Vi THE ARYAN QUESTION 323 



the trunk, and of the limbs seem to be all human. Between 

 the man of Spy and an existing anthropoid ape there lies an 

 abyss. 



Now that is pleasant reading for me, because, 

 in 1863, I committed myself to the assertion that 

 the Neanderthal skull was " the most pithecoid of 

 human crania yet discovered," yet that " in no sense 

 can the Neanderthal bones be regarded as the 

 remains of a human being intermediate between 

 men and apes " l and " that the fossil remains of 

 Man hitherto discovered do not seem to me to take 

 us appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid form, 

 by the modification of which he has, probably, 

 become what he is." 2 



As the evidence stood seven and twenty years 

 ago, in fact, it would have been imprudent to as- 

 sume that the Neanderthal skull was anything but 

 a case of sporadic reversion. But, in my anxiety 

 not to overstate my case, I understated it. The 

 Neanderthaloid race is "appreciably nearer," 

 though the approximation is but slight. In the 

 words of M. Fraipont : 



The distance which separates the man of Spy from the 

 modem anthropoid ape is undoubtedly enormous ; between the 

 man of Spy and the Dryopithecus it is a little less. But we 

 must be permitted to point out that if the man of the later 

 quaternary age is the stock whence existing races have sprung > 

 he has travelled a very great way. 



From the data now obtained, it is permissible to believe that 



1 See p. 205 supra. * Ibid, p. 208. 



