The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex Volume I Part 23

[276] 'Memoires de l'Acad. des Sciences de St. Petersbourg,'

tom. x. No. 15, 1866.

[277] This is the conclusion of one of the highest authorities in comparative anatomy, namely, Prof. Gegenbaur: 'Grundzuge der vergleich. Anat.' 1870, s. 876. The result has been arrived at chiefly from the study of the Amphibia; but it appears from the researches of Waldeyer (as quoted in Humphry's 'Journal of Anat. and Phys.' 1869, p. 161), that the s.e.xual organs of even "the higher vertebrata are, in their early condition, hermaphrodite." Similar views have long been held by some authors, though until recently not well based.

[278] The male Thylacinus offers the best instance. Owen, 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 771.

[279] Serra.n.u.s is well known often to be in an hermaphrodite condition; but Dr. Gunther informs me that he is convinced that this is not its normal state. Descent from an ancient androgynous prototype would, however, naturally favour and explain, to a certain extent, the recurrence of this condition in these fishes.

[280] Mr. Lockwood believes (as quoted in 'Quart. Journal of Science,' April, 1868, p. 269), from what he has observed of the development of Hippocampus, that the walls of the abdominal pouch of the male in some way afford nourishment. On male fishes hatching the ova in their mouths, see a very interesting paper by Prof. Wyman, in 'Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist.'

Sept. 15, 1857; also Prof. Turner, in 'Journal of Anat. and Phys.' Nov. 1, 1866, p. 78. Dr. Gunther has likewise described similar cases.

[281] All vital functions tend to run their course in fixed and recurrent periods, and with tidal animals the periods would probably be lunar; for such animals must have been left dry or covered deep with water,-supplied with copious food or stinted,-during endless generations, at regular lunar intervals. If then the Vertebrata are descended from an animal allied to the existing tidal Ascidians, the mysterious fact, that with the higher and now terrestrial Vertebrata, not to mention other cla.s.ses, many normal and abnormal vital processes run their course according to lunar periods, is rendered intelligible. A recurrent period, if approximately of the right duration, when once gained, would not, as far as we can judge, be liable to be changed; consequently it might be thus transmitted during almost any number of generations. This conclusion, if it could be proved sound, would be curious; for we should then see that the period of gestation in each mammal, and the hatching of each bird's eggs, and many other vital processes, still betrayed the primordial birthplace of these animals.

[282] 'History of India,' 1841, vol. i. p. 323. Father Ripa makes exactly the same remark with respect to the Chinese.

[283] A vast number of measurements of Whites, Blacks, and Indians, are given in the 'Investigations in the Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers,' by B. A. Gould, 1869, p. 298-358; on the capacity of the lungs, p. 471. See also the numerous and valuable tables, by Dr. Weisbach, from the observations of Dr. Scherzer and Dr. Schwarz, in the 'Reise der Novara: Anthropolog. Theil,' 1867.

[284] See, for instance, Mr. Marshall's account of the brain of a Bush-woman, in 'Phil. Transact.' 1864, p. 519.

[285] Wallace, 'The Malay Archipelago,' vol. ii. 1869, p. 178.

[286] With respect to the figures in the famous Egyptian caves of Abou-Simbel, M. Pouchet says ('The Plurality of the Human Races,' Eng. translat. 1864, p. 50), that he was far from finding recognisable representations of the dozen or more nations which some authors believe that they can recognise.

Even some of the most strongly-marked races cannot be identified with that degree of unanimity which might have been expected from what has been written on the subject. Thus Messrs. Nott and Gliddon ('Types of Mankind,' p. 148) state that Rameses II., or the Great, has features superbly European; whereas Knox, another firm believer in the specific distinction of the races of man ('Races of Man,' 1850, p. 201), speaking of young Memnon (the same person with Rameses II., as I am informed by Mr. Birch) insists in the strongest manner that he is identical in character with the Jews of Antwerp. Again, whilst looking in the British Museum with two competent judges, officers of the establishment, at the statue of Amunoph III., we agreed that he had a strongly negro cast of features; but Messrs. Nott and Gliddon (ibid. p. 146, fig. 53) describe him as "a hybrid, but not of negro intermixture."

[287] As quoted by Nott and Gliddon, 'Types of Mankind,' 1854, p. 439. They give also corroborative evidence; but C. Vogt thinks that the subject requires further investigation.

[288] "Diversity of Origin of the Human Races," in the 'Christian Examiner,' July, 1850.

[289] 'Transact. B. Soc. of Edinburgh,' vol. xxii. 1861, p.

567.

[290] 'On the Phenomena of Hybridity in the Genus h.o.m.o,' Eng.

translat. 1864.

[291] See the interesting letter by Mr. T. A. Murray, in the 'Anthropolog. Review,' April, 1868, p. liii. In this letter Count Strzelecki's statement, that Australian women who have borne children to a white man are afterwards sterile with their own race, is disproved. M. A. de Quatref.a.ges has also collected ('Revue des Cours Scientifiques,' March, 1869, p. 239) much evidence that Australians and Europeans are not sterile when crossed.

