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Marchant, James

"Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1"


* * * * *
The reference in the following letter is to Wallace's review, in the
April number of the _Quarterly_, of Lyell's "Principles of Geology"
(tenth edition), and of the sixth edition of the "Elements of Geology."
Wallace points out that here for the first time Sir C. Lyell gave up his
opposition to Evolution; and this leads Wallace to give a short account
of the views set forth in the "Origin of Species." In this article
Wallace makes a definite statement as to his views on the evolution of
man, which were opposed to those of Darwin. He upholds the view that the
brain of man, as well as the organs of speech, the hand and the external
form, could not have been evolved by Natural Selection (the "child" he
is supposed to "murder "). At p. 391 he writes: "In the brain of the
lowest savages and, as far as we know, of the prehistoric races, we have
an organ ... little inferior in size and complexity to that of the
highest types.... But the mental requirements of the lowest savages,
such as the Australians or the Andaman Islanders, are very little above
those of many animals.


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