IT is not my intention here
to describe the several so-called
races of men; but I am about
to enquire what is the value
of the differences between them
under a classificatory point
of view, and how they have originated.
In determining whether two or
more allied forms ought to be
ranked as species or varieties,
naturalists are practically guided
by the following considerations;
namely, the amount of difference
between them, and whether such
differences relate to few or
many points of structure, and
whether they are of physiological
importance; but more especially
whether they are constant. Constancy
of character is what is chiefly
valued and sought for by naturalists.
Whenever it can be shewn, or
rendered probable, that the forms
in question have remained distinct
for a long period, this becomes
an argument of much weight in
favour of treating them as species.
Even a slight degree of sterility
between any two forms when first
crossed, or in their offspring,
is generally considered as a
decisive test of their specific
distinctness; and their continued
persistence without blending
within the same area, is usually
accepted as sufficient evidence,
either of some degree of mutual
sterility, or in the case of
animals of some mutual repugnance
to pairing.
Independently of fusion from
intercrossing, the complete absence,
in a well-investigated region,
of varieties linking together
any two closely-allied forms,
is probably the most important
of all the criterions of their
specific distinctness; and this
is a somewhat different consideration
from mere constancy of character,
for two forms may be highly variable
and yet not yield intermediate
varieties. Geographical distribution
is often brought into play unconsciously
and sometimes consciously; so
that forms living in two widely
separated areas, in which most
of the other inhabitants are
specifically distinct, are themselves
usually looked at as distinct;
but in truth this affords no
aid in distinguishing geographical
races from so-called good or
true species.
Now let us apply these generally-admitted
principles to the races of man,
viewing him in the same spirit
as a naturalist would any other
animal. In regard to the amount
of difference between the races,
we must make some allowance for
our nice powers of discrimination
gained by the long habit of observing
ourselves. In India, as Elphinstone
remarks, although a newly-arrived
European cannot at first distinguish
the various native races, yet
they soon appear to him extremely
dissimilar;* and the Hindoo cannot
at first perceive any difference
between the several European
nations. Even the most distinct
races of man are much more like
each other in form than would
at first be supposed; certain
negro tribes must be excepted,
whilst others, as Dr. Rohlfs
writes to me, and as I have myself
seen, have Caucasian features.
This general similarity is well
shewn by the French photographs
in the Collection Anthropologique
du Museum de Paris of the men
belonging to various races, the
greater number of which might
pass for Europeans, as many persons
to whom I have shewn them have
remarked. Nevertheless, these
men, if seen alive, would undoubtedly
appear very distinct, so that
we are clearly much influenced
in our judgment by the mere colour
of the skin and hair, by slight
differences in the features,
and by expression.
* History of India, 1841, vol.
i., p. 323. Father Ripa makes
exactly the same remark with
respect to the Chinese.
There is, however, no doubt
that the various races, when
carefully compared and measured,
differ much from each other,-
as in the texture of the hair,
the relative proportions of all
parts of the body,* the capacity
of the lungs, the form and capacity
of the skull, and even in the
convolutions of the brain.*(2)
But it would be an endless task
to specify the numerous points
of difference. The races differ
also in constitution, in acclimatisation
and in liability to certain diseases.
Their mental characteristies
are likewise very distinct; chiefly
as it would appear in their emotional,
but partly in their intellectual
faculties. Every one who has
had the opportunity of comparison,
must have been struck with the
contrast between the taciturn,
even morose, aborigines of S.
America and the lighthearted,
talkative negroes. There is a
nearly similar contrast between
the Malays and the Papuans,*(3)
who live under the same physical
conditions, and are separated
from each other only by a narrow
space of sea.
* A vast number
of measurements of whites,
blacks, and Indians,
are given in the Investigations
in the Military and Anthropolog.
Statistics of American Soldiers
by B. A. Gould, 1869, pp. 298-358; "On
the capacity of the lungs," p.
471. See also the numerous and
valuable tables, by Dr. Weisbach,
from the observations of Dr.
Scherzer and Dr. Schwarz, in
the Reise der Novara: Anthropolog.
Theil, 1867.
*(2) See, for instance, Mr.
Marshall's account of the brain
of a bushwoman, in Philosophical
Transactions, 1864, p. 519.
*(3) Wallace The Malay Archipelago,
vol. ii., 1869, p. 178.
We will first consider the arguments
which may be advanced in favour
of classing the races of man
as distinct species, and then
the arguments on the other side.
If a naturalist, who had never
before seen a Negro, Hottentot,
Australian, or Mongolian, were
to compare them, he would at
once perceive that they differed
in a multitude of characters,
some of slight and some of considerable
importance. On enquiry he would
find that they were adapted to
live under widely different climates,
and that they differed somewhat
in bodily constitution and mental
disposition. If he were then
told that hundreds of similar
specimens could be brought from
the same countries, he would
assuredly declare that they were
as good species as many to which
he had been in the habit of affixing
specific names. This conclusion
would be greatly strengthened
as soon as he had ascertained
that these forms had all retained
the same character for many centuries;
and that negroes, apparently
identical with existing negroes,
had lived at least 4000 years
ago.* He would also hear, on
the authority of an excellent
observer, Dr. Lund,*(2) that
the human skulls found in the
caves of Brazil entombed with
many extinct mammals, belonged
to the same type as that now
prevailing throughout the American
continent.
* With respect
to the figures in the famous
Egyptian caves
of Abou-Simbel, M. Pouchet says
(The Plurality of the Human Races,
Eng. translat., 1864, p. 50),
that he was far from finding
recognisable representations
of the dozen or more nations
which some authors believe that
they can recognise. Even some
of the most strongly-marked races
cannot be identified with that
degree of unanimity which might
have been expected from what
has been written on the subject.
Thus Messrs. Nott and Gliddon
(Types of Mankind, p. 148), state
that Rameses II, or the Great,
has features superbly European;
whereas Knox, another firm believer
in the specific distinctness
of the races of man (Races of
Man, 1850, p. 201), speaking
of young Memnon (the same as
Rameses II, as I am informed
by Mr. Birch), insists in the
strongest manner that he is identical
in character with the Jews of
Antwerp. Again, when I looked
at the statue of Amunoph III,
I agreed with two officers of
the establishment, both competent
judges, that he had a strongly-marked
negro type of features; but Messrs.
Nott and Gliddon (ibid., p. 146,
fig. 53), describe him as a hybrid,
but not of "negro intermixture."
*(2) As quoted by Nott and Gliddon,
Types of Mankind, 1854, p. 439.
They give also corroborative
evidence; but C. Vogt thinks
that the subject requires further
investigation.
Our naturalist would then perhaps
turn to geographical distribution,
and he would probably declare
that those forms must be distinct
species, which differ not only
in appearance, but are fitted
for hot, as well as damp or dry
countries, and for the arctic
regions. He might appeal to the
fact that no species in the group
next to man- namely, the Quadrumana,
can resist a low temperature,
or any considerable change of
climate; and that the species
which come nearest to man have
never been reared to maturity,
even under the temperate climate
of Europe. He would be deeply
impressed with the fact, first
noticed by Agassiz,* that the
different races of man are distributed
over the world in the same zoological
provinces, as those inhabited
by undoubtedly distinct species
and genera of mammals. This is
manifestly the case with the
Australian, Mongolian, and Negro
races of man; in a less well-marked
manner with the Hottentots; but
plainly with the Papuans and
Malays, who are separated, as
Mr. Wallace has shewn, by nearly
the same line which divides the
great Malayan and Australian
zoological provinces. The aborigines
of America range throughout the
continent; and this at first
appears opposed to the above
rule, for most of the productions
of the Southern and Northern
halves differ widely: yet some
few living forms, as the opossum,
range from the one into the other,
as did formerly some of the gigantic
Edentata. The Esquimaux, like
other arctic animals, extend
round the whole polar regions.
It should be observed that the
amount of difference between
the mammals of the several zoological
provinces does not correspond
with the degree of separation
between the latter; so that it
can hardly be considered as an
anomaly that the Negro differs
more, and the American much less
from the other races of man,
than do the mammals of the African
and American continents from
the mammals of the other provinces.
Man, it may be added, does not
appear to have aboriginally inhabited
any oceanic island; and in this
respect, he resembles the other
members of his class.
* "Diversity of Origin of the
Human Races," in the Christian
Examiner, July, 1850.
In determining whether the supposed
varieties of the same kind of
domestic animal should be ranked
as such, or as specifically distinct,
that is, whether any of them
are descended from distinct wild
species, every naturalist would
lay much stress on the fact of
their external parasites being
specifically distinct. All the
more stress would be laid on
this fact, as it would be an
exceptional one; for I am informed
by Mr. Denny that the most different
kinds of dogs, fowls, and pigeons,
in England, are infested by the
same species of Pediculi or lice.
Now Mr. A. Murray has carefully
examined the Pediculi. collected
in different countries from the
different races of man;* and
he finds that they differ, not
only in colour, but in the structure
of their claws and limbs. In
every case in which many specimens
were obtained the differences
were constant. The surgeon of
a whaling ship in the Pacific
assured me that when the Pediculi,
with which some Sandwich Islanders
on board swarmed, strayed on
to the bodies of the English
sailors, they died in the course
of three or four days. These
Pediculi were darker coloured,
and appeared different from those
proper to the natives of Chiloe
in South America, of which he
gave me specimens. These, again,
appeared larger and much softer
than European lice. Mr. Murray
procured four kinds from Africa,
namely, from the Negroes of the
Eastern and Western coasts, from
the Hottentots and Kaffirs; two
kinds from the natives of Australia;
two from North and two from South
America. In these latter cases
it may be presumed that the Pediculi
came from natives inhabiting
different districts. With insects
slight structural differences,
if constant, are generally esteemed
of specific value: and the fact
of the races of man being infested
by parasites, which appear to
be specifically distinct, might
fairly be urged as an argument
that the races themselves ought
to be classed as distinct species.
* Transactions of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, vol. xxii,
1861, p. 567.
Our supposed naturalist having
proceeded thus far in his investigation,
would next enquire whether the
races of men, when crossed, were
in any degree sterile. He might
consult the work* of Professor
Broca, a cautious and philosophical
observer, and in this he would
find good evidence that some
races were quite fertile together,
but evidence of an opposite nature
in regard to other races. Thus
it has been asserted that the
native women of Australia and
Tasmania rarely produce children
to European men; the evidence,
however, on this head has now
been shewn to be almost valueless.
The half-castes are killed by
the pure blacks: and an account
has lately been published of
eleven half-caste youths murdered
and burnt at the same time, whose
remains were found by the police.*(2)
Again, it has often been said
that when mulattoes intermarry,
they produce few children; on
the other hand, Dr. Bachman,
of Charleston,*(3) positively
asserts that he has known mulatto
families which have intermarried
for several generations, and
have continued on an average
as fertile as either pure whites
or pure blacks. Enquiries formerly
made by Sir C. Lyell on this
subject led him, as he informs
me, to the same conclusion.*(4)
In the United States the census
for the year 1854 included, according
to Dr. Bachman, 405,751 mulattoes;
and this number, considering
all the circumstances of the
case, seems small; but it may
partly be accounted for by the
degraded and anomalous position
of the class, and by the profligacy
of the women. A certain amount
of absorption of mulattoes into
negroes must always be in progress;
and this would lead to an apparent
diminution of the former. The
inferior vitality of mulattoes
is spoken of in a trustworthy
work*(5) as a well-known phenomenon;
and this, although a different
consideration from their lessened
fertility, may perhaps be advanced
as a proof of the specific distinctness
of the parent races. No doubt
both animal and vegetable hybrids,
when produced from extremely
distinct species, are liable
to premature death; but the parents
of mulattoes cannot be put under
the category of extremely distinct
species. The common mule, so
notorious for long life and vigour,
and yet so sterile, shews how
little necessary connection there
is in hybrids between lessened
fertility and vitality; other
analogous cases could be cited.
* On the Phenomena of Hybridity
in the Genus Homo, Eng. translat.,
1864.
