524 THE NATUBAL HISTORY REVIEW. 



ever, in my opinion, most probable tbat tbe dog was long the only- 

 domesticated animal. Of the more unusual weapons, such as the 

 boomerang, blowpipe, bolas, &c., they were certainly ignorant. The 

 sling and the throwing stick were doubtless unknown, and even the 

 shield probably had not been invented. The spear, which is but a de- 

 velopment of the knife point, and the club, which is, but a long 

 hammer, are the only things left by this line of argument. They 

 seem to be the only natural and universal weapons of man." 



The same argument applies to the mental condition of savages. 

 It is not probable that our earliest ancestors could count ten, for 

 many races now in existence cannot get beyond four. But on the 

 other hand, it is not likely that man can ever have been in a 

 lower condition than is here indicated. Only under the tropics 

 could he have existed without weapons, subsisting solely on fruit, 

 like the monkeys. So soon as he spread into temperate regions, 

 such a mode of life would be impossible, and nourishment, in part 

 at least, must be sought for from the animal kingdom. " Then, if 

 *' not before, the knife and the hammer would develop into the spear 

 " and the club." 



These deductions, as we have observed, assume the original unity 

 of the human race, which is vehemently opposed by Mr. Craw- 

 furd, and other ethnologists. Sir John Lubbock acknowledges the 

 weight of some of their arguments, but alleges, with good reason, 

 that man was, in former ages, a more " plastic '* animal, and more 

 susceptible of change. In support of these views, he brings 

 forward Mr. Wallace's remarkable application of the Darwinian 

 theory to the origin of human races, of which an abstract was 

 given in the last volume of this Journal.* Even, however, if we 

 cannot altogether adopt the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Wallace, 

 as to the future of the human race, we are justified, as our author 

 believes, in considering " that the happiness of man is still greatly 

 on the increase." An animal increases in numbers when conditions 

 are more favourable to it, th§.t is, when it is happier and more 

 comfortable. As civilization increases population increases, and 

 what is equally important, the means of subsistence increase in 

 a still greater ratio, so that, contrary to what happens in a state of 

 nature, " the most densely-peopled countries are those in which food 

 is most abundant." It is all very weUjIb talk of the " free and noble 



* Nat. Hist. Eev. 1864, p, 328. 



