The Holly chieftain., 1922-03-16


Nevertheless. his brain was far larger than that
Of any ape.
our knowledge Of other extinct forms of the
human family Ia much less complete One which
was, and is still the subject of much controversy
is the famous Piltdown man, whose remains were
discovered IN Sussex just before the recent war.
Anthropologists admit the skull to be genuinely
human and Of much higher type than that Of
Neanderthal man on account of the more rounded
top Of the head. Nevertheless. this man was ge-
ologicaiiy older than Neanderthal man. The low
er Jaw is not like a mans but chimpanzee's, and
some OF the ablest American PSYCHOLOGISTS claim
1t to have belonged to chimpanzee and there
iore deny its connection with the brain-case. Eng
ish anthropologsts, on the other hand believe the
Jaw ana the brain-case to have come from the
same Individual. There the matter must rest un-
I'll further discoveries settle the question under
dispute.
Dimcuities Of somewhat similar nature beset
the determination Of third species known as
pithecanthropus (the ape-man), which was found
IN Java in 1894 The brain was inferior in size
10 that OF any known man. living or extinct, but
surpassed that of any ape Near this skull-top
were discovered a few teeth and thigh-bone the
latter resembling so closely the thigh Of modern
man as to leave no reasonable doubt that II the
skuii-top and thigh-bone were owned by the same
Individual, this Javan species walked erect as we
90; and since that Is usually assumed to be the
case we see that the human type Of leg was per
fected before the skull in human evolution.
From another source we now know this to
have been so; and that source is the fragmentary
skeleton OF Rhodesian man recently discovered
buried In cave at Broken HILL In Rhodesa. In
this man the leg bones were typically human. but
the top OF the skull Is very little yaulted and
shows scarcely trace Of forehead, defect part.
ly due to the immense development Of the brow
ridges Inc face Is very broad across the eyes,
and very high from the edge Of the orbit down
to the lower margin of the jaw bone, which ia
massive and prominent Nevertheless, the palate
and teeth and other cranial features are human
in type.
AN answer can now be given to your question ::
Have researches into the past history of man re.
vealed the existence of a species combining to
such an extent the Characters of apes and men
as to deserve the title missing Link"T The an
swer Is emphaticaly NO. Admittedly, every one
of the species above enumerated shows In a yary.
ing degree ape-like characters more or less lost
in existing man; but so far the material avail
able warrants an opinion, they all belong unmis-
takably to the human family. Even the so-caIIed
ape-man Of Java which has the most ape-like
skulltOp of all, must be classified as man on ac-
count Of the structure of his legs. The same would
apply, in my opinion. to the Rhodesan man. even
If his skull and teeth were much more ape-like
than they are
although 1t is probable that none of the extinct
men above mentioned stands In the direct line of
our descent, being our cousins rather than our
ancestors, 1t is impossible to avoid the conclusion
that the progenitor Of existing man must have
been hideous, brutal-looking being judged by our
standard of beauty. You can visualize him with
out my help. You may traces of him cropping
up reversions In all sorts Of people, and per
haps 1t may interest you to know what are high
and low characters in the people you meet and
amuse you to detect them In your friends. You
may generally speaking, regard low charac-
ters: retreating forehead with thickened brow
eyes small and deeply sunk; nose with low bridge
thckened at the end and expanded round the nos
trils; cheek-bones high; jaws massive and pro-
jecting; chin receding lower incisOr teeth meet
ing the upper edge to edge; ear with fattened
upper rim and welldefned Darwin's lobe' On
the other hand, high forehead without brow
thIckening; large and moderately lnsunk eyes
a nose with a high bridge and not tliickened at
the end or expanded round the nostrils; low cheek
bones small vertical Jaws; prominent chin low
er incisor teeth closing behind the upper; ear
with wellcurled rim and indistinct Darwin's
lobe-these may be taken as high characters
indicating suppression Of ancestral traits In our
physognomy. II you look at the Greek statues
You will see that, without the stimulus of knowl
edge Of anthrOpology, the Greek conception of
human beauty led to the chiseling Of features Of
high type, different as can be from those
OF primitive man."