AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



WHENEVER the question as to the essential nature of 

 Man is raised the uninitiated seem to think that there 

 is nothing easier to answer. To them not only all that 

 concerns the body, but also man's soul, is something so 

 long since settled, so self-evident, as to require no 

 further discussion. On the other hand, however, ever 

 since the establishment of anthropology as an inde- 

 pendent science, with untiring diligence experts have 

 been busy investigating the nature of Man as compared 

 with that of the lower animals, and now not a year 

 passes without these investigations resulting in distinct 

 modifications of the accepted points of view, in one or 

 other direction. 



The aim of this book is the comparison of the 

 essential characteristics of Man with those of the lower 

 animals in the light of the results of recent research. 

 Many a character hitherto regarded as distinctively 

 human will be found to be shared by the lower animals, 

 many another be proved man's indisputable possession, 

 though here and there he may not be particularly 

 edified thereby. To arrive at a clear understanding of 

 the nature of Man the parallels drawn between him and 

 the animal world must not be confined to anatomy and 

 physiology only, but extended, in a rigidly critical spirit, 



