Arizona citizen., 1877-10-20
Interesting Scientific Paragraphs.


 Professor Genung, who occupies high place in the scientific world, ha recently been delivering some very in terestiDg lectures ID San Francisco He treats mainly of the races of meI and their origin Following are few paragraphs, of at least curious interest taken from 8 report of one of his lee lures:
 As there are zones of vegetable life said the lecturer, so there are zones o animal life, and we ii that animal: vary as their surroundings vary. Thu: the polar bear is az white as the snow over which he travels, and the tiger is striped, like the jungle through which be prOwls; the wren, also, is brown, as the ground oyer which he hops The first poiuS then, in the inquiry as to the origts oi ihe races of men, is tc determine how tar man, like the ami mals around him, varies with the as poets of nature. Schweinfurth's inves. tigatiOns in Africa showed that, like the animals, man does vary in color, taking the tints of his habitat. The Dlnka, found on the banks of the White Nile, where the soil is black, has q black skin, while the DyOor, cognate tribe, on a red-brown soil, is of a red brown color. Thus, where man has not lifted himself above the conditions of nature, sine plays upon him, and mOdifieS his as If he were an animal.
 The earliest division of men, the speaker argued, was into a woody hair ed race and a straighthaired race. ! While we cannot always tell mans race by his eyes, his cheek-bOnes or some other features, we can always tell which race he belongs to by his hair. ! This is because the hair is feature | which always runs with the blood. If we have bair which, when cut, pre- sents a circular surface on the end, We know that 1t came from the head of a man belonging 10 q race which is re- fined and which has a history. If we see a haIr which, when cut, presents an oval surface on the end, we may know it came from the head of man who belongs to race which has no history, no sciences, no arts, no instl- tutiOns.
 In Western Asia, however, all the conditions favored the growth and per lection of the races of men Here there was no burning sand, as in Afr ca, nor freezing snow, as in North America, nor poisonous plants nor an- imals, as in South Africa. Here, from being a hunter, man became shep- hert. And as shepherd he had time for leisure and study. Of all our forty kinds of domestic animals, we find that twenty-siX are natives of West ern Asia. The wild Oat and tame wheat are also natives of the same country. Thus, while the develop ment of men was barred in Australia aud the islands by want of animals 10 fight and make hunters of them, and in South Africa and South America by the want of weeds and the presence of the poisonous asp preventing hlm from becoming a shepherd, in West eTn Asia all the conditions of nature favored him, and the sheep hurdles be came the walls of large ciues, great States were founded and blossomed into the flower of civilization.
 The professor showed that nature does not favor white, but favors black. Nature has provided black animals with quick senses, which enable them to discover and leave untouched poi sonous weeds, etc. In Virginia the white pigs eat a species of pOIsonous plant, and are killed by it, while the black pigs leave it untasted, and live. The speaker said that since he had been in California he had not seen one white pig which was in healthy con- dltiOn. If there were no pigs here, and men were to stock the State with white pigs, within twelve years all of the pigs, through the process of nat ural selection, would become black. Another significant fact which sup ports this law, is that of all the sayage races, not one can be found which isl white. Centuries ago the forces of nature were playing on the Indian and making him black, as today they are playing on the pig.
 For every flower that blooms one HuHuIcu dIc ulppCu D1 llC liuSt III tiC bud; for every plant that reaches per lection two hundred die and decay; for every world that moves round the sun, dozens may have burst and drop ped from their orbits; and for every race that has reached civilization, al thousand may have been retarded in their growth and died. But beyond this atmosphere of woe and waste, the eye of the saint looks out into an at- mosphere which cannot bear up the arms of science, but may support the wings of faith and fancy.