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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40257 ***
+
+TRANSCRIBER NOTES:
+
+    Words or letters contained within underscores, i.e. _EVERYMAN'S
+    LIBRARY_, are words which were in italics in the original.
+
+    Letters or numbers preceded by a carat symbol, ^, indicate letters
+    or numbers which were in superscript in the original.
+
+    Letters with a macron are indicated in the following manner: [=a].
+
+    Additional Transcriber Notes can be found at the end of this
+    project.
+
+
+
+
+  EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
+  EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS
+
+  SCIENCE
+
+  HUXLEY'S ESSAYS
+  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
+  SIR OLIVER LODGE
+
+
+
+
+  THE PUBLISHERS OF _EVERYMAN'S
+  LIBRARY_ WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND
+  FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST
+  OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED
+  VOLUMES TO BE COMPRISED UNDER
+  THE FOLLOWING TWELVE HEADINGS:
+
+  TRAVEL      SCIENCE      FICTION
+  THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
+  HISTORY      CLASSICAL
+  CHILDREN'S BOOKS
+  ESSAYS      ORATORY
+  POETRY & DRAMA
+  BIOGRAPHY
+  ROMANCE
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  IN TWO STYLES OF BINDING, CLOTH,
+  FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP, AND
+  LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP.
+
+
+  LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HOC SOLUM SCIO QUOD NIHIL SCIO]
+
+
+
+
+  MAN'S PLACE
+  IN NATURE
+  AND OTHER
+  ESSAYS BY
+  THOMAS
+  HENRY
+  HUXLEY
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+  LONDON: PUBLISHED
+  by J. M. DENT. & CO.
+  AND IN NEW YORK
+  BY E. P. DUTTON & CO.
+
+
+
+
+  _First Edition, February 1906_
+
+  _Reprinted July 1906_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+     I. ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAN-LIKE APES                  1
+
+    II. ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE LOWER ANIMALS                52
+
+   III. ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN                              111
+
+    IV. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF ORGANIC NATURE                    151
+
+     V. THE PAST CONDITION OF ORGANIC NATURE                       168
+
+    VI. THE METHOD BY WHICH THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT
+        AND PAST CONDITIONS OF ORGANIC NATURE ARE TO
+        BE DISCOVERED.--THE ORIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS           186
+
+   VII. THE PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS, HEREDITARY
+        TRANSMISSION AND VARIATION                                 208
+
+  VIII. THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE AS AFFECTING
+        THE PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS                          225
+
+    IX. A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE POSITION OF MR.
+        DARWIN'S WORK, "ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES," IN
+        RELATION TO THE COMPLETE THEORY OF THE CAUSES
+        OF THE PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE                         245
+
+     X. ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL
+        HISTORY SCIENCES                                           264
+
+        (Lecture delivered at St. Martin's Hall,
+         July 22, 1854).
+
+    XI. ON THE PERSISTENT TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE                     283
+
+        (Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution,
+         June 3, 1859.)
+
+   XII. TIME AND LIFE                                              287
+
+        (_Macmillan's Magazine_, December 1859.)
+
+  XIII. DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES                            299
+
+        (_Westminster Review_, April 1860.)
+
+   XIV. THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS                                   337
+
+        (_Times_, December 26, 1859.)
+
+    XV. A LOBSTER; OR, THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY                        352
+
+        (Lecture delivered at South Kensington
+         Museum, May 14, 1860).
+
+
+
+
+  INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Forty years ago the position of scientific studies was not so firmly
+established as it is to-day, and a conflict was necessary to secure
+their general recognition. The forces of obscurantism and of free and
+easy dogmatism were arrayed against them; and, just as in former
+centuries astronomy, and in more recent times geology, so in our own
+lifetime biology, has had to offer a harsh and fighting front, lest its
+progress be impeded by the hostility born of preconceived opinions, and
+by the bigotry of self-appointed guardians of conservative views.
+
+The man who probably did as much as any to fight the battle of science
+in the nineteenth century, and secure the victory for free enquiry and
+progressive knowledge, is Thomas Henry Huxley; and it is an interesting
+fact that already the lapse of time is making it possible to bring his
+writings in cheap form to the notice of a multitude of interested
+readers. The pugnacious attitude, however, which, forty years ago, was
+appropriate, has become a little antique now; the conflict is not indeed
+over, but it has either totally shifted its ground, or is continued on
+the old battlefield chiefly by survivors, and by a few of a younger
+generation who have been brought up in the old spirit.
+
+The truths of materialism now run but little risk of being denied or
+ignored, they run perhaps some danger of being exaggerated. Brilliantly
+true and successful in their own territory, they are occasionally pushed
+by enthusiastic disciples over the frontier line into regions where they
+can do nothing but break down. As if enthusiastic worshippers of
+motor-cars, proud of their performance on the good roads of France,
+should take them over into the Sahara or essay them on a Polar
+expedition.
+
+That represents the mistake which, in modern times, by careless
+thinkers, is being made. They tend to press the materialistic statements
+and scientific doctrines of a great man like Huxley, as if they were
+co-extensive with all existence. This is not really a widening of the
+materialistic aspect of things, it is a cramping of everything else; it
+is an attempt to limit the universe to one of its aspects.
+
+But the mistake is not made solely, nor even chiefly, by those eager
+disciples who are pursuing the delusive gleam of a materialistic
+philosophy--for these there is hope,--to attempt is a healthy exercise,
+and they will find out their mistake in time; but the mistake is also
+made by those who are specially impressed with the spiritual side of
+things, who so delight to see guidance and management everywhere, that
+they wish to blind their eyes to the very mechanism whereby it is
+accomplished. They think that those who point out and earnestly study
+the mechanism are undermining the foundations of faith. Nothing of the
+kind. A traveller in the deck-cabin of an Atlantic liner may prefer to
+ignore the engines and the firemen, and all the machinery and toil which
+is urging him luxuriously forward over the waves in the sunshine; he may
+try to imagine that he is on a sailing vessel propelled by the free air
+of heaven alone; but there is just as much utilization of natural forces
+to a desired end in one case of navigation as in the other, and every
+detail of the steamship, down to the last drop of sweat from a fireman's
+grimy body, is an undeniable reality.
+
+There are people who still resent the conclusions of biology as to man's
+place in nature, and try to counteract them; but, as the late Professor
+Ritchie said ("Philosophical Studies," page 24)--
+
+     "It is a mistake, which has constantly been made in the
+     past by those who are anxious for the spiritual interests
+     of man, to interfere with the changes which are going on
+     in scientific conceptions. Such interference has always
+     ended in the defeat of the supporters of the
+     quasi-scientific doctrines which the growing science of
+     the time has discarded. Theology interfered with Galileo,
+     and gained nothing in the end by its interference.
+     Astronomy, geology, biology, anthropology, historical
+     criticism, have at different periods raised alarm in the
+     minds of those who dread a materialistic view of man's
+     nature; and with the very best intentions they have tried
+     to fight the supposed enemy on his own ground, eagerly
+     welcoming, for instance, every sign of disagreement
+     between Darwinians and Lamarckians, or every dispute
+     between different schools of historical critics, as if
+     the spiritual well-being of mankind were bound up with
+     the scientific beliefs of the seventeenth, or even
+     earlier, century, as if _e.g._ it made all the difference
+     in man's spiritual nature whether he was made directly
+     out of inorganic dust or slowly ascended from lower
+     organic forms. These are questions that must be settled
+     by specialists. On the other hand, philosophic criticism
+     is in place when the scientific specialist begins to
+     dogmatize about the universe as a whole, when he speaks
+     for example as if an accurate narrative of the various
+     steps by which the lower forms of life have passed into
+     the higher was a sufficient explanation to us of the
+     mystery of existence."
+
+Let it be understood, therefore, that science is one thing, and
+philosophy another: that science most properly concerns itself with
+matter and motion, and reduces phenomena, as far as it can, to
+mechanism. The more successfully it does that, the more it fulfils its
+end and aim; but when, on the strength of that achievement, it seeks to
+blossom into a philosophy, when it endeavours to conclude that its scope
+is complete and all-inclusive, that nothing exists in the universe but
+mechanism, and that the aspect of things from a scientific point of view
+is their only aspect,--then it is becoming narrow and bigoted and
+deserving of rebuke. Such rebuke it received from Huxley, such rebuke it
+will always receive from scientific men who realize properly the
+magnitude of existence and the vast potentialities of the universe.
+
+Our opportunities of exploration are good as far as they go, but they
+are not extensive; we live as it were in the mortar of one of the stones
+of St. Paul's Cathedral; and yet so assiduously have we cultivated our
+faculties that we can trace something of the outline of the whole design
+and have begun to realize the plan of the building--a surprising feat
+for insects of limited faculty. And--continuing the parable--two schools
+of thought have arisen: one saying that it was conceived in the mind of
+an architect and designed and built wholly by him, the other saying that
+it was put together stone by stone in accordance with the laws of
+mechanics and physics. Both statements are true, and those that
+emphasize the latter are not thereby denying the existence of
+Christopher Wren, though to the unwise enthusiasts on the side of design
+they may appear to be doing so. Each side is stating a truth, and
+neither side is stating the whole truth. Nor should we find it easy with
+all our efforts to state the whole truth exhaustively, even about such a
+thing as that. Those who deny any side of truth are to that extent
+unbelievers, and Huxley was righteously indignant with those
+shortsighted bigots who blasphemed against that aspect of divine truth
+which had been specially revealed to him. This is what he lived to
+preach, and to this he was faithful to the uttermost.
+
+Let him be thought of as a devotee of truth, and a student of the more
+materialistic side of things, but never let him be thought of as a
+philosophical materialist or as one who abounded in cheap negations.
+
+The objection which it is necessary to express concerning Materialism as
+a complete system is based not on its assertions but on its negations.
+In so far as it makes positive assertions, embodying the result of
+scientific discovery and even of scientific speculation based thereupon,
+there is no fault to find with it; but when, on the strength of that, it
+sets up to be a philosophy of the universe--all inclusive, therefore,
+and shutting out a number of truths otherwise perceived, or which appeal
+to other faculties, or which are equally true and are not really
+contradictory of legitimately materialistic statements--then it is that
+its insufficiency and narrowness have to be displayed. As Professor
+Ritchie said:--"The 'legitimate materialism of the sciences' simply
+means temporary and convenient abstraction from the cognitive conditions
+under which there are 'facts' or 'objects' for us at all; it is
+'dogmatic materialism' which is metaphysics of the bad sort."
+
+It will be probably instructive, and it may be sufficient, if I show
+that two great leaders in scientific thought (one the greatest of all
+men of science who have yet lived), though well aware of much that
+could be said positively on the materialistic side, and very willing to
+admit or even to extend the province of science or exact knowledge to
+the uttermost, yet were very far from being philosophic materialists or
+from imagining that other modes of regarding the universe were thereby
+excluded.
+
+Great leaders of thought, in fact, are not accustomed to take a narrow
+view of existence, or to suppose that one mode of regarding it, or one
+set of formulæ expressing it, can possibly be sufficient and complete.
+Even a sheet of paper has two sides: a terrestrial globe presents
+different aspects from different points of view; a crystal has a variety
+of facets; and the totality of existence is not likely to be more simple
+than any of these--is not likely to be readily expressible in any form
+of words, or to be thoroughly conceivable by any human mind.
+
+It may be well to remember that Sir Isaac Newton was a Theist of the
+most pronounced and thorough conviction, although he had a great deal to
+do with the reduction of the major Cosmos to mechanics, _i.e._, with its
+explanation by the elaborated machinery of simple forces; and he
+conceived it possible that, in the progress of science, this process of
+reduction to mechanics would continue till it embraced nearly all the
+phenomena of nature. (See extract below.) That, indeed, has been the
+effort of science ever since, and therein lies the legitimate basis for
+materialistic statements, though not for a materialistic philosophy.
+
+The following sound remarks concerning Newton are taken from Huxley's
+"Hume," p. 246:--
+
+     "Newton demonstrated all the host of heaven to be but the
+     elements of a vast mechanism, regulated by the same laws
+     as those which express the falling of a stone to the
+     ground. There is a passage in the preface to the first
+     edition of the 'Principia' which shows that Newton was
+     penetrated, as completely as Descartes, with the belief
+     that all the phenomena of nature are expressible in terms
+     of matter and motion:--
+
+     "'Would that the rest of the phenomena of nature could be
+     deduced by a like kind of reasoning from mechanical
+     principles. For many circumstances lead me to suspect
+     that all these phenomena may depend upon certain forces,
+     in virtue of which the particles of bodies, by causes not
+     yet known, are either mutually impelled against one
+     another, and cohere into regular figures, or repel and
+     recede from one another; which forces being unknown,
+     philosophers have as yet explored nature in vain. But I
+     hope that, either by this method of philosophizing, or by
+     some other and better, the principles here laid down may
+     throw some light upon the matter.'"
+
+Here is a full-blown anticipation of an intelligible exposition of the
+Universe in terms of matter and force--the substantial basis of what
+smaller men call materialism and develop into what they consider to be a
+materialistic philosophy. But there is no necessity for any such scheme;
+and Professor Huxley himself, who is commonly spoken of by half-informed
+people as if he were a philosophic materialist, was really nothing of
+the kind; for although, like Newton, fully imbued with the mechanical
+doctrine, and of course far better informed concerning the biological
+departments of nature, and the discoveries which have in the last
+century been made,--and though he rightly regarded it as his mission to
+make the scientific point of view clear to his benighted contemporaries,
+and was full of enthusiasm for the facts on which materialists take
+their stand,--he saw clearly that these alone were insufficient for a
+philosophy. The following extracts from the Hume volume will show that
+he entirely repudiated materialism as a satisfactory or complete
+philosophical system, and that he was especially severe on gratuitous
+denials applied to provinces beyond our scope:--
+
+     "While it is the summit of human wisdom to learn the
+     limit of our faculties, it may be wise to recollect that
+     we have no more right to make denials, than to put forth
+     affirmatives, about what lies beyond that limit. Whether
+     either mind or matter has a 'substance' or not, is a
+     problem which we are incompetent to discuss: and it is
+     just as likely that the common notions upon the subject
+     should be correct as any others.... 'The same principles
+     which, at first view, lead to scepticism, pursued to a
+     certain point, bring men back to common sense'" (p. 282).
+
+
+     "Moreover, the ultimate forms of existence which we
+     distinguish in our little speck of the universe are,
+     possibly, only two out of infinite varieties of
+     existence, not only analogous to matter and analogous to
+     mind, but of kinds which we are not competent so much as
+     to conceive,--in the midst of which, indeed, we might be
+     set down, with no more notion of what was about us, than
+     the worm in a flower-pot, on a London balcony, has of the
+     life of the great city" (p. 286).
+
+And again on pp. 251 and 279:--
+
+     "It is worth any amount of trouble to ... know by one's
+     own knowledge the great truth ... that the honest and
+     rigorous following up of the argument which leads us to
+     'materialism' inevitably carries us beyond it."
+
+     "To sum up. If the materialist affirms that the universe
+     and all its phenomena are resolvable into matter and
+     motion, Berkeley replies, True; but what you call matter
+     and motion are known to us only as forms of
+     consciousness; their being is to be conceived or known;
+     and the existence of a state of consciousness apart from
+     a thinking mind is a contradiction in terms.
+
+     "I conceive that this reasoning is irrefragable. And,
+     therefore, if I were obliged to choose between absolute
+     materialism and absolute idealism, I should feel
+     compelled to accept the latter alternative."
+
+Let the jubilant but uninstructed and comparatively ignorant amateur
+materialist therefore beware, and bethink himself twice or even thrice
+before he conceives that he understands the universe and is competent to
+pour scorn upon the intuitions and perceptions of great men in what may
+be to him alien regions of thought and experience.
+
+Let him explain, if he can, what he means by his own identity, or the
+identity of any thinking or living being, which at different times
+consists of a totally different set of material particles. Something
+there clearly is which confers personal identity and constitutes an
+individual: it is a property characteristic of every form of life, even
+the humblest; but it is not yet explained or understood, and it is no
+answer to assert gratuitously that there is some fundamental substance
+or material basis on which that identity depends, any more than it is
+an explanation to say that it depends upon a soul. These are all forms
+of words. As Hume says, quoted by Huxley with approval, in the work
+already cited, p. 194:--
+
+     "It is impossible to attach any definite meaning to the
+     word 'substance,' when employed for the hypothetical
+     substratum of soul and matter.... If it be said that our
+     personal identity requires the assumption of a substance
+     which remains the same while the accidents of perception
+     shift and change, the question arises what is meant by
+     personal identity?... A plant or an animal, in the course
+     of its existence, from the condition of an egg or seed to
+     the end of life, remains the same neither in form, nor in
+     structure, nor in the matter of which it is composed:
+     every attribute it possesses is constantly changing, and
+     yet we say that it is always one and the same individual"
+     (p. 194).
+
+And in his own preface to the Hume volume Huxley expresses himself
+forcibly thus--equally antagonistic as was his wont to both ostensible
+friend and ostensible foe, as soon as they got off what he considered
+the straight path:--
+
+     "That which it may be well for us not to forget is, that
+     the first-recorded judicial murder of a scientific
+     thinker [Socrates] was compassed and effected, not by a
+     despot, nor by priests, but was brought about by eloquent
+     demagogues.... Clear knowledge of what one does not know
+     is just as important as knowing what one does know....
+
+     "The development of exact natural knowledge in all its
+     vast range, from physics to history and criticism, is the
+     consequence of the working out, in this province, of the
+     resolution to 'take nothing for truth without clear
+     knowledge that it is such'; to consider all beliefs open
+     to criticism; to regard the value of authority as neither
+     greater nor less, than as much as it can prove itself to
+     be worth. The modern spirit is not the spirit 'which
+     always denies,' delighting only in destruction; still
+     less is it that which builds castles in the air rather
+     than not construct; it is that spirit which works and
+     will work 'without haste and without rest,' gathering
+     harvest after harvest of truth into its barns, and
+     devouring error with unquenchable fire" (p. viii).
+
+The harvesting of truth is a fairly safe operation, for if some
+falsehood be inadvertently harvested along with the grain we may hope
+that, having a less robust and hardy nature, it will before long be
+detected by its decaying odour; but the rooting up and devouring of
+error with unquenchable fire is a more dangerous enterprise, inasmuch as
+flames are apt to spread beyond our control; and the lack of
+infallibility in the selection of error may to future generations become
+painfully apparent.
+
+The phrase represents a good healthy energetic mood however, and in a
+world liable to become overgrown with weeds and choked with refuse, the
+cleansing work of a firebrand may from time to time be a necessity, in
+order that the free wind of heaven and the sunlight may once more reach
+the fertile soil.
+
+But it is unfair to think of Huxley even when young as a firebrand,
+though it is true that he was to some extent a man of war, and though
+the fierce and consuming mood is rather more prominent in his early
+writings than in his later work.
+
+A fighting attitude was inevitable forty years ago, because then the
+truths of biology were being received with hostility, and the free
+science and philosophy of a later time seemed likely to have a poor
+chance of life. But the world has changed or is changing now, the
+wholesome influences of fire have done their work, and it would be a
+rather barbarous anachronism to apply the same agency among the young
+green shoots of healthy learning which are springing up in the cleared
+ground.
+
+  OLIVER LODGE.
+
+  1906.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among the earlier published works of T. H. Huxley (1825-1895), and of
+the essays contained in this volume: "The Darwinian Hypothesis" first
+appeared in the _Times_, Dec. 26, 1859; "On the Educational Value of the
+Natural History Sciences" (Address given at St. Martin's Hall), was
+published in 1854; "Time and Life" (_Macmillan's Magazine_), Dec. 1859;
+"The Origin of Species" (_Westminster Review_), April 1860; "A Lobster:
+or, The Study of Zoology," 1861. "Geological Contemporaneity and
+Persistent Types of Life" (Address to Geological Society), 1862, was
+re-published in "Lay Sermons," vol. viii.; "Six Lectures to Working Men
+on the Phenomena of Organic Nature," 1863, in "Collected Essays," vol.
+vii. "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," 1863. Of his other works,
+the translation by Huxley and Busk of "Kölliker's Manual of Human
+Histology," appeared in 1853. "Lectures on the Elements of Comparative
+Anatomy," "Elementary Atlas of Comparative Osteology"; two Science
+Lectures, "The Circulation of the Blood" and "Corals and Coral Reefs,"
+and "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," in 1866. "Introduction to the
+Classification of Animals," 1869. "Lay Sermons, Essays, and Reviews,"
+1870. "Critiques and Addresses," 1873. "On Yeast: A Lecture," 1872. "A
+Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals," 1871. "Manual of the
+Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals," 1877. "American Addresses," 1877.
+"Physiography," 1877. "Hume" in "English Men of Letters," 1878. "The
+Crayfish: an Introduction to the Study of Zoology," 1880. "Science and
+Culture, and other Essays," 1881. "Essays upon some Controverted
+Questions," 1892. "Evolution and Ethics" (the Romanes Lecture), 1893.
+Huxley also assisted in editing the series of Science Primers published
+by Messrs. Macmillan, and contributed the introductory volume himself.
+The "Collected Essays," in nine vols., containing all that he cared to
+preserve, 1893. "The Scientific Memoirs of T. H. Huxley," edited by
+Professor Michael Foster and Professor E. Ray Lankester, in five vols.,
+1898-1903. His "Life and Letters," edited by his son, Leonard Huxley,
+was published in 1900.
+
+[Illustration: _Skeletons of the_
+
+GIBBON. ORANG. CHIMPANZEE. GORILLA. MAN.
+
+_Photographically reduced from Diagrams of the natural size_ (_except
+that of the Gibbon, which was twice as large as nature_), _drawn by Mr.
+Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens in the Museum of the Royal College of
+Surgeons_.]
+
+
+
+
+HUXLEY'S ESSAYS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+  ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE
+  MAN-LIKE APES.
+
+
+Ancient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern
+investigation, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is
+singular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one,
+presaging a reality. Ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the geologist:
+the Atlantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a western world: and
+though the quaint forms of Centaurs and Satyrs have an existence only in
+the realms of art, creatures approaching man more nearly than they in
+essential structure, and yet as thoroughly brutal as the goat's or
+horse's half of the mythical compound, are now not only known, but
+notorious.
+
+I have not met with any notice of one of these MAN-LIKE APES of earlier
+date than that contained in Pigafetta's "Description of the Kingdom of
+Congo,"[1] drawn up from the notes of a Portuguese sailor, Eduardo
+Lopez, and published in 1598. The tenth chapter of this work is entitled
+"De Animalibus quæ in hac provincia reperiuntur," and contains a brief
+passage to the effect that "in the Songan country, on the banks of the
+Zaire, there are multitudes of apes, which afford great delight to the
+nobles by imitating human gestures." As this might apply to almost any
+kind of apes, I should have thought little of it, had not the brothers
+De Bry, whose engravings illustrate the work, thought fit, in their
+eleventh "Argumentum," to figure two of these "Simiæ magnatum deliciæ."
+So much of the plate as contains these apes is faithfully copied in the
+woodcut (Fig. 1), and it will be observed that they are tail-less,
+long-armed, and large-eared; and about the size of Chimpanzees. It may
+be that these apes are as much figments of the imagination of the
+ingenious brothers as the winged, two-legged, crocodile-headed dragon
+which adorns the same plate; or, on the other hand, it may be that the
+artists have constructed their drawings from some essentially faithful
+description of a Gorilla or a Chimpanzee. And, in either case, though
+these figures are worth a passing notice, the oldest trustworthy and
+definite accounts of any animal of this kind date from the 17th
+century, and are due to an Englishman.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Simiæ magnatum deliciæ.--De Bry, 1598.]
+
+The first edition of that most amusing old book, "Purchas his
+Pilgrimage," was published in 1613, and therein are to be found many
+references to the statements of one whom Purchas terms "Andrew Battell
+(my neere neighbour, dwelling at Leigh in Essex) who served under Manuel
+Silvera Perera, Governor under the King of Spaine, at his city of Saint
+Paul, and with him went farre into the countrey of Angola"; and again,
+"my friend, Andrew Battle, who lived in the kingdom of Congo many
+yeares," and who, "upon some quarell betwixt the Portugals (among whom
+he was a sergeant of a band) and him, lived eight or nine moneths in the
+woodes." From this weather-beaten old soldier, Purchas was amazed to
+hear "of a kinde of Great Apes, if they might so bee termed, of the
+height of a man, but twice as bigge in feature of their limmes, with
+strength proportionable, hairie all over, otherwise altogether like men
+and women in their whole bodily shape.[2] They lived on such wilde
+fruits as the trees and woods yielded, and in the night time lodged on
+the trees."
+
+This extract is, however, less detailed and clear in its statements than
+a passage in the third chapter of the second part of another
+work--"Purchas his Pilgrimes," published in 1625, by the same
+author--which has been often, though hardly ever quite rightly, cited.
+The chapter is entitled, "The strange adventures of Andrew Battell, of
+Leigh in Essex, sent by the Portugals prisoner to Angola, who lived
+there and in the adjioining regions neere eighteene yeeres." And the
+sixth section of this chapter is headed--"Of the Provinces of Bongo,
+Calongo, Mayombe, Manikesocke, Motimbas: of the Ape Monster Pongo, their
+hunting: Idolatries; and divers other observations."
+
+    "This province (Calongo) toward the east bordereth upon
+    Bongo, and toward the north upon Mayombe, which is nineteen
+    leagues from Longo along the coast.
+
+    "This province of Mayombe is all woods and groves, so
+    overgrowne that a man may travaile twentie days in the shadow
+    without any sunne or heat. Here is no kind of corne nor
+    graine, so that the people liveth onely upon plantanes and
+    roots of sundrie sorts, very good; and nuts; nor any kinde of
+    tame cattell, nor hens.
+
+    "But they have great store of elephant's flesh, which they
+    greatly esteeme, and many kinds of wild beasts; and great
+    store of fish. Here is a great sandy bay, two leagues to the
+    northward of Cape Negro,[3] which is the port of Mayombe.
+    Sometimes the Portugals lade log-wood in this bay. Here is a
+    great river, called Banna: in the winter it hath no barre,
+    because the generall winds cause a great sea. But when the
+    sunne hath his south declination, then a boat may goe in; for
+    then it is smooth because of the raine. This river is very
+    great, and hath many ilands and people dwelling in them. The
+    woods are so covered with baboones, monkies, apes and
+    parrots, that it will feare any man to travaile in them
+    alone. Here are also two kinds of monsters, which are common
+    in these woods, and very dangerous.
+
+    "The greatest of these two monsters is called Pongo in their
+    language, and the lesser is called Engeco. This Pongo is in
+    all proportion like a man; but that he is more like a giant
+    in stature than a man; for he is very tall, and hath a man's
+    face, hollow-eyed, with long haire upon his browes. His face
+    and eares are without haire, and his hands also. His bodie is
+    full of haire, but not very thicke; and it is of a dunnish
+    colour.
+
+    "He differeth not from a man but in his legs; for they have
+    no calfe. Hee goeth alwaies upon his legs, and carrieth his
+    hands clasped in the nape of his necke when he goeth upon the
+    ground. They sleepe in the trees, and build shelters for the
+    raine. They feed upon fruit that they find in the woods, and
+    upon nuts, for they eate no kind of flesh. They cannot
+    speake, and have no understanding more than a beast. The
+    people of the countrie, when they travaile in the woods make
+    fires where they sleepe in the night; and in the morning when
+    they are gone, the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire
+    till it goeth out; for they have no understanding to lay the
+    wood together. They goe many together and kill many negroes
+    that travaile in the woods. Many times they fall upon the
+    elephants which come to feed where they be, and so beate them
+    with their clubbed fists, and pieces of wood, that they will
+    runne roaring away from them. Those Pongoes are never taken
+    alive because they are so strong, that ten men cannot hold
+    one of them; but yet they take many of their young ones with
+    poisoned arrowes.
+
+    "The young Pongo hangeth on his mother's belly with his hands
+    fast clasped about her, so that when the countrie people kill
+    any of the females they take the young one, which hangeth
+    fast upon his mother.
+
+    "When they die among themselves, they cover the dead with
+    great heaps of boughs and wood, which is commonly found in
+    the forest."[4]
+
+It does not appear difficult to identify the exact region of which
+Battell speaks. Longo is doubtless the name of the place usually spelled
+Loango on our maps. Mayombe still lies some nineteen leagues northward
+from Loango, along the coast; and Cilongo or Kilonga, Manikesocke, and
+Motimbas are yet registered by geographers. The Cape Negro of Battell,
+however, cannot be the modern Cape Negro in 16° S., since Loango itself
+is in 4° S. latitude. On the other hand, the "great river called Banna"
+corresponds very well with the "Camma" and "Fernand Vas," of modern
+geographers, which form a great delta on this part of the African coast.
+
+Now this "Camma" country is situated about a degree and a-half south of
+the Equator, while a few miles to the north of the line lies the Gaboon,
+and a degree or so north of that, the Money River--both well known to
+modern naturalists as localities where the largest of man-like Apes has
+been obtained. Moreover, at the present day, the word Engeco, or
+N'schego, is applied by the natives of these regions to the smaller of
+the two great Apes which inhabit them; so that there can be no rational
+doubt that Andrew Battell spoke of that which he knew of his own
+knowledge, or, at any rate, by immediate report from the natives of
+Western Africa. The "Engeco," however, is that "other monster" whose
+nature Battell "forgot to relate," while the name "Pongo"--applied to
+the animal whose characters and habits are so fully and carefully
+described--seems to have died out, at least in its primitive form and
+signification. Indeed, there is evidence that not only in Battell's
+time, but up to a very recent date, it was used in a totally different
+sense from that in which he employs it.
+
+For example, the second chapter of Purchas' work, which I have just
+quoted, contains "A Description and Historicall Declaration of the
+Golden Kingdom of Guinea, &c. &c. Translated from the Dutch, and
+compared also with the Latin," wherein it is stated (p. 986) that--
+
+     "The River Gaboon lyeth about fifteen miles northward
+     from Rio de Angra, and eight miles northward from Cape de
+     Lope Gonsalvez (Cape Lopez), and is right under the
+     Equinoctial line, about fifteene miles from St. Thomas,
+     and is a great land, well and easily to be knowne. At the
+     mouth of the river there lieth a sand, three or foure
+     fathoms deepe, whereon it beateth mightily with the
+     streame which runneth out of the river into the sea. This
+     river, in the mouth thereof, is at least four miles
+     broad; but when you are about the Iland called _Pongo_,
+     it is not above two miles broad.... On both sides the
+     river there standeth many trees.... The Iland called
+     _Pongo_, which hath a monstrous high hill."
+
+The French naval officers, whose letters are appended to the late M.
+Isidore Geoff. Saint Hilaire's excellent essay on the Gorilla,[5] note
+in similar terms the width of the Gaboon, the trees that line its banks
+down to the water's edge, and the strong current that sets out of it.
+They describe two islands in its estuary;--one low, called Perroquet;
+the other high, presenting three conical hills, called Coniquet; and one
+of them, M. Franquet, expressly states that, formerly, the Chief of
+Coniquet was called _Meni-Pongo_, meaning thereby Lord of _Pongo_; and
+that the _N'Pongues_ (as, in agreement with Dr. Savage, he affirms the
+natives call themselves) term the estuary of the Gaboon itself
+_N'Pongo_.
+
+It is so easy, in dealing with savages, to misunderstand their
+applications of words to things, that one is at first inclined to
+suspect Battell of having confounded the name of this region, where his
+"greater monster" still abounds, with the name of the animal itself. But
+he is so right about other matters (including the name of the "lesser
+monster") that one is loth to suspect the old traveller of error; and,
+on the other hand, we shall find that a voyager of a hundred years'
+later date speaks of the name "Boggoe," as applied to a great Ape, by
+the inhabitants of quite another part of Africa--Sierra Leone.
+
+[Illustration: _Homo Sylvestris. Orang Outang._
+
+FIG. 2.--The Orang of Tulpius, 1641.]
+
+But I must leave this question to be settled by philologers and
+travellers; and I should hardly have dwelt so long upon it except for
+the curious part played by this word "_Pongo_" in the later history of
+the man-like Apes.
+
+The generation which succeeded Battell saw the first of the man-like
+Apes which was ever brought to Europe, or, at any rate, whose visit
+found a historian. In the third book of Tulpius' "Observationes Medicæ,"
+published in 1641, the 56th chapter or section is devoted to what he
+calls _Satyrus indicus_, "called by the Indians Orang-autang, or
+Man-of-the-Woods, and by the Africans Quoias Morrou." He gives a very
+good figure, evidently from the life, of the specimen of this animal,
+"nostra memoria ex Angolâ delatum," presented to Frederick Henry Prince
+of Orange. Tulpius says it was as big as a child of three years old, and
+as stout as one of six years: and that its back was covered with black
+hair. It is plainly a young Chimpanzee.
+
+In the meanwhile, the existence of other, Asiatic, man-like Apes became
+known, but at first in a very mythical fashion. Thus Bontius (1658)
+gives an altogether fabulous and ridiculous account and figure of an
+animal which he calls "Orang-outang"; and though he says, "vidi Ego
+cujus effigiem hic exhibeo," the said effigies (see Fig. 6 for Hoppius'
+copy of it) is nothing but a very hairy woman of rather comely aspect,
+and with proportions and feet wholly human. The judicious English
+anatomist, Tyson, was justified in saying of this description by
+Bontius, "I confess I do mistrust the whole representation."
+
+It is to the last mentioned writer, and his coadjutor Cowper, that we
+owe the first account of a man-like ape which has any pretensions to
+scientific accuracy and completeness. The treatise entitled,
+"_Orang-outang, sive Homo Sylvestris_; or the Anatomy of a Pygmie
+compared with that of a _Monkey_, an _Ape_, and a _Man_," published by
+the Royal Society in 1699, is, indeed, a work of remarkable merit, and
+has, in some respects, served as a model to subsequent inquirers. This
+"Pygmie," Tyson tells us, "was brought from Angola, in Africa; but was
+first taken a great deal higher up the country"; its hair "was of a
+coal-black colour, and strait," and "when it went as a quadruped on all
+four, 'twas awkwardly; not placing the palm of the hand flat to the
+ground, but it walk'd upon its knuckles, as I observed it to do when
+weak and had not strength enough to support its body."--"From the top of
+the head to the heel of the foot, in a strait line, it measured
+twenty-six inches."
+
+[Illustration: FIGS. 3 and 4.--The "Pygmie" reduced from Tyson's figures
+1 and 2, 1699.]
+
+These characters, even without Tyson's good figures (Figs. 3 and 4),
+would have been sufficient to prove his "Pygmie" to be a young
+Chimpanzee. But the opportunity of examining the skeleton of the very
+animal Tyson anatomised having most unexpectedly presented itself to me,
+I am able to bear independent testimony to its being a veritable
+_Troglodytes niger_,[6] though still very young. Although fully
+appreciating the resemblances between his Pygmie and Man, Tyson by no
+means overlooked the differences between the two, and he concludes his
+memoir by summing up first, the points in which "the Ourang-outang or
+Pygmie more resembled a Man than Apes and Monkeys do," under forty-seven
+distinct heads; and then giving, in thirty-four similar brief
+paragraphs, the respects in which "the Ourang-outang or Pygmie differ'd
+from a Man and resembled more the Ape and Monkey kind."
+
+After a careful survey of the literature of the subject extant in his
+time, our author arrives at the conclusion that his "Pygmie" is
+identical neither with the Orangs of Tulpius and Bontius, nor with the
+Quoias Morrou of Dapper (or rather of Tulpius), the Barris of d'Arcos,
+nor with the Pongo of Battell; but that it is a species of ape probably
+identical with the Pygmies of the Ancients, and, says Tyson, though it
+"does so much resemble _a Man_ in many of its parts, more than any of
+the ape kind, or any other animal in the world, that I know of: yet by
+no means do I look upon it as the product of a _mixt_ generation--'tis a
+_Brute-Animal sui generis_, and a particular _species of Ape_."
+
+The name of "Chimpanzee," by which one of the African Apes is now so
+well known, appears to have come into use in the first half of the
+eighteenth century, but the only important addition made, in that
+period, to our acquaintance with the man-like apes of Africa is
+contained in "A New Voyage to Guinea," by William Smith, which bears the
+date 1744.
+
+In describing the animals of Sierra Leone, p. 51, this writer says:--
+
+     "I shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called
+     by the white men in this country Mandrill,[7] but why it
+     is so called I know not, nor did I ever hear the name
+     before, neither can those who call them so tell, except
+     it be for their near resemblance of a human creature,
+     though nothing at all like an Ape. Their bodies, when
+     full grown, are as big in circumference as a middle-sized
+     man's--their legs much shorter, and their feet larger;
+     their arms and hands in proportion. The head is
+     monstrously big, and the face broad and flat, without any
+     other hair but the eyebrows; the nose very small, the
+     mouth wide, and the lips thin. The face, which is covered
+     by a white skin, is monstrously ugly, being all over
+     wrinkled as with old age; the teeth broad and yellow; the
+     hands have no more hair than the face, but the same white
+     skin, though all the rest of the body is covered with
+     long black hair, like a bear. They never go upon all
+     fours, like apes; but cry, when vexed or teased, just
+     like children....
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Facsimile of William Smith's figure of the
+"Mandrill," 1744.]
+
+     "When I was at Sherbro, one Mr. Cummerbus, whom I shall
+     have occasion hereafter to mention, made me a present of
+     one of these strange animals, which are called by the
+     natives Boggoe: it was a she-cub, of six months' age, but
+     even then larger than a Baboon. I gave it in charge to
+     one of the slaves, who knew how to feed and nurse it,
+     being a very tender sort of animal; but whenever I went
+     off the deck the sailors began to teaze it--some loved to
+     see its tears and hear it cry; others hated its
+     snotty-nose; one who hurt it, being checked by the negro
+     that took care of it, told the slave he was very fond of
+     his country-woman, and asked him if he should not like
+     her for a wife? To which the slave very readily replied,
+     'No, this no my wife; this a white woman--this fit wife
+     for you.' This unlucky wit of the negro's, I fancy,
+     hastened its death, for next morning it was found dead
+     under the windlass."
+
+William Smith's "Mandrill," or "Boggoe," as his description and figure
+testify, was, without doubt, a Chimpanzee.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6.--The Anthropomorpha of Linnæus.]
+
+Linnæus knew nothing, of his own observation, of the man-like Apes of
+either Africa or Asia, but a dissertation by his pupil Hoppius in the
+"Amoenitates Academicæ" (VI. "Anthropomorpha") may be regarded as
+embodying his views respecting these animals.
+
+The dissertation is illustrated by a plate, of which the accompanying
+woodcut, Fig. 6, is a reduced copy. The figures are entitled (from left
+to right) 1. _Troglodyta Bontii_; 2. _Lucifer Aldrovandi_; 3. _Satyrus
+Tulpii_; 4. _Pygmæus Edwardi_. The first is a bad copy of Bontius'
+fictitious "Ourang-outang," in whose existence, however, Linnæus appears
+to have fully believed; for in the standard edition of the "Systema
+Naturæ," it is enumerated as a second species of Homo; "H. nocturnus."
+_Lucifer Aldrovandi_ is a copy of a figure in Aldrovandus, "De
+Quadrupedibus digitatis viviparis," Lib. 2, p. 249 (1645), entitled
+"Cercopithecus formæ raræ _Barbilius_ vocatus et originem a china
+ducebat." Hoppius is of opinion that this may be one of that cat-tailed
+people, of whom Nicolaus Köping affirms that they eat a boat's crew,
+"gubernator navis" and all! In the "Systema Naturæ" Linnæus calls it in
+a note, _Homo caudatus_, and seems inclined to regard it as a third
+species of man. According to Temminck, _Satyrus Tulpii_ is a copy of the
+figure of a Chimpanzee published by Scotin in 1738, which I have not
+seen. It is the _Satyrus indicus_ of the "Systema Naturæ," and is
+regarded by Linnæus as possibly a distinct species from _Satyrus
+sylvestris_. The last, named _Pygmæus Edwardi_, is copied from the
+figure of a young "Man of the Woods," or true Orang-Utan, given in
+Edwards "Gleanings of Natural History" (1758).
+
+Buffon was more fortunate than his great rival. Not only had he the rare
+opportunity of examining a young Chimpanzee in the living state, but he
+became possessed of an adult Asiatic man-like Ape--the first and the
+last adult specimen of any of these animals brought to Europe for many
+years. With the valuable assistance of Daubenton, Buffon gave an
+excellent description of this creature, which, from its singular
+proportions, he termed the long-armed Ape, or Gibbon. It is the modern
+_Hylobates lar_.
+
+Thus when, in 1766, Buffon wrote the fourteenth volume of his great
+work, he was personally familiar with the young of one kind of African
+man-like Ape, and with the adult of an Asiatic species--while the
+Orang-Utan and the Mandrill of Smith were known to him by report.
+Furthermore, the Abbé Prevost had translated a good deal of Purchas'
+Pilgrims into French, in his "Histoire générale des Voyages" (1748), and
+there Buffon found a version of Andrew Battell's account of the Pongo
+and the Engeco. All these data Buffon attempts to weld together into
+harmony in his chapter entitled "Les Orang-outangs ou le Pongo et le
+Jocko." To this title the following note is appended:--
+
+     "Orang-outang nom de cet animal aux Indes orientales:
+     Pongo nom de cet animal à Lowando Province de Congo.
+
+     "Jocko, Enjocko, nom de cet animal à Congo que nous avons
+     adopté. _En_ est l'article que nous avons retranché."
+
+Thus it was that Andrew Battell's "Engeco" became metamorphosed into
+"Jocko," and, in the latter shape, was spread all over the world, in
+consequence of the extensive popularity of Buffon's works. The Abbé
+Prevost and Buffon between them, however, did a good deal more
+disfigurement to Battell's sober account than "cutting off an article."
+Thus Battell's statement that the Pongos "cannot speake, and have no
+understanding more than a beast," is rendered by Buffon "qu'il ne peut
+parler _quoiqu'il ait plus d'entendement que les autres animaux_"; and
+again, Purchas' affirmation, "He told me in conference with him, that
+one of these Pongos tooke a negro boy of his which lived a moneth with
+them," stands in the French version, "un pongo lui enleva un petit negre
+qui passa un _an_ entier dans la societé de ces animaux."
+
+After quoting the account of the great Pongo, Buffon justly remarks,
+that all the "Jockos" and "Orangs" hitherto brought to Europe were
+young; and he suggests that, in their adult condition, they might be as
+big as the Pongo or "great Orang"; so that, provisionally, he regarded
+the Jockos, Orangs, and Pongos as all of one species. And perhaps this
+was as much as the state of knowledge at the time warranted. But how it
+came about that Buffon failed to perceive the similarity of Smith's
+"Mandrill" to his own "Jocko," and confounded the former with so totally
+different a creature as the blue-faced Baboon, is not so easily
+intelligible.
+
+Twenty years later Buffon changed his opinion,[8] and expressed his
+belief that the Orangs constituted a genus with two species,--a large
+one, the Pongo of Battell, and a small one, the Jocko: that the small
+one (Jocko) is the East Indian Orang; and that the young animals from
+Africa, observed by himself and Tulpius, are simply young Pongos.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Dutch naturalist, Vosmaer, gave, in 1778, a very
+good account and figure of a young Orang, brought alive to Holland, and
+his countryman, the famous anatomist, Peter Camper, published (1779) an
+essay on the Orang-Utan of similar value to that of Tyson on the
+Chimpanzee. He dissected several females and a male, all of which, from
+the state of their skeleton and their dentition, he justly supposes to
+have been young. However, judging by the analogy of man, he concludes
+that they could not have exceeded four feet in height in the adult
+condition. Furthermore, he is very clear as to the specific distinctness
+of the true East Indian Orang.
+
+"The Orang," says he, "differs not only from the Pigmy of Tyson and from
+the Orang of Tulpius by its peculiar colour and its long toes, but also
+by its whole external form. Its arms, its hands, and its feet are
+longer, while the thumbs, on the contrary, are much shorter, and the
+great toes much smaller in proportion."[9] And again, "The true Orang,
+that is to say, that of Asia, that of Borneo, is consequently not the
+Pithecus, or tail-less Ape, which the Greeks, and especially Galen, have
+described. It is neither the Pongo nor the Jocko, nor the Orang of
+Tulpius, nor the Pigmy of Tyson,--_it is an animal of a peculiar
+species_, as I shall prove in the clearest manner by the organs of voice
+and the skeleton in the following chapters" (l. c. p. 64).
+
+A few years later, M. Radermacher, who held a high office in the
+Government of the Dutch dominions in India, and was an active member of
+the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, published, in the second part
+of the Transactions of that Society,[10] a Description of the Island of
+Borneo, which was written between the years 1779 and 1781, and, among
+much other interesting matter, contains some notes upon the Orang. The
+small sort of Orang-Utan, viz. that of Vosmaer and of Edwards, he says,
+is found only in Borneo, and chiefly about Banjermassing, Mampauwa, and
+Landak. Of these he had seen some fifty during his residence in the
+Indies; but none exceeded 2-1/2 feet in length. The larger sort, often
+regarded as chimæra, continues Radermacher, would, perhaps long have
+remained so, had it not been for the exertions of the Resident at
+Rembang, M. Palm, who, on returning from Landak towards Pontiana, shot
+one, and forwarded it to Batavia in spirit, for transmission to Europe.
+
+Palm's letter describing the capture runs thus:--"Herewith I send your
+Excellency, contrary to all expectation (since long ago I offered more
+than a hundred ducats to the natives for an Orang-Utan of four or five
+feet high) an Orang which I heard of this morning about eight o'clock.
+For a long time we did our best to take the frightful beast alive in the
+dense forest about half way to Landak. We forgot even to eat, so anxious
+were we not to let him escape; but it was necessary to take care he did
+not revenge himself, as he kept continually breaking off heavy pieces of
+wood and green branches, and dashing them at us. This game lasted till
+four o'clock in the afternoon, when we determined to shoot him; in which
+I succeeded very well, and indeed better than I ever shot from a boat
+before; for the bullet went just into the side of his chest, so that he
+was not much damaged. We got him into the prow still living, and bound
+him fast, and next morning he died of his wounds. All Pontiana came on
+board to see him when we arrived." Palm gives his height from the head
+to the heel as 49 inches.
+
+A very intelligent German officer, Baron Von Wurmb, who at this time
+held a post in the Dutch East India service, and was Secretary of the
+Batavian Society, studied this animal, and his careful description of
+it, entitled "Beschrijving van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de
+Oost-Indische Pongo," is contained in the same volume of the Batavian
+Society's Transactions. After Von Wurmb had drawn up his description he
+states, in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781,[11] that the specimen
+was sent to Europe in brandy to be placed in the collection of the
+Prince of Orange; "unfortunately," he continues, "we hear that the ship
+has been wrecked." Von Wurmb died in the course of the year 1781, the
+letter in which this passage occurs being the last he wrote; but in his
+posthumous papers, published in the fourth part of the Transactions of
+the Batavian Society, there is a brief description, with measurements,
+of a female Pongo four feet high.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7.--The Pongo Skull, sent by Radermacher to
+Camper, after Camper's original sketches, as reproduced by Lucæ.]
+
+Did either of these original specimens, on which Von Wurmb's
+descriptions are based, ever reach Europe? It is commonly supposed that
+they did; but I doubt the fact. For, appended to the memoir "De
+l'Ourang-outang," in the collected edition of Camper's works, tome i.,
+pp. 64-66, is a note by Camper himself, referring to Von Wurmb's papers,
+and continuing thus:--"Heretofore, this kind of ape had never been known
+in Europe. Radermacher has had the kindness to send me the skull of one
+of these animals, which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five
+inches, in height. I have sent some sketches of it to M. Soemmering at
+Mayence, which are better calculated, however, to give an idea of the
+form than of the real size of the parts."
+
+These sketches have been reproduced by Fischer and by Lucæ, and bear
+date 1783, Soemmering having received them in 1784. Had either of Von
+Wurmb's specimens reached Holland, they would hardly have been unknown
+at this time to Camper, who, however, goes on to say:--"It appears that
+since this, some more of these monsters have been captured, for an
+entire skeleton, very badly set up, which had been sent to the Museum
+of the Prince of Orange, and which I saw only on the 27th of June, 1784,
+was more than four feet high. I examined this skeleton again on the 19th
+December, 1785, after it had been excellently put to rights by the
+ingenious Onymus."
+
+It appears evident, then, that this skeleton, which is doubtless that
+which has always gone by the name of Wurmb's Pongo, is not that of the
+animal described by him, though unquestionably similar in all essential
+points.
+
+Camper proceeds to note some of the most important features of this
+skeleton; promises to describe it in detail by-and-bye; and is evidently
+in doubt as to the relation of this great "Pongo" to his "petit Orang."
+
+The promised further investigations were never carried out; and so it
+happened that the Pongo of Von Wurmb took its place by the side of the
+Chimpanzee, Gibbon, and Orang as a fourth and colossal species of
+man-like Ape. And indeed nothing could look much less like the
+Chimpanzees or the Orangs, then known, than the Pongo; for all the
+specimens of Chimpanzee and Orang which had been observed were small of
+stature, singularly human in aspect, gentle and docile; while Wurmb's
+Pongo was a monster almost twice their size, of vast strength and
+fierceness, and very brutal in expression; its great projecting muzzle,
+armed with strong teeth, being further disfigured by the outgrowth of
+the cheeks into fleshy lobes.
+
+Eventually, in accordance with the usual marauding habits of the
+Revolutionary armies, the "Pongo" skeleton was carried away from Holland
+into France, and notices of it, expressly intended to demonstrate its
+entire distinctness from the Orang and its affinity with the baboons,
+were given, in 1798, by Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Cuvier.
+
+Even in Cuvier's "Tableau Elementaire," and in the first edition of his
+great work, the "Regne Animal," the "Pongo" is classed as a species of
+Baboon. However, so early as 1818, it appears that Cuvier saw reason to
+alter this opinion, and to adopt the view suggested several years
+before by Blumenbach,[12] and after him by Tilesius, that the Bornean
+Pongo is simply an adult Orang. In 1824, Rudolphi demonstrated, by the
+condition of the dentition, more fully and completely than had been done
+by his predecessors, that the Orangs described up to that time were all
+young animals, and that the skull and teeth of the adult would probably
+be such as those seen in the Pongo of Wurmb. In the second edition of
+the "Regne Animal" (1829), Cuvier infers, from the "proportions of all
+the parts" and "the arrangements of the foramina and sutures of the
+head," that the Pongo is the adult of the Orang-Utan, "at least of a
+very closely allied species," and this conclusion was eventually placed
+beyond all doubt by Professor Owen's Memoir published in the "Zoological
+Transactions" for 1835, and by Temminck in his "Monographies de
+Mammalogie." Temminck's memoir is remarkable for the completeness of the
+evidence which it affords as to the modification which the form of the
+Orang undergoes according to age and sex. Tiedemann first published an
+account of the brain of the young Orang, while Sandifort, Müller and
+Schlegel, described the muscles and the viscera of the adult, and gave
+the earliest detailed and trustworthy history of the habits of the great
+Indian Ape in a state of nature; and as important additions have been
+made by later observers, we are at this moment better acquainted with
+the adult of the Orang-Utan, than with that of any of the other greater
+man-like Apes.
+
+It is certainly the Pongo of Wurmb;[13] and it is as certainly not the
+Pongo of Battell, seeing that the Orang-Utan is entirely confined to the
+great Asiatic islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
+
+And while the progress of discovery thus cleared up the history of the
+Orang, it also became established that the only other man-like Apes in
+the eastern world were the various species of Gibbon--Apes of smaller
+stature, and therefore attracting less attention than the Orangs,
+though they are spread over a much wider range of country, and are hence
+more accessible to observation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although the geographical area inhabited by the "Pongo" and "Engeco" of
+Battell is so much nearer to Europe than that in which the Orang and
+Gibbon are found, our acquaintance with the African Apes has been of
+slower growth; indeed, it is only within the last few years that the
+truthful story of the old English adventurer has been rendered fully
+intelligible. It was not until 1835 that the skeleton of the adult
+Chimpanzee became known, by the publication of Professor Owen's
+above-mentioned very excellent memoir "On the osteology of the
+Chimpanzee and Orang," in the Zoological Transactions--a memoir which,
+by the accuracy of its descriptions, the carefulness of its comparisons,
+and the excellence of its figures, made an epoch in the history of our
+knowledge of the bony framework, not only of the Chimpanzee, but of all
+the anthropoid Apes.
+
+By the investigations herein detailed, it became evident that the old
+Chimpanzee acquired a size and aspect as different from those of the
+young known to Tyson, to Buffon, and to Traill, as those of the old
+Orang from the young Orang; and the subsequent very important researches
+of Messrs. Savage and Wyman, the American missionary and anatomist, have
+not only confirmed this conclusion, but have added many new details.[14]
+
+One of the most interesting among the many valuable discoveries made by
+Dr. Thomas Savage is the fact, that the natives in the Gaboon country at
+the present day, apply to the Chimpanzee a name--"Enché-eko"--which is
+obviously identical with the "Engeko" of Battell; a discovery which has
+been confirmed by all later inquirers. Battell's "lesser monster," being
+thus proved to be a veritable existence, of course a strong presumption
+arose that his "greater monster," the "Pongo," would sooner or later be
+discovered. And, indeed, a modern traveller, Bowdich, had, in 1819,
+found strong evidence, among the natives, of the existence of a second
+great Ape, called the "Ingena," "five feet high, and four across the
+shoulders," the builder of a rude house, on the outside of which it
+slept.
+
+In 1847, Dr. Savage had the good fortune to make another and most
+important addition to our knowledge of the man-like Apes; for, being
+unexpectedly detained at the Gaboon river, he saw in the house of the
+Rev. Mr. Wilson, a missionary resident there, "a skull represented by
+the natives to be a monkey-like animal, remarkable for its size,
+ferocity, and habits." From the contour of the skull, and the
+information derived from several intelligent natives, "I was induced,"
+says Dr. Savage (using the term Orang in its old general sense), "to
+believe that it belonged to a new species of Orang. I expressed this
+opinion to Mr. Wilson, with a desire for further investigation; and, if
+possible, to decide the point by the inspection of a specimen alive or
+dead." The result of the combined exertions of Messrs. Savage and Wilson
+was not only the obtaining of a very full account of the habits of this
+new creature, but a still more important service to science, the
+enabling the excellent American anatomist already mentioned, Professor
+Wyman, to describe, from ample materials, the distinctive osteological
+characters of the new form. This animal was called by the natives of the
+Gaboon "Engé-ena," a name obviously identical with the "Ingena" of
+Bowdich; and Dr. Savage arrived at the conviction that this last
+discovered of all the great Apes was the long-sought "Pongo" of Battell.
+
+The justice of this conclusion, indeed, is beyond doubt--for not only
+does the "Engé-ena" agree with Battell's "greater monster" in its hollow
+eyes, its great stature and its dun or iron-grey colour, but the only
+other man-like Ape which inhabits these latitudes--the Chimpanzee--is at
+once identified, by its smaller size, as the "lesser monster," and is
+excluded from any possibility of being the "Pongo," by the fact that it
+is black and not dun, to say nothing of the important circumstance
+already mentioned that it still retains the name of "Engeko," or
+"Enché-eko," by which Battell knew it.
+
+In seeking for a specific name for the "Engé-ena," however, Dr. Savage
+wisely avoided the much misused "Pongo"; but finding in the ancient
+Periplus of Hanno the word "Gorilla" applied to certain hairy savage
+people, discovered by the Carthaginian voyager in an island on the
+African coast, he attached the specific name "_Gorilla_" to his new ape,
+whence arises its present well-known appellation. But Dr. Savage, more
+cautious than some of his successors, by no means identifies his ape
+with Hanno's "wild men." He merely says that the latter were "probably
+one of the species of the Orang;" and I quite agree with M. Brullé that
+there is no ground for identifying the modern "Gorilla" with that of the
+Carthaginian admiral.
+
+Since the memoir of Savage and Wyman was published, the skeleton of the
+Gorilla has been investigated by Professor Owen and by the late
+Professor Duvernoy, of the Jardin des Plantes, the latter having further
+supplied a valuable account of the muscular system and of many of the
+other soft parts; while African missionaries and travellers have
+confirmed and expanded the account originally given of the habits of
+this great man-like Ape, which has had the singular fortune of being the
+first to be made known to the general world and the last to be
+scientifically investigated.
+
+Two centuries and a half have passed away since Battell told his stories
+about the "greater" and the "lesser monsters" to Purchas, and it has
+taken nearly that time to arrive at the clear result that there are four
+distinct kinds of Anthropoids--in Eastern Asia, the Gibbons and the
+Orangs; in Western Africa, the Chimpanzees and the Gorilla.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The man-like Apes, the history of whose discovery has just been
+detailed, have certain characters of structure and of distribution in
+common. Thus they all have the same number of teeth as man--possessing
+four incisors, two canines, four false molars, and six true molars in
+each jaw, or 32 teeth in all, in the adult condition; while the milk
+dentition consists of 20 teeth--or four incisors, two canines, and four
+molars in each jaw. They are what are called catarrhine Apes--that is,
+their nostrils have a narrow partition and look downwards; and,
+furthermore, their arms are always longer than their legs, the
+difference being sometimes greater and sometimes less; so that if the
+four were arranged in the order of the length of their arms in
+proportion to that of their legs, we should have this series--Orang
+(1-4/9--1), Gibbon (1-1/4--1), Gorilla (1-1/5--1), Chimpanzee
+(1-1/16--1). In all, the fore-limbs are terminated by hands, provided
+with longer or shorter thumbs; while the great toe of the foot, always
+smaller than in Man, is far more moveable than in him and can be
+opposed, like a thumb, to the rest of the foot. None of these apes have
+tails, and none of them possess the cheek-pouches common among monkeys.
+Finally, they are all inhabitants of the old world.
+
+The Gibbons are the smallest, slenderest, and longest-limbed of the
+man-like Apes: their arms are longer in proportion to their bodies than
+those of any of the other man-like Apes, so that they can touch the
+ground when erect; their hands are longer than their feet, and they are
+the only Anthropoids which possess callosities like the lower monkeys.
+They are variously coloured. The Orangs have arms which reach to the
+ankles in the erect position of the animal; their thumbs and great toes
+are very short, and their feet are longer than their hands. They are
+covered with reddish-brown hair, and the sides of the face, in adult
+males, are commonly produced into two crescentic, flexible excrescences,
+like fatty tumours. The Chimpanzees have arms which reach below the
+knees; they have large thumbs and great toes, their hands are longer
+than their feet, and their hair is black, while the skin of the face is
+pale. The Gorilla, lastly, has arms which reach to the middle of the
+leg, large thumbs and great toes, feet longer than the hands, a black
+face, and dark-grey or dun hair.
+
+For the purpose which I have at present in view, it is unnecessary that
+I should enter into any further minutiæ respecting the distinctive
+characters of the genera and species into which these man-like Apes are
+divided by naturalists. Suffice it to say, that the Orangs and the
+Gibbons constitute the distinct genera, _Simia_ and _Hylobates_; while
+the Chimpanzees and Gorillas are by some regarded simply as distinct
+species of one genus, _Troglodytes_; by others as distinct
+genera--_Troglodytes_ being reserved for the Chimpanzees, and _Gorilla_
+for the Engé-ena or Pongo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sound knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like
+Apes has been even more difficult of attainment than correct information
+regarding their structure.
+
+Once in a generation, a Wallace may be found physically, mentally, and
+morally qualified to wander unscathed through the tropical wilds of
+America and of Asia; to form magnificent collections as he wanders; and
+withal to think out sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his
+collections: but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the dense
+forests of equatorial Asia and Africa, which constitute the favourite
+habitation of the Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla, present
+difficulties of no ordinary magnitude: and the man who risks his life by
+even a short visit to the malarious shores of those regions may well be
+excused if he shrinks from facing the dangers of the interior; if he
+contents himself with stimulating the industry of the better seasoned
+natives, and collecting and collating the more or less mythical reports
+and traditions with which they are too ready to supply him.
+
+In such a manner most of the earlier accounts of the habits of the
+man-like Apes originated; and even now a good deal of what passes
+current must be admitted to have no very safe foundation. The best
+information we possess is that, based almost wholly on direct European
+testimony, respecting the Gibbons; the next best evidence relates to the
+Orangs; while our knowledge of the habits of the Chimpanzee and the
+Gorilla stands much in need of support and enlargement by additional
+testimony from instructed European eye-witnesses.
+
+It will therefore be convenient in endeavouring to form a notion of what
+we are justified in believing about these animals, to commence with the
+best known man-like Apes, the Gibbons and Orangs; and to make use of the
+perfectly reliable information respecting them as a sort of criterion of
+the probable truth or falsehood of assertions respecting the others.
+
+Of the GIBBONS, half a dozen species are found scattered over the
+Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and through Malacca, Siam,
+Arracan, and an uncertain extent of Hindostan, on the main land of Asia.
+The largest attain a few inches above three feet in height, from the
+crown to the heel, so that they are shorter than the other man-like
+Apes; while the slenderness of their bodies renders their mass far
+smaller in proportion even to this diminished height.
+
+Dr. Salomon Müller, an accomplished Dutch naturalist, who lived for many
+years in the Eastern Archipelago, and to the results of whose personal
+experience I shall frequently have occasion to refer, states that the
+Gibbons are true mountaineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills,
+though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the fig-trees. All day
+long they haunt the tops of the tall trees; and though, towards evening,
+they descend in small troops to the open ground, no sooner do they spy a
+man than they dart up the hill-sides, and disappear in the darker
+valleys.
+
+All observers testify to the prodigious volume of voice possessed by
+these animals. According to the writer whom I have just cited, in one of
+them, the Siamang, "the voice is grave and penetrating, resembling the
+sounds g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, goek ha ha ha ha
+haa[=a][=a][=a], and may easily be heard at a distance of half a
+league." While the cry is being uttered, the great membranous bag under
+the throat which communicates with the organ of voice, the so-called
+"laryngeal sac," becomes greatly distended, diminishing again when the
+creature relapses into silence.
+
+M. Duvaucel, likewise, affirms that the cry of the Siamang may be heard
+for miles--making the woods ring again. So Mr. Martin[15] describes the
+cry of the agile Gibbon as "overpowering and deafening" in a room, and
+"from its strength, well calculated for resounding through the vast
+forests." Mr. Waterhouse, an accomplished musician as well as zoologist,
+says, "The Gibbon's voice is certainly much more powerful than that of
+any singer I ever heard." And yet it is to be recollected that this
+animal is not half the height of, and far less bulky in proportion than,
+a man.
+
+There is good testimony that various species of Gibbon readily take to
+the erect posture. Mr. George Bennett,[16] a very excellent observer, in
+describing the habits of a male _Hylobates syndactylus_ which remained
+for some time in his possession, says: "He invariably walks in the erect
+posture when on a level surface; and then the arms either hang down,
+enabling him to assist himself with his knuckles; or what is more usual,
+he keeps his arms uplifted in nearly an erect position, with the hands
+pendent ready to seize a rope, and climb up on the approach of danger or
+on the obtrusion of strangers. He walks rather quick in the erect
+posture, but with a waddling gait, and is soon run down if, whilst
+pursued, he has no opportunity of escaping by climbing.... When he walks
+in the erect posture he turns the leg and foot outwards, which occasions
+him to have a waddling gait and to seem bow-legged."
+
+Dr. Burrough states of another Gibbon, the Horlack or Hooluk:
+
+     "They walk erect; and when placed on the floor, or in an
+     open field, balance themselves very prettily, by raising
+     their hands over their head and slightly bending the arm
+     at the wrist and elbow, and then run tolerably fast,
+     rocking from side to side; and, if urged to greater
+     speed, they let fall their hands to the ground, and
+     assist themselves forward, rather jumping than running,
+     still keeping the body, however, nearly erect."
+
+Somewhat different evidence, however, is given by Dr. Winslow Lewis:[17]
+
+"Their only manner of walking was on their posterior or inferior
+extremities, the others being raised upwards to preserve their
+equilibrium, as rope-dancers are assisted by long poles at fairs. Their
+progression was not by placing one foot before the other, but by
+simultaneously using both, as in jumping." Dr. Salomon Müller also
+states that the Gibbons progress upon the ground by a short series of
+tottering jumps, effected only by the hind limbs, the body being held
+altogether upright.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A Gibbon (_H. pileatus_), after Wolf.]
+
+But Mr. Martin (l. c. p. 418), who also speaks from direct observation,
+says of the Gibbons generally:
+
+     "Pre-eminently qualified for arboreal habits, and
+     displaying among the branches amazing activity, the
+     Gibbons are not so awkward or embarrassed on a level
+     surface as might be imagined. They walk erect, with a
+     waddling or unsteady gait, but at a quick pace; the
+     equilibrium of the body requiring to be kept up, either
+     by touching the ground with the knuckles, first on one
+     side then on the other, or by uplifting the arms so as to
+     poise it. As with the Chimpanzee, the whole of the
+     narrow, long sole of the foot is placed upon the ground
+     at once and raised at once, without any elasticity of
+     step."
+
+After this mass of concurrent and independent testimony, it cannot
+reasonably be doubted that the Gibbons commonly and habitually assume
+the erect attitude.
+
+But level ground is not the place where these animals can display their
+very remarkable and peculiar locomotive powers, and that prodigious
+activity which almost tempts one to rank them among flying rather than
+among ordinary climbing mammals.
+
+Mr. Martin (l. c. p. 430) has given so excellent and graphic an account
+of the movements of a _Hylobates agilis_, living in the Zoological
+Gardens, in 1840, that I will quote it in full:
+
+     "It is almost impossible to convey in words an idea of
+     the quickness and graceful address of her movements: they
+     may indeed be termed aerial, as she seems merely to touch
+     in her progress the branches among which she exhibits her
+     evolutions. In these feats her hands and arms are the
+     sole organs of locomotion; her body hanging as if
+     suspended by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right,
+     for example), she launches herself, by an energetic
+     movement, to a distant branch, which she catches with the
+     left hand; but her hold is less than momentary: the
+     impulse for the next launch is acquired: the branch then
+     aimed at is attained by the right hand again, and quitted
+     instantaneously, and so on, in alternate succession. In
+     this manner spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are
+     cleared, with the greatest ease and uninterruptedly, for
+     hours together, without the slightest appearance of
+     fatigue being manifested; and it is evident that, if more
+     space could be allowed, distances very greatly exceeding
+     eighteen feet would be as easily cleared; so that
+     Duvaucel's assertion that he has seen these animals
+     launch themselves from one branch to another, forty feet
+     asunder, startling as it is, may be well credited.
+     Sometimes, on seizing a branch in her progress, she will
+     throw herself, by the power of one arm only, completely
+     round it, making a revolution with such rapidity as
+     almost to deceive the eye, and continue her progress with
+     undiminished velocity. It is singular to observe how
+     suddenly this Gibbon can stop, when the impetus given by
+     the rapidity and distance of her swinging leaps would
+     seem to require a gradual abatement of her movements. In
+     the very midst of her flight a branch is seized, the body
+     raised, and she is seen, as if by magic, quietly seated
+     on it, grasping it with her feet. As suddenly she again
+     throws herself into action.
+
+     "The following facts will convey some notion of her
+     dexterity and quickness. A live bird was let loose in her
+     apartment; she marked its flight, made a long swing to a
+     distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in her
+     passage, and attained the branch with her other hand; her
+     aim, both at the bird and at the branch, being as
+     successful as if one object only had engaged her
+     attention. It may be added that she instantly bit off the
+     head of the bird, picked its feathers, and then threw it
+     down without attempting to eat it.
+
+     "On another occasion this animal swung herself from a
+     perch, across a passage at least twelve feet wide,
+     against a window which it was thought would be
+     immediately broken: but not so; to the surprise of all,
+     she caught the narrow framework between the panes with
+     her hand, in an instant attained the proper impetus, and
+     sprang back again to the cage she had left--a feat
+     requiring not only great strength, but the nicest
+     precision."
+
+The Gibbons appear to be naturally very gentle, but there is very good
+evidence that they will bite severely when irritated--a female
+_Hylobates agilis_ having so severely lacerated one man with her long
+canines, that he died; while she had injured others so much that, by way
+of precaution, these formidable teeth had been filed down; but, if
+threatened, she would still turn on her keeper. The Gibbons eat insects,
+but appear generally to avoid animal food. A Siamang, however, was seen
+by Mr. Bennett to seize and devour greedily a live lizard. They commonly
+drink by dipping their fingers in the liquid and then licking them. It
+is asserted that they sleep in a sitting posture.
+
+Duvaucel affirms that he has seen the females carry their young to the
+waterside and there wash their faces, in spite of resistance and cries.
+They are gentle and affectionate in captivity--full of tricks and
+pettishness, like spoiled children, and yet not devoid of a certain
+conscience, as an anecdote, told by Mr. Bennett (l. c. p. 156), will
+show. It would appear that his Gibbon had a peculiar inclination for
+disarranging things in the cabin. Among these articles, a piece of soap
+would especially attract his notice, and for the removal of this he had
+been once or twice scolded. "One morning," says Mr. Bennett, "I was
+writing, the ape being present in the cabin, when casting my eyes
+towards him, I saw the little fellow taking the soap. I watched him
+without his perceiving that I did so: and he occasionally would cast a
+furtive glance towards the place where I sat. I pretended to write; he,
+seeing me busily occupied, took the soap, and moved away with it in his
+paw. When he had walked half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly,
+without frightening him. The instant he found I saw him, he walked back
+again, and deposited the soap nearly in the same place from whence he
+had taken it. There was certainly something more than instinct in that
+action: he evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong both
+by his first and last actions--and what is reason if that is not an
+exercise of it?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The most elaborate account of the natural history of the ORANG-UTAN
+extant, is that given in the "Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke
+Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche Bezittingen (1839-45)," by
+Dr. Salomon Müller and Dr. Schlegel, and I shall base what I have to say
+upon this subject almost entirely on their statements, adding, here and
+there, particulars of interest from the writings of Brooke, Wallace, and
+others.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9.--An adult male Orang-Utan, after Müller and
+Schlegel.]
+
+The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exceed four feet in height, but the
+body is very bulky, measuring two-thirds of the height in
+circumference.[18]
+
+The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and Borneo, and is common in
+neither of these islands--in both of which it occurs always in low, flat
+plains, never in the mountains. It loves the densest and most sombre of
+the forests, which extend from the sea-shore inland, and thus is found
+only in the eastern half of Sumatra, where alone such forests occur,
+though, occasionally, it strays over to the western side.
+
+On the other hand, it is generally distributed through Borneo, except in
+the mountains, or where the population is dense. In favourable places,
+the hunter may, by good fortune, see three or four in a day.
+
+Except in the pairing time, the old males usually live by themselves.
+The old females, and the immature males, on the other hand, are often
+met with in twos and threes; and the former occasionally have young with
+them, though the pregnant females usually separate themselves, and
+sometimes remain apart after they have given birth to their offspring.
+The young Orangs seem to remain unusually long under their mother's
+protection, probably in consequence of their slow growth. While
+climbing, the mother always carries her young against her bosom, the
+young holding on by his mother's hair.[19] At what time of life the
+Orang-Utan becomes capable of propagation, and how long the females go
+with young, is unknown, but it is probable that they are not adult until
+they arrive at ten or fifteen years of age. A female which lived for
+five years at Batavia, had not attained one-third the height of the wild
+females. It is probable that, after reaching adult years, they go on
+growing, though slowly, and that they live to forty or fifty years. The
+Dyaks tell of old Orangs, which have not only lost all their teeth, but
+which find it so troublesome to climb, that they maintain themselves on
+windfalls and juicy herbage.
+
+The Orang is sluggish, exhibiting none of that marvellous activity
+characteristic of the Gibbons. Hunger alone seems to stir him to
+exertion, and when it is stilled he relapses into repose. When the
+animal sits, it curves its back and bows its head, so as to look
+straight down on the ground; sometimes it holds on with its hands by a
+higher branch, sometimes lets them hang phlegmatically down by its
+side--and in these positions the Orang will remain, for hours together,
+in the same spot, almost without stirring, and only now and then giving
+utterance to its deep, growling voice. By day, he usually climbs from
+one tree-top to another, and only at night descends to the ground, and
+if then threatened with danger, he seeks refuge among the underwood.
+When not hunted, he remains a long time in the same locality, and
+sometimes stops for many days on the same tree--a firm place among its
+branches serving him for a bed. It is rare for the Orang to pass the
+night in the summit of a large tree, probably because it is too windy
+and cold there for him; but, as soon as night draws on, he descends from
+the height and seeks out a fit bed in the lower and darker part, or in
+the leafy top of a small tree, among which he prefers Nibong Palms,
+Pandani, or one of those parasitic Orchids which give the primæval
+forests of Borneo so characteristic and striking an appearance. But
+wherever he determines to sleep, there he prepares himself a sort of
+nest: little boughs and leaves are drawn together round the selected
+spot, and bent crosswise over one another; while to make the bed soft,
+great leaves of Ferns, of Orchids, of _Pandanus fascicularis_, _Nipa
+fruticans_, &c., are laid over them. Those which Müller saw, many of
+them being very fresh, were situated at a height of ten to twenty-five
+feet above the ground, and had a circumference, on the average, of two
+or three feet. Some were packed many inches thick with _Pandanus_
+leaves; others were remarkable only for the cracked twigs, which, united
+in a common centre, formed a regular platform. "The rude _hut_," says
+Sir James Brooke, "which they are stated to build in the trees, would be
+more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any
+sort. The facility with which they form this nest is curious, and I had
+an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together
+and seat herself, within a minute."
+
+According to the Dyaks, the Orang rarely leaves his bed before the sun
+is well above the horizon and has dissipated the mists. He gets up about
+nine, and goes to bed again about five; but sometimes not till late in
+the twilight. He lies sometimes on his back; or, by way of change, turns
+on one side or the other, drawing his limbs up to his body, and resting
+his head on his hand. When the night is cold, windy, or rainy, he
+usually covers his body with a heap of _Pandanus_, _Nipa_, or Fern
+leaves, like those of which his bed is made, and he is especially
+careful to wrap up his head in them. It is this habit of covering
+himself up which has probably led to the fable that the Orang builds
+huts in the trees.
+
+Although the Orang resides mostly amid the boughs of great trees, during
+the daytime, he is very rarely seen squatting on a thick branch, as
+other apes, and particularly the Gibbons, do. The Orang, on the
+contrary, confines himself to the slender leafy branches, so that he is
+seen right at the top of the trees, a mode of life which is closely
+related to the constitution of his hinder limbs, and especially to that
+of his seat. For this is provided with no callosities, such as are
+possessed by many of the lower apes, and even by the Gibbons; and those
+bones of the pelvis, which are termed the ischia, and which form the
+solid framework of the surface on which the body rests in the sitting
+posture, are not expanded like those of the apes which possess
+callosities, but are more like those of man.
+
+An Orang climbs so slowly and cautiously,[20] as, in this act, to
+resemble a man more than an ape, taking great care of his feet, so that
+injury of them seems to affect him far more than it does other apes.
+Unlike the Gibbons, whose forearms do the greater part of the work, as
+they swing from branch to branch, the Orang never makes even the
+smallest jump. In climbing, he moves alternately one hand and one foot,
+or, after having laid fast hold with the hands, he draws up both feet
+together. In passing from one tree to another, he always seeks out a
+place where the twigs of both come close together, or interlace. Even
+when closely pursued, his circumspection is amazing: he shakes the
+branches to see if they will bear him, and then bending an overhanging
+bough down by throwing his weight gradually along it, he makes a bridge
+from the tree he wishes to quit to the next.[21]
+
+On the ground the Orang always goes laboriously and shakily, on all
+fours. At starting he will run faster than a man, though he may soon be
+overtaken. The very long arms which, when he runs, are but little bent,
+raise the body of the Orang remarkably, so that he assumes much the
+posture of a very old man bent down by age, and making his way along by
+the help of a stick. In walking, the body is usually directed straight
+forward, unlike the other apes, which run more or less obliquely; except
+the Gibbons, who in these, as in so many other respects, depart
+remarkably from their fellows.
+
+The Orang cannot put its feet flat on the ground, but is supported upon
+their outer edges, the heel resting more on the ground, while the curved
+toes partly rest upon the ground by the upper side of their first joint,
+the two outermost toes of each foot completely resting on this surface.
+The hands are held in the opposite manner, their inner edges serving as
+the chief support. The fingers are then bent out in such a manner that
+their foremost joints, especially those of the two innermost fingers,
+rest upon the ground by their upper sides, while the point of the free
+and straight thumb serves as an additional fulcrum.
+
+The Orang never stands on its hind legs, and all the pictures,
+representing it as so doing, are as false as the assertion that it
+defends itself with sticks, and the like.
+
+The long arms are of especial use, not only in climbing, but in the
+gathering of food from boughs to which the animal could not trust his
+weight. Figs, blossoms, and young leaves of various kinds, constitute
+the chief nutriment of the Orang; but strips of bamboo two or three feet
+long were found in the stomach of a male. They are not known to eat
+living animals.
+
+Although, when taken young, the Orang-Utan soon becomes domesticated,
+and indeed seems to court human society, it is naturally a very wild and
+shy animal, though apparently sluggish and melancholy. The Dyaks affirm,
+that when the old males are wounded with arrows only, they will
+occasionally leave the trees and rush raging upon their enemies, whose
+sole safety lies in instant flight, as they are sure to be killed if
+caught.[22]
+
+But, though possessed of immense strength, it is rare for the Orang to
+attempt to defend itself, especially when attacked with fire-arms. On
+such occasions he endeavours to hide himself, or to escape along the
+topmost branches of the trees, breaking off and throwing down the
+boughs as he goes. When wounded he betakes himself to the highest
+attainable point of the tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at
+first of high notes, which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike
+that of a panther. While giving out the high notes the Orang thrusts out
+his lips into a funnel shape; but in uttering the low notes he holds his
+mouth wide open, and at the same time the great throat bag, or laryngeal
+sac, becomes distended.
+
+According to the Dyaks, the only animal the Orang measures his strength
+with is the crocodile, who occasionally seizes him on his visits to the
+water side. But they say that the Orang is more than a match for his
+enemy, and beats him to death, or rips up his throat by pulling the jaws
+asunder!
+
+Much of what has been here stated was probably derived by Dr. Müller
+from the reports of his Dyak hunters; but a large male, four feet high,
+lived in captivity, under his observation, for a month, and receives a
+very bad character.
