REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 1. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. By C. DARWIN. John Murray, London. 2. 3. On the Genesis of Species. By ST GEORGE MIVART, F.R.S. On Natural Selection. By A. R. WALLACE. Second edition. THOSE who have read the philosophical work through which Mr Darwin is best known to the public with the care it deserves, will not be surprised to learn that he had during many years been collecting notes on the descent of man without any intention of publishing, but rather with the determination not to publish anything on the subject, lest what he wrote on that subject should add to the prejudices against his views. A still larger number of people who talk of Mr Darwin's theory as though they had read the Origin of Species without having done so, will be surprised to find that the descent of man, which they have all along assumed to be the main feature of his previous work, was the very one which he purposely and studiously avoided. Very superficial as well as very profound minds adopt the maxim, "The proper study of mankind is man,” and the undiscriminating public summarizes its ignorance by supposing that Darwin wrote a book to prove that man is descended from the gorilla. By this rough and ready supposition they of course shew that they know nothing either of the matter or manner of the theory of natural selection. The object of Mr Darwin's reticence, which was to disarm prejudice, has therefore been but very partially attained. If he wished to escape the odium theologicum by his omission to reason from phenomena found in that species which is "the wonder and glory of the universe," or to apply his reasoning to it, he can scarcely be said to have succeeded. Till the publication of this his latest work his attitude towards those who oppose themselves to his theory, from the mistaken notion that it is incompatible with other truths which they hold with great tenacity and with which they are better acquainted than with the facts and truths with which Mr Darwin deals, has been altogether exemplary.. With the exception of the large and designed omission above referred to, his attitude was not indeed conciliatory towards the orthodox, for truth is not conciliatory, but it was never arrogant, presumptuous, or dogmatic; never failed in candour, caution, and moderation. Why both the thinking and unthinking should have jumped so universally to the conclusion that Mr Darwin held precisely the same theory with regard to the derivative origin of man which he enunciated concerning the origin of other species, when he was resolutely silent on the point, is not obvious. It is true that some similar facts to those on which he based his reasoning were to be found in man's well-studied physical frame; but, on the other hand, forcible arguments in favour of natural selection left him untouched, and difficulties which do not present themselves to the derivative origin of other animals are patent in his case. The very potent arguments derived from geographical distribution, and from the relation of recent geological fauna to the existing inhabitants of the areas where these are found, had no application to man, for man has penetrated everywhere, and no fossil ape has been found which bears a nearer resemblance to him than do the extant apes with which he has been compared. Again, the mental and moral and even the physical constitution of man present some very awkward problems for solution to the advocates of his derivative origin from a lower form. Not only were there grounds for the acceptance of a theory of natural selection so far as animals were concerned while that theory was held to be inadequate to account for the existence of man, but such a doctrine has been actually enunciated by Mr Wallace, by whom the theory of natural selection was first foreshadowed. The public however was right in its assumption, and Mr Darwin has declared his conclusion that man is derived by lineal descent from a lower form not only as clearly and distinctly as we could wish, but as authoritatively and dogmatically as he has propounded the other parts of his theory modestly and temperately. Mr Darwin writes: "The main conclusion arrived at in this work and now held by many naturalists who are competent to form a sound judgment, is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. The ground upon which this conclusion rests will never be shaken. It is incredible that all these facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation.' In his speculation as to the genealogical descent of man and the way in which he emerges from the ancestral tree of the animal creation, Mr Darwin is almost wholly guided by the rudimentary organs found in man. Mr Darwin is quite consistent in this method. No doubt rudimentary organs which are functionless in one species and have dwindled almost to nothing, but are developed and have a palpable use in other allied forms, present the greatest difficulties to those who do not believe in a derivative origin of species, and also afford the strongest support to the selection theory. After enumerating the aborted organs, the transient and foetal structures, and the often recurring abnormalities found in