i / Q

MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE

AND OTHER

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ESSAYS

BY

THOMAS H. HUXLEY

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1899

Authorized Edition.

no 3X

PREFACE.

I am very well aware that the old are prone to
regard their early performances with much more
interest than their contemporaries of a younger
generation are likely to take in them; moreover,
I freely admit that my younger contemporaries
might employ their time better than in perusing
the three essays, written thirty-two years ago,
which occupy the first place in this volume. This
confession is the more needful, inasmuch as all the
premises of the argument set forth in " Man's
Place in Nature " and most of the conclusions de-
duced from them, are now to be met with among
other well-established and, indeed, elementary
truths, in the text-books.

Paradoxical as the statement may seem, how-
ever, it is just because every well-informed student
of biology ought to be tempted to throw these
essays, and especially the second, " On the Bela-
tions of Man to the Lower Animals," aside, as a
fair mathematician might dispense with the re-
perusal of Cocker's arithmetic, that I think it

vi PREFACE.

worth while to reprint them; and entertain the
hope that the story of their origin and early fate
may not be devoid of a certain antiquarian inter-
est, even if it possess no other.

In 1854, it became my duty to teach the prin-
ciples of biological science with especial reference
to paleontology. The first result of addressing
myself to the business I had taken in hand, was
the discovery of my own lamentable ignorance in
respect of many parts of the vast field of knowl-
edge through which I had undertaken to guide
others. The second result was a resolution to
amend this state of things to the best of my
ability; to which end, I surveyed the ground;
and having made out what were the main posi-
tions to be captured, I came to the conclusion that
I must try to carry them by concentrating all the
energy I possessed upon each in turn. So I set
to work to know something of my own knowledge
of all the various disciplines included under the
head of Biology; and to acquaint myself, at first
hand, with the evidence for and against the extant
solutions of the greater problems of that science.
I have reason to believe that wise heads were
shaken over my apparent divagations — now into
the province of Physiology or Histology, now into
that of Comparative Anatom} T , of Development, of
Zoology, of Paleontology, or of Ethnology. But
even at this time, when I am, or ought to be, so
much wiser, I really do not see that I could have

PREFACE. vii

done better. And my method had this great ad-
vantage; it involved the certainty that somebody
would profit by my effort to teach properly. What-
ever my hearers might do, I myself always learned
something by lecturing. And to those who have
experience of what a heart-breaking business teach-
ing is — how much the can't-learns and won't-
learns and don't-learns predominate over the do-
learns — will understand the comfort of that re-
flection.

Among the many problems which came under
my consideration, the position of the human species
in zoological classification was one of the most
serious. Indeed, at that time, it was a burning
question in the sense that those who touched it
were almost certain to burn their fingers severely.
It was not so very long since my kind friend Sir
William Lawrence, one of the ablest men whom
I have known, had been well-nigh ostracized for
his book " On Man," which now might be read
in a Sunday-school without surprising anybody; it
was only a few years, since the electors to the chair
of Natural History in a famous northern univer-
sity had refused to invite a very distinguished man
to occupy it because he advocated the doctrine of
the diversity of species of mankind, or what was
called " polygeny." Even among those who con-
sidered man from the point of view, not of vulgar
prejudice, but of science, opinions lay poles asun-
der. Linngeus had taken one view, Cuvier another;

viii PREFACE.

and, among my senior contemporaries, men like
Lyell, regarded by many as revolutionaries of the
deepest dye, were strongly opposed to anything
which tended to break down the barrier between
man and the rest of the animal world.

My own mind was by no means definitely made
up about this matter when, in the year 1857, a
paper was read before the Linnaean Society " On
the Characters, Principles of Division and Primary
Groups of the Class Mammalia," in which certain
anatomical features of the brain were said to be
" peculiar to the genus Homo," and were made
the chief ground for separating that genus from all
other mammals, and placing him in a division,
" Archencephala," apart from, and superior to, all
the rest. As these statements did not agree with
the opinions I had formed, I set to work to rein-
vestigate the subject; and soon satisfied myself
that the structures in question were not peculiar to
Man, but were shared by him with all the higher
and many of the lower apes. I embarked in no
public discussion of these matters; but my atten-
tion being thus drawn to them, I studied the whole
question of the structural relations of Man to the
next lower existing forms, with much care. And,
of course, I embodied my conclusions in my teach-
ing.

Matters were at this point, when " The Origin
of Species " appeared. The weighty sentence
" Light will be thrown on the origin of man and

PREFACE. i x

his history " (1st ed. p. 488) was not only in full
harmonv with the conclusions at which I had ar-
rived, respecting the structural relations of apes
and men, but was strongly supported by them.
And inasmuch as Development and Vertebrate
Anatomy were not among Mr. Darwin's many spe-
cialities, it appeared to me that I should not be
intruding on the ground he had made his own, if
I discussed this part of the general question. In
fact, I thought that I might probably serve the
cause of evolution by doing so.

Some experience of popular lecturing had
convinced me that the necessity of making things
plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very
best means of clearing up the obscure corners in
one's own mind. So, in 1860, I took the Relation
of Man to the Lower Animals, for the subject of
the six lectures to working men which it was my
duty to deliver. It was also in 1860, that this
topic was discussed before a jury of experts, at
the meeting of the British Association at Oxford;
and, from that time, a sort of running fight on the
same subject was carried on, until it culminated
at the Cambridge meeting of the Association in
1862, by my friend Sir W. Flower's public demon-
stration of the existence in the apes of those cere-
bral characters which had been said to be peculiar
to man.

" Magna est Veritas et prsevalebit ! " Truth is
great, certainly, but, considering her greatness, it is

x PREFACE.

curious what a long time she is apt to take about
prevailing. When, towards the end of 1862, I
had finished writing " Man's Place in Nature/'
I could say with a good conscience, that my con-
clusions " had not been formed hastily or enun-
ciated crudely." I thought I had earned the right
to publish them and even fancied I might be
thanked, rather than reproved, for so doing. How-
ever, in my anxiety to promulgate nothing errone-
ous, I asked a highly competent anatomist and very
good friend of mine to look through my proofs and,
if he could, point out any errors of fact. I was
well pleased when he returned them without criti-
cism on that score; but my satisfaction was speedily
dashed by the very earnest warning, as to the con-
sequences of publication, which my friend's inter-
est in my welfare led him to give. But as I have
confessed elsewhere, when I was a young man,
there was just a little — a mere soupgon — in my
composition of that tenacity of purpose which has
another name; and I felt sure that all the evil
things prophesied would not be so painful to me
as the giving up that which I had resolved to do,
upon grounds which I conceived to be right. So
the book came out; and I must do my friend the
justice to say that his forecast was completely
justified. The Boreas of criticism blew his hard-
est blasts of misrepresentation and ridicule for
some years; and I was even as one of the wicked.
Indeed, it surprises me, at times, to think how any

PREFACE. xi

one who had sunk so low could since have emerged
into, at any rate, relative respectability. Person-
ally, like the non-corvine personages in the In-
goldsby legend, I did not feel " one penny the
worse." Translated into several languages, the
book reached a wider public than I had ever hoped
for; being largely helped, I imagine, by the Ernul-
phine advertisements to which I have referred. It
has had the honour of being freely utilized, without
acknowledgment, by writers of repute; and, finally,
it achieved the fate, which is the euthanasia of a
scientific work, of being inclosed among the rubble
of the foundations of later knowledge and for-
gotten.

To my observation, human nature has not sen-
sibly changed during the last thirty years. I
doubt not that there are truths as plainly obvious
and as generally denied, as those contained in
" Man's Place in Nature," now awaiting enuncia-
tion. If there is a young man of the present gen-
eration, who has taken as much trouble as I did
to assure himself that they are truths, let him
come out with them, without troubling his head
about the barking of the dogs of St. Ernulphus.
" Veritas prrevalebit " — some day; and, even if she
does not prevail in his time, he himself will be all
the better and the wiser for having tried to help
her. And let him recollect that such great reward
is full payment for all his labour and pains.

" Man's Place in Nature," perhaps, may still be

x ii PREFACE.

useful as an introduction to the subject; but, as any
interest which attaches to it must be mainly his-
torical, I have thought it right to leave the essays
untouched. The history of the long controversy
about the structure of the brain, following upon
the second dissertation, in the original edition,
however, is omitted. The verdict of science has
long been pronounced upon the questions at issue;
and no good purpose can be served by preserving
the memory of the details of the suit.

In many passages, the reader who is acquainted
with the present state of science, will observe much
room for addition; but, in all cases, the supple-
ments required, are, I believe, either indifferent to
the argument or would strengthen it.

CONTENTS.

i

PAGK
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAN-LIKE APES . . 1

II

ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE LOWER ANIMALS . 77

III

ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN 157

IV

ON THE METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY [1865] . 210

V

ON SOME FIXED POINTS IN BRITISH ETHNOLOGY [1871]. 254

VI

ON THE ARYAN QUESTION [1890] 272

%* The first three Essays were published in January, 1863,
under the title of " Man's Place in Nature " ; the fourth Essay
appeared in the Fortnightly Review, the fifth in the Con-
temporary Review, and they were published in Critiques and
Addresses. The Essay on the Aryan Question appeared in
the Nineteenth Century for November, 1890.

xiii

MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE.
Advertisement to the Reader.

The greater part of the substance of the fol-
lowing Essays has already been published in the
form of Oral Discourses, addressed to widely dif-
ferent audiences during the past three years.

Upon the subject of the second Essay, I de-
livered six Lectures to the Working Men in 1860,
and two, to the members of the Philosophical In-
stitution of Edinburgh in 1862. The readiness
with which my audience followed my arguments,
on these occasions, encourages me to hope that I
have not committed the error, into which working
men of science so readily fall, of obscuring my
meaning by unnecessary technicalities: while, the
length of the period during which the subject,
under its various aspects, has been present to my
mind, may suffice to satisfy the Reader that, my
conclusions, be they right or be they wrong, have
not been formed hastily or enunciated crudely.

T. H. H.

London : January, 1863.

xv

I.

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE
MAN-LIKE APES.

Ancient traditions, when tested by the severe
processes of modern investigation, commonly
enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is sin-
gular how often the dream turns out to have been
a half -waking one, presaging a reality. Ovid fore-
shadowed the discoveries of the geologist: the At-
lantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a
western world: and though the quaint forms of
Centaurs and Satyrs have an existence only in the
realms of art, creatures approaching man more
nearly than they in essential structure, and yet as
thoroughly brutal as the goat's or horse's half of
the mythical compound, are now not only known,
but notorious.

I have not met with any notice of one of these
Man-like Apes of earlier date than that con-
tained in Pigafetta's " Description of the king-
1G5 1

2

THE MAN-LIKE APES.

dom of Congo/' * drawn up from the notes of a
Portuguese sailor, Eduardo Lopez, and published
in 1598. The tenth chapter of this work is en-
titled " De Animalibus quae in hac provincia re-

- ;v "?^ ;

Or-LT2-

Fig. 1. — Simise magnatum deliciae. — De Bry, 1598.

periuntur," and contains a brief passage to the
effect that " in the Songan country, on the banks
of the Zaire, there are multitudes of apes, which
aiford great delight to the nobles by imitating

* Regnum Congo: hoc est Vera Descriptio Regni
Africani quod tam ab ixcolis qtjam Lusitanis Con-
ous APPELiiATUR, per Philippum Pigafettam, olim ex
Edoardo Lopez acroamatis lingua Italiea excerpta, num
Latio sermone donata ab August. Cassiod. Reinio. Ieoni-
bus et imaginibua reruin memorabilium quasi vivis, opera
et industria Joan. Theodori et Joan, Israelis de Bry, fra-
trum exornata. Lraneofurti, mdxcviii.

i THE PONGO AND ENGECO. 3

human gestures." As this might apply to almost
any kind of apes, I should have thought little of
it, had not the brothers De Bry, whose engravings
illustrate the work, thought fit, in their eleventh
" Argumentum," to figure two of these " Simiae
magnatum delicise." So much of the plate as
contains these apes is faithfully copied in the
woodcut (Fig. 1), and it will be observed that they
are tail-less, long-armed, and large-eared; and about
the size of Chimpanzees. It may be that these apes
are as much figments of the imagination of the in-
genious brothers as the winged, two-legged, croco-
dile-headed dragon which adorns the same plate;
or, on the other hand, it may be that the artists
have constructed their drawings from some essen-
tially faithful description of a Gorilla or a Chim-
panzee. And, in either case, though these fig-
ures are worth a passing notice, the oldest trust-
worthy and definite accounts of any animal of this
kind date from the 17th century, and are due to an
Englishman.

The first edition of that most amusing old
book, " Purchas his Pilgrimage," was published
in 1613, and therein are to be found many refer-
ences to the statements of one whom Purchas terms
" Andrew Battell (my neere neighbour, dwelling
at Leigh in Essex) who served under Manuel Sil-
vera Perera, Governor under the King of Spaine,
at his city of Saint Paul, and with him went farre
into the countrey of Angola "; and again, " my

4 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

friend, Andrew Battle, who lived in the kingdom
of Congo many yeares," and who, " upon some
quarell betwixt the Portugals (among whom he was
a sergeant of a band) and him, lived eight or nine
moneths in the woodes." From this weather-
beaten old soldier, Purchas was amazed to hear " of
a kinde of Great Apes, if they might so be termed,
of the height of a man, but twice as bigge in fea-
ture of their limmes, with strength proportion-
able, hairie all over, otherwise altogether like men
and women in their whole bodily shape.* They
lived on such wilde fruits as the trees and woods
yielded, and in the night time lodged on the trees."
This extract is, however, less detailed and clear
in its statements than a passage in the third
chapter of the second part of another work —
" Purchas his Pilgrimes," published in 1625, by
the same author — which has been often, though
hardly ever quite rightly, cited. The chapter is
entitled, " The strange adventures of Andrew
Battell, of Leigh in Essex, sent by the Portugals
prisoner to Angola, who lived there and in the
adioining regions neere eighteene yeeres." And
the sixth section of this chapter is headed — " Of
the Provinces of Bongo, Calongo, Mayombe, Mani-
kesocke, Motimbas: of the x\pe Monster Pongo,
their hunting: Idolatries; and divers other obser-
vations."

* " Except this that their legges had no calves." — [Ed.
1G2G.] And in a marginal note, "These great apes are
called Pongo's."

i THE PONGO. 5

" This province (Calongo) toward the east bordereth
upon Bongo, and toward the north upon Mayombe, which
is nineteen leagues from Longo along the coast.

" This province of Mayombe is all woods and groves,
so overgrowne that a man may travaile twentie days in
the shadow without any sunne or heat. Here is no kind
of corne nor graine, so that the people liveth onely upon
plantanes and roots of sundrie sorts, very good ; and nuts ;
nor any kinde of tame cattell, nor hens.

" But they have great store of elephants' flesh, which
they greatly esteeme, and many kinds of wild beasts; and
great store of fish. Here is a great sandy bay, two leagues
to the northward of Cape Negro,'"' which is the port of
Mayombe. Sometimes the Portugals lade logwood in this
bay. Here is a great river, called Banna: in the winter it
hath no barre, because the generall winds cause a great
sea. But when the sunne hath his south declination, then
a boat may goe in; for then it is smooth because of the
raine. This river is very great, and hath many ilands and
people dwelling in them. The woods are so covered with
baboones, monkies, apes and parrots, that it will feare any
man to travaile in them alone. Here are also two kinds
of monsters, which are common in these woods, and very
dangerous.

" The greatest of these two monsters is called Pongo
in their language, and the lesser is called Engeco. This
Pongo is in all proportion like a man; but that he is more
like a giant in stature than a man; for he is very tall,
and hath a man's face, hollow-eyed, with long haire upon
his browes. His face and eares are without haire, and
his hands also. His bodie is full of haire, but not very
thicke; and it is of a dunnish colour.

" He differeth not from a man but in his legs; for they
have no calfe. Hee goeth alwaies upon his legs, and car-

* Purchas' note. — Cape Negro is in 1C degrees south of
the line.

6 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

rieth his hands clasped in the nape of his neeke when he
goeth upon the ground. They sleepe in the trees, and
build shelters for the raine. They feed upon fruit that
they find in the woods, and upon nuts, for they eate no
kind of flesh. They cannot speake, and have no under-
standing more than a beast. The people of the count rie,
when they travaile in the woods make fires where they
sleepe in the night; and in the morning, when they are
gone, the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it
goeth out; for they have no understanding to lay the
wood together. They goe many together and kill many
negroes that travaile in the woods. Many times they fall
upon the elephants which come to feed where they be,
and so beate them with their clubbed fists, and pieces of
wood, that they will runne roaring away from them.
Those Pongoes are never taken alive because they are so
strong, that ten men cannot hold one of them; but yet
they take many of their young ones with poisoned ar-
rowes.

" The young Pongo hangeth on his mother's belly with
his hands fast clasped about her, so that when the eoun-
trie people kill any of the females they take the young
one, which hangeth fast upon his mother.

" When they die among themselves, they cover the
dead with great heaps of boughs and wood, which is com-
monly found in the forest." *

* Purchas' marginal note, p. 982: — "The Pongo is a
giant ape. He told me in conference with him. that one
of these Pongoes tooke a negro bov of his which lived a
moneth with them. For they hurt not those which they
surprise at unawares, except they look on them : which
he avoyded. He said their highth was like a man's but
their bignesse twice as great. I saw the negro boy. What
the other monster should be he hath forgotten to relate;
and these papers came to my hand since his death, which,
otherwise, in my often conferences, 1 might have Learned.
Perhaps lie meaneth the Pigmy Pongo killers mentioned."

i THE PONGO. 7

It does not appear difficult to identify the exact
region of which Battell speaks. Longo is doubt-
less the name of the place usually spelled Loango
on our maps. Mayombe still lies some nineteen
leagues northward from Loango, along the coast;
and Cilongo or Kilonga, Manikesocke, and Motim-
bas are yet registered by geographers. The Cape
Negro of Battell, however, cannot be the modern
Cape Negro in 16° S., since Loango itself is in
4° S. latitude. On the other hand, the " great
river called Banna " corresponds very well with the
" Camma " and " Fernand Vas," of modern geog-
raphers, which form a great delta on this part of
the African coast.

Now this " Camma " country is situated about
a degree and a half south of the Equator, while a
few miles to the north of the line lies the Gaboon,
and a degree or so north of that, the Money Eiver
— both well known to modern naturalists as lo-
calities where the largest of man-like Apes has
been obtained. Moreover, at the present day, the
word Engeco, or N'schego, is applied by the na-
tives of these regions to the smaller of the two
great Apes which inhabit them; so that there can
be no rational doubt that Andrew Battell spoke
of that which he knew of his own knowledge, or,
at any rate, by immediate report from the natives
of Western Africa. The " Engeco," however, is
that " other monster " whose nature Battell " for-
got to relate," while the name " Pongo " — applied

8 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

to the animals whose characters and habits are so
fully and carefully described — seems to have died
out, at least in its primitive form and signification.
Indeed, there is evidence that not onlv in BattelPs
time, but up to a very recent date, it was used in
a totally different sense from that in which he em-
ploys it.

For example, the second chapter of Purchas'
work, which I have just quoted, contains " A De-
scription and Historicall Declaration of the Golden
Kingdom of Guinea, &c. &c. Translated from the
Dutch, and compared also with the Latin/' where-
in it is stated (p. 986) that —

" The River Gaboon lyeth about fifteen miles north-
ward from Rio de Angra, and eight miles northward from
Cape de Lope Gonsalvez (Cape Lopez), and is right under
the Equinoctial line, about fifteene miles from St. Thomas,
and is a great land, well and easily to be knowne. At
the mouth of the river there lieth a sand, three or foure
fathoms deepe, whereon it beateth mightily with the
streame which runneth out of the river into the sea. This
river, in the mouth thereof, is at least four miles broad ;
but when you are about the Hand called Pongo, it is not
above two miles broad. ... On both sides the river there

standeth many trees The Hand called Pongo,

which hath a monstrous high hill."

'»■

The French naval officers, whose letters are ap-
pended to the late M. Isidore Geoff. Saint Hilaire's
excellent essay on the Gorilla,* note in similar
terms the width of the Gaboon, the trees that line

* Archives (In Museum, Tome X.

i THE PONGO. 9

its banks down to the water's edge, and the strong
current that sets out of it. They describe two
islands in its estuary; — one low, called Perroquet;
the other high, presenting three conical hills, called
Coniquet; and one of them, M. Franquet, expressly
states that, formerly, the Chief of Coniquet was
called Meni-Pongo, meaning thereby Lord of
Pongo; and that the N'Pongues (as, in agreement
with Dr. Savage, he affirms the natives call them-
selves) term the estuary of the Gaboon itself
N'Pongo.

It is so easy, in dealing with savages, to mis-
understand their applications of words to things,
that one is at first inclined to suspect Battell of
having confounded the name of this region, where
his " greater monster ' still abounds, with the
name of the animal itself. But he is so right about
other matters (including t\\e name of the " lesser
monster ") that one is loth to suspect the old
traveller of error; and, on the other hand, we shall
find that a voyager of a hundred years' later date
speaks of the name " Boggoe," as applied to a
great Ape, by the inhabitants of quite another
part of Africa — Sierra Leone.

But I must leave this question to be settled by
philologers and travellers; and I should hardly
have dwelt so long upon it except for the curious
part played by this word ' Pongo ' in the later his-
tory of the man-like Apes.

The generation which succeeded Battell saw

10

THE MAX-LIKE APES.

the first of the man-like Apes which was ever
brought to Europe, or, at any rate, whose visit
found a historian. In the third book of Tulpius'
" Observations MedicaB," published in 16-11, the
56th chapter or section is devoted to what he calls
Saiyrus indicus, " called by the Indians Orang-

jFTcmo SyTveftris.
Orcrntj Outang.

Fig. 2.— The Orang of Tulpius, 1641.

autang or Man-of-the-Woods, and by the Africans
Quoias Morrou." He gives a very good figure, evi-
dently from the life, of the specimen of this ani-
mal, "nostra memoria ex Angola delatum," pre-
sented to Frederick Henry Prince of Orange. Tul-
pius says it was as big as a child of three years old,

i TYSON'S PYGMIE. H

and as stout as one of six years: and that its back
was covered with black hair. It is plainly a young
Chimpanzee.

In the meanwhile, the existence of other, Asi-
atic, man-like Apes became known, but at first
in a very mythical fashion. Thus Bontius (1658)
gives an altogether fabulous and ridiculous ac-
count and figure of an animal which he calls
" Orang-outang "; and though he says " vidi Ego
cujus effigiem hie exhibeo," the said effigies (see
Fig. 6 for Hoppius' copy of it) is nothing but a
very hairy woman of rather comely aspect, and
with proportions and feet wholly human. The
judicious English anatomist, Tyson, was justified
in saying of this description by Bontius, " I confess
I do mistrust the whole representation."

It is to the last-mentioned writer, and his coad-
jutor Cowper, that we owe the first account of a
man-like ape which has any pretensions to scien-
tific accuracy and completeness. The treatise en-
titled, " Orang-outang, sive Homo Sylvestris; or
the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared with that of a
Monkey, an Ape, and a Man," published by the
Royal Society in 1G99, is, indeed, a work of re-
markable merit, and has, in some respects, served
as a model to subsequent inquirers. This " Pyg-
mie," Tyson tells us "was brought from Angola, in
Africa; but was first taken a great deal higher up
the country "; its hair " was of a coal-black colour
and strait," and " when it went as a quadruped

12

THE MAX-LIKE APES.

on all four, 'twas awkwardly; not placing the palm
of the hand flat to the ground, but it walk'd upon
its knuckles, as I observed it to do when weak and
had not strength enough to support its body," —

Fig. 3. — The " Pvgmie " reduced from Tyson's figure 1,

1699.

" From the top of the head to the heel of the foot,

in a straight line, it measured twenty-six inches."

These characters, even without Tyson's good

figure (Figs. 3 and 4), would have been sufficient

TYSON'S PYGMIE.

13

to prove his " Pygmie " to be a young Chimpanzee.
But the opportunity of examining the skeleton of
the very animal Tyson anatomised having most
unexpectedly presented itself to me, I am able to

Fig 4. — The " Pygmie " reduced from Tyson's figure 2,

1699.

bear independent testimony to its being a veri-
table Troglodytes niger* though still very young.

* I am indebted to Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, whose
paleontological labours are so well known, for bringing

14 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

Although fully appreciating the resemblances be-
tween his Pygmie and Man, Tyson by no means
overlooked the differences between the two, and
he concludes his memoir by summing up first, the
points in which " the Ourang-outang or Pygmie
more resembled a Man than Apes and Monkeys
do/ 7 under forty-seven distinct heads; and then
giving, in thirty-four similar brief paragraphs, the
respects in which " the Ourang-outang or Pygmie
differ'd from a man and resembled more the Ape
and Monkey kind."

After a careful survey of the literature of the
subject extant in his time, our author arrives at
the conclusion that his " Pygmie " is identical
neither with the Orangs of Tulpius and Bontius,
nor with the Quoias Morrou of Dapper (or rather
of Tulpius), the Barris of d'Arcos, nor with the
Pongo of Battell; but that it is a species of ape
probably identical with the Pygmies of the An-
cients, and, says Tyson, though it " does so much
resemble a Man in many of its parts, more than
any of the ape kind, or any other animal in the
world, that I know of: yet by no means do I look
upon it as the product of a mixt generation — 'tis a

•this interseting relic to my knowledge. Tyson's grand-
daughter, it appears, married Dr. Allardyce, a physician
of repute in Cheltenham, and brought, as part of her
dowry, the skeleton of the " Pygmie.'' Dr. Allardyce pre-
sented it to the Cheltenham Museum, and, through the
good ollices of my friend Dr. Wright, the authorities of
the Museum have permitted me to borrow, what is, per-
haps, its most remarkable ornament.

I THE MANDRILL. 15

Brute-Animal sui generis, and a particular species
of Ape,"

The name of " Chimpanzee," by which one of
the African Apes .is now so well known, appears
to have come into use in the first half of the
eighteenth century, but the only important addi-
tion made, in that period, to our acquaintance with
the man-like apes of Africa is contained in " A
New Voyage to Guinea," by William Smith, which
bears the date 174-1.

In describing the animals of Sierra Leone, p.
51, this writer says: —

" I shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called
by the white men in this country Mandrill,* but why it
is so called I know not, nor did I ever hear the name be-
fore, neither can those who call them so tell, except it be
for their near resemblance of a human creature, though
nothing at all like an Ape. Their bodies, when full grown,
are as big in circumference as a middle-sized man's —
their legs much shorter, and their feet larger; their arms
and hands in proportion. The head is monstrously big,
and the face broad and flat, without any other hair but

* a

Mandrill " seems to signify a " man-like ape," the
word " Drill " or " Dril " having been anciently employed
in England to denote an Ape or Baboon. Thus in the
fifth edition of Blount's " Glossographia, or a Dictionary
interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language now-
used in our refined English tongue . . . very useful for all
such as desire to understand what they read," published
in 1681, I find, "Dril — a stonecutter's tool wherewith he
bores little holes in marble, &c. Also a large overgrown
Ape and Baboon, so called." " Drill " is used in the same
sense in Charleston's Onomasticon Zoicon, 1668. The sin-
gular etymology of the word given by Buffon seems hardly
a probable one.

ie

THE MAN-LIKE APES.

the eyebrows; the nose very small, the mouth wide, and
the lips thin. The face, which is covered by a white skin,
is monstrously ugly, being all over wrinkled as with old
age; the teeth broad and yellow; the hands have no more
hair than the face, bui the same white skin, though all
the rest of the body is covered with long black hair, like
a bear. They never go upon all-fours, like apes; but cry,
when vexed or teased, just like children

Fig. 5. — Facsimile of William Smith's figure of the " Man-
drill," 1744.

" When I was at Sherbro, one Mr, Cummerbus, whom
I shall have occasion hereafter to mention, made me a
present of one of these strange animals, which are called
by the natives Boggoe: it was a she-cub, of six months'
age, but even then larger than a Baboon. I gave it in
charge to one of the slaves, who knew how to feed and
nurse it, being a very tender sort of animal ; but when-
ever I went off the deck the sailors began to teaze it—

i LINNAEUS ANTIIKOPOMORPIIA. 17

some loved to see its tears and hear it cry; others hated
its snotty nose; one who hurt it, being checked by the
negro that took care of it, told the slave he was very fond
of his country-woman, and asked him if he should not
like her for a wife? To which the slave very readily re-
plied, 'No, this no my wife; this a white woman — this
fit wife for you.' This unlucky wit of the negro's, I fancy,
hastened its death, for next morning it was found dead
under the windlass."

William Smith's " Mandrill/' or " Boggoe," as
his description and figure testify, was, without
doubt, a Chimpanzee.

Linnaeus knew nothing, of his own observation,
of the man-like Apes of either Africa or Asia, but
a dissertation by his pupil Hoppius in the " Amceni-
tates Academics " (VI. " Anthropomorpha ") may
be regarded as embodying his views respecting
these animals.

The dissertation is illustrated by a plate, of
which the accompanying woodcut, Fig. 6, is a re-
duced copy. The figures are entitled (from left to
right) 1. Troglodyta Bontii; 2. Lucifer Aldro-
vandi; 3. Satyrus Tulpii; 4. Pygmceus Edwardi,
The first is a bad copy of Bontius' fictitious " Ou-
rang-outang," in whose existence, however, Lin-
naeus appears to have fully believed; for in the
standard edition of the " Systema Naturae," it is
enumerated as a second species of Homo; " H.
nocturnus." Lucifer Aldrovandi is a copy of a
figure in Aldrovandus, " De Quadrupedibus digi-
tals viviparis," Lib. 2, p. 249 (1G45) entitled
166

18

' THE MAN-LIKE APES.

" Cercopithecus formae rarae Barbilius vocatus et
originem a china ducebat." Hoppius is of opinion
that this may be one of that cat-tailed people, of
whom Xicolaus Koping affirms that they eat a
boat's crew, " gnbernator navis " and all ! In the
" Systema Naturae ' Linnaeus calls it in a note
Homo caudatys, and seems inclined to regard it
as a third species of man. According to Tem-

«•«*

Fig. 6. — The Anthropomorpha of Linnseus.

minck, Satyrus TuJpii is a copy of the figure of
a Chimpanzee published by Scotin in 1738, which
I have not seen. It is the Satyrus indicus of the
" Systema Naturae/' and is regarded by Linnaeus
as possibly a distinct species from Satyrus sylvestris.
The last, named Pygmceus Edwardi, is copied from
the figure of a young " Man of the Woods," or true
Orang-Utan, given in Edwards' " (Cleanings of
Natural History" (1758).

i BUFFON'S JOCKO. 19

Buffon was more fortunate than his great rival.
Not only had he the rare opportunity of examin-
ing a young Chimpanzee in the living state, but he
became possessed of an adult Asiatic man-like Ape
— the first and the last adult specimen of any of
these animals brought to Europe for many years.
With the valuable assistance of Daubenton, Buf-
fon gave an excellent description of this creature,
which, from its singular proportions, he termed
the long-armed Ape, or Gibbon. It is the modern
Hytobates lar.

Thus when, in 1766, Buffon wrote the four-
teenth volume of his great work, he was personally
familiar with the young of one kind of African
man-like Ape, and with the adult of an Asiatic
species — while the Orang-Utan and the Mandrill
of Smith were known to him by report. Further-
more, the Abbe Prevost had translated a good deal
of Purchas' " Pilgrims " into French, in his " His-
toire generale des Voyages " (1748), and there Buf-
fon found a version of Andrew Battell's account
of the Pongo and the Engeco. All these data Buf-
fon attempts to weld together into harmony in this
chapter entitled " Les Orang-outangs ou le Pongo
et le Jocko." To this title the following note is
appended: —

" Orang-outang nom de eet animal aux Indes orien-
tals : Pongo nom de cet animal a Lowando Province de
Congo.

" Jocko, Enjocko, nom de cet animal ft Congo que nous
avons adopts. En est l'article que nous avons retrancheV'

20 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

Thus it was that Andrew Battell's " Engeco "
became metamorphosed into " Jocko/' and, in the
latter shape, was spread all over the world, in con-
sequence of the extensive popularity of Buffon's
works. The Abbe Prevost and Buffon between
them however, did a good deal more disfigurement
to Battell's sober account than " cutting off an
article." Thus Battell's statement that the Pon-
gos " cannot speake, and have no understanding
more than a beast," is rendered by Buffon " qu'il
ne pent parler quoiqu'il ait plus d'entendement que
les autres animaux; " and again, Purchas' affirma-
tion, " He told me in conference with him, that
one of these Pongos tooke a negro boy of his
which lived a moneth with them," stands in the
French version, " un pongo lui enleva un petit
negre qui passa un an entier dans la societe de
ces animaux."

After quoting the account of the great Pongo,
Buffon justly remarks, that all the " Jockos " and
" Orangs " hitherto brought to Europe were young;
and he suggests that, in their adult condition, they
might be as big as the Pongo or " great Orang; "
so that, provisionally, he regarded the Jockos,
Orangs, and Pongos as all of one species. And
perhaps this was as much as the state of knowl-
edge at the time warranted. But how it came about
that Buffon failed to perceive the similarity of
Smith's " Mandrill " to his own " Jocko," and
confounded the former with so totally different a

i BUFFON'S JOCKO. 21

creature as the blue-faced Baboon, is not so easily
intelligible.

Twenty years later Buffon changed his opin-
ion,* and expressed his belief that the Orangs con-
stituted a genus with two species, — a large one,
the Pongo of Battell, and a small one, the Jocko:
that the small one (Jocko) is the East Indian
Orang; and that the young animals from Africa,
observed by himself and Tulpius, are simply young
Pongos.

In the meanwhile, the Dutch naturalist, Vos-
maer, gave, in 1778, a very good account and figure
of a young Orang, brought alive to Holland, and
his countryman, the famous anatomist, Peter Cam-
per, published (1779) an essay on the Orang-Utan
of similar value to that of Tyson on the Chim-
panzee. He dissected several females and a male,
all of which, from the state of their skeleton and
their dentition, he justly supposes to have been
young. However, judging by the analogy of man,
he concludes that they could not have exceeded
four feet in height in the adult condition. Fur-
thermore, he is very clear as to the specific dis-
tinctness of the true East Indian Orang.

" The Orang," says he, " differs not only from
the Pigmy of Tyson and from the Orang of
Tulpius by its peculiar colour and its long toes,
but also by its whole external form. Its arms, its
hands, and its feet are longer, while the thumbs,

* Histoire Naturelle, Suppl. Tome 7eme, 1789.

22 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

on the contrary, are much shorter, and the great
toes much smaller in proportion." * And again,
" The true Orang, that is to say, that of Asia, that
of Borneo, is consequently not the Pithecus, or
tail-less Ape, which the Greeks, and especially
Galen, have described. It is neither the Pongo
nor the Jocko, nor the Orang of Tulpius, nor the
Pigmy of Tyson, — it is an animal of a peculiar
species, as I shall prove in the clearest manner by
the organs of voice and the skeleton in the follow-
ing chapters " (/. c. p. 64).

A few years later, M. Padermaeher, who held
a high office in the Government of the Dutch
dominions in India, and was an active member
of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, pub-
lished, in the second part of the Transactions of
that Society,! a Description of the Island of
Borneo, which was written between the years 1779
and 1781, and, among much other interesting
matter, contains some notes upon the Orang.
The small sort of Orang-Utan, viz. that of Vos-
maer and of Edwards, he says, is found only in
Borneo, and chiefly about Banjermassing, Mam-
pauwa, and Landak. Of these he had seen some
fifty during his residence in the Indies; but none
exceeded 2J feet in length. The larger sort, often
regarded as a chimgera, continues Kadermacher,
would perhaps long have remained so, had it not

* Camper. CEuvres, i., p. 56.

t Verhandelingen ran het BataviaascTi Genootschap.
Tweede Deel. Derde Druk. 1S2G.

i THE ORANG-OUTANG. 23

been for the exertions of the Resident at Rembang,
M. Palm, who, on returning from Landak towards
Pontiana, shot one, and forwarded it to Batavia in
spirit, for transmission to Europe.

Palm's letter describing the capture runs thus:
— " Herewith I send your Excellency, contrary
to all expectation (since long ago I offered more
than a hundred ducats to the natives for an Orang-
utan of four or five feet high) an Orang which I
heard of this morning about eight o'clock. For a
long time we did our best to take the frightful
beast alive in the dense forest about half way to
Landak. We forgot even to eat, so anxious were
we not to let him escape; but it was necessary to
take care that he did not revenge himself, as he
kept continually breaking off heavy pieces of wood
and green branches, and dashing them at us. This
game lasted till four o'clock in the afternoon, when
we determined to shoot him; in which I succeeded
very well, and indeed better than I ever shot from a
boat before; for the bullet went just into the side
of his chest, so that he was not much damaged. We
got him into the prow still living, and bound him
fast, and next morning he died of his wounds. All
Pantiana came on board to see him when we ar-
rived." Palm gives his height from the head to
the heel as 49 inches.

A very intelligent German officer, Baron Von
AYurmb, who at this time held a post in the Dutch
East India service, and was Secretary of the Bata-

24 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

vian Society, studied this animal, and his careful
description of it, entitled " Beschrrjving van der
Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de Oost-In-
dische Pongo," is contained in the same volume of
the Batavian Society's Transactions. After Von
Wurmb had drawn up his description he states,
in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781,* that the
specimen was sent to Europe in brandy to be placed
in the collection of the Prince of Orange; " un-
fortunately," he continues, " we hear that the ship
has been wrecked." Von "Wurmb died in the
course of the year 1781, the letter in which this
passage occurs being the last he wrote; but in his
posthumous papers, published in the fourth part
of the Transactions of the Batavian Society, there
is a brief description, with measurements, of a fe-
male Pongo four feet high.

Did either of these original specimens, on
which Von Wurmb's descriptions are based, ever
reach Europe? It is commonly supposed that they
did; but I doubt the fact. For, appended to the
memoir " De l'Ourang-outang," in the collected
edition of Camper's works, tome i., pp. 61—66, is a
note by Camper himself, referring to Von "Wurmb's
papers, and continuing thus: — " Heretofore, tins
kind of ape had never been known in Europe.
Radermacher has had the kindness to send me the
skull of one of these animals, which measured

* " Briefe des Herrn v. Wurmb unci des H. Baron von
Wollzogen. Gotha, 1794."

THE ORANG-OUTANG.

25

fifty-throe inches, or four feet five inches, in
height. I have sent some sketches of it to M. Soem-
mering at Mayence, which are better calculated,
however, to give an idea of the form than of the
real size of the parts."

These sketches have been reproduced by Fischer
and by Lucae; and bear date 1783, Soemmering

Fig. 7. — The Pongo Skull, sent by Radermacher to
Camper, after Camper's original sketches, as reproduced
by Lucae.

having received them in 1784. Had either of Von
WurmVs specimens reached Holland, they would
hardly have been unknown at this time to Camper,
who, however, goes on to say: — " It appears that
since this, some more of these monsters have been
captured, for an entire skeleton, very badly set
up, which had been sent to the Museum of the

26 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

Prince of Orange, and which I saw only on the
27th of June, 1784, was more than four feet high.
I examined this skeleton again on the 19th De-
cember, 1785, after it had been excellently put to
rights by the ingenious Onymus."

It appears evident, then, that this skeleton,
which is doubtless that which has always gone by
the name of Wurmb's Pongo, is not that of the
animal described by him, though unquestionably
similar in all essential points.

Camper proceeds to note some of the most im-
portant features of this skeleton; promises to de-
scribe it in detail by-and-bye; and is evidently in
doubt as to the relation of this great " Pongo *' to
his " petit Orang."

The promised further investigations were never
carried out; and so it happcnc-d that the Pongo of
Von Wurmb took its place by the side of the Chim-
panzee, Gibbon, and Orang as a fourth and colossal
species of man-like Ape. And indeed nothing
could look much less like the Chimpanzees or the
Orangs, then known, than the Pongo; for all the
specimens of Chimpanzee and Orang which had
been observed were small of stature, singularly
human in aspect, gentle and docile; while Wurmb's
Pongo was a monster almost twice their size, of
vast strength and fierceness, and very brutal in
expression; its great projecting muzzle, armed with
strong teeth, being further disfigured by the out-
growth of the cheeks into fleshy lobes.

i THE ORANG-OUTANG. 27

Eventually, in accordance with the usual ma-
rauding habits of the Revolutionary armies, the
" Pongo " skeleton was carried away from Hol-
land into France, and notices of it, expressly
intended to demonstrate its entire distinctness
from the Orang and its affinity with the baboons,
were given, in 1798, by Geoffrey St. Hilaire and
Cuvier.

Even in Cuviers " Tableau Elementaire," and
in the first edition of his great work, the " Eegne
Animal," the "Pongo" is classed as a species of
Baboon. However, so early as 1818, it appears that
Cuvier saw reason to alter this opinion, and to
adopt the view suggested several years before by-
Blumenbach,* and after him by Tilesius, that the
Bornean Pongo is simply an adult Orang. In 1824,
Rudolphi demonstrated, by the condition of the
dentition, more fully and completely than had been
done by his predecessors, that the Orangs described
up to that time were all young animals, and that
the skull and teeth of the adult would probably be
such as those seen in the Pongo of Wurmb. In
the second edition of the " Regne Animal " (1829),
Cuvier infers, from the " proportions of all the
parts ? and " the arrangements of the foramina
and sutures of the head," that the Pongo is the
adult of the Orang-Utan, " at least of a very close-

* See Blumenbach AbMldungen NaturhistoricTien Ge-
genstande, No. 12, 1810; and Tilesius, Naturhistoriche
Friichte tier ersten Kaiscrlich-Russischen Erdumsegelung,
p. 115, 1813.

28 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

ly allied species," and this conclusion was eventu-
ally placed beyond all doubt by Professor Owen's
Memoir published in the " Zoological Transac-
tions " for 1835, and by Temminck in his " Mono-
graphies de Mammalogie." Temminck's memoir is
remarkable for the completeness of the evidence
which it affords as to the modification which the
form of the Orang undergoes according to age
and sex. Tiedemann first published an account
of the brain of the young Orang, while Sandifort,
Midler and Schlegel, described the muscles and
the viscera of the adult, and gave the earliest de-
tailed and trustworthy history of the habits of
the great Indian Ape in a state of nature; and
as important additions have been made by later
observers, we are at this moment better ac-
quainted with the adult of the Orang-Utan, than
with that of any of the other greater man-like
Apes.

It is certainly the Pongo of Wnrmb; * and it is
as certainly not the Pongo of Battell, seeing that
the Orang-Utan is entirely confined to the great
Asiatic islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

And while the progress of discovery thus
cleared up the history of the Orang, it also became
established that the only other man-like Apes in
the eastern world were the various species of Gib-
bon — Apes of smaller stature, and therefore at-

* Speaking broadly and without prejudice to the ques-
tion, whether there be more than one species of Orang.

i THE CHIMPANZEE. 29

tracting less attention than the Orangs, though
they are spread over a much wider range of
country, and are hence more accessible to observa-
tion.

Although the geographical area inhabited by
the " Pongo '• and " Engeco " of Battell is so much
nearer to Europe than that in which the Orang
and Gibbon are found, our acquaintance with the
African Apes has been of slower growth; indeed,
it is only within the last few years that the truth-
ful story of the old English adventurer has been
rendered fully intelligible. It was not until 1835
that the skeleton of the adult Chimpanzee became
known, by the publication of Professor Owen's
above-mentioned very excellent memoir " On the
Osteology of the Chimpanzee and Orang," in the
Zoological Transactions — a memoir which, by the
accuracy of its descriptions, the carefulness of its
comparisons, and the excellence of its figures, made
an epoch in the history of our knowledge of the
bony framework, not only of the Chimpanzee, but
of all the anthropoid Apes.

By the investigations herein detailed, it became
evident that the old Chimpanzee acquired a size
and aspect as different from those of the young
known to Tyson, to Buff on, and to Traill, as those
of the old Orang from the young Orang; and the
subsequent very important researches of Messrs.
Savage and Wyman, the American missionary and

30 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

anatomist, have not only confirmed this conclu-
sion, but have added many new details.*

One of the most interesting among the many
valuable discoveries made by Dr. Thomas Savage
is the fact, that the natives in the Gaboon country
at the present day, apply to the Chimpanzee a
name — " Enche-eko " — which is obviously identi-
cal with the " Engeko " of Battell; a discovery
which has been confirmed by all later inquirers.
Battell's " lesser monster " being thus proved to
be a veritable existence, of course a strong pre-
sumption arose that his " greater monster," the
" Pongo," would sooner or later be discovered.
And, indeed, a modern traveller, Bowdich, had, in
1819, found strong evidence, among the natives,
of the existence of a second great Ape, called the
" Ingena," " five feet high, and four across the
shoulders," the builder of a rude house, on the
outside of which it slept.

In 1847, Dr. Savage had the good fortune to
make another and most important addition to our
knowledge of the man-like Apes; for, being un-
expectedly detained at the Gaboon river, he saw in
the house of the Eev. Mr. Wilson, a missionary
resident there, " a skull represented by the natives
to be a monkey-like animal, remarkable for its

*See "Observations on the external characters and hab-
its of the Troglodytes niger, by Thomas X. Savage M. D.,
and on its organization, by Jeffries Wyman. M. 1).." Bos-
ton Journal of Natural History, vol. iv. 1843-4: and
"External characters, habits, and osteology of Troglo-
dytes Gorilla," by the same authors, ibid. vol. v. 1847.

i THE GOPJLLA. 31

size, ferocity, and habits." From the contour of the
skull, and the information derived from several
intelligent natives, " I was induced," says Dr. Sav-
age (using the term Orang in its old general sense)
" to believe that it belonged to a new species of
Orang. I expressed this opinion to Mr. Wilson, with
a desire for further investigation; and, if possible,
to decide the point by the inspection of a specimen
alive or dead." The result of the combined exer-
tions of Messrs. Savage and Wilson was not only
the obtaining of a very full account of the habits
of this new creature, but a still more important
service to science, the enabling the excellent
American anatomist already mentioned, Professor
Wyman, to describe, from ample materials, the
distinctive osteological characters of the new form.
This animal was called by the natives of the Gaboon
" Enge-ena," a name obviously identical with the
" Ingena " of Bowdich; and Dr. Savage arrived at
the conviction that this last discovered of all the
great Apes was the long-sought " Pongo " of Bat-
tell.

The justice of this conclusion, indeed, is beyond
doubt — for not only does the " Enge-ena " agree
with Battell's " greater monster ' in its hollow
eyes, its great stature, and its dun or iron-grey
colour, but the only other man-like Ape which
inhabits these latitudes — the Chimpanzee — is at
once identified, by its smaller size, as the "lesser
monster," and is excluded from any possibility of

32 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

being the " Pongo," by the fact that it is black
and not dun, to say nothing of the important cir-
cumstance already mentioned that it still retains
the name of " Engeko," or " Enche-eko/' by which
Battell knew it.

In seeking for a specific name for the " Enge-
ena," however, Dr. Savage wisely avoided the
much misused "Pongo"; but finding in the
ancient Periplus of Hanno the word " Gorilla '
applied to certain hairy savage people, discovered
by the Carthaginian voyager in an island on the
African coast, he attached the specific name
" Gorilla " to his new ape, whence arises its pres-
ent well-known appellation. But Dr. Savage, more
cautious than some of his successors, by no means
identifies his ape with Hanno's " wild men.'' He
merely says that the latter were " probably one of
the species of the Orang; " and I quite agree with
M. Brulle, that there is no ground for identifying
the modern " Gorilla " with that of the Carthagin-
ian admiral.

Since the memoir of Savage and Wyman was
published, the skeleton of the Gorilla has been
investigated by Professor Owen and by the late
Professor Duvernoy, of the Jardin des Plantes, the
latter having further supplied a valuable account
of the muscular system and of many of the other
soft parts: while African missionaries and travellers
have confirmed and expanded the account origi-
nally given of the habits of this great man-like

i THE GIBBONS. 33

Ape, which has had the singular fortune of being
the first to be made known to the general world
and the last to be scientifically investigated.

Two centuries and a half have passed away
since Battell told his stories about the " greater '■
and the " lesser monsters " to Purchas, and it has
taken nearly that time to arrive at the clear re-
sult that there are four distinct kinds of Anthro-
poids — in Eastern Asia, the Gibbons and the
Orangs; in Western Africa, the Chimpanzees and
the Gorilla.

The man-like Apes, the history of the discovery
of which has just been detailed, have certain char-
acters of structure and of distribution in common.
Thus they all have the same number of teeth as
man — possessing four incisors, two canines, four
false molars, and six true molars in each jaw, or
32 teeth in all, in the adult condition; while the
milk dentition consists of 20 teeth — or four in-
cisors, two canines, and four molars in each jaw.
They are what are called catarrhine Apes — that is,
their nostrils have a narrow partition and look
downwards; and, furthermore, their arms are al-
ways longer than their legs, the difference being
sometimes greater and sometimes less; so that if
the four were arranged in the order of the length
of their arms in proportion to that of their legs,
we should have this series — Orang (If — 1), Gibbon
(1-i — 1), Gorilla (4—1), Chimpanzee (l T y -1),
107

34 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

In all, the fore limbs are terminated by hands,
provided with longer or shorter thumbs; while
the great toe of the foot, always smaller than in
Man, is far more movable than in him and can be
opposed, like a thumb, to the rest of the foot.
Xone of these apes have tails, and none of them
possess the cheek-pouches common among mon-
keys. Finally, they are all inhabitants of the old
world.

