CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPHENT OF THE RACE. 



"Whence our race has come ; what are the limits of our power over Nature, and Nature's power over us ; 

 to what goal are we tending these are the problems which present themselves anew and with undiminished 

 interest to every man born into the world. ' ' Huxley. 



A. Origin of the Race. Concerning the origin of the human race upon the earth it is 

 possible to hold but two views ; either man was transferred to this planet from some other, or 

 else he was created here. It is seriously held by some that the planet Mars supports life of a 

 more advanced character than that found upon the earth. If this life includes human beings, 

 the miraculous intervention of the CREATOR would have been required to convey them to the 

 Earth, and to adjust them to the supposedly different conditions that here prevail. So far as 

 the writer is aware no one has ever seriously proposed such a view. We may then consider 

 the different ways in which he might have been created here ; the method of special creation 

 or that of slow, progressive change from certain higher groups already in existence. If the 

 method of special creation had been employed man sprang into existence by divine command, 

 or was, as many crudely imagine, moulded from a lump of clay as an artist makes his statue. 

 Having made the earth and its various life groups by the method of development in past time, 

 making all individual animals and plants to-day by this same method, the presumption is that 

 the CREATOR would not discard this method when it came to His highest creation man. 



As the result of scientific study it seems more plausible that the progenitors of our race 

 were derived by gradual changes wrought upon a certain group of man-like brutes, which 

 found themselves in an environment requiring the fuller use of brain and less of muscle. The 

 evidences of such an origin may be briefly outlined here. 



1. The general plan of man's body and its microscopic structure relates him closely to 

 those higher mammals that are especially adapted to tree-climbing. The bony system, the 

 muscles, circulatory, respiratory, digestive and excretory systems are essentially identical. 

 The nervous system is the same, differing only in the size and complexity of brain development. 



2. The physiological processes that take place in his body are identical with those in some 

 of the lower animals. He acquires his energy and liberates it in the same way. The same 

 diseases may affect them very similarly, indicating not simply a superficial but a fundamental 

 relationship. 



3. There occur in the body of man a large number of rudimentary structures ; comprising 

 muscles, fragments of bones, glands and portions of various organs. The most serious of 

 these is the vermiform appendix, for which no use has yet been found and which is a constant 

 menace to life. The only reasonable explanation of these structures is that they hark back to 

 a state of development when they were useful in the organism. They are evidence of change 

 in structure due to change in habits. 



4. From the geological record we learn that man appeared upon earth as the last of the 

 series of great mammal creations. He has made his way to those portions of the earth only 

 that could be reached through his own efforts. 



5. In the years 1891-2 Dr. Eugene Dubois found upon the island of Java fragments of 

 the skeleton of an animal that originally occupied an intermediate position between the lowest 

 type of man and the highest known brute. To this creature has been given the name 

 Pithecanthropus erectus, meaning the "erect ape-man." It appears to be one of a group of 

 forms that bridges the gap between man and the lower animals. 



6. Careful studies upon the embryonic development of the child shows that it passes 

 through the same general set of stages as do those of the higher mammals, suggesting most 

 strongly actual relationship. This series of stages includes all those through which the frog 

 may be observed to pass and, in addition, those stages belonging to reptiles and mammals. 





