tSa The Descent of Man. Part I 



" different from any other, ancient or modern, that we have evoi 

 "heard of.""" It differed, therefore, from the quaternary race ol 

 the caverns of Belgium. 



Man can long resist conditions which appear extremely un- 

 favourable for his existence '' He has long lived in the extreme 

 regions of the North, with no wood for his canoes or implements, 

 and with only blubber as fuel, and melted snow as drink. In 

 the southern extremity of America the Fuegians survive with- 

 out the protection of clothes, or of any building worthy to be 

 called a hovel. In South Africa the aborigines wander over arid 

 plains, where dangerous beasts abound. Man can withstand the 

 deadly influence of the Terai at the foot of the Himalaya, and 

 the pestilential shores of tropical Africa. 



Extinction follows chiefly from the competition of tribe with 

 tribe, and race with race. ' Various checks are always in action, 

 serving to keep down the numbers of each savage tribe, — such 

 as periodical famines, nomadic habits and the consequent deaths 

 of infants, prolonged suckling, wars, accidents, sickness, licen- 

 tiousness, the stealing of women, infanticide, and especially 

 lessened fertility. If any one of these checks increases in power, 

 even slightly, the tribe thus affected tends to decrease ; and 

 wlien of two adjoining tribes one becomes less numerous and less 

 powerful than the other, the contest is soon settled by war, 

 slaughter, cannibalism, slavery, and absorption. Even when a 

 weaker tribe is not thus abruptly swept away, if it once begins 

 to decrease, it generally goes on decreasing until it becomes 

 extinct.'^ 



When civilised nations come into contact with barbarians the 

 struggle is short, except where a deadly climate gives its aid to 

 the native race. Of the causes which lead to the victory of 

 civilised nations, some are plain and simple, others complex and 

 obscure. We can see that the cultivation of the land will 

 be fatal in many ways to savages, for they cannot, or will not, 

 change their habits. New diseases and vices have in some cases 

 proved highly destructive; and it appears that a new disease 

 often causes much death, until those who are most susceptible 

 to its destructive influence are gradually weeded out f^ and so it 

 may be with the evil effects from spirituous liquors, as well as 

 with the unconquerably strong taste for them shewn by so many 



'" ' TraDoact._ Internat. Congress terben der Naturvolkcr,' 1868, s. 8'2. 



ot Prehistoric Arch,' 1868, pp. 172- ^^ Gerland (ibid. s. 12) gives facti 



)75. See also Broca (translation^ in support of this statement, 



ia * Anthropological Review,* Oct. ^^ See remarlss to this effect iD 



1868, p. 410. Sir H. Holland's ' Medical Notes ind 



"' Dr. Gerl.ind ' r socr las Auss- Reflections,' 1839, p. 390. 



