THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 47 



with a few of those who may be termed 

 real savans in particular. 



Under the double terms of Natural 

 Selection arid Evolution, Mr. Charles 

 Darwin, grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 

 author of the Botanic Garden, has persuaded 

 himself, and has succeeded in persuading 

 many others to believe, that the human 

 race has primarily descended from the 

 larvae of an ascidian tadpole, and finally 

 from an old-world monkey. 



His early opinion of the Transmutation 

 theory is thus charmingly explained. In his 

 Origin of Species he accounts for various 

 changes of one species of quadrupeds, and 

 especially for the enormous head of the 

 cetacea, in the following instructive man- 

 ner : " I will give two or three instances 

 of diversified and changed habits in the 

 individuals of the same species. When 

 either case occurs, it would be easy for 

 Natural Selection to fit the animal by some 

 modification of its structure for its changed 

 habits. . . . Let the organization of a dog 

 be slightly plastic ; let the number of rab- 



