THE OEIGIN OP MAN 123 



systematic arrangement of the Primates. That the under- 

 lying simpUcity of the brain of Man can ha've passed from 

 a stage, seen somewhat modified in the American monkeys, 

 into the highly specialised stage of the Old World monkeys, 

 and so again to the more generalised type of some of the 

 anthropoid apes, is difficult to believe. That the brain of 

 Man is the best expression of development of the brain of the 

 Eutherian mammal is certain, and that it is an all-round 

 development will be agreed by all. It is not a great step to 

 admitting that the same story is unfolded here as elsewhere, 

 and that the Old World monkeys and, in varying lesser degrees, 

 the anthropoid apes show departures from this more general- 

 ised plan. That the brain of man might possibly be an 

 evolution of such a primitive brain as existed at the base of 

 the Primate stem ; that the New World monkeys have not 

 specialised far from this, but have undergone a somewhat even 

 generalised development ; that the anthropoid apes are com- 

 paratively little removed, and that the Old World monkeys 

 have become most specialised off the line, appears to me to 

 be a deduction drawn without undue straining of the facts. 



Man's other great distinction — ^his upright posture — ^has 

 accumidated such a mass of literature that an impression of 

 hopelessness is left on the reader after a perusal of some of 

 the hasty and bitter controversies that have raged around 

 the question. That the " situs erectus " is not the pre- 

 rogative of Man every one knows, and those who wish to 

 underrate its human distinctiveness are welcome to all the 

 comfort that may be derived from the study of the penguin. 

 We may attach much, or Uttle, importance to it, but neverthe- 

 less it remains as a very characteristic feature of Homo. There 

 are those who regard human uprightness as being a very 

 recently acquired readjustment from a previously pronograde 

 quadrupedal habit. Man is regarded by many as having 

 been fairly recently turned upright from a previous horizontal 

 position. The whole summation of the anatomy of Man 

 negatives any such conclusion. The human hand and fore- 

 limb tell a clear story, and in this story no chapter exists in 

 which the precursors of Man walked the earth as four-footed 



