THE LAST STEPS IN THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 60 L 



wlieu one compares it to the tritliiig mean clifferonceiS, one notices be- 

 tween the species, genera, families, and orders of animals coming after,, 

 and aiso when one takes into account tbe comi)aris()n of tliis volume of 

 the brain with that of the body. In order that tliis cerebral transfor- 

 mation should be accomplished it has required an unheard of time„ 

 defying- all our conjectures. 



Pliocene man has probably been found in America. Miocene man is 

 incontestable, though we have not been able to i>rove it clearly. Ikit 

 in the miocene the monkeys are seen for the first time with their pres- 

 ent characters. Man would then have established himself since their 

 ap[)earauce. Would evolution have chosen an animal whose posterior 

 member was organized for an arboreal life, was at the satne time 

 foot and hand, when by the side of and existing prior to it were ani- 

 nuils whose organization presented part of the wished-for characters ? 

 It is scarcely probable, and considering (I repeat), the number of inter- 

 mediate species which have been necessary before arriving to the pres- 

 ent constitution of our brain, it seems probable that the introduction 

 of man had taken place sooner in the eocene epoch by means of one of 

 the coudylarthres having already the principal morphlogical characters 

 of man, those relating to the brain excepted, that Cope shows us served 

 as intermediary to the marsupials and the most of the present mammals. 

 There the dilferentiations were made according with the diflerent modes 

 of life, wdiicli have given on one side, the branch of the ungulates, the 

 branch of the carnivores and inau}^ others that have disappeared with- 

 out founding a stock, on the other side, the branch of the (juadrumana, 

 and the human branch. 



The human type, that is the cerebral type before culminating in the 

 astonishing development which we perceive and beside which all the 

 rest is but accessory had then a i)roper stock, a stock that had been 

 the most central continuation of the general primitive trunk of the 

 mammals! In the present state of science they usually compare the 

 nudce up of the mammals to a tree ramified into numerous main branches, 

 each of these terminating in efllorescences higher in growth. These 

 are our better specialized groups, viz: the eipiida', and the rutninantia 

 among the ungulates, the lion or the dog among the carnivores, etc. 

 In the new system, the comi)arison with a growing tree of which the 

 central axis sends out the lateral branches would be more <;orrect, the 

 central stock continues to elevate itself as the Lombardy poplar, and 

 bears at its summit, man. 



IV.— CONCLUSION. 



We have examined the genealogy proposed by Hii^ckel, and the sys- 

 tt*ms proposed to replace it. Whether the vertebrates have had for 

 their starting point a worm with a soft body dest'tute of a skeleton, or 

 on the contrary, a crustacean i)Ossessing an entirely exterior skeleton, 

 we have j)reviously con(;luded that our genealogy has passed by the ga- 

 noid fishes to join with those called by i)al£eoatologistslabyriuthodouts, 



