ABSTRACT

ANTIQUITY AND PERSISTENCY IN CHARACTER OF THE EXISTING RACES OF MANKIND—THEORY OF THEIR UNITY OF ORIGIN CONSIDERED— BEARING OF THE DIVERSITY OF RACES ON THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION—DIFFICULTY OF DEFINING THE TERMS ‘SPECIES’ AND ‘RACE’—LAMARCK’S INTRODUCTION OF THE ELEMENT OF TIME INTO THE DEFINITION OF A SPECIES—HIS THEORY OF VARIATION AND PROGRESSION—OBJECTIONS TO HIS THEORY, HOW FAR ANSWERED—ARGUMENTS OF MODERN WRITERS IN FAVOUR OF PROGRESSION IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE WORLD—THE OLD LANDMARKS SUPPOSED TO INDICATE THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF MAN, AND OF DIFFERENT CLASSES OF ANIMALS, FOUND TO BE ERRONEOUS—YET THE THEORY OF AN ADVANCING SERIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH FACTS—EARLIEST KNOWN FOSSIL MAMMALIA OF LOW GRADE—NO VERTEBRATA AS YET DISCOVERED IN THE OLDEST FOSSILIFEROUS ROCKS—OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF PROGRESSION CONSIDERED— CAUSES OF THE POPULARITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROGRESSION AS COMPARED TO THAT OF TRANSMUTATION.