The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

At length, the bottom of the ocean rises, and Europe is complete. The polar ice is confined within its present limits, and the insular climate gives place to a continental one, with its extremes of heat and cold. The glaciers of our mountains gradually contract, and withdraw to higher regions. The animal species, no longer finding in the same latitude the temperature suitable to them, emigrate, some to the south, others to the north, or to the higher mountains.

Man must necessarily have felt the consequence of these changes. When the animals which formed the basis of his nourishment disappeared, never to return, a part at least of the population must have followed, and emigrated at the same time. The rising societies were thus shaken to their very foundations, and whilst some tribes went off in opposite directions, those which remained behind, experienced a decline of which we may observe the traces in the works which they have bequeathed to us. They were but too easily absorbed by superior races, who brought domestic animals with them, and substituted the pastoral life for that of the hunter.

III. The man of the quaternary period has left here and there a few of his bones by the side of those animals who were his contemporaries. The human bones in question belong, however, almost exclusively to Europe. The fossil man of other parts of the world is almost unknown to us. Lund is said to have discovered it in certain caves in Brazil. But unfortunately we have no other details of this discovery than a short note and two drawings of small dimensions, published quite recently by MM. Lacerta and R. Peixoto. Much has been said about the skull discovered by Whitney in California. Unfortunately, the description of this specimen has not appeared, so that doubts have, on several occasions, been expressed as to the existence of the fossil itself. The recent testimony of M. Pinart has removed them, but has, at the same time, created the most serious doubts as to the antiquity of this specimen, which seems to have been found in disturbed grounds.

The restriction of the discovery of human fossils to Europe is much to be regretted. We have no authority for regarding Europe as the starting point of the species, nor as the theatre of the formation of the primitive races. We should rather seek them in Asia. It was upon the slopes of the Himalaya, at the base of the great central mass, that Falconer hoped to find tertiary man. Assiduous and persevering search can alone verify the prophecies of the eminent palæontologist. This task might be performed by some of the learned officers of the English army, by some of the military surgeons sent out by the great institutions of London. Let us hope that they will set to work; that they will utilize for this end, the leisure they enjoy when on leave in some sanitarium of the Himalayas or Nilgheries. There is every reason to hope that they will enrich science with important and magnificent discoveries.

IV. A few general facts, the interest of which will at once be evident, may already be disentangled from details without leaving European soil. We will first establish the fact, that in quaternary ages, man did not present that uniformity of characters, which a recent origin would lead us to expect. The species is already composed of several races; these races appear successively or simultaneously; they live side by side; and perhaps, as M. Dupont has thought, the war of races may be traced as far back as this period.

The presence of these clearly characterised human groups in the quaternary period, is enough to furnish a strong presumption in favour of the previous existence of man. The influence of very dissimilar and long-continued actions, can alone explain the differences which separate the man of the Vézère in France from that of the Lesse in Belgium.

V. In spite of some opinions which were brought forward at a time when science was less advanced, and when terms of comparison were wanting, we may assert that no fossil skull belongs to the African or Melanesian Negro type. The true Negro did not exist in Europe during the quaternary epoch.

We do not, however, conclude from this that the type must have come into existence later, and dates from the present geological period. Fresh research, especially in Asia, and in countries inhabited by black nations, can alone decide this point with certainty. Nevertheless, up to the present time, the results of observation have been but little favourable to the opinion of some anthropologists, who have regarded the Negro races as anterior to all others.

VI. In fossil, as well as in modern skulls, we find between races and individuals oscillations of a more or less striking character. It is, however, an important fact that these oscillations are often of less extent in known fossil races than those observed in existing populations. I shall only quote one example. The cephalic index of the most ancient European race, taken from the Neanderthal man, in which the characters are exaggerated, is 72; that of the La Truchère skull, which belongs to the latter part of the quaternary period, is 84·32, a difference of 12·32. Now, at the present time, the mean cephalic index of the Esquimaux is 69·30, that of South Germans 86·20, a difference of 16·90. Thus, between the two extreme races separated by the greater part of the glacial period, the oscillation of the cephalic index is less than between two modern contemporary races. Moreover, the latter range between wider limits, both above and below the mean, than the two fossil races. This fact may perhaps be explained by several considerations, which I cannot enter into here.

I should, moreover, observe that the Lagoa Santa skull found by Lund, and which has just been described by MM. Lacerta and Peixoto, effaces in a great measure the differences which I have just pointed out. According to the Brazilian savants, its cephalic index is 69·72, descending almost as low as the mean index of the Esquimaux.