SUMMARY OF RESULTS 213 



genus, and of his family, or order. He is thus 

 separated, by a great gap, from all the animals 

 nearest to him ; and even if we admit the doctrine, 

 as yet unproved, of the derivation of one species 

 from another in the case of the lower animals, we 

 are unable to supply the ' missing links ' which would 

 be required to connect man with any group of in- 

 ferior animals. This physical distinctness has also 

 a special significance, inasmuch as it depends on 

 certain negative peculiarities such as the absence of 

 clothing, of natural weapons of attack and defence, 

 as well as on the positive properties of the erect 

 posture, the hands adapted to various kinds of mani- 

 pulation, and the special sensory gifts. Thus viewed 

 in relation to his environment, his wants as well as 

 his possessions in regard to structures and powers, 

 would be fatal to any creature not possessed of his 

 intelligence, and we cannot conceive how such priva- 

 tions or such gifts could spontaneously arise in 

 nature. 



4. No fact of science is more certainly established 

 than the recency of man in geological time. Not 

 only do we find no trace of his remains in the older 

 geological formations, but we find no remains even of 

 the animals nearest to him ; and the conditions of 

 the world in those periods seem to unfit it for the 

 residence of man. If, following the usual geological 

 system, we divide the whole history of the earth into 

 four great periods, extending from the oldest rocks 

 known to us, the eozoic, or archaean, up to the 



