ISO 'J'lie A iiiericaii (-cohxiist. SiMitcmiHT, \^'m\ 
"descent of man" will bo acceptabk- to the averag-e philoso- 
pher. Hence, every variation in the human skeleton which 
tends, on good authority, to obliterate the distinction between 
man and the other Primates has been scrutinized by the most 
searching comparisons and in several instances the interme- 
diate forms have been announced. On making more profound 
study, however, such discoveries have failed to stand the test 
and iiave been assigned at last to some of the savage types of 
the liuman family as now known. At the present time not 
one of these varietal forms can be said to occujjy the interme- 
diate position between man and the ape, on the evidence and 
authority of the most ex})ert anthropologists. 
The Homo neanderthalensis, of King, subjected to a com- 
parison with Australian aborigines by Huxley, was considered 
l)y him in no sense intermediate between man and the apes. 
According to his view this skull reseml^led the crania of the 
people of Denmark during the stone period; and according 
to Sir William Turner it was closely paralleled by skulls of 
existing savage races and even by occasional specimens of 
nK)dern European crania. This conclusion is now generally 
accepted by anthrojiologists. The neanderthaloid characters 
are found to be not uncommon among tlie craiiia of savage as 
well as civilized races. 
The "man of iSp}^"' made his debut in 1886. His sponsors, 
MM. Fraipont and Lohest, classed him with the man of the 
Neander valley. The anteroposterior curvature of the con- 
dyles of the femur and the modification of the head of the 
tibia of the man of Spy were characters which indicated a less 
erect position than man assumes at the present time. It has 
since been pointed out. however, by Prof. Arthur Thomson 
and by Prof. Manouvier, that the squatting habit, and other 
attitudes habitually assumed by savage man, operate power- 
full}^ in modifying the articular areas of some of the great 
bones of the skeleton and particularly of the tibia, the femur 
and the pelvis. The head of the tibia b}'^ this means is sub- 
ject to great retroversion. This is seen in the tibia^ of neo- 
lithic men, in some modern Parisians and most of all in cer- 
tain Indians of California. It is evident, therefore, that this 
peculiarity is b}'^ no means characteristically simian, and the 
man of Spy retains his place alongside of the reall}^ human 
forms of the genus Homo. 
