THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 237 



physical conditions, and still more on the surrounding or- 

 ganisms which compete with each — and lastly, on inheri- 

 tance (in itself a fluctuating element) from innumerable 

 progenitors, all of which have had their forms determined 

 through equally complex relations. It appears incredible 

 that the modified descendants of two organisms, if these 

 differed from each other in a marked manner, should ever 

 afterward converge so closely as to lead to a near approach 

 to identity throughout their whole organization. In the 

 case of the convergent races of pigs above referred to, evi- 

 dence of their descent from two primitive stocks is, accord- 

 ing to Von ISTathusius, still plainly retained in certain bones 

 of their skulls. If the races of man had descended, as is 

 supposed by some naturalists, from two or more species, 

 which differed from each other as much, or nearly as 

 much, as does the orang from the gorilla, it can hardly 

 ."be doubted that marked differences in the structure of 

 ; certain bones would still be discoverable in man as he 

 ■ now exists. 



Although the existing races of man differ in many re- 

 spects, as in color, hair, shape of skull, proportions of the 

 body, etc., yet, if their whole structure be taken into con- 

 sideration, they are found to resemble each other closely in 

 a multitude of points. Many of these are of so unimportant 

 or of so singular a nature that it is extremely improbable 

 that they should have been independently acquired by abo- 

 riginally distinct species or races. The same remark holds 

 good with equal or greater force with respect to the numer- 

 ous points of mental similarity between the most distinct 

 races of man. The American aborigines, Negroes, and 

 Europeans are as different from each other in mind as any 

 three races that can be named ; yet I was incessantly struck, 

 while living with the Fuegians on board the "Beagle," with 

 the many little traits of character showing how similar their 

 minds were to ours; and so it was with a full-blooded negroj 

 with whom I happened once to be intimate. __J 



