Popular Science Monthly/Volume 74/April 1909/The Progress of Science

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

DARWIN'S MANUSCRIPT

There is here reproduced the text of two pages of the original manuscript of "The Descent of Man" in the handwriting of the author. This manuscript, as well as the portraits by Lock and Whitfield and by Maull and Fox reproduced above, we owe to the kindness of Mr. Charles F. Cox, president of the New York Academy of Sciences, who has permitted the use of his valuable collection of Darwiniana. With the manuscript, the handwriting of which is somewhat reduced in size, is given a transcription, and in the second column the text as it finally appeared in the first edition of the "Descent of Man" as published in 1871, Volume I., pp. 42-43.

The manuscript shows the great amount of revision which the author made in all his work. It is corrected and interlined, and when it appeared in print it had been largely again rewritten by correcting the proofs. Thus the author evidently expected this matter to appear in Chapter I., but made additions which carried it over into Chapter II. Darwin's daughter, Mrs. Litchfield, who assisted him in the correction of some of his later works, says:

"He did not write with ease, and was apt to invert his sentences both in writing and speaking, putting the qualifying clause before it was clear what it was to qualify. He corrected a great deal, and was eager to express himself as well as he possibly could."

In the "Life and Letters," Mr. Francis Darwin writes:

"Perhaps the commonest corrections needed were obscurities due to the omission of a necessary link in the reasoning, something that he had evidently omitted through familiarity with the subject. Not that there Mas any fault in the sequence of the thoughts, but that from familiarity with his argument he did not notice when the words failed to reproduce his thought. He also frequently put too much matter into one sentence, so that it had to be cut up into two.

"On the whole, I think the pains which my father took over the literary part of the work was very remarkable. He often laughed or grumbled at himself for the difficulty which he found in writing English, saying, for instance, that if a bad arrangement of a sentence was possible, he should be sure to adopt it. He once got much amusement and satisfaction out of the difficulty which one of his family found in writing a short circular. He had the pleasure of correcting and laughing at obscurities, involved sentences, and other defects, and thus took his revenge for all the criticism he had himself to bear with. He used to quote with astonishment Miss Martineau's advice to young authors, to write straight off and send the MS. to the printers without correction. But in some cases he acted in a somewhat similar manner. When a sentence got hopelessly involved, he would ask himself, 'Now what do you want to say?' and his answer written down would often disentangle the confusion."

MANUSCRIPT OF DARWIN'S "DESCENT OF MAN"

fear & something very like modesty, when begging too often for food. Some dogs and other animals as horses easily turn sulky; some are good-tempered, others ill-tempered. A great dog scorns the snarling of a little dog. Several observers have stated that monkeys certainly hate being laughed at. They will also make for themselves imaginary offenses; thus I saw a baboon in the Zoological Gardens who always got into a furious passion, when his keeper took out a letter or book and read it aloud to him; on one occasion in his rage he bit his own leg till the blood flowed.

We will now turn to the more intellectual emotions & faculties, which are very important as the almost necessary steps to the development of the higher mental powers. Animals manifestly enjoy excitement, & suffer from ennui, as may be seen with dogs & according to Rengger with monkeys. All animals plainly feel Wonder; & may exhibit Curiosity, as is sometimes proved to their cost by the hunter playing antics and thus attracting them.

There can, I think, be no doubt that a dog feels shame, as distinct from fear, and something very like modesty when begging too often for food. A great dog scorns the snarling of a little dog, and this may be called magnanimity. Several observers have stated that monkeys certainly dislike being laughed at; and they sometimes invent imaginary offences. In the Zoological Gardens I saw a baboon who always got into a furious rage when his keeper took out a letter or book and read it aloud to him; and his rage was so violent that, as I witnessed on one occasion, he bit his own leg till the blood flowed.

We will now turn to the more intellectual emotions and faculties, which are very important, as forming the basis for the development of the higher mental powers. Animals manifestly enjoy excitement and suffer from ennui, as may be seen with dogs, and, according to Rengger, with monkeys. All animals feel Wonder, and may exhibit Curiosity. They sometimes suffer from this latter quality, as when the hunter plays antics and thus attracts them;

as I have witnessed with deer, & as is known to be the case with the wary chamois & with wild ducks. Brehm gives a curious account of the instinctive dread of snakes which his monkeys exhibited; but their curiosity was so great that they would not desist, in a most human fashion, from occasionally satiating their horror by lifting up the lid of the box, in which the snakes were kept, & peeping at them. I was so much surprised at this account, that I took a well stuffed & coiled up snake into the monkey House at the Zoological Gardens, & the excitement there caused was one of the most curious spectacles which I ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus were most alarmed; they darted about their cages & uttered sharp signal-cries of danger, which were apparently understood by the other monkeys. A few young monkeys and an old Anubis baboon took no notice. I then placed the stuffed snake on the ground in one of the large compartments, & after a time all the monkeys, staring intently, collected around it forming a large circle & presenting a most I have witnessed this with deer, and so it is with the wary chamois, and with some kinds of wild-ducks. Brehm gives a curious account of the instinctive dread which his monkeys exhibited towards snakes; but their curiosity was so great that they could not desist from occasionally satiating their horror in a most human fashion, by lifting up the lid of the box in which the snakes were kept. I was so much surprised at his account, that I took a stuffed and coiled-up snake into the monkey house at the Zoological Gardens, and the excitement thus caused was one of the most curious spectacles I ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus were the most alarmed; they dashed about their cages and uttered sharp signal-cries of danger, which were understood by the other monkeys. A few young monkeys and one old Anubis baboon alone took no notice of the snake. I then placed the stuffed specimen on the ground in one of the larger compartments. After a time all the monkeys collected round it in a large circle, and staring intently, presented a most ludicrous appearance.

