PROCEEDINGS OF SECTIOX F. 565 



recall insectivorous forms ; the iinicuspid lower first bicuspid is an 

 insectivorous type, and is often quite marked in man ; the fifth cusp 

 on the lower second molar is a quadrumanous reversion ; the wrinkled 

 surface of the lower third molar is like that of the orang. There are 

 other features that might be named, illustrating the workings of the 

 law of atavism, by which parts once lost in evolution may reappear and 

 be reproduced." 



This may suggest extensive culture, or reading, on the part of the 

 nuthor ; but the statements arc loose and unscientific. It is one thing 

 for certain features in man's dentition to recall forms of teeth observed 

 in some of the lower animal orders ; it is quite another to affirm that 

 one condition is a reversion to the insectivorous type and another con- 

 dition a quadrumanous reversion. An abnormal turnip or potato may 

 " recall " the features of some famous politician. What follows ? 

 These are not instances of atavism. Evidence does not show that man 

 was ever either an insectivore or a quadrumanous being any more than 

 he was a galeopithecus or a carnivore, an amphibian or a fish. An 

 eye does not grow an ear, nor an ear an eye ; monkey or ape did not 

 evolve man, nor did man evolve monkey or ape. But as an eye and an 

 ear were and are evolved from something that was neither eye nor ear, 

 so man, monkey, and ape were evolved from some ancestral form that 

 was neither man, monkey, nor ape. No doubt there are in existence 

 certain species or varieties of plants and animals that have been derived 

 from existing forms by modification ; but such species or varieties are 

 comparatively few. Man, monkeys, and apes have the appearances of 

 terminal forms. The history of the common ancestor has either been 

 rubbed out or exists undiscovered in some part of the palimpsest. 

 When we begin to trace man's origin we must think, not in varieties 

 merely, but in orders and classes. Some variations or abnormalities, 

 therefore, will have a limited significance : they will be interesting 

 when compared with conditions found among other races of people. 

 Other variations or abnormalities will have a more extended bearing, 

 and will be found to raise questions of the origin and affinities not only 

 of man, but of mammals — if not of vertebrates generally. 



I fear I have been degenerating into generalisations, instead of 

 keeping to the facts of inquiry ; but a digression was inevitable sooner 

 or later, and having occurred at this stage it may be of some assistance 

 in passing in review other features of aboriginal structure. 



One important character of the skull has not been much studied 

 lately : I mean the conditions shown at the pterion as regards the 

 occurrence of an epipteric bone, or a fronto-squamous suture. These 

 conditions I have found very common in specimens recently examined, 

 much more common than I have anywhere found described. In some 

 series about 50 per cent, of specimens examined show a fronto-squamous 

 suture. Broca, many years ago, described the normal human arrange- 

 ment {i.e., the spheno-parietal articulation) as pterion en H ; and thi^ 

 normal simian arrangement {i.e., the fronto-squamous suture) as 

 q^terion retourne ; and the condition in which the temporal and sphenoid 

 only touch as pterion en K. Hartmann {Anthropoid Apes, 1885, pp. 