+
+"He was a very wild beast," says Müller, "of prodigious strength, and
+false and wicked to the last degree. If any one approached he rose up
+slowly with a low growl, fixed his eyes in the direction in which he
+meant to make his attack, slowly passed his hand between the bars of his
+cage, and then extending his long arm, gave a sudden grip--usually at
+the face." He never tried to bite (though Orangs will bite one another),
+his great weapons of offence and defence being his hands.
+
+His intelligence was very great; and Müller remarks, that though the
+faculties of the Orang have been estimated too highly, yet Cuvier, had
+he seen this specimen, would not have considered its intelligence to be
+only a little higher than that of the dog.
+
+His hearing was very acute, but the sense of vision seemed to be less
+perfect. The under lip was the great organ of touch, and played a very
+important part in drinking, being thrust out like a trough, so as either
+to catch the falling rain, or to receive the contents of the half
+cocoa-nut shell full of water with which the Orang was supplied, and
+which, in drinking, he poured into the trough thus formed.
+
+In Borneo the Orang-Utan of the Malays goes by the name of "_Mias_"
+among the Dyaks, who distinguish several kinds as _Mias Pappan_, or
+_Zimo_, _Mias Kassu_, and _Mias Rambi_. Whether these are distinct
+species, however, or whether they are mere races, and how far any of
+them are identical with the Sumatran Orang, as Mr. Wallace thinks the
+Mias Pappan to be, are problems which are at present undecided; and the
+variability of these great apes is so extensive, that the settlement of
+the question is a matter of great difficulty. Of the form called "Mias
+Pappan," Mr. Wallace[23] observes, "It is known by its large size, and
+by the lateral expansion of the face into fatty protuberances, or
+ridges, over the temporal muscles, which have been mis-termed
+_callosities_, as they are perfectly soft, smooth, and flexible. Five of
+this form, measured by me, varied only from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2
+inches in height, from the heel to the crown of the head, the girth of
+the body from 3 feet to 3 feet 7-1/2 inches, and the extent of the
+outstretched arms from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 6 inches; the width of
+the face from 10 to 13-1/4 inches. The colour and length of the hair
+varied in different individuals, and in different parts of the same
+individual; some possessed a rudimentary nail on the great toe, others
+none at all; but they otherwise present no external differences on which
+to establish even varieties of a species.
+
+"Yet, when we examine the crania of these individuals, we find
+remarkable differences of form, proportion, and dimension, no two being
+exactly alike. The slope of the profile, and the projection of the
+muzzle, together with the size of the cranium, offer differences as
+decided as those existing between the most strongly marked forms of the
+Caucasian and African crania in the human species. The orbits vary in
+width and height, the cranial ridge is either single or double, either
+much or little developed, and the zygomatic aperture varies considerably
+in size. This variation in the proportions of the crania enables us
+satisfactorily to explain the marked difference presented by the
+single-crested and double-crested skulls, which have been thought to
+prove the existence of two large species of Orang. The external surface
+of the skull varies considerably in size, as do also the zygomatic
+aperture and the temporal muscle; but they bear no necessary relation to
+each other, a small muscle often existing with a large cranial surface,
+and _vice versâ_. Now, those skulls which have the largest and strongest
+jaws and the widest zygomatic aperture, have the muscles so large that
+they meet on the crown of the skull, and deposit the bony ridge which
+separates them, and which is the highest in that which has the smallest
+cranial surface. In those which combine a large surface with
+comparatively weak jaws, and small zygomatic aperture, the muscles, on
+each side, do not extend to the crown, a space of from 1 to 2 inches
+remaining between them, and along their margins small ridges are formed.
+Intermediate forms are found, in which the ridges meet only in the
+hinder part of the skull. The form and size of the ridges are therefore
+independent of age, being sometimes more strongly developed in the less
+aged animal. Professor Temminck states that the series of skulls in the
+Leyden Museum shows the same result."
+
+Mr. Wallace observed two male adult Orangs (Mias Kassu of the Dyaks),
+however, so very different from any of these that he concludes them to
+be specifically distinct; they were respectively 3 feet 8-1/2 inches and
+3 feet 9-1/2 inches high, and possessed no sign of the cheek
+excrescences, but otherwise resembled the larger kinds. The skull has
+no crest, but two bony ridges, 1-3/4 inches to 2 inches apart, as in the
+_Simia morio_ of Professor Owen. The teeth, however, are immense,
+equalling or surpassing those of the other species. The females of both
+these kinds, according to Mr. Wallace, are devoid of excrescences, and
+resemble the smaller males, but are shorter by 1-1/2 to 3 inches, and
+their canine teeth are comparatively small, subtruncated and dilated at
+the base, as in the so-called _Simia morio_, which is, in all
+probability, the skull of a female of the same species as the smaller
+males. Both males and females of this smaller species are
+distinguishable, according to Mr. Wallace, by the comparatively large
+size of the middle incisors of the upper jaw.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So far as I am aware, no one has attempted to dispute the accuracy of
+the statements which I have just quoted regarding the habits of the two
+Asiatic man-like Apes; and if true, they must be admitted as evidence,
+that such an Ape--
+
+1stly, May readily move along the ground in the erect, or semi-erect,
+position, and without direct support from its arms.
+
+2ndly, That it may possess an extremely loud voice, so loud as to be
+readily heard one or two miles.
+
+3rdly, That it may be capable of great viciousness and violence when
+irritated: and this is especially true of adult males.
+
+4thly, That it may build a nest to sleep in.
+
+Such being well-established facts respecting the Asiatic Anthropoids,
+analogy alone might justify us in expecting the African species to offer
+similar peculiarities, separately or combined; or, at any rate, would
+destroy the force of any attempted _à priori_ argument against such
+direct testimony as might be adduced in favour of their existence. And,
+if the organization of any of the African Apes could be demonstrated to
+fit it better than either of its Asiatic allies for the erect position
+and for efficient attack, there would be still less reason for doubting
+its occasional adoption of the upright attitude or of aggressive
+proceedings.
+
+From the time of Tyson and Tulpius downwards, the habits of the young
+CHIMPANZEE in a state of captivity have been abundantly reported and
+commented upon. But trustworthy evidence as to the manners and customs
+of adult anthropoids of this species, in their native woods, was almost
+wanting up to the time of the publication of the paper by Dr. Savage, to
+which I have already referred; containing notes of the observations
+which he made, and of the information which he collected from sources
+which he considered trustworthy, while resident at Cape Palmas, at the
+north-western limit of the Bight of Benin.
+
+The adult Chimpanzees, measured by Dr. Savage, never exceeded, though
+the males may almost attain, five feet in height.
+
+     "When at rest, the sitting posture is that generally
+     assumed. They are sometimes seen standing and walking,
+     but when thus detected, they immediately take to all
+     fours, and flee from the presence of the observer. Such
+     is their organization that they cannot stand erect, but
+     lean forward. Hence they are seen, when standing, with
+     the hands clasped over the occiput, or the lumbar region,
+     which would seem necessary to balance or ease of posture.
+
+     "The toes of the adult are strongly flexed and turned
+     inwards, and cannot be perfectly straightened. In the
+     attempt the skin gathers into thick folds on the back,
+     shewing that the full expansion of the foot, as is
+     necessary in walking, is unnatural. The natural position
+     is on all fours, the body anteriorly resting upon the
+     knuckles. These are greatly enlarged, with the skin
+     protuberant and thickened like the sole of the foot.
+
+     "They are expert climbers, as one would suppose from
+     their organization. In their gambols they swing from limb
+     to limb to a great distance, and leap with astonishing
+     agility. It is not unusual to see the 'old folks' (in the
+     language of an observer) sitting under a tree regaling
+     themselves with fruit and friendly chat, while their
+     'children' are leaping around them, and swinging from
+     tree to tree with boisterous merriment.
+
+     "As seen here, they cannot be called _gregarious_, seldom
+     more than five, or ten at most, being found together. It
+     has been said, on good authority, that they occasionally
+     assemble in large numbers, in gambols. My informant
+     asserts that he saw once not less than fifty so engaged;
+     hooting, screaming, and drumming with sticks upon old
+     logs, which is done in the latter case with equal
+     facility by the four extremities. They do not appear ever
+     to act on the offensive, and seldom, if ever really, on
+     the defensive. When about to be captured, they resist by
+     throwing their arms about their opponent, and attempting
+     to draw him into contact with their teeth." (Savage, l.
+     c. p. 384.)
+
+With respect to this last point Dr. Savage is very explicit in another
+place:
+
+     "_Biting_ is their principal art of defence. I have seen
+     one man who had been thus severely wounded in the feet.
+
+     "The strong development of the canine teeth in the adult
+     would seem to indicate a carnivorous propensity; but in
+     no state save that of domestication do they manifest it.
+     At first they reject flesh, but easily acquire a fondness
+     for it. The canines are early developed, and evidently
+     designed to act the important part of weapons of defence.
+     When in contact with man almost the first effort of the
+     animal is--_to bite_.
+
+     "They avoid the abodes of men, and build their
+     habitations in trees. Their construction is more that of
+     _nests_ than _hut_, as they have been erroneously termed
+     by some naturalists. They generally build not far above
+     the ground. Branches or twigs are bent, or partly broken,
+     and crossed, and the whole supported by the body of a
+     limb or a crotch. Sometimes a nest will be found near the
+     _end_ of a _strong leafy branch_ twenty or thirty feet
+     from the ground. One I have lately seen that could not be
+     less than forty feet, and more probably it was fifty. But
+     this is an unusual height.
+
+     "Their dwelling-place is not permanent, but changed in
+     pursuit of food and solitude, according to the force of
+     circumstances. We more often see them in elevated places;
+     but this arises from the fact that the low grounds, being
+     more favourable for the natives' rice-farms, are the
+     oftener cleared, and hence are almost always wanting in
+     suitable trees for their nests.... It is seldom that more
+     than one or two nests are seen upon the same tree, or in
+     the same neighbourhood: five have been found, but it was
+     an unusual circumstance....
+
+     "They are very filthy in their habits.... It is a
+     tradition with the natives generally here, that they were
+     once members of their own tribe: that for their depraved
+     habits they were expelled from all human society, and,
+     that through an obstinate indulgence of their vile
+     propensities, they have degenerated into their present
+     state and organization. They are, however, eaten by them,
+     and when cooked with the oil and pulp of the palm-nut
+     considered a highly palatable morsel.
+
+     "They exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence in
+     their habits, and, on the part of the mother, much
+     affection for their young. The second female described
+     was upon a tree when first discovered, with her mate and
+     two young ones (a male and a female). Her first impulse
+     was to descend with great rapidity, and make off into the
+     thicket, with her mate and female offspring. The young
+     male remaining behind, she soon returned to the rescue.
+     She ascended and took him in her arms, at which moment
+     she was shot, the ball passing through the forearm of the
+     young one, on its way to the heart of the mother....
+
+     "In a recent case, the mother, when discovered, remained
+     upon the tree with her offspring, watching intently the
+     movements of the hunter. As he took aim, she motioned
+     with her hand, precisely in the manner of a human being,
+     to have him desist and go away. When the wound has not
+     proved instantly fatal, they have been known to stop the
+     flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the part,
+     and when this did not succeed, to apply leaves and
+     grass.... When shot, they give a sudden screech, not
+     unlike that of a human being in sudden and acute
+     distress."
+
+The ordinary voice of the Chimpanzee, however, is affirmed to be hoarse,
+guttural, and not very loud, somewhat like "whoo-whoo" (l. c. p. 365).
+
+The analogy of the Chimpanzee to the Orang, in its nest-building habit
+and in the mode of forming its nest, is exceedingly interesting; while,
+on the other hand, the activity of this ape, and its tendency to bite,
+are particulars in which it rather resembles the Gibbons. In extent of
+geographical range, again, the Chimpanzees--which are found from Sierra
+Leone to Congo--remind one of the Gibbons, rather than of either of
+the other man-like Apes; and it seems not unlikely that, as is the case
+with the Gibbons, there may be several species spread over the
+geographical area of the genus.
+
+The same excellent observer, from whom I have borrowed the preceding
+account of the habits of the adult Chimpanzee, published, fifteen years
+ago,[24] an account of the GORILLA, which has, in its most essential
+points, been confirmed by subsequent observers, and to which so very
+little has really been added, that in justice to Dr. Savage I give it
+almost in full.
+
+     "It should be borne in mind that my account is based upon
+     the statements of the aborigines of that region (the
+     Gaboon). In this connection, it may also be proper for me
+     to remark, that having been a missionary resident for
+     several years, studying, from habitual intercourse, the
+     African mind and character, I felt myself prepared to
+     discriminate and decide upon the probability of their
+     statements. Besides, being familiar with the history and
+     habits of its interesting congener (_Trog. niger_,
+     Geoff.), I was able to separate their accounts of the two
+     animals, which, having the same locality and a similarity
+     of habit, are confounded in the minds of the mass,
+     especially as but few--such as traders to the interior
+     and huntsmen--have ever seen the animal in question.
+
+     "The tribe from which our knowledge of the animal is
+     derived, and whose territory forms its habitat, is the
+     _Mpongwe_, occupying both banks of the River Gaboon, from
+     its mouth to some fifty or sixty miles upward....
+
+     "If the word 'Pongo' be of African origin, it is probably
+     a corruption of the word _Mpongwe_, the name of the tribe
+     on the banks of the Gaboon, and hence applied to the
+     region they inhabit. Their local name for the Chimpanzee
+     is _Enché-eko_, as near as it can be Anglicized, from
+     which the common term 'Jocko' probably comes. The Mpongwe
+     appellation for its new congener is _Engé-ena_,
+     prolonging the sound of the first vowel, and slightly
+     sounding the second.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10.--The Gorilla (after Wolff).]
+
+     "The habitat of the _Engé-ena_ is the interior of lower
+     Guinea, whilst that of the _Enché-eko_ is nearer the
+     sea-board.
+
+     "Its height is about five feet; it is disproportionately
+     broad across the shoulders, thickly covered with coarse
+     black hair, which is said to be similar in its
+     arrangement to that of the _Enché-eko_; with age it
+     becomes grey, which fact has given rise to the report
+     that both animals are seen of different colours.
+
+     "_Head._--The prominent features of the head are, the
+     great width and elongation of the face, the depth of the
+     molar region, the branches of the lower jaw being very
+     deep and extending far backward, and the comparative
+     smallness of the cranial portion; the eyes are very
+     large, and said to be like those of the Enché-eko, a
+     bright hazel; nose broad and flat, slightly elevated
+     towards the root; the muzzle broad, and prominent lips
+     and chin, with scattered grey hairs; the under lip highly
+     mobile, and capable of great elongation when the animal
+     is enraged, then hanging over the chin; skin of the face
+     and ears naked, and of a dark brown, approaching to
+     black.
+
+     "The most remarkable feature of the head is a high ridge,
+     or crest of hair, in the course of the sagittal suture,
+     which meets posteriorly with a transverse ridge of the
+     same, but less prominent, running round from the back of
+     one ear to the other. The animal has the power of moving
+     the scalp freely forward and back, and when enraged is
+     said to contract it strongly over the brow, thus bringing
+     down the hairy ridge and pointing the hair forward, so as
+     to present an indescribably ferocious aspect.
+
+     "Neck short, thick, and hairy; chest and shoulders very
+     broad, said to be fully double the size of the
+     Enché-ekos; arms very long, reaching some way below the
+     knee--the forearm much the shortest; hands very large,
+     the thumbs much larger than the fingers....
+
+     "The gait is shuffling; the motion of the body, which is
+     never upright as in man, but bent forward, is somewhat
+     rolling, or from side to side. The arms being longer than
+     the Chimpanzee, it does not stoop as much in walking;
+     like that animal, it makes progression by thrusting its
+     arms forward, resting the hands on the ground, and then
+     giving the body a half jumping half swinging motion
+     between them. In this act it is said not to flex the
+     fingers, as does the Chimpanzee, resting on its
+     knuckles, but to extend them, making a fulcrum of the
+     hand. When it assumes the walking posture, to which it is
+     said to be much inclined, it balances its huge body by
+     flexing its arms upward.
+
+     "They live in bands, but are not so numerous as the
+     Chimpanzees: the females generally exceed the other sex
+     in number. My informants all agree in the assertion that
+     but one adult male is seen in a band; that when the young
+     males grow up, a contest takes place for mastery, and the
+     strongest, by killing and driving out the others,
+     establishes himself as the head of the community."
+
+Dr. Savage repudiates the stories about the Gorillas carrying off women
+and vanquishing elephants, and then adds:
+
+     "Their dwellings, if they may be so called, are similar
+     to those of the Chimpanzee, consisting simply of a few
+     sticks and leafy branches, supported by the crotches and
+     limbs of trees: they afford no shelter, and are occupied
+     only at night.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Gorilla walking (after Wolff).]
+
+     "They are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive in
+     their habits, never running from man, as does the
+     Chimpanzee. They are objects of terror to the natives,
+     and are never encountered by them except on the
+     defensive. The few that have been captured were killed by
+     elephant-hunters and native traders, as they came
+     suddenly upon them while passing through the forests.
+
+     "It is said that when the male is first seen he gives a
+     terrific yell, that resounds far and wide through the
+     forest, something like kh--ah! kh--ah! prolonged and
+     shrill. His enormous jaws are widely opened at each
+     expiration, his under lip hangs over the chin, and the
+     hairy ridge and scalp are contracted upon the brow,
+     presenting an aspect of indescribable ferocity.
+
+     "The females and young, at the first cry, quickly
+     disappear. He then approaches the enemy in great fury,
+     pouring out his horrid cries in quick succession. The
+     hunter awaits his approach with his gun extended: if his
+     aim is not sure, he permits the animal to grasp the
+     barrel, and as he carries it to his mouth (which is his
+     habit) he fires. Should the gun fail to go off, the
+     barrel (that of the ordinary musket, which is thin) is
+     crushed between his teeth, and the encounter soon proves
+     fatal to the hunter.
+
+     "In the wild state, their habits are in general like
+     those of the _Troglodytes niger_, building their nests
+     loosely in trees, living on similar fruits, and changing
+     their place of resort from force of circumstances."
+
+Dr. Savage's observations were confirmed and supplemented by those of
+Mr. Ford, who communicated an interesting paper on the Gorilla to the
+Philadelphian Academy of Sciences, in 1852. With respect to the
+geographical distribution of this greatest of all the man-like Apes, Mr.
+Ford remarks:
+
+     "This animal inhabits the range of mountains that
+     traverse the interior of Guinea, from the Cameroon in the
+     north, to Angola in the south, and about 100 miles
+     inland, and called by the geographers Crystal Mountains.
+     The limit to which this animal extends, either north or
+     south, I am unable to define. But that limit is doubtless
+     some distance north of this river [Gaboon]. I was able to
+     certify myself of this fact in a late excursion to the
+     head-waters of the Mooney (Danger) River, which comes
+     into the sea some sixty miles from this place. I was
+     informed (credibly, I think) that they were numerous
+     among the mountains in which that river rises, and far
+     north of that.
+
+     "In the south, this species extends to the Congo River,
+     as I am told by native traders who have visited the coast
+     between the Gaboon and that river. Beyond that, I am not
+     informed. This animal is only found at a distance from
+     the coast in most cases, and, according to my best
+     information, approaches it nowhere so nearly as on the
+     south side of this river, where they have been found
+     within ten miles of the sea. This, however, is only of
+     late occurrence. I am informed by some of the oldest
+     Mpongwe men that formerly he was only found on the
+     sources of the river, but that at present he may be
+     found within half-a-day's walk of its mouth. Formerly he
+     inhabited the mountainous ridge where Bushmen alone
+     inhabited, but now he boldly approaches the Mpongwe
+     plantations. This is doubtless the reason of the scarcity
+     of information in years past, as the opportunities for
+     receiving a knowledge of the animal have not been
+     wanting; traders having for one hundred years frequented
+     this river, and specimens, such as have been brought here
+     within a year, could not have been exhibited without
+     having attracted the attention of the most stupid."
+
+One specimen Mr. Ford examined weighed 170 lbs., without the thoracic,
+or pelvic, viscera, and measured four feet four inches round the chest.
+This writer describes so minutely and graphically the onslaught of the
+Gorilla--though he does not for a moment pretend to have witnessed the
+scene--that I am tempted to give this part of his paper in full, for
+comparison with other narratives:
+
+     "He always rises to his feet when making an attack,
+     though he approaches his antagonist in a stooping
+     posture.
+
+     "Though he never lies in wait, yet, when he hears, sees,
+     or scents a man, he immediately utters his characteristic
+     cry, prepares for an attack, and always acts on the
+     offensive. The cry he utters resembles a grunt more than
+     a growl, and is similar to the cry of the Chimpanzee,
+     when irritated, but vastly louder. It is said to be
+     audible at a great distance. His preparation consists in
+     attending the females and young ones, by whom he is
+     usually accompanied, to a little distance. He, however,
+     soon returns, with his crest erect and projecting
+     forward, his nostrils dilated, and his under-lip thrown
+     down; at the same time uttering his characteristic yell,
+     designed, it would seem, to terrify his antagonist.
+     Instantly, unless he is disabled by a well-directed shot,
+     he makes an onset, and, striking his antagonist with the
+     palm of his hands, or seizing him with a grasp from which
+     there is no escape, he dashes him upon the ground, and
+     lacerates him with his tusks.
+
+     "He is said to seize a musket, and instantly crush the
+     barrel between his teeth.... This animal's savage nature
+     is very well shewn by the implacable desperation of a
+     young one that was brought here. It was taken very young,
+     and kept four months, and many means were used to tame
+     it; but it was incorrigible, so that it bit me an hour
+     before it died."
+
+Mr. Ford discredits the house-building and elephant-driving stories, and
+says that no well-informed natives believe them. They are tales told to
+children.
+
+I might quote other testimony to a similar effect, but, as it appears to
+me, less carefully weighed and sifted, from the letters of MM. Franquet
+and Gautier Laboullay, appended to the memoir of M. I. G. St. Hilaire,
+which I have already cited.
+
+Bearing in mind what is known regarding the Orang and the Gibbon, the
+statements of Dr. Savage and Mr. Ford do not appear to me to be justly
+open to criticism on _à priori_ grounds. The Gibbons, as we have seen,
+readily assume the erect posture, but the Gorilla is far better fitted
+by its organization for that attitude than are the Gibbons: if the
+laryngeal pouches of the Gibbons, as is very likely, are important in
+giving volume to a voice which can be heard for half a league, the
+Gorilla, which has similar sacs, more largely developed, and whose bulk
+is fivefold that of a Gibbon, may well be audible for twice that
+distance. If the Orang fights with its hands, the Gibbons and
+Chimpanzees with their teeth, the Gorilla may, probably enough, do
+either or both; nor is there anything to be said against either
+Chimpanzee or Gorilla building a nest, when it is proved that the
+Orang-Utan habitually performs that feat.
+
+With all this evidence, now ten to fifteen years old, before the world,
+it is not a little surprising that the assertions of a recent traveller,
+who, so far as the Gorilla is concerned, really does very little more
+than repeat, on his own authority, the statements of Savage and of Ford,
+should have met with so much and such bitter opposition. If subtraction
+be made of what was known before, the sum and substance of what M. Du
+Chaillu has affirmed as a matter of his own observation respecting the
+Gorilla, is, that, in advancing to the attack, the great brute beats his
+chest with his fists. I confess I see nothing very improbable, or very
+much worth disputing about, in this statement.
+
+With respect to the other man-like Apes of Africa, M. Du Chaillu tells
+us absolutely nothing, of his own knowledge, regarding the common
+Chimpanzee; but he informs us of a bald-headed species or variety, the
+_nschiego mbouve_, which builds itself a shelter, and of another rare
+kind with a comparatively small face, large facial angle, and peculiar
+note, resembling "Kooloo."
+
+As the Orang shelters itself with a rough coverlet of leaves, and the
+common Chimpanzee, according to that eminently trustworthy observer Dr.
+Savage, makes a sound like "Whoo-whoo,"--the grounds of the summary
+repudiation with which M. Du Chaillu's statements on these matters have
+been met is not obvious.
+
+If I have abstained from quoting M. Du Chaillu's work, then, it is not
+because I discern any inherent improbability in his assertions
+respecting the man-like Apes; nor from any wish to throw suspicion on
+his veracity; but because, in my opinion, so long as his narrative
+remains in its present state of unexplained and apparently inexplicable
+confusion, it has no claim to original authority respecting any subject
+whatsoever.
+
+It may be truth, but it is not evidence.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] REGNUM CONGO: hoc est VERA DESCRIPTIO REGNI AFRICANI QUOD TAM AB
+INCOLIS QUAM LUSITANIS CONGUS APPELLATUR, per Philippum Pigafettam, olim
+ex Edoardo Lopez acroamatis lingua Italica excerpta, num Latio sermone
+donata ab August. Cassiod. Reinio. Iconibus et imaginibus rerum
+memorabilium quasi vivis, opera et industria Joan. Theodori et Joan.
+Israelis de Bry, fratrum exornata. Francofurti, MDXCVIII.
+
+[2] "Except this that their legges had no calves."--[Ed. 1626.] And in a
+marginal note, "These great apes are called Pongo's."
+
+[3] _Purchas' note._--Cape Negro is in 16 degrees south of the line.
+
+[4] Purchas' marginal note, p. 982:--"The Pongo a giant ape. He told me
+in conference with him, that one of these Pongoes tooke a negro boy of
+his which lived a moneth with them. For they hurt not those which they
+surprise at unawares, except they look on them; which he avoyded. He
+said their highth was like a man's, but their bignesse twice as great. I
+saw the negro boy. What the other monster should be he hath forgotten to
+relate; and these papers came to my hand since his death, which,
+otherwise, in my often conferences, I might have learned. Perhaps he
+meaneth the Pigmy Pongo killers mentioned."
+
+[5] Archives du Museum, tome x.
+
+[6] I am indebted to Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, whose paleontological
+labours are so well known, for bringing this interesting relic to my
+knowledge. Tyson's granddaughter, it appears, married Dr. Allardyce, a
+physician of repute in Cheltenham, and brought, as part of her dowry,
+the skeleton of the "Pygmie." Dr. Allardyce presented it to the
+Cheltenham Museum, and, through the good offices of my friend Dr.
+Wright, the authorities of the Museum have permitted me to borrow, what
+is, perhaps, its most remarkable ornament.
+
+[7] "Mandrill" seems to signify a "man-like ape," the word "Drill" or
+"Dril" having been anciently employed in England to denote an Ape or
+Baboon. Thus in the fifth edition of Blount's "Glossographia, or a
+Dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language now used
+in our refined English tongue ... very useful for all such as desire to
+understand what they read," published in 1681, I find, "Dril--a
+stone-cutter's tool wherewith he bores little holes in marble, &c. Also
+a large overgrown Ape and Baboon, so called." "Drill" is used in the
+same sense in Charleton's "Onomasticon Zoicon," 1668. The singular
+etymology of the word given by Buffon seems hardly a probable one.
+
+[8] Histoire Naturelle, Suppl. tome 7ème, 1789.
+
+[9] Camper, OEuvres, i. p. 56.
+
+[10] Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap. Tweede Deel. Derde
+Druk. 1826.
+
+[11] "Briefe des Herrn v. Wurmb und des H. Baron von Wollzogen. Gotha,
+1794."
+
+[12] See Blumenbach, "Abbildungen Naturhistorichen Gegenstände," No. 12,
+1810; and Tilesius, "Naturhistoriche Früchte der ersten
+Kaiserlich-Russischen Erdumsegelung," p. 115, 1813.
+
+[13] Speaking broadly and without prejudice to the question, whether
+there be more than one species of Orang.
+
+[14] See "Observations on the external characters and habits of the
+Troglodytes niger, by Thomas N. Savage, M.D., and on its organization,
+by Jeffries Wyman, M.D.," Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. iv.,
+1843-4; and "External characters, habits, and osteology of Troglodytes
+Gorilla," by the same authors, ibid., vol. v., 1847.
+
+[15] "Man and Monkies," p. 423.
+
+[16] "Wanderings in New South Wales," vol. ii. chap. viii., 1834.
+
+[17] Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. i., 1834.
+
+[18] The largest Orang-Utan, cited by Temminck, measured, when standing
+upright, 4 ft.; but he mentions having just received news of the capture
+of an Orang 5 ft. 3 in. high. Schlegel and Müller say that their largest
+old male measured, upright, 1.25 Netherlands "el"; and from the crown to
+the end of the toes, 1.5 el; the circumference of the body being about 1
+el. The largest old female was 1.09 el high, when standing. The adult
+skeleton in the College of Surgeons' Museum, if set upright, would stand
+3 ft. 6-8 in. from crown to sole. Dr. Humphry gives 3 ft. 8 in. as the
+mean height of two Orangs. Of seventeen Orangs examined by Mr. Wallace,
+the largest was 4 ft. 2 in. high, from the heel to the crown of the
+head. Mr. Spencer St. John, however, in his "Life in the Forests of the
+Far East," tells us of an Orang of "5 ft. 2 in., measuring fairly from
+the head to the heel," 15 in. across the face, and 12 in. round the
+wrist. It does not appear, however, that Mr. St. John measured this
+Orang himself.
+
+[19] See Mr. Wallace's account of an infant "Orang-utan," in the "Annals
+of Natural History" for 1856. Mr. Wallace provided his interesting
+charge with an artificial mother of buffalo-skin, but the cheat was too
+successful. The infant's entire experience led it to associate teats
+with hair, and feeling the latter, it spent its existence in vain
+endeavours to discover the former.
+
+[20] "They are the slowest and least active of all the monkey tribe, and
+their motions are surprisingly awkward and uncouth."--Sir James Brooke,
+in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 1841.
+
+[21] Mr. Wallace's account of the progression of the Orang almost
+exactly corresponds with this.
+
+[22] Sir James Brooke, in a letter to Mr. Waterhouse, published in the
+proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1841, says:--"On the habits of
+the Orangs, as far as I have been able to observe them, I may remark
+that they are as dull and slothful as can well be conceived, and on no
+occasion, when pursuing them, did they move so fast as to preclude my
+keeping pace with them easily through a moderately clear forest; and
+even when obstructions below (such as wading up to the neck) allowed
+them to get away some distance, they were sure to stop and allow me to
+come up. I never observed the slightest attempt at defence, and the wood
+which sometimes rattled about our ears was broken by their weight, and
+not thrown, as some persons represent. If pushed to extremity, however,
+the _Pappan_ could not be otherwise than formidable, and one unfortunate
+man, who, with a party, was trying to catch a large one alive, lost two
+of his fingers, besides being severely bitten on the face, whilst the
+animal finally beat off his pursuers and escaped."
+
+Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, affirms that he has several times
+observed them throwing down branches when pursued. "It is true he does
+not throw them at a person, but casts them down vertically; for it is
+evident that a bough cannot be thrown to any distance from the top of a
+lofty tree. In one case a female Mias, on a durian tree, kept up for at
+least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy,
+spined fruits, as large as 32-pounders, which most effectually kept us
+clear of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and
+throwing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals
+a loud pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief."--"On the Habits
+of the Orang-Utan," Annals of Nat. History, 1856. This statement, it
+will be observed, is quite in accordance with that contained in the
+letter of the Resident Palm quoted above (p. 16).
+
+[23] On the Orang-Utan, or Mias of Borneo, Annals of Natural History,
+1856.
+
+[24] Notice of the external characters and habits of Troglodytes
+Gorilla. Boston Journal of Natural History, 1847.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+  ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE
+  LOWER ANIMALS.
+
+
+     Multis videri poterit, majorem esse differentiam Simiæ et
+     Hominis, quam diei et noctis; verum tamen hi,
+     comparatione instituta inter summos Europæ Heroës et
+     Hottentottos ad Caput bonæ spei degentes, difficillime
+     sibi persuadebunt, has eosdem habere natales; vel si
+     virginem nobilem aulicam, maxime comtam et humanissimam,
+     conferre vellent cum homine sylvestri et sibi relicto,
+     vix augurari possent, hunc et illam ejusdem esse
+     speciei.--_Linnæi Amoenitates Acad. "Anthropomorpha."_
+
+The question of questions for mankind--the problem which underlies all
+others, and is more deeply interesting than any other--is the
+ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature and of his
+relations to the universe of things. Whence our race has come; what are
+the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us; to
+what goal we are tending; are the problems which present themselves anew
+and with undiminished interest to every man born into the world. Most of
+us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker
+after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them
+altogether, or to smother the investigating spirit under the featherbed
+of respected and respectable tradition. But, in every age, one or two
+restless spirits, blessed with that constructive genius, which can only
+build on a secure foundation, or cursed with the mere spirit of
+scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-worn and comfortable track
+of their forefathers and contemporaries, and unmindful of thorns and
+stumbling-blocks, strike out into paths of their own. The sceptics end
+in the infidelity which asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the
+atheism which denies the existence of any orderly progress and
+governance of things: the men of genius propound solutions which grow
+into systems of Theology or of Philosophy, or veiled in musical language
+which suggests more than it asserts, take the shape of the Poetry of an
+epoch.
+
+Each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the
+followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and
+final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century,
+or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to
+have been a mere approximation to the truth--tolerable chiefly on
+account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly
+intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors.
+
+In a well-worn metaphor, a parallel is drawn between the life of man and
+the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly; but the
+comparison may be more just as well as more novel, if for its former
+term we take the mental progress of the race. History shows that the
+human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows
+too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to
+appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at
+intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another, itself but
+temporary. Truly the imago state of Man seems to be terribly distant,
+but every moult is a step gained, and of such there have been many.
+
+Since the revival of learning, whereby the Western races of Europe were
+enabled to enter upon that progress towards true knowledge, which was
+commenced by the philosophers of Greece, but was almost arrested in
+subsequent long ages of intellectual stagnation, or, at most, gyration,
+the human larva has been feeding vigorously, and moulting in proportion.
+A skin of some dimension was cast in the 16th century, and another
+towards the end of the 18th, while, within the last fifty years, the
+extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread
+among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a
+new ecdysis seems imminent. But this is a process not unusually
+accompanied by many throes and some sickness and debility, or, it may
+be, by graver disturbances; so that every good citizen must feel bound
+to facilitate the process, and even if he have nothing but a scalpel to
+work withal, to ease the cracking integument to the best of his ability.
+
+In this duty lies my excuse for the publication of these essays. For it
+will be admitted that some knowledge of man's position in the animate
+world is an indispensable preliminary to the proper understanding of his
+relations to the universe--and this again resolves itself, in the long
+run, into an inquiry into the nature and the closeness of the ties which
+connect him with those singular creatures whose history[25] has been
+sketched in the preceding pages.
+
+The importance of such an inquiry is indeed intuitively manifest.
+Brought face to face with these blurred copies of himself, the least
+thoughtful of men is conscious of a certain shock, due perhaps, not so
+much to disgust at the aspect of what looks like an insulting
+caricature, as to the awakening of a sudden and profound mistrust of
+time-honoured theories and strongly-rooted prejudices regarding his own
+position in nature, and his relations to the under-world of life; while
+that which remains a dim suspicion for the unthinking, becomes a vast
+argument, fraught with the deepest consequences, for all who are
+acquainted with the recent progress of the anatomical and physiological
+sciences.
+
+I now propose briefly to unfold that argument, and to set forth, in a
+form intelligible to those who possess no special acquaintance with
+anatomical science, the chief facts upon which all conclusions
+respecting the nature and the extent of the bonds which connect man with
+the brute world must be based: I shall then indicate the one immediate
+conclusion which, in my judgment, is justified by those facts, and I
+shall finally discuss the bearing of that conclusion upon the hypotheses
+which have been entertained respecting the Origin of Man.
+
+The facts to which I would first direct the reader's attention, though
+ignored by many of the professed instructors of the public mind, are
+easy of demonstration and are universally agreed to by men of science;
+while their significance is so great, that whoso has duly pondered over
+them will, I think, find little to startle him in the other revelations
+of Biology. I refer to those facts which have been made known by the
+study of Development.
+
+It is a truth of very wide, if not of universal, application, that every
+living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and
+simpler than, that which it eventually attains.
+
+The oak is a more complex thing than the little rudimentary plant
+contained in the acorn; the caterpillar is more complex than the egg;
+the butterfly than the caterpillar; and each of these beings, in passing
+from its rudimentary to its perfect condition, runs through a series of
+changes, the sum of which is called its Development. In the higher
+animals these changes are extremely complicated; but, within the last
+half-century, the labours of such men as Von Baer, Rathke, Reichert,
+Bischof, and Remak have almost completely unravelled them, so that the
+successive stages of development which are exhibited by a Dog, for
+example, are now as well known to the embryologist as are the steps of
+the metamorphosis of the silkworm moth to the school-boy. It will be
+useful to consider with attention the nature and the order of the stages
+of canine development, as an example of the process in the higher
+animals generally.
+
+The Dog, like all animals, save the very lowest (and further inquiries
+may not improbably remove the apparent exception), commences its
+existence as an egg: as a body which is, in every sense, as much an egg
+as that of a hen, but is devoid of that accumulation of nutritive matter
+which confers upon the bird's egg its exceptional size and domestic
+utility; and wants the shell, which would not only be useless to an
+animal incubated within the body of its parent, but would cut it off
+from access to the source of that nutriment which the young creature
+requires, but which the minute egg of the mammal does not contain within
+itself.
+
+The Dog's egg is, in fact, a little spheroidal bag (Fig. 12), formed of
+a delicate transparent membrane called the _vitelline membrane_, and
+about 1/130 to 1/120th an inch in diameter. It contains a mass of viscid
+nutritive matter--the "_yelk_"--within which is inclosed a second much
+more delicate spheroidal bag, called the "_germinal vesicle_" (_a_). In
+this, lastly, lies a more solid rounded body, termed the "_germinal
+spot_" (_b_).
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A. Egg of the Dog, with the vitelline membrane
+burst, so as to give exit to the yelk, the germinal vesicle (_a_), and
+its included spot (_b_). B. C. D. E. F. Successive changes of the yelk
+indicated in the text. After Bischoff.]
+
+The egg, or "Ovum," is originally formed within a gland, from which, in
+due season, it becomes detached, and passes into the living chamber
+fitted for its protection and maintenance during the protracted process
+of gestation. Here, when subjected to the required conditions, this
+minute and apparently insignificant particle of living matter becomes
+animated by a new and mysterious activity. The germinal vesicle and spot
+cease to be discernible (their precise fate being one of the yet
+unsolved problems of embryology), but the yelk becomes circumferentially
+indented, as if an invisible knife had been drawn round it, and thus
+appears divided into two hemispheres (Fig. 12, C).
+
+By the repetition of this process in various planes, these hemispheres
+become subdivided, so that four segments are produced (D); and these, in
+like manner, divide and subdivide again, until the whole yelk is
+converted into a mass of granules, each of which consists of a minute
+spheroid of yelk-substance, inclosing a central particle, the so-called
+"_nucleus_" (F). Nature, by this process, has attained much the same
+result as that at which a human artificer arrives by his operations in a
+brickfield. She takes the rough plastic material of the yelk and breaks
+it up into well-shaped, tolerably even-sized masses, handy for building
+up into any part of the living edifice.
+
+Next, the mass of organic bricks, or "_cells_" as they are technically
+called, thus formed, acquires an orderly arrangement, becoming converted
+into a hollow spheroid with double walls. Then, upon one side of this
+spheroid, appears a thickening, and, by and bye, in the centre of the
+area of thickening, a straight shallow groove (Fig. 13, A) marks the
+central line of the edifice which is to be raised, or, in other words,
+indicates the position of the middle line of the body of the future dog.
+The substance bounding the groove on each side next rises up into a
+fold, the rudiment of the side wall of that long cavity, which will
+eventually lodge the spinal marrow and the brain; and in the floor of
+this chamber appears a solid cellular cord, the so-called "_notochord_."
+One end of the inclosed cavity dilates to form the head (Fig. 13, B),
+the other remains narrow, and eventually becomes the tail; the side
+walls of the body are fashioned out of the downward continuation of the
+walls of the groove; and from them, by and bye, grow out little buds
+which, by degrees, assume the shape of limbs. Watching the fashioning
+process stage by stage, one is forcibly reminded of the modeller in
+clay. Every part, every organ, is at first, as it were, pinched up
+rudely, and sketched out in the rough; then shaped more accurately; and
+only, at last, receives the touches which stamp its final character.
+
+Thus, at length, the young puppy assumes such a form as is shown in Fig.
+13, C. In this condition it has a disproportionately large head, as
+dissimilar to that of a dog as the bud-like limbs are unlike his legs.
+
+The remains of the yelk, which have not yet been applied to the
+nutrition and growth of the young animal, are contained in a sac
+attached to the rudimentary intestine, and termed the yelk-sac, or
+"_umbilical vesicle_." Two membranous bags, intended to subserve
+respectively the protection and nutrition of the young creature, have
+been developed from the skin and from the under and hinder surface of
+the body; the former, the so-called "_amnion_," is a sac filled with
+fluid, which invests the whole body of the embryo, and plays the part of
+a sort of water-bed for it; the other, termed the "_allantois_," grows
+out, loaded with blood-vessels, from the ventral region, and eventually
+applying itself to the walls of the cavity, in which the developing
+organism is contained, enables these vessels to become the channel by
+which the stream of nutriment, required to supply the wants of the
+offspring, is furnished to it by the parent.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A. Earliest rudiment of the Dog. B. Rudiment
+further advanced, showing the foundations of the head, tail, and
+vertebral column. C. The very young puppy, with attached ends of the
+yelk-sac and allantois, and invested in the amnion.]
+
+The structure which is developed by the interlacement of the vessels of
+the offspring with those of the parent, and by means of which the former
+is enabled to receive nourishment and to get rid of effete matters, is
+termed the "_Placenta_."
+
+It would be tedious, and it is unnecessary for my present purpose, to
+trace the process of development further; suffice it to say, that, by a
+long and gradual series of changes, the rudiment here depicted and
+described becomes a puppy, is born, and then, by still slower and less
+perceptible steps, passes into the adult Dog.
+
+There is not much apparent resemblance between a barndoor Fowl and the
+Dog who protects the farm-yard. Nevertheless the student of development
+finds, not only that the chick commences its existence as an egg,
+primarily identical, in all essential respects, with that of the Dog,
+but that the yelk of this egg undergoes division--that the primitive
+groove arises, and that the contiguous parts of the germ are fashioned,
+by precisely similar methods, into a young chick, which, at one stage of
+its existence, is so like the nascent Dog, that ordinary inspection
+would hardly distinguish the two.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The history of the development of any other vertebrate animal, Lizard,
+Snake, Frog, or Fish, tells the same story. There is always, to begin
+with, an egg having the same essential structure as that of the
+Dog:--the yelk of that egg always undergoes division, or
+"_segmentation_" as it is often called: the ultimate products of that
+segmentation constitute the building materials for the body of the young
+animal; and this is built up round a primitive groove, in the floor of
+which a notochord is developed. Furthermore, there is a period in which
+the young of all these animals resemble one another, not merely in
+outward form, but in all essentials of structure, so closely, that the
+differences between them are inconsiderable, while, in their subsequent
+course, they diverge more and more widely from one another. And it is a
+general law, that, the more closely any animals resemble one another in
+adult structure, the longer and the more intimately do their embryos
+resemble one another: so that, for example, the embryos of a Snake and
+of a Lizard remain like one another longer than do those of a Snake and
+of a Bird; and the embryo of a Dog and of a Cat remain like one another
+for a far longer period than do those of a Dog and a Bird; or of a Dog
+and an Opossum; or even than those of a Dog and a Monkey.
+
+Thus the study of development affords a clear test of closeness of
+structural affinity, and one turns with impatience to inquire what
+results are yielded by the study of the development of Man. Is he
+something apart? Does he originate in a totally different way from Dog,
+Bird, Frog, and Fish, thus justifying those who assert him to have no
+place in nature and no real affinity with the lower world of animal
+life? Or does he originate in a similar germ, pass through the same slow
+and gradually progressive modifications,--depend on the same
+contrivances for protection and nutrition, and finally enter the world
+by the help of the same mechanism? The reply is not doubtful for a
+moment, and has not been doubtful any time these thirty years. Without
+question, the mode of origin and the early stages of the development of
+man are identical with those of the animals immediately below him in the
+scale:--without a doubt, in these respects, he is far nearer the Apes,
+than the Apes are to the Dog.
+
+The Human ovum is about 1/125 of an inch in diameter, and might be
+described in the same terms as that of the Dog, so that I need only
+refer to the figure illustrative (14 A.) of its structure. It leaves the
+organ in which it is formed in a similar fashion and enters the organic
+chamber prepared for its reception in the same way, the conditions of
+its development being in all respects the same. It has not yet been
+possible (and only by some rare chance can it ever be possible) to study
+the human ovum in so early a developmental stage as that of yelk
+division, but there is every reason to conclude that the changes it
+undergoes are identical with those exhibited by the ova of other
+vertebrated animals; for the formative materials of which the
+rudimentary human body is composed, in the earliest conditions in which
+it has been observed, are the same as those of other animals. Some of
+these earliest stages are figured below and, as will be seen, they are
+strictly comparable to the very early states of the Dog; the marvellous
+correspondence between the two which is kept up, even for some time, as
+development advances, becoming apparent by the simple comparison of the
+figures with those on page 58.
+
+Indeed, it is very long before the body of the young human being can be
+readily discriminated from that of the young puppy; but, at a tolerably
+early period, the two become distinguishable by the different form of
+their adjuncts, the yelk-sac and the allantois. The former, in the Dog,
+becomes long and spindle-shaped, while in Man it remains spherical; the
+latter, in the Dog, attains an extremely large size, and the vascular
+processes which are developed from it and eventually give rise to the
+formation of the placenta (taking root, as it were, in the parental
+organism, so as to draw nourishment therefrom, as the root of a tree
+extracts it from the soil) are arranged in an encircling zone, while in
+Man, the allantois remains comparatively small, and its vascular
+rootlets are eventually restricted to one disk-like spot. Hence, while
+the placenta of the Dog is like a girdle, that of Man has the cake-like
+form, indicated by the name of the organ.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A. Human ovum (after Kölliker). a. germinal
+vesicle. b. germinal spot. B. A very early condition of Man, with
+yelk-sac, allantois, and amnion (original). C. A more advanced stage
+(after Kölliker), compare FIG. 13, C.]
+
+But, exactly in those respects in which the developing Man differs from
+the Dog, he resembles the ape, which, like man, has a spheroidal
+yelk-sac and a discoidal--sometimes partially lobed--placenta.
+
+So that it is only quite in the later stages of development that the
+young human being presents marked differences from the young ape, while
+the latter departs as much from the dog in its development, as the man
+does.
+
+Startling as the last assertion may appear to be, it is demonstrably
+true, and it alone appears to me sufficient to place beyond all doubt
+the structural unity of man with the rest of the animal world, and more
+particularly and closely with the apes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus, identical in the physical processes by which he
+originates--identical in the early stages of his formation--identical in
+the mode of his nutrition before and after birth, with the animals which
+lie immediately below him in the scale--Man, if his adult and perfect
+structure be compared with theirs, exhibits, as might be expected, a
+marvellous likeness of organization. He resembles them as they resemble
+one another--he differs from them as they differ from one another.--And,
+though these differences and resemblances cannot be weighed and
+measured, their value may be readily estimated; the scale or standard of
+judgment, touching that value, being afforded and expressed by the
+system of classification of animals now current among zoologists.
+
+A careful study of the resemblances and differences presented by animals
+has, in fact, led naturalists to arrange them into groups, or
+assemblages, all the members of each group presenting a certain amount
+of definable resemblance, and the number of points of similarity being
+smaller as the group is larger and _vice versâ_. Thus, all creatures
+which agree only in presenting the few distinctive marks of animality
+form the "Kingdom" ANIMALIA. The numerous animals which agree only in
+possessing the special characters of Vertebrates form one "Sub-kingdom"
+of this Kingdom. Then the Sub-kingdom VERTEBRATA is subdivided into the
+five "Classes," Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, and
+these into smaller groups called "Orders"; these into "Families" and
+"Genera"; while the last are finally broken up into the smallest
+assemblages, which are distinguished by the possession of constant,
+not-sexual, characters. These ultimate groups are Species.
+
+Every year tends to bring about a greater uniformity of opinion
+throughout the zoological world as to the limits and characters of these
+groups, great and small. At present, for example, no one has the least
+doubt regarding the characters of the classes Mammalia, Aves, or
+Reptilia; nor does the question arise whether any thoroughly well-known
+animal should be placed in one class or the other. Again, there is a
+very general agreement respecting the characters and limits of the
+orders of Mammals, and as to the animals which are structurally
+necessitated to take a place in one or another order.
+
+No one doubts, for example, that the Sloth and the Ant-eater, the
+Kangaroo and the Opossum, the Tiger and the Badger, the Tapir and the
+Rhinoceros, are respectively members of the same orders. These
+successive pairs of animals may, and some do, differ from one another
+immensely, in such matters as the proportions and structure of their
+limbs; the number of their dorsal and lumbar vertebræ; the adaptation of
+their frames to climbing, leaping, or running; the number and form of
+their teeth; and the characters of their skulls and of the contained
+brain. But, with all these differences, they are so closely connected in
+all the more important and fundamental characters of their organization,
+and so distinctly separated by these same characters from other animals,
+that zoologists find it necessary to group them together as members of
+one order. And if any new animal were discovered, and were found to
+present no greater difference from the Kangaroo and the Opossum, for
+example, than these animals do from one another, the zoologist would not
+only be logically compelled to rank it in the same order with these, but
+he would not think of doing otherwise.
+
+Bearing this obvious course of zoological reasoning in mind, let us
+endeavour for a moment to disconnect our thinking selves from the mask
+of humanity; let us imagine ourselves scientific Saturnians, if you
+will, fairly acquainted with such animals as now inhabit the Earth, and
+employed in discussing the relations they bear to a new and singular
+"erect and featherless biped," which some enterprising traveller,
+overcoming the difficulties of space and gravitation, has brought from
+that distant planet for our inspection, well preserved, may be, in a
+cask of rum. We should all, at once, agree upon placing him among the
+mammalian vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his molars, and his brain,
+would leave no room for doubting the systematic position of the new
+genus among those mammals, whose young are nourished during gestation by
+means of a placenta, or what are called the "placental mammals."
+
+Further, the most superficial study would at once convince us that,
+among the orders of placental mammals, neither the Whales nor the hoofed
+creatures, nor the Sloths and Ant-eaters, nor the carnivorous Cats,
+Dogs, and Bears, still less the Rodent Rats and Rabbits, or the
+Insectivorous Moles and Hedgehogs, or the Bats, could claim our "_Homo_"
+as one of themselves.
+
+There would remain then, but one order for comparison, that of the Apes
+(using that word in its broadest sense), and the question for discussion
+would narrow itself to this--is Man so different from any of these Apes
+that he must form an order by himself? Or does he differ less from them
+than they differ from one another, and hence must take his place in the
+same order with them?
+
+Being happily free from all real, or imaginary, personal interest in the
+results of the inquiry thus set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the
+arguments on one side and on the other, with as much judicial calmness
+as if the question related to a new Opossum. We should endeavour to
+ascertain, without seeking either to magnify or diminish them, all the
+characters by which our new Mammal differed from the Apes; and if we
+found that these were of less structural value, than those which
+distinguish certain members of the Ape order from others universally
+admitted to be of the same order, we should undoubtedly place the newly
+discovered tellurian genus with them.
+
+I now proceed to detail the facts which seem to me to leave us no
+choice but to adopt the last mentioned course.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is quite certain that the Ape which most nearly approaches man, in
+the totality of its organization, is either the Chimpanzee or the
+Gorilla; and as it makes no practical difference, for the purposes of my
+present argument, which is selected for comparison, on the one hand,
+with Man, and on the other hand, with the rest of the Primates,[26] I
+shall select the latter (so far as its organization is known)--as a
+brute now so celebrated in prose and verse, that all must have heard of
+him, and have formed some conception of his appearance. I shall take up
+as many of the most important points of difference between man and this
+remarkable creature, as the space at my disposal will allow me to
+discuss, and the necessities of the argument demand; and I shall inquire
+into the value and magnitude of these differences, when placed side by
+side with those which separate the Gorilla from other animals of the
+same order.
+
+In the general proportions of the body and limbs there is a remarkable
+difference between the Gorilla and Man, which at once strikes the eye.
+The Gorilla's brain-case is smaller, its trunk larger, its lower limbs
+shorter, its upper limbs longer in proportion than those of Man.
+
+I find that the vertebral column of a full-grown Gorilla, in the Museum
+of the Royal College of Surgeons, measures 27 inches along its anterior
+curvature, from the upper edge of the atlas, or first vertebra of the
+neck, to the lower extremity of the sacrum; that the arm, without the
+hand, is 31-1/2 inches long; that the leg, without the foot, is 26-1/2
+inches long; that the hand is 9-3/4 inches long; the foot 11-1/4 inches
+long.
+
+In other words, taking the length of the spinal column as 100, the arm
+equals 115, the leg 96, the hand 36, and the foot 41.
+
+In the skeleton of a male Bosjesman, in the same collection, the
+proportions, by the same measurement, to the spinal column, taken as
+100, are--the arm 78, the leg 110, the hand 26, and the foot 32. In a
+woman of the same race the arm is 83, and the leg 120, the hand and foot
+remaining the same. In a European skeleton I find the arm to be 80, the
+leg 117, the hand 26, the foot 35.
+
+Thus the leg is not so different as it looks at first sight, in its
+proportions to the spine in the Gorilla and in the Man--being very
+slightly shorter than the spine in the former, and between 1/10 and 1/5
+longer than the spine in the latter. The foot is longer and the hand
+much longer in the Gorilla; but the great difference is caused by the
+arms, which are very much longer than the spine in the Gorilla, very
+much shorter than the spine in the Man.
+
+The question now arises how are the other Apes related to the Gorilla in
+these respects--taking the length of the spine, measured in the same
+way, at 100. In an adult Chimpanzee, the arm is only 96, the leg 90, the
+hand 43, the foot 39--so that the hand and the leg depart more from the
+human proportion and the arm less, while the foot is about the same as
+in the Gorilla.
+
+In the Orang, the arms are very much longer than in the Gorilla (122),
+while the legs are shorter (88); the foot is longer than the hand (52
+and 48), and both are much longer in proportion to the spine.
+
+In the other man-like Apes again, the Gibbons, these proportions are
+still further altered; the length of the arms being to that of the
+spinal column as 19 to 11; while the legs are also a third longer than
+the spinal column, so as to be longer than in Man, instead of shorter.
+The hand is half as long as the spinal column, and the foot, shorter
+than the hand, is about 5/11ths of the length of the spinal column.
+
+Thus _Hylobates_ is as much longer in the arms than the Gorilla, as the
+Gorilla is longer in the arms than Man; while, on the other hand, it is
+as much longer in the legs than the Man, as the Man is longer in the
+legs than the Gorilla, so that it contains within itself the extremest
+deviations from the average length of both pairs of limbs (see the
+Frontispiece).
+
+The Mandrill presents a middle condition, the arms and legs being nearly
+equal in length, and both being shorter than the spinal column; while
+hand and foot have nearly the same proportions to one another and to the
+spine, as in Man.
+
+In the Spider monkey (_Ateles_) the leg is longer than the spine, and
+the arm than the leg; and, finally, in that remarkable Lemurine form,
+the Indri (_Lichanotus_), the leg is about as long as the spinal column,
+while the arm is not more than 11/18ths of its length; the hand having
+rather less and the foot rather more, than one-third the length of the
+spinal column.
+
+These examples might be greatly multiplied, but they suffice to show
+that, in whatever proportion of its limbs the Gorilla differs from Man,
+the other Apes depart still more widely from the Gorilla, and that,
+consequently, such differences of proportion can have no ordinal value.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We may next consider the differences presented by the trunk, consisting
+of the vertebral column, or backbone, and the ribs and pelvis, or bony
+hip-basin, which are connected with it, in Man and in the Gorilla
+respectively.
+
+In Man, in consequence partly of the disposition of the articular
+surfaces of the vertebræ, and largely of the elastic tension of some of
+the fibrous bands, or ligaments, which connect these vertebræ together,
+the spinal column, as a whole, has an elegant S-like curvature, being
+convex forwards in the neck, concave in the back, convex in the loins,
+or lumbar region, and concave again in the sacral region; an arrangement
+which gives much elasticity to the whole backbone, and diminishes the
+jar communicated to the spine, and through it to the head, by locomotion
+in the erect position.
+
+Furthermore, under ordinary circumstances, Man has seven vertebræ in his
+neck, which are called _cervical_; twelve succeed these, bearing ribs
+and forming the upper part of the back, whence they are termed _dorsal_;
+five lie in the loins, bearing no distinct, or free, ribs, and are
+called _lumbar_; five, united together into a great bone, excavated in
+front, solidly wedged in between the hip bones, to form the back of the
+pelvis, and known by the name of the _sacrum_, succeed these; and
+finally, three or four little more or less moveable bones, so small as
+to be insignificant, constitute the _coccyx_ or rudimentary tail.
+
+In the Gorilla, the vertebral column is similarly divided into cervical,
+dorsal, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal vertebræ, and the total number of
+cervical and dorsal vertebræ, taken together, is the same as in Man; but
+the development of a pair of ribs to the first lumbar vertebra, which is
+an exceptional occurrence in Man, is the rule in the Gorilla; and hence,
+as lumbar are distinguished from dorsal vertebræ only by the presence or
+absence of free ribs, the seventeen "dorso-lumbar" vertebræ of the
+Gorilla are divided into thirteen dorsal and four lumbar, while in Man
+they are twelve dorsal and five lumbar.
+
+Not only, however, does Man occasionally possess thirteen pair of
+ribs,[27] but the Gorilla sometimes has fourteen pairs, while an
+Orang-Utan skeleton in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons has
+twelve dorsal and five lumbar vertebræ, as in Man. Cuvier notes the same
+number in a _Hylobates_. On the other hand, among the lower Apes, many
+possess twelve dorsal and six or seven lumbar vertebræ; the Douroucouli
+has fourteen dorsal and eight lumbar, and a Lemur (_Stenops
+tardigradus_) has fifteen dorsal and nine lumbar vertebræ.
+
+The vertebral column of the Gorilla, as a whole, differs from that of
+Man in the less marked character of its curves, especially in the
+slighter convexity of the lumbar region. Nevertheless, the curves are
+present, and are quite obvious in young skeletons of the Gorilla and
+Chimpanzee which have been prepared without removal of the ligaments. In
+young Orangs similarly preserved, on the other hand, the spinal column
+is either straight, or even concave forwards, throughout the lumbar
+region.
+
+Whether we take these characters then, or such minor ones as those which
+are derivable from the proportional length of the spines of the
+cervical vertebræ, and the like, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the
+marked difference between Man and the Gorilla; but there is as little,
+that equally marked differences, of the very same order, obtain between
+the Gorilla and the lower apes.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Front and side views of the bony pelvis of Man,
+the Gorilla and Gibbon: reduced from drawings made from nature, of the
+same absolute length, by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins.]
+
+The Pelvis, or bony girdle of the hips, of Man is a strikingly human
+part of his organization; the expanded haunch bones affording support
+for his viscera during his habitually erect posture, and giving space
+for the attachment of the great muscles which enable him to assume and
+to preserve that attitude. In these respects the pelvis of the Gorilla
+differs very considerably from his (Fig. 15). But go no lower than the
+Gibbon, and see how vastly more he differs from the Gorilla than the
+latter does from Man, even in this structure. Look at the flat, narrow
+haunch bones--the long and narrow passage--the coarse, outwardly curved,
+ischiatic prominences on which the Gibbon habitually rests, and which
+are coated by the so-called "callosities," dense patches of skin, wholly
+absent in the Gorilla, in the Chimpanzee, and in the Orang, as in Man!
+
+In the lower Monkeys and in the Lemurs the difference becomes more
+striking still, the pelvis acquiring an altogether quadrupedal
+character.
+
+But now let us turn to a nobler and more characteristic organ--that by
+which the human frame seems to be, and indeed is, so strongly
+distinguished from all others,--I mean the skull. The differences
+between a Gorilla's skull and a Man's are truly immense (Fig. 16). In
+the former, the face, formed largely by the massive jaw-bones,
+predominates over the brain case, or cranium proper: in the latter, the
+proportions of the two are reversed. In the Man, the occipital foramen,
+through which passes the great nervous cord connecting the brain with
+the nerves of the body, is placed just behind the centre of the base of
+the skull, which thus becomes evenly balanced in the erect posture; in
+the Gorilla, it lies in the posterior third of that base. In the Man,
+the surface of the skull is comparatively smooth, and the supraciliary
+ridges or brow prominences usually project but little--while, in the
+Gorilla, vast crests are developed upon the skull, and the brow ridges
+overhang the cavernous orbits, like great penthouses.
+
+Sections of the skulls, however, show that some of the apparent defects
+of the Gorilla's cranium arise, in fact, not so much from deficiency of
+brain case as from excessive development of the parts of the face. The
+cranial cavity is not ill-shaped, and the forehead is not truly
+flattened or very retreating, its really well-formed curve being simply
+disguised by the mass of bone which is built up against it (Fig. 16).
+
+But the roofs of the orbits rise more obliquely into the cranial cavity,
+thus diminishing the space for the lower part of the anterior lobes of
+the brain, and the absolute capacity of the cranium is far less than
+that of Man. So far as I am aware, no human cranium belonging to an
+adult man has yet been observed with a less cubical capacity than 62
+cubic inches, the smallest cranium observed in any race of men by
+Morton, measuring 63 cubic inches; while, on the other hand, the most
+capacious Gorilla skull yet measured has a content of not more than
+34-1/2 cubic inches. Let us assume, for simplicity's sake, that the
+lowest Man's skull has twice the capacity of that of the highest
+Gorilla.[28]
+
+No doubt, this is a very striking difference, but it loses much of its
+apparent systematic value, when viewed by the light of certain other
+equally indubitable facts respecting cranial capacities.
+
+The first of these is, that the difference in the volume of the cranial
+cavity of different races of mankind is far greater, absolutely, than
+that between the lowest Man and the highest Ape, while, relatively, it
+is about the same. For the largest human skull measured by Morton
+contained 114 cubic inches, that is to say, had very nearly double the
+capacity of the smallest; while its absolute preponderance, of 52 cubic
+inches--is far greater than that by which the lowest adult male human
+cranium surpasses the largest of the Gorillas (62-34-1/2 = 27-1/2).
+Secondly, the adult crania of Gorillas which have as yet been measured
+differ among themselves by nearly one-third, the maximum capacity being
+34.5 cubic inches, the minimum 24 cubic inches; and, thirdly, after
+making all due allowance for difference of size, the cranial capacities
+of some of the lower Apes fall nearly as much, relatively, below those
+of the higher Apes as the latter fall below Man.
+
+Thus, even in the important matter of cranial capacity, Men differ more
+widely from one another than they do from the Apes; while the lowest
+Apes differ as much, in proportion, from the highest, as the latter does
+from Man. The last proposition is still better illustrated by the study
+of the modifications which other parts of the cranium undergo in the
+Simian series.
+
+It is the large proportional size of the facial bones and the great
+projection of the jaws which confers upon the Gorilla's skull its small
+facial angle and brutal character.
+
+But if we consider the proportional size of the facial bones to the
+skull proper only, the little _Chrysothrix_ (Fig. 16) differs very
+widely from the Gorilla, and in the same way as Man does; while the
+Baboons (_Cynocephalus_, Fig. 16) exaggerate the gross proportions of
+the muzzle of the great Anthropoid, so that its visage looks mild and
+human by comparison with theirs. The difference between the Gorilla
+and the Baboon is even greater than it appears at first sight; for the
+great facial mass of the former is largely due to a downward development
+of the jaws; an essentially human character, superadded upon that almost
+purely forward, essentially brutal, development of the same parts which
+characterizes the Baboon, and yet more remarkably distinguishes the
+Lemur.
+
+[Illustration:
+FIG. 16.--Sections of the skulls of Man and various Apes, drawn so as to
+give the cerebral cavity the same length in each case, thereby
+displaying the varying proportions of the facial bones. The line _b_
+indicates the plane of the tentorium, which separates the cerebrum from
+the cerebellum; _d_, the axis of the occipital outlet of the skull. The
+extent of cerebral cavity behind _c_, which is a perpendicular erected
+on _b_ at the point where the tentorium is attached posteriorly,
+indicates the degree to which the cerebrum overlaps the cerebellum--the
+space occupied by which is roughly indicated by the dark shading. In
+comparing these diagrams, it must be recollected, that figures on so
+small a scale as these simply exemplify the statements in the text, the
+proof of which is to be found in the objects themselves.]
+
+Similarly, the occipital foramen of _Mycetes_ (Fig. 16), and still more
+of the Lemurs, is situated completely in the posterior face of the
+skull, or as much further back than that of the Gorilla, as that of the
+Gorilla is further back than that of Man; while, as if to render patent
+the futility of the attempt to base any broad classificatory distinction
+on such a character, the same group of Platyrhine, or American monkeys,
+to which the _Mycetes_ belongs, contains the _Chrysothrix_, whose
+occipital foramen is situated far more forward than in any other ape,
+and nearly approaches the position it holds in Man.
+
+Again, the Orang's skull is as devoid of excessively developed
+supraciliary prominences as a Man's, though some varieties exhibit great
+crests elsewhere (see p. 39); and in some of the Cebine Apes and in the
+_Chrysothrix_, the cranium is as smooth and rounded as that of Man
+himself.
+
+What is true of these leading characteristics of the skull, holds good,
+as may be imagined, of all minor features; so that for every constant
+difference between the Gorilla's skull and the Man's, a similar constant
+difference of the same order (that is to say, consisting in excess or
+defect of the same quality) may be found between the Gorilla's skull and
+that of some other ape. So that, for the skull, no less than for the
+skeleton in general, the proposition holds good, that the differences
+between Man and the Gorilla are of smaller value than those between the
+Gorilla and some other Apes.
+
+In connection with the skull, I may speak of the teeth--organs which
+have a peculiar classificatory value, and whose resemblances and
+differences of number, form, and succession, taken as a whole, are
+usually regarded as more trustworthy indicators of affinity than any
+others.
+
+Man is provided with two sets of teeth--milk teeth and permanent teeth.
+The former consist of four incisors, or cutting teeth; two canines, or
+eye-teeth; and four molars, or grinders, in each jaw--making twenty in
+all. The latter (Fig. 17) comprise four incisors, two canines, four
+small grinders, called premolars or false molars, and six large
+grinders, or true molars, in each jaw--making thirty-two in all. The
+internal incisors are larger than the external pair, in the upper jaw,
+smaller than the external pair, in the lower jaw. The crowns of the
+upper molars exhibit four cusps, or blunt-pointed elevations, and a
+ridge crosses the crown obliquely, from the inner, anterior, cusp to the
+outer, posterior cusp (Fig. 17 _m^2_). The anterior lower molars have
+five cusps, three external and two internal. The premolars have two
+cusps, one internal and one external, of which the outer is the higher.
+
+In all these respects the dentition of the Gorilla may be described in
+the same terms as that of Man; but in other matters it exhibits many and
+important differences (Fig. 17).
+
+Thus the teeth of man constitute a regular and even series--without any
+break and without any marked projection of one tooth above the level of
+the rest; a peculiarity which, as Cuvier long ago showed, is shared by
+no other mammal save one--as different a creature from man as can well
+be imagined--namely, the long extinct _Anoplotherium_. The teeth of the
+Gorilla, on the contrary, exhibit a break, or interval, termed the
+_diastema_, in both jaws: in front of the eye-tooth, or between it and
+the outer incisor, in the upper jaw; behind the eye-tooth, or between it
+and the front false molar, in the lower jaw. Into this break in the
+series, in each jaw, fits the canine of the opposite jaw; the size of
+the eye-tooth in the Gorilla being so great that it projects, like a
+tusk, far beyond the general level of the other teeth. The roots of the
+false molar teeth of the Gorilla, again, are more complex than in Man,
+and the proportional size of the molars is different. The Gorilla has
+the crown of the hindmost grinder of the lower jaw more complex, and the
+order of eruption of the permanent teeth is different; the permanent
+canines making their appearance before the second and third molars in
+Man, and after them in the Gorilla.
+
+Thus, while the teeth of the Gorilla closely resemble those of Man in
+number, kind, and in the general pattern of their crowns, they exhibit
+marked differences from those of Man in secondary respects, such as
+relative size, number of fangs, and order of appearance.
+
+But, if the teeth of the Gorilla be compared with those of an Ape, no
+further removed from it than a _Cynocephalus_, or Baboon, it will be
+found that differences and resemblances of the same order are easily
+observable; but that many of the points in which the Gorilla resembles
+Man are those in which it differs from the Baboon; while various
+respects in which it differs from Man are exaggerated in the
+_Cynocephalus_. The number and the nature of the teeth remain the same
+in the Baboon as in the Gorilla and in Man. But the pattern of the
+Baboon's upper molars is quite different from that described above (Fig.
+17), the canines are proportionally longer and more knife-like; the
+anterior premolar in the lower jaw is specially modified; the posterior
+molar of the lower jaw is still larger and more complex than in the
+Gorilla.
+
+Passing from the old-world Apes to those of the new world, we meet with
+a change of much greater importance than any of these. In such a genus
+as _Cebus_, for example (Fig. 17), it will be found that while in some
+secondary points, such as the projection of the canines and the
+diastema, the resemblance to the great ape is preserved; in other and
+most important respects, the dentition is extremely different. Instead
+of 20 teeth in the milk set, there are 24: instead of 32 teeth in the
+permanent set, there are 36, the false molars being increased from eight
+to twelve. And in form, the crowns of the molars are very unlike those
+of the Gorilla, and differ far more widely from the human pattern.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Lateral views, of the same length, of the upper
+jaws of various Primates. _i_, incisors; _c_, canines; _pm_, premolars;
+_m_, molars. A line is drawn through the first molar of Man, Gorilla,
+_Cynocephalus_, and _Cebus_, and the grinding surface of the second
+molar is shown in each, its anterior and internal angle being just above
+the _m_ of _m^2_.]
+
+The Marmosets, on the other hand, exhibit the same number of teeth as
+Man and the Gorilla; but, notwithstanding this, their dentition is very
+different, for they have four more false molars, like the other
+American monkeys--but as they have four fewer true molars, the total
+remains the same. And passing from the American Apes to the Lemurs, the
+dentition becomes still more completely and essentially different from
+that of the Gorilla. The incisors begin to vary both in number and in
+form. The molars acquire, more and more, a many-pointed, insectivorous
+character, and in one Genus, the Aye-Aye (_Cheiromys_), the canines
+disappear, and the teeth completely simulate those of a Rodent (Fig.
+17).
+
+Hence it is obvious that, greatly as the dentition of the highest Ape
+differs from that of Man, it differs far more widely from that of the
+lower and lowest Apes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whatever part of the animal fabric--whatever series of muscles, whatever
+viscera might be selected for comparison--the result would be the
+same--the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla
+and the Man. I cannot attempt in this place to follow out all these
+comparisons in detail, and indeed it is unnecessary I should do so. But
+certain real, or supposed, structural distinctions between man and the
+apes remain, upon which so much stress has been laid, that they require
+careful consideration, in order that the true value may be assigned to
+those which are real, and the emptiness of those which are fictitious
+may be exposed. I refer to the characters of the hand, the foot, and the
+brain.
+
+Man has been defined as the only animal possessed of two hands
+terminating his fore-limbs, and of two feet ending his hind limbs, while
+it has been said that all the apes possess four hands; and he has been
+affirmed to differ fundamentally from all the apes in the characters of
+his brain, which alone, it has been strangely asserted and re-asserted,
+exhibits the structures known to anatomists as the posterior lobe, the
+posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor.
+
+That the former proposition should have gained general acceptance is not
+surprising--indeed, at first sight, appearances are much in its favour:
+but, as for the second, one can only admire the surpassing courage of
+its enunciator, seeing that it is an innovation which is not only
+opposed to generally and justly accepted doctrines, but which is
+directly negatived by the testimony of all original inquirers, who have
+specially investigated the matter: and that it neither has been, nor can
+be, supported by a single anatomical preparation. It would, in fact, be
+unworthy of serious refutation, except for the general and natural
+belief that deliberate and reiterated assertions must have some
+foundation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before we can discuss the first point with advantage we must consider
+with some attention, and compare together, the structure of the human
+hand and that of the human foot, so that we may have distinct and clear
+ideas of what constitutes a hand and what a foot.
+
+The external form of the human hand is familiar enough to every one. It
+consists of a stout wrist followed by a broad palm, formed of flesh, and
+tendons, and skin, binding together four bones, and dividing into four
+long and flexible digits, or fingers, each of which bears on the back of
+its last joint a broad and flattened nail. The longest cleft between any
+two digits is rather less than half as long as the hand. From the outer
+side of the base of the palm a stout digit goes off, having only two
+joints instead of three; so short, that it only reaches to a little
+beyond the middle of the first joint of the finger next it; and further
+remarkable by its great mobility, in consequence of which it can be
+directed outwards, almost at a right angle to the rest. This digit is
+called the "_pollex_," or thumb; and, like the others, it bears a flat
+nail upon the back of its terminal joint. In consequence of the
+proportions and mobility of the thumb, it is what is termed "opposable";
+in other words, its extremity can, with the greatest ease, be brought
+into contact with the extremities of any of the fingers; a property upon
+which the possibility of our carrying into effect the conceptions of the
+mind so largely depends.
+
+The external form of the foot differs widely from that of the hand; and
+yet, when closely compared, the two present some singular resemblances.
+Thus the ankle corresponds in a manner with the wrist; the sole with the
+palm; the toes with the fingers; the great toe with the thumb. But the
+toes, or digits of the foot, are far shorter in proportion than the
+digits of the hand, and are less moveable, the want of mobility being
+most striking in the great toe--which, again, is very much larger in
+proportion to the other toes than the thumb to the fingers. In
+considering this point, however, it must not be forgotten that the
+civilized great toe, confined and cramped from childhood upwards, is
+seen to a great disadvantage, and that in uncivilized and barefooted
+people it retains a great amount of mobility, and even some sort of
+opposability. The Chinese boatmen are said to be able to pull an oar,
+the artisans of Bengal to weave, and the Carajas to steal fishhooks, by
+its help; though, after all, it must be recollected that the structure
+of its joints and the arrangement of its bones, necessarily render its
+prehensile action far less perfect than that of the thumb.
+
+But to gain a precise conception of the resemblances and differences of
+the hand and foot, and of the distinctive characters of each, we must
+look below the skin, and compare the bony framework and its motor
+apparatus in each (Fig. 18).
+
+The skeleton of the hand exhibits, in the region which we term the
+wrist, and which is technically called the _carpus_--two rows of closely
+fitted polygonal bones, four in each row, which are tolerably equal in
+size. The bones of the first row with the bones of the forearm form the
+wrist joint, and are arranged side by side, no one greatly exceeding or
+over-lapping the rest.
+
+The four bones of the second row of the carpus bear the four long bones
+which support the palm of the hand. The fifth bone of the same character
+is articulated in a much more free and moveable manner than the others,
+with its carpal bone, and forms the base of the thumb. These are called
+_metacarpal_ bones, and they carry the _phalanges_, or bones of the
+digits, of which there are two in the thumb, and three in each of the
+fingers.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18.--The skeleton of the Hand and Foot of Man
+reduced from Dr. Carter's drawings in Gray's "Anatomy." The hand is
+drawn to a larger scale than the foot. The line _a a_ in the hand
+indicates the boundary between the carpus and the metacarpus; _b b_ that
+between the latter and the proximal phalanges; _c c_ marks the ends of
+the distal phalanges. The line _a´ a´_ in the foot indicates the
+boundary between the tarsus and metatarsus; _b´ b´_ marks that between
+the metatarsus and the proximal phalanges; and _c´ c´_ bounds the ends
+of the distal phalanges; _ca_, the calcaneum; _as_, the astragalus;
+_sc_, the scaphoid bone in the tarsus.]
+
+The skeleton of the foot is very like that of the hand in some respects.
+Thus there are three phalanges in each of the lesser toes, and only two
+in the great toe, which answers to the thumb. There is a long bone,
+termed _metatarsal_, answering to the metacarpal, for each digit; and
+the _tarsus_, which corresponds with the carpus, presents four short
+polygonal bones in a row, which correspond very closely with the four
+carpal bones of the second row of the hand. In other respects the foot
+differs very widely from the hand. Thus the great toe is the longest
+digit but one; and its metatarsal is far less moveably articulated with
+the tarsus, than the metacarpal of the thumb with the carpus. But a far
+more important distinction lies in the fact that, instead of four more
+tarsal bones there are only three; and that these three are not arranged
+side by side, or in one row. One of them, the _os calcis_ or heel bone
+(_ca_), lies externally, and sends back the large projecting heel;
+another, the _astragalus_ (_as_), rests on this by one face, and by
+another, forms, with the bones of the leg, the ankle joint; while a
+third face, directed forwards, is separated from the three inner tarsal
+bones of the row next the metatarsus by a bone called the _scaphoid_
+(_sc_).
+
+Thus there is a fundamental difference in the structure of the foot and
+the hand, observable when the carpus and the tarsus are contrasted; and
+there are differences of degree noticeable when the proportions and the
+mobility of the metacarpals and metatarsals, with their respective
+digits, are compared together.
+
+The same two classes of differences become obvious when the muscles of
+the hand are compared with those of the foot.
+
+Three principal sets of muscles, called "flexors," bend the fingers and
+thumb, as in clenching the fist, and three sets--the extensors--extend
+them, as in straightening the fingers. These muscles are all "long
+muscles"; that is to say, the fleshy part of each, lying in and being
+fixed to the bones of the arm, is, at the other end, continued into
+tendons, or rounded cords, which pass into the hand, and are ultimately
+fixed to the bones which are to be moved. Thus, when the fingers are
+bent, the fleshy parts of the flexors of the fingers, placed in the arm,
+contract, in virtue of their peculiar endowment as muscles; and pulling
+the tendinous cords, connected with their ends, cause them to pull down
+the bones of the fingers towards the palm.
+
+Not only are the principal flexors of the fingers and of the thumb long
+muscles, but they remain quite distinct from one another throughout
+their whole length.
+
+In the foot, there are also three principal flexor muscles of the digits
+or toes, and three principal extensors; but one extensor and one flexor
+are short muscles; that is to say, their fleshy parts are not situated
+in the leg (which corresponds with the arm), but in the back and in the
+sole of the foot--regions which correspond with the back and the palm of
+the hand.
+
+Again, the tendons of the long flexor of the toes, and of the long
+flexor of the great toe, when they reach the sole of the foot, do not
+remain distinct from one another, as the flexors in the palm of the hand
+do, but they become united and commingled in a very curious
+manner--while their united tendons receive an accessory muscle connected
+with the heel-bone.
