624 PROGRESS AND POSITION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 



paring it with others of low type belonging to the stone age shows it 

 to be essentially inferior to any of them. With regard to the thigh, 

 you will recollect that at the Liverpool meeting of this section, Dr. 

 Hepburn displayed a remarkable collection of femora from the anatom- 

 ical museum of Edinburgh University, exhibiting pathological and 

 other conditions similar to those in the femur of Trinil. Though this 

 evidence tends to show that the bone is human, it is not inconsistent 

 with, but on the contrary goes to support, the conclusion that it belongs 

 to an exceedingly low and ancient type of humanity. Whether, there- 

 fore, we call the remains Pithecanthropus erectus with their discoverer, 

 or Homo pithecanthropus with Dr. Manouvrier, or Homo Javanensis 

 primigenius with Dr. Houze, we are in presence of a valuable document 

 in the early evolution of mankind. 



One element of special interest in this discovery is that it brings us 

 nearer than we have ever been brought before to the time when man or 

 his predecessor acquired the erect position. I believe that it is acknowl- 

 edged by all that the femur belonged to an individual who stood upright, 

 and I presume that the capacity of the skull being greater than that of 

 any known anthropoid is consistent with the same inference. The sig- 

 nificance of that has been most clearly set forth by my predecessor, Dr. 

 Munro, in his address to this section at JSTottingham in 1893. He showed 

 that a direct consequence of the upright position was a complete divi- 

 sion of labor as regards the functions of the limbs — the hands being 

 reserved for manipulation and the feet for locomotion; that this neces- 

 sitated great changes in the general structure of the body, including 

 the pelvis and the spinal column ; that the hand became the most com- 

 plete and effective mechanical organ nature has produced; and that 

 this perfect piece of mechanism, at the extremity of a freely moving 

 arm, gives man a superiority in attack and defense over other animals. 

 Further, he showed that, from the first moment that man recognized 

 the advantage of using a club or a stone in attack or defense, the direct 

 incentive to a higher brain development came into existence. The man 

 who first used a spear tipped with a sharp flint became possessed of 

 an irresistible power. In his expeditions for hunting, fishing, gathering 

 fruit, etc., primitive man's acquaintance with the mechanical powers of 

 nature would be gradually extended; aud thus from this vantage point 

 of the possession of a hand, language, thought, reasoning, abstract 

 ideas would gradually be acquired, and the functions of the hand and 

 the brain be developed in a corresponding manner. I do injustice to 

 Dr. Munro's masterly argument by stating it thus crudely and briefly. 

 It amounts to this — once the erect j)Osition is obtained, the actions of 

 man being controlled by a progressive brain, everything follows in due 

 course. 



The next stage which we are yet able to mark with certainty is the 

 paleolithic, but there must have been a great many intermediate stages. 

 Before man began to make any implements at all, there must have been 



