530 



SCIENCE. 



[N, S. Vol. XXI. No. 536. 



In this discussion the anatomist is at a 

 disadvantage to the botanist and the breed- 

 er who can experiment. His argument 

 must be largely analogical. He must con- 

 sider how anatomical observations, both on 

 races and on individuals, are better ex- 

 plained by one theory or the other. Man 's 

 body, for I am speaking as an anatomist 

 and leaving aside all consideration of psy- 

 chology, man's body, as we find it to-day, 

 does not mutate, but varies. What do the 

 variations tell us? Kace anatomy offers 

 many instances of fusion of different races 

 and occasionally suggests the occurrence in 

 the past of a race differing sharply from 

 those around it. Perhaps the best example 

 of a race without approximate relations 

 and most indicative of mutation is that of 

 the pigmies. On the whole, race anatomy 

 tells us little. What Ave call race charac- 

 ters occasionally appear sporadically where 

 one would not expect them. Thus the Mon- 

 golian spot on the sacral region of infants 

 has been recently observed on a child in 

 Bavaria. More or less striking features of 

 the disputed Neanderthal race occur among 

 us. The study of anatomical variations in 

 the dissecting rooms of different parts of 

 the world shows that while in all proba- 

 bility there are different tendencies in dif- 

 ferent races, the variations themselves are 

 of no practical importance. Thus the pal- 

 maris longus is absent in 12.7 per cent, at 

 St. Petersburg and in 40.4 per cent, at 

 Strassburg. The 'candelabra' method of 

 division of the carotid artery occurs in 20 

 per cent, at Strassburg and in 60 per cent, 

 at Breslau. The average absence of the 

 pyramidalis is 12.7 per cent, at Strassburg, 

 21 per cent, in Massachusetts, while among 

 the Japanese this muscle is wanting in 

 only 3.5 per cent. I have found the psoas 

 minor absent in 60.5 per cent, against 48.7 

 per cent, at St. Petersburg. The sternalis, 

 so exceptional in Caucasians, occurring at 

 most in from 3 to 4 per cent, was found in 



nearly 9 per cent, of the Japanese and cer- 

 tain observations on the living seem to show 

 that a larger series would produce even a 

 much larger proportion. This, together 

 with the rare absence of the pyramidalis in 

 the Japanese, points toward specialization 

 in muscle, a feature which strikes one as in 

 keeping with the characteristics of that 

 race. We are familiar with the fact that 

 there seems to be a certain similarity of 

 character among themselves in the fauna 

 of isolated countries, yet it surprises us to 

 find it manifested in the deeper structures. 

 Hrdlicka has observed a form of human 

 tibia, suggesting that of the gorilla, in over 

 10 per cent, of African bones, which is 

 almost unknown among the whites and not 

 found at all among the Indians. Yet no 

 one seriously believes that the negroes have 

 any special relationship with the gorillas. 

 This phenomenon of similarity, therefore, 

 implies some agency beside selection. 



Leaving race anatomy let us see whether 

 the variations, which we continually ob- 

 serve in the dissecting room, point either 

 one way or the other in this discussion. 

 The theory of change by minute variations 

 receives no support from anatomical ob- 

 servations. Precisely what many thought 

 an illustration of Darwinism is its refuta- 

 tion. Huxley foresaw this when he doubt- 

 ed whether variations might not prove a 

 two-edged sword. The fundamental error 

 into which supporters of evolution by selec- 

 tion are logically driven is the unwarranted 

 assumption that similarity of structure can 

 be explained only by descent. Though not 

 formally stated, this is tacitly accepted al- 

 most as an axiom. 



The student of variations is oppressed 

 by .their multiplicity. Those of the biceps, 

 for in.stance, are bewildering, presenting 

 forms normal in many orders of mammals 

 and which refuse absolutely to be forced 

 into any line of descent. Some, indeed, 

 are mutually contradictory. It is no more 



