LECTURE XVII. 



CONTEMPORARY EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



Prof. Frank M. McFarland. 



Studies of Prof. Osborne. 



/. Anomalies. Variation at birth from ordinary or 

 typical form. Evolution the accumulation of anom- 

 alies in a certain definite direction by heredity. The 

 anomalous condition of one generation becomes the 

 typical form of a succeeding one. Variation in the 

 human body universal. 



II. Comparative anatomy and embryology the key 

 to the explanation of man's structure. The only in- 

 terpretation of our bodily structure lies in the theory 

 of descent from some ancestral form such as may have 

 given rise to the living anthropoidea. 



III. Continual readjustment of organs to suit chang- 

 ing circumstances. Development. Balance. Degen- 

 eration. The steps in degeneration. Variability as 

 an adult structure ; as a foetal structure. Percentage 

 of variability and absence increases until the organ 

 appears only occasionally as a reversion, and then dis- 

 appears entirely. Intermixing of races tends to check 

 the rapid evolution of man. 



IV. Skeletal variations. 



1. The backbone, (a) Increase of spinal curva- 

 tures. The upright an acquired one. Ratio of front 



