TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 113 



value; and this is, no doubt,' generally the case. The circumstances here are, 

 however, peculiar, for many couvergiug lines of evidence show that, on the theory 

 of development by the same laws which have determined the development of the 

 lower animals, man must be immensely older than any traces of him yet dis- 

 covered. As this is a point of great interest we must devote a few moments to its 

 consideration. 



1. The most import tut difference between mau and such of the lower animals as 

 most nearly approach him is undoubtedly in the bulk and development of his 

 brain, as indicated by tlie form and capacity of the cranium. We should therefore 

 anticipate that these earliest races, who were contemporary with the extinct ani- 

 mals and used rude stone weapons, would show a jnarked deficiency in this 

 respect. Yet the oldest known crania (those of the Eugis and Cro-Magiion caves) 

 show no marks of degradation. The former does not present so low a type as 

 that of most existing savages, but is (to use the words of Prof. Huxley) " a fair 

 average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have 

 contained the thoughtless brains of a savage." The latter are still more remark- 

 able, being unusually large and well formed. Dr. Pruner-Bey states that they 

 surpass the average of modern European skulls in capacity, while their symmetrical 

 form without any trace of prognathism, compares favourably not only with those 

 of the foremost savage races, but with many civilized nations' of modern times. 



One or two other crania of much lower type, but of less antiquity than this, have 

 been discovered ; but they in no way invalidate the conclusion which so highly 

 developed a form at so early a period implies, viz. that we ha\ e as yet made a 

 hardly perceptible step towai-ds the discovery of any earlier stage in the develop- 

 ment of man. 



2. This conclusion is supported and enforced by the natiu-e of many of tlie works 

 of art found even in the oldest cave-dwellings. The flints are of the old chipped 

 type, but they are formed into a large variety of tools and weapons — such as 

 scrapers, awls, hammers, saws, lances, &c., implying a variety of purposes for 

 which these were used, and a corresponding degTee of mental activity and civilization. 

 Numerous articles of bone have also been found, including well-formed needles, 

 implying that skins were sewn together, and perhaps even textile materials woven 

 into cloth. Still more important are the numerous carvings and drawings repre- 

 senting a variety of aninuils, including horses, reindeer, and even a mammoth, 

 executed with considerable skill on bone, i-eindeer-horns, and mammotli-tusks. 

 These, taken together, indicate a state of civilization much higher than that of the 

 lowest of our modern savages, while it is quite compatible with a considerable de- 

 gree of mental advancement, and leads us to believe that the crania of Engis and 

 Cro-Magnon are not exceptional, but fairly represent the characteis of the race. If 

 we further remember that these people lived in Europe under the unfavourible 

 conditions of a sub- Arctic climate, we shall be inclined to agree with Dr. Daniel 

 Wilson, that it is far easier to produce evidences of deterioration than of progress 

 in instituting a comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth and latpr 

 prehistoric races of Europe or savage nations of modern times*. 



•3. Yet another important line of evidence as to the extreme antiquitv of the 

 human type has been brought prominently forward by Prof Mivartf. He shows, 

 by a careful comparison of all parts of the structure of "the body, that man is related 

 not to any one, but almost equally to many of the existing apes — to the orang, the 

 chimpanzee, the gorilla, and even to the gibbons — in a variety of ways ; and tiiese 

 relations and differences are so numerous and so diverse that, "on the theory of evo- 

 lution, the ancestral form which ultimately developed into man must have 'diverged 

 from the common stock whence all these various forms and their extinct allies ori- 

 ginated. But so far back as the Miocene deposits of Europe we fi)id the remains 

 of apes allied to these various forms, and especially to the gibbons ; so that in all 

 probability the special line of variation which led up to njan branched off at a still 

 earlier period. And these early forms, being the initiation of a far higher type, 

 and ha\ing to develop by natural selection into so specialized and altogether distinct 

 a creature as man, must have risen at a very early period into the position of a 



* rroliistoric Man, 3rd ed. vnl. i. p. 117. t Man and Apes, pp. 171-UI3. 



