THE DESCENT OF MA]ST. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EVIDENCE OF THE DESCENT OF MAN FROM SOME 



LOWER FORM. 



Nature of the Evidence bearing on the Origin of Man. — Homologous struct- 

 ures in Man and the Lower Animals. — Miscellaneous Points of Corre- 

 spondence. — Development. — Rudimentary Structures, Muscles, Sense- 

 organs, Hair, Bones, Reproductive Organs, etc. — The Bearing of these 

 three great Classes of Facts on the Origin of Man. 



He who wishes to decide whether man is the modified 

 descendant of some preexisting form, would probably first 

 inquire whether man varies, however slightly, in bodily 

 structure and in mental faculties ; and if so, whether the 

 variations are transmitted to his offspring in accordance 

 with the laws which prevail with the lower animals ; such 

 as that of the transmission of characters to the same age 

 or sex. Again, are the variations the result, as far as our 

 ignorance permits us to judge, of the same general causes, 

 and are they governed by the same general laws, as in the 

 ease of other organisms ; for instance, by correlation, the 

 inherited effects of use and disuse; etc. ? Is man subject to 

 similar malconformations, the result of arrested develop- 

 ment, of reduplication of parts, etc., and does he display 

 in any of his anomalies reversion to some former and an- 

 cient type of structure? It might also naturally be in- 



