The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

M. Naudin admits the existence of a protoplasma or primordial blastema, the origin of which he does not pretend to explain nor its entrance into action. Under the influence of the organo-plastic or evolutive force there were formed proto-organisms of a very simple structure, asexual, and endowed with the power of producing by buds and with a great activity meso-organisms, similar to the first, though already more complicated. With each generation forms are multiplied, and become more pronounced, and nature rapidly passes on to the adult state. The beings in question were not, however, species. They were not complete beings, but merely a kind of larvæ, whose sole duty was to serve as transitions between the primitive blastema and the definite forms. Dispersed in different regions of the globe, they have carried everywhere the germs of future forms which evolution had to produce from them. From the creative character which distinguished it at first, the evolutive force exhausted by its very action, acquired a preservative character. Forms are now integrated. They preserve, however, a residue of plasticity; they vary under the influence of certain conditions, and hence results the multitude of forms which the same species now presents.

The proto- and meso-organisms contained in themselves, each according to its position in the order of evolution, the rudiments of kingdoms, branches, classes, orders, families, and genera. Points where they were fixed, became so many centres of creation. Moreover, they have not engendered simultaneously all the forms which they were capable of producing. There have been considerable intervals between the production of living beings, which explains why groups of the same order have not been contemporaneous.

Organic types, even those least marked, have not passed into each other. The paths followed by the evolutive force have always been divergent. “Let us picture to ourselves,” says M. Naudin, “the meso-organism which has been the source of the mammalia; ever since its appearance, all the mammalian orders, including the human order, were fermenting in it. Before their appearance, they were virtually distinct, in the sense that the evolutive forces were already distributed, and the method of their effecting, each in its proper time, the production of these different orders, already defined. This is a similar phenomenon to that of the evolution of organs in a growing embryo, where we see springing from a common and uniform origin, parts at first similar, but which are impelled in a determinate direction each by its own particular future.”

M. Naudin, as we see, in order to support his theory, appeals to the embryogenic phenomena, to which the Darwinists also look for testimony in favour of their doctrines. The learned botanist, however, attaches much more importance to the metamorphoses which take place subsequently to the egg. He recognises true proto-organisms in the pro-embryo of mosses, in the larvæ of insects, and of many other inferior animals. He lays particular stress upon the phenomena of alternate generation, as representing what has already taken place, or better, as representing in part “the ancient and general process of creation.”

According to M. Naudin, man was subject to the common law, and the Mosaic account is at the same time very true and full of instruction. In its first phase, mankind was concealed within a temporary organism, already distinct from all others, and incapable of contracting an alliance with any of them. This is Adam, who sprang from a primordial blastema called clay in the Bible. At this epoch, he was, properly speaking, neither male nor female; the two sexes were not yet differentiated. “It is from this larval form of mankind, that the evolutive force effected the completion of the species. For the accomplishment of this great phenomenon, Adam had to pass through a phase of immobility and unconsciousness, very analogous to the nymphal state of animals undergoing metamorphosis.” This is the sleep mentioned in the Bible, during which the work of differentiation was accomplished, to use the words of M. Naudin, by a process of germination, similar to that of medusæ and ascidians. Mankind, thus constituted physiologically, would retain a sufficient evolutive force for the rapid production of the various great human races.

Passing over the comparisons established by M. Naudin, I will confine myself to a single observation upon all these ideas; properly speaking, they do not form a scientific theory.

When we fertilise by artificial means the egg of a frog, we know that we determine an entire series of phenomena, which results in the formation of a germ, then in that of an embryo, which will be established by a succession of metamorphoses, in that of a tadpole, which will be equally subject to metamorphoses, and in that of a definite animal which will assume all the characters of the species. So far as man can make a being, we make a frog when we fertilise an egg.

If the first cause, with which M. Naudin immediately connects his primordial blastema, has made potentially in this blastema all past, present, and future beings, as well as the power of producing them at the proper time, with all their distinctive characters, It has, in reality, created all these beings en masse. We do not see what kind of action is reserved for second causes; unless it is, perhaps, the power of accelerating or retarding, of obstructing or favouring the appearance of types of different value, when number and relations have been immutably determined beforehand. But M. Naudin has not even mentioned their part in this evolution of the organic world. That science which is only occupied with second causes has, therefore, nothing to say to the theory of M. Naudin. It can neither praise nor criticise it.

XI. To explain the origin of the world in which we live, that of beings surrounding us, and our own, is evidently one of the most general aspirations of the human mind. The most civilised nations, as well as the most savage tribes, have satisfied this want in one way or another. Even Australians, whatever may have been said to the contrary, have their rudimentary cosmogony, which those who have taken some interest in the matter, have made them relate.

In all cases, man has at first connected his cosmogonic conceptions with his religious belief. Then among the most advanced ancient nations, independent spirits have sought for an explanation of nature in natural phenomena. But from want of precise knowledge, all their hypothetical conceptions have no fundamental value.