The Descent of Man Read online

  134 Tennyson, ‘Idylls of the King,’ p. 244.

  135 ‘The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus,’ Eng. translat., 2nd edit., 1869, p. 112. Marcus Aurelius was born A.D. 121.

  136 Letter to Mr. Mill in Bain’s ‘Mental and Moral Science,’ 1868, p. 722.

  137 A writer in the ‘North British Review’ (July, 1869, p. 531), well capable of forming a sound judgment, expresses himself strongly to this effect. Mr. Lecky (‘Hist. of Morals,’ vol. i. p. 143) seems to a certain extent to coincide.

  138 See his remarkable work on ‘Hereditary Genius,’ 1869, p. 349. The Duke of Argyll (‘Primeval Man,’ 1869, p. 188) has some good remarks on the contest in man’s nature between right and wrong.

  139 ‘The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius,’ &c., p. 139.

  140 ‘Investigations in Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers,’ by B. A. Gould, 1869, p. 256.

  141 With respect to the “Cranial forms of the American aborigines,” see Dr. Aitken Meigs in ‘Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.’ Philadelphia, May, 1866. On the Australians, see Huxley, in Lyell’s ‘Antiquity of Man,’ 1863, p. 87. On the Sandwich Islanders, Prof. J. Wyman, ‘Observations on Crania,’ Boston, 1868, p. 18.

  142 ‘Anatomy of the Arteries,’ by R. Quain.

  143 ‘Transact. Royal Soc.’ Edinburgh, vol. xxiv. p. 175, 189.

  144 ‘Proc. Royal Soc.’ 1867, p. 544; also 1868, p. 483, 524. There is a previous paper, 1866, p. 229.

  145 ‘Proc. R. Irish Academy,’ vol. x. 1868, p. 141.

  146 ‘Act. Acad.,’ St. Petersburg, 1778, part ii. p. 217.

  147 Brehm, ‘Thierleben,’ B. i. s. 58, 87. Rengger, ‘Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ s. 57.

  148 ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii. chap. xii.

  149 ‘Hereditary Genius: an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences,’ 1869.

  150 Mr. Bates remarks (‘The Naturalist on the Amazons,’ 1863, vol. ii. p. 159), with respect to the Indians of the same S. American tribe, “no two of them were at all similar in the shape of the head; one man had an oval visage with fine features, and another was quite Mongolian in breadth and prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and obliquity of eyes.”

  151 Blumenbach, ‘Treatises on Anthropolog.’ Eng. translat., 1865, p. 205.

  152 Godron, ‘De l’Espèce,’ 1859, tom. ii. livre 3. Quatrefages, ‘Unité de l’Espèce Humaine,’ 1861. Also Lectures on Anthropology, given in the ‘Revue des Cours Scientifiques,’ 1866-1868.

  153 ‘Hist. Gen. et Part. des Anomalies de l’Organisation,’ in three volumes, tom. i. 1832.

  154 I have fully discussed these laws in my ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii. chap. xxii. and xxiii. M. J. P. Durand has lately 1868; published a valuable essay ‘De l’Influence des Milieux, &c.’ He lays much stress on the nature of the soil.

  155 ‘Investigations in Military and Anthrop. Statistics,’ &c. 1869, by B. A. Gould, p. 93, 107, 126, 131, 134.

  156 For the Polynesians, see Prichard’s ‘Physical Hist. of Mankind,’ vol. v. 1847, p. 145, 283. Also Godron, ‘De l’Espèce,’ tom. ii. p. 289. There is also a remarkable difference in appearance between the closely-allied Hindoos inhabiting the Upper Ganges and Bengal; see Elphinstone’s 'History of India,’ vol. i. p. 324.

  157 ‘Memoirs, Anthropolog. Soc.’ vol. iii. 1867-69, p. 561, 565, 567.

  158 Dr. Brakenridge, ‘Theory of Diathesis,’ ‘Medical Times,’ June 19 and July 17, 1869.

  159 I have given authorities for these several statements in my ‘Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 297-300. Dr. Jaeger, “Ueber das Längenwachsthum der Knochen,” ‘Jenaischen Zeitschrift,’ B. v. Heft i.

  160 ‘Investigations,’ &c. By B. A. Gould, 1869, p. 288.

  161 ‘Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ 1830, s. 4.

  162 ‘History of Greenland,’ Eng. translat. 1767, vol. i. p. 230.

