The Kingdom of ManLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
The Kingdom of Man
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
African trypanosomiasis; Human beings; Science -- History
triumph, the survival would fall to those who possessed most skill in
the use of the instrument. And in successive generations the bigger
and more educable brains would survive and mate, and thus bigger and
bigger brains be produced.
It would not be difficult (though not, perhaps, profitable) to
imagine the conditions which have favoured the continuation of this
process to a far greater length in the Simian line of the pedigree
than in other mammalian groups. The result is that the creature
called Man emerged with an educable brain of some five or six times
the bulk (in proportion to his size and weight) of that of any other
surviving Simian. Great as is this difference, it is one of the most
curious facts in the history of man’s development that the bulk of
his brain does not appear to have continued to increase in any very
marked degree since early Palæolithic times. The cranial capacity of
many savage races and of some of the most ancient human skulls is
only a little less than that of the average man of highly-civilised
race. The value of the mental activities in which primitive man
differs from the highest apes may be measured in some degree by
the difference in the size of the man’s and the ape’s brain; but
the difference in the size of the brain of Isaac Newton and an
Australian black-fellow is not in the remotest degree proportionate
to the difference in their mental qualities. Man, it would seem, at
a very remote period attained the extraordinary development of brain
which marked him off from the rest of the animal world, but has
ever since been developing the powers and qualities of this organ
without increasing its size, or materially altering in other bodily
features.[6]
10. THE PROGRESS OF MAN.
The origin of Man by the process of Natural Selection is one chapter
in man’s history; another one begins with the consideration of his
further development and his diffusion over the surface of the globe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account