346 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



long ascent remain to separate him from the species Homo 

 sapiens, essential man. 



By a strange phraseology Pithecanthropus is often spoken of 

 as " the missing link," as though instead of many thousands there 

 were only one intermediate form between man and his less 

 highly endowed relations. Still more serious misconceptions 

 are involved in the use of this term, as we shall see later. 



We have now passed in brief review the chief features of the 

 skull-cap : as to the molar teeth, they are large and coarse, such 

 as are appropriate to the skull : the premolar has not yet been 

 described. 



Especial interest attaches to the femur or thigh-bone : it is 

 distinctly human, and belongs without doubt to an animal which 

 walked erect. But with the erect attitude is correlated the dif- 

 ferentiation of the extremities into hands and feet, one of the 

 most important of human characteristics. 



As we have seen, the femur and skull-cap were not found 

 close together, but separated by an interval of 50 feet ; there is 

 thus no absolute proof that they belonged to the same animal, 

 though in view of the extraordinary rarity both of human and 

 simian fossil remains it would be very astonishing if they had 

 not. This is very generally admitted, and thus the animal they 

 represent has been fittingly designated Pithecanthropus ercctus — 

 the ape-like man, who walked erect. Attempts have been 

 made to portray him in the flesh, but these exercises of the 

 imagination are of no scientific value. Judging from the length 

 of the femur (455 mm.) his stature is supposed to have been 

 1700 mm., or about the same as that of an average Englishman. 



The operations of the mind doubtless find their noblest 

 expression in the language of speech, yet they also express 

 themselves eloquently in the achievements of the hand. The 

 works of man's hand are his embodied thoughts, and it is by 

 their means, much more than by the fragmentary and rare 

 remains of his corporeal frame, that we shall now be assisted 

 in our efforts to decipher, the earliest signs of his unwritten 

 story. 



We have seen that the most primitive member of the human 

 family hitherto discovered was in existence during the early 

 Pleistocene epoch, and if we may regard Pithecanthropus as 

 representing the prevailing race which peopled the Southern 

 hemisphere at that time we shall scarcely expect to find evidence 



