598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



represented in his highest attributes is entirely apart from nature, the 

 importance of paleontology, as offering a part of the explanation of the 

 fundamental characteristics of man, is very greatly diminished. The 

 value of paleontology would then lie largely in an interpretation of the 

 setting or environment in which man is developing. 



With these considerations in mind, it appears of the greatest impor- 

 tance for us to obtain as full a history of the organic world, and as 

 satisfactory an interpretation of the processes therein concerned, as it 

 is possible to secuPe. Particularly is it desirable to have before us a 

 clear statement of that portion of the paleontological record which 

 leads from the higher vertebrates through the primate division to man. 



One of the important phases of general paleontological work which 

 must receive special attention is the early history of the primate order 

 with particular reference to the development of those characteristics 

 which are most prominent in the human family. We have, as yet, 

 accumulated too little evidence in this field. Among the characters 

 which must be followed would be ( 1 ) extraordinary brain development, 

 (2) the tendency to development of an -upright position, (3) the free- 

 ing of the anterior limbs from the work of locomotion and the develop- 

 ment in them of extraordinary adaptability. Whatever other interests 

 one may have, there is certainly no more alluring problem than tracing 

 from the primitive mammalia into the early primate those peculiar 

 characters through which later on primitive man began the process of 

 making nature subservient to himself. We may never know whether 

 the brain actually grew large first and requisitioned the hands, so that 

 the animal became bipedal and therefore finally erect in position, or 

 whether a tendency to erect position was directed by the frequent as- 

 suming of a vertical position in a tree-climbing ancestor; but it is not 

 beyond reason to presume that a thoroughly satisfactory paleontological 

 record might give us an explanation of the origin of these characters. 



The later primate history, or that which leads directly to the 

 human type, is also unfortunately incomplete, though most remarkable 

 advances have been made in the last few years. More missing links 

 have already been furnished than science was supposed to require a 

 few decades ago, but we can hardly be said to have one tenth of the 

 material that it is desirable to have in order to show the transition from 

 anthropoid to human, or from pithecanthropoid to the type of Spy or 

 Neanderthal. European paleontologists are at the present time making 

 rapid strides in filling the gaps of that portion of our ancestral chain 

 which falls in the Quaternary system, and we may look for other 

 important discoveries within the next decade. 



It is to be presumed that the greater part of the work on the late 

 Tertiary and Quaternary history of man will be carried on in the old 

 world. The writer sees no reason why in this important work Amer- 