The Gibbons are the smallest, slenderest, and
longest-limbed of the man-like Apes: their arms
are longer in proportion to their bodies than those
of any of the other man-like Apes, so that they
can touch the ground when erect; their hands are
longer than their feet, and they are the only An-
thropoids which possess callosities like the lower
monkeys. They are variously coloured. The
Orangs have arms which reach to the ankles in
the erect position of the animal; their thumbs and
great toes are very short, and their feet are longer
than their hands. They are covered with reddish
brown hair, and the sides of the face, in adult
males, are commonly produced into two crescentic,
flexible excrescences, like fatty tumours. The
Chimpanzees have arms which reach below the
knees; they have large thumbs and great toes;
their hands are longer than their feet; and their
hair is black, while the skin of the face is pale.
The Gorilla, lastly, has arms which reach to the
middle of the leg, large thumbs and great toes,

i THE GIBBONS. 35

feet longer than the hands, a black face, and dark-
grey or dun hair.

For the purpose which I have at present in
view, it is unnecessary that I should enter into any
further minutiae respecting the distinctive char-
acters of the genera and species into which these
man-like Apes are divided by naturalists. Suf-
fice it to say, that the Orangs and the Gibbons con-
stitute the distinct genera, Simla and Hylobates;
while the Chimpanzees and Gorillas are by some
regarded simply as distinct species of one genus,
Troglodytes; by others as distinct genera — Trog-
lodytes being reserved for the Chimpanzees, and
Gorilla for the Enge-ena or Pongo.

Sound knowledge respecting the habits and
mode of life of the man-like Apes has been even
more difficult of attainment than correct informa-
tion regarding their structure.

Once in a generation, a Wallace may be found
physically, mentally, and morally qualified to
wander unscathed through the tropical wilds of
America and of Asia; to form magnificent collec-
tions as he wanders; and withal to think out saga-
ciously the conclusions suggested by his collections:
but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the dense
forests of equatorial Asia and Africa, which con-
stitute the favourite habitation of the Orang, the
Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla, present difficulties
of no ordinary magnitude; and the man who risks

36 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

his life by even a short visit to the malarious shores
of those regions may well be excused if he shrinks
from facing the dangers of the interior; if he con-
tents himself with stimulating the industry of the
better seasoned natives, and collecting and collat-
ing the more or less mythical reports and traditions
with which they are too ready to supply him.

In such a manner most of the earlier accounts
of the habits of the man-like Apes originated;
and even now a good deal of what passes current
must be admitted to have no very safe foundation.
The best information we possess is that, based
almost wholly on direct European testimony, re-
specting the Gibbons; the next best evidence re-
lates to the Orangs; while our knowledge of the
habits of the Chimpanzee and the Gorilla stands
much in need of support and enlargement by ad-
ditional testimony from instructed European eye-
witnesses.

It will therefore be convenient in endeavour-
ing to form a notion of what we are justified in
believing about these animals, to commence with
the best known man-like Apes, the Gibbons and
Orangs; and to make use of the perfectly trust-
worthy information respecting them as a sort of
criterion of the probable truth or falsehood of
assertions respecting the others.

Of the Gibbons, half a dozen species are found
scattered over the Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, and through Malacca, Siam, Arracan,

i THE GIBBONS. 37

and an uncertain extent of Hindostan, on the
main land of Asia. The largest attain a few inches
above three feet in height, from the crown to the
heel, so that they are shorter than the other man-
like Apes; while the slenderness of their bodies
renders their mass far smaller in proportion even
to this diminished height.

Dr. Salomon M tiller, an accomplished Dutch
naturalist, who lived for many years in the East-
ern Archipelago, and to the results of whose per-
sonal experience I shall frequently have occasion
to refer, states that the Gibbons are true moun-
taineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills,
though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the
fig-trees. All day long they haunt the tops of the
tall trees; and though, towards evening, they
descend in small troops to the open ground,
no sooner do they spy a man than they dart
up the hill-sides, and disappear in the darker
valleys.

All observers testify to the prodigious volume
of voice possessed by these animals. According
to the writer whom I have just cited, in one of
them, the Siamang, " the voice is grave and pene-
trating, resembling the sounds goek, goek, goek,
goek, goek ha ha ha ha haaaaa, and may easily be
heard at a distance of half a league." While the
cry is being uttered, the great membranous bag
under the throat which communicates with the
organ of voice, the so-called " laryngeal sac/' be-

\

\

\\—

j-~-

v ^— -• ^it*

Fig. 8.— A Gibbon {H. pileatus), after Wolf.

i THE GIBBONS. 39

comes greatly distended, diminishing again when
the creature relapses into silence.

M. Duvaucel, likewise, affirms that the cry of
the Siamang may be heard for miles — making the
woods ring again. So Mr. Martin * describes the
cry of the agile Gibbon as " overpowering and
deafening ,: in a room, and " from its strength,
well calculated for resounding through the vast
forests." Mr. Waterhouse, an accomplished mu-
sician as w r ell as zoologist, says, " The Gibbon's
voice is certainly much more powerful than that
of any singer I ever heard." And yet it is to be
recollected that this animal is not half the height
of, and far less bulky in proportion than, a man.

There is good testimony that various species
of Gibbon readily take to the erect posture. Mr.
George Bennett, f a very excellent observer, in de-
scribing the habits of a male Hyldbates syndactylus
which remained for some time in his possession,
says: "He invariably walks in the erect posture
when on a level surface; and then the arms either
hang down, enabling him to assist himself with his
knuckles; or what is more usual, he keeps his arms
uplifted in nearly an erect position, with the hands
pendent ready to seize a rope, and climb up on
the approach of danger or on the obtrusion of
strangers. He walks rather quick in the erect
posture, but with a waddling gait, and is soon run

* Man and Monkics, p. 423.

t Wanderings in New South Wales, vol. ii. chap. viii.
1834.

40 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

down if, whilst pursued, lie has no opportunity of
escaping by climbing. . . . When he walks in the
erect posture he turns the leg and foot outwards,
which occasions him to have a waddling gait and
to seem bow-legged/ 7

Dr. Burrough states of another Gibbon, the
Horlack or Hooluk:

" They walk erect ; and when placed on the floor, or in
an open field, balance themselves very prettily, by rais-
ing their hands over their head and slightly bending the
arm at the wrist and elbow, and then run tolerably fast,
rocking from side to side; and, if urged to greater speed,
they let fall their hands to the ground, and assist them-
selves forward, rather jumping than running, still keep-
ing the body, however, nearly erect."

Somewhat different evidence, however, is given
by Dr. Winslow Lewis: *

" Their onlv manner of walking was on their
posterior or inferior extremities, the others being
raised upwards to preserve their equilibrium, as
rope-dancers are assisted by long poles at fairs.
Their progression was not by placing one foot be-
fore the other, but by simultaneously using both,
as in jumping." Dr. Salomon Muller also states
that the Gibbons progress along the ground by
short series of tottering jumps, effected only by
the hind limbs, the body being held altogether
upright.

But Mr. Martin (/. c. p. 418), who also speaks

* Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. i. 1834.

i THE GIBBONS. 41

from direct observation, says of the Gibbons
generally :

" Pre-eminently qualified for arboreal habits, and dis-
playing among the branches amazing activity, the Gib-
bons are not so awkward or embarrassed on a level sur-
face as might be imagined. They walk erect, with a
waddling or unsteady gait, but at a quick pace; the
equilibrium of the body requiring to be kept up, either by
touching the ground with the knuckles, first on one side
then on the other, or by uplifting the arms so as to poise
it. As with the Chimpanzee, the whole of the narrow,
long sole of the foot is placed upon the ground at once and
raised at once, without any elasticity of step."

After this mass of concurrent and independent
testimony, it cannot reasonably be doubted that
the Gibbons commonly and habitually assume the
erect attitude.

But level ground is not the place where these
animals can display their very remarkable and pe-
culiar locomotive powers, and that prodigious
activity which almost tempts one to rank them
among flying, rather than among ordinary climb-
ing mammals.

Mr. Martin (I. c. p. 430) has given so excellent
and graphic an account of the movements of a
Hylobates agilis, living in the Zoological Gardens,
in 1840, that I will quote it in full:

" It is almost impossible to convey in words an idea
of the quickness and graceful address of her movements:
they may indeed be termed aerial, as she seems merely to
touch in her progress the branches among which she ex-

42 THE MAX-LIKE APES. I

hibits her evolutions. In these feats her hands and arms
are the sole organs of locomotion; her body hanging as if
suspended by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right for
example), she launches herself, by an energetic movement,
to a distant branch, which she catches with the left hand ;
but her hold is less than momentary: the impulse for the
next launch is acquired: the branch then aimed at is
attained by the right hand again and quitted instantane-
ously, and so on in alternate succession. In this manner
spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are cleared, with the
greatest ease and uninterruptedly, for hours together,
without the slightest appearance of fatigue being mani-
fested; and it is evident that if more space could be al-
lowed, distances very greatly exceeding eighteen feet
would be as easily cleared; so that DuvauceFs assertion
that he had seen these animals launch themselves from
one branch to another, forty feet asunder, startling as it
is, may be well credited. Sometimes, on seizing a branch
in her progress, she will throw herself, by the power of
one arm only, completely round it, making a revolution
with such rapidity as almost to deceive the eye, and con-
tinue her progress with undiminished velocity. It is sin-
gular to observe how suddenly this Gibbon can stop, when
the impetus given by the rapidity and distance of her
swinging leaps would seem to require a gradual abate-
ment of her movements. In the very midst of her flight
a branch is seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if
by magic, quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet.
As suddenly she again throws herself into action.

" The following facts will convey some notion of her
dexterity and quickness. A live bird was let loose in her
apartment ; she marked its flight, made a long swing to a
distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in her pas-
sage, and attained the branch with her other hand; her
aim, both at the bird and at the branch, being as success-
ful as if one object only had engaged her attention. It

I THE GIBBONS. 43

may be added that she instantly bit off the head of the
bird, picked its feathers, and then threw it down without
attempting to eat it.

" On another occasion this animal swung herself from
a perch, across a passage at least twelve feet wide, against
a window which it was thought would be immediately
broken: but not so; to the surprise of all, she caught the
narrow framework between the panes with her hand, in
an instant attained the proper impetus, and sprang back
again to the cage she had left — a feat requiring not only
great strength, but the nicest precision."

The Gibbons appear to be naturally very
gentle, but there is very good evidence that they
will bite severely when irritated — a female Hylo-
bates agilis having so severely lacerated one man
with her long canines, that he died; while she had
injured others so much that, by way of precaution,
these formidable teeth had been filed down; but,
if threatened, she would still turn on her keeper.
The Gibbons eat insects, but appear generally to
avoid animal food. A Siamang, however, was
seen by Mr. Bennett to seize and devour greedily
a live lizard. They commonly drink by dipping
their fingers in the liquid and then licking them.
It is asserted that they sleep in a sitting posture.

Duvaucel affirms that he has seen the females
carry their young to the waterside and there wash
their faces, in spite of resistance and cries. They
are gentle and affectionate in captivity — full of
tricks and pettishness, like spoiled children, and
yet not devoid of a certain conscience, as an anec-

44: THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

dote, told by Mr. Bennett (I. c. p. 156), will show.
It would appear that his Gibbon had a peculiar in-
clination for disarranging things in the cabin.
Among these articles, a piece of soap would espe-
cially attract his notice, and for the removal of
this he had been once or twice scolded. " One
morning," says Mr. Bennett, " I was writing, the
ape being present in the cabin, when casting my
eyes towards him, I saw the little fellow taking the
soap. I watched him without his perceiving that
I did so: and he occasionally would cast a furtive
glance towards the place where I sat. I pretended
to write; he, seeing me busily occupied, took the
soap, and moved away with it in his paw. When
he had walked half the length of the cabin, I
spoke quietly, without frightening him. The in-
stant he found I saw him, he walked back again,
and deposited the soap nearly in the same place
from whence he had taken it. There was certainly
something more than instinct in that action: he
evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done
wrong both by his first and last actions — and what
is reason if that is not an exercise of it?"

The most elaborate account of the natural
history of the Okaxg-Utan extant, is that given
in the " Verhandelingen over de Xatuurlijke Ge-
schiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche Bezit-
tingen (1839-'45)," by Dr. Salomon Miiller and
Dr. Sehlegel, and I shall base what I have to say

Fig. 9. — An adult male Orang-Utan, after Miiller and

"■to

Schlegel.

46 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

upon this subject almost entirely on their state-
ments, adding, here and there, particulars of in-
terest from the writings of Brooke, Wallace, and
others.

The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exceed
four feet in height, but the body is very bulky,
measuring two-thirds of the height in circumfer-
ence.*

The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and
Borneo, and is common in neither of these islands
— in both of which it occurs always in low, flat
plains, never in the mountains. It loves the
densest and most sombre of the forests, which
extend from the sea-shore inland, and thus is
found only in the eastern half of Sumatra, where
alone such forests occur, though, occasionally, it
strays over to the western side.

* The largest Orang-Utan, cited by Temminck, meas-
ured, when standing upright, four feet; but he mentions
having just received news of the capture of an Orang
five feet three inches high. Schlegel and Miiller say that
their largest old male measured, upright, 1.25 Nether-
lands "el "; and from the crown to the end of the toes,
1.5 el; the circumference of the body being about 1 el.
The largest old female was 1.09 el high, when standing.
The adult skeleton in the College of Surgeons' Museum,
if set upright, would stand 3 ft. 6-8 in. from crown to
sole. Dr. Humphry gives 3 ft. 8 in. as the mean height
of two Orangs. Of seventeen Orangs examined by Mr.
Wallace, the largest was 4 ft. 2 in. high, from the heel to
the crown of the head. Mr. Spencer St. John, however, in
his Life in the Forests of the Far Fast, tells us of an
Orang of " 5 ft. 2 in., measuring fairly from the head to
the heel." 15 in. across the face, and 12 in. round tbe
wrist. It flops not appear, however, that Mr. St. John
measured this Orang himself.

i THE OKAXG. 47

On the other hand, it is generally distributed
through Borneo, except in the mountains, or
where the population is dense. In favourable
places, the hunter may, by good fortune, see three
or four in a day.

Except in the pairing time, the old males
usually live by themselves. The old females, and
the immature males, on the other hand, are often
met with in twos and threes; and the former oc-
casionally have young with them, though the
pregnant females usually separate themselves, and
sometimes remain apart after they have given
birth to their offspring. The young Orangs seem
to remain unusually long under their mother's pro-
tection, probably in consequence of their slow
growth. While climbing, the mother always car-
ries her young against her bosom, the young hold-
ing on by his mother's hair.* At what time of
life the Orang-Utan becomes capable of propaga-
tion, and how long the females go with young, is
unknown, but it is probable that they are not adult
until they arrive at ten or fifteen years of age. A
female w r hich lived for five years at Batavia had not
attained one-third the height of the wild females.
It is probable that, after reaching adult years, they

* See Mr. Wallace's account of an infant " Orang-
utan," in the Annals of Natural History for 185G. Mr.
Wallace provided his interesting charge with an artificial
mother of buffalo-skin, but the cheat was too successful.
The infant's entire experience led it to associate teats with
hair, and feeling the latter, it spent its existence in vain
endeavours to discover the former.

48 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

go on growing, though slowly, and that they live to
forty or fifty years. The Dyaks tell of old Orangs,
which have not only lost all their teeth, but which
find it so troublesome to climb, that they maintain
themselves on windfalls and juicy herbage.

The Orang is sluggish, exhibiting none of that
marvellous activity characteristic of the Gibbons.
Hunger alone seems to stir him to exertion, and
when it is stilled, he relapses into repose. When
the animal sits, it curves its back and bows its
head, so as to look straight down on the ground;
sometimes it holds on with its hands by a higher
branch, sometimes lets them hang phlegmatically
down by its side — and in these positions the
Orang will remain, for hours together, in the same
spot, almost without stirring, and only now and
then giving utterance to his deep, growling voice.
By day he usually climbs from one tree-top to
another, and only at night descends to the ground,
and if then threatened with danger, he seeks
refuge among the underwood. When not hunted,
he remains a long time in the same locality, and
sometimes stops for many days on the same tree
— a firm place among its branches serving him for
a bed. It is rare for the Orang to pass the night
in the summit of a large tree, probably because it
is too windy and cold there for him; but, as soon
as night draws on, he descends from the height
and seeks out a fit bed in the lower and darker
part, or in the leafy top of a small tree, among

i THE ORANG. 49

which he prefers Nibong Palms, Pandani, or one
of those parasitic Orchids which give the primaeval
forests of Borneo so characteristic and striking an
appearance. But wherever he determines to sleep,
there he prepares himself a sort of nest: little
boughs and leaves are drawn together round the
selected spot, and bent crosswise over one another;
while to make the bed soft, great leaves of Ferns,
of Orchids, of Pandanus fascicularis, Nipa fruti-
cans, &c, are laid over them. Those which Miil-
ler saw, many of them being very fresh, were situ-
ated at a height of ten to twenty-five feet above
the ground, and had a circumference, on the
average, of two or three feet. Some were packed
many inches thick with Pandanus leaves; others
were remarkable only for the cracked twigs, which,
united in a common centre, formed a regular plat-
form. " The rude hut" says Sir James Brooke,
" which they are stated to build in the trees,
would be more properly called a seat or nest, for
it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility
with which they form this nest is curious, and I
had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female
weave the branches together and seat herself,
within a minute."

According to the Dyaks the Orang rarely leaves
his bed before the sun is well above the horizon
and has dissipated the mists. He gets up about
nine, and goes to bed again about five; but some-
times not till late in the twilight. He lies some-

108

50 TPIE MAN-LIKE APES. i

times on his back; or, by way of change, turns on
one side or the other, drawing his limbs up to his
body, and resting his head on his hand. When
the night is cold, windy, or rainy, he usually covers
his body with a heap of Pandanus, Nipa, or Fern
leaves, like those of which his bed is made, and
he is especially careful to wrap up his head in
them. It is this habit of covering himself up
which has probably led to the fable that the Orang
builds huts in the trees.

Although the Orang resides mostly amid the
boughs of great trees, during the daytime, he is
very rarely seen squatting on a thick branch, as
other apes, and particularly the Gibbons, do. Tbe
Orang, on the contrary, confines himself to the
slender leafy branches, so that he is seen right at
the top of the trees, a mode of life which is closely
related to the constitution of his hinder limbs,
and especially to that of his seat. For this is pro-
vided with no callosities, such as are possessed
by many of the lower apes, and even by the Gib-
bons; and those bones of the pelvis, which are
termed the ischia, and which form the solid frame-
work of the surface on which the body rests in
the sitting posture, are not expanded like those
of the apes which possess callosities, but are more
like those of man.

An Orang climbs so slowly and cautiously,* as,

* " They are the sloAvest find least aotive of all tbe
monkey tribe, and their motions are surprisingly awk-

i THE ORANG. 51

in this act, to resemble a man more than an ape,
taking great care of his feet, so that injury of
them seems to affect him far more than it does
other apes. Unlike the Gibbons, whose forearms
do the greater part of the work, as they swing
from branch to branch, the Orang never makes
even the smallest jump. In climbing, he moves
alternately one hand and one foot, or, after having
laid fast hold with the hands, he draws up both
feet together. In passing from one tree to an-
other, he always seeks out a place where the twigs
of both come close together, or interlace. Even
when closely pursued, his circumspection is amaz-
ing: he shakes the branches to see if they will bear
him, and then bending an overhanging bough
down by throwing his weight gradually along it,
he makes a bridge from the tree he wishes to quit
to the next.*

On the ground the Orang always goes labori-
ously and shakily, on all fours. At starting he
will run faster than a man, though he may soon
be overtaken. The very long arms which, when
he runs, are but little bent, raise the body of the
Orang remarkably, so that he assumes much the
posture of a very old man bent down by age, and
making his way along by the help of a stick. In
walking, the body is usually directed straight for-
ward and uncouth." — Sir James Brooke, in the Proceed-
ings of the Zoological Society, 1841.

* Mr. Wallace's account of the progression of the
Orang almost exactly corresponds with this.

52 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

ward, unlike the other apes, which run more or
less obliquely; except the Gibbons, who in these
as in so many other respects, depart remarkably
from their fellows.

The Orang cannot put its feet flat on the
ground, but is supported upon their outer edges,
the heel resting more on the ground, while the
curved toes partly rest upon the ground by the
upper side of their first joint, the two outermost
toes of each foot completely resting on this surface.
The hands are held in the opposite manner, their
inner edges serving as the chief support. The fin-
gers are then bent out in such a manner that their
foremost joints, especially those of the two inner-
most fingers, rest upon the ground by their upper
sides, while the point of the free and straight
thumb serves as an additional fulcrum.

The Orang never stands on its hind legs, and
all the pictures, representing it as so doing, are
as false as the assertion that it defends itself with
sticks, and the like.

The long arms are of especial use, not only in
climbing, but in the gathering of food from
boughs to which the animal could not trust his
weight. Figs, blossoms, and young leaves of vari-
ous kinds, constitute the chief nutriment of the
Orang; but strips of bamboo two or three feet long
were found in the stomach of a male. They are
not known to eat living animals.

Although, when taken young, the Orang-Utan

I THE ORANG. 53

soon becomes domesticated, and indeed seems to
court human society, it is naturally a very wild
and shy animal, though apparently sluggish and
melancholy. The Dyaks affirm, that when the old
males are wounded with arrows only, they will oc-
casionally leave the trees and rush raging upon
their enemies, whose sole safety lies in instant
flight, as they are sure to be killed if caught.*

* Sir James Brooke, in a letter to Mr. Waterhouse,
published in the proceedings of the Zoological Society for
1841, says:— "On the habits of the Orangs, as far as I
have been able to observe them, I may remark that they
are as dull and slothful as can well be conceived, and on
no occasion, when pursuing them, did they move so fast
as to preclude my keeping pace with them easily through
a moderately clear forest; and even when obstructions
below (such as wading up to the neck) allowed them to
get away some distance, they were sure to stop and allow
me to come up. I never observed the slightest attempt at
defence, and the wood which sometimes rattled about our
ears was broken by their weight, and not thrown, as some
persons represent. If pushed to extremity, however, the
Pappati could not be otherwise than formidable, and one
unfortunate man, who, with a party, was trying to catch
a large one alive, lost two of his fingers, besides being
severely bitten on the face, whilst the animal finally beat
off his pursuers and escaped."

Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, affirms that he has
several times observed them throwing down branches
when pursued. " It is true he does not throw them at a
person, but casts them down vertically; for it is evi-
dent that a bough cannot be thrown to anv distance from
the top of a lofty tree. In one case a female Mias, on a
durian tree, kept up for at least ten minutes a continu-
ous shower of branches and of the heavy, spined fruits, as
large as 32-pounders, which most effectually kept us clear
of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them
off and throwing them down with every appearance of
rage, uttering at intervals a loud pumping grunt, and
evidently meaning mischief." — " On the Habits of the

54- THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

But, though possessed of immense strength, it
is rare for the Orang to attempt to defend itself,
especially when attacked with fire-arms. On such
occasions he endeavours to hide himself, or to
escape along the topmost branches of the trees,
breaking off and throwing down the boughs as he
goes. When wounded he betakes himself to the
highest attainable point of the tree, and emits
a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes,
which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike
that of a panther. While giving out the high
notes the Orang thrusts out his lips into a funnel
shape; but in uttering the low notes he holds his
mouth wide open, and at the same time the great
throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended.

According to the Dyaks, the only animal the
Orang measures his strength with is the crocodile,
who occasionally seizes him on his visits to the
water side. But they say that the Orang is more
than a match for his enemy, and beats him to
death, or rips up his throat by pulling the jaws
asunder!

Much of what has been. here staled was proba-
bly derived by Dr. Miiller from the reports of his
Dyak hunters; but a large male, four feet high,
lived in captivity, under his observation, for a
month, and receives a very bad character.

Oranrr-rtnn." Annuls of Natural History. 1856. This
statement, it will lie observed, is quit o in accordance with
that contained in the letter of the Resident Palm quoted
above (p. 23).

THE OKANG. 55

..

He was a very wild beast/' says Muller, " of
prodigious strength, and false and wicked to the
last degree. If any one approached he rose up
slowly with a low growl, fixed his eyes in the direc-
tion in which he meant to make his attack,
slowly passed his hand between the bars of his
cage, and then extending his long arm, gave a
sudden grip — usually at the face." He never
tried to bite (though Orangs will bite one an-
other), his great weapons of offence and defence
being his hands.

His intelligence was very great; and Midler re-
marks that though the faculties of the Orang have
been estimated too highly, yet Cuvier, had he seen
this specimen, would not have considered its intelli-
gence to be only a little higher than that of the dog.

His hearing was very acute, but the sense of
vision seemed to be less perfect. The under lip
was the great organ of touch, and played a very
important part in drinking, being thrust out like
a trough, so as either to catch the falling rain, or
to receive the contents of the half cocoa-nut shell
full of water with which the Orang was supplied,
and which, in drinking, he poured into the trough
thus formed.

In Borneo the Orang-Utan of the Malays goes
by the name of "Mias" among the Dyaks, who
distinguish several kinds as Mias Pap pan, or
Zimo, Mias Kassu, and Mias Bambi. Whether
these are distinct species, however, or whether they

56 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

are mere races, and how far any of them are
identical with the Sumatran Orang, as Mr. Wal-
lace thinks the Mias Pappan to be, are problems
which are at present undecided; and the variabil-
ity of these great apes is so extensive, that the
settlement of the question is a matter of great
difficulty. Of the form called " Mias Pappan,"
Mr. Wallace * observes,

" It is known by its large size, and by the lateral ex-
pansion of the face into fatty protuberances, or ridges,
over the temporal muscles, which have been mis-termed
callosities, as they are perfectly soft, smooth, and flexible.
Five of this form, measured by me, varied only from 4
feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height, from the heel to
the crown of the head, the girth of the body from 3 feet
to 3 feet 7 J inches, and the extent of the outstretched
arms from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 6 inches; the width
of the face from 10 to 13J inches. The colour and length
of the hair varied in different individuals, and in dif-
ferent parts of the same individual; some possessed a
rudimentary nail on the great toe, others none at all ; but
they otherwise present no external differences on which
to establish even varieties of a species.

" Yet, when we examine the crania of these indi-
viduals, we find remarkable differences of form, propor-
tion, and dimension, no two being exactly alike. The
slope of the profile, and the projection of the muzzle, to-
gether with the size of the cranium, offer differences as
decided as those existing between the most strongly
marked forms of the Caucasian and African crania in the
human species. The orbits vary in width and height, the

* On the Orang-Utan, or Alias of Borneo, Annals of
Nut urn I JJisiory, 185G.

i THE ORANG. 57

cranial ridge is either single or double, either much or
little developed, and the zygomatic aperture varies con-
siderably in size. This variation in the proportions of the
crania enables us satisfactorily to explain the marked dif-
fernce presented by the single-crested and double-crested
skulls, which have been thought to prove the existence of
two large species of Orang. The external surface of the
skull varies considerably in size, as do also the zygomatic
aperture and the temporal muscle; but they bear no ne-
cessary relation to each other, a small muscle often exist-
ing with a large cranial surface, and vice versa. Now,
those skulls which have the largest and strongest jaws
and the widest zygomatic aperture, have the muscles so
large that they meet on the crown of the skull, and de-
posit the bony ridge which separates them, and which is
the highest in that which has the smallest cranial surface.
In those which combine a large surface with compara-
tively weak jaws, and small zygomatic aperture, the mus-
cles, on each side, do not extend to the crown, a space of
from 1 to 2 inches remaining between them, and along
their margins small ridges are formed. Intermediate
forms are found, in which the ridges meet only in the
hinder part of the skull. The form and size of the ridges
are therefore independent of age, being sometimes more
strongly developed in the less aged animal. Professor
Temminck states that the series of skulls in the Leyden
Museum shows the same result."

Mr. Wallace observed two male adult Orangs
(Mias Kassu of the Dyaks), however, so very dif-
ferent from any of these that he concludes them
to be specifically distinct; they were respectively
3 feet 8J inches and 3 feet 9^ inches high, and
possessed no sign of the cheek excrescences, but
otherwise resembled the larger kinds. The skull

58 THE MAN-LIKE APES. 1

has no crest, but two bony ridges, lj inches to
2 inches apart, as in the Simia morio of Professor
Owen. The teeth, however, are immense, equal-
ling or surpassing those of the other species. The
females of both these kinds, according to Mr. Wal-
lace, are devoid of excrescences, and resemble the
smaller males, but are shorter by 1-J to 3 inches,
and their canine teeth are comparatively small,
subtruncated and dilated at the base, as in the
so-called Si una morio, which is, in all probability,
the skull of a female of the same species as the
smaller males. Both males and females of this
smaller species are distinguishable, according to
Mr. Wallace, by the comparatively large size of the
middle incisors of the upper jaw.

So far as I am aware, no one has attempted to
dispute the accuracy of the statements which I
have just quoted regarding the habits of the two
Asiatic man-like apes; and if true, they must be
admitted as evidence, that such an Ape —

lstly, May readily move along the ground in
the erect, or semi-erect, position, and without di-
rect support from its arms.

2ndly, That it may possess an extremely loud
voice, so loud as to be readily heard one or two
miles.

3rdly, That it may be capable of great vicious-
ness and violence when irritated: and this is espe-
cially true of adult males.

i THE CHIMPANZEE. 59

•It lily, That it may build a nest to sleep in.

Such being well established facts respecting
the Asiatic Anthropoids, analogy alone might jus-
tify us in expecting the African species to offer
similar peculiarities, separately or combined; or,
at any rate, would destroy the force of any at-
tempted a priori argument against such direct
testimony as might be adduced in favour of their
existence. And, if the organization of any of the
African Apes could be demonstrated to fit it better
than either of its Asiatic allies for the erect posi-
tion and for efficient attack, there would be still
less reason for doubting its occasional adoption of
the upright attitude or of aggressive proceedings.

From the time of Tyson and Tulpius down-
wards, the habits of the young Chimpanzee in
a state of captivity have been abundantly reported
and commented upon. But trustworthy evidence
as to the manners and customs of adult anthro-
poids of this species, in their native woods, was
almost wanting up to the time of the publication
of the paper by Dr. Savage, to which I have al-
ready referred; containing notes of the observa-
tions which he made, and of the information which
he collected from sources which he considered
trustworthy, while resident at Cape Palmas, at the
north-western limit of the Bight of Benin.

The adult Chimpanzees measured by Dr. Sav-
age, never exceeded, though the males may almost
attain, five feet in height.

60 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

" When at rest the sitting posture is that generally
assumed. They are sometimes seen standing and walk-
ing, but when thus detected, they immediately take to all
fours, and flee from the presence of the observer. Such is
their organisation that they cannot stand erect, but lean
forward. Hence they are seen, when standing, with the
hands clasped over the occiput, or the lumbar region,
which would seem necessary to balance or ease of posture.

" The toes of the adult are strongly flexed and turned
inwards, and cannot be perfectly straightened. In the
attempt the skin gathers into thick folds on the back,
showing that the full expansion of the foot, as is necessary
in walking, is unnatural. The natural position is on all
fours, the body anteriorly resting upon the knuckles.
These are greatly enlarged, with the skin protuberant and
thickened like the sole of the foot.

" They are expert climbers, as one would suppose from
their organisation. In their gambols they swing from
limb to limb to a great distance, and leap with astonish-
ing agility. It is not unusual to see the 'old folks' (in
the language of an observer) sitting under a tree regaling
themselves with fruit and friendly chat, while their ' chil-
dren ' are leaping around them, and swinging from tree
to tree with boisterous merriment.

"As seen here, they cannot be called gregarious, sel-
dom more than five, or ten at most, being found together.
It has been said, on good authority, that they occasionally
assemble in large numbers, in gambols. My informant
asserts that he saw once not less than fifty so engaged ;
hooting, screaming, and drumming with sticks upon old
logs, which is done in the latter case with equal facility
by the four extremities. They do not appear ever to act
on the offensive, and seldom, if ever really, on the de-
fensive. When about to be captured, they resist by throw-
ing their arms about their opponent, and attempting to
draw him into contact with their teeth." (Savage, /. c.
]). 384.)

i tup: chimpanzee. c>l

With respect to this last point Dr. Savage is
very explicit in another place:

" Biting is their principal art of defence. I have seen
one man who had been thus severely wounded in the
feet.

" The strong development of the canine teeth in the
adult would seem to indicate a carnivorous propensity;
but in no state save that of domestication do they mani-
fest it. At first they reject flesh, but easily acquire a
fondness for it. The canines are early developed, and evi-
dently designed to act the important part of weapons of
defence. When in contact with man almost the first
effort of the animal is — to bite.

" They avoid the abodes of men, and build their habita-
tions in trees. Their construction is more that of nests
than huts, as they have been erroneously termed by some
naturalists. They generally build not far above the
ground. Branches or twigs are bent, or partly broken,
and crossed, and the whole supported by the body of a
limb or a crotch. Sometimes a nest will be found near
the end of a strong leafy branch twenty or thirty feet
from the ground. One I have lately seen that could not
be less than forty, feet, and more probably it was fifty.
But this is an unusual height.

" Their dwelling-place is not permanent, but changed
in pursuit of food and solitude, according to the force of
circumstances. We more often see them in elevated
places; but this arises from the fact that the low grounds,
being more favourable for the natives' rice-farms, are the
oftener cleared, and hence are almost always wanting in
suitable trees for their nests. ... It is seldom that more
than one or two nests are seen upon the same tree, or in
the same neighbourhood: five have been found, but it
was an unusual circumstance." . . .

" They are very filthy in their habits. ... It is a

02 THE MAX-LIKE APES. i

tradition with the natives generally here, that they were
onee members of their own tribe: that for their depraved
habits they were expelled from all human society, and,
that through an obstinate indulgence of their vile pro-
pensities, they have degenerated into their present state
and organisation. They are, however, eaten by them, and
when cooked with the oil and pulp of the palm-nut con-
sidered a highly palatable morsel.

" They exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence in
their habits, and, on the part of the mother, much affec-
tion for their young. The second female described was
upon a tree when first discovered, with her mate and two
young ones (a male and a female). Her first impulse was
to descend with great rapidity and make off into the
thicket, with her mate and female offspring. The young
male remaining behind, she soon returned to the rescue.
She ascended and took him in her arms, at which moment
she was shot, the ball passing through the fore-arm
of the young one, on its way to the heart of the
mother. . . .

" In a recent case, the mother, when discovered, re-
mained upon the tree with her offspring, watching in-
tently the movements of the hunter. As he took aim, she
motioned with her hand, precisely in the manner of a hu-
man being, to have him desist and go away. When the
wound has not proved instantly fatal, they have been
known to stop the flow of blood by pressing with the
hand upon the part, and when this did not succeed, to
apply leaves and grass. . . . When shot, they give a sud-
den screech, not unlike that of a human being in sudden
and acute distress."

The ordinary voice of the Chimpanzee, how-
ever, is affirmed to be hoarse, guttural, and not
very loud, somewhat like " whoo-whoo." (/. c. p.
365.)

i THE GORILLA. G3

The analogy of the Chimpanzee to the Orang,
in its nest-building habit and in the mode of
forming its nest, is exceedingly interesting; while,
on the other hand, the activity of this ape, and
its tendency to bite, are particulars in which it
rather resembles the Gibbons. In extent of geo-
graphical range, again, the Chimpanzees — which
are found from Sierra Leone to Congo — remind
one of the Gibbons, rather than of either of the
other man-like apes; and it seems not unlikely
that, as is the case with the Gibbons, there may be
several species spread over the geographical area
of the genus.

The same excellent observer, from whom I
have borrowed the preceding account of the habits
of the adult Chimpanzee, published fifteen years
ago,* an account of the Gokilla, which has, in
its most essential points, been confirmed by subse-
quent observers, and to which so very little has
really been added, that in justice to Dr. Savage I
give it almost in full.

" It should be borne in mind that my account is based
upon the statements of the aborigines of that region (the
Gaboon). In this connection, it may also be proper for
me to remark, that having been a missionary resident for
several years, studying, from habitual intercourse, the
African mind and character, I felt myself prepared to
discriminate and decide upon the probability of their
statements. Besides, being familiar with the history and

* Notice of the external characters and habits of Trog-
lodvtes Gorilla. Boston Journal of Natural History,

1S47.

^=?s?S8^ses?*K,

Fig. 10.— The Gorilla, after Wolf.

I THE GORILLA. 65

habits of its interesting congener (Trog. niger, Geoff.), I
was able to separate their accounts of the two animals
which, having the same locality and a similarity of habit,
are confounded in the minds of the mass, especially as but
few — such as traders to the interior and huntsmen — have
ever seen the animal in question.

" The tribe from which our knowledge of the animal
is derived, and whose territory forms its habitat, is the
Mpongwe, occupying both banks of the River Gaboon,
from its mouth to some fifty or sixty miles upward. . . .

" If the word ' Pongo ' be of African origin, it is proba-
bly a corruption of the word Mpongwe, the name of the
tribe on the banks of the Gaboon, and hence applied to
the region they inhabit. Their local name for the Chim-
panzee is Enche-eko, as near as it can be Anglicised, from
which the common term ' Jocko ' probably comes. The
Mpongwe appellation for its new congener is Enge-ena,
prolonging the sound of the first vowel, and slightly sound-
ing the second.

" The habitat of the Enge-ena is the interior of lower
Guinea, whilst that of the Enche-eko is nearer the sea-
board.

"Its height is about five feet; it is disproportionately
broad across the shoulders, thickly covered with coarse
black hair, which is said to be similar in its arrangement
to that of the Enche-eko; with age it becomes gray, which
fact has given rise to the report that both animals are
seen of different colours.

" Bead. — The prominent features of the head are, the
great width and elongation of the face, the depth of the
molar region, the branches of the lower jaw being very
deep and extending far backward, and the comparative
smallness of the cranial portion; the eyes are very large,
and said to be like those of the Enche-eko, a bright hazel ;
nose broad and flat, slightly elevated towards the root;
the muzzle broad, and prominent lips and chin, with scat-
tered gray hairs ; the under lip highly mobile, and capable
109

06 THE MAN-LIKE APES. I

of great elongation when the animal is enraged, then
hanging over the chin; skin of the face and ears naked,
and of a dark brown, approaching to black.

" The most remarkable feature of the head is a high
ridge, or crest of hair, in the course of the sagittal suture,
which meets posteriorly with a transverse ridge of the
same, but less prominent, running round from the back
of one ear to the other. The animal has the power of
moving the scalp freely forward and back, and when en-
raged is said to contract it strongly over the brow, thus
bringing down the hairy ridge and pointing the hair for-
ward, so as to present an indescribably ferocious aspect.

Fig. 11. — Gorilla walking (after Wolf).

"Neck short, thick, and hairy; chest and shoulders
very broad, said to be fully double the size of the Enehe-
ekos; arms very long, reaching some way below the knee
■ — the fore-arm much the shortest; hands very large, the
thumbs much larger than the fingers. . . .

" The gait is shuffling; the motion of the body, which
is never upright as in man, but bent forward, is somewhat
rolling, or from side to side. The arms being longer than
the Chimpanzee, it does not stoop as much in walking;
like that animal, it makes progression by thrusting its

i THE GORILLA. 67

arms forward, resting the hands on the ground, and then
giving the body a half jumping, half swinging motion be-
tween them. In this act it is said not to Hex the fingers,
as does the Chimpanzee, resting on its knuckles, but to
extend them, making a fulcrum of the hand. When it
assumes the walking posture, to which it is said to be
much inclined, it balances its huge body by flexing its
arms upward.

" They live in bands, but are not so numerous as the
Chimpanzees; the females generally exceed the other sex
in number. My informants all agree in the assertion that
but one adult male is seen in a band; that when the
young males grow up, a contest takes place for mastery,
and the strongest, by killing and driving out the others,
establishes himself as the head of the community."

Dr. Savage repudiates the stories about the
Gorillas carrying off women and vanquishing ele-
phants and then adds —

" Their dwellings, if they may be so called, are similar
to those of the Chimpanzee, consisting simply of a few
sticks and leafy branches, supported by the crotches and
limbs' of trees: they afford no shelter, and are occupied
only at night.

" They are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive
in their habits, never running from man, as does the
Chimpanzee. They are objects of terror to the natives,
and are never encountered by them except on the defen-
sive. The few that have been captured were killed by
elephant hunters and native traders, as they came sud-
denly upon them while passing through the forests.

" It is said that when the male is first seen he gives
a terrific yell, that resounds far and wide through the
forest, something like kh — ah! kh — ah! prolonged and
shrill. His enormous jaws are widely opened at each ex-
piration, his under lip hangs over the chin, and the hairy

68 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

ridge and scalp are contracted upon the brow, presenting
an aspect of indescribable ferocity.

" The females and young, at the first cry, quickly dis-
appear. He then approaches the enemy in great fury,
pouring out his horrid cries in quick succession. The
hunter awaits his approach with his gun extended; if
his aim is not sure, he permits the animal to grasp the
barrel, and as he carries it to his mouth (which is his
habit) he fires. Should the gun fail to go off, the barrel
(that of the ordinary musket, which is thin) is crushed
between his teeth, and the encounter soon proves fatal to
the hunter.

" In the wild state, their habits are in general like
those of the Troglodytes niger, building their nests loose-
ly in trees, living on similar fruits, and changing their
place of resort from force of circumstances."

Dr. Savage's observations were confirmed and
supplemented by those of Mr. Ford, who communi-
cated an interesting paper on the Gorilla to the
Philadelphian Academy of Sciences, in 1852.
"With respect to the geographical distribution of
this greatest of all the man-like Apes, Mr. Ford
remarks :

" This animal inhabits the range of mountains that
traverse the interior of Guinea, from the Cameroon in
the north, to Angola in the south, and about 100 miles
inland, and called by the geographers Crystal Mountains.
The limit to which this animal extends, either north or
south, I am unable to define. But that limit is doubtless
some distance north of this river [Gaboon]. I was able
to certify myself of this fact in a late excursion to the
head- waters of the Mooney (Danger) River, which comes
into the sea some sixty miles from this place. I was in-
formed (credibly, I think) that they were numerous

i THE GORILLA. 69

among the mountains in which that river rises, and far
north of that.

" In the south, this species extends to the Congo River,
as I am told by native traders who have visited the coast
between the Gaboon and that river. Beyond that, I am
not informed. This animal is only found at a distance
from the coast in most cases, and, according to my best in-
formation, approaches it nowhere so nearly as on the
south side of this river, where they have been found
within ten miles of the sea. This, however, is only of late
occurrence. I am informed by some of the oldest Mpong-
we men that formerly he was only found on the sources
of the river, but that at present he may be found within
half-a-day's walk of its mouth. Formerly he inhabited
the mountainous ridge where Bushmen alone inhabited,
but now he boldly approaches the Mpongwe plantations.
This is doubtless the reason of the scarcity of informa-
tion in years past, as the opportunities for receiving a
knowledge of the animal have not been wanting; traders
having for one hundred years frequented this river, and
specimens, such as have been brought here within a year,
could not have been exhibited without having attracted
the attention of the most stupid."

One specimen Mr. Ford examined weighed
170 lbs., Avithout the thoracic, or pelvic, viscera,
and measured fonr feet f onr inches round the chest.
This writer describes so minutely and graphically
the onslaught of the Gorilla — though he does not
for a moment pretend to have witnessed the scene
— that I am tempted to give this part of his paper
in full, for comparison with other narratives:

" He always rises to his feet when making an attack,
though he approaches his antagonist in a stooping pos-
ture.

70 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

" Though he never lies in wait, yet, when he hears,
sees, or scents a man, he immediately utters his charac-
teristic cry, prepares for an attack, and always acts on
the offensive. The cry he utters resembles a grunt more
than a growl, and is similar to the cry of the Chimpanzee,
when irritated, but vastly louder. It is said to be audible
at a great distance. His preparation consists in attend-
ing the females and young ones, by whom he is usually
accompanied, to a little distance. He, however, soon re-
turns, with his crest erect and projecting forward, his
nostrils dilated, and his under-lip thrown down, at the
same time uttering his characteristic yell, designed, it
would seem, to terrify his antagonist. Instantly, unless
he is disabled by a well-directed shot, he makes an onset,
and, striking his antagonist with the palm of his hands,
or seizing him with a grasp from which there is no escape,
he dashes him upon the ground, and lacerates him with
his tusks.

" He is said to seize a musket, and instantly crush the

barrel between his teeth This animal's savage

nature is very well shown by the implacable desperation
of a young one that was brought here. It was taken
very young, and kept four months, and many means were
used to tame it ; but it was incorrigible, so that it bit me
an hour before it died."

Mr. Ford discredits the house-building and
elephant-driving stories, and says that no well-
informed natives believe them. They are tales
told to children.

I might quote other testimony to a similar ef-
iect, but, as it appears to me, less carefully weighed
and sifted, from the letters of MM. Franquet and
Gautier Laboullay, appended to the memoir of
M. I. G. St. Hilaire, which I have already cited.

I THE GORILLA. 71

Bearing in mind what is known regarding the
Orang and the Gibbon, the statements of Dr.
Savage and Mr. Ford do not appear to me to be
justly open to criticism on a priori grounds. The
Gibbons, as we have seen, readily assume the erect
posture, but the Gorilla is far better fitted by its
organization for that attitude than are the Gib-
bons: if the laryngeal pouches of the Gibbons, as
is very likely, are important in giving volume
to a voice which can be heard for half a league,
the Gorilla, which has similar sacs, more largely
developed, and whose bulk is fivefold that of a
Gibbon, may well "be audible for twice that dis-
tance. If the Orang fights with its hands, the
Gibbons and Chimpanzees with the teeth, the
Gorilla may, probably enough, do either or both;
nor is there anything to be said against either
Chimpanzee or Gorilla building a nest, when it is
proved that the Orang-Utan habitually performs
that feat.

With all this evidence, now ten to fifteen years
old, before the world, it is not a little surprising
that the assertions of a recent traveller, who, so
far as the Gorilla is concerned, really does very
little more than repeat, on his own authority, the
statements of Savage and of Ford, should have met
with so much and such bitter opposition. If sub-
traction be made of what was known before, the
sum and substance of what M. Du Chaillu has
affirmed as a matter of his own observation

72 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i

respecting the Gorilla, is, that, in advancing to the
attack, the great brute beats his chest with his
fists. I confess I see nothing very improbable, or
very much worth disputing about, in this state-
ment.

With respect to the other man-like Apes of
Africa, M. Du Chaillu tells us absolutely nothing,
of his own knowledge, regarding the common
Chimpanzee; but he informs us of a bald-headed
species or variety, the nschiego mbouve, which
builds itself a shelter, and of another rare kind
with a comparatively small face, large facial angle,
and peculiar note, resembling " Kooloo."

As the Orang shelters itself with a rough
coverlet of leaves, and the common Chimpanzee,
according to that eminently trustworthy observer
Dr. Savage, makes a sound like " Whoo-whoo," —
the grounds of the summary repudiation with
which M. Du Chaillu's statements on these mat-
ters have been met are not obvious.

If I have abstained from quoting M. Du
Chaillu's work, then, it is not because I discern
any inherent improbability in his assertions re-
specting the man-like Apes; nor from any wish to
throw suspicion on his veracity; but because, in
my opinion, so long as his narrative remains in its
present state of unexplained and apparently in-
explicable confusion, it has no claim to original au-
thority respecting any subject whatsoever.

It may be truth, but it is not evidence.

African Cannibalism in the Sixteenth Century.

In turning over Pigafetta's version of the narrative of
Lopez, which I have quoted above, I came upon so curious
and unexpected an anticipation, by some two centuries
and a half, of one of the most startling parts of M. Du
Chaillu's narrative, that 1 cannot refrain from drawing
attention to it in a note, although 1 must confess that the
subject is not strictly relevant to the matter in hand.

In the fifth chapter of the first book of the " De-
scriptio," " Concerning the northern part of the King-
dom of Congo and its boundaries," is mentioned a people
whose king is called " Maniloango," and who live under
the equator, and as far westward as Cape Lopez. This ap-
pears to be the country now inhabited by the Ogobai and
Bakalai according to M. Du Chaillu. — " Beyond these
dwell another people called ' Anziques,' of incredible feroc-
ity, for they eat one another, sparing neither friends nor
relations."

