Erasmus Darwin / by Ernst Krause ; translated from the German by W.S. Dallas ; with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin.

  • Krause Ernst, 1839-1903.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Erasmus Darwin / by Ernst Krause ; translated from the German by W.S. Dallas ; with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the world, as its inhabitants have not yet ad- vanced so far in intelligence as those of the Old World, and its animals (e.g. alligators and tigers) are smaller and weaker. More- over, the mountains there are higher and less weathered than ours. That the great lakes of North America are not yet salt, may be ex- plained by their outflow.] “ This idea of the gradual formation and “ improvement of the animal world,” he goes on to say, “ seems not to have been unknown “ to the ancient philosophers. Plato, having “ probably observed the reciprocal generation “ of inferior animals, as snails and worms, “ was of opinion that mankind with all other “ animals were originally hermaphrodites “ during the infancy of the world, and were “ in process of time separated into male and “ female. The breasts and teats of all male “ quadrupeds, to which no use can be now “ assigned, adds perhaps some shadow of “ probability to this opinion. Linnaeus ex- “ cepts the horse from the male quadrupeds, “ who have teats; which might have shown “ the earlier origin of his existence; but. “ Mr. J. Hunter asserts, that he has discovered