+
+But perhaps the most absolutely distinctive character about the muscles
+of the foot is the existence of what is termed the _peronæus longus_, a
+long muscle fixed to the outer bone of the leg, and sending its tendon
+to the outer ankle, behind and below which it passes, and then crosses
+the foot obliquely to be attached to the base of the great toe. No
+muscle in the hand exactly corresponds with this, which is eminently a
+foot muscle.
+
+To resume--the foot of man is distinguished from his hand by the
+following absolute anatomical differences:--
+
+  1. By the arrangement of the tarsal bones.
+  2. By having a short flexor and a short extensor muscle of the digits.
+  3. By possessing the muscle termed _peronæus longus_.
+
+And if we desire to ascertain whether the terminal division of a limb,
+in other Primates, is to be called a foot or a hand, it is by the
+presence or absence of these characters that we must be guided, and not
+by the mere proportions and greater or lesser mobility of the great toe,
+which may vary indefinitely without any fundamental alteration in the
+structure of the foot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Keeping these considerations in mind, let us now turn to the limbs of
+the Gorilla. The terminal division of the fore-limb presents no
+difficulty--bone for bone and muscle for muscle, are found to be
+arranged essentially as in man, or with such minor differences as are
+found as varieties in man. The Gorilla's hand is clumsier, heavier, and
+has a thumb somewhat shorter in proportion than that of man; but no one
+has ever doubted its being a true hand.
+
+At first sight, the termination of the hind limb of the Gorilla looks
+very hand-like, and as it is still more so in many of the lower apes,
+it is not wonderful that the appellation "Quadrumana," or four-handed
+creatures, adopted from the older anatomists[29] by Blumenbach, and
+unfortunately rendered current by Cuvier, should have gained such wide
+acceptance as a name for the Simian group. But the most cursory
+anatomical investigation at once proves that the resemblance of the
+so-called "hind hand" to a true hand, is only skin deep, and that, in
+all essential respects, the hind limb of the Gorilla is as truly
+terminated by a foot as that of man. The tarsal bones, in all important
+circumstances of number, disposition, and form, resemble those of man
+(Fig. 19). The metatarsals and digits, on the other hand, are
+proportionally longer and more slender, while the great toe is not only
+proportionally shorter and weaker, but its metatarsal bone is united by
+a more moveable joint with the tarsus. At the same time, the foot is set
+more obliquely upon the leg than in man.
+
+As to the muscles, there is a short flexor, a short extensor, and a
+_peronæus longus_, while the tendons of the long flexors of the great
+toe and of the other toes are united together and with an accessory
+fleshy bundle.
+
+The hind limb of the Gorilla, therefore, ends in a true foot, with a
+very moveable great toe. It is a prehensile foot, indeed, but is in no
+sense a hand: it is a foot which differs from that of man not in any
+fundamental character, but in mere proportions, in the degree of
+mobility, and in the secondary arrangement of its parts.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, because I speak of these differences
+as not fundamental, that I wish to underrate their value. They are
+important enough in their way, the structure of the foot being in strict
+correlation with that of the rest of the organism in each case. Nor can
+it be doubted that the greater division of physiological labour in Man,
+so that the function of support is thrown wholly on the leg and foot, is
+an advance in organization of very great moment to him; but, after all,
+regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the foot of Man and the
+foot of the Gorilla are far more striking and important than the
+differences.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Foot of Man, Gorilla, and Orang-Utan of the
+same absolute length, to show the differences in proportion of each.
+Letters as in Fig. 18. Reduced from original drawings by Mr. Waterhouse
+Hawkins.]
+
+I have dwelt upon this point at length, because it is one regarding
+which much delusion prevails; but I might have passed it over without
+detriment to my argument, which only requires me to show that, be the
+differences between the hand and foot of Man and those of the Gorilla
+what they may--the differences between those of the Gorilla and those
+of the lower Apes are much greater.
+
+It is not necessary to descend lower in the scale than the Orang for
+conclusive evidence on this head.
+
+The thumb of the Orang differs more from that of the Gorilla than the
+thumb of the Gorilla differs from that of Man, not only by its
+shortness, but by the absence of any special long flexor muscle. The
+carpus of the Orang, like that of most lower apes, contains nine bones,
+while in the Gorilla, as in Man and the Chimpanzee, there are only
+eight.
+
+The Orang's foot (Fig. 19) is still more aberrant; its very long toes
+and short tarsus, short great toe, short and raised heel, great
+obliquity of articulation in the leg, and absence of a long flexor
+tendon to the great toe, separating it far more widely from the foot of
+the Gorilla than the latter is separated from that of Man.
+
+But, in some of the lower apes, the hand and foot diverge still more
+from those of the Gorilla, than they do in the Orang. The thumb ceases
+to be opposable in the American monkeys; is reduced to a mere rudiment
+covered by the skin in the Spider Monkey; and is directed forwards and
+armed with a curved claw like the other digits, in the Marmosets--so
+that, in all these cases, there can be no doubt but that the hand is
+more different from that of the Gorilla than the Gorilla's hand is from
+Man's.
+
+And as to the foot, the great toe of the Marmoset is still more
+insignificant in proportion than that of the Orang--while in the Lemurs
+it is very large, and as completely thumb-like and opposable as in the
+Gorilla--but in these animals the second toe is often irregularly
+modified, and in some species the two principal bones of the tarsus, the
+_astragalus_ and the _os calcis_, are so immensely elongated as to
+render the foot, so far, totally unlike that of any other mammal.
+
+So with regard to the muscles. The short flexor of the toes of the
+Gorilla differs from that of Man by the circumstance that one slip of
+the muscle is attached, not to the heel bone, but to the tendons of the
+long flexors. The lower Apes depart from the Gorilla by an exaggeration
+of the same character, two, three, or more, slips becoming fixed to the
+long flexor tendons--or by a multiplication of the slips.--Again, the
+Gorilla differs slightly from Man in the mode of interlacing of the long
+flexor tendons: and the lower apes differ from the Gorilla in exhibiting
+yet other, sometimes very complex, arrangements of the same parts, and
+occasionally in the absence of the accessory fleshy bundle.
+
+Throughout all these modifications it must be recollected that the foot
+loses no one of its essential characters. Every Monkey and Lemur
+exhibits the characteristic arrangement of tarsal bones, possesses a
+short flexor and short extensor muscle, and a _peronæus longus_. Varied
+as the proportions and appearance of the organ may be, the terminal
+division of the hind limb remains, in plan and principle of
+construction, a foot, and never, in those respects, can be confounded
+with a hand.
+
+Hardly any part of the bodily frame, then, could be found better
+calculated to illustrate the truth that the structural differences
+between Man and the highest Ape are of less value than those between the
+highest and the lower Apes, than the hand or the foot, and yet, perhaps,
+there is one organ the study of which enforces the same conclusion in a
+still more striking manner--and that is the Brain.
+
+But before entering upon the precise question of the amount of
+difference between the Ape's brain and that of Man, it is necessary that
+we should clearly understand what constitutes a great, and what a small
+difference in cerebral structure; and we shall be best enabled to do
+this by a brief study of the chief modifications which the brain
+exhibits in the series of vertebrate animals.
+
+The brain of a fish is very small, compared with the spinal cord into
+which it is continued, and with the nerves which come off from it: of
+the segments of which it is composed--the olfactory lobes, the cerebral
+hemisphere, and the succeeding divisions--no one predominates so much
+over the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-called optic lobes
+are, frequently, the largest masses of all. In Reptiles, the mass of the
+brain, relatively to the spinal cord, increases and the cerebral
+hemispheres begin to predominate over the other parts; while in Birds
+this predominance is still more marked. The brain of the lowest Mammals,
+such as the duck-billed Platypus and the Opossums and Kangaroos,
+exhibits a still more definite advance in the same direction. The
+cerebral hemispheres have now so much increased in size as, more or
+less, to hide the representatives of the optic lobes, which remain
+comparatively small, so that the brain of a Marsupial is extremely
+different from that of a Bird, Reptile, or Fish. A step higher in the
+scale, among the placental Mammals, the structure of the brain acquires
+a vast modification--not that it appears much altered externally, in a
+Rat or in a Rabbit, from what it is in a Marsupial--nor that the
+proportions of its parts are much changed, but an apparently new
+structure is found between the cerebral hemispheres, connecting them
+together, as what is called the "great commissure" or "corpus callosum."
+The subject requires careful re-investigation, but if the currently
+received statements are correct, the appearance of the "corpus callosum"
+in the placental mammals is the greatest and most sudden modification
+exhibited by the brain in the whole series of vertebrated animals--it is
+the greatest leap anywhere made by Nature in her brain work. For the two
+halves of the brain being once thus knit together, the progress of
+cerebral complexity is traceable through a complete series of steps from
+the lowest Rodent, or Insectivore, to Man; and that complexity consists,
+chiefly, in the disproportionate development of the cerebral hemispheres
+and of the cerebellum, but especially of the former, in respect to the
+other parts of the brain.
+
+In the lower placental mammals, the cerebral hemispheres leave the
+proper upper and posterior face of the cerebellum completely visible,
+when the brain is viewed from above, but, in the higher forms, the
+hinder part of each hemisphere, separated only by the tentorium (p. 92)
+from the anterior face of the cerebellum, inclines backwards and
+downwards, and grows out, as the so-called "posterior lobe," so as at
+length to overlap and hide the cerebellum. In all Mammals, each cerebral
+hemisphere contains a cavity which is termed the "ventricle," and as
+this ventricle is prolonged, on the one hand, forwards, and on the other
+downwards, into the substance of the hemisphere, it is said to have two
+horns or "cornua," an "anterior cornu," and a "descending cornu." When
+the posterior lobe is well developed, a third prolongation of the
+ventricular cavity extends into it, and is called the "posterior cornu."
+
+In the lower and smaller forms of placental Mammals the surface of the
+cerebral hemispheres is either smooth or evenly rounded, or exhibits a
+very few grooves, which are technically termed "sulci," separating
+ridges or "convolutions" of the substance of the brain; and the smaller
+species of all orders tend to a similar smoothness of brain. But, in the
+higher orders, and especially the larger members of these orders, the
+grooves, or sulci, become extremely numerous, and the intermediate
+convolutions proportionately more complicated in their meanderings,
+until, in the Elephant, the Porpoise, the higher Apes, and Man, the
+cerebral surface appears a perfect labyrinth of tortuous foldings.
+
+Where a posterior lobe exists and presents its customary cavity--the
+posterior cornu--it commonly happens that a particular sulcus appears
+upon the inner and under surface of the lobe, parallel with and beneath
+the floor of the cornu--which is, as it were, arched over the roof of
+the sulcus. It is as if the groove had been formed by indenting the
+floor of the posterior horn from without with a blunt instrument, so
+that the floor should rise as a convex eminence. Now this eminence is
+what has been termed the "Hippocampus minor"; the "Hippocampus major"
+being a larger eminence in the floor of the descending cornu. What may
+be the functional importance of either of these structures we know not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the impossibility of
+erecting any cerebral barrier between man and the apes, Nature has
+provided us, in the latter animals, with an almost complete series of
+gradations from brains little higher than that of a Rodent, to brains
+little lower than that of Man. 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 man-like 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 Man-like 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In many of these creatures, such as the Saimiri (_Chrysothrix_), the
+cerebral lobes overlap and extend much further behind the cerebellum, in
+proportion, than they do in man (Fig. 16)--and it is quite certain that,
+in all, the cerebellum is completely covered behind, by well-developed
+posterior lobes. The fact can be verified by every one who possesses the
+skull of any old or new world monkey. For, inasmuch as the brain in all
+mammals completely fills the cranial cavity, it is obvious that a cast
+of the interior of the skull will reproduce the general form of the
+brain, at any rate with such minute and, for the present purpose,
+utterly unimportant differences as may result from the absence of the
+enveloping membranes of the brain in the dry skull. But if such a cast
+be made in plaster, and compared with a similar cast of the interior of
+a human skull, it will be obvious that the cast of the cerebral chamber,
+representing the cerebrum of the ape, as completely covers over and
+overlaps the cast of the cerebellar chamber, representing the
+cerebellum, as it does in the man (Fig. 20). A careless observer,
+forgetting that a soft structure like the brain loses its proper shape
+the moment it is taken out of the skull, may indeed mistake the
+uncovered condition of the cerebellum of an extracted and distorted
+brain for the natural relations of the parts; but his error must become
+patent even to himself if he try to replace the brain within the
+cranial chamber. To suppose that the cerebellum of an ape is naturally
+uncovered behind is a miscomprehension comparable only to that of one
+who should imagine that a man's lungs always occupy but a small portion
+of the thoracic cavity--because they do so when the chest is opened, and
+their elasticity is no longer neutralized by the pressure of the air.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Drawings of the internal casts of a Man's and
+of a Chimpanzee's skull, of the same absolute length, and placed in
+corresponding positions, _A._ Cerebrum; _B._ Cerebellum. The former
+drawing is taken from a cast in the Museum of the Royal College of
+Surgeons, the latter from the photograph of the cast of a Chimpanzee's
+skull, which illustrates the paper by Mr. Marshall "On the Brain of the
+Chimpanzee" in the Natural History Review for July, 1861. The sharper
+definition of the lower edge of the cast of the cerebral chamber in the
+Chimpanzee arises from the circumstance that the tentorium remained in
+that skull and not in the Man's. The cast more accurately represents the
+brain in Chimpanzee than in the Man; and the great backward projection
+of the posterior lobes of the cerebrum of the former, beyond the
+cerebellum, is conspicuous.]
+
+And the error is the less excusable, as it must become apparent to every
+one who examines a section of the skull of any ape above a Lemur,
+without taking the trouble to make a cast of it. For there is a very
+marked groove in every such skull, as in the human skull--which
+indicates the line of attachment of what is termed the _tentorium_--a
+sort of parchment-like shelf, or partition, which, in the recent state,
+is interposed between the cerebrum and cerebellum, and prevents the
+former from pressing upon the latter (see Fig. 16).
+
+This groove, therefore, indicates the line of separation between that
+part of the cranial cavity which contains the cerebrum, and that which
+contains the cerebellum; and as the brain exactly fills the cavity of
+the skull, it is obvious that the relations of these two parts of the
+cranial cavity at once informs us of the relations of their contents.
+Now in man, in all the old world, and in all the new world Simiæ, with
+one exception, when the face is directed forwards, this line of
+attachment of the tentorium, or impression for the lateral sinus, as it
+is technically called, is nearly horizontal, and the cerebral chamber
+invariably overlaps or projects behind the cerebellar chamber. In the
+Howler Monkey or _Mycetes_ (see Fig. 16), the line passes obliquely
+upwards and backwards, and the cerebral overlap is almost nil; while in
+the Lemurs, as in the lower mammals, the line is much more inclined in
+the same direction, and the cerebellar chamber projects considerably
+beyond the cerebral.
+
+When the gravest errors respecting points so easily settled as this
+question respecting the posterior lobes can be authoritatively
+propounded, it is no wonder that matters of observation, of no very
+complex character, but still requiring a certain amount of care, should
+have fared worse. Any one who cannot see the posterior lobe in an ape's
+brain is not likely to give a very valuable opinion respecting the
+posterior cornu or the hippocampus minor. If a man cannot see a church,
+it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted
+window--so that I do not feel bound to enter upon any discussion of
+these points, but content myself with assuring the reader that the
+posterior cornu and the hippocampus minor, have now been seen--usually,
+at least as well developed as in man, and often better--not only in the
+Chimpanzee, the Orang, and the Gibbon, but in all the genera of the old
+world baboons and monkeys, and in most of the new world forms, including
+the Marmosets.[30]
+
+In fact, all the abundant and trustworthy evidence (consisting of the
+results of careful investigations directed to the determination of these
+very questions, by skilled anatomists) which we now possess, leads to
+the conviction that, so far from the posterior lobe, the posterior
+cornu, and the hippocampus minor, being structures peculiar to and
+characteristic of man, as they have been over and over again asserted to
+be, even after the publication of the clearest demonstration of the
+reverse, it is precisely these structures which are the most marked
+cerebral characters common to man with the apes. They are among the most
+distinctly Simian peculiarities which the human organism exhibits.
+
+As to the convolutions, the brains of the apes exhibit every stage of
+progress, from the almost smooth brain of the Marmoset, to the Orang and
+the Chimpanzee, which fall but little below Man. And it is most
+remarkable that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with that of the
+corresponding sulci of man. The surface of the brain of a monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like Apes the
+details become more and more filled in, until it is only in minor
+characters, such as the greater excavation of the anterior lobes, the
+constant presence of fissures usually absent in man, and the different
+disposition and proportions of some convolutions, that the
+Chimpanzee's or the Orang's brain can be structurally distinguished from
+Man's.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Drawings of the cerebral hemispheres of a Man
+and of a Chimpanzee of the same length, in order to show the relative
+proportions of the parts: the former taken from a specimen, which Mr.
+Flower, Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, was
+good enough to dissect for me; the latter, from the photograph of a
+similarly dissected Chimpanzee's brain, given in Mr. Marshall's paper
+above referred to. _a_, posterior lobe; _b_, lateral ventricle; _c_,
+posterior cornu; _x_, the hippocampus minor.]
+
+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 brains of the
+Chimpanzee and of Man is almost insignificant, when compared with that
+between the Chimpanzee brain and that of a Lemur.
+
+It must not be overlooked, however, that there is a very striking
+difference in the absolute mass and weight between the lowest human
+brain and that of the highest ape--a difference which is all the more
+remarkable when we recollect that a full grown Gorilla is probably
+pretty nearly twice as heavy as a Bosjes man, or as many an European
+woman. It may be doubted whether a healthy human adult brain ever
+weighed less than thirty-one or two ounces, or that the heaviest Gorilla
+brain has exceeded twenty ounces.
+
+This is a very noteworthy circumstance, and doubtless will one day help
+to furnish an explanation of the great gulf which intervenes between the
+lowest man and the highest ape in intellectual power;[31] but it has
+little systematic value, for the simple reason that, as may be
+concluded from what has been already said respecting cranial capacity,
+the difference in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men
+is far greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by, say twelve, ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or
+by 32: 20 relatively; but as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by more
+than 33 ounces absolutely, or by 65: 32 relatively. Regarded
+systematically the cerebral differences, of man and apes, are not of
+more than generic value--his Family distinction resting chiefly on his
+dentition, his pelvis, and his lower limbs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus, whatever system of organs be studied, the comparison of their
+modifications in the ape series leads to one and the same result--that
+the structural differences which separate Man from the Gorilla and the
+Chimpanzee are not so great as those which separate the Gorilla from the
+lower apes.
+
+But in enunciating this important truth I must guard myself against a
+form of misunderstanding, which is very prevalent. I find, in fact, that
+those who endeavour to teach what nature so clearly shows us in this
+matter, are liable to have their opinions misrepresented and their
+phraseology garbled, until they seem to say that the structural
+differences between man and even the highest apes are small and
+insignificant. Let me take this opportunity then of distinctly
+asserting, on the contrary, that they are great and significant; that
+every bone of a Gorilla bears marks by which it might be distinguished
+from the corresponding bone of a Man; and that, in the present creation,
+at any rate, no intermediate link bridges over the gap between _Homo_
+and _Troglodytes_.
+
+It would be no less wrong than absurd to deny the existence of this
+chasm; but it is at least equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its
+magnitude, and, resting on the admitted fact of its existence, to refuse
+to inquire whether it is wide or narrow. Remember, if you will, that
+there is no existing link between Man and the Gorilla, but do not forget
+that there is a no less sharp line of demarcation, a no less complete
+absence of any transitional form, between the Gorilla and the Orang, or
+the Orang and the Gibbon. I say, not less sharp, though it is somewhat
+narrower. The structural differences between Man and the Man-like Apes
+certainly justify our regarding him as constituting a family apart from
+them; though, inasmuch as he differs less from them than they do from
+other families of the same order, there can be no justification for
+placing him in a distinct order.
+
+And thus the sagacious foresight of the great lawgiver of systematic
+zoology, Linnæus, becomes justified, and a century of anatomical
+research brings us back to his conclusion, that man is a member of the
+same order (for which the Linnæan term PRIMATES ought to be retained) as
+the Apes and Lemurs. This order is now divisible into seven families, of
+about equal systematic value: the first, the ANTHROPINI, contains Man
+alone; the second, the CATARHINI, embraces the old world apes; the
+third, the PLATYRHINI, all new world apes, except the Marmosets; the
+fourth, the ARCTOPITHECINI, contains the Marmosets; the fifth, the
+LEMURINI, the Lemurs--from which _Cheiromys_ should probably be excluded
+to form a sixth distinct family, the CHEIROMYINI; while the seventh, the
+GALEOPITHECINI, contains only the flying Lemur _Galeopithecus_,--a
+strange form which almost touches on the Bats, as the _Cheiromys_ puts
+on a rodent clothing, and the Lemurs simulate Insectivora.
+
+Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series
+of gradations as this--leading us insensibly from the crown and summit
+of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a
+step, as it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of the
+placental Mammalia. It is as if nature herself had foreseen the
+arrogance of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his
+intellect, by its very triumphs, should call into prominence the slaves,
+admonishing the conqueror that he is but dust.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These are the chief facts, this the immediate conclusion from them to
+which I adverted in the commencement of this Essay. The facts, I
+believe, cannot be disputed; and if so, the conclusion appears to me to
+be inevitable.
+
+But if Man be separated by no greater structural barrier from the brutes
+than they are from one another--then it seems to follow that if any
+process of physical causation can be discovered by which the genera and
+families of ordinary animals have been produced, that process of
+causation is amply sufficient to account for the origin of Man. In other
+words, if it could be shown that the Marmosets, for example, have arisen
+by gradual modification of the ordinary Platyrhini, or that both
+Marmosets and Platyrhini are modified ramifications of a primitive
+stock--then, there would be no rational ground for doubting that man
+might have originated, in the one case, by the gradual modification of a
+man-like ape; or, in the othercase, as a ramification of the same
+primitive stock as those apes.
+
+At the present moment, but one such process of physical causation has
+any evidence in its favour; or, in other words, there is but one
+hypothesis regarding the origin of species of animals in general which
+has any scientific existence--that propounded by Mr. Darwin. For
+Lamarck, sagacious as many of his views were, mingled them with so much
+that was crude and even absurd, as to neutralize the benefit which his
+originality might have effected, had he been a more sober and cautious
+thinker; and though I have heard of the announcement of a formula
+touching "the ordained continuous becoming of organic forms," it is
+obvious that it is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible,
+and that a qua-quâ-versal proposition of this kind, which may be read
+backwards, or forwards, or sideways, with exactly the same amount of
+signification, does not really exist, though it may seem to do so.
+
+At the present moment, therefore, the question of the relation of man to
+the lower animals resolves itself, in the end, into the larger question
+of the tenability or untenability of Mr. Darwin's views. But here we
+enter upon difficult ground, and it behoves us to define our exact
+position with the greatest care.
+
+It cannot be doubted, I think, that Mr. Darwin has satisfactorily proved
+that what he terms selection, or selective modification, must occur, and
+does occur, in nature; and he has also proved to superfluity that such
+selection is competent to produce forms as distinct, structurally, as
+some genera even are. If the animated world presented us with none but
+structural differences, I should have no hesitation in saying that Mr.
+Darwin had demonstrated the existence of a true physical cause, amply
+competent to account for the origin of living species, and of man among
+the rest.
+
+But, in addition to their structural distinctions, the species of
+animals and plants, or at least a great number of them, exhibit
+physiological characters--what are known as distinct species,
+structurally, being for the most part either altogether incompetent to
+breed one with another; or if they breed, the resulting mule, or hybrid,
+is unable to perpetuate its race with another hybrid of the same kind.
+
+A true physical cause is, however, admitted to be such only on one
+condition--that it shall account for all the phenomena which come within
+the range of its operation. If it is inconsistent with any one
+phenomenon, it must be rejected; if it fails to explain any one
+phenomenon, it is so far weak, so far to be suspected; though it may
+have a perfect right to claim provisional acceptance.
+
+Now, Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as I am aware, inconsistent
+with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts
+of Development, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geographical Distribution,
+and of Palæontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning
+such as they never possessed before; and I, for one, am fully convinced,
+that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation
+to the truth as, for example, the Copernican hypothesis was to the true
+theory of the planetary motions.
+
+But, for all this, our acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis must be
+provisional so long as one link in the chain of evidence is wanting; and
+so long as all the animals and plants certainly produced by selective
+breeding from a common stock are fertile, and their progeny are fertile
+with one another, that link will be wanting. For, so long, selective
+breeding will not be proved to be competent to do all that is required
+of it to produce natural species.
+
+I have put this conclusion as strongly as possible before the reader,
+because the last position in which I wish to find myself is that of an
+advocate for Mr. Darwin's, or any other views--if by an advocate is
+meant one whose business it is to smooth over real difficulties, and to
+persuade where he cannot convince.
+
+In justice to Mr. Darwin, however, it must be admitted that the
+conditions of fertility and sterility are very ill understood, and that
+every day's advance in knowledge leads us to regard the hiatus in his
+evidence as of less and less importance, when set against the multitude
+of facts which harmonize with, or receive an explanation from, his
+doctrines.
+
+I adopt Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, therefore, subject to the production of
+proof that physiological species may be produced by selective breeding;
+just as a physical philosopher may accept the undulatory theory of
+light, subject to the proof of the existence of the hypothetical ether;
+or as the chemist adopts the atomic theory, subject to the proof of the
+existence of atoms; and for exactly the same reasons, namely, that it
+has an immense amount of primâ facie probability; that it is the only
+means at present within reach of reducing the chaos of observed facts to
+order; and lastly, that it is the most powerful instrument of
+investigation which has been presented to naturalists since the
+invention of the natural system of classification, and the commencement
+of the systematic study of embryology.
+
+But even leaving Mr. Darwin's views aside, the whole analogy of natural
+operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the
+intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the
+production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the
+intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living world; and
+between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see
+no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great
+progression, from the formless to the formed--from the inorganic to the
+organic--from blind force to conscious intellect and will.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and
+enunciated truth; and were these pages addressed to men of science only,
+I should now close this essay, knowing that my colleagues have learned
+to respect nothing but evidence, and to believe that their highest duty
+lies in submitting to it, however it may jar against their inclinations.
+
+But desiring, as I do, to reach the wider circle of the intelligent
+public, it would be unworthy cowardice were I to ignore the repugnance
+with which the majority of my readers are likely to meet the conclusions
+to which the most careful and conscientious study I have been able to
+give to this matter, has led me.
+
+On all sides I shall hear the cry--"We are men and women, not a mere
+better sort of apes, a little longer in the leg, more compact in the
+foot, and bigger in brain than your brutal Chimpanzees and Gorillas. The
+power of knowledge--the conscience of good and evil--the pitiful
+tenderness of human affections, raise us out of all real fellowship
+with the brutes, however closely they may seem to approximate us."
+
+To this I can only reply that the exclamation would be most just and
+would have my own entire sympathy, if it were only relevant. But, it is
+not I who seek to base Man's dignity upon his great toe, or insinuate
+that we are lost if an Ape has a hippocampus minor. On the contrary, I
+have done my best to sweep away this vanity. I have endeavoured to show
+that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between
+the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn
+between the animal world and ourselves; and I may add the expression of
+my belief that the attempt to draw a psychical distinction is equally
+futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and of intellect
+begin to germinate in lower forms of life.[32] At the same time, no one
+is more strongly convinced than I am of the vastness of the gulf between
+civilized man and the brutes; or is more certain that whether _from_
+them or not, he is assuredly not _of_ them. No one is less disposed to
+think lightly of the present dignity, or despairingly of the future
+hopes, of the only consciously intelligent denizen of this world.
+
+We are indeed told by those who assume authority in these matters, that
+the two sets of opinions are incompatible, and that the belief in the
+unity of origin of man and brutes involves the brutalization and
+degradation of the former. But is this really so? Could not a sensible
+child confute, by obvious arguments, the shallow rhetoricians who would
+force this conclusion upon us? Is it, indeed, true, that the Poet, or
+the Philosopher, or the Artist whose genius is the glory of his age, is
+degraded from his high estate by the undoubted historical probability,
+not to say certainty, that he is the direct descendant of some naked and
+bestial savage, whose intelligence was just sufficient to make him a
+little more cunning than the Fox, and by so much more dangerous than the
+Tiger? Or is he bound to howl and grovel on all fours because of the
+wholly unquestionable fact, that he was once an egg, which no ordinary
+power of discrimination could distinguish from that of a Dog? Or is the
+philanthropist or the saint to give up his endeavours to lead a noble
+life, because the simplest study of man's nature reveals, at its
+foundations, all the selfish passions and fierce appetites of the merest
+quadruped? Is mother-love vile because a hen shows it, or fidelity base
+because dogs possess it?
+
+The common sense of the mass of mankind will answer these questions
+without a moment's hesitation. Healthy humanity, finding itself hard
+pressed to escape from real sin and degradation, will leave the brooding
+over speculative pollution to the cynics and the "righteous overmuch"
+who, disagreeing in everything else, unite in blind insensibility to the
+nobleness of the visible world, and in inability to appreciate the
+grandeur of the place Man occupies therein.
+
+Nay more, thoughtful men, once escaped from the blinding influences of
+traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock whence man has
+sprung, the best evidence of the splendour of his capacities; and will
+discern in his long progress through the Past, a reasonable ground of
+faith in his attainment of a nobler Future.
+
+They will remember that in comparing civilized man with the animal
+world, one is as the Alpine traveller, who sees the mountains soaring
+into the sky and can hardly discern where the deep shadowed crags and
+roseate peaks end, and where the clouds of heaven begin. Surely the
+awe-struck voyager may be excused if, at first, he refuses to believe
+the geologist, who tells him that these glorious masses are, after all,
+the hardened mud of primeval seas, or the cooled slag of subterranean
+furnaces--of one substance with the dullest clay, but raised by inward
+forces to that place of proud and seemingly inaccessible glory.
+
+But the geologist is right; and due reflection on his teachings, instead
+of diminishing our reverence and our wonder, adds all the force of
+intellectual sublimity to the mere æsthetic intuition of the
+uninstructed beholder.
+
+And after passion and prejudice have died away, the same result will
+attend the teachings of the naturalist respecting that great Alps and
+Andes of the living world--Man. Our reverence for the nobility of
+manhood will not be lessened by the knowledge, that Man is, in substance
+and in structure, one with the brutes; for, he alone possesses the
+marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby, in
+the secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and
+organized the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation
+of every individual life in other animals; so that now he stands raised
+upon it as on a mountain top, far above the level of his humble fellows,
+and transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here and there,
+a ray from the infinite source of truth.
+
+
+  _A succinct History of the Controversy respecting the
+  Cerebral Structure of Man and the Apes_
+
+Up to the year 1857 all anatomists of authority, who had occupied
+themselves with the cerebral structure of the Apes--Cuvier, Tiedemann,
+Sandifort, Vrolik, Isidore G. St. Hilaire, Schroeder van der Kolk,
+Gratiolet--were agreed that the brain of the Apes possesses a POSTERIOR
+LOBE.
+
+Tiedemann, in 1825, figured and acknowledged in the text of his
+"Icones," the existence of the POSTERIOR CORNU of the lateral ventricle
+in the Apes, not only under the title of "Scrobiculus parvus loco cornu
+posterioris"--a fact which has been paraded--but as "cornu posterius"
+(Icones, p. 54), a circumstance which has been, as sedulously, kept in
+the back ground.
+
+Cuvier (Lecons, T. iii. p. 103) says, "the anterior or lateral
+ventricles possess a digital cavity [posterior cornu] only in Man and
+the Apes.... Its presence depends on that of the posterior lobes."
+
+Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik, and Gratiolet, had also figured and
+described the posterior cornu in various Apes. As to the HIPPOCAMPUS
+MINOR Tiedemann had erroneously asserted its absence in the Apes; but
+Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik had pointed out the existence of what
+they considered a rudimentary one in the Chimpanzee, and Gratiolet had
+expressly affirmed its existence in these animals. Such was the state of
+our information on these subjects in the year 1856.
+
+In the year 1857, however, Professor Owen, either in ignorance of these
+well-known facts or else unjustifiably suppressing them, submitted to
+the Linnæan Society a paper "On the Characters, Principles of Division,
+and Primary Groups of the Class Mammalia," which was printed in the
+Society's Journal, and contains the following passage:--"In Man, the
+brain presents an ascensive step in development, higher and more
+strongly marked than that by which the preceding subclass was
+distinguished from the one below it. Not only do the cerebral
+hemispheres overlap the olfactory lobes and cerebellum, but they extend
+in advance of the one and further back than the other. The posterior
+development is so marked, that anatomists have assigned to that part the
+character of a third lobe; _it is peculiar to the genus Homo, and
+equally peculiar is the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle and the
+'hippocampus minor,' which characterise the hind lobe of each
+hemisphere_."--_Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnæan Society_, Vol.
+ii. p. 19.
+
+As the essay in which this passage stands had no less ambitious an aim
+than the remodelling of the classification of the Mammalia, its author
+might be supposed to have written under a sense of peculiar
+responsibility, and to have tested, with especial care, the statements
+he ventured to promulgate. And even if this be expecting too much,
+hastiness, or want of opportunity for due deliberation, cannot now be
+pleaded in extenuation of any shortcomings; for the propositions cited
+were repeated two years afterwards in the Reade Lecture, delivered
+before so grave a body as the University of Cambridge, in 1859.
+
+When the assertions, which I have italicised in the above extract, first
+came under my notice, I was not a little astonished at so flat a
+contradiction of the doctrines current among well-informed anatomists;
+but, not unnaturally imagining that the deliberate statements of a
+responsible person must have some foundation in fact, I deemed it my
+duty to investigate the subject anew before the time at which it would
+be my business to lecture thereupon came round. The result of my
+inquiries was to prove that Mr. Owen's three assertions, that "the third
+lobe, the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus
+minor," are "peculiar to the genus _Homo_," are contrary to the plainest
+facts. I communicated this conclusion to the students of my class; and
+then, having no desire to embark in a controversy which could not
+redound to the honour of British science, whatever its issue, I turned
+to more congenial occupations.
+
+The time speedily arrived, however, when a persistence in this reticence
+would have involved me in an unworthy paltering with truth.
+
+At the meeting of the British Association at Oxford, in 1860, Professor
+Owen repeated these assertions in my presence, and, of course, I
+immediately gave them a direct and unqualified contradiction, pledging
+myself to justify that unusual procedure elsewhere. I redeemed that
+pledge by publishing, in the January number of the _Natural History
+Review_ for 1861, an article wherein the truth of the three following
+propositions was fully demonstrated (l. c. p. 71):--
+
+    "1. That the third lobe is neither peculiar to, nor
+    characteristic of, man seeing that it exists in all the
+    higher quadrumana."
+
+    "2. That the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle is
+    neither peculiar to, nor characteristic of, man, inasmuch
+    as it also exists in the higher quadrumana."
+
+    "3. That the _hippocampus minor_ is neither peculiar to,
+    nor characteristic of, man, as it is found in certain of
+    the higher quadrumana."
+
+Furthermore, this paper contains the following paragraph (p. 76):
+
+    "And lastly, Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik (op. cit.
+    p. 271), though they particularly note that 'the lateral
+    ventricle is distinguished from that of Man by the very
+    defective proportions of the posterior cornu, wherein only
+    a stripe is visible as an indication of the hippocampus
+    minor;' yet the Figure 4, in their second Plate, shows
+    that this posterior cornu is a perfectly distinct and
+    unmistakeable structure, quite as large as it often is in
+    Man. It is the more remarkable that Professor Owen should
+    have overlooked the explicit statement and figure of these
+    authors, as it is quite obvious, on comparison of the
+    figures, that his woodcut of the brain of a Chimpanzee (l.
+    c. p. 19) is a reduced copy of the second figure of
+    Messrs. Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik's first Plate.
+
+    "As M. Gratiolet (l. c. p. 18), however, is careful to
+    remark, 'unfortunately the brain which they have taken as
+    a model was greatly altered (profondément affaissé),
+    whence the general form of the brain is given in these
+    plates in a manner which is altogether incorrect.' Indeed,
+    it is perfectly obvious, from a comparison of a section of
+    the skull of the Chimpanzee with these figures, that such
+    is the case; and it is greatly to be regretted that so
+    inadequate a figure should have been taken as a typical
+    representation of the Chimpanzee's brain."
+
+From this time forth, the untenability of his position might have been
+as apparent to Professor Owen as it was to every one else; but, so far
+from retracting the grave errors into which he had fallen, Professor
+Owen has persisted in and reiterated them; first, in a lecture delivered
+before the Royal Institution on the 19th of March, 1861, which is
+admitted to have been accurately reproduced in the "Athenæum" for the
+23rd of the same month, in a letter addressed by Professor Owen to that
+journal on the 30th of March. The "Athenæum" report was accompanied by a
+diagram purporting to represent a Gorilla's brain, but in reality so
+extraordinary a misrepresentation, that Professor Owen substantially,
+though not explicitly, withdraws it in the letter in question. In
+amending this error, however, Professor Owen fell into another of much
+graver import, as his communication concludes with the following
+paragraph: "For the true proportion in which the cerebrum covers the
+cerebellum in the highest Apes, reference should be made to the figure
+of the undissected brain of the Chimpanzee in my 'Reade's Lecture on the
+Classification, &c. of the Mammalia,' p. 25, fig. 7, 8vo. 1859."
+
+It would not be credible, if it were not unfortunately true, that this
+figure, to which the trusting public is referred, without a word of
+qualification, "for the true proportion in which the cerebrum covers the
+cerebellum in the highest Apes," is exactly that unacknowledged copy of
+Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik's figure whose utter inaccuracy had
+been pointed out years before by Gratiolet, and had been brought to
+Professor Owen's knowledge by myself in the passage of my article in the
+"Natural History Review" above quoted.
+
+I drew public attention to this circumstance again in my reply to
+Professor Owen, published in the "Athenæum" for April 13th, 1861; but
+the exploded figure was reproduced once more by Professor Owen, without
+the slightest allusion to its inaccuracy, in the "Annals of Natural
+History" for June 1861!
+
+This proved too much for the patience of the original authors of the
+figure, Messrs. Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik, who, in a note
+addressed to the Academy of Amsterdam, of which they were members,
+declared themselves to be, though decided opponents of all forms of the
+doctrine of progressive development, above all things, lovers of truth:
+and that, therefore, at whatever risk of seeming to lend support to
+views which they disliked, they felt it their duty to take the first
+opportunity of publicly repudiating Professor Owen's misuse of their
+authority.
+
+In this note they frankly admitted the justice of the criticisms of M.
+Gratiolet, quoted above, and they illustrated, by new and careful
+figures, the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus
+minor of the Orang. Furthermore, having demonstrated the parts, at one
+of the sittings of the Academy, they add, "la présence des parties
+contestées y a été universellement reconnue par les anatomistes présents
+à la séance. Le seul doute qui soit resté se rapporte au pes Hippocampi
+minor.... A l'état frais l'indice du petit pied d'Hippocampe était plus
+prononcé que maintenant."
+
+Professor Owen repeated his erroneous assertions at the meeting of the
+British Association in 1861, and again, without any obvious necessity,
+and without adducing a single new fact or new argument, or being able in
+any way to meet the crushing evidence from original dissections of
+numerous Apes' brains, which had in the meanwhile been brought forward
+by Prof. Rolleston,[33] F.R.S., Mr. Marshall,[34] F.R.S., Mr.
+Flower,[35] Mr. Turner,[36] and myself,[37] revived the subject at the
+Cambridge meeting of the same body in 1862. Not content with the
+tolerably vigorous repudiation which these unprecedented proceedings met
+with in Section D, Professor Owen sanctioned the publication of a
+version of his own statements, accompanied by a strange
+misrepresentation of mine (as may be seen by comparison of the "Times"
+report of the discussion), in the "Medical Times" for October 11th,
+1862. I subjoin the conclusion of my reply in the same journal for
+October 25th.
+
+    "If this were a question of opinion, or a question of
+    interpretation of parts or of terms,--were it even a
+    question of observation in which the testimony of my own
+    senses alone was pitted against that of another person, I
+    should adopt a very different tone in discussing this
+    matter. I should, in all humility, admit the likelihood of
+    having myself erred in judgment, failed in knowledge, or
+    been blinded by prejudice.
+
+    "But no one pretends now, that the controversy is one of
+    terms or of opinions. Novel and devoid of authority as
+    some of Professor Owen's proposed definitions may have
+    been, they might be accepted without changing the great
+    features of the case. Hence, though special investigations
+    into these matters have been undertaken during the last
+    two years by Dr. Allen Thomson, by Dr. Rolleston, by Mr.
+    Marshall, and by Mr. Flower, all, as you are aware,
+    anatomists of repute in this country, and by Professors
+    Schroeder Van der Kolk, and Vrolik (whom Professor Owen
+    incautiously tried to press into his own service) on the
+    Continent, all these able and conscientious observers have
+    with one accord testified to the accuracy of my
+    statements, and to the utter baselessness of the
+    assertions of Professor Owen. Even the venerable Rudolph
+    Wagner, whom no man will accuse of progressionist
+    proclivities, has raised his voice on the same side; while
+    not a single anatomist, great or small, has supported
+    Professor Owen.
+
+    "Now, I do not mean to suggest that scientific differences
+    should be settled by universal suffrage, but I do conceive
+    that solid proofs must be met by something more than empty
+    and unsupported assertions. Yet during the two years
+    through which this preposterous controversy has dragged
+    its weary length, Professor Owen has not ventured to
+    bring forward a single preparation in support of his
+    often-repeated assertions.
+
+    "The case stands thus, therefore:--Not only are the
+    statements made by me in consonance with the doctrines of
+    the best older authorities, and with those of all recent
+    investigators, but I am quite ready to demonstrate them on
+    the first monkey that comes to hand; while Professor
+    Owen's assertions are not only in diametrical opposition
+    to both old and new authorities, but he has not produced,
+    and, I will add, cannot produce, a single preparation
+    which justifies them."
+
+I now leave this subject, for the present.--For the credit of my calling
+I should be glad to be, hereafter, for ever silent upon it. But,
+unfortunately, this is a matter upon which, after all that has occurred,
+no mistake or confusion of terms is possible--and in affirming that the
+posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor exist in
+certain Apes, I am stating either that which is true, or that which I
+must know to be false. The question has thus become one of personal
+veracity. For myself, I will accept no other issue than this, grave as
+it is, to the present controversy.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] It will be understood that, in the preceding Essay, I have selected
+for notice from the vast mass of papers which have been written upon the
+man-like Apes, only those which seem to me to be of special moment.
+
+[26] We are not at present thoroughly acquainted with the brain of the
+Gorilla, and therefore, in discussing cerebral characters, I shall take
+that of the Chimpanzee as my highest term among the Apes.
+
+[27] "More than once," says Peter Camper, "have I met with more than six
+lumbar vertebræ in man.... Once I found thirteen ribs and four lumbar
+vertebræ." Fallopius noted thirteen pair of ribs and only four lumbar
+vertebræ; and Eustachius once found eleven dorsal vertebræ and six
+lumbar vertebræ.--"OEuvres de Pierre Camper," T. 1, p. 42. As Tyson
+states, his "Pygmie" had thirteen pair of ribs and five lumbar vertebræ.
+The question of the curves of the spinal column in the Apes requires
+further investigation.
+
+[28] It has been affirmed that Hindoo crania sometimes contain as little
+as 27 ounces of water, which would give a capacity of about 46 cubic
+inches. The minimum capacity which I have assumed above, however, is
+based upon the valuable tables published by Professor R. Wagner in his
+"Vorstudien zu einer wissenschaftlichen Morphologie und Physiologie des
+menschlichen Gehirns." As the result of the careful weighing of more
+than 900 human brains, Professor Wagner states that one-half weighed
+between 1200 and 1400 grammes, and that about two-ninths, consisting for
+the most part of male brains, exceed 1400 grammes. The lightest brain of
+an adult male, with sound mental faculties, recorded by Wagner, weighed
+1020 grammes. As a gramme equals 15.4 grains, and a cubic inch of water
+contains 252.4 grains, this is equivalent to 62 cubic inches of water;
+so that as brain is heavier than water, we are perfectly safe against
+erring on the side of diminution in taking this as the smallest capacity
+of any adult male human brain. The only adult male brain, weighing as
+little as 970 grammes, is that of an idiot; but the brain of an adult
+woman, against the soundness of whose faculties nothing appears, weighed
+as little as 907 grammes (55.3 cubic inches of water); and Reid gives an
+adult female brain of still smaller capacity. The heaviest brain (1872
+grammes, or about 115 cubic inches) was, however, that of a woman; next
+to it comes the brain of Cuvier (1861 grammes), then Byron (1807
+grammes), and then an insane person (1783 grammes). The lightest adult
+brain recorded (720 grammes) was that of an idiotic female. The brains
+of five children, four years old, weighed between 1275 and 992 grammes.
+So that it may be safely said, that an average European child of four
+years old has a brain twice as large as that of an adult Gorilla.
+
+[29] In speaking of the foot of his "Pygmie," Tyson remarks, p.
+13:--"But this part in the formation and in its function too, being
+liker a Hand than a Foot: for the distinguishing this sort of animals
+from others, I have thought whether it might not be reckoned and called
+rather Quadrumanus than Quadrupes, _i.e._ a four-handed rather than a
+four-footed animal."
+
+As this passage was published in 1699, M. I. G. St. Hilaire is clearly
+in error in ascribing the invention of the term "quadrumanous" to
+Buffon, though "bimanous" may belong to him. Tyson uses "Quadrumanus" in
+several places, as at p. 91.... "Our _Pygmie_ is no Man, nor yet the
+_common Ape_, but a sort of _Animal_ between both; and though a _Biped_,
+yet of the _Quadrumanus_-kind: though some _Men_ too have been observed
+to use their _Feet_ like _Hands_, as I have seen several."
+
+[30] See the note at the end of this essay for a succinct history of the
+controversy to which allusion is here made.
+
+[31] I say _help_ to furnish: for I by no means believe that it was any
+original difference of cerebral quality, or quantity, which caused that
+divergence between the human and the pithecoid stirpes, which has ended
+in the present enormous gulf between them. It is no doubt perfectly
+true, in a certain sense, that all difference of function is a result of
+difference of structure; or, in other words, of difference in the
+combination of the primary molecular forces of living substance; and,
+starting from this undeniable axiom, objectors occasionally, and with
+much seeming plausibility, argue that the vast intellectual chasm
+between the Ape and Man implies a corresponding structural chasm in the
+organs of the intellectual functions; so that, it is said, the
+non-discovery of such vast differences proves, not that they are absent,
+but that Science is incompetent to detect them. A very little
+consideration, however, will, I think, show the fallacy of this
+reasoning. Its validity hangs upon the assumption, that intellectual
+power depends altogether on the brain--whereas the brain is only one
+condition out of many on which intellectual manifestations depend; the
+others being, chiefly, the organs of the senses and the motor
+apparatuses, especially those which are concerned in prehension and in
+the production of articulate speech.
+
+A man born dumb, notwithstanding his great cerebral mass and his
+inheritance of strong intellectual instincts, would be capable of few
+higher intellectual manifestations than an Orang or a Chimpanzee, if he
+were confined to the society of dumb associates. And yet there might not
+be the slightest discernible difference between his brain and that of a
+highly intelligent and cultivated person. The dumbness might be the
+result of a defective structure of the mouth, or of the tongue, or a
+mere defective innervation of these parts; or it might result from
+congenital deafness, caused by some minute defect of the internal ear,
+which only a careful anatomist could discover.
+
+The argument, that because there is an immense difference between a
+Man's intelligence and an Ape's, therefore, there must be an equally
+immense difference between their brains, appears to me to be about as
+well based as the reasoning by which one should endeavour to prove that,
+because there is a "great gulf" between a watch that keeps accurate time
+and another that will not go at all, there is therefore a great
+structural hiatus between the two watches. A hair in the balance-wheel,
+a little rust on a pinion, a bend in a tooth of the escapement, a
+something so slight that only the practised eye of the watchmaker can
+discover it, may be the source of all the difference.
+
+And believing, as I do, with Cuvier, that the possession of articulate
+speech is the grand distinctive character of man (whether it be
+absolutely peculiar to him or not), I find it very easy to comprehend,
+that some equally inconspicuous structural difference may have been the
+primary cause of the immeasurable and practically infinite divergence of
+the Human from the Simian Stirps.
+
+[32] It is so rare a pleasure for me to find Professor Owen's opinions
+in entire accordance with my own, that I cannot forbear from quoting a
+paragraph which appeared in his Essay "On the Characters, &c., of the
+Class Mammalia," in the "Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean
+Society of London" for 1857, but is unaccountably omitted in the "Reade
+Lecture" delivered before the University of Cambridge two years later,
+which is otherwise nearly a reprint of the paper in question. Prof. Owen
+writes:
+
+     "Not being able to appreciate or conceive of the
+     distinction between the psychical phenomena of a
+     Chimpanzee and of a Boschisman or of an Aztec, with
+     arrested brain growth, as being of a nature so essential
+     as to preclude a comparison between them, or as being
+     other than a difference of degree, I cannot shut my eyes
+     to the significance of that all-pervading similitude of
+     structure--every tooth, every bone, strictly
+     homologous--which makes the determination of the
+     difference between _Homo_ and _Pithecus_ the anatomist's
+     difficulty."
+
+Surely it is a little singular that the "anatomist," who finds it
+"difficult" to "determine the difference" between _Homo_ and _Pithecus_,
+should yet range them on anatomical grounds, in distinct sub-classes!
+
+[33] On the Affinities of the Brain of the Orang. Nat. Hist. Review,
+April, 1861.
+
+[34] On the Brain of a young Chimpanzee. Ibid., July, 1861.
+
+[35] On the Posterior lobes of the Cerebrum of the Quadrumana.
+Philosophical Transactions, 1862.
+
+[36] On the anatomical Relations of the Surfaces of the Tentorium to the
+Cerebrum and Cerebellum in Man and the lower Mammals. Proceedings of the
+Royal Society of Edinburgh, March, 1862.
+
+[37] On the Brain of Ateles. Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN.
+
+
+I have endeavoured to show, in the preceding Essay, that the ANTHROPINI,
+or Man Family, form a very well defined group of the Primates, between
+which and the immediately following Family, the CATARHINI, there is, in
+the existing world, the same entire absence of any transitional form or
+connecting link, as between the CATARHINI and PLATYRHINI.
+
+It is a commonly received doctrine, however, that the structural
+intervals between the various existing modifications of organic beings
+may be diminished, or even obliterated, if we take into account the long
+and varied succession of animals and plants which have preceded these
+now living and which are known to us only by their fossilized remains.
+How far this doctrine is well based, how far, on the other hand, as our
+knowledge at present stands, it is an overstatement of the real facts of
+the case, and an exaggeration of the conclusions fairly deducible from
+them, are points of grave importance, but into the discussion of which I
+do not, at present, propose to enter. It is enough that such a view of
+the relations of extinct to living beings has been propounded, to lead
+us to inquire, with anxiety, how far the recent discoveries of human
+remains in a fossil state bear out, or oppose, that view.
+
+I shall confine myself, in discussing this question, to those
+fragmentary Human skulls from the caves of Engis in the valley of the
+Meuse, in Belgium, and of the Neanderthal near Düsseldorf, the
+geological relations of which have been examined with so much care by
+Sir Charles Lyell; upon whose high authority I shall take it for
+granted, that the Engis skull belonged to a contemporary of the Mammoth
+(_Elephas primigenius_) and of the woolly Rhinoceros (_Rhinocerus
+tichorhinus_), with the bones of which it was found associated; and that
+the Neanderthal skull is of great, though uncertain, antiquity. Whatever
+be the geological age of the latter skull, I conceive it is quite safe
+(on the ordinary principles of paleontological reasoning) to assume that
+the former takes us to, at least, the further side of the vague
+biological limit, which separates the present geological epoch from that
+which immediately preceded it. And there can be no doubt that the
+physical geography of Europe has changed wonderfully, since the bones of
+Men and Mammoths, Hyænas and Rhinoceroses were washed pell-mell into the
+cave of Engis.
+
+The skull from the cave of Engis was originally discovered by Professor
+Schmerling, and was described by him, together with other human remains
+disinterred at the same time, in his valuable work, "Recherches sur les
+ossemens fossiles découverts dans les cavernes de la Province de Liège,"
+published in 1833 (p. 59, _et seq._), from which the following
+paragraphs are extracted, the precise expressions of the author being,
+as far as possible, preserved.
+
+    "In the first place, I must remark that these human
+    remains, which are in my possession, are characterized,
+    like the thousands of bones which I have lately been
+    disinterring, by the extent of the decomposition which
+    they have undergone, which is precisely the same as that
+    of the extinct species: all, with a few exceptions, are
+    broken; some few are rounded, as is frequently found to be
+    the case in fossil remains of other species. The fractures
+    are vertical or oblique; none of them are eroded; their
+    colour does not differ from that of other fossil bones,
+    and varies from whitish yellow to blackish. All are
+    lighter than recent bones, with the exception of those
+    which have a calcareous incrustation, and the cavities of
+    which are filled with such matter.
+
+    "The cranium which I have caused to be figured, Plate I.,
+    figs. 1, 2, is that of an old person. The sutures are
+    beginning to be effaced: all the facial bones are wanting,
+    and of the temporal bones only a fragment of that of the
+    right side is preserved.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22.--The skull from the cave of Engis--viewed from
+the right side. _a_, glabella, _b_, occipital protuberance, (_a_ to _b_
+glabello-occipital line), _c_, auditory foramen.]
+
+    "The face and the base of the cranium had been detached
+    before the skull was deposited in the cave, for we were
+    unable to find those parts, though the whole cavern was
+    regularly searched. The cranium was met with at a depth of
+    a metre and a half [five feet nearly] hidden under an
+    osseous breccia, composed of the remains of small animals,
+    and containing one rhinoceros tusk, with several teeth of
+    horses and of ruminants. This breccia, which has been
+    spoken of above (p. 30), was a metre [3-1/4 feet about]
+    wide, and rose to the height of a metre and a half above
+    the floor of the cavern, to the walls of which it adhered
+    strongly.
+
+    "The earth which contained this human skull exhibited no
+    trace of disturbance: teeth of rhinoceros, horse, hyæna,
+    and bear, surrounded it on all sides.
+
+    "The famous Blumenbach[38] has directed attention to the
+    differences presented by the form and the dimensions of
+    human crania of different races. This important work would
+    have assisted us greatly, if the face, a part essential
+    for the determination of race, with more or less accuracy,
+    had not been wanting in our fossil cranium.
+
+    "We are convinced that even if the skull had been
+    complete, it would not have been possible to pronounce,
+    with certainty, upon a single specimen; for individual
+    variations are so numerous in the crania of one and the
+    same race, that one cannot, without laying oneself open to
+    large chances of error, draw any inference from a single
+    fragment of a cranium to the general form of the head to
+    which it belonged.
+
+    "Nevertheless, in order to neglect no point respecting the
+    form of this fossil skull, we may observe that, from the
+    first, the elongated and narrow form of the forehead
+    attracted our attention.
+
+    "In fact, the slight elevation of the frontal, its
+    narrowness, and the form of the orbit, approximate it more
+    nearly to the cranium of an Ethiopian than to that of an
+    European: the elongated form and the produced occiput are
+    also characters which we believe to be observable in our
+    fossil cranium; but to remove all doubt upon that subject
+    I have caused the contours of the cranium of an European
+    and of an Ethiopian to be drawn and the foreheads
+    represented. Plate II., Figs. 1 and 2, and, in the same
+    plate, Figs. 3 and 4, will render the differences easily
+    distinguishable; and a single glance at the figures, will
+    be more instructive than a long and wearisome description.
+
+    "At whatever conclusion we may arrive as to the origin of
+    the man from whence this fossil skull proceeded, we may
+    express an opinion without exposing ourselves to a
+    fruitless controversy. Each may adopt the hypothesis which
+    seems to him most probable: for my own part, I hold it to
+    be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a person
+    of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence
+    that it belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization:
+    a deduction which is borne out by contrasting the capacity
+    of the frontal with that of the occipital region.
+
+    "Another cranium of a young individual was discovered in
+    the floor of the cavern beside the tooth of an elephant;
+    the skull was entire when found, but the moment it was
+    lifted it fell into pieces, which I have not, as yet, been
+    able to put together again. But I have represented the
+    bones of the upper jaw, Plate I., Fig. 5. The state of the
+    alveoli and the teeth, shows that the molars had not yet
+    pierced the gum. Detached milk molars and some fragments
+    of a human skull, proceed from this same place. The Figure
+    3, represents a human superior incisor tooth, the size of
+    which is truly remarkable.[39]
+
+    "Figure 4 is a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, the
+    molar teeth of which are worn down to the roots.
+
+    "I possess two vertebræ, a first and last dorsal.
+
+    "A clavicle of the left side (see Plate III., Fig. 1);
+    although it belonged to a young individual, this bone
+    shows that he must have been of great stature.[40]
+
+    "Two fragments of the radius, badly preserved, do not
+    indicate that the height of the man, to whom they
+    belonged, exceeded five feet and a half.
+
+    "As to the remains of the upper extremities, those which
+    are in my possession, consist merely of a fragment of an
+    ulna and of a radius (Plate III., Fig. 5 and 6).
+
+    "Figure 2, Plate IV., represents a metacarpal bone,
+    contained in the breccia, of which we have spoken; it was
+    found in the lower part above the cranium: add to this
+    some metacarpal bones, found at very different distances,
+    half-a-dozen metatarsals, three phalanges of the hand, and
+    one of the foot.
+
+    "This is a brief enumeration of the remains of human bones
+    collected in the cavern of Engis, which has preserved for
+    us the remains of three individuals, surrounded by those
+    of the Elephant, of the Rhinoceros, and of Carnivora of
+    species unknown in the present creation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the cave of Engihoul, opposite that of Engis, on the right bank of
+the Meuse, Schmerling obtained the remains of three other individuals of
+Man, among which were only two fragments of parietal bones, but many
+bones of the extremities. In one case, a broken fragment of an ulna was
+soldered to a like fragment of a radius by stalagmite, a condition
+frequently observed among the bones of the Cave Bear (_Ursus spelæus_),
+found in the Belgian caverns.
+
+It was in the cavern of Engis that Professor Schmerling found, incrusted
+with stalagmite and joined to a stone, the pointed bone implement, which
+he has figured in Fig. 7 of his Plate XXXVI., and worked flints were
+found by him in all those Belgian caves, which contained an abundance of
+fossil bones.
+
+A short letter from M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, published in the Comptes
+Rendus of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, for July 2nd, 1838, speaks
+of a visit (and apparently a very hasty one) paid to the collection of
+Professor "Schermidt" (which is presumably a misprint for Schmerling) at
+Liège. The writer briefly criticises the drawings which illustrate
+Schmerling's work, and affirms that the "human cranium is a little
+longer than it is represented" in Schmerling's figure. The only other
+remark worth quoting is this:--"The aspect of the human bones differs
+little from that of the cave bones, with which we are familiar, and of
+which there is a considerable collection in the same place. With respect
+to their special forms, compared with those of the varieties of recent
+human crania, few _certain_ conclusions can be put forward; for much
+greater differences exist between the different specimens of
+well-characterized varieties, than between the fossil cranium of Liège
+and that of one of those varieties selected as a term of comparison."
+
+Geoffroy St. Hilaire's remarks are, it will be observed, little but an
+echo of the philosophic doubts of the describer and discoverer of the
+remains. As to the critique upon Schmerling's figures, I find that the
+side view given by the latter is really about 3/10ths of an inch shorter
+than the original, and that the front view is diminished to about the
+same extent. Otherwise the representation is not, in any way,
+inaccurate, but corresponds very well with the cast which is in my
+possession.
+
+A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling seems to have missed,
+has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by an accomplished
+anatomist, Dr. Spring of Liège, under whose direction an excellent
+plaster cast was made for Sir Charles Lyell. It is upon and from a
+duplicate of that cast that my own observations and the accompanying
+figures, the outlines of which are copied from very accurate Camera
+lucida drawings, by my friend Mr. Busk, reduced to one-half of the
+natural size, are made.
+
+As Professor Schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed,
+and the facial bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium,
+consisting of the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the
+occipital bones, as far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is
+entire or nearly so. The left temporal bone is wanting. Of the right
+temporal, the parts in the immediate neighbourhood of the auditory
+foramen, the mastoid process, and a considerable portion of the squamous
+element of the temporal are well preserved (Fig. 22).
+
+The lines of fracture which remain between the coadjusted pieces of the
+skull, and are faithfully displayed in Schmerling's figure, are readily
+traceable in the cast. The sutures are also discernible, but the complex
+disposition of their serrations, shown in the figure, is not obvious in
+the cast. Though the ridges which give attachment to muscles are not
+excessively prominent, they are well marked, and taken together with the
+apparently well developed frontal sinuses, and the condition of the
+sutures, leave no doubt on my mind that the skull is that of an adult,
+if not middle-aged man.
+
+The extreme length of the skull is 7.7 inches. Its extreme breadth,
+which corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal
+protuberances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The proportion of the length
+to the breadth is therefore very nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn
+from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose,
+and which is called the "glabella" (_a_), (Fig. 22), to the occipital
+protuberance (_b_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of
+the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be found
+to be 4.75 inches. Viewed from above, Fig. 23, A, the forehead presents
+an evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and
+back of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve.
+
+The front view (Fig. 23, B) shows that the roof of the skull was very
+regularly and elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the
+transverse diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances,
+than above them. The forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the
+rest of the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the
+contrary, the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so
+that the distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the
+occipital protuberance, measures about 13.75 inches. The transverse arc
+of the skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across
+the middle of the sagittal suture, is about 13 inches. The sagittal
+suture itself is 5.5 inches long.
+
+The supraciliary prominences or brow-ridges (on each side of _a_, Fig.
+22) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a
+median depression. Their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely
+that I judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses.
+
+If a line joining the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _b_,
+Fig. 22) be made horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects
+more than 1/10th an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line,
+and the upper edge of the auditory foramen (_c_) is almost in contact
+with a line drawn parallel with this upon the outer surface of the
+skull.
+
+A transverse line drawn from one auditory foramen to the other
+traverses, as usual, the forepart of the occipital foramen. The
+capacity of the interior of this fragmentary skull has not been
+ascertained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23.--The Engis skull viewed from above (_A_) and in
+front (_B_).]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The history of the Human remains from the cavern in the Neanderthal may
+best be given in the words of their original describer, Dr.
+Schaaffhausen,[41] as translated by Mr. Busk.
+
+    "In the early part of the year 1857, a human skeleton was
+    discovered in a limestone cave in the Neanderthal, near
+    Hochdal, between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld. Of this,
+    however, I was unable to procure more than a plaster cast
+    of the cranium, taken at Elberfeld, from which I drew up
+    an account of its remarkable conformation, which was, in
+    the first instance, read on the 4th of February, 1857, at
+    the meeting of the Lower Rhine Medical and Natural History
+    Society, at Bonn.[42] Subsequently Dr. Fuhlrott, to whom
+    science is indebted for the preservation of these bones,
+    which were not at first regarded as human, and into whose
+    possession they afterwards came, brought the cranium from
+    Elberfeld to Bonn, and entrusted it to me for more
+    accurate anatomical examination. At the General Meeting of
+    the Natural History Society of Prussian Rhineland and
+    Westphalia, at Bonn, on the 2nd of June, 1857,[43] Dr.
+    Fuhlrott himself gave a full account of the locality, and
+    of the circumstances under which the discovery was made.
+    He was of opinion that the bones might be regarded as
+    fossil; and in coming to this conclusion, he laid especial
+    stress upon the existence of dendritic deposits, with
+    which their surface was covered, and which were first
+    noticed upon them by Professor Mayer. To this
+    communication I appended a brief report on the results of
+    my anatomical examination of the bones. The conclusions at
+    which I arrived were:--1st. That the extraordinary form
+    of the skull was due to a natural conformation hitherto
+    not known to exist, even in the most barbarous races. 2nd.
+    That these remarkable human remains belonged to a period
+    antecedent to the time of the Celts and Germans, and were
+    in all probability derived from one of the wild races of
+    Northwestern Europe, spoken of by Latin writers; and which
+    were encountered as autochthones by the German immigrants.
+    And 3rdly. That it was beyond doubt that these human
+    relics were traceable to a period at which the latest
+    animals of the diluvium still existed; but that no proof
+    of this assumption, nor consequently of their so-termed
+    _fossil_ condition, was afforded by the circumstances
+    under which the bones were discovered."
+
+As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description of these
+circumstances, I borrow the following account of them from one of his
+letters. "A small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man, and about
+15 feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in the
+southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, at a
+distance of about 100 feet from the Düssel, and about 60 feet above the
+bottom of the valley. In its earlier and uninjured condition, this
+cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of it, and from which
+the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into the river. It could
+be reached, though with difficulty, from above. The uneven floor was
+covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud, sparingly
+intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. In the removing of this
+deposit, the bones were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed
+nearest to the entrance of the cavern; and further in, the other bones,
+lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this I was assured, in the most
+positive terms, by two labourers who were employed to clear out the
+grotto, and who were questioned by me on the spot. At first no idea was
+entertained of the bones being human; and it was not till several weeks
+after their discovery that they were recognised as such by me, and
+placed in security. But, as the importance of the discovery was not at
+the time perceived, the labourers were very careless in the collecting,
+and secured chiefly only the larger bones; and to this circumstance it
+may be attributed that fragments merely of the probably perfect skeleton
+came into my possession."
+
+My anatomical examination of these bones afforded the following
+results:--
+
+The cranium is of unusual size, and of a long elliptical form. A most
+remarkable peculiarity is at once obvious in the extraordinary
+development of the frontal sinuses, owing to which the superciliary
+ridges, which coalesce completely in the middle, are rendered so
+prominent, that the frontal bone exhibits a considerable hollow or
+depression above, or rather behind them, whilst a deep depression is
+also formed in the situation of the root of the nose. The forehead is
+narrow and low, though the middle and hinder portions of the cranial
+arch are well developed. Unfortunately, the fragment of the skull that
+has been preserved consists only of the portion situated above the roof
+of the orbits and the superior occipital ridges, which are greatly
+developed, and almost conjoined so as to form a horizontal eminence. It
+includes almost the whole of the frontal bone, both parietals, a small
+part of the squamous and the upper-third of the occipital. The recently
+fractured surfaces show that the skull was broken at the time of its
+disinterment. The cavity holds 16,876 grains of water, whence its
+cubical contents may be estimated at 57.64 inches, or 1033.24 cubic
+centimetres. In making this estimation, the water is supposed to stand
+on a level with the orbital plate of the frontal, with the deepest notch
+in the squamous margin of the parietal, and with the superior
+semicircular ridges of the occipital. Estimated in dried millet-seed,
+the contents equalled 31 ounces, Prussian Apothecaries' weight. The
+semicircular line indicating the upper boundary of the attachment of the
+temporal muscle, though not very strongly marked, ascends nevertheless
+to more than half the height of the parietal bone. On the right
+superciliary ridge is observable an oblique furrow or depression,
+indicative of an injury received during life.[44] The coronal and
+sagittal sutures are on the exterior nearly closed, and on the inside
+so completely ossified as to have left no traces whatever, whilst the
+lambdoidal remains quite open. The depressions for the Pacchionian
+glands are deep and numerous; and there is an unusually deep vascular
+groove immediately behind the coronal suture, which, as it terminates in
+a foramen, no doubt transmitted a _vena emissaria_. The course of the
+frontal suture is indicated externally by a slight ridge; and where it
+joins the coronal, this ridge rises into a small protuberance. The
+course of the sagittal suture is grooved, and above the angle of the
+occipital bone the parietals are depressed.
+
+                                              mm.[45]
+  The length of the skull from the nasal
+  process of the frontal over the vertex
+  to the superior semicircular lines of the
+  occipital measures                          303 (300)=12.0".
+
+  Circumference over the orbital ridges and
+  the superior semicircular lines of the
+  occipital                                   590 (590)=23.37" or 23".
+
+  Width of the frontal from the middle of
+  the temporal line on one side to the
+  same point on the opposite                  104 (114)=4.1"-4.5".
+
+  Length of the frontal from the nasal
+  process to the coronal suture               133 (125)=5.25"-5".
+
+  Extreme width of the frontal sinuses         25 (23)=1.0"-0.9".
+
+  Vertical height above a line joining the
+  deepest notches in the squamous border
+  of the parietals                             70 = 2.75".
+
+  Width of hinder part of skull from one
+  parietal protuberance to the other          138 (150)=5.4"-5.9".
+
+  Distance from the upper angle of the
+  occipital to the superior semicircular
+  lines                                        51 (60)=1.9"-2.4".
+
+  Thickness of the bone at the parietal
+  protuberance                                  8.
+
+  ---- at the angle of the occipital            9.
+
+  ---- at the superior semicircular line of
+  the occipital                                10 = 0.3".
+
+
+Besides the cranium, the following bones have been secured:--
+
+1. Both thigh-bones, perfect. These, like the skull, and all the other
+bones, are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great
+development of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of
+muscles. In the Anatomical Museum at Bonn, under the designation of
+"Giant's-bones," are some recent thigh-bones, with which in thickness
+the foregoing pretty nearly correspond, although they are shorter.
+
+                                       Giant's bones.   Fossil bones.
+                                            mm.             mm.
+  Length                                 542 = 21.4"     438 = 17.4"
+  Diameter of head of femur               54 =  2.14"     53 =  2.0"
+     "     of lower articular end, from
+    one condyle to the other              89 =  3.5"      87 =  3.4"
+  Diameter of femur in the middle         33 =  1.2"      30 =  1.1"
+
+2. A perfect right humerus, whose size shows that it belongs to the
+thigh-bones.
+
+                                  mm.
+  Length                       312 = 12.3"
+  Thickness in the middle       26 =  1.0"
+  Diameter of head              49 =  1.9"
+
+Also a perfect right radius of corresponding dimensions, and the
+upper-third of a right ulna corresponding to the humerus and radius.
+
+3. A left humerus, of which the upper-third is wanting, and which is so
+much slenderer than the right as apparently to belong to a distinct
+individual; a left _ulna_, which, though complete, is pathologically
+deformed, the coronoid process being so much enlarged by bony growth,
+that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle must have been
+impossible; the anterior fossa of the humerus for the reception of the
+coronoid process being also filled up with a similar bony growth. At the
+same time, the olecranon is curved strongly downwards. As the bone
+presents no sign of rachitic degeneration, it may be supposed that an
+injury sustained during life was the cause of the anchylosis. When the
+left ulna is compared with the right radius, it might at first sight be
+concluded that the bones respectively belonged to different individuals,
+the ulna being more than half an inch too short for articulation with a
+corresponding radius. But it is clear that this shortening, as well as
+the attenuation of the left humerus, are both consequent upon the
+pathological condition above described.
+
+4. A left _ilium_, almost perfect, and belonging to the femur; a
+fragment of the right _scapula_; the anterior extremity of a rib of the
+right side; and the same part of a rib of the left side; the hinder part
+of a rib of the right side; and, lastly, two hinder portions and one
+middle portion of ribs, which, from their unusually rounded shape, and
+abrupt curvature, more resemble the ribs of a carnivorous animal than
+those of a man. Dr. H. v. Meyer, however, to whose judgment I defer,
+will not venture to declare them to be ribs of any animal; and it only
+remains to suppose that this abnormal condition has arisen from an
+unusually powerful development of the thoracic muscles.
+
+The bones adhere strongly to the tongue, although, as proved by the use
+of hydrochloric acid, the greater part of the cartilage is still
+retained in them, which appears, however, to have undergone that
+transformation into gelatine which has been observed by v. Bibra in
+fossil bones. The surface of all the bones is in many spots covered with
+minute black specks, which, more especially under a lens, are seen to be
+formed of very delicate _dendrites_. These deposits, which were first
+observed on the bones by Dr. Meyer, are most distinct on the inner
+surface of the cranial bones. They consist of a ferruginous compound,
+and, from their black colour, may be supposed to contain manganese.
+Similar dendritic formations also occur, not unfrequently, on laminated
+rocks, and are usually found in minute fissures and cracks. At the
+meeting of the Lower Rhine Society at Bonn, on the 1st April, 1857,
+Prof. Meyer stated that he had noticed in the museum of Poppelsdorf
+similar dendritic crystallizations on several fossil bones of animals,
+and particularly on those of _Ursus spelæus_, but still more abundantly
+and beautifully displayed on the fossil bones and teeth of _Equus
+adamiticus_, _Elephas primigenius_, &c., from the caves of Bolve and
+Sundwig. Faint indications of similar _dendrites_ were visible in a
+Roman skull from Siegburg; whilst other ancient skulls, which had lain
+for centuries in the earth, presented no trace of them.[46] I am
+indebted to H. v. Meyer for the following remarks on this subject:--
+
+     "The incipient formation of dendritic deposits, which
+     were formerly regarded as a sign of a truly fossil
+     condition, is interesting. It has even been supposed that
+     in diluvial deposits the presence of _dendrites_ might be
+     regarded as affording a certain mark of distinction
+     between bones mixed with the diluvium at a somewhat later
+     period and the true diluvial relics, to which alone it
+     was supposed that these deposits were confined. But I
+     have long been convinced that neither can the absence of
+     _dendrites_ be regarded as indicative of recent age, nor
+     their presence as sufficient to establish the great
+     antiquity of the objects upon which they occur. I have
+     myself noticed upon paper, which could scarcely be more
+     than a year old, dendritic deposits, which could not be
+     distinguished from those on fossil bones. Thus I possess
+     a dog's skull from the Roman colony of the neighbouring
+     Heddersheim, _Castrum Hadrianum_, which is in no way
+     distinguishable from the fossil bones from the Frankish
+     caves; it presents the same colour, and adheres to the
+     tongue just as they do; so that this character also,
+     which, at a former meeting of German naturalists at Bonn,
+     gave rise to amusing scenes between Buckland and
+     Schmerling, is no longer of any value. In disputed cases,
+     therefore, the condition of the bone can scarcely afford
+     the means for determining with certainty whether it be
+     fossil, that is to say, whether it belong to geological
+     antiquity or to the historical period."
+
+As we cannot now look upon the primitive world as representing a wholly
+different condition of things, from which no transition exists to the
+organic life of the present time, the designation of _fossil_, as
+applied to _a bone_, has no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of
+Cuvier. Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted
+with the animals found in the _diluvium_; and many a barbarous race may,
+before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the animals
+of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is improved
+have continued the genus. The bones which form the subject of this paper
+present characters which, although not decisive as regards a geological
+epoch, are, nevertheless, such as indicate a very high antiquity. It may
+also be remarked that, common as is the occurrence of diluvial animal
+bones in the muddy deposits of caverns, such remains have not hitherto
+been met with in the caves of the Neanderthal; and that the bones, which
+were covered by a deposit of mud not more than four or five feet thick,
+and without any protective covering of stalagmite, have retained the
+greatest part of their organic substance.
+
+These circumstances might be adduced against the probability of a
+geological antiquity. Nor should we be justified in regarding the
+cranial conformation as perhaps representing the most savage primitive
+type of the human race, since crania exist among living savages, which,
+though not exhibiting such a remarkable conformation of the forehead,
+which gives the skull somewhat the aspect of that of the large apes,
+still in other respects, as for instance in the greater depth of the
+temporal fossæ, the crest-like, prominent temporal ridges, and a
+generally less capacious cranial cavity, exhibit an equally low stage of
+development. There is no reason for supposing that the deep frontal
+hollow is due to any artificial flattening, such as is practised in
+various modes by barbarous nations in the Old and New World. The skull
+is quite symmetrical, and shows no indication of counter-pressure at the
+occiput, whilst, according to Morton, in the Flat-heads of the Columbia,
+the frontal and parietal bones are always unsymmetrical. Its
+conformation exhibits the sparing development of the anterior part of
+the head which has been so often observed in very ancient crania, and
+affords one of the most striking proofs of the influence of culture and
+civilization on the form of the human skull.
+
+In a subsequent passage, Dr. Schaaffhausen remarks:
+
+     "There is no reason whatever for regarding the unusual
+     development of the frontal sinuses in the remarkable
+     skull from the Neanderthal as an individual or
+     pathological deformity; it is unquestionably a typical
+     race-character, and is physiologically connected with the
+     uncommon thickness of the other bones of the skeleton,
+     which exceeds by about one-half the usual proportions.
+     This expansion of the frontal sinuses, which are
+     appendages of the air-passages, also indicates an unusual
+     force and power of endurance in the movements of the
+     body, as may be concluded from the size of all the ridges
+     and processes for the attachment of the muscles or bones.
+     That this conclusion may be drawn from the existence of
+     large frontal sinuses, and a prominence of the lower
+     frontal region, is confirmed in many ways by other
+     observations. By the same characters, according to
+     Pallas, the wild horse is distinguished from the
+     domesticated, and, according to Cuvier, the fossil
+     cave-bear from every recent species of bear, whilst,
+     according to Roulin, the pig, which has become wild in
+     America, and regained a resemblance to the wild boar, is
+     thus distinguished from the same animal in the
+     domesticated state, as is the chamois from the goat; and,
+     lastly, the bull-dog, which is characterised by its large
+     bones and strongly-developed muscles from every other
+     kind of dog. The estimation of the facial angle, the
+     determination of which, according to Professor Owen, is
+     also difficult in the great apes, owing to the very
+     prominent supra-orbital ridges, in the present case is
+     rendered still more difficult from the absence both of
+     the auditory opening and of the nasal spine. But if the
+     proper horizontal position of the skull be taken from the
+     remaining portions of the orbital plates, and the
+     ascending line made to touch the surface of the frontal
+     bone behind the prominent supra-orbital ridges, the
+     facial angle is not found to exceed 56°.[47]
+     Unfortunately, no portions of the facial bones, whose
+     conformation is so decisive as regards the form and
+     expression of the head, have been preserved. The cranial
+     capacity, compared with the uncommon strength of the
+     corporeal frame, would seem to indicate a small cerebral
+     development. The skull, as it is, holds about 31 ounces
+     of millet-seed; and as, from the proportionate size of
+     the wanting bones, the whole cranial cavity should have
+     about 6 ounces more added, the contents, were it perfect,
+     may be taken at 37 ounces. Tiedemann assigns, as the
+     cranial contents in the Negro, 40, 38, and 35 ounces. The
+     cranium holds rather more than 36 ounces of water, which
+     corresponds to a capacity of 1033.24 cubic centimetres.
