MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT. 27 



I have elsewhere" so fully discussed the subject of Inheritance, 

 that I need here add hardly anything. A greater number of facts 

 have been collected with respect to the transmission of the most 

 trifling, as well as of the most important characters in man, than 

 in any of the lower animals; though the facts are copious enough 

 with respect to the latter. So in regard to mental qualities, their 

 transmission is manifest in our dogs, horses, and other domestic 

 animals. Besides special tastes and habits, general intelligence, 

 courage, bad and good temper, &c., are certainly transmitted. With 

 man we see similar facts in almost every family; and we now 

 know, through the admirable labors of Mr. Galton," that genius 

 which implies a wonderfully complex combination of hfgh facul- 

 ties, tends to be inherited; and, on the other hand, it is too certain 

 that insanity and deteriorated mental powers likewise run in 

 families. 



With respect to the causes of variability, we are in all cases 

 very ignorant; but we can see that in man as in the lower ani- 

 mals, they stand in some relation to the conditions to which each 

 species has been exposed, during several generations. Domes- 

 ticated animals vary more than those in a state of nature; and 

 this is apparently due to the diversified and changing nature of 

 the conditions to which they have been subjected. In this respect 

 the different races of man resemble domesticated animals, and so 

 do the individuals of the same race, when inhabiting a very wide 

 area, like that of America. We see the influence of diversifled 

 conditions in the more civilized nations; for the members belong- 

 ing to different grades of rank, and following different occupa- 

 tions, present a greater range of character than do the members 

 of barbarous nations. But the uniformity of savages has often 

 been exaggerated, and in some cases can hardly be said to exist." 

 It is, nevertheless, an error to speak of man, even if we look only 

 to the conditions to which he has been exposed, as "far more 

 domesticated"'^ than any other animal. Some savage races, such 

 as the Australians, are not exposed to more diversified conditions 

 than are many species which have a wide range. In another and 

 much more Important respect, man differs widely from any 



» 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. 

 chap. xii. 



1" 'Hereditary Genius: an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences,' 

 1869. 



" Mr. Bates remarks ('The Naturalist on the Amazons,' 1863, vol. ii. 

 p. 159), with respect to the Indians of the same South American tribe, 

 "no two of them were at all similar in the shape of the head; one man 

 had an oval visage with fine features, and another was quite Mongol- 

 ian in breadth and prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and 

 obliquity of eyes." 



12 Blumenbach, 'Treatises on Anthropolog.' Eng-. translat., 1865, p. 205. 



