xiv] BORNEO AND THE PRECURSORS OF MAN 



sufficient by itself to distinguish it from a human foetus. The arms, 

 hands, thighs, and legs are similar to those of man. Even the foot 

 is formed on the type of the human one up to the base of the toes, 

 but thence differs in the great length of the latter and in the position 

 and proportions of the hallux, which is also devoid of a nail. 1 



From the above Professor Trinchese draws the conclusion that 

 the orang-utan is the more similar to man the younger it is, because 

 the foetus of the former has a greater resemblance to man than that 

 which exists between the latter and an adult orang. 



As Borneo is one of the few places on the globe where anthropoid 

 apes are found, the query naturally arises whether in the past 

 beings may not have existed on this great island more resembling 

 man than the present orang-utans. In other words whether 

 Borneo may not have been the place, or one of the places, where 

 the precursors of man had their origin. 



In the absence of any positive evidence on this point, my ex- 

 perience with the orang-utans and my knowledge of the country 

 in which they live is, perhaps, insufficient for me to offer a mere 

 negative or affirmative opinion on this question. I may, how- 

 ever, here express as succinctly as possible some of my views on 

 evolution, and on the causes which may have given origin to the 

 varied and innumerable forms of animal life. To these ideas some 

 allusion has already been made in the foregoing pages ; but I shall 

 now ask my reader's leave to dilate upon them somewhat more 

 fully, and to devote the remainder of this chapter to a scientific 

 subject which, I trust, may not be found out of place in this book. 



To begin with, I must, declare myself an adherent of the theory 

 that the environment, in the widest sense of the word, has been the 

 most powerful and principal agent in causing animals, as well as 

 plants, to assume their present form and structure. That the 

 organized beings now living have been originated through the action 

 exerted on them by the external world, is an old theory which was 

 propounded by a few elect naturalists, who had not much faith 

 in the creation of living beings simply by the action of a super- 

 natural will. 



With the appearance of Darwin's memorable book on the Origin 

 of Species, the above-mentioned theory retired to the background, 

 and became, one may say, almost forgotten, so obscured was it 

 by the fascinating theory of natural and sexual selection. 



At the present time, however, a tendency to return to the older 

 theory is gaining ground, owing to the grave doubts which have 



1 On this point I may quote the following from Hovelacque et Herve, 

 Precis d'Anthropologie, p. 177 : — " Wyman a reconnu que sur l'embryon 

 humain long d'un pouce environ, le gros orteil, au lieu d'etre parallele aux 

 doigts, forme un angle avec le cote du pied, correspondant ainsi par la posi- 

 tion avec l'etat permanent de l'orteil chez les Quadrumanes." 



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