+     Huschke estimates the cranial contents of a Negress at
+     1127 cubic centimetres; of an old Negro at 1146 cubic
+     centimetres. The capacity of the Malay skulls, estimated
+     by water, equalled 36, 33 ounces, whilst in the
+     diminutive Hindoos it falls to as little as 27 ounces."
+
+After comparing the Neanderthal cranium with many others, ancient and
+modern, Professor Schaaffhausen concludes thus:--
+
+     "But the human bones and cranium from the Neanderthal
+     exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of
+     conformation which lead to the conclusion of their
+     belonging to a barbarous and savage race. Whether the
+     cavern in which they were found, unaccompanied with any
+     trace of human art, were the place of their interment, or
+     whether, like the bones of extinct animals elsewhere,
+     they had been washed into it, they may still be regarded
+     as the most ancient memorial of the early inhabitants of
+     Europe."
+
+Mr. Busk, the translator of Dr. Schaaffhausen's paper, has enabled us to
+form a very vivid conception of the degraded character of the
+Neanderthal skull, by placing side by side with its outline, that of the
+skull of a Chimpanzee, drawn to the same absolute size.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some time after the publication of the translation of Professor
+Schaaffhausen's Memoir, I was led to study the cast of the Neanderthal
+cranium with more attention than I had previously bestowed upon it, in
+consequence of wishing to supply Sir Charles Lyell with a diagram,
+exhibiting the special peculiarities of this skull, as compared with
+other human skulls. In order to do this it was necessary to identify,
+with precision, those points in the skulls compared which corresponded
+anatomically. Of these points, the glabella was obvious enough; but when
+I had distinguished another, defined by the occipital protuberance and
+superior semicircular line, and had placed the outline of the
+Neanderthal skull against that of the Engis skull, in such a position
+that the glabella and occipital protuberance of both were intersected by
+the same straight line, the difference was so vast and the flattening of
+the Neanderthal skull so prodigious (compare Figs. 22 and 24, A), that I
+at first imagined I must have fallen into some error. And I was the more
+inclined to suspect this, as, in ordinary human skulls, the occipital
+protuberance and superior semicircular curved line on the exterior of
+the occiput correspond pretty closely with the "lateral sinuses" and the
+line of attachment of the tentorium internally. But on the tentorium
+rests, as I have said in the preceding Essay, the posterior lobe of the
+brain; and hence, the occipital protuberance, and the curved line in
+question, indicate, approximately, the lower limits of that lobe. Was it
+possible for a human being to have the brain thus flattened and
+depressed; or, on the other hand, had the muscular ridges shifted their
+position? In order to solve these doubts, and to decide the question
+whether the great supraciliary projections did, or did not, arise from
+the development of the frontal sinuses, I requested Sir Charles Lyell to
+be so good as to obtain for me from Dr. Fuhlrott, the possessor of the
+skull, answers to certain queries, and if possible a cast, or at any
+rate drawings, or photographs, of the interior of the skull.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 24.--The skull from the Neanderthal cavern. A. side,
+B. front, and C. top view. One-third the natural size. The outlines from
+camera lucida drawings, one-half the natural size, by Mr. Busk: the
+details from the cast and from Dr. Fuhlrott's photographs. _a_,
+glabella; _b_, occipital protuberance; _d_, lambdoidal suture.]
+
+Dr. Fuhlrott replied, with a courtesy and readiness for which I am
+infinitely indebted to him, to my inquiries, and furthermore sent three
+excellent photographs. One of these gives a side view of the skull, and
+from it Fig. 24, A. has been shaded. The second (Fig. 25, A.) exhibits
+the wide openings of the frontal sinuses upon the inferior surface of
+the frontal part of the skull, into which, Dr. Fuhlrott writes, "a probe
+may be introduced to the depth of an inch," and demonstrates the great
+extension of the thickened supraciliary ridges beyond the cerebral
+cavity. The third, lastly (Fig. 25, B.), exhibits the edge and the
+interior of the posterior, or occipital, part of the skull, and shows
+very clearly the two depressions for the lateral sinuses, sweeping
+inwards towards the middle line of the roof of the skull, to form the
+longitudinal sinus. It was clear, therefore, that I had not erred in my
+interpretation, and that the posterior lobe of the brain of the
+Neanderthal man must have been as much flattened as I suspected it to
+be.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Drawings from Dr. Fuhlrott's photographs of
+parts of the interior of the Neanderthal cranium. A. view of the under
+and inner surface of the frontal region, showing the inferior apertures
+of the frontal sinuses (_a_). B. corresponding view of the occipital
+region of the skull, showing the impressions of the lateral sinuses (_a_
+_a_).]
+
+In truth, the Neanderthal cranium has most extraordinary characters. It
+has an extreme length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5.75
+inches, or, in other words, its length is to its breadth as 100: 72. It
+is exceedingly depressed, measuring only about 3.4 inches from the
+glabello-occipital line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc, measured in
+the same way as in the Engis skull, is 12 inches; the transverse arc
+cannot be exactly ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the
+temporal bones, but was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded
+10-1/4 inches. The horizontal circumference is 23 inches. But this great
+circumference arises largely from the vast development of the
+supraciliary ridges, though the perimeter of the brain case itself is
+not small. The large supraciliary ridges give the forehead a far more
+retreating appearance than its internal contour would bear out.
+
+To an anatomical eye the posterior part of the skull is even more
+striking than the anterior. The occipital protuberance occupies the
+extreme posterior end of the skull, when the glabello-occipital line is
+made horizontal, and so far from any part of the occipital region
+extending beyond it, this region of the skull slopes obliquely upward
+and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture is situated well upon the
+upper surface of the cranium. At the same time, notwithstanding the
+great length of the skull, the sagittal suture is remarkably short
+(4-1/2 inches), and the squamosal suture is very straight.
+
+In reply to my questions Dr. Fuhlrott writes that the occipital bone "is
+in a state of perfect preservation as far as the upper semicircular
+line, which is a very strong ridge, linear at its extremities, but
+enlarging towards the middle, where it forms two ridges (bourrelets),
+united by a linear continuation, which is slightly depressed in the
+middle."
+
+"Below the left ridge the bone exhibits an obliquely inclined surface,
+six lines (French) long, and twelve lines wide."
+
+This last must be the surface, the contour of which is shown in Fig. 24,
+A, below _b_. It is particularly interesting, as it suggests that,
+notwithstanding the flattened condition of the occiput, the posterior
+cerebral lobes must have projected considerably beyond the cerebellum,
+and as it constitutes one among several points of similarity between the
+Neanderthal cranium and certain Australian skulls.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such are the two best known forms of human cranium, which have been
+found in what may be fairly termed a fossil state. Can either be shown
+to fill up or diminish, to any appreciable extent, the structural
+interval which exists between Man and the man-like Apes? Or, on the
+other hand, does neither depart more widely from the average structure
+of the human cranium, than normally formed skulls of men are known to do
+at the present day?
+
+It is impossible to form any opinion on these questions, without some
+preliminary acquaintance with the range of variation exhibited by human
+structure in general--a subject which has been but imperfectly studied,
+while even of what is known, my limits will necessarily allow me to give
+only a very imperfect sketch.
+
+The student of anatomy is perfectly well aware that there is not a
+single organ of the human body the structure of which does not vary, to
+a greater or less extent, in different individuals. The skeleton varies
+in the proportions, and even to a certain extent in the connexions, of
+its constituent bones. The muscles which move the bones vary largely in
+their attachments. The varieties in the mode of distribution of the
+arteries are carefully classified, on account of the practical
+importance of a knowledge of their shiftings to the surgeon. The
+characters of the brain vary immensely, nothing being less constant than
+the form and size of the cerebral hemispheres, and the richness of the
+convolutions upon their surface, while the most changeable structures of
+all in the human brain, are exactly those on which the unwise attempt
+has been made to base the distinctive characters of humanity, viz. the
+posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle, the hippocampus minor, and the
+degree of projection of the posterior lobe beyond the cerebellum.
+Finally, as all the world knows, the hair and skin of human beings may
+present the most extraordinary diversities in colour and in texture.
+
+So far as our present knowledge goes, the majority of the structural
+varieties to which allusion is here made, are individual. The ape-like
+arrangement of certain muscles which is occasionally met with[48] in the
+white races of mankind, is not known to be more common among Negroes or
+Australians: nor because the brain of the Hottentot Venus was found to
+be smoother, to have its convolutions more symmetrically disposed, and
+to be, so far, more ape-like than that of ordinary Europeans, are we
+justified in concluding a like condition of the brain to prevail
+universally among the lower races of mankind, however probable that
+conclusion may be.
+
+We are, in fact, sadly wanting in information respecting the disposition
+of the soft and destructible organs of every Race of Mankind but our
+own; and even of the skeleton, our Museums are lamentably deficient in
+every part but the cranium. Skulls enough there are, and since the time
+when Blumenbach and Camper first called attention to the marked and
+singular differences which they exhibit, skull collecting and skull
+measuring has been a zealously pursued branch of Natural History, and
+the results obtained have been arranged and classified by various
+writers, among whom the late active and able Retzius must always be the
+first named.
+
+Human skulls have been found to differ from one another, not merely in
+their absolute size and in the absolute capacity of the brain case, but
+in the proportions which the diameters of the latter bear to one
+another; in the relative size of the bones of the face (and more
+particularly of the jaws and teeth) as compared with those of the skull;
+in the degree to which the upper jaw (which is of course followed by the
+lower) is thrown backwards and downwards under the forepart of the brain
+case, or forwards and upwards in front of and beyond it. They differ
+further in the relations of the transverse diameter of the face, taken
+through the cheek bones, to the transverse diameter of the skull; in the
+more rounded or more gable-like form of the roof of the skull, and in
+the degree to which the hinder part of the skull is flattened or
+projects beyond the ridge, into and below which, the muscles of the neck
+are inserted.
+
+In some skulls the brain case may be said to be "_round_," the extreme
+length not exceeding the extreme breadth by a greater proportion than
+100 to 80, while the difference may be much less.[49] Men possessing
+such skulls were termed by Retzius "_brachycephalic_," and the skull of
+a Calmuck, of which a front and side view (reduced outline copies of
+which are given in Figure 26) are depicted by Von Baer in his excellent
+"Crania selecta," affords a very admirable example of that kind of
+skull. Other skulls, such as that of a Negro copied in Fig. 27 from Mr.
+Busk's "Crania typica," have a very different, greatly elongated form,
+and may be termed "_oblong_." In this skull the extreme length is to the
+extreme breadth as 100 to not more than 67, and the transverse diameter
+of the human skull may fall below even this proportion. People having
+such skulls were called by Retzius "_dolichocephalic_."
+
+The most cursory glance at the side views of these two skulls will
+suffice to prove that they differ, in another respect, to a very
+striking extent. The profile of the face of the Calmuck is almost
+vertical, the facial bones being thrown downwards and under the fore
+part of the skull. The profile of the face of the Negro, on the other
+hand, is singularly inclined, the front part of the jaws projecting far
+forward beyond the level of the fore part of the skull. In the former
+case the skull is said to be "_orthognathous_" or straight-jawed; in the
+latter, it is called "_prognathous_," a term which has been rendered,
+with more force than elegance, by the Saxon equivalent,--"snouty."
+
+Various methods have been devised in order to express with some accuracy
+the degree of prognathism or orthognathism of any given skull; most of
+these methods being essentially modifications of that devised by Peter
+Camper, in order to attain what he called the "facial angle."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Side and front views of the round and
+orthognathous skull of a Calmuck after Von Baer. One-third the natural
+size.]
+
+But a little consideration will show that any "facial angle" that has
+been devised, can be competent to express the structural modifications
+involved in prognathism and orthognathism, only in a rough and general
+sort of way. For the lines, the intersection of which forms the facial
+angle, are drawn through points of the skull, the position of each of
+which is modified by a number of circumstances, so that the angle
+obtained is a complex resultant of all these circumstances, and is not
+the expression of any one definite organic relation of the parts of the
+skull.
+
+I have arrived at the conviction that no comparison of crania is worth
+very much, that is not founded upon the establishment of a relatively
+fixed base line, to which the measurements, in all cases, must be
+referred. Nor do I think it is a very difficult matter to decide what
+that base line should be. The parts of the skull, like those of the rest
+of the animal framework, are developed in succession: the base of the
+skull is formed before its sides and roof; it is converted into
+cartilage earlier and more completely than the sides and roof: and the
+cartilaginous base ossifies, and becomes soldered into one piece long
+before the roof. I conceive then that the base of the skull may be
+demonstrated developmentally to be its relatively fixed part, the roof
+and sides being relatively moveable.
+
+The same truth is exemplified by the study of the modifications which
+the skull undergoes in ascending from the lower animals up to man.
+
+In such a mammal as a Beaver (Fig. 28), a line (_a_. _b_.) drawn through
+the bones, termed basioccipital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid, is very
+long in proportion to the extreme length of the cavity which contains
+the cerebral hemispheres (_g_. _h_.). The plane of the occipital foramen
+(_b_. _c_.) forms a slightly acute angle with this "basicranial axis,"
+while the plane of the tentorium (_i_. _T_.) is inclined at rather more
+than 90° to the "basicranial axis"; and so is the plane of the
+perforated plate (_a_. _d_.) by which the filaments of the olfactory
+nerve leave the skull. Again, a line drawn through the axis of the face,
+between the bones called ethmoid and vomer--the "basifacial axis" (_f_.
+_e_.) forms an exceedingly obtuse angle, where, when produced, it cuts
+the "basicranial axis."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Oblong and prognathous skull of a Negro; side
+and front views. One-third of the natural size.]
+
+If the angle made by the line _b_. _c_. with _a_. _b_., be called the
+"occipital angle," and the angle made by the line _a_. _d_. with _a_.
+_b_. be termed the "olfactory angle," and that made by _i_. _T_. with
+_a_. _b_. the "tentorial angle," then all these, in the mammal in
+question, are nearly right angles, varying between 80° and 110°. The
+angle _e_. _f_. _b_., or that made by the cranial with the facial axis,
+and which may be termed the "cranio-facial angle," is extremely obtuse,
+amounting, in the case of the Beaver, to at least 150°.
+
+But if a series of sections of mammalian skulls, intermediate between a
+Rodent and a Man (Fig. 28), be examined, it will be found that in the
+higher crania the basicranial axis becomes shorter relatively to the
+cerebral length; that the "olfactory angle" and "occipital angle" become
+more obtuse; and that the "cranio-facial angle" becomes more acute by
+the bending down, as it were, of the facial axis upon the cranial axis.
+At the same time, the roof of the cranium becomes more and more arched,
+to allow of the increasing height of the cerebral hemispheres, which is
+eminently characteristic of man, as well as of that backward extension,
+beyond the cerebellum, which reaches its maximum in the South American
+Monkeys. So that, at last, in the human skull (Fig. 29), the cerebral
+length is between twice and thrice as great as the length of the
+basicranial axis; the olfactory plane is 20° or 30° on the _under_ side
+of that axis; the occipital angle, instead of being less than 90°, is as
+much as 150° or 160°; the cranio-facial angle may be 90° or less, and
+the vertical height of the skull may have a large proportion to its
+length.
+
+It will be obvious, from an inspection of the diagrams, that the
+basicranial axis is, in the ascending series of Mammalia, a relatively
+fixed line, on which the bones of the sides and roof of the cranial
+cavity, and of the face, may be said to revolve downwards and forwards
+or backwards, according to their position. The arc described by any one
+bone or plane, however, is not by any means always in proportion to the
+arc described by another.
+
+Now comes the important question, can we discern, between the lowest and
+the highest forms of the human cranium anything answering, in however
+slight a degree, to this revolution of the side and roof bones of the
+skull upon the basicranial axis observed upon so great a scale in the
+mammalian series? Numerous observations lead me to believe that we must
+answer this question in the affirmative.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Longitudinal and vertical sections of the
+skulls of a Beaver (_Castor Canadensis_), a Lemur (_L. Catta_), and a
+Baboon (_Cynocephalus Papio_), _a b_, the basicranial axis; _b c_, the
+occipital plane; _i T_, the tentorial plane; _a d_, the olfactory plane;
+_f e_, the basifacial axis; _c b a_, occipital angle; _T i a_, tentorial
+angle; _d a b_, olfactory angle; _e f b_, cranio-facial angle; _g h_,
+extreme length of the cavity which lodges the cerebral hemispheres or
+"cerebral length." The length of the basicranial axis as to this length,
+or, in other words, the proportional length of the line _g h_ to that of
+_a b_ taken as 100, in the three skulls, is as follows:--Beaver 70 to
+100; Lemur 119 to 100; Baboon 144 to 100. In an adult male Gorilla the
+cerebral length is as 170 to the basicranial axis taken as 100, in the
+Negro (Fig. 29) as 236 to 100. In the Constantinople skull (Fig. 29) as
+266 to 100. The cranial difference between the highest Ape's skull and
+the lowest Man's is therefore very strikingly brought out by these
+measurements.
+
+In the diagram of the Baboon's skull the dotted lines _d^1d^2_, &c.,
+give the angles of the Lemur's and Beaver's skull, as laid down upon the
+basicranial axis of the Baboon. The line _a b_ has the same length in
+each diagram.]
+
+The diagrams in Figure 29 are reduced from very carefully made diagrams
+of sections of four skulls, two round and orthognathous, two long and
+prognathous, taken longitudinally and vertically, through the middle.
+The sectional diagrams have then been superimposed, in such a manner,
+that the basal axes of the skulls coincide by their anterior ends, and
+in their direction. The deviations of the rest of the contours (which
+represent the interior of the skulls only) show the differences of the
+skulls from one another, when these axes are regarded as relatively
+fixed lines.
+
+The dark contours are those of an Australian and of a Negro skull: the
+light contours are those of a Tartar skull, in the Museum of the Royal
+College of Surgeons; and of a well developed round skull from a cemetery
+in Constantinople, of uncertain race, in my own possession.
+
+It appears, at once, from these views, that the prognathous skulls, so
+far as their jaws are concerned, do really differ from the orthognathous
+in much the same way as, though to a far less degree than, the skulls of
+the lower mammals differ from those of Man. Furthermore, the plane of
+the occipital foramen (_b c_) forms a somewhat smaller angle with the
+axis in these particular prognathous skulls than in the orthognathous;
+and the like may be slightly true of the perforated plate of the
+ethmoid--though this point is not so clear. But it is singular to remark
+that, in another respect, the prognathous skulls are less ape-like than
+the orthognathous, the cerebral cavity projecting decidedly more beyond
+the anterior end of the axis in the prognathous, than in the
+orthognathous, skulls.
+
+It will be observed that these diagrams reveal an immense range of
+variation in the capacity and relative proportion to the cranial axis,
+of the different regions of the cavity which contains the brain, in the
+different skulls. Nor is the difference in the extent to which the
+cerebral overlaps the cerebellar cavity less singular. A round skull
+(Fig. 29, _Const._) may have a greater posterior cerebral projection
+than a long one (Fig. 29, _Negro_).
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Sections of orthognathous (light contour) and
+prognathous (dark contour) skulls, one-third of the natural size. _a b_,
+Basicranial axis; _b c_, _b´ c´_, plane of the occipital foramen; _d
+d´_, hinder end of the palatine bone; _e e´_, front end of the upper
+jaw; _TT_´, insertion of the tentorium.]
+
+Until human crania have been largely worked out in a manner similar to
+that here suggested--until it shall be an opprobrium to an ethnological
+collection to possess a single skull which is not bisected
+longitudinally--until the angles and measurements here mentioned,
+together with a number of others of which I cannot speak in this place,
+are determined, and tabulated with reference to the basicranial axis as
+unity, for large numbers of skulls of the different races of Mankind, I
+do not think we shall have any very safe basis for that ethnological
+craniology which aspires to give the anatomical characters of the crania
+of the different Races of Mankind.
+
+At present, I believe that the general outlines of what may be safely
+said upon that subject may be summed up in a very few words. Draw a line
+on a globe from the Gold Coast in Western Africa to the steppes of
+Tartary. At the southern and western end of that line there live the
+most dolichocephalic, prognathous, curly-haired, dark-skinned of
+men--the true Negroes. At the northern and eastern end of the same line
+there live the most brachycephalic, orthognathous, straight-haired,
+yellow-skinned of men--the Tartars and Calmucks. The two ends of this
+imaginary line are indeed, so to speak, ethnological antipodes. A line
+drawn at right angles, or nearly so, to this polar line through Europe
+and Southern Asia to Hindostan, would give us a sort of equator, around
+which round-headed, oval-headed, and oblong-headed, prognathous and
+orthognathous, fair and dark races--but none possessing the excessively
+marked characters of Calmuck or Negro--group themselves.
+
+It is worthy of notice that the regions of the antipodal races are
+antipodal in climate, the greatest contrast the world affords, perhaps,
+being that between the damp, hot, steaming, alluvial coast plains of the
+West Coast of Africa and the arid, elevated steppes and plateaux of
+Central Asia, bitterly cold in winter, and as far from the sea as any
+part of the world can be.
+
+From Central Asia eastward to the Pacific Islands and subcontinents on
+the one hand, and to America on the other, brachycephaly and
+orthognathism gradually diminish, and are replaced by dolichocephaly and
+prognathism, less, however, on the American Continent (throughout the
+whole length of which a rounded type of skull prevails largely, but not
+exclusively)[50] than in the Pacific region, where, at length, on the
+Australian Continent and in the adjacent islands, the oblong skull, the
+projecting jaws, and the dark skin reappear; with so much departure, in
+other respects, from the Negro type, that ethnologists assign to these
+people the special title of "Negritoes."
+
+The Australian skull is remarkable for its narrowness and for the
+thickness of its walls, especially in the region of the supraciliary
+ridge, which is frequently, though not by any means invariably, solid
+throughout, the frontal sinuses remaining undeveloped. The nasal
+depression, again, is extremely sudden, so that the brows overhang and
+give the countenance a particularly lowering, threatening expression.
+The occipital region of the skull, also, not unfrequently becomes less
+prominent; so that it not only fails to project beyond a line drawn
+perpendicular to the hinder extremity of the glabello-occipital line,
+but even, in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, forwards, almost
+immediately. In consequence of this circumstance, the parts of the
+occipital bone which lie above and below the tuberosity make a much more
+acute angle with one another than is usual, whereby the hinder part of
+the base of the skull appears obliquely truncated. Many Australian
+skulls have a considerable height, quite equal to that of the average of
+any other race, but there are others in which the cranial roof becomes
+remarkably depressed, the skull, at the same time, elongating so much
+that, probably, its capacity is not diminished. The majority of skulls
+possessing these characters, which I have seen, are from the
+neighbourhood of Port Adelaide in South Australia, and have been used by
+the natives as water vessels; to which end the face has been knocked
+away, and a string passed through the vacuity and the occipital foramen,
+so that the skull was suspended by the greater part of its basis.
+
+Figure 30 represents the contour of a skull of this kind from Western
+Port, with the jaw attached, and of the Neanderthal skull, both reduced
+to one-third of the size of nature. A small additional amount of
+flattening and lengthening, with a corresponding increase of the
+supraciliary ridge, would convert the Australian brain case into a form
+identical with that of the aberrant fossil.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30.--An Australian skull from Western Port, in the
+Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, with the contour of the
+Neanderthal skull. Both reduced to one-third the natural size.]
+
+And now, to return to the fossil skulls, and to the rank which they
+occupy among, or beyond, these existing varieties of cranial
+conformation. In the first place, I must remark, that, as Professor
+Schmerling well observed (_supra_, p. 114) in commenting upon the Engis
+skull, the formation of a safe judgment upon the question is greatly
+hindered by the absence of the jaws from both the crania, so that there
+is no means of deciding, with certainty, whether they were more or less
+prognathous than the lower existing races of mankind. And yet, as we
+have seen, it is more in this respect than any other, that human skulls
+vary, towards and from, the brutal type--the brain case of an average
+dolichocephalic European differing far less from that of a Negro, for
+example, than his jaws do. In the absence of the jaws, then, any
+judgment on the relations of the fossil skulls to recent Races must be
+accepted with a certain reservation.
+
+But taking the evidence as it stands, and turning first to the Engis
+skull, I confess I can find no character in the remains of that cranium
+which, if it were a recent skull, would give any trustworthy clue as to
+the Race to which it might appertain. Its contours and measurements
+agree very well with those of some Australian skulls which I have
+examined--and especially has it a tendency towards that occipital
+flattening, to the great extent of which, in some Australian skulls, I
+have alluded. But all Australian skulls do not present this flattening,
+and the supraciliary ridge of the Engis skull is quite unlike that of
+the typical Australians.
+
+On the other hand, its measurements agree equally well with those of
+some European skulls. And assuredly, there is no mark of degradation
+about any part of its structure. It is, in fact, a fair average human
+skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have
+contained the thoughtless brains of a savage.
+
+The case of the Neanderthal skull is very different. Under whatever
+aspect we view this cranium, whether we regard its vertical depression,
+the enormous thickness of its supraciliary ridges, its sloping occiput,
+or its long and straight squamosal suture, we meet with ape-like
+characters, stamping it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet
+discovered. But Professor Schaaffhausen states (_supra_, p. 122), that
+the cranium, in its present condition, holds 1033.24 cubic centimetres
+of water, or about 63 cubic inches, and as the entire skull could hardly
+have held less than an additional 12 cubic inches, its capacity may be
+estimated at about 75 cubic inches, which is the average capacity given
+by Morton for Polynesian and Hottentot skulls.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Ancient Danish skull from a tumulus at Borreby;
+one-third of the natural size. From a camera lucida drawing by Mr.
+Busk.]
+
+So large a mass of brain as this, would alone suggest that the pithecoid
+tendencies, indicated by this skull, did not extend deep into the
+organization; and this conclusion is borne out by the dimensions of the
+other bones of the skeleton given by Professor Schaaffhausen, which show
+that the absolute height and relative proportions of the limbs, were
+quite those of an European of middle stature. The bones are indeed
+stouter, but this and the great development of the muscular ridges noted
+by Dr. Schaaffhausen, are characters to be expected in savages. The
+Patagonians, exposed without shelter or protection to a climate possibly
+not very dissimilar from that of Europe at the time during which the
+Neanderthal man lived, are remarkable for the stoutness of their limb
+bones.
+
+In no sense, then, can the Neanderthal bones be regarded as the remains
+of a human being intermediate between Men and Apes. At most, they
+demonstrate the existence of a man whose skull may be said to revert
+somewhat towards the pithecoid type--just as a Carrier, or a Pouter, or
+a Tumbler, may sometimes put on the plumage of its primitive stock, the
+_Columba livia_. And indeed, though truly the most pithecoid of known
+human skulls, the Neanderthal cranium is by no means so isolated as it
+appears to be at first, but forms, in reality, the extreme term of a
+series leading gradually from it to the highest and best developed of
+human crania. On the one hand, it is closely approached by the flattened
+Australian skulls, of which I have spoken, from which other Australian
+forms lead us gradually up to skulls having very much the type of the
+Engis cranium. And, on the other hand, it is even more closely affined
+to the skulls of certain ancient people who inhabited Denmark during the
+"stone period," and were probably either contemporaneous with, or later
+than, the makers of the "refuse heaps," or "Kjokkenmöddings" of that
+country.
+
+The correspondence between the longitudinal contour of the Neanderthal
+skull and that of some of those skulls from the tumuli at Borreby, very
+accurate drawings of which have been made by Mr. Busk, is very close.
+The occiput is quite as retreating, the supraciliary ridges are nearly
+as prominent, and the skull is as low. Furthermore, the Borreby skull
+resembles the Neanderthal form more closely than any of the Australian
+skulls do, by the much more rapid retrocession of the forehead. On the
+other hand, the Borreby skulls are all somewhat broader, in proportion
+to their length, than the Neanderthal skull, while some attain that
+proportion of breadth to length (80: 100) which constitutes
+brachycephaly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In conclusion, I may say, that the fossil remains of Man hitherto
+discovered do not seem to me to take us appreciably nearer to that
+lower pithecoid form, by the modification of which he has, probably,
+become what he is. And considering what is now known of the most ancient
+races of men; seeing that they fashioned flint axes and flint knives and
+bone-skewers, of much the same pattern as those fabricated by the lowest
+savages at the present day, and that we have every reason to believe the
+habits and modes of living of such people to have remained the same from
+the time of the Mammoth and the tichorhine Rhinoceros till now, I do not
+know that this result is other than might be expected.
+
+Where, then, must we look for primæval Man? Was the oldest _Homo
+sapiens_ pliocene or miocene, or yet more ancient? In still older strata
+do the fossilized bones of an Ape more anthropoid, or a Man more
+pithecoid, than any yet known await the researches of some unborn
+paleontologist?
+
+Time will show. But, in the meanwhile, if any form of the doctrine of
+progressive development is correct, we must extend by long epochs the
+most liberal estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of Man.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[38] Decas Collectionis suæ craniorum diversarum gentium illustrata.
+Gottingæ, 1790-1820.
+
+[39] In a subsequent passage, Schmerling remarks upon the occurrence of
+an incisor tooth "of enormous size" from the caverns of Engihoul. The
+tooth figured is somewhat long, but its dimensions do not appear to me
+to be otherwise remarkable.
+
+[40] The figure of this clavicle measures 5 inches from end to end in a
+straight line--so that the bone is rather a small than a large one.
+
+[41] ON THE CRANIA OF THE MOST ANCIENT RACES OF MAN. By Professor D.
+Schaaffhausen, of Bonn. (From Müller's Archiv., 1858, p. 453.) With
+Remarks, and original Figures, taken from a Cast of the Neanderthal
+Cranium. By George Busk, F.R.S., &c. Natural History Review, April,
+1861.
+
+[42] Verhandl. d. Naturhist. Vereins der preuss. Rheinlande und
+Westphalens., xiv. Bonn, 1857.
+
+[43] Ib. Correspondenzblatt. No. 2.
+
+[44] This, Mr. Busk has pointed out, is probably the notch for the
+frontal nerve.
+
+[45] The numbers in brackets are those which I should assign to the
+different measures, as taken from the plaster cast.--G. B.
+
+[46] Verh. des Naturhist. Vereins in Bonn, xiv. 1857.
+
+[47] Estimating the facial angle in the way suggested, on the cast I
+should place it at 64° to 67°.--G. B.
+
+[48] See an excellent Essay by Mr. Church on the Myology of the Orang,
+in the Natural History Review, for 1861.
+
+[49] In no normal human skull does the breadth of the brain-case exceed
+its length.
+
+[50] See Dr. D. Wilson's valuable paper "On the supposed prevalence of
+one Cranial Type throughout the American aborigines."--Canadian Journal,
+vol. ii., 1857.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+  THE PRESENT CONDITION OF ORGANIC
+  NATURE.
+
+
+When it was my duty to consider what subject I would select for the six
+lectures which I shall now have the pleasure of delivering to you, it
+occurred to me that I could not do better than endeavour to put before
+you in a true light, or in what I might perhaps with more modesty call,
+that which I conceive myself to be the true light, the position of a
+book which has been more praised and more abused, perhaps, than any book
+which has appeared for some years;--I mean Mr. Darwin's work on the
+"Origin of Species." That work, I doubt not, many of you have read; for
+I know the inquiring spirit which is rife among you. At any rate, all of
+you will have heard of it,--some by one kind of report and some by
+another kind of report; the attention of all and the curiosity of all
+have been probably more or less excited on the subject of that work. All
+I can do, and all I shall attempt to do, is to put before you that kind
+of judgment which has been formed by a man, who, of course, is liable to
+judge erroneously; but at any rate, of one whose business and profession
+it is to form judgments upon questions of this nature.
+
+And here, as it will always happen when dealing with an extensive
+subject, the greater part of my course--if, indeed, so small a number of
+lectures can be properly called a course--must be devoted to preliminary
+matters, or rather to a statement of those facts and of those principles
+which the work itself dwells upon, and brings more or less directly
+before us. I have no right to suppose that all or any of you are
+naturalists; and even if you were, the misconceptions and
+misunderstandings prevalent even among naturalists on these matters
+would make it desirable that I should take the course I now propose to
+take,--that I should start from the beginning,--that I should endeavour
+to point out what is the existing state of the organic world--that I
+should point out its past condition,--that I should state what is the
+precise nature of the undertaking which Mr. Darwin has taken in hand;
+that I should endeavour to show you what are the only methods by which
+that undertaking can be brought to an issue, and to point out to you how
+far the author of the work in question has satisfied those conditions,
+how far he has not satisfied them, how far they are satisfiable by man,
+and how far they are not satisfiable by man.
+
+To-night, in taking up the first part of the question, I shall endeavour
+to put before you a sort of broad notion of our knowledge of the
+condition of the living world. There are many ways of doing this. I
+might deal with it pictorially and graphically. Following the example of
+Humboldt in his "Aspects of Nature," I might endeavour to point out the
+infinite variety of organic life in every mode of its existence, with
+reference to the variations of climate and the like; and such an attempt
+would be fraught with interest to us all; but considering the subject
+before us, such a course would not be that best calculated to assist us.
+In an argument of this kind we must go further and dig deeper into the
+matter; we must endeavour to look into the foundations of living Nature,
+if I may so say, and discover the principles involved in some of her
+most secret operations. I propose, therefore, in the first place, to
+take some ordinary animal with which you are all familiar, and, by
+easily comprehensible and obvious examples drawn from it, to show what
+are the kind of problems which living beings in general lay before us;
+and I shall then show you that the same problems are laid open to us by
+all kinds of living beings. But, first, let me say in what sense I have
+used the words "organic nature." In speaking of the causes which lead to
+our present knowledge of organic nature, I have used it almost as an
+equivalent of the word "living," and for this reason,--that in almost
+all living beings you can distinguish several distinct portions set
+apart to do particular things and work in a particular way. These are
+termed "organs," and the whole together is called "organic." And as it
+is universally characteristic of them, the term "organic" has been very
+conveniently employed to denote the whole of living nature,--the whole
+of the plant world, and the whole of the animal world.
+
+Few animals can be more familiar to you than that whose skeleton is
+shown on our diagram. You need not bother yourselves with this "_Equus
+caballus_" written under it; that is only the Latin name of it, and does
+not make it any better. It simply means the common Horse. Suppose we
+wish to understand all about the Horse. Our first object must be to
+study the structure of the animal. The whole of his body is inclosed
+within a hide, a skin covered with hair; and if that hide or skin be
+taken off, we find a great mass of flesh, or what is technically called
+muscle, being the substance which by its power of contraction enables
+the animal to move. These muscles move the hard parts one upon the
+other, and so give that strength and power of motion which renders the
+Horse so useful to us in the performance of those services in which we
+employ him.
+
+And then, on separating and removing the whole of this skin and flesh,
+you have a great series of bones, hard structures, bound together with
+ligaments, and forming the skeleton which is represented here.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.]
+
+In that skeleton there are a number of parts to be recognized. The long
+series of bones, beginning from the skull and ending in the tail, is
+called the spine, and those in front are the ribs; and then there are
+two pairs of limbs, one before and one behind; and there are what we all
+know as the fore-legs and the hind-legs. If we pursue our researches
+into the interior of this animal, we find within the framework of the
+skeleton a great cavity, or rather, I should say, two great
+cavities,--one cavity beginning in the skull and running through the
+neck-bones, along the spine, and ending in the tail, containing the
+brain and the spinal marrow, which are extremely important organs. The
+second great cavity, commencing with the mouth, contains the gullet, the
+stomach, the long intestine, and all the rest of those internal
+apparatus which are essential for digestion; and then in the same great
+cavity, there are lodged the heart and all the great vessels going from
+it; and, besides that, the organs of respiration--the lungs; and then
+the kidneys, and the organs of reproduction, and so on. Let us now
+endeavour to reduce this notion of a horse that we now have, to some
+such kind of simple expression as can be at once, and without
+difficulty, retained in the mind, apart from all minor details. If I
+make a transverse section, that is, if I were to saw a dead horse
+across, I should find that, if I left out the details, and supposing I
+took my section through the anterior region, and through the fore-limbs,
+I should have here this kind of section of the body (Fig. 32). Here
+would be the upper part of the animal--that great mass of bones that we
+spoke of as the spine (_a_, Fig. 32). Here I should have the alimentary
+canal (_b_, Fig. 32). Here I should have the heart (_c_, Fig. 32); and
+then you see, there would be a kind of double tube, the whole being
+inclosed within the hide; the spinal marrow would be placed in the upper
+tube (_a_, Fig. 32), and in the lower tube (_d d_, Fig. 32), there would
+be the alimentary canal (_b_), and the heart (_c_); and here I shall
+have the legs proceeding from each side. For simplicity's sake, I
+represent them merely as stumps (_e e_, Fig. 32). Now that is a
+horse--as mathematicians would say--reduced to its most simple
+expression. Carry that in your minds, if you please, as a simplified
+idea of the structure of the Horse. The considerations which I have now
+put before you belong to what we technically call the "Anatomy" of the
+Horse. Now, suppose we go to work upon these several parts,--flesh and
+hair, and skin and bone, and lay open these various organs with our
+scalpels, and examine them by means of our magnifying-glasses, and see
+what we can make of them. We shall find that the flesh is made up of
+bundles of strong fibres. The brain and nerves, too, we shall find, are
+made up of fibres, and these queer-looking things that are called
+ganglionic corpuscles. If we take a slice of the bone and examine it, we
+shall find that it is very like this diagram of a section of the bone of
+an ostrich, though differing, of course, in some details; and if we take
+any part whatsoever of the tissue, and examine it, we shall find it all
+has a minute structure, visible only under the microscope. All these
+parts constitute microscopic anatomy or "Histology." These parts are
+constantly being changed; every part is constantly growing, decaying,
+and being replaced during the life of the animal. The tissue is
+constantly replaced by new material; and if you go back to the young
+state of the tissue in the case of muscle, or in the case of skin, or
+any of the organs I have mentioned, you will find that they all come
+under the same condition. Every one of these microscopic filaments and
+fibres (I now speak merely of the general character of the whole
+process)--every one of these parts--could be traced down to some
+modification of a tissue which can be readily divided into little
+particles of fleshy matter, of that substance which is composed of the
+chemical elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, having such a
+shape as this (Fig. 33). These particles, into which all primitive
+tissues break up, are called cells. If I were to make a section of a
+piece of the skin of my hand, I should find that it was made up of these
+cells. If I examine the fibres which form the various organs of all
+living animals, I should find that all of them, at one time or other,
+had been formed out of a substance consisting of similar elements; so
+that you see, just as we reduced the whole body in the gross to that
+sort of simple expression given in Fig. 32, so we may reduce the whole
+of the microscopic structural elements to a form of even greater
+simplicity; just as the plan of the whole body may be so represented in
+a sense (Fig. 32), so the primary structure of every tissue may be
+represented by a mass of cells (Fig. 33).
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33.]
+
+Having thus, in this sort of general way, sketched to you what I may
+call, perhaps, the architecture of the body of the Horse, (what we term
+technically its Morphology,) I must now turn to another aspect. A horse
+is not a mere dead structure: it is an active, living, working machine.
+Hitherto we have, as it were, been looking at a steam-engine with the
+fires out, and nothing in the boiler; but the body of the living animal
+is a beautifully-formed active machine, and every part has its different
+work to do in the working of that machine, which is what we call its
+life. The Horse, if you see him after his day's work is done, is
+cropping the grass in the fields, as it may be, or munching the oats in
+his stable. What is he doing? His jaws are working as a mill--and a very
+complex mill too--grinding the corn, or crushing the grass to a pulp. As
+soon as that operation has taken place, the food is passed down to the
+stomach, and there it is mixed with the chemical fluid called the
+gastric juice, a substance which has the peculiar property of making
+soluble and dissolving out the nutritious matter in the grass, and
+leaving behind those parts which are not nutritious; so that you have,
+first, the mill, then a sort of chemical digester; and then the food,
+thus partially dissolved, is carried back by the muscular contractions
+of the intestines into the hinder parts of the body, while the soluble
+portions are taken up into the blood. The blood is contained in a vast
+system of pipes, spreading through the whole body, connected with a
+force-pump,--the heart,--which, by its position and by the contractions
+of its valves, keeps the blood constantly circulating in one direction,
+never allowing it to rest; and then, by means of this circulation of the
+blood, laden as it is with the products of digestion, the skin, the
+flesh, the hair, and every other part of the body, draws from it that
+which it wants, and every one of these organs derives those materials
+which are necessary to enable it to do its work.
+
+The action of each of these organs, the performance of each of these
+various duties, involve in their operation a continual absorption of
+the matters necessary for their support, from the blood, and a constant
+formation of waste products, which are returned to the blood, and
+conveyed by it to the lungs and the kidneys, which are organs that have
+allotted to them the office of extracting, separating, and getting rid
+of these waste products; and thus the general nourishment, labour, and
+repair of the whole machine is kept up with order and regularity. But
+not only is it a machine which feeds and appropriates to its own support
+the nourishment necessary to its existence--it is an engine for
+locomotive purposes. The Horse desires to go from one place to another;
+and to enable it to do this, it has those strong contractile bundles of
+muscles attached to the bones of its limbs, which are put in motion by
+means of a sort of telegraphic apparatus formed by the brain and the
+great spinal cord running through the spine or backbone; and to this
+spinal cord are attached a number of fibres termed nerves, which proceed
+to all parts of the structure. By means of these the eyes, nose, tongue,
+and skin--all the organs of perception--transmit impressions or
+sensations to the brain, which acts as a sort of great central
+telegraph-office, receiving impressions and sending messages to all
+parts of the body, and putting in motion the muscles necessary to
+accomplish any movement that may be desired. So that you have here an
+extremely complex and beautifully-proportioned machine, with all its
+parts working harmoniously together towards one common object--the
+preservation of the life of the animal.
+
+Now, note this: the Horse makes up its waste by feeding, and its food is
+grass or oats, or perhaps other vegetable products; therefore, in the
+long run, the source of all this complex machinery lies in the vegetable
+kingdom. But where does the grass, or the oat, or any other plant,
+obtain this nourishing food-producing material? At first it is a little
+seed, which soon begins to draw into itself from the earth and the
+surrounding air matters which in themselves contain no vital properties
+whatever; it absorbs into its own substance water, an inorganic body; it
+draws into its substance carbonic acid, an inorganic matter; and
+ammonia, another inorganic matter, found in the air; and then, by some
+wonderful chemical process, the details of which chemists do not yet
+understand, though they are near foreshadowing them, it combines them
+into one substance, which is known to us as "Protein," a complex
+compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which alone
+possesses the property of manifesting vitality and of permanently
+supporting animal life. So that, you see, the waste products of the
+animal economy, the effete materials which are continually being thrown
+off by all living beings, in the form of organic matters, are constantly
+replaced by supplies of the necessary repairing and rebuilding materials
+drawn from the plants, which in their turn manufacture them, so to
+speak, by a mysterious combination of those same inorganic materials.
+
+Let us trace out the history of the Horse in another direction. After a
+certain time, as the result of sickness or disease, the effect of
+accident, or the consequence of old age, sooner or later, the animal
+dies. The multitudinous operations of this beautiful mechanism flag in
+their performance, the Horse loses its vigour, and after passing through
+the curious series of changes comprised in its formation and
+preservation, it finally decays, and ends its life by going back into
+that inorganic world from which all but an inappreciable fraction of its
+substance was derived. Its bones become mere carbonate and phosphate of
+lime; the matter of its flesh, and of its other parts, becomes, in the
+long run, converted into carbonic acid, into water, and into ammonia.
+You will now, perhaps, understand the curious relation of the animal
+with the plant, of the organic with the inorganic world, which is shown
+in this diagram.
+
+The plant gathers these inorganic materials together and makes them up
+into its own substance. The animal eats the plant and appropriates the
+nutritious portions to its own sustenance, rejects and gets rid of the
+useless matters; and, finally, the animal itself dies, and its whole
+body is decomposed and returned into the inorganic world. There is thus
+a constant circulation from one to the other, a continual formation of
+organic life from inorganic matters, and as constant a return of the
+matter of living bodies to the inorganic world; so that the materials
+of which our bodies are composed are largely, in all probability, the
+substances which constituted the matter of long extinct creations, but
+which have in the interval constituted a part of the inorganic world.
+
+[Illustration: INORGANIC WORLD.
+
+VEGETABLE WORLD. ANIMAL WORLD.
+
+FIG. 34.]
+
+Thus we come to the conclusion, strange at first sight, that the MATTER
+constituting the living world is identical with that which forms the
+inorganic world. And not less true is it that, remarkable as are the
+powers or, in other words, as are the FORCES which are exerted by living
+beings, yet all these forces are either identical with those which exist
+in the inorganic world, or they are convertible into them; I mean in
+just the same sense as the researches of physical philosophers have
+shown that heat is convertible into electricity, that electricity is
+convertible into magnetism, magnetism into mechanical force or chemical
+force, and any one of them with the other, each being measurable in
+terms of the other,--even so, I say, that great law is applicable to the
+living world. Consider why is the skeleton of this horse capable of
+supporting the masses of flesh and the various organs forming the living
+body, unless it is because of the action of the same forces of cohesion
+which combines together the particles of matter composing this piece of
+chalk? What is there in the muscular contractile power of the animal
+but the force which is expressible, and which is in a certain sense
+convertible, into the force of gravity which it overcomes? Or, if you go
+to more hidden processes, in what does the process of digestion differ
+from those processes which are carried on in the laboratory of the
+chemist? Even if we take the most recondite and most complex operations
+of animal life--those of the nervous system, these of late years have
+been shown to be--I do not say identical in any sense with the
+electrical processes--but this has been shown, that they are in some way
+or other associated with them; that is to say, that every amount of
+nervous action is accompanied by a certain amount of electrical
+disturbance in the particles of the nerves in which that nervous action
+is carried on. In this way the nervous action is related to electricity
+in the same way that heat is related to electricity; and the same sort
+of argument which demonstrates the two latter to be related to one
+another shows that the nervous forces are correlated to electricity; for
+the experiments of M. Dubois Reymond and others have shown that whenever
+a nerve is in a state of excitement, sending a message to the muscles or
+conveying an impression to the brain, there is a disturbance of the
+electrical condition of that nerve which does not exist at other times;
+and there are a number of other facts and phenomena of that sort; so
+that we come to the broad conclusion that not only as to living matter
+itself, but as to the forces that matter exerts, there is a close
+relationship between the organic and the inorganic world--the difference
+between them arising from the diverse combination and disposition of
+identical forces, and not from any primary diversity, so far as we can
+see.
+
+I said just now that the Horse eventually died and became converted into
+the same inorganic substances from whence all but an inappreciable
+fraction of its substance demonstrably originated, so that the actual
+wanderings of matter are as remarkable as the transmigrations of the
+soul fabled by Indian tradition. But before death has occurred, in the
+one sex or the other, and in fact in both, certain products or parts of
+the organism have been set free, certain parts of the organisms of the
+two sexes have come into contact with one another, and from that
+conjunction, from that union which then takes place, there results the
+formation of a new being. At stated times the mare, from a particular
+part of the interior of her body, called the ovary, gets rid of a minute
+particle of matter comparable in all essential respects with that which
+we called a cell a little while since, which cell contains a kind of
+nucleus in its centre, surrounded by a clear space and by a viscid mass
+of protein substance (Fig. 33); and though it is different in appearance
+from the eggs which we are mostly acquainted with, it is really an egg.
+After a time this minute particle of matter, which may only be a small
+fraction of a grain in weight, undergoes a series of changes,--wonderful,
+complex changes. Finally, upon its surface there is fashioned a little
+elevation, which afterwards becomes divided and marked by a groove. The
+lateral boundaries of the groove extend upwards and downwards, and at
+length give rise to a double tube. In the upper and smaller tube the
+spinal marrow and brain are fashioned; in the lower, the alimentary
+canal and heart; and at length two pairs of buds shoot out at the sides
+of the body, and they are the rudiments of the limbs. In fact a true
+drawing of a section of the embryo in this state would in all essential
+respects resemble that diagram of a horse reduced to its simplest
+expression, which I first placed before you (Fig. 32).
+
+Slowly and gradually these changes take place. The whole of the body, at
+first, can be broken up into "cells," which become in one place
+metamorphosed into muscle,--in another place into gristle and bone,--in
+another place into fibrous tissue,--and in another into hair; every part
+becoming gradually and slowly fashioned, as if there were an artificer
+at work in each of these complex structures that I have mentioned. This
+embryo, as it is called, then passes into other conditions. I should
+tell you that there is a time when the embryos of neither dog, nor
+horse, nor porpoise, nor monkey, nor man, can be distinguished by any
+essential feature one from the other; there is a time when they each and
+all of them resemble this one of the Dog. But as development advances,
+all the parts acquire their speciality, till at length you have the
+embryo converted into the form of the parent from which it started. So
+that, you see, this living animal, this horse, begins its existence as a
+minute particle of nitrogenous matter, which, being supplied with
+nutriment (derived, as I have shown, from the inorganic world), grows up
+according to the special type and construction of its parents, works and
+undergoes a constant waste, and that waste is made good by nutriment
+derived from the inorganic world; the waste given off in this way being
+directly added to the inorganic world. Eventually the animal itself
+dies, and, by the process of decomposition, its whole body is returned
+to those conditions of inorganic matter in which its substance
+originated.
+
+This, then, is that which is true of every living form, from the lowest
+plant to the highest animal--to man himself. You might define the life
+of every one in exactly the same terms as those which I have now used;
+the difference between the highest and the lowest being simply in the
+complexity of the developmental changes, the variety of the structural
+forms, and the diversity of the physiological functions which are
+exerted by each.
+
+If I were to take an oak tree, as a specimen of the plant world, I
+should find that it originated in an acorn, which, too, commenced in a
+cell; the acorn is placed in the ground, and it very speedily begins to
+absorb the inorganic matters I have named, adds enormously to its bulk,
+and we can see it, year after year, extending itself upward and
+downward, attracting and appropriating to itself inorganic materials,
+which it vivifies, and eventually, as it ripens, gives off its own
+proper acorns, which again run the same course. But I need not multiply
+examples,--from the highest to the lowest the essential features of life
+are the same, as I have described in each of these cases.
+
+So much, then, for these particular features of the organic world, which
+you can understand and comprehend, so long as you confine yourself to
+one sort of living being, and study that only.
+
+But, as you know, horses are not the only living creatures in the
+world; and again, horses, like all other animals, have certain
+limits--are confined to a certain area on the surface of the earth on
+which we live,--and, as that is the simpler matter, I may take that
+first. In its wild state, and before the discovery of America, when the
+natural state of things was interfered with by the Spaniards, the Horse
+was only to be found in parts of the earth which are known to
+geographers as the Old World; that is to say, you might meet with horses
+in Europe, Asia, or Africa; but there were none in Australia, and there
+were none whatsoever in the whole continent of America, from Labrador
+down to Cape Horn. This is an empirical fact, and it is what is called,
+stated in the way I have given it you, the "Geographical Distribution"
+of the Horse.
+
+Why horses should be found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and not in
+America, is not obvious; the explanation that the conditions of life in
+America are unfavourable to their existence, and that, therefore, they
+had not been created there, evidently does not apply; for when the
+invading Spaniards, or our own yeomen farmers, conveyed horses to these
+countries for their own use, they were found to thrive well and multiply
+very rapidly; and many are even now running wild in those countries, and
+in a perfectly natural condition. Now, suppose we were to do for every
+animal what we have here done for the Horse,--that is, to mark off and
+distinguish the particular district or region to which each belonged;
+and supposing we tabulated all these results, that would be called the
+Geographical Distribution of animals, while a corresponding study of
+plants would yield as a result the Geographical Distribution of plants.
+
+I pass on from that now, as I merely wished to explain to you what I
+meant by the use of the term "Geographical Distribution." As I said,
+there is another aspect, and a much more important one, and that is, the
+relations of the various animals to one another. The Horse is a very
+well-defined matter-of-fact sort of animal, and we are all pretty
+familiar with its structure. I dare say it may have struck you, that it
+resembles very much no other member of the animal kingdom, except
+perhaps the Zebra or the Ass. But let me ask you to look along these
+diagrams. Here is the skeleton of the Horse, and here the skeleton of
+the Dog. You will notice that we have in the Horse a skull, a backbone
+and ribs, shoulder-blades and haunch-bones. In the fore-limb, one upper
+arm-bone, two fore arm-bones, wrist-bones (wrongly called knee), and
+middle hand-bones, ending in the three bones of a finger, the last of
+which is sheathed in the horny hoof of the fore-foot: in the hind-limb,
+one thigh-bone, two leg-bones, ankle-bones, and middle foot-bones,
+ending in the three bones of a toe, the last of which is encased in the
+hoof of the hind-foot. Now turn to the Dog's skeleton. We find
+identically the same bones, but more of them, there being more toes in
+each foot, and hence more toe-bones.
+
+Well, that is a very curious thing! The fact is that the Dog and the
+Horse--when one gets a look at them without the outward impediments of
+the skin--are found to be made in very much the same sort of fashion.
+And if I were to make a transverse section of the Dog, I should find the
+same organs that I have already shown you as forming parts of the Horse.
+Well, here is another skeleton--that of a kind of Lemur--you see he has
+just the same bones; and if I were to make a transverse section of it,
+it would be just the same again. In your mind's eye turn him round, so
+as to put his backbone in a position inclined obliquely upwards and
+forwards, just as in the next three diagrams, which represent the
+skeletons of an Orang, a Chimpanzee, and a Gorilla, and you find you
+have no trouble in identifying the bones throughout; and lastly turn to
+the end of the series, the diagram representing a man's skeleton, and
+still you find no great structural feature essentially altered. There
+are the same bones in the same relations. From the Horse we pass on and
+on, with gradual steps, until we arrive at last at the highest known
+forms. On the other hand, take the other line of diagrams, and pass from
+the Horse downwards in the scale to this fish; and still, though the
+modifications are vastly greater, the essential framework of the
+organization remains unchanged. Here, for instance, is a Porpoise; here
+is its strong backbone, with the cavity running through it, which
+contains the spinal cord; here are the ribs, here the shoulder-blade;
+here is the little short upper-arm bone, here are the two forearm
+bones, the wrist-bone, and the finger-bones.
+
+Strange, is it not, that the Porpoise should have in this queer-looking
+affair--its flapper (as it is called), the same fundamental elements as
+the fore-leg of the Horse or the Dog, or the Ape or Man; and here you
+will notice a very curious thing,--the hinder limbs are absent. Now, let
+us make another jump. Let us go to the Codfish: here you see is the
+forearm, in this large pectoral fin--carrying your mind's eye onward
+from the flapper of the Porpoise. And here you have the hinder limbs
+restored in the shape of these ventral fins. If I were to make a
+transverse section of this, I should find just the same organs that we
+have before noticed. So that, you see, there comes out this strange
+conclusion as the result of our investigations, that the Horse, when
+examined and compared with other animals, is found by no means to stand
+alone in nature; but that there are an enormous number of other
+creatures which have backbones, ribs, and legs, and other parts arranged
+in the same general manner, and in all their formation exhibiting the
+same broad peculiarities.
+
+I am sure that you cannot have followed me even in this extremely
+elementary exposition of the structural relations of animals, without
+seeing what I have been driving at all through, which is, to show you
+that, step by step, naturalists have come to the idea of a unity of
+plan, or conformity of construction, among animals which appeared at
+first sight to be extremely dissimilar.
+
+And here you have evidence of such a unity of plan among all the animals
+which have backbones, and which we technically call _Vertebrata_. But
+there are multitudes of other animals, such as crabs, lobsters, spiders,
+and so on, which we term _Annulosa_. In these I could not point out to
+you the parts that correspond with those of the Horse,--the backbone,
+for instance,--as they are constructed upon a very different principle,
+which is also common to all of them; that is to say, the Lobster, the
+Spider, and the Centipede, have a common plan running through their
+whole arrangement, in just the same way that the Horse, the Dog, and the
+Porpoise assimilate to each other.
+
+Yet other creatures--whelks, cuttlefishes, oysters, snails, and all
+their tribe (_Mollusca_)--resemble one another in the same way, but
+differ from both _Vertebrata_ and _Annulosa_; and the like is true of
+the animals called _Coelenterata_ (Polypes) and _Protozoa_
+(animalcules and sponges).
+
+Now, by pursuing this sort of comparison, naturalists have arrived at
+the conviction that there are,--some think five, and some seven,--but
+certainly not more than the latter number--and perhaps it is simpler to
+assume five--distinct plans or constructions in the whole of the animal
+world; and that the hundreds of thousands of species of creatures on the
+surface of the earth, are all reducible to those five, or, at most,
+seven, plans of organization.
+
+But can we go no further than that? When one has got so far, one is
+tempted to go on a step and inquire whether we cannot go back yet
+further and bring down the whole to modifications of one primordial
+unit. The anatomist cannot do this; but if he call to his aid the study
+of development, he can do it. For we shall find that, distinct as those
+plans are, whether it be a porpoise or man, or lobster, or any of those
+other kinds I have mentioned, every one begins its existence with one
+and the same primitive form,--that of the egg, consisting, as we have
+seen, of a nitrogenous substance, having a small particle or nucleus in
+the centre of it. Furthermore, the earlier changes of each are
+substantially the same. And it is in this that lies that true "unity of
+organization" of the animal kingdom which has been guessed at and
+fancied for many years; but which it has been left to the present time
+to be demonstrated by the careful study of development. But is it
+possible to go another step further still, and to show that in the same
+way the whole of the organic world is reducible to one primitive
+condition of form? Is there among the plants the same primitive form of
+organization, and is that identical with that of the animal kingdom? The
+reply to that question, too, is not uncertain or doubtful. It is now
+proved that every plant begins its existence under the same form; that
+is to say, in that of a cell--a particle of nitrogenous matter having
+substantially the same conditions. So that if you trace back the oak to
+its first germ, or a man, or a horse, or lobster, or oyster, or any
+other animal you choose to name, you shall find each and all of these
+commencing their existence in forms essentially similar to each other:
+and, furthermore, that the first processes of growth, and many of the
+subsequent modifications, are essentially the same in principle in
+almost all.
+
+In conclusion, let me, in a few words, recapitulate the positions which
+I have laid down. And you must understand that I have not been talking
+mere theory; I have been speaking of matters which are as plainly
+demonstrable as the commonest propositions of Euclid--of facts that must
+form the basis of all speculations and beliefs in Biological science. We
+have gradually traced down all organic forms, or, in other words, we
+have analyzed the present condition of animated nature, until we found
+that each species took its origin in a form similar to that under which
+all the others commenced their existence. We have found the whole of the
+vast array of living forms with which we are surrounded, constantly
+growing, increasing, decaying, and disappearing; the animal constantly
+attracting, modifying, and applying to its sustenance the matter of the
+vegetable kingdom, which derived its support from the absorption and
+conversion of inorganic matter. And so constant and universal is this
+absorption, waste, and reproduction, that it may be said with perfect
+certainty that there is left in no one of our bodies at the present
+moment a millionth part of the matter of which they were originally
+formed! We have seen, again, that not only is the living matter derived
+from the inorganic world, but that the forces of that matter are all of
+them correlative with and convertible into those of inorganic nature.
+
+This, for our present purposes, is the best view of the present
+condition of organic nature which I can lay before you: it gives you the
+great outlines of a vast picture, which you must fill up by your own
+study.
+
+In the next lecture I shall endeavour in the same way to go back into
+the past, and to sketch in the same broad manner the history of life in
+epochs preceding our own.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+  THE PAST CONDITION OF ORGANIC
+  NATURE.
+
+
+In the lecture which I delivered last Monday evening, I endeavoured to
+sketch in a very brief manner, but as well as the time at my disposal
+would permit, the present condition of organic nature, meaning by that
+large title simply an indication of the great, broad, and general
+principles which are to be discovered by those who look attentively at
+the phenomena of organic nature as at present displayed. The general
+result of our investigations might be summed up thus: we found that the
+multiplicity of the forms of animal life, great as that may be, may be
+reduced to a comparatively few primitive plans or types of construction;
+that a further study of the development of those different forms
+revealed to us that they were again reducible, until we at last brought
+the infinite diversity of animal, and even vegetable life, down to the
+primordial form of a single cell.
+
+We found that our analysis of the organic world, whether animals or
+plants, showed, in the long run, that they might both be reduced into,
+and were, in fact, composed of the same constituents. And we saw that
+the plant obtained the materials constituting its substance by a
+peculiar combination of matters belonging entirely to the inorganic
+world; that, then, the animal was constantly appropriating the
+nitrogenous matters of the plant to its own nourishment, and returning
+them back to the inorganic world, in what we spoke of as its waste; and
+that, finally, when the animal ceased to exist, the constituents of its
+body were dissolved and transmitted to that inorganic world whence they
+had been at first abstracted. Thus we saw in both the blade of grass
+and the horse but the same elements differently combined and arranged.
+We discovered a continual circulation going on,--the plant drawing in
+the elements of inorganic nature and combining them into food for the
+animal creation; the animal borrowing from the plant the matter for its
+own support, giving off during its life products which returned
+immediately to the inorganic world; and that, eventually, the
+constituent materials of the whole structure of both animals and plants
+were thus returned to their original source: there was a constant
+passage from one state of existence to another, and a returning back
+again.
+
+Lastly, when we endeavoured to form some notion of the nature of the
+forces exercised by living beings, we discovered that they--if not
+capable of being subjected to the same minute analysis as the
+constituents of those beings themselves--that they were correlative
+with--that they were the equivalents of the forces of inorganic
+nature--that they were, in the sense in which the term is now used,
+convertible with them. That was our general result.
+
+And now, leaving the Present, I must endeavour in the same manner to put
+before you the facts that are to be discovered in the Past history of
+the living world, in the past conditions of organic nature. We have,
+to-night, to deal with the facts of that history--a history involving
+periods of time before which our mere human records sink into utter
+insignificance--a history the variety and physical magnitude of whose
+events cannot even be foreshadowed by the history of human life and
+human phenomena--a history of the most varied and complex character.
+
+We must deal with the history, then, in the first place, as we should
+deal with all other histories. The historical student knows that his
+first business should be to inquire into the validity of his evidence,
+and the nature of the record in which the evidence is contained, that he
+may be able to form a proper estimate of the correctness of the
+conclusions which have been drawn from that evidence. So, here, we must
+pass, in the first place, to the consideration of a matter which may
+seem foreign to the question under discussion. We must dwell upon the
+nature of the records, and the credibility of the evidence they contain;
+we must look to the completeness or incompleteness of those records
+themselves, before we turn to that which they contain and reveal. The
+question of the credibility of the history, happily for us, will not
+require much consideration, for, in this history, unlike those of human
+origin, there can be no cavilling, no differences as to the reality and
+truth of the facts of which it is made up; the facts state themselves,
+and are laid out clearly before us.
+
+But, although one of the greatest difficulties of the historical student
+is cleared out of our path, there are other difficulties--difficulties
+in rightly interpreting the facts as they are presented to us--which may
+be compared with the greatest difficulties of any other kinds of
+historical study.
+
+What is this record of the past history of the globe, and what are the
+questions which are involved in an inquiry into its completeness or
+incompleteness? That record is composed of mud; and the question which
+we have to investigate this evening resolves itself into a question of
+the formation of mud. You may think, perhaps, that this is a vast
+step--of almost from the sublime to the ridiculous--from the
+contemplation of the history of the past ages of the world's existence
+to the consideration of the history of the formation of mud! But, in
+nature, there is nothing mean and unworthy of attention; there is
+nothing ridiculous or contemptible in any of her works; and this
+inquiry, you will soon see, I hope, takes us to the very root and
+foundations of our subject.
+
+How, then, is mud formed? Always, with some trifling exception, which I
+need not consider now--always, as the result of the action of water,
+wearing down and disintegrating the surface of the earth and rocks with
+which it comes in contact--pounding and grinding it down, and carrying
+the particles away to places where they cease to be disturbed by this
+mechanical action, and where they can subside and rest. For the ocean,
+urged by winds, washes, as we know, a long extent of coast, and every
+wave, loaded as it is with particles of sand and gravel as it breaks
+upon the shore, does something towards the disintegrating process. And
+thus, slowly but surely, the hardest rocks are gradually ground down to
+a powdery substance; and the mud thus formed, coarser or finer, as the
+case may be, is carried by the rush of the tides, or currents, till it
+reaches the comparatively deeper parts of the ocean, in which it can
+sink to the bottom, that is, to parts where there is a depth of about
+fourteen or fifteen fathoms, a depth at which the water is, usually,
+nearly motionless, and in which, of course, the finer particles of this
+detritus, or mud as we call it, sinks to the bottom.
+
+Or, again, if you take a river, rushing down from its mountain sources,
+brawling over the stones and rocks that intersect its path, loosening,
+removing, and carrying with it in its downward course the pebbles and
+lighter matters from its banks, it crushes and pounds down the rocks and
+earths in precisely the same way as the wearing action of the sea waves.
+The matters forming the deposit are torn from the mountain-side and
+whirled impetuously into the valley, more slowly over the plain, thence
+into the estuary, and from the estuary they are swept into the sea. The
+coarser and heavier fragments are obviously deposited first, that is, as
+soon as the current begins to lose its force by becoming amalgamated
+with the stiller depths of the ocean, but the finer and lighter
+particles are carried further on, and eventually deposited in a deeper
+and stiller portion of the ocean.
+
+It clearly follows from this that mud gives us a chronology; for it is
+evident that supposing this, which I now sketch, to be the sea bottom,
+and supposing this to be a coast-line; from the washing action of the
+sea upon the rock, wearing and grinding it down into a sediment of mud,
+the mud will be carried down and, at length, deposited in the deeper
+parts of this sea-bottom, where it will form a layer; and then, while
+that first layer is hardening, other mud which is coming from the same
+source will, of course, be carried to the same place; and, as it is
+quite impossible for it to get beneath the layer already there, it
+deposits itself above it, and forms another layer, and in that way you
+gradually have layers of mud constantly forming and hardening one above
+the other, and conveying a record of time.
+
+It is a necessary result of the operation of the law of gravitation that
+the uppermost layer shall be the youngest and the lowest the oldest, and
+that the different beds shall be older at any particular point or spot
+in exactly the ratio of their depth from the surface. So that if they
+were upheaved afterwards, and you had a series of these different layers
+of mud, converted into sandstone, or limestone, as the case might be,
+you might be sure that the bottom layer was deposited first, and that
+the upper layers were formed afterwards. Here, you see, is the first
+step in the history--these layers of mud give us an idea of time.
+
+The whole surface of the earth,--I speak broadly, and leave out minor
+qualifications,--is made up of such layers of mud, so hard, the majority
+of them, that we call them rock, whether limestone or sandstone, or
+other varieties of rock. And, seeing that every part of the crust of the
+earth is made up in this way, you might think that the determination of
+the chronology, the fixing of the time which it has taken to form this
+crust is a comparatively simple matter. Take a broad average, ascertain
+how fast the mud is deposited upon the bottom of the sea, or in the
+estuary of rivers; take it to be an inch, or two, or three inches a
+year, or whatever you may roughly estimate it at; then take the total
+thickness of the whole series of stratified rocks, which geologists
+estimate at twelve or thirteen miles, or about seventy thousand feet,
+make a sum in short division, divide the total thickness by that of the
+quantity deposited in one year, and the result will, of course, give you
+the number of years which the crust has taken to form.
+
+Truly, that looks a very simple process! It would be so except for
+certain difficulties, the very first of which is that of finding how
+rapidly sediments are deposited; but the main difficulty--a difficulty
+which renders any certain calculations of such a matter out of the
+question--is this, the sea-bottom on which the deposit takes place is
+continually shifting.
+
+Instead of the surface of the earth being that stable, fixed thing that
+it is popularly believed to be, being, in common parlance, the very
+emblem of fixity itself, it is incessantly moving, and is, in fact, as
+unstable as the surface of the sea, except that its undulations are
+infinitely slower and enormously higher and deeper.
+
+Now, what is the effect of this oscillation? Take the case to which I
+have previously referred. The finer or coarser sediments that are
+carried down by the current of the river will only be carried out a
+certain distance, and eventually, as we have already seen, on reaching
+the stiller part of the ocean, will be deposited at the bottom.
+
+Let C _y_ (Fig. 35) be the sea-bottom, _y_ D the shore, _x y_ the
+sea-level, then the coarser deposit will subside over the region B, the
+finer over A, while beyond A there will be no deposit at all; and,
+consequently, no record will be kept, simply because no deposit is going
+on. Now, suppose that the whole land, C, D, which we have regarded as
+stationary, goes down, as it does so, both A and B go further out from
+the shore, which will be at _y_^1, _x_^1 _y_^1, being the new sea-level.
+The consequence will be that the layer of mud (A), being now, for the
+most part, further than the force of the current is strong enough to
+convey even the finest _débris_, will, of course, receive no more
+deposits, and having attained a certain thickness, will now grow no
+thicker.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.]
+
+We should be misled in taking the thickness of that layer, whenever it
+may be exposed to our view, as a record of time in the manner in which
+we are now regarding this subject, as it would give us only an
+imperfect and partial record: it would seem to represent too short a
+period of time.
+
+Suppose, on the other hand, that the land (C D) had gone on rising
+slowly and gradually--say an inch or two inches in the course of a
+century,--what would be the practical effect of that movement? Why, that
+the sediment A and B which has been already deposited, would eventually
+be brought nearer to the shore-level, and again subjected to the wear
+and tear of the sea; and directly the sea begins to act upon it, it
+would of course soon cut up and carry it away, to a greater or less
+extent, to be re-deposited further out.
+
+Well, as there is, in all probability, not one single spot on the whole
+surface of the earth, which has not been up and down in this way a great
+many times, it follows that the thickness of the deposits formed at any
+particular spot cannot be taken (even supposing we had at first obtained
+correct data as to the rate at which they took place) as affording
+reliable information as to the period of time occupied in its deposit.
+So that you see it is absolutely necessary from these facts, seeing that
+our record entirely consists of accumulations of mud, superimposed one
+on the other; seeing in the next place that any particular spots on
+which accumulations have occurred, have been constantly moving up and
+down, and sometimes out of the reach of a deposit, and at other times
+its own deposit broken up and carried away, it follows that our record
+must be in the highest degree imperfect, and we have hardly a trace left
+of thick deposits, or any definite knowledge of the area that they
+occupied in a great many cases. And mark this! That supposing even that
+the whole surface of the earth had been accessible to the
+geologist,--that man had had access to every part of the earth, and had
+made sections of the whole, and put them all together,--even then his
+record must of necessity be imperfect.
+
+But to how much has man really access? If you will look at this Map you
+will see that it represents the proportion of the sea to the earth: this
+coloured part indicates all the dry land, and this other portion is the
+water. You will notice at once that the water covers three-fifths of the
+whole surface of the globe, and has covered it in the same manner ever
+since man has kept any record of his own observations, to say nothing of
+the minute period during which he has cultivated geological inquiry. So
+that three-fifths of the surface of the earth is shut out from us
+because it is under the sea. Let us look at the other two-fifths, and
+see what are the countries in which anything that may be termed
+searching geological inquiry has been carried out: a good deal of
+France, Germany, and Great Britain and Ireland, bits of Spain, of Italy,
+and of Russia, have been examined, but of the whole great mass of
+Africa, except parts of the southern extremity, we know next to nothing;
+little bits of India, but of the greater part of the Asiatic continent
+nothing; bits of the Northern American States and of Canada, but of the
+greater part of the continent of North America, and in still larger
+proportion, of South America, nothing!
+
+Under these circumstances, it follows that even with reference to that
+kind of imperfect information which we can possess, it is only of about
+the ten-thousandth part of the accessible parts of the earth that has
+been examined properly. Therefore, it is with justice that the most
+thoughtful of those who are concerned in these inquiries insist
+continually upon the imperfection of the geological record; for, I
+repeat, it is absolutely necessary, from the nature of things, that that
+record should be of the most fragmentary and imperfect character.
+Unfortunately this circumstance has been constantly forgotten. Men of
+science, like young colts in a fresh pasture, are apt to be exhilarated
+on being turned into a new field of inquiry, to go off at a hand-gallop,
+in total disregard of hedges and ditches, to lose sight of the real
+limitation of their inquiries, and to forget the extreme imperfection of
+what is really known. Geologists have imagined that they could tell us
+what was going on at all parts of the earth's surface during a given
+epoch; they have talked of this deposit being contemporaneous with that
+deposit, until, from our little local histories of the changes at
+limited spots of the earth's surface, they have constructed a universal
+history of the globe as full of wonders and portents as any other story
+of antiquity.
+
+But what does this attempt to construct a universal history of the
+globe imply? It implies that we shall not only have a precise knowledge
+of the events which have occurred at any particular point, but that we
+shall be able to say what events, at any one spot, took place at the
+same time with those at other spots.
+
+Let us see how far that is in the nature of things practicable. Suppose
+that here I make a section of the Lake of Killarney, and here the
+section of another lake--that of Loch Lomond in Scotland for instance.
+The rivers that flow into them are constantly carrying down deposits of
+mud, and beds, or strata, are being as constantly formed, one above the
+other, at the bottom of those lakes. Now, there is not a shadow of doubt
+that in these two lakes the lower beds are all older than the
+upper--there is no doubt about that; but what does _this_ tell us about
+the age of any given bed in Loch Lomond, as compared with that of any
+given bed in the Lake of Killarney? It is, indeed, obvious that if any
+two sets of deposits are separated and discontinuous, there is
+absolutely no means whatever given you by the nature of the deposit of
+saying whether one is much younger or older than the other; but you may
+say, as many have said and think, that the case is very much altered if
+the beds which we are comparing are continuous. Suppose two beds of mud
+hardened into rock,--A and B are seen in section (Fig. 36.)
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36.]
+
+Well, you say, it is admitted that the lowermost bed is always the
+older. Very well; B, therefore, is older than A. No doubt, _as a whole_,
+it is so; or if any parts of the two beds which are in the same vertical
+line are compared, it is so. But suppose you take what seems a very
+natural step further, and say that the part _a_ of the bed A is younger
+than the part _b_ of the bed B. Is this sound reasoning? If you find any
+record of changes taking place at _b_, did they occur before any events
+which took place while _a_ was being deposited? It looks all very plain
+sailing, indeed, to say that they did; and yet there is no proof of
+anything of the kind. As the former Director of this Institution, Sir H.
+De la Beche, long ago showed, this reasoning may involve an entire
+fallacy. It is extremely possible that _a_ may have been deposited ages
+before _b_. It is very easy to understand how that can be. To return to
+Fig. 35; when A and B were deposited, they were _substantially_
+contemporaneous; A being simply the finer deposit, and B the coarser of
+the same detritus or waste of land. Now suppose that that sea-bottom
+goes down (as shown in Fig. 35), so that the first deposit is carried no
+farther than _a_, forming the bed A^1, and the coarse no farther than
+_b_, forming the bed B^1, the result will be the formation of two
+continuous beds, one of fine sediment (A A^1) over-lapping another of
+coarse sediment (B B^1). Now suppose the whole sea-bottom is raised up,
+and a section exposed about the point A^1; no doubt, _at this spot_, the
+upper bed is younger than the lower. But we should obviously greatly err
+if we concluded that the mass of the upper bed at A was younger than the
+lower bed at B; for we have just seen that they are contemporaneous
+deposits. Still more should we be in error if we supposed the upper bed
+at A to be younger than the continuation of the lower bed at B^1; for A
+was deposited long before B^1. In fine, if, instead of comparing
+immediately adjacent parts of two beds, one of which lies upon another,
+we compare distant parts, it is quite possible that the upper may be any
+number of years older than the under, and the under any number of years
+younger than the upper.
+
+Now you must not suppose that I put this before you for the purpose of
+raising a paradoxical difficulty; the fact is, that the great mass of
+deposits have taken place in sea-bottoms which are gradually sinking,
+and have been formed under the very conditions I am here supposing.
+
+Do not run away with the notion that this subverts the principle I laid
+down at first. The error lies in extending a principle which is
+perfectly applicable to deposits in the same vertical line to deposits
+which are not in that relation to one another.
+
+It is in consequence of circumstances of this kind, and of others that I
+might mention to you, that our conclusions on and interpretations of the
+record are really and strictly only valid so long as we confine
+ourselves to one vertical section. I do not mean to tell you that there
+are no qualifying circumstances, so that, even in very considerable
+areas, we may safely speak of conformably superimposed beds being older
+or younger than others at many different points. But we can never be
+quite sure in coming to that conclusion, and especially we cannot be
+sure if there is any break in their continuity, or any very great
+distance between the points to be compared.
+
+Well now, so much for the record itself,--so much for its
+imperfections,--so much for the conditions to be observed in
+interpreting it, and its chronological indications, the moment we pass
+beyond the limits of a vertical linear section.
+
+Now let us pass from the record to that which it contains,--from the
+book itself to the writing and the figures on its pages. This writing
+and these figures consist of remains of animals and plants which, in the
+great majority of cases, have lived and died in the very spot in which
+we now find them, or at least in the immediate vicinity. You must all of
+you be aware--and I referred to the fact in my last lecture--that there
+are vast numbers of creatures living at the bottom of the sea. These
+creatures, like all others, sooner or later die, and their shells and
+hard parts lie at the bottom; and then the fine mud which is being
+constantly brought down by rivers and the action of the wear and tear of
+the sea, covers them over and protects them from any further change or
+alteration; and, of course, as in process of time the mud becomes
+hardened and solidified, the shells of these animals are preserved and
+firmly embedded in the limestone or sandstone which is being thus
+formed. You may see in the galleries of the Museum upstairs specimens of
+limestones in which such fossil remains of existing animals are
+embedded. There are some specimens in which turtles' eggs have been
+embedded in calcareous sand, and before the sun had hatched the young
+turtles, they became covered over with calcareous mud, and thus have
+been preserved and fossilized.
