Read Ebook: The human species by Quatrefages A De Armand De

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In other words, filiation, nutrition, birth and death, are so many characteristics of the organised being, of which no trace is found in inanimate bodies. I agree with Pallas in making inanimate bodies compose the Inorganic Empire, and organised beings the Organic Empire.

I must here make an observation, the importance of which will be easily understood.

The existence of the two groups which have been recognised by the good sense of the general public as well as by the science of Pallas, is a fact absolutely independent of all hypothesis. Whatever explanation we may propose to account for the differential phenomena which distinguish them, these phenomena will not the less exist; the inanimate body will never be an organised being.

The reason is that, in the organised being, the repose of the crystal is replaced by an incessant movement; that, instead of remaining immovable and unalterable, the molecules are unceasingly undergoing transformation, changing their composition, producing fresh substances, retaining some and rejecting others. Far from resembling a pile of shot, the organised being may much rather be compared to the combination of a number of physico-chemical apparatus, constantly in action to burn or reduce materials borrowed from without, and ever making use of their own substance for its incessant renewal.

The two groups are easily separated by the phenomena they exhibit. It is the same with the causes of the phenomenon.

Naturalists and physiologists are here divided. Some would have it that the cause, or the causes, are identical, and that conditions, which are almost accidental, alone determine the difference in the results by changing their mode of action. In their opinion the formation of a crystal or of a moneron is only a question of resultant.

Others consider living beings as the result of a cause entirely different from those which act in inanimate bodies, and refer to this cause alone everything which takes place in these beings.

These two methods appear to me, from the exclusive element in each, to be equally ill-founded. It cannot be denied that phenomena identical with those characteristic of inanimate bodies are found in organised beings, and we have, therefore, no scientific reason to attribute them to different causes.

But whatever be the progress of science, and though M. de Tessan's theory should be confirmed by experiment, the difference between the phenomena would not be diminished; the conclusions to be drawn from the facts in connection with the question we are here discussing would remain the same.

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the physico-chemical phenomena produced by etherodynamy can act upon masses or be exclusively molecular. They are in all cases similar to those which depend upon gravitation, they are subject to invariable laws and are always repeated in a similar manner when produced under similar circumstances.

No antagonism, it is true, exists between gravitation and etherodynamy. It is no less true that the action of the first is always disturbed in a peculiar manner by that of the second, and that in some phenomena it seems as if the latter would neutralise the former. This fact is most strikingly shown in some of the commonest experiments in physics. The gold leaves of the electroscope separate, the pith-balls are attracted towards electrified bodies in spite of their weight, and are repelled with a rapidity greater than that which would result merely from their own weight. And yet these bodies have no more ceased to possess weight than those masses of iron raised by the powerful magnets of M. Jamin. Etherodynamy in these two cases merely overcame gravitation and either modified or imitated its action.

If the anti-vitalists would only seriously reflect upon the matter, they would acknowledge that, considered from this point of view, there is nothing more mysterious in living beings than in some of the commonest phenomena presented by inanimate bodies. The intervention of Life as a modifying agent of actions purely etherodynamic may be as easily admitted as that of etherodynamy itself modifying and overcoming the action of weight. It is just as strange to see a piece of iron attracted and supported by a magnet, as to see carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen combine and dispose themselves so as to form an animal or vegetable cell instead of any imaginable inorganic composition.

Are we then to conclude that life is an intelligent force, conscious of the part it plays, and enjoying the dominion it exercises over the subordinate inanimate forces? Not at all. Like these forces, it is ruled by general and fixed laws. Nevertheless, we do not find in the application of these laws, and in the results to which they lead, the mathematical precision of the laws and phenomena of gravitation and etherodynamy. Their mode of action merely seems to oscillate between limits which remain impassable. This kind of liberty, and the bounds imposed upon it, are conspicuous in the constant diversity of the products of life, a diversity which contrasts in so striking a manner with the uniformity of the products of etherodynamy. Crystals, when similar in composition, and when formed under similar circumstances, resemble each other perfectly; but we never find two leaves exactly alike upon the same tree.

We see that the variation between races is in the horse twice as great as in man, nearly three times in the sheep and rabbit, and four times as much in the dog. The difference is perhaps even more striking in the goat and ox, judging from the terms of comparison used by several travellers.

If, after having studied the various dimensions of the body, we compare the differences in proportion presented on the one hand by animals and on the other by human groups, we shall arrive at similar results. Without, however, entering into details it will be sufficient to mention the greyhound and the beagle.

If, however, the steatopygia were to exist only among the Houzouanas we could not, on that account, regard it as a character of species, for it has been proved in animals where it is only a character of race. Pallas has proved this fact in certain sheep of Central Asia. In these animals the tail disappears and is reduced to a simple coccyx, to the right and left of which are situated two hemispherical fatty masses weighing from twenty to thirty pounds each. Here, again, the variation is proportionally greater than in the Bosjesman woman.

We cannot regard these sheep as a different species, for when the Russians removed the same animals from the country in which they were born, the steatopygia disappeared in a few generations. It is, therefore, merely a character of race which can only be preserved in the place where it was developed, as may be seen in a number of other cases.

