26 Proceedings 
Is there any evidence for the existence of such belated repre- 
sentatives of the ancestral Ape-man? I propose to draw your 
attention to some recent discoveries, which, though of dubious 
interpretation, appear to point in this direction. I shall further 
venture to throw out some suggestions (pp.34f.) which I admit 
are speculative in the extreme, and of which strict science can 
take no account. It seems however, sometimes permissible for a 
Society such as ours to give the layman an opportunity of ask- 
ing questions or offering hints in all humility which may pro- 
voke enquiry on new lines. 
We need not be surprised if no actual remains of these 
stragglers in the human procession, if such there were, have as 
yet been found. The enormous denudation which followed the 
glacial age, and the presumable absence of the custom of burial, 
greatly reduce the chance of such a discovery. Moreover, ana- 
logy leads us to conclude that like all survivals they were few 
in number. There are now numerous tribes in outlying places, 
difficult of access, who maintain themselves in a state of extreme 
savagery in very small numbers, groups of a few thousands, or 
even hundreds, Collectively they form an almost infinitesimal 
fraction of the human race. Such are various Indian hill-tribes, 
the Veddas of Ceylon, the Andamanese, the Negritos of the 
Philippines, the Central African Pygmies, the Bushmen, the 
Digger Indians of N. America, and the now extinct Tasman- 
ians. Some of these were till recently in the palaeolithic stage. 
Most of them are characterized by certain common features— 
a small brain with few convolutions, a bony development of the 
face and jaws, long arms, short legs,and short stature. Although 
it is claimed by a small school of anthropologists that many of 
these tribes are degenerate, the weight of authority supports the 
view that for the most part their physical and mental character- 
istics and their geographical distribution prove them to be be- 
lated representatives of primitive man. The survival of these 
scattered and minute groups is of great significance. We are 
however, still very far from the semi-human stage, and must 
turn to the geological record. 
The famous Pithecanthropus erectus or Ape-man of Trinil 
in Java is known from the roof of a skull, two teeth and a femur 
