1894.I 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST 



2QI 



quoted case of the geladas and hamadryads, two kindred species of 

 baboons ; that the Miocene Anthropoids engaged in similar hostilities 

 is a reasonable supposition, and that in such struggles the more 

 social species is likely to succeed there can be no question. 

 When such animals ceased to be apes and became men is merely 

 a question of definition. If we could see specimens of all the 

 generations which have lived since the Miocene period, we should 

 describe some of the earlier forms as apes and the later as men ; but 

 between these well-marked forms would be a long series of connecting 

 generations which we might well hesitate to class in either group ; nor 

 should we need to name them either apes or men, since doing so would 

 tend to obscure the essential continuity of the series, and might lead us 

 to forget that the one group had grown out of the other. It is not less 

 important that we should remember that so far as the internal 

 tendencies, which being adapted to both its organization and environ- 

 ment have given rise by natural selection to a new species, can be called 

 the cause of that species, so far the social instincts have been the main 

 cause of the evolution of man from the ape. 



The upward movement, however, was a very slow one. Before the 

 discovery of fire, and until a considerable amount of skill in the 

 manufacture as well as in the use of weapons and tools had been 

 attained, those Anthropoids which had sufficient character to wish to 

 live independently and to possess property (including under that head wife 

 or wives) would be eliminated, since they would be unable single- 

 handed to resist their carnivorous foes ; and we can dimly realize that 

 whilst external pressure maintained a certain degree of organization and 

 intelligence amongst the social Anthropoids, yet that the pressure was so 

 severe and of such a nature as to hinder rather than foster their higher 

 development. Marriage, meaning thereby the union of a man with one 

 or with several wives, or of a woman with one or with several husbands, 

 was unknown amongst them, for the social instincts were not yet 

 sufficiently strong to overcome the disruptive effects of jealousy ; and 

 disruption then meant extinction. It seems to be an irresistible 

 conclusion that marriage arose and became established amongst the 

 fierce and powerful ancestors of our gorillas and orangs, long before it 

 was possible amongst the weaker and more intelligent social 

 Anthropoids which formed the direct line of our human ancestry : that 

 the ancestors of the gorillas lived in families of father, mother, and 

 young, whilst our direct ancestors were still living promiscuously. It 

 is then evident that the ennobling and elevating influence of parental 

 affection was almost unknown amongst our Pliocene forefathers. That 

 though the mother might love her suckling young, at a later stage of 

 its growth it would be the child of the community rather than of the 

 individual, and that whilst the males would extend to the young the 



