The Descent of Man Read online

  Reversion.—Many of the cases to be here given might have been introduced under the last heading. Whenever a structure is arrested in its development, but still continues growing until it closely resembles a corresponding structure in some lower and adult member of the same group, we may in one sense consider it as a case of reversion. The lower members in a group give us some idea how the common progenitor of the group was probably constructed; and it is hardly credible that a part arrested at an early phase of embryonic development should be enabled to continue growing so as ultimately to perform its proper function, unless it had acquired this power of continued growth during some earlier state of existence, when the present exceptional or arrested structure was normal. The simple brain of a microcephalous idiot, in as far as it resembles that of an ape, may in this sense be said to offer a case of reversion. There are other cases which come more strictly under our present heading of reversion. Certain structures, regularly occurring in the lower members of the group to which man belongs, occasionally make their appearance in him, though not found in the normal human embryo; or, if present in the normal human embryo, they become developed in an abnormal manner, though this manner of development is proper to the lower members of the same group. These remarks will be rendered clearer by the following illustrations.

  In various mammals the uterus graduates from a double organ with two distinct orifices and two passages, as in the marsupials, into a single organ, showing no signs of doubleness except a slight internal fold, as in123 the higher apes and man. The rodents exhibit a perfect series of gradations between these two extreme states. In all mammals the uterus is developed from two simple primitive tubes, the inferior portions of which form the cornua; and it is in the words of Dr. Farre “by the coalescence of the two cornua at their lower extremities that the body of the uterus is formed in man; while in those animals in which no middle portion or body exists, the cornua remain ununited. As the development of the uterus proceeds, the two cornua become gradually shorter, until at length they are lost, or, as it were, absorbed into the body of the uterus.” The angles of the uterus are still produced into cornua, even so high in the scale as in the lower apes, and their allies the lemurs.

  Now in women anomalous cases are not very infrequent, in which the mature uterus is furnished with cornua, or is partially divided into two organs; and such cases, according to Owen, repeat “the grade of concentrative development,” attained by certain rodents. Here perhaps we have an instance of a simple arrest of embryonic development, with subsequent growth and perfect functional development, for either side of the partially double uterus is capable of performing the proper office of gestation. In other and rarer cases, two distinct uterine cavities are formed, each having its proper orifice and passage.174 No such stage is passed through during the ordinary development of the embryo, and it is difficult to believe, though perhaps not impossible, that the two simple, minute, primitive tubes could know how (if such an expression may be used) to 124grow into two distinct uteri, each with a well-constructed orifice and passage, and each furnished with numerous muscles, nerves, glands and vessels, if they had not formerly passed through a similar course of development, as in the case of existing marsupials. No one will pretend that so perfect a structure as the abnormal double uterus in woman could be the result of mere chance. But the principle of reversion, by which long-lost dormant structures are called back into existence, might serve as the guide for the full development of the organ, even after the lapse of an enormous interval of time.

  Professor Canestrini,175 after discussing the foregoing and various analogous cases, arrives at the same conclusion as that just given. He adduces, as another instance, the malar bone, which, in some of the Quadrumana and other mammals, normally consists of two portions. This is its condition in the two-months-old human fœtus; and thus it sometimes remains, through arrested development, in man when adult, more especially in the lower prognathous races. Hence Canestrini concludes that some ancient progenitor of man must have possessed this bone normally divided into two portions, which subsequently became fused together. In man the frontal bone consists of a single piece, but in the embryo and in children, and in almost all the lower mammals, it consists of two pieces separated by a distinct suture. This suture occasionally persists, more or less distinctly, in man after maturity, and more fre125quently in ancient than in recent crania, especially as Canestrini has observed in those exhumed from the Drift and belonging to the brachycephalic type. Here again he comes to the same conclusion as in the analogous case of the malar bones. In this and other instances presently to be given, the cause of ancient races approaching the lower animals in certain characters more frequently than do the modern races, appears to be that the latter stand at a somewhat greater distance in the long line of descent from their early semi-human progenitors.

  Various other anomalies in man, more or less analogous with the foregoing, have been advanced by different authors176 as cases of reversion; but these seem not a little doubtful, for we have to descend extremely low in the mammalian series before we find such structures normally present.177

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  In man the canine teeth are perfectly efficient instruments for mastication. But their true canine character, as Owen178 remarks, “is indicated by the conical form of the crown, which terminates in an obtuse point, is convex outward and flat or sub-concave within, at the base of which surface there is a feeble prominence. The conical form is best expressed in the Melanian races, especially the Australian. The canine is more deeply implanted, and by a stronger fang than the incisors.” Nevertheless this tooth no longer serves man as a special weapon for tearing his enemies or prey; it may, therefore, as far as its proper function is concerned, be considered as rudimentary. In every large collection of human skulls some may be found, as Häckel179 observes, with the canine teeth projecting considerably beyond the others in the same manner, but in a less degree, as in the anthropomorphous apes. In these cases, open spaces between the teeth in the one jaw are left for the reception of the canines belonging to the opposite jaw. An interspace of this kind in a Kaffir skull, figured by Wagner, is surprisingly wide.180 Considering how few ancient skulls have been examined in comparison with recent skulls, it is an interesting fact that in at least three cases the canines project largely; and in the Naulette jaw they are spoken of as enormous.181

