life is stated to be forty in the latter place....  In portions of Brittany which adjoin the Loire, the extreme duration of life is fifty, at which age the inhabitant wears the aspect of eighty in a healthier district.  It is remarked that the inferior animals, and even vegetables, partake of the general deprivation; they are stunted and short-lived.”

In his “Ashango Land,” Paul B. du Chaillu devotes a large part of his fifteenth chapter to the Obongos, or Dwarfs.  Nearly all African explorers and travellers have been much amazed at the diversity of color and stature among the tribes they met.  This diversity in physical and mental character owes its existence to the diversity and perversity of African climate.

The Negro, who is but a fraction of the countless indigenous races of Africa, has been carried down to his low estate by the invincible forces of nature.  Along the ancient volcanic tracts are to be found the Libyan race, with a tawny complexion, features quite Caucasian, and long black hair.  On the sandstones are to be found an intermediate type, darker somewhat than their progenitors, lips thick, and nostrils wide at the base.  Then comes the Negro down in the alluvia, with dark skin, woolly hair, and prognathous development.

“The Negro forms an exceptional race in Africa.  He inhabits that immense tract of marshy land which lies between the mountains and the sea, from Senegal to Benguela, and the low lands of the eastern side in the same manner.  He is found in the parts about Lake Tchad, in Sennaar, along the marshy banks of rivers, and in several isolated spots besides."[65]

The true Negro inhabits Northern Africa.  When his country, of which we know absolutely nothing, has been crowded, the nomadic portion of the population has poured itself over the mountain terraces, and, descending into the swamps, has become degraded in body and mind.

Technically speaking, we do not believe the Negro is a distinct species.

     “It is certain that the woolly hair, the prognathous
     development, and the deep black skin of the typical Negro,
     are not peculiar to the African continent."[66]

The Negro is found in the low, marshy, and malarious districts.  We think the Negro is produced in a descending scale.  The African who moves from the mountain regions down into the miasmatic districts may be observed to lose his stature, his complexion, his hair, and his intellectual vigor:  he finally becomes the Negro.  Pathologically considered, he is weak, sickly, and short-lived.  His legs are slender and almost calf-less:  the head is developed in the direction of the passions, while the whole form is destitute of symmetry.