PORTRAITS OF DARWIN

In this number of The Popular Science Monthly, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth, are reproduced eight portraits. The first of these, given as a frontispiece, is from a Woodbury-type made from life by Lock and Whitfield and published in "Men of Mark" by Sampson, Low and Company about 1876. It gives perhaps a better impression of Darwin as he actually looked in his later years than any other portrait. There follows a portrait from a photograph by Maull and Fox taken about 1854. At the same time a similar photograph was made from which a somewhat idealized portrait was engraved in wood for Harper's Magazine for October, 1884. The portrait next given appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1866. There then follows a reproduction of an engraving on steel made for Nature in 1874 by C. H. Jeens from a photograph taken by O. J. Rejlander about 1870. The next Illustration is a photograph of the bronze bust made by Mr. William Couper and presented by the New York Academy of Sciences to the American Museum of Natural History on the hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth. A second photograph of this bust as it stands on the pedestal is given at the end of the number. The origin of the portrait next given is not known to the editor. The following portrait is from a photograph taken by Mrs. Cameron at the Isle of Wight in 1868. Darwin wrote under it "I like this photograph very much better than any other which has been taken of me." The last portrait is from an engraving on wood by G. Cruels for "The Life and Letters," from a photograph taken by Elliott and Fry in 1881.

There are also given portraits of several of those whose relations to Darwin and his work were especially intimate: Alfred R. Wallace, whose paper on natural selection was presented simultaneously with Darwin's and whose subsequent contributions to the theory of evolution are notable, whom Darwin calls "generous and noble"; Sir Joseph Hooker, the most eminent of British botanists, the lifelong friend and scientific adviser of Darwin, of whom he says: "I have known hardly any man more lovable"; Sir Charles Lyell, whose "Principles of Geology" was Darwin's early inspiration and who was later his warm friend and constant adviser, who with Hooker presented to the Linnean Society the papers on natural selection; the Rev. J. R. Malthus, whose "Principles of Population" suggested the idea of natural selection to both Darwin and Wallace, as Lyell's "Principles" had previously impressed on them the idea of evolution; Erasmus Darwin, poet and philosopher, defender of the doctrine of the transmutation of species, whose grandson resembled him in many traits.

CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF THE DARWIN CENTENARY

The most notable celebrations of Darwin's birth and of the fiftieth anniversary of the "Origin of Species" are the exercises of the Linnean Society of London, held on July 1 of last year, and the celebrations to be held at Cambridge in June next. The Darwin-Wallace celebration of the Linnean Society was noted at the time in this journal, and a reproduction was shown of a medal struck in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation to the society of the papers on natural selection by Darwin and Wallace. These papers were reproduced in the issue of The Popular Science Monthly for November, 1901. The celebrations at Cambridge in June will last several days, and some three hundred universities and learned societies throughout the world will be represented by delegates.

While, as is becoming, the two most elaborate commemorations of the Darwin centenary have been arranged in his own country, celebrations have been more general in the United States than in Great Britain. The most notable exercises were arranged by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and held at Baltimore on January 1. Professor E. B. Poulton, probably the most distinguished living representative of the theory of natural selection, came from England as the guest of the association to make the opening address, and this was followed by a series of papers giving an account of the state of research in the biological sciences based on the doctrine of evolution. These papers are about to be published for the association in a memorial volume by Messrs. Henry Holt and Company.

The commemorative exercises that were perhaps next in interest were held in New York City on Darwin's birthday. The New York Academy of Sciences presented to the American Museum of Natural History a heroic bust of Darwin in bronze by Mr. William Couper, illustrations of which are reproduced in this number of the Monthly. The addresses made on this occasion are printed above. At Columbia University, on the same day, a series of lectures on Charles Darwin and his influence on science was begun, the opening address being printed in this memorial issue.

An equally notable series of lectures on Darwin's influence is being given at Chicago, and commemorative ceremonies and addresses have been arranged not only in large centers, such as Boston and Philadelphia, but also at universities throughout the country these include Michigan, Cornell, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa State College, Georgia, Brown, Wesleyan and other institutions. In some cases the celebrations extended over several days and as many as ten or more papers and addresses were given.