THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



It is also logical to ask whether Pithecan- 

 thropus was not a long surviving "last Mohican" 

 of a transition form from a genuine thorough- 

 bred type to the genuine man. It all depends 

 upon the weight which we lay upon the specific- 

 ally genuine human marks. If any one is more 

 attracted by the resemblance of that form to the 

 present gibbon, he might argue that Pithecan- 

 thropus was a transition form from the arche- 

 type of past genuine man to the genuine gibbon. 

 This last theory might be seriously considered 

 from the moment that we could get a glimpse of 

 the arms of that archetype, which we do not 

 know as yet, provided they were to show a 

 tendency toward the grotesque elongation of the 

 genuine gibbon arm. Let us hope that the exca- 

 vations in Java will be diligently pursued and 

 that we may then be able to solve some of these 

 more intricate problems. 



So much at least is certain, that the genuine 

 common ancestor in question, who must have 

 had at least a very close resemblance to Pithe- 

 canthropus in the structure of his skull and legs, 

 existed before the Miocene period, that is to say, 

 in the first third of the Tertiary period. He rep*3 



(resented the "Man" of that time a creature! 



I which contained the possibilities of developmentj 



54 



