Vice-President's Address. 293 



extent familiar in a centiped. In this segmentation I have 

 latterly learned to recognise a mere modification of that 

 process of complete division by means of which the simpler 

 organisms multiply, — a process in which a whole individual 

 breaks up into parts, and each portion receives the poten- 

 tialities previously inherent in the individual parent mass. 

 Such segmentation as this is not only found in all the groups 

 which have ringed bodies, or have their limbs arranged in 

 pairs, but is the mode in which the bones, muscles, and 

 nerves, in fact the animal sphere of vertebrates up to man, 

 make their first appearance" (Journal of Anatomy and 

 Physiology, vol. xviii. p. 348). 



The further advance of man's ancestors is supposed to 

 be from some low fish form, then successively through 

 amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. It is probable that in 

 all these progressive stages there were numerous concurrent 

 species, each more or less divergent in structure, so that it is 

 almost impossible to ascertain which of them supplied the 

 real line of his ascent. Between reptiles and birds numerous 

 intermediate links have been found, such as Pterodactyles, 

 Archceopteryx, Hesperornis, etc., but between reptiles and 

 mammals the connection is very obscure. Indeed, some 

 palaeontologists maintain that the immediate ancestors of 

 the Mammalia were not the Eeptilia, but some unknown 

 Amphibian form. I will not detain you by further specula- 

 tions on the line of man's ascent, more than to say that, 

 among living animals, the orang, the chimpanzee, and the 

 gorilla are the nearest to him both in somatic structure and 

 mental endowments. It would, however, be contrary to all 

 the known facts of evolution to suppose that he has sprung 

 from any of these animals. But, on the other hand, there 

 can be little doubt that, were we able to trace his pedigree 

 far enough back, we would encounter a species which was a 

 common ancestor to him and one or other of the anthropoid 

 apes. The morphological difference between man and his 

 nearest of kin is comparatively little, certainly not so great 

 as that between a tiger and a horse ; but yet the mental 

 capacity of the former is so far above that of any other 

 animal, that many thoughtful men of the present day deny 



