THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.^ 



By Marquis de Nadaillac. 



All discoveries and prehistoric studies testify to the uuity of the 

 human species in all regions. While the fauna and flora vary from 

 continent to continent, even from island to island, man rests always 

 and everywhere the same. All human bones, however dii^'erent in 

 origin and epoch, have belonged to man the same as we. In vain have 

 men sought to attach the skull of Neanderthal or that more recently 

 discovered at Trinil, in the Island of Java, to a humanity different 

 from ours. It has been recognized that the first is more modern than 

 was supposed and that analogous types^ have been found belonging 

 to every epoch; while for the second, pompously decorated with the 

 name of Pithecanthropus erectus, after having read without i^rejudice 

 the remarkable study of Dr. Houze,'* one is forced to abandon the 

 ambitious hopes which have been too lightly accepted. It is not from 

 isolated fragments that one can resolve the question of the existence 

 of a being intermediate between man and the anthropoids; and until 

 we can obtain absolute and decisive proofs we have the right to reject 

 the entire theory. 



It is not alone by his bony structure that this identity of man in all 

 time and in all regions is to be affirmed. In my long anthropological 

 studies I have been more than once surprised to encounter everywhere 

 the same manifestation of man's intelligence — the same creations due 

 to his initiative. When we visit the prehistoric collections in our 

 museums we are astonished to see everywhere the same forms and pro- 

 cesses of work and labor, and these among peoples separated by broad 

 oceans or by arid deserts. 



The arrowheads of the Dakota, Apache, and Comanche Indians 

 show such curious resemblance to those discovered on the borders of 

 the Seine and Thames; the nuclei of Scandinavia compare well with 



' Translated from Revue des Questions Scientifiques, publi^e par la Societe Scien- 

 tifique de Bruxelles. Deuxieme serie. Tome XII. October 20, 1897. 



-Ihave already given several examples (Les premiers hommes et les temps pr^- 

 liistoriques, t. I, page 151). It would be easy to add others. 



■'Eevue de I'Universite de Brnxelles, 1896, Father Van deu Gheyn has made an 

 analysis, with his habitual talent, in the Revue des Questions Scientifiques, 1896, 

 t. II, page 396. 



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