TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 893 



necessarily large brain of the savage had been constructed on teleological principles 

 for the sole purpose of philosophising. My opinion is that the greater portion of 

 this so-called surplusage is the organic representative of the energy expended in 

 the exercise of the enormous complexity of human actions, as displayed in the 

 movements of his body and in the skilful manipulations necessary to the manu- 

 facture of implements, weapons, clothing, &c. All such actions have to be repre- 

 sented by a lai'ger bulk of brain matter than is required for the most profound 

 philosophical speculations. The kind of intelligence evinced by savages, however 

 low their position in the scale of civilisation may be, is different from, and incom- 

 parably greater than, that manifested by the most advanced of the loveer animals. 

 To me it is much more rational to suppose that the development of the large brain 

 of man corresponded,^anp«ss?<, with that of his characteristic physical attributes, 

 more especially those consequent on the attainment of the iipright position. That 

 these attributes -were acquired exclusively through the instrumentality of the 

 cosmic forces was, as the following quotation will show, the opinion of Mr. 

 Darwin : — ' We must remember that nearly all the other and more important 

 differences between man and quadrumana are manifestly adaptive in their nature, 

 and relate chiefly to the erect position of man ; such as the structure of his 

 hand, foot, and pelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his head.' ' 

 Mr. Wallace, however, considers the feet and hands of man ' as difiiculties on 

 the theory of natural selection.' 'IIow,' he exclaims, 'can we conceive that early 

 ma.n, as an animal, gained anything by purely erect locomotion? Again, the 

 hand of man contains latent capacities and powers which are unused by savages, 

 and must have been even less used by palseolithic man and his still ruder 

 predecessors. It has all the appearance of an organ prepared for the use of 

 civihsed man, and one which was required to render civilisation possible.' - 

 But here, again, this acute ob.server diverges into his favourite by-path, and 

 introduces a ' higher intelligence ' to bridge over his difficulties. 



We have now reached a stage in this inquiry when a number of questions of 

 a more or less speculative character fall to be considered. On the supposition that, 

 at the start, the evolution of the hand of man was synchronous with the higher 

 development of his reasoning faculties, it is but natural to ask where, when, and in 

 what precise circumstances this remarkable coalition took place. I would not, 

 however, be j ustified in taking up your time now in discussing these questions in 

 detail ; not because I think the materials for their solution are unattainable, but 

 because, in the present state of our knowledge, they are too conjectural to be of 

 scientific value. In the dim retrospective vista which veils these materials from 

 our cognisance I can only see a few faint landmarks. All the osseous remains of 

 man which have hitherto been collected and examined point to the fact that, 

 during the larger portion of the Quaternary period, if not, indeed, from its very 

 commencement, he had already acquired his human characteristics. This generalisa- 

 tion at once throws us back to the Tertiary period in our search for man's early appear- 

 ance in Europe. Another fact — disclosed by an analysis of his present corporeal 

 structure — is that, during a certain phase of his previous existence, he passed 

 through a stage when his limbs, like those of the present anthropoid apes, were 

 adapted for an arboreal life. We have therefore to look for the causes which 

 brought about the separation of man from his quadrumanous congeners, and 

 entailed on him such a transformation in his form and habits, in the physical condi- 

 tions that would supervene on a change from a warm to a cold climate. In the 

 gradual lowering of the temperature of the subtropical climate which prevailed in 

 Central Europe and the corresponding parts of Asia during the Miocene and 

 Pliocene periods, and which culminated in the great Ice age, together with the 

 concurrent changes in the distribution of land, seas, and mountains, we have the 

 most probable explanation of these causes. Whether man forsook his arboreal 

 habits and took to the plains from overcrowding of his own species in search of 

 different kinds of food, before this cold period subjected him to its intensely adverse 

 circumstances, it -would be idle for me to offer an opinion. Equally conjectural 



' Descent nf Man, p. 149. ^ Natural Selection, p. 198. 



