Cnip. VII. The Races of Man. 175 



other, and that it is hardly possible to discover clear distinctive 

 characters between them. 



Every naturalist who has had the misfortune to undertake the 

 description of a group of highly varying organisms, has en- 

 countered cases (I speak after experience) precisely like that of 

 man ■ and if of a cautious disposition, he will end by uniting all 

 the forms which graduate into each other, under a single 

 species ; for he will say to himself that he has no right to give 

 names to objects which he cannot define. Cases of this kind 

 occur in the Order which includes man, namely in certain genera 

 of monkeys; whilst in other genera, as in Cercopithecus, most of 

 the species can be determined with certainty. In the American 

 genus Cebus, the various forms are ranked by some naturalists 

 as species, by others as mere geographical races. Now if 

 numerous specimens of Cebus were collected from all parts of 

 South America, and those forms which at present appear to be 

 specifically distinct, were found to graduate into each other by 

 close steps, they would usually be ranked as mere varieties or 

 races ; and this course has been followed by most naturalists 

 with respect to the races of man. Nevertheless, it must be 

 confessed that there are forms, at least in the vegetable king- 

 dom, 19 which we cannot avoid naming as species, but which are 

 connected together by numberless gradations, independently of 

 intercrossing. 



Some naturalists have lately employed the term " sub-species" 

 to designate forms which possess many of the characteristics of 

 true species, but which hardly deserve so high a rank. Now if 

 we reflect on the weighty arguments above given, for raising the 

 races of man to the dignity of species, and the insuperable diffi- 

 culties on the other side in defining them, it seems that the term 

 " sub-species " might here be used with propriety. But from 

 long habit the term " race " will perhaps always be employed. 

 The choice of terms is only so far important in that it is desirable 

 to use, as far as possible, the same terms for the same degrees of 

 difference. Unfortunately this can rarely be done : for the larger 

 genera generally include closely-allied forms, which can be 

 distinguished only with much difficulty," whilst the smaller 

 genera within the same family include forms that are perfectly 

 distinct ; yet all must be ranked equally as species. So again, 

 species within the same large genus by no means resemble 

 each other to the same degree : on the contrary, some of them 



19 Prof. Nageli has carefully de- has made analogous remarks on 



scribed several striking cases in his some intei'mediate forma in tae 



' iJotac'sche Mittheilungen,' B. ii. Compositae of N. America 

 1866, i. 294-369. Prof. Asa Gray 