  163 ‘Intermarriage.’ By Alex. Walker, 1838. p. 377.

  164 ‘The Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. i. p. 173.

  165 ‘Principles of Biology,’ vol. i. p. 455.

  166 Paget, ‘Lectures on Surgical Pathology,’ vol. i. 1853, p. 209.

  167 ‘The Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. i. p. 8.

  168 ‘Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ s. 8, 10. I have had good opportunities for observing the extraordinary power of eyesight in the Fuegians.’ See also Lawrence (‘Lectures on Physiology,’ &c., 1822, p. 404) on this same subject. M. Giraud-Teulon has recently collected (‘Revue des Cours Scientifiques,’ 1870, p. 625) a large and valuable body of evidence proving that the cause of short-sight, “C’est le travail assidu, de près.”

  169 Prichard, ‘Phys. Hist. of Mankind,’ on the authority of Blumenbach, vol. i. 1851, p. 311; for the statement by Pallas, vol. iv. 1844, p. 407.

  170 Quoted by Prichard, ‘Researches into the Phys. Hist. of Mankind,’ vol. v. p. 463.

  171 Mr. Forbes’ valuable paper is now published in the ‘Journal of the Ethnological Soc. of London,’ new series, vol. ii. 1870, p. 193.

  172 Dr. Wilckens (‘Landwirthschaft. Wochenblatt,’ No. 10, 1869) has lately published an interesting essay shewing how domestic animals, which live in mountainous regions, have their frames modified.

  173 ‘Mémoire sur les Microcéphales,’ 1867, p. 50, 125, 169, 171, 184-198.

  174 See Dr. A. Farre’s well-known article in the ‘Cyclop. of Anat. and Phys.’ vol. v. 1859, p. 642. Owen ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. 1868, p. 687. Prof. Turner in ‘Edinburgh Medical Journal,’ Feb. 1865.

  175 ‘Annuario della Soc. dei Naturalisti in Modena,’ 1867, p. 83. Prof. Canestrini gives extracts on this subject from various authorities. Laurillard remarks, that as he has found a complete similarity in the form, proportions, and connexion of the two malar bones in several human subjects and in certain apes, he cannot consider this disposition of the parts as simply accidental.

  176 A whole series of cases is given by Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 'Hist. des Anomalies,’ tom. iii. p. 437.

  177 In my ‘Variation of Animals under Domestication’ (vol. ii. p. 57) I attributed the not very rare cases of supernumerary mammæ in women to reversion. I was led to this as a probable conclusion, by the additional mammæ being generally placed symmetrically on the breast, and more especially from one case, in which a single efficient mamma occurred in the inguinal region of a woman, the daughter of another woman with supernumerary mammæ. But Prof. Preyer (‘Der Kampf um das Dasein,’ 1869, s. 45) states that mammæ erraticæ have been known to occur in other situations, even on the back; so that the force of my argument is greatly weakened or perhaps quite destroyed.

  With much hesitation I, in the same work (vol. ii. p. 12), attributed the frequent cases of polydactylism in men to reversion. I was partly led to this through Prof. Owen’s statement, that some of the Ichthyopterygia possess more than five digits, and therefore, as I supposed, had retained a primordial condition; but after reading Prof. Gegenbaur’s paper (‘Jenaischen Zeitschrift,’ B. v. Heft 3, s. 341), who is the highest authority in Europe on such a point, and who disputes Owen’s conclusion, I see that it is extremely doubtful whether supernumerary digits can thus be accounted for. It was the fact that such digits not only frequently occur and are strongly inherited, but have the power of regrowth after amputation, like the normal digits of the lower vertebrata, that chiefly led me to the above conclusion. This extraordinary fact of their regrowth remains inexplicable, if the belief in reversion to some extremely remote progenitor must be rejected. I cannot, however, follow Prof. Gegenbaur in supposing that additional digits could not reappear through reversion, without at the same time other parts of the skeleton being simultaneously and similarly modified; for single characters often reappear through reversion.

  178 ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. 1868, p. 323.

  179 ‘Generelle Morphologie,’ 1866, B. ii. s. clv.

  180 Carl Vogt’s
‘Lectures on Man,’ Eng. translat. 1864, p. 151.

  181 C. Carter Blake, on a jaw from La Naulette, ‘Anthropolog. Review,’ 1867, p. 295. Schaaffhausen, ibid. 1868, p. 426.

  182 ‘The Anatomy of Expression,’ 1844, p. 110, 131.

