THE HISTORY OF LIFE 177 



'* There is no existing link between Man and the 

 Gorilla, but do not forget that there is a no less sharp 

 line of demarcation, a no less complete absence of any 

 transitional form between the Gorilla and the Orang, 

 or the Orang and the Gibbon." 1 



How are we to understand these gaps ? 2 We must 

 bear in mind that the evidence tends to the fact 



in that direction as is done by a comparison with some of the existing* 

 savage races. The number of skulls and skeletons dating back to 

 early Quaternary times, distant from us certainly not less than 

 50,000 years, and probably much more, is now so great as to enable 

 us to speak confidently as to their character, and even to classify 

 their different types." ("Problems of the Future," S. Laing, 1894, 

 pp. 156, 158.) 



Since this was written a further step towards discovering the 

 ' missing link' has been found in Java (1895). Dr. D. J. Cunning- 

 ham after describing the remains, which are believed to belong to the 

 Pleistocene period, and deciding that they were human, and the 

 lowest human remains which have yet been described, concludes 

 thus : " Most certainly they are not derived from a transition form 

 between any of the existing anthropoid apes and man ; such a form 

 does not and cannot exist, seeing that the divarication of the ape and 

 man has taken place low down in the genealogical tree, and each has 

 followed, for good or bad, his own path. The so-called Pithecan- 

 thropus is the direct human line, although it occupies a place on this 

 considerably lower than any human form at present known." 

 (" Nature," February 28th, 1895.) 



1 " Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," Prof. Huxley, 1864, 

 p. 104. 



2 " And yet with this close identity of anatomical conditions there 

 is, as Huxley emphatically asserts, a wide gap between man and the 

 highest ape. which has never been bridged over, and which precludes 

 the idea of direct lineal descent from one to the other, though it 

 implies close relationship. The differences are partly physical and 

 partly intellectual. Of the former, it may be said that they may be 

 all summed up in the fact that man is specialized for erect posture." 

 ("Problems of the Future," S. Laing, 1894, p. 149.) 



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