the other kingdoms. If the facts and phenomena which distinguish the human groups are those which, in other organised and living beings differentiate species, he will then legitimately infer the multiplicity of human species; if, however, these phenomena and facts are characteristic of race in the two inferior kingdoms, he must conclude in favour of specific unity.

It is the pursuance of this course which has convinced me of monogenism, and I am certain the result will be the same with anyone who will follow it.

II. The idea of species rests, as we have seen, upon the two distinct ideas of resemblance and filiation. Let us first turn our attention to the former as being the greater stumbling-block of the two. No one would hesitate to consider two individuals resembling each other very closely as belonging to the same species; if, however, they present somewhat marked differences, and the necessary information is wanting, we hesitate to give our decision in the negative. The mind readily accepts the latter conclusion when man is the object of discussion. A continual, though unconscious study, has endowed us with a perception which appreciates, in those around us, the most delicate gradations in features, the colour of the skin, and in the appearance of the hair. Now this delicacy of appreciation has, in the present instance, a serious inconvenience. It inevitably conduces to the exaggeration of differences existing between different groups, and by this very means leads us to regard them as so many species.

For this decision to have a real value, however, it should be shown beforehand that the variations between one human group and another, are greater than those which have been established between groups of animals aud plants, which are positively known to be only races of one species.

Now this is not the case. However slight an attempt we may have made to become acquainted with the nature and the extent of variations, we shall very soon see that in animal and vegetable races they attain limits, which are never over.

stepped, and but rarely attained, by the differences between human groups.

III. I shall not insist at any length upon the morphological and anatomical changes of plants. It will be sufficient to call to mind how numerous and different are those varieties of vegetables, flowers, fruit-trees, and ornamental shrubs, the number of which is always on the increase. Amongst the latter, the variety, it is true, very rarely attains to the condition of a race. Grafting, propagation by layers, etc., make it possible to multiply them rapidly and with certainty, as in the case of the thornless acacia, and gardeners have always been in the habit of resorting to this method. Nevertheless, even among fruit trees, a few of these varieties have become fixed, and can be reproduced by seed. The plum, the peach, and the vine, may be quoted as examples. As to annuals, garden vegetables especially, they can only be preserved and multiplied by this method. Here we only find races, and it is well to know how numerous and varied they are. The cabbage alone (Brassica oleracea) numbers forty-seven principal races, each of which is sub-divided into a number of secondary and tertiary races. Now it is quite useless to insist upon the distance which separates the headed cabbage, of which sauerkraut is made, from the turnip-cabbage, of which the root is eaten, and from the cauliflower or the brocoli.

It is very evident that this cannot be due to the mere alteration of primitive forms. The elements of the organism undergo modification, and are differently associated and combined according to the race. But these elements themselves often undergo most fundamental disturbance. Certain acids are diminished or disappear, and are replaced by sugar, a sweet taste and perfume, which develop and characterise certain races of vegetables and fruits, and show that the vital forces of these plants have been subjected to very substantial modifications faithfully transmitted from generation to generation.

The objection will perhaps be made that there is too little resemblance between vegetable and animal organisms for the

above comparison of anatomical facts to be really useful. It is different in physiological phenomena.

Vital activity in our cultivated plants sometimes presents very

remarkable differences in different races. In our several races of corn, the rapidity of development varies from simple to triple. In temperate climates barley requires five months to germinate, grow and ripen. In Finland and Lapland it only takes two months to accomplish the same phases of growth. And, finally, it is well known that in our kitchen and fruit gardens we find races and varieties, some of which are fast and some slow growers.

The energy of the reproductive organs often varies in a singular manner in different races. We have, for instance, roses which bloom two or three times a year, and strawberries which remain in fruit nearly the whole year. There are oranges crammed with pips, and others in which they are almost entirely wanting. Lastly, in some bananas and in the currant-grape the seeds have completely disappeared. We see at once that these latter products of human industry only exist as varieties.

IV. In animals we meet with facts which correspond exactly with those which we have just observed in plants. Further, we find that they experience modifications connected with the manifestations of the something which we have called the Animal Mind.

The diversity of races in our domestic species is too well known to make it necessary to insist upon this point. I shall only mention that Darwin reckons 150 distinct races of pigeons, and declares that he is not yet acquainted with all. These races are, moreover, sufficiently different to render a redivision into at least four distinct genera necessary, if they are considered as so many species. Among mammals analogous facts are noticed, in the case of the dog. At the Dog Show of 1863, the Society of Acclimatisation, which had been very strict in its rules of admission and only received perfectly pure types, collected no fewer than seventy races of dogs. The greater number, however,

belonged to Europe, and to France and England in particular; almost all those of Asia, Africa, and America, were absent from the collection, so that altogether we are justified in assuming that there are at least as many races of dogs as of pigeons. As to morphological differences we need only mention bull-dogs and greyhounds, beagles and Danish carriage dogs, mastiffs and King Charles's. It is scarcely necessary to remark that these external differences suggest the idea of corresponding modifications in the skeleton, in the proportion and form of the muscles. Anatomical differences are indeed even greater. For example, the skull of the water-spaniel is proportionately double the size of that of the bull-dog.

There are among animals, as among plants, some races which develop slowly, and others which increase in size rapidly. As in plants, fecundity is diminished in some and increased in others. When they are too perfect, that is to say, when they are too far removed from their natural type, animal races, like vegetable races, only propagate with great difficulty, or even not at all.

Our ordinary races of sheep only give birth once a year to a single lamb; the "hong-ti" twice a year to two lambs each time. The wild sow only litters once a year with but six or eight young, but when domesticated litters twice a year with from ten to fifteen. Her fecundity is therefore at least tripled. In the Indian pig, derived from the "Aperea,” it is more than seven times as great.

In dogs, habits imposed by education, transmitted and strengthened by heredity, finally assume the appearance of so many natural instincts by which races are as nicely characterised as by physical peculiarities. This has been established beyond a doubt by the experiments carried on by Knight during more than thirty years. The mention of the beagle and the pointer will be sufficient to recall the contrast which in many cases exists between these acquired instincts. Considered as the relative development of the intelligence, properly so called, the difference between races

is also very

marked in many cases. From this point of view we need only compare the greyhound and the spaniel.

V. If from animals and plants we pass to man, we shall find in him, as in the two inferior kingdoms, groups distinguished by anatomical, physiological and psychological differences. In most cases the same organs and the same functions present analogous modifications. What reason can be alleged for the idea that, if their nature is considered, these differences and modifications have a greater signification in man, and that they characterise species and not race? Clearly none; it would be reasoning against the laws of analogy. An argument based upon the variations presented by the manifestations of morality and religion, would be a neglect of the fact that these faculties are the attributes of the human kingdom, that they are wanting in the other kingdoms, and are not in consequence susceptible of any comparison of this kind. In that which is exclusively human, man can only be compared with man.

In conclusion, the facts of the variations and differences existing in man between different groups, are of the same nature as those established between different races of animals and plants. The nature of these phenomena cannot then be brought forward as an argument in favour of the theory that these groups are so many species.