118 



The Journal of Heredity 



"To the late arrival at maturity of 

 the offspring,', which mij^ht not take 

 place until sc\'cral others had success- 

 ively put in an appearance, and to the 

 the duty thus entailed on the parents 

 of providinj^ them with food and pro- 

 tecting them, may be ascribed the first 

 incentive to the exercise of the mental 

 faculties. 



"From what has just been said it can 

 be seen that the principal factor affect- 

 ing the life history of earliest, and still 

 scarcely recognizal)le, type of man is the 

 length of time after birth before the 

 young attain maturity. This is the 

 beginning of family life and the social 

 instinct. 



"There is one characteristic in apes 

 and monkeys of the present age which 

 probably existed also in their pro- 

 genitors, and which is perhaps more 

 active in them than in any other species 

 of animal. At any rate it seems to be so 

 in caiJtivity, no matter how long tamed. 

 I refer to the spirit of destructiveness. 

 It may be owing to an excess of physical 

 acticity that this feature is so largely 

 developed. So ojjposed is it to any such 

 instinct as food-storage that it actually 

 renders the latter unthinkal^le. 



"This somewhat highly developed in- 

 stinct of destructiveness must have 

 taken a very long period to neutralize 

 and restrain, and in consequence acted 

 as a greatly retarding influence on rising 

 mankind. In fact, from the intellectual 

 point of view, but of course not from 

 the physical, ants are far more fitted 

 to be the progenitors of man than are 

 some simian species. Xot everything, 

 however, in this world has dei)ended or 

 depends on intellect. 



WHY PROTO-MAN BECAME CARNIVOROUS 



"When first Proto-man had to leave 

 a forest region, where alone there is an 

 abundance of food the year round, of 

 the kind he had been accustomed to, he 

 would have to resort to the ])icking of 

 grass seeds, or munching the leaves of 

 such trees as were not deciduous, or else 

 digging for roots. Failing that, he 

 would have to become carnivorous, for 

 ])art of the year at all events. That 

 eventually carni\'orous habits became 

 common is amj^ly jjroved by the remains 



found in the cave deposits. These are 

 all in the temperate regions of the 

 earth, and since none has hitherto been 

 found in the .tropics, it would seem to be 

 a fact that whilst he rem ined in the 

 tropics earliest man was purely vege- 

 tarian like his simian prede essors. 



"The next move on the part of man's 

 predecessors was the most m portant. 

 It consisted in a move to regions less 

 abundantly supplied with food, and 

 where he had to exercise his wits to live. 

 In time it devclo])ed into a i)eriod of 

 hard struggle. We are now approaching 

 the time when abundant relics of this 

 stage of mankind are to be found. 



"We must now try to visualize man 

 as he was at the stage when he could 

 first be called Homo primigenins. or- 

 tunately we have some remains to assist 

 us. He appears as a hairy creature 

 with skin of an uncertain brown color. 

 In bodily size he approaches the average 

 inodcrn man as regards height, but with 

 a longer body and shorter legs. The 

 legs were bandied, and as a result the 

 creature will have a wobbling walk. 

 The arms will be long. The head will 

 have small frontal development, but 

 be large behind, and probably dolicho- 

 cephalic. The nose will be flattened and 

 broad at the base; the jaws of great 

 power but the chin very receding. His 

 eye will be black and small but piercing, 

 and overhung with heavy bony ridges. 

 Perhaps this description may recall a 

 gorilla more than a man. Indeed in 

 most ways he was not far rem()\'ed from 

 the former. 



CLOTHING A LATE ACQUISITION 



"He will be imclothed, and for a 

 dwelling will seek a cave if in a moun- 

 tainous country. Hills with caves are, 

 however, the excei)tion rather than the 

 rule, and so for the most part his home 

 w^ill be bed, of leaves or grass in the 

 more inaccessible thickets, with rude 

 shelters of roughly thrown-together 

 branches. The absence of clothing will 

 l)revent his migration of his own free 

 will into the more unfavoral)le regions 

 to the northward, and it will n )t be 

 until he has learned to make use of the 

 skins of animals as a i:)rotection against 



