CHAPTER XXIV.
BEARING OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN, AND HIS PLACE IN THE CREATION.
WHETHER MAN CAN BE REGARDED AS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE IF THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION BE EMBRACED FOR THE REST OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM—ZOOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF MAN TO OTHER MAMMALIA—SYSTEMS OF CLASSIFICATION—TERM QUADRUMANOUS, WHY DECEPTIVE—WHETHER THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN BRAIN ENTITLES MAN TO FORM A DISTINCT SUB-CLASS OF THE MAMMALIA—INTELLIGENCE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS COMPARED TO THE INTELLECT AND REASON OF MAN—GROUNDS ON WHICH MAN HAS BEEN REFERRED TO A DISTINCT KINGDOM OF NATURE—IMMATERIAL PRINCIPLE COMMON TO MAN AND ANIMALS—NON-DISCOVERY OF INTERMEDIATE LINKS AMONG FOSSIL ANTHROPOMORPHOUS SPECIES—HALLAM ON THE COMPOUND NATURE OF MAN, AND HIS PLACE IN THE CREATION—GREAT INEQUALITY OF MENTAL ENDOWMENT IN DIFFERENT HUMAN RACES AND INDIVIDUALS DEVELOPED BY VARIATION AND ORDINARY GENERATION—HOW FAR A CORRESPONDING DIVERGENCE IN PHYSICAL STRUCTURE MAY RESULT FROM THE WORKING OF THE SAME CAUSES—CONCLUDING REMARKS.
SOME of the opponents of transmutation, who are well versed in Natural History, admit that though that doctrine is untenable, it is not without its practical advantages as a 'useful working hypothesis,' often suggesting good experiments and observations, and aiding us to retain in the memory a multitude of facts respecting the geographical distribution of genera, and species, both of animals and plants, and the succession in time of organic remains, and many other phenomena which, but for such a theory, would be wholly without a common bond of relationship.
It is in fact conceded by many eminent zoologists and
