VARIETIES OF MANKIND, 



1327 



ation, but twenty or thirty ; and as we in- 

 crease our acquaintance with the physical 

 characters of tribes at present little known, 

 the number requires continual enlargement. 

 And whether the types selected be few or 

 many, they are always found to be con- 

 nected by such a gradation of intermediate 

 or transitional forms, that the well-marked 

 boundary-lines which are necessary for the 

 limitation of species, cannot be drawn with 

 the slightest show of justification. It is not 

 meant to be here asserted, that the absence of 

 any such definite peculiarities of cranial con- 

 formation is of itself a sufficient reason for 

 regarding the several races of mankind as 

 specifically identical. On the contrary, as we 

 have already seen, the genus Fells contains 

 species as unmistakeably distinct as the lion 

 and the tiger, between which there is no 

 appreciable difference in cranial conformation 

 All that we have a right to affirm is (1.), that 

 the most extreme differences in the configura- 

 tion of the skull, existing among the several 

 races of men, are not greater than those which 

 present themselves among races of domesti- 

 cated mammals known to have had a common 

 origin (e.g. those of the hog), and are not 

 nearly so great as those existing among other 

 races of mammals (as the various breeds of 

 dog,) which are generally believed to have had 

 a common origin; and (2.) that, as in the 

 case of the domesticated races, the distinctive 

 characters are by no means clearly marked 

 out, but that those of the typical forms are 

 softened down in intermediate gradations, so 

 as to present a continuous series from one 

 type to another, in which no such hiatus is 

 left, as would justify the assumption of the 

 specific distinctness of those types. This 

 last fact of itself invalidates that supposition 

 of the uniform transmission of physical cha- 

 racters from parent to offspring, on which the 

 presumption of original distinctness mainly 

 rests. For, on the theory of specific distinct- 

 ness, all the descendants of the same parentage 

 should repeat the characters of their ances- 

 tors without essential modification ; whereas 

 we find, as a matter of fact, that the distinc- 

 tive characters are perpetuated in their full 

 intensity in only a small proportion of each 

 race, and that in the great masses they are so 

 shaded off as gradually to disappear. And 

 this must be admitted, whatever types we 

 may select as those representing the original 

 species ; unless we go to the extreme length 

 of selecting a distinct type for every distin- 

 guishable modification in the conformation of 

 the skull, which would be a sort of reductio 

 ad absurdum of the hypothesis. 



We are thus led to the second branch of 

 the inquiry, namely, whether there is ade- 

 quate evidence that the cranial characters of 

 the several races are really thus transmitted, 

 with little or no modification, from generation 

 to generation, or whether an actual passage 

 may be effected in time from one type to 

 another. Now, every one who has been 

 accustomed to discriminate the varieties of 

 cranial conformation which present them- 



selves within his own range of observation, 

 must have noticed that not only between the 

 parents and their offspring, but also among 

 the different children of the same parentage, 

 a considerable diversity not unfrequently 

 exists. Further, on looking at the various 

 individuals composing the ramifications of a 

 particular family, it is frequently observable 

 that they agree among themselves in some 

 peculiarity of cranial configuration, which 

 seems (from the evidence of portraits, busts, 

 &c.) to have been transmitted downwards 

 for centuries; and by this very character it 

 may be separated from other families, which 

 are in like manner distinguished for their re- 

 spective peculiarities. Now, there can be no 

 reasonable doubt that many such families had 

 originally a common ancestry, so that there 

 must have been a time when each of these 

 peculiarities first manifested itself in its own 

 branch of the common stock ; for, if this be 

 not admitted, we must suppose each of them 

 to have descended from a distinct pair of 

 " protoplasts." It is obvious, then, that the 

 question of possible modification is only one 

 of degree ; and judging by the analogy of the 

 domesticated races, by the amount of varia- 

 tion exhibited under circumstances not very 

 dissimilar, and by the considerations already 

 advanced (p. 1303. et seq.) respecting the pro- 

 bable sources of such variations, we should be 

 prepared to expect that even the widest diver- 

 sities which have been described, might have 

 been occasioned by the sufficiently-prolonged 

 influence of external causes acting upon a 

 succession of generations. That such has 

 been the case to a considerable extent, would 

 appear in some instances from the direct evi- 

 dence of history; in other instances it would 

 seem a necessary inference from the facts of 

 philology; whilst in others, again, the two 

 classes of evidentiary facts, neither of them 

 sufficient in themselves, tend to confirm each 

 other. 



One of the most striking examples of 

 this kind is afforded by the change in cranial 

 conformation from the pyramidal to the ellip- 

 tical, as well as in other characters, especially 

 the length and abundance of the beard, 

 which has taken place among the Turks of 

 Europe and Western Asia. These so closely 

 accord in physical characters with the great 

 bulk of European nations, and depart so 

 widely from the Turks of Central Asia, that 

 many writers have referred the former to the 

 (so-called) Caucasian, rather than to the 

 Mongolian stock. Yet historical and philo- 

 logical evidence sufficiently proves, that the 

 Western Turks originally belonged to the 

 Central Asiatic group of nations; with which 

 the eastern portion of their nation still re- 

 mains associated, not only in its geographical 

 position, but in its language, physical charac- 

 ters, and habits of life ; and that it is in the 

 western branch, not in the eastern, that the 

 change has taken place. Some writers have 

 supposed that this change might be explained 

 as the result of an intermixture of the Turkish 

 race with the inhabitants of the countries they 



