282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



increase in cranial capacity, probably no appreciable change in brain 

 anatomy. In the last 3,000 years, in which some evidence is available, 

 there is no sign of any improvement in native intelligence. Man's 

 actions are still governed more by his emotions and subconscious 

 mental elements than by his intellect. His savage instincts, that we 

 like to think began to be conquered thousands of years ago, are still 

 present beneath the surface and reappear at unexpected intervals 

 even in civilized man. Among the more backward modern races of 

 humanity they have scarcely changed. 



In short, our surviving species of Homo^ being one of the mam- 

 mals, is probably as definitely limited in his possibilities as are the 

 other species of that class. Just as we do not expect a dog to learn 

 algebra, although he can learn to open a door, so we probably ought 

 not to expect more from present-day man than his brain is capable 

 of attaining. As Hawkins (1930), the English paleontologist, sees 

 it : "Our mental capacity is a specific character." If this is the truth 

 of the matter, it may be over-optimistic to expect our own species to 

 rise far above his present stage of mentality. Notable improvement 

 along lines already established, and a raising of the other two-thirds 

 of the earth's population to or above the level of the present civilized 

 minority, may well take place over the centuries and thousands of 

 years yet remaining in the expectable future life of this species. 

 His contribution to biological progress will then have been made, 

 and, if history is to repeat itself, he will then be ready for conquest, 

 if not extermination, by some other type of being, perhaps some new 

 species of the Hominidae that has more innate capacity for progress. 



Whence may such a higher species originate? Will it be an out- 

 growth of the most highly civilized nations of today? The general 

 testimony of history suggests the contrary. The ancestral mammals 

 did not spring from the most advanced dinosaurs of the Mesozoic 

 era. Man and the great apes are traced back, not to the large special- 

 ized mammals of Eocene times, but to primitive generalized animals 

 related to the humble insectivores. The extraordinarily successful 

 Mongol dynasty of the Middle Ages arose not from the cultivated 

 Chinese of Nanking, but from a tribe of barbaric nomads of the 

 steppes. Likewise the most civilized nations of modern Europe did 

 not spring from the Romans of Caesar's day but from the forest bar- 

 barians around the Baltic. Perhaps, therefore, the progenitors of 

 the newer and better man will appear unnoticed in some remote and 

 backward corner of the world, where they can develop in obscurity, 

 while the well-known modern races of Homo sapiens contend with 

 each other for a transient supremacy. 



Just as it would have been difficult for even a most intelligent 

 trilobite to imagine the fish, which was destined to drive him from 



