216 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part L 



pear in a Mended condition in the young, but are trans- 

 mitted 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 nesrro. 

 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 completely white. 



We have now seen that a naturalist might feel himself 

 fully justified in ranking the races of man as distinct spe- 

 cies ; for he has found that they are distinguished by many 

 differences in structure and constitution, some being of im- 

 portance. These differences have, also, remained 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 man- 

 kind 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 mu- 

 tual fertility of all the races has not 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 natu- 

 ralist were to inquire whether the forms of man kept dis- 

 tinct like ordinary species, when mingled together in large 

 numbers in the same country, he would immediately dis- 

 cover that this was by no means the case. In Brazil he 

 would behold an immense mongrel population of Negroes 

 and Portuguese ; in Chiloe and other parts of South Amer- 

 ica he would behold the whole population consisting of 

 Indians and Spaniards blended in various degrees. 15 In 



15 M. de Quatrefages has given (' Anthropolog. Review,' Jan. 1809, 



