CHAPTER III 

 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY 



In an article published August 31, 1895, in the New York 

 Freeman's Journal, the late Rev. J. A. Zahm gave expression 

 to the following opinion: "The evolution of the body of man 

 from some inferior animal and its subsequent endowment in 

 this body by God of a rational soul is antagonistic to no 

 dogma of faith and may be shown to be in harmony with the 

 teachings of St. Thomas." The scriptural and theological 

 aspect of this view need not concern us here, our sole purpose 

 being to evaluate it from a purely scientific standpoint. Once 

 evolutionary thought takes cognizance of the fact that the 

 human soul is a spiritual principle underivable from mere 

 matter, once it acknowledges the immediate creation of the 

 human soul, and professes to do no more than account for the 

 origin of man's animal body, that moment is it shorn of its 

 materialistic implications; but what, we may ask, are the 

 foundations of such an hypothesis in the realm of scientific 

 fact? 



The writer must confess that he cannot fathom the men- 

 tality of those who accept the evolutionary explanation, so 

 far as plant and animal organisms are concerned, but proceed 

 to draw the line when it comes to applying it to the human 

 body. For if one (to borrow Du Bois-Reymond's expression) 

 "gives so much as his little finger to" the evolutional argument 

 from organic homology, he must end, in so far as he is con- 

 sistent, in acknowledging as incontestable its obvious applica- 

 tion to man. The only choice which sound logic can sanction 

 is between fixism and a thoroughgoing system of transformism, 

 which does not exempt the human body from the scope of the 



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