MAN IN ZOOLOGY. 15 



The question has been much discussed whether the remains 

 are those of Man, or of an ape resembling the Gibbon. The 

 discoverer took a middle course, as indicated by the name he 

 gave them, and held that they belonged to an animal, as yet 

 unknown, intermediate between the Ape and Man; in other 

 words, one of the long-sought " missing links." In this view he 

 is supported by the distinguished French anthropologist, M. 

 Manouvrier, and some others. The leading authorities in 

 England hold that the bones are human, but admit their remote 

 antiquity and primitive form. 



For the zoologist this question will not appear material. 

 Whether we have here evidence of a type just before, or just 

 after, or in the act of, transmission to another, it would seem 

 that we have at least touched the beginnings of human history 

 more closely than ever before. The trilemma is aptly expressed 

 in the impromptu verses of a learned friend on seeing the 

 remains : — 



" Simian skull and human thigh, 

 Why as neighbours are ye found 

 Deep beneath the Javan ground ? 

 Grisly comrades, tell me why ! 



" Were ye one or were ye twain ? 



Didst thou, monkey, walk upright ? 

 Wast thou, bowless, in the fight, 

 By thy straight-thigh'ed cousin slain ? 



" What strange antics wast thou at, 

 Ancestor of unknown shape, 

 Ape-like man or human ape, 

 Pithec-anthro-hylobat ? " 



I refer to this discovery by way of introduction to the 

 question of the evidence of the antiquity of Man in the British 

 Isles, because I wish to urge the necessity of carrying the 

 imagination far back. We seek for that evidence in implements 

 fashioned by human workmanship, and we have also sought, for 

 the most part vainly, for remains of man himself; but even if we 

 should succeed in finding the rudest and most primitive imple- 

 ments that we could assert to be fashioned by Man's hand, we 

 should still be far from the beginnings of Man. For the art of 

 fashioning an implement, however rude it may be, is still an art, 

 and it has to be acquired. 



