"THE COMING OF SAVAGE MAN 47 



him into Europe one or two hundred thousand years ago? 

 First and most important he brought with him at least a crude 

 form of family life. We can only glance at this attainment 

 which, more than any other has revolutionized life. The 

 reader is urged to study carefully the works of Fiske and 

 Drummond on this subject. 



The earliest mammals laid eggs but suckled their young. 

 Even in marsupials, embryonic and foetal life are short, but 

 the young are born in a very incomplete stage and are carried 

 for a time, nourished and protected in the marsupial pouch. 

 In lower and smaller mammals the embryonic and foetal pe- 

 riods are still comparatively short. In larger and higher 

 forms they are longer until in the human being they occupy 

 nine months, and birth is followed by a steadily lengthening 

 period of infancy when the young are defended and suckled by 

 the mother. But in the highest forms of mammals, distinct 

 in the anthropoid apes, less clear as we pass to lower forms, 

 a third period of care and nurture is added, that of childhood. 

 Thus the mother is burdened with the protection and care not 

 merely of one or two young, but of a family of babies and 

 children of different ages.^ 



In the case of the rodents all three periods are short 

 and the small young can be hidden away. The young of the 

 carnivora are fairly safe because few enemies dare approach 

 the den where they are hidden. In ungulates the period of 

 gestation is lengthened, but females and young are frequently 

 or usually protected by the males of the herd. In the anthro- 

 poid apes the mother and young are sometimes protected by 

 the arboreal life, or by the herding habit, or by both. The 

 more powerful, venturesome male gorilla seems directly to 

 guard and protect the female. 



In all higher mammals the strain on the female is becom- 

 ing unbearable and threatens her existence and thus race- 

 suicide in a little different mode. There is only one way 

 out. Some of the burden must be borne by the male. In 



«R. 

 30 



