1 6 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, 



and Mr. Mlvart on the distinction between the mental endow- 

 ments of man and of brute. Both these authors are skilled 

 naturalists, and also professed evolutionists so far as the 

 animal world is concerned : moreover, they further agree in 

 maintaining that the principles of evolution cannot be held 

 to apply to man. But it is curious that, so far as psychology 

 is concerned, they base their arguments in support of their 

 common conclusion on precisely opposite premisses. For 

 while Mr. Mivart argues that human intelligence cannot be 

 the same in kind as animal intelligence, because the mind of 

 the lowest savage is incomparably superior to that of the 

 highest ape ; Mr. Wallace argues for the same conclusion on 

 the ground that the intelligence of savages is so little removed 

 from that of the higher apes, that the fact of their brains being 

 proportionately larger must be held to point prospectively 

 towards the needs of civilized life. "A brain," he says, 

 "slightly larger than that of the gorilla would, according to 

 the evidence before us, fully have sufficed for the limited 

 mental development of the savage ; and we must therefore 

 admit that the large brain he actually possesses could never 

 have been developed solely by any of the laws of evolution." * 



* Natural Selection, p. 343. It will subsequently appear, as a general conse- 

 quence of our investigation of savage psychology, that of these two opposite 

 opinions the one advocated by Mr. Mivart is best supported by facts. But I may 

 here adduce one or two considerations of a more special nature bearing upon this 

 point. First, as to cerebral structure, the case is thus summed up by Professor 

 Huxley : — " The difference in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest 

 man is far greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the lowest 

 man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is represented by, say 

 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by 32 : 20 relatively ; but, as the 

 largest recorded human brain weighed between 65 and 66 ounces, the former 

 difference is represented by more than 33 ounces absolutely, or by 65 : 32 relatively. 

 Regarded systematically, the cerebral differences of man and apes are not of more 

 than generic value — his family distinction resting chiefly on his dentition, his 

 pelves, and his lower limbs " {Mail's Place in iVature, p. 103). Next, concerning 

 CQXQhx2i\ fujtctio7t, Mr. Chauncey Wright well remarks : — "A psychological analysis 

 of the faculty of language shows that even the smallest proficiency in it might 

 require more brain power than the greatest proficiency in any other direction " 

 {North American Revieiv^ Oct. 1870, p. 295). After quoting this, Mr. Darwin 

 observes of savage man, " He has invented and is able to use various weapons, 

 tools, traps, &c., with which he defends himself, kills or catches prey, and other- 



