EVOLUTION AND MANKIND. 



By H. B. Faxtiiam, Ai.A. Caiital)., D.Sc. Loud. 

 Professor of Zoology, University College, Johannesburg. 



{Evening Discourse delivered in the School of Mines, Johan- 

 nesburg, on Tuesday, July ()th, 1918; illustrated by 55 

 lantern slides.) 



Introduction. 



It has been well said that the present is the child of the ])ast 

 and the parent o^f the future. Applying this fundamental fact 

 to the animal world, we find that the animal kingdom is a vast 

 complex, containing numerous orders, classes or groups. Each 

 group has its place, however, in a system, and it is well known 

 that certain groups are more dominant than others, that there is 

 a flux, some disappearing, others increasing in virility and 

 flourishing. Animal life in the past was very different from that 

 of the present, and in the future it will again differ from what it 

 is now. 



From the early days of the study of science two hypotheses 

 •have been current. as to the origin of the differences between 

 various animals. In the first hyi>othesis. a special creation is 

 assumed, whereby each sptfcies of animal has come into being 

 independently, has arisen sui generis^ and has an origin unrelated 

 to that of other organisms. The mechanism of the special creation 

 is not explained, it is merely stated. The second hypothesis— 

 that of evolution or the doctrine of descent — now held by all 

 scientists, is based on evidences of a definite kind. Recognising 

 the existence of diff'erences between parent and offspring, it 

 states that all present-day animals have arisen from species that 

 existed before them. 



Evolution ma\' ])e l)ricfly delined as ])rogress involving 

 differentiation, or as the alteration of the average characters, 

 either of the whole of a species or of groups of its members, from 

 generation to generation in a constant manner, the result being 

 that they are so different from what they w^ere before, that a 

 new species arises. The said species has. however, its own 

 definite characters, and the test of validity of a species is that it 

 breeds true, the off'spring not reverting to the marked characters 

 of the ancestral stocks, but retaining the modified characteristics 

 that are the result of the differentiation from those ancient 

 features. 



A broad outline of the evidences for evolution and of certain 

 of the evolutionary hypotheses only can be presented, followed 

 by a consideration of evolution in relation to war and nationalitv. 

 and to some social problems of the present and future. 



Evidences of Evolution. 



Evolution is no myth, no merely philosophic speculation. As 

 mentioned before, it is based on definite evidence from the past, 



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