Darwin on the Unity of the Human Race

Abstract

HAVING had occasion last year to allude as a fact to the circumstance that Charles Darwin assumed mankind to have arisen at one place, and therefore in a single pair, I was surprised to find that this fact was doubted, or at least very doubtfully accepted, by some of my scientific friends; and I was asked for a reference to his works in confirmation of it. My principal reliance, however, was in the recollection of a private letter to myself from the illustrious naturalist, which I had unfortunately mislaid. Having now recovered this letter, I send a copy of it to NATURE for publication, simply explaining that this letter was in reply to a letter from me in which I put the direct question, why it was that he did assume the unity of mankind as descended from a single pair? It will be observed that in his reply he does not repudiate this interpretation of his theory, but simply proceeds to explain and to defend the doctrine.