*(2) See the interesting letter
by Mr. T. A. Murray, in the Anthropological
Review, April, 1868, p. liii.
In this letter Count Strzelecki's
statement that Australian women
who have borne children to a
white man, are afterwards sterile
with their own race, is disproved.
M. A. de Quatrefages has also
collected (Revue des Cours Scientifiques,
March, 1869, p. 239), much evidence
that Australians and Europeans
are not sterile when crossed.
*(3) An Examination of Prof.
Agassiz's Sketch of the Nat.
Provinces of the Animal World,
Charleston, 1855, p. 44.
*(4) Dr. Rohlfs writes to me
that he found the mixed races
in the Great Sahara, derived
from Arabs, Berbers, and Negroes
of three tribes, extraordinarily
fertile. On the other hand, Mr.
Winwood Reade informs me that
the Negroes on the Gold Coast,
though admiring white men and
mulattoes, have a maxim that
mulattoes should not intermarry,
as the children are few and sickly.
This belief, as Mr. Reade remarks,
deserves attention, as white
men have visited and resided
on the Gold Coast for four hundred
years, so that the natives have
had ample time to gain knowledge
through experience.
*(5) Military and Anthropological
Statistics of American Soldiers,
by B. A. Gould, 1869, p. 319.
Even if it should hereafter
be proved that all the races
of men were perfectly fertile
together, he who was inclined
from other reasons to rank them
as distinct species, might with
justice argue that fertility
and sterility are not safe criterions
of specific distinctness. We
know that these qualities are
easily affected by changed conditions
of life, or by close interbreeding,
and that they are governed by
highly complex laws, for instance,
that of the unequal fertility
of converse crosses between the
same two species. With forms
which must be ranked as undoubted
species, a perfect series exists
from those which are absolutely
sterile when crossed, to those
which are almost or completely
fertile. The degrees of sterility
do not coincide strictly with
the degrees of difference between
the parents in external structures
or habits of life. Man in many
respects may be compared with
those animals which have long
been domesticated, and a large
body of evidence can be advanced
in favour of the Pallasian doctrine,*
that domestication tends to eliminate
the sterility which is so general
a result of the crossing of species
in a state of nature. From these
several considerations, it may
be justly urged that the perfect
fertility of the intercrossed
races of man, if established,
would not absolutely preclude
us from ranking them as distinct
species.
* The Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication, vol.
ii p. 109. I may here remind
the reader that the sterility
of species when crossed is not
a specially acquired quality,
but, like the incapacity of certain
trees to be grafted together,
is incidental on other acquired
differences. The nature these
differences is unknown, but they
relate more especially to the
reproductive system, and much
less so to external structure
or to ordinary differences in
constitution. One important element
in the sterility of crossed species
apparently lies in one or both
having been long habituated to
fixed conditions; for we know
that changed conditions have
a special influence on the reproductive
system, and we have good reason
to believe (as before remarked)
that the fluctuating conditions
of domestication tend to eliminate
that sterility which is so general
with species, in a natural state,
when crossed. It has elsewhere
been shewn by me (ibid., vol.
ii., p. 185, and Origin of Species,
(OOS), that the sterility of
crossed species has not been
acquired through natural selection:
we can see that when two forms
have already been rendered very
sterile, it is scarcely possible
that their sterility should be
augmented by the preservation
or survival of the more and more
sterile individuals; for, as
the sterility increases. fewer
and fewer offspring will be produced
from which to breed, and at last
only single individuals will
be produced at the rarest intervals.
But there is even a higher grade
of sterility than this. Both
Gartner and Kolreuter have proved
that in genera of plants, including
many species, a series can be
formed from species which, when
crossed, yield fewer and fewer
seeds, to species which never
produce a single seed, but yet
are affected by the pollen of
the other species, as shewn by
the swelling of the germen. It
is here manifestly impossible
to select the more sterile individuals,
which have already ceased to
yield seeds; so that the acme
of sterility, when the germen
alone is affected, cannot have
been gained through selection.
This acme, and no doubt the other
grades of sterility, are the
incidental results of certain
unknown differences in the constitution
of the reproductive system of
the species which are crossed.
Independently of fertility,
the characters presented by the
offspring from a cross have been
thought to indicate whether or
not the parent-forms ought to
be ranked as species or varieties;
but after carefully studying
the evidence, I have come to
the conclusion that no general
rules of this kind can be trusted.
The ordinary result of a cross
is the production of a blended
or intermediate form; but in
certain cases some of the offspring
take closely after one parent-form,
and some after the other. This
is especially apt to occur when
the parents differ in characters
which first appeared as sudden
variations or monstrosities.*
I refer to this point, because
Dr. Rohlfs informs me that he
has frequently seen in Africa
the offspring of negroes crossed
with members of other races,
either completely black or completely
white, or rarely piebald. On
the other hand, it is notorious
that in America mulattoes commonly
present an intermediate appearance.
* The Variation
of Animals, &c.,
vol. ii., p. 92.
We have now seen that a naturalist
might feel himself fully justified
in ranking the races of man as
distinct species; for he has
found that they are distinguished
by many differences in structure
and constitution, some being
of importance. These differences
have, also, remained nearly constant
for very long periods of time.
Our naturalist will have been
in some degree influenced by
the enormous range of man, which
is a great anomaly in the class
of mammals, if mankind be viewed
as a single species. He will
have been struck with the distribution
of the several so-called races,
which accords with that of other
undoubtedly distinct species
of mammals. Finally, he might
urge that the mutual fertility
of all the races has not as yet
been fully proved, and even if
proved would not be an absolute
proof of their specific identity.
On the other side of the question,
if our supposed naturalist were
to enquire whether the forms
of man keep distinct like ordinary
species, when mingled together
in large numbers in the same
country, he would immediately
discover that this was by no
means the case. In Brazil he
would behold an immense mongrel
population of Negroes and Portuguese;
in Chiloe, and other parts of
South America, he would behold
the whole population consisting
of Indians and Spaniards blended
in various degrees.* In many
parts of the same continent he
would meet with the most complex
crosses between Negroes, Indians,
and Europeans; and judging from
the vegetable kingdom, such triple
crosses afford the severest test
of the mutual fertility of the
parent forms. In one island of
the Pacific he would find a small
population of mingled Polynesian
and English blood; and in the
Fiji Archipelago a population
of Polynesians and Negritos crossed
in all degrees. Many analogous
cases could be added; for instance,
in Africa. Hence the races of
man are not sufficiently distinct
to inhabit the same country without
fusion; and the absence of fusion
affords the usual and best test
of specific distinctness.
* M. de Quatrefages has given
(Anthropological Review, Jan.,
1869, p. 22), an interesting
account of the success and energy
of the Paulistas in Brazil, who
are a much crossed race of Portuguese
and Indians, with a mixture of
the blood of other races.
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
occurring in any other race,
but these are known not to be
of constant occurrence. In the
several American tribes, colour
and hairiness differ considerably;
as does colour 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 learnt
by dearly bought experience,
how rash it is to attempt to
define species by the aid of
inconstant characters.
* For instance,
with the aborigines of America
and Australia, Prof.
Huxley says (Transact. Internat.
Congress of Prehist. Arch., 1868,
p. 105), that the skulls of many
South Germans and Swiss are "as
short and as broad as those of
the Tartars," &c.
But the most weighty of all
the arguments against treating
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 amongst 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 (Agassiz), eleven (Pickering),
fifteen (Bory de St-Vincent),
sixteen (Desmoulins), twenty-two
(Morton), sixty (Crawfurd), or
as sixty-three, according to
Burke.* This diversity of judgment
does not prove that the races
ought not to be ranked as species,
but it shews that they graduate
into each other, and that it
is hardly possible to discover
clear distinctive characters
between them.
* See a good discussion on this
subject in Waitz, Introduction
to Anthropology, Eng. translat.,
1863, pp. 198-208, 227. I have
taken some of the above statements
from H. Tuttle's Origin and Antiquity
of Physical Man, Boston, 1866,
p. 35.
Every naturalist who has had
the misfortune to undertake the
description of a group of highly
varying organisms, has encountered
cases (I speak after experience)
precisely like that of man; and
if of a cautious disposition,
he will end by uniting all the
forms which graduate into each
other, under a single species;
for he will say to himself that
he has no right to give names
to objects which he cannot define.
Cases of this kind occur in the
Order which include man, namely
in certain genera of monkeys;
whilst in other genera, as in
Cercopithecus, most of the species
can be determined with certainty.
In the American genus Cebus,
the various forms are ranked
by some naturalists as species,
by others as mere geographical
races. Now if numerous specimens
of Cebus were collected from
all parts of South America, and
those forms which at present
appear to be specifically distinct,
were found to graduate into each
other by close steps, they would
usually be ranked as mere varieties
or races; and this course has
been followed by most naturalists
with respect to the races of
man. Nevertheless, it must be
confessed that there are forms,
at least in the vegetable kingdom,*
which we cannot avoid naming
as species, but which are connected
together by numberless gradations,
independently of intercrossing.
* Prof. Nageli has carefully
described several striking cases
in his Botanische Mittheilungen,
B. ii., 1866, ss. 294-369. Prof.
Asa Gray has made analogous remarks
on some intermediate forms in
the Compositae of N. America.
Some naturalists
have lately employed the term "sub-species" to
designate forms which possess
many of the characteristics of
true species, but which hardly
deserve so high a rank. Now if
we reflect on the weighty arguments
above given, for raising the
races of man to the dignity of
species, and the insuperable
difficulties on the other side
in defining them, it seems that
the term "sub-species" might
here be used with propriety.
But from long habit the term "race" will
perhaps always be employed. The
choice of terms is only so far
important in that it is desirable
to use, as far as possible, the
same terms for the same degrees
of difference. Unfortunately
this can rarely be done: for
the larger genera generally include
closely-allied forms, which can
be distinguished only with much
difficulty, whilst the smaller
genera within the same family
include forms that are perfectly
distinct; yet all must be ranked
equally as species. So again,
species within the same large
genus by no means resemble each
other to the same degree: on
the contrary, some of them can
generally be arranged in little
groups round other species, like
satellites round planets.*
* Origin of Species. (OOS)
The question
whether mankind consists of
one or several species
has of late years been much discussed
by anthropologists, who are divided
into the two schools of monogenists
and polygenists. Those who do
not admit the principle of evolution,
must look at species as separate
creations, or in some manner
as distinct entities; and they
must decide what forms of man
they will consider as species
by the analogy of the method
commonly pursued in ranking other
organic beings as species. But
it is a hopeless endeavour to
decide this point, until some
definition of the term "species" is
generally accepted; and the definition
must not include an indeterminate
element such as an act of creation.
We might as well attempt without
any definition to decide whether
a certain number of houses should
be called a village, town, or
city. We have a practical illustration
of the difficulty in the never-ending
doubts whether many closely-allied
mammals, birds, insects, and
plants, which represent each
other respectively in North America
and Europe, should be ranked
as species or geographical races;
and the like holds true of the
productions of many islands situated
at some little distance from
the nearest continent.
Those naturalists, on the other
hand, who admit the principle
of evolution, and this is now
admitted by the majority of rising
men, will feel no doubt that
all the races of man are descended
from a single primitive stock;
whether or not they may think
fit to designate the races as
distinct species, for the sake
of expressing their amount of
difference.* With our domestic
animals the question whether
the various races have arisen
from one or more species is somewhat
different. Although it may be
admitted that all the races,
as well as all the natural species
within the same genus, have sprung
from the same primitive stock,
yet it is a fit subject for discussion,
whether all the domestic races
of the dog, for instance, have
acquired their present amount
of difference since some one
species was first domesticated
by man; or whether they owe some
of their characters to inheritance
from distinct species, which
had already been differentiated
in a state of nature. With man
no such question can arise, for
he cannot be said to have been
domesticated at any particular
period.
* See Prof. Huxley to this effect
in the Fortnightly Review, 1865,
p. 275.