These people are armed with small bows bound tightly
round with snake skins, and strung with a reed or rush.
Their arrows, short and slender, but made of hard wood,
are shot with great rapidity. They have iron axes, the
handles of which are bound round with snake skins, and
swords with scabbards of the same material; for defen-
sive armour they employ elephant hides. They cut their
skins when young, so as to produce scars. " Their butch-
ers' shops are filled with human flesh instead of that of
oxen or sheep. For they eat the enemies whom they

73

74

AFRICAN CANNIBALISM.

Fig. 12. — Butcher's Shop of the Anziques Anno 159S.

take in battle. They fatten, slay and devour their slaves
also, unless they think they shall get a good price for
them; and, moreover, sometimes for weariness of life or
desire of glory (for they think it a great thing and the

i AFRICAN CANNIBALISM. 75

sign of a generous soul to despise life), or for love of their
rulers, offer themselves up for food."

" There are indeed many cannibals, as in the Eastern
Indies and in Brazil and elsewhere, but none such as
these, since the others only eat their enemies, but these
their own blood relations."

The careful illustrators of Pigafetta have done their
best to enable the reader to realize this account of the
" Anziques," and the unexampled butcher's shop repre-
sented in Fig. 12, is a facsimile of part of their Plate XII.

M. Du Chaillu's account of the Fans accords most
singularly with what Lopez here narrates of the Anziques.
He speaks of their small crossbows and little arrows, of
their axes and knives, " ingeniously sheathed in snake
skins." " They tattoo themselves more than any other
tribes I have met north of the equator." And all the
world knows what M. Du Chaillu says of their cannibal-
ism — " Presently we passed a woman who solved all
doubt. She bore with her a piece of the thigh of a human
body, just as we should go to market and carry thence a
roast or steak." M. Du Chaillu's artist cannot generally
be aceused of any want of courage in embodying the state-
ments of his author, and it is to be regretted that, with
so good an excuse, he has not furnished us with a fitting
companion to the sketch of the brothers De Bry.

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II.

ON" THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE
LOWER ANIMALS.

Multis videri poterit, majorem esse differentiam Simise et
Hominis, quam diei et noctis; verum tamen hi, com-
paratione instituta inter summos Europse Heroes et
Hottentottes ad Caput bonae spei degentes, difficillime
sibi persuadebunt, has eosdem habere natales; vel si
virginem nobilem aulicam, maxime comtam et hu-
manissimain, conferre vellent cum homine sylvestri et
sibi relicto, vix augurari possent, hunc et illam ejus-
dem esse speciei. — Linucei Amoenitates Acad. " Anthro-
pomorpha."

The question of questions for mankind — the
problem which underlies all others, and is more
deeply interesting than any other — is the ascer-
tainment of the place which Man occupies in na-
ture and of his relations to the universe of things.
Whence our race has come; what are the limits
of our power over nature, and of nature's power
over us; to what goal we are tending; are the
problems which present themselves anew and
with undiminished interest to every man born

77

78 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

into the world. Most of us, shrinking from the
difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker
after original answers to these riddles, are con-
tented to ignore them altogether, or to smother
the investigating spirit under the feather-bed of
respected and respectable tradition. But, in every
age, one or two restless spirits, blessed with that
constructive genius, which can only build on a
secure foundation, or cursed with the spirit of
mere scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-
worn and comfortable track of their forefathers
and contemporaries, and unmindful of thorns and
stumbling-blocks, strike out into paths of their
own. The sceptics end in the infidelity which
asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the athe-
ism which denies the existence of any orderly pro-
gress and governance of things: the men of genius
propound solutions which grow into systems of
Theology or of Philosophy, or veiled in musical
language which suggests more than it asserts, take
the shape of the Poetry of an epoch.

Each such answer to the great question, in-
variably asserted by the followers of its pro-
pounder, if not by himself, to be complete and
final, remains in high authority and esteem, it
may be for one century, or it may be for twenty:
but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to have
been a mere approximation to the truth — tolerable
chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by
whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable

ir MENTAL ECDYSES OF MAN. 79

when tested by the larger knowledge of their suc-
cessors.

In a well-worn metaphor, a parallel is drawn
between the life of man and the metamorphosis
of the caterpillar into the butterfly; but the com-
parison may be more just as well as more novel, if
for its former term we take the mental progress
of the race. History shows that the human mind,
fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodi-
cally grows too large for its theoretical coverings,
and bursts them asunder to appear in new habili-
ments, as the feeding and growing grub, at
intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes
another, itself but temporary. Truly the imago
state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but
every moult is a step gained, and of such there
have been many.

Since the revival of learning, whereby the
Western races of Europe were enabled to enter
upon that progress towards true knowledge, which
was commenced by the philosophers of Greece,
but w r as almost arrested in subsequent long ages
of intellectual stagnation, or, at most, gyration,
the human larva has been feeding vigorously, and
moulting in proportion. A skin of some dimension
was cast in the 16th century, and another towards
the end of the 18th, while, within the last fifty
years, the extraordinary growth of every depart-
ment of physical science has spread among us
mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a

80 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

character that a new ecdysis seems imminent.
But this is a process not unusually accompanied
by many throes and some sickness and debility, or,
it may be, by graver disturbances; so that every
good citizen must feel bound to facilitate the pro-
cess, and even if he have nothing but a scalpel to
work withal, to ease the cracking integument to
the best of his ability.

In this duty lies my excuse for the publication
of these essays. For it will be admitted that some
knowledge of man's position in the animate world
is an indispensable preliminary to the proper un-
derstanding of his relations to the universe; and
this again resolves itself, in the long run, into an
inquiry into the nature and the closeness of the ties
which connect him with those singular creatures
whose history * has been sketched in the preced-
ing pages.

The importance of such an inquiry is indeed
intuitively manifest. Brought face to face with
these blurred copies of himself, the least thought-
ful of men is conscious of a certain shock, due per-
haps, not so much to disgust at the aspect of
what looks like an insulting caricature, as to the
awakening of a sudden and profound mistrust of
time-honoured theories and strongly-rooted preju-
dices regarding his own position in nature, and

* It will be understood that, in the preceding Essay, I
have selected for notice from the vast mass of papers
which have been written upon the man-like Apes, only
those which seem to me to be of special moment.

ii DEVELOPMENT. 81

his relations to the under-world of life; while that
which remains a dim suspicion for the unthinking,
hecomes a vast argument, fraught with the deep-
est consequences, for all who are acquainted with
the recent progress of the anatomical and physio-
logical sciences.

I now propose briefly to unfold that argument,
and to set forth, in a form intelligible to those
who possess no special acquaintance with ana-
tomical science, the chief facts upon which all con-
clusions respecting the nature and the extent of
the bonds which connect man with the brute world
must be based: I shall then indicate the one im-
mediate conclusion which, in my judgment, is
justified by those facts, and I shall finally discuss
the bearing of that conclusion upon the hypoth-
eses which have been entertained respecting the
Origin of Man.

The facts to which I would first direct the
reader's attention, though ignored by many of the
professed instructors of the public mind, are easy
of demonstration and are universally agreed to by
men of science; while their significance is so great,
that whoso has duly pondered over them will, I
think, find little to startle him in the other reve-
lations of Biology. I refer to those facts which
have been made known by the study of Develop-
ment.

It is a truth of very wide, if not of universal,
170

82 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

application, that ever} 7 living creature commences
its existence under a form different from, and
simpler than, that which it eventually attains.

The oak is a more complex thing than the
little rudimentary plant contained in the acorn;
the caterpillar is more complex than the egg; the
butterfly than the caterpillar; and each of these
beings, in passing from its rudimentary to its
perfect condition, runs through a series of changes,
the sum of which is called its Development. In
the higher animals these changes are extremely
complicated; but, within the last half century,
the labours of such men as Von Baer, Eathke,
Eeichert, Bischoff, and Eemak, have almost com-
pletely unravelled them, so that the successive
stages of development which are exhibited by a
Dog, for example, are now as well known to the
embryologist as are the steps of the metamor-
phosis of the silk-worm moth to the school-boy.
It will be useful to consider with attention the
nature and the order of the stages of canine de-
velopment, as an example of the process in the
higher animals generally.

The dog, like all animals, save the very lowest
(and further inquiries may not improbably remove
the apparent exception), commences its existence
as an egg: as a body which is, in every sense, as
much an egg as that of a hen, but is devoid of
that accumulation of nutritive matter which
confers upon the bird's egg its exceptional size and

II

THE DOG'S EGG.

83

domestic utility; and wants the shell, which would
not only be useless to an animal incubated within
the body of its parent, but would cut it off from
access to the source of that nutriment which the
young creature requires, but which the minute
egg of. the mammal does not contain within itself.

V.-'^ii-X^O" '

B

' .~v;

MHMSmS^^m^ my

Fig. 13. — A. Egg of the Dog, with the vitelline mem-
brane burst, so as to give exit to the yelk, the germinal
vesicle (a), and its included spot (&).' B. C. D. E. F. Suc-
cessive changes of the yelk indicated in the text. After
BischofF.

The Dog's egg is, in fact, a little spheroidal
bag (Fig. 13), formed of a delicate transparent
membrane called the vitelline membrane, and about
Y^-jj-th to y!~o-th of an inch in diameter. It con-
tains a mass of viscid nutritive matter — the yelk

84 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

— within which is enclosed a second much more
delicate spheroidal bag, called the germinal vesicle
(a). In this, lastly, lies a more solid rounded body,
termed the germinal spot (b).

The egg, or Ovum, is originally formed within
a gland, from which, in due season, it becomes
detached, and passes into the living chamber fitted
for its protection and maintenance during the pro-
tracted process of gestation. Here, when sub-
jected to the required conditions, this minute and
apparently insignificant particle of living matter
becomes animated by a new and mysterious activ-
ity. The germinal vesicle and spot cease to be
discernible (their precise fate being one of the yet
unsolved problems of embryology), but the yelk
becomes circumferentially indented, as if an in-
visible knife had been drawn round it, and thus
appears divided into two hemispheres (Fig.
13, C).

By the repetition of this process in various
planes, these hemispheres become subdivided, so
that four segments are produced (D); and these,
in like manner, divide and subdivide again, until
the whole yelk is converted into a mass of
granules, each of which consists of a minute
spheroid of yelk-substance, inclosing a central
particle, the so-called nucleus (F). Nature, by
this process, has attained much the same result
as that which a human artificer arrives at by his
operations in a brick-field. She takes the rough

ii THE CELLULAR EMBRYO. 85

plastic material of the yelk and breaks it up into
well-shaped tolerably even-sized masses — handy
for building up into any part of the living
edifice.

Next, the mass of organic bricks, or cells as
they are technically called, thus formed, acquires
an orderly arrangement, becoming converted into
a hollow spheroid with double walls. Then, upon
one side of this spheroid, appears a thickening,
and, by and bye, in the centre of the area of thick-
ening, a straight shallow groove (Fig. 14, A)
marks the central line of the edifice which is to
be raised, or, in other words, indicates the posi-
tion of the middle line of the body of the future
dog. The substance bounding the groove on each
side next rises up into a fold, the rudiment of the
side wall of that long cavity, which will eventu-
ally lodge the spinal marrow and the brain; and
in the floor of this chamber appears a solid cellu-
lar cord, the so-called notochord. One end of the
enclosed cavity dilates to form the head (Fig. 14,
B), the other remains narrow, and eventually be-
comes the tail; the side walls of the body are
fashioned out of the downward continuation of
the walls of the groove; and from them, by and
bye, grow out little buds which, by degrees, as-
sume the shape of limbs. Watching the fashion-
ing process stage by stage, one is forcibly reminded
of the modeller in clay. Every part, every organ,
is at first, as it were pinched up rudely, and

86

MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS.

ii

sketched out in the rough; then shaped more accu-
rately; and only, at last, receives the touches
which stamp its final character.

Thus, at length, the young puppy assumes
such a form as is shown in Fig. 14, C. In this

Fig. 14.— A. Earliest rudiment of the Dog. B. Rudi-
ment further advanced, showing the foundations of the
head, tail, and vertebral column. C. The very young
puppy, with attached ends of the yelk-sac and allantois,
and invested in the amnion.

condition is has a disproportionately large head,
as dissimilar to that of a dog as the bud-like limbs
are unlike his legs.

The remains of the yelk, which have not vet
been applied to the nutrition and growth of the

ii FCETAL APPENDAGES. 87

young animal, are contained in a sac attached to
the rudimentary intestine, and termed the yelk
sac, or umbilical vesicle. Two membranous bags,
intended to subserve respectively the protection
and nutrition of the young creature, have been
developed from the skin and from the under and
hinder surface of the body; the former, the so-
called amnion, is a sac rilled with fluid, which
invests the whole body of the embryo, and plays
the part of a sort of water-bed for it; the other,
termed the allantois, grows out, loaded with
blood-vessels, from the ventral region, and eventu-
ally applying itself to the walls of the cavity, in
which the developing organism is contained, en-
ables these vessels to become the channel by which
the stream of nutriment, required to supply the
wants of the offspring, is furnished to it by the
parent.

The structure which is developed by the inter-
lacement of the vessels of the offspring with those
of the parent, and by means of which the former
is enabled to receive nourishment and to get rid
of effete matters, is termed the Placenta.

It would be tedious, and it is unnecessary for
my present purpose, to trace the process of de-
velopment further; suffice it to say, that, by a long
and gradual series of changes, the rudiment here
depicted and described, becomes a puppy, is born,
and then, by still slower and less perceptible steps,
passes into the adult Dog.

88 MAN AXD THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

There is not much apparent resemblance be-
tween a barn-door Fowl and the Dog who protects
the farm-yard. Nevertheless the student of de-
velopment finds, not only that the chick com-
mences its existence as an egg, primarily identical,
in all essential respects, with that of the Dog,
but that the yelk of this egg undergoes division
— that the primitive groove arises, and that the
contiguous parts of the germ are fashioned, by
precisely similar methods, into a young chick,
which, at one stage of its existence, is so like the
nascent Dog, that ordinary inspection would
hardly distinguish the two.

The history of the development of any other
vertebrate animal, Lizard, Snake, Frog, or Fish,
tells the same story. There is always, to begin
with, an egg having the same essential structure
as that of the Dog: — the yelk of that egg always
undergoes division, or segmentation as it is often
called: the ultimate products of that segmenta-
tion constitute the building materials for the body
of the young animal; and this is built up round a
primitive groove, in the floor of which a notochord
is developed. Furthermore, there is a period in
which the young of all these animals resemble
one another, not merely in outward form, but in
all essentials of structure, so closely, that the dif-
ferences between them are inconsiderable, while,
in their subsequent course they diverge more and

ii DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 80

more widely from one another. And it is a general
law, that, the more closely any animals resemble
one another in adult structure, the longer and the
more intimately do their embryos resemble one an-
other: so that, for example, the embryos of a
Snake and of a Lizard remain like one another
longer than do those of a Snake and of a Bird;
and the embryo of a Dog and of a Cat remain
like one another for a far longer period than do
those of a Dog and a Bird; or of a Dog and an
Opossum; or even than those of a Dog and a
Monkey.

Thus the study of development affords a clear
test of closeness of structural affinity, and one
turns with impatience to inquire what results are
yielded by the study of the development of Man.
Is he something apart? Does he originate in a
totally different way from Dog, Bird, Frog, and
Fish, thus justifying those who assert him to have
no place in nature and no real affinity with the
lower world of animal life? Or does he originate
in a similar germ, pass through the same slow and
gradually progressive modifications, depend on
the same contrivances for protection and nutri-
tion, and finally enter the world by the help of the
same mechanism? The reply is not doubtful for a
moment, and has not been doubtful any time these
thirty years. Without question, the mode of
origin and the early stages of the development of
man are identical with those of the animals im-

90

MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS.

ii

mediately below him in the scale: — without a
doubt, in these respects, he is far nearer the Apes,
than the Apes are to the Dog.

The Human ovum is about yj-g-th of an inch
in diameter, and might be described in the same
terms as that of the Dog, so that I need only refer

Fig. 15. — A. Human ovum (after Kolliker). a. ger-
minal vesicle. &. germinal spot. B. A very early condi-
tion of Man, with yelk-sac, allantois and amnion (origi-
nal). C. A more advanced stage (after Kolliker), com-
pare Fig. 14, C.

to the figure illustrative (15 A) of its structure.
It leaves the organ in which it is formed in a
similar fashion and enters the organic chamber
prepared for its reception in the same way, the
conditions of its development being in all respects
the same. It has not yet been possible (and only
by some rare chance can it ever be possible) to

ii DEVELOPMENT OF MAN". 91

study the human ovum in so early a develop-
mental stage as that of yelk division, but there
is every reason to conclude that the changes it
undergoes are identical with those exhibited by
the ova of other vertebrated animals; for the
formative materials of which the rudimentary hu-
man body is composed, in the earliest conditions
in which it has been observed, are the same as
those of other animals. Some of these earliest
stages are figured above and, as will be seen, they
are strictly comparable to the very early states of
the Dog; the marvellous correspondence between
the two which is kept up, even for some time, as
development advances, becoming apparent by the
simple comparison of the figures with those on
page 86.

Indeed, it is very long before the body of the
young human being can be readily discriminated
from that of the young puppy; but, at a tolerably
early period, the two become distinguishable by
the different form of their adjuncts, the yelk-sac
and the allantois. The former, in the Dog, be-
comes long and spindle-shaped, while in Man it
remains spherical: the latter, in the Dog, attains
an extremely large size, and the vascular processes
which are developed from it and eventually give
rise to the formation of the placenta (taking root,
as it were, in the parental organism, so as to draw
nourishment therefrom, as the root of a tree ex-
tracts it from the soil) are arranged in an en-

92 MAX AXD THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

circling zone, while in Man, the allantois remains
comparatively small, and its vascular rootlets are
eventually restricted to one disk-like spot. Hence,
while the placenta of the Dog is like a girdle,
that of Man has the cake-like form, indicated by
the name of the organ.

But, exactly in those respects in which the
developing Man differs from the Dog, he resem-
bles the ape, which, like man, has a spheroidal
} T elk-sac and a discoidal, sometimes partially lobed,
placenta. So that it is only quite in the later
stages of development that the young human be-
ing presents marked differences from the young
ape, while the latter departs as much from the
dog in its development, as the man does.

Startling as the last assertion may appear to
be, it is demonstrably true, and it alone appears
to me sufficient to place beyond all doubt the
structural unity of man with the rest of the ani-
mal world, and more particularly and closely with
the apes.

Thus, identical in the physical processes by
which he originates — identical in the early stages
of his formation — identical in the mode of his
nutrition before and after birth, with the animals
which lie immediately below him in the scale —
Man, if his adult and perfect structure be com-
pared with theirs, exhibits, as might be expected,
a marvellous likeness of organization. He resem-

n THE CLASSIFICATION OF MAN. 93

blcs them as they resemble one another — he dif-
fers from them as they differ from one another.
— And, though these differences and resemblances
cannot be weighed and measured, their value may
be readily estimated; the scale or standard of
judgment, touching that value being afforded and
expressed by the system of classification of ani-
mals now current among zoologists.

A careful study of the resemblances and dif-
ferences presented by animals has, in fact, led
naturalists to arrange them into groups, or
assemblages, all the members of each group
presenting a certain amount of definable resem-
blance, and the number of points of similarity be-
ing smaller as the group is larger and vice versa.
Thus, all creatures which agree only in present-
ing the few distinctive marks of animality form
the Kingdom Animalia. The numerous animals
which agree only in possessing the special char-
acters of Vertebrates form one Sub-kingdom of this
Kingdom. Then the Sub-kingdom Vertebrata
is subdivided into the five Classes, Fishes, Am-
phibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, and these
into smaller groups called Orders; these into
Families and Genera; while the last are finally
broken up into the smallest assemblages, which
are distinguished by the possession of constant,
not-sexual, characters. These ultimate groups are
Species.

Every year tends to bring about a greater uni-

94 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

formity of opinion throughout the zoological
world as to the limits and characters of these
groups, great and small. At present, for example,
no one has the least doubt regarding the charac-
ters of the classes Mammalia, Aves, or Reptilia;
nor does the question arise whether any thor-
oughly well-known animal should be placed in
one class or the other. Again, there is a very
general agreement respecting the characters and
limits of the orders of Mammals, and as to the
animals which are structurally necessitated to
take a place in one or another order.

No one doubts, for example, that the Sloth
and the Ant-eater, the Kangaroo and the Opos-
sum, the Tiger and the Badger, the Tapir and
the Ehinoceros, are respectively members of the
same orders. These successive pairs of animals
may, and some do, differ from one another im-
mensely, in such matters as the proportions and
structure of their limbs; the number of their
dorsal and lumbar vertebra?; the adaptation of
their frames to climbing, leaping, or running; the
number and form of their teeth; and the char-
acters of their skulls and of the contained brain.
But, with all these differences, they are so closely
connected in all the more important and funda-
mental characters of their organization, and so
distinctly separated by these same characters from
other animals, that zoologists find it necessary to
group them together as members of one order.

ii THE CLASSIFICATION OF MAN. 95

And if any new animal were discovered, and were
found to present no greater difference from the
Kangaroo or from the Opossum, for example, than
these animals do from one another, the zoologist
would not only be logically compelled to rank it
in the same order with these, but he would not
think of doing otherwise.

Bearing this obvious course of zoological rea-
soning in mind, let us endeavour for a moment to
disconnect our thinking selves from the mask of
humanity; let us imagine ourselves scientific Sa-
turnians, if you will, fairly acquainted with such
animals as now inhabit the Earth, and employed
in discussing the relations they bear to a new
and singular " erect and featherless biped," which
some enterprising traveller, overcoming the dif-
ficulties of space and gravitation, has brought
from that distant planet for our inspection, well
preserved, may be, in a cask of rum. We should
all, at once, agree upon placing him among the
mammalian vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his
molars, and his brain, would leave no room for
doubting the systematic position of the new genus
among those mammals, whose young are nour-
ished during gestation by means of a placenta, or
what are called the " placental mammals."

Further, the most superficial study would at
once convince us that, among the orders of
placental mammals, neither the Whales, nor the
hoofed creatures, nor the Sloths and Ant-eaters,

96 MAN AXD THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

nor the carnivorous Cats, Dogs, and Bears, still
less the Eodent Eats and Rabbits, or the Insectiv-
orous Moles and Hedgehogs, or the Bats, could
claim our Homo, as one of themselves.

There would remain then hut one order for
comparison, that of the Apes (using the word in
its broadest sense), and the question for discussion
would narrow itself to this — is Man so different
from any of these Apes that he must form an
order by himself? Or does he differ less from
them than they differ from one another, and
hence must take his place in the same order with
them ?

Being happily free from all real, or imaginar}',
personal interest in the results of the inquiry thus
set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the argu-
ments on one side and on the other, with as much
judicial calmness as if the question related to a
new Opossum. We should endeavour to ascer-
tain, without seeking either to magnify or dimin-
ish them, all the characters by which our new
Mammal differed from the Apes; and if we found
that these were of less structural value than those
which distinguish certain members of the Ape
order from others universally admitted to be of
the same order, we should undoubtedly place the
newly discovered tellurian genus with them.

I now proceed to detail the facts which seem
to me to leave us no choice but to adopt the last-
mentioned course.

ii CLASSIFICATION: GORILLA. 07

It is quite certain that the Ape which most
nearly approaches man, in the totality of its
organisation, is either the Chimpanzee or the
Gorilla; and as it makes no practical difference,
for the purposes of my present argument, which
is selected for comparison, on the one hand, with
Man, and on the other hand, with the rest of the
Primates,* I shall select the latter (so far as its
organisation is known) — as a brute now so cele-
brated in prose and verse, that all must have
heard of him, and have formed some conception
of his appearance. I shall take up as many of
the most important points of difference between
man and this remarkable creature, as the space
at my disposal will allow me to discuss, and the
necessities of the argument demand; and I shall
inquire into the value and magnitude of these
differences, when placed side by side with those
which separate the Gorilla from other animals of
the same order.

In the general proportions of the body and
limbs there is a remarkable difference between
the Gorilla and Man, which at once strikes the
eye. The Gorilla's brain-case is smaller, its trunk
larger, its lower limbs shorter, its upper limbs
longer in proportion than those of Man.

I find that the vertebral column of a full-grown

* We are not at present thoroughly acquainted with
the brain of the Gorilla, and therefore, in discussing cere-
bral characters, I shall take that of the Chimpanzee as
my highest term among the Apes.

171

98 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

Gorilla, in the Museum of the Eoyal College of
Surgeons, measures 27 inches along its anterior
curvature, from the upper edge of the atlas, or
first vertebra of the neck, to the lower extremity
of the sacrum; that the arm, without the hand, is
31 J inches long; that the leg, without the foot, is
26J inches long; that the hand is 9f inches long;
the foot 11J inches long.

In other words, taking the length of the spinal
column as 100, the arm equals 115, the leg 96,
the hand 36, and the foot 41.

In the skeleton of a male Bosjesman, in the
same collection, the proportions, by the same meas-
urement, to the spinal column, taken as 100, are —
the arm 78, the leg 110, the hand 26, and the foot
32. In a woman of the same race the arm is
83, and the leg 120, the hand and foot remaining
the same. In a European skeleton I find the arm
to be 80, the leg 117, the hand 26, the foot 35.

Thus the leg is not so different as it looks at
first sight, in its proportion to the spine in the
Gorilla and in the Man — being very slightly
shorter than the spine in the former, and between
T ^ and \ longer than the spine in the latter. The
foot is longer and the hand much longer in the
Gorilla; but the great difference is caused by the
arms, which are very much longer than the spine
in the Gorilla, very much shorter than the spine
in the Man.

The question now arises how are the other

ii GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 99

Apes related to the Gorilla in these respects —
taking the length of the spine, measured in the
same way, at 100. In an adult Chimpanzee, the
arm is only 96, the leg 90, the hand 43, the foot 39
— so that the hand and the leg depart more from
the human proportion and the arm less, while the
foot is ahout the same as in the Gorilla.

In the Orang, the arms are very much longer
than in the Gorilla (122), while the legs are
shorter (88); the foot is longer than the hand (52
and 48), and both are much longer in proportion
to the spine.

In the other man-like Apes again, the Gibbons,
these proportions are still further altered; the
length of the arms being to that of the spinal col-
umn as 19 to 11; while the legs are also a third
longer than the spinal column, so as to be longer
than in Man, instead of shorter. The hand is half
as long as the spinal column, and the foot, shorter
than the hand, is about ^-ths of the length of the
spinal column.

Thus Hylobates is as much longer in the arms
than the Gorilla, as the Gorilla is longer in the
arms than Man; while, on the other hand, it is
as much longer in the legs than the Man, as the
Man is longer in the legs than the Gorilla, so that
it contains within itself the extremest deviations
from the average length of both pairs of limbs.*

* See the figures of the skeletons of four anthropoid
apes and of man, drawn to scale, p. 76*.

100 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

The Mandrill presents a middle condition, the
arms and legs being nearly equal in length, and
both being shorter than the spinal column; while
hand and foot have nearly the same proportions to
one another and to the spine, as in Man.

In the Spider Monkey (Ateles) the leg is longer
than the spine, and the arm than the leg; and,
finally, in that remarkable Lemurine form, the
Indri (Lichanotus), the leg is about as long as the
spinal column, while the arm is not more than J-J
of its length; the hand having rather less and the
foot rather more, than one third the length of the
spinal column.

These examples might be greatly multiplied,
but they suffice to show that, in whatever propor-
tion of its limbs the Gorilla differs from Man, the
other Apes depart still more widely from the Go-
rilla and that, consequently, such differences of
proportion can have no ordinal value.

AVe may next consider the differences presented
by the trunk, consisting of the vertebral column,
or backbone, and the ribs and pelvis, or bony hip-
basin, which are connected with it, in Man and in
the Gorilla respectively.

In Man, in consequence partly of the disposi-
tion of the articular surfaces of the vertebra?, and
largely of the elastic tension of some of the fibrous
bands, or ligaments, the spinal column, as a whole,
has an elegant S-like curvature, being convex for-

ii MAN AND GORILLA. 101

wards in the neck, concave in the back, convex in
the loins, or lumbar region, and concave again in
the sacral region; an arrangement which gives
much elasticity to the whole backbone, and dimin-
ishes the jar communicated to the spine, and
through it to the head, by locomotion in the erect
position.

Furthermore, under ordinary circumstances,
Man has seven vertebrae in his neck, which are
called cervical; twelve succeed these, bearing ribs
and forming the upper part of the back, whence
they are termed dorsal; five lie in the loins, bear-
ing no distinct, or free, ribs, and are called lumbar;
five, united together into a great bone, excavated
in front, solidly wedged in between the hip bones,
to form the back of the pelvis, and known by the
name of the sacrum, succeed these; and finally,
three or four little more or less movable bones, so
small as to be insignificant, constitute the coccyx
or rudimentary tail.

In the Gorilla, the vertebral coluhm is similar-
ly divided into cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and
coccygeal vertebrae, and the total number of cer-
vical and dorsal vertebra?, taken together, is the
same as in Man; but the development of a pair of
ribs to the first lumbar vertebra, which is an ex-
ceptional occurrence in Man, is the rule in the
Gorilla; and hence, as lumbar are distinguished
from dorsal vertebrae only by the presence or ab-
sence of free ribs, the seventeen " dorso-lumbar x

102 MAN AXD THE LOWER AXIMALS. n

vertebrae of the Gorilla are divided into thirteen
dorsal and four lumbar, while in Man they are
twelve dorsal and five lumbar.

Not only, however, does Man occasionally pos-
sess thirteen pair of ribs,* but the Gorilla some-
times has fourteen pairs, while an Orang-Utan
skeleton in the Museum of the Eoyal College of
Surgeons has twelve dorsal and five lumbar ver-
tebrae, as in Man. Cuvier notes the same number
in a Hyldbates. On the other hand, among the
lower Apes, many possess twelve dorsal and six or
seven lumbar vertebras; the Douroucouli has four-
teen dorsal and eight lumbar, and a Lemur
(Stenops tardigradus) has fifteen dorsal and nine
lumbar vertebras.

The vertebral column of the Gorilla, as a whole,
differs from that of Man in the less marked char-
acter of its curves, especially in the slighter con-
vexity of the lumbar region. Nevertheless, the
curves are present, and are quite obvious in young
skeletons of the Gorilla and Chimpanzee which
have been prepared without removal of the liga-
ments. In young Orangs similarly preserved on

* " More than once," says Peter Camper, " have I met
with more than six lumbar vertebrae in man. . . . Once I
found thirteen ribs and four lumbar vertebrae." Fallopius
noted thirteen pair of ribs and only four lumbar vertebrae ;
and Eustachius once found eleven dorsal vertebrae and
six lumbar vertebrae. — (Enures de Pierre Camper, T. 1,
p. 42. As Tyson states, his " Pygmie " had thirteen pair
of ribs and five lumbar vertebrae. The question of the
curves of the spinal column in the Apes requires further
investigation.

ii GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 103

the other hand, the spinal column is either
straight, or even concave forwards, throughout the
lumbar region.

Whether we take these characters then, or such
minor ones as those which are derivable from the
proportional length of the spines of the cervical
vertebra?, and the like, there is no doubt whatso-
ever as to the marked difference between Man and
the Gorilla; but there is as little, that equally
marked differences, of the very same order, obtain
between the Gorilla and the lower Apes.

The Pelvis, or bony girdle of the hips, of Man
is a strikingly human part of his organisation; the
expanded haunch bones affording support for his
viscera during his habitually erect posture, and
giving space for the attachment of the great mus-
cles which enable him to assume and to preserve
that attitude. In these respects the pelvis of the
Gorilla differs very considerably from his (Fig. 16).
But go no lower than the Gibbon, and see how
vastly more he differs from the Gorilla than the
latter does from Man, even in this structure. Look
at the flat, narrow haunch bones — the long and
narrow passage — the coarse, outwardty curved,
ischiatic prominences on which the Gibbon habitu-
ally rests, and which are coated by the so-called
" callosities," dense patches of skin, wholly absent
in the Gorilla, in the Chimpanzee, and in the
Orang, as in Man!

In the lower Monkeys and in the Lemurs the

Gorilla.

Gibbon.

Fig. 16. — Front and side views of the bony pelvis of
Man, the Gorilla and Gibbon: reduced from drawings
made from nature, of the same absolute length, by Mr.
Waterhouse Hawkins.

ii GORILLA AND MAN: SKULL. 105

difference becomes more striking still, the pelvis
acquiring an altogether quadrupedal character.

But now let us turn to a nobler and more
characteristic organ — that by which the human
frame seems to be, and indeed is, so strongly dis-
tinguished from all others, — I mean the skull.
The differences between a Gorilla's skull and a
Man's are truly immense (Fig. 17). In the former,
the face, formed largely by the massive jaw-bones,
predominates over the brain-case, or cranium
proper: in the latter, the proportions of the two
are reversed. In the Man, the occipital foramen,
through which passes the great nervous cord con-
necting the brain with the nerves of the body, is
placed just behind the centre of the base of the
skull, which thus becomes evenly balanced in the
erect posture; in the Gorilla, it lies in the posterior
third of that base. In the Man, the surface of the
skull is comparatively smooth, and the supraciliary
ridges or brow prominences usually project but
little — while, in the Gorilla, vast crests are de-
veloped upon the skull, and the brow ridges over-
hang the cavernous orbits, like great penthouses.

Sections of the skulls, however, show that some
of the apparent defects of the Gorilla's cranium
arise, in fact, not so much from deficiency of brain-
case as from excessive development of the parts of
the face. The cranial cavity is not ill-shaped, and
the forehead is not truly flattened or very retreat-
ing, its really well-formed curve being simply dis-

106 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

guised by the mass of bone which is built up
against it (Fig. 17).

But the roofs of the orbits rise more obliquely
into the cranial cavity, thus diminishing the space
for the lower part of the anterior lobes of the
brain, and the absolute capacity of the cranium
is far less than that of Man. So far as I am aware,
no human cranium belonging to an adult man
has yet been observed with a less cubical capacity
than 62 cubic inches, the smallest cranium ob-
served in any race of men by Morton, measuring
63 cubic inches; while, on the other hand, the most
capacious Gorilla skull yet measured has a content
of not more than 34| cubic inches. Let us assume,
for simplicity's sake, that the lowest Man's skull
has twice the capacity of that of the highest
Gorilla.*

* It has been affirmed that Hindoo crania sometimes
contain as little as 27 ounces of water, which would give
a capacity of about 46 cubic inches. The minimum capac-
ity which I have assumed above, however, is based upon
the valuable tables published by Professor R. Wagner in
his Vorstudien zu eiuer wissenschaftlichen Morphologie
und Physiologie rfcs menschlichen Gehrins. As the result
of the careful weighing of more than 900 human brains,
Professor Wagner states that one-half weighed between
1200 and 1400 grammes, and that about two-ninths, con-
sisting for the most part of male brains, exceed 1400
grammes. The lightest brain of an adult male, with
sound mental faculties, recorded by Wagner, weighed
1020 grammes. As a gramme equals 15.4 grains, and a
cubic inch of water contains 252.4 gi-ains, this is equivalent
to 62 cubic inches of water; so that as brain is heavier
than water, we are perfectly safe against erring on the
side of diminution in taking this as the smallest capacity
of any adult male human brain. The only adult male

n CRANIAL CAPACITIES. 107

No doubt, this is a very striking difference, but
it loses much of its apparent systematic value,
when viewed by the light of certain other equally
indubitable facts respecting cranial capacities.

The first of these is, that the difference in the
volume of the cranial cavity of different races of
mankind is far greater, absolutely, than that be-
tween the lowest Man and the highest Ape, while,
relatively, it is about the same. For the largest
human skull measured by Morton contained 114
cubic inches, that is to say, had very nearly double
the capacity of the smallest; while its absolute pre-
ponderance, of 52 cubic inches — is far greater
than that by which the lowest adult male human
cranium surpasses the largest of the Gorillas
(62— 34J = 27J). Secondly, the adult crania of
Gorillas which have as yet been measured differ
among themselves by nearly one-third, the maxi-
mum capacity being 31.5 cubic inches, the mini-
mum 21 cubic inches; and, thirdly, after making

brain, weighing as little as 970 grammes, is that of an
idiot; but the brain of an adult woman, against the
soundness of whose faculties nothing appears, weighed as
little as 907 grammes (55.3 cubic inches of water) ; and
Reid gives an adult female brain of still smaller capacity.
The heaviest brain (1872 grammes, or about 115 cubic
inches) was, however, that of a woman; next to it comes
the brain of Cuvier (1861 grammes), then Byron (1807
grammes), and then an insane person (1783 grammes).
The lightest adult brain recorded (720 grammes) was that
of an idiotic female. The brains of five children, four
years old, weighed between 1275 and 992 grammes. So
that it may be safely said, that an average European child
of four years old has a brain twice as large as that of an
adult Gorilla.

108 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

all due allowance for difference of size, the cranial
capacities of some of the lower Apes fall nearly as
much, relatively, below those of the higher Apes
as the latter fall below Man.

Thus, even in the important matter of cranial
capacity, Men differ more widely from one an-
other than they do from the Apes; while the low-
est Apes differ as much, in proportion, from the
highest, as the latter does from Man. The last
proposition is still better illustrated by the study
of the modifications which other parts of the
cranium undergo in the Simian series.

It is the large proportional size of the facial
bones and the great projection of the jaws which
confer upon the Gorilla's skull its small facial
angle and brutal character.

But if we consider the proportional size of the
facial bones to the skull proper only, the little
Chrysothrix (Fig. 17) differs very widely from the
Gorilla, and, in the same way, as Man does; while
the Baboons (Cynocephalus, Fig. 17) exaggerate
the gross proportions of the muzzle of the great
Anthropoid, so that its visage looks mild and hu-
man by comparison with theirs. The difference
between the Gorilla and the Baboon is even greater
than it appears at first sight; for the great facial
mass of the former is largely due to a downward
development of the jaws; an essentially human
character, superadded upon that almost purely
forward, essentially brutal, development of the

AUSTRALIAN.

CHRYS O THBIX,

GORILiLA.

CYPTOCEPHALUS.

MYCETES.

LEMUR.

Fig 17. — Sections of the skulls of Man and various
Apes, drawn so as to give the cerebral cavity the same

HO MAX AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

length in each case, thereby displaying the varying pro-
portions of the facial bones. The line b indicates the
plane of the tentorium, which separates the cerebrum
from the cerebellum ; d, the axis of the occipital outlet of
the skull. The extent of cerebral cavity behind c, which
is a perpendicular erected on b at the point where the ten-
torium is attached posteriorly, indicates the degree to
which the cerebrum overlaps the cerebellum — the space
occupied by which is roughly indicated by the dark shad-
ing. In comparing these diagrams, it must be recollected,
that figures on so small a scale as these simply exemplify
the statements in the text, the proof of which is to be
found in the objects themselves.

same parts which characterises the Baboon, and
yet more remarkably distinguishes the Lemur.

Similarly, the occipital foramen of Mycetes
(Fig. 17), and still more of the Lemurs, is situated
completely in the posterior face of the skull, or as
much further back than that of the Gorilla, as
that of the Gorilla is further back than that of
Man; while, as if to render patent the futility of
the attempt to base any broad classificatory distinc-
tion on such a character, the same group of Platy-
rhine, or American monkeys, to which the Mycetes
belongs, contains the Clirysotlirix, whose occipital
foramen is situated far more forward than in any
other ape, and nearly approaches the position it
holds in Man.

Again, the Orang's skull is as devoid of exces-
sively developed supraciliary prominences as a
Man's, though some varieties exhibit great crests
elsewhere (See p. 25); aud in some of the Cebine
apes and in the Chrysothrix, the cranium is as
smooth and rounded as that of Man himself.

ii TEETH: MEN AND APES. HI

What is true of these leading characteristics of
the skull, holds good, as may be imagined, of all
minor features; so that for every constant differ-
ence between the Gorilla's skull and the Man's a
similar constant difference of the same order (that
is to say, consisting in excess or defect of the same
quality) may be found between the Gorilla's skull
and that of some other ape. So that, for the skull,
no less than for the skeleton in general, the propo-
sition holds good, that the differences between Man
and the Gorilla are of smaller value than those be-
tween the Gorilla and some other Apes.

In connection with the skull, I may speak of
the teeth — organs which have a peculiar classifi-
catory value, and whose resemblances and differ-
ences of number, form, and succession, taken as a
whole, are usually regarded as more trustworthy
indicators of affinity tjian any others.

Man is provided with two sets of teeth — milk
teeth and permanent teeth. The former consist
of four incisors, or cutting teeth; two canines, or
eye-teeth; and four molars or grinders, in each jaw,
making twenty in all. The latter (Fig 18) com-
prise four incisors, two canines, four small grinders,
called premolars or false molars, and six large
grinders, or true molars in each jaw — making
thirty-two in all. The internal incisors are larger
than the external pair, in the upper jaw, smaller
than the external pair, in the lower jaw. The

112 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

crowns of the upper molars exhibit four cusps, or
blunt-pointed elevations, and a ridge crosses the
crown obliquely, from the inner, anterior cusp to
the outer, posterior cusp (Fig. 18 m 2 ). The an-
terior lower molars have five cusps, three external
and two internal. The premolars have two cusps,
one internal and one external, of which the outer
is the higher.

In all these respects the dentition of the Go-
rilla may be described in the same terms as that of
Man; but in other matters it exhibit's many and
important differences (Fig. 18).

Thus the teeth of man constitute a regular and
even series — without any break and without any
marked projection of one tooth above the level of
the rest; a peculiarity which, as Cuvier long ago
showed, is shared by no other mammal save one —
as different a creature from man as can well be
imagined — namely, the long extinct Anoplotherl-
um. The teeth of the Gorilla, on the contrary,
exhibit a break, or interval, termed the diastema,
in both jaws: in front of the eye-tooth, or between
it and the outer incisor, in the upper jaw; behind
the eye-tooth, or between it and the front false
molar, in the lower jaw. Into this break in the
series, in each jaw, fits the canine of the opposite
jaw; the size of the eye-tooth in the Gorilla being
so great that it projects, like a tusk, far beyond
the general level of the other teeth. The roots of
the false molar teeth of the Gorilla, again, are

Man.

Gcri lla

Cyn cceph alus. l l7ri

Ccbus

Cluircmys.

m

m.

X2

Fig. 18. — Lateral views, of the same length, of the
upper jaws of various Primates, i, incisors; c, canines;
172

114 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

pm, premolars; m, molars. A line is drawn through the
first molar of Man, Gorilla, Cynocephalus, and Cebus,
and the grinding surface of the second molar is shown in
each, its anterior and internal angle being just above the
m of m\

more complex than in Man, and the proportional
size of the molars is different. The Gorilla has the
crown of the hindmost grinder of the lower jaw
more complex, and the order of eruption of the
permanent teeth is different; the permanent ca-
nines making their appearance before the second
and third molars in Man, and after them in the
Gorilla.

Thus, while the teeth of the Gorilla closely
resemble those of Man in number, kind, and in
the general pattern of their crowns, they exhibit
marked differences from those of Man in secondary
respects, such as relative size, number of fangs,
and order of appearance.

But, if the teeth of the Gorilla be compared
with those of an Ape, no further removed from it
than a Cynocephalus, or Baboon, it will be found
that differences and resemblances of the same
order are easily observable; but that many of the
points in which the Gorilla resembles Man are
those in which it differs from the Baboon; while
various respects in which it differs from Man are
exaggerated in the Cynoceplialus. The number
and the nature of the teeth remain the same in
the Baboon as in the Gorilla and in Man. But
the pattern of the Baboon's upper molars is quite

ii MAN AND APES: TEETH. 115

different from that described above (Fig. 18), the
canines are proportionally longer and more knife-
like; the anterior premolar in the lower jaw is
specially modified; the posterior molar of the lower
jaw is still larger and more complex than in the
Gorilla.

Passing from the old-world Apes to those of
the new world, we meet with a change of much
greater importance than any of these. In such a
genus as Cebus, for example (Fig. 18), it will be
found that while in some secondary points, such
as the projection of the canines and the diastema,
the resemblance to the great ape is preserved; in
other and most important respects, the dentition
is extremely different. Instead of 20 teeth in the
milk set, there are 24: instead of 32 teeth in the
permanent set, there are 36, the false molars being
increased from eight to twelve. And in form, the
crowns of the molars are very unlike those of the
Gorilla, and cliff er far more widely from the human
pattern.

The Marmosets, on the other hand, exhibit the
same number of teeth as Man and the Gorilla; but,
notwithstanding this, their dentition is very dif-
ferent, for they have four more false molars, like
the other American monkeys — but as they have
four fewer true molars, the total remains the same.
And passing from the American apes to the
Lemurs, the dentition becomes still more com-
pletely and essentially different from that of the

116 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

Gorilla. The incisors begin to vary both in num-
ber and in form. The molars acquire, more and
more, a many-pointed, insectivorous character, and
in one Genus, the Aye- Aye (Cheiromys), the ca-
nines disappear, and the teeth completely simulate
those of a Eodent (Fig. 18).

Hence it is obvious that, greatly as the denti-
tion of the highest Ape differs from that of Man,
it differs far more widely from that of the lower
and lowest Apes.

Whatever part of the animal fabric — whatever
series of muscles, whatever viscera might be se-
lected for comparison — the result would be the
same — the lower Apes and the Gorilla would dif-
fer more than the Gorilla and the Man. I can-
not attempt in this place to follow out all these
comparisons in detail, and indeed it is unnecessary
I should do so. But certain real, or supposed,
structural distinctions between man and the apes
remain, upon which so much stress has been laid,
that they require careful consideration, in order
that the true value may be assigned to those which
are real, and the emptiness of those which are
fictitious may be exposed. I refer to the char-
acters of the hand, the foot, and the brain.

Man has been defined as the only animal pos-
sessed of two hands terminating his fore limbs,
and of two feet ending his hind limbs, while it has
been said that all the apes possess four hands; and

ii MAN AND APES: HAND AND BRAIN. 117

he has been affirmed to differ fundamentally from
all the apes in the characters of his brain, which
alone, it has been strangely asserted and reas-
serted, exhibits the structures known to anatomists
as the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu of the
lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor.

That the former proposition should have
gained general acceptance is not surprising — in-
deed, at first sight, appearances are much in its
favour: but, as for the second, one can only admire
the surpassing courage of its enunciator, seeing
that it is an innovation which is not only opposed
to generally and justly accepted doctrines, but
which is directly negatived by the testimony of all
original inquirers, who have specially investigated
the matter: and that it neither has been, nor can
be, supported by a single anatomical preparation.
It would, in fact, be unworthy of serious refutation,
except for the general and natural belief that de-
liberate and reiterated assertions must have some
foundation.

Before we can discuss the first point with ad-
vantage we must consider with some attention,
and compare together, the structure of the human
hand and that of the human foot, so that we may
have distinct and clear ideas of what constitutes a
hand and what a foot.

The external form of the human hand is famil-
iar enough to every one. It consists of a stout

118 MAX AXD THE LOWER AXIMALS. n

wrist followed by a broad palm, formed of flesh,
and tendons, and skin, binding together four bones,
and dividing into four long and flexible digits, or
ringers, each of which bears on the back of its last
joint a broad and flattened nail. The longest cleft
between any two digits is rather less than half as
long as the hand. From the outer side of the
base of the palm a stout digit goes off, having
only two joints instead of three; so short, that it
only reaches to a little beyond the middle of the
first joint of the finger next it; and further re-
markable by its great mobility, in consequence of
which it can be directed outwards, almost at a
right angle to the rest. This digit is called the
" pollex" or thumb; and, like the others, it bears
a flat nail upon the back of its terminal joint. In
consequence of the proportions and mobility of the
thumb, it is what is termed " opposable "; in other
words, its extremity can, with the greatest ease,
be brought into contact with the extremities of
any of the fingers; a property upon which the pos-
sibility of our carrying into effect the conceptions
of the mind so largely depends.

The external form of the foot differs widelv
from that of the hand; and yet, when closely com-
pared, the two present some singular resemblances.
Thus the ankle corresponds in a manner with the
wrist; the sole with the palm; the toes with the
fingers; the great toe with the thumb. But the
toes, or digits of the foot, are far shorter in pro-

ii MAN AND APES: HAND AND FOOT. 119

portion than the digits of the hand, and are less
moveable, the want of mobility being most strik-
ing in the great toe — which, again, is very much
larger in proportion to the other toes than the
thumb to the fingers. In considering this point,
however, it must not be forgotten that the civilized
great toe, confined and cramped from childhood
upwards, is seen to a great disadvantage, and that
in uncivilized and barefooted people it retains a
great amount of mobility, and even some sort of
opposability. The Chinese boatmen are said to be
able to pull an oar; the artisans of Bengal to weave,
and the Carajas to steal fishhooks by its help;
though, after all, it must be recollected that the
structure of its joints and the arrangement of its
bones, necessarily render its prehensile action far
less perfect than that of the thumb.

But to gain a precise conception of the re-
semblances and differences of the hand and foot,
and of the distinctive characters of each, we must
look below the skin, and compare the bony frame-
work and its motor apparatus in each (Fig. 19).