+
+Not only does this process of embedding and fossilization occur with
+marine and other aquatic animals and plants, but it affects those land
+animals and plants which are drifted away to sea, or become buried in
+bogs or morasses; and the animals which have been trodden down by their
+fellows and crushed in the mud at the river's bank, as the herd have
+come to drink. In any of these cases, the organisms may be crushed or be
+mutilated, before or after putrefaction, in such a manner that perhaps
+only a part will be left in the form in which it reaches us. It is,
+indeed, a most remarkable fact, that it is quite an exceptional case to
+find a skeleton of any one of all the thousands of wild land animals
+that we know are constantly being killed, or dying in the course of
+nature: they are preyed on and devoured by other animals, or die in
+places where their bodies are not afterwards protected by mud. There are
+other animals existing in the sea, the shells of which form exceedingly
+large deposits. You are probably aware that before the attempt was made
+to lay the Atlantic telegraphic cable, the Government employed vessels
+in making a series of very careful observations and soundings of the
+bottom of the Atlantic; and although, as we must all regret, that up to
+the present time that project has not succeeded, we have the
+satisfaction of knowing that it yielded some most remarkable results to
+science. The Atlantic Ocean had to be sounded right across, to depths of
+several miles in some places, and the nature of its bottom was carefully
+ascertained. Well, now, a space of about 1000 miles wide from east to
+west, and I do not exactly know how many from north to south, but at any
+rate 600 or 700 miles, was carefully examined, and it was found that
+over the whole of that immense area an excessively fine chalky mud is
+being deposited; and this deposit is entirely made up of animals whose
+hard parts are deposited in this part of the ocean, and are doubtless
+gradually acquiring solidity and becoming metamorphosed into a chalky
+limestone. Thus, you see, it is quite possible in this way to preserve
+unmistakable records of animal and vegetable life. Whenever the
+sea-bottom, by some of those undulations of the earth's crust that I
+have referred to, becomes upheaved, and sections or borings are made, or
+pits are dug, then we become able to examine the contents and
+constituents of these ancient sea-bottoms, and find out what manner of
+animals lived at that period.
+
+Now it is a very important consideration in its bearing on the
+completeness of the record, to inquire how far the remains contained in
+these fossiliferous limestones are able to convey anything like an
+accurate or complete account of the animals which were in existence at
+the time of its formation. Upon that point we can form a very clear
+judgment, and one in which there is no possible room for any mistake.
+There are of course a great number of animals--such as jelly-fishes, and
+other animals--without any hard parts, of which we cannot reasonably
+expect to find any traces whatever: there is nothing of them to
+preserve. Within a very short time, you will have noticed, after they
+are removed from the water, they dry up to a mere nothing; certainly
+they are not of a nature to leave any very visible traces of their
+existence on such bodies as chalk or mud. Then again, look at land
+animals; it is, as I have said, a very uncommon thing to find a land
+animal entire after death. Insects and other carnivorous animals very
+speedily pull them to pieces, putrefaction takes place, and so, out of
+the hundreds of thousands that are known to die every year, it is the
+rarest thing in the world to see one embedded in such a way that its
+remains would be preserved for a lengthened period. Not only is this the
+case, but even when animal remains have been safely embedded, certain
+natural agents may wholly destroy and remove them.
+
+Almost all the hard parts of animals--the bones and so on--are composed
+chiefly of phosphate of lime and carbonate of lime. Some years ago, I
+had to make an inquiry into the nature of some very curious fossils sent
+to me from the North of Scotland. Fossils are usually hard bony
+structures that have become embedded in the way I have described, and
+have gradually acquired the nature and solidity of the body with which
+they are associated; but in this case I had a series of _holes_ in some
+pieces of rock, and nothing else. Those holes, however, had a certain
+definite shape about them, and when I got a skilful workman to make
+castings of the interior of these holes, I found that they were the
+impressions of the joints of a backbone and of the armour of a great
+reptile, twelve or more feet long. This great beast had died and got
+buried in the sand, the sand had gradually hardened over the bones, but
+remained porous. Water had trickled through it, and that water being
+probably charged with a superfluity of carbonic acid, had dissolved all
+the phosphate and carbonate of lime, and the bones themselves had thus
+decayed and entirely disappeared; but as the sandstone happened to have
+consolidated by that time, the precise shape of the bones was retained.
+If that sandstone had remained soft a little longer, we should have
+known nothing whatsoever of the existence of the reptile whose bones it
+had encased.
+
+How certain it is that a vast number of animals which have existed at
+one period on this earth have entirely perished, and left no trace
+whatever of their forms, may be proved to you by other considerations.
+There are large tracts of sandstone in various parts of the world, in
+which nobody has yet found anything but footsteps. Not a bone of any
+description, but an enormous number of traces of footsteps. There is no
+question about them. There is a whole valley in Connecticut covered with
+these footsteps, and not a single fragment of the animals which made
+them have yet been found. Let me mention another case while upon that
+matter, which is even more surprising than those to which I have yet
+referred. There is a limestone formation near Oxford, at a place called
+Stonesfield, which has yielded the remains of certain very interesting
+mammalian animals, and up to this time, if I recollect rightly, there
+have been found seven specimens of its lower jaws, and not a bit of
+anything else, neither limb-bones nor skull, or any part whatever; not a
+fragment of the whole system! Of course, it would be preposterous to
+imagine that the beasts had nothing else but a lower jaw! The
+probability is, as Dr. Buckland showed, as the result of his
+observations on dead dogs in the river Thames, that the lower jaw, not
+being secured by very firm ligaments to the bones of the head, and being
+a weighty affair, would easily be knocked off, or might drop away from
+the body as it floated in water in a state of decomposition. The jaw
+would thus be deposited immediately, while the rest of the body would
+float and drift away altogether, ultimately reaching the sea, and
+perhaps becoming destroyed. The jaw becomes covered up and preserved in
+the river silt, and thus it comes that we have such a curious
+circumstance as that of the lower jaws in the Stonesfield slates. So
+that, you see, faulty as these layers of stone in the earth's crust are,
+defective as they necessarily are as a record, the account of
+contemporaneous vital phenomena presented by them is, by the necessity
+of the case, infinitely more defective and fragmentary.
+
+It was necessary that I should put all this very strongly before you,
+because, otherwise, you might have been led to think differently of the
+completeness of our knowledge by the next facts I shall state to you.
+
+The researches of the last three-quarters of a century have, in truth,
+revealed a wonderful richness of organic life in those rocks. Certainly
+not fewer than thirty or forty thousand different species of fossils
+have been discovered. You have no more ground for doubting that these
+creatures really lived and died at or near the places in which we find
+them than you have for like scepticism about a shell on the sea-shore.
+The evidence is as good in the one case as in the other.
+
+Our next business is to look at the general character of these fossil
+remains, and it is a subject which will be requisite to consider
+carefully; and the first point for us is to examine how much the extinct
+_Flora_ and _Fauna_ as a _whole_--disregarding altogether the
+_succession_ of their constituents, of which I shall speak
+afterwards--differ from the _Flora_ and _Fauna_ of the present day;--how
+far they differ in what we _do_ know about them, leaving altogether out
+of consideration speculations based on what we _do not_ know.
+
+I strongly imagine that if it were not for the peculiar appearance that
+fossilized animals have, that any of you might readily walk through a
+museum which contains fossil remains mixed up with those of the present
+forms of life, and I doubt very much whether your uninstructed eyes
+would lead you to see any vast or wonderful difference between the two.
+If you looked closely, you would notice, in the first place, a great
+many things very like animals with which you are acquainted now: you
+would see differences of shape and proportion, but on the whole a close
+similarity.
+
+I explained what I meant by ORDERS the other day, when I described the
+animal kingdom as being divided into sub-kingdoms, classes, and orders.
+If you divide the animal kingdom into orders, you will find that there
+are above one hundred and twenty. The number may vary on one side or the
+other, but this is a fair estimate. That is the sum total of the orders
+of all the animals which we know now, and which have been known in past
+times, and left remains behind.
+
+Now, how many of those are absolutely extinct? That is to say, how many
+of these orders of animals have lived at a former period of the world's
+history, but have at present no representatives? That is the sense in
+which I meant to use the word "extinct." I mean that those animals did
+live on this earth at one time, but have left no one of their kind with
+us at the present moment. So that estimating the number of extinct
+animals is a sort of way of comparing the past creation as a whole with
+the present as a whole. Among the mammalia and birds there are none
+extinct; but when we come to the reptiles there is a most wonderful
+thing: out of the eight orders, or thereabouts, which you can make among
+reptiles, one-half are extinct. These diagrams of the plesiosaurus, the
+ichthyosaurus, the pterodactyle, give you a notion of some of these
+extinct reptiles. And here is a cast of the pterodactyle and bones of
+the ichthyosaurus and the plesiosaurus, just as fresh as if it had been
+recently dug up in a churchyard. Thus, in the reptile class, there are
+no less than half of the orders which are absolutely extinct. If we turn
+to the _Amphibia_, there was one extinct order, the Labyrinthodonts,
+typified by the large salamander-like beast shown in this diagram.
+
+No order of fishes is known to be extinct. Every fish that we find in
+the strata--to which I have been referring--can be identified and placed
+in one of the orders which exist at the present day. There is not known
+to be a single ordinal form of insect extinct. There are only two orders
+extinct among the _Crustacea_. There is not known to be an extinct order
+of these creatures, the parasitic and other worms; but there are two,
+not to say three, absolutely extinct orders of this class, the
+_Echinodermata_; out of all the orders of the _Coelenterata_ and
+_Protozoa_ only one, the Rugose Corals.
+
+So that, you see, out of somewhere about 120 orders of animals, taking
+them altogether, you will not, at the outside estimate, find above ten
+or a dozen extinct. Summing up all the orders of animals which have left
+remains behind them, you will not find above ten or a dozen which cannot
+be arranged with those of the present day; that is to say, that the
+difference does not amount to much more than ten per cent.: and the
+proportion of extinct orders of plants is still smaller. I think that
+that is a very astounding, a most astonishing fact: seeing the enormous
+epochs of time which have elapsed during the constitution of the surface
+of the earth as it at present exists; it is, indeed, a most astounding
+thing that the proportion of extinct ordinal types should be so
+exceedingly small.
+
+But now, there is another point of view in which we must look at this
+past creation. Suppose that we were to sink a vertical pit through the
+floor beneath us, and that I could succeed in making a section right
+through in the direction of New Zealand, I should find in each of the
+different beds through which I passed the remains of animals which I
+should find in that stratum and not in the others. First, I should come
+upon beds of gravel or drift containing the bones of large animals, such
+as the elephant, rhinoceros, and cave tiger. Rather curious things to
+fall across in Piccadilly! If I should dig lower still, I should come
+upon a bed of what we call the London clay, and in this, as you will see
+in our galleries upstairs, are found remains of strange cattle, remains
+of turtles, palms, and large tropical fruits; with shell-fish such as
+you see the like of now only in tropical regions. If I went below that,
+I should come upon the chalk, and there I should find something
+altogether different, the remains of ichthyosauri and pterodactyles, and
+ammonites, and so forth.
+
+I do not know what Mr. Godwin Austin would say comes next, but probably
+rocks containing more ammonites, and more ichthyosauri and plesiosauri,
+with a vast number of other things; and under that I should meet with
+yet older rocks, containing numbers of strange shells and fishes; and in
+thus passing from the surface to the lowest depths of the earth's crust,
+the forms of animal life and vegetable life which I should meet with in
+the successive beds would, looking at them broadly, be the more
+different the further that I went down. Or, in other words, inasmuch as
+we started with the clear principle, that in a series of
+naturally-disposed mud beds the lowest are the oldest, we should come to
+this result, that the farther we go back in time the more difference
+exists between the animal and vegetable life of an epoch and that which
+now exists. That was the conclusion to which I wished to bring you at
+the end of this Lecture.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+  THE METHOD BY WHICH THE CAUSES OF
+  THE PRESENT AND PAST CONDITIONS
+  OF ORGANIC NATURE ARE TO BE DISCOVERED.--THE
+  ORIGINATION OF LIVING
+  BEINGS.
+
+
+In the two preceding lectures I have endeavoured to indicate to you the
+extent of the subject-matter of the inquiry upon which we are engaged;
+and having thus acquired some conception of the Past and Present
+phenomena of Organic Nature, I must now turn to that which constitutes
+the great problem which we have set before ourselves;--I mean, the
+question of what knowledge we have of the causes of these phenomena of
+organic nature, and how such knowledge is obtainable.
+
+Here, on the threshold of the inquiry, an objection meets us. There are
+in the world a number of extremely worthy, well-meaning persons, whose
+judgments and opinions are entitled to the utmost respect on account of
+their sincerity, who are of opinion that Vital Phenomena, and especially
+all questions relating to the origin of vital phenomena, are questions
+quite apart from the ordinary run of inquiry, and are, by their very
+nature, placed out of our reach. They say that all these phenomena
+originated miraculously, or in some way totally different from the
+ordinary course of nature, and that therefore they conceive it to be
+futile, not to say presumptuous, to attempt to inquire into them.
+
+To such sincere and earnest persons, I would only say, that a question
+of this kind is not to be shelved upon theoretical or speculative
+grounds. You may remember the story of the Sophist who demonstrated to
+Diogenes in the most complete and satisfactory manner that he could not
+walk; that, in fact, all motion was an impossibility; and that Diogenes
+refuted him by simply getting up and walking round his tub. So, in the
+same way, the man of science replies to objections of this kind, by
+simply getting up and walking onward, and showing what science has done
+and is doing,--by pointing to that immense mass of facts which have been
+ascertained and systematized under the forms of the great doctrines of
+Morphology, of Development, of Distribution, and the like. He sees an
+enormous mass of facts and laws relating to organic beings, which stand
+on the same good sound foundation as every other natural law. With this
+mass of facts and laws before us, therefore, seeing that, as far as
+organic matters have hitherto been accessible and studied, they have
+shown themselves capable of yielding to scientific investigation, we may
+accept this as proof that order and law reign there as well as in the
+rest of nature. The man of science says nothing to objectors of this
+sort, but supposes that we can and shall walk to a knowledge of the
+origin of organic nature, in the same way that we have walked to a
+knowledge of the laws and principles of the inorganic world.
+
+But there are objectors who say the same from ignorance and ill-will. To
+such I would reply that the objection comes ill from them, and that the
+real presumption, I may almost say the real blasphemy, in this matter,
+is in the attempt to limit that inquiry into the causes of phenomena,
+which is the source of all human blessings, and from which has sprung
+all human prosperity and progress; for, after all, we can accomplish
+comparatively little; the limited range of our own faculties bounds us
+on every side,--the field of our powers of observation is small enough,
+and he who endeavours to narrow the sphere of our inquiries is only
+pursuing a course that is likely to produce the greatest harm to his
+fellow-men.
+
+But now, assuming, as we all do, I hope, that these phenomena are
+properly accessible to inquiry, and setting out upon our search into the
+causes of the phenomena of organic nature, or, at any rate, setting out
+to discover how much we at present know upon these abstruse matters,
+the question arises as to what is to be our course of proceeding, and
+what method we must lay down for our guidance. I reply to that question,
+that our method must be exactly the same as that which is pursued in any
+other scientific inquiry, the method of scientific investigation being
+the same for all orders of facts and phenomena whatsoever.
+
+I must dwell a little on this point, for I wish you to leave this room
+with a very clear conviction that scientific investigation is not, as
+many people seem to suppose, some kind of modern black art. I say that
+you might easily gather this impression from the manner in which many
+persons speak of scientific inquiry, or talk about, inductive and
+deductive philosophy, or the principles of the "Baconian philosophy." I
+do protest that, of the vast number of cants in this world, there are
+none, to my mind, so contemptible as the pseudo-scientific cant which is
+talked about the "Baconian philosophy."
+
+To hear people talk about the great Chancellor,--and a very great man he
+certainly was,--you would think that it was he who had invented science,
+and that there was no such thing as sound reasoning before the time of
+Queen Elizabeth! Of course you say, that cannot possibly be true; you
+perceive, on a moment's reflection, that such an idea is absurdly wrong;
+and yet, so firmly rooted is this sort of impression,--I cannot call it
+an idea, or conception,--the thing is too absurd to be entertained,--but
+so completely does it exist at the bottom of most men's minds, that this
+has been a matter of observation with me for many years past. There are
+many men who, though knowing absolutely nothing of the subject with
+which they may be dealing, wish, nevertheless, to damage the author of
+some view with which they think fit to disagree. What they do, then, is
+not to go and learn something about the subject, which one would
+naturally think the best way of fairly dealing with it; but they abuse
+the originator of the view they question, in a general manner, and wind
+up by saying that, "After all, you know, the principles and method of
+this author are totally opposed to the canons of the Baconian
+philosophy." Then everybody applauds, as a matter of course, and agrees
+that it must be so. But if you were to stop them all in the middle of
+their applause, you would probably find that neither the speaker nor his
+applauders could tell you how or in what way it was so; neither the one
+nor the other having the slightest idea of what they mean when they
+speak of the "Baconian philosophy."
+
+You will understand, I hope, that I have not the slightest desire to
+join in the outcry against either the morals, the intellect, or the
+great genius of Lord Chancellor Bacon. He was undoubtedly a very great
+man, let people say what they will of him; but notwithstanding all that
+he did for philosophy, it would be entirely wrong to suppose that the
+methods of modern scientific inquiry originated with him, or with his
+age; they originated with the first man, whoever he was; and indeed
+existed long before him, for many of the essential processes of
+reasoning are exerted by the higher order of brutes as completely and
+effectively as by ourselves. We see in many of the brute creation the
+exercise of one, at least, of the same powers of reasoning as that which
+we ourselves employ.
+
+The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of
+the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode
+at which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact.
+There is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of
+difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those
+of an ordinary person, as there is between the operations and methods of
+a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the
+operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis
+by means of his balance and finely-graduated weights. It is not that the
+action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other,
+differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but
+the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and
+of course turns by the addition of a much smaller weight.
+
+You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar
+example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science
+work by means of Induction and Deduction, and that by the help of these
+operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other
+things, which are called Natural Laws, and Causes, and that out of
+these, by some cunning skill of their own, they build up Hypotheses and
+Theories. And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common
+mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they
+have to be acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. To
+hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of
+science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow-men; but
+if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are
+quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus are being used by
+yourselves every day and every hour of your lives.
+
+There is a well-known incident in one of Molière's plays, where the
+author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told that he
+had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same way, I
+trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with yourselves, on
+the discovery that you have been acting on the principles of inductive
+and deductive philosophy during the same period. Probably there is not
+one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to set in
+motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though
+differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes
+through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena.
+
+A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose you go
+into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,--you take up one, and, on
+biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard
+and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and
+sour. The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine
+it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you
+will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already
+tried.
+
+Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take
+the trouble to analyze and trace out into its logical elements what has
+been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first
+place, you have performed the operation of Induction. You found that,
+in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with
+sourness. It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the
+second. True, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make
+an induction from; you generalize the facts, and you expect to find
+sourness in apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon
+that a general law, that all hard and green apples are sour; and that,
+so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. Well, having got your natural
+law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find is
+hard and green, you say, "All hard and green apples are sour; this apple
+is hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." That train of
+reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all its various
+parts and terms,--its major premiss, its minor premiss, and its
+conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out,
+would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive
+at your final determination, "I will not have that apple." So that, you
+see, you have, in the first place, established a law by Induction, and
+upon that you have founded a Deduction, and reasoned out the special
+conclusion of the particular case. Well now, suppose, having got your
+law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing the qualities of
+apples with a friend: you will say to him, "It is a very curious
+thing,--but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!" Your friend
+says to you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, "Oh, because
+I have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to be
+so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, we should
+call that an Experimental Verification. And, if still opposed, you go
+further, and say, "I have heard from the people in Somersetshire and
+Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have
+observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy,
+and in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience
+of mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject."
+Whereupon, your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees
+with you, and is convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion
+you have drawn. He believes, although perhaps he does not know he
+believes it, that the more extensive Verifications are,--that the more
+frequently experiments have been made, and results of the same kind
+arrived at,--that the more varied the conditions under which the same
+results are attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and
+he disputes the question no further. He sees that the experiment has
+been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people,
+with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that the law you
+have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it.
+
+In science we do the same thing;--the philosopher exercises precisely
+the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. In scientific
+inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every
+possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is
+done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of
+the apples. And in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law
+is in exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our
+experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp of an
+article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to the
+ground. That is a very common verification of one of the best
+established laws of nature--that of gravitation. The method by which men
+of science establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as
+that by which we have established the trivial proposition about the
+sourness of hard and green apples. But we believe it in such an
+extensive, thorough, and unhesitating manner because the universal
+experience of mankind verifies it, and we can verify it ourselves at any
+time; and that is the strongest possible foundation on which any natural
+law can rest.
+
+So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in
+science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let us now
+turn to another matter, (though really it is but another phase of the
+same question,) and that is, the method by which, from the relations of
+certain phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes
+towards the others.
+
+I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore show you
+what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose that one of you,
+on coming down in the morning to the parlour of your house, finds that a
+tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous
+evening are gone,--the window is open, and you observe the mark of a
+dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you
+notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these
+phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds
+have passed you say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered
+the room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is
+out of your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know there
+has; I am quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what you know; but
+in reality you are giving expression to what is, in all essential
+particulars, an Hypothesis. You do not _know_ it at all; it is nothing
+but an hypothesis rapidly framed in your own mind! And, it is an
+hypothesis founded on a long train of inductions and deductions.
+
+What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this
+hypothesis? You have observed, in the first place, that the window is
+open; but by a train of reasoning involving many Inductions and
+Deductions, you have probably arrived long before at the General
+Law--and a very good one it is--that windows do not open of themselves;
+and you therefore conclude that something has opened the window. A
+second general law that you have arrived at in the same way is, that
+tea-pots and spoons do not go out of a window spontaneously, and you are
+satisfied that, as they are not now where you left them, they have been
+removed. In the third place, you look at the marks on the window-sill,
+and the shoe-marks outside, and you say that in all previous experience
+the former kind of mark has never been produced by anything else but the
+hand of a human being; and the same experience shows that no other
+animal but man at present wears shoes with hob-nails in them such as
+would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not know, even if we could
+discover any of those "missing links" that are talked about, that they
+would help us to any other conclusion! At any rate the law which states
+our present experience is strong enough for my present purpose. You next
+reach the conclusion, that as these kinds of marks have not been left by
+any other animals than men, or are liable to be formed in any other way
+than by a man's hand and shoe, the marks in question have been formed by
+a man in that way. You have, further, a general law, founded on
+observation and experience, and that, too, is, I am sorry to say, a very
+universal and unimpeachable one,--that some men are thieves; and you
+assume at once from all these premisses--and that is what constitutes
+your hypothesis--that the man who made the marks outside and on the
+window-sill, opened the window, got into the room, and stole your
+tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a _Vera Causa_;--you have
+assumed a Cause which it is plain is competent to produce all the
+phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these phenomena only by
+the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical conclusion, of the
+justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it is only rendered
+highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive reasonings.
+
+I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary
+common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own
+satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set them
+on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your
+property. But just as you are starting with this object, some person
+comes in, and on learning what you are about, says, "My good friend, you
+are going on a great deal too fast. How do you know that the man who
+really made the marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that
+took them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would
+probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary
+to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so
+that, at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." While
+you are talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one
+of that good kind of people that I was talking of a little while ago.
+And he might say, "Oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great
+deal too fast. You are most presumptuous. You admit that all these
+occurrences took place when you were fast asleep, at a time when you
+could not possibly have known anything about what was taking place. How
+do you know that the laws of Nature are not suspended during the night?
+It may be that there has been some kind of supernatural interference in
+this case." In point of fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one of
+which you cannot at all demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no
+means sure that the laws of Nature are the same when you are asleep as
+when you are awake.
+
+Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. You
+feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. You
+will feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are
+quite right, and you say to him, "My good friend, I can only be guided
+by the natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough
+to stand aside and permit me to pass, I will go and fetch the police."
+Well, we will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good
+luck you meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found
+with your property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand
+and to his boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very
+good experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause of
+the abnormal phenomena observed in your parlour, and would act
+accordingly.
+
+Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very
+common kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in
+an ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to
+analyze it carefully. All the operations I have described, you will see,
+are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to a
+conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a
+robbery and punish the offender. I say that you are led, in that case,
+to your conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which
+a man of science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin
+and laws of the most occult phenomena. The process is, and always must
+be, the same; and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by
+Newton and Laplace in their endeavours to discover and define the causes
+of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, with your own common
+sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only difference is, that
+the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every step has to be most
+carefully watched, so that there may not be a single crack or flaw in
+your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the hypotheses of daily life
+may be of little or no moment as affecting the general correctness of
+the conclusions at which we may arrive; but in a scientific inquiry a
+fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, and is sure to be in
+the long run constantly productive of mischievous, if not fatal results.
+
+Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an
+hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is
+often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after all,
+it is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in
+nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses,
+and often very ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence of
+an hypothesis is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly
+pursue the same course. You may have hypotheses and hypotheses. A man
+may say, if he likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an
+hypothesis. But another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and
+attention to the subject, and availed himself of the most powerful
+telescopes and the results of the observations of others, declares that
+in his opinion it is probably composed of materials very similar to
+those of which our own earth is made up: and that is also only an
+hypothesis. But I need not tell you that there is an enormous difference
+in the value of the two hypotheses. That one which is based on sound
+scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding value; and that
+which is a mere hasty random guess is likely to have but little value.
+Every great step in our progress in discovering causes has been made in
+exactly the same way as that which I have detailed to you. A person
+observing the occurrence of certain facts and phenomena asks, naturally
+enough, what process, what kind of operation known to occur in nature
+applied to the particular case, will unravel and explain the mystery?
+Hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its value will be
+proportionate to the care and completeness with which its basis had been
+tested and verified. It is in these matters as in the commonest affairs
+of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, while the guess
+of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see that the
+value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with which
+the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of
+verification.
+
+I dare say I may have to return to this point by-and-by; but having
+dealt thus far with our logical methods, I must now turn to something
+which, perhaps, you may consider more interesting, or, at any rate, more
+tangible. But in reality there are but few things that can be more
+important for you to understand than the mental processes and the means
+by which we obtain scientific conclusions and theories.[51] Having
+granted that the inquiry is a proper one, and having determined on the
+nature of the methods we are to pursue and which only can lead to
+success, I must now turn to the consideration of our knowledge of the
+nature of the processes which have resulted in the present condition of
+organic nature.
+
+Here, let me say at once, lest some of you misunderstand me, that I have
+extremely little to report. The question of how the present condition of
+organic nature came about, resolves itself into two questions. The first
+is: How has organic or living matter commenced its existence? And the
+second is: How has it been perpetuated? On the second question I shall
+have more to say hereafter. But on the first one, what I now have to say
+will be for the most part of a negative character.
+
+If you consider what kind of evidence we can have upon this matter, it
+will resolve itself into two kinds. We may have historical evidence and
+we may have experimental evidence. It is, for example, conceivable,
+that inasmuch as the hardened mud which forms a considerable portion of
+the thickness of the earth's crust contains faithful records of the past
+forms of life, and inasmuch as these differ more and more as we go
+further down,--it is possible and conceivable that we might come to some
+particular bed or stratum which should contain the remains of those
+creatures with which organic life began upon the earth. And if we did
+so, and if such forms of organic life were preservable, we should have
+what I would call historical evidence of the mode in which organic life
+began upon this planet. Many persons will tell you, and indeed you will
+find it stated in many works on geology, that this has been done, and
+that we really possess such a record; there are some who imagine that
+the earliest forms of life of which we have as yet discovered any
+record, are in truth the forms in which animal life began upon the
+globe. The grounds on which they base that supposition are these:--That
+if you go through the enormous thickness of the earth's crust and get
+down to the older rocks, the higher vertebrate animals--the quadrupeds,
+birds, and fishes--cease to be found; beneath them you find only the
+invertebrate animals; and in the deepest and lowest rocks those remains
+become scantier and scantier, not in any very gradual progression,
+however, until, at length, in what are supposed to be the oldest rocks,
+the animal remains which are found are almost always confined to four
+forms,--_Oldhamia_, whose precise nature is not known, whether plant or
+animal; _Lingula_, a kind of mollusc; _Trilobites_, a crustacean animal,
+having the same essential plan of construction, though differing in many
+details from a lobster or crab; and _Hymenocaris_, which is also a
+crustacean. So that you have all the _Fauna_ reduced, at this period, to
+four forms: one a kind of animal or plant that we know nothing about,
+and three undoubted animals--two crustaceans and one mollusc.
+
+I think, considering the organization of these mollusca and crustacea,
+and looking at their very complex nature, that it does indeed require a
+very strong imagination to conceive that these were the first created of
+all living things. And you must take into consideration the fact that
+we have not the slightest proof that these which we call the oldest beds
+are really so: I repeat, we have not the slightest proof of it. When you
+find in some places that in an enormous thickness of rocks there are but
+very scanty traces of life, or absolutely none at all; and that in other
+parts of the world rocks of the very same formation are crowded with the
+records of living forms, I think it is impossible to place any reliance
+on the supposition, or to feel oneself justified in supposing that these
+are the forms in which life first commenced. I have not time here to
+enter upon the technical grounds upon which I am led to this
+conclusion,--that could hardly be done properly in half a dozen lectures
+on that part alone;--I must content myself with saying that I do not at
+all believe that these are the oldest forms of life.
+
+I turn to the experimental side to see what evidence we have there. To
+enable us to say that we know anything about the experimental
+origination of organization and life, the investigator ought to be able
+to take inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and
+salines, in any sort of inorganic combination, and be able to build them
+up into Protein matter, and then that Protein matter ought to begin to
+live in an organic form. That, nobody has done as yet, and I suspect it
+will be a long while before anybody does do it. But the thing is by no
+means so impossible as it looks; for the researches of modern chemistry
+have shown us--I won't say the road towards it, but, if I may so say,
+they have shown the finger-post pointing to the road that may lead to
+it.
+
+It is not many years ago--and you must recollect that Organic Chemistry
+is a young science, not above a couple of generations old, you must not
+expect too much of it,--it is not many years ago since it was said to be
+perfectly impossible to fabricate any organic compound; that is to say,
+any non-mineral compound which is to be found in an organized being. It
+remained so for a very long period; but it is now a considerable number
+of years since a distinguished foreign chemist contrived to fabricate
+Urea, a substance of a very complex character, which forms one of the
+waste products of animal structures. And of late years a number of other
+compounds, such as Butyric Acid, and others, have been added to the
+list. I need not tell you that chemistry is an enormous distance from
+the goal I indicate; all I wish to point out to you is, that it is by no
+means safe to say that that goal may not be reached one day. It may be
+that it is impossible for us to produce the conditions requisite to the
+origination of life; but we must speak modestly about the matter, and
+recollect that Science has put her foot upon the bottom round of the
+ladder. Truly he would be a bold man who would venture to predict where
+she will be fifty years hence.
+
+There is another inquiry which bears indirectly upon this question, and
+upon which I must say a few words. You are all of you aware of the
+phenomena of what is called spontaneous generation. Our forefathers,
+down to the seventeenth century, or thereabouts, all imagined, in
+perfectly good faith, that certain vegetable and animal forms gave
+birth, in the process of their decomposition, to insect life. Thus, if
+you put a piece of meat in the sun, and allowed it to putrefy, they
+conceived that the grubs which soon began to appear were the result of
+the action of a power of spontaneous generation which the meat
+contained. And they could give you receipts for making various animal
+and vegetable preparations which would produce particular kinds of
+animals. A very distinguished Italian naturalist, named Redi, took up
+the question, at a time when everybody believed in it; among others our
+own great Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. You
+will constantly find his name quoted, however, as an opponent of the
+doctrine of spontaneous generation; but the fact is, and you will see it
+if you take the trouble to look into his works, Harvey believed it as
+profoundly as any man of his time; but he happened to enunciate a very
+curious proposition--that every living thing came from an _egg_; he did
+not mean to use the word in the sense in which we now employ it, he only
+meant to say that every living thing originated in a little rounded
+particle of organized substance; and it is from this circumstance,
+probably, that the notion of Harvey having opposed the doctrine
+originated. Then came Redi, and he proceeded to upset the doctrine in a
+very simple manner. He merely covered the piece of meat with some very
+fine gauze, and then he exposed it to the same conditions. The result of
+this was that no grubs or insects were produced; he proved that the
+grubs originated from the insects who came and deposited their eggs in
+the meat, and that they were hatched by the heat of the sun. By this
+kind of inquiry he thoroughly upset the doctrine of spontaneous
+generation, for his time at least.
+
+Then came the discovery and application of the microscope to scientific
+inquiries, which showed to naturalists that besides the organisms which
+they already knew as living beings and plants, there were an immense
+number of minute things which could be obtained apparently almost at
+will from decaying vegetable and animal forms. Thus, if you took some
+ordinary black pepper or some hay, and steeped it in water, you would
+find in the course of a few days that the water had become impregnated
+with an immense number of animalcules swimming about in all directions.
+From facts of this kind naturalists were led to revive the theory of
+spontaneous generation. They were headed here by an English
+naturalist,--Needham,--and afterwards in France by the learned Buffon.
+They said that these things were absolutely begotten in the water of the
+decaying substances out of which the infusion was made. It did not
+matter whether you took animal or vegetable matter, you had only to
+steep it in water and expose it, and you would soon have plenty of
+animalcules. They made an hypothesis about this which was a very fair
+one. They said, this matter of the animal world, or of the higher
+plants, appears to be dead, but in reality it has a sort of dim life
+about it, which, if it is placed under fair conditions, will cause it to
+break up into the forms of these little animalcules, and they will go
+through their lives in the same way as the animal or plant of which they
+once formed a part.
+
+The question now became very hotly debated. Spallanzani, an Italian
+naturalist, took up opposite views to those of Needham and Buffon, and
+by means of certain experiments he showed that it was quite possible to
+stop the process by boiling the water, and closing the vessel in which
+it was contained. "Oh!" said his opponents, "but what do you know you
+may be doing when you heat the air over the water in this way? You may
+be destroying some property of the air requisite for the spontaneous
+generation of the animalcules."
+
+However, Spallanzani's views were supposed to be upon the right side,
+and those of the others fell into discredit; although the fact was that
+Spallanzani had not made good his views. Well, then, the subject
+continued to be revived from time to time, and experiments were made by
+several persons; but these experiments were not altogether satisfactory.
+It was found that if you put an infusion in which animalcules would
+appear if it were exposed to the air into a vessel and boiled it, and
+then sealed up the mouth of the vessel, so that no air, save such as had
+been heated to 212°, could reach its contents, that then no animalcules
+would be found; but if you took the same vessel and exposed the infusion
+to the air, then you would get animalcules. Furthermore, it was found
+that if you connected the mouth of the vessel with a red-hot tube in
+such a way that the air would have to pass through the tube before
+reaching the infusion, that then you would get no animalcules. Yet
+another thing was noticed: if you took two flasks containing the same
+kind of infusion, and left one entirely exposed to the air, and in the
+mouth of the other placed a ball of cotton wool, so that the air would
+have to filter itself through it before reaching the infusion, that
+then, although you might have plenty of animalcules in the first flask,
+you would certainly obtain none from the second.
+
+These experiments, you see, all tended towards one conclusion--that the
+infusoria were developed from little minute spores or eggs which were
+constantly floating in the atmosphere, and which lose their power of
+germination if subjected to heat. But one observer now made another
+experiment, which seemed to go entirely the other way, and puzzled him
+altogether. He took some of this boiled infusion that I have been
+speaking of, and by the use of a mercurial bath--a kind of trough used
+in laboratories--he deftly inverted a vessel containing the infusion
+into the mercury, so that the latter reached a little beyond the level
+of the mouth of the _inverted_ vessel. You see that he thus had a
+quantity of the infusion shut off from any possible communication with
+the outer air by being inverted upon a bed of mercury.
+
+He then prepared some pure oxygen and nitrogen gases, and passed them by
+means of a tube going from the outside of the vessel, up through the
+mercury into the infusion; so that he thus had it exposed to a perfectly
+pure atmosphere of the same constituents as the external air. Of course,
+he expected he would get no infusorial animalcules at all in that
+infusion; but, to his great dismay and discomfiture, he found he almost
+always did get them.
+
+Furthermore, it has been found that experiments made in the manner
+described above answer well with most infusions; but that if you fill
+the vessel with boiled milk, and then stop the neck with cotton-wool,
+you _will_ have infusoria. So that you see there were two experiments
+that brought you to one kind of conclusion, and three to another; which
+was a most unsatisfactory state of things to arrive at in a scientific
+inquiry.
+
+Some few years after this, the question began to be very hotly discussed
+in France. There was M. Pouchet, a professor at Rouen, a very learned
+man, but certainly not a very rigid experimentalist. He published a
+number of experiments of his own, some of which were very ingenious, to
+show that if you went to work in a proper way, there was a truth in the
+doctrine of spontaneous generation. Well, it was one of the most
+fortunate things in the world that M. Pouchet took up this question,
+because it induced a distinguished French chemist, M. Pasteur, to take
+up the question on the other side; and he has certainly worked it out in
+the most perfect manner. I am glad to say, too, that he has published
+his researches in time to enable me to give you an account of them. He
+verified all the experiments which I have just mentioned to you--and
+then finding those extraordinary anomalies, as in the case of the
+mercury bath and the milk, he set himself to work to discover their
+nature. In the case of milk he found it to be a question of temperature.
+Milk in a fresh state is slightly alkaline; and it is a very curious
+circumstance, but this very slight degree of alkalinity seems to have
+the effect of preserving the organisms which fall into it from the air
+from being destroyed at a temperature of 212°, which is the boiling
+point. But if you raise the temperature 10° when you boil it, the milk
+behaves like everything else; and if the air with which it comes in
+contact, after being boiled at this temperature, is passed through a
+red-hot tube, you will not get a trace of organisms.
+
+He then turned his attention to the mercury bath, and found on
+examination that the surface of the mercury was almost always covered
+with a very fine dust. He found that even the mercury itself was
+positively full of organic matters; that from being constantly exposed
+to the air, it had collected an immense number of these infusorial
+organisms from the air. Well, under these circumstances he felt that the
+case was quite clear, and that the mercury was not what it had appeared
+to M. Schwann to be,--a bar to the admission of these organisms; but
+that, in reality, it acted as a reservoir from which the infusion was
+immediately supplied with the large quantity that had so puzzled him.
+
+But not content with explaining the experiments of others, M. Pasteur
+went to work to satisfy himself completely. He said to himself: "If my
+view is right, and if, in point of fact, all these appearances of
+spontaneous generation are altogether due to the falling of minute germs
+suspended in the atmosphere,--why, I ought not only to be able to show
+the germs, but I ought to be able to catch and sow them, and produce the
+resulting organisms." He, accordingly, constructed a very ingenious
+apparatus to enable him to accomplish the trapping of the "_germ dust_"
+in the air. He fixed in the window of his room a glass tube, in the
+centre of which he had placed a ball of gun-cotton, which, as you all
+know, is ordinary cotton-wool, which, from having been steeped in strong
+acid, is converted into a substance of great explosive power. It is also
+soluble in alcohol and ether. One end of the glass tube was, of course,
+open to the external air; and at the other end of it he placed an
+aspirator, a contrivance for causing a current of the external air to
+pass through the tube. He kept this apparatus going for four-and-twenty
+hours, and then removed the _dusted_ gun-cotton, and dissolved it in
+alcohol and ether. He then allowed this to stand for a few hours, and
+the result was, that a very fine dust was gradually deposited at the
+bottom of it. That dust, on being transferred to the stage of a
+microscope, was found to contain an enormous number of starch grains.
+You know that the materials of our food and the greater portion of
+plants are composed of starch, and we are constantly making use of it in
+a variety of ways, so that there is always a quantity of it suspended in
+the air. It is these starch grains which form many of those bright
+specks that we see dancing in a ray of light sometimes. But besides
+these, M. Pasteur found also an immense number of other organic
+substances such as spores of fungi, which had been floating about in the
+air and had got caged in this way.
+
+He went farther, and said to himself, "If these really are the things
+that give rise to the appearance of spontaneous generation, I ought to
+be able to take a ball of this _dusted_ gun-cotton and put it into one
+of my vessels, containing that boiled infusion which has been kept away
+from the air, and in which no infusoria are at present developed, and
+then, if I am right, the introduction of this gun-cotton will give rise
+to organisms."
+
+Accordingly, he took one of these vessels of infusion, which had been
+kept eighteen months, without the least appearance of life in it, and by
+a most ingenious contrivance, he managed to break it open and introduce
+such a ball of gun-cotton, without allowing the infusion or the cotton
+ball to come into contact with any air but that which had been subjected
+to a red heat, and in twenty-four hours he had the satisfaction of
+finding all the indications of what had been hitherto called spontaneous
+generation. He had succeeded in catching the germs and developing
+organisms in the way he had anticipated.
+
+It now struck him that the truth of his conclusions might be
+demonstrated without all the apparatus he had employed. To do this, he
+took some decaying animal or vegetable substance, such as urine, which
+is an extremely decomposable substance, or the juice of yeast, or
+perhaps some other artificial preparation, and filled a vessel having a
+long tubular neck, with it. He then boiled the liquid and bent that long
+neck into an S shape or zig-zag, leaving it open at the end. The
+infusion then gave no trace of any appearance of spontaneous generation,
+however long it might be left, as all the germs in the air were
+deposited in the beginning of the bent neck. He then cut the tube close
+to the vessel, and allowed the ordinary air to have free and direct
+access; and the result of that was the appearance of organisms in it, as
+soon as the infusion had been allowed to stand long enough to allow of
+the growth of those it received from the air, which was about
+forty-eight hours. The result of M. Pasteur's experiments proved,
+therefore, in the most conclusive manner, that all the appearances of
+spontaneous generation arose from nothing more than the deposition of
+the germs of organisms which were constantly floating in the air.
+
+To this conclusion, however, the objection was made, that if that were
+the cause, then the air would contain such an enormous number of these
+germs, that it would be a continual fog. But M. Pasteur replied that
+they are not there in anything like the number we might suppose, and
+that an exaggerated view has been held on that subject; he showed that
+the chances of animal or vegetable life appearing in infusions, depend
+entirely on the conditions under which they are exposed. If they are
+exposed to the ordinary atmosphere around us, why, of course, you may
+have organisms appearing early. But, on the other hand, if they are
+exposed to air at a great height, or in some very quiet cellar, you will
+often not find a single trace of life.
+
+So that M. Pasteur arrived at last at the clear and definite result,
+that all these appearances are like the case of the worms in the piece
+of meat, which was refuted by Redi, simply germs carried by the air and
+deposited in the liquids in which they afterwards appear. For my own
+part, I conceive that, with the particulars of M. Pasteur's experiments
+before us, we cannot fail to arrive at his conclusions; and that the
+doctrine of spontaneous generation has received a final _coup de grâce_.
+
+You, of course, understand that all this in no way interferes with the
+_possibility_ of the fabrication of organic matters by the direct method
+to which I have referred, remote as that possibility may be.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[51] Those who wish to study fully the doctrines of which I have
+endeavoured to give some rough and ready illustrations, must read Mr.
+John Stuart Mill's "System of Logic."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+  THE PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS,
+  HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION AND
+  VARIATION.
+
+
+The inquiry which we undertook, at our last meeting, into the state of
+our knowledge of the causes of the phenomena of organic nature,--of the
+past and of the present,--resolved itself into two subsidiary inquiries:
+the first was, whether we know anything, either historically or
+experimentally, of the mode of origin of living beings; the second
+subsidiary inquiry was, whether, granting the origin, we know anything
+about the perpetuation and modifications of the forms of organic beings.
+The reply which I had to give to the first question was altogether
+negative, and the chief result of my last lecture was, that, neither
+historically nor experimentally, do we at present know anything
+whatsoever about the origin of living forms. We saw that, historically,
+we are not likely to know anything about it, although we may perhaps
+learn something experimentally; but that at present we are an enormous
+distance from the goal I indicated.
+
+I now, then, take up the next question, What do we know of the
+reproduction, the perpetuation, and the modifications of the forms of
+living beings, supposing that we have put the question as to their
+origination on one side, and have assumed that at present the causes of
+their origination are beyond us, and that we know nothing about them?
+Upon this question the state of our knowledge is extremely different; it
+is exceedingly large: and, if not complete, our experience is certainly
+most extensive. It would be impossible to lay it all before you, and the
+most I can do, or need do to-night, is to take up the principal points
+and put them before you with such prominence as may subserve the
+purposes of our present argument.
+
+The method of the perpetuation of organic beings is of two kinds,--the
+asexual and the sexual. In the first the perpetuation takes place from
+and by a particular act of an individual organism, which sometimes may
+not be classed as belonging to any sex at all. In the second case, it is
+in consequence of the mutual action and inter-action of certain portions
+of the organisms of usually two distinct individuals--the male and the
+female. The cases of asexual perpetuation are by no means so common as
+the cases of sexual perpetuation; and they are by no means so common in
+the animal as in the vegetable world. You are all probably familiar with
+the fact, as a matter of experience, that you can propagate plants by
+means of what are called "cuttings"; for example, that by taking a
+cutting from a geranium plant, and rearing it properly, by supplying it
+with light and warmth and nourishment from the earth, it grows up and
+takes the form of its parent, having all the properties and
+peculiarities of the original plant.
+
+Sometimes this process, which the gardener performs artificially, takes
+place naturally; that is to say, a little bulb, or portion of the plant,
+detaches itself, drops off, and becomes capable of growing as a separate
+thing. That is the case with many bulbous plants, which throw off in
+this way secondary bulbs, which are lodged in the ground and become
+developed into plants. This is an asexual process, and from it results
+the repetition or reproduction of the form of the original being from
+which the bulb proceeds.
+
+Among animals the same thing takes place. Among the lower forms of
+animal life, the infusorial animalculæ we have already spoken of throw
+off certain portions, or break themselves up in various directions,
+sometimes transversely or sometimes longitudinally; or they may give off
+buds, which detach themselves and develop into their proper forms. There
+is the common fresh-water Polype, for instance, which multiplies itself
+in this way. Just in the same way as the gardener is able to multiply
+and reproduce the peculiarities and characters of particular plants by
+means of cuttings, so can the physiological experimentalist,--as was
+shown by the Abbé Trembley many years ago,--so can he do the same thing
+with many of the lower forms of animal life. M. de Trembley showed that
+you could take a polype and cut it into two, or four, or many pieces,
+mutilating it in all directions, and the pieces would still grow up and
+reproduce completely the original form of the animal. These are all
+cases of asexual multiplication, and there are other instances, and
+still more extraordinary ones, in which this process takes place
+naturally, in a more hidden, a more recondite kind of way. You are all
+of you familiar with that little green insect, the _Aphis_ or blight, as
+it is called. These little animals, during a very considerable part of
+their existence, multiply themselves by means of a kind of internal
+budding, the buds being developed into essentially asexual animals,
+which are neither male nor female; they become converted into young
+_Aphides_, which repeat the process, and their offspring after them, and
+so on again; you may go on for nine or ten, or even twenty or more
+successions; and there is no very good reason to say how soon it might
+terminate, or how long it might not go on if the proper conditions of
+warmth and nourishment were kept up.
+
+Sexual reproduction is quite a distinct matter. Here, in all these
+cases, what is required is the detachment of two portions of the
+parental organisms, which portions we know as the egg or the
+spermatozoon. In plants it is the ovule and the pollen-grain, as in the
+flowering plants, or the ovule and the antherozooid, as in the
+flowerless. Among all forms of animal life, the spermatozoa proceed from
+the male sex, and the egg is the product of the female. Now, what is
+remarkable about this mode of reproduction is this, that the egg by
+itself, or the spermatozoa by themselves, are unable to assume the
+parental form; but if they be brought into contact with one another, the
+effect of the mixture of organic substances proceeding from two sources
+appears to confer an altogether new vigour to the mixed product. This
+process is brought about, as we all know, by the sexual intercourse of
+the two sexes, and is called the act of impregnation. The result of
+this act on the part of the male and female is, that the formation of a
+new being is set up in the ovule or egg; this ovule or egg soon begins
+to be divided and subdivided, and to be fashioned into various complex
+organisms, and eventually to develop into the form of one of its
+parents, as I explained in the first lecture. These are the processes by
+which the perpetuation of organic beings is secured. Why there should be
+the two modes--why this reinvigoration should be required on the part of
+the female element we do not know; but it is most assuredly the fact,
+and it is presumable, that, however long the process of asexual
+multiplication could be continued,--I say there is good reason to
+believe that it would come to an end if a new commencement were not
+obtained by a conjunction of the two sexual elements.
+
+That character which is common to these two distinct processes is this,
+that, whether we consider the reproduction, or perpetuation, or
+modification of organic beings as they take place asexually, or as they
+may take place sexually,--in either case, I say, the offspring has a
+constant tendency to assume, speaking generally, the character of the
+parent. As I said just now, if you take a slip of a plant, and tend it
+with care, it will eventually grow up and develop into a plant like that
+from which it had sprung; and this tendency is so strong that, as
+gardeners know, this mode of multiplying by means of cuttings is the
+only secure mode of propagating very many varieties of plants; the
+peculiarity of the primitive stock seems to be better preserved if you
+propagate it by means of a slip than if you resort to the sexual mode.
+
+Again, in experiments upon the lower animals, such as the polype, to
+which I have referred, it is most extraordinary that, although cut up
+into various pieces, each particular piece will grow up into the form of
+the primitive stock; the head, if separated, will reproduce the body and
+the tail; and if you cut off the tail, you will find that that will
+reproduce the body and all the rest of the members, without in any way
+deviating from the plan of the organism from which these portions have
+been detached. And so far does this go, that some experimentalists have
+carefully examined the lower orders of animals,--among them the Abbé
+Spallanzani, who made a number of experiments upon snails and
+salamanders,--and have found that they might mutilate them to an
+incredible extent; that you might cut off the jaw or the greater part of
+the head, or the leg or the tail, and repeat the experiment several
+times, perhaps, cutting off the same member again and again; and yet
+each of those types would be reproduced according to the primitive type:
+nature making no mistake, never putting on a fresh kind of leg, or head,
+or tail, but always tending to repeat and to return to the primitive
+type.
+
+It is the same in sexual reproduction: it is a matter of perfectly
+common experience, that the tendency on the part of the offspring always
+is, speaking broadly, to reproduce the form of the parents. The proverb
+has it that the thistle does not bring forth grapes; so, among
+ourselves, there is always a likeness, more or less marked and distinct,
+between children and their parents. That is a matter of familiar and
+ordinary observation. We notice the same thing occurring in the cases of
+the domestic animals--dogs, for instance, and their offspring. In all
+these cases of propagation and perpetuation, there seems to be a
+tendency in the offspring to take the characters of the parental
+organisms. To that tendency a special name is given--and as I may very
+often use it, I will write it up here on this blackboard that you may
+remember it--it is called _Atavism_; it expresses this tendency to
+revert to the ancestral type, and comes from the Latin word _atavus_,
+ancestor.
+
+Well, this _Atavism_which I shall speak of, is, as I said before, one of
+the most marked and striking tendencies of organic beings; but, side by
+side with this hereditary tendency there is an equally distinct and
+remarkable tendency to variation. The tendency to reproduce the original
+stock has, as it were, its limits, and side by side with it there is a
+tendency to vary in certain directions, as if there were two opposing
+powers working upon the organic being, one tending to take it in a
+straight line, and the other tending to make it diverge from that
+straight line, first to one side and then to the other.
+
+So that you see these two tendencies need not precisely contradict one
+another, as the ultimate result may not always be very remote from what
+would have been the case if the line had been quite straight.
+
+This tendency to variation is less marked in that mode of propagation
+which takes place asexually; it is in that mode that the minor
+characters of animal and vegetable structures are most completely
+preserved. Still, it will happen sometimes, that the gardener, when he
+has planted a cutting of some favourite plant, will find, contrary to
+his expectation, that the slip grows up a little different from the
+primitive stock--that it produces flowers of a different colour or make,
+or some deviation in one way or another. This is what is called the
+"sporting" of plants.
+
+In animals the phenomena of asexual propagation are so obscure, that at
+present we cannot be said to know much about them; but if we turn to
+that mode of perpetuation which results from the sexual process, then we
+find variation a perfectly constant occurrence, to a certain extent;
+and, indeed, I think that a certain amount of variation from the
+primitive stock is the necessary result of the method of sexual
+propagation itself; for, inasmuch as the thing propagated proceeds from
+two organisms of different sexes and different makes and temperaments,
+and as the offspring is to be either of one sex or the other, it is
+quite clear that it cannot be an exact diagonal of the two, or it would
+be of no sex at all; it cannot be an exact intermediate form between
+that of each of its parents--it must deviate to one side or the other.
+You do not find that the male follows the precise type of the male
+parent, nor does the female always inherit the precise characteristics
+of the mother,--there is always a proportion of the female character in
+the male offspring, and of the male character in the female offspring.
+That must be quite plain to all of you who have looked at all
+attentively on your own children or those of your neighbours; you will
+have noticed how very often it may happen that the son shall exhibit the
+maternal type of character, or the daughter possess the characteristics
+of the father's family. There are all sorts of intermixtures and
+intermediate conditions between the two, where complexion, or beauty, or
+fifty other different peculiarities belonging to either side of the
+house, are reproduced in other members of the same family. Indeed, it is
+sometimes to be remarked in this kind of variation, that the variety
+belongs, strictly speaking, to neither of the immediate parents; you
+will see a child in a family who is not like either its father or its
+mother; but some old person who knew its grandfather or grandmother, or,
+it may be, an uncle, or, perhaps, even a more distant relative, will see
+a great similarity between the child and one of these. In this way it
+constantly happens that the characteristic of some previous member of
+the family comes out and is reproduced and recognized in the most
+unexpected manner.
+
+But apart from that matter of general experience, there are some cases
+which put that curious mixture in a very clear light. You are aware that
+the offspring of the Ass and the Horse, or rather of the he-Ass and the
+Mare, is what is called a Mule; and, on the other hand, the offspring of
+the Stallion and the she-Ass is what is called a _Hinny_. It is a very
+rare thing in this country to see a Hinny. I never saw one myself; but
+they have been very carefully studied. Now, the curious thing is this,
+that although you have the same elements in the experiment in each case,
+the offspring is entirely different in character, according as the male
+influence comes from the Ass or the Horse. Where the Ass is the male, as
+in the case of the Mule, you find that the head is like that of the Ass,
+that the ears are long, the tail is tufted at the end, the feet are
+small, and the voice is an unmistakable bray; these are all points of
+similarity to the Ass; but, on the other hand, the barrel of the body
+and the cut of the neck are much more like those of the Mare. Then, if
+you look at the Hinny,--the result of the union of the Stallion and the
+she-Ass, then you find it is the Horse that has the predominance; that
+the head is more like that of the Horse, the ears are shorter, the legs
+coarser, and the type is altogether altered; while the voice, instead of
+being a bray, is the ordinary neigh of the Horse. Here, you see, is a
+most curious thing: you take exactly the same elements, Ass and Horse,
+but you combine the sexes in a different manner, and the result is
+modified accordingly. You have in this case, however, a result which is
+not general and universal--there is usually an important preponderance,
+but not always on the same side.
+
+Here, then, is one intelligible, and, perhaps, necessary cause of
+variation: the fact, that there are two sexes sharing in the production
+of the offspring, and that the share taken by each is different and
+variable, not only for each combination, but also for different members
+of the same family.
+
+Secondly, there is a variation, to a certain extent,--though in all
+probability the influence of this cause has been very much
+exaggerated--but there is no doubt that variation is produced, to a
+certain extent, by what are commonly known as external conditions,--such
+as temperature, food, warmth, and moisture. In the long run, every
+variation depends, in some sense, upon external conditions, seeing that
+everything has a cause of its own. I use the term "external conditions"
+now in the sense in which it is ordinarily employed: certain it is, that
+external conditions have a definite effect. You may take a plant which
+has single flowers, and by dealing with the soil, and nourishment, and
+so on, you may by-and-by convert single flowers into double flowers, and
+make thorns shoot out into branches. You may thicken or make various
+modifications in the shape of the fruit. In animals, too, you may
+produce analogous changes in this way, as in the case of that deep
+bronze colour which persons rarely lose after having passed any length
+of time in tropical countries. You may also alter the development of the
+muscles very much, by dint of training; all the world knows that
+exercise has a great effect in this way; we always expect to find the
+arm of a blacksmith hard and wiry, and possessing a large development of
+the brachial muscles. No doubt, training, which is one of the forms of
+external conditions, converts what are originally only instructions,
+teachings, into habits, or, in other words, into organizations, to a
+great extent; but this second cause of variation cannot be considered to
+be by any means a large one. The third cause that I have to mention,
+however, is a very extensive one. It is one that, for want of a better
+name, has been called "spontaneous variation"; which means that when we
+do not know anything about the cause of phenomena, we call it
+spontaneous. In the orderly chain of causes and effects in this world,
+there are very few things of which it can be said with truth that they
+are spontaneous. Certainly not in these physical matters,--in these
+there is nothing of the kind,--everything depends on previous
+conditions. But when we cannot trace the cause of phenomena, we call
+them spontaneous.
+
+Of these variations, multitudinous as they are, but little is known with
+perfect accuracy, I will mention to you some two or three cases, because
+they are very remarkable in themselves, and also because I shall want to
+use them afterwards. Réaumur, a famous French naturalist, a great many
+years ago, in an essay which he wrote upon the art of hatching
+chickens,--which was indeed a very curious essay,--had occasion to speak
+of variations and monstrosities. One very remarkable case had come under
+his notice of a variation in the form of a human member, in the person
+of a Maltese, of the name of Gratio Kelleia, who was born with six
+fingers upon each hand, and the like number of toes to each of his feet.
+That was a case of spontaneous variation. Nobody knows why he was born
+with that number of fingers and toes, and as we don't know, we call it a
+case of "spontaneous" variation. There is another remarkable case also.
+I select these, because they happen to have been observed and noted very
+carefully at the time. It frequently happens that a variation occurs,
+but the persons who notice it do not take any care in noting down the
+particulars, until at length, when inquiries come to be made, the exact
+circumstances are forgotten; and hence, multitudinous as may be such
+"spontaneous" variations, it is exceedingly difficult to get at the
+origin of them.
+
+The second case is one of which you may find the whole details in the
+"Philosophical Transactions" for the year 1813, in a paper communicated
+by Colonel Humphreys to the President of the Royal Society,--"On a new
+Variety in the Breed of Sheep," giving an account of a very remarkable
+breed of sheep, which at one time was well known in the northern states
+of America, and which went by the name of the Ancon or the Otter breed
+of sheep. In the year 1791, there was a farmer of the name of Seth
+Wright in Massachusetts, who had a flock of sheep, consisting of a ram
+and, I think, of some twelve or thirteen ewes. Of this flock of ewes,
+one at the breeding-time bore a lamb which was very singularly formed;
+it had a very long body, very short legs, and those legs were bowed! I
+will tell you by-and-by how this singular variation in the breed of
+sheep came to be noted, and to have the prominence that it now has. For
+the present, I mention only these two cases; but the extent of variation
+in the breed of animals is perfectly obvious to any one who has studied
+natural history with ordinary attention, or to any person who compares
+animals with others of the same kind. It is strictly true that there are
+never any two specimens which are exactly alike; however similar, they
+will always differ in some certain particular.
+
+Now let us go back to Atavism,--to the hereditary tendency I spoke of.
+What will come of a variation when you breed from it, when Atavism
+comes, if I may say so, to intersect variation? The two cases of which I
+have mentioned the history, give a most excellent illustration of what
+occurs. Gratio Kelleia, the Maltese, married when he was twenty-two
+years of age, and, as I suppose there were no six-fingered ladies in
+Malta, he married an ordinary five-fingered person. The result of that
+marriage was four children; the first, who was christened Salvator, had
+six fingers and six toes, like his father; the second was George, who
+had five fingers and toes, but one of them was deformed, showing a
+tendency to variation; the third was Andrè; he had five fingers and five
+toes, quite perfect; the fourth was a girl, Marie; she had five fingers
+and five toes, but her thumbs were deformed, showing a tendency toward
+the sixth.
+
+These children grew up, and when they came to adult years, they all
+married, and of course it happened that they all married five-fingered
+and five-toed persons. Now let us see what were the results. Salvator
+had four children; they were two boys, a girl, and another boy: the
+first two boys and the girl were six-fingered and six-toed like their
+grandfather; the fourth boy had only five fingers and five toes. George
+had only four children: there were two girls with six fingers and six
+toes; there was one girl with six fingers and five toes on the right
+side, and five fingers and five toes on the left side, so that she was
+half and half. The last, a boy, had five fingers and five toes. The
+third, Andrè, you will recollect, was perfectly well-formed, and he had
+many children whose hands and feet were all regularly developed. Marie,
+the last, who, of course, married a man who had only five fingers, had
+four children: the first, a boy, was born with six toes, but the other
+three were normal.
+
+Now observe what very extraordinary phenomena are presented here. You
+have an accidental variation arising from what you may call a
+monstrosity; you have that monstrosity tendency or variation diluted in
+the first instance by an admixture with a female of normal construction,
+and you would naturally expect that, in the results of such an union,
+the monstrosity, if repeated, would be in equal proportion with the
+normal type; that is to say, that the children would be half and half,
+some taking the peculiarity of the father, and the others being of the
+purely normal type of the mother; but you see we have a great
+preponderance of the abnormal type. Well, this comes to be mixed once
+more with the pure, the normal type, and the abnormal is again produced
+in large proportion, notwithstanding the second dilution. Now what would
+have happened if these abnormal types had intermarried with each other;
+that is to say, suppose the two boys of Salvator had taken it into their
+heads to marry their first cousins, the two first girls of George, their
+uncle? You will remember that these are all of the abnormal type of
+their grandfather. The result would probably have been, that their
+offspring would have been in every case a further development of that
+abnormal type. You see it is only in the fourth, in the person of Marie,
+that the tendency, when it appears but slightly in the second
+generation, is washed out in the third, while the progeny of Andrè, who
+escaped in the first instance, escape altogether.
+
+We have in this case a good example of nature's tendency to the
+perpetuation of a variation. Here it is certainly a variation which
+carried with it no use or benefit; and yet you see the tendency to
+perpetuation may be so strong, that, notwithstanding a great admixture
+of pure blood, the variety continues itself up to the third generation,
+which is largely marked with it. In this case, as I have said, there was
+no means of the second generation intermarrying with any but
+five-fingered persons, and the question naturally suggests itself, What
+would have been the result of such marriage? Réaumur narrates this case
+only as far as the third generation. Certainly it would have been an
+exceedingly curious thing if we could have traced this matter any
+further; had the cousins intermarried, a six-fingered variety of the
+human race might have been set up.
+
+To show you that this supposition is by no means an unreasonable one,
+let me now point out what took place in the case of Seth Wright's sheep,
+where it happened to be a matter of moment to him to obtain a breed or
+raise a flock of sheep like that accidental variety that I have
+described--and I will tell you why. In that part of Massachusetts where
+Seth Wright was living, the fields were separated by fences, and the
+sheep, which were very active and robust, would roam abroad, and without
+much difficulty jump over these fences into other people's farms. As a
+matter of course, this exuberant activity on the part of the sheep
+constantly gave rise to all sorts of quarrels, bickerings, and
+contentions among the farmers of the neighbourhood; so it occurred to
+Seth Wright, who was, like his successors, more or less 'cute, that if
+he could get a stock of sheep like those with the bandy legs, they would
+not be able to jump over the fences so readily; and he acted upon that
+idea. He killed his old ram, and as soon as the young one arrived at
+maturity, he bred altogether from it. The result was even more striking
+than in the human experiment which I mentioned just now. Colonel
+Humphreys testifies that it always happened that the offspring were
+either pure Ancons or pure ordinary sheep; that in no case was there any
+mixing of the Ancons with the others. In consequence of this, in the
+course of a very few years, the farmer was able to get a very
+considerable flock of this variety, and a large number of them were
+spread throughout Massachusetts. Most unfortunately, however--I suppose
+it was because they were so common--nobody took enough notice of them to
+preserve their skeletons; and although Colonel Humphreys states that he
+sent a skeleton to the President of the Royal Society at the same time
+that he forwarded his paper, I am afraid that the variety has entirely
+disappeared; for a short time after these sheep had become prevalent in
+that district, the Merino sheep were introduced; and as their wool was
+much more valuable, and as they were a quiet race of sheep, and showed
+no tendency to trespass or jump over fences, the Otter breed of sheep,
+the wool of which was inferior to that of the Merino, was gradually
+allowed to die out.
+
+You see that these facts illustrate perfectly well what may be done if
+you take care to breed from stocks that are similar to each other. After
+having got a variation, if, by crossing a variation with the original
+stock, you multiply that variation, and then take care to keep that
+variation distinct from the original stock, and make them breed
+together,--then you may almost certainly produce a race whose tendency
+to continue the variation is exceedingly strong.
+
+This is what is called "selection"; and it is by exactly the same
+process as that by which Seth Wright bred his Ancon sheep, that our
+breeds of cattle, dogs, and fowls, are obtained. There are some
+possibilities of exception, but still, speaking broadly, I may say that
+this is the way in which all our varied races of domestic animals have
+arisen; and you must understand that it is not one peculiarity or one
+characteristic alone in which animals may vary. There is not a single
+peculiarity or characteristic of any kind, bodily or mental, in which
+offspring may not vary to a certain extent from the parent and other
+animals.
+
+Among ourselves this is well known. The simplest physical peculiarity is
+mostly reproduced. I know a case of a woman who has the lobe of one of
+her ears a little flattened. An ordinary observer might scarcely notice
+it, and yet every one of her children has an approximation to the same
+peculiarity to some extent. If you look at the other extreme, too, the
+gravest diseases, such as gout, scrofula, and consumption, may be handed
+down with just the same certainty and persistence as we noticed in the
+perpetuation of the bandy legs of the Ancon sheep.
+
+However, these facts are best illustrated in animals, and the extent of
+the variation, as is well known, is very remarkable in dogs. For
+example, there are some dogs very much smaller than others; indeed, the
+variation is so enormous that probably the smallest dog would be about
+the size of the head of the largest; there are very great variations in
+the structural forms not only of the skeleton but also in the shape of
+the skull, and in the proportions of the face and the disposition of the
+teeth.
+
+The Pointer, the Retriever, Bulldog, and the Terrier, differ very
+greatly, and yet there is every reason to believe that every one of
+these races has arisen from the same source,--that all the most
+important races have arisen by this selective breeding from accidental
+variation.
+
+A still more striking case of what may be done by selective breeding,
+and it is a better case, because there is no chance of that partial
+infusion of error to which I alluded, has been studied very carefully by
+Mr. Darwin,--the case of the domestic pigeons. I dare say there may be
+some among you who may be pigeon _fanciers_, and I wish you to
+understand that in approaching the subject, I would speak with all
+humility and hesitation, as I regret to say that I am not a pigeon
+fancier. I know it is a great art and mystery, and a thing upon which a
+man must not speak lightly; but I shall endeavour, as far as my
+understanding goes, to give you a summary of the published and
+unpublished information which I have gained from Mr. Darwin.
+
+Among the enormous variety,--I believe there are somewhere about a
+hundred and fifty kinds of pigeons,--there are four kinds which may be
+selected as representing the extremest divergences of one kind from
+another. Their names are the Carrier, the Pouter, the Fantail, and the
+Tumbler. In these large diagrams that I have here they are each
+represented in their relative sizes to each other. This first one is the
+Carrier; you will notice this large excrescence on its beak; it has a
+comparatively small head; there is a bare space round the eyes; it has a
+long neck, a very long beak, very strong legs, large feet, long wings,
+and so on. The second one is the Pouter, a very large bird, with very
+long legs and beak. It is called the Pouter because it is in the habit
+of causing its gullet to swell up by inflating it with air. I should
+tell you that all pigeons have a tendency to do this at times, but in
+the Pouter it is carried to an enormous extent. The birds appear to be
+quite proud of their power of swelling and puffing themselves out in
+this way; and I think it is about as droll a sight as you can well see
+to look at a cage full of these pigeons puffing and blowing themselves
+out in this ridiculous manner.
+
+This diagram is a representation of the third kind I mentioned--the
+Fantail. It is, you see, a small bird, with exceedingly small legs and a
+very small beak. It is most curiously distinguished by the size and
+extent of its tail, which, instead of containing twelve feathers, may
+have many more,--say thirty, or even more--I believe there are some with
+as many as forty-two. This bird has a curious habit of spreading out the
+feathers of its tail in such a way that they reach forward, and touch
+its head; and if this can be accomplished, I believe it is looked upon
+as a point of great beauty.
+
+But here is the last great variety,--the Tumbler; and of that great
+variety, one of the principal kinds, and one most prized, is the
+specimen represented here--the short-faced Tumbler. Its beak, you see,
+is reduced to a mere nothing. Just compare the beak of this one and that
+of the first one, the Carrier--I believe the orthodox comparison of the
+head and beak of a thoroughly well-bred Tumbler is to stick an oat into
+a cherry, and that will give you the proper relative proportions of the
+beak and head. The feet and legs are exceedingly small, and the bird
+appears to be quite a dwarf when placed side by side with this great
+Carrier.
+
+These are differences enough in regard to their external appearance; but
+these differences are by no means the whole or even the most important
+of the differences which obtain between these birds. There is hardly a
+single point of their structure which has not become more or less
+altered; and to give you an idea of how extensive these alterations are,
+I have here some very good skeletons, for which I am indebted to my
+friend Mr. Tegetmeier, a great authority in these matters; by means of
+which, if you examine them by-and-by, you will be able to see the
+enormous difference in their bony structures.
+
+I had the privilege, some time ago, of access to some important MSS. of
+Mr. Darwin, who, I may tell you, has taken very great pains and spent
+much valuable time and attention on the investigation of these
+variations, and getting together all the facts that bear upon them. I
+obtained from these MSS. the following summary of the differences
+between the domestic breeds of pigeons; that is to say, a notification
+of the various points in which their organization differs. In the first
+place, the back of the skull may differ a good deal, and the development
+of the bones of the face may vary a great deal; the back varies a good
+deal; the shape of the lower jaw varies; the tongue varies very greatly,
+not only in correlation to the length and size of the beak, but it seems
+also to have a kind of independent variation of its own. Then the amount
+of naked skin round the eyes, and at the base of the beak, may vary
+enormously; so may the length of the eyelids, the shape of the nostrils,
+and the length of the neck. I have already noticed the habit of blowing
+out the gullet, so remarkable in the Pouter, and comparatively so in the
+others. There are great differences, too, in the size of the female and
+the male, the shape of the body, the number and width of the processes
+of the ribs, the development of the ribs, and the size, shape, and
+development of the breastbone. We may notice, too,--and I mention the
+fact because it has been disputed by what is assumed to be high
+authority,--the variation in the number of the sacral vertebræ. The
+number of these varies from eleven to fourteen, and that without any
+diminution in the number of the vertebræ of the back or of the tail.
+Then the number and position of the tail-feathers may vary enormously,
+and so may the number of the primary and secondary feathers of the
+wings. Again, the length of the feet and of the beak,--although they
+have no relation to each other, yet appear to go together,--that is, you
+have a long beak wherever you have long feet. There are differences also
+in the periods of the acquirement of the perfect plumage,--the size and
+shape of the eggs,--the nature of flight, and the powers of
+flight,--so-called "_homing_" birds having enormous flying powers;[52]
+while, on the other hand, the little Tumbler is so called because of its
+extraordinary faculty of turning head over heels in the air, instead of
+pursuing a distinct course. And, lastly, the dispositions and voices of
+the birds may vary. Thus the case of the pigeons shows you that there is
+hardly a single particular,--whether of instinct, or habit, or bony
+structure, or of plumage,--of either the internal economy or the
+external shape, in which some variation or change may not take place,
+which, by selective breeding, may become perpetuated, and form the
+foundation of, and give rise to, a new race.
+
+If you carry in your mind's eye these four varieties of pigeons, you
+will bear with you as good a notion as you can have, perhaps, of the
+enormous extent to which a deviation from a primitive type may be
+carried by means of this process of selective breeding.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[52] The "_Carrier_," I learn from Mr. Tegetmeier, does not _carry_; a
+high-bred bird of this breed being but a poor flier. The birds which fly
+long distances, and come home,--"homing" birds,--and are consequently
+used as carriers, are not "carriers" in the fancy sense.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+  THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE AS AFFECTING
+  THE PERPETUATION OF LIVING
+  BEINGS.
+
+
+In the last Lecture I endeavoured to prove to you that, while, as a
+general rule, organic beings tend to reproduce their kind, there is in
+them, also, a constantly recurring tendency to vary--to vary to a
+greater or to a less extent. Such a variety, I pointed out to you, might
+arise from causes which we do not understand; we therefore called it
+spontaneous; and it might come into existence as a definite and marked
+thing, without any gradations between itself and the form which preceded
+it. I further pointed out, that such a variety having once arisen, might
+be perpetuated to some extent, and indeed to a very marked extent,
+without any direct interference, or without any exercise of that process
+which we called selection. And then I stated further, that by such
+selection, when exercised artificially--if you took care to breed only
+from those forms which presented the same peculiarities of any variety
+which had arisen in this manner--the variation might be perpetuated, as
+far as we can see, indefinitely.
+
+The next question, and it is an important one for us, is this: Is there
+any limit to the amount of variation from the primitive stock which can
+be produced by this process of selective breeding? In considering this
+question, it will be useful to class the characteristics, in respect of
+which organic beings vary, under two heads: we may consider structural
+characteristics, and we may consider physiological characteristics.
+
+In the first place, as regards structural characteristics, I endeavoured
+to show you, by the skeletons which I had upon the table, and by
+reference to a great many well-ascertained facts, that the different
+breeds of Pigeons, the Carriers, Pouters, and Tumblers, might vary in
+any of their internal and important structural characters to a very
+great degree; not only might there be changes in the proportions of the
+skull, and the characters of the feet and beaks, and so on; but that
+there might be an absolute difference in the number of the vertebræ of
+the back, as in the sacral vertebræ of the Pouter; and so great is the
+extent of the variation in these and similar characters that I pointed
+out to you, by reference to the skeletons and the diagrams, that these
+extreme varieties may absolutely differ more from one another in their
+structural characters than do what naturalists call distinct SPECIES of
+pigeons; that is to say, that they differ so much in structure that
+there is a greater difference between the Pouter and the Tumbler than
+there is between such wild and distinct forms as the Rock Pigeon or the
+Ring Pigeon, or the Ring Pigeon and the Stock Dove; and indeed the
+differences are of greater value than this, for the structural
+differences between these domesticated pigeons are such as would be
+admitted by a naturalist, supposing he knew nothing at all about their
+origin, to entitle them to constitute even distinct genera.
+
+As I have used this term SPECIES, and shall probably use it a good deal,
+I had better perhaps devote a word or two to explaining what I mean by
+it.
+
+Animals and plants are divided into groups, which become gradually
+smaller, beginning with a KINGDOM, which is divided into SUB-KINGDOMS;
+then come the smaller divisions called PROVINCES; and so on from a
+PROVINCE to a CLASS, from a CLASS to an ORDER, from _Orders_ to
+_Families_, and from these to GENERA, until we come at length to the
+smallest groups of animals which can be defined one from the other by
+constant characters, which are not sexual; and these are what
+naturalists call SPECIES in practice, whatever they may do in theory.
+
+If in a state of nature you find any two groups of living beings, which
+are separated one from the other by some constantly-recurring
+characteristic, I don't care how slight and trivial, so long as it is
+defined and constant, and does not depend on sexual peculiarities, then
+all naturalists agree in calling them two species; that is what is meant
+by the use of the word species--that is to say, it is, for the practical
+naturalist, a mere question of structural differences.[53]
+
+We have seen now--to repeat this point once more, and it is very
+essential that we should rightly understand it--we have seen that
+breeds, known to have been derived from a common stock by selection, may
+be as different in their structure from the original stock as species
+may be distinct from each other.
+
+But is the like true of the physiological characteristics of animals? Do
+the physiological differences of varieties amount in degree to those
+observed between forms which naturalists call distinct species? This is
+a most important point for us to consider.
+
+As regards the great majority of physiological characteristics, there is
+no doubt that they are capable of being developed, increased, and
+modified by selection.
+
+There is no doubt that breeds may be made as different as species in
+many physiological characters. I have already pointed out to you very
+briefly the different habits of the breeds of Pigeons, all of which
+depend upon their physiological peculiarities,--as the peculiar habit of
+tumbling, in the Tumbler,--the peculiarities of flight, in the "homing"
+birds,--the strange habit of spreading out the tail, and walking in a
+peculiar fashion, in the Fantail,--and, lastly, the habit of blowing out
+the gullet, so characteristic of the Pouter. These are all due to
+physiological modifications, and in all these respects these birds
+differ as much from each other as any two ordinary species do.
+
+So with Dogs in their habits and instincts. It is a physiological
+peculiarity which leads the Greyhound to chase its prey by sight,--that
+enables the Beagle to track it by the scent,--that impels the Terrier to
+its rat-hunting propensity,--and that leads the Retriever to its habits
+of retrieving. These habits and instincts are all the results of
+physiological differences and peculiarities, which have been developed
+from a common stock, at least there is every reason to believe so. But
+it is a most singular circumstance, that while you may run through
+almost the whole series of physiological processes, without finding a
+check to your argument, you come at last to a point where you do find a
+check, and that is in the reproductive processes. For there is a most
+singular circumstance in respect to natural species--at least about some
+of them--and it would be sufficient for the purposes of this argument,
+if it were true of only one of them, but there is, in fact, a great
+number of such cases--and that is, that similar as they may appear to be
+to mere races or breeds, they present a marked peculiarity in the
+reproductive process. If you breed from the male and female of the same
+race, you of course have offspring of the like kind, and if you make the
+offspring breed together, you obtain the same result, and if you breed
+from these again, you will still have the same kind of offspring; there
+is no check. But if you take members of two distinct species, however
+similar they may be to each other, and make them breed together, you
+will find a check, with some modifications and exceptions, however,
+which I shall speak of presently. If you cross two such species with
+each other, then,--although you may get offspring in the case of the
+first cross, yet, if you attempt to breed from the products of that
+crossing, which are what are called HYBRIDS--that is, if you couple a
+male and a female hybrid--then the result is that in ninety-nine cases
+out of a hundred you will get no offspring at all: there will be no
+result whatsoever.
+
+The reason of this is quite obvious in some cases; the male hybrids,
+although possessing all the external appearances and characteristics of
+perfect animals, are physiologically imperfect and deficient in the
+structural parts of the reproductive elements necessary to generation.
+It is said to be invariably the case with the male mule, the cross
+between the Ass and the Mare; and hence it is, that, although crossing
+the Horse with the Ass is easy enough, and is constantly done, as far
+as I am aware, if you take two mules, a male and a female, and endeavour
+to breed from them, you get no offspring whatever; no generation will
+take place. This is what is called the sterility of the hybrids between
+two distinct species.
+
+You see that this is a very extraordinary circumstance; one does not see
+why it should be. The common teleological explanation is, that it is to
+prevent the impurity of the blood resulting from the crossing of one
+species with another, but you see it does not in reality do anything of
+the kind. There is nothing in this fact that hybrids cannot breed with
+each other, to establish such a theory; there is nothing to prevent the
+Horse breeding with the Ass, or the Ass with the Horse. So that this
+explanation breaks down, as a great many explanations of this kind do,
+that are only founded on mere assumptions.