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  The males alone of the anthropomorphous apes have their canines fully developed; but in the female gorilla, and in a less degree in the female orang, these teeth project considerably beyond the others; therefore the fact that women sometimes have, as I have been assured, considerably projecting canines, is no serious objection to the belief that their occasional great development in man is a case of reversion to an ape-like progenitor. He who rejects with scorn the belief that the shape of his own canines, and their occasional great development in other men, are due to our early progenitors having been provided with these formidable weapons, will probably reveal by sneering the line of his descent. For though he no longer intends, nor has the power, to use these teeth as weapons, he will unconsciously retract his “snarling muscles” (thus named by Sir C. Bell)182 so as to expose them ready for action, like a dog prepared to fight.

  Many muscles are occasionally developed in man, which are proper to the Quadrumana or other mammals. Professor Vlacovich183 examined forty male subjects, and found a muscle, called by him the ischiopubic, in nineteen of them; in three others there was a ligament which represented this muscle; and in the remaining eighteen no trace of it. Out of thirty female subjects this muscle was developed on both sides in only two, but in three others the rudimentary ligament was present. This muscle, therefore, appears to be much more common in the male than in the female sex; and on the principle of the descent of man from some lower form, its presence can be understood; for it has been detected in several of the lower animals, and in all of 128these it serves exclusively to aid the male in the act of reproduction.

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bsp; Mr. J. Wood, in his valuable series of papers,184 has minutely described a vast number of muscular variations in man, which resemble normal structures in the lower animals. Looking only to the muscles which closely resemble those regularly present in our nearest allies, the Quadrumana, they are too numerous to be here even specified. In a single male subject, having a strong bodily frame and well-formed skull, no less than seven muscular variations were observed, all of which plainly represented muscles proper to various kinds of apes. This man, for instance, had on both sides of his neck a true and powerful “levator claviculæ,” such as is found in all kinds of apes, and which is said to occur in about one out of sixty human subjects.185 Again, this man had “a special abductor of the metatarsal bone of the fifth digit, such as Professor Huxley and Mr. Flower have shewn to exist uniformly in the higher and lower apes.” The hands and arms of man are eminently characteristic structures, but their muscles are extremely liable to vary, so as to resemble the corresponding muscles in the lower animals.186 Such resemblances are either complete and per129fect or imperfect, yet in this latter case manifestly of a transitional nature. Certain variations are more common in man, and others in woman, without our being able to assign any reason. Mr. Wood, after describing numerous cases, makes the following pregnant remark: “Notable departures from the ordinary type of the muscular structures run in grooves or directions, which must be taken to indicate some unknown factor, of much importance to a comprehensive knowledge of general and scientific anatomy.”187

  That this unknown factor is reversion to a former state of existence may be admitted as in the highest degree probable. It is quite incredible that a man should through mere accident abnormally resemble, in no less than seven of his muscles, certain apes, if there had been no genetic connection between them. On the other hand, if man is descended from some ape-like creature, no valid reason can be assigned why certain muscles should not suddenly reappear after an interval of many thousand generations, in the same manner as with horses, asses, and mules, dark-coloured stripes suddenly reappear on the legs and shoulders, after an interval of hundreds, or more probably thousands, of generations.

  These various cases of reversion are so closely related 130to those of rudimentary organs given in the first chapter, that many of them might have been indifferently introduced in either chapter. Thus a human uterus furnished with cornua may be said to represent in a rudimentary condition the same organ in its normal state in certain mammals. Some parts which are rudimental in man, as the os coccyx in both sexes and the mammæ in the male sex, are always present; whilst others, such as the supra-condyloid foramen, only occasionally appear, and therefore might have been introduced under the head of reversion. These several reversionary, as well as the strictly rudimentary, structures reveal the descent of man from some lower form in an unmistakeable manner.

  Correlated Variation.—In man, as in the lower animals, many structures are so intimately related, that when one part varies so does another, without our being able, in most cases, to assign any reason. We cannot say whether the one part governs the other, or whether both are governed by some earlier developed part. Various monstrosities, as I. Geoffroy repeatedly insists, are thus intimately connected. Homologous structures are particularly liable to change together, as we see on the opposite sides of the body, and in the upper and lower extremities. Meckel long ago remarked that when the muscles of the arm depart from their proper type, they almost always imitate those of the leg; and so conversely with the muscles of the legs. The organs of sight and hearing, the teeth and hair, the colour of the skin and hair, colour and constitution, are more or less correlated.188 Professor Schaaffhausen first drew attention to the rela131tion apparently existing between a muscular frame and strongly-pronounced supra-orbital ridges, which are so characteristic of the lower races of man.

