same diseases, and possession of the same instincts, faculties, and habits, of feeling and action are the principal of these distinguishing characteristics. Whenever a group of beings is found to hold such general conditions in common, the proof of identity of species may be considered as complete.

Omitting all philological and historical evidence, let us hastily glance at one or two of the more prominent physiological points which bear upon the question. The voluminous nature of the materials at hand forbids us, however, to enter into them at length. The early researches of Camper and Blumenbach have of late years been greatly expanded. Much and valuable information has been obtained from the two American continents, chiefly through the labours of Drs. Warren and Morton. The lamented Prichard, whose premature death is deeply deplored by every lover of science, has devoted the energies of a life to the investigation of this and kindred topics. The enterprising spirit of modern geographical discovery has also thrown much light on ethnological subjects. With the results of such extensive research before us, it is impossible to give prominence to circumstantial minutiæ; we can only enumerate the "summa fastigia rerum," the more important particulars, leaving the elaborate intricacies of detail to be expressed in general conclusions.

Referring to the anatomical structure, we may allude to the cranium as one of the characteristics most dwelt upon in the discrimination of the various races of men. The form of the skull has received more than ordinary attention in consequence of the general observation that a lofty and capacious forehead is frequently connected with a high degree of intellectual power. As a rule the remark is correct. conspicuous structural difference between the prognathous skull of the Ethiopian, and the oral elliptical skull of the Caucasian, is significant of the known disparity of their mental development. In the former the facial angle is but 70°, in the latter it amounts to as much as 80°.* Camper's rule for the deter

The

*The "facial angle" is that contained by a line drawn horizontally from the middle of the external entrance of the ear to the edge of the nostrils, and another from this latter point to the superciliary ridge of the frontal bone, serving to measure the elevation of the forehead. According to phrenologists, the more acute this angle, the less will the intellectual faculties of the individual be developed. One of the ape tribe, approximating nearest to man in figure, has a facial angle of 50°. The superior beauty of the European results from an angle of 80°, and the high character of sublimity so striking in the Medusa of Sisocles, and other works of ancient statuary, is given by an angle of one hundred degrees.

mination of intellectual power by the measurement of the facial angle is not however to be entirely depended upon. In its application to the different tribes of the lower animals, it is considered by Prichard to be imperfect and inefficient in consequence of the fact that "the faculties of each race of animals are perfect in relation to the sphere of existence for which they are destined." Even when applied to the human species it is not always a safe guide. The cubical contents of crania may be the same where the facial angles widely differ. Nevertheless the position assumed by Camper must be acknowledged as true in the main, experiments having gone far to prove that the capacity of the cranium is, generally speaking, a pretty sure criterion of mental capacity.†

Blumenbach's original classification of mankind into the Caucasian, Ethiopian, Mongolian, Malay, and American races, though long acquiesced in, has of late been generally abandoned for a more natural and comprehensive arrangement. The later researches of Dr. Prichard founded on materials more ample than those to which his predecessors had access, induced him to affirm, that "there are in mankind three principal varieties in the form of the head and other physical characters, which are most prevalent respectively in the savage or hunting tribes, in the nomadic or wandering pastoral tribes, and in the civilized and intellectually cultivated divisions of the human family." These threefold cranial types are designated as the prognathous, distinguished by the forward prolongation of the jaws, and incident to the lower Negro and Australian races; the pyramidal, characterized by broad and lozenge-formed faces, and common to the Mongols, Tartars, Laplanders, Esquimaux, Hottentots, and various American tribes; and the oval or elliptical, common to the Caucasian and all the more highly civilized nations of the world. In proportion as the various races intermingle with each other, their respective crania undergo a gradual modification of form. Wherever a Negro population is in permanent intercourse with Europeans, the prognathous type of skull is found slowly to approximate to that of the oval. The Finns, Laplanders, and Magyars, though of Mongolian descent, exhibit well-marked gradations from the pyramidal to the elliptical form of cranium, in conse

† Dr. Morton's inquiry into the mean internal capacity of the skulls of various races of men, gives the following average in cubic inches: Caucasian, 87; Mongolian, 83; Malay, 81; Aboriginal American, 80; Ethiopian, 78. The precise result to be expected on the supposition that the capacity of the cranium is an index of intellectual power.

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PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE.

quence of continued communication with the Caucasian race. The threefold cranial types do not exist in large masses within sharply-defined limits, but pass into each other through a series of intermediate links. Still, however, the most superficial inspection is sufficient to show their striking disparity of structure. The manifest inequalities in the dimensions of the facial angles, and in other respects have often been urged as proof of the existence of a specific variation in the races of which they are the respective types. But the argument is bad. The diversity which is so apparent in the crania of the perfect Negro, and the perfect European, is but the result of the operation of that law of variation in species which manifests itself alike in individuals, families, and races. In no case is there sufficient evidence to warrant a belief in the existence of a radical specific difference between even the most dissimilar races. And thus the philosopher, pursuing his researches by the light of reason, is compelled to coincide with the record of Revelation, in affirming that, God "hath made of one blood all nations of men."

