THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 37 



themselves from the surface of the earth, 

 and supplied themselves with wings and 

 feet according as their different propen- 

 sities determined them in favour of aerial 

 or terrestrial existence. Others, by an 

 inherent disposition to society and civili- 

 zation, and by a stronger effort of volition, 

 would become men. These in time would 

 restrict themselves to the use of their hind 

 feet, and their tails would gradually rub 

 off by sitting in their caves or huts as 

 they arrived at a domesticated state. 

 They would then invent language and the 

 use of fire. In the meanwhile the fuci 

 and algce would transform themselves into 

 fish, and would gradually populate all the 

 submarine portion of the globe." 



This fine theory of insects having evolved 

 themselves from flowers, as suggested by 

 Dr. Darwin the elder, combined with the 

 very original idea of the way by which 

 the first men got rid of their ancestral 

 tails, as propounded by one of the three 

 great statesmen of the 19th century, is the 

 earliest and most lucid statement of the 



