THE HUMAN SPECIES. BOOK I. UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. CHAPTER L EMPIRES AND KINGDOMS OF NATURE.-THE HUMAN 1. THE naturalist who meets with an object for the first time, instinctively asks the question:-What is this object? This question leads to another:-With what other objects shall I class it? To what group, and, in the first place, to what kingdom does it belong? Is it a mineral, a plant, or an animal ? The answer is not always easy. We know that, in what may be called the basis of each kingdom, there are ambiguous forins, whose nature has long been, and still is, the subject of contention among naturalists. We know that polyps were long regarded as plants, and that nullipores, at first taken for polyps, are now divided between the vegetable and mineral kingdoms; and, finally, we know that even now, botanists and zoologists dispute over certain diatoms and transfer them from one kingdom to the other. Similarly the question has been asked:-What is man? and it has been answered from several points of view. To the naturalist it has but one meaning, and signifies, in which kingdom must man be placed? or better is man an animal? |