XXIV. EARLY MAN 



No reference to the Mammalia is perfect or complete 

 without mention of man, the highest primate, the highest 

 form of the Mammalia ; for to-day science regards man as 

 the most perfect type of animal life — an animal endowed 

 with a high intelligence, mind, and separated from all the 

 rest of animal life by a wide and unbridged intellectual 

 chasm. 



From earliest times the attention of man has been called 

 to his own history and antiquity, and so diverse are opin- 

 ions in different lands that the state of information on the 

 subject may be said to be very unsatisfactory. But man 

 has probably existed for millions of years, at least this is 

 the opinion of the author, and authorities can be found who 

 accord the earliest man a date anywhere from one to six 

 million. It is conceded by the greatest scholars that there 

 has been a progression of life from lower to higher forms 

 in the life history of the globe. This will impress the most 

 indifferent observer who glances at a geological map. 

 The various ages from the first are well known, and in 

 every great museum the animals of the various periods are 

 shown. Thus it is believed in the late Archaean time 

 plants appeared ; protozoans crowded them closely. Then 

 in the Cambrian came the shells and radiates. Then in 

 the lower Silurian came the fishes, in the upper Devonian 

 the amphibians, and higher, in the Carboniferous period, 

 the true reptiles. Higher up, in Cenozoic time, the first 



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