10 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



races differing so much that they must be classed as 

 doubtful species ? How are such races distributed over 

 the world ; and how, when crossed, do thev react on 

 each other, both in the first and succeeding genera- 

 tions ? And so with many other points. 



The enquirer would next come to the important point, 

 whether man tends to increase at so rapid a rate, as to 

 lead to occasional severe struggles for existence, and 

 consequently to beneficial variations, whether in body 

 or mind, being preserved, and injurious ones eliminated. 

 Do the races or species of men, whichever term may be 

 applied, encroach on and replace each other, so that 

 some finally become extinct? We shall see that all 

 these questions, as indeed is obvious in respect to most 

 of them, must be answered in the affirmative, in the 

 same manner as with the lower animals. But the 

 several considerations just referred to may be conve- 

 niently deferred for a time ; and we will first see how 

 far the bodily structure of man shows traces, more or 

 less plain, of his descent from some lower form. In the 

 two succeeding chapters the mental powers of man, in 

 comparison with those of the lower animals, will be con- 

 sidered. 



The Bodily Structure of Man. — It is notorious that 

 man is constructed on the same general type or model 

 with other mammals. All the bones in his skeleton 

 can be compared with corresponding bones in a monkey, 

 bat, or seal. So it is with his muscles, nerves, blood- 

 vessels and internal viscera. The brain, the most im- 

 portant of all the organs, follows the same law, as shewn 

 by Huxley and other anatomists. Bischoff, 1 who is a 

 hostile witness, admits that every chief fissure and fold 



1 ' Grosslrirawmdungen des Menschen/ 1S(3S, s. 96. 



