THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



some thirty years ago. XA species of mammal X 

 has once existed on this globe which contained 

 the germs, not alone of man, but also of the 

 gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang-outang and 

 the gibbon. All of them have later developed 

 /from that type unlike sons^of the same father. X 

 No doubt this creature was, in some respects, a 

 closer copy of the present anthropoid apes than 

 of modern man, and it must have been closest 

 to the gibbon of to-day. However, it was dis- 

 tinguished from this gibbon, as we know him in 

 his adult form by certain more manlike marks. 

 And if we were to call that primitive being 

 "man," because genuine man is descended from 

 him and because he has such strong resemblances 

 to human beings, then we might say of the pres- 

 ent-day anthropoid apes that they are descended 

 from man, instead of man being descended 'from 

 the orang-outang, or the gorilla, as some lay- 

 men frequently claim. That would be a much 

 more correct statement, and would conform to 

 the idea of Darwin, who gave rise to these dis- 

 cussions. 



That primitive type is no longer living on this 

 globe. Unless an unexpected discovery is made . 

 in the partly unexplored forest regions of the in- 

 terior of Africa, we may close the books in this 



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