TEE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 209 



At the period and place, whenever and wherever it was, 

 when man first lost his hairy covering, he probably inhabited 

 a hot country — a circumstance favorable for the frugiferoua 

 diet on which, judging from analogy, he subsisted. We 

 are far from knowing how long ago it was when man first 

 diverged from the Oatarrhine stock; but it may have oc- 

 curred at an epoch as remote as the Eocene period; for that 

 the higher apes had diverged from the lower apes as early 

 as the Upper Miocene period is shown by the existence of 

 the Dryopithecus. We are also quite ignorant at how rapid 

 a rate organisms, whether high or low in the scale, may be 

 modified under favorable circumstances; we know, however, 

 that some have retained the same form during an enormous 

 lapse of time. From what we see going on under domesti- 

 cation, we learn that .some of the co-descendants of the same 

 species may be not at all, some a little, and some greatly 

 changed, all within the same period. Thus it may have 

 been with man, who has undergone a great amount of 

 modification in certain characters in comparison with the 

 higher apes. 



The great break in the organic chain between man and 

 his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any ex- 

 tinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave 

 objection to the belief that man is descended from some 

 lower form; but this objection will not appear of much 

 weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the 

 general principle of evolution. Breaks often occur in all 

 parts of the series, some being wide, sharp, and defined, 

 others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and 

 its nearest allies — between the Tarsius and the other Lemu- 

 ridse — between the elephant, and in a more striking manner 

 between the Omithorhynchus or Echidna, and all other 

 mammals. 



But these breaks depend merely on the number of related 

 forms which have become extinct. At some future period, 

 not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized 

 races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace. 



