THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 25 



The whole process of that most important function, the 

 reproduction of the species, is strikingly the same in all 

 mammals, from the first act of courtship by the male," 

 to the birth and nurturing of the, young. Monkeys are 

 born in almost as helpless a condition as our own infants; 

 and in certain genera the young differ fully as much in 

 appearance from the adults as do our children from their 

 full-grown parents." It has been urged by some writers, 

 as an important distinction, that with man the young arrive 

 at maturity at a much later age than with any other animal; 

 but if we look to the races of mankind which inhabit tropi- 

 cal countries the difference is not great, for the orang is 

 believed not to be adult till the age of from ten to fifteen 

 years." Man differs from woman in size, bodily strength, 

 hairiness, etc., as well as in mind, in the same manner as 

 do the two sexes of many mammals. So that the corre- 

 spondence in general structure, in the minute structure of 

 the tissues, in chemical composition and in constitution, 

 between man and the higher animals, especially the an- 

 thropomorphous apes, is extremely close. 



Embryonic Development. — Man is developed from an 

 ovule, about the 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs 

 in no respect from the ovules of other animals. The em- 

 bryo itself at a very early period can hardly be distin- 

 guished from that of other members of the vertebrate king- 

 dom. At this period the arteries run in arch-like branches, 



" "Blares e diversis generibus Quadrumaaonim sine dubio dignoacunt femi- 

 nas humanas a maribiis. Frimum, credo, odoratu, postea aspectu. Mr. Youatt, 

 qui din in Hortis Zoolog^cis (Bestiariia) medicus animalium erat, vir in rebus 

 observandis cautus et sagax, hoc mihi certissime probavit, et curatores ejusdem 

 loci et alii e ministris confirmaverunt. Sir Andrew Smith et Brehm notabant 

 idem in Oynocephalo. Blustrissimus Cuvier etiam narrat multa de hdc re, quft 

 lit opinor, nihil turplus potest indicari inter omnia hominibus et Quadrumania 

 communia. Ifarrat enlm Cynooephalum quondam in furorem incidere aspectu 

 feminarum aliquarum, aed nequaquam accendi tanto furore ab omnibus. Sem- 

 per eligebat Juniores, et dignoscebat in turbd, et advocabat voce gestAque." 



" This remark is made with respect to Cynoeephalus and the anthropo- 

 morphous apes by Geoffroy Saint-Eilaire and F. Ouviw, "Hist Nat des 

 Mammiflres," torn. I. 1824. 



'« Huxley, "Man's Place in Natur®," 1863, p. 34, 

 Descent— Vol. I. — 2 



