June 13, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



931 



one language or one system of customs and 

 arts, in the origination of which the doc- 

 trine of polygenesis has a wide application, 

 since history and daily experience show 

 that new linguistic, industrial and artistic 

 elements originate in definite places and 

 often with single individuals. The use 

 of tools and weapons gave man the advan- 

 tage over his fellow-creatures, and prog- 

 ress has been mirrored in the diversifica- 

 tion and improvement of these servants 

 ever since the time when all men used the 

 iinspecialized celt which the reminiscent 

 native of Liberia still holds in his hand in 

 leisure moments to give him that most en- 

 joyable sensation of weight and impor- 

 tance. Modifications and inventions are 

 constantly being made; use is necessarily 

 local and hence divergent at first, but with 

 modern facilities of communication may 

 extend in a few years through regions 

 which formerly would not have been pene- 

 trated in as many generations. 



Civilization itself is at once a test and a 

 testimony of the attraction exerted by new 

 characters, powers and specializations, 

 and of the momentum with which the mo- 

 tion due to such attractions may increase. 

 Primitive and conservative are ethnolog- 

 ical synonyms, and with races, as with in- 

 dividuals, it is ever the strongest and the 

 most intelligent which are susceptible to 

 the new idea or invention. The constant 

 succei^ion of modes and fashions is per- 

 haps the most obvious example of the in- 

 herent human tendency to the new, and 

 motion on this line is also conspicuously 

 more rapid in our complex and utilitarian 

 civilization than among primitive peoples. 

 Human progress has not advanced by a 

 uniform rate of motion; the facts of eth- 

 nology and history indicate the probability 

 that it took more centuries to introduce 

 the use of fire than it has required years 

 to popularize electricity. 



Somewhere intermediate between the 

 zoological monogenesis of man's body and 

 the ethnologic polygenesis of nations, lan- 

 guages and arts, there was what may be 

 termed a biologic coordination of man and 

 his supporting environment which placed 

 him definitely upon the line of social and 

 industrial progress. As long as man was 

 content to rely upon natural products his 

 existence was precarious and left no traces 

 in organic nature, but in passing from the 

 feral to the domestic state he interfered 

 in the evolution of other species and thus 

 gave biological clues for the location of 

 this focus of anthropological interest. The 

 cultivated plants were in use long before 

 the integrations which formed present 

 peoples, languages and arts, and thus 

 afford far more weighty testimony on ra- 

 cial origins and affinities. 



The Egyptian and Chaldasan civiliza- 

 tions mark the eastern horizon of human 

 history, but from the evolutionary stand- 

 point they appear separated from us by 

 but a narrow foreground. Our belief in 

 their primal antiquity is but a reflection of 

 traditions chronologically ancient, though 

 biologically recent, and affording no valid 

 opposition to the evidence that the oldest 

 domestic plants were not natives of the 

 Old World, but of the New, where the 

 scarcity of nourishing fruits encouraged 

 the use and simple cultivation of starch- 

 producing roots, which before the domesti- 

 cation of cereals became the basis of a per- 

 manent food-supply and of social, indus- 

 trial and cultural progress, impossible 

 among wandering hunters and shepherds. 



It has seemed reasonable to seek the ori- 

 gin of civilization among the most capable 

 peoples, but, on the other hand, it should be 

 remembered that great natural abilities 

 have not produced civilizations except un- 

 der favorable conditions. In Roman times 

 the Teutonic peoples had not advanced 

 much beyond the economic status of sav- 



