Darwin and Haeckel 2

Darwin and Haeckel 1 

This last naturalist, besides his great work, 'Generelle Morphologie' (1866), has recently (1868, with a second edition in 1870), published his 'Naturliche Schopfungsgeschichte,' in which he fully discusses the genealogy of man. If this work had appeared before my essay had been written, I should probably never have completed it. Almost all the conclusions at which I have arrived I find confirmed by this naturalist, whose knowledge on many points is much fuller than mine. Wherever I have added any fact or view from Prof. Haeckel's writings, I give his authority in the text; other statements I leave as they originally stood in my manuscript, occasionally giving in the foot-notes references to his works, as a confirmation of the more doubtful or interesting points.    

Charles Darwin:  Introduction,  The Descent of Man

While arguing about the role Charles Darwin played in the beginning of eugenics in both English speaking countries and Germany,  I was accused of cribbing from creationists.  My answer to that is there is no better road map to the sources proving my case than the citations of Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man with confirmatory material found in the letters and elsewhere.

In the related matter of Charles Darwin's influence on, encouragement of and promotion of Ernst Haeckel, it's really not necessary to move past those citations to establish the relationship.   Charles Darwin's endorsement of Ernst Haeckel's statements on "the genealogy of man"  in "Naturliche Schopfungsgeschichte" couldn't have been more definitive.  He said, "If this work had appeared before my essay had been written, I should probably never have completed it."   In other words, Darwin would have considered what he had to say on that topic as having been said by Ernst Haeckel.  If anyone takes Haeckel as speaking for Darwin in that book, they can justify that assumption from that endorsement.  If Darwin wanted to distance himself from it, he would have chosen different words.  By what he said, Darwin owns it.

[Note:  I  will be using the translation of Naturliche Sschopfungsgeschichte, "The History of Creation", translated by E. Ray Lankester , first published in 1876.  Most of the  material relevant to this discussion is contained in chapters 22 and 23, about origin of human beings, Haeckel's division of people into races and ranking those supposed races by ascending rank from lowest to highest, largely based on skin color and ethnicity.  I will refer to the book as "The History of Creation" that name instead of the German from here on.]*

By the time Darwin wrote The Descent of Man,  much of what would make Ernst Haeckel infamous to later times was already present.   His racism is fully developed and given the authority of science, with the reliability that label is supposed to guarantee.  His general devaluation of humans, his  blatant ranking of groups of people according to their "value" by race and ethnicity, his assumptions of hierarchy within human socieity.   Even what would become infamous as his weird materialistic mysticism, his brand of "monism" is there.    And he attributes that to Charles Darwin in his first chapter, calling  the "triumph" of  "monism" "the highest and most general merit of the Theory of Descent, as reformed by Darwin."

This final triumph of the monistic conception of nature constitutes the highest and most general merit of the Theory of Descent, as reformed by Darwin.

Later in the book, Haeckel goes into considerable detail  about what is this monism he attributes to Darwin.  Which is important but other than to point out that Haeckel's ideas that would be  expressed for the rest of his life and which have made his name infamous were present in the book Darwin endorsed, I will not go into it.

As an aside, the political effect of that situation in 2012 is explosive.   Direct quotes, which I have yet to find, from Charles Darwin might be able to slightly mitigate his responsibility for promoting Haeckel and the book in which he said these things and the ideas contained in it,  they can never overcome it, at least not if the facts of the evidence are at issue instead of mythological smoke screens.  Since his endorsement was in his second most substantial book purporting to be science,  I don't think anything short of a similarly grave repudiation of that endorsement suffices to get him off the hook for having made it.

Instead, I will cite a few of the statements directly related to Darwin's endorsement of what Haeckel says about "the genealogy of man" and issues related to The Descent of Man.   Note that in the translation of the book,  the word "species" is frequently used to mean what is commonly referred to as "race" today.   This can be a little confusing to a modern reader but I will give the text as Lankester translated it.

