Negroes and Negro "Slavery:" the first an inferior race: the latter its normal condition.
latter, but these qualities have a fuller development, that is, the organization is more elaborate and the corresponding faculties are of a higher order. And indeed this is not confined to mere species or genera even, but is true of widely separated beings. Thus, the exalted and elegant Caucasian mother—the habitue of the Fifth avenue or St. Germain—nourishes her offspring by the same process common to the meanest of the mammalia. So, too, in the process of gestation, the function of mastication, deglutition, digestion, the sense of taste, of sight, etc.—the function is absolutely the same, but what a world of difference in the mode 37of its manifestation, that distinguishes the human being from the animal!

36

37

Investigations made by some French physiologists would seem to show that the mysterious problem of animal life might be simplified, and clearly grasped by the human intellect, by simply tracing this great fact to its elementary sources. It is said that the embryo (Caucasian) fœtus passes through all the forms of an innumerable number of lower gradations before it reaches its own specific development. And be this as it may, enough is seemingly established to demonstrate its truth in respect to a genus or family, and especially is it demonstrated in the human creation. At a certain stage of fœtal development there is the cranial manifestation of the Negro, then the aboriginal American, the Malay, the Mongolian, and finally the broad expansion and oval perfection of the most perfect of all, the superior Caucasian. Nor can these demonstrations be mistaken, for it is not a mere question of size but of form. The negro brain is small and longitudinal—thus approximating to the simiadæ and other animals. The aboriginal is larger and quadrangular, almost square in its general outline. The Mongolian pyramidal, and still larger than either of the others. Finally, at the period of complete gestation, there is the full and complete oval development, alone peculiar to the Caucasian. The force of these distinctions may be easily grasped by the non-scientific reader by bearing in mind that a female of either of these races or species could no more give birth to a child with the cranial development of a race different from her own, than she could to that of an inferior animal. The distinctions of nature, or the boundaries which separate even species from each other, are absolutely impassable; each has the hand of the Eternal impressed upon it forever, which neither accident nor time can modify in the slightest particular. They have, it is true, a limited capacity for interunion, and we 38sometimes witness the 
 Prev. P 19/239 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact