442 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



conclusively settled, whether we ascribe to Man a nearer or 

 a more remote relationship to Apes. No matter whether 

 Man is, in a phylogeretic sense, a member of the Ape order 

 (or, if it is preferred, of the Primate order) or not, in 

 any case, his direct blood-relationship to all other Mammals, 

 and especially to the Placental Mammals, is established. It 

 may be that the inter-relations of the various Mammals 

 are quite different from those now hypothetically assumed ; 

 but, in any case, the common descent of Man and all 

 other Mammals from a common parent-form is indis- 

 putable. This primaeval, long since extinct parent-form, 

 which probably developed during the Triassic Period, was 

 the monotreme ancestral form of all Mammals. 



If this fundamental and extremely significant principle 

 is borne in mind, the " ape question " will appear to us 

 in a wholly different light from that in which it is usually 

 presented. A little reflection will bring conviction that 

 this question has not the importance that has of late been 

 attributed to it ; for the origin of the human race from 

 a series of various mammalian ancestors, and the historical 

 development of the latter from an earlier series of lower 

 vertebrate ancestors, remains indubitably established, no 

 matter whether the genuine " Apes " are regarded as the 

 nearest animal ancestors of the human race or not. But, 

 it having become habitual to lay the principal weight of 

 the entire question of the origin of man on this very 

 " descent from Apes," I find myself compelled to return 

 once more to it here, and to recall those facts in Com- 

 parative Anatomy and Ontogeny, which conclusively settle 

 this "ape question." 



The shortest way to the goal is the one taken by 



