BIOLOGY OF MAN 1155 



present purpose to continue the story; but careful search has lost 

 none of its zest, and, as the recent "man of Taungs" shows, is 

 certainly not failing of its reward. The ascent of man is thus 

 undoubtedly becoming more and more clearly deciphered. 



A general summary may be useful (and this in ascending order, 

 as a geological succession). 



C. Post-Glacial Rhodesian, Grimaldi, Cro-Magnon Types. 



B. Pleistocene [ Neanderthal Man (4th Glacial Period). 



(Glacial and In- J Piltdown Man. 

 terglacial Times) [ Heidelberg Man. 



t 



Pithecanthropus. 



HoMiNOiDS Diverge from Anthropoids. 



Divergence of Gibbons, 



Divergence of Monkeys. 



Origin of Primates. 



A. Tertiary 

 Eocene 



A. Tertiary. — Two general impressions are strong when we 

 think of the ascent of man ; and the first is that of wide diffusion at 

 a very early date. This has been well expressed by Keith: "In reality 

 the Garden of Eden was world wide. Even England was part of it 

 — apparently an important part. So were the continent of Europe 

 and the ancient lands of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Our search shows 

 that it extended to the most distant lands of Africa, Australia, Asia, 

 and America. Nor was the drama of the Garden enacted in a single 

 morning; it has been going on for a million of years, and is still 

 unfinished. There have been many scenes, and we can see no sign 

 of the curtain being rung down on the last of them. The drama of 

 man's evolution was not staged in a favoured meadow for a single 

 performance; it is still proceeding in our slums, country cottages, 

 and palaces, just as it did in the days when man's only roof was the 

 wide dome of the sky." 



The second great impression is one that we receive in other fields 

 of organic evolution, the impression of branching stairways, or 

 complex inflorescence, and aU with a sifting-out process. Millions 

 of years ago the Primate stem sent out its first tentative branches 

 as the monkey tribes. Some of these have been eliminated, many 

 persist to this day — on the whole a joyous crew. But after giving 

 off the New and the Old World monkeys, the main stem grew on. 

 It gave off the lower Anthropoid Apes, represented by the gibbon 

 and siamang of to-day; it next yielded the branch of the higher 

 Anthropoid Apes, and the branch of Hominoids. From this latter, 

 without haste, and sometimes leading to nothing, more branches 

 were given off — those of the "tentative men"; Pithecanthropus the 

 Erect in Java and Eoanthropus on the Sussex Weald, At last came 



