74 



morpha diverged. In the table, the more primitive and less 

 specialised ancestor has been adopted as the starting point. 

 From this early Anthropoid, or generalised Catarrhine Ape, 

 a series of forms arose, in which the erect position, accom- 

 panied by slight adaptations of the vertebral column, was 

 more and more perfectly assumed, while, at the same time, 

 the proportion of the upper to the lower limb, and of the 

 facial to the cranial region of the skull, was reduced, the 

 hallux or great toe became relatively longer, and the power 

 of bringing it into opposition with the other toes was 

 gradually lost. Finally, by the reduction in size of the male 

 canine teeth, and the modification of the hairy covering of 

 the body, these ancestral forms were converted by slight 

 changes into the primitive man.* 



This remote progenitor, who lived at least as far back 

 as Pliocene times, was like all other organisms subject to 

 the laws of variation and heredity, and, under the influence 

 of Natural Selection became gradually evolved into the 

 ancestors of the various races or varieties of the genus 

 Homo. There is no reason to regard these races as con- 

 stituting more than one species. 



* For an account of the Anthropoid Apes, and their relations to the 

 Anthropida, the student should consult Huxley's Anatomy of Vertebrated 

 Animals, p. 474, and Darwin's Descent of Man, chapters ii and xxi. 



