vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 325 



ciently sapient to speak or not; * and whether, or 

 not, he answered to the definition " rational ani- 

 mal " in any higher sense than a dog or an ape 

 does. 



There is no reason to suppose that the genus 

 Homo was confined 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 favourable to the 

 human species; and it is possible that, under such 

 conditions, it may have attained a higher develop- 

 ment than in the north. As to where the genus 

 Homo originated, it is impossible to form even a 

 probable guess. During the miocenc 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 geo- 

 graphical distribution of mammals have their spe- 

 cial kinds of men; and, though this doctrine can- 

 not be made good to the extent which Agassiz main- 

 tained, yet the limitation of the Australian type 

 to New Holland,! the approximate restriction of 



* I am perplexed by the importance attached by some 

 to the presence or absence of the so-called " genial " eleva- 

 tions. Does any one suppose that the existence of the 

 genio-hyo-glossus muscle, which plays so large a part 

 in the movements of the tongue, depends on that of these 

 elevations? 



[f Unless I am right in extending it to Hindostan and 

 even further west. — 1894.] 



