MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT. til 



Argyll, for instance, insists™ ttiat "the human frame has diverged 

 "from the structure of brutes, in the direction of greater physical 

 "helplessness and weakness. That is to say, it is a divergence 

 "which of all others it is most impossible to ascribe to mere 

 "natural selection." He adduces the nalted and unprotected state 

 of the body, the absence of great teeth or claws for defense, the 

 small strength and speed of man, and his slight power of discover- 

 ing food or of avoiding danger by smell. To these deficiencies 

 there might be added one still more serious, namely, that he can- 

 not climb quickly, and so escape from enemies. The loss of hair 

 would not have been a great injury to the inhabitants of a warm 

 country. For we know that the unclothed Puegians can exist un- 

 der a wretched climate. When we compare the defenseless state 

 of man with that of apes, we must remember that the great canine 

 teeth with which the latter are provided, are possessed in their full 

 development by the males alone, and are chiefly used by them for 

 fighting vrith their rivals; yet the females, which are not thus pro- 

 vided, manage to survive. 



In regard to bodily size or strength, we do not know whether 

 man is descended from some small species, like the chimpanzee, 

 or from one as powerful as the gorilla; and, therefore, we cannot 

 say whether man has become larger and stronger, or smaller and 

 weaker, than his ancestors. "We should, however, bear in mind 

 that an animal possessing great size, strength, and ferocity and 

 which, like the gorilla, could defend itself from all enemies, would 

 not perhaps have become social; and this would most effectually 

 have checked the acquirement of the higher mental qualities, such 

 as sympathy and the love of his fellows. Hence it might have 

 been an immense advantage to man to have sprung from some 

 comparatively weak creature. 



The small strength and speed of man, his want of natural weap- 

 ons, &c., are more than counterbalanced, firstly, by his intel- 

 lectual powers, through which he has formed for himself weap- 

 ons, tools, &c., though still remaining in a barbarous state, and,, 

 secondly, by his social qualities wliich lead him to give and re- 

 ceive aid from his fellow-men. No country in the world abounds 

 in a greater degree with dangerous beasts than Southern Africa; 

 no country presents more fearful physical hardships than the Arc- 

 tic regions; yet one of the puniest of races, that of the Bushmen, 

 maintains itself in Southern Africa, as do the dwarfed Esquimaux 

 in the Arctic regions. The ancestors of man were, no doubt, in- 

 ferior in intellect, and probably in social disposition, to the lowest 

 existing savages; but it is quite conceivable that they might have 

 existed, or even flourished, if they had advanced in intellect, 



»« 'Primeval Man," 1869, p. 66. 



