84 ZOOLOGY 



sist in simple tools made of sharpened stones and of charred 

 fragments of bones of the larger hoofed animals, which indubit- 

 ably prove him to have been a hunter. But how could a 

 climbing animal whose natural food was nuts ever become a 

 match for the powerful and fleet Ungulatal If we examine 

 the anatomical differences between ourselves and the highest 

 monkeys, we find that they consist mainly in two features : 

 (1) the feet and legs are converted into pillars capable of sup- 

 porting the body without aid from the arms, and (2) the brain 

 has become greatly enlarged. The first change converted a 

 climbing into a running animal ; hints of this change are seen 

 in the behaviour of the Gibbon to-day. This animal alone 

 among monkeys is able to run on the ground without aid from 

 its arms, and, as we have seen, it hunts down small animals, for 

 which purpose Gibbons associate together in herds. Now 

 here we have the essence of the evolution of man. To hunt 

 down large and powerful animals it was necessary that primi- 

 tive man should associate in bands and it was also necessary 

 that he should be able to run swiftly. As an isolated animal, man 

 was no match for his fierce and powerful competitors. His 

 strength was as nothing to that of the woolly elephant or the 

 wild ox, to say nothing of the cave-bear or cave-lion ; only when 

 acting together in a tribe was he able to maintain himself. 

 The evolution of man is therefore the evolution of society. 



From the few scraps of human bones which have been 

 recovered from pre-glacial and mid-glacial days, we seem to 

 be warranted in concluding that the erect posture had been 

 attained and the consequent modification of the foot and leg 

 had been accomplished long before glacial times. Some of 

 the oldest skulls, however, show in their projecting brows and 

 flat brain-cases unmistakable resemblances to those of the 

 apes. One fragment named Pithecanthropus literally, " Ape- 

 man " found in Java, seems to indicate a size of brain exactly 

 intermediate between that of the highest ape and that of the 

 lowest men living to-day. The brain, like every other organ 

 of the body, grows in proportion to the demands made upon 

 it; in a word, with the evolution of society. The brain 

 seems to have attained its present size before the end of 

 the glacial period; at least the brains of the extinct race 

 called Neanderthal man have now been proved to have been 