The skeleton of the hand exhibits, in the region
which we term the wrist, and which is technically
called the carpus — two rows of closely fitted polyg-
onal bones, four in each row, which are tolerably
equal in size. The bones of the first row with the
bones of the forearm, form the wrist joint, and are
arranged side by side, no one greatly exceeding or
overlapping the rest.

Hand.

Feet.

Fig. ]0. — The skeleton of the Hand and Foot of Man
reduced from Dr. Carter's drawings in Gray's Anatomy.
The hand is drawn to a larger scale than the foot. The
line a a in the hand indicates the boundary between the
carpus and the metacarpus; bb that between the latter
and the proximal phalanges; cc marks the ends of the
distal phalanges. The line a' r/' in the foot indicates the
boundary between the tarsus and metatarsus: 1/ 1/ marks
that between the metatarsus and the proximal phalanges;
and & c' bounds the ends of the distal phalanges; ca. the
calcancum; as, the astragalus; sc, the scaphoid bone in
the tarsus.

ii MAN AND APES: HAND AND FOOT. 121

Three of the bones of the second row of the
carpus bear the four long bones which support the
palm of the hand. The fifth bone of the same
character is articulated in a much more free and
moveable manner than the others, with its carpal
bone, and forms the base of the thumb. These
are called metacarpal bones, and they carry the
phalanges or bones of the digits, of which there
are two in the thumb, and three in each of the
fingers.

The skeleton of the foot is very like that of the
hand in some respects. Thus there are three
phalanges in each of the lesser toes, and only two
in the great toe, which answers to the thumb.
There is a long bone, termed metatarsal, answering
to the metacarpal, for each digit; and the tarsus
which corresponds with the carpus, presents four
short polygonal bones in a row, which correspond
very closely with the four carpal bones of the sec-
ond row of the hand. In other respects the foot
differs very widely from the hand. Thus the great
toe is the longest digit but one; and its metatarsal
is far less moveably articulated with the tarsus
than the metacarpal of the thumb with the car-
pus. But a far more important distinction lies in
the fact that, instead of four more tarsal bones
there are only three; and, that these three are not
arranged side by side, or in one row. One of them,
the os calcis or heel bone (ca), lies externally, and
sends back the large projecting heel; another, the

122 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

astragalus (as), rests on this by one face, and by
another, forms, with the bones of the leg, the
ankle joint; while a third face, directed forwards,
is separated from the three inner tarsal bones of
the row next the metatarsus by a bone called the
scaphoid (sc).

Thus there is a fundamental difference in the
structure of the foot and the hand, observable
when the carpus and the tarsus are contrasted:
and there are differences of degree noticeable when
the proportions and the mobility of the metacar-
pals and metatarsals, with their respective digits,
are compared together.

The same two classes of differences become
obvious when the muscles of the hand are com-
pared with those of the foot.

Three principal sets of muscles, called " flex-
ors,' 7 bend the fingers and thumb, as in clench-
ing the fist, and three sets, — the extensors — ex-
tend them, as in straightening the fingers. These
muscles are all "long muscles"; that it to say,
the fleshy part of each, lying in and being fixed to
the bones of the arm, is, at the other end, con-
tinued into tendons, or rounded cords, which pass
into the hand, and are ultimately fixed to the
bones which are to be moved. Thus, when the fin-
gers are bent, the fleshy parts of the flexors of the
fingers, placed in the arm, contract, in virtue of
their peculiar endowment as muscles; and pulling
the tendinous cords, connecting with their ends,

ii MAX AND APES: HAND AND FOOT. 123

cause them to pull down the bones of the fingers
towards the palm.

Not only are the principal flexors of the fingers
and of the thumb long muscles, but they remain
quite distinct from one another throughout their
whole length.

In the foot, there are also three principal flexor
muscles of the digits or toes, and three principal
extensors; but one extensor and one flexor are
short muscles; that is to say, their fleshy parts are
not situated in the leg (which corresponds With
the arm), but in the back and in the sole of the foot
— regions which correspond with the back and the
palm of the hand.

Again, the tendons of the long flexor of the
toes, and of the long flexor of the great toe, when
they reach the sole of the foot, do not remain dis-
tinct from one another, as the flexors in the palm
of the hand do, but they become united and com-
mingled in a very curious manner — while their
united tendons receive an accessory muscle con-
nected with the heel-bone.

But perhaps the most absolutely distinctive
character about the muscles of the foot is the
existence of what is termed the peronceus longus,
a long muscle fixed to the outer bone of the
leg, and sending its tendon to the outer ankle, be-
hind and below which it passes, and then crosses
the foot obliquely to be attached to the base of
the great toe. No muscle in the hand exactly

124: MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

corresponds with this, which is eminently a foot
muscle.

To resume — the foot of man is distinguished
from his hand by the following absolute anatomi-
cal differences: —

1. By the arrangement of the tarsal bones.

2. By having a short flexor and a short ex-

tensor muscle of the digits.

3. By possessing the muscle termed peronceus

longus.
•And if we desire to ascertain whether the ter-
minal division of a limb, in other Primates, is to
be called a foot or a hand, it is by the presence or
absence of these characters that we must be
guided, and not by the mere proportions and
greater or lesser mobility of the great toe, which
may vary indefinitely without any fundamental
alteration in the structure of the foot.

Keeping these considerations in mind, let us
now turn to the limbs of the Gorilla. The ter-
minal division of the fore limb presents no diffi-
cult}' — bone for bone and muscle for muscle, are
found to be arranged essentially as in man, or with
such minor differences as are found as varieties in
man. The Gorilla's hand is clumsier, heavier, and
has a thumb somewhat shorter in proportion than
that of man; but no one has ever doubted it being
a true hand.

At first sight, the termination of the hind limb

ii THE PREHENSILE FOOT. 125

of the Gorilla looks very hand-like, and as it is still
more so in many of the lower apes, it is not won-
derful that the appellation " Quadrumana," or
four-handed creatures, adopted from the older
anatomists * by Blumenbach, and unfortunately
rendered current by Cuvier, should have gained
such wide acceptance as a name for the Simian
group. But the most cursory anatomical investi-
gation at once proves that the resemblance of the
so-called " hind hand " to a true hand, is only
skin deep, and that, in all essential respects, the
hind limb of the Gorilla is as truly terminated
by a foot as that of man. The tarsal bones, in all
important circumstances of number, disposition,
and form, resemble those of man (Fig. 20). The
metatarsals and digits, on the other hand, are pro-
portionally longer and more slender, while the
great toe is not only proportionally shorter and

* In speaking of the foot of his " Pygmie/' Tyson re-
marks, p. 13: —

" But this part in the formation and in its function
too, being liker a Hand than a Foot: for the distinguish-
ing this sort of animals from others, I have thought
whether it might not be reckoned and called rather Quad-
ru-manus than Quadrupes, i. e. a four-handed rather than
a four-footed animal."

As this passage was published in 1699, M. I. G. St.
Hilaire is clearly in error in ascribing the invention of the
term " quadrumanous " to Buff on, though " bimanous "
may belong to him. Tyson uses " Quadrumanus " in
several places, as at p. 91. . . . " Our Pygmie is no Man,
nor yet the common Ape, but a sort of Animal between
both; and though a Biped, yet of the Quadrumanus-kind :
though some Men too have been observed to use their
Feet like Hands as I have seen several."

126 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

weaker, but its metatarsal bone is united by a
more moveable joint with the tarsus. At the same
time, the foot is set more obliquely upon the leg
than in man.

As to the muscles, there is a short flexor, a
short extensor, and a peronceus long us, while the
tendons of the long flexors of the great toe and of
the other toes are united together and with an ac-
cessory fleshy bundle.

The hind limb of the Gorilla, therefore, ends
in a true foot, with a very moveable great toe. It
is a prehensile foot, indeed, but is in no sense a
hand; it is a foot which differs from that of man
not in any fundamental character, but in mere
proportions, in the degree of mobility, and in the
secondary arrangement of its parts.

It must not be supposed, however, because I
speak of these differences as not fundamental, that
I wish to underrate their value. They are im-
portant enough in their way, the structure of the
foot being in strict correlation with that of the
rest of the organism in each case. Nor can it be
doubted that the greater division of physiological
labour in Man, so that the function of support is
thrown wholly on the leg and foot, is an advance
in organization of very great moment to him; but,
after all, regarded anatomically, the resemblances
between the foot of Man and the foot of the Gorilla
are far more striking and important than the dif-
ferences.

ii APES: HAND AND FOOT. 127

I have dwelt upon this point at length, because
it is one regarding which much delusion prevails;
but I might have passed it over without detriment
to my argument, which only requires me to show
that, be the differences between the hand and foot
of Man and those of the Gorilla what they may —
the differences between those of the Gorilla, and
those of the lower Apes are much greater.

It is not necessary to descend lower in the scale
than the Orang for conclusive evidence on this
head.

The thumb of the Orange differs more from
that of the Gorilla than the thumb of the Gorilla
differs from that of Man, not only by its shortness,
but by the absence of any special long flexor mus-
cle. The carpus of the Orang, like that of most
lower apes, contains nine bones, while in the Go-
rilla, as in Man and the Chimpanzee, there are only
eight.

The Orang's foot (Fig. 20) is still more aber-
rant; its very long toes and short tarsus, short
great toe, short and raised heel, great obliquity of
articulation with the leg, and absence of a long
flexor tendon to the great toe, separating it far
more widely from the foot of the Gorilla than the
latter is separated from that of Man.

But, in some of the lower apes, the hand and
foot diverge still more from those of the Gorilla,
than they do in the Orang. The thumb ceases to
be opposable in the American monkeys; is reduced

128 MAX AND THE LOWER ANIMALS.

ii

to a mere rudiment covered by the skin in the
Spider Monkey; and is directed forwards and armed
with a curved claw like the other digits, in the
Marmosets — so that, in all these cases, there can

Cet .

2Aan Crcrillcb ^--Xt^ ^W Orang

Fig. 20. — Foot of Man, Gorilla, and Orang-L T tan of the
same absolute length, to show the differences in propor-
tion of each. Letters as in Fig. 19. Reduced from original
drawings by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins.

be no doubt but that the hand is more different
from that of the Gorilla than the Gorilla's hand
is from Man's.

ii APES: HAND AND FOOT. 129

And as to the foot, the great toe of the Mar-
moset is still more insignificant in proportion than
that of the Orang — while in the Lemurs it is very
large, and as completely thumb-like and opposable
as in the Gorilla — but in these animals the second
toe is often irregularly modified, and in some spe-
cies the two principal bones of the tarsus, the
astragalus and the os calcis, are so immensely
elongated as to render the foot, so far, totally un-
like that of any other mammal.

So with regard to the muscles. The short
flexor of the toes of the Gorilla differs from that
of Man by the circumstance that one slip of the
muscle is attached, not to the heel bone, but to
the tendons of the long flexors. The lower Apes
depart from the Gorilla by an exaggeration of the
same character, two, three, or more, slips becoming
fixed to the long flexor tendons — or by a multipli-
cation of the slips. — Again, the Gorilla differs
slightly from Man in the mode of interlacing of
the long flexor tendons: and the lower apes differ
from the Gorilla in exhibiting yet other, some-
times very complex, arrangements of the same
parts, and occasionally in the absence of the acces-
sory fleshy bundle.

Throughout all these modifications it must be
recollected that the foot loses no one of its essen-
tial characters. Every Monkey and Lemur ex-
hibits the characteristic arrangement of tarsal
bones, possesses a short flexor and short extensor
173

130 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

muscle, and a peronceus longus. Varied as the pro-
portions and appearance of the organ may be, the
terminal division of the hind limb remains, in plan
and principle of construction, a foot, and never,
in those respects, can be confounded with a hand.

Hardly any part of the bodily frame, then,
could be found better calculated to illustrate the
truth that the structural differences between Man
and the highest Ape are of less value than those
between the highest and the lower Apes, than
the hand or the foot; and yet, perhaps, there is
one organ the study of which enforces the same
conclusion in a still more striking manner — and
that is the Brain.

But before entering upon the precise question
of the amount of difference between the Ape's
brain and that of Man, it is necessary that we
should clearly understand what constitutes a great,
and what a small difference in cerebral structure;
and we shall be best enabled to do this by a brief
study of the chief modifications which the brain
exhibits in the series of vertebrate animals.

The brain of a fish is very small, compared with
the spinal cord into which it is continued, and
with the nerves which come off from it: of the
segments of which it is composed — the olfactory
lobes, the cerebral hemispheres, and the succeed-
ing divisions — no one predominates so much over
the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-
called optic lobes are, frequently, the largest

ii VERTEBRATA: BRAINS. 131

masses of all. In Reptiles, the mass of the brain,
relatively to the spinal cord, increases and the
cerebral hemispheres begin to predominate over
the other parts; while in Birds this predominance
is still more marked. The brain of the lowest Mam-
mals, such as the duck-billed Platypus and the
Opossums and Kangaroos, exhibits a still more
definite advance in the same direction. The cere-
bral hemispheres have now so much increased in
size as, more or less, to hide the representatives
of the optic lobes, which remain comparatively
small, so that the brain of a Marsupial is extremely
different from that of a Bird, Eeptile, or Fish. A
step higher in the scale, among the placental Mam-
mals, the structure of the brain acquires a vast
modification- — not that it appears much altered
externally, in a Rat or in a Rabbit, from what it
is in a Marsupial — nor that the proportions of its
parts are much changed, but an apparently new
structure is found between the cerebral hemi-
spheres, connecting them together, at what is
called the " great commissure " or " corpus cal-
losum." The subject requires careful re-investi-
gation, but if the currently received statements
are correct, the appearance of the " corpus cal-
losum ,J in the placental mammals is the greatest
and most sudden modification exhibited by the
brain in the whole series of vertebrated animals —
it is the greatest leap anywhere made by Nature in
her brain work. For the two halves of the brain

132 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

being once thus knit together, the progress of
cerebral complexity is traceable through a com-
plete series of steps from the lowest Rodent, or
Insectivore, to Man; and that complexity consists,
chiefly, in the disproportionate development of the
cerebral hemispheres and of the cerebellum, but
especially of the former, in respect to the other
parts of the brain.

In the lower placental mammals, the cerebral
hemispheres leave the proper upper and posterior
face of the cerebellum completely visible, when
the brain is viewed from above; but, in the higher
forms, the hinder part of each hemisphere, sepa-
rated only by the tentorium (p. 136) from the an-
terior face of the cerebellum, inclines backwards
and downwards, and grows out, as the so-called
" posterior lobe/' so as at length to overlap and
hide the cerebellum. In all Mammals, each
cerebral hemisphere contains a cavity which is
termed the " ventricle "; and as this ventricle is
prolonged, on the one hand, forwards, and on the
other downwards, into the substance of the hemi-
sphere, it is said to have two horns or " cornua,
an " anterior cornu," and a " descending cornu
When the posterior lobe is well developed, a third
prolongation of the ventricular cavity extends into
it, and is called the " posterior cornu."

In the lower and smaller forms of placental
Mammals the surface of the cerebral hemispheres
is either smooth or evenly rounded, or exhibits a

n MAMMALIA: BRAINS. 133

very few grooves, which are technically termed
" sulci," separating ridges or " convolutions " of
the substance of the brain; and the smaller species
of all orders tend to a similar smoothness of brain.
But, in the higher orders, and especially the larger
members of these orders, the grooves, or sulci,
become extremely numerous, and the intermediate
convolutions proportionately more complicated in
their meanderings, until, in the Elephant, the
Porpoise, the higher Apes, and Man, the cerebral
surface appears a perfect labyrinth of tortuous
foldings.

"Where a posterior lobe exists and presents its
customary cavity — the posterior cornu — it com-
monly happens that a particular sulcus appears
upon the inner and under surface of the lobe,
parallel with and beneath the floor of the cornu —
which is, as it were, arched over the roof of the
sulcus. It is as if the groove had been formed by
indenting the floor of the posterior horn from with-
out with a blunt instrument, so that the floor
should rise as a convex eminence. Now this
eminence is what has been termed the " Hippo-
campus minor; " the " Hippocampus major " being
a larger eminence in the floor of the descending
cornu. What may be the functional importance
of either of these structures we know not.

As if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the
impossibility of erecting any cerebral barrier be-

134 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

tween man and the apes, Nature has provided us,
in the latter animals, with an almost complete
series of gradations from brains little higher than
that of a Rodent, to brains little lower than that
of Man. And it is a remarkable circumstance, that
though so far as our present knowledge extends,
there is one true structural break in the series of
forms of Simian brains, this hiatus does not lie
between Man and the man-like apes, but between
the lower and the lowest Simians; or, in other
words, between the old and new world apes and
monkeys, and the Lemurs. Every Lemur which
has yet been examined, in fact, has its cerebellum
partially visible from above, and its posterior lobe,
with the contained posterior cornu and hippo-
campus minor, more or less rudimentary. Every
Marmoset, American monkey, old world monkey,
Baboon, or Man-like ape, on the contrary, has its
cerebellum entirely hidden, posteriorly, by the
cerebral lobes, and possesses a large posterior
cornu, with a well-developed hippocampus minor.

In many of these creatures, such as the Saimiri
(Chrysothrix), the cerebral lobes overlap and ex-
tend much further behind the cerebellum, in pro-
portion, than they do in man (Fig. 17) — and it
is quite certain that, in all, the cerebellum is com-
pletely covered behind, by well developed posterior
lobes. The fact can be verified by every one who
possesses the skull of any old or new world mon-
key. For, inasmuch as the brain in all mammals

ii THE POSTERIOR LOBES. 135

completely fills the cranial cavity, it is obvious
that a cast of the interior of the skull will repro-
duce the general form of the brain, at any rate
with such minute and, for the present purpose,
utterly unimportant differences as may result from
the absence of the enveloping membranes of the
brain in the dry skull. But if such a cast be made
in plaster, and compared with a similar cast of the
interior of a human skull, it will be obvious that
the cast of the cerebral chamber, representing the
cerebrum of the ape, as completely covers over and
overlaps the cast of the cerebellar chamber, repre-
senting the cerebellum, as it does in the man (Fig.
21). A careless observer, forgetting that a soft
structure like the brain loses its proper shape the
moment it is taken out of the skull, may indeed
mistake the uncovered condition of the cerebel-
lum of an extracted and distorted brain for the
natural relations of the parts; but his error must
become patent even to himself if he try to replace
the brain within the cranial chamber. To suppose
that the cerebellum of an ape is naturally uncov-
ered behind is a miscomprehension comparable
only to that of one who should imagine that a
man's lungs always occupy but a small portion of
the thoracic cavity, because they do so when the
chest is opened, and their elasticity is no longer
neutralized by the pressure of the air.

And the error is the less excusable, as it must
become apparent to every one who examines a sec-

Man.

Oh imp ceruse c,

Fig. 21. — Drawings of the internal casts of a Man's and
of a Chimpanzee's skull, of the same absolute length, and
placed in corresponding positions, A. Cerebrum; B. Cere-
bellum. The former drawing is taken from a cast in the
Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, the latter from
the photograph of the cast of a Chimpanzee's skull, which
illustrates the paper by Mr. Marshall " On the Brain of

ii THE POSTERIOR LOBES. 137

the Chimpanzee " in the Natural History Review for
July, 1861. The sharper definition of the lower edge of
the east of the cerebral chamber in the Chimpanzee arises
from the circumstance that the tentorium remained in
that skull and not in the Man's. The cast more accurately
represents the brain in the Chimpanzee than in the Man;
and the great backward projection of the posterior lobes
of the cerebrum of the former, beyond the cerebellum, is
conspicuous.

tion of the skull of any ape above a Lemur, without
taking the trouble to make a cast of it. For there
is a very marked groove in every such skull, as in
the human skull — which indicates the line of at-
tachment of what is termed the tentorium — a sort
of parchment-like shelf, or partition, which, in the
recent state, is interposed between the cerebrum
and cerebellum, and prevents the former from
pressing upon the latter. (See Fig. 17.)

This groove, therefore, indicates the line of
separation between that part of the cranial cavity
which contains the cerebrum, and that which
contains the cerebellum; and as the brain exactly
fills the cavity of the skull, it is obvious that the
relations of these two parts of the cranial cavity
at once informs us of the relations of their con-
tents. Now in man, in all the old world, and in
all the new world Simias, with one exception, when
the face is directed forwards, this line of attach-
ment of the tentorium, or impression for the lateral
sinus, as it is technically called, is nearly hori-
zontal, and the cerebral chamber invariably over-
laps or projects behind the cerebellar chamber.

138 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

In the Howler Monkey or Mycetes (see Fig. 17),
the line passes obliquely upwards and backwards,
and the cerebral overlap is almost nil; while in
the Lemurs, as in the lower mammals, the line is
much more inclined in the same direction, and the
cerebellar chamber projects considerably beyond
the cerebral.

When the gravest errors respecting points so
easily settled as this question respecting the pos-
terior lobes, can be authoritatively propounded, it
is no wonder that matters of observation, of no
very complex character, but still requiring a certain
amount of care, should have fared worse. Any
one who cannot see the posterior lobe in an ape's
brain is not likely to give a very valuable opinion
respecting the posterior cornu or the hippocampus
minor. If a man cannot see a church, it is pre-
posterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece
or painted window — so that I do not feel bound to
enter upon any discussion of these points, but con-
tent myself with assuring the reader that the pos-
terior cornu and the hippocampus minor, have now
been seen — usually, at least as well developed as in
man, and often better — not only in the Chimpan-
zee, the Orang, and the Gibbon, but in all the gen-
era of the old world baboons and monkeys, and in
most of the new world forms, including the Mar-
mosets.

In fact, all the abundant and trustworthy evi-
dence (consisting of the results of careful inves-

ii PATTERN OF CONVOLUTIONS. 139

tigations directed to the determination of these
very questions, by skilled anatomists) which we
now possess, leads to the conviction that, so far
from the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and
the hippocampus minor, being structures peculiar
to and characteristic of man, as they have been
over and over again asserted to be, even after the
publication of the clearest demonstration of the
reverse, it is precisely these structures which are
the most marked cerebral characters common to
man with the apes. They are among the most dis-
tinctly Simian peculiarities which the human or-
ganism exhibits.

As to the convolutions, the brains of the apes
exhibit every stage of progress, from the almost
smooth brain of the Marmoset, to the Orang and
the Chimpanzee, which fall but little below Man.
And it is most remarkable that, as soon as all
the principal sulci appear, the pattern according
to which they are arranged is identical with that
of the corresponding sulci of man. The surface of
the brain of a monkey exhibits a sort of skeleton
map of man's, and in the man-like apes the details
become more and more filled in, until it is only
in minor characters, such as the greater excavation
of the anterior lobes, the constant presence of fis-
sures usually absent in man, and the different dis-
position and proportions of some convolutions, that
the Chimpanzee's or the Orang's brain can be
structurally distinguished from Man's.

140 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

So far as cerebral structure goes, therefore, it
is clear that Man differs less from the Chimpanzee
or the Orang, than these do even from the Mon-
keys, and that the difference between the brains
of the Chimpanzee and of Man is almost insig-
nificant, when compared with that between the
Chimpanzee brain and that of a Lemur.

It must not be overlooked, however, that there
is a very striking difference in absolute mass and
weight between the lowest human brain and that
of the highest ape — a difference which is all the
more remarkable when we recollect that a full-
grown Gorilla is probably pretty nearly twice as
heavy as a Bosjesman, or as many an European
woman. It may be doubted whether a healthy
human adult brain ever weighed less than thirty-
one or two ounces, or that the heaviest Gorilla brain
has exceeded twenty ounces.

This is a very noteworthy circumstance, and
doubtless will one day help to furnish an explana-
tion of the great gulf which intervenes between the
lowest man and the highest ape in intellectual
power; * but it has little systematic value, for the

* I say help to furnish: for I by no means believe that
it was any original difference of cerebral quality, or quan-
tity, which caused that divergence between the human
and the pithecoid stirpes, which has ended in the present
enormous gulf between them. It is no doubt perfectly
true, in a certain sense, that all difference of function is a
result of difference of structure; or, in other words, of
difference in the combination of the primary molecular
forces of living substance; and, starting from this unde-

"i'JW— tf

Chimpanzee. &.

Fig. 22. — Drawing of the cerebral hemispheres of a Man,

142 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

and of a Chimpanzee of the same length, in order to show
the relative proportions of the parts: the former taken
from a specimen, which Mr. Flower, Conservator of the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, was good
enough to dissect for me; the latter, from the photograph
of a similarly dissected Chimpanzee's brain, given in Mr.
Marshall's paper above referred to. a, posterior lobe; b,
lateral ventricle; c, posterior cornu; x, the hippocampus
minor.

simple reason that, as may be concluded from what
has been already said respecting cranial capacity,

niable axiom, objectors occasionally, and with much seem-
ing plausibility, argue that the vast intellectual chasm
between the Ape and Man implies a corresponding struc-
tural chasm in the organs of the intellectual functions;
so that, it is said, the non-discovery of such vast differ-
ences proves, not that they are absent, but that Science is
incompetent to detect them. A very little consideration,
however, will, I think, show the fallacy of this reasoning.
Its validity hangs upon the assumption, that intellectual
power depends altogether on the brain — whereas the brain
is only one condition out of many on which intellectual
manifestations depend; the others being, chiefly, the or-
gans of the senses and the motor apparatuses, especially
those which are concerned in prehension and in the pro-
duction of articulate speech.

A man born dumb, notwithstanding his great cerebral
mass and his inheritance of strong intellectual instincts,
would be capable of few higher intellectual manifestations
than an Orang or a Chimpanzee, if he were confined to
the society of dumb associates. And yet there might not
be the slightest discernible difference between his brain
and that of a highly intelligent and cultivated person.
The dumbness might* be the result of a defective innerva-
tion of these parts; or it might result from congenital
deafness, caused by some minute defect of the internal
ear, which only a careful anatomist could discover.

The argument, that because there is an immense dif-
ference between a Man's intelligence and an Ape's, there-
fore, there must be an equally immense difference between
their brains, appears to me to be about as well based as
the reasoning by which one should endeavour to prove
that, because there is a " great gulf " between a watch

ii WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN. 143

the difference in weight of brain between the
highest and the lowest men is far greater, both
relatively and absolutely, than that between the
lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as
has been seen, is represented by, say twelve, ounces
of cerebral substance absolutely or by 32 : 20 rela-
tively; but as the largest recorded human brain
weighed between 65 and 66 ounces, the former dif-
ference is represented by more than 33 ounces abso-
lutely, or by 65 : 32 relatively. Eegarded system-
atically, the cerebral differences of man and apes,
are not of more than generic value; his Family
distinction resting chiefly on his dentition, Lis pel-
vis, and his lower limbs.

Thus, whatever system of organs be studied,
the comparison of their modifications in the ape
series leads to one and the same result — that the
structural differences which separate Man from
the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee are not so great

that keeps accurate time and another that will not go at
all, there is therefore a great structural hiatus between
the two watches. A hair in the balance-wheel, a little
rust on a pinion, a bend in a tooth of the escapement, a
something so slight that only the practised eye of the
watchmaker can discover it, may be the source of all the
difference.

And believing, as I do, with Cuvier, that the possession
of articulate speech is the grand distinctive character of
man (whether it be absolutely peculiar to him or not), I
find it very easy to comprehend, that some equally incon-
spicuous structural difference may have been the primary
cause of the immeasurable and practically infinite diver-
gence of the Human from the Simian Stirps.

144 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

as those which separate the Gorilla from the lower
apes.

But in enunciating this important truth I must
guard myself against a form of misunderstanding,
which is very prevalent. I find, in fact, that those
who endeavour to teach what nature so clearly
shows us in this matter, are liable to have their
opinions misrepresented and their phraseology
garbled, until they seem to say that the structural
differences between man and even the highest apes
are small and insignificant. Let me take this oppor-
tunity then of distinctly asserting, on the contrary,
that they are great and significant; that every bone
of a Gorilla bears marks by which it might be dis-
tinguished from the corresponding bone of a Man;
and that, in the present creation, at any rate, no
intermediate link bridges over the gap between
Homo and Troglodytes.

It would be no less wrong than absurd to deny
the existence of this chasm; but it is at least
equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its mag-
nitude and, resting on the admitted fact of its
existence, to refuse to inquire whether it is wide
or narrow. Remember, if you will, that there is
no existing link between Man and the Gorilla, but
do not forget that there is a no less sharp line of
demarcation, a no less complete absence of any
transitional form, between the Gorilla and the
Orang, or the Oraug and the Gibbon. I say, not
less sharp, though it is somewhat narrower. The

ii MAN ONE OF THE PRIMATES. 145

structural differences between Man and the Man-
like apes certainly justify our regarding him as
constituting a family apart from them; though,
inasmuch as he differs less from them than they
do from other families of the same order, there
can be no justification for placing him in a dis-
tinct order.

And thus the sagacious foresight of the great
lawgiver of systematic zoology, Linnaeus, becomes
justified, and a century of anatomical research
brings us back to his conclusion, that man is a
member of the same order (for which the Linnsean
term Primates ought to be retained) as the Apes
and Lemurs. This order is now divisible into seven
families, of about equal systematic value: the
first, the Anthropini, contains Man alone; the
second, the Catarhini, embraces the old world
apes; the third, the Platyrhini, all new world
apes, except the Marmosets; the fourth, the
Arctopithecini, contains the Marmosets; the
fifth, the Lemurini, the Lemurs — from which
Cheiromys should probably be excluded to form a
sixth distinct family, the Cheiromyini; while the
seventh, the Galeopithecini, contains only the
flying Lemur Galeopithecus, — a strange form which
almost touches on the Bats, as the Cheiromys puts
on a Eodent clothing, and the Lemurs simulate
Insectivora.

Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with
so extraordinary a series of gradations as this —
174

146 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

leading us insensibly from the crown and summit
of the animal creation down to creatures, from
which there is but a step, as it seems, to the low-
est, smallest, and least intelligent of the placental
Mammalia. It is as if nature herself had fore-
seen the arrogance of man, and with Roman
severity had provided that his intellect, by its
very triumphs, should call into prominence the
slaves, admonishing the conqueror that he is but
dust.

These are the chief facts, this the immediate
conclusion from them to which I adverted in the
commencement of this Essay. The facts, I be-
lieve, cannot be disputed; and if so, the conclusion
appears to me to be inevitable.

But if Man be separated by no greater struc-
tural barrier from the brutes than they are from
one another — then it seems to follow that if any
process of physical causation can be discovered by
which the genera and families of ordinary animals
have been produced, that process of causation is
amply sufficient to account for the origin of Man.
In other words, if it could be shown that the Mar-
mosets, for example, have arisen by gradual modi-
fication of the ordinary Platyrhini, or that both
Marmosets and Platyrhini are modified rami-
fications of a primitive stock — then, there would
be no rational ground for doubting that man might
have originated, in the one case, by the gradual

ii THE ORIGIN OF MAN. U7

modification of a man-like ape; or, in the other
case, as a ramification of the same primitive stock
as those apes.

At the present moment, but one such process
of physical causation has any evidence in its fa-
vour; or, in other words, there is but one hypoth-
esis regarding the origin of species of animals
in general which has any scientific existence
— that propounded by Mr. Darwin. For La-
marck, sagacious as many of his views were,
mingled them with so much that was crude
and even absurd, as to neutralize the benefit
which his originality might have effected, had he
been a more sober and cautious thinker; and though
I have heard of the announcement of a formula
touching " the ordained continuous becoming of
organic forms," it is obvious that it is the first
duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible, and that
a qua-qua-versal proposition of this kind, which
may be read backwards, or forwards, or side-
ways, with exactly the same amount of significa-
tion, does not really exist, though it may seem to
do so.

At the present moment, therefore, the question
of the relation of man to the lower animals re-
solves itself, in the end, into the larger question
of the tenability, or untenability, of Mr. Darwin's
views. But here we enter upon difficult ground,
and it behoves us to define our exact position with
the greatest care.

148 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

It cannot be doubted, I think, that Mr. Dar-
win has satisfactorily proved that what he terms
selection, or selective modification, must occur,
and does occur, in nature; and he has also proved
to superfluity that such selection is competent to
produce forms as distinct, structurally, as some
genera even are. If the animated world presented
us with none but structural differences, I should
have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Darwin had
demonstrated the existence of a true physical cause,
amply competent to account for the origin of liv-
ing species, and of man among the rest.

But, in addition to their structural distinctions,
the species of animals and plants, or at least
a great number of them, exhibit physiological
characters — what are known as distinct species,
structurally, being for the most part either alto-
gether incompetent to breed one with another; or
if they breed, the resulting mule, or hybrid, is
unable to perpetuate its race with another hybrid
of the, same kind.

A true physical cause is, however, admitted to
be such only on one condition — that it shall
account for all the phenomena which come within
the range of its operation. If it is inconsistent
with any one phenomenon, it must be rejected;
if it fails to explain any one phenomenon, it is so
far weak, so far to be suspected; though it may
have a perfect right to claim provisional accept-
ance.

ii DARWIN'S HYPOTHESIS. 149

Now, Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as
I am aware, inconsistent with any known biological
fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of De-
velopment, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geo-
graphical Distribution, and of Palaeontology, be-
come connected together, and exhibit a meaning
such as they never possessed before; and I, for
one, am fully convinced, that if not precisely
true, that hypothesis is as near an approxima-
tion to the truth as, for example, the Copernican
hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary
motions.

But, for all this, our acceptance of the Dar-
winian hypothesis must be provisional so long as
one link in the chain of evidence is wanting; and
so long as all the animals and plants certainly pro-
duced by selective breeding from a common stock
are fertile, and their progeny are fertile with one
another, that link will be wanting. For, so long,
selective breeding will not be proved to be com-
petent to do all that is required of it to produce
natural species.

I have put this conclusion as strongly as
possible before the reader, because the last posi-
tion in which I wish to find myself is that of an
advocate for Mr. Darwin's, or any other views; if
by an advocate is meant one whose business it is
to smooth over real difficulties, and to persuade
where he cannot convince.

In justice to Mr. Darwin, however, it must be

150 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

admitted that the conditions of fertility and steril-
ity are very ill understood, and that every day's
advance in knowledge leads us to regard the hiatus
in his evidence as of less and less importance, when
set against the multitude of facts which harmonize
with, or receive an explanation from, his doc-
trines.

I adopt Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, therefore, sub-
ject to the production of proof that physiological
species may be produced by selective breeding; just
as a physical philosopher may accept the undu-
latory theory of light, subject to the proof of the
existence of the hypothetical ether; or as the chem-
ist adopts the atomic theory, subject to the proof
of the existence of atoms; and for exactly the same
reasons, namely, that it has an immense amount
of prima facie probability: that it is the only means
at present within reach of reducing the chaos of
observed facts to order; and lastly, that it is the
most powerful instrument of investigation which
has been presented to naturalists since the inven-
tion of the natural system of classification, and
the commencement of the systematic study of
embryology.

But even leaving Mr. Darwin's views aside, the
whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so
complete and crushing an argument against the
intervention of any but what are termed secondary
causes, in the production of all the phenomena of
the universe; that, in view of the intimate rela-

OBJECTIONS: SENTIMENTAL AND OTHER. 151

tions between Man and the rest of the living
world, and between the forces exerted by the lat-
ter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for
doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of
Nature's great progression, from the formless
to the formed — from the inorganic to the or-
ganic — from blind force to conscious intellect and
will.

Science has fulfilled her function when she has
ascertained and enunciated truth; and were these
pages addressed to men of science only, I should
now close this Essay, knowing that my colleagues
have learned to respect nothing but evidence, and
to believe that their highest duty lies in sub-
mitting to it, however it may jar against their in-
clinations.

But, desiring, as I do, to reach the wider circle
of the intelligent public, it would be unworthy
cowardice were I to ignore the repugnance with
which the majority of my readers are likely to
meet the conclusions to which the most careful and
conscientious study I have been able to give to
this matter, has led me.

On all sides I shall hear the cry — " We are men
and women, not a mere better sort of apes, a little
longer in the leg* more compact in the foot, and
bigger in brain than your brutal Chimpanzees and
Gorillas. The power of knowledge — the conscience
of good and evil — the pitiful tenderness of human
affections, raise us out of all real fellowship with

152 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

the brutes, however closely they may seem to ap-
proximate us."

To this I can only reply that the exclamation
would be most just and would have my own entire
sympathy, if it were only relevant. But, it is not
I who seek to base Man's dignity upon his great
toe, or insinuate that we are lost if an Ape has a
hippocampus minor. On the contrary, I have done
my best to sweep away this vanity. I have en-
deavoured to show that no absolute structural line
of demarcation, wider than that between the ani-
mals which immediately succeed us in the scale,
can be drawn between the animal world and our-
selves; and I may add the expression of my belief
that the attempt to draw a psychical distinction
is equally futile, and that even the highest facul-
ties of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate
in lower forms of life.* At the same time, no one
is more strongly convinced than I am of the vast-
ness of the gulf between civilised man and the
brutes; or is more certain that whether from them
or not, he is assuredly not of them. No one is
less disposed to think likely of the present
dignity, or despairingly of the future hopes,

* It is so rare a pleasure for me to find Professor
Owen's opinions in entire accordance with my own, that I
cannot forbear from quoting a paragraph which appeared
in his Essay "On the Characters. &c, of the Class Mam-
malia," in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean
Society of London for 1857, but is unaccountably omitted
in the " Eeade Lecture " delivered before the University
of Cambridge two years later, which is otherwise nearly
a reprint of the paper in question. Prof. Owen writes:

II

OBJECTIONS. 153

of the only consciously intelligent denizen of this
world.

We are indeed told by those who assume author-
ity in these matters, that the two sets of opinions
are incompatible, and that the belief in the unity
of origin of man and brutes involves the brutaliza-
tion and degradation of the former. But is this
really so? Could not a sensible child confute by
obvious arguments, the shallow rhetoricians who
would force this conclusion upon us? Is it, in-
deed, true, that the Poet, or the Philosopher, or
the Artist whose genius is the glory of his age,
is degraded from his high estate by the undoubted
historical probability, not to say certainty, that he
is the direct descendant of some naked and bestial
savage, whose intelligence was just sufficient to
make him a little more cunning than the Fox, and
by so much more dangerous than the Tiger? Or is
he bound to howl and grovel on all fours because of

" Not being able to appreciate or conceive of the dis-
tinction between the psychical phenomena of a Chimpan-
zee and of a Boschisman or of an Aztec, with arrested
brain growth, as being of a nature so essential as to pre-
clude a comparison between them, or as being other than
a difference of degree, I cannot shut my eyes to the sig-
nificance of that all-pervading similitude of structure — ■
every tooth, every bone, strictly homologous — which
makes the determination of the difference between Homo
and Pithecus the anatomist's difficulty."

Surely it is a little singular, that the " anatomist,"
who finds it " difficult " to determine " the difference " be-
tween Homo and Pithecus, should yet range them on
anatomical grounds, in distinct sub-classes.

151 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

the wholly unquestionable fact, that he was once
an egg, which no ordinary power of discrimination
could distinguish from that of a Dog? Or is the
philanthropist, or the saint, to give up his en-
deavours to lead a noble life, because the simplest
study of man's nature reveals, at its foundations,
all the selfish passions, and fierce appetites of the
merest quadruped? Is mother-love vile because a
hen shows it, or fidelity base because dogs pos-
sess it?

The common sense of the mass of mankind
will answer these questions without a moment's
hesitation. Healthy humanity, finding itself hard
pressed to escape from real sin and degrada-
tion, will leave the brooding over speculative
pollution to the cynics and the " righteous over-
much " who, disagreeing in everything else,
unite in blind insensibility to the nobleness
of the visible world, and in inability to appre-
ciate the grandeur of the place Man occupies
therein.

Nay more, thoughtful men, once escaped from
the blinding influences of traditional prejudice,
will find in the lowly stock whence Man has
sprung, the best evidence of the splendour of his
capacities; and will discern in his long progress
through the Past, a reasonable ground of faith in
his attainment of a nobler Future.

They will remember that in comparing civilised
man with the animal world, one is as the Alpine

II

OBJECTIONS. 155

traveller, who sees the mountains soaring into the
sky and can hardly discern where the deep
shadowed crags and roseate peaks end, and where
the clouds of heaven begin. Surely the awe-
struck voyager may be excused if, at first, he re-
fuses to believe the geologist, who tells him that
these glorious masses are, after all, the hardened
mud of primeval seas, or the cooled slag of
subterranean furnaces — of one substance with
the dullest clay, but raised by inward forces
to that place of proud and seemingly inaccessible
glory.

But the geologist is right; and due reflection
on his teachings, instead of diminishing our rever-
ence and our wonder, adds all the force of intel-
lectual sublimity to the mere aesthetic intuition of
the uninstructed beholder.

And after passion and prejudice have died
away, the same result will attend the teachings of
the naturalist respecting that great Alps and Andes
of the living world — Man. Our reverence for the
nobility of manhood will not be lessened by the
knowledge that Man is, in substance and in struc-
ture, one with the brutes; for, he alone possesses
the marvellous endowment of intelligible and
rational speech, whereby, in the secular period
of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and
organised the experience which is almost wholly
lost with the cessation of every individual life
in other animals; so that, now, he stands raised

156 MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. n

upon it as on a mountain top, far above the
level of his humble fellows, and transfigured
from his grosser nature by reflecting, here
and there, a ray from the infinite source of
truth.

III.

ON SOME FOSSIL KEMAINS OF MAN.

I have endeavoured to show, in the preceding
Essay, that the Antheopini, or Man Family, form
a very well-defined group of the Primates, between
which and the immediately following Family, the
Cataehini, there is, in the existing world, the
same entire absence of any transitional form or
connecting link, as between the Cataehini and
Platyehini.

It is a commonly received doctrine, however,
that the structural intervals between the various
existing modifications of organic beings may be
diminished, or even obliterated, if we take into
account the long and varied succession of animals
and plants which have preceded these now living
and which are known to us only by their fossilized
remains. How far this doctrine is well based, how
far, on the other hand, as our knowledge at pres-
ent stands, it is an overstatement of the real facts
of the case, and an exaggeration of the conclusions
fairly deducible from them, are points of grave im-
portance, but into the discussion of which I do not,

157

15S HUMAN FOSSILS. m

at present, propose to enter. It is enough that
such a view of the relations of extinct to living
beings has been propounded, to lead us to inquire,
with anxiety, how far the recent discoveries of
human remains in a fossil state bear out, or oppose,
that view.

I shall confine myself, in discussing this ques-
tion, to those fragmentary Human skulls from the
caves of Engis in the valley of the Meuse, in Bel-
gium, and of the Neanderthal, near Dusseldorf,
the geological relations of which have been ex-
amined with so much care by Sir Charles Lyell;
upon whose high authority I shall take it for
granted, that the Engis skull belonged to a con-
temporary of the Mammoth (Eleplias primigenius)
and of the woolly Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichor-
Jiinus), with the bones of which it was found asso-
ciated; and that the Neanderthal skull is of great,
though uncertain, antiquity. Whatever be the
geological age of the latter skull, I conceive it is
quite safe (on the ordinary principles of paleon-
tological reasoning) to assume that the former
takes us to, at least, the further side of the vague
biological limit, which separates the present geo-
logical epoch from that which immediately pre-
ceded it. And there can be no doubt that the
physical geography of Europe has changed won-
derfully, since the bones of Men and Mammoths,
Hyamas and Ehinoceroses were washed pell-mell
into the cave of Engis.

Ill

THE MAN OF EXGIS.

159

The skull from the cave of Engis was originally
discovered by Professor Schmerling, and was de-
scribed by him, together with other human re-

Fig. 23. — The skull from the cave of Engis — viewed
from the right side. One half the size of nature, a gla-
bella, b occipital protuberance (a to 6 glabello-occipital
line), c auditory foramen.

mains disinterred at the same time, in his valuable
work, " Recherches sur les Ossemens fossiles decou-
verts dans les Cavernes de la Province de Liege/'

160 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

published in 1833 (p. 59, et seq.), from which the
following paragraphs are extracted, the precise ex-
pressions of the author being, as far as possible,
preserved.

" In the first place, I must remark that these human
remains, which are in my possession, are characterised,
like the thousands of bones which I have lately been dis-
interring, by the extent of the decomposition which they
have undergone, which is precisely the same as that of the
extinct species: all, with a few exceptions, are broken;
some few are rounded, as is frequently found to be the
case in fossil remains of other species. The fractures are
vertical or oblique ; none of them are eroded ; their colour
does not differ from that of other fossil bones, and varies
from whitish yellow to blackish. All are lighter than re-
cent bones, with the exception of those which have a cal-
careous incrustation, and the cavities of which are filled
with such matter.

" The cranium which I have caused to be figured, Plate
I, figs. 1, 2, is that of an old person. The sutures are be-
ginning to be effaced: all the facial bones are wanting,
and of the temporal bones only a fragment of that of
the right side is preserved.

" The face and the base of the cranium had been de-
tached before the skull was deposited in the cave, for we
were unable to find those parts, though the whole cavern
was regularly searched. The cranium was met with at a
depth of a metre and a half [five feet nearly] hidden
under an osseous breccia, composed of the remains of
small animals, and containing one rhinoceros' tusk, with
several teeth of horses and of ruminants. This breccia,
which has been spoken of above (p. 31), was a metre [3£
feet about] wide, and rose to the height of a metre and a
half above the floor of the cavern, to the walls of which it
adhered strongly.

in THE ENGIS SKULL. 101

" The earth which contained this human skull ex-
hibited no trace of disturbance: teeth of rhinoceros, horse,
hyaena, and bear, surrounded it on all sides.

" The famous Blumenbach * has directed attention to
the differences presented by the form and the dimensions
of human crania of different races. This important work
would have assisted us greatly, if the face, a part essen-
tial for the determination of race, with more or less ac-
curacy, had not been wanting in our fossil cranium.

" We are convinced that even if the skull had been
complete, it would not have been possible to pronounce,
with certainty, upon a single specimen; for individual
variations are so numerous in the crania of one and the
same race, that one cannot, without laying one's self open
to large chances of error, draw any inference from a single
fragment of a cranium to the general form of the head to
which it belonged.

" Nevertheless, in order to neglect no point respecting
the form of this fossil skull, we may observe that, from the
first, the elongated and narrow form of the forehead at-
tracted our attention.

" In fact, the slight elevation of the frontal, its narrow-
ness, and the form of the orbit, approximate it more
nearly to the cranium of an Ethiopian than to that of an
European; the elongated form and the produced occiput
are also characters which we believe to be observable in
our fossil cranium; but to remove all doubt upon that
subject I have caused the contours of the cranium of an
European and of an Ethiopian to be drawn and the fore-
heads represented. Plate II, Figs. 1 and 2, and, in the
same plate, Figs. 3 and 4, will render the differences easily
distinguishable; and a single glance at the figures will
be more instructive than a long and wearisome descrip-
tion.

* Decas Collectionis siiw craniorum diversarum gen-
tium illustrata. — Gottingoe, 1790-1820.

175

162 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

" At whatever conclusion we may arrive as to the
origin of the man from whence this fossil skull proceeded,
we may express an opinion without exposing ourselves to
a fruitless controversy. Each may adopt the hypothesis
which seems to him most probable: for my own part, I
hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged
to a person of limited intellectual faculties, and we con-
clude thence that it belonged to a man of a low degree
of civilization: a deduction which is borne out bv con-
trasting the capacity of the frontal with that of the oc-
cipital region.

" Another cranium of a young individual was discov-
ered in the floor of the cavern beside the tooth of an ele-
phant ; the skull was entire when found, but the moment it
was lifted it fell into pieces, which I have not, as yet, been
able to put together again. But I have represented the
bones of the upper jaw, Plate I, Fig. 5. The state of the
alveoli and the teeth, shows that the molars had not yet
pierced the gum. Detached milk molars and some frag-
ments of a human skull, proceed from this same place.
The figure 3 represents a human superior incisor tooth,
the size of which is truly remarkable.*

" Figure 4 is a fragment of a superior maxillary bone,
the molar teeth of which are worn down to the roots.

" I possess two vertebrae, a first and last dorsal.

"A clavicle of the left side (see Plate III, Fig. 1);
although it belonged to a young individual, this bone
shows that he must have been of great stature.f

" Two fragments of the radius, badly preserved, do not

* In a subsequent passage, Schmerling remarks upon
the occurrence of an incisor tooth " of enormous size '
from the caverns of Engihoul. The tooth figured is some-
what long, but its dimensions do not appear to me to
be otherwise remarkable.

t The figure of this clavicle measures 5 inches from end
to end in a straight line — so that the bone is rather a
small than a large one.

in THE ENGIS SKULL. 163

indicate that the height of the man, to whom they be-
longed, exceeded five feet and a half.

" As to the remains of the upper extremities, those
which are in my possession consist merely of a frag-
ment of an ulna and of a radius (Plate III, Figs. 5
and 6).

" Figure 2, Plate IV, represents a metacarpal bone,
contained in the breccia, of which we have spoken; it
was found in the lower part above the cranium: add to
this some metacarpal bones, found at very different dis-
tances, half-a-dozen metatarsals, three phalanges of the
hand, and one of the foot.

