THE LAXr STEPS IN THE (JENEALO(iY OF MAN. 093 



tlie liniiian line after having seen its foot ])artly transformed should take 

 again the original loot of its remoter ancestors ; on the other hand, we 

 have the details of the cranial and facial characters that result in man 

 from the great volume of his brain, the atrophj^ of the nasal fossie and 

 of their numerous posterior cavities (posterior nares) which has led to 

 the disappearance of the muzzle, the i)erfectiou (in compensation) of 

 touch and sight, which with the modifications that necessitated the 

 equilibrium of the skull, have raised him up to the bipedal attitude, and 

 have thus evolved an entirely new series of differential characters. 

 That which rules all is the already human cerebral type, but in a rudi- 

 mentary state among the monkeys, as it is the same type, amplified and 

 perfected in man. 



All the organs, foot, hand, teeth, thorax, pelvis, and digestive tract, 

 evolved among the mammals, have been transformed capriciously, have 

 taken different ways, and are specialized in different senses, sometimes 

 in the same line. One only remained stationary, or little varied; that 

 is the brain, except in man. In him or one of liis ancestors among the 

 primates it has taken its rise, it has grown and developed, bending 

 everything to its needs, subordinating everything to its own life, the 

 skull, the face, the whole body, putting on everthing its imprint. The 

 fish swims, the ruminant browses, the carnivore seeks his prey, the 

 monkey is arboreal, man thinks. Everything in him gravitates around 

 that characteristic. The philosopher has said truly : " Man is an intel- 

 ligence served by organs." 



We have descended then from the monkeys, or at least everything 

 appears as if we had descended from them. From what monkey known 

 or unknown ? I do not know; no one of the present Anthropoids has 

 assuredly been our ancestor. From several monkeys or a single one? 

 I do not know: and also do not know yet if I am monogenistic or poly- 

 genistic. In the study of the human races I see arguments for and 

 against both systems. Until further knowledge is arrived at, we must 

 reserve our opinion. 



V We must see what arguments comparative craniology will bring in 

 favor of or against this or that genealogy. At that time alone will we 

 be permitted to determine on the place that anthropology gives to man 

 in nature. Whatever may be the result arrived at, that place — believe 

 in(' — will be as enviable as you could desire. At the origin, towards 

 the beginning of the Miocene perhaps, monkey and man were but one; 

 a division takes place, the fissure has grown, has become a crevasse; 

 later an abyss, with talus more and njore scarped, like the canons of the 

 Colorado;— an abyss which our friend, Abel Ilovelacque, does not wish 

 to see, but that Messrs. Vogt and Huxley (little suspected of orthodoxy) 

 admit ; — an abyss that widens every day under our eyes, though permit- 

 ting still the recovery of those lost i)aths going from one side to the other, 

 (of which Huxley speaks in his preface to his book on "The Place of Man 

 in Nature,") but which sooner or later will become impassable by the 