During an early stage in the
divergence of the races of man
from a common stock, the differences
between the races and their number
must have been small; consequently
as far as their distinguishing
characters are concerned, they
then had less claim to rank as
distinct species than the existing
so-called races. Nevertheless,
so arbitrary is the term of species,
that such early races would perhaps
have been ranked by some naturalists
as distinct species, if their
differences, although extremely
slight, had been more constant
than they are at present, and
had not graduated into each other.
It is however possible, though
far from probable, that the early
progenitors of man might formerly
have diverged much in character,
until they became more unlike
each other than any now existing
races; but that subsequently,
as suggested by Vogt,* they converged
in character. When man selects
the offspring of two distinct
species for the same object,
he sometimes induces a considerable
amount of convergence, as far
as general appearance is concerned.
This is the case, as shown by
von Nathusius,*(2) with the improved
breeds of the pig, which are
descended from two distinct species;
and in a less marked manner with
the improved breeds of cattle.
A great anatomist, Gratiolet,
maintains that the anthropomorphous
apes do not form a natural sub-group;
but that the orang is a highly
developed gibbon or Semnopithecus,
the chimpanzee a highly developed
Macacus, and the gorilla a highly
developed mandrill. If this conclusion,
which rests almost exclusively
on brain-characters, be admitted,
we should have a case of convergence
at least in external characters,
for the anthropomorphous apes
are certainly more like each
other in many points, than they
are to other apes. All analogical
resemblances, as of a whale to
a fish, may indeed be said to
be cases of convergence; but
this term has never been applied
to superficial and adaptive resemblances.
It would, however be extremely
rash to attribute to convergence
close similarity of character
in many points of structure amongst
the modified descendants of widely
distinct beings. The form of
a crystal is determined solely
by the molecular forces, and
it is not surprising that dissimilar
substances should sometimes assume
the same form; but with organic
beings we should bear in mind
that the form of each depends
on an infinity of complex relations,
namely on variations, due to
causes far too intricate to be
followed,- on the nature of the
variations preserved, these depending
on the physical conditions, and
still more on the surrounding
organisms which compete with
each,- and lastly, on inheritance
(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 afterwards converge
so closely as to lead to a near
approach to identity throughout
their whole organisation. In
the case of the convergent races
of pigs above referred to, evidence
of their descent from two primitive
stock is, according to von Nathusius,
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.
* Lectures on Man, Eng. translat.,
1864, p. 468.
*(2) Die Rassen
des Schweines, 1860, s. 46.
Vorstudien fur Geschichte, &c., "Schweinesschadel," 1864,
s. 104. With respect to cattle,
see M. de Quatrefages, Unite
de l'Espece Humaine, 1861, p.
119.
Although the
existing races of man differ
in many respects,
as in colour, hair, shape of
skull, proportions of the body, &c.,
yet if their whole structure
be taken into consideration 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 aboriginally distinct
species or races. The same remark
holds good with equal or greater
force with respect to the numerous
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,
whilst living with the Feugians
on board the Beagle, with the
many little traits of character,
shewing how similar their minds
were to ours; and so it was with
a full-blooded negro with whom
I happened once to be intimate.
He who will
read Mr. Tylor's and Sir J.
Lubbock's interesting
works* can hardly fail to be
deeply impressed with the close
similarity between the men of
all races in tastes, dispositions
and habits. This is shown by
the pleasure which they all take
in dancing, rude music, acting,
painting, tattooing, and otherwise
decorating themselves; in their
mutual comprehension of gesture-language,
by the same expression in their
features, and by the same inarticulate
cries, when excited by the same
emotions. This similarity, or
rather identity, is striking,
when contrasted with the different
expressions and cries made by
distinct species of monkeys.
There is good evidence that the
art of shooting with bows and
arrows has not been handed down
from any common progenitor of
mankind, yet as Westropp and
Nilsson have remarked,*(2) the
stone arrow-heads, brought from
the most distant parts of the
world, and manufactured at the
most remote periods, are almost
identical; and this fact can
only be accounted for by the
various races having similar
inventive or mental powers. The
same observation has been made
by archaeologists*(3) with respect
to certain widely-prevalent ornaments,
such as zig-zags, &c.; and with
respect to various simple beliefs
and customs, such as the burying
of the dead under megalithic
structures. I remember observing
in South America,*(4) that there,
as in so many other parts of
the world, men have generally
chosen the summits of lofty hills,
to throw up piles of stones,
either as a record of some remarkable
event, or for burying their dead.
* Tylor's Early History of Mankind,
1865: with respect to gesture-language,
see p. 54. Lubbock's Prehistoric
Times, 2nd ed., 1869.
*(2) "On Analogous Forms of
Implements," in Memoirs of Anthropological
Society by H. M. Westropp. The
Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia,
Eng. translat., edited by Sir
J. Lubbock, 1868, p. 104.
*(3) Westropp "On Cromlechs," &c.,
Journal of Ethnological Soc.,
as given in Scientific Opinion,
June 2, 1869, p. 3.
*(4) Journal of Researches:
Voyage of the Beagle, p. 46.
Now when naturalists observe
a close agreement in numerous
small details of habits, tastes,
and dispositions between two
or more domestic races, or between
nearly-allied natural forms,
they use this fact as an argument
that they are descended from
a common progenitor who was thus
endowed; and consequently that
all should be classed under the
same species. The same argument
may be applied with much force
to the races of man.
As it is improbable
that the numerous and unimportant
points
of resemblance between the several
races of man in bodily structure
and mental faculties (I do not
here refer to similar customs)
should all have been independently
acquired, they must have been
inherited from progenitors who
had these same characters. We
thus gain some insight into the
early state of man, before he
had spread step by step over
the face of the earth. The spreading
of man to regions widely separated
by the sea, no doubt, preceded
any great amount of divergence
of character in the several races;
for otherwise we should sometimes
meet with the same race in distinct
continents; and this is never
the case. Sir J. Lubbock, after
comparing the arts now practised
by savages in all parts of the
world, specifies those which
man could not have known, when
he first wandered from his original
birthplace; for if once learnt
they would never have been forgotten.*
He thus shews that "the spear,
which is but a development of
the knife-point, and the club,
which is but a long hammer, are
the only things left." He admits,
however, that the art of making
fire probably had been already
discovered, for it is common
to all the races now existing,
and was known to the ancient
cave-inhabitants of Europe. Perhaps
the art of making rude canoes
or rafts was likewise known;
but as man existed at a remote
epoch, when the land in many
places stood at a very different
level to what it does now, he
would have been able, without
the aid of canoes, to have spread
widely. Sir J. Lubbock further
remarks how improbable it is
that our earliest ancestors could
have "counted as high as ten,
considering that so many races
now in existence cannot get beyond
four." Nevertheless, at this
early period, the intellectual
and social faculties of man could
hardly have been inferior in
any extreme degree to those possessed
at present by the lowest savages;
otherwise primeval man could
not have been so eminently successful
in the struggle for life, as
proved by his early and wide
diffusion.
* Prehistoric Times, 1869, p.
574.
From the fundamental differences
between certain languages, some
philologists have inferred that
when man first became widely
diffused, he was not a speaking
animal; but it may be suspected
that languages, far less perfect
than any now spoken, aided by
gestures, might have been used,
and yet have left no traces on
subsequent and more highly-developed
tongues. Without the use of some
language, however imperfect,
it appears doubtful whether man's
intellect could have risen to
the standard implied by his dominant
position at an early period.
Whether primeval
man, when he possessed but
few arts, and those
of the rudest kind, and when
his power of language was extremely
imperfect, would have deserved
to be called man, must depend
on the definition which we employ.
In a series of forms graduating
insensibly from some ape-like
creature to man as he now exists,
it would be impossible to fix
on any definite point where the
term "man" ought to be used.
But this is a matter of very
little importance. So again,
it is almost a matter of indifference
whether the so-called races of
man are thus designated, or are
ranked as species or sub-species;
but the latter term appears the
more appropriate. Finally, we
may conclude that when the principle
of evolution is generally accepted,
as it surely will be before long,
the dispute between the monogenists
and the polygenists will die
a silent and unobserved death.
One other question ought not
to be passed over without notice,
namely, whether, as is sometimes
assumed, each sub-species or
race of man has sprung from a
single pair of progenitors. With
our domestic animals a new race
can readily be formed by carefully
matching the varying offspring
from a single pair, or even from
a single individual possessing
some new character; but most
of our races have been formed,
not intentionally from a selected
pair, but unconsciously by the
preservation of many individuals
which have varied, however slightly,
in some useful or desired manner.
If in one country stronger and
heavier horses, and in another
country lighter and fleeter ones,
were habitually preferred, we
may feel sure that two distinct
sub-breeds would be produced
in the course of time, without
any one pair having been separated
and bred from, in either country.
Many races have been thus formed,
and their manner of formation
is closely analogous to that
of natural species. We know,
also, that the horses taken to
the Falkland Islands have, during
successive generations, become
smaller and weaker, whilst those
which have run wild on the Pampas
have acquired larger and coarser
heads; and such changes are manifestly
due, not to any one pair, but
to all the individuals having
been subjected to the same conditions,
aided, perhaps, by the principle
of reversion. The new sub-breeds
in such cases are not descended
from any single pair, but from
many individuals which have varied
in different degrees, but in
the same general manner; and
we may conclude that the races
of man have been similarly produced,
the modifications being either
the direct result of exposure
to different conditions, or the
indirect result of some form
of selection. But to this latter
subject we shall presently return.
On the Extinction
of the Races of Man.- The partial
or complete
extinction of many races and
sub-races of man is historically
known. Humboldt saw in South
America a parrot which was the
sole living creature that could
speak a word of the language
of a lost tribe. Ancient monuments
and stone implements found in
all parts of the world, about
which no tradition has been preserved
by the present inhabitants, indicate
much extinction. Some small and
broken tribes, remnants of former
races, still survive in isolated
and generally mountainous districts.
In Europe the ancient races were
all, according to Shaaffhausen,* "lower
in the scale than the rudest
living savages"; they must therefore
have differed, to a certain extent,
from any existing race. The remains
described by Professor Broca
from Les Eyzies, though they
unfortunately appear to have
belonged to a single family,
indicate a race with a most singular
combination of low or simious,
and of high characteristics.
This race is "entirely different
from any other, ancient or modern,
that we have heard of."*(2) It
differed, therefore, from the
quaternary race of the caverns
of Belgium.
* Translation in Anthropological
Review, Oct., 1868, p. 431.
*(2) Transactions, International
Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology
1868, pp. 172-175. See also Broca
(tr.) in Anthropological Review,
Oct., 1868, p. 410.
Man can long resist conditions
which appear extremely unfavourable
for his existence.* He has long
lived in the extreme regions
of the North, with no wood for
his canoes or implements, and
with only blubber as fuel, and
melted snow as drink. In the
southern extremity of America
the Fuegians survive without
the protection of clothes, or
of any building worthy to be
called a hovel. In South Africa
the aborigines wander over arid
plains, where dangerous beasts
abound. Man can withstand the
deadly influence of the Terai
at the foot of the Himalaya,
and the pestilential shores of
tropical Africa.
* Dr. Gerland, Uber das Aussterben
der Naturvolker 1868, s. 82.
Extinction follows chiefly from
the competition of tribe with
tribe, and race with race. Various
checks are always in action,
serving to keep down the numbers
of each savage tribe,- such as
periodical famines, nomadic habits
and the consequent deaths of
infants, prolonged suckling,
wars, accidents, sickness, licentiousness,
the stealing of women, infanticide,
and especially lessened fertility.
If any one of these checks increases
in power, even slightly, the
tribe thus affected tends to
decrease; and when of two adjoining
tribes one becomes less numerous
and less powerful than the other,
the contest is soon settled by
war, slaughter, cannibalism,
slavery, and absorption. Even
when a weaker tribe is not thus
abruptly swept away, if it once
begins to decrease, it generally
goes on decreasing until it becomes
extinct.*
* Gerland, ibid., s. 12, gives
facts in support of this statement.