" This is a brief enumeration of the remains of human
bones collected in the cavern of Engis, which has pre-
served for us the remains of three individuals, surrounded
by those of the Elephant, of the Rhinoceros, and of Car-
nivora of species unknown in the present creation."

From the cave of Engihoul, opposite that of
Engis, on the right bank of the Meuse, Schmerling
obtained the remains of three other individuals of
Man, among which were only two fragments of
parietal bones, but many bones of the extremities.
In one case, a broken fragment of an ulna was
soldered to a like fragment of a radius by stalag-
mite, a condition frequently observed among the
bones of the Cave Bear (Ursus spelceus), found in
the Belgian caverns.

It was in the cavern of Engis that Professor
Schmerling found, incrusted with stalagmite and
joined to a stone, the pointed bone implement,
which he has figured in Fig. 7 of his Plate
XXXVI, and worked flints were found by him in

164 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

all those Belgian caves, which contained an abun-
dance of fossil bones.

A short letter from M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
published in the " Comptes Rendus " of the Acad-
emy of Sciences of Paris, for July 2nd, 1838, speaks
of a visit (and apparently a very hasty one) paid
to the collection of Professor " Schermidt " (which
is presumably a misprint for Schmerling) at Liege.
The writer briefly criticises the drawings which
illustrate Schmerling's work, and affirms that the
" human cranium is a little longer than it is repre-
sented " in Schmerling's figure. The only other
remark worth quoting is this: —

" The aspect of the human bones differs little from
that of the cave bones, with which we are familiar, and
of which there is a considerable collection in the same
place. With respect to their special forms, compared with
those of the varieties of recent human crania, few certain
conclusions can be put forward; for much greater dif-
ferences exist between the different specimens of well-
characterized varieties, than between the fossil cranium
of Liege and that of one of those varieties selected as a
term of comparison."

Geoffroy St. Hilaire's remarks are, it will be
observed, little but an echo of the philosophic
doubts of the describer and discoverer of the re-
mains. As to the critique upon Schmerling's fig-
ures, I find that the side view given by the latter
is really about -^-ths of an inch shorter than the
original, and that the front view is diminished to

in THE ENGIS SKULL. 105

about the same extent. Otherwise the representa-
tion is not, in any way, inaccurate, but corresponds
very well with the cast which is in my possession.

A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling
seems to have missed, has since been fitted on to
the rest of the cranium by an accomplished anat-
omist, Dr. Spring of Liege, under whose direction
an excellent plaster cast was made for Sir Charles
Lyell. It is upon and from a duplicate of that cast
that my own observations and the accompanying
figures, the outlines of which are copied from very
accurate Camera lucida drawings, by my friend
Mr. Busk, reduced to one-half of the natural size,
are made.

As Professor Schmerling observes, the base of
the skull is destroyed, and the facial bones are en-
tirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consist-
ing of the frontal, parietal, and the greater part
of the occipital bones, as far as the middle of the
occipital foramen, is entire, or nearly so. The left
temporal bone is wanting. Of the right temporal,
the parts in the immediate neighbourhood of the
auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and a con-
siderable portion of the squamous element of the
temporal are well preserved (Fig. 23).

The lines of fracture which remain between the
coadjusted pieces of the skull, and are faithfully
displayed in Schmerling's figure, are readily trace-
able in the cast. The sutures are also discernible,
but the complex disposition of their serrations,

.4

Fig. 24. — The Engis skull viewed from above [A) and in

front (B).

in THE ENGIS SKULL. 167

shown in the figure, is not ohvious in the cast.
Though the ridges which give attachment to
muscles are not excessively prominent, they are
well marked, and taken together with the appar-
ently well developed frontal sinuses, and the condi-
tion of the sutures, leave no doubt on mv mind
that the skull is that of an adult, if not middle-
aged man.

The extreme length of the skull is 7.7 inches.
Its extreme breadth, which corresponds very nearly
with the interval between the parietal protuber-
ances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The propor-
tion of the length to the breadth is therefore very
nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn from the
point at which the brow curves in towards the
root of the nose, and which is called the " glabella "
(a), (Fig. 23), to the occipital protuberance (b), and
the distance to the highest point of the arch of the
skull be measured perpendicularly from this line,
it will be found to be 4.75 inches. Viewed from
above, Fig. 24, A, the forehead presents an evenly
rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the
sides and back of the skull, which describes a toler-
ably regular elliptical curve.

The front view (Fig. 24, B) shows that the roof
of the skull was very regularly and elegantly
arched in the transverse direction, and that the
transverse diameter was a little less below the pari-
etal protuberances, than above them. The fore-
head cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest

168 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

of the skull, nor can it be called a retreating fore-
head; on the contrar}^ the antero-posterior con-
tour of the skull is well arched, so that the dis-
tance along that contour, from the nasal depres-
sion to the occipital protuberance, measures about
13.75 inches. The transverse arc of the skull,
measured from one auditory foramen to the other,
across the middle of the sagittal suture, is about
13 inches. The sagittal suture itself is 5.5 inches
long.

The supraciliary prominences or brow-ridges
(on each side of a, Fig 23) are well, but not ex-
cessively, developed, and are separated by a median
depression. Their principal elevation is disposed
so obliquely that I judge them to be due to large
frontal sinuses.

If a line joining the glabella and the occipital
protuberance (a, ~b, Fig. 23) be made horizontal, no
part of the occipital region projects more than T V th
of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that
line, and the upper edge of the auditory foramen
(c) is almost in contact with a line drawn parallel
with this upon the outer surface of the skull.

A transverse line drawn from one auditory fora-
men to the other traverses, as usual, the fore part of
the occipital foramen. The capacity of the interior
of this fragmentary skull has not been ascertained.

The history of the Human remains from the
cavern in the Neanderthal may best be given in

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 169

the words of their original describer, Dr. Schaaff-
hausen,* as translated by Mr. Busk.

" In the early part of the year 1857, a human skeleton
was discovered in a limestone cave in the Neanderthal,
near Hochdal, between Dusseldorf and Elberfeld. Of this,
however, I was unable to procure more than a plaster
cast of the cranium, taken at Elberfeld, from which 1
drew up an account of its remarkable conformation, which
was, in the first instance, read on the 4th of February,
1857, at the meeting of the Lower Rhine Medical and
Natural History Society, at Bonn.f Subsequently Dr.
Euhlrott, to whom science is indebted for the preservation
of these bones, which were not at first regarded as human,
and into whose possession they afterwards came, brought
the cranium from Elberfeld to Bonn, and entrusted it to
me for more accurate anatomical examination. At the
General Meeting of the Natural History Society of Prus-
sian Rhineland and Westphalia, at Bonn, on the 2nd of
June, 1857,$ Dr. Fuhlrott himself gave a full account of
the locality, and of the circumstances under Avhich the
discovery was made. He was of opinion that the bones
might be regarded as fossil ; and in coming to this conclu-
sion, he laid especial stress upon the existence of dendritic
deposits, with which their surface was covered, and which
were first noticed upon them by Professor Mayer. To this
communication I appended a brief report on the results
of my anatomical examination of the bones. The conclu-

* On the Crania of the most Ancient Races of Man. — •
By Professor D. Schaaffhausen, of Bonn. (From Muller's
Archie, 1858, p. 453.) With Remarks, and original Fig-
ures, taken from a Cast of the Neanderthal Cranium. By
George Busk, F.R.S., &c. Natural History Review, April,
1861.

■\Yerhandl. d. Naturhist. Vereins <1 r r preuss. Rhein-
lande und Westphdlens., xiv. — Bonn, 1857.

t lb. Correspondenzblatt. No. 2.

170 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

sions at which I arrived were: 1st. That the extraordinary
form of the skull was due to a natural conformation hith-
erto not known to exist, even in the most barbarous races.
2nd. That these remarkable human remains belonged to
a period antecedent to the time of the Celts and Germans,
and were in all probability derived from one of the wild
races of North-western Europe, spoken of by Latin
writers; and which were encountered as autochthones by
the German immigrants. And 3rdly. That it was beyond
doubt that these human relics were traceable to a period
at which the latest animals of the diluvium still existed;
but that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently of
their so-termed fossil condition, was afforded by the cir-
cumstances under which the bones were discovered.

" As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description
of these circumstances, I borrow the following account of
them from one of his letters. ' A small cave or grotto,
high enough to admit a man, and about 15 feet deep from
the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in the south-
ern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed,
at a distance of about 100 feet from the Diissel, and about
60 feet above the bottom of the valley. In its earlier and
uninjured condition, this cavern opened upon a narrow
plateau lying in front of it, and from which the rocky wall
descended almost perpendicularly into the river. It could
be reached, though with difficult}*, from above. The un-
even floor was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a
deposit of mud, sparingly intermixed with rounded frag-
ments of chert. In the removing of this deposit, the bones
were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed near-
est to the entrance of the cavern; and further in, the
other bones, lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this
I was assured, in the most positive terms, by two la-
bourers who were employed to clear out the grotto, and
who were questioned by me on the spot. At first no idea
was entertained of the bones being human; and it was

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 171

not till several weeks after their discovery that they were
recognised as such by me, and placed in security.

" ' But, as the importance of the discovery was not
at the time perceived, the labourers were very careless in
the collecting, and secured chiefly only the larger bones;
and to this circumstance it may be attributed that frag-
ments merely of the probably perfect skeleton came into
my possession.'

" My anatomical examination of these bones afforded
the following results: —

" The cranium is of unusual size, and of a long-ellipti-
cal form. A most remarkable peculiarity is at once obvi-
ous in the extraordinary development of the frontal si-
nuses, owing to which the superciliary ridges, which coal-
esce completely in the middle, are rendered so prominent,
that the frontal bone exhibits a considerable hollow or
depression above, or rather behind them, whilst a deep de-
pression is also formed in the situation of the root of the
nose. The forehead is narrow and low, though the middle
and hinder portions of the cranial arch are well developed.
Unfortunately, the fragment of the skull that has been
preserved consists only of the portion situated above the
roof of the orbits and the superior occipital ridges, which
are greatly developed, and almost conjoined so as to form
a horizontal eminence. It includes almost the whole of
the frontal bone, both parietals, a small part of the
squamous and the upper-third of the occipital. The re-
cently fractured surfaces show that the skull was broken
at the time of its disinterment. The cavity holds 16,876
grains of water, whence its cubical contents may be esti-
mated at 57.64 inches, or 1033.24 cubic centimetres. In
making this estimation, the water is supposed to stand on
a level with the orbital plate of the frontal, with the deep-
est notch in the squamous margin of the parietal, and
with the superior semicircular ridges of the occipital.
Estimated in dried millet-seed, the contents equalled 31
ounces, Prussian Apothecaries' weight. The semicircular

172 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

line indicating the upper boundary of the attachment of
the temporal muscle, though not very strongly marked,
ascends nevertheless to more than half the height of the
parietal bone. On the right superciliary ridge is observ-
able an oblique furrow or depression, indicative of an in-
jury received during life.* The coronal and sagittal su-
tures are on the exterior nearly closed, and on the inside so
completely ossified as to have left no traces whatever, whilst
the lambdoidal remains quite open. The depressions for
the Pacchionian glands are deep and numerous; and there
is an unusually deep vascular groove immediately behind
the coronal suture, which, as it terminates in a foramen,
no doubt transmitted a vena emlssaria. The course of
the frontal suture is indicated externally by a slight
ridge; and where it joins the coronal, this ridge rises into
a small protuberance. The course of the sagittal suture
is grooved, and above the angle of the occipital bone the
parietals are depressed.

ram.t inches.

The length of the skull from the
nasal process of the frontal over
the vertex to the superior semi-
circular lines of the occipital
measures 303 (800) = 12.0".

Circumference over the orbital
ridges and the superior semicir-
cular lines of the occipital ... 590 (590) = 23.37" or 23".

Width of the frontal from the mid-
dle of the temporal line on one
side to the same point on the op-
posite 104 (114) = 4.1"— 4.5".

* This, Mr. Busk has pointed out, is probably the
notch for the frontal nerve.

t The numbers in parentheses are those which I should
assign to the different measures, as taken from the plaster
east. — (I. B.

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 173

mm. inches.

Length of the frontal from the
nasal process to the coronal su-
ture 133(125) = 5.25"-5".

Extreme width of the frontal si-
nuses 25 (23) = 1.0"-0.9".

Vertical height above a line join-
ing the deepest notches in the
squamous border of the parietals 70 = 2.75".

Width of hinder part of skull from
one parietal protuberance to the
other 138 (150) = 5.4"-5.9\

Distance from the upper angle of
the occipital to the superior
semicircular lines 51 (60) = 1.9" -2.4".

Thickness of the bone at the parie-
tal protuberance 8.

at the angle of the occipital 9.

at the superior semicircular

line of the occipital 10 = 0.3".

" Besides the cranium, the following bones have been
secured : —

" 1. Both thigh-bones, perfect. These, like the skull,
and all the other bones, are characterized by their unusual
thickness, and the great development of all the elevations
and depressions for the attachment of muscles. In the
Anatomical Museum at Bonn, under the designation of
* Giant's bones,' are some recent thigh-bones, with which
in thickness the foregoing pretty nearly correspond, al-
though they are shorter.

Giant's bones. Fossil bones,
mm. inches. mm. inches.

Length 542 = 21.4" . . . 438 = 17.4".

Diameter of head of femur 54 = 2.14" ... 53 = 2.0".

Diameter of lower articular end,

from one condyle to the

other 89 = 3.5" ... 87 = 3.4".

Diameter of femur in the middle . 33 = 1.2" ... 30 = 1.1".

174 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

" 2. A perfect right humerus, whose size shows that
it belongs to the thigh-bones.

mm. inches.

Length 312 = 12.3'.

Thickness in the middle. . 26 = 1.0".

Diameter of head .... 49 = 1.9".

" Also a perfect right radius of corresponding dimen-
sions and the upper-third of a right ulna corresponding
to the humerus and radius.

" 3. A left humerus, of which the upper-third is want-
ing, and which is so much slenderer than the right as ap-
parently to belong to a distinct individual; a left ulna,
which, though complete, is pathologically deformed, the
coronoid process being so much enlarged by bony growth,
that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle must have
been impossible; the anterior fossa of the humerus for
the reception of the coronoid process being also filled up
with a similar bony growth. At the same time, the ole-
cranon is curved strongly downwards. As the bone pre-
sents no sign of rachitic degeneration, it may be sup-
posed that an injury sustained during life was the cause
of the anchylosis. When the left ulna is compared with
the right radius, it might at first sight be concluded that
the bones respectively belonged to different individuals,
the ulna being more than half an inch too short for articu-
lation with a corresponding radius. But it is clear that
this shortening, as well as the attenuation of the left hu-
merus, are both consequent upon the pathological condi-
tion above described.

" 4. A left ilium, almost perfect, and belonging to the
femur; a fragment of the right scapula; the anterior ex-
tremity of a rib of the right side; and the same part of
a rib of the left side ; the hinder part of a rib of the right
side ; and, lastly, two hinder portions and one middle por-
tion of ribs which, from their unusually rounded shape,
and abrupt curvature, more resemble the ribs of a car-

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 175

nivorous animal than those of a man. Dr. H. v. Meyer,
however, to whose judgment I defer, will not venture to
declare them to be ribs of any animal; and it only re-
mains to suppose that this abnormal condition has arisen
from an unusually powerful development of the thoracic
muscles.

" The bones adhere strongly to the tongue, although,
as proved by the use of hydrochloric acid, the greater part
of the cartilage is still retained in them, which appears,
however, to have undergone that transformation into
gelatine which has been observed by v. Bibra in fossil
bones. The surface of all the bones is in many spots
covered with minute black specks, which, more especially
under a lens, are seen to be formed of very delicate
dendrites. These deposits, which were first observed on
the bones by Dr. Mayer, are most distinct on the inner
surface of the cranial bones. They consist of a ferrugi-
nous compound, and, from their black colour, may be sup-
posed to contain manganese. Similar dendritic forma-
tions also occur, not unfrequently, on laminated rocks,
and are usually found in minute fissures and cracks. At
the meeting of the Lower Rhine Society at Bonn, on the
1st April, 1857, Prof. Mayer stated that he had noticed
in the museum of Poppelsdorf similar dendritic crystal-
lizations on several fossil bones of animals, and particu-
larly on those of Urstts spelwus, but still more abun-
dantly and beautifully displayed on the fossil bones and
teeth of Equus adamiticus, Elephas primigenius, &c,
from the caves of Bolve and Sundwig. Faint indications
of similar dendrites were visible in a Roman skull from
Siegburg; whilst other ancient skulls, which had lain for
centuries in the earth, presented no trace of them.* I
am indebted to H. v. Meyer for the following remarks on
this subject: —

* Verh. dcs NaturMst. Vereins in Bonn, xiv. 1857.

176 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

" ' The incipient formation of dendritic deposits, which
were formerly regarded as a sign of a truly fossil condi-
tion, is interesting. It has even been supposed that in
diluvial deposits the presence of dendrites might be re-
garded as affording a certain mark of distinction between
bones mixed with the diluvium at a somewhat later period
and the true diluvial relics, to which alone it was supposed
that these deposits were confined. But I have long been
convinced that neither can the absence of dendrites be
regarded as indicative of recent age, nor their presence
as sufficient to establish the great antiquity of the objects
upon which they occur. I have myself noticed upon
paper, which could scarcely be more than a year old, den-
dritic deposits, which could not be distinguished from
those on fossil bones. Thus I possess a dog's skull from
the Roman colony of the neighbouring Heddersheim,
Castrum Eadrianum, which is in no way distinguishable
from the fossil bones from the Frankish caves; it presents
the same colour, and adheres to the tongue just as they
do; so that this character also, which, at a former meet-
ing of German naturalists at Bonn, gave rise to amusing
scenes between Buckland and Schmerling, is no longer of
any value. In disputed cases, therefore, the condition of
the bone can scarcely afford the means for determining
with certainty whether it be fossil, that is to say, whether it
belong to geological antiquity or to the historical period.'

" As we cannot now look upon the primitive world as
representing a wholly different condition of things, from
which no transition exists to the organic life of the present
time, the designation of fossil, as applied to (/ Ixjne, has
no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of Cuvier.
Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man co-
existed with the animals found in the diluvium; and many
a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have dis-
appeared, together with the animals of the ancient world,
whilst the races whose organization is improved have con-

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 177

tinued the genus. The bones which form the subject of
this paper present characters which, although not decisive
as regards a geological epoch, are, nevertheless, such as
indicate a very high antiquity. It may also be remarked
that, common as is the occurrence of diluvial animal bones
in the muddy deposits of caverns, such remains have not
hitherto been met with in the caves of the Neanderthal;
and that the bones, which were covered by a deposit of
mud not more than four or five feet thick, and without
any protective covering of stalagmite, have retained the
greatest part of their organic substance.

" These circumstances might be adduced against the
probability of a geological antiquity. Nor should we be
justified in regarding the cranial conformation as perhaps
representing the most savage primitive type of the human
race, since crania exist among living savages, which,
though not exhibiting such a remarkable conformation of
the forehead, which gives the skull somewhat the aspect
of that of the large apes, still in other respects, as for in-
stance in the greater depth of the temporal fossae, the
crest-like, prominent temporal ridges, and a generally less
capacious cranial cavity, exhibit an equally low stage of
development. There is no reason for supposing that the
deep frontal hollow is due to any artificial flattening, such
as is practised in various modes by barbarous nations in
the Old and New World. The skull is quite symmetrical,
and shows no indication of counter-pressure at the occi-
put, whilst, according to Morton, in the Flat-heads of the
Columbia, the frontal and parietal bones are always un-
symmetrical. Its conformation exhibits the sparing de-
velopment of the anterior part of the head which has
been so often observed in very ancient crania, and affords
one of the most striking proofs of the influence of culture
and civilization on the form of the human skull."

In a subsequent passage, Dr. Sehaaffhausen re-
marks:

176

178 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

" There is no reason whatever for regarding the un-
usual development of the frontal sinuses in the remark-
able skull from the Neanderthal as an individual or
pathological deformity; it is unquestionably a typical
race-character, and is physiologically connected with the
uncommon thickness of the other bones of the skeleton,
which exceeds by about one-half the usual proportions.
This expansion of the frontal sinuses, which are append-
ages of the air-passages, also indicates an unusual force
and power of endurance in the movements of the body,
as may be concluded from the size of all the ridges and
processes for the attachment of the muscles or bones. That
this conclusion may be drawn from the existence of large
frontal sinuses, and a prominence of the lower frontal
region, is confirmed in many ways by other observations.
By the same characters, according to Pallas, the wild horse
is distinguished from the domesticated, and, according to
Cuvier, the fossil cave-bear from every recent species of
bear, whilst, according to Roulin, the pig, which has be-
come wild in America, and regained a resemblance to the
wild boar, is thus distinguished from the same animal in
the domesticated state, as is the chamois from the goat;
and, lastly, the bull-dog, which is characterised by its
large bones and strongly-developed muscles from eA'ery
other kind of dog. The estimation of the facial angle, the
determination of which, according to Professor Owen, is
also difficult in the great apes, owing to the very promi-
nent supra-orbital ridges, in the present case is rendered
still more difficult from the absence both of the auditory
opening and of the nasal spine. But if the proper hori-
zontal position of the skull be taken from the remaining
portions of the orbital plates, and the ascending line made
to touch the surface of the frontal bone behind the promi-
nent supra-orbital ridges, the facial angle is not found to
exceed 56°.* Unfortunately, no portions of the facial

* Estimating the facial anglo in th^ way su?orested, on
the cast 1 should place it at 64° to G7°. — G. B.

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 179

bones, whose conformation is so decisive as regards the
form and expression of the head, have been preserved.
The cranial capacity, compared with the uncommon
strength of the corporeal frame, would seem to indicate
a small cerebral development. The skull, as it is, holds
about 31 ounces of millet-seed; and as, from the propor-
tionate size of the wanting bones, the whole cranial cav-
ity should have about 6 ounces more added, the contents,
were it perfect, may be taken at 37 ounces. Tiedemann
assigns, as the cranial contents in the Negro, 40, 38, and
35 ounces. The cranium holds rather more than 36 ounces
of water which corresponds to a capacity of 1033.24 cubic
centimetres. Huschke estimates the cranial contents of
a Negress at 1127 cubic centimetres; of an old Negro at
1146 cubic centimetres. The capacity of the Malay skulls,
estimated by water, equalled 36, 33 ounces, whilst in the
diminutive Hindoos it falls to as little as 27 ounces."

After comparing the Neanderthal cranium with
many others, ancient and modern, Professor
Schaaffhausen concludes thus: —

" But the human bones and cranium from the Neander-
thal exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of conforma-
tion which lead to the conclusion of their belonging to a
barbarous and savage race. Whether the cavern in which
they were found, unaccompanied with any trace of human
art, were the place of their interment, or whether, like the
bones of extinct animals elsewhere, they had been washed
into it, they may still be regarded as the most ancient
memorial of the early inhabitants of Europe."

Mr. Busk, the translator of Dr. SchaafThausen's
paper, has enabled us to form a very vivid con-
ception of the degraded character of the Nean-
derthal skull, by placing side by side with its out-

180 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

line, that of the skull of a Chimpanzee, drawn to
the same absolute size.

Some time after the publication of the trans-
lation of Professor Schaaffhausen's Memoir, I was
led to study the cast of the Neanderthal cranium
with more attention than I had previously be-
stowed upon it, in consequence of wishing to sup-
ply Sir Charles Lyell with a diagram, exhibiting
the special peculiarities of this skull, as compared
with other human skulls. In order to . do this it
was necessary to identify, with precision, those
points in the skulls compared which corresponded
anatomically. Of these points, the glabella was
obvious enough; but when I had distinguished an-
other, defined by the occipital protuberance and
superior semicircular line, and had placed the out-
line of the Neanderthal skull against that of the
Engis skull, in such a position that the glabella
and* occipital protuberance of both were intersected
by the same straight line, the difference was so
vast and the flattening of the Neanderthal skull
so prodigious (compare Figs. 23 and 25 A), that I
at first imagined I must have fallen into some
error. And I was the more inclined to suspect
this, as, in ordinary human skulls, the occipital
protuberance and superior semicircular curved
line on the exterior of the occiput correspond
pretty closely with the " lateral sinuses " and the
line of attachment of the tentorium internally.
But on the tentorium rests, as I have said in the

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 181

preceding Essay, the posterior lobe of the brain;
' and hence, the occipital protuberance, and the
curved line in question, indicate, approximately,
the lower limits of that lobe. Was it possible for
a human being to have the brain thus flattened
and depressed; or, on the other hand, had the
muscular ridges shifted their position? In order
to solve these doubts, and to decide the question
whether the great supraciliary projections did, or
did not, arise from the development of the frontal
sinuses, I requested Sir Charles Lyell to be so good
as to obtain for me from Dr. Fuhlrott, the pos-
sessor of the skull, answers to certain queries, and
if possible a cast, or at any rate drawings, or photo-
graphs, of the interior of the skull.

Dr. Fuhlrott replied, with a courtesy and readi-
ness for which I am infinitely indebted to him, to
my inquiries, and furthermore sent three excellent
photographs. One of these gives a side view of the
skull, and from it Fig. 25 A has been shaded. The
second (Fig. 26 A) exhibits the wide openings of
the frontal sinuses upon the inferior surface of
the frontal part of the skull, into which, Dr. Fuhl-
rott writes, " a probe may be introduced to the
depth of an inch," and demonstrates the great
extension of the thickened supraciliary ridges be-
yond the cerebral cavity. The third, lastly (Fig.
26 B), exhibits the edge and the interior of the
posterior, or occipital, part of the skull, and shows
very clearly the two depressions for the lateral si-

182

HUMAN FOSSILS.

in

Fig. 2o. — The skull from the Neanderthal cavern. A,
The outlines from camera lucida drawings, one half the
from Dr. Fuhlrott's photographs, a glabella; b occipital

nuses, sweeping inwards towards the middle line of
the roof of the skull, to form the longitudinal sinus.
It was clear, therefore, that I had not erred in

Ill

THE NEANDERTHAL MAN.

183

my interpretation, and that the posterior lobe of
the brain of the Neanderthal man must have been
as much flattened as I suspected it to be.

In truth, the Neanderthal cranium has most
extraordinary characters. It has an extreme

c

side, B, front, and C, top view. One half the natural size,
natural size, by Mr. Busk: the details from the cast and
protuberance; d lambdoidal suture.

length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5.75
inches, or, in other words, its length is to its
breadth as 100 : 72. It is exceedingly depressed,

184

HUMAN FOSSILS.

m

measuring only about 3.4 inches from the glabello-
occipital line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc,

Fig. 26. — Drawings from Dr. Fuhlrott's photographs
of parts of the interior of the Neanderthal cranium. A
view of the under and inner surface of the frontal region,
showing the inferior apertures of the frontal sinuses (a).
B corresponding view of the occipital region of the skull,
showing the impressions of the lateral sinuses {aa).

measured in the same way as in the Engis skull,
is 12 inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly

in THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 185

*

ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the
temporal bones, but was probably about the same,
and certainly exceeded 10J inches. The horizontal
circumference is 23 inches. But this great circum-
ference arises largely from the vast development
of the supraciliary ridges, though the perimeter
of the brain case itself is not small. The large
supraciliary ridges give the forehead a far more
retreating appearance than its internal contour
would bear out.

To an anatomical eye, the posterior part of the
skull is even more striking than the anterior. The
occipital protuberance occupies the extreme pos-
terior end of the skull, when the glabello-occipital
line is made horizontal, and so far from any part
of the occipital region extending beyond it, this
region of the skull slopes obliquely upward and
forward, so that the lambdoidal suture is situated
well upon the upper surface of the cranium. At
the same time, notwithstanding the great length
of the skull, the sagittal suture is remarkably short
(4J inches), and the squamosal suture is very
straight.

In reply to my questions Dr. Fuhlrott writes
that the occipital bone " is in a state of perfect
preservation as far as the upper semicircular line,
which is a very strong ridge, linear at its extremi-
ties, but enlarging towards the middle, where it
forms two ridges (bourrelets), united by a linear
continuation, which is slightly depressed in the
middle."

186 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

" Below the left ridge the bone exhibits an ob-
liquely inclined surface, six lines (French) long,
and twelve lines wide."

This last must be the surface, the contour of
which is shown in Fig. 25 A, below b. It is par-
ticularly interesting, as it suggests that, notwith-
standing the flattened condition of the occiput,
the posterior cerebral lobes must have projected
considerably beyond the cerebellum, and as it
constitutes one among several points of similarity
between the Neanderthal cranium and certain
Australian skulls.

Such are the two best known forms of human
cranium, which have been found in what may be
fairly termed a fossil state. Can either be shown
to fill up or diminish, to any appreciable extent,
the structural interval which exists between Man
and the man-like apes? Or, on the other hand,
does neither depart more widely from the average
structure of the human cranium, than normally
formed skulls of men are known to do at the
present day?

It is impossible to form any opinion on these
questions, without some preliminary acquaintance
with the range of variation exhibited by human
structure in general — a subject which has been but
imperfectly studied, while even of what is known,
my limits will necessarily allow me to give only a
very imperfect sketch.

in TUB NEANDERTHAL MAN. 187

The student of anatomy is perfectly well aware
that there is not a single organ of the human body
the structure of which does not vary, to a greater
or less extent, in different individuals. The skele-
ton varies in the proportions, and even to a certain
extent in the connections, of its constituent bones.
The muscles which move the bones vary largely
in their attachments. The varieties in the mode
of distribution of the arteries are carefully classi-
fied, on account of the practical importance of a
knowledge of their shiftings to the surgeon. The
characters of the brain vary immensely, nothing
being less constant than the form and size of the
cerebral hemispheres, and the richness of the con-
volutions upon their surface, while the most
changeable structures of all in the human brain are
exactly those on which the unwise attempt has
been made to base the distinctive characters of
humanity, viz. the posterior cornu of the lateral
ventricle, the hippocampus minor, and the degree
of projection of the posterior lobe beyond the cere-
bellum. Finally, as all the world knows, the hair
and skin of human beings may present the most
extraordinary diversities in colour and in texture.

So far as our present knowledge goes, the ma-
jority of the structural varieties to which allusion
is here made, are individual. The ape-like ar-
rangement of certain muscles which is occasion-
ally met with * in the white races of mankind, is

* See an excellent Essay by Mr. Church on the Myology
of the Orang, in the Natural History Review for 1SC1.

Fig. 27. — Side and front views of the round and or-
thognathous skull of a Calmuck after Von Eaer. One-
third the natural size.

in VARIATIONS: HUMAN SKULL. 189

not known to be more common among Negroes
or Australians: nor because the brain of the
Hottentot Venus was found to be smoother, to
have its convolutions more symmetrically disposed,
and to be, so far, more ape-like than that of ordi-
nary Europeans, are we justified in concluding a
like condition of the brain to prevail universally
among the lower races of mankind, however prob-
able that conclusion may be.

We are, in fact, sadly wanting in information
respecting the disposition of the soft and de-
structible organs of every Eace of Mankind but
our own; and even of the skeleton, our Museums
are lamentably deficient in every part but the
cranium. Skulls enough there are, and since the
time when Blumenbach and Camper first called
attention to the marked and singular differences
which they exhibit, skull collecting and skull meas-
uring has been a zealously pursued branch of
Natural History, and the results obtained have
been arranged and classified by various writers,
among whom the late active and able Eetzius must
always be the first named.

Human skulls have been found to differ from
one another, not merely in their absolute size and
in the absolute capacity of the brain case, but in
the proportions which the diameters of the latter
bear to one another; in the relative size of the
bones of the face (and more particularly of the
jaws and teeth) as compared with those of the

190 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

skull; in the degree to which the upper jaw (which
is of course followed by the lower) is thrown back-
wards and downwards under the fore part of the
brain case, or forwards and upwards in front of
and beyond it. They differ further in the relations
of the transverse diameter of the face, taken
through the cheek bones, to the transverse diam-
eter of the skull; in the more rounded or more
gable-like form of the roof of the skull, and in the
degree to which the hinder part of the skull is
flattened or projects beyond the ridge, into and
below which the muscles of the neck are inserted.
In some skulls the brain case may be said to be
" round" the extreme length not exceeding the
extreme breadth by a greater proportion than 100
to 80, while the difference may be much less.*
Men possessing such skulls were termed by
Retzius "brachiocephalic" and the skull of a
Calmuck, of which a front and side view (reduced
outline copies of which are given in Fig. 27) are
depicted by Von Baer in his excellent " Crania
selecta," affords a very admirable sample of that
kind of skull. Other skulls, such as that of a
Negro copied in Fig. 28 from Mr. Busk's " Crania
typica," have a very different, greatly elongated
form, and may be termed " oblong." In this skull
the extreme length is to the extreme breadth as
100 to not more than 67, and the transverse di-
ameter of the human skull may fall below even

* In no normal human skull does the breadth of the
brain ease exceed its length.

Fig. 28. — Oblong and prognathous skull of a Negro;
side and front views. One-third of the natural size.

192 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

this proportion. People having such skulls were
called by Eetzius " dolichocephalic"

The most cursory glance at the side views of
these two skulls will suffice to prove that they
differ, in another respect, to a very striking ex-
tent. The profile of the face of the Calmuck is
almost vertical, the facial bones being thrown
downwards and under the fore part of the skull.
The profile of the face of the Negro, on the other
hand, is singularly inclined, the front part of the
jaws projecting far forward beyond the level of the
fore part of the skull. In the former case the skull
is said to be " orthognatJwus " or straight-jawed; in
the latter, it is called " prognathous" a term which
has been rendered, with more force than elegance,
by the Saxon equivalent, — " snouty."

Various methods have been devised in order to
express with some accuracy the degree of prog-
nathism or orthognathism of any given skull; most
of these methods being essentially modifications
of that devised by Peter Camper, in order to attain
what he called the " facial angle."

But a little consideration will show that any
" facial angle " that has been devised, can be com-
petent to express the structural modifications in-
volved in prognathism and orthognathism, only in
a rough and general sort of way. For the lines,
the intersection of which forms the facial angle,
are drawn through points of the skull, the position
of each of which is modified bv a number of cir-

in VARIATIONS: HUMAN SKULL. 193

cumstances, so that the angle obtained is a complex
resultant of all these circumstances, and is not the
expression of any one definite organic relation of
the parts of the skull.

I have arrived at the conviction that no com-
parison of crania is worth very much that is not
founded upon the establishment of a relatively
fixed base line, to which the measurements, in all
cases, must be referred. Nor do I think it is a
very difficult matter to decide what that base line
should be. The parts of the skull, like those of
the rest of the animal framework, are developed
in succession: the base of the skull is formed be-
fore its sides and roof; it is converted into cartilage
earlier and more completely than the sides and
roof: and the cartilaginous base ossifies, and be-
comes soldered into one piece long before the roof.
I conceive then that the base of the skull may be
demonstrated developmentally to be its relatively
fixed part, the roof and sides being relatively
movable.

The same truth is exemplified by the study of
the modifications which the skull undergoes in
ascending from the lower animals up to man.

In such a mammal as a Beaver (Fig. 29), a line
(a b) drawn through the bones, termed basiocci-
pital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid, is very long
in proportion to the extreme length of the cavity
which contains the cerebral hemispheres (g li).
The plane of the occipital foramen (b c) forms a
177

\

Bcavtr.

Ltmur.

Fig. 29. — Longitudinal and vertical sections of the
skulls of a Beaver (Castor Canadensis), a Lemur (L.
Catta), and a Baboon (Ci/nocrphalus Papio), a b, the
basicranial axis; & c, the occipital plane; i T, the tentorial
plane; a d, the olfactory plane; f e, the basifacial axis;
c b a, occipital angle; Tia, tentorial angle; dab, olfac-
tory angle; e f b, craniofacial angle; g h, extreme length
of the cavity which lodges the cerebral hemispheres or
" cerebral length." The length of the basicranial axis as
to this length, or, in other words, the proportional length

in MAMMALIAN SKULLS. 195

of the line gh to that of ah taken as 100, in the three
skulls, is as follows: — Beaver, 70 to 100; Lemur, 119 to
100; Baboon, 144 to 100. In an adult male Gorilla the
cerebral length is as 170 to the basicranial axis taken
as 100, in the Negro (Fig. 30) as 230 to 100. In the
Constantinople skull (Fig. 30) it is as 2G6 to 100. The
difference between the highest Ape's skull and the lowest
Man's is therefore very strikingly brought out by these
measurements.

In the diagram of the Baboon's skull the dotted lines
d 1 (P, &c., give the angles of the Lemur's and Beaver's skull,
as laid down upon the basicranial axis of the Baboon. The
line a b has the same length in each diagram.

slightly acute angle with this " basicranial axis/'
while the plane of the tentorium (i T) is inclined
at rather more than 90° to the " basicranial axis ";
and so is the plane of the perforated plate (a d),
by which the filaments of the olfactory nerve
leave the skull. Again, a line drawn through the
axis of the face, between the bones called ethmoid
and vomer — the " basifacial axis " (f. e.) forms an
exceedingly obtuse angle, where, when produced,
it cuts the " basicranial axis."

If the angle made by the line b c with a b, be
called the " occipital angle," and the angle made
by the line a d with a & be termed the " olfactory
angle " and that made by i T with a b the " ten-
torial angle y then all these, in the mammal in
question, are nearly right angles, varying between
80° and 110°. The angle e f b, or that made by the
cranial with the facial axis, and which may be
termed the " craniofacial angle," is extremely ob-
tuse, amounting, in the case of the Beaver, to at
least 150°.

196 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

But if a series of sections of mammalian skulls,
intermediate between a Eodent and a Man (Fig.
29), be examined, it will be found that in the
higher crania the basicranial axis becomes shorter
relatively to the cerebral length; that the " olfac-
tory angle" and "occipital angle" become more
obtuse; and that the " craniofacial angle," be-
comes more acute by the bending down, as it were,
of the facial axis upon the cranial axis. At the
same time, the roof of the cranium becomes more
and more arched, to allow of the increasing height
of the cerebral hemispheres, which is eminently
characteristic of man, as well as of that backward
extension, beyond the cerebellum, which reaches
its maximum in the South American Monkeys.
So that, at last, in the human skull (Fig. 30), the
cerebral length is between twice and thrice as
great as the length of the basicranial axis; the ol-
factory plane is 20° or 30° on the under side of
that axis; the occipital angle, instead of being less
than 90°, is as much as 150° or 160°; the cranio-
facial angle may be 90° or less, and the vertical
height of the skull may have a large proportion to
its length.

It will be obvious, from an inspection of the
diagrams, that the basicranial axis is, in the
ascending series of Mammalia, a relatively fixed
line, on which the bones of the sides and roof of the
cranial cavity, and of the face, may be said to re-
volve downwards and forwards or backwards, ac-

Fig. 30. — Sections of orthognathous (light contour)
and prognathous (dark contour) skulls, one-third of the
natural size, a 6, Basicranial axis ; J) c, 1/ c', plane of the
occipital foramen; del', hinder end of the palatine bone;
ee', front end of the upper jaw; T T', insertion of the
tentorium.

198 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

cording to their position. The arc described by
any one bone or plane, however, is not by any
means always in proportion to the arc described by
another.

Now comes the important question, can we dis-
cern, between the lowest and the highest forms of
the human cranium anything answering, in how-
ever slight a degree, to this revolution of the side
and roof bones of the skull upon the basicranial
axis observed upon so great a scale in the mam-
malian series? Numerous observations lead me to
believe that we must answer this question in the
affirmative.

The diagrams in Fig. 30 are reduced from
very carefully made diagrams of sections of four
skulls, two round and orthognathous, two long and
prognathous, taken longitudinally and vertically,
through the middle. The sectional diagrams have
then been superimposed, in such a manner, that
the basal axes of the skulls coincide by their an-
terior ends, and in their direction. The deviations
of the rest of the contours (which represent the in-
terior of the skulls only) show the differences of
the skulls from one another, when these axes are
regarded as relatively fixed lines.

The dark contours are those of an Australian
and of a Negro skull: the light contours are
those of a Tartar skull, in the Museum of the
Eoyal College of Surgeons; and of a well de-
veloped round skull from a cemetery in Con-

in VARIATIONS: HUMAN SKULLS. 199

stantinople, of uncertain race, in my own pos-
session.

It appears, at once, from these views, that the
prognathous skulls, so far as their jaws are con-
cerned, do really differ from the orthognathous in
much the same way as, though to a far less degree
than, the skulls of the lower mammals differ from
those of Man. Furthermore, the plane of the oc-
cipital foramen (b c) forms a somewhat smaller
angle with the axis in these particular prognathous
skulls than in the orthognathous; and the like may
be slightly true of the perforated plate of the eth-
moid — though this point is not so clear. But it is
singular to remark that, in another respect, the
prognathous skulls are less ape-like than the or-
thognathous, the cerebral cavity projecting decid-
edly more beyond the anterior end of the axis in
the prognathous, than in the orthognathous, skulls.

It will be observed that these diagrams reveal
an immense range of variation in the capacity and
relative proportion to the cranial axis, of the differ-
ent regions of the cavity which contains the brain,
in the different skulls. Nor is the difference in the
extent to which the cerebral overlaps the cere-
bellar cavity less singular. A round skull (Fig. 30,
Const.) may have a greater posterior cerebral pro-
jection than a long one (Fig. 30, Negro).

Until human crania have been largely worked
out in a manner similar to that here suggested — ■
until it shall be an opprobrium to an ethnological

200 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

collection to possess a single skull which is not bi-
sected longitudinally — until the angles and meas-
urements here mentioned, together with a number
of others of which I cannot speak in this place, are
determined, and tabulated with reference to the
basicranial axis as unity, for large numbers of skulls
of the different races of Mankind, I do not think
we shall have any very safe basis for that ethno-
logical craniology which aspires to give the ana-
tomical characters of the crania of the different
Eaces of Mankind.

At present, I believe that the general outlines
of what may be safely said upon that subject may
be summed up in a very few words. Draw a line
on a globe, from the Gold Coast in Western Africa
to the steppes of Tartary. At the southern and
western end of that line there live the most dolicho-
cephalic, prognathous, curly-haired, dark-skinned
of men — the true Negroes. At the northern and
eastern end of the same line there live the most
brachyeephalic, orthognathous, straight - haired,
yellow-skinned of men — the Tartars and Cal-
mucks. The two ends of this imaginary line are
indeed, so to speak, ethnological antipodes. A
line drawn at right angles, or nearly so, to this
polar line through Europe and Southern Asia to
Hindostan, would give us a sort of equator, around
which round-headed, oval-headed, and oblong-
headed, prognathous and orthognathous, fair and
dark races — but none possessing the excessively

in AUSTRALIAN SKULLS. 201

marked characters of Calmuck or Negro — group
themselves.

It is worthy of notice that the regions of the
antipodal races are antipodal in climate, the
greatest contrast the world affords, perhaps, being
that between the damp, hot, steaming, alluvial
coast plains of the West Coast of Africa and the
arid, elevated steppes and plateaux of Central Asia,
bitterly cold in winter, and as far from the sea as
any part of the world can be.

From Central Asia eastward to the Pacific
Islands and subcontinents on the one hand, and to
America on the other, brachycephaly and orthog-
nathism gradually diminish, and are replaced by
dolichocephaly and prognathism, less, however, on
the American Continent (throughout the whole
length of which a rounded type of skull prevails
largely, but not exclusively) * than in the Pacific
region, where, at length, on the Australian Con-
tinent and in the adjacent islands, the oblong
skull, the projecting jaws, and the dark skin re-
appear; with so much departure, in other respects,
from the Negro type, that ethnologists assign to
these people the special title of " Negritoes."

The Australian skull is remarkable for its
narrowness and for the thickness of its walls,
especially in the region of the supraciliary ridge,

* See Dr. D. Wilson's valuable paper " On the sup-
posed prevalence of one Cranial Type throughout t^e
American Aborigines." — Canadian Journal, Vol. II. 1837.

202 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

which is frequently, though not by any means
invariably, solid throughout, the frontal sinuses re-
maining undeveloped. The nasal depression,
again, is extremely sudden, so that the brows over-
hang and give the countenance a particularly
lowering, threatening expression. The occipital
region of the skull, also, not unfrequently becomes
less prominent; so that it not only fails to project
beyond a line drawn perpendicular to the hinder
extremity of the glabello-occipital line, but even,
in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, for-
wards, almost immediately. In consequence of
this circumstance, the parts of the occipital bone
which lie above and below the tuberosity make a
much more acute angle with one another than is
usual, whereby the hinder part of the base of the
skull appears obliquely truncated. Many Aus-
tralian skulls have a considerable height, quite
equal to that of the average of any other race, but
tli ere are others in which the cranial roof becomes
remarkably depressed, the skull, at the same time,
elongating so much that, probably, its capacity is
not diminished. The majority of skulls possessing
these characters, which I have seen, are from the
neighbourhood of Port Adelaide in South Aus-
tralia, and have been used by the natives as water
vessels; to which end the face has been knocked
away, and a string passed through the vacuity and
the occipital foramen, so that the skull was sus-
pended by the greater part of its basis.

Ill

THE FOSSIL SKULLS.

203

Fig. 31 represents the contour of a skull of
this kind from Western Port, with the jaw
attached, and of the Neanderthal skull, both
reduced to one-third of the size of nature. A small

Fig. 31. — An Australian skull from Western Port, in
the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, with the
contour of the Neanderthal skull. Both reduced to one-
third the natural size.

additional amount of flattening and lengthening,
with a corresponding increase of the supraciliary
ridge, would convert the Australian brain case into
a form identical with that of the aberrant fossil.

And now, to return to the fossil skulls, and to
the rank which they occupy among, or beyond,

204 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

these existing varieties of cranial conformation.
In the first place, I must remark, that, as Professor
Schmerling well observed {supra, p. 161) in com-
menting upon the Engis skull, the formation of a
safe judgment upon the question is greatly hin-
dered by the absence of the jaws from both the
crania, so that there is no means of deciding, with
certainty, whether they were more or less prog-
nathous than the lower existing races of mankind.
And yet, as we have seen, it is more in this respect
than any other, that human skulls vary, towards
and from, the brutal type — the brain case of an
average dolichocephalic European differing far less
from that of a Negro, for example, than his
jaws do. In the absence of the jaws, then, any
judgment on the relations of the fossil skulls to
recent Races must be accepted with a certain
reservation.

But taking the evidence as it stands, and turn-
ing first to the Engis skull, I confess I can find
no character in the remains of that cranium which,
if it were a recent skull, would give any trust-
worthy clue as to the Eace to which it might
appertain. Its contours and measurements agree
very well with those of some Australian skulls
which I have examined — and especially has it a
tendency towards that occipital flattening, to the
great extent of which, in some Australian skulls, I
have alluded. But all Australian skulls do not
present this flattening, and the supraeiliary ridge

in THE FOSSIL SKULLS. 205

of the Engis skull is quite unlike that of the typical
Australians.

On the other hand, its measurements agree
equally well with those of some European skulls.
And assuredly, there is no mark of degradation
about any part of its structure. It is, in fact, a
fair average human skull, which might have be-
longed to a philosopher, or might have contained
the thoughtless brains of a savage.

The case of the Neanderthal skull is very differ-
ent. Under whatever aspect we view this cranium,
whether we regard its vertical depression, the
enormous thickness of its supraciliary ridges, its
sloping occiput, or its long and straight squamosal
suture, we meet with ape-like characters, stamp-
ing it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet
discovered. But Professor Schaaffhausen states
{supra, p. 178), that the cranium, in its present
condition, holds 1033.24 cubic centimetres of
water, or about 63 cubic inches, and as the entire
skull could hardly have held less than an additional
12 cubic inches, its capacity may be estimated at
about 75 cubic inches, which is the average capac-
ity given by Morton for Polynesian and Hottentot
skulls.

So large a mass of brain as this, would alone
suggest that the pithecoid tendencies, indicated by
this skull, did not extend deep into the organiza-
tion; and this conclusion is borne out by the di-
mensions of the other bones of the skeleton given

206 HUMAN FOSSILS. m

by Professor Sehaaffhausen, which, show that the
absolute height and relative proportions of the
limbs, were quite those of an European of middle
stature. The bones are indeed stouter, but this
and the great development of the muscular ridges
noted by Dr. Sehaaffhausen, are characters to be
expected in savages. The Patagonians, exposed
without shelter or protection to a climate possibly
not very dissimilar from that of Europe at the time
during which the Neanderthal man lived, are re-
markable for the stoutness of their limb bones.

In no sense, then, can the Neanderthal bones
be regarded as the remains of a human being inter-
mediate between Men and Apes. At most, they
demonstrate the existence of a Man whose skull
may be said to revert somewhat towards the pithe-
coid type — just as a Carrier, or a Pouter, or a
Tumbler, may sometimes put on the plumage of
its primitive stock, the Columba livia. And in-
deed, though truly the most pithecoid of known
human skulls, the Neanderthal cranium is by no
means so isolated as it appears to be at first, but
forms, in reality, the extreme term of a series lead-
ing gradually from it to the highest and best de-
veloped of human crania. On the one hand, it is
closely approached by the flattened Australian
skulls, of which I have spoken, from which other
Australian forms lead us gradually up to skulls
having very much the type of the Engis cranium.
And, on the other hand, it is even more closely

Fig. 32. — Ancient Danish skull from a tumulus at
Borreby; one-third of the natural size. From a camera
lucida drawing by Mr. Busk.

