92 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB VOL. xill. (2) 



earlier and earlier. Circumstances being favourable to 

 character b, it will elaborate and pass through stages B to 

 B. Then circumstances favour the growth of a character c, 

 which similarly develops to become C and C, the while 

 that b, B and B appear respectively earlier in life. Thus 

 the life -history — youth, adolescence, maturity — of a given 

 species may be stated as all A. In its descendants such 

 life-history may be represented as youth and adolescence 

 A, maturity incipient b. In later descendants, youth may 

 be A, adolescence and maturity increasing degrees of 

 b — B ; and, in still later descendants, youth may be A, 

 adolescence the stages of b — B rapidly developed, ma- 

 turity c increasing, and so forth. 



Such a symbol as b may denote any given character — 

 for instance, the growth of ribs by a smooth Ammonite, 

 or the ability of Man to walk upright. 



This is only a short and partial summary of what was 

 more fully considered in the paper referred to ; but it is 

 sufficient for the present purpose. It is desired to point 

 out that, in accordance with this law of earlier inheritance, 

 the characters of adult and adolescent monkeys should 

 become characters retained by youthful Man. Or the 

 argument may be put the other way — if in youthful Man 

 are found special characters such as would be developed 

 in an arboreal quadruped, while they are unfitted or 

 unsuitable for a biped, then it is reasonable to infer that 

 Man had an arboreal quadruped for his immediate 

 ancestor.* 



It is now proposed to consider some of the characters 

 of youthful Man. 



* Immediate in an evolution sense — say, some million years ago— in a line of 

 ancestors whose developmental history would extend back some loo to 500 million 5'ears. 



