iers of hereditary characters and that
they multiply by division has been removed from the position of a
provisional hypothesis to that of a well-founded theory. It is supported
by histology, and the results of experimental work in heredity, which
are now assuming extraordinary prominence, are in close agreement with
it.

VII. "THE DESCENT OF MAN". By G. Schwalbe.

Professor of Anatomy in the University of Strassburg.

The problem of the origin of the human race, of the descent of man, is
ranked by Huxley in his epoch-making book "Man's Place in Nature", as
the deepest with which biology has to concern itself, "the question
of questions,"--the problem which underlies all others. In the same
brilliant and lucid exposition, which appeared in 1863, soon after the
publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species", Huxley stated his own views
in regard to this great problem. He tells us how the idea of a natural
descent of man gradually grew up in his mind, it was especially the
assertions of Owen in regard to the total difference between the human
and the simian brain that called forth strong dissent from the great
anatomist Huxley, and he easily succeeded in showing that Owen's
supposed differences had no real existence; he even established, on the
basis of his own anatomical investigations, the proposition that the
anatomical differences between the Marmoset and the Chimpanzee are much
greater than those between the Chimpanzee and Man.

But why do we thus introduce the study of Darwin's "Descent of Man",
which is to occupy us here, by insisting on the fact that Huxley had
taken the field in defence of the descent of man in 1863, while Darwin's
book on the subject did not appear till 1871? It is in order that we may
clearly understand how it happened that from this time onwards Darwin
and Huxley followed the same great aim in the most intimate association.

Huxley and Darwin working at the same Problema maximum! Huxley fiery,
impetuous, eager for battle, contemptuous of the resistance of a dull
world, or energetically triumphing over it. Darwin calm, weighing every
problem slowly, letting it mature thoroughly,--not a fighter, yet having
the greater and more lasting influence by virtue of his immense mass of
critically sifted proofs. Darwin's friend, Huxley, was the first to do
him justice, to understand his nature, and to find in it the reason why
the detailed and carefully considered book on the descent of man made
i