208 HUMAN FOSSILS. in

affined to the skulls of certain ancient people who
inhabited Denmark during the " stone period," and
were probably either contemporaneous with, or
later than, the makers of the " refuse heaps," or
" Kjokkenmoddings " of that country.

The correspondence between the longitudinal
contour of the Neanderthal skull and that of some
of those skulls from the tumuli at Borreby, very
accurate drawings of which have been made by
Mr. Busk, is very close. The occiput is quite as
retreating, the supraciliary ridges are nearly as
prominent, and the skull is as low. Furthermore,
the Borreby skull resembles the Neanderthal form
more closely than any of the Australian skulls do,
by the much more rapid retrocession of the fore-
head. On the other hand, the Borreby skulls are all
somewhat broader, in proportion to their length,
than the Neanderthal skull, while some attain
that proportion of breadth to length (80 : 100)
which constitutes brachycephaly. 1

*

[* For a further discussion of the characters of the
Neanderthal skull, see " Natural History Review," 18G4.
I there say (p. 443) : " That the Neanderthal skull ex-
hibits the lowest type of human cranium at present
known, so far as it presents certain pithecoid characters
in a more exaggerated form than any other: but that, in-
asmuch as a complete series of gradations can be found,
among recent human skulls, between it and the best de-
veloped forms, there is no ground for separating its pos-
sessor specifically, still less generically, from Homo
sapiens. At present, we have no sufficient warranty for
declaring it to be either the type of a distinct race, or a
member of any existing one; nor do the anatomical char-
acters of the skull justify any conclusion as to the age to

in ANCIENT DANISH SKULLS. 209

In conclusion, I may say, that the fossil remains
of Man hitherto discovered do not seem to me to
take us appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid
form, by the modification of which he has, probably,
become what he is. And considering what is now
known of the most ancient Eaces of men; seeing
that they fashioned flint axes and flint knives and
bone-skewers, of much the same pattern as those
fabricated by the lowest savages at the present day,
and that we have every reason to believe the habits
and modes of living of such people to have re-
mained the same from the time of the Mammoth
and the tichorhine Ehinoceros till now, I do not
know that this result is other than might be ex-
pected.

Where, then, must we look for primaeval Man?
"Was the oldest Homo sapiens pliocene or miocene,
or yet more ancient? In still older strata do the
fossilized bones of an ape more anthropoid, or a
Man more pithecoid, than any yet known await the
researches of some unborn paleontologist?

Time will show. But, in the meanwhile, if any
form of the doctrine of progressive development is
correct, we must extend by long epochs the most
liberal estimate that has yet been made of the an-
tiquity of Man.

which it belongs." See also the essay on the Aryan ques-
tion in this volume. 1894.]

178

IV.

ON" THE METHODS AND KESULTS OF

ETHNOLOGY.

[1865.]

Ethnology is the science which determines
the distinctive characters of the persistent modifica-
tions of mankind; which ascertains the distribution
of those modifications in present and past times,
and seeks to discover the causes, or conditions of
existence, both of the modifications and of their
distribution. I say " persistent " modifications,
because, unless incidentally, ethnology has nothing
to do with chance and transitory peculiarities of
human structure. And I speak of " persistent
modifications " or " stocks " rather than of " varie-
ties," or "races," or "species," because each of these
last well-known terms implies, on the part of its
employer, a preconceived opinion touching one of
those problems, the solution of which is the ulti-
mate object of the science; and in regard to which,
therefore, ethnologists are especially bound to
210

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 211

keep their minds open and their judgments freely
balanced.

Ethnology, as thus defined, is a branch of An-
thropology, the great science which unravels the
complexities of human structure; traces out the re-
lations of man to other animals; studies all that is
especially human in the mode in which man's com-
plex functions are performed; and searches after
the conditions which have determined his presence
in the world. And anthropology is a section of
Zoology, which again is the animal half of Bi-
ology — the science of life and living things.

Such is the position of ethnology, such are the
objects of the ethnologist. The paths or methods,
by following which he may hope to reach his
goal, are diverse. He may work at man from the
point of view of the pure zoologist, and investigate
the anatomical and physiological peculiarities of
Negroes, Australians, or Mongolians, just as he
would inquire into those of pointers, terriers, and
turnspits, — " persistent modifications " of man's
almost universal companion. Or he may seek aid
from researches into the most human manifesta-
tion of humanity — Language; and assuming that
what is true of speech is true of the speaker — a
hypothesis as questionable in science as it is in ordi-
nary life — he may apply to mankind themselves
the conclusions drawn from a searching analysis of
their words and grammatical forms.

Or, the ethnologist may turn to the study of

212 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

the practical life of men; and relying upon the
inherent conservatism and small inventiveness of
untutored mankind, he may hope to discover in
manners and customs, or in weapons, dwellings,
and other handiwork, a clue to the origin of the
resemblances and differences of nations. Or, he
may resort to that kind of evidence which is
yielded by History proper, and consists of the be-
liefs of men concerning past events, embodied in
traditional, or in written testimony. Or, when that
thread breaks, Archaeology, which is the interpre-
tation of the unrecorded remains of man's works,
belonging to the epoch since the world has reached
its present condition, may still guide him. And,
when even the dim light of archaeology fades, there
yet remains Palaeontology, which, in these latter
years has brought to daylight once more the exuvia
of ancient populations, whose world was not our
world, who have been buried in river beds imme-
morially dry, or carried by the rush of waters into
caves, inaccessible to inundation since the dawn of
tradition.

Along each, or all, of these paths the ethnolo-
gist may press towards his goal; but they are not
equally straight, or sure, or easy to tread. The
way of palaeontology has but just been laid open
to us. Archaeological and historical investigations
are of great value for all those peoples whose an-
cient state has differed widely from their present
condition, and who have the good or evil fortune to

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 213

possess a history. But on taking a broad survey of
the world, it is astonishing how few nations present
either condition. Eespecting five-sixths of the per-
sistent modifications of mankind, history and
archaeology are absolutely silent. For half the rest,
they might as well be silent for anything that is to
be made of their testimony. And, finally, when
the question arises as to what was the condition of
mankind more than a paltry two or three thou-
sand years ago, history and archaeology are, for the
most part, mere dumb dogs. What light does
either of these branches of knowledge throw on the
past of the man of the New World, if we except the
Central Americans and the Peruvians; on that of
the Africans, save those of the Valley of the Nile
and a fringe of the Mediterranean; on that of all
the Polynesian, Australian, and central Asiatic
peoples, the former of whom probably, and the last
certainly, were, at the dawn of history, substan-
tially what they are now? While thankfully ac-
cepting what history has to give him, therefore,
the ethnologist must not look for too much from
her.

Is more to be expected from inquiries into the
customs and handicrafts of man? It is to be feared
not. In reasoning from identity of custom to iden-
tity of stock the difficulty always obtrudes itself,
that the minds of men being everywhere similar,
differing in quality and quantity but not in kind
of faculty, like circumstances must tend to produce

214 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

like contrivances; at any rate, so long as the need
to be met and conquered is of a very simple kind.
That two nations use calabashes or shells for drink-
ing-vessels, or that they employ spears, or clubs, or
swords and axes of stone and metal as weapons and
implements, cannot be regarded as evidence that
these two nations had a common origin, or even
that intercommunication ever took place between
them; seeing that the convenience of using cala-
bashes or shells for such purposes, and the advan-
tage of poking an enemy with a sharp stick, or
hitting him with a heavy one, must be early forced
by nature upon the mind of even the stupidest sav-
age. And when he had found out the use of a
stick, he would need no prompting to discover the
value of a chipped or whetted stone, or of an an-
gular piece of native metal, for the same object.
On the other hand, it may be doubted, whether the
chances are not greatly against independent peo-
ples arriving at the manufacture of a boomerang,
or of a bow; which last, if one comes to think of it,
is a rather complicated apparatus; and the tracing
of the distribution of inventions as complex as
these, and of such strange customs as betel-chew-
ing and tobacco-smoking, may afford valuable eth-
nological hints.

Since the time of Leibnitz, and guided by such
men as Humboldt, Abel Eemusat, and Klaproth,
Philology has taken far higher ground. Thus
Prichard affirms that " the history of nations,

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 215

termed Ethnology, must be mainly founded on the
relations of their languages."

An eminent living philologer, August
Schleicher, in a recent essay, puts forward the
claims of his science still more forcibly: —

" If, however, language is the human Kar Qoxhv> the
suggestion arises whether it should not form the basis of
any scientific systematic arrangement of mankind;
whether the foundation of the natural classification of the
genus Homo has not been discovered in it.

" How little constant are cranial peculiarities and other
so-called race characters! Language, on the other hand,
is always a perfectly constant diagnostic. A German
may occasionally compete in hair and prognathism with
a negro, but a negro language will never be his mother
tongue. Of how little importance for mankind the so-
called race characters are, is shown by the fact that
speakers of languages belonging to one and the same
linguistic family may exhibit the peculiarities of various
races. Thus the settled Osmanli Turk exhibits Caucasian
characters, whilst other so-called Tartaric Turks exem-
plify the Mongol type. On the other hand, the Magyar
and the Basque do not depart in any essential physical
peculiarity from the Indo-Germans, whilst the Magyar,
Basque, and Indo-Germanic tongues are widely different.
Apart from their inconstancy, again, the so-called race
characters can hardly yield a scientifically natural system.
Languages, on the other hand, readily fall into a natural
arrangement, like that of which other vital products are
susceptible, especially when viewed from their morpho-
logical side. . . . The externally visible structure of the
cerebral and facial skeletons, and of the body generally,
is less important than that no less material but infinitely
more delicate corporeal structure, the function of which

216 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

is speech. I conceive, therefore, that the natural classi-
fication of languages, is also the natural classification of
mankind. With language, moreover, all the higher mani-
festations of man's vital activity are closely interwoven,
so that these receive due recognition in and by that of
speech." *

Without the least desire to depreciate the value
of philology as an adjuvant to ethnology, I must
venture to doubt, with Rudolphi, Desmoulins,
Crawfurd, and others, its title to the leading
position claimed for it by the writers whom I have
just quoted. On the contrary, it seems to me ob-
vious that, though, in the absence of any evidence
to the contrary, unity of languages may afford
a certain presumption in favour of the unity of
stock of the peoples speaking those languages,
it cannot be held to prove that unity of stock, un-
less philologers are prepared to demonstrate, that
no nation can lose its language and acquire that of
a distinct nation, without a change of blood corre-
sponding with the change of language. Desmou-
lins long ago put this argument exceedingly well: —

" Let us imagine the recurrence of one of those slow,
or sudden, political revolutions, or say of those secular
changes which among different people and at different
epochs have annihilated historical monuments and even
extinguished tradition. In that case, the evidence, now
so clear, that the negroes of Hayti were slaves imported

* August Schleicher. Uehcr die Bcdeutung dcr
Sprache fur die NaturgescMchte dcs Menschen, pp. 16
—18. Weimar, 1858.

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 217

by a French colony, who, by the very effect of the sub-
ordination involved in slavery lost their own diverse lan-
guages and adopted that of their masters, would vanish.
And metaphysical philosophers, observing the identity of
Haytian French with that spoken on the shores of the
Seine and the Loire, would argue that the men of St.
Domingo with woolly heads, black and oily skins, small
calves, and slightly bent knees, are of the same race, de-
scended from the same parental stock, as the Frenchmen
with silky brown, chestnut, or fair hair, and white skins.
For they would say, their languages are more similar than
French is to German or Spanish." *

It must not be imagined that the case put by
Desmoulins is a merely hypothetical one. Events
precisely similar to the transport of a body of
Africans to the West India Islands, indeed, cannot
have happened among uncivilised races, but
similar results have followed the importation of
bodies of conquerors among an enslaved people over
and over again. There is hardly a country in Eu-
rope in which two or more nations speaking widely
different tongues have not become intermixed; and
there is hardly a language of Europe of which we
have any right to think that its structure affords a
just indication of the amount of that intermixture.

As Dr. Latham has well said: —

" It is certain that the language of England is of An-
glo-Saxon origin, and that the remains of the original
Keltic are unimportant. It is by no means so certain that
the blood of Englishmen is equally Germanic. A vast

* Desmoulins, Eistoire Naturellc ties Races Humaines,
p. 345, 1826.

218 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

amount of Kelticism, not found in our tongue, very
probably exists in our pedigrees. The ethnology of
France is still more complicated. Many writers make the
Parisian a Roman on the strength of his language; whilst
others make him a Kelt on the strength of certain moral
characteristics, combined with the previous Kelticism of
the original Gauls. Spanish and Portuguese, as languages,
are derivations from the Latin; Spain and Portugal, as
countries, are Iberic, Latin, Gothic, and Arab, in dif-
ferent proportions. Italian is modern Latin all the world
over; yet surely there must be much Keltic blood in
Lombardy, and much Etruscan intermixture in Tuscany.
" In the ninth century every man between the Elbe
and the Niemen spoke some Slavonic dialect; they now
nearly all speak German. Surely the blood is less ex-
clusively Gothic than the speech." *

In other words, what philologer, if he had noth-
ing but the vocabulary and grammar of the French
and English languages to guide him, would dream
of the real causes of the unlikeness of a Norman to
a Provengal, of an Orcadian to a Cornishman?
How readily might he be led to suppose that the
different climatal conditions to which these speak-
ers of one tongue have so long been exposed, have
caused their physical differences; and how little
would he suspect that these are due (as we happen
to know they are) to wide differences of blood.

Few take duly into account the evidence which
exists as to the ease with which unlettered savages
gain or lose a language. Captain Erskine, in his
interesting " Journal of a Cruise among the Islands

•Latham, Man and his Migrations, p. 171.

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 219

of the Western Pacific/' especially remarks upon
the " avidity with which the inhabitants of the
polyglot islands of Melanesia, from New Caledonia
to the Solomon Islands, adopt the improvements
of a more perfect language than their own, which
different causes and accidental communication still
continue to bring to them; " and he adds that
" among the Melanesian islands scarcely one was
found by us which did not possess, in some cases
still imperfectly, the decimal system of numeration
in addition to their own, in which they reckon only
to five."

Yet how much philological reasoning in favour
of the affinity or diversity of two distinct peoples
has been based on the mere comparison of
numerals!

But the most instructive example of the fallacy
which may attach to merely philological reason-
ings, is that afforded by the Fee jeans, who are,
physically, so intimately connected with the ad-
jacent Negritos of New Caledonia, &c, that no
one can doubt to what stock they belong, and
who yet, in the form and substance of their
language, are Polynesian. The case is as remark-
able as if the Canary Islands should have been
found to be inhabited by negroes speaking Arabic,
or some other clearly Semitic dialect, as their
mother tongue. As it happens, the physical
peculiarities of the Feejeans are so striking, and
the conditions under which they live are so similar

220 METHODS AND RESULTS OP ETHNOLOGY.

to those of the Polynesians, that no one has ven-
tured to suggest that they are merely modified
Polynesians — a suggestion which could otherwise
certainly have been made. But if languages may
be thus transferred from one stock to another,
without any corresponding intermixture of blood,
what ethnological value has philology? — what se-
curity does unity of language afford us that the
speakers of that language may not have sprung
from two, or three, or a dozen, distinct sources?

Thus we come, at last, to the purely zoological
method, from which it is not unnatural to expect
more than from any other, seeing that, after all,
the problems of ethnology are simply those which
are presented to the zoologist by every widely dis-
tributed animal he studies. The father of modern
zoology seems to have had no doubt upon this point.
At the twenty-eighth page of the standard twelfth
edition of the " Systema Naturae," in fact, we

find: —

I. Primates.

Dentes primores incisores : superiores IV. paralleli,
mammce pectorales II.

1. Homo. Nosce te ipsum.

Sapiens. 1. H. diurnus : varians cultura, loco.

Ferus. Tetrapus, inutus, hirsutus.

Americanus a. Rufus, cholericus, rectus — Pilis nigris, rec-
tis, crassis — Narihus patulis — Facie ephe-
litica : Mento subimberbi.

Pertinax, contentus, liber. Pingit se lineis
dacdaleis rubris.

Regitur Consuetudine.

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 221

Afer

JEJuropccus p. Albus sanguineus torosus. Pilis flavescen-

tibus, prolixis.
Oculis coeruleis.

Levis, argutus, inventor. Tegitur Vesti-
mentis arctis. Regitur Ritibus.
Asiaticus y. Lurid us, melancholicus, rigidus. Pilis ni-

gricantibus. Oculis fuscis. Severus, fas-
tuosus, avarus. Tegitur Indumentis laxis.
Regitur Opinionibus.
8. Niger, phlegrnaticus, laxus. Pilis atris, con-
tortuplicatis. Cute holosericea. Naso
simo. Labiis tumidis. Feminis sinus
pudoris.
Mammce lactantes prolixaB.
Vafer, segnis, negligens. Ungit se pingni.
Regitur Arbitrio.
Monstrosus c. Solo (a) et arte (b c) variat. :

a. Alpini parvi, agiles, timidi.
Patagonici magni, segnes.

b. Ifonorchides ut minus fertiles: Hotten-

totti.
Juncecs puellae, abdomine attenuato : Eu-
ropaBae.

c. Macrocephali capiti conico : Chinenses.
Plagiocephali capite antice compressor

Canadenses.

Turn a few pages further on in the same vol-
ume, and there appears, with a fine impartiality
in the distribution of capitals and subdivisional

headings: —

III. Fer^:.
Denies primores superiores sex, acutiusculi. Canini

solitarii.

12. Canis. Denies primores superiores VI. : laterales

longiores distantes : intermedii lobati. In-
feriors VI. : laterales lobati.

222 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

Laniarii solitarii, incurvati.
Molares VI. s. VII. (pluresve quam in reli-
quis.)

familiaris 1. C. cauda (sinistrorsum) recur vata

domesticus a. auriculis erectis, cauda subtus lanata.
sagax /3. auriculis pendulis, digito spurio ad tibias

posticas.
grajus y. magnitudine lupi, trunco curvato, rostro at-

tenuate, &c. &c.

Linnaeus' definition of what he considers to be
mere varieties of the species Man are, it will be
observed, as completely free from any allusion to
linguistic peculiarities as those brief and pregnant
sentences in which he sketches the characters of
the varieties of the species Dog. " Pilis nigris,
naribus patulis " may be set against " auriculis
erectis, cauda subtus lanata; " while the remarks
on the morals and manners of the human subject
seem as if they were thrown in merely by way of
makeweight.

Buffon, Blumenbach (the founder of ethnology
as a special science), Budolphi, Bory de St.
Vincent, Desmoulins, Cuvier, Betzius, indeed I
may say all the naturalists proper, have dealt with
man from a no less completely zoological point of
view; while, as might have been expected, those
who have been least naturalists, and most lin-
guists, have most neglected the zoological method,
the neglect culminating in those who have been
altogether devoid of acquaintance with anatomy.

Prichard's proposition, that language is more

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 223

persistent than physical characters, is one which
has never been proved, and indeed admits of no
proof, seeing that the records of language do not
extend so far as those of physical characters.
But, until the superior tenacity of linguistic over
physical peculiarities is shown, and until the
abundant evidence which exists, that the language
of a people may change without corresponding
physical change in that people, is' shown to be
valueless, it is plain that the zoological court of
appeal is the highest for the ethnologist, and that
no evidence can be set against that derived from
physical characters.

What, then, will a new survey of mankind from
the Linnean point of view teach us ?

The great antipodal block of land we call Aus-
tralia has, speaking roughly, the form of a vast
quadrangle, 2,000 miles on the side, and extends
from the hottest tropical, to the middle of the tem-
perate, zone. Setting aside the foreign colonists
introduced within the last century, it is inhabited
by people no less remarkable for the uniformity,
than for the singularity, of their physical charac-
ters and social state. For the most part of fair
stature, erect and well built, except for an un-
usual slenderness of the lower limbs, the Aus-
tralians have dark, usually chocolate-coloured
skins; fine dark wavy hair; dark eyes, overhung by
beetle brows; coarse, projecting jaws; broad and

224 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

dilated, but not especially flattened, noses, and
lips which, though prominent, are eminently
flexible.

The skulls of these people are always long and
narrow, with a smaller development of the frontal
sinuses than usually corresponds with such largely
developed brow ridges. An Australian skull of a
round form, or one the transverse diameter of
which exceeds eight-tenths of its length, has
never been seen. These people, in a word, are
eminently "dolichocephalic," or. long-headed; but,
with this one limitation, their crania present con-
siderable variations, some being comparatively
high and arched, while others are more remarkably
depressed than almost any other human skulls.
The female pelvis differs comparatively little from
the European; but in the pelves of male Austra-
lians which I have examined, the antero-posterior
and transverse diameters approach equality more
nearly than is the case in Europeans.

No Australian tribe has ever been known to
cultivate the ground,* to use metals, pottery, or
any kind of textile fabric. They rarely construct
huts. Their means of navigation are limited to
rafts or canoes, made of sheets of bark. Clothing,
except skin cloaks for protection from cold, is a

[* At Cape York we found that the natives had learned
from their Papuan neighbours to grow a little coarse
tobacco; and, elsewhere, yams are said to be grown, but
hardly cultivated. Plaiting, basket-making, and netting
are practised. — 1894.]

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 225

superfluity with which they dispense; and though
they have some singular weapons, almost peculiar
to themselves, they are wholly unacquainted with
bows and arrows.

It is but a step, as it were, across Bass's Straits
to Tasmania. Neither climate nor the character-
istic forms of vegetable or animal life change
largely on the south side of the Straits, but the
early voyagers found Man singularly different from
him on the north side. The skin of the Tasmanian
was dark, though he lived between parallels of lati-
tude corresponding with those of middle Europe in
our own hemisphere; his jaws projected, his head
was long and narrow; his civilization was about on
a footing with that of the Australian, if not lower,
for I cannot discover that the Tasmanian under-
stood the use of the throwing-stick. But he dif-
fered from the Australian in his woolly, negro-like
hair; whence the name of Negkito, which has
been applied to him and his congeners.

Such Negritos — differing more or less from the
Tasmanian but agreeing with him in dark skin and
woolly hair — occupy New Caledonia, the New Heb-
rides, the Louisiade Archipelago; and stretching
to the Papuan Islands, and for a doubtful extent
beyond them to the north and west, form a sort
of belt, or zone, of Negrito population, interposed
between the Australians on the west and the in-
habitants of the great majority of the Pacific islands

on the east.
179

226 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

The cranial characters of the Negritos vary con-
siderably more than those of their skin and hair,
the most notable circumstance being the strong
Australian aspect which distinguishes many Ne-
grito skulls, while others tend rather towards forms
common in the Polynesian islands.

In civilization, New Caledonia exhibits an ad-
vance upon Tasmania, and, farther north, there is
a still greater improvement. But the bows and
arrows, the perched houses, the outrigger canoes,
the habits of betel-chewing and of kawa-drinking,
which abound more or less among the northern
Negritos, are probably to be regarded not as- the
products of an indigenous civilization, but merely
as indications of the extent to which foreign
influences have modified the primitive social state
of these people.

From Tasmania or New Caledonia, to New
Zealand or Tongataboo, is again but a brief
voyage: but it brings about a still more notable
change in the aspect of the indigenous population
than that effected by the passage of Bass's Straits.
Instead of being chocolate-coloured people, the
Maories and Tongans are light brown; instead of
woolly, they have straight, or wavy, black hair.
And if from New Zealand, we travel some 5,000
miles east to Easter Island; and from Easter Island,
for as great a distance north-west, to the Sandwich
Islands; and thence 7,000 miles, westward and
southward, to Sumatra; and even across the

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 227

Indian Ocean, into the interior of Madagascar, we
shall everywhere meet with people whose hair is
straight or wavy, and whose skins exhibit various
shades of brown. These are the Polynesians,
Micronesians, Indonesians, whom Latham has
grouped together under the common title of
Amphinesians.

The cranial characters of these people, as of the
Negritos, are less constant than those of their skin
and hair. The Maori has a long skull; the Sand-
wich Islander a broad skull. Some, like these,
have strong brow ridges; others like the Dayaks
and many Polynesians, have hardly any nasal in-
dentation. It is only in the westernmost parts of
their area that the Amphinesian nations know any-
thing about bows and arrows as weapons, or are
acquainted with the use of metals or with pottery.
Everywhere they cultivate the ground, construct
houses, and skilfully build and manage outrigger,
or double, canoes; while, almost everywhere, they
use some kind of fabric for clothing.

Between Easter Island, or the Sandwich Islands,
and any part of the American coast is a much wider
interval than that between Tasmania and New
Zealand, but the ethnological interval between the
American and the Polynesian is less than that be-
tween either of the previously named stocks.

The typical American has straight black hair
and dark eyes, his skin exhibiting various shades
of reddish or yellowish brown, sometimes inclining

228 METHODS AND RESULTS OP ETHNOLOGY.

to olive. The face is broad and scantily bearded;
the skull wide and high. Such people extend
from Patagonia to Mexico, and much farther north
along the west coast. In the main a race of
hunters, they had nevertheless, at the time of the
discovery of the Americas, attained a remarkable
degree of civilization in some localities. They had
domesticated ruminants, and not only practised
agriculture, but had learned the value of irrigation.
They manufactured textile fabrics, were masters
of the potter's art, and knew how to erect massive
buildings of stone. They understood the working
of the precious, though not of the useful, metals; *
and had even attained to a rude kind of hiero-
glyphic, or picture, writing. The Americans not
only employ the bow and arrow, but, like some
Amphinesians, the blow-pipe, as offensive weapons:
but I am not aware that the outrigger canoe has
ever been observed among them.

I have reason to suspect that some of the
Fuegian tribes differ cranially from the typical
Americans; f and the Northern and Eastern
American tribes have longer skulls than their
Southern compatriots. But the Esquimaux, who
roam on the desolate and ice-bound coast of Arctic
America, certainly present us with a new stock.
The Esquimaux (among whom the Greenlanders

[* With the exception of copper and bronze. — 1894.]
[t A suspicion subsequently verified. See a memoir on

American Skulls, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology.

Vol. 1C— 1894.]

METIIODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 229

are included), in fact, though they share the
straight black hair of the proper Americans, are
generally a duller complexioned, shorter, and a
more squat people, and they have still more promi-
nent cheek-bones. But the circumstance which
most completely separates them from the typical
Americans, is the form of their skulls, which in-
stead of being broad, high, and truncated behind,
are eminently long, usually low, and prolonged
backwards. These Hyperborean people clothe
themselves in skins, know nothing of pottery, and
hardly anything of metals. Dependent for exist-
ence upon the produce of the chase, the seal and
the whale are to them what the cocoa-nut tree and
the plantain are to the savages of more genial
climates. Not only are those animals meat and
raiment, but they are canoes, sledges, weapons,
tools, windows, and fire; while they support the
dog, who is the indispensable ally and beast of bur-
den of the Esquimaux.

It is admitted that the Tchuktchi, on the east-
ern side of Behring's Straits, are, in all essential
respects, Esquimaux; and I do not know that there
is any satisfactory evidence to show that the Tun-
guses and Samoiedes do not essentially share the
same physical characters. Southward, there are
indications of Esquimaux characters among the
Japanese, and it is possible that their influence may
be traced yet further.

However this may be, Eastern Asia, from Mant-

230 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

choiiria to Siam, Thibet, and Northern Hindostan,
is continuously inhabited by men, usually of short
stature, with skins varying in colour from yellow
to olive; with broad cheek-bones and faces that,
owing to the insignificance of the nose, are exceed-
ingly flat; and with small, obliquely-set * black
eyes and straight black hair, which sometimes at-
tains a very great length upon the scalp, but is
always scanty upon the face and body. The skull,
never much elongated, is, generally, remarkably
broad and rounded, with hardly any nasal depres-
sion, and but slight, if any, projection of the jaws.
Many of these people, from whom the old name of
Mongolians may be retained, are nomades; others,
as the Chinese, have attained a remarkable and ap-
parently indigenous civilization, only surpassed by
that of Europe.

At the north-western extremity of Europe the
Lapps repeat the characters of the Eastern
Asiatics. Between these extreme points, the
Mongolian stock is not continuous, but is repre-
sented by a chain of more or less isolated tribes,
who pass under the name of Calmucks and Tar-
tars, and form Mongolian islands, as it were, in the
midst of an ocean of other people.

The waves of this ocean are the nations for
whom, in order to avoid the endless confusion pro-
duced by our present half -physical, half-philo-

[* The obliquity, it must be recollected, is not in the
position of the eyeball but arises from the arrangement
of the skin in the neighbourhood of the eyelids. — 1894.]

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 231

logical classification, I shall use a new name —
Xaxthochroi — indicating that they are " yellow "
haired and " pale " in complexion. The Chinese
historians of the Han dynasty, writing in the third
century before our era, describe, with much
minuteness, certain numerous and powerful bar-
barians with " yellow hair, green eyes, and promi-
nent noses," who, the black-haired, skew-eyed, and
flat-nosed annalists remark in passing, are " just
like the apes from whom they are descended."
These people held, in force, the upper waters of
the Yenisei, and thence under various names
stretched southward to Thibet and Kashgar.
Fair-haired and blue-eyed northern enemies were
no less known to the ancient Hindoos, to the Per-
sians, and to the Egyptians, on the south and west
of the great central Asiatic area; while the testi-
mony of all European antiquity is to the effect that,
before and since the period in question, there lay
beyond the Danube, the Ehine, and the Seine, a
vast and dangerous yellow or red-haired, fair-
skinned, blue-eyed population. Whether the dis-
turbers of the marches of the Eoman Empire were
called Gauls or Germans, Goths, Alans, or Scyth-
ians, one thing seems certain, that until the in-
vasion of the Huns, they were largely tall, fair,
blue-eyed men.

If any one should think fit to assume that, in
the year 100 b. c, there was one continuous Xan-
thochroic population from the Rhine to the Yeni-

232 METHODS AND KESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

sei, and from the Ural mountains to the Hindoo
Koosh, I know not that any evidence exists by
which that position could be upset, while the ex-
isting state of things is rather in its favour than
otherwise. For the Scandinavians, the Germans,
the Slavonian and the Finnish tribes, to a great
extent; some of the inhabitants of Greece, many
Turks, some Kirghis, and some Mantchous, the
Ossetes in the Caucasus, the Siahposh, the Eohillas,
are at the present day fair, yellow or red haired,
and blue-eyed; and the interpolation of tribes of
Mongolian hair and complexion, as far west as the
Caspian Steppes and the Crimea, might justly be
accounted for by those subsequent westward irrup-
tions of the Mongolian stock, of which history fur-
nishes abundant testimony. The furthermost
limit of the Xanthochroi north-westward is Ice-
land and the British Isles; south-westward, they
are traceable at intervals through Syria and the
Berber country, ending in the Canary Islands.
The cranial characters of the Xanthochroi are not,
at present, strictly definable. The Scandinavians
are certainly long-headed; but many Germans, the
Swiss so far as they are Germanized, the Slavonians,
the Fins, and the Turks, are short-headed. What
were the cranial characters of the ancient " U-
suns " and " Ting-lings " of the valley of the Yeni-
sei is unknown.

West and south of the area occupied by the
chief mass of the Xanthochroi, and north of the

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 233

Sahara, is a broad belt of land, shaped like a
^. Between the forks of the Y lies the
Mediterranean; the stem of it is Arabia. The
stem is bathed by the Indian Ocean, the west-
ern ends of the forks by the Atlantic. The ma-
jority of the people inhabiting the area thus
roughly defined have, like the Xanthochroi, promi-
nent noses, pale skins and wavy hair, with abun-
dant beards; but, unlike them, the hair is black
or dark and the eyes usually so. They may
thence be called the Melanochroi. Such people
are found in the British Islands, in Western and
Southern Gaul, in Spain, in Italy south of the Po,
in parts of Greece, in Syria and Arabia, stretching
as far northward and eastward as the Caucasus and
Persia. They are the chief inhabitants of Africa
north of the Sahara, and, like the Xanthochroi,
they end in the Canary Islands. They are known
as Kelts, Iberians, Etruscans, Bomans, Pelasgians,
Berbers, Semites. The majority of them are long-
headed, and of smaller stature than the Xantho-
chroi.* It is needless to remark upon the civiliza-
tion of these two great stocks. With them has
originated everything that is highest in science, in
art, in law, in politics, and in mechanical inven-
tions. In their hands, at the present moment, lies
the order of the social world, and to them its pro-
gress is committed.

[* See the Essay on the Aryan Question, in this vol-
ume, for some qualifications of these statements neces-
sitated by further knowledge. — 1894.]

23tt METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

South of the Atlas, and of the Great Desert,
Middle Africa exhibits a new type of humanity in
the Negro, with his dark skin, woolly hair, pro-
jecting jaws, and thick lips. As a rule, the skull
of the Negro is remarkably long; it rarely ap-
proaches the broad type, and never exhibits the
roundness of the Mongolian. A cultivator of the
ground, and dwelling in villages; a maker of pot-
tery, and a worker in the useful as well as the
ornamental metals; employing the bow and arrow
as well as the spear, the typical negro stands high in
point of civilization above the Australian.

Eesembling the Negroes in cranial characters,
the Bushmen of South Africa differ from them in
their yellowish brown skins, their tufted hair, their
remarkably small stature, and their tendency to
fatty and other integumentary outgrowths; nor is
the wonderful click with which their speech is in-
terspersed to be overlooked in enumerating the
jmysical characteristics of this strange people.

The so-called " Dravidian ' populations of
Southern Hindostan lead us back, physically as
well as geographically, towards the Australians; *

[* Of the affinities of these stocks I think there can
be no doubt. I was formerly inclined to believe that the
ancient Egyptian was the highest term in an ascending
series: Australian — Dravidian — Egyptian of allied stocks.
And I believe still that there is a good deal to be said for
that hypothesis. One of the most interesting problems at
present is the relation of the praesemitic population of
Babylonia to the Dravidians, on the one hand, and the
Old Egyptian on the other. Only one point appears to me
to be quite clear, if the statues of Tell Loh represent these

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 235

while the diminutive Mincopies of the Andaman
Islands lie midway between the Negro and Ne-
grito races, and, as Mr. Busk has pointed out, occa-
sionally present the rare combination of brachy-
cephaly, or short-headedness, with woolly hair.

In the preceding progress along the outskirts
of the habitable world, eleven readily distinguish-
able stocks, or persistent modifications, of mankind,
have been recognized. I have purposely omitted
such people as the Abyssinians and the Hindoos
of the valleys of the Ganges and Indus, who there
is every reason to believe result from the intermix-
ture of distinct stocks. Perhaps I ought for like
reasons, to have ignored the Mincopies. But I
do not pretend that my enumeration is complete
or, in any sense, perfect. It is enough for my pur-
pose if it be admitted (and I think it cannot be
denied) that those which I have mentioned exist,
are well marked, and occupy the greater part of the
habitable globe.

In attempting to classify these persistent modi-
fications after the manner of naturalists, the first
circumstance that attracts one's attention is the
broad contrast between the people with straight
and wavy hair, and those with crisp, woolly, or
tufted hair. Bory de St. Vincent, noting this
fundamental distinction, divided mankind accord-
people; that there is not a trace of Mongolian affinity
about them. — 1894.]

236 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

ingly into the two primary groups of Leiotrichi and
IJlotriclii, — terms which are open to criticism, but
which I adopt in the accompanying table, because
they have been used. It is better for science to
accept a faulty name which has the merit of exist-
ence, than to burthen it with a faultless newly in-
vented one.

Leiotrichi. Ulotrichi.

Dolichocephali. Bracbycephali. Dolickocepkali. Brachycephali.
Leucous.

.... Xantkockroi ....
Leucomelanous.

.... Melanockroi ....
Xanthomelanous.

Esquimaux. Mongolians. Bushmen.
Amphinesians.
Americans.
Melanous.

Australians. Negroes. Hincopies (?)

Negritos.
:i V :i: " The names of the stocks known only since the fifteenth cen-
tury are put into italics. If the " Skralings" of the Norse discov-
erers of America were Esquimaux, Europeans became acquainted
with the latter six or seven centuries earlier.

Under each of these divisions are two columns,
one for the Brachycephali, or short heads, and one
for the Dolichocephali,* or long heads. Again,
each column is subdivided transversely into four
compartments, one for the " leucous," people with

* Skulls, the transverse diameter of which is more than
eight-tenths the long diameter, are short; those which
have the transverse diameter less than eight-tenths the
longitudinal, are long.

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 237

fair complexions and yellow or red hair; one for
the " leucomelanous," with dark hair and pale
skins; one for the " xanthomelanous," with black
hair and yellow, brown, or olive skins; and one for
the " melanous," with black hair and dark brown
or blackish skins.

It is curious to observe that almost all the
woolly-haired people are also long-headed; while
among the straight-haired nations broad heads pre-
ponderate, and only two stocks, the Esquimaux and
the Australians, are exclusively long-headed.

One of the acutest and most original of ethnolo-
gists, Desmoulins, originated the idea, which has
subsequently been fully developed by Agassiz, that
the distribution of the persistent modifications of
man is governed by the same laws as that of other
animals, and that both fall into the same great dis-
tributional provinces. Thus, Australia, America,
south of Mexico; the Arctic regions; Europe, Syria,
Arabia, and North Africa, taken together, are each
regions eminently characterised by the nature of
their animal and vegetable populations, and each,
as we have seen, has its peculiar and characteristic
form of man. But it may be doubted whether the
parallel thus drawn will hold good strictly, and in
all cases. The Tasmanian Fauna and Flora are es-
sentially Australian, and the like is true, to a less
extent, of many, if not of all, the Papuan islands;
but the Negritos who inhabit these islands are
strikingly different from the Australians. Again,

238 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

the differences between the Mongolians and the
Xanthochroi are out of all proportion greater than
those between the Faunas and Floras of Central
and Eastern Asia. But whatever the difficulties
in the way of the detailed application of this com-
parison of the distribution of men with that of
animals, it is well worthy of being borne in mind,
and carried as far as it will go.

Apart from all speculation, a very curious fact
regarding the distribution of the persistent modi-
fications of mankind becomes apparent on inspect-
ing an Ethnological chart, projected in such a
manner that the Pacific Ocean occupies its centre.
Such a chart exhibits an Australian area occupied
by dark smooth-haired people, separated by an in-
complete inner zone of dark woolly-haired Negritos
and Negroes, from an outer zone of comparatively
pale and smooth-haired men, occupying the Amer-
icas, and nearly all Asia * and North Africa, f

Such is a brief sketch of the characters and dis-
tribution of the persistent modifications, or stocks,
of mankind at the present day. If we seek for
direct evidence of how long this state of things has
lasted, we shall find little enough, and that little
far from satisfactory. Of the eleven different
stocks enumerated, seven have been known to us
for less than 400 years; and of these seven not one

[* Hindostan excepted. — 1894.]
[t Egypt excepted.— 1894.]

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 239

possessed a fragment of written history at the time
it came into contact with European civilization.
The other four — the Negroes, Mongolians,
Xanthochroi, and Melanochroi — have always ex-
isted in some of the localities in which they are now
found, nor do the negroes ever seem to have volun-
tarily travelled beyond the limits of their present
area. But ancient history is in a great measure
the record of the mutual encroachments of the
other three stocks.

On the whole, however, it is wonderful how
little change has been effected by these mutual
invasions and intermixtures. As at the present
time, so at the dawn of history, the Melanochroi
fringed the Atlantic and the Mediterranean; the
Xanthochroi occupied most of Central and
Eastern Europe, and much of Western and Cen-
tral Asia; while Mongolians held the extreme
east of the Old World. So far as history teaches
us, the populations of Europe, Asia and Africa
were, twenty * centuries ago, just what they
are now, in their broad features and general dis-
tribution.

The evidence yielded by Archeology is not
very definite, but so far as it goes, it is to much
the same effect. The mound builders of Central
America seem to have had the characteristic short
and broad head of the modern inhabitants of that
continent. The tumuli and tombs of Ancient

[* We may now safely say thirty or forty. — 1894.]

240 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

Scandinavia, of pre-Koman Britain, of Gaul, of
Switzerland, reveal two types of skull — a broad
and a long — of which, in Scandinavia, the broad
seems to have belonged to the older stock, while
the reverse was probably the case in Britain, and
certainly in Switzerland. It has been assumed
that the broad-skulled people of ancient Scandi-
navia were Lapps; but there is no proof of the
fact, and they may have been, like the broad-
skulled Swiss and Germans, Xanthochroi. One of
the greatest of ethnological difficulties is to know
where the modern Swedes, Norsemen, and Saxons
got their long heads, as all their neighbours, Fins,
Lapps, Slavonians, and South Germans, are broad-
headed. Again, who were the small-handed * long-
headed people of the " bronze epoch," and what
has become of the infusion of their blood among
the Xanthochroi?

At present Palaeontology yields no safe data to
the ethnologist. We know absolutely nothing of
the ethnological characters of the men of Abbe-
ville and Hoxne; but must be content with the
demonstration, in itself of immense value, that
Man existed in Western Europe when its physical
condition was widely different from what it is now,
and when animals existed, which, though they

[* Supposed to be small-handed from the small handles
of their bronze swords. But I observe in the Assyrian

at

sculptures the same small handles, while the hands are by
no means small. How did the Assyrians use their swords?
So far as I know thrusting alone is represented. — 1894.]

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 241

belong to what is, properly speaking, the present
order of things, have long been extinct. Beyond
the limits of a fraction of Europe, Palieontology
tells us nothing of man or of his works.

To sum up our knowledge of the ethnological
past of man; so far as the light is bright, it shows
him substantially as he is now; and, when it grows
dim, it permits us to see no sign that he was other
than he is now.

It is a general belief that men of different stocks
differ as much physiologically as they do morpho-
logically; but it is very hard to prove, in any par-
ticular case, how much of a supposed national char-
acteristic is due to inherent physiological peculiari-
ties, and how much to the influence of circum-
stances. There is much evidence to show, how-
ever, that some stocks enjoy a partial or complete
immunity from diseases which destroy, or decimate,
others. Thus there seems good ground for the
belief that Negroes are remarkably exempt from
yellow fever; and that, among Europeans, the
melanochroic people are less obnoxious to its rav-
ages than the xanthochroic. But many writers,
not content with physiological differences of this
kind, undertake to prove the existence of others of
far greater moment; and, indeed, to show that cer-
tain stocks of mankind exhibit, more or less dis-
tinctly, the physiological characters of true species.
Unions between these stocks, and still more be-
tween the half-breeds arising from their mixture,
180

242 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

are affirmed to be either infertile, or less fertile
than those which take place between males and fe-
males of either stock under the same circum-
stances. Some go so far as to assert that no mixed
breeds of mankind can maintain themselves with-
out the assistance of one or other of the parent
stocks, and that, consequently, they must inevit-
ably be obliterated in the long run.

Here, again, it is exceedingly difficult to obtain
trustworthy evidence and to free the effects of the
pure physiological experiment from adventitious
influences. The only trial which, by a strange
chance, was kept clear of all such influences — the
only instance in which two distinct stocks of man-
kind were crossed, and their progeny intermarried
without any admixture from without — is the fa-
mous case of the Pitcairn Islanders, who were the
progeny of Bligh's English sailors by Tahitian
women. The results of this experiment, as every-
body knows, are dead against those who maintain
the doctrine of human hybridity, seeing that the
Pitcairn Islanders, even though they necessarily
contracted consanguineous marriages, throve and
multiplied exceedingly.

But those who are disposed to believe in this
doctrine should study the evidence brought forward
in its support by M. Broca, its latest and ablest
advocate, and compare this evidence with that
which the botanists, as represented by a Gaertner
or by a Darwin, think it indispensable to obtain

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 243

before they will admit the infertility of crosses
between two allied kinds of plants. They will
then, I think, be satisfied that the doctrine in ques-
tion rests upon a very unsafe foundation; that
the facts adduced in its support are capable of
many other interpretations; and, indeed, that from
the very nature of the case, demonstrative evidence
one way or the other is almost unattainable.
A priori, I should be disposed to expect a certain
amount of infertility between some of the extreme
modifications of mankind; and still more between
the offsprings of their intermixture. A posteriori,
I cannot discover any satisfactory proof that such
infertility exists.

From the facts of ethnology I now turn to the
theories and speculations of ethnologists, which
have been devised to explain these facts, and to
furnish satisfactory answers to the inquiry — what
conditions have determined the existence of the
persistent modifications of mankind, and have
caused their distribution to be what it is?

These speculations may be grouped under three
heads: firstly, the Monogenist hypotheses; second-
ly, those of the Polygenists; and thirdly, that which
would result from a simple application of Darwin-
ian principles to mankind.

According to the Monogenists, all mankind
have sprung from a single pair, whose multitudi-
nous progeny spread themselves over the world,
such as it now is, and became modified into the

2-±4 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

forms we meet with in the various regions of the
earth, by the effect of the climatal and other condi-
tions to which they were subjected.

The advocates of this hypothesis are divisible
into several schools. There are those who repre-
sent the most numerous, respectable, and would-be
orthodox of the public, and are what may be called
(i Adamites," pure and simple. They believe that
Adam was made out of earth somewhere in Asia,
about six thousand years ago; that Eve was
modelled from one of his ribs; and that the progeny
of these two having been reduced to the eight per-
sons who were landed on the summit of Mount
Ararat after an universal deluge, all the nations
of the earth have proceeded from these last, have
migrated to their present localities, and have be-
come converted into Negroes, Australians, Mongo-
lians, &c, within that time. Five-sixths of the
public are taught this Adamitic Monogenism, as
if it were an established truth, and believe it. I
do not; and I am not acquainted with any man of
science, or duly instructed person, who does.

A second school of monogenists, not worthy of
much attention, attempts to hold a place midway
between the Adamites and a third division, who
take up a purely scientific position, and require to
be dealt with accordingly. This third division, in
fact, numbers in its ranks Linnaeus, Buffon,
Blumenbach, Cuvier, Prichard, and many distin-
guished living ethnologists.

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 245

These " Eational Monogenists," or, at any rate,
the more modern among them, hold, firstly, that
the present condition of the earth has existed for
untold ages; secondly, that, at a remote period, be-
yond the ken of Archbishop Usher, man was cre-
ated, somewhere between the Caucasus and the
Hindoo Koosh; thirdly, that he might have mi-
grated thence to all parts of the inhabited world,
seeing that none of them are unattainable from
some other inhabited part, by men provided with
only such means of transport as savages are known
to possess and must have invented; fourthly, that
the operation of the existing diversities of climate
and other conditions upon people so migrating, is
sufficient to account for all the diversities of man-
kind.

Of the truth of the first of these propositions
no competent judge now entertains any doubt.
The second is more open to discussion; for, in these
latter days, many question the special creation of
man: and even if his special creation be granted,
there is not a shadow of a reason why he should
have been created in Asia rather than anywhere
else. Of all the odd myths that have arisen in
the scientific world, the " Caucasian mystery," in-
vented quite innocently by Blumenbach, is the
oddest. A Georgian woman's skull was the
handsomest in his collection. Hence it became
his model exemplar of human skulls, from which
all others might be regarded as deviations; and

246 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

out of this, by some strange intellectual hocus-
pocus, grew up the notion that the Caucasian man
is the prototypic " Adamic " man, and his coun-
try the primitive centre of our kind. Perhaps
the most curious thing of all is, that the said
Georgian skull, after all, is not a skull of average
form, but distinctly belongs to the brachycephalic
group.

With the third proposition I am quite disposed
to agree, though it must be recollected that it is
one thing to allow that a given migration is
possible, and another to admit there is good
reason to believe it has really taken place.

But I can find no sufficient ground for accept-
ing the fourth proposition; and I doubt if it would
ever have obtained its general currency except for
the circumstance that fair Europeans are very
readily tanned and embrowned by the sun. Yet
I am not aware that there is a particle of proof that
the cutaneous change thus effected can become
hereditary, any more than that the enlarged livers,
which plague our countrymen in India, can be
transmitted; while there is very strong evidence
to the contrary. Not only, in fact, are there such
cases as those of the English families in Barbadoes,
who have remained for six generations unaltered
in complexion, but which are open to the objection
that they may have received infusions of fresh Eu-
ropean blood; but there is the broad fact, that not
a single indigenous Negro exists either in the great

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 247

alluvial plains of tropical South America, or in the
exposed islands of the Polynesian Archipelago, or
among the populations of equatorial Borneo or
Sumatra. No satisfactory explanation of these
obvious difficulties has been offered by the ad-
vocates of the direct influence of conditions. And
as for the more important modifications observed
in the structure of the brain, and in the form of the
skull, no one has ever pretended to show in what
way they can be effected directly by climate.

