MODERN TROGLODYTES. 37 



tion that continuity is a universal law ; that it prevails everywhere, 

 and has prevailed throughout all time ; that its present innumerable 

 and intricate threads have been spun forth from the simplest conceiv- 

 able state of matter and motion, which from the beginning have been 

 subject to a uniform code of law a code of law growing more com- 

 plicated with time by the interaction and mutual influence of primi- 

 tive principles. 



The study of continuity presents many results very pertinent to 

 the great question, " How has Nature assumed the infinite beautiful 

 forms which engage our attention and admiration to-day?" The 

 probabilities in favor of the solution offered by the evolution theory 

 are much enhanced when we consider how insignificant in area, and 

 transient in operation, are many of the bridges connecting together 

 the islands and continents of forces and life. 



As we trace out with great pains the unbroken links stretching 

 between the most diverse facts and appearances, links which a cursory 

 view would never discover, we find that that theory which supposes a 

 community of origin and descent for all that now is, has a remarkable 

 body of evidence adducible in its favor. 



That Nature has arrived at its present state by the continuous 

 action of forces such as are now at work around us, has become so 

 widely-prevalent a conviction that Mill said, speaking of the inclusion 

 of special laws in general ones convergently, that the question Sci- 

 ence now asks is, " What are the fewest and simplest assumptions 

 which, being granted, the existing order of Nature would follow?" 



MODERN TEOGLODYTES. 



By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. 



THE Troglodytes or Cave-dwellers of ancient Nubia belonged to 

 a tribe which seems to have formed an intermediate link between 

 the Semitic and Ethiopian races, but which has become entirely ex- 

 tinct before the second century of the Christian era. Between Sidi 

 Elgor and Port Er-nassid (the ancient Berenice), on the shores of the 

 Red Sea, Dr. Brehm examined many of the limestone-caverns which 

 were the favorite haunts of these singular beings, and found no diffi- 

 culty in distinguishing the bones of the Coptic and Arabian burial- 

 places from the Troglodyte skeletons, which could be recognized by 

 their demi-simian skulls, their attenuated brachial and femoral bones, 

 and especially their narrow chests. 



These peculiarities Dr. Brehm ascribes to the unnatural habits of 

 the wretched cave-men, who, from cowardice or constitutional sloth, 

 passed the greater part of their existence in the penetralia of their 



