POPULAR SCIENCE 



THE EVOLUTION OF MAN AND 



HIS MIND 



By major THOMAS CHERRY, A.A.M.C, M.D.. M.S. 

 Formerly Prtftssor of Agriculture, University »f Melbturne 



Speculations in regard to the Origin of Man are always in- 

 teresting on account of the personal equation. We all like to 

 know as much as we can about the line of one's own ancestry. 

 These theories are of increasing importance because with the 

 spread of education man's conduct is becoming more and more 

 influenced by his thought. Democratic public opinion decides 

 the line of action of the nation, and things learnt in youth 

 constitute one factor at least in the moulding of public opinion. 

 There can be little doubt that the general popular acceptance 

 of the crude struggle for existence was one thought which went 

 far towards unifying German policy before the war. And this 

 simple faith we are now told is not warranted by the facts of 

 science. The current doctrine, " extinction of the less fit, and 

 survival of the fittest, no longer commands the universal assent 

 of zoologists. Indeed it has been seriously undermined by the 

 discoveries of recent years." ' In other words, while the con- 

 tinuity of the protoplasm and the advance of the type has 

 been preserved, the means by which this has been brought 

 about are probably more complex than the simple factors put 

 forward by Darwin and Wallace. 



In regard to the special case of the evolution of man, my 

 object is to show that recent advances in knowledge have 

 introduced new difficulties both on the side of structure and 

 of function, and have made untenable the current theory of 

 the comparatively recent separation of the human and the ape 

 stocks. I shall then try to picture the forces and environment 

 which seem to be the most probable causes of the evolution 

 of progressive man. 



Difficulties of the Current Theory 



I. Taking two examples of structure, the premaxilla and 

 the foot, there is no doubt that the problem of the premaxilla 



^ Bourne, in Animal Life and Human Progress, 1919, p. 56. 



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