and Huxley have mooted such questions; but the geologist will answer them in full some day, when facts have accumulated and been reasoned on; and, with a safe footing on sound principles, he will cautiously advance further and further from the known to the unknown. Thus, in disentangling the difficulties as to the relative age of some Tertiary beds in Java, India, and Europe, Mr. Jenkins has lately shown, that with a mere handful of fossil shells from the Eastern Archipelago, retaining among themselves many characters found in the Miocene shells of Europe, there is good evidence of their later date. (Jour. Geol. Soc. Feb. 1864.) So much for the history of the globe and its component parts. How geological knowledge is useful to society we need not stay to show. That Geology ranks highly as a science, though not yet crowned with perfection, is self-evident; that she helps her sistersciences, helping her, none better than the chemist, the zoologist, and botanist can tell; and every Natural History fact recorded well, and well worked out and reasoned on, will throw light on some dark spot in the Earth's history. XLV. "NATURAL SELECTION" APPLIED TO MAN. THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN RACES AND THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN THIS highly original and most interesting paper was read by Mr. Wallace at a meeting of the Anthropological Society of London in April last, and is printed in a recent number of the Anthropological Review. However little we may be inclined to agree with the somewhat utopian reflections Mr. Wallace indulges in, at the conclusion of his argument upon the future of the human race, all must, we think, admit that the bearings of this paper upon the past history of mankind are most important; and, as such, we make no scruples in presenting a full abstract of it to our readers. Mr. Wallace begins his essay by adverting to the wide difference of opinion as to the origin of the races or varieties of man, which is so radical as to have led to the establishment of the two schools of the 1 monogenists and the polygenists. The chief arguments of each are then stated, and the author gives as his opinion that the evidence hitherto adduced is in favour of the polygenists, because, however far we may trace back the chief races of man, either by the light of history, by early works of art, or by human remains, we do not find proof that they ever approximated more closely to each other or that any of their distinctive characteristics were yet undeveloped; as would certainly be the case if they had all sprung from a common stock at a comparatively recent epoch. -we All adherents to the modern doctrine of the "origin of species" must, however, on its general principles be convinced of the common origin of the varieties of man; and many of them, among whom our author evidently ranks himself, would extend their views much further and maintain the common origin of man and the lower animals. But here a new difficulty presents itself, for not only is there no visible approximation of the varieties of man to each other in the historical and immediately antecedent periods, but at that still earlier epoch to which recent discoveries have with some probability carried back the existence of the human race, when Europe was inhabited by mammalia, many of which have been since replaced by other forms, man appears to have been essentially the same as he is now. His cranium had capacity for a fully human brain, and he exhibited as much skill in fashioning weapons, as much care and as much sentiment in burying his dead, as are now found in the lower races of mankind. The persistency of physical characters in man, under varying conditions, does not apply merely to his varieties or races as compared with those of domestic animals, but to the species as compared with the higher mammalia. Man is therefore older than many of the land-quadrupeds that now surround him ; they have changed their specific forms with the changing physical conditions of Europe, while he has remained specifically unchanged. The author believes that an investigation of the manner in which "Natural Selection" acts respectively on man and animals will explain this anomaly, will reconcile the conflicting evidence as to the origin of races, and throw some light on the question of man's antiquity as a species. Before entering upon this comparison the mode of action of "Natural Selection" is explained and illustrated by examples, and the absolute necessity of its results strongly insisted As, however, we presume that the readers of the Natural History Review are all too well acquainted with the "Origin of on. Species" to want their memories refreshed on this subject, we will come at once to the main subject of the paper-the comparison of the mode of action of "Natural Selection" on animals and on man. The irresistible power of "Natural Selection" over the lower animals depends, says Mr. Wallace, "mainly upon their self-dependence and individual isolation. A slight injury or a temporary illness will often end in death, because it leaves the individual powerless against its enemies. If a herbivorous animal is sick and weak and the herd is then pursued by a beast of prey, our poor invalid inevitably falls a victim. So in a carnivorous animal, the least deficiency of vigour prevents its capturing food and it soon dies of starvation. There is, as a general rule, no mutual assistance between adult animals which enables them to tide over a period of sickness. Neither is there any division of labour; each must fulfil all the conditions of its existence, and therefore "Natural Selection" keeps all up to a pretty uniform standard. "But in man as we now behold him this is different. He is social and sympathetic. In the rudest tribes the sick are assisted at least with food,-less robust health and vigour than the average does not entail death. Neither does the want of perfect limbs or other organs produce the same effects as among animals. Some division of labour takes place; the swiftest hunt, the less active fish or gather fruits; food is to some extent exchanged or divided. The action of Natural