of Man's Evolution,. 



21 



the apes of Africa and those of Malaysia is too great to allow of 

 the supposition that one set is derived from the other set. The 

 supposition that Africa and Malaysia were each a separate 

 centre of ape-evolution is too far-fetched for acceptance, seeing 

 that the Oriental group is distinctly proved to have been derived 

 from the sotith of Europe. The simplest inference, then, seems 

 to be that all the genera of living apes are derived from Southern 

 Europe and sub-tropical Asia. 



But the lowest types of mankind are also found in the very 

 regions where the anthropoid apes now exist. Our next question, 

 then, is whether, on the assumption that man was evolved, he 

 passed through the transition stage between ape and man in the 

 tropics of Africa, or Malaysia, or in a latitude higher up ? 



Although many naturalists, and among them some of the 

 most eminent, have regarded the present home of the an- 

 thropoid apes as the most probable region where man was 

 evolved, and although I must confess that this was my own 

 earlier belief, I must now dissent from this view for the 

 following reasons : — 



Firstly, the presence in the tropics of Africa and Malaysia of 

 about equally inferior types of man, such as the Akka dwarfs 

 in Africa, and the Aetas in Java — the former being characterised 

 by prognathism most pronounced, and the latter by the most 

 generally ape-like type of head and face — suggests derivation 

 from a higher latitude as truly as does the presence in the same 

 regions of the existing genera of anthropoid apes. In other 

 words, just as apes existed in Europe and Asia before they reached 

 the tropics, as is proved by paheontological facts, so we may 

 infer that man existed in Europe and Asia before the low types 

 referred to occupied tropical Africa and Malaysia. At least the 

 presence in these latter regions of the low human races referred 

 to need not suggest their origin in either Africa or Malaysia, 

 any more than does the presence there of the anthropoid apes 

 suggest their separate tropical origin. 



Secondly, there is no evidence that the present habitat of the 

 apes, regarded in its physical or geographical character, is such 

 as to supply the forces necessary to evolve apes into manhood. 

 The character of the habitat is too well suited to the wants of 

 the ape to furnish any sufficient stimulus to its raising its 

 status. We must look to some region where apes were compelled 

 gradually to give up ape-habits of living in trees, and feeding 

 on a mere fruit diet, — a region where apes were compelled to 

 change their food and mode of locomotion, so as to develop more 

 erect and elegant forms, with enlarged brains, and quickened 

 intelligences, — a region forcibly subjecting them to lower tem- 

 perature, and so making it possible for them ultimately to 



