THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 229 



of difference. With our domestic animals, the question 

 whether the various races have arisen from one or more 

 species is somewhat different. Although it may be ad- 

 mitted that all the races, as well as all the natural species 

 within the same genus, have sprung from the same primi- 

 tive stock, yet it is a fit subject for discussion whether 

 all the domestic races of the dog, for instance, have ac- 

 quired their present amount of difference since some one 

 species w^is first domesticated by man ; or whether they 

 owe some of their characters to inheritance from distinct 

 species which had already been differentiated in a state 

 of nature. With man no such question can arise, for he 

 can not be said to have been domesticated at any particu- 

 lar period. 



During an early stage in the divergence of the races 

 of man from a common stock, the differences between the 

 races and their number must have been small ; conse- 

 quently, as far as their distinguishing characters are con- 

 cerned, they then had less claim to rank as distinct spe- 

 cies than the existing so-called races. Nevertheless, so 

 arbitrary is the term of species, that such early races 

 would, perhaps, have been ranked by some naturalists as 

 distinct species, if their differences, although extremely 

 slight, had been more constant than they are at present, 

 and had not graduated into each other. 



THE RACES GRADUATE INTO EACH OTHER. 



Page 174 ^ u * ^ e mos t weighty of all the arguments 



against treating the races of man as distinct 

 species is, that they graduate into each other, independ- 

 ently, in many cases, as far as we can judge, of their having 

 intercrossed. Man has been studied more carefully than 

 any other animal, and yet there is the greatest possible di- 



