﻿Ixxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [MayiCJIO, 



regression, the vast body of weighty evidence which indicates very 

 close relations between Man and the gorilla or chimpanzee should 

 alone suggest the wisdom of caution before drawing far-reaching con- 

 clusions from the presence of a few imperfectly discussed primitive 

 characters. So far as the evidence extends, there seems to be 

 absolutely no reason for the invention of an independent phylum 

 connecting the ancestor of Man with the extinct primitive lemurs 

 or Prosimiadae, nor does it seem to me necessary to place the point 

 of departure of the generic Homo much below that of the existing 

 higher apes, or indeed of the gorilla and chimpanzee ; it is, indeed, 

 not unlikely that the origin of the gibbon lies below that of 

 Man, and the gibbon is more readily linked on to the lower 

 (Jatarrhine monkeys than to the Prosimiadae. 



We now approach the most speculative and difficult part of all 

 the enquiries which relate to the origin of Man — that is, the history 

 of the process by which he has acquired his especially distinctive 

 characters. This question is hardly ripe for discusion, yet it has 

 been much discussed. 



The character which before all distinguishes Man from the ape 

 is manifestly his intellect, or its instrument the brain ; next to this 

 is the faculty of speech, then the powers of the hand, and the 

 habitually erect attitude ; last of all come the dentition and the com- 

 paratively hairless skin. 



I may perhaps be permitted to state, merely as a confession of 

 faith, my belief that the really fundamental change, underlying all 

 the rest, was the increasing growth of the intellectual powers, and 

 this I regard as an ultimate fact as difficult of explanation as any 

 other ultimate fact, such as the origin of variations or even of life 

 itself. But, having made this admission, I shall not introduce it into 

 any of the following speculations, which will be more in accordance 

 with the prevailing philosophy of the day. 



The first change which started the ape on the path towards Man 

 was probably the assumption of the erect attitude. The existing 

 man-like apes seem to be almost on the verge of this ] ; that they 

 do not quite attain it may be connected with the fact that their 

 home is in the midst of the forest, where the advantages of an 



1 It is interesting to note that the gorilla stands up when fighting. ' He 

 stands up on his hind legs .... advances with clumsy gait in this position and 

 attacks his enemy .... he parries the blows directed against him with the skill 

 of a practised fighter ; . . . . grasps his opponent by the arm and crunches it, or 

 else throws [him] down and rends him with his terrible canine teeth.' Quoted 

 from Koppenfels by R. Hartmann, ' Anthropoid Apes' London, 1882, p. 234. 



