324 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



recovered a skull-cap, two femurs, both humeri, both ulnae (al- 

 most complete), the right radius, the left pelvic bone, a frag- 

 ment of the right scapula, five pieces of rib, and the right 

 clavicle. (Cf. Hugues Obermaier's article, Smithson. Inst. Rpt. 

 for 1906, pp. 394, 395.) "Whether they (the (bones) were 

 really in the Alluvial loam," says Virchow, "no one saw. . . . 

 The whole importance of the Neanderthal skull consists in 

 the honor ascribed to it from the very beginning, of having 

 rested in the Alluvial loam, which was formed at the time of 

 the early mammals." (Quoted by Ranke, "Der Mensch," II, 

 p. 485.) We know nothing, therefore, regarding the age of the 

 fragmentary skeleton; for, as Obermaier says: "It is certain 

 that its exact age is in no way defined, either geologically or 

 stratigraphically." {Loc. cit., p. 395.) 



The remains are no less enigmatic from the anthropological 

 standpoint. For while no doubt has been raised as to their 

 human character, they have given rise to at least a dozen con- 

 flicting opinions. Thus Professor Clemont of Bonn pronounced 

 the remains in question to be those of a Mongolian Cossack 

 shot by snipers in 1814, and cast by his slayers into the Feld- 

 hofer Grotte. The same verdict had been given by L. Meyer in 

 1864. C. Carter Blake (1864) and Karl Vogt (1863) declared 

 the skull to be that of an idiot. J. Barnard Davis (1864) 

 claimed that it had been artificially deformed by early 

 obliteration of the cranial sutures. Pruner-Bey (1863) said 

 that it was the skull of an ancient Celt or German; R. Wag- 

 ner (1864), that it belonged to an ancient Hollander; 

 Rudolf Virchow, that the remains were those of a primi- 

 tive Frieslander. Prof. G. Schwalbe of Strassburg erected 

 it into a new genus of the Anthropidce in 1901. In 1904, 

 however, he repented of his rashness and contented him- 

 self with calling it a distinct human species, namely. Homo 

 primigeniu-s, in contradistinction to Homo sapiens (modem 

 man). As we shall see presently, however, it is not a distinct 

 species, but, at most, an ancient variety or subspecies (race) 

 of the species Homo sapiens, differing from modem Europeans 