It is here, in fact, that the strength of the Poly-
genists, or those who maintain that men primi-
tively arose, not from one, but from many stocks,
lies. Show us, they say to the Monogenists, a
single case in which the characters of a human
stock have been essentially modified without its
being demonstrable, or, at least, highly probable,
that there has been intermixture of blood with
some foreign stock. Bring forward any instance
in which a part of the world, formerly inhabited
by one stock, is now the dwelling-place of another,
and we will prove the change to be the result of
migration, or of intermixture, and not of modifica-
tion of character by climatic influences. Finally,
prove to us that the evidence in favour of the spe-
cific distinctness of many animals, admitted to be
distinct species by all zoologists, is a whit better
than that upon which we maintain the specific dis-
tinctness of men.

If presenting unanswerable objections to your

248 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

adversary were the same thing as proving your
own case, the Polygenists would be in a fair way
towards victory; but, unfortunately, as I have
already observed, they have as yet completely
failed to adduce satisfactory positive proof of the
specific diversity of mankind. Like the Monoge-
nists, the Polygenists are of several sects; some
imagine that their assumed species of mankind
were created where we find them — the African in
Africa, and the Australian in Australia, along
with the other animals of their distributional
province; others conceive that each species of
man has resulted from the modification of some
antecedent species of ape — the American from the
broad-nosed Simians of the New World, the Afri-
can from the Troglodytic stock, the Mongolian
from the Orangs.

The first hypothesis is hardly likely to win
much favour. The whole tendency of modern sci-
ence is to thrust the origination of things further
and further into the background; and the chief
philosophical objection to Adam being, not his
oneness, but the hypothesis of his special creation;
the multiplication of that objection tenfold is,
whatever it may look, an increase, instead of a
diminution, of the difficulties of the case. And, as
to the second alternative, it may safely be affirmed
that, even if the differences between men are spe-
cific, they are so small, that the assumption of more
than one primitive stock for all is altogether super-

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 249

fluous. Surely no one can now be found to assert
that any two stocks of mankind differ as much as a
chimpanzee and an orang do; still less that they are
as unlike as either of these is to any New World
Simian!

Lastly, the granting of the Polygenist premises
does not, in the slightest degree, necessitate the
Polygenist conclusion. Admit that Negroes and
Australians, Negritos and Mongols are distinct spe-
cies, or distinct genera, if you will, and you may
yet, with perfect consistency, be the strictest of
Monogenists, and even believe in Adam and Eve as
the primaeval parents of all mankind.

It is to Mr. Darwin we owe this discovery: it is
he who, coming forward in the guise of an eclectic
philosopher, presents his doctrine as the key to
ethnology, and as reconciling and combining all
that is good in the Monogenistic and Polygenistic
schools. It is true that Mr. Darwin has not, in so
many words, applied his views to ethnology; but
even he who " runs and reads " the " Origin of
Species" can hardly fail to do so; and, further-
more, Mr. Wallace and M. Pouchet have recently
treated of ethnological questions from this point
of view. Let me, in conclusion, add my own con-
tribution to the same store.

I assume Man to have arisen in the manner
which I have discussed elsewhere, and probably,
though by no means necessarily, in one locality.
Whether he arose singly, or a number of examples

250 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

appeared contemporaneously, is also an open ques-
tion for the believer in the production of species
by the gradual modification of pre-existing ones.
At what epoch of the world's history this took
place, again, we have no evidence whatever. It
may have been in the older tertiary, or earlier;
but what is most important to remember is, that
the discoveries of late years have proved that man
inhabited "Western Europe, at any rate, before the
occurrence of those great physical changes which
have given Europe its present aspect. And as
the same evidence shows that man was the con-
temporary of animals which are now extinct, it
is not too much to assume that his existence
dates back at least as far as that of our present
Fauna and Flora, or before the epoch of the
drift.

But if this be true, it is somewhat startling to
reflect upon the prodigious changes which have
taken place in the physical geography of this
planet since man has been an occupant of it.

During that period the greater part of the
British islands, of Central Europe, of Northern
Asia, have been submerged beneath the sea and
raised up again. So has the great desert of Sahara,
which occupies the major part of Northern Africa.*
The Caspian and the Aral seas have been one, and
their united waters have probably communicated

[* Later investigations tend to show that only a small
part of the Sahara has been submerged. — 1894.]

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 251

with both the Arctic and the Mediterranean
oceans.* The greater part of North America has
been under water, and has emerged. It is highly
probable that a large part of the Malayan Archi-
pelago has sunk, and that its primitive continuity
with Asia has been destroyed. Over the great
Polynesian area subsidence has taken place to the
extent of many thousands of feet — subsidence of
so vast a character, in fact, that if a continent like
Asia had once occupied the area of the Pacific, the
peaks of its mountains would now show not more
numerous than the islands of the Polynesian Archi-
pelago f

What lands may have been thickly populated
for untold ages, and subsequently have disappeared
and left no sign above the waters, it is of course
impossible for us to say; but unless we are to make
the wholly unjustifiable assumption that no dry
land rose elsewhere when our present dry land sank,
there must be half-a-dozen Atlantises beneath the
waves of the various oceans of the world. But if
the regions which have undergone these slow and
gradual, but immense alterations, were wholly or
in part inhabited before the changes I have indi-
cated began — and it is more probable that they

[* With reference to certain reclamations that have
been made & propos of a speculation set forth in the essay-
on the Aryan Question (infrd), I draw attention to the
fact that this passage was written twenty-nine years ago.
—1894.]

[t The occurrence of this extensive subsidence is dis-
puted.— 1894.]

252 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY.

were than that they were not — what a wonderfully
efficient " Emigration Board " must have been at
work all over the world long before canoes, or even
rafts, were invented; and before men were impelled
to wander by any desire nobler or stronger than
hunger. And as these rude and primitive families
were thrust, in the course of long series of genera-
tions, from land to land, impelled by encroach-
ments of sea or of marsh, or by severity of summer
heat or winter cold, to change their positions, what
opportunities must have been offered for the play
of natural selection, in preserving one family varia-
tion and destroying another!

Suppose, for example, that some families of a
horde which had reached a land charged with the
seeds of yellow fever, varied in the direction of
woolliness of hair and darkness of skin. Then, if
it be true that these physical characters are accom-
panied by comparative or absolute exemptions
from that scourge, the inevitable tendency would
be to the preservation and multiplication of the
darker and woollier families, and the elimination of
the whiter and smoother haired. In fact, by the
operation of causes precisely similar to those which,
in the famous instance cited by Mr. Darwin, have
given rise to a race of black pigs in the forests of
Louisiana, a negro stock would eventually people
the region.* Again, how often, by such physical

[* Mr. Pearson, in his very interesting work On Na-
tional Life and Character, justly dwells upon the ob-

METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 253

changes, must a stock have been isolated from all
others for innumerable generations, and have
found ample time for the hereditary hardening of
its special peculiarities into the enduring charac-
ters of a persistent modification.

Nor, if it be true that the physiological differ-
ences of species may be produced by variation and
natural selection, as Mr. Darwin supposes, would it
be at all astonishing, if, in some of these separated
stocks, the process of differentiation should have
gone so far as to give rise to the phenomena of
hybridity. In the face of the overwhelming
evidence in favour of the unity of the origin of
mankind afforded by anatomical considerations,
satisfactory proof of the existence of any degree of
sterility in the unions of members of two of the
" persistent modifications " of mankind, might well
be appealed to by Mr. Darwin as crucial evidence
of the truth of his views regarding the origin of
species in general.

staeles to the existence of the white races within the
Tropics. There is, however, this point to be considered,
that the fevers to which the white men succumb are
probably caused by microbes; and that modern thera-
peutic science is daily teaching us more and more about
the ways of obtaining immunity from or alleviating these
attacks. What would become of black competition if
fever "vaccination" proved effectual? — 1894.]

V.

ON SOME FIXED POINTS IN BRITISH

ETHNOLOGY.

[1871.]

In view of the many discussions to which the
complicated problems offered by the ethnology of
the British Islands have given rise, it may be use-
ful to attempt to pick out, from amidst the con-
fused masses of assertion and of inference, those
propositions which appear to rest upon a secure
foundation, and to state the evidence by which
they are supported. Such is the purpose of the
present paper.

Some of these well-based propositions relate to
the physical characters of the people of Britain
and their neighbours; while others concern the
languages which they spoke. I shall deal, in the
first place, with the physical questions.

I. Eighteen hundred years ago the population
of Britain comprised people of two types of com-
plexion — the one fair, and the other dark. The
254

v BRITISn ETHNOLOGY. 255

dark people resembled the Aquitani and the Iberi-
ans; the fair people were like the Belgic Gauls.

The chief direct evidence of the truth of this
proposition is the well-known passage of Tacitus: —

" Ceteruin Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerint,
indigence an advecti, ut inter barbaros, parum compertum.
Habitus corporum varii : atque ex eo argumenta : namque
rutilae Caledoniam habitantium coma?, niagni artus, Ger-
manicam originem asseverant. Silurum colorati vultus
et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania,
Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque sedes occupasse, fidem
faciunt. Proximi Gallis et similes sunt; seu durante
originis vi, seu procurrentibus in diversa terris, positio
coeli corporibus habitum dedit. In universum tamen sesti-
manti, Gallos vicinum solum occupasse, credibile est;
eorum sacra deprehendas, superstitionum persuasione;
sermo haud multum di versus." *

This passage, it will be observed, contains state-
ments as to facts, and certain conclusions deduced
from these facts. The matters of fact asserted are:
firstly, that the inhabitants of Britain exhibit
much diversity in their physical characters; sec-
ondly, that the Caledonians are red-haired and
large-limbed, like the Germans; thirdly, that the
Silures have curly hair and dark complexions, like
the people of Spain; fourthly, that the British peo-
ple nearest Gaul resemble the " Galli."

Tacitus, therefore, states positively what the
Caledonians and Silures were like; but the inter-
pretation of what he says about the other Britons

* Tacitus Agricola, c. 11.

256 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

must depend upon what we learn from other
sources as to the characters of these " Galli." Here
the testimony of " divus Julius" comes in with
great force and appropriateness. Caesar writes: —

" Britannise pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in
insula ipsi niemoria proditum dicunt: marituma pars ab
iis, qui prsedae ac belli inferendi causa ex Belgio transie-
rant; qui omnes fere iis nominibus civitatum appellantur
quibus orti ex civitatibus eo pervenerunt, et bello inlato
ibi permanserunt atque agros colere coeperunt." *

From these passages it is obvious that, in the
opinion of Caesar and Tacitus, the southern Britons
resembled the northern Gauls, and especially the
Belgae; and the evidence of Strabo is decisive as
to the characters in which the two people resem-
bled one another: " The men [of Britain] are taller
than the Kelts, with hair less yellow; they are
slighter in their persons." f

The evidence adduced appears to leave no rea-
sonable ground for doubting that, at the time of
the Roman conquest, Britain contained people of
two types, the one dark and the other fair com-
plexioned, and that there was a certain difference
between the latter in the north and in the south
of Britain: the northern folk being, in the judg-
ment of Tacitus, or, more properly, according to
the information he had received from Agricola and
others, more similar to the Germans than the lat-

* Dc Bello Gallico, v. 12.

f The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Hamilton
and Falconer, v. 5.

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 257

ter. As to the distribution of these stocks, all that
is clear is, that the dark people were predominant
in certain parts of the west of the southern half
of Britain, while the fair stock appears to have
furnished the chief elements of the population
elsewhere.

No ancient writer troubled himself with mea-
suring skulls, and therefore there is no direct evi-
dence as to the cranial characters of the fair and
the dark stocks. The indirect evidence is not very
satisfactory. The tumuli of Britain of pre-Roman
date have yielded two extremely different forms of
skull, the one broad and the other long; and the
same variety has been observed in the skulls of
the ancient Gauls.* The suggestion is obvious
that the one form of skull may have been associated
with the fair, and the other with the dark, com-
plexion. But any conclusion of this kind is at once
checked by the reflection that the extremes of long
and short-headedness are to be met with among
the fair inhabitants of Germany and of Scandinavia
at the present day — the south-western Germans
and the Swiss being markedly broad-headed, while
the Scandinavians are as predominantly long-
headed.

What the natives of Ireland were like at the
time of the Roman conquest of Britain, and for
centuries afterwards, we have no certain knowl-

* See Dr. Thurman " On the Two principal Forms of
Ancient British and Gaulish Skulls."

181

258 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

edge; but the earliest trustworthy records prove
the existence, side by side with one another, of a
fair and a dark stock, in Ireland as in Britain. The
long form of skull is predominant among the an-
cient, as among modern, Irish.

II. The people termed Gauls, and those called
Germans, by the Romans, did not differ in any
important physical character.

The terms in which the ancient writers describe
both Gauls and Germans are identical. They are
always tall people, with massive limbs, fair skins,
fierce blue eyes, and hair the colour of which
ranges from red to yellow. Zeuss, the great
authority on these matters, affirms broadly that no
distinction in bodily feature is to be found between
the Gauls, the Germans, and the Wends, so far as
their characters are recorded by the old historians;
and he proves his case by citations from a cloud of
witnesses.

An attempt has been made to show that the
colour of the hair of the Gauls must have differed
very much from that which obtained among the
Germans, on the strength of the story told by Sue-
tonius (Caligula, 4), that Caligula tried to pass off
Gauls for Germans by picking out the tallest, and
making then " rutilare et summittere comam."

The Baron de Belloguet remarks upon this pas-
sage:

" It was in the very north of Gaul, and near the sea,
that Caligula got up this military comedy. And the fact

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 259

proves that the Belgsp were already sensibly different
from their ancestors, whom Strabo had found almost
identical with their brothers on the other side of the
Rhine."

But the fact recorded by Suetonius, if fact it
be, proves nothing; for the Germans themselves
were in the habit of reddening their hair. Ammi-
anus Marcellinus * tells how, in the year 367 A- D-,
the Roman commander, Jovinus, surprised a body
of Alemanni near the town now called Charpeigne,
in the valley of the Moselle; and how the Roman
soldiers, as, concealed by the thick wood, they stole
upon their unsuspecting enemies, saw that some
were bathing and others " comas rutilantes ex
more/' More than two centuries earlier Pliny
gives indirect evidence to the same effect when he
says of soap: —

" Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis . . . apud
Germanos ma j ore in usu viris quam foeminis." f

Here we have a w r riter who flourished not very
long after the date of the Caligula story, telling us
that the Gauls invented soap for the purpose of
doing that which, according to Suetonius, Caligula
forced them to do. And, further, the combined
and independent testimony of Pliny and Ammianus
assures us that the Germans were as much in the
habit of reddening their hair as the Gauls. As
to De Belloguet's supposition that, even in Cal-

* Res Gcsttr, xxvii. f Historia Naturalis, xxviii. 51.

260 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY, v

igula's time, the Gauls had become darker than
their ancestors were, it is directly contradicted by
Ammianus Marcellinus, who knew the Gauls well.
" Celsioris staturae et candidi pcene Galli sunt
omnes, et rutili, luminumque torvitate terribiles,"
is his description; and it would fit the Gauls who
sacked Kome.

III. In none of the invasions of Britain which
have taken place since the Roman dominion, has
any other type of man been introduced than one
or other of the two which existed during that
dominion.

The North Germans, who effected what is com-
monly called the Saxon conquest of Britain, were,
most assuredly, a fair, yellow, or red-haired, blue-
eyed, long-skulled people. So were the Danes and
the Norsemen who followed them; though it is
very possible that the active slave trade which went
on, and the intercourse with Ireland, may have
introduced a certain admixture of the dark stock
into both Denmark and Norway. The Norman
conquest brought in new ethnological elements, the
precise value of which cannot be estimated with
exactness; but as to their quality, there can be
no question, inasmuch as even the wide area from
which William drew his followers could yield him
nothing but the fair and the dark types of men,
already present in Britain. But whether the
Norman settlers, on the whole, strengthened the
fair or the dark element, is a problem, the ele-

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 2G1

merits of the solution of which are not attain-
able.

I am unable to discover any grounds for believ-
ing that a Lapp element has ever entered into the
population of these islands. So far as the physical
evidence goes, it is perfectly consistent with the
hypothesis that the only constituent stocks of that
population, now, or at any other period about
which we have evidence, are the dark whites,
whom I have proposed to call " Melanochroi," and
the fair whites, or " Xanthochroi."

IV. The Xanthochroi and the Melanochroi of
Britain are, speaking broadly, distributed, at pres-
ent, as they were in the time of Tacitus; and their
representatives on the continent of Europe have
the same general distribution as at the earliest
period of which we have any record.

At the present day, and notwithstanding the
extensive intermixture effected by the movements
consequent on civilization and on political changes,
there is a predominance of dark men in the west,
and of fair men in the east and north, of Britain.
At the present day, as from the earliest times, the
predominant constituents of the riverain popula-
tion of the North Sea and the eastern half of the
British Channel, are fair men. The fair stock con-
tinues in force through Central Europe, until it is
lost in Central Asia. Offshoots of this stock ex-
tend into Spain, Italy, and Northern India, and
by way of Syria and North Africa, to the Canary

262 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

Islands. They were known in very early times to
the Chinese, and in still earlier to the ancient
Egyptians, as frontier tribes. The Thracians were
notorious for their fair hair and bine eyes many
centuries before our era.

On the other hand, the dark stock predominates
in Southern and Western France, in Spain, along
the Ligurian shore, and in Western and Southern
Italy; in Greece, Asia, Syria, and North Africa;
in Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, and Hindostan,
shading gradually, through all stages of darkening,
into the type of the modern Egyptian, or of the
wild Hill-man of the Dekkan. Nor is there any
record of the existence of a different population
in all these countries.

The extreme north of Europe, and the northern
part of Western Asia, are at present occupied by
a Mongoloid stock, and, in the absence of evidence
to the contrary, may be assumed to have been so
peopled from a very remote epoch. But, as I have
said, I can find no evidence that this stock ever
took part in peopling Britain. Of the three great
stocks of mankind which extend from the western
coast of the great Eurasiatic continent to its south-
ern and eastern shores, the Mongoloids occupy a
vast triangle, the base of which is the whole of
Eastern Asia, while its apex lies in Lapland. The
Melanochroi, on the other hand, may be repre-
sented as a broad band stretching from Ireland to
Hindostan; while the Xanthochroic area lies be-

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 203

tween the two, thins out, so to speak, at either end,
and mingles, at its margins, with both its neigh-
bours.

Such is a brief and summary statement of what
I believe to be the chief facts relating to the physical
ethnology of the people of Britain. The conclu-
sions which I draw from these and other facts are
— (1) That the Melanochroi and the Xanthochroi
are two separate races in the biological sense of
the word race; (2) That they have had the same
general distribution as at present from the earliest
times of which any record exists on the continent
of Europe; (3) That the population of the British
Islands is derived from them, and from them
only.

The people of Europe, however, owe their na-
tional names, not to their physical characteristics,
but to their languages, or to their political rela-
tions; which, it is plain, need not have the slightest
relation to these characteristics.

Thus, it is quite certain that, in Caasar's time,
Gaul was divided politically into three nationali-
ties — the Belgge, the Celtae, and the Aquitani; and
that the last were very widely different, both in
language and in physical characteristics, from the
two former. The Belgas and the Celtae, on the
other hand, differed comparatively little either in
physique or in language. On the former point
there is the distinct testimony of Strabo; as to the
latter, St. Jerome states that the " Galatians had

264 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

almost the same language as the Treviri." Now,
the Galatians were emigrant Volcas Tectosages, and
therefore Celtas; while the Treviri were Belgae.*

At the present day, the physical characters of
the people of Belgic Gaul remain distinct from
those of the people of Aquitaine, notwithstanding
the immense changes which have taken place since
Caesar's time; but Belgae, Celtse, and Aquitani (all
but a mere fraction of the last two, represented
by the Basques and the Bretons) are fused into one
nationality, " le peuple Francais." But they have
adopted the language of one set of invaders, and
the name of another; their original names and lan-
guages having almost disappeared. Suppose that
the French language remained as the sole evidence
of the existence of the population of Gaul, would
the keenest philologer arrive at any other conclu-
sion than that this population was essentially and
fundamentally a " Latin " race, which had had
some communication with Celts and Teutons?
AVould he so much as suspect the former existence
of the Aquitani?

Community of language testifies to close con-
tact between the people who speak the language,
but to nothing else; philology has absolutely noth-
ing to do with ethnology, except so far as it sug-
gests the existence or the absence of such contact.
The contraiw assumption, that language is a test
of race, has introduced the utmost confusion into

[* This proposition is disputed. — 1894.]

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 2G5

ethnological speculation, and has nowhere worked
greater scientific and practical mischief than in
the ethnology of the British Islands.

What is known, for certain, about the languages
spoken in these islands and their affinities may, I
believe, be summed up as follows: —

I. At the time of the Roman conquest, one lan-
guage, the Celtic, under two principal dialectical
divisions, the Cymric and the Gaelic, was spoken
throughout the British Islands. Cymric was
spoken in Britain, Gaelic * in Ireland.

If a language allied to Basque had in earlier
times been spoken in the British Islands, there is
no evidence that any Euskarian-speaking people
remained at the time of the Eoman conquest. The
dark and the fair population of Britain alike spoke
Celtic tongues, and therefore the name " Celt " is
as applicable to the one as to the other.

What was spoken in Ireland can only be sur-
mised by reasoning from the knowledge of later
times; but there seems to be no doubt that it was
Gaelic.

II. The Belgce and the Ccltm, with the offshoots
of the latter in Asia Minor, spoke dialects of the
Cymric division of Celtic.

The evidence of this proposition lies in the

[* I have been told thnt the terms " Cymric " and
" Gaelic " are antiquated and improper. The reador will
please substitute Celtic dialect A and Celtic dinlpct B f^r
them, and consult, on this subject, especially with regard
to proposition III., Professor Rhys' Early Britain- -1894.]

266 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

statement of St. Jerome before cited; in the
similarity of the names of places in Belgic Gaul
and in Britain; and in the direct comparison of
sundry ancient Gaulish and Belgic words which
have been preserved, with the existing Cymric
dialects, for which I must refer to the learned work
of Brandes.

Formerly, as at the present day, the Cymric
dialects of Celtic were spoken by both the fair and
the dark stocks.

III. There is no record of Gaelic being spoken
anywhere save in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of
Man.

This appears to be the final result of the long
discussions which have taken place on this much-
debated question. As is the case with the Cymric
dialects, Gaelic is now spoken by both dark and
fair stocks.

IV. When the Teutonic languages first became
known, they were spoken only * by Xanthochroi,
that is to say, by the Germans, the Scandinavians,
and Goths. And they were imported by Xantho-
chroi into Gaul and into Britain.

In Gaul, the imported Teutonic dialect has been
completely overpowered by the more or less modi-
fied Latin, which it found already in possession;
and what Teutonic blood there may be in modern
Frenchmen is not adequately represented in their

("* " Only " is too strong a Avoid, as thorp were doubt-
loss some Melanochroi among the Teutonic tribes. — 1894.]

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 207

language. In Britain, on the contrary, the Teu-
tonic dialects have overpowered the pre-existing
forms of speech, and the people are vastly less
" Teutonic " than their language. Whatever may
have been the extent to which the Celtic-speaking
population of the eastern half of Britain was trod-
den out and supplanted by the Teutonic-speaking
Saxons and Danes, it is quite certain that no con-
siderable displacement of the Celtic-speaking peo-
ple occurred in Cornwall, Wales, or the Highlands
of Scotland; and that nothing approaching to the
extinction of that people took place in Devonshire,
Somerset, or the western moiety of Britain gen-
erally. Nevertheless, the fundamentally Teutonic
English language is now spoken throughout Brit-
ain, except by an insignificant fraction of the popu-
lation in Wales and the Western Highlands. But
it is obvious that this fact affords not the slightest
justification for the common practice of speaking
of the present inhabitants of Britain as an " Anglo-
Saxon " race. It is, in fact, just as absurd as the
habit of talking of the French people as a " Latin "
race, because they speak a language which is, in
the main, derived from Latin. And the absurdity
becomes the more patent when those who have no
hesitation in calling a Devonshire man, or a Cor-
nish man, an " Anglo-Saxon," would think it ridic-
ulous to call a Tipperary man by the same title,
though he and his forefathers may have spoken
English for as long a time as the Cornish man.

268 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

Ireland, at the earliest period of which we have
any knowledge, contained, like Britain, a dark and
a fair stock, which, there is every reason to believe,
were identical with the dark and the fair stocks
of Britain. When the Irish first became known
they spoke a Gaelic dialect, and though, for many
centuries, Scandinavians made continual incursions
upon, and settlements among them, the Teutonic
languages made no more way among the Irish than
they did amoug the French. How much Scandi-
navian blood was introduced there is no evidence to
show. But after the conquest of Ireland by Henry
II., the English people, consisting in part of the
descendants of Cymric speakers, and in part of the
descendants of Teutonic speakers, made good their
footing in the eastern half of the island, as the
Saxons and Danes made good theirs in England;
and did their best to complete the parallel by at-
tempting the extirpation of the Gaelic-speaking
Irish. And they succeeded to a considerable ex-
tent; a large part of Eastern Ireland is now peopled
by men who are substantially English by descent,
and the English language has spread over the land
far beyond the limits of English blood.

Ethnologically, the Irish people were originally,
like the people of Britain, a mixture of Melano-
chroi and Xanthochroi. They resembled the Brit-
ons in speaking a Celtic tongue; but it was a Gaelic
and not a Cymric form of the Celtic language. Ire-
land was untouched by the lioinan conquest, nor

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 269

do the Saxons seem to have had any influence upon
her destinies, but the Danes and Norsemen poured
in a contingent of Teutonism, which has been large-
ly supplemented by English and Scotch efforts.

What, then, is the value of the ethnological
difference between the Englishman of the western
half of England and the Irishman of the eastern
half of Ireland ? For what reason does the one de-
serve the name of a " Celt," and not the other?
And further, if we turn to the inhabitants of the
western half of Ireland, why should the term
" Celts " be applied to them more than to the in-
habitants of Cornwall? And if the name is ap-
plicable to the one as justly as to the other, why
should not intelligence, perseverance, thrift, indus-
try, sobriety, respect for law, be admitted to be
Celtic virtues? And why should we not seek for
the cause of their absence in something else than
the idle pretext of " Celtic blood "?

I have been unable to meet with any answers to
these questions.

V. The Celtic and the Teutonic dialects are
members of the same great Aryan family of lan-
guages; but there is evidence to show that a non-
Aryan language was at one time spoken over a
large extent of the area occupied by Melanochroi in
Europe.

The non-Aryan language here referred to is the
Euskarian, now spoken only by the Basques, but
which seems in earlier times to have been the Ian-

270 BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. v

guage of the Aquitanians and Spaniards, and may
possibly have extended much further to the East.
"Whether it has any connection with the Lignrian
and Oscan dialects are questions upon which, of
course, I do not presume to offer any opinion. But
it is important to remark that it is a language the
area of which has gradually diminished without any
corresponding extirpation of the people who primi-
tively spoke it; so that the people of Spain and of
Aquitaine at the present day must be largely " Eu-
skarian " by descent in just the same sense as the
Cornish men are " Celtic " by descent.

Such seem to me to be the main facts respect-
ing the ethnology of the British islands and of
Western Europe, which may be said to be fairly
established. The hypothesis by which I think
(with De Belloguet and Thurnam) the facts may
best be explained is this: In very remote times
Western Europe and the British islands were inhab-
ited by the dark stock, or the Melanochroi, alone,
and these Melanochroi spoke dialects allied to the
Euskarian. The Xanthochroi, spreading over the
great Eurasiatic plains westward, and speaking
Aryan dialects, gradually invaded the territories
of the Melanochroi. The Xanthochroi, who thus
came into contact with the Western Melanochroi,
spoke a Celtic language; and that Celtic language,
whether Cymric or Gaelic, spread over the Melano-
chroi far beyond the limits of intermixture of blood,
supplanting Euskarian, just as English and French

v BRITISH ETHNOLOGY. 2Y1

have supplanted Celtic. Even as early as Caesar's
time, I suppose that the Euskarian was everywhere,
except in Spain and in Aquitaine, replaced by Cel-
tic, and thus the Celtic speakers were no longer of
one ethnological stock, but of two. Both in West-
ern Europe and in England a third wave of lan-
guage — in the one case Latin, in the other Teu-
tonic — has spread over the same area. In Western
Europe, it has left a fragment of the primary Eu-
skarian in one corner of the country, and a frag-
ment of the secondary Celtic in another. In the
British islands, only outlying pools of the second-
ary linguistic wave remain in Wales, the Highlands,
Ireland, and the Isle of Man. If this hypothesis is
a sound one, it follows that the name of Celtic is not
properly applicable to the Melanochroic or dark
stock of Europe. They are merely, so to speak,
secondary Celts. The primary and aboriginal Cel-
tic-speaking people are Xanthochroi — the typical
Gauls of the ancient writers, and the close allies by
blood, customs, and language, of the Germans.

VI.

THE AEYAN QUESTION AND PRE-
HISTORIC MAN.

[1890.]

The rapid increase of natural knowledge, which
is the chief characteristic of our age, is effected in
various ways. The main army of science moves to
the conquest of new worlds slowly and surely, nor
ever cedes an inch of the territory gained. But
the advance is covered and facilitated by the cease-
less activity of clouds of light troops provided with
a weapon — always efficient, if not always an arm
of precision — the scientific imagination. It is the
business of these en f ants perdus of science to make
raids into the realm of ignorance wherever they
see, or think they see, a chance; and cheerfully to
accept defeat, or it may be annihilation, as the
reward of error. Unfortunately, the public, which
watches the progress of the campaign, too often
mistakes a dashing incursion of the Uhlans for a
forward movement of the main body; fondly im-
agining that the strategic movement to the rear,
which occasionally follows, indicates a battle lost
272

vr TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 273

by science. And it must be confessed that the
error is too often justified by the effects of the irre-
pressible tendency which men of science share with
all other sorts of men known to me, to be impatient
of that most wholesome state of mind — suspended
judgment; to assume the objective truth of specula-
tions which, from the nature of the evidence in
their favour, can have no claim to be more than
working hypotheses.

The history of the " Aryan question " affords a
striking illustration of these general remarks.

About a century ago, Sir William Jones pointed
out the close alliance of the chief European lan-
guages with Sanskrit and its derivative dialects
now spoken in India. Brilliant and laborious phi-
lologists, in long succession, enlarged and strength-
ened this position, until the truth that Sanskrit,
Zend, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Slavo-
nian, German, Celtic, and so on, stand to one an-
other in the relation of descendants from a common
stock, became firmly established, and thencefor-
ward formed part of the permanent acquisitions of
science. Moreover, the term " Aryan " is very
generally, if not universally, accepted as a name
for the group of languages thus allied. Hence,
when one speaks of " Aryan languages," no hypo-
thetical assumptions are involved. It is a matter of
fact that such languages exist, that they present
certain substantial and formal relations, and that

convention sanctions the name applied to them.
182

274 THE ARYAN QUESTION. n

But the close connection of these widely differ-
entiated languages remains altogether inexplicable,
unless it is admitted that they are modifications of
an original relatively undifferentiated tongue; just
as the intimate affinities of the Romance languages
— French, Italian, Spanish, and the rest — would
be incomprehensible if there were no Latin. The
original or " primitive Aryan " tongue, thus postu-
lated, unfortunately no longer exists. It is a hy-
pothetical entity, which corresponds with the
" primitive stock " of generic and higher groups
among plants and animals; and the acknowledg-
ment of its former existence, and of the process of
evolution which has brought about the present
state of things philological, is forced upon us by
deductive reasoning of similar cogency to that em-
ployed about things biological.

Thus, the former existence of a body of rela-
tively uniform dialects, which may be called primi-
tive Aryan, may be added to the stock of definite-
ly acquired truths. But it is obvious that, in the
absence of writing or of phonographs, the exist-
ence of a language implies that of speakers. If
there were primitive Aryan dialects, there must
have been primitive Aryan people who used them;
and these people must have resided somewhere or
other on the earth's surface. Hence philology,
without stepping beyond its legitimate bounds and
keeping speculation within the limits of bare neces-
sity, arrives, not only at the conceptions of Aryan

yi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 275

languages and of a primitive Aryan language; but
of a primitive Aryan people and of a primitive
Aryan home, or country occupied by them.

But where was this home of the Aryans?
When the labours of modern philologists began,
Sanskrit was the most archaic of all the Aryan lan-
guages known to them. It appeared to present the
qualifications required in the parental or primitive
Aryan. Brilliant Uhlans made a charge at this
opening. The scientific imagination seated the
primitive Aryans in the valley of the Ganges; and
showed, as in a vision, the successive columns,
guided by enterprising Brahmins, which set out
thence to people the regions of the western world
with Greeks and Celts and Germans. But the
progress of philology itself sufficed to show that
this Balaclava charge, however magnificent, was
not profitable warfare. The internal evidence of
the Vedas proved that their composers had not
reached the Ganges. On the other hand, the com-
parison of Zend with Sanskrit left no alternative
open to the assumption that these languages were
modifications of an original Indo-Iranian tongue,
spoken by a people of whom the Aryans of India
and those of Persia were offshoots, and who could
therefore be hardly lodged elsewhere than on the
frontiers of both Persia and India — that is to say,
somewhere in the region which is at present known
under the names of Turkestan, Afghanistan, and
Kafiristan. Thus far, it can hardly be doubted

276 THE ARYAN QUESTION. yi

that we are well within the ground of which science
has taken enduring possession. But the Uhlans
were not content to remain within the lines of this
surely-won position. For some reason, which is
not quite clear to me, they thought fit to restrict
the home of the primitive Aryans to a particular
part of the region in question; to lodge them amidst
the bleak heights of the long range of the Hindoo
Koosh and on the inhospitable plateau of Pamir.
From their hives in these secluded valleys and
wind-swept wastes, successive swarms of Celts and
Greco-Latins, Teutons and Slavs, were thrown off
to settle, after long wanderings, in distant Europe.
The Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir theory, once enunciated,
gradually hardened into a sort of dogma; and there
have not been wanting theorists, who laid down
the routes of the successive bands of emigrants
with as much confidence as if they had access to the
records of the office of a primitive Aryan Quarter-
master-General. It is really singular to observe
the deference which has been shown, and is yet
sometimes shown, to a speculation which can, at
best, claim to be regarded as nothing better than a
somewhat risky working hypothesis.

Forty years ago, the credit of the Hindoo-
Koosh-Pamir theory had risen almost to that of an
axiom. The first person to instil doubt of its value
into my mind was the late Robert Gordon Latham,
a man of great learning and singular originality,
whose attacks upon the Hindoo-Kooshite doctrine

vi TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 277

could scarcely have failed as completely as they
did, if his great powers had been bestowed upon
making his books not only worthy of being read,
but readable. The impression left upon my mind,
at that time, by various conversations about the
" Sarmatian hypothesis," which my friend wished
to substitute for the Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir specula-
tion, was that the one and the other rested pretty
much upon a like foundation of guess-work. That
there was no sufficient reason for planting the
primitive Aryans in the Hindoo Koosh, or in
Pamir, seemed plain enough; but that there was
little better ground, on the evidence then adduced,
for settling them in the region at present occupied
by Western Russia, or Podolia, appeared to me to
be not less plain. The most I thought Latham
proved was, that the Aryan people of Indo-Iranian
speech were just as likely to have come from Eu-
rope, as the Aryan people of Greek, or Teutonic,
or Celtic # speech from Asia. Of late years, Lath-
am's views, so long neglected, or mentioned merely
as an example of insular eccentricity, have been
taken up and advocated with much ability in Ger-
many as well as in this country — principally by
philologists. Indeed, the glory of Hindoo-Koosh-
Pamir seems altogether to have departed. Pro-
fessor Max Miiller, to whom Aryan philology owes
so much, will not say more now, than that he holds
by the conviction that the seat of the primitive
Aryans was " somewhere in Asia." Dr. Schrader

278 THE ARYAN QUESTION. ti

sums up in favour of European Russia; while Herr
Penka would have us transplant the home of the
primitive Aryans from Pamir in the far east to the
Scandinavian peninsula in the far west.

I must refer those who desire to acquaint them-
selves with the philological arguments on which
these conclusions are based to the recently pub-
lished works of Dr. Schrader and Canon Taylor; *
and to Penka's " Die Herkunft der Arier," which,
in spite of the strong spice of the Uhlan which
runs through it, I have found extremely well worth
study. I do not pretend to be able to look at the
Aryan question under any but the biological aspect;
to which I now turn.

Any biologist who studies the history of the
Aryan question, and, taking the philological facts
on trust, regards it exclusively from the point of
view of anthropology, will observe that, very early,
the purely biological conception of " race " illegiti-
mately mixed itself up with the ideas derived from
pure philology. It is quite proper to speak of
Aryan " people," because, as we have seen, the ex-
istence of the language implies that of a people
who speak it; it might be equally permissible to call
Latin people all those who speak Romance dia-
lects. But, just as the application of the term

* Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peo-
ples. Translated by F. B. Jevons, M.A., 1890. Taylor,
The Origin of the Aryans, 1890.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 279

Latin " race " to the divers people who speak Ko-
mance languages, at the present day, is none the
less absurd because it is common; so, it is quite
possible, that it may be equally wrong to call the
people who spoke the primitive Aryan dialects and
inhabited the primitive home, the Aryan race.
" Aryan " is properly a term of classification used
in philology. " Kace " is the name of a sub-divi-
sion of one of those groups of living things which
are called " species " in the technical language of
Zoology and Botany; and the term connotes the
possession of characters distinct from those of the
other members of the species, which have a strong
tendency to appear in the progeny of all members
of the races. Such race-characters may be either
bodily or mental, though in practice, the latter, as
less easy of observation and definition, can rarely be
taken into account. Language is rooted half in
the bodily and half in the mental nature of man.
The vocal sounds which form the raw materials of
language could not be produced without a peculiar
conformation of the organs of speech; the enuncia-
tion of duly accented syllables would be impossible
without the nicest co-ordination of the action of
the muscles which move these organs; and such
co-ordination depends on the mechanism of certain
portions of the nervous system. It is therefore
conceivable that the structure of this highly com-
plex speaking apparatus should determine a man's
linguistic potentiality; that is to say, should en-

280 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

able him to use a language of one class and not of
another. It is further conceivable that a particu-
lar linguistic potentiality should be inherited and
become as good a race mark as any other. As a
matter of fact, it is not proven that the linguistic
potentialities of all men are the same. It is
affirmed, for example, that, in the United States,
the enunciation and the timbre of the voice of an
American-born negro, however thoroughly he may
have learned English, can be readily distinguished
from that of a white man. But, even admitting
that differences may obtain among the various races
of men, to this extent, I do not think that there is
any good ground for the supposition that an infant
of any race would be unable to learn, and to use
with ease, the language of any other race of men
among whom it might be brought up. History
abundantly proves the transmission of languages
from some races to others; and there is no evidence,
that I know of, to show that any race is incapable
of substituting a foreign idiom for its native tongue.
From these considerations it follows that com-
munity of language is no proof of unity of race, is
not even presumptive evidence of racial identity.*

* Canon Taylor {Origin of the Aryans, p. 31) states
that " Cuno .... was the first to insist on what is now
looked on as an axiom in ethnology — that race is not co-
extensive with language," in a work published in 1871.
I may be permitted to quote a passage from a lecture
delivered on the 9th of January, 1870, which brought me
into a great deal of trouble. " Physical, mental, and
moral peculiarities go with blood and not with language.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 281

All that it does prove is that, at some time or other,
free and prolonged intercourse has taken place be-
tween the speakers of the same language. Phi-
lology, therefore, while it may have a perfect right
to postulate the existence of a primitive Aryan
" people/' has no business to substitute " race " for
" people." The speakers of primitive Aryan may
have been a mixture of two or more races, just as
are the speakers of English and of French, at the
present time.

The older philological ethnologists felt the dif-
ficulty which arose out of their identification of
linguistic with racial affinity, but were not dis-
mayed by it. Strong in the prestige of their great
discovery of the unity of the Aryan tongues, they
were quite prepared to make the philological and
the biological categories fit, by the exercise of
a little pressure on that about which they
knew less. And their judgment was often uncon-
sciously warped by strong monogenistic proclivities,
which, at bottom, however respectable and philan-
thropic their origin, had nothing to do with sci-
ence. So the patent fact that men of Aryan speech
presented widely diverse racial characters was ex-
plained away by maintaining that the physical

In the United States the negroes have spoken English
for generations; but no one on that ground would call
them Englishmen, or expect them to differ physically,
mentally, or morally from other negroes." — Pall Mall
Gazette, Jan. 10, 1870. But the "axiom in ethnology"
had been implied, if not enunciated, before my time; for
example, by Desmoulins in 1826 (See above p, 215.)

2S2 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

differentiation was post-Aryan; to put it broadly,
that the Aryans in Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir were truly
of one race; but that, while one colony, subjected
to the sweltering heat of the Gangetic plains, had
fined down and darkened into the Bengalee, an-
other had bleached and shot up, under the cool and
misty skies of the north, into the semblance of
Pomeranian Grenadiers; or of blue-eyed, fair-
skinned, six-foot Scotch Highlanders. I do not
know that any of the Uhlans who fought so vigor-
ously under this flag are left now. I doubt if any
one is prepared to say that he believes that the in-
fluence of external conditions, alone, accounts for
the wide physical differences between Englishmen
and Bengalese. So far as India is concerned, the
internal evidence of the old literature sufficiently
proves that the Aryan invaders were " white " men.
It is hardly to be doubted that they intermixed
with the dark Dravidian aborigines; and that the
high-caste Hindoos are what they are in virtue of
the Aryan blood which they have inherited,* and

* I am unable to discover good grounds for the severity
of the criticism, in the name of " the anthropologists,"
with which Professor Max Miiller's assertion that the
same blood runs in the veins of English soldiers " as in
the veins of the dark Bengalese," and that there is " a
legitimate relationship between Hindoo, Greek, and Teu-
ton," has been visited. So far as I know anything about
anthropology, I should say that these statements may be
correct literally, and probably are so substantially. I
do not know of any good reason for the physical differ-
ences between a high-caste Hindoo and a Dravidian. ex-
cept the Aryan blood in the veins of the former: and the

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 283

of the selective influence of their surroundings
operating on the mixture.

The assumption that, as there must have been
a primitive Aryan people, in the philological sense,
so that people must have constituted a race in the
biological sense, is pretty generally made in modern
discussions of the Aryan problem. But whether
the men of the primitive Aryan race were blonds
or brunets, whether they had long or round heads,
were tall or were short, are hotly debated questions,
into the discussion of which considerations quite
foreign to science are sometimes imported. The
combination of swarthiness with stature above the
average and a long skull, confer upon me the serene
impartiality of a mongrel; and, having given this
pledge of fair dealing, I proceed to state the case
for the hypothesis I am inclined to adopt. In do-
ing so, I am aware that I deliberately take the shil-
ling of the recruiting-sergeant of the Light Bri-
gade, and I warn all and sundry that such is the
case.

Looking at the discussions which have taken
place from a purely anthropological point of view,
the first point which has struck me is that the prob-
lem is far more complicated and difficult than
many of the disputants appear to imagine; and the
second, that the data upon which we have to go

strength of the infusion is probably quite as great in
some Hindoos as in some English soldiers.

os^ THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

are grievously insufficient in extent and in pre-
cision. Our historical records cover such an in-
finitesimally small extent of the past life of human-
ity, that we obtain little help from them. Even so
late as 1500 b. a, northern Eurasia lies in historical
darkness, except for such glimmer of light as may
be thrown here and there by the literatures of
Egypt and of Babylonia. Yet, at that time, it is
probable that Sanskrit, Zend, and Greek, to say
nothing of other Aryan tongues, had long been dif-
ferentiated from primitive Aryan. Even a thou-
sand years later, little enough accurate information
is to be had about the racial characters of the Euro-
pean and Asiatic tribes known to the Greeks. We
are thrown upon such resources as archaeology and
human palaeontology have to offer, and notwith-
standing the remarkable progress made of late
years, they are still meagre. Nevertheless, it
strikes me that, from the purely anthropological
side, there is a good deal to be said in favour of
the two propositions maintained by the new school
of philologists; first, that the people who spoke
" primitive Aryan " were a distinct and well-
marked race of mankind; and, secondly, that the
area of the distribution of this race, in primaeval
times, lay in Europe, rather than in Asia.

For the last two thousand years, at least, the
southern half of Scandinavia and the opposite or
southern shores of the Baltic have been occupied
by a race of mankind possessed of very definite

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 285

characters. Typical specimens have tall and mas-
sive frames, fair complexions, blue eyes, and yel-
low or reddish hair — that is to say, they are pro-
nounced blonds. Their skulls are long, in the
sense that the breadth is usually less, often much
less, than four-fifths of the length, and they are
usually tolerably high. But in this last respect
they vary. Men of this blond, long-headed race
abound from eastern Prussia to northern Belgium;
they are met with in northern France and are
common in some parts of our own islands. The
people of Teutonic speech, Goths, Saxons, Ale-
manni, and Franks, who poured forth out of the
regions bordering the North Sea and the Baltic,
to the destruction of the Roman Empire, were men
of this race; and the accounts of the ancient his-
torians of the incursions of the Gauls into Italy and
Greece, between the fifth and the second centuries
b. c, leave little doubt that their hordes were
largely, if not wholly, composed of similar men.
The contents of numerous interments in southern
Scandinavia prove that, as far back as archeology
takes us into the so-called neolithic age, the great
majority of the inhabitants had the same stature
and cranial peculiarities as at present, though their
bony fabric bears marks of somewhat greater rug-
gedness and savagery. There is no evidence that
the country was occupied by men before the advent
of these tall, blond long-heads. But there is proof
of the presence, along with the latter, of a small

286 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

percentage of people with broad skulls; skulls, that
is, the breadth of which is more, often very much
more, than four-fifths of the length.

At the present day, in whatever direction we
travel inland from the continental area occupied
by the blond long-heads, whether south-west, into
central France; south, through the Walloon prov-
inces of Belgium into eastern France; into Swit-
zerland, South Germany, and the Tyrol; or south-
east, into Poland and Eussia; or north, into Fin-
land and Lapland, broad-heads make their appear-
ance, in force, among the long-heads. And,
eventually, we find ourselves among people who
are as regularly broad-headed as the Swedes and
North Germans are long-headed. As a general
rule, in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and South
Germany, the increase in the proportion of broad
skulls is accompanied by the appearance of a larger
and larger proportion of men of brunet com-
plexion and of a lower stature; until, in central
France and thence eastwards, through the Ce-
vennes and the Alps of Dauphiny, Savoy, and Pied-
mont, to the western plains of North Italy, the
tall blond long-heads * practically disappear, and

* I may plead the precedent of the good English words
" block-head " and " thick-head " for " broad-head " and
" long-head," but I cannot say that they are elegant. I
might have employed the technical terms brachycephali
and dolichocephali. But it cannot be said that they are
much more graceful ; and, moreover, they are sometimes
employed in senses different from that which I have given
in the definition of broad-heads and long-heads. The

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 287

are replaced by short brunet broad-heads. The
ordinary Savoyard may be described in terms the
converse of those which apply to the ordinary
Swede. He is short, swarthy, dark-eyed, dark-
haired, and his skull is very broad. Between the
two extreme types, the one seated on the shores of
the North Sea and the Baltic, and the other on
those of the Mediterranean, there are all sorts of
intermediate forms, in which breadth of skull may
be found in tall and in short blond men, and in tall
brunet men.

There is much reason to believe that the brunet
broad-heads, now met with in central France and
in the west central European highlands, have in-
habited the same region, not only throughout the
historical period, but long before it commenced;
and it is probable that their area of occupation was
formerly more extensive. For, if we leave aside
the comparatively late incursions of the Asiatic
races, the centre of eruption of the invaders of the
southern moiety of Europe has been situated in
the north and west. In the case of the Teutonic
inroads upon the Empire of Eome, it undoubtedly
lay in the area now occupied by the blond long-

cephalic index is a number which expresses the relation
of the breadth to the length of a skull, taking the latter
as 100. Therefore " broad-heads " have the cephalic in-
dex above 80 and " long-heads " have it below 80. The
physiological value of the difference is unknown; its
morphological value depends upon the observed fact of the
constancy of the occurrence of either long skulls or broad
skulls among large bodies of mankind.

