Evolution 



Thus there can be no reasonable doubt that man has evolved 

 from an ancestor which, if it existed to-day, we should without 

 hesitation class as an anthropoid ape. Could any doubt have 

 remained, it would have been set aside by the discovery, in 1891, 



Fig. 140.— The 

 Pithecanthro- 

 pus f e m u r, 

 from behind. 

 The bone 

 shows an ex- 

 ostosis, evi- 

 dently caused 

 by an injury. 



Fig. 139. — The Pithecanthropus skull from the side and from above. 



of a being occupying a position about midway between the highest 

 apes and the most primitive known man. This is the Pithec- 

 anthropus, whose remains were discovered in Java in a volcanic 

 deposit of somewhat doubtful age, but probably belonging to an 

 era when a primitive type of man was already in existence. The 

 remains were indeed somewhat scanty, consisting of the roof of the 

 skull, a thigh bone, and a fragment of the lower jaw, the former 



two of which are illustrated in Figs. 139 and 140. From these 



150 