[292] 'An Examination of Prof. Aga.s.siz's Sketch of the Nat.

Provinces of the Animal World,' Charleston, 1855, p. 44.

[293] 'Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers,' by B. A. Gould, 1869, p. 319.

[294] 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. p. 109. I may here remind the reader that the sterility of species when crossed is not a specially-acquired quality; but, like the incapacity of certain trees to be grafted together, is incidental on other acquired differences. The nature of these differences is unknown, but they relate more especially to the reproductive system, and much less to external structure or to ordinary differences in const.i.tution. One important element in the sterility of crossed species apparently lies in one or both having been long habituated to fixed conditions; for we know that changed conditions have a special influence on the reproductive system, and we have good reason to believe (as before remarked) that the fluctuating conditions of domestication tend to eliminate that sterility which is so general with species in a natural state when crossed. It has elsewhere been shewn by me (ibid.

vol. ii. p. 185, and 'Origin of Species,' 5th edit. p. 317) that the sterility of crossed species has not been acquired through natural selection: we can see that when two forms have already been rendered very sterile, it is scarcely possible that their sterility should be augmented by the preservation or survival of the more and more sterile individuals; for as the sterility increases fewer and fewer offspring will be produced from which to breed, and at last only single individuals will be produced, at the rarest intervals. But there is even a higher grade of sterility than this. Both Gartner and Kolreuter have proved that in genera of plants including numerous species, a series can be formed from species which when crossed yield fewer and fewer seeds, to species which never produce a single seed, but yet are affected by the pollen of the other species, for the germen swells. It is here manifestly impossible to select the more sterile individuals, which have already ceased to yield seeds; so that the acme of sterility, when the germen alone is affected, cannot be gained through selection. This acme, and no doubt the other grades of sterility, are the incidental results of certain unknown differences in the const.i.tution of the reproductive system of the species which are crossed.

[295] 'The Variation of Animals,' &c., vol. ii. p. 92.

[296] M. de Quatref.a.ges has given ('Anthropolog. Review,' Jan.

1869, p. 22) an interesting account of the success and energy of the Paulistas in Brazil, who are a much crossed race of Portuguese and Indians, with a mixture of the blood of other races.

[297] For instance with the aborigines of America and Australia. Prof. Huxley says ('Transact. Internat. Congress of Prehist. Arch.' 1868. p. 105) that the skulls of many South Germans and Swiss are "as short and as broad as those of the Tartars," &c.

[298] See a good discussion on this subject in Waitz, 'Introduct. to Anthropology,' Eng. translat. 1863, p. 198-208, 227. I have taken some of the above statements from H. Tuttle's 'Origin and Antiquity of Physical Man,' Boston, 1866, p. 35.

[299] Prof. Nageli has carefully described several striking cases in his 'Botanische Mittheilungen,' B. ii. 1866, s.

294-369. Prof. Asa Gray has made a.n.a.logous remarks on some intermediate forms in the Compositae of N. America.

[300] 'Origin of Species,' 5th edit. p. 68.

[301] See Prof. Huxley to this effect in the 'Fortnightly Review,' 1865, p. 275.

[302] 'Lectures on Man,' Eng. translat. 1864, p. 468.

[303] 'Die Racen des Schweines,' 1860, s. 46. 'Vorstudien fur Geschichte, &c., Schweineschadel,' 1864, s. 104. With respect to cattle, see M. de Quatref.a.ges, 'Unite de l'Espece Humaine,'

1861, p. 119.

[304] Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind,' 1865; for the evidence with respect to gesture-language, see p. 54. Lubbock's 'Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. 1869.

[305] 'The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia,' Eng.

translat. edited by Sir J. Lubbock, 1868, p. 104.

[306] Hodder M. Westropp, on Cromlechs, &c., 'Journal of Ethnological Soc.' as given in 'Scientific Opinion,' June 2nd.

1869, p. 3.

[307] 'Journal of Researches: Voyage of the "Beagle,"' p. 46.

[308] 'Prehistoric Times,' 1869, p. 574.

[309] Translation in 'Anthropological Review,' Oct. 1868, p.

431.

[310] 'Transact. Internat. Congress of Prehistoric Arch.' 1868, p. 172-175. See also Broca (translation) in 'Anthropological Review,' Oct. 1868, p. 410.

[311] Dr. Gerland, 'Ueber das Aussterben der Naturvolker,'

1868, s. 82.

[312] Gerland (ibid. s. 12) gives facts in support of this statement.

[313] See remarks to this effect in Sir H. Holland's 'Medical Notes and Reflections,' 1839, p. 390.

[314] I have collected ('Journal of Researches, Voyage of the "Beagle,"' p. 435) a good many cases bearing on this subject: see also Gerland, ibid. s. 8. Poeppig speaks of the "breath of civilisation as poisonous to savages."

[315] Sproat, 'Scenes and Studies of Savage Life,' 1868, p.

284.

[316] Bagehot, "Physics and Politics," 'Fortnightly Review,'

April 1, 1868, p. 455.

[317] "On Anthropology," translation, 'Anthropolog. Review,'