288 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

heads; and, in that of the antecedent Gaulish inva-
sions, the physical characters ascribed to the lead-
ing tribes point to the same conclusion. Whatever
the causes which led to the breaking out of bounds
of the blond long-heads, in mass, at particular
epochs, the natural increase in numbers of a vigor-
ous and fertile race must always have impelled
them to press upon their neighbours, and thereby
afford abundant occasions for intermixture. If, at
any given pre-historic time, we suppose the lowlands
verging on the Baltic and the North Sea to have
been inhabited by pure blond long-heads, while the
central highlands were occupied by pure brunet
short-heads, the two would certainly meet and in-
termix in course of time, in spite of the vast belt of
dense forest which extended, almost uninterrupted-
ly, from the Carpathians to the Ardennes; and the
result would be such an irregular gradation of the
one type into the other as we do, in fact, meet with.
On the south-east, east, and north-east,
throughout what was once the kingdom of Poland,
and in Finland, the preponderance of broad-heads
goes along with a wide prevalence of blond com-
plexion and of good stature. In the extreme
north, on the other hand, marked broad-headed-
ness is combined with low stature, swarthiness, and
more or less strongly Mongolian features, in the
Lapps. And it is to be observed that this type pre-
vails increasingly to the eastward, among the cen-
tral Asiatic populations.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 289

The population of the British Islands, at the
present time, offers the two extremes of the tall
blond and the short brunet types. The tall blond
long-heads resemble those of the continent; but
our short brunet race is long-headed. Brunet
broad-heads, such as those met with in the central
European highlands, do not exist among us. This
absence of any considerable number of distinctly
broad-headed people (say with the cephalic index
above 81 or 82) in the modern population of the
United Kingdom is the more remarkable, since the
investigations of the late Dr. Thurnam, and others,
proved the existence of a large proportion of tall
broad-heads among the people interred in British
tumuli of the neolithic age. It would seem that
these broad-skulled immigrants have been ab-
sorbed by an older long-skulled population; just as,
in South Germany, the long-headed Alemanni have
been absorbed by the older broad-heads. The
short brunet long-heads are not peculiar to our
islands. On the contrary, they abound in western
France and in Spain, while they predominate in
Sardinia, Corsica, and South Italy, and, it may be,
occupied a much larger area in ancient times.

Thus, in the region which has been under con-
sideration, there are evidences of the existence of
four races of men — (1) blond long-heads of tall
stature, (2) brunet broad-heads of short stature, (3)
mongoloid brunet broad-heads of short stature, (4)

brunet long-heads of short stature. The regions
183

290 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

in which these races appear with least admixture
are — (1) Scandinavia, North Germany, and parts
of the British Islands; (2) central France, the
central European highlands, and Piedmont; (3)
Arctic and eastern Europe, central Asia; (-i) the
western parts of the British Islands and of France;
Spain, South Italy. And the inhabitants of the
localities which lie between these foci present the
intermediate gradations, such as short blond
long-heads, and tall brunet short-heads, and long-
heads which might be expected to result from their
intermixture. The evidence at present extant is
consistent with the supposition that the blond
long-heads, the brunet broad-heads, and the brunet
long-heads have existed in Europe throughout his-
toric times, and very far back into pre-historic
times. There is no proof of any migration of
Asiatics into Europe, west of the basin of the
Dnieper, down to the time of Attila. On the con-
trary, the first great movements of the European
population of which there is any conclusive evi-
dence is that series of Gaulish invasions of the east
and south, which ultimately extended from North
Italy as far as Galatia in Asia Minor.

It is now time to consider the relations between
the phenomena of racial distribution, as thus de-
fined, and those of the distribution of languages.
The blond long-heads of Europe speak, or have
spoken, Lithuanian, Teutonic, or Celtic dialects,

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 291

and they are not known to have ever used any but
these Aryan languages. A large proportion of the
brunet broad-heads once spoke the Ligurian and
the Rhsstic dialects, which are believed to have
been non-Aryan. But, when the Romans made
acquaintance with Transalpine Gaul, the inhabit-
ants of that country between the Garonne and the
Seine (Caesar's Celtica) seem, at any rate for the
most part, to have spoken Celtic dialects. The
brunet long-heads of Spain and of France appear to
have used a non- Aryan language, that Euskarian
which still lives on the shores of the Bay of Biscay.
In Britain there is no certain knowledge of their
use of any but Celtic tongues. What they spoke in
the Mediterranean islands and in South Italy does
not appear.

The blond broad-heads of Poland and West
Russia form part of a people who, when they first
made their appearance in history, occupied the
marshy plains imperfectly drained by the Vistula,
on the west, the Duna, on the north, and the
Dnieper and Bug, on the south. They were known
to their neighbours as Wends, and among them-
selves as Serbs and Slavs. The Slavonic languages
spoken by these people are said to be most closely
allied to that of the Lithuanians, who lay upon
their northern border. The Slavs resemble the
South Germans in the predominance of broad-
heads among them, while stature and complexion
vary from the, often tall, blonds who prevail in Po-

292 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

land and Great Russia to the, often short, "branets
common elsewhere. There is certainly nothing in
the history of the Slav people to interfere with the
supposition that, from very early times, they have
been a mixed race. For their country lies between
that of the tall, blond, long-heads on the north,
that of the short brunet broad-heads of the Euro-
pean type on the west, and that of the short brunet
broad-heads of the Asiatic type on the east: and,
throughout their history, they have either thrust
themselves among their neighbours, or have been
overrun and trampled down by them. Gauls and
Goths have traversed their country, on their way to
the east and south: Finno-tataric people, on their
way to the west, have not only done the like, but
have held them in subjection for centuries. On
the other hand, there have been times when their
western frontier advanced beyond the Elbe; in-
deed, it is asserted that they have sent colonies
to Holland and even as far as southern England.
A large part of eastern Germany; Bohemia,
Moravia, Hungary; the lower valley of the Danube
and the Balkan peninsula, have been largely or
completely Slavonised; and the Slavonic rule and
language, which once had trouble to hold their own
in West Russia and Little Russia, have now ex-
tended their sway over all the Finno-tataric popu-
lations of Great Russia; while they are advanc-
ing, among those of central Asia, up to the fron-
tiers of India on the south and to the Pacific

vi TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 293

on the extreme east. Tims it is hardly possible
that fewer than three races should have contributed
to the formation of the Slavonic people; namely,
the blond long-heads, the European brunet broad-
heads, and the Asiatic brunet broad-heads. And,
in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it is cer-
tainly permissible to suppose that it is the first race
which has furnished the blond complexion and the
stature observable in so many, especially of the
northern Slavs, and that the brunet complexion
and the broad skulls must be attributed to the
other two. But, if that supposition is permissible,
then the Aryan form and substance of the Slavonic
languages may also be fairly supposed to have pro-
ceeded from the blond long-heads. They could
not have come from the Asiatic brunet broad-
heads, who all speak non- Aryan languages; and the
presumption is against their coming from the
brunet broad-heads of the central European high-
lands, among whom an apparently non-Aryan
language was largely spoken, even in historical
times.

In the same way, the tall blond tribes among
the Fins may be accounted for as the product of
admixture. The great majority of the Finno-
tataric people are brunet broad-heads of the
Asiatic type. But that the Fins proper have long
been in contact with Aryans is evidenced by the
many words borrowed from Aryan which their
language contains. Hence there has been abun-

294 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

dant opportunity for the mixture of races; and
for the transference to some of the Fins of more
or fewer of the physical characters of the Aryans
and vice versa. On any hypothesis, the frontier
between Aryan and Finno-tataric people must have
extended across west-central Asia for a very long
period; and, at any point of this frontier, it has
been possible that mixed races of blond Fins or of
brunet Aryans should be formed.

So much for the European people who now
speak Celtic, or Teutonic, or Slavonian, or Lithu-
anian tongues; or who are known to have spoken
them, before the supersession of so many of the
early native dialects by the Komance modifications
of the language of Home. "With respect to the
original speakers of Greek and Latin, the unravel-
ling of the tangled ethnology of the Balkan penin-
sula and the ordering of the chaos of that of Italy
are enterprises upon which I do not propose to en-
ter. In regard to the first, however, there are a
few tolerably satisfactory data. The ancient
Thracians were proverbially blue-eyed and fair-
haired. Tall blonds were common among the an-
cient Greeks, who were a long-headed people; and
the Sphakiots of Crete, probably the purest repre-
sentatives of the old Hellenes in existence, are tall
and blond. But considering that Greek colonisa-
tion was taking place on a great scale in the eighth
century b. c, and that, centuries earlier and later,
the restless Hellene had been fighting, trading,

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 295

plundering and kidnapping, on both sides of the
.ZEgean, and perhaps as far as the shores of Syria
and of Egypt, it is probable that, even at the dawn
of history, the maritime Greeks were a very mixed
race. On the other hand, the Dorians may well
have preserved the original type; and their famous
migration may be the earliest known example of
those movements of the Aryan race which were, in
later times, to change the face of Europe. Analogy
perhaps justifies a guess, that those ethnological
shadows, the Pelasgi, may have been an earlier
mixed population, like that of Western Gaul and
of Britain before the Teutonic invasion. At any
rate, the tall blond long-heads are so well repre-
sented in the oldest history of the Balkan penin-
sula, that they may be credited with the Aryan
languages spoken there. And it may be that the
tradition which peopled Phrygia with Thracians
represents a real movement of the Aryan race into
Asia Minor, such as that which in after years car-
ried the Gauls thither.

The difficulties in the way of a probable identi-
fication of the people among whom the various
dialects of the Latin group developed themselves,
with any race traceable in Italy in historical
times, are very great. In addition to the Italic
" aborigines " northern Italy was peopled by
Ligurian brunet broad-heads; with Gauls, prob-
ably, to a large extent, blond long-heads; with
Illyrians, about whom nothing is known. Besides

296 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

these, there were those perplexing people the
Etruscans, who seem to have been, originally,
brunet long-heads. South Italy and Sicily present
a contingent of " Sikels," Phoenicians and Greeks;
while over all, in comparatively modern times, fol-
lows a wash of Teutonic blood. The Latin dialects
arose, no one knows how, among the tribes of Cen-
tral Italy, encompassed on all sides by people of
the most various physical characters, who were
gradually absorbed into the eternally widening
maw of Eome, and there, by dint of using the
same speech, became the first example of that won-
derful ethnological hotch-potch miscalled the Latin
race. The only trustworthy guide here is archaeo-
logical investigation. A great advance will have
been made when the race characters of the pre-
historic people of the terramare (who are identified
by Helbig * with the primitive Umbrians) become
fully known.

I cannot learn that the ancient literatures of
India and of Persia give any definite information
about the complexion of the Indo-Iranians, beyond
conveying the impression that they were what we
vaguely call white men. But it is important to
note that tall blond people make their appearance
sporadically among the Tadjiks of Persia and of

* Die Italiker in der Poebene, 1879. See for much
valuable information respecting the races of the Balkan
and Italic peninsulse, Zampa's essay " Vergleichende An-
thropologische Ethnographic von Apulien," Zeitschrift
fiir Ethnologic, xviii., 188G.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 297

Turkestan; that the Siah-posh and Galtchas of the
mountainous harrier between Turkestan and India
are such; and that the same characters obtain large-
ly among the Kurds on the western frontier of
Persia, at the present day. The Kurds and the
Galtchas are generally broad-headed, the others
are long-headed. These people and the ancient
Alans thus form a series of stepping-stones between
the blond Aryans of Europe and those of Asia,
standing up amidst the flood of Finno-tataric peo-
ple which has inundated the rest of the interval
between the sources of the Dnieper and those of
the Oxus. If only more was known about the
Sarmatians and the Scythians of the oldest his-
torians, it is not improbable, I think, that we should
discover that, even in historical times, the area
occupied by the blond long-heads of Aryan speech
has been, at least temporarily, continuous from the
shores of the North Sea to central Asia.

Suppose it to be admitted, as a fair working
hypothesis, that the blond long-heads once ex-
tended without a break over this vast area, and that
all the Aryan tongues have been developed out of
their original speech, the question respecting the
home of the race when the various families of
Aryan speech were in the condition of inceptive
dialects remains open. For all that, at first, ap-
pears to the contrary, it may have been in the
west, or in the east, or anywhere between the two.

298 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

In seeking for a solution of this obscure problem,
it is an important preliminary to grasp the. truth
that the Aryan race must be much older than the
primitive Aryan speech. It is not to be seriously
imagined that the latter sprang suddenly into ex-
istence, by the act of a jealous Deity, apparently
unaware of the strength of man's native tendency
towards confusion of speech. But if all the di-
verse languages of men were not brought suddenly
into existence, in order to frustrate the plans of
the audacious bricklayers of the plain of Shinar;
if this professedly historical statement is only an-
other " type," and primitive Aryan, like all other
languages, was built up by a secular process of de-
velopment, the blond long-heads, among whom it
grew into shape, must for ages have been, philo-
logically speaking, non-Aryans, or perhaps one
should say " pro- Aryans." I suppose it may be
safely assumed that Sanskrit and Zend and Greek
were fully differentiated in the year 1500 b. c. If
so, how much further back must the existence of
the primitive Aryan, from which these proceeded,
be dated? And how much further yet, that real
juventus mundi (so far as man is concerned) when
primitive Aryan was in course of formation?
And how much further still, the differentiation of
the nascent Aryan blond long-head race from the
primitive stock of mankind?

If any one maintains that the blond long-headed
people, among whom, by the hypothesis, the

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 290

primitive A^an language was generated may have
formed a separate race as far back as the pleisto-
cene epoch, when the first unquestionable records
of man make their appearance, I do not see that
he goes beyond possibility — though, of course, that
is a very different thing from proving his case.
But, if the blond long-heads are thus ancient, the
problem of their primitive seat puts on an alto-
gether new aspect. Speculation must take into
account climatal and geographical conditions
widely different from those which obtain in
northern Eurasia at the present day. During
much of the vast length of the pleistocene period,
it would seem that men could no more have lived
either in Britain north of the Thames, or in Scan-
dinavia, or in northern Germany, or in northern
Russia, than they can live now in the interior of
Greenland, seeing that the land was covered by a
great ice sheet like that which at present shrouds
the latter country. At that epoch, the blond long-
heads cannot reasonably be supposed to have occu-
pied the regions in which we meet with them in the
oldest times of which history has kept a record.

But even if we are content to assume a vastly
less antiquity for the Aryan race; if we only make
the assumption, for which there is considerable
positive warranty, that it has existed in Europe
ever since the end of the pleistocene period — when
the fauna and flora assumed approximately their
present condition and the state of things called

300 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

Eecent by geologists set in — we have to reckon
with, a distribution of land and water, not only
very different from that which at present obtains
in northern Eurasia, but of such a nature that it
can hardly fail to have exerted a great influence
on the development and the distribution of the
races of mankind. (See page 250, note f.)

At the present time, four great separate bodies
of water, the Black Sea, the Caspian, the Sea of
Aral, and Lake Balkash, occupy the southern end
of the vast plains which extend from the Arctic
Sea to the highlands of the Balkan peninsula, of
Asia Minor, of Persia, of Afghanistan, and of the
high plateaus of central Asia as far as the Altai.
They lie for the most part between the parallels
of 40° and 50° N. and are separated by wide
stretches of barren and salt-laden wastes. The
surface of Balkash is 514 feet, that of the Aral
158 feet above the Mediterranean, that of the Cas-
pian eighty-five feet below it. The Black Sea is in
free communication with the Mediterranean by the
Bosphorus and the Dardanelles; but the others, in
historical times, have been, at most, temporarily
connected with it and with one another, by rela-
tively insignificant channels. This state of things,
however, is comparatively modern. At no very dis-
tant period, the land of Asia Minor was continu-
ous with that of Europe, across the present site of
the Bosphorus, forming a barrier several hundred
feet high, which dammed up the waters of the

ti TILE ARYAN QUESTION. 301

Black Sea. A vast extent of eastern Europe and
of western central Asia thus became a huge reser-
voir, the lowest part of the lip of which was prob-
ably situated somewhat more than 200 feet above
the sea level, along the present southern watershed
of the Obi, which flows into the Arctic Ocean.
Into this basin, the largest rivers of Europe, such
as the Danube and the Volga, and what were then
great rivers of Asia, the Oxus and Jaxartes, with
all the intermediate affluents, poured their waters.
In addition, it received the overflow of Lake Bal-
kash, then much larger; and, probably, that of the
inland sea of Mongolia. At that time, the level
of the Sea of Aral stood at least 60 feet higher than
it does at present.* Instead of the separate Black,
Caspian, and Aral seas, there was one vast Ponto-
Aralian Mediterranean, which must have been pro-
longed into arms and fiords along the lower val-
leys of the Danube, the Volga (in the course of
which Caspian shells are now found as far as the
Kuma), the Ural, and the other affluent rivers —
while it seems to have sent its overflow, northward,
through the present basin of the Obi. At the
same time, there is reason to believe that the north-
ern coast of Asia, which everywhere shows signs of
recent slow upheaval, was situated far to the south
of its present position. The consequences of this

* This is proved by the old shore-marks on the hill
of Kashkanatao in the midst of the delta of the Oxus.
Some authorities put the ancient level very much higher —
200 feet or more (Keane, Asia, p. 408).

302 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

state of things have an extremely important bear-
ing on the question under discussion. In the first
place, an insular climate must be substituted for
the present extremely continental climate of west
central Eurasia. That is an important fact in
many ways. For example, the present eastern eli-
matal limitations of the beech could not have ex-
isted, and if primitive Aryan goes back thus far,
the arguments based upon the occurrence of its
name in some Aryan languages and not in others
lose their force. In the second place, the European
and the Asiatic moieties of the great Eurasiatic
plains were cut off from one another by the
Ponto-Aralian Mediterranean and its prolonga-
tions. In the third place, direct access to Asia
Minor, to the Caucasus, to the Persian highlands,
and to Afghanistan, from the European moiety
was completely barred; while the tribes of eastern
central Asia were equally shut out from Persia
and from India by huge mountain ranges and table
lands. Thus, if the blond long-head race existed
so far back as the epoch in which the Ponto-Aralian
Mediterranean had its full extension, space for its
development, under the most favourable condi-
tions, and free from any serious intrusion of for-
eign elements from Asia, was presented in north-
ern and eastern Europe.

When the slow erosion of the passage of the
Dardanelles drained the Ponto-Aralian waters into
the Mediterranean, they must have everywhere

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 303

fallen as near the level of the latter as the make of
the country permitted, remaining, at first, con-
nected by such straits as that of which the traces
yet ]3ersist between the Black and the Caspian,
the Caspian and the Aral Seas respectively. Then,
the gradual elevation of the land of northern
Siberia, bringing in its train a continental climate,
with its dry air and intense summer heats, the
loss by evaporation soon exceeded the greatly re-
duced supply of water, and Balkash, Aral, and
Caspian gradually shrank to their present dimen-
sions. In the course of this process, the broad
plains between the separated inland seas, as soon
as they were laid bare, threw open easy routes to
the Caucasus and to Turkestan, which might well
be utilised by the blond long-heads moving east-
ward through the plains, contemporaneously left
dry, south and east of the Ural chain. The same
process of desiccation, however, would render the
route from east central Asia westward as easily
practicable; and, in the end, the Aryan stock might
easily be cut in two, as we now find it to be, by the
movement of the Mongoloid brunet broad-heads to
the west.

Thus we arrive at what is practically Latham's
Sarmatian hypothesis — if the term " Sarmatian "
is stretched a little, so as to include the higher
parts and a good deal of the northern slopes of
Europe between the Ural and the German Ocean;
an immense area of country, at least as large as

304 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

that now included between the Black Sea, the At-
lantic, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean.

If we imagine the blond long-head race to have
been spread over this area, while the primitive
Aryan language was in course of formation, its
north-western and its south-eastern tribes will have
been 1,500, or more, miles apart. Thus, there will
have been ample scope for linguistic differentia-
tion; and, as adjacent tribes were probably influ-
enced by the same causes, it is reasonable to sup-
pose that, at any given region of the periphery the
process of differentiation, whether brought about
by internal or external agencies, will have been
analogous. Hence, it is permissible to imagine
that, even before primitive Aryan had attained
its full development, the course of that develop-
ment had become somewhat different in different
localities; and, in this sense, it may be quite true
that one uniform primitive Aryan language never
existed. The nascent mode of speech may very
early have got a twist, so to speak, towards Lithu-
anian, Slavonian, Teutonic, or Celtic, in the north
and west; towards Thracian and Greek, in the
south-west; towards Armenian in the south; to-
wards Indo-Iranian in the south-east. With the
centrifugal movements of the several fractions of
the race, these tendencies of peripheral groups
would naturally become more and more intensi-
fied in proportion to their isolation. No doubt, in
the centre and in other j^arts of the periphery of

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 305

the Aryan region, other dialectic groups made
their appearance; but whatever development they
may have attained, these have failed to maintain
themselves in the battle with the Finno-tataric
tribes, or with the stronger among their own kith
and kin.*

Thus I think that the most plausible hypo-
thetical answers which can be given to the two
questions which we put at starting are these.
There was and is an Aryan race — that is to say,
the characteristic modes of speech, termed Aryan,
were developed among the blond long-heads alone,
however much some of them may have been
modified by the importation of non-Aryan ele-
ments. As to the " home " of the Aryan race, it
w r as in Europe, and lay chiefly east of the central
highlands and west of the Ural. From this re-
gion it spread west, along the coasts of the North
Sea to our islands, wdiere, probably, it met the
brunet long-heads; to France, where it found both
these and the brunet short-heads; to Switzerland
and South Germany, where it impinged on the
brunet short-heads; to Italy, where brunet short-
heads seem to have abounded in the north and
long-heads in the south; and to the Balkan penin-
sula, about the earliest inhabitants of which we
know next to nothing. There are two ways to

* See the views of J. Schmidt (stated and discussed in
Schrader and Jevons, pp. 63-67), with which those here set
forth are substantially identical.
184

306 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

Asia Minor, the one over the Bosphorus and the
other through the passes of the Caucasus, and the
Aryans may well have utilised both. Finally, the
south-eastern tribes probably spread themselves
gradually over west Turkestan, and, after evolving
the primitive Indo-Iranian dialect, eventually col-
onised Persia and Hindostan, where their speech
developed into its final forms. On this hypothesis,
the notion that the Celts and the Teutons migrated
from about Pamir and the Hindoo-Koosh is as far
from the truth as the supposition that the Indo-
Iranians migrated from Scandinavia. It supposes
that the blond long-heads, in what may be called
their nascent Aryan stage, that is before their dia-
lects had taken on the full Aryan characteristics,
were spread over a wide region which is, conven-
tionally, European; but which, from the point of
view of the physical geographer, is rather to be
regarded as a continuation of Asia. Moreover,
it is quite possible and even probable, that the
blond long-heads may have arrived in Turkestan
before their language had reached, or at any rate
passed beyond, the stage of primitive Aryan;
and that the whole process of differentiation
into Indo-Iranian took place during the long
asres of their residence in the basin of the
Oxus. Thus, the question whether the seat of
the primitive Aryans was in Europe, or in Asia,
becomes very much a debate about geographical
terminology.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 307

The foregoing arguments in favour of Latham's
" Sarmatian hypothesis " have been based upon
data which lie within the ken of history or may
be surely coneluded by reasoning backwards from
the present state of things. But, thanks to the
investigations of the pre-historic archaeologists and
anthropologists during the last half-century, a vast
mass of positive evidence respecting the distribution
and the condition of mankind in the long interval
between the dawn of history and the commence-
ment of the recent epoch has been brought to light.

During this period, there is evidence that men
existed in all those regions of Europe which have
yet been properly examined; and such of their
bony remains as have been discovered exhibit no
less diversity of stature and cranial conformation
than at present. There are tall and short men;
long-skulled and broad-skulled men; and it is
probably safe to conclude that the present contrast
of blonds and brunets existed among them when
they were in the flesh. Moreover it has become
clear that, everywhere, the oldest of these people
were in the so-called neolithic stage of civilisation.
That is to say, they not merely used stone imple-
ments which were chipped into shape, but they
also employed tools and weapons brought to an
edge by grinding. At first they know little or noth-
ing of the use of metals; they possess domestic
animals and cultivated plants and live in houses of
simple construction.

308 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

In some parts of Europe little advance seems
to have been made, even down to historical times.
But in Britain, France, Scandinavia, Germany,
Western Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the plain
of the Po, very probably also in the Balkan penin-
sula, culture gradually advanced until a relatively
high degree of civilisation was attained. The in-
itial impulse in this course of progress appears to
have been given by the discovery that metal is a
better material for tools and weapons than stone.
In the early days of pre-historic archaeology, Nils-
son showed that, in the interments of the middle
age, bronze largely took the place of stone, and
that, only in the latest, was iron substituted for
bronze. Thus arose the generalisation of the oc-
currence of a regular succession of stages of cul-
ture, which were somewhat unfortunately denomi-
nated the " ages " of stone, bronze, and iron. For
a long time after this order of succession in the
same locality (which, it was sometimes forgotten,
has nothing to do with chronological contempo-
raneity in different localities) was made out, the
change from stone to bronze was ascribed to for-
eign, and, of course, Eastern influences. There
were the ubiquitous Phoenician traders and the
immigrant Aryans from the Hindoo-Koosh, ready
to hand. But further investigation has proved *

* " Proved " is perhaps too strong a word. But the
evidence set forth by Dr. Much {Die Kupferzeit in Eu-
ropa, 1886) in favour of a copper stage of culture among
the inhabitants of the pile-dwellings is very weighty.

vi TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 309

for various parts of Europe and made it probable
for others, that though the old order of succes-
sion is correct it is incomplete, and that a copper
stage must be interpolated between the neolithic
and the bronze stages. Bronze is an artificial pro-
duct the formation of which implies a knowledge
of copper; and it is certain that copper was, at a
very early period, smelted out of the native ores,
by the people of central Europe who used it.
When they learned that the hardness and tough-
ness of their metal were immensely improved by
alloying it with a small quantity of tin, they for-
sook copper for bronze, and gradually attained a
wonderful skill in bronze-work. Finally, some of
the European people became acquainted with iron,
and its superior qualities drove out bronze, as
bronze had driven out stone, from use in the manu-
facture of implements and weapons of the best
class. But the process of substitution of copper
and bronze for stone was gradual, and, for common
purposes, stone remained in use long after the in-
troduction of metals.

The pile-dwellings of Switzerland have yielded
an unbroken archaeological record of these changes.
Those of eastern Switzerland ceased to exist soon
after the appearance of metals, but in those of the
Lakes of Neuchatel and Bienne the history is con-
tinued through the stage of bronze to the begin-
ning of that of iron. And in all this long series of
remains, which lay bare the minutest details of

310 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

the life of the pile-dwellers, from the neolithic
to the perfected bronze stage, there is no indication
of any disturbance such as must have been caused
by foreign invasion; and such as was produced by
intruders, shortly after the iron stage was reached.
Undoubtedly the constructors of the pile-dwell-
ings must have received foreign influences through
the channel of trade, and may have received them
by the slow immigration of other races. Their
amber, their jade, and their tin show that they had
commercial intercourse with somewhat distant re-
gions. The amber, however, takes us no further
than the Baltic; and it is now known that jade is
to be had within the boundaries of Europe, while
tin lay no further off than north Italy. An
argument in favour of oriental influence has been
based upon the characters of certain of the culti-
vated plants and domesticated animals. But even
that argument does not necessarily take us be-
yond the limits of south-eastern Europe; and it
needs reconsideration in view of the changes of
physical geography and of climate to which I have
drawn attention.

In connection with this question there is an-
other important series of facts to be taken into
consideration. "When, in the seventeenth century,
the Eussians advanced beyond the Ural and began
to occupy Siberia, they found that the majority of
the natives used implements of stone and bone.
Only a few possessed tools or weapons of iron,

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 3H

which had reached them by way of commerce; the
Ostiaks and the Tartars of Tom, alone, extracted
their iron from the ore. It was not until the in-
vaders reached the Lena, in the far east, that they
met with skilful smiths among the Jakuts,* who
manufactured knives, axes, lances, battle-axes, and
leather jerkins studded with iron; and among the
Tunguses and Lamuts, who had learned from the
Jakuts.

But there is an older chapter of Siberian his-
tory which was closed in the seventeenth century,
as that of the people of the pile-dwellings of Swit-
zerland had ended when the Eomans entered Hel-
vetia. Multitudes of sepulchral tumuli, termed
like those of European Eussia, " kurgans," are
scattered over the north Asiatic plains, and are
especially agglomerated about the upper waters of
the Jenisei. Some are modern, while others, ex-
tremely ancient, are attributed to a quasi-mythical
people, the Tschudes. These Tschudish kurgans
abound in copper and gold articles of use and lux-
ury, but contain neither bronze nor iron. The
Tschudes procured their copper and their gold
from the metalliferous rocks of the Ural and the
Altai; and their old shafts, adits, and rubbish heaps

* Andree, Die Metalle bei den Naturvolkern (p. 114).
It is interesting to note that the Jakuts have always been
pastoral nomads, formerly shepherds, now horse-breeders,
and that they continue to work their iron in the primi-
tive fashion; as the argument that metallurgic skill im-
plies settled agricultural life not unfrequently makes its
appearance.

312 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

led the Eussians to the rediscovery of the forgotten
stores of wealth. The race to which the Tschudes
belonged and the age of the works which testify
to their former existence, are alike unknown. But
seeing that a rumour of them appears to have
reached Herodotus, while, on the other hand, the
pile-dwelling civilisation of Switzerland may per-
haps come down as late as the fifth century b. c,
the possibility that a knowledge of the technical
value of copper may have travelled from Siberia
westward must not be overlooked. If the idea of
turning metals to account must needs be Asiatic,
it may be north Asiatic just as well as south
Asiatic. In the total absence of trustworthy
chronological and anthropological data, speculation
may run wild.

The oldest civilisations for which we have an,
even approximately, accurate chronology are those
of the valleys of the Nile and of the Euphrates.
Here, culture seems to have attained a degree of per-
fection, at least as high as that of the bronze stage,
six thousand years ago. But before the inter-
mediation of Etruscan, Phoenician, and Greek trad-
ers, there is no evidence that they exerted any
serious influence upon Europe or northern Asia.
As to the old civilisation of Mesopotamia, what is
to be said until something definite is known about
the racial characters of its originators, the Acca-
dians? As matters stand, they are just as likely
to have been a group of the same race as the Egyp-

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 313

tians, or the Dravidians, as anything else. And
considering that their culture developed in the ex-
treme south of the Euphrates valley, it is difficult
to imagine that its influence could have spread to
northern Eurasia except by the Phoenician (and
Carian?) intermediation which was undoubtedly
operative in comparatively late times.

Are we then to bring down the discovery of
the use of copper in Switzerland to, at earliest,
1500 b. c, and to put it down to Phoenician hints?
But why copper? At that time the Phoenicians
must have been familiar with the use of bronze.
And if, on the other hand, the northern Eurasiatics
had got as far as copper, by the help of their own
ingenuity, why deny them the capacity to make
the further step to bronze? Carry back the bor-
rowing system as far as we may, in the end we
must needs come to some man or men from whom
the novel idea started, and who after many trials
and errors gave it practical shape. And there
really is no ground in the nature of things for sup-
posing that such men of practical genius may not
have turned up, independently, in more races than
one.

The capacity of the population of Europe for
independent progress while in the copper and early
bronze stage — the " palaao-metallic " stage, as it
might be called — appears to me to be demonstrated
in a remarkable manner by the remains of their
architecture. From the crannog to the elaborate

314 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

pile-dwelling, and from the rudest enclosure to the
complex fortification of the terramare, there is an
advance which is obviously a native product. So
with the sepulchral constructions; the stone cist,
with or without a preservative, or memorial cairn,
grows into the chambered graves lodged in tumuli;
into such mesalithic edifices as the dromic vaults
of Maes How and New Grange; to culminate in the
finished masonry of the tombs of Mycenae, con-
structed on exactly the same plan. Can any one
look at the varied series of forms which lie be-
tween the primitive five or six flat stones fitted
together into a mere box, and such a building as
Maes How, and yet imagine that the latter is the
result of foreign tuition? But the men who built
Maes How, without metal tools, could certainly
have built the so-called " treasure-house " of My-
cenae, with them.

If these old men of the sea, the heights of
Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir and the plain of Shinar, had
been less firmly seated upon the shoulders of
anthropologists, I think they would long since
have seen that it is at least possible that the early
civilisation of Europe is of indigenous growth;
and that, so far as the evidence at present accu-
mulated goes, the neolithic culture may have at-
tained its full development, copper may have
gradually come into use, and bronze may have suc-
ceeded copper, without foreign intervention.

So far as I am aware, every raw material em-

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 315

ployed in Europe up to the palaso-metallic stage,
is to be found within the limits of Europe; and
there is no proof that the old races of domesticated
animals and plants could not have been developed
within these limits. If any one chose to main-
tain, that the use of bronze in Europe originated
among the inhabitants of Etruria and radiated
thence, along the already established lines of
traffic to all parts of Europe, I do not see that his
contention could be upset. It would be hard to
prove either that the primitive Etruscans could
not have discovered the way to manufacture bronze,
or that they did not discover it and become a great
mercantile people in consequence, before Phoeni-
cian commerce had reached the remote shores of
the Tyrrhene Sea.

Can it be safely concluded that the palaao-
metallic culture which we have been considering
was the appanage of any one of the western
Eurasiatic races rather than another? Did it arise
and develop among the brunet or the blond long-
heads, or among the brunet short-heads? I do
not think there are any means of answering these
questions, positively, at present. Schrader has
pointed out that the state of culture of the primi-
tive Aryans, deduced from philological data, close-
ly corresponds with that which obtained among
the pile-dwellers in the neolithic stage. But the
resemblance of the early stages of civilisation

316 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

among the most different and widely separated
races of mankind, should warn us that archaeology
is no more a sure guide in questions of race than
philology.

With respect to the osteological characters of
the people of the Swiss pile-dwellings information
is as yet scanty. So far as the present evidence
goes, they appear to have comprised both broad-
heads and long-heads, of moderate stature.* In
France, England, and Germany, both long and
broad skulls are found in tumuli belonging to the
neolithic stage. In some parts of England the
long skulls, and in others the broad skulls, accom-
pany the higher stature. In the Scandinavian
peninsula, nine-tenths of the neolithic people are
decided long-heads: in Denmark, there is a much
larger proportion of broad-heads.

In view of all the facts known to me (which
cannot be stated in greater detail in this place), I
am disposed to think that the blond long-heads,
the brunet long-heads, and the brunet broad-heads
have existed on the continent of Europe through-

* Professor Virchow has guardedly expressed the opin-
ion that the oldest inhabitants of the Swiss pile-dwell-
ings were broad-heads, and that later on (commencing
before the bronze stage) there was a gradual infusion of
long-heads among them (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xvii.,
1885). There is independent evidence of the existence
of broad-heads in the Cevennes during the neolithic period,
and I should be disposed to think that this opinion may
well be correct; but the examination of the evidence on
which it is. at present, based does not lead me to feel very
confident about it.

vi TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 317

out the Recent period: that only the former two
at first inhabited our islands; but that a mixed
race of tall broad-heads, like some of the Black-
foresters of the present day, so excellently de-
scribed by Ecker, migrated from the continent and
formed that tall contingent of the population
which has been identified (rightly or wrongly)
with the Belgas by Thurnam and which seems to
have subsequently lost itself among the predomi-
nant brunet and blond long-heads.

I do not think there is anything to warrant
the conclusion that the palaBO-metallic culture of
Europe took its origin among the blond long-head
(or supposed Aryan) race; or that the people of
the Swiss pile-dwellings belonged to that race.
The long-heads among them may just as likely
have been brunets. In north-eastern Italy there
is clear evidence of the superposition of at least
four stages of culture, in which that of the copper
and bronze using terramare people comes second;
a stage marked by Etruscan domination occupies
the third place; and that is followed by the stage
which appertains to the Gauls, with their long
swords and other characteristic iron work. In
western Switzerland, on the other hand, at La
Tene, and elsewhere, similar relics show that the
Gauls followed upon the latest population of the
pile-dwellings among whom traces of Etruscan in-
fluence (though not of dominion) are to be found.
Helbig supposes the terramare people to have been

318 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

Greco-Latin-speaking Pelasgi, and consequently
Aryan. But we cannot suppose the people of the
pile-dwellings of Switzerland to have been speakers
of primitive Greco-Latin (if ever there was such
a language). And if the Gauls were the first
speakers of Celtic who got into Switzerland, what
Aryan language can the people of the pile-dwell-
ings have spoken? *

As I have alreadv mentioned, there is not the
least doubt that man existed in north-western
Europe during the Pleistocene or Quaternary
epoch. It is not only certain that men were con-
temporaries of the mammoth, the hairy rhinoceros,
the reindeer, the cave bear, and other great
carnivora, in England and in France, but a great
deal has been ascertained about the modes of life
of our predecessors. They were savage hunters,
who took advantage of such natural shelters as
overhanging rocks and caves, and perhaps built
themselves rough wigwams; but who had no do-
mestic animals and have left no sign that they
cultivated plants. In many localities there is evi-
dence that a very considerable interval — the so-
called hiatus — intervened between the time when
the Quaternary or palaeolithic men occupied par-

* See Dr. Munro's excellent work, The Lake Dwellings
of Europe, for La Tene. Readers of Professor Rhys' re-
cent articles (Scottish Review, 1890) may suggest that the
pile-dwelling people spoke the Gaedhelic form of Celtic,
and the Gauls the Brythonic form.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 310

ticular caves and river basins and the accumula-
tion of the debris left by their neolithic successors.
And, in spite of all the warnings against negative
evidence afforded by the history of geology, some
have very positively asserted that this means a
complete break between the Quaternary and the
Recent populations — that the Quaternary popula-
tion followed the retreating ice northwards and
left behind them a desert which remained unpeo-
pled for ages. Other high authorities, on the con-
trary, have maintained that the races of men who
now inhabit Europe may all be traced back to the
Great Ice Age. When a conflict of opinion of
this kind obtains among reasonable and instructed
men, it is generally a safe conclusion that the evi-
dence for neither view is worth much. Certainly
that is the result of my own cogitations with re-
gard to both the hiatus doctrine (in its extreme
form) and its opposite — though I think the latter
by much the more likely to turn out right. But I
hesitate to adopt it on the evidence which has
been obtained up to this time.

No doubt, human bones and skulls of various
types have been discovered in close proximity to
paleolithic implements and to skeletons of quater-
nary quadrupeds; no doubt, if the bones and skulls
in question were not human, their contemporaneity
would hardly have been questioned. But, since
they are human, the demand for further evidence
really need not be ascribed to mere conservative

320 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

prejudice. Because the human "biped differs from
all other bipeds and quadrupeds, in the tendency
to put his dead out of sight in various ways; com-
monly by burial. It is a habit worthy of all respect
in itself, but generative of subtle traps and griev-
ous pitfalls for the unwary investigator of human
palaeontology. For it may easily happen, that the
bones of him that " died o' Wednesday/' may thus
come to lie alongside the bones of animals that
were extinct thousands of years before that Wed-
nesday; and yet the interment may have been
effected so many thousands of years ago that no
outward sign betrays the difference in date. In all
investigations of this kind, the most careful and
critical study of the circumstances is needful if
the results are to be accepted as perfectly trust-
worthy.

In the case of the remains found in a cave of the
valley of the Neander, near Diisseldorf, half a
century ago — the characters of which gave rise to
a vast amount of discussion at that time and subse-
quently — the circumstances of the discovery were
but vaguely known. The skeleton was met with
in a deposit, the loess, which is known to be of
quaternary age; there was no evidence to show
how it came there. Consequently, not only was
its exact age justly and properly declared to be a
matter of doubt; but those who, on scientific or
other grounds, were inclined to minimise its im-
portance could put forth plausible speculations

vi THE AltYAN QUESTION. 321

about its nature which do not look so well under
the light thrown by a more advanced science of
Anthropology. It could be and it was suggested
that the Neanderthal skeleton was that of a
strayed idiot; that the characters of the skull were
the result of early synostosis or of late gout; and,
in fact, any stick was good enough to beat the dog
withal.

As some writings of mine on the subject led to
my occupation of a prominent position among the
belaboured dogs of that day, I have taken a mild
interest in watching the gradual rehabilitation of
my old friend of the Neanderthal among normal
men, which has been going on of late years. It
has come to be generally admitted that his remark-
able cranium is no more than a strongly-marked
example of a type which occurs, not only among
other prehistoric men, but is met with, sporadic-
ally, among the moderns; and that, after all, I was
not so wrong as I ought to have been, when I in-
dicated such points of similarity among the skulls
found in our river-beds and among the native races
of Australia.* However, doubts still clung about
the geological age of the various deposits in which
skulls of the Neanderthal type were subsequently
found; and it was not until the year 1886 that two
highly-competent observers, Messrs. Fraipont and
Lohest, the one an anatomist, the other a geolo-
gist, furnished us with evidence such as will bear

* See p. 202 of this volume.

185

322 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

severe criticism. At the mouth of a cave in the
commune of Spy:, in the Belgian province of
Namur, Messrs. Fraipont and Lohest discovered
two skeletons of the Neanderthal type; and the
elaborate account of their investigations which
they have published appears to me to leave little
room for doubt that the men of Spy fabricated
the pakeolithic implements, and were the contem-
poraries of the characteristic quaternary quadru-
peds, found with them. The anatomical charac-
ters of the skeletons bear out conclusions which are
not flattering to the appearance of the owners.
They were short of stature but powerfully built,
with strong, curiously-curved thigh-bones, the
lower ends of which are so fashioned that they
must have walked with a bend at the knees. Their
long depressed skulls had very strong brow ridges;
their lower jaws, of brutal depth and solidity,
sloped away from the teeth downwards and back-
wards, in consequence of the absence of that espe-
cially characteristic feature of the higher type of
man, the chin prominence. Thus these skulls are
not only eminently " Xeanderthaloid," but they
supply the proof that the parts wanting in the
original specimen harmonised in lowness of type
with the rest.

After a very full discussion of the anatomical
characters of these skulls, M. Fraipont says:

To sum up, we consider ourselves to be in a position

to say that, having regard merely to the anatomical struc-

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 328

ture of the man of Spy, he possessed a greater number of
pithecoid characters than any other race of mankind.*

And after enumerating these lie continues:

The other and much more numerous characters of the
skull, of the trunk, and of the limbs seem to be all human.
Between the man of Spy and an existing anthropoid ape
there lies an abyss.

Now that is pleasant reading for me, because,
in 1863, I committed myself to the assertion that
the Neanderthal skull was " the most pithecoid of
human crania yet discovered," yet that " in no
sense can the Neanderthal bones be regarded as
the remains of a human being intermediate be-
tween men and apes " f and " that the fossil re-
mains of Man hitherto discovered do not seem to
me to take us appreciably nearer to that lower
pithecoid form, by the modification of which he
has, probably, become what he is." J

As the evidence stood seven and twenty years
ago, in fact, it would have been imprudent to as-
sume that the Neanderthal skull was anything but
a case of sporadic reversion. But, in my anxiety
not to overstate my case, I understated it. The
Neanderthaloid race is " appreciably nearer,"
though the approximation is but slight. In the
words of M. Fraipont:

* Fraipont et Lohest. " La Race humaine de Neander-
thal, ou de Canstatt, en Belgique," Archives de Biologie,
1886.

t See p. 204 supra. % Ibid, p. 208.

321 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

The distance which separates the man of Spy from the
modern anthropoid ape is undoubtedly enormous; be-
tween the man of Spy and the Dryopithecus it is a little
less. But we must be permitted to point out that if the
man of the later quaternary age is the stock whence exist-
ing races have sprung, he has travelled a very great way.

From the data now obtained, it is permissible to believe
that we shall be able to pursue the ancestral type of men
and the anthropoid apes still further, perhaps as far as
the eocene and even beyond.*

These conclusions hold good whatever the age
of the men of Spy; but they possess a peculiar
interest if we admit, as I think on the evidence
must be admitted, that these human fossils are of
pleistocene age. For, after all due limitations,
they give us some, however dim, insight into the
rate of evolution of the human species, and indi-
cate that it has not taken place at a much faster
or slower pace than that of other mammalia. And
if that is so, we are warranted in the supposition
that the genus Homo, if not the species which the
courtesy or the irony of naturalists has dubbed
sapiens, was represented in pliocene, or even in
miocene times. But I do not know by what
osteological peculiarities it could be determined
whether the pliocene, or miocene, man was sufri-

* " Where, then, must we look for primaeval Man ?
Was the oldest Homo sapiens, pliocene or miocene, or yet
more ancient? In still older strata do the fossilised bones
of an Ape more anthropoid <>r a Man more pithecoid than
any yel known a wail the researches of some unborn
palaeontologist?" — P. 208 supra.

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 325

ciently sapient to speak or not; * and whether, or
not, he answered to the definition " rational ani-
mal " in any higher sense than a dog or an ape
does.

There is no reason to suppose that the genus
Homo was confined to Europe in the pleistocene
age; it is much more probable that this, like other
mammalian genera of that period, was spread over
a large extent of the surface of the globe. At
that time, in fact, the climate of regions nearer the
equator must have been far more favourable to the
human species; and it is possible that, under such
conditions, it may have attained a higher develop-
ment than in the north. As to where the genus
Homo originated, it is impossible to form even a
probable guess. During the miocenc epoch, one
region of the present temperate zones would serve
as well as another. The elder Agassiz long ago
tried to prove that the well-marked areas of geo-
graphical distribution of mammals have their spe-
cial kinds of men; and, though this doctrine can-
not be made good to the extent which Agassiz main-
tained, yet the limitation of the Australian type
to New Holland,! the approximate restriction of

* I am perplexed by the importance attached by some
to the presence or absence of the so-called " genial " eleva-
tions. Does any one suppose that the existence of the
genio-hyo-glossus muscle, which plays so large a part
in the movements of the tongue, depends on that of these
elevations?

[f Unless I am right in extending it to Hindostan and
even further west. — 1894.]

32G THE ARYAN QUESTION. ti

the negro type to Ultra-Saharal Africa, and the
peculiar character of the population of Central and
South America, are facts which bear strongly in
favour of the conclusion that the causes which
have influenced the distribution of mammals in
general have powerfully affected that of man.

Let it be supposed that the human remains
from the caves of the Neanderthal and of Spy
represent the race, or one of the races, of men who
inhabited Europe in the quaternary epoch, can
any connection be traced between it and existing
races? That is to say, do any of them exhibit
characters approximating those of the Spy men
or other examples of the Neanderthaloid race?
Put in the latter form, I think that the question
may be safely answered in the affirmative. Skulls
do occasionally approach the Neanderthaloid type,
among both the brunet and the blond long-head
races. For the former, I pointed out the resem-
blance, long ago, in some of the Irish river-bed
skulls. For the latter, evidence of various kinds
may be adduced; but I prefer to cite the author-
ity of one of the most accomplished and cautious
of living anthropologists. Professor Yirchow was
led, by historical considerations, to think that the
Teutonic type, if it still remained pure and Tin-
defiled anywhere, should be discoverable among
the Frisians, in their ancient island homes on the
North German coast, remote from the great move-
ments of nations. In their tall stature and blond

vi TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. 327

complexion the Frisians fulfilled expectation; but
their skulls differed in some respects from those
of the neighbouring blond long-heads. The de-
pression, or flattening (accompanied by a slight
increase in breadth), which occurs occasionally
among the latter, is regular and characteristic
among the Frisians; and, in other respects, the
Frisian skull unmistakably approaches the Nean-
derthal and Spy type.* The fact that this re-
semblance exists is of none the less importance
because the proper interpretation of it is not yet
clear. It may be taken to be a pretty sure indi-
cation of the physiological continuity of the blond
long-heads with the pleistocene INeanderthaloid
men. But this continuity may have been brought
about in two ways. The blond long-heads may
exhibit one of the lines of evolution of the men
of the Neanderthaloid type. Or, the Frisians may
be the result of the admixture of the blond long-
heads with ISTeanderthaloid men; whose remains
have been found at Canstatt and at Gibraltar, as
well as at Spy and in the valley of the Neander;
and who, therefore, seem, at one time, to have oc-
cupied a considerable area in Western Europe.
The same alternatives present themselves when

*Virchow Beitrdge zur pTiysischen Anthropologic der
Dcut.schcn (Abh. tier Koniglichen Akademie der Wissen-
schaftcn zu Berlin, 187C). See particularly p. 238 for the
full recognition of the Neanderthaloid characters of
Frisian skulls and of the ethnological significance of the
similarity.

328 TIIE ARYAN QUESTION. vi

Neanderthaloid characters appear in skulls of other
races. If these characters belong to a stage in
the development of the human species, antecedent
to the differentiation of any of the existing races,
we may expect to find them in the lowest of these
races, all over the world, and in the early stages of
all races. I have already referred to the remark-
able similarity of the skulls of certain tribes of na-
tive Australians to the Neanderthal skull; and I
may add, that the wide differences in height be-
tween the skulls of different tribes of Australians
afford a parallel to the differences in altitude be-
tween the skulls of the men of Spy and those of the
grave rows of North Germany. Neanderthaloid
features are to be met with, not only in ancient
long skulls; those of the ancient broad-headed peo-
ple entombed at Borreby in Denmark, have been
often noted.

Eeckoncd by centuries, the remoteness of the
quaternary, or pleistocene, age from our own is
immense, and it is difficult to form an adequate
notion of its duration. Undoubtedly there is an
abysmal difference between the Neanderthaloia
race and the comely living specimens of the blond
long-heads with whom we arc familiar. But the
abyss of time between the period at which North
Europe was first covered with ice, when savages
pursued mammoths and scratched their portraits
with sharp stones in central France, and the pres-
ent day, ever widens as we learn more about the

vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 320

events which bridge it. And, if the differences be-
tween the Neandcrthaloid men and ourselves could
be divided into as many parts as that time con-
tains centuries, the progress from part to part
would probably be almost imperceptible.

END OF VOL. XIL.