The origin of man / by Carveth Read.

  • Carveth Read
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The origin of man / by Carveth Read. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/122 page 13
    THE ORIGIN OF MAN CHAPTER I AN HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING OUR ORIGIN § 1. Man was Differentiated from the Anthropoids BY BECOMING A HUNTER That the human species, as we now see it, with its several races, Mongolian, Negro, Mediterranean, represents a Family of the Primates is generally agreed; and there is evidence that the Family formerly comprised other species that have become extinct. Our nearest surviving zoological relatives are the gorilla and chimpanzee, the orang and (at a still further remove) the siamang and gibbons; and in spite of the funda¬ mental anatomical resemblance between those apes and our¬ selves, our differences from them are so great that we cannot wonder at the incredulity with which the doctrine of our con¬ sanguinity was first received. Even A. R. Wallace thought that the descent of the Hominidce could not be explained by natural causes; yet we cannot regard our existence as a sort of miracle. It is the differences between Man and his nearest relatives that have to be accounted for; by derivation from a common stock only his resemblance to them can be understood: heredity explains his nature only in so far as he is an ape. The differences in detail are, indeed, innumerable; but taking the chief of them, and assuming that minor characters are
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