+
+Thus you see that there is a great difference between "mongrels," which
+are crosses between distinct races, and "hybrids," which are crosses
+between distinct species. The mongrels are, so far as we know, fertile
+with one another. But between species, in many cases, you cannot succeed
+in obtaining even the first cross: at any rate it is quite certain that
+the hybrids are often absolutely infertile one with another.
+
+Here is a feature, then, great or small as it may be, which
+distinguishes natural species of animals. Can we find any approximation
+to this in the different races known to be produced by selective
+breeding from a common stock? Up to the present time the answer to that
+question is absolutely a negative one. As far as we know at present,
+there is nothing approximating to this check. In crossing the breeds
+between the Fantail and the Pouter, the Carrier and the Tumbler, or any
+other variety or race you may name--so far as we know at present--there
+is no difficulty in breeding together the mongrels. Take the Carrier and
+the Fantail, for instance, and let them represent the Horse and the Ass
+in the case of distinct species; then you have, as the result of their
+breeding, the Carrier-Fantail mongrel,--we will say the male and female
+mongrel,--and, as far as we know, these two when crossed would not be
+less fertile than the original cross, or than Carrier with Carrier.
+Here, you see, is a physiological contrast between the races produced by
+selective modification and natural species. I shall inquire into the
+value of this fact, and of some modifying circumstances by and by; for
+the present I merely put it broadly before you.
+
+But while considering this question of the limitations of species, a
+word must be said about what is called RECURRENCE--the tendency of races
+which have been developed by selective breeding from varieties to return
+to their primitive type. This is supposed by many to put an absolute
+limit to the extent of selective and all other variations. People say,
+"It is all very well to talk about producing these different races, but
+you know very well that if you turned all these birds wild, these
+Pouters, and Carriers, and so on, they would all return to their
+primitive stock." This is very commonly assumed to be a fact, and it is
+an argument that is commonly brought forward as conclusive; but if you
+will take the trouble to inquire into it rather closely, I think you
+will find that it is not worth very much. The first question of course
+is, Do they thus return to the primitive stock? And commonly as the
+thing is assumed and accepted, it is extremely difficult to get anything
+like good evidence of it. It is constantly said, for example, that if
+domesticated Horses are turned wild, as they have been in some parts of
+Asia Minor and South America, that they return at once to the primitive
+stock from which they were bred. But the first answer that you make to
+this assumption is, to ask who knows what the primitive stock was; and
+the second answer is, that in that case the wild Horses of Asia Minor
+ought to be exactly like the wild Horses of South America. If they are
+both like the same thing, they ought manifestly to be like each other!
+The best authorities, however, tell you that it is quite different. The
+wild Horse of Asia is said to be of a dun colour, with a largish head,
+and a great many other peculiarities; while the best authorities on the
+wild Horses of South America tell you that there is no similarity
+between their wild Horses and those of Asia Minor; the cut of their
+heads is very different, and they are commonly chestnut or
+bay-coloured. It is quite clear, therefore, that as by these facts there
+ought to have been two primitive stocks, they go for nothing in support
+of the assumption that races recur to one primitive stock, and so far as
+this evidence is concerned, it falls to the ground.
+
+Suppose for a moment that it were so, and that domesticated races, when
+turned wild, did return to some common condition, I cannot see that this
+would prove much more than that similar conditions are likely to produce
+similar results; and that when you take back domesticated animals into
+what we call natural conditions, you do exactly the same thing as if you
+carefully undid all the work you had gone through, for the purpose of
+bringing the animal from its wild to its domesticated state. I do not
+see anything very wonderful in the fact, if it took all that trouble to
+get it from a wild state, that it should go back into its original state
+as soon as you removed the conditions which produced the variation to
+the domesticated form. There is an important fact, however, forcibly
+brought forward by Mr. Darwin, which has been noticed in connection with
+the breeding of domesticated pigeons; and it is, that however different
+these breeds of pigeons may be from each other, and we have already
+noticed the great differences in these breeds, that if, among any of
+those variations, you chance to have a blue pigeon turn up, it will be
+sure to have the black bars across the wings, which are characteristic
+of the original wild stock, the Rock Pigeon.
+
+Now, this is certainly a very remarkable circumstance; but I do not see
+myself how it tells very strongly either one way or the other. I think,
+in fact, that this argument in favour of recurrence to the primitive
+type might prove a great deal too much for those who so constantly bring
+it forward. For example, Mr. Darwin has very forcibly urged, that
+nothing is commoner than if you examine a dun horse--and I had an
+opportunity of verifying this illustration lately, while in the islands
+of the West Highlands, where there are a great many dun horses--to find
+that horse exhibit a long black stripe down his back, very often stripes
+on his shoulder, and very often stripes on his legs. I, myself, saw a
+pony of this description a short time ago, in a baker's cart, near
+Rothesay, in Bute: it had the long stripe down the back, and stripes on
+the shoulders and legs, just like those of the Ass, the Quagga, and the
+Zebra. Now, if we interpret the theory of recurrence as applied to this
+case, might it not be said that here was a case of a variation
+exhibiting the characters and conditions of an animal occupying
+something like an intermediate position between the Horse, the Ass, the
+Quagga, and the Zebra, and from which these had been developed? In the
+same way with regard even to Man. Every anatomist will tell you that
+there is nothing commoner, in dissecting the human body, than to meet
+with what are called muscular variations--that is, if you dissect two
+bodies very carefully, you will probably find that the modes of
+attachment and insertion of the muscles are not exactly the same in
+both, there being great peculiarities in the mode in which the muscles
+are arranged; and it is very singular, that in some dissections of the
+human body you will come upon arrangements of the muscles very similar
+indeed to the same parts in the Apes. Is the conclusion in that case to
+be, that this is like the black bars in the case of the Pigeon, and that
+it indicates a recurrence to the primitive type from which the animals
+have been probably developed? Truly, I think that the opponents of
+modification and variation had better leave the argument of recurrence
+alone, or it may prove altogether too strong for them.
+
+To sum up,--the evidence as far as we have gone is against the argument
+as to any limit to divergences, so far as structure is concerned; and in
+favour of a physiological limitation. By selective breeding we can
+produce structural divergences as great as those of species, but we
+cannot produce equal physiological divergences. For the present I leave
+the question there.
+
+Now, the next problem that lies before us--and it is an extremely
+important one--is this: Does this selective breeding occur in nature?
+Because, if there is no proof of it, all that I have been telling you
+goes for nothing in accounting for the origin of species. Are natural
+causes competent to play the part of selection in perpetuating
+varieties? Here we labour under very great difficulties. In the last
+lecture I had occasion to point out to you the extreme difficulty of
+obtaining evidence even of the first origin of those varieties which we
+know to have occurred in domesticated animals. I told you, that almost
+always the origin of these varieties is overlooked, so that I could only
+produce two or three cases, as that of Gratio Kelleia and of the Ancon
+sheep. People forget, or do not take notice of them until they come to
+have a prominence; and if that is true of artificial cases, under our
+own eyes, and in animals in our own care, how much more difficult it
+must be to have at first hand good evidence of the origin of varieties
+in nature! Indeed, I do not know that it is possible by direct evidence
+to prove the origin of a variety in nature, or to prove selective
+breeding; but I will tell you what we can prove--and this comes to the
+same thing--that varieties exist in nature within the limits of species,
+and, what is more, that when a variety has come into existence in
+nature, there are natural causes and conditions, which are amply
+competent to play the part of a selective breeder; and although that is
+not quite the evidence that one would like to have--though it is not
+direct testimony--yet it is exceeding good and exceedingly powerful
+evidence in its way.
+
+As to the first point, of varieties existing among natural species, I
+might appeal to the universal experience of every naturalist, and of any
+person who has ever turned any attention at all to the characteristics
+of plants and animals in a state of nature; but I may as well take a few
+definite cases, and I will begin with Man himself.
+
+I am one of those who believe that, at present, there is no evidence
+whatever for saying, that mankind sprang originally from any more than a
+single pair; I must say, that I cannot see any good ground whatever, or
+even any tenable sort of evidence, for believing that there is more than
+one species of Man. Nevertheless, as you know, just as there are numbers
+of varieties in animals, so there are remarkable varieties of men. I
+speak not merely of those broad and distinct variations which you see at
+a glance. Everybody, of course, knows the difference between a Negro
+and a white man, and can tell a Chinaman from an Englishman. They each
+have peculiar characteristics of colour and physiognomy; but you must
+recollect that the characters of these races go very far deeper--they
+extend to the bony structure, and to the characters of that most
+important of all organs to us--the brain; so that, among men belonging
+to different races, or even within the same race, one man shall have a
+brain a third, or half, or even seventy per cent bigger than another;
+and if you take the whole range of human brains, you will find a
+variation in some cases of a hundred per cent. Apart from these
+variations in the size of the brain, the characters of the skull vary.
+Thus if I draw the figures of a Mongul and of a Negro head on the
+blackboard, in the case of the last the breadth would be about
+seven-tenths, and in the other it would be nine-tenths of the total
+length. So that you see there is abundant evidence of variation among
+men in their natural condition. And if you turn to other animals there
+is just the same thing. The fox, for example, which has a very large
+geographical distribution all over Europe, and parts of Asia, and on the
+American Continent, varies greatly. There are mostly large foxes in the
+North, and smaller ones in the South. In Germany alone, the foresters
+reckon some eight different sorts.
+
+Of the tiger, no one supposes that there is more than one species; they
+extend from the hottest parts of Bengal, into the dry, cold, bitter
+steppes of Siberia, into a latitude of 50°,--so that they may even prey
+upon the reindeer. These tigers have exceedingly different
+characteristics, but still they all keep their general features, so that
+there is no doubt as to their being tigers. The Siberian tiger has a
+thick fur, a small mane, and a longitudinal stripe down the back, while
+the tigers of Java and Sumatra differ in many important respects from
+the tigers of Northern Asia. So lions vary; so birds vary; and so, if
+you go further back and lower down in creation, you find that fishes
+vary. In different streams, in the same country even, you will find the
+trout to be quite different to each other and easily recognizable by
+those who fish in the particular streams. There is the same differences
+in leeches; leech collectors can easily point out to you the differences
+and the peculiarities which you yourself would probably pass by; so with
+fresh-water mussels; so, in fact, with every animal you can mention.
+
+In plants there is the same kind of variation. Take such a case even as
+the common bramble. The botanists are all at war about it; some of them
+wanting to make out that there are many species of it, and others
+maintaining that they are but many varieties of one species; and they
+cannot settle to this day which is a species and which is a variety!
+
+So that there can be no doubt whatsoever that any plant and any animal
+may vary in nature; that varieties may arise in the way I have
+described,--as spontaneous varieties,--and that those varieties may be
+perpetuated in the same way that I have shown you spontaneous varieties
+are perpetuated; I say, therefore, that there can be no doubt as to the
+origin and perpetuation of varieties in nature.
+
+But the question now is:--Does selection take place in nature? is there
+anything like the operation of man in exercising selective breeding,
+taking place in nature? You will observe that, at present, I say nothing
+about species; I wish to confine myself to the consideration of the
+production of those natural races which everybody admits to exist. The
+question is, whether in nature there are causes competent to produce
+races, just in the same way as man is able to produce, by selection,
+such races of animals as we have already noticed.
+
+When a variety has arisen, the CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE are such as to
+exercise an influence which is exactly comparable to that of artificial
+selection. By Conditions of Existence I mean two things,--there are
+conditions which are furnished by the physical, the inorganic world, and
+there are conditions of existence which are furnished by the organic
+world. There is, in the first place, CLIMATE; under that head I include
+only temperature and the varied amount of moisture of particular places.
+In the next place there is what is technically called STATION, which
+means--given the climate, the particular kind of place in which an
+animal or a plant lives or grows; for example, the station of a fish is
+in the water, of a fresh-water fish in fresh water; the station of a
+marine fish is in the sea, and a marine animal may have a station higher
+or deeper. So again with land animals: the differences in their stations
+are those of different soils and neighbourhoods; some being best adapted
+to a calcareous, and others to an arenaceous soil. The third condition
+of existence is FOOD, by which I mean food in the broadest sense, the
+supply of the materials necessary to the existence of an organic being;
+in the case of a plant the inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid,
+water, ammonia, and the earthy salts or salines; in the case of the
+animal the inorganic and organic matters, which we have seen they
+require; then these are all, at least the two first, what we may call
+the inorganic or physical conditions of existence. Food takes a
+mid-place, and then come the organic conditions; by which I mean the
+conditions which depend upon the state of the rest of the organic
+creation, upon the number and kind of living beings, with which an
+animal is surrounded. You may class these under two heads: there are
+organic beings, which operate as _opponents_, and there are organic
+beings which operate as _helpers_ to any given organic creature. The
+opponents may be of two kinds: there are the _indirect opponents_, which
+are what we may call _rivals_; and there are the _direct opponents_,
+those which strive to destroy the creature; and these we call _enemies_.
+By rivals I mean, of course, in the case of plants, those which require
+for their support the same kind of soil and station, and, among animals,
+those which require the same kind of station, or food, or climate; those
+are the indirect opponents; the direct opponents are, of course, those
+which prey upon an animal or vegetable. The _helpers_ may also be
+regarded as direct and indirect: in the case of a carnivorous animal,
+for example, a particular herbaceous plant may in multiplying be an
+indirect helper, by enabling the herbivora on which the carnivore preys
+to get more food, and thus to nourish the carnivore more abundantly; the
+direct helper may be best illustrated by reference to some parasitic
+creature, such as the tape-worm. The tape-worm exists in the human
+intestines, so that the fewer there are of men the fewer there will be
+of tape-worms, other things being alike. It is a humiliating reflection,
+perhaps, that we may be classed as direct helpers to the tape-worm, but
+the fact is so: we can all see that if there were no men there would be
+no tape-worms.
+
+It is extremely difficult to estimate, in a proper way, the importance
+and the working of the Conditions of Existence. I do not think there
+were any of us who had the remotest notion of properly estimating them
+until the publication of Mr. Darwin's work, which has placed them before
+us with remarkable clearness; and I must endeavour, as far as I can in
+my own fashion, to give you some notion of how they work. We shall find
+it easiest to take a simple case, and one as free as possible from every
+kind of complication.
+
+I will suppose, therefore, that all the habitable part of this
+globe--the dry land, amounting to about 51,000,000 square miles,--I will
+suppose that the whole of that dry land has the same climate, and that
+it is composed of the same kind of rock or soil, so that there will be
+the same station everywhere; we thus get rid of the peculiar influence
+of different climates and stations. I will then imagine that there shall
+be but one organic being in the world, and that shall be a plant. In
+this we start fair. Its food is to be carbonic acid, water and ammonia,
+and the saline matters in the soil, which are, by the supposition,
+everywhere alike. We take one single plant, with no opponents, no
+helpers, and no rivals; it is to be a "fair field, and no favour." Now,
+I will ask you to imagine further that it shall be a plant which shall
+produce every year fifty seeds, which is a very moderate number for a
+plant to produce; and that, by the action of the winds and currents,
+these seeds shall be equally and gradually distributed over the whole
+surface of the land. I want you now to trace out what will occur, and
+you will observe that I am not talking fallaciously any more than a
+mathematician does when he expounds his problem. If you show that the
+conditions of your problem are such as may actually occur in nature and
+do not transgress any of the known laws of nature in working out your
+proposition, then you are as safe in the conclusion you arrive at as is
+the mathematician in arriving at the solution of his problem. In
+science, the only way of getting rid of the complications with which a
+subject of this kind is environed, is to work in this deductive method.
+What will be the result, then? I will suppose that every plant requires
+one square foot of ground to live upon; and the result will be that, in
+the course of nine years, the plant will have occupied every single
+available spot in the whole globe! I have chalked upon the blackboard
+the figures by which I arrive at the result:--
+
+              Plants.                                            Plants.
+                   1 × 50 in 1st year =                               50
+                  50 × 50 "  2nd  "   =                            2,500
+               2,500 × 50 "  3rd  "   =                          125,000
+             125,000 × 50 "  4th  "   =                        6,250,000
+           6,250,000 × 50 "  5th  "   =                      312,500,000
+         312,500,000 × 50 "  6th  "   =                   15,625,000,000
+      15,625,000,000 × 50 "  7th  "   =                  781,250,000,000
+     781,250,000,000 × 50 "  8th  "   =               39,062,500,000,000
+  39,062,500,000,000 × 50 "  9th  "   =            1,953,125,000,000,000
+
+  51,000,000 sq. miles--the dry surface}
+  of the earth × 27,878,400--the       } = sq. ft. 1,421,798,400,000,000
+  number of sq. ft. in 1 sq. mile      }           ---------------------
+
+                                               being 531,326,600,000,000
+  square feet less than would be required at the end of the ninth year.
+
+You will see from this that, at the end of the first year the single
+plant will have produced fifty more of its kind; by the end of the
+second year these will have increased to 2500; and so on, in succeeding
+years, you get beyond even trillions; and I am not at all sure that I
+could tell you what the proper arithmetical denomination of the total
+number really is; but, at any rate, you will understand the meaning of
+all those noughts. Then you see that, at the bottom, I have taken the
+51,000,000 of square miles, constituting the surface of the dry land;
+and as the number of square feet are placed under and subtracted from
+the number of seeds that would be produced in the ninth year, you can
+see at once that there would be an immense number more of plants than
+there would be square feet of ground for their accommodation. This is
+certainly quite enough to prove my point; that between the eighth and
+ninth year after being planted the single plant would have stocked the
+whole available surface of the earth.
+
+This is a thing which is hardly conceivable--it seems hardly
+imaginable--yet it is so. It is indeed simply the law of Malthus
+exemplified. Mr. Malthus was a clergy-man, who worked out this subject
+most minutely and truthfully some years ago; he showed quite
+clearly,--and although he was much abused for his conclusions at the
+time, they have never yet been disproved and never will be--he showed
+that in consequence of the increase in the number of organic beings in a
+geometrical ratio, while the means of existence cannot be made to
+increase in the same ratio, that there must come a time when the number
+of organic beings will be in excess of the power of production of
+nutriment, and that thus some check must arise to the further increase
+of those organic beings. At the end of the ninth year we have seen that
+each plant would not be able to get its full square foot of ground, and
+at the end of another year it would have to share that space with fifty
+others the produce of the seeds which it would give off.
+
+What, then, takes place? Every plant grows up, flourishes, occupies its
+square foot of ground, and gives off its fifty seeds; but notice this,
+that out of this number only one can come to anything; there is thus, as
+it were, forty-nine chances to one against its growing up; it depends
+upon the most fortuitous circumstances whether any one of these fifty
+seeds shall grow up and flourish, or whether it shall die and perish.
+This is what Mr. Darwin has drawn attention to, and called the "STRUGGLE
+FOR EXISTENCE"; and I have taken this simple case of a plant because
+some people imagine that the phrase seems to imply a sort of fight.
+
+I have taken this plant and shown you that this is the result of the
+ratio of the increase, the necessary result of the arrival of a time
+coming for every species when exactly as many members must be destroyed
+as are born; that is the inevitable ultimate result of the rate of
+production. Now, what is the result of all this? I have said that there
+are forty-nine struggling against every one; and it amounts to this,
+that the smallest possible start given to any one seed may give it an
+advantage which will enable it to get ahead of all the others; anything
+that will enable any one of these seeds to germinate six hours before
+any of the others will, other things being alike, enable it to choke
+them out altogether. I have shown you that there is no particular in
+which plants will not vary from each other; it is quite possible that
+one of our imaginary plants may vary in such a character as the
+thickness of the integument of its seeds; it might happen that one of
+the plants might produce seeds having a thinner integument, and that
+would enable the seeds of that plant to germinate a little quicker than
+those of any of the others, and those seeds would most inevitably
+extinguish the forty-nine times as many that were struggling with them.
+
+I have put it in this way, but you see the practical result of the
+process is the same as if some person had nurtured the one and destroyed
+the other seeds. It does not matter how the variation is produced, so
+long as it is once allowed to occur. The variation in the plant once
+fairly started tends to become hereditary and reproduce itself; the
+seeds would spread themselves in the same way and take part in the
+struggle with the forty-nine hundred, or forty-nine thousand, with which
+they might be exposed. Thus, by degrees, this variety with some slight
+organic change or modification, must spread itself over the whole
+surface of the habitable globe, and extirpate or replace the other
+kinds. That is what is meant by NATURAL SELECTION; that is the kind of
+argument by which it is perfectly demonstrable that the conditions of
+existence may play exactly the same part for natural varieties as man
+does for domesticated varieties. No one doubts at all that particular
+circumstances may be more favourable for one plant and less so for
+another, and the moment you admit that, you admit the selective power of
+nature. Now, although I have been putting a hypothetical case, you must
+not suppose that I have been reasoning hypothetically. There are plenty
+of direct experiments which bear out what we may call the theory of
+natural selection; there is extremely good authority for the statement
+that if you take the seed of mixed varieties of wheat and sow it,
+collecting the seed next year and sowing it again, at length you will
+find that out of all your varieties only two or three have lived, or
+perhaps even only one. There were one or two varieties which were best
+fitted to get on, and they have killed out the other kinds in just the
+same way and with just the same certainty as if you had taken the
+trouble to remove them. As I have already said, the operation of nature
+is exactly the same as the artificial operation of man.
+
+But if this be true of that simple case, which I put before you, where
+there is nothing but the rivalry of one member of a species with others,
+what must be the operation of selective conditions, when you recollect
+as a matter of fact, that for every species of animal or plant there are
+fifty or a hundred species which might all, more or less, be
+comprehended in the same climate, food, and station;--that every plant
+has multitudinous animals which prey upon it, and which are its direct
+opponents; and that these have other animals preying upon them,--that
+every plant has its indirect helpers in the birds that scatter abroad
+its seed, and the animals that manure it with their dung;--I say, when
+these things are considered, it seems impossible that any variation
+which may arise in a species in nature should not tend in some way or
+other either to be a little better or worse than the previous stock; if
+it is a little better it will have an advantage over and tend to
+extirpate the latter in this crush and struggle; and if it is a little
+worse it will itself be extirpated.
+
+I know nothing that more appropriately expresses this, than the phrase,
+"the struggle for existence"; because it brings before your minds, in a
+vivid sort of way, some of the simplest possible circumstances connected
+with it. When a struggle is intense there must be some who are sure to
+be trodden down, crushed, and overpowered by others; and there will be
+some who just manage to get through only by the help of the slightest
+accident. I recollect reading an account of the famous retreat of the
+French troops, under Napoleon, from Moscow. Worn out, tired, and
+dejected, they at length came to a great river over which there was but
+one bridge for the passage of the vast army. Disorganized and
+demoralized as that army was, the struggle must certainly have been a
+terrible one--every one heeding only himself, and crushing through the
+ranks and treading down his fellows. The writer of the narrative, who
+was himself one of those who were fortunate enough to succeed in getting
+over, and not among the thousands who were left behind or forced into
+the river, ascribed his escape to the fact that he saw striding onward
+through the mass a great strong fellow,--one of the French Cuirassiers,
+who had on a large blue cloak--and he had enough presence of mind to
+catch and retain a hold of this strong man's cloak. He says, "I caught
+hold of his cloak, and although he swore at me and cut at and struck me
+by turns, and at last, when he found he could not shake me off, fell to
+entreating me to leave go or I should prevent him from escaping, besides
+not assisting myself, I still kept tight hold of him, and would not quit
+my grasp until he had at last dragged me through." Here you see was a
+case of selective saving--if we may so term it--depending for its
+success on the strength of the cloth of the Cuirassier's cloak. It is
+the same in nature; every species has its bridge of Beresina; it has to
+fight its way through and struggle with other species; and when well
+nigh overpowered, it may be that the smallest chance, something in its
+colour, perhaps--the minutest circumstance--will turn the scale one way
+or the other.
+
+Suppose that by a variation of the black race it had produced the white
+man at any time--you know that the Negroes are said to believe this to
+have been the case, and to imagine that Cain was the first white man,
+and that we are his descendants--suppose that this had ever happened,
+and that the first residence of this human being was on the West Coast
+of Africa. There is no great structural difference between the white man
+and the Negro, and yet there is something so singularly different in the
+constitution of the two, that the malarias of that country, which do not
+hurt the black at all, cut off and destroy the white. Then you see
+there would have been a selective operation performed; if the white man
+had risen in that way, he would have been selected out and removed by
+means of the malaria. Now there really is a very curious case of
+selection of this sort among pigs, and it is a case of selection of
+colour, too. In the woods of Florida there are a great many pigs, and it
+is a very curious thing that they are all black, every one of them.
+Professor Wyman was there some years ago, and on noticing no pigs but
+these black ones, he asked some of the people how it was that they had
+no white pigs, and the reply was that in the woods of Florida there was
+a root which they called the Paint Root, and that if the white pigs were
+to eat any of it, it had the effect of making their hoofs crack, and
+they died, but if the black pigs ate any of it, it did not hurt them at
+all. Here was a very simple case of natural selection. A skilful breeder
+could not more carefully develop the black breed of pigs, and weed out
+all the white pigs, than the Paint Root does.
+
+To show you how remarkably indirect may be such natural selective
+agencies as I have referred to, I will conclude by noticing a case
+mentioned by Mr. Darwin, and which is certainly one of the most curious
+of its kind. It is that of the Humble Bee. It has been noticed that
+there are a great many more humble bees in the neighbourhood of towns,
+than out in the open country; and the explanation of the matter is this:
+the humble bees build nests, in which they store their honey and deposit
+the larvæ and eggs. The field mice are amazingly fond of the honey and
+larvæ; therefore, wherever there are plenty of field mice, as in the
+country, the humble bees are kept down; but in the neighbourhood of
+towns, the number of cats which prowl about the fields eat up the field
+mice, and of course the more mice they eat up the less there are to prey
+upon the larvæ of the bees--the cats are therefore the INDIRECT HELPERS
+of the bees.[54]
+
+Coming back a step farther we may say that the old maids are also
+indirect friends of the humble bees, and indirect enemies of the field
+mice, as they keep the cats which eat up the latter! This is an
+illustration somewhat beneath the dignity of the subject, perhaps, but
+it occurs to me in passing, and with it I will conclude this lecture.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[53] I lay stress here on the _practical_ signification of "Species."
+Whether a physiological test between species exist or not, it is hardly
+ever applicable by the practical naturalist.
+
+[54] The humble bees, on the other hand, are direct helpers of some
+plants, such as the heartsease and red clover, which are fertilized by
+the visits of the bees; and they are indirect helpers of the numerous
+insects which are more or less completely supported by the heartsease
+and red clover.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+  A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE POSITION OF MR. DARWIN'S WORK, "ON THE
+  ORIGIN OF SPECIES," IN RELATION TO THE COMPLETE THEORY OF THE CAUSES
+  OF THE PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE.
+
+
+In the preceding lectures I have endeavoured to give you an account of
+those facts, and of those reasonings from facts, which form the data
+upon which all theories regarding the causes of the phenomena of organic
+nature must be based. And, although I have had frequent occasion to
+quote Mr. Darwin--as all persons hereafter, in speaking upon these
+subjects, will have occasion to quote his famous book on the "Origin of
+Species,"--you must yet remember that, wherever I have quoted him, it
+has not been upon theoretical points, or for statements in any way
+connected with his particular speculations, but on matters of fact,
+brought forward by himself, or collected by himself, and which appear
+incidentally in his book. If a man _will_ make a book, professing to
+discuss a single question, an encyclopædia, I cannot help it.
+
+Now, having had an opportunity of considering in this sort of way the
+different statements bearing upon all theories whatsoever, I have to lay
+before you, as fairly as I can, what is Mr. Darwin's view of the matter
+and what position his theories hold, when judged by the principles which
+I have previously laid down, as deciding our judgments upon all theories
+and hypotheses.
+
+I have already stated to you that the inquiry respecting the causes of
+the phenomena of organic nature resolves itself into two problems--the
+first being the question of the origination of living or organic
+beings; and the second being the totally distinct problem of the
+modification and perpetuation of organic beings when they have already
+come into existence. The first question Mr. Darwin does not touch; he
+does not deal with it at all; but he says:--"Given the origin of organic
+matter--supposing its creation to have already taken place, my object is
+to show in consequence of what laws and what demonstrable properties of
+organic matter, and of its environments, such states of organic nature
+as those with which we are acquainted must have come about." This, you
+will observe, is a perfectly legitimate proposition; every person has a
+right to define the limits of the inquiry which he sets before himself;
+and yet it is a most singular thing that in all the multifarious, and,
+not unfrequently, ignorant attacks which have been made upon the "Origin
+of Species," there is nothing which has been more speciously criticised
+than this particular limitation. If people have nothing else to urge
+against the book, they say--"Well, after all, you see Mr. Darwin's
+explanation of the 'Origin of Species' is not good for much, because, in
+the long run, he admits that he does not know how organic matter began
+to exist. But if you admit any special creation for the first particle
+of organic matter you may just as well admit it for all the rest; five
+hundred or five thousand distinct creations are just as intelligible,
+and just as little difficult to understand, as one." The answer to these
+cavils is two-fold. In the first place, all human inquiry must stop
+somewhere; all our knowledge and all our investigation cannot take us
+beyond the limits set by the finite and restricted character of our
+faculties, or destroy the endless unknown, which accompanies, like its
+shadow, the endless procession of phenomena. So far as I can venture to
+offer an opinion on such a matter, the purpose of our being in
+existence, the highest object that human beings can set before
+themselves, is not the pursuit of any such chimera as the annihilation
+of the unknown; but it is simply the unwearied endeavour to remove its
+boundaries a little further from our little sphere of action.
+
+I wonder if any historian would for a moment admit the objection, that
+it is preposterous to trouble ourselves about the history of the Roman
+Empire, because we do not know anything positive about the origin and
+first building of the city of Rome! Would it be a fair objection to
+urge, respecting the sublime discoveries of a Newton, or a Kepler, those
+great philosophers, whose discoveries have been of the profoundest
+benefit and service to all men,--to say to them--"After all that you
+have told us as to how the planets revolve, and how they are maintained
+in their orbits, you cannot tell us what is the cause of the origin of
+the sun, moon, and stars. So what is the use of what you have done?" Yet
+these objections would not be one whit more preposterous than the
+objections which have been made to the "Origin of Species." Mr. Darwin,
+then, had a perfect right to limit his inquiry as he pleased, and the
+only question for us--the inquiry being so limited--is to ascertain
+whether the method of his inquiry is sound or unsound; whether he has
+obeyed the canons which must guide and govern all investigation, or
+whether he has broken them; and it was because our inquiry this evening
+is essentially limited to that question, that I spent a good deal of
+time in a former lecture (which, perhaps some of you thought might have
+been better employed) in endeavouring to illustrate the method and
+nature of scientific inquiry in general. We shall now have to put in
+practice the principles that I then laid down.
+
+I stated to you in substance, if not in words, that wherever there are
+complex masses of phenomena to be inquired into, whether they be
+phenomena of the affairs of daily life, or whether they belong to the
+more abstruse and difficult problems laid before the philosopher, our
+course of proceeding in unravelling that complex chain of phenomena with
+a view to get at its cause, is always the same; in all cases we must
+invent an hypothesis; we must place before ourselves some more or less
+likely supposition respecting that cause; and then, having assumed an
+hypothesis, having supposed a cause for the phenomena in question, we
+must endeavour, on the one hand, to demonstrate our hypothesis, or, on
+the other, to upset and reject it altogether, by testing it in three
+ways. We must, in the first place, be prepared to prove that the
+supposed causes of the phenomena exist in nature; that they are what
+the logicians call _vera causæ_--true causes;--in the next place, we
+should be prepared to show that the assumed causes of the phenomena are
+competent to produce such phenomena as those which we wish to explain by
+them; and in the last place, we ought to be able to show that no other
+known causes are competent to produce these phenomena. If we can succeed
+in satisfying these three conditions we shall have demonstrated our
+hypothesis; or rather I ought to say, we shall have proved it as far as
+certainty is possible for us; for, after all, there is no one of our
+surest convictions which may not be upset, or at any rate modified by a
+further accession of knowledge. It was because it satisfied these
+conditions that we accepted the hypothesis as to the disappearance of
+the tea-pot and spoons in the case I supposed in a previous lecture; we
+found that our hypothesis on that subject was tenable and valid, because
+the supposed cause existed in nature, because it was competent to
+account for the phenomena, and because no other known cause was
+competent to account for them; and it is upon similar grounds that any
+hypothesis you choose to name is accepted in science as tenable and
+valid.
+
+What is Mr. Darwin's hypothesis? As I apprehend it--for I have put it
+into a shape more convenient for common purposes than I could find
+_verbatim_ in his book--as I apprehend it, I say, it is, that all the
+phenomena of organic nature, past and present, result from, or are
+caused by, the inter-action of those properties of organic matter, which
+we have called ATAVISM and VARIABILITY, with the CONDITIONS OF
+EXISTENCE; or, in other words,--given the existence of organic matter,
+its tendency to transmit its properties, and its tendency occasionally
+to vary; and, lastly, given the conditions of existence by which organic
+matter is surrounded--that these put together are the causes of the
+Present and of the Past conditions of ORGANIC NATURE.
+
+Such is the hypothesis as I understand it. Now let us see how it will
+stand the various tests which I laid down just now. In the first place,
+do these supposed causes of the phenomena exist in nature? Is it the
+fact that in nature these properties of organic matter--atavism and
+variability--and those phenomena which we have called the conditions of
+existence,--is it true that they exist? Well, of course, if they do not
+exist, all that I have told you in the last three or four lectures must
+be incorrect, because I have been attempting to prove that they do
+exist, and I take it that there is abundant evidence that they do exist;
+so far, therefore, the hypothesis does not break down.
+
+But in the next place comes a much more difficult inquiry:--Are the
+causes indicated competent to give rise to the phenomena of organic
+nature? I suspect that this is indubitable to a certain extent. It is
+demonstrable, I think, as I have endeavoured to show you, that they are
+perfectly competent to give rise to all the phenomena which are
+exhibited by RACES in nature. Furthermore, I believe that they are quite
+competent to account for all that we may call purely structural
+phenomena which are exhibited by SPECIES in nature. On that point also I
+have already enlarged somewhat. Again, I think that the causes assumed
+are competent to account for most of the physiological characteristics
+of species, and I not only think that they are competent to account for
+them, but I think that they account for many things which otherwise
+remain wholly unaccountable and inexplicable, and I may say
+incomprehensible. For a full exposition of the grounds on which this
+conviction is based, I must refer you to Mr. Darwin's work; all that I
+can do now is to illustrate what I have said by two or three cases taken
+almost at random.
+
+I drew your attention, on a previous evening, to the facts which are
+embodied in our systems of Classification, which are the results of the
+examination and comparison of the different members of the animal
+kingdom one with another. I mentioned that the whole of the animal
+kingdom is divisible into five sub-kingdoms; that each of these
+sub-kingdoms is again divisible into provinces; that each province may
+be divided into classes, and the classes into the successively smaller
+groups, orders, families, genera, and species.
+
+Now, in each of these groups, the resemblance in structure among the
+members of the group is closer in proportion as the group is smaller.
+Thus, a man and a worm are members of the animal kingdom in virtue of
+certain apparently slight though really fundamental resemblances which
+they present. But a man and a fish are members of the same Sub-kingdom
+_Vertebrata_, because they are much more like one another than either of
+them is to a worm, or a snail, or any member of the other sub-kingdoms.
+For similar reasons men and horses are arranged as members of the same
+Class, _Mammalia_; men and apes as members of the same Order,
+_Primates_; and if there were any animals more like men than they were
+like any of the apes, and yet different from men in important and
+constant particulars of their organization, we should rank them as
+members of the same Family, or of the same Genus, but as of distinct
+Species.
+
+That it is possible to arrange all the varied forms of animals into
+groups, having this sort of singular subordination one to the other, is
+a very remarkable circumstance; but, as Mr. Darwin remarks, this is a
+result which is quite to be expected, if the principles which he lays
+down be correct. Take the case of the races which are known to be
+produced by the operation of atavism and variability, and the conditions
+of existence which check and modify these tendencies. Take the case of
+the pigeons that I brought before you: there it was shown that they
+might be all classed as belonging to some one of five principal
+divisions, and that within these divisions other subordinate groups
+might be formed. The members of these groups are related to one another
+in just the same way as the genera of a family, and the groups
+themselves as the families of an order, or the orders of a class; while
+all have the same sort of structural relations with the wild
+Rock-pigeon, as the members of any great natural group have with a real
+or imaginary typical form. Now, we know that all varieties of pigeons of
+every kind have arisen by a process of selective breeding from a common
+stock, the Rock-pigeon; hence, you see, that if all species of animals
+have proceeded from some common stock, the general character of their
+structural relations, and of our systems of classification, which
+express those relations, would be just what we find them to be. In
+other words, the hypothetical cause is, so far, competent to produce
+effects similar to those of the real cause.
+
+Take, again, another set of very remarkable facts,--the existence of
+what are called rudimentary organs, organs for which we can find no
+obvious use, in the particular animal economy in which they are found,
+and yet which are there.
+
+Such are the splint-like bones in the leg of the horse, which I here
+show you, and which correspond with bones which belong to certain toes
+and fingers in the human hand and foot. In the horse you see they are
+quite rudimentary, and bear neither toes nor fingers; so that the horse
+has only one "finger" in his fore-foot and one "toe" in his hind-foot.
+But it is a very curious thing that the animals closely allied to the
+horse show more toes than he; as the rhinoceros, for instance: he has
+these extra toes well formed, and anatomical facts show very clearly
+that he is very closely related to the horse indeed. So we may say that
+animals, in an anatomical sense nearly related to the horse, have those
+parts which are rudimentary in him, fully developed.
+
+Again, the sheep and the cow have no cutting-teeth, but only a hard pad
+in the upper jaw. That is the common characteristic of ruminants in
+general. But the calf has in its upper jaw some rudiments of teeth which
+never are developed, and never play the part of teeth at all. Well, if
+you go back in time, you find some of the older, now extinct, allies of
+the ruminants have well-developed teeth in their upper jaws; and at the
+present day the pig (which is in structure closely connected with
+ruminants) has well-developed teeth in its upper jaw; so that here is
+another instance of organs well developed and very useful, in one
+animal, represented by rudimentary organs, for which we can discover no
+purpose whatsoever, in another closely allied animal. The whalebone
+whale, again, has horny "whalebone" plates in its mouth, and no teeth;
+but the young foetal whale, before it is born, has teeth in its jaws;
+they, however, are never used, and they never come to anything. But
+other members of the group to which the whale belongs have
+well-developed teeth in both jaws.
+
+Upon any hypothesis of special creation, facts of this kind appear to me
+to be entirely unaccountable and inexplicable, but they cease to be so
+if you accept Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, and see reason for believing that
+the whalebone whale and the whale with teeth in its mouth both sprang
+from a whale that had teeth, and that the teeth of the foetal whale
+are merely remnants--recollections, if we may so say--of the extinct
+whale. So in the case of the horse and the rhinoceros: suppose that both
+have descended by modification from some earlier form which had the
+normal number of toes, and the persistence of the rudimentary bones
+which no longer support toes in the horse becomes comprehensible.
+
+In the language that we speak in England, and in the language of the
+Greeks, there are identical verbal roots, or elements entering into the
+composition of words. That fact remains unintelligible so long as we
+suppose English and Greek to be independently created tongues; but when
+it is shown that both languages are descended from one original, the
+Sanscrit, we give an explanation of that resemblance. In the same way
+the existence of identical structural roots, if I may so term them,
+entering into the composition of widely different animals, is striking
+evidence in favour of the descent of those animals from a common
+original.
+
+To turn to another kind of illustration:--If you regard the whole series
+of stratified rocks--that enormous thickness of sixty or seventy
+thousand feet that I have mentioned before, constituting the only record
+we have of a most prodigious lapse of time, that time being, in all
+probability, but a fraction of that of which we have no record;--if you
+observe in these successive strata of rocks successive groups of animals
+arising and dying out, a constant succession, giving you the same kind
+of impression, as you travel from one group of strata to another, as you
+would have in travelling from one country to another;--when you find
+this constant succession of forms, their traces obliterated except to
+the man of science,--when you look at this wonderful history, and ask
+what it means, it is only a paltering with words if you are offered the
+reply,--"They were so created."
+
+But if, on the other hand, you look on all forms of organized beings as
+the results of the gradual modification of a primitive type, the facts
+receive a meaning, and you see that these older conditions are the
+necessary predecessors of the present. Viewed in this light the facts of
+palæontology receive a meaning--upon any other hypothesis, I am unable
+to see, in the slightest degree, what knowledge or signification we are
+to draw out of them. Again, note as bearing upon the same point, the
+singular likeness which obtains between the successive Faunæ and Floræ,
+whose remains are preserved on the rocks: you never find any great and
+enormous difference between the immediately successive Faunæ and Floræ,
+unless you have reason to believe there has also been a great lapse of
+time or a great change of conditions. The animals, for instance, of the
+newest tertiary rocks, in any part of the world, are always, and without
+exception, found to be closely allied with those which now live in that
+part of the world. For example, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the large
+mammals are at present rhinoceri, hippopotami, elephants, lions, tigers,
+oxen, horses, &c.; and if you examine the newest tertiary deposits,
+which contain the animals and plants which immediately preceded those
+which now exist in the same country, you do not find gigantic specimens
+of ant-eaters and kangaroos, but you find rhinoceroses, elephants,
+lions, tigers, &c.,--of different species to those now living,--but
+still their close allies. If you turn to South America, where, at the
+present day, we have great sloths and armadilloes and creatures of that
+kind, what do you find in the newest tertiaries? You find the great
+sloth-like creature, the _Megatherium_, and the great armadillo, the
+_Glyptodon_, and so on. And if you go to Australia you find the same law
+holds good, namely, that that condition of organic nature which has
+preceded the one which now exists, presents differences perhaps of
+species, and of genera, but that the great types of organic structure
+are the same as those which now flourish.
+
+What meaning has this fact upon any other hypothesis or supposition than
+one of successive modification? But if the population of the world, in
+any age, is the result of the gradual modification of the forms which
+peopled it in the preceding age,--if that has been the case, it is
+intelligible enough; because we may expect that the creature that
+results from the modification of an elephantine mammal shall be
+something like an elephant, and the creature which is produced by the
+modification of an armadillo-like mammal shall be like an armadillo.
+Upon that supposition, I say, the facts are intelligible; upon any
+other, that I am aware of, they are not.
+
+So far, the facts of palæontology are consistent with almost any form of
+the doctrine of progressive modification; they would not be absolutely
+inconsistent with the wild speculations of De Maillet, or with the less
+objectionable hypothesis of Lamarck. But Mr. Darwin's views have one
+peculiar merit; and that is, that they are perfectly consistent with an
+array of facts which are utterly inconsistent with and fatal to, any
+other hypothesis of progressive modification which has yet been
+advanced. It is one remarkable peculiarity of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis
+that it involves no necessary progression or incessant modification, and
+that it is perfectly consistent with the persistence for any length of
+time of a given primitive stock, contemporaneously with its
+modifications. To return to the case of the domestic breeds of pigeons,
+for example; you have the Dove-cot pigeon, which closely resembles the
+Rock-pigeon, from which they all started, existing at the same time with
+the others. And if species are developed in the same way in nature, a
+primitive stock and its modifications may, occasionally, all find the
+conditions fitted for their existence; and though they come into
+competition, to a certain extent, with one another, the derivative
+species may not necessarily extirpate the primitive one, or _vice
+versâ_.
+
+Now palæontology shows us many facts which are perfectly harmonious with
+these observed effects of the process by which Mr. Darwin supposes
+species to have originated, but which appear to me to be totally
+inconsistent with any other hypothesis which has been proposed. There
+are some groups of animals and plants, in the fossil world, which have
+been said to belong to "persistent types," because they have persisted,
+with very little change indeed, through a very great range of time,
+while everything about them has changed largely. There are families of
+fishes whose type of construction has persisted all the way from the
+carboniferous rock right up to the cretaceous; and others which have
+lasted through almost the whole range of the secondary rocks, and from
+the lias to the older tertiaries. It is something stupendous this--to
+consider a genus lasting without essential modifications through all
+this enormous lapse of time while almost everything else was changed and
+modified.
+
+Thus I have no doubt that Mr. Darwin's hypothesis will be found
+competent to explain the majority of the phenomena exhibited by species
+in nature; but in an earlier lecture I spoke cautiously with respect to
+its power of explaining all the physiological peculiarities of species.
+
+There is, in fact, one set of these peculiarities which the theory of
+selective modification, as it stands at present, is not wholly competent
+to explain, and that is the group of phenomena which I mentioned to you
+under the name of Hybridism, and which I explained to consist in the
+sterility of the offspring of certain species when crossed one with
+another. It matters not one whit whether this sterility is universal, or
+whether it exists only in a single case. Every hypothesis is bound to
+explain, or, at any rate, not be inconsistent with, the whole of the
+facts which it professes to account for; and if there is a single one of
+these facts which can be shown to be inconsistent with (I do not merely
+mean inexplicable by, but contrary to,) the hypothesis, the hypothesis
+falls to the ground,--it is worth nothing. One fact with which it is
+positively inconsistent is worth as much, and as powerful in negativing
+the hypothesis, as five hundred. If I am right in thus defining the
+obligations of an hypothesis, Mr. Darwin, in order to place his views
+beyond the reach of all possible assault, ought to be able to
+demonstrate the possibility of developing from a particular stock by
+selective breeding, two forms, which should either be unable to cross
+one with another, or whose cross-bred offspring should be infertile with
+one another.
+
+For, you see, if you have not done that you have not strictly fulfilled
+all the conditions of the problem; you have not shown that you can
+produce, by the cause assumed, all the phenomena which you have in
+nature. Here are the phenomena of Hybridism staring you in the face, and
+you cannot say, "I can, by selective modification, produce these same
+results." Now, it is admitted on all hands that, at present, so far as
+experiments have gone, it has not been found possible to produce this
+complete physiological divergence by selective breeding. I stated this
+very clearly before, and I now refer to the point, because, if it could
+be proved, not only that this _has_ not been done, but that it _cannot_
+be done; if it could be demonstrated that it is impossible to breed
+selectively, from any stock, a form which shall not breed with another,
+produced from the same stock; and if we were shown that this must be the
+necessary and inevitable result of all experiments, I hold that Mr.
+Darwin's hypothesis would be utterly shattered.
+
+But has this been done? or what is really the state of the case? It is
+simply that, so far as we have gone yet with our breeding, we have not
+produced from a common stock two breeds which are not more or less
+fertile with one another.
+
+I do not know that there is a single fact which would justify any one in
+saying that any degree of sterility has been observed between breeds
+absolutely known to have been produced by selective breeding from a
+common stock. On the other hand, I do not know that there is a single
+fact which can justify any one in asserting that such sterility cannot
+be produced by proper experimentation. For my own part, I see every
+reason to believe that it may, and will be so produced. For, as Mr.
+Darwin has very properly urged, when we consider the phenomena of
+sterility, we find they are most capricious; we do not know what it is
+that the sterility depends on. There are some animals which will not
+breed in captivity; whether it arises from the simple fact of their
+being shut up and deprived of their liberty, or not, we do not know, but
+they certainly will not breed. What an astounding thing this is, to find
+one of the most important of all functions annihilated by mere
+imprisonment!
+
+So, again, there are cases known of animals which have been thought by
+naturalists to be undoubted species, which have yielded perfectly
+fertile hybrids; while there are other species which present what
+everybody believes to be varieties[55] which are more or less infertile
+with one another. There are other cases which are truly extraordinary;
+there is one, for example, which has been carefully examined,--of two
+kinds of sea-weed, of which the male element of the one, which we may
+call A, fertilizes the female element of the other, B; while the male
+element of B will not fertilize the female element of A; so that, while
+the former experiment seems to show us that they are _varieties_, the
+latter leads to the conviction that they are _species_.
+
+When we see how capricious and uncertain this sterility is, how unknown
+the conditions on which it depends, I say that we have no right to
+affirm that those conditions will not be better understood by and by,
+and we have no ground for supposing that we may not be able to
+experiment so as to obtain that crucial result which I mentioned just
+now. So that though Mr. Darwin's hypothesis does not completely
+extricate us from this difficulty at present, we have not the least
+right to say it will not do so.
+
+There is a wide gulf between the thing you cannot explain and the thing
+that upsets you altogether. There is hardly any hypothesis in this world
+which has not some fact in connection with it which has not been
+explained, but that is a very different affair to a fact that entirely
+opposes your hypothesis; in this case all you can say is, that your
+hypothesis is in the same position as a good many others.
+
+Now, as to the third test, that there are no other causes competent to
+explain the phenomena, I explained to you that one should be able to say
+of an hypothesis, that no other known causes than those supposed by it
+are competent to give rise to the phenomena. Here, I think, Mr. Darwin's
+view is pretty strong. I really believe that the alternative is either
+Darwinism or nothing, for I do not know of any rational conception or
+theory of the organic universe which has any scientific position at all
+beside Mr. Darwin's. I do not know of any proposition that has been put
+before us with the intention of explaining the phenomena of organic
+nature, which has in its favour a thousandth part of the evidence which
+may be adduced in favour of Mr. Darwin's views. Whatever may be the
+objections to his views, certainly all other theories are absolutely out
+of court.
+
+Take the Lamarckian hypothesis, for example. Lamarck was a great
+naturalist, and to a certain extent went the right way to work; he
+argued from what was undoubtedly a true cause of some of the phenomena
+of organic nature. He said it is a matter of experience that an animal
+may be modified more or less in consequence of its desires and
+consequent actions. Thus, if a man exercise himself as a blacksmith, his
+arms will become strong and muscular; such organic modification is a
+result of this particular action and exercise. Lamarck thought that by a
+very simple supposition based on this truth he could explain the origin
+of the various animal species: he said, for example, that the
+short-legged birds which live on fish, had been converted into the
+long-legged waders by desiring to get the fish without wetting their
+feathers, and so stretching their legs more and more through successive
+generations. If Lamarck could have shown experimentally, that even races
+of animals could be produced in this way, there might have been some
+ground for his speculations. But he could show nothing of the kind, and
+his hypothesis has pretty well dropped into oblivion, as it deserved to
+do. I said in an earlier lecture that there are hypotheses and
+hypotheses, and when people tell you that Mr. Darwin's strongly-based
+hypothesis is nothing but a mere modification of Lamarck's, you will
+know what to think of their capacity for forming a judgment on this
+subject.
+
+But you must recollect that when I say I think it is either Mr. Darwin's
+hypothesis or nothing; that either we must take his view, or look upon
+the whole of organic nature as an enigma, the meaning of which is wholly
+hidden from us; you must understand that I mean that I accept it
+provisionally, in exactly the same way as I accept any other hypothesis.
+Men of science do not pledge themselves to creeds; they are bound by
+articles of no sort; there is not a single belief that it is not a
+bounden duty with them to hold with a light hand and to part with it,
+cheerfully, the moment it is really proved to be contrary to any fact,
+great or small. And if in course of time I see good reasons for such a
+proceeding, I shall have no hesitation in coming before you, and
+pointing out any change in my opinion without finding the slightest
+occasion to blush for so doing. So I say that we accept this view as we
+accept any other, so long as it will help us, and we feel bound to
+retain it only so long as it will serve our great purpose--the
+improvement of Man's estate and the widening of his knowledge. The
+moment this, or any other conception, ceases to be useful for these
+purposes, away with it to the four winds; we care not what becomes of
+it!
+
+But to say truth, although it has been my business to attend closely to
+the controversies roused by the publication of Mr. Darwin's book, I
+think that not one of the enormous mass of objections and obstacles
+which have been raised is of any very great value, except that sterility
+case which I brought before you just now. All the rest are
+misunderstandings of some sort, arising either from prejudice, or want
+of knowledge, or still more from want of patience and care in reading
+the work.
+
+For you must recollect that it is not a book to be read, with as much
+ease, as its pleasant style may lead you to imagine. You spin through it
+as if it were a novel the first time you read it, and think you know all
+about it; the second time you read it you think you know rather less
+about it; and the third time, you are amazed to find how little you have
+really apprehended its vast scope and objects. I can positively say that
+I never take it up without finding in it some new view, or light, or
+suggestion that I have not noticed before. That is the best
+characteristic of a thorough and profound book; and I believe this
+feature of the "Origin of Species" explains why so many persons have
+ventured to pass judgment and criticisms upon it which are by no means
+worth the paper they are written on.
+
+Before concluding these lectures there is one point to which I must
+advert,--though, as Mr. Darwin has said nothing about man in his book,
+it concerns myself rather than him;--for I have strongly maintained on
+sundry occasions that if Mr. Darwin's views are sound, they apply as
+much to man as to the lower mammals, seeing that it is perfectly
+demonstrable that the structural differences which separate man from the
+apes are not greater than those which separate some apes from others.
+There cannot be the slightest doubt in the world that the argument which
+applies to the improvement of the horse from an earlier stock, or of ape
+from ape, applies to the improvement of man from some simpler and lower
+stock than man. There is not a single faculty--functional or structural,
+moral, intellectual, or instinctive,--there is no faculty whatever that
+is not capable of improvement; there is no faculty whatsoever which does
+not depend upon structure, and as structure tends to vary, it is capable
+of being improved.
+
+Well, I have taken a good deal of pains at various times to prove this,
+and I have endeavoured to meet the objections of those who maintain,
+that the structural differences between man and the lower animals are of
+so vast a character and enormous extent, that even if Mr. Darwin's views
+are correct, you cannot imagine this particular modification to take
+place. It is, in fact, easy matter to prove that, so far as structure is
+concerned, man differs to no greater extent from the animals which are
+immediately below him than these do from other members of the same
+order. Upon the other hand, there is no one who estimates more highly
+than I do the dignity of human nature, and the width of the gulf in
+intellectual and moral matters, which lies between man and the whole of
+the lower creation.
+
+But I find this very argument brought forward vehemently by some. "You
+say that man has proceeded from a modification of some lower animal, and
+you take pains to prove that the structural differences which are said
+to exist in his brain do not exist at all, and you teach that all
+functions, intellectual, moral, and others, are the expression or the
+result, in the long run, of structures, and of the molecular forces
+which they exert." It is quite true that I do so.
+
+"Well, but," I am told at once, somewhat triumphantly, "you say in the
+same breath that there is a great moral and intellectual chasm between
+man and the lower animals. How is this possible when you declare that
+moral and intellectual characteristics depend on structure, and yet tell
+us that there is no such gulf between the structure of man and that of
+the lower animals?"
+
+I think that objection is based upon a misconception of the real
+relations which exist between structure and function, between mechanism
+and work. Function is the expression of molecular forces and
+arrangements no doubt; but, does it follow from this, that variation in
+function so depends upon variation in structure that the former is
+always exactly proportioned to the latter? If there is no such relation,
+if the variation in function which follows on a variation in structure,
+may be enormously greater than the variation of the structure, then, you
+see, the objection falls to the ground.
+
+Take a couple of watches--made by the same maker, and as completely
+alike as possible; set them upon the table, and the function of
+each--which is its rate of going--will be performed in the same manner,
+and you shall be able to distinguish no difference between them; but let
+me take a pair of pincers, and if my hand is steady enough to do it, let
+me just lightly crush together the bearings of the balance-wheel, or
+force to a slightly different angle the teeth of the escapement of one
+of them, and of course you know the immediate result will be that the
+watch, so treated, from that moment will cease to go. But what
+proportion is there between the structural alteration and the functional
+result? Is it not perfectly obvious that the alteration is of the
+minutest kind, yet that slight as it is, it has produced an infinite
+difference in the performance of the functions of these two
+instruments?
+
+Well, now, apply that to the present question. What is it that
+constitutes and makes man what he is? What is it but his power of
+language--that language giving him the means of recording his
+experience--making every generation somewhat wiser than its
+predecessor,--more in accordance with the established order of the
+universe?
+
+What is it but this power of speech, of recording experience, which
+enables men to be men--looking before and after and, in some dim sense,
+understanding the working of this wondrous universe--and which
+distinguishes man from the whole of the brute world? I say that this
+functional difference is vast, unfathomable, and truly infinite in its
+consequences; and I say at the same time, that it may depend upon
+structural differences which shall be absolutely inappreciable to us
+with our present means of investigation. What is this very speech that
+we are talking about? I am speaking to you at this moment, but if you
+were to alter, in the minutest degree, the proportion of the nervous
+forces now active in the two nerves which supply the muscles of my
+glottis, I should become suddenly dumb. The voice is produced only so
+long as the vocal chords are parallel; and these are parallel only so
+long as certain muscles contract with exact equality; and that again
+depends on the equality of action of those two nerves I spoke of. So
+that a change of the minutest kind in the structure of one of these
+nerves, or in the structure of the part in which it originates, or of
+the supply of blood to that part, or of one of the muscles to which it
+is distributed, might render all of us dumb. But a race of dumb men,
+deprived of all communication with those who could speak, would be
+little indeed removed from the brutes. And the moral and intellectual
+difference between them and ourselves would be practically infinite,
+though the naturalist should not be able to find a single shadow of even
+specific structural difference.
+
+But let me dismiss this question now, and, in conclusion, let me say
+that you may go away with it as my mature conviction, that Mr. Darwin's
+work is the greatest contribution which has been made to biological
+science since the publication of the "Règne Animal" of Cuvier, and
+since that of the "History of Development," of Von Baer. I believe that
+if you strip it of its theoretical part it still remains one of the
+greatest encyclopædias of biological doctrine that any one man ever
+brought forth; and I believe that, if you take it as the embodiment of
+an hypothesis, it is destined to be the guide of biological and
+psychological speculation for the next three or four generations.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[55] And as I conceive with very good reason; but if any objector urges
+that we cannot prove that they have been produced by artificial or
+natural selection, the objection must be admitted--ultra-sceptical as it
+is. But in science, scepticism is a duty.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+  ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE
+  NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES.
+
+
+The subject to which I have to beg your attention during the ensuing
+hour is "The Relation of Physiological Science to other branches of
+knowledge."
+
+Had circumstances permitted of the delivery, in their strict logical
+order, of that series of discourses of which the present lecture is a
+member, I should have preceded my friend and colleague Mr. Henfrey, who
+addressed you on Monday last; but while, for the sake of that order, I
+must beg you to suppose that this discussion of the Educational bearings
+of Biology in general _does_ precede that of Special Zoology and Botany,
+I am rejoiced to be able to take advantage of the light thus already
+thrown upon the tendency and methods of Physiological Science.
+
+Regarding Physiological Science then, in its widest sense--as the
+equivalent of _Biology_--the Science of Individual Life--we have to
+consider in succession:
+
+1. Its position and scope as a branch of knowledge.
+
+2. Its value as a means of mental discipline.
+
+3. Its worth as practical information.
+
+And lastly,
+
+4. At what period it may best be made a branch of Education.
+
+Our conclusions on the first of these heads must depend, of course, upon
+the nature of the subject-matter of Biology; and I think a few
+preliminary considerations will place before you in a clear light the
+vast difference which exists between the living bodies with which
+Physiological science is concerned, and the remainder of the
+universe;--between the phænomena of Number and Space, of Physical and of
+Chemical force, on the one hand, and those of Life on the other.
+
+The mathematician, the physicist, and the chemist contemplate things in
+a condition of rest; they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to
+which all bodies normally tend.
+
+The mathematician does not suppose that a quantity will alter, or that a
+given point in space will change its direction with regard to another
+point, spontaneously. And it is the same with the physicist. When Newton
+saw the apple fall, he concluded at once that the act of falling was not
+the result of any power inherent in the apple, but that it was the
+result of the action of something else on the apple. In a similar
+manner, all physical force is regarded as the disturbance of an
+equilibrium to which things tended before its exertion,--to which they
+will tend again after its cessation.
+
+The chemist equally regards chemical change in a body, as the effect of
+the action of something external to the body changed. A chemical
+compound once formed would persist for ever, if no alteration took place
+in surrounding conditions.
+
+But to the student of Life the aspect of nature is reversed. Here,
+incessant, and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, rest
+the exception--the anomaly to be accounted for. Living things have no
+inertia and tend to no equilibrium.
+
+Permit me, however, to give more force and clearness to these somewhat
+abstract considerations, by an illustration or two.
+
+Imagine a vessel full of water, at the ordinary temperature, in an
+atmosphere saturated with vapour. The _quantity_ and the _figure_ of
+that water will not change, so far as we know, for ever.
+
+Suppose a lump of gold be thrown into the vessel--motion and disturbance
+of figure exactly proportional to the momentum of the gold will take
+place. But after a time the effects of this disturbance will
+subside--equilibrium will be restored, and the water will return to its
+passive state.
+
+Expose the water to cold--it will solidify--and in so doing its
+particles will arrange themselves in definite crystalline shapes. But
+once formed, these crystals change no further.
+
+Again, substitute for the lump of gold some substance capable of
+entering into chemical relations with the water:--say, a mass of that
+substance which is called "protein"--the substance of flesh:--a very
+considerable disturbance of equilibrium will take place--all sorts of
+chemical compositions and decompositions will occur; but in the end, as
+before, the result will be the resumption of a condition of rest.
+
+Instead of such a mass of _dead_ protein, however, take a particle of
+_living_ protein--one of those minute microscopic living things which
+throng our pools, and are known as Infusoria--such a creature, for
+instance, as an Euglena, and place it in our vessel of water. It is a
+round mass provided with a long filament, and except in this peculiarity
+of shape, presents no appreciable physical or chemical difference
+whereby it might be distinguished from the particle of dead protein.
+
+But the difference in the phænomena to which it will give rise is
+immense: in the first place it will develope a vast quantity of physical
+force--cleaving the water in all directions, with considerable rapidity,
+by means of the vibrations of the long filament or cilium.
+
+Nor is the amount of chemical energy which the little creature possesses
+less striking. It is a perfect laboratory in itself, and it will act and
+react upon the water and the matters contained therein; converting them
+into new compounds resembling its own substance and, at the same time,
+giving up portions of its own substance which have become effete.
+
+Furthermore, the Euglena will increase in size; but this increase is by
+no means unlimited, as the increase of a crystal might be. After it has
+grown to a certain extent it divides, and each portion assumes the form
+of the original and proceeds to repeat the process of growth and
+division.
+
+Nor is this all. For after a series of such divisions and subdivisions,
+these minute points assume a totally new form, lose their long
+tails--round themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, in which
+they remain shut up for a time, eventually to resume, directly or
+indirectly, their primitive mode of existence.
+
+Now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit to the existence of
+the Euglena, or of any other living germ. A living species once launched
+into existence tends to live for ever.
+
+Consider how widely different this living particle is from the dead
+atoms with which the physicist and chemist have to do!
+
+The particle of gold falls to the bottom and rests--the particle of dead
+protein decomposes and disappears--it also rests: but the _living_
+protein mass neither tends to exhaustion of its forces nor to any
+permanency of form, but is essentially distinguished as a disturber of
+equilibrium so far as force is concerned,--as undergoing continual
+metamorphosis and change, in point of form.
+
+Tendency to equilibrium of force, and to permanency of form then, are
+the characters of that portion of the universe which does not live--the
+domain of the chemist and physicist.
+
+Tendency to disturb existing equilibrium,--to take on forms which
+succeed one another in definite cycles, is the character of the living
+world.
+
+What is the cause of this wonderful difference between the dead particle
+and the living particle of matter appearing in other respects identical?
+that difference to which we give the name of Life?
+
+I, for one, cannot tell you. It may be that, by and bye, philosophers
+will discover some higher laws of which the facts of life are particular
+cases--very possibly they will find out some bond between
+physico-chemical phænomena on the one hand, and vital phænomena on the
+other. At present, however, we assuredly know of none; and I think we
+shall exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, this
+successive assumption of different states--(external conditions
+remaining the same)--this _spontaneity of action_--if I may use a term
+which implies more than I would be answerable for--which constitutes so
+vast and plain a practical distinction between living bodies and those
+which do not live, is an ultimate fact; indicating as such, the
+existence of a broad line of demarcation between the subject-matter of
+Biological and that of all other sciences.
+
+For I would have it understood that this simple Euglena is the type of
+_all_ living things, so far as the distinction between these and inert
+matter is concerned. That cycle of changes, which is constituted by
+perhaps not more than two or three steps in the Euglena, is as clearly
+manifested in the multitudinous stages through which the germ of an oak
+or of a man passes. Whatever forms the Living Being may take on, whether
+simple or complex,--_production_, _growth_, _reproduction_,--are the
+phænomena which distinguish it from that which does not live.
+
+If this be true, it is clear that the student, in passing from the
+physico-chemical to the physiological sciences, enters upon a totally
+new order of facts; and it will next be for us to consider how far these
+new facts involve _new_ methods, or require a modification of those with
+which he is already acquainted. Now a great deal is said about the
+peculiarity of the scientific method in general, and of the different
+methods which are pursued in the different sciences. The Mathematics are
+said to have one special method; Physics another, Biology a third, and
+so forth. For my own part, I must confess that I do not understand this
+phraseology. So far as I can arrive at any clear comprehension of the
+matter, Science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modification of
+the black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth century, and
+flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of the Inquisition.
+
+Science is, I believe, nothing but _trained and organized common sense_,
+differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw
+recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only so far
+as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a
+savage wields his club. The primary power is the same in each case, and
+perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of the two. The
+_real_ advantage lies in the point and polish of the swordsman's weapon;
+in the trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of the adversary; in
+the ready hand prompt to follow it on the instant. But after all, the
+sword exercise is only the hewing and poking of the clubman developed
+and perfected.
+
+So, the vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical
+faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised
+by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A
+detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe,
+by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the
+extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones. Nor does
+that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a stain
+of a peculiar kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has upset the
+inkstand thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by which Adams
+and Leverrier discovered a new planet.
+
+The man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness, the
+methods which we all, habitually and at every moment, use carelessly;
+and the man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific
+method--must be as truly a man of science--as the veriest book-worm of
+us all; though I have no doubt that the man of business will find
+himself out to be a philosopher with as much surprise as M. Jourdain
+exhibited when he discovered that he had been all his life talking
+prose. If, however, there be no real difference between the methods of
+science and those of common life, it would seem on the face of the
+matter highly improbable that there should be any difference between the
+methods of the different sciences; nevertheless, it is constantly taken
+for granted, that there is a very wide difference between the
+Physiological and other sciences in point of method.
+
+In the first place it is said--and I take this point first, because the
+imputation is too frequently admitted by Physiologists themselves--that
+Biology differs from the Physico-chemical and Mathematical sciences, in
+being "inexact."
+
+Now, this phrase "inexact" must refer either to the _methods_ or to the
+_results_ of Physiological science.
+
+It cannot be correct to apply it to the methods; for, as I hope to show
+you by and bye, these are identical in all sciences, and whatever is
+true of Physiological method is true of Physical and Mathematical
+method.
+
+Is it then the _results_ of Biological science which are "inexact"? I
+think not. If I say that respiration is performed by the lungs; that
+digestion is effected in the stomach; that the eye is the organ of
+sight; that the jaws of a vertebrated animal never open sideways, but
+always up and down; while those of an annulose animal always open
+sideways, and never up and down--I am enumerating propositions which are
+as exact as anything in Euclid. How then has this notion of the
+inexactness of Biological science come about? I believe from two causes:
+first, because, in consequence of the great complexity of the science
+and the multitude of interfering conditions, we are very often only
+enabled to predict approximately what will occur under given
+circumstances; and secondly, because, on account of the comparative
+youth of the Physiological sciences, a great many of their laws are
+still imperfectly worked out. But in an educational point of view, it is
+most important to distinguish between the essence of a science and the
+accidents which surround it; and essentially, the methods and results of
+Physiology are as exact as those of Physics or Mathematics.
+
+It is said that the Physiological method is especially
+_comparative_[56]; and this dictum also finds favour in the eyes of
+many. I should be sorry to suggest that the speculators on scientific
+classification have been misled by the accident of the name of one
+leading branch of Biology--_Comparative Anatomy_; but I would ask
+whether _comparison_, and that classification which is the result of
+comparison, are not the essence of every science whatsoever? How is it
+possible to discover a relation of cause and effect of _any_ kind
+without comparing a series of cases together in which the supposed cause
+and effect occur singly, or combined? So far from comparison being in
+any way peculiar to Biological science, it is, I think, the essence of
+every science.
+
+A speculative philosopher again tells us that the Biological sciences
+are distinguished by being sciences of observation and not of
+experiment![57]
+
+Of all the strange assertions into which speculation without practical
+acquaintance with a subject may lead even an able man, I think this is
+the very strangest. Physiology not an experimental science! Why, there
+is not a function of a single organ in the body which has not been
+determined wholly and solely by experiment? How did Harvey determine the
+nature of the circulation, except by experiment? How did Sir Charles
+Bell determine the functions of the roots of the spinal nerves, save by
+experiment? How do we know the use of a nerve at all, except by
+experiment? Nay, how do you know even that your eye is your seeing
+apparatus, unless you make the experiment of shutting it; or that your
+ear is your hearing apparatus, unless you close it up and thereby
+discover that you become deaf?
+
+It would really be much more true to say that Physiology is _the_
+experimental science _par excellence_ of all sciences; that in which
+there is least to be learnt by mere observation, and that which affords
+the greatest field for the exercise of those faculties which
+characterize the experimental philosopher. I confess, if any one were to
+ask me for a model application of the logic of experiment, I should know
+no better work to put into his hands than Bernard's late Researches on
+the Functions of the Liver.[58]
+
+Not to give this lecture a too controversial tone however, I must only
+advert to one more doctrine, held by a thinker of our own age and
+country, whose opinions are worthy of all respect. It is, that the
+Biological sciences differ from all others, inasmuch as in _them_,
+classification takes place by type and not by definition.[59]
+
+It is said, in short, that a natural-history class is not capable of
+being defined--that the class Rosaceæ, for instance, or the class of
+Fishes, is not accurately and absolutely definable, inasmuch as its
+members will present exceptions to every possible definition; and that
+the members of the class are united together only by the circumstance
+that they are all more like some imaginary average rose or average fish,
+than they resemble anything else.
+
+But here, as before, I think the distinction has arisen entirely from
+confusing a transitory imperfection with an essential character. So long
+as our information concerning them is imperfect, we class all objects
+together according to resemblances which we _feel_, but cannot _define_:
+we group them round _types_, in short. Thus, if you ask an ordinary
+person what kinds of animals there are, he will probably say, beasts,
+birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. Ask him to define a beast from a
+reptile, and he cannot do it; but he says, things like a cow or a horse
+are beasts, and things like a frog or a lizard are reptiles. You see _he
+does_ class by type, and not by definition. But how does this
+classification differ from that of the scientific Zoologist? How does
+the meaning of the scientific class-name of "Mammalia" differ from the
+unscientific of "Beasts"?
+
+Why, exactly because the former depends on a definition, the latter on a
+type. The class Mammalia is scientifically defined as "all animals which
+have a vertebrated skeleton and suckle their young." Here is no
+reference to type, but a definition rigorous enough for a geometrician.
+And such is the character which every scientific naturalist recognizes
+as that to which his classes must aspire--knowing, as he does, that
+classification by type is simply an acknowledgment of ignorance and a
+temporary device.
+
+So much in the way of negative argument as against the reputed
+differences between Biological and other methods. No such differences, I
+believe, really exist. The subject-matter of Biological science is
+different from that of other sciences, but the methods of all are
+identical; and these methods are--
+
+1. _Observation_ of facts--including under this head that _artificial
+observation_ which is called _experiment_.
+
+2. That process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and
+ready for use, which is called _Comparison_ and _Classification_,--the
+results of the process, the ticketed bundles, being named _General
+propositions_.
+
+3. _Deduction_, which takes us from the general proposition to facts
+again--teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket what
+is inside the bundle. And finally--
+
+4. _Verification_, which is the process of ascertaining whether, in
+point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one.
+
+Such are the methods of all science whatsoever; but perhaps you will
+permit me to give you an illustration of their employment in the science
+of Life; and I will take as a special case, the establishment of the
+doctrine of the _Circulation of the Blood_.
+
+In this case, _simple observation_ yields us a knowledge of the
+existence of the blood from some accidental hæmorrhage, we will say: we
+may even grant that it informs us of the localisation of this blood in
+particular vessels, the heart, &c., from some accidental cut or the
+like. It teaches also the existence of a pulse in various parts of the
+body, and acquaints us with the structure of the heart and vessels.
+
+Here, however, _simple observation_ stops, and we must have recourse to
+_experiment_.
+
+You tie a vein, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side of
+the ligature opposite the heart. You tie an artery, and you find that
+the blood accumulates on the side near the heart. Open the chest, and
+you see the heart contracting with great force. Make openings into its
+principal cavities, and you will find that all the blood flows out, and
+no more pressure is exerted on either side of the arterial or venous
+ligature.
+
+Now all these facts, taken together, constitute the evidence that the
+blood is propelled by the heart through the arteries, and returns by the
+veins--that, in short, the blood circulates.
+
+Suppose our experiments and observations have been made on horses, then
+we group and ticket them into a general proposition, thus:--_all horses
+have a circulation of their blood_.
+
+Henceforward a horse is a sort of indication or label, telling us where
+we shall find a peculiar series of phænomena called the circulation of
+the blood.
+
+Here is our _general proposition_ then.
+
+How and when are we justified in making our next step--a _deduction_
+from it?
+
+Suppose our physiologist, whose experience is limited to horses, meets
+with a zebra for the first time,--will he suppose that his
+generalization holds good for zebras also?
+
+That depends very much on his turn of mind. But we will suppose him to
+be a bold man. He will say, "The zebra is certainly not a horse, but it
+is very like one,--so like, that it must be the 'ticket' or mark of a
+blood-circulation also; and, I conclude that the zebra has a
+circulation."
+
+That is a deduction, a very fair deduction, but by no means to be
+considered scientifically secure. This last quality in fact can only be
+given by _verification_--that is, by making a zebra the subject of all
+the experiments performed on the horse. Of course in the present case
+the _deduction_ would be _confirmed_ by this process of verification,
+and the result would be, not merely a positive widening of knowledge,
+but a fair increase of confidence in the truth of one's generalizations
+in other cases.
+
+Thus, having settled the point in the zebra and horse, our philosopher
+would have great confidence in the existence of a circulation in the
+ass. Nay, I fancy most persons would excuse him, if in this case he did
+not take the trouble to go through the process of verification at all;
+and it would not be without a parallel in the history of the human mind,
+if our imaginary physiologist now maintained that he was acquainted with
+asinine circulation _à priori_.
+
+However, if I might impress any caution upon your minds, it is, the
+utterly conditional nature of all our knowledge,--the danger of
+neglecting the process of verification under any circumstances; and the
+film upon which we rest, the moment our deductions carry us beyond the
+reach of this great process of verification. There is no better instance
+of this than is afforded by the history of our knowledge of the
+circulation of the blood in the animal kingdom until the year 1824. In
+every animal possessing a circulation at all, which had been observed up
+to that time, the current of the blood was known to take one definite
+and invariable direction. Now, there is a class of animals called
+_Ascidians_, which possess a heart and a circulation, and up to the
+period of which I speak, no one would have dreamt of questioning the
+propriety of the deduction, that these creatures have a circulation in
+one direction; nor would any one have thought it worth while to verify
+the point. But, in that year, M. von Hasselt happening to examine a
+transparent animal of this class, found to his infinite surprise, that
+after the heart had beat a certain number of times, it stopped, and then
+began beating the opposite way--so as to reverse the course of the
+current, which returned by and bye to its original direction.
+
+I have myself timed the heart of these little animals. I found it as
+regular as possible in its periods of reversal: and I know no spectacle
+in the animal kingdom more wonderful than that which it presents--all
+the more wonderful that to this day it remains an unique fact, peculiar
+to this class among the whole animated world. At the same time I know of
+no more striking case of the necessity of the _verification_ of even
+those deductions which seem founded on the widest and safest inductions.
+
+Such are the methods of Biology--methods which are obviously identical
+with those of all other sciences, and therefore wholly incompetent to
+form the ground of any distinction between it and them.[60]
+
+But I shall be asked at once, do you mean to say that there is no
+difference between the habit of mind of a mathematician and that of a
+naturalist? Do you imagine that Laplace might have been put into the
+Jardin des Plantes, and Cuvier into the Observatory, with equal
+advantage to the progress of the sciences they professed?
+
+To which I would reply, that nothing could be further from my thoughts.
+But different habits and various special tendencies of two sciences do
+not imply different methods. The mountaineer and the man of the plains
+have very different habits of progression, and each would be at a loss
+in the other's place; but the method of progression, by putting one leg
+before the other, is the same in each case. Every step of each is a
+combination of a lift and a push; but the mountaineer lifts more and the
+lowlander pushes more. And I think the case of two sciences resembles
+this.
+
+I do not question for a moment, that while the Mathematician is busy
+with deductions _from_ general propositions, the Biologist is more
+especially occupied with observation, comparison, and those processes
+which lead _to_ general propositions. All I wish to insist upon is,
+that this difference depends not on any fundamental distinction in the
+sciences themselves, but on the accidents of their subject-matter, of
+their relative complexity, and consequent relative perfection.
+
+The Mathematician deals with two properties of objects only, number and
+extension, and all the inductions he wants have been formed and finished
+ages ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction and
+verification.
+
+The biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and his
+inductions will not be completed, I fear, for ages to come; but when
+they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the
+Mathematics themselves.
+
+Such is the relation of Biology to those sciences which deal with
+objects having fewer properties than itself. But as the student in
+reaching Biology looks back upon sciences of a less complex and
+therefore more perfect nature, so on the other hand does he look forward
+to other more complex and less perfect branches of knowledge. Biology
+deals only with living beings as isolated things--treats only of the
+life of the individual: but there is a higher division of science still,
+which considers living beings as aggregates--which deals with the
+relation of living beings one to another--the science which _observes_
+men--whose _experiments_ are made by nations one upon another, in
+battle-fields--whose _general propositions_ are embodied in history,
+morality, and religion--whose _deductions_ lead to our happiness or our
+misery,--and whose _verifications_ so often come too late, and serve
+only
+
+  "To point a moral or adorn a tale"--
+
+I mean the science of Society or _Sociology_.
+
+I think it is one of the grandest features of Biology, that it occupies
+this central position in human knowledge. There is no side of the human
+mind which physiological study leaves uncultivated. Connected by
+innumerable ties with abstract science, Physiology is yet in the most
+intimate relation with humanity; and by teaching us that law and order,
+and a definite scheme of development, regulate even the strangest and
+wildest manifestations of individual life, she prepares the student to
+look for a goal even amidst the erratic wanderings of mankind, and to
+believe that history offers something more than an entertaining chaos--a
+journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march nowhither.
