170 
ODOARDO BECCARI. 
held idea “ of the nearly absolute fixity of existing species.” In 
support of this idea he held that heredity today is the great 
obstacle in the transmission of individual variations. To fit in 
this idea with a theory of evolution he postulated an early “plas- 
mative ” period in the history of the world, when exactly opposite 
conditions prevailed. During this plasmative period or in the 
“ primordial epoch of life,” as he also terms it, the power of 
adaptation and response to environment was great, while heredity 
was correspondingly feeble: “the further we go back towards the 
origin of life the less strong it must have been, is only a logical 
sequitur of the admitted strength of the force heredity now exerts.” 
His views on the origin of Man are of particular interest. 
When he was in London in 18(>5 Sir Charles Lyell, the great geo- 
logist, urged Beccari to explore the caves of Borneo for fossil re- 
mains. He argued that just as all the fossil mammals yet found 
in Australia are marsupials, which Order predominates in Austra- 
lia today, so too in Borneo where anthropoid apes now live, one 
would probably discover the remains of some extinct species be- 
longing to the same Order and perhaps taking us back a stage 
nearer to the ape-like common ancestor of man and apes. The in- 
teresting fossil remains of a primitive type of man from Java, 
known as Pithecanthropus erectus, had not then been discovered. 
Sir Charles Lyell died in 1875. Three years later a “Borneo 
Caves Exploration Committee ” was formed under the presidency 
of Mr. John Evans, F.ms. ; grants from the Royal Society and the 
British Association were given. A distinguished naturalist, A. II. 
Everett, for many years a member of this Society and contributor 
to its Journal, was entrusted with the work. The results of his 
exploration of Bornean Caves were published in our Journal No. 
6, December 1880. Although interesting fossils were found, none 
threw any light on the early history of man. 
Beccari’s view was that it was “ very improbable that pri- 
mitive Man can have originated in the eminently forestal region to 
which Borneo belongs, a region which could not only never have 
promoted any aptitude for running or bipedal progression, but also 
could never have made him feel the need of a terrestrial (as op- 
posed to an arboreal) existence.” 
He argued further that the ancestor of the orang-utan was 
terrestrial, not arboreal, and that it reached Borneo from regions 
less covered by trees. “ Thus the orang-utans in Borneo would 
have diverged from the old anthropoid type instead of approximat- 
ing to it, and in this case the orang would be, not a progenitor, but 
a collateral of man.” 
Beccari's many-sided inquiries suggest the delightful, restless, 
inquisitive mind of boyhood. The call of the mountains was 
naturally irresistible to such a temperament. Just exactly what 
is the actual attraction in climbing mountains seems difficult to 
Jour. Straits Branch 
