GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 7 



Alfourous and the Malays, and if this race bo really hybrid, it 

 is not easy to see how Prichard and his adherents are authorised 

 to assert that they persist by themselves. 



The three examples adduced by Prichard having thus 

 proved without any absolute value, a diametrically opposite 

 doctrine has been advanced. It has been said that since this 

 author was obliged to go so far for such indifferent examples, 

 it amounts to a proof that he could not find any others, 1 and 

 the conclusion was arrived at that a mixed race neither has 

 nor could have a permanent existence. 



This novel assertion is perfectly erroneous, and if it found 

 adherents, it is simply because the question has been badly 

 put ; because the word race has not received a precise signifi- 

 cation, and consequently, a very confused acceptation has been 

 given to the term. 



Among the various characters which distinguish the numer- 

 ous varieties of the genus homo, some are more or less import- 

 ant, and more or less evident. To distinguish two races, a 

 single character, however slight, is sufficient, provided it be 

 hereditary and sufficiently fixed. If, for instance, two peoples 

 differed merely from each other by the colour of the hair and 

 the beard, though they may resemble each other in every other 

 respect, by the simple fact that the one has black, whilst the 

 other has fair hair, it may be asserted that they are not of the 

 same race. This is the popular and the true meaning of the 

 term race, which, however, does not necessarily implicate the 

 idea either of identity or diversity of origin. Thus all ethno- 

 logists and historians, all the monogenists, and polygenistic 

 authors say that the Irish proper are not of the same race as 

 the English. The Germans, the Celts, the Basques, the 

 Sclaves, the Jews, Arabs, Kabyles, etc., etc., are considered 

 more or less separate races, more or less easy to be characterised, 

 and more or less distinguished by their manners, tongues, 

 history and origin. There are thus a large number of human 

 races ; but if, instead of considering all the characters, we con- 

 fine ourselves to take into consideration but a few of the more 



1 Davis, Crania Britannica. Introduction, p. 8, note. 