  Besides the variations which can be grouped with more or less probability under the foregoing heads, there is a large class of variations which may be provisionally called spontaneous, for they appear, owing to our ignorance, to arise without any exciting cause. It can, however, be shewn that such variations, whether consisting of slight individual differences, or of strongly-marked and abrupt deviations of structure, depend much more on the constitution of the organism than on the nature of the conditions to which it has been subjected.189

  Rate of Increase.—Civilised populations have been known under favourable conditions, as in the United States, to double their number in twenty-five years; and according to a calculation by Euler, this might occur in a little over twelve years.190 At the former rate the present population of the United States, namely, thirty millions, would in 657 years cover the whole terraqueous globe so thickly, that four men would have to stand on each square yard of surface. The primary or fundamental check to the continued increase of man is the difficulty of gaining subsistence and of living in comfort. We may infer that this is the case from what we see, for instance, in the United States, where subsistence is easy and there is plenty of room. If such means were suddenly doubled in Great Britain, our number would be quickly doubled. With civilised nations the 132above primary check acts chiefly by restraining marriages. The greater death-rate of infants in the poorest classes is also very important; as well as the greater mortality at all ages, and from various diseases, of the inhabitants of crowded and miserable houses. The effects of severe epidemics and wars are soon counterbalanced, and more than counterbalanced, in nations placed under favourable conditions. Emigration also comes in aid as a temporary check, but not to any great extent with the extremely poor classes.

  There is reason to suspect, as Malthus has remarked, that the reproductive power is actually less in barbarous than in civilised races. We know nothing positively on this head, for with savages no census has been taken; but from the concurrent testimony of missionaries, and of others who have long resided with such people, it appears that their families are usually small, and large ones rare. This may be partly accounted for, as it is believed, by the women suckling their infants for a prolonged period; but it is highly probable that savages, who often suffer much hardship, and who do not obtain so much nutritious food as civilised men, would be actually less prolific. I have shewn in a former work,191 that all our domesticated quadrupeds and birds, and all our cultivated plants, are more fertile than the corresponding species in a state of nature. It is no valid objection to this conclusion that animals suddenly supplied with an excess of food, or when rendered very fat, and that most plants when suddenly removed from very poor to very rich soil, are rendered more or less sterile. We might, therefore, expect that civilised men, who in one sense are highly domesticated, would 133be more prolific than wild men. It is also probable that the increased fertility of civilised nations would become, as with our domestic animals, an inherited character: it is at least known that with mankind a tendency to produce twins runs in families.192

  Notwithstanding that savages appear to be less prolific than civilised people, they would no doubt rapidly increase if their numbers were not by some means rigidly kept down. The Santali, or hill-tribes of India, have recently afforded a good illustration of this fact; for they have increased, as shewn by Mr. Hunter,193 at an extraordinary rate since vaccination has been introduced, other pestilences mitigated, and war sternly repressed. This increase, however, would not have been possible had not these rude people spread into the adjoining districts and worked for hire. Savages almost always marry; yet there is some prudential restraint, for they do not commonly marry at the earliest possible age. The young men are often required to show that they can support a wife, and they generally have first to earn the price with which to purchase her from her parents. With savages the difficulty of obtaining subsistence occasionally limits their number in a much more direct manner than with civilised people, for all tribes periodically suffer from severe famines. At such times savages are forced to devour much bad food, and their health can hardly fail to be injured. Many accounts have been published of their p
rotruding stomachs and emaciated limbs after and during famines. They are then, also, compelled to wander much about, and their infants, as I was assured in Australia, perish 134in large numbers. As famines are periodical, depending chiefly on extreme seasons, all tribes must fluctuate in number. They cannot steadily and regularly increase, as there is no artificial increase in the supply of food. Savages when hardly pressed encroach on each other’s territories, and war is the result; but they are indeed almost always at war with their neighbours. They are liable to many accidents on land and water in their search for food; and in some countries they must suffer much from the larger beasts of prey. Even in India, districts have been depopulated by the ravages of tigers.

  Malthus has discussed these several checks, but he does not lay stress enough on what is probably the most important of all, namely infanticide, especially of female infants, and the habit of procuring abortion. These practices now prevail in many quarters of the world, and infanticide seems formerly to have prevailed, as Mr. M’Lennan194 has shewn, on a still more extensive scale. These practices appear to have originated in savages recognising the difficulty, or rather the impossibility of supporting all the infants that are born. Licentiousness may also be added to the foregoing checks; but this does not follow from failing means of subsistence; though there is reason to believe that in some cases (as in Japan) it has been intentionally encouraged as a means of keeping down the population.