The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-17
THE COMING DARWINLAN.

From AppIeton's Journal
One of our city journals, which hahitually
pays much attention to the leading topics Of
scientific and intellectual discussion, lately
gave its readers lively sketch of the last
results Of Darwinism in an account OF the
coming man, that is to say, OF man as ne VIII
be in the future when the great Darwlnlan
principle of natural selection has perfected
its work, and the process of evolution, or de-
yelopment. has been carried on for o million
wears or co. The account Processes to be
based on disclosures of Mr.. Darwin's private
views and speculations made by an intimate
friend Of the philosopher now in this coun-
try on the staff of thes English High Com
mission. This imaginary disciple of the
great master is made to represent that the
chief agent in modifying the coming man
will be his diet. Heretofore man has lived
upon the vegetable and animal organisms by
which he was surrounded. Fruits, plants,
and animals have been his diet. But Is this
necessary2 Is it not possible that food may
vet be discovered which, while organic and
susceptible of sustaining life, need not
necessarily be embodied in any form of vege-
table or animal life? In other words, may
not synthetic chemistry come to
our aid in supplying concentrated food
which will replace the bulkier and grosser
forms of vegetable and animal aliment2 In
fact. this is already being done. Immense
strides have been made of late years in this
direction. Even your grocer deals in ex-
centrated coffee, and the druggists are sell
ing chemical food already in the shape of
the syrup of hypophosphites. We now
are beginning to learn of what
chemical constituents our bodies are
composed. This has been discovered for us
by analytic chemistry, and, indeed, nearly all
chemistry 30 far has been analytic. It has
All 49, Al axlx-
not quite all, the materials of the universe
about us. We now know pretty nearly of
what everything about us is composed, but
synthetic chemistry is of comparatively re-
cent origin, and consists of the putting to-
gether of the particles of matter about us
and forming new combinations. It is now
discovered that chemistry can give us organic
matter without the necessity of its having gone
through any form of organic life. Urea and
a host of other organic materials can be made
by chemists. There is no end to the posi-
bilities of synthetic chemistry. Now, if in
the waste of the human body we can find out
the material necessary to repair that waste,
clearly we are on the road to getting rid of
animal and vegetable food. II the disinte-
grafton of our bodies is matter of pure chem
ical decomposition, which is discoverable and
If it is possible to put materials together
which will repair the waste of our bodies, why
may not the chemist take from the inorganic
earth about us such materials as he needs, and
supply what is required to the reformation of
our systems The German scientists have
discovered that there is no thought without
phosphorus, and so of all the material which
goes to compose our muscles, nerves, bones,
fat, etc., we are aware that they are built up
from certain constituents about us, and the
supplying of those constituents will give us a
food which will render unnecessary the
slaughter of innocent animals and the eating
of gross vegetable products. Eating will then
be one perpetual delight and there will be
no more dyspepsia, because nothing will be
taken into the system which the system may
not appropriate. This will gradually
work an i'm portant change in the human form.
The man of the future, eating q food in which
there will be no waste, will have less strain
upon his abdominal regions. In time the
stomach will shrink, the liver will become
smaller, the intestinal canal will diminish and
shorten, the kidneys will not be so active or
so much used and will hence decrease in size
The race of 'pot-bellied" men, men of huge
round paunches, will decrease and pass away,
while race with small abdominal regions,
and with their organs of digestion reduced to
aminimum, will take their place. At the same
time the superior regions of the body-the
lungs, and especially the brain-under the
improved conditions which will exist when
this food is being eaten, will enlarge very
greatly. Whatever is used most will acquire
constant tendency to increase. AS the pow
erful jaw and terrible neck of the lion are in
creased, generation by generation, while his
stomach decreases by his habit of life, so, too,
will the tremendous brain of the man, and his
vast nervous energy, called into being by this
new food, give us a race with huge lungs and
of mighty brain-space. The brain will need
great blood-vessels to give it strength. and
these will create necessity for deriving an
unusual amount of oxygen from the air. In
short, the man of the future will have a
shrunken belly great breast and neck, and
a mighty head surmounting all. He will
also be without teeth, because he will have no
use for them. And, as the infant of the
future will be fed on artificial food chemi-
cally prepared for its best nourishment, great
changes will take place in
the female form, which it is not
necessary to specify. 1t will be seen by
those who have read '"The Origin of Species
and "The Descent of Man, and have mas.
tered the principles of Darwinism, that these
speculationB as to the man of the future are
far more reasonable and plausible, and have
much more of a real scientific basis, than Mr.
Darwin's theories as to the man of the past
It is but the first step that costs, and, if we
admit at all the theory that natural selection
rules the universe instead of God, we need
not be startled or shocked at any lengths to
which it may carry us.
mun MTCCTNr DENCInN nRnEnUn