Primitive Man. 71 



28th November, 1913. 



Chairman— Mr S. Arnott, F.R.H.S., V.-P. 



Primitive Man. 



By G. F. Scott Elliot, F.R.G.S., F.L.S. 



In all probability the first of the Primates to which man, 

 monkeys, and lemurs belong' was an inhabitanl of North 

 America. But even in the eocene period, lemurs were li\ ing 

 in Europe and in Egypt, and during the miocene and pliocene 

 Southern Europe and the Siwalik Hills of \orthcrn India 

 possessed some seven or eight species of anthropoid apes. 

 They inhabited a rich, luxuriant forest in a warm, temperate, 

 or semi-tropical climate. 



To-day lemurs and anthropoid apes are only ft)und in 

 the tropical jungles of Africa and Asia. Ihe Pygmy races 

 of man also occur almost without an exception in the same 

 tropical forests, both in Africa, south of the Sahara, and in 

 Southern India, Malacca, or the great islands of the Indu- 

 Malayan Ocean. 



This distribution is extremely interesting, and at first 

 sight extremely difficult to understand. But a simple 

 hypothesis explains most of the difficulties. Let us suppose 

 that an animal allied to, but distinct from, any known pliocene 

 ape, lived somewhere between the present homes of lemur, 

 anthropoid ape, and pygmy and their habitats in the pliocene 

 period. Between India and the Eastern shore of the Medi- 

 terranean there are to-day the deserts of Mesopotamia and 

 Syria. But there is evidence of a very wet period in this 

 district at about the time we require (the end of the pliocene). 

 So our supposed human precursor may have lived in a warm 

 forest-covered country somewhere in or near Mesopotamia. 



If the climate changed, forcing lemurs and anthropoids 

 to emigrate, then some of them would proceed South-West 

 to Africa, others South-East to Indomalaya, and their dis- 

 tribution would be as it is to-day. They have never left the 

 forest, only changing from a semi-tropical to a tropical 

 jungle. But if the precursor of man was forced, possibly in 



