196 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



CHAPTER VI 



ON THE AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY OF MAN 



Position of man in the animal series — The natural system genealogical — 

 Adaptive characters of slight value — Various small points of resem- 

 blance between man and the Quadrumana — Eanlc of man in the nat- 

 ural system — Birthplace and antiquity of man — Absence of fossil con- 

 necting-links — Lower stages in the genealogy of man, as inferred, 

 first, from his affinities, and, secondly, from his structure — Early 

 androgynous condition of the Vertebrata — Conclusion 



EYEE" if it be granted that the difference between man 

 and his nearest allies is as great in corporeal structure 

 as some naturalists maintain, and although we must 

 grant that the difference between them is immense in mental 

 power, yet the facts given in the earlier chapters appear to 

 declare, in the plainest manner, that man is descended from 

 some lower form, notwithstanding that coniiecting-links 

 have not hitherto been discovered. 



Man is liable to numerous slight and diversified varia- 

 tions, which are induced by the same general causes, are 

 governed and transmitted in accordance with the same gen- 

 eral laws, as in the lower animals. Man has multiplied so 

 rapidly that he has necessarily been exposed to struggle for 

 existence, and consequently to natural selection. He has 

 given rise to many races, some of which differ so much from 

 each other tliat they have often been ranked by naturalists 

 as distinct species. His body is constructed on the same 

 homological plan as that of other mammals. He passes 

 through the same phases of embryological development. 

 He retains many rudimentary and useless structures, which 

 no doubt were once serviceable. Characters occasionally 

 make their reappearance in him, which we have reason to 



