THE SIMIAN ORIGIN OF MAN. 351 



admit, has obtained in the Evolution of all other 

 forms of terrestrial life ? Or, is there anything in 

 Scripture and in the dogmatic teaching of the 

 Church, that will preclude such a view of the animal 

 part of our first ancestor? 



We have already learned that, as a matter of 

 fact, no positive evidence has been adduced in sup- 

 port of the simian origin of man, and that there is 

 little, if any, reason to believe that such evidence will 

 be forthcoming. Since the publication of Darwin's 

 " Origin of Species," naturalists have been exploring 

 every portion of the globe for some trace of the 

 missing link between man and the highest known 

 mammal, a link which they said must exist some- 

 where, if the hypothesis of Evolution of man be 

 true. Explorations have been conducted in the 

 dark forests of equatorial Africa, in the dense jungles 

 of southern Asia, in the slightly-frequented islands 

 of every sea, in the caves and lake-dwellings of 

 Europe, in the mounds and cliff-dwellings of Amer- 

 ica, in the gravel beds and stalactitic deposits of the 

 Tertiary and Quaternary Periods, in the tombs and 

 burial places of prehistoric man ; but all to no pur- 

 pose. Men have, indeed, fancied that they had dis- 

 covered the missing link in the dryopithecus, in 

 pygmies of Central Africa, in the Andaman Island- 

 ers, in the Ainos of Japan, in the anthropopithecus 

 erectus, recently discovered by Dubois in the Pleis- 

 tocene strata of Java, but if we may judge by those 

 who are most competent to pronounce an opinion 

 in the premises, the long-looked for link connect- 

 ing man with the ape is as far away now, and its 



