232 THE DESCENT ^F MAN 



of man are not sufficiently distinct to inhabit the same-coun- 

 try without fusion; and the absence of fusion affords the 

 usual and best test of specific distinctness. 



Our naturalist would likewise be much disturbed as soon 

 as he perceived that the distinctive characters of all the 

 races were highly variable. This fact strikes every one on 

 first beholding the negro slaves in Brazil, who. have been 

 imported from all parts of Africa. The same remark holds 

 good with the Polynesians, and with many other races. It 

 may be doubted whether any character can be named which 

 is distinctive of a race and is constant. Savages, even within 

 the limits of the same tribe, are not nearly so uniform in 

 character as has been often asserted. Hottentot women offer 

 certain peculiarities, more strongly marked than those oc- 

 curring in any other race, but these are known not to be 

 of constant occurrence. In the several American tribes, 

 color and hairiness differ considerably; as does color to a 

 certain degree, and the shape of the features greatly, in the 

 negroes of Africa. The shape of the skull varies much in 

 some races;" and so it is with every other character. Now 

 all naturalists have learned by dearly bought experience 

 how rash it is to attempt to define species by the aid of 

 inconstant characters. 



But the most weighty of all the arguments against treat- 

 ing the races of man as distinct species is that they graduate 

 into each other, independently 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 diversity among capable judges 

 whether he should be classed as a single species or race, or 

 as two (Virey), as three (Jacquinot), as four (Kant), five 

 (Blumenbach), six (Buffon), seven (Hunter), eight (Agas- 

 siz), eleven (Pickering), fifteen (Bory St. Vincent), sixteen 



" For instance with tlie aborigines of America and Australia. Prof. 

 Huxley says ("Transact. Internat. Congress of Prehist. Arch.," 1868, p. 106) 

 that the skulls of many South Gt-ermaus and Swiss are "as short and as broad 

 as those of the Tartars, " etc. 



