races are almost entirely confined within the tropics, and both attain their highest development near the equator. It is here that we should expect the primitive man to have appeared, and here we still find what may well be his direct descendants thriving best. We may, perhaps, even look on the diverse types of the other great races as in part due to changes of constitution adapting them to cooler climates and changed conditions; first, the Australians and the hill tribes of central India, who once perhaps spread far over the northern hemisphere, but have been displaced by the Mongoloid type, which flourishes at this day from the equator to the pole. These, again, have been ousted from some of the fairest regions of the temperate zone by the Indo-Europeans, who seem only to have attained their full development and highest vigor when exposed to the cold winds and variable climate of the temperate regions.
If this view is correct, and the Papuans really form one branch of the most primitive type of man which still exists on the globe, we shall continue to look upon them with ever-increasing interest, and shall welcome every fact relating to them as important additions to the history of our race. The further exploration of their beautiful and luxuriant island will, it is to be hoped, be vigorously pursued, not only to obtain the mineral, vegetable, and animal treasures that still lie hid in its great mountain ranges, but also to search for the remains of primeval man in caves or alluvial deposits, and thus throw light on the many interesting problems suggested by the physical peculiarities and insular position of the Papuan race.—Contemporary Review.
| DANGERS OF DARWINISM.[1] |
MR. DARWIN has certainly achieved the distinction of being recognized as the "bogey" of his generation. What Bonaparte was to the English tradesman and his family at the beginning of this century, the great evolutionist is at present to pious Clapham and chapel-going Holloway. Vast numbers of virtuous vestrymen frighten the old women of their parishes with the mere mention of his name. Sentiments and sayings are put into his mouth which would come equally well from that of the enemy of mankind. His conspiracy against the peace of the British matron is so diabolical that even bishops sometimes thunder at him, and good people of an old-fashioned way of thinking have a conviction that he ought, in this world or another, to be burned. It is no use for tender-hearted clergymen, in the great reviews and elsewhere, to recommend him to mercy, and to suggest that his theories after all may not be altogether so infamous as
- ↑ "The Darwinian Theory Examined." London: Bickers & Sons.
