112 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



any other animal. Some savage races, such as the 

 Australians, are not exposed to more diversified con- 

 ditions than are many species which have very wide 

 ranges. In another and much more important re- 

 spect, man differs widely from any strictly domesti- 

 cated animal ; for his breeding has not been controlled, 

 either through methodical or unconscious selection. No 

 race or body of men has been so completely subjugated 

 by other men, that certain individuals have been pre- 

 served and thus unconsciously selected, from being in 

 some way more useful to their masters. Nor have 

 certain male and female individuals been intentionally 

 picked out and matched, except in the well-known 

 case of the Prussian grenadiers ; and in this case man 

 obeyed, as might have been expected, the law of me- 

 thodical selection ; for it is asserted that many tall men 

 were reared in the villages inhabited by the grenadiers 

 with their tall wives. 



If we consider all the races of man, as forming a single 

 species, his range is enormous ; but some separate races, 

 as the Americans and Polynesians, have very wide 

 ranges. It is a well-known law that widely-ranging 

 species are much more variable than species with re- 

 stricted ranges ; and the variability of man may with 

 more truth be compared with that of widely-ranging 

 species, than with that of domesticated animals. 



Not only does variability appear to be induced in 

 man and the knver animals by the same general causes, 

 but in both the same characters are affected in a closely 

 analogous manner. This has been proved in such full 

 detail by Godron and Quatrefages, that I need here 

 only refer to their works. 13 Monstrosities, w r hich gra- 



13 Godron, ' De l'Espece,' 1859, tom. ii. livre 3. Quatrefages, ' Unite 

 de l'Espece Humaine,' 1861. Also Lectures on Anthropology, given 

 in the ' Eevue des Cours Scientifiques,' 18G6-1SG8. 



