PROGENITORS OF MAN. 293 



covering, and by the excessive development of that portion 

 of the brain just above the facial portion of the skull. 

 There do not exist direct human ancestors among the 

 Anthropoides of the present day, but they certainly existed 

 among the unknown extinct Human Apes of the Miocene 

 period. The certain proof of their former existence is 

 furnished by the comparative anatomy of Man-like Apes 

 and of Man 



Twenty-first Stage : Ape-like Men (Pithecantliropi). 



Although the preceding ancestral stage is already so 

 nearly akin to genuine Men that we scarcely require to 

 assume an intermediate connecting stage, still we can look 

 upon the speechless Primaeval Men (Alali) as this inter- 

 mediate link. These Ape-like men, or Pithecanthropi, very 

 probably existed towards the end of the Tertiary period. 

 They originated out of the Man-like Apes, or Anthropoides, 

 by becoming completely habituated to an upright walk, and 

 by the corresponding stronger differentiation of both pairs of 

 legs. The fore hand of the Anthropoides became the human 

 hand, their hinder hand became a foot for walking. 

 Although these Ape-like Men must not merely by the 

 external formation of their bodies, but also by their internal 

 mental development, have been much more akin to real 

 Men than the Man-like Apes could have been, yet they did 

 not possess the real and chief characteristic of man, namely, 

 the articulate human language of words, the corresponding 

 development of a higher consciousness, and the formation 

 of ideas. The certain proof that such Primaeval Men with- 

 out the power of speech, or Ape-like Men, must have 

 preceded men possessing speech, is the result arrived at by 



