Some account of the life, writings, and character of the late James Cowles Prichard / [John Addington Symonds].

  • Symonds, John Addington, 1807-1871.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the life, writings, and character of the late James Cowles Prichard / [John Addington Symonds]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    c< On the whole, it appears that it has not been the scheme of nature to cover distant parts of the earth with many animals of every kind at once; but that a single stock of each species was first produced, which was left to extend itself according as facilities of mi¬ gration lay open to it, or to find a passage by various accidents into countries removed at greater or less distances from the original point of propagation.”— (1st Edition, page 145.) He then proceeds to consider the migrations of man, and whether the facts prevent our applying the general inference drawn above to the particular in¬ stance of our own species, and he finds in them nothing irreconcilable with such a view. The next inquiry he made was into the causes of the diversities in the human race. Climate has some influence, but civilization more. Varieties spring up more readily in temperate climates. One con¬ clusion at which Dr. Prichard arrived in connection with this subject, and which has been the subject of more discussion among the uninformed than any other, is the transmutation from the Negro to the European; together with the announce¬ ment of his opinion that the original human stock probably belonged to the former race. The argu¬ ments adduced in support of this idea were as fol¬ lows:—(1.) The analogy of lower species in which changes of colour are from dark to lighter hues. The lighter colours of domestic animals are the effects of cultivation. (2.) We have examples of light va-