Chap. VII. The Races of Man. 167 



of the other inhabitants are specifically distinct, are themselves 

 usually looked at as distinct ; but in truth this affords no aid in dis- 

 tinguishing geographical races from so-called good or true species. 



Now let us apply these generally- admitted priuciples to the 

 races of man, viewing him in the same spirit as a naturalist would 

 any other animal. In regard to the amount of difference between 

 the races, we must make some allowance for our nice powers of 

 discrimination gained by the long habit of observing ourselves. 

 In India, as Elphinstone remarks, although a newly-arrived 

 European cannot at first distinguish the various native races, 

 yet they soon appear to him extremely dissimilar •} and the 

 Hindoo cannot at first perceive any difference between the several 

 European nations. Even the most distinct races of man are 

 much more like each other in form than would at first be sup- 

 posed ; certain negro tribes must be excepted, whilst others, as 

 Dr. Eohlfs writes to me, and as I have myself seen, have 

 Caucasian features. This general similarity is well shewn by 

 the French photographs in the Collection Anthropologiqnc du 

 Museum de Paris of the men belonging to various races, the 

 greater number of which might pass for Europeans, as many 

 persons to whom I have shewn them have remarked. Neverthe- 

 less, these men, if seen alive, would undoubtedly appear very 

 distinct, so that we are clearly much influenced in our judgment 

 by the mere colour of the skin and hair, by slight differences in 

 the features, and by expression. 



There is, however, no doubt that the various races, when 

 carefully compared and measured, differ much from each other, 

 — as in the texture of the hair, the relative proportions of all parts 

 of the body, 2 the capacity of the lungs, the form and capacity of 

 the skull, and even in the convolutions of the brain. 3 But it 

 would be an endless task to specify the numerous points of 

 difference. The races differ also in constitution, in acclimatisation 

 and in liability to certain diseases. Their mental characteristics 

 are likewise very distinct ; chiefly as it would appear in their 

 emotional, but partly in their intellectual faculties. Every one 

 who has had the opportunity of comparison, must have been 



1 'History of India,' 184-1, vol. i. 'On the capacity of the lungs,' p. 471 

 p. 323. Father Ripa makes exactly See also the numerous and valuable 

 the same remark with respect to tables, by Dr. Weisbach, from the 

 w he Chinese. observations of Dr. Scherzer and 



2 A vast number of measure- Dr. Schwarz, in the ' Reise der 

 ments of Whites, Blacks, and In- Novara : Anthropolog. Theil,' 1807. 

 iians, are given in the 'iuvestiga- 3 See, for instance, Mr. Marshall's 

 tions in the Military and Anthropo- account of the brain of a Bush- 

 log. Statistics of American Soldiers,' woman, in 'Phil. Transact.' 1864, 

 by B. A. Gould, 1869, pp. 298-358 ; p. 519. 



