WE have seen a figure of a small animal from Madagascar, which was taken from one alive in the possession of the Countess of Marsan. To me it seemed to approach nearer the species of the palm-squirrel than that of the rat; I was assured that it frequented the palm-trees; but I have not been able to procure further information concerning this animal. From its claws not projecting we may infer that it constitutes a species different from that of the rat, and approaches nearer to that of the palm-squirrel. The Dutch voyagers mention rats on the south-west coast of Madagascar, which they say live in the palm-trees, and eat the dates, and describe them to have long bodies, sharp muzzles, short legs, and long spotted tails; which characters so perfectly agree with those in the animal which we are now speaking of, that we are induced to consider them as the same species.
The one which the Countess of Marsan had, lived several years; it was extremely brisk in its movements, and its cry was nearly similar to that of the squirrel, but weaker. Its manners were also like the squirrel, for it carried its food to its mouth with its fore-paws, and erected its tail; but it could never be tamed; it would bite desperately: it was fed with fruits and almonds; it only came out of its cage at night, and it felt no inconvenience from our winters, being kept in a chamber with a small fire.
[OF THE DEGENERATION OF ANIMALS.]
WHEN man began to disperse himself from climate to climate, his nature underwent several alterations; in the temperate countries, which we suppose to be near where he was originally produced, these alterations were but slight; but they increased in proportion as the distance was greater; and after many centuries had passed away, after continents had been traversed, and generations degenerated by the influence of different climates, he ventured to the extremes, and habituating himself to the scorching heats of the south, and the frozen regions of the north, the changes have become so great, that there is room to imagine the Negro, the Laplander, and the White, different species; were it not certain that there was but one man originally created, and, that the White, the Laplander, and the Negro, can unite and propagate the great family of the human kind. Thus their colours are not original, their dissimilitude being only external and superficial. It is the same being which is tinctured with black under the torrid zone, and rendered tawny, with contracted limbs, by the rigour of the cold under the polar circle. This fact is alone sufficient to demonstrate that there is more strength, extent, and flexibility, in man than in any other being; for vegetables, and almost every animal, are confined to particular soils and climates. This extension of our nature depends less on the properties of our bodies than those of our minds. By the last, man has been enabled to seek those things which are necessary for the delicacy of the body; by that he has found out the means of bearing the inclemencies of the weather, and of conquering the barrenness of the earth. He may be said to have subdued the elements: by a single ray of his intellect he produced the element of fire, which before did not exist on the surface of the earth: he has cloathed, sheltered, and lodged himself, thus providing against every external attack: he has compensated by his reason for every deficiency; and although not so strong, so large, nor so robust, as many animals, yet he has found means to conquer, subdue, enslave, and deprive them of those spaces which Nature seems to have resigned for their use.
The earth is divided into two great continents: and though this division is more ancient than all human structures and monuments, yet man is still older, for he is found the same in both. The Asiatic, the European, and the Negro, propagate alike with the American. Nothing proves more strongly that they have issued from one source than the facility with which they reunite with the common stock. The blood is different, but the germ is the same. The skin, the hair, the features, and the size, have varied, but the internal form has not changed. The type is general and common, and if it should ever happen, by some revolution not to be foreseen, but within the possibility of things, that man should be obliged to forsake those climates which he has possessed himself of, and return to his native country, he would in time resume his original features, his primitive size, and his natural colour. But the mixture of races would produce the same effect in a much shorter time. The conjunction of a white male with a black female, or a black male with a white female, equally produce a mulatto, whose colour is brown, that is, a mixture of black and white. The mulatto intermixing with a white, produces a second mulatto not so brown as the former; and if this second mulatto unites with a white, the third mulatto will have no more than a slight tincture of the brown, which will entirely disappear in succeeding generations. Thus, by this mixture with a white, one hundred and fifty, or two hundred years is sufficient to bleach the skin of the Negro; but it would, perhaps, require many centuries to produce this effect by the influence of climate alone. Since the Negroes were transported to America, which is about two hundred years, not the smallest shade of difference is perceivable in the colour of those families which have preserved themselves from mixture. It is true the climate of South America being hot enough to give the natives a brown tint, we ought not to be astonished that the Negroes retain their colour in that part of the world. Indeed, to make a proper experiment of the change of colour in the human species, some individuals of this black race should be transported from Senegal to Denmark, where the people have generally fair skins, golden locks, and blue eyes; and where the difference of blood, and opposition of colour, are the greatest. We must keep these Negroes with their females apart from the inhabitants, and scrupulously prevent all crossing of their breed. This is the only method of learning how much time it would require to change a Negro into a White, or a White into a Black, by the influence of climate.
This is the greatest alteration that the atmosphere has made on man, and yet this is only superficial. The colour of the skin, hair, and eyes, varies solely according to the influence of climate. The other changes, such as that of size, features, and the quality of the hair, do not seem to depend on this cause alone, for among the Negro race, the greatest part of whom have frizzled wool on their heads, a flat nose, and thick lips, we meet with whole nations with long and real hair, and regular features. Again, if we compare, among the white race, the Dane with the Calmuck Tartar, or only the Finlander with the Laplander, who are so near each other, we shall find as much difference between them, with respect to size and features, as there is among the Negroes; consequently we must subjoin some other cause to that of the climate to account for these alterations, which are stronger than the former. The most general and direct cause is the quality of the food, for it is principally through the aliments that man receives the influence of the soil which he inhabits, the air and atmosphere acting more superficially. While the latter alter the external surface by changing the colour of the skin, food acts upon the internal form by its properties, which are constantly relative to those of the earth by which it is produced. Even in the same country we find strong differences between men who occupy the high lands, and those who live in the low. The inhabitants of the mountains are always better made, more spirited, and handsomer than those of the valley: therefore, in countries far distant from the original climates, where herbage, fruit, grain, and the flesh of animals, differ both in quality and substance, the men who feed on them must undergo greater changes. These impressions are not suddenly made. Time is required for man to receive the tincture of the atmosphere, and still more for the earth to transmit its qualities to him. Ages, joined to a constant use of the same nutriment, is necessary to influence the form of the features, the size of the body, the substance of the hair, and to produce those internal alterations which, being afterwards perpetuated by generation, have become the general and constant characters, by which the races, and even the different nations, which compose the human race, are distinguished.
In brute animals these effects are quicker and greater; for, partaking more of the nature of the soil than man, and their food being more uniform and unprepared, the quality is more decisive, and, consequently, its influence stronger; and because as the animals cannot clothe nor shelter themselves, nor make use of the element of fire, they remain constantly exposed to the impressions of the air, and inclemencies of the climate. For this reason every animal has chosen its zone and country according to its nature; for the same reason they remain there, and instead of extending or dispersing themselves, like the human race, they generally continue in those places which are most agreeable to their constitutions. When driven by man, or carried away, or forced by any revolution of the globe to forsake their native country, their nature undergoes such great and strong alterations, that they are no longer to be known, except by attentive inspection, experiment, and analogy. If to these natural causes of alteration in free animals we add that of the empire of man over those which he has reduced to slavery, we shall be surprised to see how far tyranny is able to degrade and disfigure Nature; we shall perceive on all the animals which are reduced to slavery, the stigmas of their captivity, and the impressions of their fetters; we shall find that those wounds are deeper, and more incurable, in proportion to their antiquity; and that in the state wherein we have reduced domestic animals it would perhaps be impossible to reinstate them in their primitive form, and to restore to them those other natural attributes of which we have deprived them.