When civilised
nations come into contact with
barbarians
the struggle is short, except
where a deadly climate gives
its aid to the native race. Of
the causes which lead to the
victory of civilised nations,
some are plain and simple, others
complex and obscure. We can see
that the cultivation of the land
will be fatal in many ways to
savages, for they cannot, or
will not, change their habits.
New diseases and vices have in
some cases proved highly destructive;
and it appears that a new disease
often causes much death, until
those who are most susceptible
to its destructive influence
are gradually weeded out;* and
so it may be with the evil effects
from spirituous liquors, as well
as with the unconquerably strong
taste for them shewn by so many
savages. It further appears,
mysterious as is the fact, that
the first meeting of distinct
and separated people generates
disease.*(2) Mr. Sproat, who
in Vancouver Island closely attended
to the subject of extinction,
believed that changed habits
of life, consequent on the advent
of Europeans, induces much ill
health. He lays, also, great
stress on the apparently trifling
cause that the natives become "bewildered
and dull by the new life around
them; they lose the motives for
exertion, and get no new ones
in their place."*(3)
* See remarks to this effect
in Sir H. Holland's Medical Notes
and Reflections, 1839, p. 390.
*(2) I have
collected (Journal of Researches:
Voyage of the
Beagle, p. 435) a good many cases
bearing on this subject; see
also Gerland, ibid., s. 8. Poeppig
speaks of the "breath of civilisation
as poisonous to savages."
*(3) Sproat, Scenes and Studies
of Savage Life, 1868, p. 284.
The grade of their civilisation
seems to be a most important
element in the success of competing
nations. A few centuries ago
Europe feared the inroads of
Eastern barbarians; now any such
fear would be ridiculous. It
is a more curious fact, as Mr.
Bagehot has remarked, that savages
did not formerly waste away before
the classical nations, as they
now do before modern civilised
nations; had they done so, the
old moralists would have mused
over the event; but there is
no lament in any writer of that
period over the perishing barbarians.*
The most potent of all the causes
of extinction, appears in many
cases to be lessened fertility
and ill-health, especially amongst
the children, arising from changed
conditions of life, notwithstanding
that the new conditions may not
be injurious in themselves. I
am much indebted to Mr. H. H.
Howorth for having called my
attention to this subject, and
for having given me information
respecting it. I have collected
the following cases.
* Bagehot, "Physics and Politics," Fortnightly
Review, April 1, 1868, p. 455.
When Tasmania was first colonised
the natives were roughly estimated
by some at 7000 and by others
at 20,000. Their number was soon
greatly reduced, chiefly by fighting
with the English and with each
other. After the famous hunt
by all the colonists, when the
remaining natives delivered themselves
up to the government, they consisted
only of 120 individuals,* who
were in 1832 transported to Flinders
Island. This island, situated
between Tasmania and Australia,
is forty miles long, and from
twelve to eighteen miles broad:
it seems healthy, and the natives
were well treated. Nevertheless,
they suffered greatly in health.
In 1834 they consisted (Bonwick,
p. 250) of forty-seven adult
males, forty-eight adult females,
and sixteen children, or in all
of 111 souls. In 1835 only one
hundred were left. As they continued
rapidly to decrease, and as they
themselves thought that they
should not perish so quickly
elsewhere, they were removed
in 1847 to Oyster Cove in the
southern part of Tasmania. They
then consisted (Dec. 20th, 1847)
of fourteen men, twenty-two women
and ten children.*(2) But the
change of site did no good. Disease
and death still pursued them,
and in 1864 one man (who died
in 1869), and three elderly women
alone survived. The infertility
of the women is even a more remarkable
fact than the liability of all
to ill-health and death. At the
time when only nine women were
left at Oyster Cove, they told
Mr. Bonwick (p. 386), that only
two had ever borne children:
and these two had together produced
only three children!
* All the statements here given
are taken from The Last of the
Tasmanians, by J. Bonwick, 1870.
*(2) This is the statement of
the Governor of Tasmania, Sir
W. Denison, Varieties of Vice-Regal
Life, 1870, vol. i., p. 67.
With respect
to the cause of this extraordinary
state of things,
Dr. Story remarks that death
followed the attempts to civilise
the natives. "If left to themselves
to roam as they were wont and
undisturbed, they would have
reared more children, and there
would have been less mortality." Another
careful observer of the natives,
Mr. Davis, remarks, "The births
have been few and the deaths
numerous. This may have been
in a great measure owing to their
change of living and food; but
more so to their banishment from
the mainland of Van Diemen's
Land, and consequent depression
of spirits" (Bonwick, pp. 388,
390).
Similar facts
have been observed in two widely
different parts
of Australia. The celebrated
explorer, Mr. Gregory, told Mr.
Bonwick, that in Queensland "the
want of reproduction was being
already felt with the blacks,
even in the most recently settled
parts, and that decay would set
in." Of thirteen aborigines from
Shark's Bay who visited Murchison
River, twelve died of consumption
within three months.*
* For these cases, see Bonwick's
Daily Life of the Tasmanians,
1870, p. 90: and The Last of
the Tasmanians, 1870, p. 386.
The decrease
of the Maories of New Zealand
has been carefully
investigated by Mr. Fenton, in
an admirable report, from which
all the following statements,
with one exception, are taken.*
The decrease in number since
1830 is admitted by every one,
including the natives themselves,
and is still steadily progressing.
Although it has hitherto been
found impossible to take an actual
census of the natives, their
numbers were carefully estimated
by residents in many districts.
The result seems trustworthy,
and shows that during the fourteen
years, previous to 1858, the
decrease was 19.42 per cent.
Some of the tribes, thus carefully
examined, lived above a hundred
miles apart, some on the coast,
some inland; and their means
of subsistence and habits differed
to a certain extent (p. 28).
The total number in 1858 was
believed to be 53,700, and in
1872, after a second interval
of fourteen years, another census
was taken, and the number is
given as only 36,359, shewing
a decrease of 32.29 per cent!*(2)
Mr. Fenton, after shewing in
detail the insufficiency of the
various causes, usually assigned
in explanation of this extraordinary
decrease, such as new diseases,
the profligacy of the women,
drunkenness, wars, &c., concludes
on weighty grounds that it depends
chiefly on the unproductiveness
of the women, and on the extraordinary
mortality of the young children
(pp. 31, 34). In proof of this
he shews (p. 33) that in 1844
there was one non-adult for every
2.57 adults; whereas in 1858
there was only one non-adult
for every 3.27 adults. The mortality
of the adults is also great.
He adduces as a further cause
of the decrease the inequality
of the sexes; for fewer females
are born than males. To this
latter point, depending perhaps
on a widely distinct cause, I
shall return in a future chapter.
Mr. Fenton contrasts with astonishment
the decrease in New Zealand with
the increase in Ireland; countries
not very dissimilar in climate,
and where the inhabitants now
follow nearly similar habits.
The Maories themselves (p. 35) "attribute
their decadence, in some measure,
to the introduction of new food
and clothing, and the attendant
change of habits"; and it will
be seen, when we consider the
influence of changed conditions
on fertility, that they are probably
right. The diminution began between
the years 1830 and 1840; and
Mr. Fenton shews (p. 40) that
about 1830, the art of manufacturing
putrid corn (maize), by long
steeping in water, was discovered
and largely practised; and this
proves that a change of habits
was beginning amongst the natives,
even when New Zealand was only
thinly inhabited by Europeans.
When I visited the Bay of Islands
in 1835, the dress and food of
the inhabitants had already been
much modified: they raised potatoes,
maize, and other agricultural
produce, and exchanged them for
English manufactured goods and
tobacco.
* Observations on the Aboriginal
Inhabitants of New Zealand, published
by the Government, 1859.
*(2) New Zealand, by Alex. Kennedy,
1873, p. 47.
It is evident from many statements
in the life of Bishop Patteson,*
that the Melanesians of the New
Hebrides and neighbouring archipelagoes,
suffered to an extraordinary
degree in health, and perished
in large numbers, when they were
removed to New Zealand, Norfolk
Island, and other salubrious
places, in order to be educated
as missionaries.
* Life of J. C. Patteson, by
C. M. Younge, 1874; see more
especially vol. i., p. 530.
The decrease of the native population
of the Sandwich Islands is as
notorious as that of New Zealand.
It has been roughly estimated
by those best capable of judging,
that when Cook discovered the
islands in 1779, the population
amounted to about 300,000. According
to a loose census in 1823, the
numbers then were 142,050. In
1832, and at several subsequent
periods, an accurate census was
officially taken, but I have
been able to obtain only the
following returns:
Native Population Annual rate
of decrease
per cent, assuming it to
(Except during 1832 and have
been uniform between
1836, when the few the successive
censuses;
foreigners in the islands these
censuses being taken
Year were included.) at irregular
intervals.
1832 130,313
4.46
1836 108,579
2.47
1853 71,019
0.81
1860 67,084
2.18
1866 58,765
2.17
1872 51,531
We here see
that in the interval of forty
years, between 1832
and 1872, the population has
decreased no less than sixty-eight
per cent! This has been attributed
by most writers to the profligacy
of the women, to former bloody
wars, and to the severe labour
imposed on conquered tribes and
to newly introduced diseases,
which have been on several occasions
extremely destructive. No doubt
these and other such causes have
been highly efficient, and may
account for the extraordinary
rate of decrease between the
years 1832 and 1836; but the
most potent of all the causes
seems to be lessened fertility.
According to Dr. Ruschenberger
of the U. S. Navy, who visited
these islands between 1835 and
1837, in one district of Hawaii,
only twenty-five men out of 1134,
and in another district only
ten out of 637, had a family
with as many as three children.
Of eighty married women, only
thirty-nine had ever borne children;
and "the official report gives
an average of half a child to
each married couple in the whole
island." This is almost exactly
the same average as with the
Tasmanians at Oyster Cove. Jarves,
who published his History in
1843, says that "families who
have three children are freed
from all taxes; those having
more, are rewarded by gifts of
land and other encouragements." This
unparalleled enactment by the
government well shews how infertile
the race had become. The Rev.
A. Bishop stated in the Hawaiian
Spectator in 1839, that a large
proportion of the children die
at early ages, and Bishop Staley
informs me that this is still
the case, just as in New Zealand.
This has been attributed to the
neglect of the children by the
women, but it is probably in
large part due to innate weakness
of constitution in the children,
in relation to the lessened fertility
of their parents. There is, moreover,
a further resemblance to the
case of New Zealand, in the fact
that there is a large excess
of male over female births: the
census of 1872 gives 31,650 males
to 25,247 females of all ages,
that is 125.36 males for every
100 females; whereas in all civilised
countries the females exceed
the males. No doubt the profligacy
of the women may in part account
for their small fertility; but
their changed habits of life
is a much more probable cause,
and which will at the same time
account for the increased mortality,
especially of the children. The
islands were visited by Cook
in 1779, Vancouver in 1794, and
often subsequently by whalers.
In 1819 missionaries arrived,
and found that idolatry had been
already abolished and other changes
effected by the king. After this
period there was a rapid change
in almost all the habits of life
of the natives, and they soon
became "the most civilised of
the Pacific Islanders." One of
my informants, Mr. Coan, who
was born on the islands, remarks
that the natives have undergone
a greater change in their habits
of life in the course of fifty
years than Englishmen during
a thousand years. From information
received from Bishop Staley,
it does not appear that the poorer
classes have ever much changed
their diet, although many new
kinds of fruit have been introduced,
and the sugar-cane is in universal
use. Owing, however, to their
passion for imitating Europeans,
they altered their manner of
dressing at an early period,
and the use of alcoholic drinks
became very general. Although
these changes appear inconsiderable,
I can well believe, from what
is known with respect to animals,
that they might suffice to lessen
the fertility of the natives.*
* The foregoing statements are
taken chiefly from the following
works: Jarves' History of the
Hawaiian Islands, 1843, pp. 400-407.
Cheever, Life in the Sandwich
Islands, 1851, p. 277. Ruschenberger
is quoted by Bonwick, Last of
the Tasmanians, 1870, p. 378.