  183 Quoted by Prof. Canestrini in the ‘Annuario,’ &c., 1867, p. 90.

  184 These papers deserve careful study by any one who desires to learn how frequently our muscles vary, and in varying come to resemble those of the Quadrumana. The following references relate to the few points touched on in my text: vol. xiv. 1865, p. 379-384; vol. xv. 1866, p. 241, 242; vol. xv. 1867, p. 544; vol. xvi. 1868, p. 524. I may here add that Dr. Murie and Mr. St. George Mivart have shewn in their Memoir on the Lemuroidea (‘Transact. Zoolog. Soc.’ vol. vii. 1869, p. 96), how extraordinarily variable some of the muscles are in these animals, the lowest members of the Primates. Gradations, also, in the muscles leading to structures found in animals still lower in the scale, are numerous in the Lemuroidea.

  185 Prof. Macalister in ‘Proc. R. Irish Academy,’ vol. x. 1868, p. 124.

  186 Prof. Macalister (ibid. p. 121) has tabulated his observations, and finds that muscular abnormalities are most frequent in the fore-arms, secondly in the face, thirdly in the foot, &c.

  187 The Rev. Dr. Haughton, after giving (‘Proc. R. Irish Academy,’ June 27, 1864, p. 715) a remarkable case of variation in the human flexor pollicis longus, adds, “This remarkable example shews that man may sometimes possess the arrangement of tendons of thumb and fingers characteristic of the macaque; but whether such a case should be regarded as a macaque passing upwards into a man, or a man passing downwards into a macaque, or as a congenital freak of nature, I cannot undertake to say.” It is satisfactory to hear so capable an anatomist, and so embittered an opponent of evolutionism, admitting even the possibility of either of his first propositions. Prof. Macalister has also described (‘Proc. R. Irish Acad.’ vol. x. 1864, p. 138) variations in the flexor pollicis longus, remarkable from their relations to the same muscle in the Quadrumana.

  188 The authorities for these several statements are given in my 'Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 320-335.

  189 This whole subject has been discussed in chap. xxiii. vol. ii. of my ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.’

  190 See the ever memorable ‘Essay on the Principle of Population,’ by the Rev. T. Malthus, vol. i. 1826, p. 6, 517.

  191 ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 111-113, 163.

  192 Mr. Sedgwick, ‘British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg. Review,’ July, 1863, p. 170.

  193 ‘The Annals of Rural Bengal,’ by W. W. Hunter, 1868, p. 259.

  194 ‘Primitive Marriage,’ 1865.

  195 See some good remarks to this effect by W. Stanley Jevons, “A Deduction from Darwin’s Theory,” ‘Nature,’ 1869, p. 231.

  196 Latham, ‘Man and his Migrations,’ 1851, p. 135.

  197 Messrs. Murie and Mivart in their “Anatomy of the Lemuroidea” (‘Transact. Zoolog. Soc.’ vol. vii. 1869, p. 96-98) say, “some muscles are so irregular in their distribution that they cannot be well classed in any of the above groups.” These muscles differ even on the opposite sides of the same individual.

  198 ‘Quarterly Review,’ April, 1869, p. 392. This subject is more fully discussed in Mr. Wallace’s ‘Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,’ 1870, in which all the essays referred to in this work are republished. The ‘Essay on Man’ has been ably criticised by Prof. Claparède, one of the most distinguished zoologists in Europe, in an article published in the ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ June, 1870. The remark quoted in my text will surprise every one who has read Mr. Wallace’s celebrated paper on ‘The Origin of Human Races deduced from the Theory of Natural Selection,’ originally published in the ‘Anthropological Review,’ May, 1864, p. clviii. I cannot here resist quoting a most just remark by Sir J. Lubbock (‘Prehistoric Times,’ 1865, p. 479) in reference to this paper, namely, that Mr. Wallace, “with characteristic unselfishness, ascribes it (i.e. the idea of natural selection) unreservedly to Mr. Darwin, although, as is well known, he struck out the idea independently, and published it, though not with the same elaboration, at the same time.”

  199 Quoted by Mr. Lawson Tait in his “Law of Natural Selection,”—‘Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science,’ Feb. 1869. Dr. Keller is likewise quoted to the same effect.

  200 Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 71.

