ORGANIC EVOLUTION OF MAN 189 



At what date the ape became man it is difficult 

 to say. For at least three hundred thousand years 

 man has manufactured flint instruments, and for at 

 least that period man has had a body distinctively 

 human. Nevertheless all biologists agree that at 

 some remote period " Natural selection began to 

 favour that increase in the size of the brain of 

 a large and not very powerful semi-erect ape which 

 eventuated, after some hundreds of thousands of 

 years, in the breeding out of a being with a re- 

 latively enormous brain-case, a skilful hand, and 

 an inveterate tendency to throw stones, flourish 

 sticks, protect himself in caves, and in general to 

 defeat aggression and satisfy his natural appetites 

 by the use of his wits rather than by strength 

 alone — in which, however, he was not deficient. 

 Probably this creature had nearly the full size of 

 brain and every other physical character of modern 

 man, although he had not as yet stumbled upon 

 the art of making fire by friction, nor converted 

 his conventional grunts and groans, his screams, 

 laughter, and interjections, into a language cor- 

 responding to (and thenceforth developing) his 

 power of thought." ^ 



It is the " relatively enormous brain-case " that 

 differentiates a man from an ape ; otherwise, as 

 Huxley affirmed, " whatever systems of the organs 

 ^ Ray Lankester, The Kingdom of Man. 



