Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-10-04
BRATTIEBORO, VT, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1872

highest and lowest man is more than six
times as great as the difference between the
cranial capacity of the lowest man and that
of the gorilla, nevertheless the Australian
who cannot count beyond three or four has
a brain twice as large as the go,ilas.
PROBABLE ANTIQUITY OF OUR RACE-THE
FUTURE MAN.
The extensive spreading of the human
race implies its existence from date long
anterior to tho great glacial epoch, which
cannot have been less than 250,000 years
ago-Lyell thinks a million years ago.
when it is certainly, known that men inhab-
tied Europe and North America. Human
bones and implements lately discovered
are claimed as belonging to the Miocene
epoch, and there is growing disposition
among paleontologists to place the origin
of man as far back as this, though the dem
onstratlon of this date cannot yet be regard
ed as conclusive. The minimum antiquity
assignable for the Minocene is 100000
years. Since the period during which man
has possessed sufficient intelligence to leave
traditional record of himself is but mi
mute fraction of the period during which he
has existed upon earth, 1t is but fair to con-
cludo that during these long ages, OF which
none but geologic record remains, he was
slowly acquiring that superior intelligence
which now so widely distinguishes him
from other animals. Throughout an enor-
nous period of time his brain structure
and its correlated intellectual and emotion
al functions must have been constantly
I.u ia inf ion lt-, aIt
lection, while his outward physical appear
ance has undergone few notifications, and
of these the most striking are consequent
upon the cerebral changes. The most re-
markable points of difference between civ
ilized and uncivilized man, rs well as be-
tween man and the Chimpanzee, are the
differences in the size Of the jaws and the
inclination Of the forehead. The latter diff
ference is directly consequent upon increas-
ed intelligence, and the former is indirectly
occasioned hy the same circumstance For
the dminution in the jaws entaied by civ
ilization is no doubt primarily due to dis
use occasioned partly by difference in food
and partly by the employment of tools and
the consequent increased reliance upon the
hands as prehensle organs. And also in
creased frontal development has directly
tended, by correlation of growth, to dmin-
ish the size of the jaws, az well as to push
forward the bridge of the nose. tits acpr-
ollary from the foregoing arguments That
no race can in future be produced through
the agency of natural selection and direct
adaptation, which shall be zoologically
distinct from and superior TO the human
race. As the same causes which physical
ly modify lower species have for countless
ages modified man directly in intelligence,
and only indirectly in physical constitu-
tion, it follows that mankind is TO advance
during future ages in physical attributes,
butts likely TO undergo only slight changes
in outward appearance. 1t is by the CO.
ordination of intellectual and moral rela-
tions that man maintains himself in equi-
librium with physical, intellectual and
moral relations, arising in his ever-chang-
ing environment. And hence, in the fu-
ture, as in the recent past, the dominant
tact in the career of humanity is not phys
ieal m odticatioii, but civilization.