366 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



explained on the assumption that they are, as in other animals, 

 hereditary survivals. 



Wiedersheim has pointed out more than one hundred 

 and eighty rudimentary or vestigial structures belonging to 

 the human body, which indicate an evolutionary relation- 

 ship with lower vertebrates. It would require a considerable 

 treatise to present the discoveries in reference to man's 

 organization, as Wiedersheim has done in his Structure of 

 Man. As passing illustrations of the nature of some of these 

 suggestive things bearing on the question of man's origin 

 may be mentioned : the strange grasping power of the newly 

 born human infant, retained for a short time, and enabling 

 the babe to sustain its weight; the presence of a tail and 

 rudimentary tail muscles; of rudimentary ear muscles; of 

 gill-clefts, etc. 



Antiquity of Man. — The story of prehistoric man is im- 

 perfectly known, although sporadic explorations have already 

 accumulated an interesting series of evidences bearing on 

 the subject, such as primitive stone implements of human 

 manufacture, crude sketches of extinct animals by prehistoric 

 artists, and fossil remains of primitive man showing grada- 

 tions in the shape and capacity of skulls. All these cor- 

 related sources afford most convincing proofs of man's 

 great antiquity. He has left traces of his occupancy of 

 the Earth, especially in central and southwestern Europe 

 and in England, long before the dawn of the historical 

 period. 



The prehistoric stone implements are found associated 

 with the bones of extinct animals in caves, and imbedded in 

 the strata of soil and gravel that have remained undisturbed 

 for many centuries. They are of three grades: neoHths, the 

 more recent ones, carefully shaped with skill and artistic 

 feeling; palaeoliths, very ancient, rude, but evidently shaped 

 by design; and eoliths, rough stone chips bearing evidence of 