Bishop is quoted by Sir E. Belcher,
Voyage Round the World, 1843,
vol. i., p. 272. I owe the census
of the several years to the kindness
of Mr. Coan, at the request of
Dr. Youmans of New York; and
in most cases I have compared
the Youmans figures with those
given in several of the above-named
works. I have omitted the census
for 1850, as I have seen two
widely different numbers given.
Lastly, Mr.
Macnamara states* that the
low and degraded inhabitants
of the Andaman Islands, on the
eastern side of the Gulf of Bengal,
are "eminently susceptible to
any change of climate: in fact,
take them away from their island
homes, and they are almost certain
to die, and that independently
of diet or extraneous influences." He
further states that the inhabitants
of the Valley of Nepal, which
is extremely hot in summer, and
also the various hill-tribes
of India, suffer from dysentery
and fever when on the plains;
and they die if they attempt
to pass the whole year there.
* The Indian Medical Gazette,
Nov. 1, 1871, p. 240.
We thus see that many of the
wilder races of man are apt to
suffer much in health when subjected
to changed conditions or habits
of life, and not exclusively
from being transported to a new
climate. Mere alterations in
habits, which do not appear injurious
in themselves, seem to have this
same effect; and in several cases
the children are particularly
liable to suffer. It has often
been said, as Mr. Macnamara remarks,
that man can resist with impunity
the greatest diversities of climate
and other changes; but this is
true only of the civilised races.
Man in his wild condition seems
to be in this respect almost
as susceptible as his nearest
allies, the anthropoid apes,
which have never yet survived
long, when removed from their
native country.
Lessened fertility from changed
conditions, as in the case of
the Tasmanians, Maories, Sandwich
Islanders, and apparently the
Australians, is still more interesting
than their liability to ill-health
and death; for even a slight
degree of infertility, combined
with those other causes which
tend to check the increase of
every population, would sooner
or later lead to extinction.
The diminution of fertility may
be explained in some cases by
the profligacy of the women (as
until lately with the Tahitians),
but Mr. Fenton has shewn that
this explanation by no means
suffices with the New Zealanders,
nor does it with the Tasmanians.
In the paper above quoted, Mr.
Macnamara gives reasons for believing
that the inhabitants of districts
subject to malaria are apt to
be sterile; but this cannot apply
in several of the above cases.
Some writers have suggested that
the aborigines of islands have
suffered in fertility and health
from long continued interbreeding;
but in the above cases infertility
has coincided too closely with
the arrival of Europeans for
us to admit this explanation.
Nor have we at present any reason
to believe that man is highly
sensitive to the evil effects
of inter-breeding, especially
in areas so large as New Zealand,
and the Sandwich archipelago
with its diversified stations.
On the contrary, it is known
that the present inhabitants
of Norfolk Island are nearly
all cousins or near relations,
as are the Todas in India, and
the inhabitants of some of the
Western Islands of Scotland;
and yet they seem not to have
suffered in fertility.*
* On the close relationship
of the Norfolk Islanders, Sir
W. Denison, Varieties of Vice-Regal
Life: vol. i., 1870, p. 410.
For the Todas, see Col. Marshall's
work 1873, p. 110. For the Western
Islands of Scotland, Dr. Mitchell,
Edinburgh Medical Journal, March
to June, 1865.
A much more probable view is
suggested by the analogy of the
lower animals. The reproductive
system can be shewn to be susceptible
to an extraordinary degree (though
why we know not) to changed conditions
of life; and this susceptibility
leads both to beneficial and
to evil results. A large collection
of facts on this subject is given
in chap. xviii. of vol. ii. of
my Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication, I can here
give only the briefest abstract;
and every one interested in the
subject may consult the above
work. Very slight changes increase
the health, vigour, and fertility
of most or all organic beings,
whilst other changes are known
to render a large number of animals
sterile. One of the most familiar
cases, is that of tamed elephants
not breeding in India; though
they often breed in Ava, where
the females are allowed to roam
about the forests to some extent,
and are thus placed under more
natural conditions. The case
of various American monkeys,
both sexes of which have been
kept for many years together
in their own countries, and yet
have very rarely or never bred,
is a more apposite instance,
because of their relationship
to man. It is remarkable how
slight a change in the conditions
often induces sterility in a
wild animal when captured; and
this is the more strange as all
our domesticated animals have
become more fertile than they
were in a state of nature; and
some of them can resist the most
unnatural conditions with undiminished
fertility.* Certain groups of
animals are much more liable
than others to be affected by
captivity; and generally all
the species of the same group
are affected in the same manner.
But sometimes a single species
in a group is rendered sterile,
whilst the others are not so;
on the other hand, a single species
may retain its fertility whilst
most of the others fail to breed.
The males and females of some
species when confined, or when
allowed to live almost, but not
quite free, in their native country,
never unite; others thus circumstanced
frequently unite but never produce
offspring; others again produce
some offspring, but fewer than
in a state of nature; and as
bearing on the above cases of
man, it is important to remark
that the young are apt to be
weak and sickly, or malformed,
and to perish at an early age.
* For the evidence
on this head, see Variation
of Animals, &c.,
vol. ii., p. 111.
Seeing how general is this law
of the susceptibility of the
reproductive system to changed
conditions of life, and that
it holds good with our nearest
allies, the Quadrumana, I can
hardly doubt that it applies
to man in his primeval state.
Hence if savages of any race
are induced suddenly to change
their habits of life, they become
more or less sterile, and their
young offspring suffer in health,
in the same manner and from the
same cause, as do the elephant
and hunting-leopard in India,
many monkeys in America, and
a host of animals of all kinds,
on removal from their natural
conditions.
We can see why it is that aborigines,
who have long inhabited islands,
and who must have been long exposed
to nearly uniform conditions,
should be specially affected
by any change in their habits,
as seems to be the case. Civilised
races can certainly resist changes
of all kinds far better than
savages; and in this respect
they resemble domesticated animals,
for though the latter sometimes
suffer in health (for instance
European dogs in India), yet
they are rarely rendered sterile,
though a few such instances have
been recorded.* The immunity
of civilised races and domesticated
animals is probably due to their
having been subjected to a greater
extent, and therefore having
grown somewhat more accustomed,
to diversified or varying conditions,
than the majority of wild animals;
and to their having formerly
immigrated or been carried from
country to country, and to different
families or subraces having inter-crossed.
It appears that a cross with
civilised races at once gives
to an aboriginal race an immunity
from the evil consequences of
changed conditions. Thus the
crossed offspring from the Tahitians
and English, when settled in
Pitcairn Island, increased so
rapidly that the island was soon
overstocked; and in June 1856
they were removed to Norfolk
Island. They then consisted of
60 married persons and 134 children,
making a total of 194. Here they
likewise increased so rapidly,
that although sixteen of them
returned to Pitcairn Island in
1859, they numbered in January
1868, 300 souls; the males and
females being in exactly equal
numbers. What a contrast does
this case present with that of
the Tasmanians; the Norfolk Islanders
increased in only twelve and
a half years from 194 to 300;
whereas the Tasmanians decreased
during fifteen years from 120
to 46, of which latter number
only ten were children.*(2)
* Variation
of Animals, &c.,
vol. ii., p. 16.
*(2) These details are taken
from The Mutineers of the Bounty,
by Lady Belcher, 1870; and from
Pitcairn Island, ordered to be
printed by the House of Commons,
May 29, 1863. The following statements
about the Sandwich Islanders
are from the Honolulu Gazette,
and from Mr. Coan.
So again in the interval between
the census of 1866 and 1872 the
natives of full blood in the
Sandwich Islands decreased by
8081, whilst the half-castes,
who are believed to be healthier,
increased by 847; but I do not
know whether the latter number
includes the offspring from the
half-castes, or only the half-castes
of the first generation.
The cases which I have here
given all relate to aborigines,
who have been subjected to new
conditions as the result of the
immigration of civilised men.
But sterility and ill-health
would probably follow, if savages
were compelled by any cause,
such as the inroad of a conquering
tribe, to desert their homes
and to change their habits. It
is an interesting circumstance
that the chief check to wild
animals becoming domesticated,
which implies the power of their
breeding freely when first captured,
and one chief check to wild men,
when brought into contact with
civilisation, surviving to form
a civilised race, is the same,
namely, sterility from changed
conditions of life.
Finally, although the gradual
decrease and ultimate extinction
of the races of man is a highly
complex problem, depending on
many causes which differ in different
places and at different times;
it is the same problem as that
presented by the extinction of
one of the higher animals- of
the fossil horse, for instance,
which disappeared from South
America, soon afterwards to be
replaced, within the same districts,
by countless troups of the Spanish
horse. The New Zealander seems
conscious of this parallelism,
for he compares his future fate
with that of the native rat now
almost exterminated by the European
rat. Though the difficulty is
great to our imagination, and
really great, if we wish to ascertain
the precise causes and their
manner of action, it ought not
to be so to our reason, as long
as we keep steadily in mind that
the increase of each species
and each race is constantly checked
in various ways; so that if any
new check, even a slight one,
be superadded, the race will
surely decrease in number; and
decreasing numbers will sooner
or later lead to extinction;
the end, in most cases, being
promptly determined by the inroads
of conquering tribes.
On the Formation
of the Races of Man.- In some
cases the crossing
of distinct races has led to
the formation of a new race.
The singular fact that the Europeans
and Hindoos, who belong to the
same Aryan stock, and speak a
language fundamentally the same,
differ widely in appearance,
whilst Europeans differ but little
from Jews, who belong to the
Semitic stock, and speak quite
another language, has been accounted
for by Broca,* through certain
Aryan branches having been largely
crossed by indigenous tribes
during their wide diffusion.
When two races in close contact
cross, the first result is a
heterogeneous mixture: thus Mr.
Hunter, in describing the Santali
or hill-tribes of India, says
that hundreds of imperceptible
gradations may be traced "from
the black, squat tribes of the
mountains to the tall olive-coloured
Brahman, with his intellectual
brow, calm eyes, and high but
narrow head"; so that it is necessary
in courts of justice to ask the
witnesses whether they are Santalis
or Hindoos.*(2) Whether a heterogeneous
people, such as the inhabitants
of some of the Polynesian islands,
formed by the crossing of two
distinct races, with few or no
pure members left, would ever
become homogeneous, is not known
from direct evidence. But as
with our domesticated animals,
a cross-breed can certainly be
fixed and made uniform by careful
selection*(3) in the course of
a few generations, we may infer
that the free inter-crossing
of a heterogeneous mixture during
a long descent would supply the
place of selection, and overcome
any tendency to reversion; so
that the crossed race would ultimately
become homogeneous, though it
might not partake in an equal
degree of the characters of the
two parent-races.
* "On Anthropology," translation,
Anthropological Review, Jan.,
1868, p. 38.
*(2) The Animals of Rural Bengal,
1868, p. 134.
*(3) The Variation of Animals
and Plants under Domestication
vol. ii., p. 95.
Of all the differences between
the races of man, the colour
of the skin is the most conspicuous
and one of the best marked. It
was formerly thought that differences
of this kind could be accounted
for by long exposure to different
climates; but Pallas first shewed
that this is not tenable, and
he has since been followed by
almost all anthropologists.*
This view has been rejected chiefly
because the distribution of the
variously coloured races, most
of whom have long inhabited their
present homes, does not coincide
with corresponding differences
of climate. Some little weight
may be given to such cases as
that of the Dutch families, who,
as we hear on excellent authority,*(2)
have not undergone the least
change of colour after residing
for three centuries in South
Africa. An argument on the same
side may likewise be drawn from
the uniform appearance in various
parts of the world of gipsies
and Jews, though the uniformity
of the latter has been somewhat
exaggerated.*(3) A very damp
or a very dry atmosphere has
been supposed to be more influential
in modifying the colour of the
skin than mere heat; but as D'Orbigny
in South America, and Livingstone
in Africa, arrived at diametrically
opposite conclusions with respect
to dampness and dryness, any
conclusion on this head must
be considered as very doubtful.*(4)
* Pallas, Act.
Acad. St. Petersburg, 1780,
part ii., p. 69. He was
followed by Rudolphi, in his
Beitrage zur Anthropologie, 1812.
