298 THE MAMMALIA. 



However, we may be permitted to cast a glance 

 at the future. Our discussion has repeatedly 

 proved that any advance in the animal groups was 

 connected with a reduction of the jaw or of the 

 limbs. It would seem that any reduction in the 

 fingers or toes of the human hand or foot would be 

 neither desirable nor advantageous in any way; 

 moreover no such loss is to be feared, although it 

 may be, as Darwin says, that baldness is in prospect 

 for men of the English race. It is a different 

 matter as regards our dentition, and we are not 

 so certain of its continuing in its present state, 

 although the human race would seem to have com- 

 menced with it as it is, and found it sufficient for 

 the most varied conditions of existence. But never- 

 theless a few gentle warnings seem to shake the 

 belief in this supposed unalterable stability. 



The alternative as to whether Man was created 

 or developed can no longer be raised, now that we 

 are exercising the free use of our reason. Man's 

 dentition has to be judged from our experiences 

 made in the mammalian group. Hence, first of 

 all, it is a reduced dentition. True, we do not 

 know the definite stages by which it was attained 



die prahistorischen Zeiten. According to a work of the same 

 name by the Marquis de Nardaillac. Stuttgart, 1884. 



