Note 131 — Chapter V · EVOLUTION OF THE PRINCIPAL CONCEPTS. (continued 2)

Brown, quoted by Quatrefages (Précurseurs de Darwin, p. 218), who adds, “If this were the case, one would not find many species denoted by particular names among savages, and our own illiterate population. The general notion of species is on the contrary one of those that are forced upon us, directly we look round. The difficulty is to formulate it clearly, to give it scientific precision, and this is a very real problem.”