28 The Descent of Man. Tart L 



facts have been collected with respect to the transmission of the 

 most trifling, as we'l as of the most important characters in 

 man, than in any of the lower animals; though the facts are 

 copious enough with respect to the latter. So in regard to 

 mental qualities, their transmission is manifest in our dogs, 

 horses, and other domestic animals. Besides special tastes and 

 habits, general intelligence, courage, bad and good temper, &c, 

 are certainly transmitted. With man we see similar facts in 

 almost every family; and we now know, through the admirable 

 labours of Mr. Galton, 10 that genius which implies a wonderfully 

 complex combination of high faculties, tends to be inherited; 

 and, on the other hand, it is too certain that insanity and deteri- 

 orated mental powers likewise run in families. 



With respect to the causes of variability, we are in all cases 

 very ignorant; but we can see that in man as in the lower 

 animals,, they stand in some relation to the conditions to which 

 each species has been exposed, during several generations. 

 Domesticated animals vary more than those in a state of nature ; 

 and this is apparently due to the diversified and changing nature 

 of the conditions to which they have been subjected. In this 

 respect the different races of man resemble domesticated animals, 

 and so do the individuals of the same race, when inhabiting a 

 very wide area, like that of America. We see the influence of 

 diversified conditions in the more civilised nations; for the 

 members belonging to different grades of rank, and following 

 different occupations, present a greater range of character than 

 do the members of barbarous nations. But the uniformity of 

 savages has often been exaggerated, and in some cases can hardly 

 be said to exist. 11 It is, nevertheless, an error to speak of man, 

 even if we look only to the conditions to which he has been 

 exposed, as. "far more domesticated" 12 than any other animal. 

 Some savage races, such as the Australians, are not exposed to 

 more diversified conditions than are many species which have 

 a wide range. In another and much more important respect, 

 man differs widely from any strictly domesticated animal ; for 

 his breeding has never long been controlled, either by methodical 

 or unconscious selection. JS T o race or body of men has been so 



10 ' Hereditary Genius : an In- " man had an oval visage with fine 

 quiry into its Laws and Conse- " features, and another was quite 

 quences,' 1869. " Mongolian in breadth and pro 



11 Mr. Bates remarks ('The Natu- " minence of cheek, spread of nos 

 ralist on the Amazons,' 1863, vol. ii. " trils, and obliquity of eyes." 



p. 159), with respect to the Indians 12 Blumenbach, 'Treatises on An- 



of the same South American tribe, thropolog.' Eng. translat,, 1865, p. 



" no two of them were at all similar 205. 

 M in the shape of the head ; one 



