THE ASCENT OF MAN. 465 



series, with now and then a " missing link." The various races of men 

 and the higher simians are merely one branch of the great tree Yggdrasil, 

 that overshadows tiie whole earth and reaches up into heaven. Tlie 

 individuals that we compare occupy the terminal twigs of that brancli, 

 being not related directly, but only as springing from a common stock. 

 The fact that resemblances occur does not necessarily prove a lineal 

 descent, but rather a common ancestry. The races of man arose far 

 back in pre-historic night. Each in its own way fought the struggle for 

 existence. Favored more by climate, the Caucasian appears to have 

 attained an intellectual superiority ; yet it should uot be forgotten that 

 the others also excel, each in its own special way. The white races en- 

 dure with difficulty the climate of the tropics, and without help would 

 starve iu the Australian bush and the Arctic ice fields. 



Notwithstanding all that I have said concerning reversive characters, 

 we yet have hardly sufficient structural grounds for separating the 

 races of man. Different varieties of the Caucasian race show marked 

 variations. Between the lowest and most brutalized laborers and the 

 cultivated and intelligent classes there exist anatomical differences as 

 great as those which separate the white and the negro. The rapid 

 change in the x\fricau races, remarkably shown in America in the three 

 generations now before us, is a more conclusive proof of inferiority, as 

 it indicates that they have not had time to acquire fixed characters. 



Again, as to the anthropoid apes, it is evident that they have widely 

 diverged from man and that none represent the primitive ancestor from 

 which all were derived. The comparison of a human skull with that of 

 an adult gorilla or chimpanzee is very striking. On the one hand we 

 see all the structural features subordinated to the necessity of forming 

 a capacious receptacle for the brain ; on the other, a similar subordina- 

 tion for producing an effective fighting apparatus— jaws, teeth, and 

 ridges for the insertion of powerful muscles. In one, intelligence pre- 

 dominates; in the other, force. The skulls of the young of all these 

 species show however much greater resemblances than those of adults. 

 This seems to indicate that there must have been a primitive common 

 type from which all have diverged. Savages, when ill-fed and living in 

 unfavorable conditions, may simulate the habits of anthropoid apes, and 

 this has an effect upon their physical structure, yet not on that account 

 should we too readily accept their close relationship. 



In this summary I have purposely refrained from any discussion of 

 the physiological phenomena that necessarily accompany anatomical 

 structure. Yet these are most important. Anatomy and physiology 

 are inseparable, each being dependent upon the other. The results of 

 the erect position, of increased size of brain, of greater specialization of 

 limbs, are almost incalculably great, so great that they affect the whole 

 life of the animal, control his habits, direct his actions in war and in the 

 chase, and finally mold peoples, nations, and races^ 

 a Mis. 129 3.0 



