Mr. W. F. Stanley on Evoltition of the Human Foni). 



69 



Worcester Park Station. — London and South Western Railway. 

 Commiinieated by Messrs. S. F. Baker & Sons. 

 About 70 feet above Ordnance Datum. 

 Water overflows. 

 To sand, with water, 281 feet ; to mottled clay, 289 feet. 



57. — Notes upon the Evolution of the Highest Types of 

 Human Form, within historical times, in the most 

 HIGHLY cmLizED NATIONS. [Illustrated] . 



By W. F. Stanley, F.G.S. 

 (Bead December 9th, 1885). 



It is quite evident and naturalists are agreed that human 

 beings are of one species, although there are great variations in 

 size, form, colour, and intellectual capacity, this last being the 

 special mark of humanity. As these variations have no doubt 

 come about in the course of time, I thought it would be in- 

 teresting to our Society to make a few notes on such variations 

 as are evident within a relatively recent period, since man 

 attained that high form of intellectual development in which he 

 was able to deUneate his own image, or by his knowledge of arts 

 to preserve the remains of his own body. 



The earliest record of man's presence on the earth is found ui 

 the Upper Tertiary strata, which extend for a period in the 

 past that has been estimated by Dr. CroU at within a quarter of 

 a million to half a million of years. In this early period man 

 has left no higher record of his presence than a large number of 

 flakes of flint which he probably split off by the aid of another 

 flint to form such tools and weapons as his intelligence de- 

 manded. From this flint implement period until the present 

 time he appears from his remains to have been a slowly pro- 

 gressive bemg, and has left permanent records of his progression. 

 The rough flint implements disappear in the more recent strata, 

 and we then have the ground flint shaped to superior form, and 

 the invention of simple articles of domestic use in bone and 

 pottery. Then later we find he has the knowledge to reduce and 

 cast metals, and form alloys (bronze) which melt at a moderate 

 temperature, and afterwards to produce and work iron, which 

 relatively late discovery was possibly nearly contemporary with 

 the power of recording permanent architectural monuments of 

 his skill. 



The period at which man possessed the power of delmeating 

 his own form with approximate accuracy is possibly within 