The little probability which the development hypothesis may be supposed to derive from the theory of the transmutation of species, and the natural history of man, is utterly destroyed by direct geological evidence. The nature of the hypothesis demands that the fossils of the earlier ages of the globe should be small in size and low in organization. Accordingly, the author of the "Vestiges" has asserted that no vertebrata are to be found in the most ancient fossiliferous formations; that the seas, though supporting crustacean and molluscan life, were, for numberless ages, entirely destitute of fish. The statement is incorrect. The stony records give positive evidence to the contrary. Remains of fish have been discovered in the Llandeilo flags of the Silurian, and even so low down in the scale as the Bala limestone of the Cambrian strata. Nor are they mere microscopic embryos; the incipient and almost abortive efforts of nature. A comparison of the defensive spines of the onchus Murchisoni of the Upper Ludlow bed, with those of the cestracion phillippi, or Port Jackson shark, leads to the conclusion that the species to which the fishes belonged were of considerable magnitude, and high organization. The oldest known ganoids, those of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, rank among the giants of creation, rather than the dwarfs. Up to a certain point in the geological scale, the ganoids do not exist, but when, at length, they make their appearance, instead of taking their place, as the development hypothesis would require, with the diminutive sprats and

minnows of their class, they stand on a level with bulky sturgeons and gigantic sharks. In the face of such facts, the theory of the Lamarckian is manifestly at fault. His negative evidence vanishes away before positive discovery. An isolated tooth or mutilated spine, weak and insignificant as it may seem, is too strong for him and his theory: "the puny fragment in the grasp of Truth forms as irresistible a weapon as did the dry bone in that of Sampson of old, and his slaughtered sophisms lie piled up, heaps upon heaps,' before it."

ART. III.-1. The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland. NaturePrinted by Henry Bradbury. By THOMAS MOORE, F.L.S., &c., and Edited by Dr. LINDLEY. London: Bradbury and Evans. 1855.

2. The Natural History of Ferns, British and Exotic. By E. J. LowE, F.R.A.S., &c., &c. Vols. I. and III. London: Groombridge. 1856, 1857.

3. The Ferns of Great Britain and their Allies. By ANNE PRATT. London: Christian Knowledge Society. 1856. 4. A Popular History of the British Ferns and the Allied

Plants. By THOMAS MOORE, F.L.S., &c. London: Reeve. 5. The Hand-Book of British Ferns, comprising Scientific and Popular descriptions, &c., with instructions for their cultivation, by THOMAS MOORE, F.L.S., &c. London: Groombridge. 1853.

WE may search in vain throughout the world of vegetation for any more beautiful and graceful forms than are displayed in the family of ferns. Although they have, properly speaking, no blossom, and but little variety of colour, yet is there so much grace and elegance in their configuration and mode of growth, that they cannot fail to attract the attention of all lovers of the beautiful in nature. Then, too, they are easy of access and of cultivation. It is no difficult thing even in this country, where the species are comparatively few, as we shall presently proceed to show, to form a tolerably varied collection of ferns. Either in a living or a dried state, their flattened spreading forms render them especially adapted for the herbarium; and when extended on fair white sheets of paper

and nicely pressed, their characteristic beauties are seen to great advantage, and thus preserved they retain more of their natural colour and appearance than perhaps any other plants. In the green-house when mingled with the gayer beauties of Flora, they serve to heighten the general effect by the contrast of their light green or golden tinged feathery foliage with the more dense and bushy growth of the rest. If in a fernery by themselves, as is often the case, they exhibit their peculiar graces in a most pleasing manner, and although harmonising well in their general characteristics, yet they present sufficient diversities both of form and colour to afford that variety which is necessary to produce an agreeable effect on the mind. And what would our garden springs, and fountains, and grottos, and rustic work be without ferns to shelter, and adorn, and clothe, and beautify them? And then how suggestive are they! as Shirley Hibberd tells us in that beautiful book of his, "Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste."*

"Though we cannot have the mountain dells, and creeping thorns, and purple knolls of wild thyme, we may have the emblems of them in our little mural paradise, we may have the forms to suggest such things, and to keep alive the remembrance of pleasures and of scenes which keep a coolness in the bosom and a freshness in the heart, breathings of fragrance from the green world that sweetens the resting-places in the march of life."

Yes, inexpressibly sweet and refreshing to the weary soul are those breathings from the world of nature-those fanning zephyrs from the very grotto of Ægeria-that visit us, amid the throng of associations awakened by the sight of a single waving fern-leaf. We travel once more in fancy the velvet sward beneath the shade of old ancestral trees, we penetrate the leafy nooks, and rest upon the mossy banks, inhale the perfume of the violets, and see the primrose stars gleaming amid the flickering lights and shadows that weave a neverending dance amid the glades. We look adown the vista out into the sea of golden sunshine, we hear the thrush's mellow note, and the clear trill of the lark, and the whisper of the breeze amid the tree tops, and we dream that angels are about us on their ministrations of love; there before us lie the islands of the blessed, and it seems but a step from this troublous earth to the realms of everlasting rest. These, we may be told, are but the idle fancies of a dreamer; may be

*Groombridge and Son.