A dog's fore-paw possesses normally five well-formed toes, while the hind-paws have only four with a rudimentary fifth. This latter disappears in some races, mostly of a diminutive size. In certain large races, on the contrary, it is developed, and becomes equal to the other four. There must be then a formation of bone corresponding to the tarsus and metatarsus.

Nothing of this kind is ever seen in man. In every race the feet maintain their ordinary composition, in the Bosjesman as in the Patagonian. Some teratological exceptions with a tendency to heredity are nevertheless occasionally displayed, of which we shall speak in another chapter.

The central portions themselves are known to be liable to change. Philippi tells us that the oxen of Piacentino had thirteen ribs instead of twelve, and, consequently, an extra dorsal vertebra. In the pig Eyton has observed the dorsal vertebrae vary from thirteen to fifteen, the lumbar from four to six, the sacral from four to five, and the caudal from thirteen to twenty-three, so that the total is forty-four in the African pig and fifty-four in the English pig.

In man, the presence of one extra vertebra has occasionally been observed. These have always been isolated cases, except in one Dutch family, quoted by Vrolich. But it does not approximate to a constant character in any human group, and if such a group did exist, it is evident that the variation would here again be less than in animals, for without even reckoning the tail, it is three times stronger in the latter.

It is scarcely necessary to remark that no human group presents anything at all analogous to this.

INTERCROSSING AND FUSION OF CHARACTERS IN ANIMAL RACES; APPLICATION TO MAN.

Without even quitting the ground of morphology, it will be easy to prove which theory is most probably the correct one.

We know that naturalists consider that all individuals which pass from one to another by invisible shades belong to the same species, however different the extremes may be. All great museums contain examples of this fact.

Now there is no animal species which presents these essentially morphological characters in a higher degree than man. When the human groups are studied in some detail, the difficulty does not consist in finding resemblances, but in clearly defining the differences. The more carefully they are considered, the more they disappear and become obliterated. We then understand the accounts given by most trustworthy travellers, such as d'Abbadie, of countries where the Negro and the White live side by side. In their extremes these two types are certainly very distinct. But in Abyssinia, for example, where they have long lived in contact, and intermingled, the Negro is no longer characterised by either colour, features, or hair, but simply by the exaggerated protuberance of the heel. This character in its turn, however, loses its value on the Eastern coast of Africa, where whole Negro tribes have the heel formed like ours.

The intercrossing of characters between human groups becomes still more evident from the comparison of numerical data taken from a number of different groups. I shall confine myself for the moment to giving the results arrived at by the study of the stature when the representative numbers are placed in order. We shall presently meet with other examples.

STATURE OF DIFFERENT HUMAN RACES.

m. ft. in. Bosjesmans } 1?100 3 3?37 Esquimaux }

Obongo 1?360 4 5?64

Bosjesmans } 1?370 4 5?93 Mincopees }

Lapps 1?380 4 6?33 A?tas 1?396 4 6?96 Semangs 1?420 4 7?90 Mincopees 1?436 4 8?53 Bosjesmans 1?445 4 8?89 Guanches 1?447 4 8?97 Semangs 1?448 4 9?00 Semangs 1?473 4 9?99 Mincopees 1?480 4 10?17 A?tas 1?482 4 10?35 Fuegians 1?488 4 10?58 Papuans 1?489 4 10?62 Chinese 1?520 4 11?84 Patagonians 1?530 5 0?24 Lapps 1?532 5 0?31 Aymaras 1?537 5 0?51 Sclaves 1?540 5 0?62 French 1?543 5 0?75 Javanese 1?549 5 0?98 Negroes 1?555 5 1?22

Juags } 1?561 5 1?45 A?tas }

Aymaras 1?563 5 1?53

Germans } Tartars of Orotschi } 1?570 5 1?81 Kamskadales }

Malays of Malacca } Dyaks } 1?574 5 1?97 Australians }

New Caledonians } Cochin Chinese } 1?575 5 2?00 Transgangians }

Vanikorians 1?583 5 2?32 Timurians 1?586 5 2?46

Amboynians } 1?595 5 2?79 Peruvians }

Battas } 1?597 5 2?87 Malays }

Nicobarians 1?599 5 2?95

Australians } Quichnas } 1?600 5 2?99 English }

Pouleyers 1?610 5 3?38 Lapps 1?613 5 3?50 Tahitians 1?614 5 3?54 Australians 1?617 5 3?66

Toulcous } 1?620 5 3?78 Guaranis }

Papuans of Vaigiou 1?624 5 3?94

Mincopees } Fuegians } Californians } 1?625 5 3?98 Madurese } Cingalese }

Ando-Peruvians 1?627 5 4?05

French of the South } 1?630 5 4?17 Chinese } Nicobarians 1?631 5 4?21 Belgians 1?632 5 4?25 Austrian Sclaves 1?634 5 4?33

Austrian Roumanians } 1?635 5 4?37 Magyars }

Jews 1?637 5 4?45 Dravidas 1?640 5 4?57 Araucanians 1?641 5 4?61 Bavarians 1?643 5 4?68 Antisians 1?645 5 4?76

Fuegians } Crees } 1?650 5 4?96 Dyaks }

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