THE DESCENT OF MAN 77 



variety. We must apply the same argument to the 

 human skeletons. The zoologist must acknow- 

 ledge that all the known forms constitute only one 

 genus, and that is the genus of Homo sapiens. 

 Homo primigenius must be included in it, and he 

 must be described as Homo sapiens primigeniiis. 

 He is the old diluvial human race. 1 



Next in order comes the Homo sapiens fossilis, 

 and then man as now existing. All the evidence 

 in support of the descent of man from beasts, which 

 people have tried to deduce from the Neandertal 

 man and his contemporaries, falls to the ground, 

 as the primeval man appears to be a true man in 

 respect of his body and of his mind. 2 



I appreciate fully the zeal with which scientists 

 are carrying on their investigations into the primitive 

 history of the human race ; and provided they do 

 so in accordance with scientific procedure, I have no 

 reason at all for protesting. Whatever science 

 reveals I shall accept without reservation, but the 

 case is entirely different with phantoms of the 

 imagination set forth as facts. Serious scientists, 

 however, do not present us with such fictions, and 

 in support of this statement I may refer to Professor 



1 According to C. Toldt, the absence of a true chin is a constant mark 

 of this primeval race. On the subject of the formation of the chin, see the 

 Correspondenzblatt of the German Association for the Study of Anthro- 

 pology, Ethnology, and History of the Primitive Ages, 1906, No. 2, 

 pp. 9-17. 



2 On this subject cf. Dr. Hugo Obermaier, The Oldest Eemains of the 

 Human Body considered from the Point of View of Comparative Anatomy 

 and Anthropology : Primeval Man on his Intellectual Side. Vienna, L905- 



