132 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



from a scientific standpoint, lie concluded 

 that your human ancestors in Europe must 

 have been mutes 7 Though he adds some- 

 what paradoxically, that these mutes pos- 

 sibly possessed the power of speech, ob- 

 serving, " I wish my readers to under- 

 stand that by mute men I mean men who 

 may or may not use words, but who only 

 express emotions, and that such emotions 

 are the individual emotions of the mute 



being The scientific evidence in 



favour of the traditional (i.e., Biblical) 

 view being absolutely none at all of any kind 

 whatever, I compare it therefore unfavour- 

 ably with the other view now rising into 

 public notice. This view is, that during 

 and after the tertiary and geological epoch, 

 the highest mammals then on earth were 

 becoming more and more erect in their 

 way of walking, less hairy in their bodies, 

 and more like in general to what the 

 lowest men are now. Such beings are 

 supposed during these changes to have 

 also gradually rationalised some of their 

 emotions, by the use of mental powers, 