man, the author works out his theory of origin almost strictly in accordance with the plan of associating the ancestors of man proximately with those species which possess the most of these analogous structures, and so on to those larger divisions in which a fewer number of them have a wider distribution. This plan is, no doubt, philosophical, but it leads the author into some strange speculations. By similar reasoning it is demonstrable that our ancestors were hermaphrodite, and, that long after they had ceased to be so both sexes yielded milk to nourish their young, and perhaps carried them in marsupial sacs. Many of these structures, which on the Darwinian hypothesis must be considered as heirlooms of the species of wondrous antiquity, which man does not cherish but which he cannot lose, and which, like the the slave of the triumphant emperor, will through long ages check his pride with the reminder, "Thou also art a beast," will be remembered by all. As examples of transient organs, the lunago or hairy covering of the foetus, extending all over the body except on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet; the clefts in the neck of the embryo, with the early fish-like disposition of the great vessels proceeding from the heart; the corpora wolffiana and chorda dorsalis may be mentioned. The rudimentary structure which will occur to every one are the cæcum, fragmentary relics of the panniculus of which the plastyrma myoides is the most remarkable, and the nictitating membrane of the eye. The evidence of a tail rests on a double foundation derived from both classes, for the excert termination longer than the limbs in the fœtus may be called a transient structure, while the coccygeal bones which support it after it is included are certainly rudiments. Mr Darwin cites sixteen or seventeen such structures, and there is little that is novel in the citation. The solitary novel feature, which is brought out in a peculiarly Darwinian style, is the point of the ear. the point which of all others will be marked by the public. the feature which will be seized upon by the popular instinct. already run through society like flame among the heather. of ladies, as they sit at the social table, have ceased to "blush at the praise of their own loveliness" and learned to redden as they tell the tale of their own origin. It may be confidently predicted that Darwin's ear will become as notorious as that of Jenkins. This is This is It has The ears By following out the suggestions which these aborted organs and transient structures embody in a somewhat crude and servile manner, it is easy to see that Mr Darwin could arrive at no other conclusion but that man is a lineal descendant, proximately, of "a hairy quadruped furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habits and an inhabitant of the Old World," remotely, "of an animal more like the larvæ of existing ascidians" (living sacs) "than any other known form." In judging of the portion of the work in which the descent of man is thus traced from the phenomena of his physical frame alone, it must be remembered that Mr Darwin stands, and professes to stand, on a different platform from that which he occupied when discussing the origin of species generally. In his introduction he speaks of his theory as having been adopted by a large number of naturalists, and he treats this theory as though it were accepted and demonstrated. If it were not recognised that Mr Darwin is, in the present work, following a deductive process of which the "Origin" was the converse inductive one, all would certainly pronounce this part of the work very unsatisfactory. The physical phenomena which tell against the theory of man's descent are scarcely touched upon, or dismissed with a few remarks which shew little grasp of their logical bearings upon the discussion. Take as an instance of this the very scanty treatment of the phenomena of arrested development. Arrested development as distinguished from arrested growth might be expected, on a priori grounds, to cast a flood of light on the early condition of the species. In the structures which present arre ted development, we have the work of the microscope and of the museum done for the investigator, and done in a more perfect way than he could possibly perform it. In these structures we might expect to find early conditions of an organ enlarged, and, being still included in the living organism, offering themselves to direct experiment not only as to their intimate structure, but also as to their function. Some of these, such, for instance, as flat-nose and epispadias, may corroborate the theory, but very many others, like cleft palate, ectopia vesicæ, imperforate anus, hypospadias, spina bifida, sternal fissures, seem to give quite a contrary testimony. Doubtless these problems, which nature herself propounds, may admit of solutions which leave this theory of the descent of man unimpaired, and "pangenesis" may be such a solution; but surely the matter not only admits of but requires discussion. It is by no means clear why cleft palate is so often asymmetrical. According to Mr Darwin's theory every transient condition of an organ is not only a means to an end, but once was an end in itself; but, on