or monstrosities. (15. The Variation of Animals, etc., vol. ii. p.
92.) 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.
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. (16. 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.) 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 Polynesian 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
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