THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 223 



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 can not be bridged over by 

 any extinct 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 Lemuridm — 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 ex- 

 tinct. At some future period, not very distant as meas- 

 ured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost 

 certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races 

 throughout the world. At the same time the anthro- 

 pomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has re- 

 marked, wiU no doubt be exterminated. The break be- 

 tween man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for 

 it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, 

 as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape 

 as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro 

 or Australian and the gorilla. 



With respect to the absence of fossil remains, serving 

 to connect man with his ape-like progenitors, no one will 

 lay niuch stress on this fact who reads Sir C. Lyell's dis- 

 cussion, where he shows that in all the vertebrate classes 

 the discovery of fossil remains has been a very slow and 

 fortuitous process. Nor should it be forgotten that those 

 regions which are the most likely to afford remains con- 



