472 ZOOLOGY 



forms have been able to do. Probably through his wits and 

 his supple hands, rather than by strength, he held his own 

 against the powerful mammals which preceded him on the 

 earth. By the same means, but in increasing degree he holds 

 that mastery to-day. Through his wits, again, and his wonder- 

 ful hands he has managed to use the inorganic forces of nature 

 as no other animal has or can do. Through his wits, and most 

 of all through his growing sympathies and unselfishness, he bids 

 fair to build up a society, based on friendship and love, which 

 will substitute cooperation for competitions in the broader rela- 

 tions of life just as it has already done in the home itself. 



474. The Artificial Surroundings of Man. In what we call 

 civilization man has so controlled the natural conditions as to 

 create for himself an environment which is greatly different 

 from that under which man first lived. Clothes, houses, cities, 

 fire, seasoned foods, stimulants are terms which suggest some 

 of these artificial elements that have entered into man's life. 

 Just what their final effect will be on the body and mind of man 

 no one can tell. Many of the most terrible diseases to which 

 man is subject are the diseases of civilization. That his wits 

 will continue to enable him to meet the new problems which he 

 brings on himself, as he has met the natural ones, we may well 

 believe. But unquestionably we must realize that his greatest 

 task is to use his increasing mastery of nature in meeting the new 

 difficulties which his own complex and artificial civilization is 

 bringing upon him. 



475. The Age of Man on the Earth. There is no sure 

 knowledge of when man, in his present form, first appeared 

 on the earth. It is known that man lived in Europe in the 

 later portion of the Ice Age, and quite probably earlier. His 

 implements of stone are found along with the remains of such 

 animals as the cave-bear and mastodon and man-like apes, 

 either extinct now or found only in tropical regions. The oldest 

 of these human remains are found in southern Europe and in 

 northern Africa. In a limestone cave in the Neanderthal in 

 Germany fossil remains have been found of a man believed to be 

 much more primitive than any other known. In other words 