The Caucasian, or Mediterranean man (Homo Mediterraneus), has from time immemorial been placed at the head of all races of men, as the most highly developed and perfect. It is generally called the Caucasian race, but as among all the varieties of the species, the Caucasian branch is the least important, we prefer the much more suitable appellation proposed by Friedrich Müller, namely, that of Mediterranean, or Midland men. For the most important varieties of this species, which are moreover the most eminent actors in what is called “Universal History,” first rose to a flourishing condition on the shores of the Mediterranean. For the most important varieties of this species, which are moreover the most eminent actors in what is called “Universal History,” first rose to a flourishing condition on the shores of the Mediterranean. The former area of the distribution of this species is expressed by the name of “Indo-Atlantic” species, whereas at present it is spread over the whole earth, and is overcoming most of the other species in the struggle for existence. In bodily as well as in mental qualities, no other human species can equal the Mediterranean. This species alone (with the exception of the Mongolian) has had an actual history; it alone has attained to that degree of civilization which seems to raise man above the rest of nature. 
Haeckel History of Creation

Given his endorsement of the book, it's not unfair to compare this with Darwin's statements about "Caucasians", especially in relation with other racial groups in The Descent of Man.  But,  to save time, here is more of what Haeckel said, mixing his racial hierarchy with assumptions of natural selection:

Within the tropical regions, Negroes, Kaffres, and Nubians, as also the Malays and Dravidas, are in some measure protected against the encroachments of the Indo-Germanic tribes by their being better adapted for a hot climate; the case of the arctic tribes of the polar regions is similar. But the other races, 325 which as it is are very much diminished in number, will sooner or later completely succumb in the struggle for existence to the superiority of the Mediterranean races. The American and Australian tribes are even now fast approaching their complete extinction, and the same may be said of the Papuans and Hottentots.  
Haeckel  History of Creation


Reading those passages, it's impossible not to remember one of the most infamous passages in The Descent of Man:

The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is descended from some lower form; but this objection will not appear of much weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the general principle of evolution. Breaks often occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp and defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and its nearest allies—between the Tarsius and the other Lemuridae—between the elephant, and in a more striking manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and all other mammals. But these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms which have become extinct. At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked (18. 'Anthropological Review,' April 1867, p. 236.), will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.

Some of Darwin's defenders will be quick to eagerly read that to mean that Darwin is looking forward to an inconvenient gap in the fossil record being filled by the extinction of "the savage races" and the "antropomorphous apes", and not merely that   " The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla."

Whether or not there's much of a difference between whether Darwin's hope is hoped for because it will add weight to natural selection or because he favors the anticipated further demarcation between species he and probably most other scientists already held were absolutely separated, might be a question worth considering. If one is better than the other, it's not by much.  Especially as Darwin presents all of the extinctions as a scientifically determined outcome, not to be avoided.   I've been unable to find Schaaffhausen's article so I don't know if it addressed that situation or if he merely merely talked about the future extinction of the great apes, as it would seem from where Darwin places the citation.  If including entire races into this extinction prophesy was Darwin's doing seems to be a question in need of an answer. As is the similarity between the prediction and Haeckel's

Haeckel explicitly lists Australians as among the most primitive, ape like of humans.

In other places Darwin presents the extinction of entire races of humans with stunning easiness.   A section of Chapter Seven is listed as "On the extinction of races".   The account of the genocide by the English of the Tasmanians is among the most horrifyingly repulsive examples of this:


