THE ARYAN QUESTION AND PREHISTORIC MAN 515 



definition " rational animal " in any higher sense than a dog or an 

 ape does. 



There is no reason to suppose that the genus homo was con- 

 fined 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 favorable to the human species ; and it is possible that, 

 under such conditions, it may have attained a higher development 

 than in the north. As to where the genus homo originated, it is 

 impossible to form even a probable guess. During the Miocene 

 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 geographical distribution of mammals 

 have their special kinds of men ; and, though this doctrine can not 

 be made good to the extent which Agassiz maintained, yet the 

 limitation of the Australian type to New Holland, the approxi- 

 mate restriction of the negro type to ultra-Saharal Africa, and the 

 peculiar character of the population of Central and South Amer- 

 ica, are facts which bear strongly in favor 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 Neander- 

 thaloid type, among both the brunet and the blond long-head 

 races. For the former, I pointed out the resemblance, 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 authority 

 of one of the most accomplished and cautious of living anthro- 

 pologists. Prof. Virchow was led, by historical considerations, 

 to think that the Teutonic type, if it still remained pure and unde- 

 filed anywhere, should be discoverable among the Frisians, in their 

 ancient island home on the north German coast, remote from 

 the great movement of nations. In their tall stature and blond 

 complexion the Frisians fulfilled expectation, but their skulls dif- 

 fered in some respects from those of the neighboring blond long- 

 heads. The depression, 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 re- 

 spects, the Frisian skull unmistakably approaches the Neander- 



