146 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



immature paper was taken by any authority, a fact I by 

 no means resented, although hardly then fully aware 

 that any variation in thought, like a variation in the 

 physical conformation of an individual, is more likely to be 

 swamped than perpetuated. Since then, in discussing the 

 view suggested, I have found the moral complex showing 

 itself, at times with almost theological ardour, even in 

 the instructed. They seemed willing to agree with 

 M'Cullough and others that a stage of cannibalism might 

 have been universal, or nearly universal ; but to view it 

 as a powerful factor of progress and human advance was 

 something not easy to masticate, much less to swallow. 

 Yet some reason may possibly be shown for believing that 

 cannibalism, combined with war for a special purpose, can 

 help us to account for many problems yet unsolved. Even 

 a very simple suggestion sometimes acts as a catalyst, 

 and hastens mental reactions. It may often help to 

 neutralize moral prejudice, and increase in some measure 

 the number of those who have learnt to adopt Spinoza's 

 attitude towards humanity. Man's acts, his very per- 

 turbations of " spirit," are to be studied as we study 

 thunderstorms. 



If such views are not refused a hearing it may be sug- 

 gested that they will throw some light upon the develop- 

 ment of man as an intellectual animal. And if it is assumed, 

 as certainly seems likely, that Keith is right in tracing back- 

 ward to Pleistocene times the modern type of skull, it 

 should help to fill up the gap in development between 

 that type and such as Piltdown man. For if the modern 

 skull goes back so far, and the Piltdown type is so late, the 

 very stability of the modern type suggests that there must 

 have been a period, long in years or centuries, but short by 

 the geologic clock, in which man became immensely 