When Tasmania was first colonised the natives were roughly estimated by some at 7000 and by others at 20,000. Their number was soon greatly reduced, chiefly by fighting with the English and with each other. After the famous hunt by all the colonists, when the remaining natives delivered themselves up to the government, they consisted only of 120 individuals (37. All the statements here given are taken from 'The Last of the Tasmanians,' by J. Bonwick, 1870.), who were in 1832 transported to Flinders Island. This island, situated between Tasmania and Australia, is forty miles long, and from twelve to eighteen miles broad: it seems healthy, and the natives were well treated. Nevertheless, they suffered greatly in health. In 1834 they consisted (Bonwick, p. 250) of forty-seven adult males, forty-eight adult females, and sixteen children, or in all of 111 souls. In 1835 only one hundred were left. As they continued rapidly to decrease, and as they themselves thought that they should not perish so quickly elsewhere, they were removed in 1847 to Oyster Cove in the southern part of Tasmania. They then consisted (Dec. 20th, 1847) of fourteen men, twenty-two women and ten children. (38. This is the statement of the Governor of Tasmania, Sir W. Denison, 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life,' 1870, vol. i. p. 67.) But the change of site did no good. Disease and death still pursued them, and in 1864 one man (who died in 1869), and three elderly women alone survived. The infertility of the women is even a more remarkable fact than the liability of all to ill-health and death. At the time when only nine women were left at Oyster Cove, they told Mr. Bonwick (p. 386), that only two had ever borne children: and these two had together produced only three children!

With respect to the cause of this extraordinary state of things, Dr. Story remarks that death followed the attempts to civilise the natives. "If left to themselves to roam as they were wont and undisturbed, they would have reared more children, and there would have been less mortality." Another careful observer of the natives, Mr. Davis, remarks, "The births have been few and the deaths numerous. This may have been in a great measure owing to their change of living and food; but more so to their banishment from the mainland of Van Diemen's Land, and consequent depression of spirits" (Bonwick, pp. 388, 390).


Note the transition from the extermination of an entire population by intentional murder "the famous hunt**" to the genocide being presented as if it was a description of the natural decline of a rare species. "As they continued rapidly to decrease, and as they themselves thought that they should not perish so quickly elsewhere, they were removed in 1847 to Oyster Cove in the southern part of Tasmania".   It is a passage that it would be hard to top for depravity with anything I've read by Haeckel.  If it is different in tone or content from Haeckel it is a difference too subtle for me to see.   Darwin goes on to report on the Maoris and other existing human populations in the region as dispassionately.   Where I'd expect most people to note the effects of invasion, murder, enslavement, intentional genocide, the theft of lands and the displacements to uninhabitable regions - until something valuable is discovered there as well,  Darwin sees all of that as the action of nature, determined, inevitable.   As Darwin begins that section:

"When civilised nations come into contact with barbarians the struggle is short, except where a deadly climate gives its aid to the native race."  

To be continued.

*Lankester was naturalist, a  long time member of Darwin's circle, a correspondent during that period, someone Darwin lobbied to get into the Linnean Society during the time Lankester was translating and publishing his translation, and  a close associate of Thomas Huxley.   I'm certain that translation would have been known to and likely read by Darwin, who seems to have read the material he cited from the German original.  As a close associate of Darwin, if there was anything questionable mentioning Darwin in Haeckel's book,  I am certain he would have drawn Darwin's attention to it, seeking confirmation of its accuracy.

Most of the  material relevant to this discussion is contained in chapters 22 and 23, about origin of human beings, Haeckel's division of people into races and ranking those supposed races by ascending rank from lowest to highest, largely based on skin color and ethnicity.

**  Why not even "the infamous "hunt"?   The friends of Charles Darwin are always presenting him as a great humanitarian but, other than a few instances that could fall into the category of noblesse oblige which I know of,  he seems remarkably callous and indifferent to human suffering and death in the majority of the population.   Contrast his tone in those passages to his at times gushy concern for the work of Haeckel, Galton and other professional associates.   The answer to why he doesn't chide Haeckel for his excesses would lie in those passages in which he calmly, cooly, contemplates the alleged benefits of countless people dying as children and where he talks about things like that with studied indifference.

I'm not pretending I don't see what's on the page right in front of me.