GENESIS OF MAN, INTELLECTUALLY 



sticks, according to the Indian version of the 

 myth of Prometheus. 



So soon, in short, as the intelHgence of an 

 animal has, through ages of natural selection and 

 direct adaptation, become so considerable that 

 a slight variation in it is of more use to the 

 animal than any variation in physical structure, 

 then such variations will be more and more con- 

 stantly selected, while purely physical variations, 

 being of less vital importance to the species, will 

 be relatively more and more neglected. Thus, 

 while the external appearance of such an ani- 

 mal, and the structure of his internal nutritive 

 and muscular apparatus, may vary but little in 

 many ages, his cerebral structure will vary with 

 comparative rapidity, entailing a more or less 

 rapid variation in intellectual and emotional at- 

 tributes. 



Here we would seem to have the key to the 

 singular contrast in the relations of man to con- 

 temporary anthropoid apes. We may now un- 

 derstand why man differs so little, in general 

 physical structure and external appearance, from 

 the chimpanzee and gorilla, while, with regard 

 to the special point of cerebral structure and its 

 correlative intelligence, he differs so vastly from 

 these, his nearest living congeners, and the most 

 sagacious of animals save himself. Coupled with 

 what we now know concerning the immense 

 antiquity of the human race, Mr. Wallace's bril- 



VOL. IV 97 