An excellent summary of the evidence
is given by Godron, De l'Espece,
1859, vol. ii., p. 246, &c.
*(2) Sir Andrew Smith, as quoted
by Knox, Races of Man, 1850,
p. 473.
*(3) See De Quatrefages on this
head, Revue des Cours Scientifiques,
Oct. 17, 1868, p. 731.
*(4) Livingstone's Travels and
Researches in S. Africa, 1857,
pp. 338, 339. D'Orbigny, as quoted
by Godron, De l'Espece, vol.
ii., p. 266.
Various facts, which I have
given elsewhere, prove that the
colour of the skin and hair is
sometimes correlated in a surprising
manner with a complete immunity
from the action of certain vegetable
poisons, and from the attacks
of certain parasites. Hence it
occurred to me, that negroes
and other dark races might have
acquired their dark tints by
the darker individuals escaping
from the deadly influence of
the miasma of their native countries,
during a long series of generations.
I afterwards found that this
same idea had long ago occurred
to Dr. Wells.* It has long been
known that negroes, and even
mulattoes are almost completely
exempt from the yellow fever,
so destructive in tropical America.*(2)
They likewise escape to a large
extent the fatal intermittent
fevers, that prevail along at
least 2600 miles of the shores
of Africa, and which annually
cause one-fifth of the white
settlers to die, and another
fifth to return home invalided.*(3)
This immunity in the negro seems
to be partly inherent, depending
on some unknown peculiarity of
constitution, and partly the
result of acclimatisation. Pouchet*(4)
states that the negro regiments
recruited near the Soudan, and
borrowed from the Viceroy of
Egypt for the Mexican war, escaped
the yellow fever almost equally
with the negroes originally brought
from various parts of Africa
and accustomed to the climate
of the West Indies. That acclimatisation
plays a part, is shewn by the
many cases in which negroes have
become somewhat liable to tropical
fevers, after having resided
for some time in a colder climate.*(5)
The nature of the climate under
which the white races have long
resided likewise has some influence
on them; for during the fearful
epidemic of yellow fever in Demerara
during 1837, Dr. Blair found
that the death-rate of the immigrants
was proportional to the latitude
of the country whence they had
come. With the negro the immunity,
as far as it is the result of
acclimatisation, implies exposure
during a prodigious length of
time; for the aborigines of tropical
America who have resided there
from time immemorial, are not
exempt from yellow fever; and
the Rev. H. B. Tristram states,
that there are districts in nothern
Africa which the native inhabitants
are compelled annually to leave,
though the negroes can remain
with safety.
* See a paper
read before the Royal Soc.
in 1813, and published
in his Essays in 1818. I have
given an account of Dr. Wells'
views in the "Historical Sketch" (p.
2) to my Origin of Species. Various
cases of colour correlated with
constitutional peculiarities
are given in my Variation of
Animals and Plants under Domestication,
vol. ii., pp. 227, 335.
*(2) See, for instance, Nott
and Gliddon, Types of Mankind,
p. 68.
*(3) Major Tulloch in a paper
read before the Statistical Society,
April 20, 1840, and given in
the Athenaeum, 1840, p. 353.
*(4) The Plurality of the Human
Race (translat.), 1864, p. 60.
*(5) Quartrefages, Unite de
l'Espece Humaine, 1861, p. 205.
Wartz, Introduction to Anthropology,
translat., vol. i., 1863, p.
124. Livingstone gives analogous
cases in his Travels.
That the immunity of the negro
is in any degree correlated with
the colour of his skin is a mere
conjecture: it may be correlated
with some difference in his blood,
nervous system, or other tissues.
Nevertheless, from the facts
above alluded to, and from some
connection apparently existing
between complexion and a tendency
to consumption, the conjecture
seemed to me not improbable.
Consequently I endeavoured, with
but little success,* to ascertain
how far it holds good. The late
Dr. Daniell, who had long lived
on the west coast of Africa,
told me that he did not believe
in any such relation. He was
himself unusually fair, and had
withstood the climate in a wonderful
manner. When he first arrived
as a boy on the coast, an old
and experienced negro chief predicted
from his appearance that this
would prove the case. Dr. Nicholson,
of Antigua, after having attended
to this subject, writes to me
that dark-coloured Europeans
escape the yellow fever more
than those that are light-coloured.
Mr. J. M. Harris altogether denies
that Europeans with dark hair
withstand a hot climate better
than other men: on the contrary,
experience has taught him in
making a selection of men for
service on the coast of Africa,
to choose those with red hair.*(2)
As far, therefore, as these slight
indications go, there seems no
foundation for the hypothesis,
that blackness has resulted from
the darker and darker individuals
having survived better during
long exposure to fever-generating
miasma.
* In the spring
of 1862 I obtained permission
from the Director-General
of the Medical department of
the Army, to transmit to the
surgeons of the various regiments
on foreign service a blank table,
with the following appended remarks,
but I have received no returns. "As
several well-marked cases have
been recorded with our domestic
animals of a relation between
the colour of the dermal appendages
and the constitution; and it
being notorious that there is
some limited degree of relation
between the colour of the races
of man and the climate inhabited
by them; the following investigation
seems worth consideration. Namely,
whether there is any relation
in Europeans between the colour
of their hair, and their liability
to the diseases of tropical countries.
If the surgeons of the several
regiments, when stationed in
unhealthy tropical districts,
would be so good as first to
count, as a standard of comparison,
how many men, in the force whence
the sick are drawn, have dark
and light-coloured hair, and
hair of intermediate or doubtful
tints; and if a similar account
were kept by the same medical
gentlemen, of all the men who
suffered from malarious and yellow
fevers, or from dysentery, it
would soon be apparent, after
some thousand cases had been
tabulated, whether there exists
any relation between the colour
of the hair and constitutional
liability to tropical diseases.
Perhaps no such relation would
be discovered, but the investigation
is well worth making. In case
any positive result were obtained,
it might be of some practical
use in selecting men for any
particular service. Theoretically
the result would be of high interest,
as indicating one means by which
a race of men inhabiting from
a remote period an unhealthy
tropical climate, might have
become dark-coloured by the better
preservation of dark-haired or
dark-complexioned individuals
during a long succession of generations."
*(2) Anthropological
Review, Jan., 1866, p. xxi.
Dr. Sharpe
also says, with respect to India
(Man a Special Creation, 1873,
p. 118), "that it has been noticed
by some medical officers that
Europeans with light hair and
florid complexions suffer less
from diseases of tropical countries
than persons with dark hair and
sallow complexions; and, so far
as I know, there appear to be
good grounds for this remark." On
the other hand, Mr. Heddle, of
Sierra Leone, "who has had more
clerks killed under him than
any other man," by the climate
of the west African coast (W.
Reade, African Sketch Book, vol.
ii., p. 522), holds a directly
opposite view, as does Capt.
Burton.
Dr. Sharpe remarks,* that a
tropical sun, which burns and
blisters a white skin, does not
injure a black one at all; and,
as he adds, this is not due to
habit in the individual, for
children only six or eight months
old are often carried about naked,
and are not affected. I have
been assured by a medical man,
that some years ago during each
summer, but not during the winter,
his hands became marked with
light brown patches, like, although
larger than freckles, and that
these patches were never affected
by sun-burning, whilst the white
parts of his skin have on several
occasions been much inflamed
and blistered. With the lower
animals there is, also, a constitutional
difference in liability to the
action of the sun between those
parts of the skin clothed with
white hair and other parts.*(2)
Whether the saving of the skin
from being thus burnt is of sufficient
importance to account for a dark
tint having been gradually acquired
by man through natural selection,
I am unable to judge. If it be
so, we should have to assume
that the natives of tropical
America have lived there for
a much shorter time than the
Negroes in Africa or the Papuans
in the southern parts of the
Malay archipelago, just as the
lighter-coloured Hindoos have
resided in India for a shorter
time than the darker aborigines
of the central and southern parts
of the peninsula.
* Man a Special Creation, 1873,
p. 119.
*(2) Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication, vol.
ii., pp. 336, 337.
Although with our present knowledge
we cannot account for the differences
of colour in the races of man,
through any advantage thus gained,
or from the direct action of
climate; yet we must not quite
ignore the latter agency, for
there is good reason to believe
that some inherited effect is
thus produced.*
* See, for instance,
Quatrefages (Revue des Cours
Scientifiques,
Oct. 10, 1868, p. 724) on the
effects of residence in Abyssinia
and Arabia, and other analogous
cases. Dr. Rolle (Der Mensch,
seine Abstammung, &c., 1865,
s. 99) states, on the authority
of Khanikof, that the greater
number of German families settled
in Georgia, have acquired in
the course of two generations
dark hair and eyes. Mr. D. Forbes
informs me that the Quechuas
in the Andes vary greatly in
colour, according to the position
of the valleys inhabited by them.
We have seen in the second chapter
that the conditions of life affect
the development of the bodily
frame in a direct manner, and
that the effects are transmitted.
Thus, as is generally admitted,
the European settlers in the
United States undergo a slight
but extraordinary rapid change
of appearance. Their bodies and
limbs become elongated; and I
hear from Col. Bernys that during
the late war in the United States,
good evidence was afforded of
this fact by the ridiculous appearance
presented by the German regiments,
when dressed in ready-made clothes
manufactured for the American
market, and which were much too
long for the men in every way.
There is, also, a considerable
body of evidence shewing that
in the Southern States the house-slaves
of the third generation present
a markedly different appearance
from the field-slaves.*
* Harlan, Medical Researches,
p. 532. Quatrefages (Unite de
l'Espece Humaine, 1861, p. 128)
has collected much evidence on
this head.
If, however,
we look to the races of man
as distributed over
the world, we must infer that
their characteristic differences
cannot be accounted for by the
direct action of different conditions
of life, even after exposure
to them for an enormous period
of time. The Esquimaux live exclusively
on animal food; they are clothed
in thick fur, and are exposed
to intense cold and to prolonged
darkness; yet they do not differ
in any extreme degree from the
inhabitants of southern China,
who live entirely on vegetable
food, and are exposed almost
naked to a hot, glaring climate.
The unclothed Fuegians live on
the marine productions of their
inhospitable shores; the Botocudos
of Brazil wander about the hot
forests of the interior and live
chiefly on vegetable productions;
yet these tribes resemble each
other so closely that the Fuegians
on board the "Beagle" were mistaken
by some Brazilians for Botocudos.
The Botocudos again, as well
as the other inhabitants of tropical
America, are wholly different
from the Negroes who inhabit
the opposite shores of the Atlantic,
are exposed to a nearly similar
climate, and follow nearly the
same habits of life.
Nor can the differences between
the races of man be accounted
for by the inherited effects
of the increased or decreased
use of parts, except to a quite
insignificant degree. Men who
habitually live in canoes, may
have their legs somewhat stunted;
those who inhabit lofty regions
may have their chests enlarged;
and those who constantly use
certain sense-organs may have
the cavities in which they are
lodged somewhat increased in
size, and their features consequently
a little modified. With civilized
nations, the reduced size of
the jaws from lessened use- the
habitual play of different muscles
serving to express different
emotions- and the increased size
of the brain from greater intellectual
activity, have together produced
a considerable effect on their
general appearance when compared
with savages.* Increased bodily
stature, without any corresponding
increase in the size of the brain,
may (judging from the previously
adduced case of rabbits), have
given to some races an elongated
skull of the dolichocephalic
type.
* See Prof. Schaaffhausen, translat.,
in Anthropological Review, Oct.,
1868, p. 429.
Lastly, the little-understood
principle of correlated development
has sometimes come into action,
as in the case of great muscular
development and strongly projecting
supra-orbital ridges. The colour
of the skin and hair are plainly
correlated, as is the texture
of the hair with its colour in
the Mandans of North America.*
The colour also of the skin,
and the odour emitted by it,
are likewise in some manner connected.
With the breeds of sheep the
number of hairs within a given
space and the number of excretory
pores are related.*(2) If we
may judge from the analogy of
our domesticated animals, many
modifications of structure in
man probably come under this
principle of correlated development.
