PREFACE 1x 
tricuspid prototype, by extension, subdivision, and superaddition 
of parts, and those of the latter from a multicuspid, by reduction, 
confluence, and suppression.' Osborne has endeavoured to show ” 
that the human molars may have been evolved out of a tri- 
tubercular type. I would point out, on the other hand, that 
during the tooth changes of the human subject of to-day, there 
is indicated, on the part of the cheek-teeth, a progressive reduc- 
tion of that type of tooth represented by the first molar. The 
detailed facts concerning this process (cf. text, p. 160) appear to 
me to be more in accord with the theory of multituberculism ; 
and on this basis the suggestion arises whether the first molar may 
not stand in a similar relationship to the wisdom tooth of the 
multitubercular order as the deciduous molars do to it, the 
entire series of modifications being those of advancing reduction 
of a multitubercular type of tooth. 
No opportunity should be lost of excavating the Quaternary 
deposits of all parts of the world, especially where mixed with 
clays likely to be favourable to the preservation of human and 
other remains. Now that the African continent is being 
opened up, the scientific mind waits with longing for the 
careful investigation of its Tertiary Lacustrine deposits. Hugh 
Falconer long ago predicted that human remains would be 
forthcoming in the Tertiary deposits of India, and no one con- 
versant with recent work in Mammahan Paleontology would 
doubt that the remains of ancestral Man must be sought thus 
far back in time. This prediction has beep confirmed, by the 
discovery in 1894, by Noetling, in the Yenangyoung Oil-field, 
Burma, of flint flakes of early Pliocene date. I could desire 
no higher reward for the labour expended in placing this 
book before the English-speaking public than that it might 
help to awaken the interest necessary to ensure such investiga- 
tion. It may be added, as an appropriate comment, that the 
interest in Dwarf Races, recently revived through African ex- 
ploration and the fuller study of the natives of the Andaman 
' For a fuller account of the history of these theories, and of the leading facts 
upon which they rest, cf. Osborne, Americ. Naturalist, vol. xxii. p. 1067; and 
Forsyth-Major, Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., 1893, p. 196. 
* Anat. Anziger, Bd. vii. p. 740. Cf., however, the observations of Rose cited in 
this volume (infra, pp. 158 and 159). 
