Abstract
THE author has written this little book for the purpose of providing the intelligent person with a good and sufficient reason for the evolutionary faith that is in him. It is true that there is no book of a non-technical nature that quite covers the ground taken by the author, and it is only fair to him to state that he has filled this gap in a most creditable manner. It is obvious that many stages in the evolutionary history of man can only be guessed at by us, and that there is much room for discussion in these hypotheses as well as in the interpretation of accepted facts; but Mr. Morris is not aggressively dogmatic, nor has he striven to be sensational. There are, however, several statements to which exception can be taken in the chapter on the “Vestiges of Man's Ancestry.” If Mr. Morris thinks the function of the thyroid is a “minor and obscure one,” let him have his own excised and then he will know. Club foot is not generally regarded as a reversion to the anthropoid foot. Taking it all round, the book may be safely recommended to that class of readers for whom it was intended, and it may lead such to consult the recognised works on the various topics on which he touches. Owing to no references being given, inquirers will have to seek elsewhere for an introduction to the literature of human evolution. The author has not considered his little book worthy of an index.
Man and his Ancestor: a Study in Evolution.
By Charles Morris. Pp. 238. (New York: The Macmillan Company. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1900.)
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Man and his Ancestor: a Study in Evolution . Nature 62, 101 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/062101c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/062101c0