+
+The preceding considerations have, I hope, served to indicate the
+replies which befit the two first of the questions which I set before
+you at starting, viz. what is the range and position of Physiological
+Science as a branch of knowledge, and what is its value as a means of
+mental discipline?
+
+Its _subject-matter_ is a large moiety of the universe--its _position_
+is midway between the physico-chemical and the social sciences. Its
+_value_ as a branch of discipline is partly that which it has in common
+with all sciences--the training and strengthening of common sense;
+partly that which is more peculiar to itself--the great exercise which
+it affords to the faculties of observation and comparison; and I may
+add, the _exactness_ of knowledge which it requires on the part of those
+among its votaries who desire to extend its boundaries.
+
+If what has been said as to the position and scope of Biology be
+correct, our third question--what is the practical value of
+physiological instruction?--might, one would think, be left to answer
+itself.
+
+On other grounds even, were mankind deserving of the title "rational,"
+which they arrogate to themselves, there can be no question that they
+would consider as the most necessary of all branches of instruction for
+themselves and for their children--that which professes to acquaint them
+with the conditions of the existence they prize so highly--which teaches
+them how to avoid disease and to cherish health, in themselves and those
+who are dear to them.
+
+I am addressing, I imagine, an audience of educated persons; and yet I
+dare venture to assert, that with the exception of those of my hearers
+who may chance to have received a medical education, there is not one
+who could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he
+performs a score of times every minute, and whose suspension would
+involve his immediate death;--I mean the act of breathing--or who could
+state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is injurious
+to health.
+
+The _Practical value_ of Physiological knowledge! Why is it that
+educated men can be found to maintain that a slaughter-house in the
+midst of a great city is rather a good thing than otherwise?--that
+mothers persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface of
+their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress they adopt, and
+then marvel at the peculiar dispensation of Providence, which removes
+their infants by bronchitis and gastric fever? Why is it that quackery
+rides rampant over the land; and that not long ago, one of the largest
+public rooms in this great city could be filled by an audience gravely
+listening to the reverend expositor of the doctrine--that the simple
+physiological phenomena known as spirit-rapping, table-turning,
+phreno-magnetism, and by I know not what other absurd and inappropriate
+names, are due to the direct and personal agency of Satan?
+
+Why is all this, except from the utter ignorance as to the simplest laws
+of their own animal life, which prevails among even the most highly
+educated persons in this country?
+
+But there are other branches of Biological Science, besides Physiology
+proper, whose practical influence, though less obvious, is not, as I
+believe, less certain. I have heard educated men speak with an
+ill-disguised contempt of the studies of the naturalist, and ask, not
+without a shrug, "What is the use of knowing all about these miserable
+animals--what bearing has it on human life?"
+
+I will endeavour to answer that question. I take it that all will admit
+there is definite Government of this universe--that its pleasures and
+pains are not scattered at random, but are distributed in accordance
+with orderly and fixed laws, and that it is only in accordance with all
+we know of the rest of the world, that there should be an agreement
+between one portion of the sensitive creation and another in these
+matters.
+
+Surely then it interests us to know the lot of other animal
+creatures--however far below us, they are still the sole created things
+which share with us the capability of pleasure and the susceptibility to
+pain.
+
+I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and
+evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his
+own share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view
+with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government,
+which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to
+be corrected by and bye. On the other hand, the predominance of
+happiness among living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and
+wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the
+lowest, are equally striking refutations of that modern Manichean
+doctrine, which exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many
+tears, for mere utilitarian ends.
+
+There is yet another way in which natural history may, I am convinced,
+take a profound hold upon practical life,--and that is, by its influence
+over our finer feelings, as the greatest of all sources of that pleasure
+which is derivable from beauty. I do not pretend that natural-history
+knowledge, as such, can increase our sense of the beautiful in natural
+objects. I do not suppose that the dead soul of Peter Bell, of whom the
+great poet of nature says,--
+
+  "A primrose by the river's brim,
+  A yellow primrose was to him,--
+  And it was nothing more,"--
+
+would have been a whit roused from its apathy, by the information that
+the primrose is a Dicotyledonous Exogen, with a monopetalous corolla and
+central placentation. But I advocate natural-history knowledge from this
+point of view, because it would lead us to _seek_ the beauties of
+natural objects, instead of trusting to chance to force them on our
+attention. To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or
+sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works
+of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach
+him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue
+of those which are worth turning round. Surely our innocent pleasures
+are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford to despise this or
+any other source of them. We should fear being banished for our neglect
+to that limbo, where the great Florentine tells us are those who during
+this life "wept when they might be joyful."
+
+But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if I do not
+proceed at once to my last point--the time at which Physiological
+Science should first form a part of the Curriculum of Education.
+
+The distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science as
+instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, has
+already been placed before you in a previous lecture: and it appears to
+me, that, as with other sciences, the _common facts_ of Biology--the
+uses of parts of the body--the names and habits of the living creatures
+which surround us--may be taught with advantage to the youngest child.
+Indeed, the avidity of children for this kind of knowledge, and the
+comparative ease with which they retain it, is something quite
+marvellous. I doubt whether any toy would be so acceptable to young
+children as a vivarium, of the same kind as, but of course on a smaller
+scale than, those admirable devices in the Zoological Gardens.
+
+On the other hand, systematic teaching in Biology cannot be attempted
+with success until the student has attained to a certain knowledge of
+physics and chemistry: for though the phænomena of life are dependent
+neither on physical nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they
+result in all sorts of physical and chemical changes, which can only be
+judged by their own laws.
+
+And now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which I hope you see
+reason to follow me.
+
+Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place--and a prominent
+place--in any scheme of education worthy of the name. Leave out the
+Physiological sciences from your curriculum, and you launch the student
+into the world, undisciplined in that science whose subject-matter would
+best develope his powers of observation; ignorant of facts of the
+deepest importance for his own and others' welfare; blind to the richest
+sources of beauty in God's creation; and unprovided with that belief in
+a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through endless
+change and variety, which might serve to check and moderate that phase
+of despair through which, if he take an earnest interest in social
+problems, he will assuredly sooner or later pass.
+
+Finally, one word for myself. I have not hesitated to speak strongly
+where I have felt strongly; and I am but too conscious that the
+indicative and imperative moods have too often taken the place of the
+more becoming subjunctive and conditional. I feel, therefore, how
+necessary it is to beg you to forget the personality of him who has thus
+ventured to address you, and to consider only the truth or error in what
+has been said.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[56] "In the third place, we have to review the method of Comparison,
+which is so specially adapted to the study of living bodies, and by
+which, above all others, that study must be advanced. In Astronomy, this
+method is necessarily inapplicable; and it is not till we arrive at
+Chemistry that this third means of investigation can be used, and then
+only in subordination to the two others. It is in the study, both
+statical and dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its full
+development; and its use elsewhere can be only through its application
+here."--_Comte's Positive Philosophy_, translated by Miss Martineau.
+Vol. i. p. 372.
+
+By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or inequality of
+forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of
+forms--points of some slight importance not only in Astronomy and
+Physics, but even in Mathematics,--are ascertained, if not by
+Comparison?
+
+[57] "Proceeding to the second class of means,--Experiment cannot but be
+less and less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the phænomena
+to be explored; and therefore we saw this resource to be less effectual
+in chemistry than in physics: and we now find that it is eminently
+useful in chemistry in comparison with physiology. _In fact, the nature
+of the phænomena seems to offer almost insurmountable impediments to any
+extensive and prolific application of such a procedure in
+biology._"--COMTE, vol. i. p. 367.
+
+M. Comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on,
+but that will hardly relieve him from the responsibility of such a
+paragraph as the above.
+
+[58] Nouvelle Fonction du Foie considéré comme organe producteur de
+matière sucrée chez l'Homme et les Animaux, par M. Claude Bernard.
+
+[59] "_Natural Groups given by Type, not by Definition...._ The class is
+steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, though not
+circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line without, but by
+a central point within; not by what it strictly excludes, but what it
+eminently includes; by an example, not by a precept; in short, instead
+of Definition we have a _Type_ for our director. A type is an example of
+any class, for instance, a species of a genus, which is considered as
+eminently possessing the characters of the class. All the species which
+have a greater affinity with this type-species than with any others,
+form the genus, and are ranged about it, deviating from it in various
+directions and different degrees."--_Whewell, The Philosophy of the
+Inductive Sciences_, vol. i. pp. 476-7.
+
+[60] Save for the pleasure of doing so, I need hardly point out my
+obligations to Mr. J. S. Mill's "System of Logic," in this view of
+scientific method.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+  ON THE PERSISTENT TYPES OF
+  ANIMAL LIFE.
+
+
+The successive modifications which the views of physical geologists have
+undergone since the infancy of their science, with regard to the amount
+and the nature of the changes which the crust of the globe has suffered,
+have all tended in one direction, viz. towards the establishment of the
+belief, that throughout that vast series of ages which was occupied by
+the deposition of the stratified rocks, and which may be called
+"geological time," (to distinguish it from the "historical time" which
+followed, and the "pre-geological time," which preceded it) the
+intensity and the character of the physical forces which have been in
+operation, have varied within but narrow limits; so that, even in
+Silurian or Cambrian times, the aspect of physical nature must have been
+much what it is now.
+
+This uniformitarian view of telluric conditions, so far as geological
+time is concerned, is, however, perfectly consistent with the notion of
+a totally different state of things in antecedent epochs, and the
+strongest advocate of such "physical uniformity" during the time of
+which we have a record might, with perfect consistency, hold the
+so-called "nebular hypothesis," or any other view involving the
+conception of a long series of states very different from that which we
+now know, and whose succession occupied pre-geological time.
+
+The doctrine of physical uniformity and that of physical progression are
+therefore perfectly consistent, if we regard geological time as having
+the same relation to pre-geological time as historical time has to it.
+
+The accepted doctrines of palæontology are by no means in harmony with
+these tendencies of physical geology. It is generally believed that
+there is a vast contrast between the ancient and the modern organic
+worlds--it is incessantly assumed that we are acquainted with the
+beginning of life, and with the primal manifestation of each of its
+typical forms: nor does the fact that the discoveries of every year
+oblige the holders of these views to change their ground, appear
+sensibly to affect the tenacity of their adhesion.
+
+Without at all denying the considerable positive differences which
+really exist between the ancient and the modern forms of life, and
+leaving the negative ones to be met by the other lines of argument, an
+impartial examination of the facts revealed by palæontology seems to
+show that these differences and contrasts have been greatly exaggerated.
+
+Thus, of some two hundred known orders of plants, not one is exclusively
+fossil. Among animals, there is not a single totally extinct class; and
+of the orders, at the outside not more than seven per cent. are
+unrepresented in the existing creation.
+
+Again, certain well marked forms of living beings have existed through
+enormous epochs, surviving not only the changes of physical conditions,
+but persisting comparatively unaltered, while other forms of life have
+appeared and disappeared. Some forms may be termed "persistent types" of
+life; and examples of them are abundant enough in both the animal and
+the vegetable worlds.
+
+Among plants, for instance, ferns, club mosses, and _Coniferæ_, some of
+them apparently generically identical with those now living, are met
+with as far back as the carboniferous epoch; the cone of the oolitic
+_Araucaria_ is hardly distinguishable from that of existing species; a
+species of _Pinus_ has been discovered in the Purbecks, and a walnut
+(_Juglans_) in the cretaceous rocks.[61] All these are types of
+vegetable structure, abounding at the present day; and surely it is a
+most remarkable fact to find them persisting with so little change
+through such vast epochs.
+
+Every sub-kingdom of animals yields instances of the same kind. The
+_Globigerina_ of the Atlantic soundings is identical with the cretaceous
+species of the same genus; and the casts of lower Silurian
+_Foraminifera_, recently described by Ehrenberg, assure us of the very
+close resemblance between the oldest and the newest forms of many of the
+_Protozoa_.
+
+Among the _Coelenterata_, the tabulate corals of the Silurian epoch
+are wonderfully like the millepores of our own seas, as every one may
+convince himself who compares _Heliolites_ with _Heliopora_.
+
+Turning to the _Mollusca_, the genera _Crania_, _Discina_, _Lingula_,
+have persisted from the Silurian epoch to the present day, with so
+little change, that very competent malacologists are sometimes puzzled
+to distinguish the ancient from the modern species. _Nautili_ have a
+like range, and the shell of the liassic _Loligo_ is similar to that of
+the "squid" of our own seas. Among the _Annulosa_, the carboniferous
+insects are in several cases referable to existing genera, as are the
+_Arachnida_, the highest group of which, the scorpions, is represented
+in the coal by a genus differing from its living congeners only in the
+disposition of its eyes.
+
+The vertebrate sub-kingdom furnishes many examples of the same kind. The
+_Ganoidei_ and _Elasmobranchii_ are known to have persisted from at
+least the middle of the Palæozoic epoch to our own times, without
+exhibiting a greater amount of deviation from the typical characters of
+these orders, than may be found within their limits at the present day.
+
+Among the _Reptilia_, the highest group, that of the _Crocodilia_, was
+represented at the beginning of the Mesozoic epoch, if not earlier, by
+species identical in the essential character of their organization with
+those now living, and presenting differences only in such points as the
+form of the articular faces of their vertebræ, in the extent to which
+the nasal passages are separated from the mouth by bone, and in the
+proportions of the limbs. Even such imperfect knowledge as we possess of
+the ancient mammalian fauna leads to the belief that certain of its
+types, such as that of the _Marsupialia_, have persisted with no greater
+change through as vast a lapse of time.
+
+It is difficult to comprehend the meaning of such facts as these, if we
+suppose that each species of animal and plant, or each great type of
+organization, was formed and placed upon the surface of the globe at
+long intervals by a distinct act of creative power; and it is well to
+recollect that such an assumption is as unsupported by tradition or
+revelation as it is opposed to the general analogy of Nature.
+
+If, on the other hand, we view "Persistent Types," in relation to that
+hypothesis which supposes the species of living beings living at any
+time to be the result of the gradual modification of pre-existing
+species--a hypothesis which though unproven, and sadly damaged by some
+of its supporters, is yet the only one to which physiology lends any
+countenance--their existence would seem to show, that the amount of
+modification which living beings have undergone during geological time
+is but very small in relation to the whole series of changes which they
+have suffered. In fact, palæontology and physical geology are in perfect
+harmony, and coincide in indicating that all we know of the conditions
+in our world during geological time, is but the last term of a vast and,
+so far as our present knowledge reaches, unrecorded progression.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[61] I state these facts on the authority of my friend Dr. Hooker.--T.
+H. H.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+  TIME AND LIFE.
+
+  MR. DARWIN'S "ORIGIN OF SPECIES"
+
+
+Everyone knows that that superficial film of the earth's substance,
+hardly ten miles thick, which is accessible to human investigation, is
+composed for the most part of beds or strata of stone, the consolidated
+muds and sands of former seas and lakes, which have been deposited one
+upon the other, and hence are the older the deeper they lie. These
+multitudinous strata present such resemblances and differences among
+themselves that they are capable of classification into groups or
+formations, and these formations again are brigaded together into still
+larger assemblages, called by the older geologists, primary, secondary,
+and tertiary; by the moderns, palæozoic, mesozoic, and cainozoic: the
+basis of the former nomenclature being the relative age of the groups of
+strata; that of the latter, the kinds of living forms contained in them.
+
+Though but a film if compared with the total diameter of our planet, the
+total series of formations is vast indeed when measured by any human
+standard, and, as all action implies time, so are we compelled to regard
+these mineral masses as a measure of the time which has elapsed during
+their accumulation. The amount of the time which they represent is, of
+course, in the inverse proportion of the intensity of the forces which
+have been in operation. If, in the ancient world, mud and sand
+accumulated on sea-bottoms at tenfold their present rate, it is clear
+that a bed of mud or sand ten feet thick would have been formed then in
+the same time as a stratum of similar materials one foot thick would be
+formed now, and _vice versâ_.
+
+At the outset of his studies, therefore, the physical geologist had to
+choose between two hypotheses; either, throughout the ages which are
+represented by the accumulated strata, and which we may call _geologic
+time_, the forces of nature have operated with much the same average
+intensity as at present, and hence the lapse of time which they
+represent must be something prodigious and inconceivable, or, in the
+primeval epochs, the natural powers were infinitely more intense than
+now, and hence the time through which they acted to produce the effects
+we see was comparatively short.
+
+The earlier geologists adopted the latter view almost with one consent.
+For they had little knowledge of the present workings of nature, and
+they read the records of geologic time as a child reads the history of
+Rome or Greece, and fancies that antiquity was grand, heroic, and unlike
+the present because it is unlike his little experience of the present.
+
+Even so the earlier observers were moved with wonder at the seeming
+contrast between the ancient and the present order of nature. The
+elemental forces seemed to have been grander and more energetic in
+primeval times. Upheaved and contorted, rifted and fissured, pierced by
+dykes of molten matter or worn away over vast areas by aqueous action,
+the older rocks appeared to bear witness to a state of things far
+different from that exhibited by the peaceful epoch on which the lot of
+man has fallen.
+
+But by degrees thoughtful students of geology have been led to perceive
+that the earliest efforts of nature have been by no means the grandest.
+Alps and Andes are children of yesterday when compared with Snowdon and
+the Cumberland hills; and the so-called glacial epoch--that in which
+perhaps the most extensive physical changes of which any record remains
+occurred--is the last and the newest of the revolutions of the globe.
+And in proportion as physical geography--which is the geology of our own
+epoch--has grown into a science, and the present order of nature has
+been ransacked to find what, _hibernicè_, we may call precedents for the
+phenomena of the past, so the apparent necessity of supposing the past
+to be widely different from the present has diminished.
+
+The transporting power of the greatest deluge which can be imagined
+sinks into insignificance beside that of the slowly floating, slowly
+melting iceberg, or the glacier creeping along at its snail's pace of a
+yard a day. The study of the deltas of the Nile, the Ganges, and the
+Mississippi has taught us how slow is the wearing action of water, how
+vast its effects when time is allowed for its operation. The reefs of
+the Pacific, the deep-sea soundings of the Atlantic, show that it is to
+the slow-growing coral and to the imperceptible animalcule, which lives
+its brief space and then adds its tiny shell to the muddy cairn left by
+its brethren and ancestors, that we must look as the agents in the
+formation of limestone and chalk, and not to hypothetical oceans
+saturated with calcareous salts and suddenly depositing them.
+
+And while the inquirer has thus learnt that existing forces--_give them
+time_--are competent to produce all the physical phenomena we meet with
+in the rocks, so, on the other side, the study of the marks left in the
+ancient strata by past physical actions shows that these were similar to
+those which now obtain. Ancient beaches are met with whose pebbles are
+like those found on modern shores; the hardened sea-sands of the oldest
+epochs show ripple-marks, such as may now be found on every sandy coast;
+nay, more, the pits left by ancient rain-drops prove that even in the
+very earliest ages, the "bow in the clouds" must have adorned the
+palæozoic firmament. So that if we could reverse the legend of the Seven
+Sleepers,--if we could sleep back through the past, and awake a million
+ages before our own epoch, in the midst of the earliest geologic
+times,--there is no reason to believe that sea, or sky, or the aspect of
+the land would warn us of the marvellous retrospection.
+
+Such are the beliefs which modern physical geologists hold, or, at any
+rate, tend towards holding. But, in so doing, it is obvious that they by
+no means prejudge the question, as to what the physical condition of the
+globe may have been before our chapters of its history begin, in what
+may be called (with that licence which is implied in the often-used term
+"prehistoric epoch") "pregeologic time." The views indicated, in fact,
+are not only quite consistent with the hypothesis, that, in the still
+earlier period referred to, the condition of our world was very
+different; but they may be held by some to necessitate that hypothesis.
+The physical philosopher who is accurately acquainted with the velocity
+of a cannon-ball, and the precise character of the line which it
+traverses for a yard of its course, is necessitated by what he knows of
+the laws of nature to conclude that it came from a certain spot, whence
+it was impelled by a certain force, and that it has followed a certain
+trajectory. In like manner, the student of physical geology, who fully
+believes in the uniformity of the general condition of the earth through
+geologic time, may feel compelled by what he knows of causation, and by
+the general analogy of nature, to suppose that our solar system was once
+a nebulous mass, that it gradually condensed, that it broke up into that
+wonderful group of harmoniously rolling balls we call planets and
+satellites, and that then each of these underwent its appointed
+metamorphosis, until at last our own share of the cosmic vapour passed
+into that condition in which we first meet with definite records of its
+state, and in which it has since, with comparatively little change,
+remained.
+
+The doctrine of uniformity and the doctrine of progression are,
+therefore, perfectly consistent; perhaps, indeed, they might be shown to
+be necessarily connected with one another.
+
+If, however, the condition of the world, which has obtained throughout
+geologic time, is but the sequel to a vast series of changes which took
+place in pregeologic time, then it seems not unlikely that the duration
+of this latter is to that of the former as the vast extent of geologic
+time is to the length of the brief epoch we call the historical period;
+and that even the oldest rocks are records of an epoch almost infinitely
+remote from that which could have witnessed the first shaping of our
+globe.
+
+It is probable that no modern geologist would hesitate to admit the
+general validity of these reasonings when applied to the physics of his
+subject, whence it is the more remarkable that the moment the question
+changes from one of physics and chemistry to one of natural history,
+scientific opinions and the popular prejudices, which reflect them in a
+distorted form, undergo a sudden metamorphosis. Geologists and
+palæontologists write about the "beginning of life" and the
+"first-created forms of living beings," as if they were the most
+familiar things in the world; and even cautious writers seem to be on
+quite friendly terms with the "archetype" whereby the Creator was guided
+"amidst the crash of falling worlds." Just as it used to be imagined
+that the ancient universe was physically opposed to the present, so it
+is still widely assumed that the living population of our globe, whether
+animal or vegetable, in the older epochs, exhibited forms so strikingly
+contrasted with those which we see around us, that there is hardly
+anything in common between the two. It is constantly tacitly assumed
+that we have before us all the forms of life which have ever existed;
+and though the progress of knowledge, yearly and almost monthly, drives
+the defenders of that position from their ground, they entrench
+themselves in the new line of defences as if nothing had happened, and
+proclaim that the _new_ beginning is the _real_ beginning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Without for an instant denying or endeavouring to soften down the
+considerable positive differences (the negative ones are met by another
+line of argument) which undoubtedly obtain between the ancient and the
+modern worlds of life, we believe they have been vastly overstated and
+exaggerated, and this belief is based upon certain facts whose value
+does not seem to have been fully appreciated, though they have long been
+more or less completely known.
+
+The multitudinous kinds of animals and plants, both recent and fossil,
+are, as is well known, arranged by zoologists and botanists, in
+accordance with their natural relations, into groups which receive the
+names of sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, genera and species.
+Now it is a most remarkable circumstance that, viewed on the great
+scale, living beings have differed so little throughout all geologic
+time that there is no sub-kingdom and no class wholly extinct or without
+living representatives.
+
+If we descend to the smaller groups, we find that the number of orders
+of plants is about two hundred; and I have it on the best authority
+that not one of these is exclusively fossil; so that there is absolutely
+not a single extinct ordinal type of vegetable life; and it is not until
+we descend to the next group, or the families, that we find types which
+are wholly extinct. The number of orders of animals, on the other hand,
+may be reckoned at a hundred and twenty, or thereabouts, and of these,
+eight or nine have no living representatives. The proportion of extinct
+ordinal types of animals to the existing types, therefore, does not
+exceed seven per cent.--a marvellously small proportion when we consider
+the vastness of geologic time.
+
+Another class of considerations--of a different kind, it is true, but
+tending in the same direction--seems to have been overlooked. Not only
+is it true that the general plan of construction of animals and plants
+has been the same in all recorded time as at present, but there are
+particular kinds of animals and plants which have existed throughout
+vast epochs, sometimes through the whole range of recorded time, with
+very little change. By reason of this persistency, the typical form of
+such a kind might be called a "persistent type," in contradistinction to
+those types which have appeared for but a short time in the course of
+the world's history. Examples of these persistent types are abundant
+enough in both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. The oldest group
+of plants with which we are well acquainted is that of whose remains
+coal is constituted; and, so far as they can be identified, the
+carboniferous plants are ferns, or club-mosses, or Coniferæ, in many
+cases generically identical with those now living!
+
+Among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every
+sub-kingdom. The _Globigerina_ of the Atlantic soundings is identical
+with that which occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian
+_Foraminifera_, which Ehrenberg has recently described, seem to indicate
+the existence at that remote period of forms singularly like those which
+now exist. Among the corals, the palæozoic _Tabulata_ are constructed on
+precisely the same type as the modern millepores; and if we turn to
+molluscs, the most competent malacologists fail to discover any generic
+distinction between the _Craniæ_, _Lingulæ_, and _Discinæ_ of the
+silurian rocks and those which now live. Our existing _Nautilus_ has its
+representative species in every great formation, from the oldest to the
+newest; and _Loligo_, the squid of modern seas, appears in the lias, or
+at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a form, at most, specifically
+different from its living congeners. In the great assemblage of annulose
+animals, the two highest classes, the insects and spider tribe, exhibit
+a wonderful persistency of type. The cockroaches of the carboniferous
+epoch are exceedingly similar to those which now run about our
+coal-cellars; and its locusts, termites, and dragon-flies are closely
+allied to the members of the same groups which now chirrup about our
+fields, undermine our houses, or sail with swift grace about the banks
+of our sedgy pools. And, in like manner, the palæozoic scorpions can
+only be distinguished by the eye of a naturalist from the modern ones.
+
+Finally, with respect to the _Vertebrata_, the same law holds good:
+certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having
+persisted from the palæozoic epoch to the present time without a greater
+amount of deviation from the normal standard than that which is seen
+within the limits of the group as it now exists. Even among the
+_Reptilia_--the class which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely
+extinct forms of any--one type, that of the _Crocodilia_, has persisted
+from at least the commencement of the Mesozoic epoch up to the present
+time with so much constancy, that the amount of change which it exhibits
+may fairly, in relation to the time which has elapsed, be called
+insignificant. And the imperfect knowledge we have of the ancient
+mammalian population of our earth leads to the belief that certain of
+its types, such as that of the _Marsupialia_, have persisted with
+correspondingly little change through a similar range of time.
+
+Thus it would appear to be demonstrable, that, notwithstanding the great
+change which is exhibited by the animal population of the world as a
+whole, certain types have persisted comparatively without alteration,
+and the question arises, What bearing have such facts as these on our
+notions of the history of life through geological time? The answer to
+this question would seem to depend on the view we take respecting the
+origin of species in general. If we assume that every species of animal
+and of plant was formed by a distinct act of creative power, and if the
+species which have incessantly succeeded one another were placed upon
+the globe by these separate acts, then the existence of persistent types
+is simply an unintelligible irregularity. Such assumption, however, is
+as unsupported by tradition or by Revelation as it is opposed by the
+analogy of the rest of the operations of nature; and those who imagine
+that, by adopting any such hypothesis, they are strengthening the hands
+of the advocates of the letter of the Mosaic account, are simply
+mistaken. If, on the other hand, we adopt that hypothesis to which alone
+the study of physiology lends any support--that hypothesis which, having
+struggled beyond the reach of those fatal supporters, the Telliameds and
+Vestigiarians, who so nearly caused its suffocation by wind in early
+infancy, is now winning at least the provisional assent of all the best
+thinkers of the day--the hypothesis that the forms or species of living
+beings, as we know them, have been produced by the gradual modification
+of pre-existing species--then the existence of persistent types seems to
+teach us much. Just as a small portion of a great curve appears
+straight, the apparent absence of change in direction of the line being
+the exponent of the vast extent of the whole, in proportion to the part
+we see; so, if it be true that all living species are the result of the
+modification of other and simpler forms, the existence of these little
+altered persistent types, ranging through all geological time, must
+indicate that they are but the final terms of an enormous series of
+modifications, which had their being in the great lapse of pregeologic
+time, and are now perhaps for ever lost.
+
+In other words, when rightly studied, the teachings of palæontology are
+at one with those of physical geology. Our farthest explorations carry
+us back but a little way above the mouth of the great river of Life:
+where it arose, and by what channels the noble tide has reached the
+point when it first breaks upon our view, is hidden from us.
+
+The foregoing pages contain the substance of a lecture delivered before
+the Royal Institution of Great Britain many months ago, and of course
+long before the appearance of the remarkable work on the "Origin of
+Species," just published by Mr. Darwin, who arrives at very similar
+conclusions. Although, in one sense, I might fairly say that my own
+views have been arrived at independently, I do not know that I can claim
+any equitable right to property in them; for it has long been my
+privilege to enjoy Mr. Darwin's friendship, and to profit by
+corresponding with him, and by, to some extent, becoming acquainted with
+the workings of his singularly original and well-stored mind. It was in
+consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of the researches in
+which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged; because I had the most
+complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, above all
+things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because I found
+that the better I became acquainted with the opinions of the best
+naturalists regarding the vexed question of species, the less fixed they
+seemed to be, and the more inclined they were to the hypothesis of
+gradual modification, that I ventured to speak as strongly as I have
+done in the final paragraphs of my discourse.
+
+Thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, I see no impropriety in
+making a tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers
+from Mr. Darwin; endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact,
+what, as I gather from the perusal of his book, his doctrines really
+are, and on what sort of basis they rest. And I do this the more
+willingly, as I observe that already the hastier sort of critics have
+begun, not to review my friend's book, but to howl over it in a manner
+which must tend greatly to distract the public mind.
+
+No one will be better satisfied than I to see Mr. Darwin's book refuted,
+if any person be competent to perform that feat; but I would suggest
+that refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic
+misrepresentation. Every one who has studied cattle-breeding, or turned
+pigeon-fancier, or "pomologist," must have been struck by the extreme
+modifiability or plasticity of those kinds of animals and plants which
+have been subjected to such artificial conditions as are imposed by
+domestication. Breeds of dogs are more different from one another than
+are the dog and the wolf; and the purely artificial races of pigeons, if
+their origin were unknown, would most assuredly be reckoned by
+naturalists as distinct species and even genera.
+
+These breeds are always produced in the same way. The breeder selects a
+pair, one or other, or both, of which present an indication of the
+peculiarity he wishes to perpetuate, and then selects from the offspring
+of them those which are most characteristic, rejecting the others. From
+the selected offspring he breeds again, and, taking the same precautions
+as before, repeats the process until he has obtained the precise degree
+of divergence from the primitive type at which he aimed.
+
+If he now breeds from the variety thus established for some generations,
+taking care always to keep the stock pure, the tendency to produce this
+particular variety becomes more and more strongly hereditary; and it
+does not appear that there is any limit to the persistency of the race
+thus developed.
+
+Men like Lamarck, apprehending these facts, and knowing that varieties
+comparable to those produced by the breeder are abundantly found in
+nature, and finding it impossible to discriminate in some cases between
+varieties and true species, could hardly fail to divine the possibility
+that species even the most distinct were, after all, only exceedingly
+persistent varieties, and that they had arisen by the modification of
+some common stock, just as it is with good reason believed that
+turnspits and greyhounds, carrier and tumbler pigeons, have arisen.
+
+But there was a link wanting to complete the parallel. Where in nature
+was the analogue of the breeder to be found? How could that operation of
+selection, which is his essential function, be carried out by mere
+natural agencies? Lamarck did not value this problem; neither did he
+admit his impotence to solve it; but he guessed a solution. Now,
+guessing in science is a very hazardous proceeding, and Lamarck's
+reputation has suffered woefully for the absurdities into which his
+baseless suppositions led him.
+
+Lamarck's conjectures, equipped with a new hat and stick, as Sir Walter
+Scott was wont to say of an old story renovated, formed the foundation
+of the biological speculations of the "Vestiges," a work which has done
+more harm to the progress of sound thought on these matters than any
+that could be named; and, indeed, I mention it here simply for the
+purpose of denying that it has anything in common with what essentially
+characterises Mr. Darwin's work.
+
+The peculiar feature of the latter is, in fact, that it professes to
+tell us what in nature takes the place of the breeder; what it is that
+favours the development of one variety into which a species may run, and
+checks that of another; and, finally, shows how this natural selection,
+as it is termed, may be the physical cause of the production of species
+by modification.
+
+That which takes the place of the breeder and selector in nature is
+Death. In a most remarkable chapter, "On the Struggle for Existence,"
+Mr. Darwin draws attention to the marvellous destruction of life which
+is constantly going on in nature. For every species of living thing, as
+for man, "_Eine Bresche ist ein jeder Tag_."--Every species has its
+enemies; every species has to compete with others for the necessaries of
+existence; the weakest goes to the wall, and death is the penalty
+inflicted on all laggards and stragglers. Every variety to which a
+species may give rise is either worse or better adapted to surrounding
+circumstances than its parent. If worse, it cannot maintain itself
+against death, and speedily vanishes again. But if better adapted, it
+must, sooner or later, "improve" its progenitor from the face of the
+earth, and take its place. If circumstances change, the victor will be
+similarly supplanted by its own progeny; and thus, by the operation of
+natural causes, unlimited modification may in the lapse of long ages
+occur.
+
+For an explanation of what I have here called vaguely "surrounding
+circumstances," and of why they continually change--for ample proof that
+the "struggle for existence" is a very great reality, and assuredly
+_tends_ to exert the influence ascribed to it--I must refer to Mr.
+Darwin's book. I believe I have stated fairly the position upon which
+his whole theory must stand or fall; and it is not my purpose to
+anticipate a full review of his work. If it can be proved that the
+process of natural selection, operating upon any species, can give rise
+to varieties of species so different from one another that none of our
+tests will distinguish them from true species, Mr. Darwin's hypothesis
+of the origin of species will take its place among the established
+theories of science, be its consequences whatever they may. If, on the
+other hand, Mr. Darwin has erred, either in fact or in reasoning, his
+fellow-workers will soon find out the weak points in his doctrines, and
+their extinction by some nearer approximation to the truth will
+exemplify his own principle of natural selection.
+
+In either case the question is one to be settled only by the
+painstaking, truth-loving investigation of skilled naturalists. It is
+the duty of the general public to await the result in patience; and,
+above all things, to discourage, as they would any other crimes, the
+attempt to enlist the prejudices of the ignorant, or the
+uncharitableness of the bigoted, on either side of the controversy.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+  DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
+
+
+Mr. Darwin's long-standing and well-earned scientific eminence probably
+renders him indifferent to that social notoriety which passes by the
+name of success; but if the calm spirit of the philosopher have not yet
+wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within
+him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his venture in
+publishing the "Origin of Species." Overflowing the narrow bounds of
+purely scientific circles, the "species question" divides with Italy and
+the Volunteers the attention of general society. Everybody has read Mr.
+Darwin's book, or, at least, has given an opinion upon its merits or
+demerits; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with the mild
+railing which sounds so charitable; bigots denounce it with ignorant
+invective; old ladies, of both sexes, consider it a decidedly dangerous
+book, and even savans, who have no better mud to throw, quote antiquated
+writers to show that its author is no better than an ape himself; while
+every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable Whitworth gun in the
+armoury of liberalism, and all competent naturalists and physiologists,
+whatever their opinions as to the ultimate fate of the doctrines put
+forth, acknowledge that the work in which they are embodied is a solid
+contribution to knowledge and inaugurates a new epoch in natural
+history.
+
+Nor has the discussion of the subject been restrained within the limits
+of conversation. When the public is eager and interested, reviewers must
+minister to its wants, and the genuine _littérateur_ is too much in the
+habit of acquiring his knowledge from the book he judges--as the
+Abyssinian is said to provide himself with steaks from the ox which
+carries him--to be withheld from criticism of a profound scientific work
+by the mere want of the requisite preliminary scientific acquirement;
+while, on the other hand, the men of science who wish well to the new
+views, no less than those who dispute their validity, have naturally
+sought opportunities of expressing their opinions. Hence it is not
+surprising that almost all the critical journals have noticed Mr.
+Darwin's work at greater or less length, and so many disquisitions, of
+every degree of excellence, from the poor product of ignorance, too
+often stimulated by prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the
+candid student of nature, have appeared, that it seems an almost
+hopeless task to attempt to say anything new upon the question.
+
+But it may be doubted if the knowledge and acumen of prejudged
+scientific opponents, or the subtlety of orthodox special pleaders, have
+yet exerted their full force in mystifying the real issues of the great
+controversy which has been set afoot, and whose end is hardly likely to
+be seen by this generation; so that at this eleventh hour, and even
+failing anything new, it may be useful to state afresh that which is
+true, and to put the fundamental positions advocated by Mr. Darwin in
+such a form that they may be grasped by those whose special studies lie
+in other directions; and the adoption of this course may be the more
+advisable, because notwithstanding its great deserts, and indeed partly
+on account of them, the "Origin of Species" is by no means an easy book
+to read--if by reading is implied the full comprehension of an author's
+meaning.
+
+We do not speak jestingly in saying that it is Mr. Darwin's misfortune
+to know more about the question he has taken up than any man living.
+Personally and practically exercised in zoology, in minute anatomy, in
+geology; a student of geographical distribution, not on maps and in
+museums only, but by long voyages and laborious collection; having
+largely advanced each of these branches of science, and having spent
+many years in gathering and sifting materials for his present work, the
+store of accurately registered facts upon which the author of the
+"Origin of Species" is able to draw at will is prodigious.
+
+But this very superabundance of matter must have been embarrassing to a
+writer who, for the present, can only put forward an abstract of his
+views, and thence it arises, perhaps, that notwithstanding the clearness
+of the style, those who attempt fairly to digest the book find much of
+it a sort of intellectual pemmican--a mass of facts crushed and pounded
+into shape, rather than held together by the ordinary medium of an
+obvious logical bond: due attention will, without doubt, discover this
+bond, but it is often hard to find.
+
+Again, from sheer want of room, much has to be taken for granted which
+might readily enough be proved, and hence, while the adept, who can
+supply the missing links in the evidence from his own knowledge,
+discovers fresh proof of the singular thoroughness with which all
+difficulties have been considered and all unjustifiable supposition
+avoided, at every reperusal of Mr. Darwin's pregnant paragraphs, the
+novice in biology is apt to complain of the frequency of what he fancies
+is gratuitous assumption.
+
+Thus while it may be doubted if, for some years, any one is likely to be
+competent to pronounce judgment on all the issues raised by Mr. Darwin,
+there is assuredly abundant room for him, who, assuming the humbler,
+though perhaps as useful, office of an interpreter between the "Origin
+of Species" and the public, contents himself with endeavouring to point
+out the nature of the problems which it discusses; to distinguish
+between the ascertained facts and the theoretical views which it
+contains; and finally, to show the extent to which the explanation it
+offers satisfies the requirements of scientific logic. At any rate, it
+is this office which we purpose to undertake in the following pages.
+
+It may be safely assumed that our readers have a general conception of
+the nature of the objects to which the word "species" is applied; but it
+has, perhaps, occurred to few, even of those who are naturalists _ex
+professo_, to reflect, that, as commonly employed, the term has a double
+sense and denotes two very different orders of relations. When we call
+a group of animals, or of plants, a species, we may imply thereby
+either, that all these animals or plants have some common peculiarity of
+form or structure; or, we may mean that they possess some common
+functional character. That part of biological science which deals with
+form and structure is called Morphology--that which concerns itself with
+function, Physiology--so that we may conveniently speak of these two
+senses or aspects of "species"--the one as morphological, the other as
+physiological. Regarded from the former point of view, a species is
+nothing more than a kind of animal or plant, which is distinctly
+definable from all others, by certain constant and not merely sexual,
+morphological peculiarities. Thus horses form a species, because the
+group of animals to which that name is applied is distinguished from all
+others in the world by the following constantly associated characters.
+They have 1. A vertebral column; 2. Mammæ; 3. A placental embryo; 4.
+Four legs; 5. A single well-developed toe in each foot provided with a
+hoof; 6. A bushy tail; and 7. Callosities on the inner sides of both the
+fore and the hind legs. The asses again, form a distinct species,
+because, with the same characters, as far as the fifth in the above
+list, all asses have tufted tails, and have callosities only on the
+inner side of the fore-legs. If animals were discovered having the
+general characters of the horse, but sometimes with callosities only on
+the fore legs, and more or less tufted tails; or animals having the
+general characters of the ass, but with more or less bushy tails, and
+sometimes with callosities on both pairs of legs, besides being
+intermediate in other respects--the two species would have to be merged
+into one. They could no longer be regarded as morphologically distinct
+species, for they would not be distinctly definable one from the other.
+
+However bare and simple this definition of species may appear to be, we
+confidently appeal to all practical naturalists, whether zoologists,
+botanists, or palæontologists, to say if, in the vast majority of cases,
+they know, or mean to affirm, anything more of the group of animals or
+plants they so denominate than what has just been stated. Even the most
+decided advocates of the received doctrines respecting species admit
+this.
+
+"I apprehend," says Professor Owen,[62] "that few naturalists
+now-a-days, in describing and proposing a name for what they call 'a new
+_species_,' use that term to signify what was meant by it twenty or
+thirty years ago, that is, an originally distinct creation, maintaining
+its primitive distinction by obstructive generative peculiarities. The
+proposer of the new species now intends to state no more than he
+actually knows; as for example, that the differences in which he founds
+the specific character are constant in individuals of both sexes, so far
+as observation has reached; and that they are not due to domestication
+or to artificially superinduced external circumstances, or to any
+outward influence within his cognizance; that the species is wild, or is
+such as it appears by nature."
+
+If we consider, in fact, that by far the largest proportion of recorded
+existing species are known only by the study of their skins, or bones,
+or other lifeless exuvia; that we are acquainted with none, or next to
+none, of their physiological peculiarities, beyond those which can be
+deduced from their structure, or are open to cursory observation; and
+that we cannot hope to learn more of any of those extinct forms of life
+which now constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the known Flora and
+Fauna of the world; it is obvious that the definitions of these species
+can be only of a purely structural or morphological character. It is
+probable that naturalists would have avoided much confusion of ideas if
+they had more frequently borne these necessary limitations of our
+knowledge in mind. But while it may safely be admitted that we are
+acquainted with only the morphological characters of the vast majority
+of species--the functional or physiological peculiarities of a few have
+been carefully investigated, and the result of that study forms a large
+and most interesting portion of the physiology of reproduction.
+
+The student of nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the
+more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial
+miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of
+admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its
+embryo. Examine the recently laid egg of some common animal, such as a
+salamander or a newt. It is a minute spheroid in which the best
+microscope will reveal nothing but a structureless sac, enclosing a
+glairy fluid, holding granules in suspension. But strange possibilities
+lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply of warmth
+reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so
+rapid and yet so steady and purpose-like in their succession, that one
+can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeller upon a
+formless lump of clay. As with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided
+and subdivided into smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced to
+an aggregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest
+fabrics of the nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate
+finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and
+moulded the contour of the body; pinching up the head at one end, the
+tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into due salamandrine
+proportions, in so artistic a way, that, after watching the process hour
+by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion, that some
+more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would show the hidden
+artist, with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to
+perfect his work.
+
+As life advances, and the young amphibian ranges the waters, the terror
+of his insect contemporaries, not only are the nutritious particles
+supplied by its prey, by the addition of which to its frame growth takes
+place, laid down, each in its proper spot, and in such due proportion to
+the rest, as to reproduce the form, the colour and the size,
+characteristic of the parental stock; but even the wonderful powers of
+reproducing lost parts possessed by these animals are controlled by the
+same governing tendency. Cut off the legs, the tail, the jaws,
+separately or all together, and, as Spallanzani showed long ago, these
+parts not only grow again, but the redintegrated limb is formed on the
+same type as those which were lost. The new jaw or leg is a newt's, and
+never by any accident more like that of a frog. What is true of the newt
+is true of every animal and of every plant; the acorn tends to build
+itself up again into a woodland giant such as that from whose twig it
+fell; the spore of the humblest lichen reproduces the green or brown
+incrustation which gave it birth; and at the other end of the scale of
+life, the child that resembled neither the paternal nor the maternal
+side of the house would be regarded as a kind of monster.
+
+So that the one end to which in all living beings the formative impulse
+is tending--the one scheme which the Archæus of the old speculators
+strives to carry out, seems to be to mould the offspring into the
+likeness of the parent. It is the first great law of reproduction, that
+the offspring tends to resemble its parent or parents, more closely than
+anything else.
+
+Science will some day show us how this law is a necessary consequence of
+the more general laws which govern matter; but for the present, more can
+hardly be said than that it appears to be in harmony with them. We know
+that the phenomena of vitality are not something apart from other
+physical phenomena, but one with them; and matter and force are the two
+names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless.
+Hence living bodies should obey the same great laws as other
+matter--nor, throughout nature, is there a law of wider application than
+this, that a body impelled by two forces takes the direction of their
+resultant. But living bodies may be regarded as nothing but extremely
+complex bundles of forces held in a mass of matter, as the complex
+forces of a magnet are held in the steel by its coercive force; and
+since the differences of sex are comparatively slight, or, in other
+words, the sum of the forces in each has a very similar tendency, their
+resultant, the offspring, may reasonably be expected to deviate but
+little from a course parallel to either, or to both.
+
+Represent the reason of the law to ourselves by what physical metaphor
+or analogy we will, however, the great matter is to apprehend its
+existence and the importance of the consequences deducible from it. For
+things which are like to the same are like to one another, and if, in a
+great series of generations, every offspring is like its parent, it
+follows that all the offspring and all the parents must be like one
+another; and that, given an original parental stock with the opportunity
+of undisturbed multiplication, the law in question necessitates the
+production, in course of time, of an indefinitely large group, the whole
+of whose members are at once very similar and are blood relations,
+having descended from the same parent, or pair of parents. The proof
+that all the members of any given group of animals, or plants, had thus
+descended, would be ordinarily considered sufficient to entitle them to
+the rank of physiological species, for most physiologists consider
+species to be definable as "the offspring of a single primitive stock."
+
+But though it is quite true that all those groups we call species _may_,
+according to the known laws of reproduction, have descended from a
+single stock, and though it is very likely they really have done so, yet
+this conclusion rests on deduction and can hardly hope to establish
+itself upon a basis of observation. And the primitiveness of the
+supposed single stock, which, after all, is the essential part of the
+matter, is not only a hypothesis, but one which has not a shadow of
+foundation, if by "primitive" be meant "independent of any other living
+being." A scientific definition, of which an unwarrantable hypothesis
+forms an essential part, carries its condemnation within itself; but
+even supposing such a definition were, in form, tenable, the
+physiologist who should attempt to apply it in nature would soon find
+himself involved in great, if not inextricable difficulties. As we have
+said, it is indubitable that offspring _tend_ to resemble the parental
+organism, but it is equally true that the similarity attained never
+amounts to identity, either in form or in structure. There is always a
+certain amount of deviation, not only from the precise characters of a
+single parent, but when, as in most animals and many plants, the sexes
+are lodged in distinct individuals, from an exact mean between the two
+parents. And, indeed, on general principles, this slight deviation seems
+as intelligible as the general similarity, if we reflect how complex the
+co-operating "bundles of forces" are, and how improbable it is that, in
+any case, their true resultant shall coincide with any mean between the
+more obvious characters of the two parents. Whatever be its cause,
+however, the co-existence of this tendency to minor variation with the
+tendency to general similarity, is of vast importance in its bearing on
+the question of the origin of species.
+
+As a general rule, the extent to which an offspring differs from its
+parent is slight enough; but, occasionally, the amount of difference is
+much more strongly marked, and then the divergent offspring receives the
+name of a Variety. Multitudes, of what there is every reason to believe
+are such varieties, are known, but the origin of very few has been
+accurately recorded, and of these we will select two as more especially
+illustrative of the main features of variation. The first of them is
+that of the "Ancon," or "Otter" sheep, of which a careful account is
+given by Colonel David Humphreys, F.R.S., in a letter to Sir Joseph
+Banks, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1813. It appears
+that one Seth Wright, the proprietor of a farm on the banks of the
+Charles River, in Massachusetts, possessed a flock of fifteen ewes and a
+ram of the ordinary kind. In the year 1791, one of the ewes presented
+her owner with a male lamb, differing, for no assignable reason, from
+its parents by a proportionally long body and short bandy legs, whence
+it was unable to emulate its relatives in those sportive leaps over the
+neighbours' fences, in which they were in the habit of indulging, much
+to the good farmer's vexation.
+
+The second case is that detailed by a no less unexceptionable authority
+than Réaumur, in his "Art de faire éclorre les poulets." A Maltese
+couple, named Kelleia, whose hands and feet were constructed upon the
+ordinary human model, had born to them a son, Gratio, who possessed six
+perfectly moveable fingers on each hand and six toes, not quite so well
+formed, on each foot. No cause could be assigned for the appearance of
+this unusual variety of the human species.
+
+Two circumstances are well worthy of remark in both these cases. In
+each, the variety appears to have arisen in full force, and, as it were,
+_per saltum_; a wide and definite difference appearing, at once,
+between the Ancon ram and the ordinary sheep; between the six-fingered
+and six-toed Gratio Kelleia and ordinary men. In neither case is it
+possible to point out any obvious reason for the appearance of the
+variety. Doubtless there were determining causes for these as for all
+other phenomena; but they do not appear, and we can be tolerably certain
+that what are ordinarily understood as changes in physical conditions,
+as in climate, in food, or the like, did not take place and had nothing
+to do with the matter. It was no case of what is commonly called
+adaptation to circumstances; but, to use a conveniently erroneous
+phrase, the variations arose spontaneously. The fruitless search after
+final causes leads their pursuers a long way; but even those hardy
+teleologists, who are ready to break through all the laws of physics in
+chase of their favourite will-o'-the-wisp, may be puzzled to discover
+what purpose could be attained by the stunted legs of Seth Wright's ram
+or the hexadactyle members of Gratio Kelleia.
+
+Varieties then arise we know not why; and it is more than probable that
+the majority of varieties have arisen in the spontaneous manner, though
+we are, of course, far from denying that they may be traced, in some
+cases, to distinct external influences, which are assuredly competent to
+alter the character of the tegumentary covering, to change colour, to
+increase or diminish the size of muscles, to modify constitution, and,
+among plants, to give rise to the metamorphosis of stamens into petals,
+and so forth. But however they may have arisen, what especially
+interests us at present is, to remark that, once in existence, varieties
+obey the fundamental law of reproduction that like tends to produce
+like, and their offspring exemplify it by tending to exhibit the same
+deviation from the parental stock as themselves. Indeed, there seems to
+be, in many instances, a pre-potent influence about a newly-arisen
+variety which gives it what one may call an unfair advantage over the
+normal descendants from the same stock. This is strikingly exemplified
+by the case of Gratio Kelleia, who married a woman with the ordinary
+pentadactyle extremities, and had by her four children, Salvator,
+George, André, and Marie. Of these children Salvator, the eldest boy,
+had six fingers and six toes, like his father; the second and third,
+also boys, had five fingers and toes, like their mother, though the
+hands and feet of George were slightly deformed; the last, a girl, had
+five fingers and toes, but the thumbs were slightly deformed. The
+variety thus reproduced itself purely in the eldest, while the normal
+type reproduced itself purely in the third, and almost purely in the
+second and last: so that it would seem, at first, as if the normal type
+were more powerful than the variety. But all these children grew up and
+intermarried with normal wives and husbands, and then, note what took
+place: Salvator had four children, three of whom exhibited the
+hexadactyle members of their grandfather and father, while the youngest
+had the pentadactyle limbs of the mother and grandmother; so that here,
+notwithstanding a double pentadactyle dilution of the blood, the
+hexadactyle variety had the best of it. The same pre-potency of the
+variety was still more markedly exemplified in the progeny of two of the
+other children, Marie and George. Marie (whose thumbs only were
+deformed) gave birth to a boy with six toes, and three other normally
+formed children; but George, who was not quite so pure a pentadactyle,
+begot, first, two girls, each of whom had six fingers and toes; then a
+girl with six fingers on each hand and six toes on the right foot, but
+only five toes on the left; and lastly, a boy with only five fingers and
+toes. In these instances, therefore, the variety, as it were, leaped
+over one generation to reproduce itself in full force in the next.
+Finally, the purely pentadactyle André was the father of many children,
+not one of whom departed from the normal parental type.
+
+If a variation which approaches the nature of a monstrosity can strive
+thus forcibly to reproduce itself, it is not wonderful that less
+aberrant modifications should tend to be preserved even more strongly;
+and the history of the Ancon sheep is, in this respect, particularly
+instructive. With the "'cuteness" characteristic of their nation, the
+neighbours of the Massachusetts farmer imagined it would be an excellent
+thing if all his sheep were imbued with the stay-at-home tendencies
+enforced by nature upon the newly-arrived ram; and they advised Wright
+to kill the old patriarch of his fold, and instal the Ancon ram in his
+place. The result justified their sagacious anticipations, and coincided
+very nearly with what occurred to the progeny of Gratio Kelleia. The
+young lambs were almost always either pure Ancons, or pure ordinary
+sheep.[63] But when sufficient Ancon sheep were obtained to interbreed
+with one another, it was found that the offspring was always pure Ancon.
+Colonel Humphreys, in fact, states that he was acquainted with only "one
+questionable case of a contrary nature." Here, then, is a remarkable and
+well-established instance, not only of a very distinct race being
+established _per saltum_, but of that race breeding "true" at once, and
+showing no mixed forms, even when crossed with another breed.
+
+By taking care to select Ancons of both sexes, for breeding from, it
+thus became easy to establish an extremely well-marked race, so peculiar
+that even when herded with other sheep, it was noted that the Ancons
+kept together, and there is every reason to believe that the existence
+of this breed might have been indefinitely protracted; but the
+introduction of the Merino sheep, which were not only very superior to
+the Ancons in wool and meat, but quite as quiet and orderly, led to the
+complete neglect of the new breed, so that, in 1813, Colonel Humphreys
+found it difficult to obtain the specimen whose skeleton was presented
+to Sir Joseph Banks. We believe that, for many years, no remnant of it
+has existed in the United States.
+
+Gratio Kelleia was not the progenitor of a race of six-fingered men, as
+Seth Wright's ram became a nation of Ancon sheep, though the tendency
+of the variety to perpetuate itself appears to have been fully as strong
+in the one case as in the other. And the reason of the difference is not
+far to seek. Seth Wright took care not to weaken the Ancon blood by
+matching his Ancon ewes with any but males of the same variety, while
+Gratio Kelleia's sons were too far removed from the patriarchal times to
+intermarry with their sisters; and his grandchildren seem not to have
+been attracted by their six-fingered cousins. In other words, in the one
+example a race was produced, because, for several generations, care was
+taken to _select_ both parents of the breeding stock, from animals
+exhibiting a tendency to vary in the same direction, while in the other
+no race was evolved, because no such selection was exercised. A race is
+a propagated variety, and as, by the laws of reproduction, offspring
+tend to assume the parental form, they will be more likely to propagate
+a variation exhibited by both parents than that possessed by only one.
+
+There is no organ of the body of an animal which may not, and does not,
+occasionally, vary more or less from the normal type; and there is no
+variation which may not be transmitted, and which, if selectively
+transmitted, may not become the foundation of a race. This great truth,
+sometimes forgotten by philosophers, has long been familiar to practical
+agriculturists and breeders: and upon it rest all the methods of
+improving the breeds of domestic animals, which for the last century
+have been followed with so much success in England. Colour, form, size,
+texture of hair or wool, proportions of various parts, strength or
+weakness of constitution, tendency to fatten or to remain lean, to give
+much or little milk, speed, strength, temper, intelligence, special
+instincts; there is not one of these characters whose transmission is
+not an every-day occurrence within the experience of cattle-breeders,
+stock-farmers, horse-dealers, and dog and poultry fanciers. Nay, it is
+only the other day that an eminent physiologist, Dr. Brown Sequard,
+communicated to the Royal Society his discovery that epilepsy,
+artificially produced in guinea-pigs, by a means which he has
+discovered, is transmitted to their offspring.
+
+But a race, once produced, is no more a fixed and immutable entity than
+the stock whence it sprang; variations arise among its members, and as
+these variations are transmitted like any others, new races may be
+developed out of the pre-existing ones _ad infinitum_, or, at least,
+within any limit at present determined. Given sufficient time and
+sufficiently careful selection, and the multitude of races which may
+arise from a common stock is as astonishing as are the extreme
+structural differences which they may present. A remarkable example of
+this is to be found in the rock-pigeon, which Mr. Darwin has, in our
+opinion, satisfactorily demonstrated to be the progenitor of all our
+domestic pigeons, of which there are certainly more than a hundred
+well-marked races. The most noteworthy of these races are, the four
+great stocks known to the "fancy" as tumblers, pouters, carriers, and
+fantails; birds which not only differ most singularly in size, colour,
+and habits, but in the form of the beak and of the skull; in the
+proportions of the beak to the skull; in the number of tail-feathers; in
+the absolute and relative size of the feet; in the presence or absence
+of the uropygial gland; in the number of vertebræ in the back; in short,
+in precisely those characters in which the genera and species of birds
+differ from one another.
+
+And it is most remarkable and instructive to observe, that none of these
+races can be shown to have been originated by the action of changes in
+what are commonly called external circumstances, upon the wild
+rock-pigeon. On the contrary, from time immemorial, pigeon fanciers have
+had essentially similar methods of treating their pets, which have been
+housed, fed, protected and cared for in much the same way in all
+pigeonries. In fact, there is no case better adapted than that of the
+pigeons, to refute the doctrine which one sees put forth on high
+authority, that "no other characters than those founded on the
+development of bone for the attachment of muscles" are capable of
+variation. In precise contradiction of this hasty assertion, Mr.
+Darwin's researches prove that the skeleton of the wings in domestic
+pigeons has hardly varied at all from that of the wild type; while, on
+the other hand, it is in exactly those respects, such as the relative
+length of the beak and skull, the number of the vertebræ, and the number
+of the tail-feathers, in which muscular exertion can have no important
+influence, that the utmost amount of variation has taken place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have said that the following out of the properties exhibited by
+physiological species would lead us into difficulties, and at this point
+they begin to be obvious; for, if, as a result of spontaneous variation
+and of selective breeding, the progeny of a common stock may become
+separated into groups distinguished from one another by constant, not
+sexual, morphological characters, it is clear that the physiological
+definition of species is likely to clash with the morphological
+definition. No one would hesitate to describe the pouter and the tumbler
+as distinct species, if they were found fossil, or if their skins and
+skeletons were imported, as those of exotic wild birds commonly
+are--and, without doubt, if considered alone, they are good and distinct
+morphological species. On the other hand, they are not physiological
+species, for they are descended from a common stock, the rock-pigeon.
+
+Under these circumstances, as it is admitted on all sides that races
+occur in nature, how are we to know whether any apparently distinct
+animals are really of different physiological species, or not, seeing
+that the amount of morphological difference is no safe guide? Is there
+any test of a physiological species? The usual answer of physiologists
+is in the affirmative. It is said that such a test is to be found in the
+phenomena of hybridization--in the results of crossing races as compared
+with the results of crossing species.
+
+So far as the evidence goes at present, individuals, of what are
+certainly known to be mere races produced by selection, however distinct
+they may appear to be, not only breed freely together, but the offspring
+of such crossed races are also perfectly fertile with one another. Thus,
+the spaniel and the greyhound, the dray-horse and the Arab, the pouter
+and the tumbler, breed together with perfect freedom, and their
+mongrels, if matched with other mongrels of the same kind, are equally
+fertile.
+
+On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the individuals of many
+natural species are either absolutely infertile, if crossed with
+individuals of other species, or, if they give rise to hybrid offspring,
+the hybrids so produced are infertile when paired together. The horse
+and the ass, for instance, if so crossed, give rise to the mule, and
+there is no certain evidence of offspring ever having been produced by a
+male and female mule. The unions of the rock-pigeon and the ring-pigeon
+appear to be equally barren of result. Here, then, says the
+physiologist, we have a means of distinguishing any two true species
+from any two varieties. If a male and a female, selected from each
+group, produce offspring, and that offspring is fertile with others
+produced in the same way, the groups are races and not species. If, on
+the other hand, no result ensues, or if the offspring are infertile with
+others produced in the same way, they are true physiological species.
+The test would be an admirable one, if, in the first place, it were
+always practicable to apply it, and if, in the second, it always yielded
+results susceptible of a definite interpretation. Unfortunately, in the
+great majority of cases, this touchstone for species is wholly
+inapplicable.
+
+The constitution of many wild animals is so altered by confinement that
+they will not even breed with their own females, so that the negative
+results obtained from crosses are of no value, and the antipathy of wild
+animals of different species for one another, or even of wild and tame
+members of the same species, is ordinarily so great, that it is hopeless
+to look for such unions in nature. The hermaphrodism of most plants, the
+difficulty in the way of ensuring the absence of their own, or the
+proper working of other pollen, are obstacles of no less magnitude in
+applying the test to them. And in both animals and plants is superadded
+the further difficulty, that experiments must be continued over a long
+time for the purpose of ascertaining the fertility of the mongrel or
+hybrid progeny, as well as of the first crosses from which they spring.
+
+Not only do these great practical difficulties lie in the way of
+applying the hybridization test, but even when this oracle can be
+questioned, its replies are sometimes as doubtful as those of Delphi.
+For example, cases are cited by Mr. Darwin, of plants which are more
+fertile with the pollen of another species than with their own; and
+there are others, such as certain _fuci_, whose male element will
+fertilize the ovule of a plant of distinct species, while the males of
+the latter species are ineffective with the females of the first. So
+that, in the last-named instance, a physiologist, who should cross the
+two species in one way, would decide that they were true species; while
+another, who should cross them in the reverse way, would, with equal
+justice, according to the rule, pronounce them to be mere races. Several
+plants, which there is great reason to believe are mere varieties, are
+almost sterile when crossed; while both animals and plants, which have
+always been regarded by naturalists as of distinct species, turn out,
+when the test is applied, to be perfectly fertile. Again, the sterility
+or fertility of crosses seems to bear no relation to the structural
+resemblances or differences of the members of any two groups. Mr. Darwin
+has discussed this question with singular ability and circumspection,
+and his conclusions are summed up as follows at page 276 of his work:--
+
+     "First crosses between forms sufficiently distinct to be
+     ranked as species, and their hybrids, are very generally,
+     but not universally, sterile. The sterility is of all
+     degrees, and is often so slight that the two most careful
+     experimentalists who have ever lived have come to
+     diametrically opposite conclusions in ranking forms by
+     this test. The sterility is innately variable in
+     individuals of the same species, and is eminently
+     susceptible of favourable and unfavourable conditions.
+     The degree of sterility does not strictly follow
+     systematic affinity, but is governed by several curious
+     and complex laws. It is generally different, and
+     sometimes widely different, in reciprocal crosses between
+     the same two species. It is not always equal in degree in
+     a first cross, and in the hybrid produced from this
+     cross.
+
+     "In the same manner as in grafting trees, the capacity of
+     one species or variety to take on another is incidental
+     on generally unknown differences in their vegetative
+     systems, so in crossing, the greater or less facility of
+     one species to unite with another is incidental on
+     unknown differences in their reproductive systems. There
+     is no more reason to think that species have been
+     specially endowed with various degrees of sterility to
+     prevent them crossing and breeding in nature, than to
+     think that trees have been specially endowed with various
+     and somewhat analogous degrees of difficulty in being
+     grafted together, in order to prevent them becoming
+     inarched in our forests.
+
+     "The sterility of first crosses between pure species,
+     which have their reproductive systems perfect, seems to
+     depend on several circumstances; in some cases largely on
+     the early death of the embryo. The sterility of hybrids
+     which have their reproductive systems imperfect, and
+     which have had this system and their whole organization
+     disturbed by being compounded of two distinct species,
+     seems closely allied to that sterility which so
+     frequently affects pure species when their natural
+     conditions of life have been disturbed. This view is
+     supported by a parallelism of another kind; namely, that
+     the crossing of forms only slightly different is
+     favourable to the vigour and fertility of the offspring;
+     and that slight changes in the conditions of life are
+     apparently favourable to the vigour and fertility of all
+     organic beings. It is not surprising that the degree of
+     difficulty in uniting two species, and the degree of
+     sterility of their hybrid offspring should generally
+     correspond, though due to distinct causes; for both
+     depend on the amount of difference of some kind between
+     the species which are crossed. Nor is it surprising that
+     the facility of effecting a first cross, the fertility of
+     hybrids produced from it, and the capacity of being
+     grafted together--though this latter capacity evidently
+     depends on widely different circumstances--should all run
+     to a certain extent parallel with the systematic affinity
+     of the forms which are subjected to experiment; for
+     systematic affinity attempts to express all kinds of
+     resemblance between all species.
+
+     "First crosses between forms known to be varieties, or
+     sufficiently alike to be considered as varieties, and
+     their mongrel offspring, are very generally, but not
+     quite universally, fertile. Nor is this nearly general
+     and perfect fertility surprising, when we remember how
+     liable we are to argue in a circle with respect to
+     varieties in a state of nature; and when we remember that
+     the greater number of varieties have been produced under
+     domestication by the selection of mere external
+     differences, and not of differences in the reproductive
+     system. In all other respects, excluding fertility, there
+     is a close general resemblance between hybrids and
+     mongrels" (pp. 276-8).
+
+We fully agree with the general tenor of this weighty passage, but
+forcible as are these arguments, and little as the value of fertility or
+infertility as a test of species may be, it must not be forgotten that
+the really important fact, so far as the inquiry into the origin of
+species goes, is, that there are such things in nature as groups of
+animals and of plants, whose members are incapable of fertile union with
+those of other groups; and that there are such things as hybrids, which
+are absolutely sterile when crossed with other hybrids. For if such
+phenomena as these were exhibited by only two of those assemblages of
+living objects, to which the name of species (whether it be used in its
+physiological or in its morphological sense) is given, it would have to
+be accounted for by any theory of the origin of species, and every
+theory which could not account for it would be, so far, imperfect.
+
+Up to this point we have been dealing with matters of fact, and the
+statements which we have laid before the reader would, to the best of
+our knowledge, be admitted to contain a fair exposition of what is at
+present known respecting the essential properties of species, by all who
+have studied the question. And whatever may be his theoretical views, no
+naturalist will probably be disposed to demur to the following summary
+of that exposition:--
+
+Living beings, whether animals or plants, are divisible into multitudes
+of distinctly definable kinds, which are morphological species. They are
+also divisible into groups of individuals, which breed freely together,
+tending to reproduce their like, and are physiological species.
+Normally, resembling their parents, the offspring of members of these
+species are still liable to vary, and the variation may be perpetuated
+by selection, as a race, which race, in many cases, presents all the
+characteristics of a morphological species. But it is not as yet proved
+that a race ever exhibits, when crossed with another race of the same
+species, those phenomena of hybridization which are exhibited by many
+species when crossed with other species. On the other hand, not only is
+it not proved that all species give rise to hybrids infertile _inter
+se_, but there is much reason to believe that, in crossing, species
+exhibit every gradation from perfect sterility to perfect fertility.
+
+Such are the most essential characteristics of species. Even were man
+not one of them--a member of the same system and subject to the same
+laws--the question of their origin, their causal connexion, that is,
+with the other phenomena of the universe, must have attracted his
+attention, as soon as his intelligence had raised itself above the level
+of his daily wants.
+
+Indeed history relates that such was the case, and has embalmed for us
+the speculations upon the origin of living beings, which were among the
+earliest products of the dawning intellectual activity of man. In those
+early days positive knowledge was not to be had, but the craving after
+it needed, at all hazards, to be satisfied, and according to the
+country, or the turn of thought of the speculator, the suggestion that
+all living things arose from the mud of the Nile, from a primeval egg,
+or from some more anthropomorphic agency, afforded a sufficient
+resting-place for his curiosity. The myths of Paganism are as dead as
+Osiris or Zeus, and the man who should revive them, in opposition to the
+knowledge of our time, would be justly laughed to scorn; but the coeval
+imaginations current among the rude inhabitants of Palestine, recorded
+by writers whose very name and age are admitted by every scholar to be
+unknown, have unfortunately not yet shared their fate, but, even at this
+day, are regarded by nine-tenths of the civilized world as the
+authoritative standard of fact and the criterion of the justice of
+scientific conclusions, in all that relates to the origin of things,
+and, among them, of species. In this nineteenth century, as at the dawn
+of modern physical science, the cosmogony of the semi-barbarous Hebrew
+is the incubus of the philosopher and the opprobrium of the orthodox.
+Who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth from the
+days of Galileo until now, whose lives have been embittered and their
+good name blasted by the mistaken zeal of Bibliolaters? Who shall count
+the host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the
+effort to harmonize impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the
+attempt to force the generous new wine of science into the old bottles
+of Judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party?
+
+It is true that if philosophers have suffered, their cause has been
+amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every
+science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules, and history
+records that whenever science and dogmatism have been fairly opposed,
+the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and
+crushed, if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain. But orthodoxy is
+the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it
+forget; and though at present bewildered and afraid to move, it is as
+willing as ever to insist that the first chapter of Genesis contains the
+beginning and the end of sound science, and to visit with such petty
+thunderbolts as its half-paralysed hands can hurl, those who refuse to
+degrade nature to the level of primitive Judaism.
+
+Philosophers, on the other hand, have no such aggressive tendencies.
+With eyes fixed on the noble goal to which "per aspera et ardua" they
+tend, they may, now and then, be stirred to momentary wrath by the
+unnecessary obstacles with which the ignorant, or the malicious,
+encumber, if they cannot bar, the difficult path; but why should their
+souls be deeply vexed? The majesty of Fact is on their side, and the
+elemental forms of matter are working for them. Not a star comes to the
+meridian at its calculated time but testifies to the justice of their
+methods--their beliefs are "one with the falling rain and with the
+growing corn." By doubt they are established, and open inquiry is their
+bosom friend. Such men have no fear of traditions however venerable, and
+no respect for them when they become mischievous and obstructive; but
+they have better than mere antiquarian business in hand, and if dogmas,
+which ought to be fossil but are not, are not forced upon their notice,
+they are too happy to treat them as non-existent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The hypotheses respecting the origin of species, which profess to stand
+upon a scientific basis, and, as such, alone demand serious attention,
+are of two kinds. The one, the "special creation" hypothesis, presumes
+every species to have originated from one or more stocks, these not
+being the result of the modification of any other form of living
+matter--or arising by natural agencies--but being produced, as such, by
+a supernatural creative act.
+
+The other, the so-called "transmutation" hypothesis, considers that all
+existing species are the result of the modification of pre-existing
+species and those of their predecessors, by agencies similar to those
+which at the present day produce varieties and races, and therefore in
+an altogether natural way; and it is a probable, though not a necessary
+consequence of this hypothesis, that all living beings have arisen from
+a single stock. With respect to the origin of this primitive stock or
+stocks, the doctrine of the origin of species is obviously not
+necessarily concerned. The transmutation hypothesis, for example, is
+perfectly consistent either with the conception of a special creation of
+the primitive germ, or with the supposition of its having arisen, as a
+modification of inorganic matter, by natural causes.
+
+The doctrine of special creation owes its existence very largely to the
+supposed necessity of making science accord with the Hebrew cosmogony;
+but it is curious to observe that, as the doctrine is at present
+maintained by men of science, it is as hopelessly inconsistent with the
+Hebrew view as any other hypothesis.
+
+If there be any result which has come more clearly out of geological
+investigation than another, it is, that the vast series of extinct
+animals and plants is not divisible, as it was once supposed to be, into
+distinct groups, separated by sharply marked boundaries. There are no
+great gulfs between epochs and formations--no successive periods marked
+by the appearance of plants, of water animals, and of land animals, _en
+masse_. Every year adds to the list of links between what the older
+geologists supposed to be widely separated epochs; witness the crags
+linking the drift with the older tertiaries; the Maestricht beds linking
+the tertiaries with the chalk; the St. Cassian beds exhibiting an
+abundant fauna of mixed mesozoic and paleozoic types, in rocks of an
+epoch once supposed to be eminently poor in life; witness, lastly, the
+incessant disputes as to whether a given stratum shall be reckoned
+devonian or carboniferous, silurian or devonian, cambrian or silurian.
+
+This truth is further illustrated in a most interesting manner by the
+impartial and highly competent testimony of M. Pictet, from whose
+calculations of what percentage of the genera of animals existing in any
+formation lived during the preceding formation, it results that in no
+case is the proportion less than _one-third_, or 33 per cent. It is the
+triassic formation, or the commencement of the mesozoic epoch, which has
+received this smallest inheritance from preceding ages. The other
+formations not uncommonly exhibit 60, 80, or even 94 per cent. of genera
+in common with those whose remains are imbedded in their predecessor.
+Not only is this true, but the subdivisions of each formation exhibit
+new species characteristic of, and found only in, them, and in many
+cases, as in the lias for example, the separate beds of these
+subdivisions are distinguished by well marked and peculiar forms of
+life. A section, a hundred feet thick, will exhibit at different heights
+a dozen species of ammonite, none of which passes beyond its particular
+zone of limestone or clay into the zone below it or into that above it;
+so that those who adopt the doctrine of special creation must be
+prepared to admit, that at intervals of time, corresponding with the
+thickness of these beds, the Creator thought fit to interfere with the
+natural course of events for the purpose of making a new ammonite. It is
+not easy to transplant oneself into the frame of mind of those who can
+accept such a conclusion as this, on any evidence, short of absolute
+demonstration; and it is difficult to see what is to be gained by so
+doing, since, as we have said, it is obvious that such a view of the
+origin of living beings is utterly opposed to the Hebrew cosmogony.
+Deserving no aid from the powerful arm of bibliolatry, then, does the
+received form of the hypothesis of special creation derive any support
+from science or sound logic? Assuredly not much. The arguments brought
+forward in its favour all take one form: If species were not
+supernaturally created, we cannot understand the facts _x_, or _y_, or
+_z_; we cannot understand the structure of animals or plants, unless we
+suppose they were contrived for special ends; we cannot understand the
+structure of the eye, except by supposing it to have been made to see
+with; we cannot understand instincts, unless we suppose animals to have
+been miraculously endowed with them.
+
+As a question of dialectics, it must be admitted that this sort of
+reasoning is not very formidable to those who are not to be frightened
+by consequences. It is an argumentum ad ignorantiam--take this
+explanation or be ignorant. But suppose we prefer to admit our ignorance
+rather than adopt a hypothesis at variance with all the teachings of
+nature? Or suppose for a moment we admit the explanation, and then
+seriously ask ourselves how much the wiser are we? what does the
+explanation explain? Is it any more than a grandiloquent way of
+announcing the fact, that we really know nothing about the matter? A
+phenomenon is explained, when it is shown to be a case of some general
+law of nature; but the supernatural interposition of the Creator can by
+the nature of the case exemplify no law, and if species have really
+arisen in this way, it is absurd to attempt to discuss their origin.
+
+Or, lastly, let us ask ourselves whether any amount of evidence which
+the nature of our faculties permits us to attain, can justify us in
+asserting that any phenomenon is out of the reach of natural causation.
+To this end it is obviously necessary that we should know all the
+consequences to which all possible combinations, continued through
+unlimited time, can give rise. If we knew these, and found none
+competent to originate species, we should have good ground for denying
+their origin by natural causation. Till we know them, any hypothesis is
+better than one which involves us in such miserable presumption.
+
+But the hypothesis of special creation is not only a mere specious mask
+for our ignorance; its existence in Biology marks the youth and
+imperfection of the science. For what is the history of every science
+but the history of the elimination of the notion of creative, or other
+interferences, with the natural order of the phenomena which are the
+subject-matter of that science? When Astronomy was young "the morning
+stars sang together for joy," and the planets were guided in their
+courses by celestial hands. Now, the harmony of the stars has resolved
+itself into gravitation according to the inverse squares of the
+distances, and the orbits of the planets are deducible from the laws of
+the forces which allow a schoolboy's stone to break a window. The
+lightning was the angel of the Lord; but it has pleased Providence, in
+these modern times, that science should make it the humble messenger of
+man, and we know that every flash that skimmers about the horizon on a
+summer's evening is determined by ascertainable conditions, and that its
+direction and brightness might, if our knowledge of these were great
+enough, have been calculated.
+
+The solvency of great mercantile companies rests on the validity of the
+laws, which have been ascertained to govern the seeming irregularity of
+that human life which the moralist bewails as the most uncertain of
+things; plague, pestilence, and famine are admitted, by all but fools,
+to be the natural result of causes for the most part fully within human
+control, and not the unavoidable tortures inflicted by wrathful
+Omnipotence upon his helpless handiwork.
+
+Harmonious order governing eternally continuous progress--the web and
+woof of matter and force interweaving by slow degrees, without a broken
+thread, that veil which lies between us and the Infinite--that universe
+which alone we know, or can know;--such is the picture which science
+draws of the world, and in proportion as any part of that picture is in
+unison with the rest, so may we feel sure that it is rightly painted.
+Shall Biology alone remain out of harmony with her sister sciences?
+
+Such arguments against the hypothesis of the direct creation of species
+as these are plainly enough deducible from general considerations, but
+there are, in addition, phenomena exhibited by species themselves, and
+yet not so much a part of their very essence as to have required earlier
+mention, which are in the highest degree perplexing, if we adopt the
+popularly accepted hypothesis. Such are the facts of distribution in
+space and in time; the singular phenomena brought to light by the study
+of development; the structural relations of species upon which our
+systems of classification are founded; the great doctrines of
+philosophical anatomy, such as that of homology, or of the community of
+structural plan exhibited by large groups of species differing very
+widely in their habits and functions.
+
+The species of animals which inhabit the sea on opposite sides of the
+isthmus of Panama are wholly distinct; the animals and plants which
+inhabit islands are commonly distinct from those of the neighbouring
+mainlands, and yet have a similarity of aspect. The mammals of the
+latest tertiary epoch in the Old and New Worlds belong to the same
+genera, or family groups, as those which now inhabit the same great
+geographical area. The crocodilian reptiles which existed in the
+earliest secondary epoch were similar in general structure to those now
+living, but exhibit slight differences in their vertebræ, nasal
+passages, and one or two other points. The guinea-pig has teeth which
+are shed before it is born, and hence can never subserve the masticatory
+purpose for which they seem contrived, and, in like manner, the female
+dugong has tusks which never cut the gum. All the members of the same
+great group run through similar conditions in their development, and all
+their parts, in the adult state, are arranged according to the same
+plan. Man is more like a gorilla than a gorilla is like a lemur. Such
+are a few, taken at random, among the multitudes of similar facts which
+modern research has established; but when the student seeks for an
+explanation of them from the supporters of the received hypothesis of
+the origin of species, the reply he receives is, in substance, of
+oriental simplicity and brevity--"Mashallah! it so pleases God!" There
+are different species on opposite sides of the isthmus of Panama,
+because they were created different on the two sides. The pliocene
+mammals are like the existing ones, because such was the plan of
+creation; and we find rudimental organs and similarity of plan, because
+it has pleased the Creator to set before himself a "divine exemplar or
+archetype," and to copy it in his works; and somewhat ill, those who
+hold this view imply, in some of them. That such verbal hocus-pocus
+should be received as science will one day be regarded as evidence of
+the low state of intelligence in the nineteenth century, just as we
+amuse ourselves with the phraseology about Nature's abhorrence of a
+vacuum, wherewith Torricelli's compatriots were satisfied to explain the
+rise of water in a pump. And be it recollected that this sort of
+satisfaction works not only negative but positive ill, by discouraging
+inquiry, and so depriving man of the usufruct of one of the most fertile
+fields of his great patrimony, Nature.
