i] INTRODUCTION 9 



the Darwinian theory. It is necessary to lay stress on the fact that Wallace 

 was the first publicly to apply to Mankind the logical consequences of his 

 own teaching and that of Darwin, as applied to forms of life in general. 

 This particular application of general principles was made by Dr Wallace in 

 1864 (Anth. Review and Journal, vol. II. 1864; Journal, pp. clviii. et seq.), 

 whereas the Descent of Man by Darwin, though in its inception actually 

 earlier than the Origin of Species, did not appear till 1871. As may be 

 surmised, Dr Wallace was immediately and vigorously attacked, even by 

 anthropologists (such as the egregious Dr James Hunt). But it is impossible 

 to enter here upon a detailed exposition of the controversies of that epoch. 



The discovery of numerous precursors detracts little or nothing from the 

 credit of Darwin, for to none had there been granted in such measure the 

 talents of substituting experiment for speculation, of instantaneous perception 

 of the significance of the results obtained, and unwearied industry in widening 

 the basis of fact upon which arguments are to be founded. 



Thus the attention of students was redirected to the in- 

 vestigation of the structure of the human body, in other words 

 the study of Human Morphology. It is preferable in this con- 

 nection to speak of Human Morphology rather than of Human 

 Anatomy, for the former term implies the comparison of the archi- 

 tectural form of the human frame with those of other animals. Not 

 that the study of Human Morphology was a newly-discovered field 

 for activity ; and it is here that the interest that attaches to 

 Tyson's work becomes manifest ; for the keynote of the treatise 

 to which reference has been made is the morphological aspect of 

 anthropology as studied by means of a detailed comparison. 

 Moreover, as we have seen, Peter Camper of Amsterdam had sup- 

 plemented Tyson's memoir on the Chimpanzee by a corresponding- 

 essay on the Orang-utan. In addition to this, the subversive 

 theories of Lord Monboddo 1 were probably responsible for the 

 appearance in 1779 of a communication from Camper on the 

 vocal organs of the Orang-utan, compared with those of Man 2 . 



On the embryological side (a most important department of 

 morphological study) Meckel, Tiedemann, and v. Baer (in the 

 early part of the 19th century) had made discoveries of funda- 

 mental importance for the progress of the science. 



New, however, was the widespread recognition, first that 

 the study of the origin of Man now demanded the attention 



1 c. supra, p. 8. 2 Phil. Trans. Boy. Soc. vol. lxix. 