* Mr. Catlin states (N. American
Indians, 3rd ed., 1842, vol.
i., p. 49) that in the whole
tribe of the Mandans, about one
in ten or twelve of the members,
of all ages and both sexes, have
bright silvery grey hair, which
is hereditary. Now this hair
is as coarse and harsh as that
of a horse's mane, whilst the
hair of other colours is fine
and soft.
*(2) On the odour of the skin,
Godron, De l'Espece, tom. ii.,
p. 217. On the pores of the skin,
Dr. Wilckens, Die Aufgaben der
Landwirth. Zootechnik, 1869,
s. 7.
We have now seen that the external
characteristic differences between
the races of man cannot be accounted
for in a satisfactory manner
by the direct action of the conditions
of life, nor by the effects of
the continued use of parts, nor
through the principle of correlation.
We are therefore led to enquire
whether slight individual differences,
to which man is eminently liable,
may not have been preserved and
augmented during a long series
of generations through natural
selection. But here we are at
once met by the objection that
beneficial variations alone can
be thus preserved; and as far
as we are enabled to judge, although
always liable to err on this
head, none of the differences
between the races of man are
of any direct or special service
to him. The intellectual and
moral or social faculties must
of course be excepted from this
remark. The great variability
of all the external differences
between the races of man, likewise
indicates that they cannot be
of much importance; for if important,
they would long ago have been
either fixed and preserved, or
eliminated. In this respect man
resembles those forms, called
by naturalists protean or polymorphic,
which have remained extremely
variable, owing, as it seems,
to such variations being of an
indifferent nature, and to their
having thus escaped the action
of natural selection.
We have thus
far been baffled in all our
attempts to account
for the differences between the
races of man; but there remains
one important agency, namely
Sexual Selection, which appears
to have acted powerfully on man,
as on many other animals. I do
not intend to assert that sexual
selection will account for all
the differences between the races.
An unexplained residuum is left,
about which we can only say,
in our ignorance, that as individuals
are continually born with, for
instance, heads a little rounder
or narrower, and with noses a
little longer or shorter, such
slight differences might become
fixed and uniform, if the unknown
agencies which induced them were
to act in a more constant manner,
aided by long-continued intercrossing.
Such variations come under the
provisional class, alluded to
in our second chapter, which
for want of a better term are
often called spontaneous. Nor
do I pretend that the effects
of sexual selection can be indicated
with scientific precision; but
it can be shewn that it would
be an inexplicable fact if man
had not been modified by this
agency, which appears to have
acted powerfully on innumerable
animals. It can further be shewn
that the differences between
the races of man, as in colour,
hairiness, form of features, &c.,
are of a kind which might have
been expected to come under the
influence of sexual selection.
But in order to treat this subject
properly, I have found it necessary
to pass the whole animal kingdom
in review. I have therefore devoted
to it the Second Part of this
work. At the close I shall return
to man, and, after attempting
to shew how far he has been modified
through sexual selection, will
give a brief summary of the chapters
in this First Part.
NOTE ON THE RESEMBLANCES AND
DIFFERENCES IN THE STRUCTURE
AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAIN
IN MAN AND APES. BY PROFESSOR
HUXLEY, F. R. S.
The controversy respecting the
nature and the extent of the
differences in the structure
of the brain in man and the apes,
which arose some fifteen years
ago, has not yet come to an end,
though the subject matter of
the dispute is, at present, totally
different from what it was formerly.
It was originally asserted and
re-asserted, with singular pertinacity
that the brain of all the apes,
even the highest, differs from
that of man, in the absence of
such conspicuous structures as
the posterior lobes of the cerebral
hemispheres, with the posterior
cornu of the lateral ventricle
and the hippocampus minor, contained
in those lobes, which are so
obvious in man.
But the truth that the structures
in question are as well developed
in apes' as in human brains,
or even better; and that it is
characteristic of all the primates
(if we exclude the lemurs) to
have these parts well developed,
stands at present on as secure
a basis as any proposition in
comparative anatomy. Moreover,
it is admitted by every one of
the long series of anatomists
who, of late years, have paid
special attention to the arrangement
of the complicated sulci 0and
gyri which appear upon the surface
of the cerebral hemispheres in
man and the higher apes, that
they are disposed after the very
same pattern in him, as in them.
Every principal gyrus and sulcus
of a chimpanzee's brain is clearly
represented in that of a man,
so that the terminology which
applies to the one answers for
the other. On this point there
is no difference of opinion.
Some years since, Professor Bischoff
published a memoir* on the cerebral
convolutions of man and apes;
and as the purpose of my learned
colleague was certainly not to
diminish the value of the differences
between apes and men in this
respect, I am glad to make a
citation from him.
* "Die Grosshirnwindungen des
Menschen"; Abhandlungen der K.
Bayerischen Akademie, B. x.,
1868.
"That the apes, and especially
the orang, chimpanzee and gorilla,
come very close to man in their
organisation, much nearer than
to any other animal, is a well
known fact, disputed by nobody.
Looking at the matter from the
point of view of organisation
alone, no one probably would
ever have disputed the view of
Linnaeus, that man should be
placed, merely as a peculiar
species, at the head of the mammalia
and of those apes. Both shew,
in all their organs, so close
an affinity, that the most exact
anatomical investigation is needed
in order to demonstrate those
differences which really exist.
So it is with the brains. The
brains of man, the orang, the
chimpanzee, the gorilla, in spite
of all the important differences
which they present, come very
close to one another" (loc. cit.,
p. 101).
There remains,
then, no dispute as to the
resemblance in fundamental
characters, between the ape's
brain and man's: nor any as to
the wonderfully close similarity
between the chimpanzee, orang
and man, in even the details
of the arrangement of the gyri
and sulci of the cerebral hemispheres.
Nor, turning to the differences
between the brains of the highest
apes and that of man, is there
any serious question as to the
nature and extent of these differences.
It is admitted that the man's
cerebral hemispheres are absolutely
and relatively larger than those
of the orang and chimpanzee;
that his frontal lobes are less
excavated by the upward protrusion
of the roof of the orbits; that
his gyri and sulci are, as a
rule, less symmetrically disposed,
and present a greater number
of secondary plications. And
it is admitted that, as a rule,
in man, the temporo-occipital
or "external perpendicular" fissure,
which is usually so strongly
marked a feature of the ape's
brain is but faintly marked.
But it is also clear, that none
of these differences constitutes
a sharp demarcation between the
man's and the ape's brain. In
respect to the external perpendicular
fissure of Gratiolet, in the
human brain for instance, Professor
Turner remarks:*
* Convolutions of the Human
Cerebrum Topographically Considered,
1866, p. 12.
"In some brains it appears simply
as an indentation of the margin
of the hemisphere, but, in others,
it tends for some distance more
or less transversely outwards.
I saw it in the right hemisphere
of a female brain pass more than
two inches outwards; and on another
specimen, also the right hemisphere,
it proceeded for four-tenths
of an inch outwards, and then
extended downwards, as far as
the lower margin of the outer
surface of the hemisphere. The
imperfect definition of this
fissure in the majority of human
brains, as compared with its
remarkable distinctness in the
brain of most Quadrumana, is
owing to the presence, in the
former, of certain superficial,
well marked, secondary convolutions
which bridge it over and connect
the parietal with the occipital
lobe. The closer the first of
these bridging gyri lies to the
longitudinal fissure, the shorter
is the external parieto-occipital
fissure" (loc. cit., p. 12).
The obliteration
of the external perpendicular
fissure of Gratiolet,
therefore, is not a constant
character of the human brain.
On the other hand, its full development
is not a constant character of
the higher ape's brain. For,
in the chimpanzee, the more or
less extensive obliteration of
the external perpendicular sulcus
by "bridging convolutions," on
one side or the other, has been
noted over and over again by
Prof. Rolleston, Mr. Marshall,
M. Broca and Professor Turner.
At the conclusion of a special
paper on this subject the latter
writes:*
* "Notes more especially on
the bridging convolutions in
the Brain of the Chimpanzee," Proceedings
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
1865-6. "The three specimens
of the brain of a Chimpanzee," just
described, prove that the generalisation
which Gratiolet has attempted
to draw of the complete absence
of the first connecting convolution
and the concealment of the second,
as essentially characteristic
features in the brain of this
animal, is by no means universally
applicable. In only one specimen
did the brain, in these particulars,
follow the law which Gratiolet
has expressed. As regards the
presence of the superior bridging
convolution, I am inclined to
think that it has existed in
one hemisphere, at least, in
a majority of the brains of this
animal which have, up to this
time, been figured or described.
The superficial position of the
second bridging convolution is
evidently less frequent, and
has as yet, I believe, only been
seen in the brain (A) recorded
in this communication. The asymmetrical
arrangement in the convolutions
of the two hemispheres, which
previous observers have referred
to in their descriptions, is
also well illustrated in these
specimens" (pp. 8, 9).
Even were the presence of the
temporo-occipital, or external
perpendicular, sulcus, a mark
of distinction between the higher
apes and man, the value of such
a distinctive character would
be rendered very doubtful by
the structure of the brain in
the platyrhine apes. In fact,
while the temporo-occipital is
one of the most constant of sulci
in the catarhine, or Old World,
apes, it is never very strongly
developed in the New World apes;
it is absent in the smaller platyrhine;
rudimentary in Pithecia;* and
more or less obliterated by bridging
convolutions in Ateles.
* FIower, "On the Anatomy of
Pithecia Monachus," Proceedings
of the Zoological Society, 1862.
A character which is thus variable
within the limits of a single
group can have no great taxonomic
value.
It is further established, that
the degree of asymmetry of the
convolution of the two sides
in the human brain is subject
to much individual variation;
and that, in those individuals
of the bushman race who have
been examined, the gyri and sulci
of the two hemispheres are considerably
less complicated and more symmetrical
than in the European brain, while,
in some individuals of the chimpanzee,
their complexity and asymmetry
become notable. This is particularly
the case in the brain of a young
male chimpanzee figured by M.
Broca. (L'ordre des Primates,
p. 165, fig. 11.)
Again, as respects the question
of absolute size, it is established
that the difference between the
largest and the smallest healthy
human brain is greater than the
difference between the smallest
healthy human brain and the largest
chimpanzee's or orang's brain.
Moreover, there is one circumstance
in which the orang's and chimpanzee's
brains resemble man's, but in
which they differ from the lower
apes, and that is the presence
of two corpora candicantia- the
Cynomorpha having but one.
In view of these facts I do
not hesitate in this year 1874,
to repeat and insist upon the
proposition which I enunciated
in 1863:*
* Man's Place in Nature, p.
102.
"So far as cerebral
structure goes, therefore,
it is clear
that man differs less from the
chimpanzee or the orang, than
these do even from the monkeys,
and that the difference between
the brain of the chimpanzee and
of man is almost insignificant
when compared with that between
the chimpanzee brain and that
of a lemur."
In the paper
to which I have referred, Professor
Bischoff
does not deny the second part
of this statement, but he first
makes the irrelevant remark that
it is not wonderful if the brains
of an orang and a lemur are very
different; and secondly, goes
on to assert that, "If we successively
compare the brain of a man with
that of an orang; the brain of
this with that of a chimpanzee;
of this with that of a gorilla,
and so on of a Hylobates, Semnopithecus,
Cynocephalus, Cercopithecus,
Macacus, Cebus, Callithrix, Lemur,
Stenops, Hapale, we shall not
meet with a greater, or even
as great a break in the degree
of development of the convolutions,
as we find between the brain
of a man and that of an orang
or chimpanzee."
