Man in the light of evolution : the Essex Hall Lecture, 1926 / by J. Arthur Thomson.

  • Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur), 1861-1933.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Man in the light of evolution : the Essex Hall Lecture, 1926 / by J. Arthur Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    wisdom tooth and his little toe; that some relics are disappearing from his body- museum ; that his inconveniently long food- canal may be shortening. Of course it cannot be supposed that all losses are to the good (thus civilised man seems to have a weakened sense of smell); or that all variations are progressive (for that could not be said of short sight or of nervous instability); but variations that are con- gruent with stability have most chance to persist. It is not unlikely that deep con- stitutional changes are in progress, changes in the shape of life's trajectory, perhaps correlated with changes in the ductless glands. Thus there is some evidence that the youthful period in civilised man is being lengthened out. But the most promising outlook as regards variability is in man's brain, for there are fallow areas for which no use is known, and it is probable that new linkages and orchestrations among the nine thousand millions of brain cells are even now in pro- gress. It is often said that man's intellect has not improved since the time of Aristotle,