This raised awkward questions; it jarred with Charles Lyell's sheltered views, expressed in volume 2 of his Principles of Geology, that human races "showed only a slight deviation from a common standard", and that acceptance of transmutation meant renouncing man's "belief in the high genealogy of his species".
Isto formula complicadas preguntas; e facía tremer as ideas amparadoras de Charles Lyell, expresadas no volume 2 dos seus Principles of Geology, de que as razas humanas "mostraban só unha lixeira desviación do estándar común", e que a aceptación da transmutación significa renunciar á crenza humana "na alta xenealoxía da súa especie".