THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY 311 



this scientific .pursuit of the dead bones of the past does not 

 seem to 'me a very useful way of spending life. I am accus- 

 tomed ^.o this mode of study ; learned volumes have been writ- 

 ten in Sanscrit to explain the conjunction of the two vowels 

 'a' and 'u.' It is very learned, very ingenious, but not very 

 helpful. ... I am not concerned with my genealogy so much 

 as with my future. Our intellects can be more advantageously 

 employed than in finding our diversity from the ape. . . . 

 There may be no spirit, no soul; there is no proof of their 

 existence. If that is so, let us do away with shams and live 

 like animals. If, on the other hand, there is a soul to be looked 

 after, let us all strain our nerves to the task; there is no use in 

 digging into the sands of time for the skeletons of the past; 

 build your man for the future." (Smithson. Inst. Rpt. for 

 1921, pp. 432, 433.) It is to be hoped, however, that this 

 reactionary spirit is confined to the few, and that the accession 

 of this new primitive ancestor will be hailed with general 

 satisfaction. At any rate, we can wish him well, and trust 

 that the fossilized jaw of Dryopithecus will not lose caste so 

 speedily as that of Bropliopithecus. 



PropUopithecus, or Dryopithecus? Hylobatic, or troglodytic 

 afiinities? Such questions are scarcely the pivots on which 

 the world is turned! Nevertheless, we rejoice that Doctor 

 Gregory has again settled the former problem (provisorily, 

 at least) to his own satisfaction. More important, however, 

 than that of the dentition of Dryopithecus, is the crucial ques- 

 tion of whether or not Palaeontology is able to furnish evidence 

 of man's genetic continuity with this primitive pithecoid root. 

 Certainly, no effort has been spared to procure the much de- 

 sired proofs of our reputed bestial ancestry. The Tertiary 

 deposits of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the oceanic 

 islands have been diligently ransacked for fossil facts that 

 would be susceptible to an evolutionary interpretation. The 

 aprioristic criterion that all large-brained men are recent, and 

 all small-brained men with recessive chins are necessarily 

 ancient, has always been employed in evaluating the fossil 



