404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and in a creature that had reached the stage of protection 
afforded by human society, and of aggression by human invention, 
were outside the ordinary action of natural selection, and became 
fixed and hereditary. The colour of mankind can in no sense 
come under the explanations of protective or aggressive resem- 
blance, mimicry, warning or nuptial colouration, &c., and if there 
are physiological advantages appertaining to the different hues in 
connection with the climates in which these differently coloured 
races are found, these advantages are probably incidental to, or 
rather the effects of, a perfect acclimatization. Perhaps suggestion 
in this problem is too crude and too early; and, as Tylor 
cautiously observes, “the great races—black, brown, yellow, 
white—had already settled into their well-known characters before 
written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back 
in the pre-historic period” *; or, as Darwin more precisely 
writes, ‘“‘we are far from knowing how long ago it was when 
man first diverged from the Catarhine stock; but it may have 
occurred 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 Dryopi- 
thecus.’’+ We may well conclude that our earliest progenitors 
had a more or less hairy covering, but if we are ignorant on this 
very point, how much less should we speculate on the colour of 
the same. } 
There is considerable evidence to be obtained that surface 
geology induces assimilative colouration in plants as well as in 
animal life. ‘Thus in the charming ‘ Letters of Rusticus,’ and in 
connection with the locality of Godalming in Surrey, this passage 
occurs :—‘‘ The soil is a bright red sand, which extends from the 
chalky range of cold poverty-stricken downs crossing the country 
all phenomena, together with the causes which produce them ; including not 
only all that happens, but all that is capable of happening, the unused 
capabilities of causes being as much a part of the idea of Nature as those 
which take effect’ (‘Three Essays on Religion,’ p. 5). There is also a purely 
literary or artistic idea of Nature, which sometimes becomes hysterical, and 
finds an amusing illustration in a sentence quoted by Max Nordau: ‘“ Nature 
is so indifferent, so unappreciative. Whenever I walk in the park here, I 
always feel that I am no more to her than the cattle that browse on the 
slope ’’ (‘ Degeneration,’ p. 319). 
* ¢ Anthropology,’ p. 85. + ‘Descent of Man,’ 2nd edit. p. 156. 
~~ : 3 fig a. Rast ae 
heres J =, eee 
