224 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



single act of variation, as is general with monstrosities, 14 

 and this race is crossed with another not thus charac- 

 terised, the characters in question do not commonly 

 appear in a blended condition in the young, but are 

 transmitted to them either perfectly developed or not at 

 all. As with the crossed races of man cases of this kind 

 rarely or never occur, this may be used as an argument 

 against the view suggested by some ethnologists, namely 

 that certain characters, for instance the blackness of the 

 negro, first appeared as a sudden variation or sport. 

 Had this occurred, it is probable that mulattoes would 

 often have been born, either completely black or com- 

 pletely white. 



We have now seen that a naturalist might feel him- 

 self fully justified in ranking the races of man as distinct 

 species ; for he has found that they are distinguished by 

 many differences iu structure and constitution, some 

 being of importance. These differences have, also, re- 

 mained nearly constant for very long periods of time. 

 He will have been in some degree influenced by the 

 enormous range of man, which is a great anomaly in 

 the class of mammals, if mankind be viewed as a single 

 species. He will have been struck with the distribution 

 of the several so-called races, in accordance with that 

 of other undoubtedly distinct species of mammals. 

 Finally he might urge that the mutual fertility of all 

 the races has not as yet been fully proved ; and even if 

 proved would not be an absolute proof of their specific 

 identity. 



On the other side of the question, if our supposed 

 naturalist were to enquire whether the forms of man 

 kept distinct like ordinary species, when mingled to- 



14 ' The Variation of Animals,' &c, vol. ii. p. 92. 



