230 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



called races. Nevertheless such early races would per- 

 haps have been ranked by some naturalists as distinct 

 species, so arbitrary is the term, if their differences, 

 although extremely slight, had been more constant than 

 at present, and had not graduated into each other. 



It is, however, possible, though far from probable, 

 that the early progenitors of man might at first have 

 diverged much in character, until they became more 

 unlike each other than are any existing races ; but that 

 subsequently, as suggested by Vogt, 21 they converged 

 in character. When man selects for the same object 

 the offspring of two distinct species, he sometimes 

 induces, as far as general appearance is concerned, 

 a considerable amount of convergence. This is the 

 case, as shewn by Von Nathusius, 22 with the improved 

 breeds of pigs, which are descended from two distinct 

 species ; and in a less well-marked manner with the 

 improved breeds of cattle. A great anatomist, Gratiolet, 

 maintains that the anthropomorphous apes do not form 

 a natural sub-group ; but that the orang is a highly 

 developed gibbon or semnopithecus ; the chimpanzee 

 a highly developed macacus ; and the gorilla a highly 

 developed mandrill. If this conclusion, which rests 

 almost exclusively on brain-characters, be admitted, 

 we should have a case of convergence at least in 

 external characters, for the anthropomorphous apes are 

 certainly more like each other in many points than 

 they are to other apes. All analogical resemblances, 

 as of a whale to a fish, may indeed be said to be 

 cases of convergence ; but this term has never been 

 applied to superficial and adaptive resemblances. It 



21 ' Lectures on Man,' Eng, translat. 1864, p. 468. 



22 'Die Kacen des Schweines,' 1860, s. 46. 'Vorstudien fur Ge- 

 schichte, &c, Schwemeschadel/ 1864, s. 104. With respect to cattle, 

 tee M. de Quatrefages, ' Unite' de l'Espece Humaine,' 1861, p. 119. 



