Diversions of a NaturalistLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Diversions of a Naturalist
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history
Very few really satisfactory experiments have been made in this
direction, but the history of the negroes in America shows that the
pure, unmixed negro brain is capable of showing high mathematical
power, musical gifts of the best, and moral and philosophic activities
equal to those of the best, or all but the exceptionally gifted,
individuals of European race. It seems that the large educable brain
gained by man in a relatively early period of his development from
the ape has now entered on a new phase of importance. The pressure
of natural selection no longer favours an increased educability (and
therefore size) of brain, but the later progress of man has depended
on the actual administration by each generation to its successors of
an increasingly systematized exercise of that brain; in short, it has
depended on education itself, and on the gigantic new possibilities
of education, which have followed from the development, first, of
language, then of writing, and lastly of printing, together with
the accompanying growth and development of social organization, the
inter-communication of all races, and the carrying on, by means of the
Great Record--the written and printed documents of humanity--of the
experience and knowledge of each passing generation of men from them to
the men of the present moment.
Huxley agreed with Cuvier in the opinion that the possession of
articulate speech is the grand distinctive character of man. It was
no sudden acquirement, but was slowly, step by step, evolved from
the significant grunts and cries of apes in the course of long ages,
and corresponded in its progress with a parallel progress in mental
capacities. Once attained, it led to the formation of vast educative
products, namely, to oral tradition, to written and then to printed
memorials and records. It is not desirable in our present state of
knowledge to speculate as to whether the transitional ape-man acquired
the use of fire before or after he had invented articulate speech.
It probably was acquired very soon after some skill in the flaking
of flints had been attained, and was of immense value, both as a
defence against predatory animals and as a means of preparing food.
Man probably learnt at a very early period to cover himself with
clothing made from the skins of other animals, and thus to tolerate
cold climates. The use of clothing was correlated with the diminution
of his natural hairy covering. As to the circumstances which led to
the reduction in size of his canine teeth and the diminution of the
projection of his jaws, it is impossible to say more than that this
was favoured by the increased skill of his hand and by the use of
weapons, and probably was directly correlated with an increased growth
of the brain. It is an interesting fact that very young children still
exhibit the ancestral tendency to bite when angry, and that the use of
the teeth as weapons of attack is more frequent among lower races with
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