VII. 



EVIDENCE OP THE DESCENT OP MAN FEOM 

 SOME LOWER PORM. 



The Descent He who wishes to decide whether man is 

 of Man, the modified descendant of some pre-exist- 

 ^^°^ ' ing form would probably first inquire whether 



man varies, however slightly, in bodily structure and in 

 mental faculties ; and, if so, whether the variations are 

 transmitted to his offspring in accordance with the laws 

 which prevail with the lower animals. Again, are the 

 variations the result, as far as our ignorance permits us to 

 judge, of the same general causes, and are they governed 

 by the same general laws, as in the case of other organ- 

 isms ; for instance, by correlation, the inherited efEects of 

 use and disuse, etc. ? Is man subject to similar malcon- 

 formations, the result of arrested development, of redu- 

 plication of parts, etc., and does he display in any of his 

 anomalies reversion to some former and ancient type of 

 structure ? It might also naturally be inquired whether 

 man, like so many other animals, has given rise to vari- 

 eties and sub-races, differing but slightly from each other, 

 or to races differing so much that they must be classed 

 as doubtful species. How are such races distributed 

 over the world ; and how, when crossed, do they react on 

 each other in the first and succeeding generations ? And 

 so with many other points. 



