The Origin of Man

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the Darwin–Mendel–De Vries theory of evolution provides a general frame for understanding the emergence of man, it leaves open crucial questions of detail. Why have man, and, to a lesser extent, the higher apes so strikingly exceeded other animals in intellectual development? Was it by the chance accumulation of a vast number of favourable mutations, each relatively insignificant? In other words, was their development like the cascading of the ball on Galton's board from peg to peg until it happens to fall into the outermost compartment at the bottom? Or can one recognize distinct turning-points of the development? A well-known fact of physiology, the possible evolutionary significance of which does not seem to have received attention, points strongly towards the second alternative.