VII 



"THE DESCENT OF MAN" 

 By G. Schwalbe. 



Professor of Anatomy in the University of Strasshurg. 



The problem of the origin of the human race, of the descent of 

 man, is ranked by Huxley in his epoch-making book Man's Place in 

 Nature, as the deepest with which biology has to concern itself, " the 

 question of questions," — the problem which underlies all others. In 

 the same brilliant and lucid exposition, which appeared in 1863, soon 

 after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, Huxley stated his 

 o\vn views in regard to this great problem. He tells us how the idea 

 of a natural descent of man gradually grew up in his mind. It was 

 especially the assertions of Owen in regard to the total difference 

 between the human and the simian brain that called forth strong 

 dissent from the great anatomist Huxley, and he easily succeeded in 

 showing that Owen's supposed differences had no real existence ; he 

 even established, on the basis of his own anatomical investigations, 

 the proposition that the anatomical differences between the Marmoset 

 and the Chimpanzee are much greater than those between the 

 Chimpanzee and Man. 



But why do we thus introduce the study of Darwin's Descent of 

 Man, which is to occupy us here, by insisting on the fact that Huxley 

 had taken the field in defence of the descent of man in 1863, while 

 Darwin's book on the subject did not appear till 1871? It is in order 

 that we may clearly understand how it happened that from this time 

 onwards Darwin and Huxley followed the same great aim in the most 

 intimate association. 



Huxley and Darwin working at the same Prohlema maximum \ 

 Huxley fiery, impetuous, eager for battle, contemptuous of the 

 resistance of a dull world, or energetically triumphing over it. Darwin 

 calm, weighing every problem slowly, letting it mature thoroughly, — 

 not a fighter, yet having the greater and more lasting influence by virtue 

 of his immense mass of critically sifted proofs. Darwin's friend, Huxley, 

 was the first to do him justice, to understand his nature, and to find 

 in it the reason why the detailed and carefully considered book 



