Charles Robert Darwin. 



75 



This book was followed by another in 1871, in two volumes, on the 

 " Descent of Man." Though Mr. Darwin, in his " Origin of Species," 

 drew no direct conclusions as to the relation in which man stood to 

 the rest of the animal kingdom, still the relationship was implied and 

 well known. But now he applied the facts he had collected in rela- 

 tion to animals to the human race, and the " Descent of Man" was 

 the result. He brought forward in the second part, the subject of 

 Sexual Selection, a matter which had not until then been treated in 

 any way completely. Another uproar was created by this book, for 

 while many naturalists were willing to allow the descent of animals 

 with modifications, they stopped at man, and contended that his origin 

 was on a higher plane. 



Then followed in 1872, as a sequel to this book, one on the "Ex- 

 pression of the Emotions in Man and Animals." Mr. Darwin had 

 found that in order to satisfy himself and the public in regard to the 

 close relationship of man and the higher classes of animals, that he must 

 study the expression of the emotions, and in this volume he gives the 

 facts he collected. He was indefatigable in his work. He studied in 

 infants, in the insane, in paintings and sculptures, and in animals, the 

 expressions and actions when under the influence of various feelings 

 and passions. Further, in order to find whether the same gestures and 

 expressions prevailed among savage races as were to be seen in 

 civilized man, he had printed a set of sixteen or more questions which 

 were sent for answers to various parts of the world. From all these 

 sources Mr. Darwin gathered his information, and incorporated it in a 

 work which takes as high a rank as the celebrated treatise of Sir 

 Charles Bell on "Expression," for the contradiction of which it was, 

 in fact, intended. 



His next work was on " Insectivorous Plants," a volume of 450 

 pages, filled with details of experiments on various species of Drosera, 

 on Dionsea, and other plants. This book is a marvelous production, 

 not only because of the nature of the facts given, but from the methods 

 by which they were ascertained, and it stands as a lasting monument 

 to the patience of the man. As an example of the delicacy of the 

 investigation, and of the accuracy of his methods, it is stated that a 

 particle of cotton thread only x 8 00 of an inch in length, and weighing 

 7 8 * 40 of a grain, was experimented with ; and that the absorption of a 

 particle of carbonate of ammonia weighing only 1 3 4 * 4 of a grain 

 caused the tentacles of a leaf of Drosera to become inflected. Think 

 of the patience of a man who could measure and weigh and experiment 



