178 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part I. 



CHAPTER VI. 



ON THE AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY OF MAN. 



Position of Man in the Animal Series. — The Natural System genealogical. 

 — Adaptive Characters of Slight Value. — Various Small Points of Re- 

 semblance between Man and the Quadrumana. — Rank of Man in the 

 Natural System. — Birthplace and Antiquity of Maa. — Absence of 

 Fossil Connecting-links. — Lower Stages in the Genealogy of Man, as 

 inferred, firstly from his Affinities and secondly from his Structure. — 

 Early Androgynous Condition of the Vertebrata. — Conclusion. 



Even if it be granted that the difference between man 

 and his nearest allies is as great in corporeal structure as 

 Borne naturalists maintain, and although we must grant 

 that the difference between them is immense in mental 

 power, yet the facts given in the previous chapters de- 

 clare, as it appears to me, in the plainest maimer, that 

 man is descended from some lower form, notwithstanding 

 that connecting-links have not hitherto been discovered. 



Man is liable to numerous, slight, and diversified varia- 

 tions, which are induced by the same general causes, are 

 governed and transmitted in accordance with the same 

 ' general laws, as in the lower animals. Man tends to mul- 

 tiply at so rapid a rate that his offspring are necessarily 

 exposed to a struggle for existence, and consequently to 

 natural selection. He has given rise to many races, some 

 of which are so different that they have often been ranked 

 by naturalists as distinct species. His body is constructed 

 on the same homological plan as that of other mammals, 