Selection' is therefore checked, the weaker, the dwarfish, those of less active limbs or less piercing eyesight, do not suffer the extreme penalty which falls upon animals so defective. "In proportion as these physical characteristics become of less importance, mental and moral qualities will have increasing influence on the well being of the race. Capacity for acting in concert, for protection, and for the acquisition of food and shelter,-sympathy, which leads all in turn to assist each other, the sense of right, which checks depredations upon our fellows, the decrease of the combative and destructive propensities,-self-restraint in present appetites and that intelligent foresight which prepares for the future, -are all qualities that from their earliest appearance must have been for the benefit of each community and would, therefore, have become the subjects of Natural Selection.' For it is evident that such qualities would be for the well being of man,-would guard him against external enemies, against internal dissensions, and against the effects of inclement seasons and impending famine, more surely than could any merely physical modifications. Tribes in which such mental and moral qualities were predominant would therefore have an advantage in the struggle for existence over other tribes in which they were less developed,-would live and maintain their numbers while the others would decrease and finally succumb. "Again, when any slow changes of physical geography or of climate make it necessary for any animal to alter its food, its clothing, or its weapons, it can only do so by a corresponding change in its own bodily structure and internal organization. If a larger or more powerful beast is to be captured and devoured, as when a carnivorous animal which has hitherto preyed on sheep is obliged from their decreasing numbers to attack buffaloes, it is only the strongest who can hold, those with most powerful claws and formidable canine teeth that can struggle with and overcome, such an animal. Natural selection immediately comes into play and these organs become adapted to their new requirements. But man under similar circumstances does not require longer nails or teeth, greater bodily strength or swiftness. He makes sharper spears or a better bow, or he constructs a cunning pitfall, or combines in a hunting party to circumvent his new prey. The capacities which enable him to do this are what he requires to be strengthened, and these will, therefore, be gradually modified by Natural Selection,' while the form and structure of his body will remain unchanged. So when a glacial epoch comes on, some animals must acquire warmer fur or a covering of fat, or else die of cold. Those best clothed by nature are therefore preserved by Natural Selection.' Man under the same circumstances will make himself warmer clothing, and build better houses, and the necessity of doing this will react upon his mental organization and social condition,—will advance them while his natural body remains naked as before. "When the accustomed food of some animal becomes scarce or totally fails, it can only exist by becoming adapted to a new kind of food, a food perhaps less nourishing and less digestible. Natural Selection' will now act upon the stomach and intestines, and all their individual variations will be taken advantage of to modify the race into harmony with its new food. In many cases, however, it is probable that this cannot be done. The internal organs may not vary quick enough, and then the animal will decrease in numbers and finally become extinct. But man guards himself from such accidents by superintending and guiding the operations of nature. He plants the seed of his most agreeable food, and thus procures a supply independent of the accidents of varying seasons and natural extinction. He domesticates animals which serve him either to capture food or for food itself, and thus changes of any great extent in his teeth or digestive organs are rendered unnecessary. Man too has every where the use of fire, and by its means can render palatable a variety of animal and vegetable substances which he could hardly otherwise make use of, and thus obtains for himself a supply of food far more varied and abundant than that which any animal can command. "Thus man, by the mere capacity of clothing himself, and making weapons and tools, has taken away from nature that power of changing the external form and structure which she exercises over all other animals. As the competing races by which they are surrounded, the climate, the vegetation, or the animals which serve them for food, are slowly changing, they must undergo a corresponding change in their structure, habits and constitution, to keep them in harmony with the new conditions,-to enable them to live and maintain their numbers. But man does this by means of his intellect alone, which enables him with an unchanged body still to keep in harmony with the changing universe. - "From the time, therefore, when the social and sympathetic feelings came into active operation, and the intellectual and moral faculties became fairly developed, man would cease to be influenced by 'Natural Selection' in his physical form and structure ;—as an animal he would remain almost stationary ;-the changes of the surrounding universe would cease to have upon him that powerful modifying effect which it exercises over other parts of the organic world. But from the moment that his body became stationary his mind would become subject to those very influences from which his body had escaped,— every slight variation in his mental and moral nature which should enable him better to guard against adverse circumstances and to combine for mutual comfort and protection, would be preserved and accumulated; the better and higher specimens of our race would, therefore, increase and spread, the lower and more brutal would give way and successively die out, and that steady advancement of mental organization would occur, which has raised the very lowest races of man so far above the brutes, (although differing so little from some of them in physical structure) and, in conjunction with scarcely |
