We see the value set on animals even by the barbarians of Tierra del
Fuego, by their killing and devouring their old women, in times of
dearth, as of less value than their dogs.
If the country were open on its borders, new forms would certainly
immigrate, and this would also seriously disturb the relations of some
of the former inhabitants. Let it be remembered how powerful the
influence of a single introduced tree or mammal has been shown to be.
He who believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of
natural selection, will acknowledge that every organic being is
constantly endeavouring to increase in numbers; and thus if any one
being vary ever so little, either in habits or structure, and thus gain
an advantage over some other inhabitant of the country, it will seize
on the place of that inhabitant, however different it may be from its
own place.
The variability or diversity of the mental faculties in men of the same
race, not to mention the greater differences between the men of
distinct races, is so notorious that not a word need here be said.
Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition between a barbarian,
such as the man described by the old navigator Byron, who dashed his
child on the rocks for dropping a basket of sea urchins, and a Howard
or Clarkson; and in intellect, between a savage who uses hardly any
abstract terms, and a Newton or Shakspeare. Differences of this kind
between the highest men of the highest races and the lowest savages,
are connected by the finest graduations.
A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree
the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy,
were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for
the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this
would be natural selection.
Many races, some of which differ so much from each other, that they
have often been ranked by naturalists as distinct species.
At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the
civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace,
the savage races throughout the world... The break between men and his
nearest allies will then be wider.
We must not judge of the tastes of distinct species by a uniform
standard; nor must we judge by the standard of man's taste. Even with
man, we should remember what discordant noises, the beating of tom-toms
and the shrill notes of reeds, please the ears of savages.
[Man] has diverged into distinct races, or as they may be more fitly
called, sub-species. Some of these, such as the Negro and the European,
are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist
without any further information, they would undoubtedly have been
considered as good and true species.
For my part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little
monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his
keeper, or from that old baboon, who descending from the mountains,
carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished
dogs - as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers
up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his
wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest
superstitions.
When two distinct races are crossed, it is notorious that the tendency
in the offspring to revert to one or both parent forms is strong, and
endures for many generations.
The Earl of Powis formerly imported some thoroughly domesticated humped
cattle from India, and crossed them with English breeds, which belong
to a distinct species; and his agent remarked to me, without any
question having been asked, how oddly wild the cross-bred animals were.
These latter facts remind us of the statements, so frequently made by
travellers in all parts of the world, on the degraded state and savage
disposition of crossed races of man. That many excellent and
kind-hearted mulattos have existed no one will dispute; and a more mild
and gentle set of men could hardly be found than the inhabitants of the
island of Chilce, who consist of Indians commingled with Spaniards in
various proportions. On the other hand, many years ago, long before I
had thought of the present subject, I was struck with the fact that, in
South America, men of complicated descent between Negroes, Indians, and
Spaniards, seldom had, whatever the cause might be, a good expression.1
Livingstone,- and a more unimpeachable authority cannot be quoted,-
after speaking of a half-caste man on the Zambesi, described by the
Portuguese as a rare monster of inhumanity, remarks, "It is
unaccountable why half-castes, such as he, are so much more cruel than
the Portuguese, but such is undoubtedly the case." An inhabitant
remarked to Livingstone, "God made white men, and God made black men,
but the Devil made half-castes."2 When two races, both low in the
scale, are crossed the progeny seems to be eminently bad. Thus the
noble-hearted Humboldt, who felt no prejudice against the inferior
races, speaks in strong terms of the bad and savage disposition of
Zambos, or half-castes between Indians and Negroes; and this conclusion
has been arrived at by various observers.3 From these facts we may
perhaps infer that the degraded state of so many half-castes is in part
due to reversion to a primitive and savage condition, induced by the
act of crossing, even if mainly due to the unfavourable moral
conditions under which they are generally reared.
Journal of Researches, 1845, p. 71.
Expedition to the Zambesi, 1865, pp. 25, 150.
Dr. P. Broca, on 'Hybridity in the Genus Homo,' Eng. translat., 1864,
p. 39.
No man in his senses would expect to improve or modify a breed in any
particular manner, or keep an old breed true and distinct, unless he
separated his animals.
It is a very surprising fact that characters should reappear after
having been lost for many, perhaps for hundreds of generations. But
when a breed has been crossed only once by some other breed, the
offspring occasionally show a tendency to revert in character to the
foreign breed for many generations - some say, for a dozen or even a
score of generations. After twelve generations, the proportion of
blood, to use a common expression, of any one ancestor, is only 1 in
2048; and yet, as we see, it is generally believed that a tendency to
reversion is retained by this very small proportion of foreign blood.
How strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and dispositions are
inherited, and how curiously they become mingled, is well shown when
different breeds of dogs are crossed. Thus it is known that a cross
with a bull-dog has affected for many generations the courage and
obstinacy of greyhounds; and a cross with a greyhound has given to a
whole family of shepherd-dogs a tendency to hunt hares.
Some species have a remarkable power of crossing with other species;
other species of the same genus have a remarkable power of impressing
their likeness on their hybrid offspring.
I think these authors are right, who maintain that the ***** has a
prepotent power over the horse, so that both the mule and the hinny
more resemble the ***** than the horse; but that the prepotency runs more
strongly in the male-***** than in the female, so that the mule, which is
the offspring of the male-***** and mare, is more like an *****, than is
the hinny, which is the offspring of the female-***** and stallion.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1st ed., Penguin, London, 1968;
pp. 94; 131; 217; The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex,
2nd ed., John Murray, London, 1874, pp. 40; 99; 203; 225; 241; 580;
929; 946.
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