LIFE IN THE PAST 187 



Whether we have to-day any traces of the steps by 

 which man arose from the animal beneath him is 

 vigorously disputed. Eminent scientists will be found 

 on both sides of this question. 



Many scientific writers to-day take it for granted 

 that one form, discovered in Java, while it may not 

 be in the absolutely direct line, must be very close 

 indeed to the line of ascent toward man out of the 

 apelike forms. A scientist by the name of DuBois, 

 working in the banks of a stream in south-central 

 Java, found a thigh bone which seemed to him ex- 

 ceedingly human in its general character and yet not 

 absolutely like the human thigh bone. The oncom- 

 ing of the rainy season raised the water in the river 

 so that DuBois could not continue his search. Re- 

 turning a year later, and digging back deeper into 

 this bank, he found a skull cap and two molar teeth 

 which seemed to him to belong to the thigh bone, al- 

 though they lay several yards farther back, but at 

 the same level in the bank. 



When these bones were subsequently presented to a 

 meeting of European scientists by DuBois, he claimed 

 to have found the "missing link" for which there was 

 so eager a demand. Some of the best anatomists of 

 the meeting, notably Virchow, laughed at his claim 

 and said that the skull cap was simply that of a hu- 

 man idiot, and could be duplicated in any large asylum. 



