FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE ADAPTATION 209 



mental or moral, the fact remains that there is such a break 

 today. Homo sapiens is a distinct species. The " missing 

 link," the hypothetical homo alalus of Haeckel has not been dis- 

 covered,^ and recent paleontological finds and psychological 

 experiments on extant representatives of primitive culture tend 

 to show that man for possibly two hundred thousand years has 

 been infinitely superior to his nearest animal progenitors.^ The 

 Cro-Magnon type of the glacial period was a race of physical and 

 probably intellectual giants,^ if not also the races represented by 

 the Dartford skull and the Galley Hill type, and even by the 

 Neanderthal type as revealed by remains found near Elberfeld, 

 Germany, near Le Moustier, France, and in the Island of Jersey, 

 — going back possibly from 500,000 to 1,000,000 years. It is of 

 greatest significance that food and implements of war were buried 

 with some of these early remains, indicating the development of 

 religious ideas.^ 



With the possible exception of the race of men represented by 

 the Java skull (and it is more than questionable whether or not 

 this is a normal skull, much less human), man for possibly half a 

 million years has had a brain capacity indicating power of active 

 adaptation, and this conclusion is strengthened by the expres- 

 sion of this power in tools unearthed in geological strata of the 

 Tertiary period, according to some authorities.^ 



There are four methods of approach to this problem of the 

 transition from passive to active adaptation. From the stand- 

 point of biology and evolution we are led to inquire as to the 

 organic variation or mutation, or group of such variations which 



1 Keith thinks there is some ground for believing that the Heidelberg man 

 was devoid of speech; Ancient Types of Man, p. 83. Brinton, on the contrary, 

 agreeing with the text, — Races of Peoples, p. 80. 



2 AngeU, Chapters from Modern Psychology, Lecture VIII; Archives of Psy- 

 chology, no. II (1908); Boas, Mind of Primitive Man, ch. IV; Keane, The World's 

 People, p. 4; Dawson, The Meeting Place of Geology and History, pp. 61 f. 



3 Keith, op. cit., ch. VII; cf. also, pp. 33 f., 83 f., 105 f. 

 * Marett, Anthropology, p. 80. 



^ Cf. Keane, op. cit., p. 7. Haddon to the contrary, History of Anthropology, 

 p. 94, yet he says: " During the latter half of the paleolithic age there lived mighty 

 hunters, skilful artists, big-brained men, who laid the foundations upon which 

 subsequent generations have built," ihid., p. 90. 



