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Tery interesting papers on this subject will be found in the 

 proceedings of the Scottish Soc. of Antiquaries, Vol. viii., pp. 1, 145. 

 The third evening meeting was held on February ISth, when 

 the Eev. G. Buckle commenced with a paper on the limits of 

 Natural Selection, of which the following is an abstract ; — 

 The Limits of Natural Selection, 

 The theory of the origin of species by Natural Selection has, perhaps, lost 

 something of its just authority by claiming too much. It is impossible to 

 deny that Natural Selection is a powerful agency in the world, or that it has 

 had a considerable share in producing the infinite variety of the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoma. But Mr. Darwin seems to claim for it not only a large 

 share, but the whole, and to regard it as sufficient by itself to develope all the 

 species of animals and plants out of one or a very few primal germs of life. 

 This claim has seemed to many so monstrous as to discredit the whole theory, 

 and it is, therefore, satisfactory to find that a very distinguished naturalist, 

 second only to Mr. Darwin himself in the zeal and ability with which 

 he upholds the general theory, does nevertheless reject these sweeping 

 pretensions. Mr. "Wallace has written a paper on the Limits of Natural 

 Selection, in which he maintains that Natural Selection, powerful as it 

 is to do much, cannot do everything. And one thing which in his 

 judgment it cannot do is well deserving of attention. It cannot develope man 

 out of the lower animals. His argument on this topic divides itself into three 

 stages. I. Natural Selection can only select those variations which are 

 beneficial to the possessor ; a variation which is injurious would perish at once 

 and not be preserved. But it is difficult to imagine how the smooth skin of 

 man could possibly be otherwise than very disadvantageous to its first 

 possessor. An anthropoid ape, destitute of his shaggy skin, would be much 

 more likely to perish before his fellows than to outlast them and perpetuate his 

 peculiarity. II. Natural Selection can only favour a variation just so far as 

 it is actually used. It can develope no organ in advance of its needs. But this 

 is just what seems to be done in the case of the brain of man. The brain of 

 the lowest savage is enormously larger than the brain of the highest ape, 

 though the mental needs and mental uses of the Bushman or Tasmanian are 

 very little beyond those of the ape. The average cerebral capacities of anthro- 

 poid apes, savages and civilized men, may be represented, according to Mr. 

 "Wallace, by the figures 10, 26, 32. Yet the difference in mental work between 

 the savage and the cultivated European is vastly greater than that between 

 the savage and the chimpanzee. That is to say, the brain of the savage has 

 not been developed to its great size by actual use. It contains power far 

 beyond what has been put out, and therefore cannot have been developed to 

 that extent by Natural Selection, which works only upon actual results. 

 Natural Selection might add a cubic inch or two to the brain— for this would 

 probably be sufficient to give the fortunate possessor a great intellectual ad- 



