42 THE SKULL THEORY 



character man differs less from the higher apes than 

 these do from the lower members of the same order." 

 It is therefore impossible for any objective zoologist, 

 according to the principles of comparative systematisa- 

 tion, to ascribe to man any other place in the animal 

 world than in the order of apes ; and it is quite 

 immaterial whether we designate this individual group 

 as the Order of Apes, or, with Linnaeus, as the Primates. 

 For the phylogenetic construction of the system, the 

 common descent of man and of apes from one common 

 parent-form, necessarily follows from this inevitable 

 grouping, and on this proposition only all the general 

 inferences of the " ape-hypothesis " depend. As to 

 what that common parent-form of men and apes may 

 have been, very different views might probably be 

 brought on opposite sides ; but any one who knows 

 the collected facts that bear upon the matter, and 

 estimates them impartially, must, in conclusion, arrive 

 at 'the certain conviction that that hypothetical and 

 long-since extinct parent-form can only have been 

 genuine apes ; that is to say, of the placental mammalian 

 type, such as when we see them now living before our 

 eyes we unhesitatingly class, on the ground of their 

 zoological characters, as true apes, in the order of Apes 

 or Primates. 



In this, and all other sound phylogenetic hypotheses, 

 we may most easily attain to a conviction of their 



