ANTHROPOGENY. 



By Hector Alliot, Sc. D. 



OF the many scientific branches into which the study of Man has 

 been divided, Anthropogeny, dealing especially with inquiries 

 into the origin and development of the human species, holds for us a 

 very particular interest. 



While we have, for many years, known a great deal about shells, 

 plants, reptiles and giant mammals of prehistoric times, we have — 

 until almost yesterday — had little or no knowledge concerning our 

 own race. 



Sixty-five years ago no evidence whatsover could have been 

 offered which would enable us to fix the approximate date of Man's 

 appearance on this planet, or of the beginning of his slow, but ever 

 progressive achievement. 



If we look at modern man and compare him with his earliest 

 known prototype, we find but very insignificant physical changes, 

 chief of these being the fact that his bones are smaller and of lighter 

 structure. The real difference — the only important one — is indicated 

 by the measurement of his skull, which is generally associated with 

 brain development. The progress from the extremely primitive mind 

 of the earliest known human type has gradually and laboriously 

 advanced from the use of a stone implement of warfare, hunt and 

 industry, to the present highly developed electrical age; this is 

 demonstrated entirely by the measurement of skulls. 



That this method is logical and efficient is confirmed by its appli- 

 cation to modern types; a cultivated, highly civilized specimen has 

 a cranial measurement greatly in excess of that of a savage bushman. 

 The skull of the modern thinking man gives an average of 90 to 76, 

 that of the bronze age man from 74 to 70, the Neanderthal man 70 

 to 57, and the Trinil man — the most primitive of all known ancient 

 members of our family records only 52. 



From our own generation back to the iron, bronze and copper 

 ages — some 25,000 years — so many skulls and other human remains 

 have been found, studied, compared and classified that no doubt now 

 exists as to the complete and well determined sequence of human 

 progress for two hundred fifty centuries. The marvelous fact remains 

 from that survey that for a period — so long that we have difficulty in 

 grasping its duration except by some comparison like that of one foot 

 in length to a distance of almost five miles — we progressed intellectu- 

 ally only some eighteen per cent as general average, and with none 

 other than very superficial changes in our bony structure. 



In other words our ancestor, the Stone age man, was quite as 

 intelligent as we are but applied that intelligence in different direc- 

 tion than we do today. The demands of his time called for the 

 best woodcraft, finer knowledge in the domestic arts and in those of 

 the chase and combat. 



Invasions, conquests and introductions of new industries have 



