REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I913 I43 



APPENDIX 



THE ORIGIN OF MAN 



(Adapted from a paper by Dr E. Rivet, of the Museum d'histoire naturelle, 



Paris)! 



The progress of recent investigations into the prehistory of the 

 human race has plainly shown that the common expression which 

 has come into use as the summation of the evolutionist theory of 

 the origin of man, " man is descended from the ape," is not only 

 unfortunate but untrue. When this expression became current it 

 attracted attention and controversy by its implied defiance of 

 traditional doctrines, and this very fact has given it a certain 

 popularity, made it the target of polemic discussions and has in- 

 deed cast ridicule upon the fundamental scientific principle of 

 evolution. The responsibility for the diffusion of this formula 

 rests in part upon scientific men themselves. The time is not far 

 past when such men as Haeckel and Mortillet imagined and even 

 portrayed the precursor of man as a strange compromise between 

 man and the anthropoid, and to these imaginary creatures they gave 

 some such significant names as Pithecanthropus or Anthropopithe- 

 cus, and Schaafhausen made out the man of Neanderthal to be a 

 sort of man-ape. 



The views of Haeckel and contemporary writers were not, how- 

 ever, without excuse. After the first discoveries relative to fossil 

 man had been made, they virere prone to believe that the problem 

 of our origin was of quite simple solution; but this is not at the 

 present time so regarded. The new data acquired in the course of 

 late years show that the problem is much more complex than it has 

 appeared to be. It is this fact that I wish specially to lay emphasis 

 upon in bringing together here what we now know with scientific 

 certainty regarding this matter and the conclusions which it is 

 legitimate to draw therefrom. 



It is well known that the history of the earth has been divided 

 by geologists into four great periods. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary 

 and Quaternary. The first era is characterized by a fauna com- 

 posed of invertebrate animals and of the lower vertebrates ; the 

 Secondary era is the era of reptiles; the Tertiary and Quaternary 

 eras those of the mammals. The Tertiary era has been divided 



1 Printed in Biologica, March 15, 1914. 