  201 ‘Quarterly Review,’ April, 1869, p. 392.

  202 In Hylobates syndactylus, as the name expresses, two of the digits regularly cohere; and this, as Mr. Blyth informs me, is occasionally the case with the digits of H. agilis, lar, and leuciscus.

  203 Brehm, ‘Thierleben,’ B. i. s. 80.

  204 “The Hand, its mechanism,” &c. ‘Bridgewater Treatise,’ 1833, p. 38.

  205 Häckel has an excellent discussion on the steps by which man became a biped: ‘Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte,’ 1868, s. 507. Dr. Büchner (‘Conférences sur la Théorie Darwinienne,’ 1869, p. 135) has given good cases of the use of the foot as a prehensile organ by man; also on the manner of progression of the higher apes to which I allude in the following paragraph: see also Owen (‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 71) on this latter subject.

  206 “On the Primitive Form of the Skull,” translated in ‘Anthropological Review,’ Oct. 1868, p. 428. Owen (‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. ii. 1866, p. 551) on the mastoid processes in the higher apes.

  207 ‘Die Grenzen der Thierwelt, eine Betrachtung zu Darwin’s Lehre,’ 1868, s. 51.

  208 Dujardin, ‘Annales des Sc. Nat.’ 3rd series, Zoolog. tom. xiv. 1850, p. 203. See also Mr. Lowne, ‘Anatomy and Phys. of the Musca vomitoria,’ 1870, p. 14. My son, Mr. F. Darwin, dissected for me the cerebral ganglia of the Formica rufa.

  209 ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1869, p. 513.

  210 Quoted in C. Vogt’s ‘Lectures on Man,’ Eng. translat. 1864, p. 88, 90. Prichard, ‘Phys. Hist. of Mankind,’ vol. i. 1838, p. 305.

  211 ‘Comptes Rendus des Séances,’ &c. June 1, 1868.

  212 ‘The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 124-129.

  213 Schaaffhausen gives from Blumenbach and Busch, the cases of the spasms and cicatrix, in ‘Anthropolog. Review,’ Oct. 1868, p. 420. Dr. Jarrold (‘Anthropologia,’ 1808, p. 115, 116) adduces from Camper and from his own observations, cases of the modification of the skull from the head being fixed in an unnatural position. He believes that certain trades, such as that of a shoemaker, by causing the head to be habitually held forward, makes the forehead more rounded and prominent.

  214 ‘Variation of Animals,’ &c., vol. i. p. 117 on the elongation of the skull; p. 119, on the effect of the lopping of one ear.

  215 Quoted by Schaaffhausen, in ‘Anthropolog. Review,’ Oct. 1868, p. 419.

  216 Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 619.

  217 Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire remarks (‘Hist. Nat. Générale,’ tom. ii. 1859, p. 215-217) on the head of man being covered with long hair; also on the upper surfaces of monkeys and of other mammals being more thickly clothed than the lower surfaces. This has likewise been observed by various authors. Prof. P. Gervais (‘Hist. Nat. des Mammifères,’ tom. i. 1854, p. 28), however, states that in the Gorilla the hair is thinner on the back, where it is partly rubbed off, than on the lower surface.

  218 Mr. St. George Mivart, ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.’ 1865, p. 562, 583. Dr. J. E. Gray, ‘Cat. Brit. Mus.: Skeletons.’ Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. ii. p. 517. Isidore Geoffroy, ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.’ tom. ii. p. 244.

  219 ‘The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 280, 282.

  220 ‘Primeval Man,’ 1869, p. 66.

  221 ‘Anthropological Review,’ May, 1864, p. clviii.

  222 After a time the members or tribes which are absorbed into another tribe assume, as Mr.
Maine remarks (‘Ancient Law,’ 1861, p. 131), that they are the co-descendants of the same ancestors.

  223 Morlot, ‘Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat.’ 1860, p. 294.

  224 I have given instances in my ‘Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. ii. p. 196.

  225 See a remarkable series of articles on Physics and Politics in the 'Fortnightly Review,’ Nov. 1867; April 1, 1868; July 1, 1869.

  226 ‘Origin of Civilisation,’ 1870, p. 265.

  227 Mr. Wallace gives cases in his ‘Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,’ 1870, p. 354.

  228 ‘Ancient Law,’ 1861, p. 22. For Mr. Bagehot’s remarks, ‘Fortnightly Review,’ April 1, 1868, p. 452.