33 



SECOND DAY'S SITTING. 



Lord G. We come now, Mr. Darwin, to the " general 

 reasons " which you regard as proving " the general principle 

 of evolution." Will you begin the statement of them? 



Darwin. First, my Lord, " there is tlie, Bodily Structure of 

 Man. It is notorious that man is constructed on the same 

 general type or model with other mammals. All the bones 

 in his skeleton can be compared with corresponding bones 

 in a monkey, bat, or seal. So it is with his muscles, nerves, 

 blood-vessels, and internal viscera. The brain, the most 

 important of all the organs, follows the same law, as shown 

 by Huxley and other anatomists." (Vol. i. p. 10.) 



Homo. I freely admit, my Lord, the general correctness 

 of the statement Mr. Darwin has just made. There can be 

 no question as to man possessing an animal nature. Who 

 doubts it ? The belief of this is, I suppose, as ancient as 

 man himself. Neither can there be any question as to 

 man's bodily frame being constructed on the same general 

 type as that of other mammals. How could it be otherwise ? 

 Like other mammals, man is made to live, and move, and 

 have his being on the earth. He eats and drinks like them. 

 He has numerous functions to perform, precisely similar to 

 theirs. Hence, necessarily, his bodily structure is similar. 

 I do not see how he could have been constructed otherwise. 

 Perhaps Mr. Darwin can suggest some better type after 

 ■which man's physical nature might have been modelled. 



