The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

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 and 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 overstepped, 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 grey-hounds, 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.