598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
represented in his highest attributes is entirely apart from nature, the 
importance of paleontology, as offering a part of the explanation of the 
fundamental characteristics of man, is very greatly diminished. The 
value of paleontology would then lie largely in an interpretation of the 
setting or environment in which man is developing. 
With these considerations in mind, it appears of the greatest impor- 
tance for us to obtain as full a history of the organic world, and as 
satisfactory an interpretation of the processes therein concerned, as it 
is possible to secure. Particularly is it desirable to have before us a 
clear statement of that portion of the paleontological record which 
leads from the higher vertebrates through the primate division to man. 
One of the important phases of general paleontological work which 
must receive special attention is the early history of the primate order 
with particular reference to the development of those characteristics 
which are most prominent in the human family. We have, as yet, 
accumulated too little evidence in this field. Among the characters 
which must be followed would be (1) extraordinary brain development, 
(2) the tendency to development of an upright position, (3) the free- 
ing of the anterior limbs from the work of locomotion and the develop- 
ment in them of extraordinary adaptability. Whatever other interests 
one may have, there is certainly no more alluring problem than tracing 
from the primitive mammalia into the early. primate those peculiar 
characters through which later on primitive man began the process of 
making nature subservient to himself. We may never know whether 
the brain actually grew large first and requisitioned the hands, so that 
the animal became bipedal and therefore finally erect in position, or 
whether a tendency to erect position was directed by the frequent as- 
suming of a vertical position in a tree-climbing ancestor; but it is not 
beyond reason to presume that a thoroughly satisfactory paleontological 
record might give us an explanation of the origin of these characters. 
The later primate history, or that which leads directly to the 
human type, is also unfortunately incomplete, though most remarkable 
advances have been made in the last few years. More missing links 
have already been furnished than science was supposed to require a 
few decades ago, but we can hardly be said to have one tenth of the 
material that it is desirable to have in order to show the transition from 
anthropoid to human, or from pithecanthropoid to the type of Spy or 
Neanderthal. European paleontologists are at the present time making 
rapid strides in filling the gaps of that portion of our ancestral chain 
which falls in the Quaternary system, and we may look for other 
important discoveries within the next decade. 
It is to be presumed that the greater part of the work on the late 
Tertiary and Quaternary history of man will be carried on in the old 
world. The writer sees no reason why in this important work Amer- 