the other hand, in many cases of arrest of development, we have the end known and the means patent, but the latter so presented as to shew that it never could have been anything else but a means to accomplish the very end of which it failed To dismiss the whole of this subject with the remark that microcephalous idiots are prognathous and fond of running on all-fours, seems unworthy of the author of the Origin of Species. Mr Darwin's defence no doubt is that his more recent works are the amplification of his grand sketch-the application of a demonstration established elsewhere the synthesis of his former analysis;-nevertheless, after all the admissions in Mr Darwin's favour with regard to the matter of his present treatise, there is a falling off from the superlative excellence of his other works, as to the manner of it, in the direction of the faults of crudity and dogmatism, which discordant faults are so often combined in the productions of less careful authors. Mr Darwin's doctrine, of course, involves metaphysical and moral problems hard to solve and demonstrate, but the author seems to consider the difficulty arises from the solutions and demonstrations being hard to find, and not because the doctrine which involves them is, in the least degree, doubtful. Mr Darwin admits that the difference between the highest apes and the lowest savage is immense, and this mental severance suggests some error in the conclusion to which the study of his bodily structure has led him; but, in shewing that memory, imagination and reason are possessed by brutes, Mr Darwin does not address himself with sufficient attention to the most difficult step in the problem of mental evolution. Rightly or wrongly the power of forming, and reasoning upon, abstract ideas has been thought to be a faculty differing not only in degree but also in kind from any exhibited by brutes; and here is the gulf Mr Darwin ought to have bridged. Doubtless, much might be written to show that the power of abstraction is intimately associated with the use of language, and is dependent rather upon the rapidity and precision of ordinary processes of thought than an evidence of a different power, but Mr Darwin has contributed nothing, or next to nothing, to this demonstration. The matter which appears under the head of "abstraction," and which is almost exhausted by the comparison of an old hound reflecting on the pleasures of the chase, and the Australian wife who uses hardly any abstract words, and cannot count above four, is quite inadequate, and rests upon a positive assumption with regard to the brute and a negative one with regard to the woman which are quite unproved. That other great problem of the evolution of the moral sense is treated with far greater ability, and one of the most interesting chapters of the work is devoted to an explanation of the production of the human conscience. The existence of the moral sense in man is traced to those social instincts which man has in common with ali gregarious animals. The strengthening and growth of the memory and judgment would enable man to compare his past actions, and the more abiding satisfaction of acts prompted by some motives as compared with those prompted by others would create a distinction between the higher and the lower law, or motive, which is all that some modern moralists require. "Ultimately a highly complex sentiment having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in the later times by deep religious feeling, confirmed by instruction and habit all combined, constitute our moral sense or conscience." It is unfortunate that the subject of the first portion of the work is so very fascinating to the public that it quite overshadows the far more valuable portion which treats of sexual selection. In dealing with this subject Mr Darwin is himself again. Here caution again tempers his courage, and a manifest candour in stating the whole case gives weight to his conclusions. Again, we have, as in the Domestication of Animals, a repertory of facts, carefully collected from the whole range of the animal kingdom. The dogmatic is once more exchanged for the inductive style. The writer endeavoured to point out the difficulties which the phenomena of beauty presented to the acceptance of the theory of natural selection even when supplemented by the theory of sexual selection, in a review of Mr Wallace's book which appeared in the last No. of this Journal, and also in some critical notices of that and the present work of Mr Darwin which appeared in the British Quarterly Review, from which a few of the sentences which follow are transcribed. "Beauty as distinguished from use has always been a stumblingblock to the disciples of the natural selection school. That which, in any species, pleases our minds by the immediate agency of the senses, as distinguished from that which is of service to that species in adapting it to external conditions, is quite unaccounted for by the survival of the fittest, at least so far as wild and untamed species are concerned. Some evolutionists would cut the knot by denying the evidence of beauty apart from fitness. Suitability, symmetry, conspicuousness, and an imposing appearance, are, no doubt, desiderata which |