MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
A comparative study of the morphology of various living 
human groups confirms the idea that we are here con- 
cerned with an altogether special type, very different not 
only from the so-called superior races but also from the 
Eskimo, the Fuegians, the Bushmen, the Pygmies, African 
or Boone the Veddas, the Polynesians, the Melanesians, 
and even from the Australians, with whom attempts at 
comparison have often been made. 
The skeleton of the last-mentioned racial type is as dis- 
similar as possible to that of Neanderthal man. It can no 
longer.be asserted that the Australians are descended from 
our Mousterians; indeed, the idea of this relationship 
would probably not have occurred to the mind of the 
early observers, if in place of having only a skullcap they 
had had the opportunity of examining a complete skull 
with its facial portion. All that can be admitted in this 
respect is that the Australian group of men, certainly one 
of the least developed groups of modern mankind, is less 
far removed than other races from the primitive forms, 
and that in consequence, it ought to have certain char- 
acteristics in common with the Neanderthal type. Per- 
chance our Mousterians led the same wandering life as 
the modern Australians. 
CONCLUSION 
In this and the preceding chapter we have described at 
some length various discoveries of remains of Neanderthal 
man. We have been more particular regarding these 
skeletal remains because, in contrast to earlier periods, 
numerous Neanderthal specimens have already been dis- 
covered and exhaustively studied, so that the Neander- 
thalers represent the earliest race of men to disclose for 
us in any degree of thoroughness the anatomical charac- 
teristics of man. 
Neanderthal man, as we have intimated, was closely, 
if not indeed exclusively, associated with the Mousterian 
type of human culture. This seems to have spread over 
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