To which I reply,
firstly, that whether this
assertion be true
or false, it has nothing whatever
to do with the proposition enunciated
in Man's Place in Nature, which
refers not to the development
of the convolutions alone, but
to the structure of the whole
brain. If Professor Bischoff
had taken the trouble to refer
to p. 96 of the work he criticises,
in fact, he would have found
the following passage: "And it
is a remarkable circumstance
that though, so far as our present
knowledge extends, there is one
true structural break in the
series of forms of simian brains,
this hiatus does not lie between
man and the manlike apes, but
between the lower and the lowest
simians, or in other words, between
the Old and New World apes and
monkeys and the lemurs. Every
lemur which has yet been examined,
in fact, has its cerebellum partially
visible from above; and its posterior
lobe, with the contained posterior
cornu and hippocampus minor,
more or less rudimentary. Every
marmoset, American monkey, Old
World monkey, baboon or manlike
ape, on the contrary, has its
cerebellum entirely hidden, posteriorly,
by the cerebral lobes, and possesses
a large posterior cornu with
a well-developed hippocampus
minor."
This statement was a strictly
accurate account of what was
known when it was made; and it
does not appear to me to be more
than apparently weakened by the
subsequent discovery of the relatively
small development of the posterior
lobes in the siamang and in the
howling monkey. Notwithstanding
the exceptional brevity of the
posterior lobes in these two
species, no one will pretend
that their brains, in the slightest
degree, approach those of the
lemurs. And if, instead of putting
Hapale out of its natural place,
as Professor Bischoff most unaccountably
does, we write the series of
animals he has chosen to mention
as follows: Homo, Pithecus, Troglodytes,
Hylobates, Semnopithecus, Cynocephalus,
Cereopithecus, Macacus, Cebus,
Callithrix, Hapale, Lemur, Stenops,
I venture to reaffirm that the
great break in this series lies
between Hapale and Lemur, and
that this break is considerably
greater than that between any
other two terms of that series.
Professor Bischoff ignores the
fact that long before he wrote,
Gratiolet had suggested the separation
of the lemurs from the other
primates on the very ground of
the difference in their cerebral
characters; and that Professor
Flower had made the following
observations in the course of
his description of the brain
of the Javan loris:*
* Transactions of the Zoological
Society, vol. v., 1862.
"And it is especially
remarkable that, in the development
of the
posterior lobes, there is no
approximation to the lemurine,
short hemisphered brain, in those
monkeys which are commonly supposed
to approach this family in other
respects, viz., the lower members
of the platyrhine group."
So far as the structure of the
adult brain is concerned, then,
the very considerable additions
to our knowledge, which have
been made by the researches of
so many investigators, during
the past ten years, fully justify
the statement which I made in
1863. But it has been said, that,
admitting the similarity between
the adult brains of man and apes,
they are nevertheless, in reality,
widely different, because they
exhibit fundamental differences
in the mode of their development.
No one would be more ready than
I to admit the force of this
argument, if such fundamental
differences of development really
exist. But I deny that they do
exist. On the contrary, there
is a fundamental agreement in
the development of the brain
in men and apes.
Gratiolet originated the statement
that there is a fundamental difference
in the development of the brains
of apes and that of man- consisting
in this; that, in the apes, the
sulci which first make their
appearance are situated on the
posterior region of the cerebral
hemispheres, while, in the human
foetus, the sulci first become
visible on the frontal lobes.*
* "Chez tous les singes, les
plis posterieurs se developpent
les premiers; les plis anterieurs
se developpent plus tard, aussi
la vertebre occipitale et la
parietale sont-elles relativement
tres-grandes chez le foetus.
L'Homme presente une exception
remarquable quant a l'epoque
de l'apparition des plis frontaux,
qui sont les premiers indiques;
mais le developpement general
du lobe frontal, envisage seulement
par rapport a son volume, suit
les memes lois que dans les singes";
Gratiolet, Memoire sur les plis
cerebres de l'Homme et des Primateaux,
p. 39, tab. iv, fig. 3.
This general
statement is based upon two
observations, the one
of a gibbon almost ready to be
born, in which the posterior
gyri were "well developed," while
those of the frontal lobes were "hardly
indicated"* (loc. cit., p. 39),
and the other of a human foetus
at the 22nd or 23rd week of utero-gestation,
in which Gratiolet notes that
the insula was uncovered, but
that nevertheless "des incisures
sement de lobe anterieur, une
scissure peu profonde indique
la separation du lobe occipital,
tres-reduit, d'ailleurs des cette
epoque. Le reste de la surface
cerebrale est encore absolument
lisse."
* Gratiolet's
words are (loc. cit., p. 39): "Dans le foetus
dont il s'agit les plis cerebraux
posterieurs sont bien developpes,
tandis que les plis du lobe frontal
sont a peine indiques." The figure,
however (pl. iv, fig. 3), shews
the fissure of Rolando, and one
of the frontal sulci plainly
enough. Nevertheless, M. Alix,
in his "Notice sur les travaux
anthropologiques de Gratiolet" (Mem.
de la Societe d'Anthropologie
de Paris, 1868, page 32), writes
thus: "Gratiolet a eu entre les
mains le cerveau d'un foetus
de Gibbon, singe eminemment superieur,
et tellement rapproche de l'orang,
que des naturalistes tres-competents
l'ont range parmi les anthropoides.
M. Huxley, par exemple, n'hesite
pas sur ce point. Eh bien, c'est
sur le cerveau d'un foetus de
Gibbon que Gratiolet a vu les
circonvolutions du lobe temporo-sphenoidal
deja developpees lorsqu'il n'existent
pas encore de plis sur le lobe
frontal. Il etait donc bien autorise
a dire que, chez l'homme les
circonvolutions apparaissent
d' a en w, tandis que chez les
singes elles se developpent d'w
en a."
Three views
of this brain are given in
plate II, figs. 1, 2,
3, of the work cited, shewing
the upper, lateral and inferior
views of the hemispheres, but
not the inner view. It is worthy
of note that the figure by no
means bears out Gratiolet's description,
inasmuch as the fissure (antero-temporal)
on the posterior half of the
face of the hemisphere is more
marked than any of those vaguely
indicated in the anterior half.
If the figure is correct, it
in no way justifies Gratiolet's
conclusion: "Il y a donc entre
ces cerveaux [those of a Callithrix
and of a gibbon] et celui du
foetus humain une difference
fondamental. Chez celui-ci, longtemps
avant que les plis temporaux
apparaissent, les plis frontaux,
essayent d'exister."
Since Gratiolet's time, however,
the development of the gyri and
sulci of the brain has been made
the subject of renewed investigation
by Schmidt, Bischoff, Pansch,*
and more particularly by Ecker,*(2)
whose work is not only the latest,
but by far the most complete,
memoir on the subject.
* Uber die typische
Anordnung der Furchen und Windungen
auf
den Grosshirn-Hemispharen des
Menschen und der Affen," Archiv
fur Anthropologie, iii., 1868
*(2) "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte
der Furchen und Windungen der
Grosshirn-Hemispharen im Foetus
des Menschen." Archiv fur Anthropologie,
iii., 1868.
The final results of their inquiries
may be summed up as follows:-
1. In the human foetus, the
sylvian fissure is formed in
the course of the third month
of utero-gestation. In this,
and in the fourth month, the
cerebral hemispheres are smooth
and rounded (with the exception
of the sylvian depression), and
they project backwards far beyond
the cerebellum.
2. The sulci, properly so called,
begin to appear in the interval
between the end of the fourth
and the beginning of the sixth
month of foetal life, but Ecker
is careful to point out that,
not only the time, but the order,
of their appearance is subject
to considerable individual variation.
In no case, however, are either
the frontal or the temporal sulci
the earliest.
The first which appears, in
fact, lies on the inner face
of the hemisphere (whence doubtless
Gratiolet, who does not seem
to have examined that face in
his foetus, overlooked it), and
is either the internal perpendicular
(occipito-parietal), or the calcarine
sulcus, these two being close
together and eventually running
into one another. As a rule the
occipito-parietal is the earlier
of the two.
3. At the latter
part of this period, another
sulcus, the "posterio-parietal," or "Fissure
of Rolando" is developed, and
it is followed, in the course
of the sixth month, by the other
principal sulci of the frontal,
parietal, temporal and occipital
lobes. There is, however, no
clear evidence that one of these
constantly appears before the
other; and it is remarkable that,
in the brain at the period described
and figured by Ecker (loc. cit.,
pp. 212-213 tab. II, figs. 1,
2, 3, 4), the antero-temporal
sulcus (scissure parallele) so
characteristic of the ape's brain,
is as well, if not better developed
than the fissure of Rolando,
and is much more marked than
the proper frontal sulci.
Taking the facts as they now
stand, it appears to me that
the order of the appearance of
the sulci and gyri in the foetal
human brain is in perfect harmony
with the general doctrine of
evolution, and with the view
that man has been evolved from
some ape-like form; though there
can be no doubt that that form
was, in many respects, different
from any member of the primates
now living.
Von Baer taught us, half a century
ago, that, in the course of their
development, allied animals put
on at first, the characters of
the greater groups to which they
belong, and, by degrees, assume
those which restrict them within
the limits of their family, genus,
and species; and he proved, at
the same time, that no developmental
stage of a higher animal is precisely
similar to the adult condition
of any lower animal. It is quite
correct to say that a frog passes
through the condition of a fish,
inasmuch as at one period of
its life the tadpole has all
the characters of a fish, and
if it went no further, would
have to be grouped among fishes.
But it is equally true that a
tadpole is very different from
any known fish.
In like manner, the brain of
a human foetus, at the fifth
month, may correctly be said
to be, not only the brain of
an ape, but that of an arctopithecine
or marmoset-like ape; for its
hemispheres, with their great
posterior lobster, and with no
sulci but the sylvian and the
calcarine, present the characteristics
found only in the group of the
arctopithecine primates. But
it is equally true, as Gratiolet
remarks, that, in its widely
open sylvian fissure, it differs
from the brain of any actual
marmoset. No doubt it would be
much more similar to the brain
of an advanced foetus of a marmoset.
But we know nothing whatever
of the development of the brain
in the marmosets. In the Platyrhini
proper, the only observation
with which I am acquainted is
due to Pansch, who found in the
brain of a foetal Cebus apella,
in addition to the sylvian fissure
and the deep calcarine fissure,
only a very shallow antero-temporal
fissure (scissure parallele of
Gratiolet).
Now this fact, taken together
with the circumstance that the
antero-temporal sulcus is present
in such Platyrhini as the Saimiri,
which present mere traces of
sulci on the anterior half of
the exterior of the cerebral
hemispheres, or none at all,
undoubtedly, so far as it goes,
affords fair evidence in favour
of Gratiolet's hypothesis, that
the posterior sulci appear before
the anterior, in the brains of
the Platyrhini. But, it by no
means follows, that the rule
which may hold good for the Platyrhini
extends to the Catarhini. We
have no information whatever
respecting the development of
the brain in the Cynomorphia;
and, as regards the Anthropomorpha,
nothing but the account of the
brain of the gibbon near birth,
already referred to. At the present
moment there is not a shadow
of evidence to show that the
sulci of a chimpanzee's, or orang's,
brain do not appear in the same
order as a man's.
Gratiolet opens
his preface with the aphorism: "Il est dangereux
dans les sciences de conclure
trop vite." I fear he must have
forgotten this sound maxim by
the time he had reached the discussion
of the differences between men
and apes, in the body of his
work. No doubt, the excellent
author of one of the most remarkable
contributions to the just understanding
of the mammalian brain which
has ever been made, would have
been the first to admit the insufficiency
of his data had he lived to profit
by the advance of inquiry. The
misfortune is that his conclusions
have been employed by persons
incompetent to appreciate their
foundation, as arguments in favour
of obscurantism.*
* For example, M. l'Abbe Lecomte
in his terrible pamphlet, Le
Darwinisme et l'origine de l'homme,
1873.
But it is important to remark
that, whether Gratiolet was right
or wrong in his hypothesis respecting
the relative order of appearance
of the temporal and frontal sulci,
the fact remains; that. before
either temporal or frontal sulci,
appear, the foetal brain of man
presents characters which are
found only in the lowest group
of the primates (leaving out
the lemurs); and that this is
exactly what we should expect
to be the case, if man has resulted
from the gradual modification
of the same form as that from
which the other primates have
sprung.
PART TWO
SEXUAL SELECTION |