scotch
deer-hound; and if the latter, as conceded have
sprung from common stock, there is
why the other should not have done the same. But
proofs on proof surround us; and we proceed. The
unity of the can be established in fact, from
the resemblance of the race, as we'll IA from the
want of ofrreconcilabe diversities. Man differs from
all other animals, and agrees, in every variety of
race, In many striking anatomical and other Pecu-
arties; in his erect stature, in the number Of his
teeth, in the shortness of the lower jaw, in the
number of bones in the skeleton, in smooth skin,
in the organs Of speech, in the 1wer of laughing.
in long infancy, slow growth, and late puberty,
in the great development of the cerebral henli-
spheres, and in the size of the brain compared
with the nerves connected with it, in the peculiar
structure of the female, in the period of gestation
and lastly, in the possession of similar mental,
moral, and religious faculties, rendering hin, re-
sponsble to wise Creator, and making him ca
pable of an organized society and of the various
phenomena of civilization. In word man, through
all his race, more closely resembles himself than
any other species; and between him and the brute
creation there is gap, which, compared to the
spaces that separate other species, s, as 1t were
an eternity of distance.
The diversties of the human family, were they
even greater than they are, would not be irrecon-
cilabe with the unity of the II is, indeed,
wise provision of Providence that man varies
much, for he thus becomes fitted to inhabt dfe-
rent climates, and cvilize the most opposite quar-
tors of the globe. Man lives in every climate, from
the frozen regions of Greenland to the sultry
of Switzerland and the plains of South America
tlls the soil, hunts the deer sails the His
food too, is diverse his climate his occupa-
ton. He lives, like the Esquimaux, bubber,
or Dimes like the Partisan, every variety of cook
ed food. He eats only buffalo meat like some In
dians OF the West, or INDUCES in nothing but vege
tables, like the Bedouins of the East The animals
which attend him in domesticated capacity exhi-
bit, and they alone, similar diversites of appear
ance, and, we have doubt, from similar causes;
it Is the dog, the COW, and the horse that vary
widely, not the lion, the tiger the hippopota-
mus. In word, the varieties which see in the
higher order of animals seem to have been wisely
brought about by Heaven, in order that the earth
might be peoped by intelligent man, accompanied
by domcsticated animals.
The differences between the various races Of
men prove nothing against the unity of our race,
therefore, while their points of resemblance esta-
blish their common origin. Thus natural history,
if fairly interpreted, sustans the Bible, snd places
beyond cayil our common descent from Adam and
Eve.
FITz GREENE HALLEcK.-We see it stated in the
New York Sunday Auas that this gentleman, 30 we'll
known as writer, and who would have been the
first American poet but for the fact that his humor