2 NATURE 
| April 6, 1871 

THE DESCENT OF MAN 
The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex. 
By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S.,&c. In two volumes. 
Pp. 428, 475. (Murray, 1871.) 
if 
Va Mr. Darwin had closed his rich series of contributions 
to Science by the publication of the “Origin of 
Species,” he would have made an epoch in Natural History 
like that which Socrates made in philosophy, or Harvey 
in medicine. The theory identified with his name has 
stimulated ethnological and anatomical inquiries in every 
direction ; it has been largely adopted and followed out 
by naturalists in this country and America, but most of 
all in the great work-room of modern science, whence a 
complete literature on “ Darwinismus” has sprung up, and 
there disciples have appeared who stand in the same 
relation to their master as Muntzer and the Anabaptists 
did to Luther. Like most great advances in knowledge, 
the theory of Evolution found everything ripe for it. 
This is shown by the well-known fact that Mr. Wallace 
arrived at the same conclusion as to the origin of 
species while working in the Eastern Archipelago, 
and scarcely less so by the manner in which the 
theory has been worked out by men so distinguished as 
Mr. Herbert Spencer and Prof. Haeckel. But it was 
known when the “ Origin of Species” was published, that 
instead of being the mere brilliant hypothesis of a man 
of genius, of which the proofs were to be furnished and 
the fruits gathered in by his successors, it was really only 
a summary of opinions based upon the most extensive 
and long-continued researches. Its author did not simply 
open a new province for future travellers to explore, he 
had already surveyed it himself, and the present volumes 
show him still at the head of his followers. They are 
written ina more popular style than those on “ Animals 
and Plants under Domestication,” as they deal with sub- 
jects of more general interest; but all the great qualities 
of industry and accuracy in research, of fertility in framing 
hypotheses, and of impartiality in judgment, are as appa- 
rent in this as in Mr. Darwin’s previous works. To one 
who bears in mind the too frequent tone of the controver- 
sies these works have excited, the turgid rhetoric and 
ignorant presumption of those “who are not of his school 
—or any school,” and the still more lamentable bad taste 
which mars the writings of Vogt and even occasionally of 
Haeckel, it is very admirable to see the calmness and 
moderation (for which philosophical would be too low an 
epithet) with which the author handles his subject. If pre- 
judice canbe conciliated, it will surely be by a book like this. 
It consists of twoparts. The first treats of the origin 
of man, his affinities to other animals, and the formation 
of the races (or sub-species) of the human family. Besides 
the obvious interest to all Mr. Darwin’s readers of a dis- 
cussion on the subject of their “ proper knowledge,” natu- 
ralists will find the detailed application of the laws of 
natural selection to a single common and well-known 
species an excellent test of their truth and illustration of 
their difficulties. It is in dealing with the latter, which 
are never extenuated or passed by, that the author intro- 
duces the subject of sexual selection. This is dealt with 
in the second part, which forms more than two-thirds of 
the work, and that not only as it affects man, but in its 
entire range. Reserving this division of the book for a 

future article, we will endeavour here to give a summary of 
the course of argument in the earlier portion. 
The author, justly assuming that the general principles 
of natural selection are admitted by all who have examined 
the evidence on the subject, with the exception of many 
of “ the older and honoured chiefs in natural science,” pro- 
ceeds at once to discuss the proofs of the origin of man 
considered apart from those affecting all animals in com- 
mon. The first group of facts adduced to show his kin- 
ship with other forms of animal life, relate to the strict 
correspondence of his bodily parts with those of other 
mammalia. To say that these structures are the same 
because they have the same uses, is untrue, for many of 
them have no use in the sense of active function, and 
we constantly find the same structures in animals turred 
to different uses, and the same uses subserved by diffe rent 
structures. To say that the bodies of men and animals 
are alike because they are formed on the same plan, or 
because they are the realisation of the same idea in the 
Creator, is true enough, but is beside the mark ; for natural 
science inquires how or by what steps these things have 
become so, not why and from what first cause. If one 
sees two men very much alike, one naturally supposes 
that they are brothers ; if they are rather less so, they 
may be cousins ; if only agreeing in general characters, 
we recognise them as at least belonging to the same race 
or nation ; and so, when the facts to be accounted for are 
once ascertained, nothing but prejudice or repugnance to 
acknowledge our true relations, can explain why it was so 
long before naturalists admitted the hypothesis of com- 
munity of origin between men and other animals. 
What is called the Darwinian theory accounts for the 
way in which diversities have arisen, and thus has con- 
verted an apparently obvious hypothesis into a well- 
grounded theory. But in expounding the likeness be- 
tween men and animals, the author does not confine 
himself to anatomical structure, but shows how the same 
resemblance extends to the laws of disease, the distribu- 
tion of parasites, and other minute particulars. 
The next argument brought forward is the equally 
familiar one drawn from the likeness of the human embryo 
to that of other vertebrata. Then follows an account of 
the rudimentary organs in man, which in all other species 
are justly held among the most important indications of 
affinities. One such rudiment is mentioned which is, we 
believe, hitherto unrecorded. It is a slight projection of 
the rim of the helix of the auricle, which would corre- 
spond when unfolded to the point of an erect ear. (See illus- 
tration.) This occasional abnormity may, perhaps, be re- 
cognised by future anatomists as the Axgulus Woolnerit 
after its first observer. 
In the second chapter Mr. Darwin shows that a con- 
sideration of the mental faculties of man, including the 
use of language, which has been held the greatest diffi- 
culty to admitting his kinship to other animals, may 
rather strengthen than weaken the arguments derived 
from his bodily structure. Memory and curiosity, jealousy 
and friendship, and even the power of correct reasoning, 
and of communication by sounds, are shown to belong to 
many of the lower animals, while the faculty of reflection 
and self-consciousness, and “the ennobling belief in the 
existence of an Omnipotent God,” cannot be ascribed to 
the lowest tribes of the human family. At the same time 
