20 ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



skull of the ape. That fact surely means something: 

 Furthermore, a Dutch surgeon, some few years ago, 

 discovered in Java the fossil remains of a skeleton 

 of which it is impossible to say whether it is human 

 or simian. Probably it is neither. As far as the 

 evidence of the skull and the leg bones can be 

 trusted, it would appear that Dr. Dubois was justified 

 in considering that these remains belonged to a 

 creature, neither human nor simian, which may be 

 called the Pithecanthropus erectus — the erect ape- 

 man. It may freely be granted that all anatomists 

 are not agreed. The present writer's teacher, Sir 

 William Turner, who is the doyen of living anato- 

 mists, inclines to the opinion that the remains are 

 partly human, partly simian, bones from two 

 skeletons having chanced to rest together. It is of 

 sufficient significance that no anatomist can afford 

 dogmatically to say of any of these bones, " they are 

 human," or " they are simian." 



Of still greater importance is the evidence from 

 embryology, the science which treats of the develop- 

 ment of individual organisms. One great service, 

 indeed, this study renders us, apart from the evi- 

 dence shortly to be recounted. The briefest con- 

 sideration of the facts of individual development 

 removes what some regard as the incredibleness of 

 the evolutionary theory. If the sceptic is asked to 

 observe a very simple one-celled organism, such as 

 the amoeba, through the microscope; or if he is 

 asked to consider the structure of a worm ; or the 

 mental equipment of an ape — he declares himself 

 incapable of believing that man can have had such 



