676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the whole physical conformation of the country was totally different 

 from that which characterizes it now. Whether the evidence we now 

 possess justifies us in going back further, or not that we can get 

 back as far as the epoch of the drift is, I think, beyond any rational 

 question or doubt ; that may be regarded as something settled but 

 when it comes to a question as to the evidence of tracing back man 

 further than that and recollect drift is only the scum of the earth's 

 surface I must confess that to my mind the evidence is of a very 

 dubious character. 



Finally, we come to the very interesting question as to whether, 

 with such evidence of the existence of man in those times as we have 

 before us, it is possible to trace in that brief history any evidence of 

 the gradual modification from a human type somewhat different from 

 that which now exists to that which is met with at present. I must 

 confess that my opinion remains exactly what it was some eighteen 

 years ago, when I published a little book * which I was very sorry to 

 hear my friend Prof. Flower allude to yesterday, because I had hoped 

 that it would have been forgotten among the greater scandals of sub- 

 sequent times. I did there put forward the opinion that what is known 

 as the Neanderthal skull is, of human remains, that which presents the 

 most marked and definite characteristics of a lower type using the 

 langmagre in the same sense as we would use it in other branches of 

 zoology. I believe it to belong to the lowest form of human being of 

 which we have any knowledge, and we know from the remains accom- 

 panying that human being that, as far as all fundamental points of 

 structure were concerned, he was as much a man could wear boots 

 just as easily as any of us, so that I think the question remains pretty 

 much where it was. I don't know that there is any reason for doubt- 

 ing that the men who existed at that day were in all essential respects 

 similiar to the men who exist now. But I must point out to you that 

 this conviction is by no means inconsistent with the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. The horse which existed at that time was in all essential re- 

 spects identical with the horse which exists now. But we happen to 

 know that going back further in time the horse presents us with a 

 series of modifications by which it can be traced back from an earlier 

 type. Therefore it must be deemed possible that man is in the same 

 position, although the facts we have before us with respect to him tell 

 in neither one way nor the other. I have now nothing more to do than 

 to thank you for the great kindness and attention with which you have 

 listened to these informal remarks. Nature. 



1 " Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature." 