+
+The objections to the doctrine of origin of species by special creation
+which have been detailed, must have occurred with more or less force to
+the mind of every one who has seriously and independently considered the
+subject. It is therefore no wonder that, from time to time, this
+hypothesis should have been met by counter hypotheses, all as well, and
+some better, founded than itself; and it is curious to remark that the
+inventors of the opposing views seem to have been led into them as much
+by their knowledge of geology as by their acquaintance with biology. In
+fact, when the mind has once admitted the conception of the gradual
+production of the present physical state of our globe, by natural causes
+operating through long ages of time, it will be little disposed to allow
+that living beings have made their appearance in another way, and the
+speculations of De Maillet and his successors are the natural complement
+of Scilla's demonstration of the true nature of fossils.
+
+A contemporary of Newton and of Leibnitz, sharing therefore in the
+intellectual activity of the remarkable age which witnessed the birth of
+modern physical science, Benoît de Maillet spent a long life as a
+consular agent of the French Government in various Mediterranean ports.
+For sixteen years, in fact, he held the office of Consul-General in
+Egypt, and the wonderful phenomena offered by the valley of the Nile
+appear to have strongly impressed his mind, to have directed his
+attention to all facts of a similar order which came within his
+observation, and to have led him to speculate on the origin of the
+present condition of our globe and of its inhabitants. But, with all his
+ardour for science, De Maillet seems to have hesitated to publish views
+which, notwithstanding the ingenious attempts to reconcile them with the
+Hebrew hypothesis contained in the preface to "Telliamed" (and which we
+recommend for Mr. MacCausland's perusal), were hardly likely to be
+received with favour by his contemporaries.
+
+But a short time had elapsed since more than one of the great anatomists
+and physicists of the Italian school had paid dearly for their
+endeavours to dissipate some of the prevalent errors; and their
+illustrious pupil, Harvey, the founder of modern physiology, had not
+fared so well, in a country less oppressed by the benumbing influences
+of theology, as to tempt any man to follow his example. Probably not
+uninfluenced by these considerations, his Catholic majesty's
+Consul-General for Egypt kept his theories to himself throughout a long
+life, for "Telliamed," the only scientific work which is known to have
+proceeded from his pen, was not printed till 1735, when its author had
+reached the ripe age of seventy-nine; and though De Maillet lived three
+years longer, his book was not given to the world before 1748. Even then
+it was anonymous to those who were not in the secret of the anagrammatic
+character of its title, and the preface and dedication are so worded as,
+in case of necessity, to give the printer a fair chance of falling back
+on the excuse that the work was intended for a mere jeu d'esprit.
+
+The speculations of the supposititious Indian sage, though quite as
+sound as those of many a "Mosaic Geology" which sells exceedingly well,
+have no great value if we consider them by the light of modern science.
+The waters are supposed to have originally covered up the whole globe;
+to have deposited the rocky masses which compose its mountains by
+processes comparable to those which are now forming mud, sand, and
+shingle; and then to have gradually lowered their level, leaving the
+spoils of the animal and vegetable inhabitants embedded in the strata.
+As the dry land appeared, certain of the aquatic animals are supposed to
+have taken to it, and to have become gradually adapted to terrestrial
+and aerial modes of existence. But if we regard the general tenor and
+style of the reasoning in relation to the state of knowledge of the day,
+two circumstances appear very well worthy of remark. The first, that De
+Maillet had a notion of the modifiability of living forms (though
+without any precise information on the subject), and how such
+modifiability might account for the origin of species; the second, that
+he very clearly apprehended the great modern geological doctrine, so
+strongly insisted upon by Hutton, and so ably and comprehensively
+expounded by Lyell, that we must look to existing causes for the
+explanation of past geological events. The following passage of the
+preface indeed, in which De Maillet is supposed to speak of the Indian
+philosopher Telliamed, his _alter ego_, might have been written by the
+most philosophical uniformitarian of the present day.
+
+     "Ce qu'il y a d'étonnant, est que pour arriver à ces
+     connoissances il semble avoir perverti l'ordre naturel,
+     puisqu'au lieu de s'attacher d'abord à rechercher
+     l'origine de notre globe il a commencé par travailler à
+     s'instruire de la nature. Mais à l'entendre, ce
+     renversement de l'ordre a été pour lui l'effet d'un génie
+     favorable qui l'a conduit pas à pas et comme par la main
+     aux découvertes les plus sublimes. C'est en décomposant
+     la substance de ce globe par une anatomie exacte de
+     toutes ses parties qu'il a premièrement appris de quelles
+     matières il était composé et quels arrangemens ces mêmes
+     matières observaient entre elles. Ces lumières jointes à
+     l'esprit de comparaison toujours nécessaire à quiconque
+     entreprend de percer les voiles dont la nature aime à se
+     cacher, ont servi de guide à notre philosophe pour
+     parvenir à des connoissances plus intéressantes. Par la
+     matière et l'arrangement de ces compositions il prétend
+     avoir reconnu quelle est la véritable origine de ce globe
+     que nous habitons, comment et par qui il a été
+     formé."--(Pp. xix. xx.)
+
+But De Maillet was before his age, and as could hardly fail to happen to
+one who speculated on a zoological and botanical question before
+Linnæus, and on a physiological problem before Haller, he fell into
+great errors here and there; and hence, perhaps, the general neglect of
+his work. Robinet's speculations are rather behind than in advance of
+those of De Maillet, and though Linnæus may have played with the
+hypothesis of transmutation, it obtained no serious support until
+Lamarck adopted it, and advocated it with great ability in his
+"Philosophie Zoologique."
+
+Impelled towards the hypothesis of the transmutation of species, partly
+by his general cosmological and geological views; partly by the
+conception of a graduated, though irregularly branching scale of being,
+which had arisen out of his profound study of plants and of the lower
+forms of animal life, Lamarck, whose general line of thought often
+closely resembles that of De Maillet, made a great advance upon the
+crude and merely speculative manner in which that writer deals with the
+question of the origin of living beings, by endeavouring to find
+physical causes competent to effect that change of one species into
+another which De Maillet had only supposed to occur. And Lamarck
+conceived that he had found in nature such causes, amply sufficient for
+the purpose in view. It is a physiological fact, he says, that organs
+are increased in size by action, atrophied by inaction; it is another
+physiological fact that modifications produced are transmissible to
+offspring. Change the actions of an animal, therefore, and you will
+change its structure, by increasing the development of the parts newly
+brought into use and by the diminution of those less used; but by
+altering the circumstances which surround it you will alter its actions,
+and hence, in the long run, change of circumstance must produce change
+of organization. All the species of animals, therefore, are in Lamarck's
+view the result of the indirect action of changes of circumstance upon
+those primitive germs which he considered to have originally arisen, by
+spontaneous generation, within the waters of the globe. It is curious,
+however, that Lamarck should insist so strongly[64] as he has done,
+that circumstances never in any degree directly modify the form or the
+organization of animals, but only operate by changing their wants, and
+consequently their actions; for he thereby brings upon himself the
+obvious question, how, then, do plants, which cannot be said to have
+wants or actions, become modified? To this he replies, that they are
+modified by the changes in their nutritive processes, which are effected
+by changing circumstances; and it does not seem to have occurred to him
+that such changes might be as well supposed to take place among animals.
+
+When we have said that Lamarck felt that mere speculation was not the
+way to arrive at the origin of species, but that it was necessary in
+order to the establishment of any sound theory on the subject, to
+discover by observation or otherwise, some _vera causa_, competent to
+give rise to them; that he affirmed the true order of classification to
+coincide with the order of their development one from another; that he
+insisted on the necessity of allowing sufficient time, very strongly;
+and that all the varieties of instinct and reason were traced back by
+him to the same cause as that which has given rise to species, we have
+enumerated his chief contributions to the advance of the question. On
+the other hand, from his ignorance of any power in nature competent to
+modify the structure of animals, except the development of parts, or
+atrophy of them, in consequence of a change of needs, Lamarck was led to
+attach infinitely greater weight than it deserves to this agency, and
+the absurdities into which he was led have met with deserved
+condemnation. Of the struggle for existence, on which as we shall see
+Mr. Darwin lays such great stress, he had no conception; indeed, he
+doubts whether there really are such things as extinct species, unless
+they be such large animals as may have met their death at the hands of
+man; and so little does he dream of there being any other destructive
+causes at work, that, in discussing the possible existence of fossil
+shells, he asks, "Pourquoi d'ailleurs seroient-ils perdues dès que
+l'homme n'a pu opérer leur destruction?" ("Phil. Zool.," vol. i. p. 77).
+Of the influence of selection Lamarck has as little notion, and he makes
+no use of the wonderful phenomena which are exhibited by domesticated
+animals, and illustrate its powers. The vast influence of Cuvier was
+employed against the Lamarckian views, and as the untenability of some
+of his conclusions was easily shown, his doctrines sank under the
+opprobrium of scientific as well as of theological heterodoxy. Nor have
+the efforts made of late years to revive them, tended to re-establish
+their credit in the minds of sound thinkers acquainted with the facts of
+the case; indeed it may be doubted whether Lamarck has not suffered more
+from his friends than from his foes.
+
+Two years ago, in fact, though we venture to question if even the
+strongest supporters of the special creation hypothesis had not, now and
+then, an uneasy consciousness that all was not right, their position
+seemed more impregnable than ever, if not by its own inherent strength,
+at any rate by the obvious failure of all the attempts which had been
+made to carry it. On the other hand, however much the few, who thought
+deeply on the question of species, might be repelled by the generally
+received dogmas, they saw no way of escaping from them, save by the
+adoption of suppositions, so little justified by experiment or by
+observation, as to be at least equally distasteful; The choice lay
+between two absurdities and a middle condition of uneasy scepticism;
+which last, however unpleasant and unsatisfactory, was obviously the
+only justifiable state of mind under the circumstances.
+
+Such being the general ferment in the minds of naturalists, it is no
+wonder that they mustered strong in the rooms of the Linnæan Society, on
+the first of July of the year 1858, to hear two papers by authors living
+on opposite sides of the globe, working out their results independently,
+and yet professing to have discovered one and the same solution of all
+the problems connected with species. The one of these authors was an
+able naturalist, Mr. Wallace, who had been employed for some years in
+studying the productions of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and
+who had forwarded a memoir embodying his views to Mr. Darwin for
+communication to the Linnæan Society. On perusing the essay Mr. Darwin
+was not a little surprised to find that it embodied some of the leading
+ideas of a great work which he had been preparing for twenty years, and
+parts of which, containing a development of the very same views, had
+been perused by his private friends fifteen or sixteen years before.
+Perplexed in what manner to do full justice both to his friend and to
+himself, Mr. Darwin placed the matter in the hands of Dr. Hooker and Sir
+Charles Lyell, by whose advice he communicated a brief abstract of his
+own views to the Linnæan Society, at the same time that Mr. Wallace's
+paper was read. Of that abstract, the work on the "Origin of Species" is
+an enlargement, but a complete statement of Mr. Darwin's doctrine is
+looked for in the large and well-illustrated work which he is said to be
+preparing for publication.[65]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Darwinian hypothesis has the merit of being eminently simple and
+comprehensible in principle, and its essential positions may be stated
+in a very few words: all species have been produced by the development
+of varieties from common stocks, by the conversion of these, first into
+permanent races and then into new species, by the process of _natural
+selection_, which process is essentially identical with that artificial
+selection by which man has originated the races of domestic animals--the
+_struggle for existence_ taking the place of man, and exerting, in the
+case of natural selection, that selective action which he performs in
+artificial selection.
+
+The evidence brought forward by Mr. Darwin in support of his hypothesis
+is of three kinds. First, he endeavours to prove that species may be
+originated by selection; secondly, he attempts to show that natural
+causes are competent to exert selection; and thirdly, he tries to prove
+that the most remarkable and apparently anomalous phenomena exhibited by
+the distribution, development, and mutual relations of species, can be
+shown to be deducible from the general doctrine of their origin, which
+he propounds, combined with the known facts of geological change; and
+that, even if not all these phenomena are at present explicable by it,
+none are necessarily inconsistent with it.
+
+There cannot be a doubt that the method of inquiry which Mr. Darwin has
+adopted is not only rigorously in accordance with the canons of
+scientific logic, but that it is the only adequate method. Critics
+exclusively trained in classics or in mathematics, who have never
+determined a scientific fact in their lives by induction from experiment
+or observation, prate learnedly about Mr. Darwin's method, which is not
+inductive enough, not Baconian enough, forsooth, for them. But even if
+practical acquaintance with the process of scientific investigation is
+denied them, they may learn, by the perusal of Mr. Mill's admirable
+chapter "On the Deductive Method," that there are multitudes of
+scientific inquiries, in which the method of pure induction helps the
+investigator but a very little way.
+
+"The mode of investigation" (says Mr. Mill) "which from the proved
+inapplicability of direct methods of observation and experiment remains
+to us as the main source of the knowledge we possess, or can acquire,
+respecting the conditions and laws of recurrence of the more complex
+phenomena, is called, in its most general expression, the deductive
+method, and consists of three operations: the first, one of direct
+induction; the second, of ratiocination; and the third, of
+verification."
+
+Now, the conditions which have determined the existence of species are
+not only exceedingly complex, but, so far as the great majority of them
+are concerned, are necessarily beyond our cognisance. But what Mr.
+Darwin has attempted to do is in exact accordance with the rule laid
+down by Mr. Mill; he has endeavoured to determine certain great facts
+inductively, by observation and experiment; he has then reasoned from
+the data thus furnished; and lastly, he has tested the validity of his
+ratiocination by comparing his deductions with the observed facts of
+nature. Inductively, Mr. Darwin endeavours to prove that species arise
+in a given way. Deductively, he desires to show that, if they arise in
+that way, the facts of distribution, development, classification, &c.,
+may be accounted for, _i.e._ may be deduced from their mode of origin,
+combined with admitted changes in physical geography and climate, during
+an indefinite period. And this explanation, or coincidence of observed
+with deduced facts, is, so far as it extends, a verification of the
+Darwinian view.
+
+There is no fault to be found with Mr. Darwin's method, then; but it is
+another question whether he has fulfilled all the conditions imposed by
+that method. Is it satisfactorily proved, in fact, that species may be
+originated by selection? that there is such a thing as natural
+selection? that none of the phenomena exhibited by species are
+inconsistent with the origin of species in this way? If these questions
+can be answered in the affirmative, Mr. Darwin's view steps out of the
+ranks of hypotheses into those of proved theories; but so long as the
+evidence at present adduced falls short of enforcing that affirmation,
+so long, to our minds, must the new doctrine be content to remain among
+the former--an extremely valuable, and in the highest degree probable,
+doctrine, indeed the only extant hypothesis which is worth anything in a
+scientific point of view; but still a hypothesis, and not yet the theory
+of species.
+
+After much consideration, and with assuredly no bias against Mr.
+Darwin's views, it is our clear conviction that, as the evidence stands,
+it is not absolutely proven that a group of animals, having all the
+characters exhibited by species in nature, has ever been originated by
+selection, whether artificial or natural. Groups having the
+morphological character of species, distinct and permanent races in
+fact, have been so produced over and over again; but there is no
+positive evidence at present that any group of animals has, by variation
+and selective breeding, given rise to another group which was even in
+the least degree infertile with the first. Mr. Darwin is perfectly aware
+of this weak point, and brings forward a multitude of ingenious and
+important arguments to diminish the force of the objection. We admit the
+value of these arguments to their fullest extent; nay, we will go so far
+as to express our belief that experiments, conducted by a skilful
+physiologist, would very probably obtain the desired production of
+mutually more or less infertile breeds from a common stock, in a
+comparatively few years; but still, as the case stands at present, this
+"little rift within the lute" is not to be disguised nor overlooked.
+
+In the remainder of Mr. Darwin's argument our own private ingenuity has
+not hitherto enabled us to pick holes of any great importance; and
+judging by what we hear and read, other adventurers in the same field do
+not seem to have been much more fortunate. It has been urged, for
+instance, that in his chapters on the struggle for existence and on
+natural selection, Mr. Darwin does not so much prove that natural
+selection does occur, as that it must occur; but, in fact, no other sort
+of demonstration is attainable. A race does not attract our attention in
+nature until it has, in all probability, existed for a considerable
+time, and then it is too late to inquire into the conditions of its
+origin. Again, it is said that there is no real analogy between the
+selection which takes place under domestication, by human influence, and
+any operation which can be effected by nature, for man interferes
+intelligently. Reduced to its elements, this argument implies that an
+effect produced with trouble by an intelligent agent must, _à fortiori_
+be more troublesome, if not impossible, to an unintelligent agent. Even
+putting aside the question whether nature, acting as she does according
+to definite and invariable laws, can be rightly called an unintelligent
+agent, such a position as this is wholly untenable. Mix salt and sand,
+and it shall puzzle the wisest of men with his mere natural appliances
+to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt; but a
+shower of rain will effect the same object in ten minutes. And so while
+man may find it tax all his intelligence to separate any variety which
+arises, and to breed selectively from it, the destructive agencies
+incessantly at work in nature, if they find one variety to be more
+soluble in circumstances than the other, will inevitably in the long run
+eliminate it.
+
+A frequent and a just objection to the Lamarckian hypothesis of the
+transmutation of species is based upon the absence of transitional forms
+between many species. But against the Darwinian hypothesis this argument
+has no force. Indeed, one of the most valuable and suggestive parts of
+Mr. Darwin's work is that in which he proves, that the frequent absence
+of transitions is a necessary consequence of his doctrine, and that the
+stock whence two or more species have sprung, need in no respect be
+intermediate between these species. If any two species have arisen from
+a common stock in the same way as the carrier and the pouter, say, have
+arisen from the rock-pigeon, then the common stock of these two species
+need be no more intermediate between the two than the rock-pigeon is
+between the carrier and pouter. Clearly appreciate the force of this
+analogy, and all the arguments against the origin of species by
+selection, based on the absence of transitional forms, fall to the
+ground. And Mr. Darwin's position might, we think, have been even
+stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed himself with the aphorism,
+"_Natura non facit saltum_," which turns up so often in his pages. We
+believe, as we have said above, that nature does make jumps now and
+then, and a recognition of the fact is of no small importance in
+disposing of many minor objections to the doctrine of transmutation.
+
+But we must pause. The discussion of Mr. Darwin's arguments in detail
+would lead us far beyond the limits within which we proposed, at
+starting, to confine this article. Our object has been attained if we
+have given an intelligible, however brief, account of the established
+facts connected with species, and of the relation of the explanation of
+those facts offered by Mr. Darwin to the theoretical views held by his
+predecessors and his contemporaries, and, above all, to the requirements
+of scientific logic. We have ventured to point out that it does not, as
+yet, satisfy all those requirements; but we do not hesitate to assert
+that it is as superior to any preceding or contemporary hypothesis, in
+the extent of observational and experimental basis on which it rests, in
+its rigorously scientific method, and in its power of explaining
+biological phenomena, as was the hypothesis of Copernicus to the
+speculations of Ptolemy. But the planetary orbits turned out to be not
+quite circular after all, and grand as was the service Copernicus
+rendered to science, Kepler and Newton had to come after him. What if
+the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? what if species
+should offer residual phenomena here and there, not explicable by
+natural selection? Twenty years hence naturalists may be in a position
+to say whether this is, or is not, the case; but in either event they
+will owe the author of "The Origin of Species" an immense debt of
+gratitude. We should leave a very wrong impression on the reader's mind
+if we permitted him to suppose that the value of that work depends
+wholly on the ultimate justification of the theoretical views which it
+contains. On the contrary, if they were disproved to-morrow, the book
+would still be the best of its kind--the most compendious statement of
+well-sifted facts bearing on the doctrine of species that has ever
+appeared. The chapters on Variation, on the Struggle for Existence, on
+Instinct, on Hybridism, on the Imperfection of the Geological Record, on
+Geographical Distribution, have not only no equals, but, so far as our
+knowledge goes, no competitors, within the range of biological
+literature. And viewed as a whole, we do not believe that, since the
+publication of Von Baer's Researches on Development, thirty years ago,
+any work has appeared calculated to exert so large an influence, not
+only on the future of Biology, but in extending the domination of
+Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly
+penetrated.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[62] "On the Osteology of the Chimpanzees and Orangs." Transactions of
+the Zoological Society, 1858.
+
+[63] Colonel Humphreys' statements are exceedingly explicit on this
+point:--"When an Ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram the increase
+resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. The increase of the common
+ewe impregnated by an Ancon ram follows entirely the one or the other,
+without blending any of the distinguishing and essential peculiarities
+of both. Frequent instances have happened where common ewes have had
+twins by Ancon rams, when one exhibited the complete marks and features
+of the ewe, the other of the ram. The contrast has been rendered
+singularly striking, when one short-legged and one long-legged lamb,
+produced at a birth, have been seen sucking the dam at the same
+time."--Philosophical Transactions, 1813, Pt. I. pp. 89, 90.
+
+[64] See Phil. Zoologique, vol. i. p. 222, _et seq._
+
+[65] The reader will remember that Huxley was writing in 1860.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+  THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS.
+
+  DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
+
+
+There is a growing immensity in the speculations of science to which no
+human thing or thought at this day is comparable. Apart from the results
+which science brings us home and securely harvests, there is an
+expansive force and latitude in its tentative efforts, which lifts us
+out of ourselves and transfigures our mortality. We may have a
+preference for moral themes, like the Homeric sage, who had seen and
+known much:--
+
+                        "Cities of men
+  And manners, climates, councils, governments;"
+
+yet we must end by confessing that
+
+  "The windy ways of men
+  Are but dust which rises up
+  And is lightly laid again,"
+
+in comparison with the work of nature, to which science testifies, but
+which has no boundaries in time or space to which science can
+approximate.
+
+There is something altogether out of the reach of science, and yet the
+compass of science is practically illimitable. Hence it is that from
+time to time we are startled and perplexed by theories which have no
+parallel in the contracted moral world; for the generalizations of
+science sweep on in ever-widening circles, and more aspiring flights,
+though a limitless creation. While astronomy, with its telescope, ranges
+beyond the known stars, and physiology, with its microscope, is
+subdividing infinite minutiæ, we may expect that our historic centuries
+may be treated as inadequate counters in the history of the planet on
+which we are placed. We must expect new conceptions of the nature and
+relations of its denizens, as science acquires the materials for fresh
+generalizations; nor have we occasion for alarms if a highly advanced
+knowledge, like that of the eminent Naturalist before us, confronts us
+with an hypothesis as vast as it is novel. This hypothesis may or may
+not be sustainable hereafter; it may give way to something else, and
+higher science may reverse what science has here built up with so much
+skill and patience, but its sufficiency must be tried by the tests of
+science _alone_, if we are to maintain our position as the heirs of
+Bacon and the acquitters of Galileo. We must weigh this hypothesis
+strictly in the controversy which is coming, by the only tests which are
+appropriate, and by no others whatsoever.
+
+The hypothesis to which we point, and of which the present work of Mr.
+Darwin is but the preliminary outline, may be stated in his own language
+as follows:--"_Species originated by means of natural selection, or
+through the preservation of the favoured races in the struggle for
+life_." To render this thesis intelligible, it is necessary to interpret
+its terms. In the first place, what is a species? The question is a
+simple one, but the right answer to it is hard to find, even if we
+appeal to those who should know most about it. It is all those animals
+or plants which have descended from a single pair of parents; it is the
+smallest distinctly definable group of living organisms; it is an
+eternal and immutable entity; it is a mere abstraction of the human
+intellect having no existence in nature. Such are a few of the
+significations attached to this simple word which may be culled from
+authoritative sources; and if, leaving terms and theoretical subtleties
+aside, we turn to facts and endeavour to gather a meaning for ourselves,
+by studying the things to which, in practice, the name of species is
+applied, it profits us little. For practice varies as much as theory.
+Let the botanist or the zoologist examine and describe the productions
+of a country, and one will pretty certainly disagree with the other as
+to the number, limits, and definitions of the species into which he
+groups the very same things. In these islands we are in the habit of
+regarding mankind as of one species, but a fortnight's steam will land
+us in a country where divines and savans, for once in agreement, vie
+with one another in loudness of assertion, if not in cogency of proof,
+that men are of different species; and, more particularly, that the
+species negro is so distinct from our own that the Ten Commandments have
+actually no reference to him. Even in the calm region of entomology,
+where, if anywhere in this sinful world, passion and prejudice should
+fail to stir the mind, one learned coleopterist will fill ten attractive
+volumes with descriptions of species of beetles, nine-tenths of which
+are immediately declared by his brother beetle-mongers to be no species
+at all.
+
+The truth is that the number of distinguishable living creatures almost
+surpasses imagination. At least a hundred thousand such kinds of insects
+alone have been described and may be identified in collections, and the
+number of separable kinds of living things is under estimated at half a
+million. Seeing that most of these obvious kinds have their accidental
+varieties, and that they often shade into others by imperceptible
+degrees, it may well be imagined that the task of distinguishing between
+what is permanent and what fleeting, what is a species and what a mere
+variety, is sufficiently formidable.
+
+But is it not possible to apply a test whereby a true species may be
+known from a mere variety? Is there no criterion of species? Great
+authorities affirm that there is--that the unions of members of the same
+species are always fertile, while those of distinct species are either
+sterile, or their offspring, called hybrids, are so. It is affirmed not
+only that this is an experimental fact, but that it is a provision for
+the preservation of the purity of species. Such a criterion as this
+would be invaluable; but, unfortunately, not only is it not obvious how
+to apply it in the great majority of cases in which its aid is needed,
+but its general validity is stoutly denied. The Hon. and Rev. Mr.
+Herbert, a most trustworthy authority, not only asserts as the result of
+his own observations and experiments that many hybrids are quite as
+fertile as the parent species, but he goes so far as to assert that the
+particular plant _Crinum capense_ is much more fertile when crossed by a
+distinct species than when fertilised by its proper pollen! On the other
+hand the famous Gaertner, though he took the greatest pains to cross the
+primrose and cowslip, succeeded only once or twice in several years; and
+yet it is a well-established fact that the primrose and the cowslip are
+only varieties of the same kind of plant. Again, such cases as the
+following are well established. The female of species A if crossed with
+the male of species B is fertile, but if the female of B is crossed with
+the male of A, she remains barren. Facts of this kind destroy the value
+of the supposed criterion.
+
+If, weary of the endless difficulties involved in the determination of
+species, the investigator, contenting himself with the rough practical
+distinction of separable kinds, endeavours to study them as they occur
+in nature--to ascertain their relations to the conditions which surround
+them, their mutual harmonies and discordances of structure, the bond of
+union of their parts and their past history, he finds himself, according
+to the received notions, in a mighty maze, and with, at most, the
+dimmest adumbration of a plan. If he starts with any one clear
+conviction, it is that every part of a living creature is cunningly
+adapted to some special use in its life. Has not his Paley told him that
+that seemingly useless organ, the spleen, is beautifully adjusted as so
+much packing between the other organs? And yet, at the outset of his
+studies, he finds that no adaptive reason whatsoever can be given for
+one-half of the peculiarities of vegetable structure; he also discovers
+rudimentary teeth, which are never used, in the gums of the young calf
+and in those of the foetal whale; insects which never bite have
+rudimental jaws, and others which never fly have rudimental wings;
+naturally blind creatures have rudimental eyes; and the halt have
+rudimentary limbs. So, again, no animal or plant puts on its perfect
+form at once, but all have to start from the same point, however various
+the course which each has to pursue. Not only men and horses, and cats
+and dogs, lobsters and beetles, periwinkles and mussels, but even the
+very sponges and animalcules commence their existence under forms which
+are essentially undistinguishable; and this is true of all the infinite
+variety of plants. Nay, more, all living beings march side by side along
+the high road of development, and separate the later the more like they
+are; like people leaving church, who all go down the aisle, but having
+reached the door some turn into the parsonage, others go down the
+village, and others part only in the next parish. A man in his
+development runs for a little while parallel with, though never passing
+through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a space beside
+the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile for his
+fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companionship with
+the highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into the
+dignity of pure manhood. No competent thinker of the present day dreams
+of explaining these indubitable facts by the notion of the existence of
+unknown and undiscoverable adaptations to purpose. And we would remind
+those who, ignorant of the facts, must be moved by authority, that no
+one has asserted the incompetence of the doctrine of final causes, in
+its application to physiology and anatomy, more strongly than our own
+eminent anatomist, Professor Owen, who, speaking of such cases, says
+(_On the Nature of Limbs_, pp. 39, 40): "I think it will be obvious that
+the principle of final adaptations fails to satisfy all the conditions
+of the problem."
+
+But, if the doctrine of final causes will not help us to comprehend the
+anomalies of living structure, the principle of adaptation must surely
+lead us to understand why certain living beings are found in certain
+regions of the world and not in others. The palm, as we know, will not
+grow in our climate, nor the oak in Greenland. The white bear cannot
+live where the tiger thrives, nor _vice versâ_, and the more the natural
+habits of animal and vegetable species are examined, the more do they
+seem, on the whole, limited to particular provinces. But when we look
+into the facts established by the study of the geographical distribution
+of animals and plants it seems utterly hopeless to attempt to
+understand the strange and apparently capricious relations which they
+exhibit. One would be inclined to suppose _à priori_ that every country
+must be naturally peopled by those animals that are fittest to live and
+thrive in it. And yet how, on this hypothesis, are we to account for the
+absence of cattle in the Pampas of South America when those parts of the
+New World were discovered? It is not that they were unfit for cattle,
+for millions of cattle now run wild there; and the like holds good of
+Australia and New Zealand. It is a curious circumstance, in fact, that
+the animals and plants of the Northern Hemisphere are not only as well
+adapted to live in the Southern Hemisphere as its own autochthones, but
+are in many cases absolutely better adapted, and so overrun and
+extirpate the aborigines. Clearly, therefore, the species which
+naturally inhabit a country are not necessarily the best adapted to its
+climate and other conditions. The inhabitants of islands are often
+distinct from any other known species of animal or plants (witness our
+recent examples from the work of Sir Emerson Tennent, on Ceylon), and
+yet they have almost always a sort of general family resemblance to the
+animals and plants of the nearest mainland. On the other hand, there is
+hardly a species of fish, shell, or crab common to the opposite sides of
+the narrow isthmus of Panama. Wherever we look, then, living nature
+offers us riddles of difficult solution, if we suppose that what we see
+is all that can be known of it.
+
+But our knowledge of life is not confined to the existing world.
+Whatever their minor differences, geologists are agreed as to the vast
+thickness of the accumulated strata which compose the visible part of
+our earth, and the inconceivable immensity of the time of whose lapse
+they are the imperfect, but the only accessible witnesses. Now,
+throughout the greater part of this long series of stratified rocks are
+scattered, sometimes very abundantly, multitudes of organic remains, the
+fossilised exuviæ of animals and plants which lived and died while the
+mud of which the rocks are formed was yet soft ooze, and could receive
+and bury them. It would be a great error to suppose that these organic
+remains were fragmentary relics. Our museums exhibit fossil shells of
+immeasurable antiquity, as perfect as the day they were formed, whole
+skeletons without a limb disturbed--nay, the changed flesh, the
+developing embryos, and even the very footsteps of primæval organisms.
+Thus the naturalist finds in the bowels of the earth species as well
+defined as, and in some groups of animals more numerous than, those that
+breathe the upper air. But, singularly enough, the majority of these
+entombed species are wholly distinct from those that now live. Nor is
+this unlikeness without its rule and order. As a broad fact, the further
+we go back in time the less the buried species are like existing forms;
+and the further apart the sets of extinct creatures are the less they
+are like one another. In other words, there has been a regular
+succession of living beings, each younger set being in a very broad and
+general sense somewhat more like those which now live.
+
+It was once supposed that this succession had been the result of vast
+successive catastrophes, destructions, and re-creations _en masse_; but
+catastrophes are now almost eliminated from geological, or at least
+paleontological speculation; and it is admitted on all hands that the
+seeming breaks in the chain of being are not absolute, but only relative
+to our imperfect knowledge; that species have replaced species, not in
+assemblages, but one by one; and that, if it were possible to have all
+the phenomena of the past presented to us, the convenient epochs and
+formations of the geologist, though having a certain distinctness, would
+fade into one another with limits as undefinable as those of the
+distinct and yet separable colours of the solar spectrum.
+
+Such is a brief summary of the main truths which have been established
+concerning species. Are these truths ultimate and irresolvable facts, or
+are their complexities and perplexities the mere expressions of a higher
+law?
+
+A large number of persons practically assume the former position to be
+correct. They believe that the writer of the Pentateuch was empowered
+and commissioned to teach us scientific as well as other truth, that the
+account we find there of the creation of living things is simply and
+literally correct, and that anything which seems to contradict it is, by
+the nature of the case, false. All the phenomena which have been
+detailed are, on this view, the immediate product of a creative fiat and
+consequently are out of the domain of science altogether.
+
+Whether this view prove ultimately to be true or false, it is, at any
+rate, not at present supported by what is commonly regarded as logical
+proof, even if it be capable of discussion by reason; and hence we
+consider ourselves at liberty to pass it by, and to turn to those views
+which profess to rest on a scientific basis only, and therefore admit of
+being argued to their consequences. And we do this with the less
+hesitation as it so happens that those persons who are practically
+conversant with the facts of the case (plainly a considerable advantage)
+have always thought fit to range themselves under the latter category.
+
+The majority of these competent persons have up to the present time
+maintained two positions,--the first, that every species is, within
+certain defined or definable limits, fixed and incapable of
+modification; the second, that every species was originally produced by
+a distinct creative act. The second position is obviously incapable of
+proof or disproof, the direct operations of the Creator not being
+subjects of science; and it must therefore be regarded as a corollary
+from the first, the truth or falsehood of which is a matter of evidence.
+Most persons imagine that the arguments in favour of it are
+overwhelming; but to some few minds, and these, it must be confessed,
+intellects of no small power and grasp of knowledge, they have not
+brought conviction. Among these minds that of the famous naturalist
+Lamarck, who possessed a greater acquaintance with the lower forms of
+life than any man of his day, Cuvier not excepted, and was a good
+botanist to boot, occupies a prominent place.
+
+Two facts appear to have strongly affected the course of thought of this
+remarkable man--the one, that finer or stronger links of affinity
+connect all living beings with one another, and that thus the highest
+creature grades by multitudinous steps into the lowest; the other, that
+an organ may be developed in particular directions by exerting itself
+in particular ways, and that modifications once induced may be
+transmitted and become hereditary. Putting these facts together, Lamarck
+endeavoured to account for the first by the operation of the second.
+Place an animal in new circumstances, says he, and its needs will be
+altered; the new needs will create new desires, and the attempt to
+gratify such desires will result in an appropriate modification of the
+organs exerted. Make a man a blacksmith, and his brachial muscles will
+develope in accordance with the demands made upon them, and in like
+manner, says Lamarck, "the efforts of some shortnecked bird to catch
+fish without wetting himself have, with time and perseverance, given
+rise to all our herons and long-necked waders."
+
+The Lamarckian hypothesis has long since been justly condemned, and it
+is the established practice for every tyro to raise his heel against the
+carcass of the dead lion. But it is rarely either wise or instructive to
+treat even the errors of a really great man with mere ridicule, and in
+the present case the logical form of the doctrine stands on a very
+different footing from its substance.
+
+If species have really arisen by the operation of natural conditions, we
+ought to be able to find those conditions now at work; we ought to be
+able to discover in nature some power adequate to modify any given kind
+of animal or plant in such a manner as to give rise to another kind,
+which would be admitted by naturalists as a distinct species. Lamarck
+imagined that he had discovered this _vera causa_ in the admitted facts
+that some organs may be modified by exercise; and that modifications,
+once produced, are capable of hereditary transmission. It does not seem
+to have occurred to him to inquire whether there is any reason to
+believe that there are any limits to the amount of modification
+producible, or to ask how long an animal is likely to endeavour to
+gratify an impossible desire. The bird, in our example, would surely
+have renounced fish dinners long before it had produced the least effect
+on leg or neck.
+
+Since Lamarck's time almost all competent naturalists have left
+speculations on the origin of species to such dreamers as the author of
+the _Vestiges_, by whose well-intentioned efforts the Lamarckian theory
+received its final condemnation in the minds of all sound thinkers.
+Notwithstanding this silence, however, the transmutation theory, as it
+has been called, has been a "skeleton in the closet" to many an honest
+zoologist and botanist who had a soul above the mere naming of dried
+plants and skins. Surely, has such an one thought, nature is a mighty
+and consistent whole, and the providential order established in the
+world of life must, if we could only see it rightly, be consistent with
+that dominant over the multiform shapes of brute matter. But what is the
+history of astronomy, of all the branches of physics, of chemistry, of
+medicine, but a narration of the steps by which the human mind has been
+compelled, often sorely against its will, to recognize the operation of
+secondary causes in events where ignorance beheld an immediate
+intervention of a higher power? And when we know that living things are
+formed of the same elements as the inorganic world, that they act and
+react upon it, bound by a thousand ties of natural piety, is it
+probable, nay is it possible, that they, and they alone, should have no
+order in their seeming disorder, no unity in their seeming multiplicity,
+should suffer no explanation by the discovery of some central and
+sublime law of mutual connexion?
+
+Questions of this kind have assuredly often arisen, but it might have
+been long before they received such expression as would have commanded
+the respect and attention of the scientific world, had it not been for
+the publication of the work which prompted this article. Its author, Mr.
+Darwin, inheritor of a once celebrated name, won his spurs in science
+when most of those now distinguished were young men, and has for the
+last 20 years held a place in the front ranks of British philosophers.
+After a circumnavigatory voyage, undertaken solely for the love of his
+science, Mr. Darwin published a series of researches which at once
+arrested the attention of naturalists and geologists; his
+generalizations have since received ample confirmation, and now command
+universal assent, nor is it questionable that they have had the most
+important influence on the progress of science. More recently Mr.
+Darwin, with a versatility which is among the rarest of gifts, turned
+his attention to a most difficult question of zoology and minute
+anatomy; and no living naturalist and anatomist has published a better
+monograph than that which resulted from his labours. Such a man, at all
+events, has not entered the sanctuary with unwashed hands, and when he
+lays before us the results of 20 years' investigation and reflection we
+must listen even though we be disposed to strike. But, in reading his
+work it must be confessed that the attention which might at first be
+dutifully, soon becomes willingly, given, so clear is the author's
+thought, so outspoken his conviction, so honest and fair the candid
+expression of his doubts. Those who would judge the book must read it;
+we shall endeavour only to make its line of argument and its
+philosophical position intelligible to the general reader in our own
+way.
+
+The Baker-street Bazaar has just been exhibiting its familiar annual
+spectacle. Straight-backed, small-headed, big-barrelled oxen, as
+dissimilar from any wild species as can well be imagined, contended for
+attention and praise with sheep of half-a-dozen different breeds and
+styes of bloated preposterous pigs, no more like a wild boar or sow than
+a city alderman is like an ourang-outang. The cattle show has been, and
+perhaps may again be, succeeded by a poultry show, of whose crowing and
+clucking prodigies it can only be certainly predicated that they will be
+very unlike the aboriginal _Phasianus Gallus_. If the seeker after
+animal anomalies is not satisfied, a turn or two in Seven Dials will
+convince him that the breeds of pigeons are quite as extraordinary and
+unlike one another and their parent stock, while the Horticultural
+Society will provide him with any number of corresponding vegetable
+aberrations from nature's types. He will learn with no little surprise,
+too, in the course of his travels, that the proprietors and producers of
+these animal and vegetable anomalies regard them as distinct species,
+with a firm belief, the strength of which is exactly proportioned to
+their ignorance of scientific biology, and which is the more remarkable
+as they are all proud of their skill in _originating_ such "species."
+
+On careful inquiry it is found that all these, and the many other
+artificial breeds or races of animals and plants, have been produced by
+one method. The breeder--and a skilful one must be a person of much
+sagacity and natural or acquired perceptive faculty--notes some slight
+difference, arising he knows not how, in some individuals of his stock.
+If he wish to perpetuate the difference, to form a breed with the
+peculiarity in question strongly marked, he selects such male and female
+individuals as exhibit the desired character, and breeds from them.
+Their offspring are then carefully examined, and those which exhibit the
+peculiarity the most distinctly are selected for breeding, and this
+operation is repeated until the desired amount of divergence from the
+primitive stock is reached. It is then found that by continuing the
+process of selection--always breeding, that is, from well-marked forms,
+and allowing no impure crosses to interfere,--a race may be formed, the
+tendency of which to reproduce itself is exceedingly strong; nor is the
+limit to the amount of divergence which may be thus produced known, but
+one thing is certain, that, if certain breeds of dogs, or of pigeons, or
+of horses, were known only in a fossil state, no naturalist would
+hesitate in regarding them as distinct species.
+
+But, in all these cases we have _human interference_. Without the
+breeder there would be no selection, and without the selection no race.
+Before admitting the possibility of natural species having originated in
+any similar way, it must be proved that there is in nature some power
+which takes the place of man, and performs a selection _suâ sponte_. It
+is the claim of Mr. Darwin that he professes to have discovered the
+existence and the _modus operandi_ of this natural selection, as he
+terms it; and, if he be right, the process is perfectly simple and
+comprehensible, and irresistibly deducible from very familiar but well
+nigh forgotten facts.
+
+Who, for instance, has duly reflected upon all the consequences of the
+marvellous struggle for existence which is daily and hourly going on
+among living beings? Not only does every animal live at the expense of
+some other animal or plant, but the very plants are at war. The ground
+is full of seeds that cannot rise into seedlings; the seedlings rob one
+another of air and light and water, the strongest robber winning the
+day, and extinguishing his competitors. Year after year, the wild
+animals with which man never interferes are, on the average, neither
+more nor less numerous than they were; and yet we know that the annual
+produce of every pair is from one to perhaps a million young,--so that
+it is mathematically certain that, on the average, as many are killed by
+natural causes as are born every year, and those only escape which
+happen to be a little better fitted to resist destruction than those
+which die. The individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered
+ship, and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land.
+
+Such being unquestionably the necessary conditions under which living
+creatures exist, Mr. Darwin discovers in them the instrument of natural
+selection. Suppose that in the midst of this incessant competition some
+individuals of a species (A) present accidental variations which happen
+to fit them a little better than their fellows for the struggle in which
+they are engaged, then the chances are in favour, not only of these
+individuals being better nourished than the others, but of their
+predominating over their fellows in other ways, and of having a better
+chance of leaving offspring, which will of course tend to reproduce the
+peculiarities of their parents. Their offspring will, by a parity of
+reasoning, tend to predominate over their contemporaries, and there
+being (suppose) no room for more than one species such as A, the weaker
+variety will eventually be destroyed by the new destructive influence
+which is thrown into the scale, and the stronger will take its place.
+Surrounding conditions remaining unchanged, the new variety (which we
+may call B)--supposed, for argument's sake, to be the best adapted for
+these conditions which can be got out of the original stock--will remain
+unchanged, all accidental deviations from the type becoming at once
+extinguished, as less fit for their post than B itself. The tendency of
+B to persist will grow with its persistence through successive
+generations, and it will acquire all the characters of a new species.
+
+But, on the other hand, if the conditions of life change in any degree,
+however slight, B may no longer be that form which is best adapted to
+withstand their destructive, and profit by their sustaining, influence;
+in which case if it should give rise to a more competent variety (C),
+this will take its place and become a new species; and thus, by _natural
+selection_, the species B and C will be successively derived from A.
+
+That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a reason for many
+apparent anomalies in the distribution of living beings in time and
+space, and that it is not contradicted by the main phenomena of life and
+organization appear to us to be unquestionable, and so far it must be
+admitted to have an immense advantage over any of its predecessors. But
+it is quite another matter to affirm absolutely either the truth or
+falsehood of Mr. Darwin's views at the present stage of the inquiry.
+Goethe has an excellent aphorism defining that state of mind which he
+calls _Thätige Skepsis_--active doubt. It is doubt which so loves truth
+that it neither dares rest in doubting, nor extinguish itself by
+unjustified belief; and we commend this state of mind to students of
+species, with respect to Mr. Darwin's or any other hypothesis, as to
+their origin. The combined investigations of another 20 years may,
+perhaps, enable naturalists to say whether the modifying causes and the
+selective power, which Mr. Darwin has satisfactorily shown to exist in
+nature, are competent to produce all the effects he ascribes to them, or
+whether, on the other hand, he has been led to over-estimate the value
+of his principle of natural selection, as greatly as Lamarck
+over-estimated his _vera causa_ of modification by exercise.
+
+But there is, at all events, one advantage possessed by the more recent
+writer over his predecessor. Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation as
+nature abhors a vacuum. He is as greedy of cases and precedents as any
+constitutional lawyer, and all the principles he lays down are capable
+of being brought to the test of observation and experiment. The path he
+bids us follow professes to be not a mere airy track, fabricated of
+ideal cobwebs, but a solid and broad bridge of facts. If it be so, it
+will carry us safely over many a chasm in our knowledge, and lead us to
+a region free from the snares of those fascinating but barren Virgins,
+the Final Causes, against whom a high authority has so justly warned us.
+"My sons, dig in the vineyard," were the last words of the old man in
+the fable; and, though the sons found no treasure, they made their
+fortunes by the grapes.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+  A LOBSTER; OR, THE STUDY OF
+  ZOOLOGY
+
+
+Natural History is the name familiarly applied to the study of the
+properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the
+sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects
+are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinction to other,
+so-called "physical," sciences; and those who devote themselves
+especially to the pursuit of such sciences have been, and are, commonly
+termed "Naturalists."
+
+Linnæus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his "Systema Naturæ"
+was a work upon natural history in the broadest acceptation of the term;
+in it, that great methodizing spirit embodied all that was known in his
+time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, and plants. But
+the enormous stimulus which Linnæus gave to the investigation of nature
+soon rendered it impossible that any one man should write another
+"Systema Naturæ," and extremely difficult for any one to become a
+naturalist such as Linnæus was.
+
+Great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of
+science, of old included under the title of natural history, there can
+be no doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater
+ratio than mineralogy, and hence, as I suppose, the name of "natural
+history" has gradually become more and more definitely attached to these
+prominent divisions of the subject, and by "naturalist" people have
+meant more and more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and
+functions of living beings.
+
+However this may be, it is certain that the advance of knowledge has
+gradually widened the distance between mineralogy and its old
+associates, while it has drawn zoology and botany closer together; so
+that of late years it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary)
+to associate the sciences which deal with vitality and all its phenomena
+under the common head of "biology"; and the biologists have come to
+repudiate any blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, the
+mineralogists.
+
+Certain broad laws have a general application throughout both the animal
+and the vegetable worlds, but the ground common to these kingdoms of
+nature is not of very wide extent, and the multiplicity of details is so
+great, that the student of living beings finds himself obliged to devote
+his attention exclusively either to the one or the other. If he elects
+to study plants, under any aspect, we know at once what to call him; he
+is a botanist and his science is botany. But if the investigation of
+animal life be his choice, the name generally applied to him will vary,
+according to the kind of animals he studies, or the particular phenomena
+of animal life to which he confines his attention. If the study of man
+is his object, he is called an anatomist, or a physiologist, or an
+ethnologist; but if he dissects animals, or examines into the mode in
+which their functions are performed, he is a comparative anatomist or
+comparative physiologist. If he turns his attention to fossil animals he
+is a palæontologist. If his mind is more particularly directed to the
+description, specific discrimination, classification, and distribution
+of animals he is termed a zoologist.
+
+For the purposes of the present discourse, however, I shall recognise
+none of these titles save the last, which I shall employ as the
+equivalent of botanist, and I shall use the term zoology as denoting the
+whole doctrine of animal life, in contradistinction from botany, which
+signifies the whole doctrine of vegetable life.
+
+Employed in this sense, zoology, like botany, is divisible into three
+great but subordinate sciences, morphology, physiology, and
+distribution, each of which may, to a very great extent, be studied
+independently of the other.
+
+Zoological morphology is the doctrine of animal form or structure.
+Anatomy is one of its branches, development is another; while
+classification is the expression of the relations which different
+animals bear to one another, in respect of their anatomy and their
+development.
+
+Zoological distribution is the study of animals in relation to the
+terrestrial conditions which obtain now, or have obtained at any
+previous epoch of the earth's history.
+
+Zoological physiology, lastly, is the doctrine of the functions or
+actions of animals. It regards animal bodies as machines impelled by
+certain forces, and performing an amount of work, which can be expressed
+in terms of the ordinary forces of nature. The final object of
+physiology is to deduce the facts of morphology on the one hand, and
+those of distribution on the other, from the laws of the molecular
+forces of matter.
+
+Such is the scope of zoology. But if I were to content myself with the
+enunciation of these dry definitions, I should ill exemplify that method
+of teaching this branch of physical science, which it is my chief
+business to-night to recommend. Let us turn away then from abstract
+definitions. Let us take some concrete living thing, some animal, the
+commoner the better, and let us see how the application of common sense
+and common logic to the obvious facts it presents, inevitably leads us
+into all these branches of zoological science.
+
+I have before me a lobster. When I examine it, what appears to be the
+most striking character it presents? Why, I observe that this part which
+we call the tail of the lobster, is made up of six distinct hard rings
+and a seventh terminal piece. If I separate one of the middle rings, say
+the third, I find it carries upon its under surface a pair of limbs or
+appendages, each of which consists of a stalk and two terminal pieces.
+So that I can represent a transverse section of the ring and its
+appendages upon the diagram board in this way.
+
+If I now take the fourth ring, I find it has the same structure, and so
+have the fifth and the second; so that in each of these divisions of
+the tail I find parts which correspond with one another, a ring and two
+appendages; and in each appendage a stalk and two end pieces. These
+corresponding parts are called in the technical language of anatomy
+"homologous parts." The ring of the third division is the "homologue" of
+the ring of the fifth, the appendage of the former is the homologue of
+the appendage of the latter. And as each division exhibits corresponding
+parts in corresponding places, we say that all the divisions are
+constructed upon the same plan. But now let us consider the sixth
+division. It is similar to, and yet different from, the others. The ring
+is essentially the same as in the other divisions; but the appendages
+look at first as if they were very different; and yet when we regard
+them closely, what do we find? A stalk and two terminal divisions
+exactly as in the others, but the stalk is very short and very thick,
+the terminal divisions are very broad and flat, and one of them is
+divided into two pieces.
+
+I may say, therefore, that the sixth segment is like the others in plan,
+but that it is modified in its details.
+
+The first segment is like the others, so far as its ring is concerned,
+and though its appendages differ from any of those yet examined in the
+simplicity of their structure, parts corresponding with the stem and one
+of the divisions of the appendages of the other segments can be readily
+discerned in them.
+
+Thus it appears that the lobster's tail is composed of a series of
+segments which are fundamentally similar, though each presents peculiar
+modifications of the plan common to all. But when I turn to the forepart
+of the body I see, at first, nothing but a great shield-like shell,
+called technically the "carapace," ending in front in a sharp spine, on
+either side of which are the curious compound eyes, set upon the ends of
+stout moveable stalks. Behind these, on the under side of the body, are
+two pairs of long feelers or antennæ, followed by six pairs of jaws,
+folded against one another over the mouth, and five pairs of legs, the
+foremost of these being the great pinchers, or claws, of the lobster.
+
+It looks, at first, a little hopeless to attempt to find in this
+complex mass a series of rings, each with its pair of appendages, such
+as I have shown you in the abdomen, and yet it is not difficult to
+demonstrate their existence. Strip off the legs, and you will find that
+each pair is attached to a very definite segment of the under wall of
+the body; but these segments, instead of being the lower parts of free
+rings, as in the tail, are such parts of rings which are all solidly
+united and bound together; and the like is true of the jaws, the
+feelers, and the eye-stalks, every pair of which is borne upon its own
+special segment. Thus the conclusion is gradually forced upon us that
+the body of the lobster is composed of as many rings as there are pairs
+of appendages, namely, twenty in all, but that the six hindmost rings
+remain free and moveable, while the fourteen front rings become firmly
+soldered together, their backs forming one continuous shield--the
+carapace.
+
+Unity of plan, diversity in execution, is the lesson taught by the study
+of the rings of the body, and the same instruction is given still more
+emphatically by the appendages. If I examine the outermost jaw I find it
+consists of three distinct portions, an inner, a middle, and an outer,
+mounted upon a common stem; and if I compare this jaw with the legs
+behind it, or the jaws in front of it, I find it quite easy to see,
+that, in the legs, it is the part of the appendage which corresponds
+with the inner division, which becomes modified into what we know
+familiarly as the "leg," while the middle division disappears, and the
+outer division is hidden under the carapace. Nor is it more difficult to
+discern that, in the appendages of the tail, the middle division appears
+again and the outer vanishes; while on the other hand, in the foremost
+jaw, the so-called mandible, the inner division only is left; and, in
+the same way, the parts of the feelers and of the eye-stalks, can be
+identified with those of the legs and jaws.
+
+But whither does all this tend? To the very remarkable conclusion that a
+unity of plan, of the same kind as that discoverable in the tail or
+abdomen of the lobster, pervades the whole organization of its skeleton,
+so that I can return to the diagram representing any one of the rings
+of the tail, which I drew upon the board, and by adding a third division
+to each appendage, I can use it as a sort of scheme or plan of any ring
+of the body. I can give names to all the parts of that figure, and then
+if I take any segment of the body of the lobster, I can point out to you
+exactly, what modification the general plan has undergone in that
+particular segment; what part has remained moveable, and what has become
+fixed to another; what has been excessively developed and metamorphosed,
+and what has been suppressed.
+
+But I imagine I hear the question, how is all this to be tested? No
+doubt it is a pretty and ingenious way of looking at the structure of
+any animal, but is it anything more? Does Nature acknowledge in any
+deeper way this unity of plan we seem to trace?
+
+The objection suggested by these questions is a very valid and important
+one, and morphology was in an unsound state, so long as it rested upon
+the mere perception of the analogies which obtain between fully formed
+parts. The unchecked ingenuity of speculative anatomists proved itself
+fully competent to spin any number of contradictory hypotheses out of
+the same facts, and endless morphological dreams threatened to supplant
+scientific theory.
+
+Happily, however, there is a criterion of morphological truth, and a
+sure test of all homologies. Our lobster has not always been what we see
+it; it was once an egg, a semi-fluid mass of yolk, not so big as a pin's
+head, contained in a transparent membrane, and exhibiting not the least
+trace of any one of those organs, whose multiplicity and complexity, in
+the adult, are so surprising. After a time a delicate patch of cellular
+membrane appeared upon one face of this yolk, and that patch was the
+foundation of the whole creature, the clay out of which it would be
+moulded. Gradually investing the yolk, it became subdivided by
+transverse constrictions into segments, the forerunners of the rings of
+the body. Upon the ventral surface of each of the rings thus sketched
+out, a pair of bud-like prominences made their appearance--the rudiments
+of the appendages of the ring. At first, all the appendages were alike,
+but, as they grew, most of them became distinguished with a stem and
+two terminal divisions, to which in the middle part of the body was
+added a third outer division; and it was only at a later period, that by
+the modification, or abortion, of certain of these primitive
+constituents, the limbs acquired their perfect form.
+
+Thus the study of development proves that the doctrine of unity of plan
+is not merely a fancy, that it is not merely one way of looking at the
+matter, but that it is the expression of deep-seated natural facts. The
+legs and jaws of the lobster may not merely be regarded as modifications
+of a common type,--in fact and in nature they are so,--the leg and the
+jaw of the young animal being, at first, indistinguishable.
+
+These are wonderful truths, the more so because the zoologist finds them
+to be of universal application. The investigation of a polype, of a
+snail, of a fish, of a horse, or of a man would have led us, though by a
+less easy path, perhaps, to exactly the same point. Unity of plan
+everywhere lies hidden under the mask of diversity of structure--the
+complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple. Every animal has at
+first the form of an egg, and every animal and every organic part, in
+reaching its adult state, passes through conditions common to other
+animals and other adult parts; and this leads me to another point. I
+have hitherto spoken as if the lobster were alone in the world, but, as
+I need hardly remind you, there are myriads of other animal organisms.
+Of these some, such as men, horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs,
+oysters, corals, and sponges, are not in the least like the lobster. But
+other animals, though they may differ a good deal from the lobster, are
+yet either very like it, or are like something that is like it. The cray
+fish, the rock lobster, and the prawn, and the shrimp, for example,
+however different, are yet so like lobsters, that a child would group
+them as of the lobster kind, in contradistinction to snails and slugs;
+and these last again would form a kind by themselves, in
+contradistinction to cows, horses, and sheep, the cattle kind.
+
+But this spontaneous grouping into "kinds" is the first essay of the
+human mind at classification, or the calling by a common name of those
+things that are alike, and the arranging them in such a manner as best
+to suggest the sum of their likenesses and unlikenesses to other things.
+
+Those kinds which include no other subdivisions than the sexes, or
+various breeds, are called, in technical language, species. The English
+lobster is a species, our cray fish is another, our prawn is another. In
+other countries, however, there are lobsters, cray fish, and prawns,
+very like ours, and yet presenting sufficient differences to deserve
+distinction. Naturalists, therefore, express this resemblance and this
+diversity by grouping them as distinct species of the same "genus." But
+the lobster and the cray fish, though belonging to distinct genera, have
+many features in common, and hence are grouped together in an assemblage
+which is called a family. More distant resemblances connect the lobster
+with the prawn and the crab, which are expressed by putting all these
+into the same order. Again, more remote, but still very definite,
+resemblances unite the lobster with the woodlouse, the king crab, the
+water flea, and the barnacle, and separate them from all other animals;
+whence they collectively constitute the larger group, or class,
+_Crustacea_. But the _Crustacea_ exhibit many peculiar features in
+common with insects, spiders, and centipedes, so that these are grouped
+into the still larger assemblage or "province" _Articulata_, and,
+finally, the relations which these have to worms and other lower
+animals, are expressed by combining the whole vast aggregate into the
+sub-kingdom _Annulosa_.
+
+If I had worked my way from a sponge instead of a lobster, I should have
+found it associated, by like ties, with a great number of other animals
+into the sub-kingdom _Protozoa_; if I had selected a fresh-water polype
+or a coral, the members of what naturalists term the sub-kingdom
+_Coelenterata_, would have grouped themselves around my type; had a
+snail been chosen, the inhabitants of all univalve and bivalve, land and
+water shells, the lamp shells, the squids, and the sea-mat would have
+gradually linked themselves on to it as members of the same sub-kingdom
+of _Mollusca_; and finally starting from man, I should have been
+compelled to admit first, the ape, the rat, the horse, the dog, into
+the same class, and then the bird, the crocodile, the turtle, the frog,
+and the fish, into the same sub-kingdom of _Vertebrata_.
+
+And if I had followed out all these various lines of classification
+fully, I should discover in the end that there was no animal, either
+recent or fossil, which did not at once fall into one or other of these
+sub-kingdoms. In other words, every animal is organised upon one or
+other of the five, or more, plans, whose existence renders our
+classification possible. And so definitely and precisely marked is the
+structure of each animal that, in the present state of our knowledge,
+there is not the least evidence to prove that a form, in the slightest
+degree transitional between any two of the groups _Vertebrata_,
+_Annulosa_, _Mollusca_, and _Coelenterata_, either exists, or has
+existed, during that period of the earth's history which is recorded by
+the geologist. Nevertheless, you must not for a moment suppose, because
+no such transitional forms are known, that the members of the
+sub-kingdoms are disconnected from, or independent of, one another. On
+the contrary, in their earliest condition they are all alike, and the
+primordial germs of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, a snail, and
+a polype are in no essential structural respects, distinguishable.
+
+In this broad sense, it may with truth be said, that all living animals,
+and all those dead creations which geology reveals, are bound together
+by an all-pervading unity of organisation, of the same character, though
+not equal in degree, to that which enables us to discern one and the
+same plan amidst the twenty different segments of a lobster's body.
+Truly it has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a
+window through which the Infinite may be seen.
+
+Turning from these purely morphological considerations, let us now
+examine into the manner in which the attentive study of the lobster
+impels us into other lines of research.
+
+Lobsters are found in all the European seas; but on the opposite shores
+of the Atlantic and in the seas of the southern hemisphere they do not
+exist. They are, however, represented in these regions by very closely
+allied, but distinct forms--the _Homarus Americanus_ and the _Homarus
+Capensis_, so that we may say that the European has one species of
+_Homarus_; the American, another; the African, another; and thus the
+remarkable facts of geographical distribution begin to dawn upon us.
+
+Again, if we examine the contents of the earth's crust, we shall find in
+the later of those deposits, which have served as the great burying
+grounds of past ages, numberless lobster-like animals, but none so
+similar to our living lobster as to make zoologists sure that they
+belonged even to the same genus. If we go still further back in time, we
+discover in the oldest rocks of all, the remains of animals, constructed
+on the same general plan as the lobster, and belonging to the same great
+group of _Crustacea_; but for the most part totally different from the
+lobster, and indeed from any other living form of crustacean; and thus
+we gain a notion of that successive change of the animal population of
+the globe, in past ages, which is the most striking fact revealed by
+geology.
+
+Consider, now, where our inquiries have led us. We studied our type
+morphologically, when we determined its anatomy and its development, and
+when comparing it, in these respects, with other animals, we made out
+its place in a system of classification. If we were to examine every
+animal in a similar manner we should establish a complete body of
+zoological morphology.
+
+Again, we investigated the distribution of our type in space and in
+time, and, if the like had been done with every animal, the sciences of
+geographical and geological distribution would have attained their
+limit.
+
+But you will observe one remarkable circumstance, that, up to this
+point, the question of the life of these organisms has not come under
+consideration. Morphology and distribution might be studied almost as
+well, if animals and plants were a peculiar kind of crystals and
+possessed none of those functions which distinguish living beings so
+remarkably. But the facts of morphology and distribution have to be
+accounted for, and the science, whose aim it is to account for them, is
+physiology.
+
+Let us return to our lobster once more. If we watched the creature in
+its native element, we should see it climbing actively the submerged
+rocks, among which it delights to live, by means of its strong legs; or
+swimming by powerful strokes of its great tail, the appendages of whose
+sixth joint are spread out into a broad fan-like propeller; seize it and
+it will show you that its great claws are no mean weapons of offence;
+suspend a piece of carrion among its haunts, and it will greedily devour
+it, tearing and crushing the flesh by means of its multitudinous jaws.
+
+Suppose that we had known nothing of the lobster but as an inert mass,
+an organic crystal, if I may use the phrase, and that we could suddenly
+see it exerting all these powers, what wonderful new ideas and new
+questions would arise in our minds! The great new question would be "How
+does all this take place?" the chief new idea would be the idea of
+adaptation to purpose,--the notion that the constituents of animal
+bodies are not mere unconnected parts, but organs working together to an
+end. Let us consider the tail of the lobster again from this point of
+view. Morphology has taught us that it is a series of segments composed
+of homologous parts, which undergo various modifications--beneath and
+through which a common plan of formation is discernible. But if I look
+at the same part physiologically, I see that it is a most beautifully
+constructed organ of locomotion, by means of which the animal can
+swiftly propel itself either backwards or forwards.
+
+But how is this remarkable propulsive machine made to perform its
+functions? If I were suddenly to kill one of these animals and to take
+out all the soft parts, I should find the shell to be perfectly inert,
+to have no more power of moving itself than is possessed by the
+machinery of a mill, when disconnected from its steam-engine or
+water-wheel. But if I were to open it, and take out the viscera only,
+leaving the white flesh, I should perceive that the lobster could bend
+and extend its tail as well as before. If I were to cut off the tail I
+should cease to find any spontaneous motion in it--but on pinching any
+portion of the flesh, I should observe that it underwent a very curious
+change--each fibre becoming shorter and thicker. By this act of
+contraction, as it is termed, the parts to which the ends of the fibre
+are attached are, of course, approximated--and according to the
+relations of their points of attachment to the centres of motions of the
+different rings, the bending or the extension of the tail results. Close
+observation of the newly-opened lobster would soon show that all its
+movements are due to the same cause--the shortening and thickening of
+these fleshy fibres, which are technically called muscles.
+
+Here, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to
+muscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and
+not at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the
+lobster wishes to extend his tail, and another group, when he desires to
+bend it? What is it originates, directs and controls, the motive power?
+
+Experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in
+physical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the
+lobster there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known
+as nervous substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of the
+lobster, directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these
+communicating cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of
+exerting what we call voluntary motion in the parts below the section is
+destroyed, and on the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the
+brain mass be destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost.
+Whence the inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these
+motions resides in the brain, and is propagated along the nervous cords.
+
+In the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have
+been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides
+in the nerves, has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the
+electrical state of their molecules.
+
+If we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; if
+we could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by
+determining the quantity of electricity or of heat of which it is the
+equivalent; if we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other
+condition of the molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous
+and muscular energies depends, (and doubtless science will some day or
+other ascertain these points,) physiologists would have attained their
+ultimate goal in this direction; they would have determined the relation
+of the motive force of animals to the other forms of force found in
+nature; and if the same process had been successfully performed for all
+the operations which are carried on, in and by, the animal frame,
+physiology would be perfect, and the facts of morphology and
+distribution would be deducible from the laws which physiologists had
+established, combined with those determining the condition of the
+surrounding universe.
+
+There is not a fragment of the organism of this humble animal, whose
+study would not lead us into regions of thought as large as those which
+I have briefly opened up to you; but what I have been saying, I trust,
+has not only enabled you to form a conception of the scope and purport
+of zoology, but has given you an imperfect example of the manner in
+which, in my opinion, that science, or indeed any physical science, may
+be best taught. The great matter is to make teaching real and practical,
+by fixing the attention of the student on particular facts, but at the
+same time it should be rendered broad and comprehensive by constant
+reference to the generalizations of which all particular facts are
+illustrations. The lobster has served as a type of the whole animal
+kingdom, and its anatomy and physiology have illustrated for us some of
+the greatest truths of biology. The student who has once seen for
+himself the facts which I have described, has had their relations
+explained to him, and has clearly comprehended them, has so far a
+knowledge of zoology, which is real and genuine, however limited it may
+be, and which is worth more than all the mere reading knowledge of the
+science he could ever acquire. His zoological information is, so far,
+knowledge and not mere hearsay.
+
+And if it were my business to fit you for the certificate in zoological
+science granted by this department, I should pursue a course precisely
+similar in principle to that which I have taken to-night. I should
+select a fresh-water sponge, a fresh-water polype or a _Cyanæa_, a
+fresh-water mussel, a lobster, a fowl, as types of the five primary
+divisions of the animal kingdom. I should explain their structure very
+fully, and show how each illustrated the great principles of zoology.
+Having gone very carefully and fully over this ground, I should feel
+that you had a safe foundation, and I should then take you in the same
+way, but less minutely, over similarly selected illustrative types of
+the classes; and then I should direct your attention to the special
+forms enumerated under the head of types, in this syllabus, and to the
+other facts there mentioned.
+
+That would, speaking generally, be my plan. But I have undertaken to
+explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge
+of zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and
+precise account of the manner in which I should propose to furnish you
+with the information I refer to.
+
+My own impression is that the best model for all kinds of training in
+physical science is that afforded by the method of teaching anatomy, in
+use in the medical schools. This method consists of three
+elements--lectures, demonstrations, and examinations.
+
+The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention
+and excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may be
+effected to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by the
+personal influence of a respected teacher, than in any other way.
+Secondly, lectures have the double use of guiding the student to the
+salient points of a subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend
+to the whole of it, and not merely to that part which takes his fancy.
+And lastly, lectures afford the student the opportunity of seeking
+explanations of those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to,
+arise in the course of his studies.
+
+But for a student to derive the utmost possible value from lectures,
+several precautions are needful.
+
+I have a strong impression that the better the discourse is, as an
+oration, the worse it is as a lecture. The flow of the discourse carries
+you on without proper attention to its sense; you drop a word or a
+phrase, you lose the exact meaning for a moment, and while you strive to
+recover yourself, the speaker had passed on to something else.
+
+The practice I have adopted in late years in lecturing to students, is
+to condense the substance of the hour's discourse into a few dry
+propositions, which are read slowly and taken down from dictation; the
+reading of each being followed by a free commentary, expanding and
+illustrating the proposition, explaining terms, and removing any
+difficulties that may be attackable in that way, by diagrams made
+roughly, and seen to grow under the lecturer's hand. In this manner you,
+at any rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain extent.
+He cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking of notes
+is enforced, and a student must be preternaturally dull and mechanical
+if he can take notes and hear them properly explained, and yet learn
+nothing.
+
+What books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to
+the teacher. My reply usually is, "None; write your notes out carefully
+and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the
+explanation of anything you cannot understand, and I would rather you
+did not distract your mind by reading." A properly composed course of
+lectures ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can
+assimilate in the time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should
+always recollect that his business is to feed, and not to cram, the
+intellect. Indeed, I believe that a student who gains from a course of
+lectures the simple habit of concentrating his attention upon a
+definitely limited series of facts, until they are thoroughly mastered,
+has made a step of immeasurable importance.
+
+But however good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of
+reading by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the
+great instrument of scientific teaching--demonstration. If I insist
+unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as
+an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science,
+if properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other
+means of education. I have the greatest respect and love for literature;
+nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than a
+very prominent branch of education; indeed, I wish that real literary
+discipline were far more attended to than it is; but I cannot shut my
+eyes to the fact that there is a vast difference between men who have
+had a purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific,
+training.
+
+Seeking for the cause of this difference, I imagine I can find it in the
+fact, that, in the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and
+books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning
+and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books,
+is the source of the latter.
+
+All that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by
+practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate
+when I say, that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by
+these means. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific
+education bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent
+upon the extent to which the mind of the student is brought into
+immediate contact with facts--upon the degree to which he learns the
+habit of appealing directly to nature, and of acquiring through his
+senses concrete images of those properties of things, which are and
+always will be, but approximately expressed in human language. Our way
+of looking at nature, and of speaking about her, varies from year to
+year; but a fact once seen, a relation of cause and effect, once
+demonstratively apprehended, are possessions which neither change nor
+pass away, but, on the contrary, form fixed centres, about which other
+truths aggregate by natural affinity.
+
+Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint
+the fundamental, irrefragable, facts of his science, not only by words
+upon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye and ear and
+touch, of the student, in so complete a manner that every term used, or
+law enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular
+structural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the
+law, or the illustration of the term.
+
+Now this important operation can only be achieved by constant
+demonstration, which may take place to a certain imperfect extent during
+a lecture, but which ought also to be carried on independently, and
+which should be addressed to each individual student, the teacher
+endeavouring, not so much to show a thing to the learner, as to make him
+see it for himself.
+
+I am well aware that there are great practical difficulties in the way
+of effectual zoological demonstrations. The dissection of animals is not
+altogether pleasant, and requires much time; nor is it easy to secure an
+adequate supply of the needful specimens. The botanist has here a great
+advantage; his specimens are easily obtained, are clean and wholesome,
+and can be dissected in a private house as well as anywhere else; and
+hence, I believe, the fact, that botany is so much more readily and
+better taught than its sister science. But, be it difficult or be it
+easy, if zoological science is to be properly studied, demonstration,
+and, consequently, dissection, must be had. Without it, no man can have
+a really sound knowledge of animal organization.
+
+A good deal may be done, however, without actual dissection on the
+student's part, by demonstrating upon specimens and preparations, and in
+all probability it would not be very difficult, were the demand
+sufficient, to organise collections of such objects, sufficient for all
+the purposes of elementary teaching, at a comparatively cheap rate. Even
+without these, much might be effected, if the zoological collections,
+which are open to the public, were arranged according to what has been
+termed the "typical principle"; that is to say, if the specimens exposed
+to public view were so selected, that the public could learn something
+from them, instead of being, as at present, merely confused by their
+multiplicity. For example, the grand ornithological gallery at the
+British Museum contains between two and three thousand species of birds,
+and sometimes five or six specimens of a species. They are very pretty
+to look at and some of the cases are, indeed, splendid; but I will
+undertake to say, that no man but a professed ornithologist has ever
+gathered much information from the collection. Certainly, no one of the
+tens of thousands of the general public who have walked through that
+gallery ever knew more about the essential peculiarities of birds when
+he left the gallery, than when he entered it. But if, somewhere in that
+vast hall, there were a few preparations, exemplifying the leading
+structural peculiarities and the mode of development of a common fowl;
+if the types of the genera, the leading modifications in the skeleton,
+in the plumage at various ages, in the mode of nidification, and the
+like, among birds, were displayed; and if the other specimens were put
+away in a place where the men of science, to whom they are alone useful,
+could have free access to them, I can conceive that this collection
+might become a great instrument of scientific education.[66]
+
+The last implement of the teacher to which I have adverted is
+examination--a means of education now so thoroughly understood that I
+need hardly enlarge upon it. I hold that both written and oral
+examinations are indispensable, and, by requiring the description of
+specimens, they may be made to supplement demonstration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such is the fullest reply the time at my disposal will allow me to give
+to the question--how may a knowledge of zoology be best acquired and
+communicated?
+
+But there is a previous question which may be moved, and which, in fact,
+I know many are inclined to move. It is the question why should training
+masters be encouraged to acquire a knowledge of this, or any other
+branch, of physical science? What is the use, it is said, of attempting
+to make physical science a branch of primary education? Is it not
+probable that teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led astray
+from the acquirement of more important but less attractive knowledge?
+And, even if they can learn something of science without prejudice to
+their usefulness, what is the good of their attempting to instil that
+knowledge into boys whose real business is the acquisition of reading,
+writing, and arithmetic?
+
+These questions are, and will be, very commonly asked, for they arise
+from that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical
+science, which infests the minds of the most highly educated and
+intelligent classes of the community. But if I did not feel well
+assured that they are capable of being easily and satisfactorily
+answered; that they have been answered over and over again; and that the
+time will come when men of liberal education will blush to raise such
+questions,--I should be ashamed of my position here to-night. Without
+doubt, it is your great and very important function to carry out
+elementary education; without question, anything that should interfere
+with the faithful fulfilment of that duty on your part would be a great
+evil; and if I thought that your acquirement of the elements of physical
+science and your communication of those elements to your pupils,
+involved, any sort of interference with your proper duties, I should be
+the first person to protest against your being encouraged to do anything
+of the kind.
+
+But is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of science as is
+proposed, and the communication of that knowledge, are calculated to
+weaken your usefulness? or may I not rather ask is it possible for you
+to discharge your functions properly, without these aids?
+
+What is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend that
+its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools
+wherewith men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of
+phenomena which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to
+inform them of the fundamental laws which have been found by experience
+to govern the course of things, so that they may not be turned out into
+the world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events they might
+control.
+
+A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he
+may have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever
+be opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to
+write, that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be
+indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge
+he acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics that he may understand
+all those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of
+men, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may
+have some practice in deductive reasoning.
+
+All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, are
+intellectual tools whose use should, before all things, be learned, and
+learned thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life
+that which it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in
+wisdom.
+
+But, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a
+certain equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws of
+morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as
+will tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they are,
+and how they have become what they are.
+
+Without doubt all these are most fitting and excellent things to teach a
+boy; I should be very sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of
+primary intellectual education. The system is excellent so far as it
+goes.
+
+But if I regard it closely a curious reflection arises. I suppose that
+fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen was
+taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own and,
+perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and the
+religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time.
+Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming, that, if such a
+Christian Roman boy, who had finished his education, could be
+transplanted into one of our public schools, and pass through its course
+of instruction, he would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of
+thought; amidst all the new facts he would have to learn, not one would
+suggest a different mode of regarding the universe from that current in
+his own time.
+
+And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilization
+of the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between
+the intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and of this?
+
+And what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly: The prodigious
+development of physical science within the last two centuries.
+
+Modern civilisation rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to
+our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the world
+is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only, that makes
+intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force.
+
+The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way
+into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who
+affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with
+her spirit and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe
+that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now
+slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that the
+ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not
+authority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is
+creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and
+physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of
+an intelligent being.
+
+But of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note.
+Physical science, its methods, its problems and its difficulties will
+meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a
+manner that he shall enter the world, as ignorant of the existence of
+the methods and facts of science, as the day he was born. The modern
+world is full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in
+it, equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator.
+
+Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state
+of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will
+cry shame on us.
+
+It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is to make the
+elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I
+have endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of
+science which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I
+should look upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land
+was a centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as
+an epoch in the history of the country.
+
+But let me entreat you to remember my last words. Mere book learning in
+physical science, is a sham and a delusion--what you teach, unless you
+wish to be impostors, that you must first know; and real knowledge in
+science, means personal acquaintance with the facts, be they few or
+many.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[66] Since these remarks were made the Natural History Collection of the
+British Museum has been removed to South Kensington, and Huxley himself
+wrote later on: "The visitor to the Natural History Museum in 1894 need
+go no further than the Great Hall to see the realisation of my hopes by
+the present Director."
+
+
+  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+  Edinburgh & London
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    TRANSCRIBER NOTES:
+
+    Punctuation has been normalized without note.
+
+    Inconsistent and archaic spelling in the original document
+    have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have
+    been corrected.
+
+    Page 3: "adioning" changed to "adjoining" (and in the adjoining
+    regions).
+
+    Page 52, Footnote 3: "dergees" changed to "degrees" (Cape Negro is
+    in 16 degrees).
+
+    Page 67: "11/18" changed to "11/18ths" (not more than 11/18ths of
+    its length).
+
+    Page 151, Footnote 41: "pp." changed to "p." (From Müller's Archiv.,
+    1858, p. 453.)
+
+    Page 166: "kindgom" changed to "kingdom" (of the animal kingdom
+    which has been guessed at) and (with that of the animal kingdom).
+
+    Page 184: "order" changed to "orders" (Summing up all the orders of
+    animals).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Man's Place in Nature and Other Essays, by 
+Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40257 ***