The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

These are only conjectures, and they amount to but little, but this little is founded upon experiment and observation.

IV. We can also only form very vague conjectures upon the degree of intellectual development which man exhibited at his birth and during his first generations. At any rate it is possible to believe that he did not enter upon the scene of the world with innate knowledge, and the instinctive industries which belong to animals. Still less did he appear in a fully civilised state “mature in body and mind” as thinks the Comte Eusèbe de Salles. All traditions point to a period when human knowledge was very small, when man was ignorant of industries, to our eyes very elementary, and which we see appear in succession. Upon this point the Bible agrees with classical mythology. The Hebrews have their Tubal Cain, and the Greeks their Triptolemos. Prehistoric studies confirm this progressive development in Western Europe upon every point. Tertiary industries precede quaternary. The whole history of races seems to me to give, at least in part, a representation of that of the Species; and our thoughts go back almost irresistibly to the time when man found himself face to face with creation, armed solely with the aptitudes which were destined to undergo such a marvellous development.

Thanks to these aptitudes, at a very early period he satisfied at least the first wants of existence. The miocene man of La Beauce already knew the use of fire and worked flint. However rough and rudimentary his instruments may have been, he had even then an industry, and according to all appearance fed partly upon cooked food. The man of Saint-Prest, with his small lozenge-shaped arrow-heads, worked only on one side, with his rough hatchets, could undoubtedly attack and kill the great contemporary mammalia. He possessed scrapers which he used to prepare their skins with, and awls, which perhaps served as needles. From this distant period, upon which science has thrown as yet but little light, man reveals his existence by two great facts, and shows his superiority to the whole animal creation.

CHAPTER XXII.
FORMATION OF HUMAN RACES UNDER THE SOLE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND HEREDITY.

I. The first men who peopled the centre of human appearance must at first have differed from each other only in individual features. At their beginning and during an indefinite lapse of time, mankind could only have been homogeneous, as is every animal and vegetable species which is restricted to an area of small extent.

At the present time, we find mankind composed of numerous groups, which have peculiar characters, and constitute so many distinct races. How have these races originated? and how have they grown and multiplied?

To give a definite reply to these questions, by going back from recent effects to first causes, is still impossible, and perhaps will always be so. Nevertheless, science may even now approach the general aspects of the problem. We are well acquainted with the circumstances under which varieties originate and races are formed among plants and animals: we have established in man the occurrence of a number of phenomena, which are in this respect identical, or very similar to those exhibited by the two inferior kingdoms. We are therefore clearly authorised to apply inferences drawn from them to ourselves, connecting particular with general facts. This study is instructive in many respects. Unfortunately, we cannot fully enter upon it here; we can only select some facts in the history of animals to justify our conclusions.

II. The problem of the formation of human races presents two very distinct cases. Man at first was subject to the sole action of natural modifying agents. Under this influence pure races were formed. When these races came in contact, they were crossed; this resulted in the formation of mixed races. Without being antagonistic to the natural forces, crossing modifies them by its peculiar phenomena, and sometimes masks their manifestations. The two cases, therefore, require separate examination. We will begin with the first.

III. Every organic species considered as a whole appears to be subjected to the action of two forces, one of which tends to maintain and the other to modify its characters. To what cause can this double action be referred? This is a question put by the greatest thinkers and the most eminent physiologists, from Aristotle and Hippocrates to Burdach and J. Müller.