

96 



Evolution 



France and Germany, and seem to indicate a fresh 

 migration northwards from the tropics. It is, however, 

 unprofitable to discuss the point until further evidence 

 is found. Twenty years ago the problem was more 

 difficult still. There were remains of monkeys and 

 anthropoid apes, but students recognised these as side- 

 lines. In regard to man's development they had only 

 the Eocene fossil lemurs, as likely remote ancestors, and 

 the bones of the Neanderthal man, belonging to at least 

 three million years later — a gulf of time and of organisa- 

 tion over which the bridge of speculation could only be 

 thrown with great risk. Then the famous Java bones 

 were found, and the task was much simplified. A pile 

 was dropped just half-way across the gulf. 



When Dr. Dubois brought to Europe from Java in 

 1894 the four bones — two teeth, a skull-cap, and a thigh 

 bone— he had found, there was an intense conflict of 

 opinion as to their nature. Some authorities said that 

 they were the bones of an abnormal ape, some of an 

 abnormally low man, and the majority that they 

 belonged to a being midway between the two. To-day, 

 casts of the skull of Pithecanthropus erectus are given 

 unhesitatingly in our museums (South Kensington, 

 College of Surgeons, etc.) as the first human skull, and 

 there is general agreement that it belonged to a stage 

 midway in development from the anthropoid ape stage 

 (or its equivalent in human evolution) to that of Paleo- 

 lithic man. Both teeth, femur and cranium, are inter- 

 mediate. The thigh was greatly curved, as of an animal 

 beginning to stand more or less erect, and the skull had 

 a capacity midway between that of the highest ape and 

 the lowest prehistoric man. Early Paleolithic man had 

 a cranial capacity of about 1,220 cubic centimetres (in 

 other words, the skull contained that quantity of brain 

 matter): the highest ape has a capacity of about 600. 



